The Deano's on Tour

Rio!

2011-05-03T05:18:00.000-07:00

Dear all
We finally arrived in Rio De Janeiro with its soaring mountains, powder white beaches not to mention an abundance of samba sounds and the odd cappirinha!
We arrived quite early at the hostel, but still managed to miss most of the Royal wedding being dragged out by BBC World & therefore only saw the edited highlights. Kate looked lovely & all that and I felt very patriotic and proud to be British, but I am really glad we missed the wedding fever in the UK & the media's second by second microscopic coverage it all looked too much!
Much refreshed & in order to appreciate the full range of what Rio has to offer I spent the first afternoon on Marcelo Armstrong's Favla tour. There is no way to sugar coat Rio, despite its party name tag, it has a reputation for crime & violent, but as I saw on the tour it is generally between the police & the drug lords running the larger favelas. The fact that Brazil has managed to pay off its IMF debt and has seen some double digit growth in the last eight years has also served to temper the crime rate as more and more economic migrants move away to the north of Brazil rather than into the overcrowded city. Even the favelas have prospered in this time with most hovels now being refurbished into reasonable albeit basic brick abodes, with metred electricity, schools and in Rocinha (the largest Favela with 250,000+ residents) there is a new hospital.

Day two saw us going on a city tour so we could appreciate the sights without taking the wrong street! Rio is surrounded on two sides by powder white beaches with turquoise waters and flanked by mountains covered in rainforest. We had a short walk in the Tijuca national park and then visited the chinese temple nearby which is supposed to have spectacular views of the city and Christ the Redeemer (voted one of the new worlds seven wonders in 2007). Alas the cloud base covered it all so we could only see a bit of Ipanema Beach. So I was a bit disappointed as we actually approached the Corcovado to see the iconic statue up close and personal, fully expecting to only see his feet. But as you can see the cloud mysterously disappeared right at the top so you had a perfectly clear view of him! Yippee.

Our Final part of the tour was around Lapa and the very picturesque Santa Teresa, which is set on a small hill overlooking the city. It is very olde worlde with cobbled streets and an old trolley car that rumbles up and down the hill. Our final stop was one of the most eccentric. A famous set of 215 steps whihc have been decorated over the last 20 years by a Chilean artist, who is a permaent fixture constantly tweaking the tiles and persuading you into his shop. He is quite a character and the tiles have been send from all over the world so its great fun trying to find ones form your own country!

I spent the next couple of days at the beach, and enjoying the hippie market, bought some Havainas, tried the local restaurants (including a a fantastic all you could eat Parilla!) and really got into passionfruit cappirinha's! There was also teh release of the new dreamworks movie Rio that was caputring everyones imagination (see right!) On our last full day I walked from our hostel about halfway down Ipanema to Ponta do Aroador that seperates Ipanema from the famous Copacabana beach, then walked the whole length of Copa (4.5km) down to Brazils iconic Sugar Loaf mountain and managed to get up the cable car just as dusk was falling. The view from the top was magical and will stay with me forever.

Rio is definately on my revisit list. Quite frankly 4 days is just not enough time to do this town justice and although I would actually visit Brazil at carnival time I think I would give Rio a swerve and see it in Salavador then come back to Rio to party! Girls you had better hope I win the lottery soon. Unfortunately our time here is done and tomorrow we take a flight to Iguassu - onwards and upwards!

The train to Morretes

2011-04-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Dear all

I think I'm going to really like our short excursion into Brazil. We have spent the last two days in Curitiba. Most people have never even heard of this place let alone added it too their travel, but its one of Brazil's urban success stories

This city has slums: some of the same shantytown 'favelas' that dominate most South American cities, have sprouted on the edge of town as the population has rocketed. But even they are different, & hopeful in palpable ways. They are clean, for instance, under a city program, a slum-dweller who collects a sack of garbage gets a sack of food from the city in return. And Curitiba is the classic example of decent lives helping produce a decent environment. Because it has a great public transport system, and because its inhabitants are attracted toward the city center instead of repelled out to a sprawl of suburbs, Curitibans use 25 percent less fuel per capita than other Brazilians, even though they are actually more likely to own cars.

Anyway I digress as this isn't a moralising blog its all about our adventures and the main reason we came to Curitiba was to catch a train out of it! There are very few trains left in South America & those that are still running are usually just scenic journeys kept open by tourists and this was just such one. The Serra Verde Express journey decends 900m through the lush temerate Serra do Mar to Morretes (Except on Sundays when it goes all the way through to the port of Paranagua). We had a Portuguese guide who spoke very little English, but the views pretty much spoke for themselves. Our journey was made even better by the fact that it was just after the Easter holidays & the train was virtually empty! Once in Morettes we had a wander round the very sweet town and then took the bus back up to town.

Day two in Curitiba saw me taking the city double decker Linha Turismo bus. Its a great way to see the sights even on your own. It takes a set route and you can hop off and then on at four of the 23 attractiosn on route. Quite a few of the stops were within the city centre so I chose four of the more remote interesting places. First stop was the Botanical gardens with its eye catching palm house. Its pleasant enough to stroll around for an hour, but not really a patch on Kew or Wisley! The second stop was a Germanic park with a Hansel & Gretle story theme and a fantastic view over the city.

The third stop was at the Wire opera house, which is a huge steel & glass contruction and looks very beautiful. The final stop was to a park that has been generated from an old quarry and has zones for different uses. Our next stoptakes us to Rio ............... its party time........ til then..............xx

Florianopolis

2011-04-26T04:58:00.000-07:00

Dear all

I hope you are having a great Easter break. We landed in Florianopolis gateway to to Ilha de Santa Catarina on Friday for the long weekend. We were staying at the very picturesque Barra Da Logoa right on the warm Atlantic waters - it really was! On the bus out to the village we bumped into Charlotte & Jonny, who we travelled down to the Chilean Lake district with. The room in our hostel was not the best but the view from the rooftop made up for that. We met and spent most of our time with a lovely Irish couple Neil & Aileen.
The weather for an Easter weekend behaved and we spent most of our time on the various little beaches and bays that were a few minutes walk from our place. The evenings were spent drinking caipirinhas in the bar - which go down far too easily! I can honestly say it was one of the best easters I have ever had & not a chocolate egg in sight!
Our next stop is Curitiba - one of Brazils most modern cities

Night all

Montevideo @ Easter

2011-04-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Dear all
Lonely Planet paints a beautiful picture of Montevideo - small enought to walk around, but big enough to have some great architecture and happening nightlife. So armed with this vision and loads of encouragement by fellow travellers & Uruguayans we have met we arrived for the long Easter weekend.

As we reached the bus terminal we were shocked at the number of people there & even more surprised when we realised that they were all leaving town for the Easter break! Undetered we arrived at our hostel and set out on a little explore of the city. It was 6.00pm and the whole city seemed closed apart from a couple of cafes and one supermarket. Thinking that maybe it was half day closing or something we decided to spend the next day exploring the whole place and visiting all the sights mentioned in LP. The next day was even worse. All the businesses and most of the shops were closed and the only people on the streets appeared to be a small number of tourists and elderly locals. I am not going to say much more, but to say our timing probably didn't help and (I have already mentioned before we are not really city lovers), but Montevideo to us was very disappointing. The architecture was to me not that special & the 'marie celeste' feel was a little un-nerving Within 24 hours we had planned our early escape route and despite not being able to get a direct bus to Florianopolis due to the changes we were still determined to get out as soon as possible. I am sorry if I offend anyone by my comments it is not intended. Whilst we make our way across the South of Brazil I will leave you with some tasty bits.............

Nite all

Colonia del Sacramento

2011-04-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

When we first planned this trip, we left our route as decidedly vague when it came to getting from Argentina to Brazil as we had received some very mixed reports about Uruguay. Fortunately for us we had been luck enought to meet a number of travellers who had been and a number of Uruguayans who persuded us that we should travel across the coast into the south of Brazil. The ferry across to Colonia Del Sacramento took no time at all . Once we had secured a room and some lunch we took full advantage of the small historical area of the city which is located on a peninsula at the eastern end of the city. Originally built by the Portuguese in 1680 to smuggle goods across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires.
Nowadays the affluent houses have been restored and vintage cars rest on cobbled side streets. It was great fun to stroll around after being in the contstantly busy BA and virtually deserted once the day trippers had returned across the river. tranquil and pretty - you can guess how many images made their way onto my SD card! Here are a few to whet your appetite should you ever visit & make you jealous if your not!

Tomorrow we have to leave to get to Montevideo before the start of the Easter closedown.

Nite all

Buenos Aires

2011-04-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Buenos Dias We have just spent the last few days in one of the nicest cities I think I have ever visited. Buenos Aires has charming and elegant european architecture, buzzing streets & neighbourhoods, never-ending nightlife! People from BA tend to rise late and eat and party till well into the early hours, so this was a bit of a culture shock to us as we are usually fed, watered and in bed by 11.00!
The main areas we wanted to visit were located in downtown and its neighbouring area's Recoleta, Palermo & Retiro, to the North, We stayed just to the South in San Telmo next to the infamous La Boca.
Our first 24 hours was just spent wandering the streets of downtown and San Telmo with its cobbled streets and mansions no longer fashionable. We ended our tour at Casa Rosada, the pink presidential palace, where Evita inspired the adoring crowds from the balcony. As it was Friday night we decided to check out the Irish bars in the microcentre, which were packed with locals ready to party. As it was a bit of a walk back we bar hopped our way down Av 9 de Julio, past the Obelisco to our hostel and were surprised to find it was 3.00am when we fell through the door as everything was still going strong. Saturday was Dad's birthday so we skyped home after a long lie in and then took the Metro to Palermo to saunter around the market. It is known for its artisan jewellery & leatherwork. We realised by about 6.00pm we were starving, so ambled up a couple of blocks to La Cabbrera a Parilla that had been recommended to us by a number of people. It wasn't open when we arrived so we settled in at a bar next door and started chatting. The next thing we knew there were people everywhere and by the time had finished our drinks and made our way to the restaurant, it was 8.30 and there was a two hour waiting time....... oops.
Well we put our name down and trundled back next door to await our summons! 10.30 came and went & so did 11.00pm. We eventually got seated around 11.40 for our dinner. Was it worth it I hear you say..................... well yes it was we had some sublime steaks with the most amazing accompaniments & there were still couples and groups waiting to be seated when we left at 1.50 and staggered into out taxi home.
Given our late dining the previous night we rose late again and decided to just stroll down the main road in San Telmo, which is closed on Sundays to host its weekly antiques market. There are also stalls selling tourist souvenirs from tat to some really nice stuff. Every so often there were small groups/couples demonstrating the tango on the streets. on the whole a really facinating way to spend the morning.
Once we reached to end of Defensa, we crossed over into La Boca to try and get some tickets for the afternoon game at the Bombonera. We walked around the side streets near to the gound trying to find places to buy tickets but apart from touts it was nigh on impossible. Worried by reports that most of the tout tickets were fakes we decided to carry on to nearby Caminito, an area within La Boca renound for its colourful houses and beautiful tango dancers and memorabilia. Just as we arrived we met a tour group on their way to the game and managed to pursuade the guide to ring her office and secure another two tickets for us - at 5 times face value!! Game on!! We just had enough time to quickly have a look around and then we were off ! The game was against Tigre a club just north of BA so the ground was packed and we had to hurry to get under the stand as we had the opposition fans above us firing all sorts of unmentionables onto those exposed below!! The fans here have a passion I have never seen anywhere else in the world and they will climb on every available space to hand a flag or tie one of the huge banners which run over the three tiers of the home end
. Once the game started the band (& I mean band as they must have had 50-60 drummers, trumpets, trombones, tubas & other random instruments) and the fans played and sang for the whole game - non stop. The football itself was barely at league standard, but the score ended up being 3-3 so we did get to see lots of celebrating but we would have preferred to see a Boca win. We consoled ourself on the way home home with a meal at El Desnival a place we had heard mixed things abou, but I thought it had a very down to earth, verging on late night dingy drinking hole feel with amazingly good value food for the price. Just the finish for a day like ours!

Our final day was at the other extreme as we spent the afternoon walking around Recoleta, the Knightsbridge of BA. The streets were pretty and we had a beautiful lunch in a small, but perfectly formed cafe across from the Cementario de la Recoleta. You might have thought it a little macabre, but the cemetry is one of the most excentic places I have ever been. Within the high walls lies a mini city of ornate and towering sarcophagi. It is facinating and eventually you reach Evita's grave covered in fresh flowers even now - then you have to try and find your way out!!

Our time in BA seems to gone in a flash and although neither of us profess to be city people I think we will always carry fond memories of the place. I may have to just pencil a tick in my 'bucket' list for now as I am going to find a way back here sometime!

Tomorrow we depart on the ferry across the River Plate to Uruguay
Nite all

Patagonian Lake District

2011-04-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well at the end of our very bumpy trip up Ruta 40 we were delighted to end up at one of the nicest hostels we have stayed at to date - Hostel Achalay. Pablo the owner waited up until 1.30am to receive us and was so helpful in the morning when we finally woke up. The hostel was only a couple of minutes walk from the main streets so we spent the rest of the day wandering around the town. Bariloche is something out of an alpine postcard, with chalet style buildings and its location right next to Nahuel Huapi lake. There are cholcolate shops everywhere & I did manage to avail myself of some Fra-nui (fresh raspberries enrobed in first white chololate and then a sumptuous milk chocolate - Super yummy!) from the famous Rapa Nui shop.
We also tried out the local Parrilla - El Boliche de Alberto with the most amazing steaks for not very much. Yes I know I can't normally eat steak, but this was sooooo nice & I took loads of antihistamine! It must have been good because I didn't get a single hive. Near to Bariloche is the very chocolate box Villa la Angostura, which I went to visit one day when Dean fancied a lazy day! Unfortunately the buses were all full for the return trip so I was ablout to turn around and leave when I bumped into two guys we had met on Ruta 40 Jeff & Azim! They followed me back to check out out our place & decided to stay. We had a wonder around the town and treated ourselves to a cup of the very lush hot chocolate in the cafe in Rapa Nui.
We also managed to sample some more chocolates - well its rude not to try when offered isn't it! We then had a walk down to Cerro Viejo where we took the ski lift up for some stunning views of the town and the lake. Azim & I took a luge back down, but Jeff had to take the lift back down due to a knee injury from the "w" trek he had recently completed. That night we did a little micro brewery ale sampling & then went to La Fonda del Tio a local restauant with enormous portions.
We had to share a milanase between two of us and I still had to leave half of mine! On our final day we did manage to escape the town and took a bus and then a ski lift up Cerro Campanario. The 360 degree view from the top was placed in National Geographics top ten and it is so easy to see why. Despite the bitter wind tugging at our cameras we managed to fill our SD cards with dozens of breathtaking shots and had it not been a for our afternoon bus to BA I'm sure we would have stayed longer. Albeit in the warmth of the Cafe!

Got a trip to Argentina coming up - make sure this place is on your list!

Ruta 40

2011-04-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ruta 40 runs alongside the Andes to the Glaciers of the South. It is mythical for many reasons. For the solitary stretches it crosses. For the peaks of the Andes that guard the route like centennials. And also because its footprint follows that of the ancient travel routes of the first inhabitants of South America.

Dear all

Having exhausted our time in Southern Pategonia it was time to move on and so we took the 7.00 pm bus north to Bariloche, along the infamous Ruta 40. This road spans most of the length of Argentina and for vast amounts is little more than a gravel track. The chips and cracks on the bus’s windscreen bore testament to the harshness of the road and it was a long 31hr, bumpy and noisy ride. For the most part all you can see along the route is the vast flatness of the Patagonian steppe, but the occasional wildlife keeps you going. We were lucky enough to spot guanacos, rheas, wild horses and eagles.

Catch ya soon

Sara

El Calafate & Perito Moreno

2011-04-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Dear all
Just 5 hours up the road and over the border in Argentina is the mammoth Glacier Perito Moreno.This is the most spectacular and unforgettable day out since our visit to Torres del Paine two days! No seriously I thought I had started to lose the ability to be wowed by spectacular views and then all at once two come along together! The day itself wasn't wonderful, but the mist in the air only added beautiful rainbows over the whole valley.

Time for some stats! The glacier is 35km long and 5km wide and approximately 74m high above the lake, what makes it exceptional is that its one of three advancing glaciers out of the 48 fed by the Southern Pategonian ice field, located in the Andean system shared with neighbouring Chile.

Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped Lake forming a natural dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. With no escape route, the water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by the height of the dammed water finally breaks the ice barrier holding it back, in a spectacular rupture event. This last occured in July 2008, with distructive consequances flattening a huge ancient forest.

The reason this place is so popular is because of the ideally placed Peninsula de Magallanes is close enough to provide fantastic vistas, but far enough away to be safe. We spent most of the day either taking a boat up to the face of the northern side or wondering around the boardwalks & platforms, of which there are over 8km criss crossing around the terminus. The glacier is never quiet, cracking and smashing its way down to the lake.Every so often you will see ice slicing off the face and roar down the face of the glacier crashing into the lake below. On our way back to the bus we saw this magnificent Magellan woodpecker having his lunch.

Back in the tourist town of El Calefate there is not much to do apart from eat in fancy restaurants or upmarket souvenir shops, but I did manage to find a small but perfectly formed wetlands centre - Laguna Nimez, which took about 2 hours to walk around and had a huge number of birds including flamingos!

Tomorrow we head north along the infamous Ruta 40 to Bariloche.

Thanks for looking

Sara

Torres del Paine

2011-04-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

Dear all Following our mammoth 30 hour bus journey to Punta Arenas we sure needed to have a rest to recover and this little town didn't disappoint. As with most South American towns it is based on a grid system & the main areas of interest are all based around Plaza Munoz Gamero. Dean managed to find a great cafe Lomits and he had a huge burger whilst I sampled a Completo (Hotdog with tomato, mayo & avocado). Yummy! This wind swept town is a former penitentiary and has had its fair share of reprobates & would be pioneers. Nowadays its more reliant on tourism and oil exploitation. We did do our bit for dog kind when we managed to rescue a small collie off the beach where he looked like he had been stranded below the harbour wall for a couple of days and was wet and his feet torn from trying to jump clear. We managed to pull him out & then we had a shadow for the rest of the day until he found a source of food!

Our next stop was Puerto Natales, a rather dull fishing & ferry port, which is constantly awash with tourists headed towards South Americas most visited national park. The place itself is not too bad, but I really fell in love with the amazing skies as you can see to the right.

As the weather had started to turn for the worse &the fact that we had just moved into low season our options to visit the park were resticted to either a very expensive 4-5 day trek or a day trip. Guess which one we picked? Hee hee!

. The nice think about the day trip, was that we got to see much more that we could ever have covered by foot although we couldn't get up close and personal with the granite pillars of Torres del paine. We had a little aside at a cave where Milodons used to roam - Big ugly sloths from about 10,000 years ago. I suppose that about all I have to say cos I truely believe that the pictures below show how gaspingly beautiful this place is without me rabbiting on! Even Dean was suitably impressed. So without any further fuss enjoy..................................................................

Yes that is a Guanaco jumping the fence

So pretty!

Condors up close and personal!

The Emerald Isle and around

2011-04-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hi All

Over the last two days we have been travelling around in a hire car, which made a nice change to being in the minivan. We had both been engaged by the sound of an island nearby, Chiloe. An island full of churches, penguins and a climate like Ireland! Maybe that wouldn't do it for you, but in Chile its quite refreshing. So off we pottered in the car mindful of the fact that we had to drive on the wrong side of the road!! The little ferry across was pretty painless & then what should we see immediately as we left the ferry,but our first of the many churches. As you can see on the left.
We then went on a bit of wild goosechase down a single dirt track to see if we could find some of the Magellan penguins, but they had just left the week before - typical. The views were amazing still so all was not lost as you can see at the top.

We then drove down through a pretty town called Ancud down to Castro the capital of Chiloe, which again had loads of churches and thanks to its salmon industry a host of cute little multicoloured stilt houses called palafitos a testiment to its humble beginnings. That evening we spent the night in one of the nicest room we have been to date overlooking the bay.
The following day we took the ferry back to the mainland and as the weather was so good we decided to drive to volcano Orsorno to check it out at closer quarters as you can see drive quite a way up to a ski lodge and take the ski lift up to near the top - although it was a bit cloudy once we got there so we had to skip it. Tomorrow we have to take a 32 hour bus ride down through Argentina to get to our next stop Punta Arenas in Pategonia - Wish us luck!

Patchamama Tour

2011-03-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Dear all

Pomaire

We decided to ease ourselves gently into South American life & Chris recommended that we used a company called Patchamama to cover our journey down to the Chilean Lakes. The van picked us up on the thursday morning and off we trundled to the south. Our first stop was a small village called Pomaire which is famous for its pottery. As with most chilean towns the village had a sleepy feel to it and even at 12.00 noon that 'just got up' air. Most of the shops were just opening and the smell of freshly baking bread wafted down the main street from the bakers.

Rapel Dam

We then stopped at Rapel Dam a huge hydroelectricity station which powers most of Santiago and is pretty impressive. The lake is full of black carp who swarm up to you as you approach on the scrounge for food. One big mass of open mouths yuck! The end of our day was spent at Punta Lobos with a large glass of Chilean Carmanere wine & a beautiful sunset overlooking the sea full of athletic surfers and huge pelicans. Very beautiful. A group dinner back at our first night stop in Pichilemu sealed the group dynamics over a few glasses of wine!

Day two saw us stopping at another small town Santa Cruz which is quite typical for the region apart from the fact that it has a massive museum dedicated to virtually everything! Why I hear you say? Well its all due to the very generous 'investments' of a former arms dealer who can't leave Chile as there is a world wide warrant for his arrest by the US! It is one of the best artifact museums I have ever been to with some of the best fossils and insects preserved in amber I have ever seen. A long stretch on the road for the rest of the day brought us down to Pucon in the noth of the Chilean lakes. It was too cloudy to see Volcan Villarrica which entices most people to the area to walk to its steaming peak and slide back down the ice peak. Unfortunately the same cloud was also there on our second day so we had to settle for a long walk around the lake where Dean managed to collect a series of dogs until we had a small pack following us!

Dean reflecting on the evils of red wine!

The dogs here don't seem to belong to anyone, but are well fed and generally in good health & will take anyone for a walk given the slightest encouragement! That evening we went to the local hot pools ( with some contraband wine!) and had a great time with our group. We had to split from the group as there wasn't enough double beds (wasn't a big deal as we had a great room!) so back at the main hostel we had a huge BBQ together and a very heavy night on the vino. Dean could hardly walk home! We also lost our first group member Jarno, who stayed to climb the Volcano ( hoping the cloud and poisonous gases clear!)

Day 4 saw us down in Valdevia a hippie university town on the banks of the Rio Valdevia it was the centre of german immigration in the mid 19th Century (war criminals!!) and chocolate and lager abounds in the centre! It is beautiful location albeit tinged with disaster as it was pretty much raised to the ground in 1960 by a huge earthquake. We had a wonder around the Feria Fluvial, a riverside fish & veggie market where sea lions and black shags cruise the edges coaxing handouts from the men filleting the fish! We also lost the second of our group Jonny & Charlotte Kiwi's who lived in Oz & had been the live wires of the group.

Last night together in Valdivia

Day five we started in Puerto Montt, a very uninspiring town albeit it is the place where you can get the coastal ferry down to Puerto Natales via the fiords. Probably very nice when the weather is great, but an expensive trip if not! We stopped for a great fish lunch in the the port & then bought a fresh salmon for dinner (another product the region is famous for!). There was also a great little handicraft market that the two Irish girls in our group, Christine & Gemma both pounced on !

Our final stop as a group was at Puerto Varas only 30 mins from our last stop, but a a much different place. There is a beautifil german settlement with stunning views of Volcano Orsorno on the other side of the lake. (when its not cloudy!). We had our final feast of salmon & steak cooked on the grill in the garden washed down by yet more Chilean red amnd as it was our last night Kevin (our Dutch group member!) bought some Champagne whoop whoop! Once the group leave we are going to hire a car for the next couple of days and see the area in the meantime I'm off to grab another glass of red!!

Santiago, Steak & Pisco Sours

2011-03-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

Dear all

What a hectic few days we have had. No sooner had we landed then, Chris had us whisked back to his flat to dump our stuff & then onto a very famous Santiago institution Las Vacas Gordas, where Maria Jose hs wife was waiting with Pisco sours at the ready. The restaurant was packed to the gills with locals enjoying a family lunch & we hastily joined in ! Meat was the order of the day (albeit I had chicken!). The wine was fantastic flowed freely! We even had a little demo outside against the visit from Obama (due the following day) which puts our UK tragic violent diatribes to shame.

We retired back to Chris & MJ's and lets just say that it went on far too long and got far too messy!
The next day was a total write off for the boys, which didn't really matter as Obama was in town and virtually everything was closed down 'for security' ! We did however manage to take two really good walking tours, one of which took us to a bar at the end to sample a terramoto (earthquake) a terrible mix of fortified white wine, pisco sour and a dollop of pineapple icecream on top. Sounds disgusting, tastes OK, but boy you couldn't drink two!! They sure do pack a punch

We also got to sample 'coffee with legs' a quaint Chilean tradition from the 1960's when the coffee was so bad that they had to get girls in tight short dresses to serve it in the hope men would be enticed to come in. Nowadays the saleman have more shall we say harder sell tactics with some shops having blacked out windows and regular locked doors for more 'happy moments'! I hasten to add we did the former not the latter! Although there are loads of great buildings including the cathedral the highight for me was the Museum of pre-columbian art which had a fabulous collection of pottery and sculpture.

Our few days here were great & Chris & MJ were great hosts even if we did try to give them liver damage! We are now due to head on a tour with Patchamama down to the Chilean lakes whihc should be fun.

Night all

Easter Island

2011-03-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Iorana !

I have been so excited over the last few days as this was always the most anticipated part of our whole trip. I had dreamed of visiting this place since I was a little girl (a long time I know - sigh!), when I saw a documentary on tv. Although I had read quite a bit about the island its not the same as going there.
So we flew in from Tahiti and landed quite literally on the airstrip at the end of the high street! The hostel manager Claudio was there to meet us with beautiful lei's of Frangipangi and other exotic perfumed flowers. He then proceded to give us a tour of the town (!) which lasted all of three minutes as there is really only 4 roads that make up the main part of Hanga Roa.
Here is a bit of modern history to explain the island & then i will bore you with my exploits.
Easter Island was bistowed its European name in 1722, when Dutch Admiral Roddeveen landed here on Easter Sunday - he obviously had a geat imagination!

The island became Chilean territory in 1888, when they moved all the inhabitants into Hanga Roa & turned the rest into a sheep station! Finally in the 1960's the islanders regained access, but have mainly stayed close to town turning the rest of the island into a national park. The islanders speak Rapa Nui an eastern Polynesian dialect which is a mix of Maori and Spanish so an added layer of confusion for us although most people either understood French or English!

We spent our first day walking the coast, just above the town to see some of the moai. It was really hot & as the island has virtually no trees, but the coast line is stunning and there are wild horses grazing everywhere. The next day we hired a guide and went in his 35 year old VW camper van to Rano Raraku aka 'the nursery'. This is the quarry where the maoi were hewn from the slopes of the extinct volcano. It was like a market where the tribes of the island came to puchase a head to recognise the newly deceased chief. There are literally hundreds of heads everywhere, some partially buried

As you can see from the pictures, the size of the Moai range from a few metres to over 21m tall, which gives rise to the big unanswered question. How the heck did they manage to move these huge carvings? Thats the bit that no one ever been able to fathom out as most of the islanders were killed by each other when the food & fuel (trees) ran out or perished from diseases introduced by the europeans! During thsi time all the Moai were toppled from their positions probably as an act of defiance. At one point there were only 22 indigenous people left on the island and most of their traditions and language lost. There have been loads of theories put forward, but not one single bit of evidence to back any one of them up. So its a complete mystery, maybe there is a job for Mystery Inc?
Inside the crater there is a crowd of heads overlooking the reedy lake.

Neaby is the massive 15 Moai ahu (temple) - Tongariki is built right on the edge of the crashing surf. In the 1960's this site was distroyed by a tsunami, but a japanese crane company rebuilt the whole site as bit of PR for its machinery in the 1990's and it is spectacular as you can see - bear in mind the tallest one is about 20 mts! Some of them look like they have top hats on, they are not top hats, but top knots and represent the henna hair do's that they wore at the top. Fancy ehh?

Our final stop of the day was at Anakena beach, where rather than the black volcanic rocks of the rest of the coastline, this is a beach of the softest white sand and the area holds two archaeological sites Ahu Nau Nau (on the left) & Ahu Ature Huki, which was the first Moai to be re-erected by Thor Heyerdahl & a few islanders. We had a little paddle in the sea, which was lovely and warm and eased our feet after all the walking. Great!

Today we climbed up Rano Kau another extinct volcano, which forms the southern end of the island and has the most spectacular crater lake about a mile wide.
The principal archaeological site on Rano Kau is the ruined ceremonial village of Orango which is located at the point where the sea cliff and inner crater wall converge ie just by my left ear on the photo. It must have been pretty cool place to live overlooking both the crater and the the turquoise blue sea. Unlike the groups on the rest of the island the villages here followed a birdman cult and their temples were adored with petroglyphs which are mainly of the birdman
The whole island is magical, but very expensive due to the fact that everything is imported by plane! Tomorrow we have to leave here, but we are flying onto Santiago for a few days with Barmy Cowes & his wife. First stop I understand is a steak restaurant so Dean is happy!

Bye all

Sara

Ooooh La La La en Vacance

2011-03-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Dear all

The last few days have been spent doing something that Dean is rather fond of 'sweet fanny adams'! LOL. No seriously the two reasons for our 9 days stopover in Tahiti was firstly to connect with Easter Island our next stop without having to fly over and back again vis Santiago & secondly to get some well needed R&R. I can hear you all laughing from here! but seriously, travelling everyday & living out of a suitcase can be pretty tiring too - no big fat sofa to lounge on every night you know! Well big raspberry blow to you anyway - we did it! We found a lovely little homestay in the south of the island in a place called Papara.

The owners Thierry & his wife made us feel so welcome despite the fact that my french was learnt over 25 years ago & Deans was as good as their English! - the Anglo/Franco dictionery was in full use all week! The garden was on a large plot & overflowed with fruit trees and palms. Their little dog Rocky was the boss in the garden making sure everyone was safe, even of he did chase the chickens when he thought we weren't looking! The massive bowl in the living room constantly overflowed with fresh avocados, bananas, coconuts, rambutans, bread fruit, papayas & logans, which we could help ourselves to each day! Delicious!

As they both worked we could spent most of the day on our own around the property reading and generally relaxing, but we also ventured out onto the very famous black beach across the road. The black sand makes it too hot to really go there in the day unless you are a local with asbestos feet. However towards the late aftrenoon it was lovely to wonder down, have a swim & watch the sunset - something we did most evenings. There is also an area where you can snorkle the small reef & at the other end of the beach is some great high rollers. A perfect beach really!

Papara is also the main producer of fruit and veg for the island so we had access to probably the best salad ingredients that we had seen all tour. There was also a great fish shop just a hundred yards away, where the mahi steaks and the tuna were coming straight off the beach/boats. Even Dean enthused!

We did manage to peel our selves off the loungers twice, once to visit the capital, Papeete & the other we hired bikes from the hostel and cycling around the coast road to the Gauguin museum & a Botonical gardens. The only other time we altered our state of total relaxation, was when the earthquake in Japan occurred & we were rudely awaked at 4.30am by the texts from everyone a good 6 hours before the Tsunami even reached us! Although I giggle at that, it was serious and the first of the society islands in this group had a 5m high wave, luckily for us only the northern part of the island was evcuated and they only had a wall of water 70cm high. This is due to the fact that the area is full of hundreds of small volcanic islands which helped to break the wave amplitude down. This didn't happen elsewhere in the Pacific as the shallow waters near the mainland & the larger islands means that the waves normally grow as they approach land. Still it added another layer of adventure to our tour & thanks to everyone for thinking of us..........

Our next stop is probably going to be the highlight of my whole trip as it was the first name I put on my wish list when we first started discussing the trip & has been facinating me since I was a little girl ..... Easter Island

Notre Dame - Papetee

Museum entrance

End of another travel segment

2011-03-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

I have to say that Dean has possibly got the worst hangover I have ever seen him have and we now have an eight hour flight to Tahiti. At least he doesn't have to do anything for the next 9 days. Same for me!!
Yipee!
On a less gleeful note I am sad to leave NZ & that is probably the first time I can truly say that on this trip. This country is amazing and so are the people. I can't wait until the next cricket tour here in two years & I am pretty sure many people will agree with me.

Two things I will not miss though is their internet & the sandflies !

Off to get that flight

Bye

Derby day

2011-03-05T14:00:00.001-08:00

Dear all

Today we finally said goodbye to our second camper van, but this time we were just returning it back to Wicked, the hire company! It was still pouring with rain all the way back to Auckland and all the way back to Bikini's house ( he kindly picked us up.... ahhhhh sweet).

Our final day in NZ was to be spent doing something neither myself or Dean had even managed in England and that was to go to Derby Day!

Strangely, as we arrived the rain finally started to ease and we set about the task at hand getting drinks and bets on. It appears that the Derby is equally as popular in NZ as our Blighty equivalent although the early morning storms did keep some punters away. Matt & Lucy, who we stayed with when we arrived joined us and the party really started. Lucy & I managed to find some Champers & the boys drank beer and studied the form. Somehow I managed to pick two winners for Dean, but missed out on the big race as he laughed at me when I picked 'Jimmy Choo' & wouldn't place a bet ....... guess who won!

Oh well its all fun & the partying carried on till quite late until the boys went off the town & I collapsed on the sofa bed!

Tomorrow we fly to Tahiti, hopefully after the hangover has subsided!!!
Nite all

Hobbiton, shhhhhh

2011-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

Dear all

I managed to start the day in a lovely hot mineral swimming pool as the campsite we stayed at last night had springs in the grounds Yippee. It was lovely to sit in the early morning sun with steam gently rising around you from your 39 degree pool.

Once I had dragged myself out of the pool we headed off to town where I was booked on the tour of Hobbiton - the village from LOTR no less. As you may remember I had tried to do this on the way down the north Island, but had not realised that the tour was a) private b) expensive c) long, So here I was on take two will my money, the morning & an empty SD card ready to get my $66 worth!!

Imagine my surprise when I got there to find that they were about to start filming The Hobbit there and we had to sign disclaimers agreeing not to post any photos or discuss anything we have seen on the 'location'. I guess this is until the film is released, then it doesn't matter. So sorry you will have to skype me if you really need to know or wait for the film LOL!

Suffice to say the place was amazing as the set was literally 3 days away from filming so everything was done down to the last detail including the tiny piles of logs outside the doors. What amazed me was that everything was completely real, even the fruit on all the trees. Well Ok the lichen on the fences was made up, but you can't grow that in situ in 3 months!

Dean had stayed behind in Matamata to have a wander & as I got back it started to rain & boy it didn't stop! It carried on whilst we had lunch and all the way to Hamilton, En route we drove through Tirau,which has a strange addiction to corrugated iron, even some of the buidings are fashioned with it & I mean fashioned!

We finally reached rainy Hamilton, where Dean stopped off and had a reminisce at the cricket ground and treated himself to a Knights one day shirt. It is the most garish pink you have ever seen! You certainly will see him coming down the street when he wears it oh well I suppose it’s better than him wearing a pink Middlesex shirt! LOL

It was still raining & raining & raining so we headed to a site and huddled and watched movies for the evening..... Guess what? It had to be LOTR - yep!

Tomorrow we held to our final port of call, Auckland to stay with another Barmy Army friend Michael aka Bikini!

Nite all

Up the middle again

2011-03-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

Dear all

This morning we left our campsite in the very nice Bayview just outside town and headed north towards Rotoroa. Our last visit had been shrouded by mist and drizzle so we hoped to have a short walk around today. After a short stop at Waipunga falls. Not particularly earth shatteringly beautiful, but a pretty place to stop for a break (as you can see above) we moved onto Taupo where we stopped to watch a few people bunjy jumo over the very picturesque Waikato river (nutters!). Back on the road we had a further stop at Butchers Pool near Reporoa, a hot spring which was left to the locals by the land owner in perpetuity and they have made it a really nice pool area apart from the fact that it is full of sandflies!! We escaped and headed onto Kersene Creek nearer to Rotoroa, where the hot springs have literally created a hot creek where you can bathe in different pools - Truely magical I could have stayed in there all night. Sadly it was not to be as we had a few miles to travel yet. We finally got to Kuirau Park, where you can wander freely around the park with its steaming pools of water & bubbling mud. A quick dash up to the infamous Matamata, where we will visit Hobbiton in the morning.

Nite all xx

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.................

2011-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we spent the day looking around Napier. Unfortunately in 1931, this town was raised to the ground, by a devastating earthquake. Luckily for Napier now is that the cheap method of building at the time was concrete, and the style Art Deco. So most of the streets are now mostly full of beautiful Art Deco buildings, which is a huge draw for tourists and gives it a very affluent, seaside feel. Its a ovely place to wonder around unless you pick the day the cruise ship is in ! We also managed to pick up a parking ticket for parking the wrong way round on a street. Apparently in NZ you have to all park in one direction on a street, how odd! Anyway Dean sent me into the council offices and they let me off on production of our passport as we were tourists who didn't know better. Sometimes ignorance does pay off!

Nite all

Pick punch ................

2011-03-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Dear all

OMG I can't believe that its the 1st of March already. I would love to say spring is here, but we are starting into autumn here - well its not as hot as it was would be a better translation. It also means we have been away for nearly 6 months and are certainly past the halfway mark which is sad. This is a very short post today as we have spent most of the day driving in the pouring rain up to Napier the route was still pretty, but lacks photo opps when its a bit grey and dreary. I will leave you with this sign that tickled me today and will try and do better tomorrow.

Nite all

Sara

Back to North Island & would you believe it!

2011-02-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Yesterday, we took the the ferry back over to Wellington and I have to say the weather was far more pleasant than on the way down! We met up with Geordie in his pub the Four Kings and spent a couple of hours putting the worlds to rights. Next stop was to a tiny little pub, that I have promised Geordie that I would not reveal - in case the BA take it over next time we are here! LOL. It was a little sanctuary in the middle of Wellington, and Lisa, Geordie's partner joined us for a few more with a few of their mates. Fun night was had by all. We watched the start of the India / England World cup game then retired back to their flat for the second half and a few more refreshments! LOL We finally went to bed about 3.00am when Colly lost his wicket and we felt destined for a loss.

Little did we think that when we awoke this morning with a few hangovers, that we would see a draw spashed all over the news! Gutting in a way that we missed the chase, but relieved that we managed a draw tingled with a bit of 'we should have won!' Oh well you can't have everything & I an still dining out on our Ashes win plus I still don't think we can win this.

Today we had a little trip up to the lookout at Mt Victoria, where the views of the city, harbour & surrounding regions is sublime. We then had a walk around the town again, but this time we went up the very cute red cable car, which has been around since the turn of the last century for some more excellent views aof the city. We then had a little scoot around the Cable car museum then walked back down through the botanic gardens which were really pretty. Our last part of the walk was through the old city cemetary which is now in two parts as they had to move half the cemetary so a major link road could bisect the land!

As you can see I had some fun in the gardens playing with my new camera, which is taking my ages to get used to as I have had a Canon for sooooooooo long & you can't teach an old dog new tricks ...................... etc!! Oh well they didn't turn out too bad so the Macro box gets a tick! The zoom is rather suspect and slow as is the power up, but I'm sure its just me being picky! So after our walk we headed back to Lisa & Geodie's for a scrumptuous roast Chicken and all the trimmings. Thanks Lisa one of my favourites and a proper night slobbed on the sofa watching crap TV - how else can you spend a Monday night? It will also be a long while before we get to do that again so we did appreciate it! Back to the task at hand we head north up towards Hawkes bay tomorrow.

Nite all

Hugs

Sara

Last Journey in the South

2011-02-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Yesterday we went to Nelson and I eventually managed to pick up a new camera. It’s not what I wanted, but as it’s so expensive in NZ it’s what I could afford here. Then we just had a wonder around town, a nice lunch and picked up some really nice fresh apples. It was pretty difficult to do too much in town as there were hundreds of people who had escaped from Christchurch trying to buy all their basic necessities. The campsites rooms were all full of evacuees including 23 guys from Palestine who had two friends still in hospital, injured from falling masonry.

Today we travelled from Nelson to Picton via the extremely picturesque Marlborough Sounds on the Queen Charlotte Drive. The views were amazing which is probably why some of the homes looked equally plush! We also happened along some nesting Shags who seems quite happy to pose as I snapped away!

At Picton we settled into our site for the night to be told that the campsite we had stayed at in Christchurch had been destroyed and would be closed in definitely as they had huge liquefaction issues and one side of their home was 1.5m higher than the other! I do hope they manage to get their very lovely site back up and running as they were such a lovely couple.

Tomorrow we take the ferry back to North Island and finally meet up with Geordie.
Nite everyone.

The top of the South and farewell to my G10!

2011-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

Dear all

We woke this morning to find that two chickens and a peacock had taken refuge from the hot early morning sun under the van - not something you expect to find in such a remote location!

The big pull for this area is the remarkable Farewell Spit and it was on our way to visit this, that my trust Canon G10 decided to gasp its last breath and the lens jammed open not to be moved by anything. So now I am without a camera until I can find somewhere that I can replace it (probably Wellington). Now as most of you know for me to be without a camera is like I've lost a limb. I always carry one and take thousands of photo's every year so I feel a little bereft today.

Farewell spit is a 26km crescent shaped beach which protects a huge saltmarsh, home to thousands of migratory waders from the arctic tundra. The panoramic views along the spit and back across golden bay to Takaka Hill are bleak, but beautiful. We had a short walk along the beach, but it is a little repetative so I decided to walk across to fossil bay on the northern side of hte spit which allegedly has a number of fossilised shellfish on the mud rocks, but I couldn't find them. What I did find struck me to the core. Some imbecile had let a dog loose on a beach (which are banned in this area anyway), where it had found and mutilated about 5-6 tiny little blue penguins in their beach burrows.

These little guys are not in danger or anything, with about 350,000 on mainland NZ alone, so are not protected, but it was the savage nature of the attack and that who ever was with the dog had not done anything to stop it. There were dog prints and a few human prints in the sand which is how we surmised the events. Luckily a elderly man from Nelson arrived with his sister shortly after me and had a mobile to call DOC. How people can do such things is beyond me. I am sorry to sound off here but these sort of things affect me greatly and this is a story of our travels good and bad.....

Back at the car park I had placate a very pissed of Dean who thought I had falled off a cliff I had been gone so long.

We quickly got back on the road and headed through Collingwood the last town in this part of the country and down towards the wonderful Mussel Inn where to quote LP 'a rustic tavern-cafe-brewery. Theres music performed every week and its brews it own ginger beer and lemonade. A big bowl of mussels has restorative properties especially when washed down with a Captain Cooker - a brown beer brewed naturally with Manuka'.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Albeit I had a mussel chowder washed down with a rough apple cider yum yum. It was lovely and helped to ease my 'bad' morning. To work off our full bellies we went to the amazing Pupu springs one of the clearest, cleanest springs in the world. Pumping out over 14,000 litres per second - yep thats no a typo! its also believed to have healing powers, but as it all fenced off from the public I can't confirm that!! LOL. What was not so great was Harwards Hole, a very long drive via an unsealed road where scenes from LOTR were filmed, then a very beautiful long walk through a wood to a massive pile of huge rocks that were on the edge of the hole. You couldn't see the bottom and it was a spectacular anticlimate to the end of the day, but hey ho you can't have everything!

Night all

Able Tasman National Park

2011-02-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Dear all

As the area is still without internet access and only has intermittant mobile signals I am writing this up on wordpad in the hope I can post these soon. The news this morning was that the epicentre had been identified as Lyttleton - on the burbs of Christchurch on the way to Akaroa. That and the fact that the quake was only 5km deep meant that this time the damage was way worse than last September. The tunnel at Lyttleton collapsed in a few places & the large 26 storey hotel next to the cathedral was so badly damaged that all the tourists had to sleep in the park - in the rain.

However they have now reviewed the deathtoll to 39 from yesterdays 65 as they had found a number of trapped people alive and pulled them from the wreckage. Still there are 300 missing including quite a number from Japan and the Philipines. Our hopes and prayers go out to all those caught up in this terrible disaster.

Feeling a little helpless and somewhat removed from these events we carried on with our plans despite it being the topic of conversation on everyones lips. As we spent last night in Marahau we decided to walk the first part of the great Abel Tasman Coastal walk down to Appletree bay. The walk is amazing right through native bush overlooking beautiful golden beaches and coves which you can walk down to and relax along the route.

The coast is also frequented by loads of people on kayak's as the water is beautifully calm and shifting shades of turquoise/green/cyan. During our walk the weather was fabulous, but as we crossed the estuary boardwalk back to the carpark dark clouds started to appear over the hills so we ducked in to Fat Tui's for lunch. Dean had the most enormous burger full of salad, egg, pineapple, beetroot and a huge home made burger. I had fush n chups (as they call it here!)

The heavens opened as we ate, but as is typical in NZ by the time we had finished the rain had gone and blue sky was peaking through the clouds. We then journeyed up over the Takaka Hills to the most northern point of the Island and on to Wharariki beach which is a huge cresent bay of golden sand, surrounded by large swirling sand dunes & punctuated by huge wave and windswept rocks.

Once the tide has reached its low point the large rocks have rock pools aAll too soon the sun was setting and we had to leave but it was a magical end to a magical day.

round them and young seal pups come down the rocks to play in these 'safe' areas. They were fascinating to watch as they frollocked in and out of the water and posed for us. The slightest unfamiliar noise sent them scuttling up the rocks to the safety of their tiny cave. As all youngsters they were also incredibly curious and often swam up really close to us and checked us out!

Thanks for looking (when you do get to look!)

Black day for Christchurch

2011-02-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

Dear all

This is a short post today as we have no internet or mobile connections where we are. Currently our priorities are getting messages home to parents as is every other tourist in the area.

Our day started well as we travelled north from Murchison along the Motueka highway passing some beautiful vistas. When we got to Motueka we had a little mooch around the shops where I bought myself another journal to cover South America. As I was queuing to pay we had our first inkling that there were issues on the other side of the Island. Everyone was rushing into the electronics shop next door to watch the unfurling chaos in Christchurch whilst locals were frantically trying to call family and friends to check they were OK, but the emergency services had already closed down most of the airways and internet services to emergency lines only. They say there are six degrees of separation in the word, but in NZ they are proud of the fact that it’s more likely to be two! It was evident within that first hour that this quake had been far more destructive than in September and within that first hour they announced 5 deaths. We decided to retreat further north to our destination a little early a campsite in a small village on the edge of the Able Tasman National Park, Marahau. The mood was so sombre most people spent the night glued to the TV in the kitchen as with no connection to the outside world there was not much else to do and nobody was in the mood to party. On that note I will finish for the night (or when I can post). As you can guess no photos tonight.

I just hope the death toll & injuries stays low and the clear up is fast

Sara

Punakaiki

2011-02-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we made quite an easy day of it as we are getting to our last few days in the South Island. Punakaiki or Pancake rocks was our first stop and although it was high tide the wind wasn't sufficiently high enought to show us the beautiful blow hole in full action. None the less the rocks themselves are stunning made from Dolomite Point limestone whihc gives them their characteristic look. We were also rewarded by seeing loads of Hector dolphins feeding just off the rocks and the weather was really nice too as you can see.

Heading off the Coast road at Westport we travelled down the dramatic Buller Gorge with its primeval ferns and cabbage trees is an ideal place to indulge in water sports and we saw loads of kayakers and rafters on the river. This gorge was devastated by earthquakes in 1929 and 1968, but the road still snakes through overhangs just barely big enough to take a bus . This evening we managed to find a brand new campsite which was on its first season and everything was sparkly and new and also pretty empty which means we might be able to catch up with some sleep!

Nite all

Sara

Franz Joseph

2011-02-20T13:09:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today the weather was a little kinder to us and we left our little rainforest oasis in Franz Josef village itself and ventured out to the glacier to have a look around. The Maori originally called this glacier Ka Roimatao Hine Hukatere - Tears of the Avalanche Girl. The story is about a young girl whose lover falls off the peaks and her tears of her loss formed the frozen river. Sadly the glacier is more known as Franz Josef named in honour of an Austrian Emperor, when first explored by Julius Hasst in 1865. Unlike so many others this glacier started to advance again in 1985 growing a further 2km until 1996 when it started to back pedal!

The walk out to the terminal face was about 35 minutes and although the glacier is much bigger that it is at Fox it is also quite steep at the front so it was hard to the see it in all its splendour, but its still pretty impressive.

Back in the village we stopped off to watch Flowing West a documentary showing the flow of water from the sea to the mountains and back on a gigantic screen. The cinematography is amazing even if the music was a bit like 80's cheese!

Along the coast north of FJ is some stunnning scenery and some little amusing stops in the national park including the very amusing Pukekura (population 2!), which included the Bushmans centre replete with rustic cafe - they speciality game pie (made of possum meat!) and an amusing possum museum (which appears to be dislike, the possums that is!). O

utside they had some cute goats, a wallaby, some deer and a family of Thar. Across the road is the inappropriately name Puke pub which specialises in road kill in its wild food restaurant with delights such as 'wheel-tread possum' & head light delight. Yum yum !

Our next stop was one of those moments that you know that fate had a hand in. Ross in itself is famous for past glories namely the unearthing of NZ's largest gold nugget, Honourable Roddy, who weighed in at 2.77kg in1907, since then the gold mines have all closed and it now has a series of refurbished old cottages and a really nice waterchase walk around some diggings, caves, tunnels and the cemetery!

Being a little 'gold towned' out I had a wonder into a jade carvers shop/studio & thats where I met Steve. He is not only an extremely talented carver but also takes part in loads of ironman & endurance type racing usually coming in the top 3 for his age group and in top 20 overall. Thats fair enough I hear you say until I tell that he is over 55 and only has one leg. What an inspiration and a totally top guy. His jade caving is amazing and he has a number of designs he has made his own (outside of my little backpacker budget), but I did purchase a simple caved necklace which I will really trreasure. Its not often I get the chance to meet a truely talented person, but today was my day.

Our final stop was Greymouth, a truely uninspiring town, full of commercial buildings and backpacker hotels, but our hostel (we parked in the carpark!) was lovely and a real treat after wet and dreary campsites!

Tomorrow we head up to Pancake Rocks. Don't know what I'm talking about - well you will have to wait until tomorrow then!

Night all

Sara

The West Coast

2011-02-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today was all about glaciers and as we set off from Hasst we also kew that it was quite likely that we were not going to see a repeat of the weather from last week. The glaciers are predominantly here because of all the endless rain that this region is famous for or infamous! Both glaciers move at around 10 times faster than any of the Swiss Alps glaciers and that what we hoped would make for some dramatic views.

We still had to drive the final 120km + to Fox, so our first stop along the SH6 was Knights Point, named after a surveyors dog! This was the final construction phase along this route which basically allowed Fox to become a real tourist destination. The waters around here are very deep and equally stormy and with the endless rain, made very hard conditions for the works. However I'm glad they finished it as it makes a fantastic coastal scenic route that provides vital incomes to so many small towns around the region. Just up the road Moeraki Lake is very black and full of fish - quite different to many of the other lakes of the region. We did get out and have a look around, but the sandflies were still quite voracious so it tends to dampen your enthusiasm for walking, but not so much that when we got to Fox Glacier we didn't attempt two walks. Our first one was around Lake Matheson about 6km south of the little town along the Cook Flats. Despite our fervent wishes the clouds had been rolling in all day across Mt Tasman & Mt Cooks so we didn't have the opportunity to see the famous reflections of these mountains in the lake itself, which makes this place so photogenic and the shots used on every concievable surface from biscuit tins, stamps to beer bottle labels.

It was however a lovely walk and well worth the hours effort in the drizzle. Just the other side of town is the glacier itself which you can walk to - well nearly up to as your are barred from the last 80m to keep you safe from falling rocks and ice at the ablation zone (the bottom to you!) as the glacier melts in the summer sun!! LOL. It is impressive by anyones reckoning and given that the ice here probably fell at the summit some 8-9 years agoand was pretty blue a pretty fast (in glacial terms!) beast.

So despite the rain we were still wowed and set off happily to Franz Josef for our next icy adventure tomorrow.

Nite all

Sara

PS Dean is happily snuggled in the campsite TV room watching the opening game of the cricket world cup - India v Bangladesh. I worry that this may be a trend setting event!

Over the Haast Pass

2011-02-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today the run of lovely hot weather finally broke and we awoke to stormy skies. We struck camp and headed down the road to Puzzle World - Deans request! There is an excellent 3D maze which is supposed to take well over an hour to solve. However we did it in 15 minutes, but then took another 35 minutes trying to get out LOL serves us right for being so cocky! There were also loads of optical illusions that kept us busy for the rest of the morning. check this one out!

The clouds were still milling around as we started our journey to the West Coast. We drove past another of the stunningly beautiful pale blue glacier lakes on our right - Lake Hawea and then on passing through the neck switched lakes with Lake Wanaka on our left. We stopped for lunch just by the side of the Lake which was still a really ethereal blue despite the gloomy skies. As short 30 minute walk, full of those pesky little sand flies to the Blue Pools to walk off lunch & we then passed up the track gaining height until we had clouds all around us and entered the Haast Pass. Can't tell you much about it as it was so misty, but the rain became a slight drizzle as we started our decent so we stopped at a few little DOC sites which had short walks through (sandfly infested) Silver Beech forests with some very grand waterfalls, with equally impressie names - Fantail, Thunder Creek and Roaring Billy.

Heading into Hasst I noticed that a short way further south was a tiny little fishing hamlet called Jackson Bay wher you could get some great views of the Southern Alps and they had some resident Fiordland crested Penguin colonies. As it was not to late Dean was persuaded to take a little side adventure and off we went down one of the straightest roads we have ever driven down. Migrants arrived here under a doomed assisted-immigration scheme. their farming dreams washed away by the never ending rain and a lack of a wharf, which was built in 1938. Today it is more of a small fishing hamlet with half a dozen fishing boats bobbing in the bay. There is also a very cute looking called the Clay pot which also acts as the local info centre!

Despite our best efforts we din't see any penguins, but did manage o see a rather large pod of Hectors Dolphins feeding right by the beach and picked up even more sandfly bites! And guess what it was raining there!

Night all

Sara

Lake Tekapo

2011-02-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we started the day in Lake Tekapo which is famous on the tourist routes for its turquoise blue waters and picture postcard views of the church of the Good Shepherd which sits on its shores. The church has a wating list of nearly two years which pleased Dean no end! Just along from this cute little church is a statue of a collie dog whihc is in tribute to the sheepdogs that helped to develop Mackenzie county.

The other big attraction for the area is the University of Caterbury's Observatory on Mount John, whihc has unparalleled views over not only glacial Lake Tekapo but also Lake Alexandrina which is a normal colour and therefore the contrast is all the more evident. We also discovered how to program delay my camera, which means you will have to suffer more shots with both of us in the future! Although it was perfect day we needed to move on as our time in NZ is flying by and we have yet to hit the West Coast ! All to come in the next few days> Although I struggle to see how most of this can be surpassed! So we hit the road and made it back to Wanaka by early evening and found a beautiful site right on the lake in the bush - not a car in sight (apart from those on the campsite!). Lush! & on that note I will bid you goodnight!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Mount Cook

2011-02-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we woke to the most beautiful day and knew that our walk along the Hooker Valley to the foot of Mt Cook at the Hooker glacier terminus would be perfect. We set off early to avoid the worst of the crowds & the first stop on the walk was to an alpine memorial which pays tribute to the great climbers who have lost their lives on one of the mountains which overlooks the valley and I was shocked to see how many were there. All ages, mainly men in their twenties, but some in their sixties from all over the world.

The walk itself undulated along the valley track along a glacial stream, crossing a couple of swing bridges and the flora and fauna was fabulous including the very pretty Cook lilies. Mt Cook dominates the whole view for the whole journey.

Although we were in a valley it was still pretty hot so we took our time and had a timeout at the lake watching the ice, which had fallen off the glacier float across the lake and down the stream. We managed to grab a block smash a bit off and taste a bit - It was lovely! The 2hr walk back was equally fab, but was much busier & much hotter so I was glad we left early. After a long lunch & a siesta I left Dean to recover a bit more and took another trail out to Kea point, which had loads of different types of plants and ends at a platform with great views of of not just Mt Cook, but also Mt Sefton, the valley & the footstool. Despite its name I didn't see any more Kea, which was a shame as I quite like these cheeky parrots, but did see a couple of skinks basking in the sun. Once I was back we drove back to the village and had a look around the exhibition of the area at the DOC site and the very famous Hermitage hotel, which was rebuilt here in the 1950's when the first one was firstly flooded & then burnt down near our campsite. It has fantastic views of Mt Cook and also houses the Sir Edmund Hilary Alpine museum. Well worth a coffee on the terrace of you ever get the chance!

Before we left the area we had a walk up to a lookout over the glacial lake and terminus to the Tasmen Glacier, the largest in NZ. As with most glaciers this one is receding and so the last few hundres metres is covered in rocks and doesn't look particularly glam, but as you can see quite a substantial part of its 26km length it is still pretty impressive and the bergs in the lake were massive as well.
We finished the day off driving to Lake Tekapo where we camped for the night pretty much cream crackered!

Nite all

Sara

Life is too important to be taken seriously

2011-02-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Dear all

The strap line for todays post was taken from a card in a shop window in Arrowtown, which was our first stop on our tour today. This very charming village came about following the discovery of 'gold in them hills' in the 1860's. Most of the highstreet is made up of the original buildings and has a very cutesy feel to it and we spent the morning wandering around the town, the museum and a chinese settlement on the outskirts. The chinese were subjected to intense racism and were inlegible to register their own claims so were forced to rework old discarded claims in terrible conditions. There was an opportunity to go panning for gold, but the river was quite busy with young would be prospecters so we had our lunch and headed off north.

We decided to take the scenic route up to Wanaka which was windy and very beautiful. We even managed to find a pub in a tiny village called Cardrona that Dean liked en route! The road wound its way up to Wanaka and then we sped off up Hwy8 to the Mount Cook national park. The route was beautiful and as we turned off to take the road to the village itself we picked up a hitchiker from Germany who was travelling on her own. Now I would say that New Zealand is one of the safest places in the world, but I thought this girl was pretty mad to be travelling on her own, but she turned out to be great fun on our 60+km journey down past Lake Pukaki and into the valley. We had a brief stop to look around the village with the world famous Hermitage Hotel and then pressed onto our camping area, which was a really nice DOC site at the start of the Hooker Valley walk, which is where we are off to tomorrow.

Nite all
Sara

How I nearly got to Paradise!

2011-02-14T03:07:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Valentines Day - That age old traditional where millions of men get fleeced for all their money buying things that women don't really want, when a simple proper and very likely cheap, if not free romantic gesture would have sufficed all along. I don't get it! We girls are always on diets so chocolates although guiltily eaten are not well thought out. A dozen red roses 9.99 any other day of the year but for this day only just for you mate 49.99! The problem is 10 years down the line I would take either of these gifts in lieu of being completely ignored on the one day when even the most unromantic should make some effort! This year Dean managed until about 11.00am, when he kindly offered to buy me lunch. Nice gesture one would say, but we had just agreed to go to the local burger bar! Now before you start thinking what an ungrateful baggage that I am I will confess that this particular place is the very famous Ferg Burger and I was treated to the most amazing, most enormous chicken burger I have ever seen and a massive portion of chips. Yum all is forgiven babes ungrateful cow that I am

Feeling incredibly guilty for stuffing my face despite spending two hours this morning walking around the garden peninsula - (twice - don't ask!) I decided to talk the Tiki trail walk up Bob's peak to lookout over the area.Dean decided to rest up in the van. There is a gondola that goes to the same place but in a straight line as you can see!. The climb felt like it took forever weaving steeply backwards and forwards up the hill but after 50 minutes I reached the top and waved down at Dean (despite not being able to see him he could see me in the binoculars). The view from here truly has to go on my top ten list as it was magical and the sun was shining and everything was perfect ................. except Dean wasn't there.................... it took me another 40 Mins to get down (crap knees!) and there he was with a big smile on his face, simply happy just cos I was (bless).

We then trundled back to the botanical gardens for a bit of Frisbee golf, but our airobe had somehow been damaged in our travels so play was abandoned on the second hole (well target). All the hard work was undone with a large piece of cheesecake from the very sumptuous Patagonia (do check it out is you ever get here!). Now boys take heed.......About 6.30pm Dean then drove me 66km down the very beautiful lakeside to Glenorchy where according to the Lonely Planet there is a place called Paradise about 15km further on, which is where he was taking me. Unfortunately someone at LP had made a little typo cos we found out that it was actually 37km further on down a very windy unsealed road. So reluctantly we had to turn around as it was starting to get dark - so near and yet so far but a big gold star to Dean - who says he's not romantic ?................

Taking to the skies in Queenstown

2011-02-13T03:03:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we awoke to a remarkable view of The Remarkables a mountain range that dominates the skyline of Queenstown, this is probably the most touristy place we have been to in NZ with 1m plus visitors a year. But it didn't start off too well when we ended up at a campsite which was rammed full of vans. Of course we ended up next to three idiots who actually only lived 30 Min's down the road, but their mate had bought a camper van so they thought they would have a party in it. They were soon on their second bottle of vodka and 3rd different drinking game & although the swearing was nothing we hadn't heard before it was so very loud (with young kids in bed on the other side of us) that I was on the verge of cracking. Luckily at midnight their mates turned up and they all disappeared into town to party! Unluckily, for us they all turned back up at around 3.30 and started again for about 20 minutes until someone gave them a warning!

However the next day our immediate impression was slowly changed as we wandered around the town soaking up the lovely weather - with not a hint of rain! Although the scenery is a big draw the vast majority of the visitors are here to indulge in one of the many adventure pursuits. Dean didn't want to miss out and we duly booked ourselves on a hand-gliding trip. Now most of you will know that I don't do heights, but in the spirit if Queenstown and relationships I felt I had to try & Dean had wanted to try this out for a long time. The 'take off' was from Coronet Peak a few kilometres from QT. Dean went first and a very terrified me followed. Suffice to say I tripped on the 'run- off' and nearly sent us straight down the hillside. Fortunately my tandem pilot was talented enough to get us airborne and there we were gliding over some of the most spectacular scenery in the world and all I could do was pray it was all over quickly! Dean had already landed some 6km down hill as we circled down to land. He was very unimpressed as he had no adrenaline rush at all and was completely under whelmed. He could have had some of mine in buckets! Our adventures over Dean calmed himself down in the pub whilst I caught up with some Internet time in McDonald's! I'm still struggling with the concept that a country so beautiful and seemingly so progressive can have such a restrictive Internet system!

Oh well such is life eh!

Nite all

Sara

Milford Sound to Queenstown

2011-02-12T02:57:00.000-08:00

Dear all

We woke early this morning having already booked the first boat trip out onto the sound to try and avoid the masses. Another great tip from Andy had been to use the company Mitre Peaks as their boats are much smaller and this seemed to put many people off so as a consequence we only had around 20 people on our boat Trust me that's small in this place where some boats carry 300 people! The weather was bright, but overcast and as we slipped out of the small quay into the sound and faced the spectacular Mitre Peak (1692m) in the distance we knew we had made the right choice.

The water was calm as there had been virtually no boats on the water so I was able to spot a bottlenose Dolphin at the back of the boat (my normal seasick hangout) almost immediately - which everyone else managed to miss as they were all getting drinks in or standing at the front - ha ha. The whole place just blows your mind it is so vast and captivating and although we travelled down the 16km to the point where the sound meets the sea and the view didn't change that much I was enthralled the entire journey. The small boat also allowed us a very unique chance to get up very close the the cascading waterfalls (too close if you were up the front - LOL) and the local seals all sunbathing on the rocks. As we headed back to the wharf area the mists started to roll in and by the time we were back at our van the skies were starting to look a little ominous (although not surprising for an area with an annual rainfall of 6m a year!). We swiftly headed out feeling a little sorry for those people arriving who would not be able to see half what we had.

As we had rushed the last part of the journey in we stopped at the lovely chasm walk, where the forested Cleddau River plunges through these stunningly eroded boulders and down a very narrow chasm creating a rock bridge in the process. Back in the van the rain had now started to gently fall so Dean decided to stay in the van at our next stop a walk to the allegedly very beautiful Marion Lake. I say allegedly, because I had to turn back after 30 minutes of walking in the rain as the track has been closed, but someone had neglected to put a sign up at the start! oh well it was still a lovely walk! We made a little detour to the Gunn Camp (toilet), which is obviously run by someone with a very good sense of humour as the whole place has little signs and jokes around as you can see.

The rain was now falling in earnest so we hasten out of the valley, back up towards & through the tunnel, but on the other side the rain had stopped! By the time we reached the downs we could see blue sky ahead & back at Te Anau the sun was shining. Dean was in a black mood though cos he missed the chance to sample the wares from Miles Better Pies! We had a little wonder around and then dashed onto our next destination - Queenstown..........

Nite all

Sara

Riverton to Milford

2011-02-11T02:52:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we awoke to a beautiful blue sky and hoped it would last to Milford our next stop in our move up the West Coast. The slow paced town of Riverton was one of the first European settlements dating from the sealing and whaling days. It was a lovely quiet place to break the journey and I couldn't abide another night in Invercargill (Very overpriced). The beach is pleasant enough, but is very flat. Our first stop on today's road trip was the pretty Te Waewae Bay where the very cute Monkey Island is accessible from the beach at low tide. This was a used as a Maori Whale lookout and gave us our first glimpse (albeit hazy) of the great Fiordland. A little further along the road we stopped to admire the Clifden Suspension Bridge, which was built in 1899, but has now been replaced by a more modern version. The first of the Fiordland towns we passed through was Manapouri, which appeared to us to just be a hosting point for tourists going out to Doubtful Sound and local tramps. It is sited right by the very beautiful Lake Manapouri and is surrounded by mountains and apart from that its only claim to fame is that it was the location of the very first mass environmental campaign to stop a massive hydro electric dam, which would have raised the water levels of the lake by 100 feet. Luckily over 265,000 signatures changed political hearts and minds as well as a number of local government officials jobs! We had a short look around and ducked down to the very cute Fraser's each which had loads of lupins flowering there.

Twenty kilometres from Manapouri is Te Anau which surprisingly sits just on the edge of Lake Te Anau, New Zealands second largest lake. Given we were a little behind schedule we basically zoomed through and vowed to call in on our journey back the following day. The famous 119km road from here to Milford Sound is probably as famous in its own right as the final destination. The first part of the road rolls through farmland created from the moraine of a glacier that created Lake Te Anau after about 29km road passes Te Anau Downs the start of the Milford Track and you pass into the Fiordland National Park and we really started to get excited (we were here at last!) We stopped at a few of the signposted lookouts down the Eglington Valley floor and also stopped at the very pretty Mirror lakes, which yielded very photogenic reflected views of the mountains nearby and gave me my first taste of sandflys the scourge of the region. As the weather was faultless we had an amazing view right down towards the Southern Alps

We had to cross the Alps and this was at the very aptly named Divide! This is the lowest East- West pass in Southern Alps, but trust me our poor little camper van moaned and groaned all the way up the ribbon wooded hillside. We had a little stop half way for some photos and met our first Kea - a very cheeky alpine parrot! Eventually we reached the car park just before the Homer Tunnel and stopped to admire the fantastically beautiful high walled mountains around us and the Kea who were sitting on every ones cars creating mayhem! We decided to stretch our legs and take the alpine walk up towards a beautiful waterfall not too far from where we had parked, the walk was only 20 Min's long and when we got to the end of it we decided to walk up to the waterfall as it only looked about 30 Min's away. Well we walked and walked over the glacial moraine (which is very hard on the legs!)and eventually reached the snow line just below the falls & looked back to see our van down the slopes looking like a pin prick - Whoops. We eventually arrived back at the van some 3 hours after we had left - Double whoops!! We quickly dived through the tunnel which started construction during the depression in 1935 and was finally finished in 1953! It is 1.2km long and in most places is only suitable for one line of traffic. Unfortunately we had missed the traffic lights system and were now having to wing it!! Holding our breathe all the way through only served to exaggerate the exhalations we made at the other end as we emerged into the magnificent Cleddau Canyon and you slowly wind you way back down the valley to our campsite just outside Milford itself. It was late when we got there and we literally had time for some food before we hit the sack.

Another exciting day tomorrow................

Hoping for a continuation of the great weather.

Nite

Sara

Rakiura

2011-02-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Stewart Island is a huge draw for trampers (walkers to you and I) as it hosts the great 29km Rakiura track (3 days), the North West Circuit 125Km (10-12days) & the 56km southern Circuit track which branches off the NW circuit adding four days. I have to say we generally seen to be doing about 6-8km of walking a day here, but it is usually broken down into a few short walks so we really didn't think that any of the above were an option. However I am really starting to get into this and today we went on our longest single walk since we got here. The DOC here is really helpful and there are a dozen plus short walks radiating from their office which are from 2 hours to a full day. We decided to combine a half day walk with another short walk which would take about 5 hours and cover about 12km. The route was magical and took us undulating through the the coastal vegetation to Ryans Creek and around the northern side of the Paterson Inlet. There were loads of birds again on the track & warblers, Tui's and Bellbirds accompanied us in song as we walked. We then took another track from Golden bay around the southern side of the Inlet to Deep bay, which had a really pretty Beach.

I really enjoyed the walk and probably could have gone a few km's further down the point to the Ackers lighthouse, but Dean had had enough and so we looped back down the hill to Oban. Back in the town we collapsed in the pub and had a bite to eat. As we speak we are still there waiting for the ferry back to Bluff (no alcohol is being consumed shock horror!). We will then try and flit over to Riverton tonight so we can start our trek up the Western coast and heading for Milford Sound. I am definitely pooped now so am glad Dean insisted we finished when we did. However I think this is something I may start to pursue when I get home - oh no I'm starting to turn into my father. I will leave you with a little rib tickler that was on the condom machine in the ladies toilets in here..............................

'Satsfaction not guaranteed'!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Twitching in the deep south!

2011-02-09T02:41:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we took the ferry via Bluff to Stewart Island which is the most southerly inhabited Island of the New Zealand Islands. The Ferry only takes and hour and apparently is very pretty, but I had to glue my eyes on the horizon for most of the journey as its the second most rough strait in the world and trust me it was bad! (Andy, if your reading this - it was 10 times worse than Kaikoura!!). Once we were back on dry land I was fine and we checked into our little backpackers in Oban, which is the only town (village really but they are very sensitive!) on the Island. The population of the whole island is about 420 but there is still a pub, two churches, a shop, post office & a fish and chip van....... sorted!

We has a little walk around to familiarize ourselves & then walked over to the next bay and caught the ferry over to Ulva Island. The ferry was akin to something you would see an old couple cruising up and down the Thames during the summer and only had room for 7 passengers all squashed onto 2 benches. The journey was much smoother and only five minutes. Ulva is the main Island in the Paterson Inlet, is only 250 hectares, but is a tiny birdwatchers paradise. There are about 7km of track and the rest of the island is wooded and full of birds. We saw Stewart Island Weka's, Tomtits, Riflemen, Fantails, Kereru's, Oystercatchers, Brown Creepers, a couple of mating Kaka's & boy do t

hey get in a flap about that! The highlight for us were all the little Stewart Island Robins. Unlike British Robins these little birds are black and white, but they lack in colour they sure make up for in personality. Each one would come chirping up too us a we walked the trap and entered their territory, They are quite opportunistic and are really looking for you to disturb the ground so they can grab a tasty insect! If you don't they start pecking at your shoes or in my case my toggles on my Keens! At one point a bit of a territorial battle broke out as we had obviously stopped at the junction of 4 birds and they were all fighting over the grubs we were racking up with our feet. All too soon our trip was over and it was time to get the little boast back to Stewart Island. All this walking gives you a hellish appetite so we scooted off to the Fish and Chip van and had some Blue cod and chips washed down with Lemon and Paeroa (a NZ stalwart). We then walked it off again by having a walk around the local area to see if we could catch a glance of the elusive Kiwi, there are around 10,000 on Stewart alone, but it was not to be. We did however see four little blue penguins swim in from their day's fishing. A few pints in the very busy pub was obligatory (well according to Dean!), purely medicinal - Honest

Night all

Sara

Nearly at the bottom of the other side of the world.....

2011-02-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

Dear all

To quote Lonely Planet - 'Invercargill rarely scores high marks with travellers' and we can truly vouch for that. This is a town that time forgot and is seeped in 70's and 80's throw backs and hairstyles! However it was a necessary evil that had to sampled in order to gain access to Stewart Island our most southerly destination of our tour and the furthest away from home we will be on our trip.

All was not lost in that we found a few hidden gems hidden in the rough and given yesterday was such a big wow day it was good to have some admin and down time. The day started well in that the monster wind and rain storm from the night had dissipated and the sky was a perfect blue when we got up - always a good way top start the day. Our first stop was the inevitable I-site, which is handily located at the Southland Museum & Art Gallery.

We booked our ferries/boats and accommodation for Stewart Island and Milford Sound and feeling smug with ourselves ventured off to view the museum. First problem was the lack of exhibits as it was being 'restocked'! There was one section open where they house the Tuatura's.These creatures look like lizards but are actually from a completely different reptile family and fossils date back to over 50 years ago. They became extinct along with the dinosaurs 60-65 million years ago everywhere except here in New Zealand where they survived. Bizarre! They have two different species in the exhibit, but undoubtedly the start of the show is Henry who at 108 started mating with three females and has produces over 40 offspring in the last 10 years! Blimey that shows you boys! We then stretched our legs around the very pretty Queens park behind the building with its very sweet smelling rose garden. Of course on the edge of the park Dean managed to find the local cricket ground which has seen some international action last year hosting the ODI's against Australia's women's team!

Our next little gem was lunch when we found this very cute take away called Curry-Guru which had a great lunch deal of any curry with rice and a drink for $8.50 or just over 4 quid to us ! Even better they had Thai & Indian on the menu so we were both happy..............

This afternoon we wondered around the town for a while then down to our campsite for the night for a bit of R&R. Just as we got set up the wind returned and as we speak the rain has started again - Ho Hum another night of rocking camper van.

Tomorrow we are off to Bluff to get our ferry for a couple of days on Stewart Island.

Right off to brave the weather and cook dinner.

Night all

Sara

The catlins!

2011-02-07T02:34:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Woke up early this morning to a cloudy, but light sky! However by the time we left the sky has tinges of blue - Yeah. So our first port of call was the ill fated Nugget Point from last night. Today was as clear as a bell & the sky was cleared to further we walked along the point. There was the obligatory Lighthouse for such a rocky outcrop, but the real draw was the wave thumped rocky outcrops, which when the sun hits then at the right angle they look like they have seams of gold running through them - sadly the sun didn't shine that way for us! But it had emerged and we saw loads of fur seals, shags, sannets & sooty shearwaters & a number of spoonbills down on the cliffs. Apparently sea lions and Elephant seals co exist with the seals occasionally but we missed them. The sky was now virtually cloudless - so much for the weather forecast. We then headed down to the spectacular rain swollen multi tiered, Purakaunui Falls which is located down a very pretty walk. The same could be said of Matai Falls and bit further down the road, which had a longer but equally pretty walk to get there. Lunch was spent overlooking the majestic Tautuku Bay with its beautiful long golden beach. Then it was on to the last of the local waterfalls - Mclean Falls. The walk to reach the falls was magical and I half expected to see some fairies or elves nestled in the moss covered trees, ferns or rocks. It was something straight out of the Lord of the Rings Movies!!! LOL The fall lived up the walk with another very swollen multi tiered water fall at full flow. The spray coming off made it difficult to take photos, but I think I managed to get a couple of OK shots. Our final stop for the day was at the Porpoise & Curio bays. We went to Porpoise day which is another stunning sandy beach. We managed to see some Hectors Dolphins swimming near to the beach. They are extremely rare and have only just started to come back to this bay each summer to breed so we felt pretty lucky. Just next door is the amazing Curio bay which is famous firstly for its 160millio year old fossil forest left over from the Jurassic period. There are petrified stumps & fallen log fossils on the shore line and you can clearly see the grain of the wood in the stone. WOW! However also resident on the beach are nesting Yellow-eyed Penguins (yep more!) This group however are very used to people and allowed curious tourist to stand quietly nearby and take photos. So we managed to get some pretty good shots and watched them sunbathing, which was pretty cool. DOUBLE WOW!! We couldn't top that, so sped our way down to Invercargil which we hope to use as our springboard to Stewart Island our most southerly stop of our trip around NZ.

Night all

Hugs

Sara

Waitangi Day

2011-02-06T02:31:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today is Waitangi day, the day that the treaty was signed between the English and the Maori's back in 1840. There are various events and loads of sports races on the day so we had planned to drive down to the Catlins which we thought would be a relatively safe bet. So we left a beautifully warm Dunedin and headed south. Just outside of town is a short, but spectacular Tunnel Beach Walk, which crosses down through farmland before descending through a tunnel down to the aptly named Tunnel Beach. Around the beach are sea stacks, arches and strange carved rock shapes and carved by the wild Pacific and was stunned albeit the walk down was advised as 20 Min's but is an estimated 40 minutes back up - More leaden legs! We could see some cloud further down the coast, but didn't think anything of it. So we then wound our way down the coast towards the Catlins. The first stop on the route is Nugget Point at the North of the route, but as we travelled down the metal road the rain started to fall and by the time we got there it was absolutely pounding down! We waited for a while, but by then the clouds had started to swirl around the point so we gave up and retreated to the local camp park at Kata Point.

The rain didn't abate all night and the main street ended up flooded so other tourists had to be ferried up to the site by one of the towns 4WD owners!

Not much else to say but hope it stops soon - forecast for tomorrow is rubbish!

Night

Sara

Otago Peninsula

2011-02-05T02:12:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we travelled out of Dunedin out onto the Otago Peninsula. Before we could go I had to make a little 'stop over' at Scrappers Papradise' to pick up more Kiwiana for my scrapbook stash - well I had too!! Dean finally got underway once I had finished all my stroking of the lovely products there and within 30 minutes we were driving along the Portobello Road. The drive in itself was spectacular as it is a very low coastal road which weave in and out along the coast and it didn't take long to reach the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head. This is the only mainland breeding Royal Albatross Colony and is closely guarded. You can access the colony through a very informative centre, but although we made thorough use of their exhibition we didn't go on the tour to see the birds sitting on the cliffs cos it was $45 each!

We had lunch outside overlooking the Otago Harbour and lo and behold the RA's only started flying above us and gave us a free show! Just below the centre is a Blue penguin colony & I managed to spy a few of the teeny guys hiding out in their burrows whilst they molt. We then scooted around to Allans bay, where there were 4 enormous Hooker sea lions slobbed out on the beach. We didn't hang around too long as the sun and been replaced by some pretty miserable weather & they didn't look like they were going to wake up! We took the Highcliff Road over the hilltops on the way back and the road started to fill with cloud and mist as we were so high!

Our last stop was Sandfly Bay - so named because when the wind blows the sand literally flies....... This is the only place on the peninsula that has nesting Yellow-eyed (YE) Penguins that are not on private land and has a DOC hide on the beach. We arrived and the weather was not too good, but I really wanted to do the 40 minute walk to the hide so Dean stayed in the van & I went 'alone'. Three other girls started the route as I set off and it turned out that they were volunteers for the DOC checking on the Penguins as in recent years this particular group had been badly distressed by selfish tourists using flash photography and traipsing through their nesting grounds. One of the things we have discovered is that each colony has distinct levels of 'shyness' and some groups can't contend any interaction with humans, whilst others will allow people to come reasonably close before they bolt for safety!. These were definitely on the former level. The walk 'down' to the beach is via an enormous sand dune which I knew was going to be a complete female dog on the way back, but I was excited so cast it from my mind. The walk was right across the length of the beach and the weather was one of the those blowy 'remove the cobwebs' afternoon. We arrived at the hide having already seen two penguins in their cliff nest at the other end. The weather was starting to clear a little and no soon had we sat down then a little YE popped out of the water on front of us and sat there trying to dry off on the beach. He was there for a good 30 minutes in which time another one had also arrived to keep him company so decided to walk back (the three girls already having left to meet some other intrepid YE watchers, who decided not to walk the beach & had already returned). So I trudged back up the beach and as I got close to the girls I could see them laughing & I turned around to see a little YE scuttling across the beach behind me. Apparently it had been waiting in the surf for me to go past and then had shot out to its nest & the girls had been watching it all from afar! So close and yet so far! The weather started to turn back on at that point just as I had to climb the humongous sand dune. Well I made it despite my calves turning to hot lead and triumphantly returned to Dean who then had to to listen to the whole adventure all the way home through the clouds! Ha ha serves him right!

Night

Hugs

Sara

Dunedin

2011-02-04T02:00:00.000-08:00

Dear all

We arrived in Dunedin yesterday afternoon, but spent the rest of the day doing chores & getting our bearings so not much to tell. Today we decided as we were in a very central campsite, that we would walk all day! So our first port of call was what is alleged to be the steepest street in the world - Baldwin Street. This is not somewhere you would want to live as the gradient is 1:1.286 and believe me that's steep! A few crazy tourists drove their hire cars up and down it & thankfully all their brakes worked! We walked to the top collapsed for five minutes then walked down again - what else can you do! Next stop was the botanic gardens, which on the map looked huge until you realised that most if it is taken up by a huge hill covered in trees, but is too steep for paths so can't be walked. We ate our lunch in the 'lower' gardens and mooched off to the University Cricket Oval, which has got to be the most southerly test ground that I have ever been to. Its very pretty as it is nestled between two small pine covered hills and is right on the edge of the Otago University campus.

The University is the oldest in NZ and has a massive campus which dominates the NW part of the city. We had a wander through on our way back to the main street & it is an eclectic mix of old buildings and modern state of the art architectural prize winning buildings, but it really works. There is also a number of new student digs which looked a million times better than anything we ever lived in! On the other side of the campus is the fantastic Otago Museum, which is housed in a really new modern building full of light. As we were short of time we restricted ourselves to a visiting exhibition - Your face here, where you upload your face onto a card and walk around the exhibition learning loads of facts about your face. There are also some interactive stations where you look at your face aged/different art styles/symmetry. It was great fun & we got to email our results as you can see!

Our next stop was back to the beautiful railway station, which was one of three built in the city between 1873 & 1906, when the city was at its height of prosperity. The building is stunning both on the inside and the out & is made out of local volcanic and limestone with Royal Doulton mosaic-tile floors. They run the Taieri Gorge Railway from here and it is a very popular tourist trip, which unfortunately we didn't have the time to do. Our final stop was the First Church of Otago, which was designed by Robert Lawson for a competition in the mid 1800's little knowing that this Gothic edifice would be his masterpiece. By now Dean was pooped so he 'retired' to the pub and I went to have a little shop and picked up some bits for by scrapbook and then collapsed in the pub for a couple!

Night all

Hugs

Sara

Boulders and Fleurs Place

2011-02-02T01:56:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we did the tourist bit and walked over to the Te Kaihinaki (ancient boulders) about 2km around the bay from the crib. This is one of the main reasons tourists stop at Moeraki although they don't usually come into the town as there is a direct route to the beach straight off the highway (thankfully). As we got nearer we realised that the whole area was mobbed with people, but a vast swath of them jumped back onto two coaches and left as we arrived - Phew!

The boulders are pretty much spherical and some are grouped and some are on their own and a couple have split open to reveal their contents. They were formed millions of years ago around some lime crystals, but to me they just looked like some giant had left his grey marbles on a huge stretch of sand. Magical!!

The day was not yet over. Dean treated me to lunch at the very lovely Fleur's place. From the outside the restaurant looks very unassuming, almost tumbling down large wooden hut, but inside is a very eclectic fish restaurant run by the ever present Fleur.

This is the first place Rick Stein insisted on visiting when offered a TV programme & his graffiti is on the back of the door! The food was absolutely amazing and the portions huge so we only managed starters and shared a dessert! I have to say if you are ever in the area do go although you will have to book a few days in advance for dinner especially at the weekend.

We really are off to Dunedin in the morning !

Hugs

Sara

Hoiho and not much else!

2011-02-01T01:45:00.000-08:00

Dear all

If you thought we were lazy yesterday, then today really takes the biscuit. We have not had a 'lazy Sunday' since we started our travels & although it was Tuesday we decided to have an impromptu one. This would mean another day in Moeraki,but the whole place including the crib were just so peaceful we could resist - especially when it meant another night in a bed rather than a thin foam mattress in the camper van!!

We spent the day doing admin, reading, having a long lunch and generally chilling. However, we started to feel a bit guilty late afternoon so we wondered over to the lighthouse where there is a small colony of extremely rare Yellow-eyed penguins. They tend to spend all day out fishing and return early evening to feed their chicks. They are also really shy so the DOC have built a hide and then fenced off the rest of the beach area so you have a restricted but sensitive viewpoint of these very amusing creatures. The beach had about 30 seals slobbed out around the sand and the rocks, but within a few of minutes of arriving one pooped up out of the surf and started up the beach. They look very comical as they hop and waddle over the land to the sanctity of their nest and waiting chicks (which we couldn't see) and they also wag their little pointy tails as they walk which really looks funny. They are also known here as Hoiho - Maori for 'noisy', but we didn't actually hear any of them utter so much as a squeak so cant comment on that! In all we saw six, which when comparing to the numbers seem by other guest entries at the crib was pretty good so we went back to the crib very happy (well Dean went to the pub to celebrate!).

Boulders tomorrow!

Night

Hugs

Sara

Mooching in Moeraki

2011-01-31T00:21:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today was everything you could imagine in such a magical, tranquil place. We woke up to find that most of the wind had abated and the sun was shining. The whole bay and the crib were bathed in a beautiful light. We spent most of the day sitting in the window enjoying the view, reading and sampling the local fish and chips. We managed to locate the visitors book which has been in use since the crib was first built 80 years ago. It is interesting to read the guest comments and the change in use of language from over the years. There are a couple of entries I thought really pertinent and have half inched them into the blog to share with you all.

A little crib on a hill, where geraniums riot and flaunt their brilliance against the green. Red shingles beaches and sparkling sea. Sit on a sun warmed rock and dangle a wet line to catch an unwary fish. Pleasant in anticipation. Charming in reality. Fragrant in retrospect. Moeraki! Thy name is tranquility. - NW Corbett January 24th 1945.

Another one:

Sun and wind and laughter, and the wave swept shelly spaces

Dusk and starlight after and the smile of friendly faces

There we share, as we fare in Moeraki's pleasant places

'Adapted' - Kate McKenney Xmas 1946

I think these really sum up the place and you can really feel the happiness and tranquility around the place.

So this afternoon we walked down the hill from the crib and took the windy millennium trail along the village out onto the point where we climbed & were buffeted up to an old whaler's lookout and then we crossed to another equally windy headland where the trail ended at a memorial to mark the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the settlement. We saw a few seals, but no penguins. Walked back to the local tavern so Dean could get his 'tonic' and then back to the crib about 8.30 in plenty of time to watch dusk fall over the bay. Stunning relaxing day.....................

Hugs

Sara

The International Antarctic Centre

2011-01-30T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hi All

Today I finally got to visit the most fabulous International Antarctic Centre, which is part of a huge complex built for the administration of the NZ, US & Italian Antarctic programmes. Its a really interesting place full of historical, geographical zoological and plenty of other 'ical' exhibits!! I especially liked the room which reenacts an ice storm. The room has snow on the floor an Igloo & an ice slide ans is kept at a room temperature at minus 8 - cripes!! Every 30 minutes though they add a wind storm that adds a wind chill factor that takes the room down to minus 18 - boy that was cold especially as we were in shorts and flip flops!! The other fab bit was a added extra we paid for to have in interactive tour with their blue & white flippered penguin colony. These are what they call 'second chance' penguins and have all been taken as they have injuries which mean that they would not survive in the wild. The blue Penguin is the smallest penguin the world and averages about 30cm high and they are soooooo cute!!

Well we spent far too long wondering around the place so as a consequence had to rush down to Ashburton our next stop. Dean's captain at Esher cricket had kindly arranged for us to use the family holiday crib in Moeraki for a few days so we had dropped into meet his lovely mother Patricia and her husband Bill. As we have found throughout NZ we got a true Kiwi welcome with tea and Muffins from a truly lovely couple. Before we knew it a couple of hours had passed and we were packed off with a 'spare' bag of muffins and loads of advice on walks and places to visit.

Before we knew it (well 2.5hrs later) we were in Moeraki a place which is predominantly famous for its ancient spherical boulders, but is full of little walking tracks and areas of interest including having its own colony of seals and Yellow-eyed penguins. The wind was still strong so we just ensconced ourselves in the crib and lit a fire to warm it through. The crib was built in 1931 by Bill's great grandfather and has been used by the family & friends ever since as a holiday retreat. Over the years a bathroom and other mod cons like electricity, sewage and running water have been added, but it still retains is quaint and tranquil feel. More of that tomorrow!

Night all

Hugs

Sara

More Cricket......................

2011-01-29T23:55:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we were

supposed to spend our last day in Christchurch at the utterly brilliant International Antarctic Centre, but our plans got changed at the last minute by a very excited Dean who had 'discovered' that the next one day international between New Zealand and Pakistan was to be held at the Ami Stadium! So we whizzed into the centre of time and had lunch in a very lovely street market which had loads of cute stalls with hand made artisan products. I even had a little spend on a really beautiful felted scarf with matching rose brooch - whoops! We then had time to wander around the really lovely botanic gardens before heading off to the game. The stadium is really a concrete stadium built for rugby so doesn't have the romance of an old ground such as the Basin in Wellington, but none the less has a very picturesque view over the Tui stand towards the Port hills and Mount Cavendish.

Now New Zealand for some reason had dropped Vitori & Ryder & a couple of other regulars from the squad so Dean was a little concerned as to how long we would be in the ground. However, we heard that Pakistan were already 2 wickets down after 10 minutes (On time as always!!) so thought it might be game on. But no sooner had we bought our tickets then from no where the wind got stronger and stronger until we were almost blown around the ground & into our seats. This was OK whilst the sun was shining on us as it was still quite warm, but as it was a day-nighter and as the sun slunk down behind the grandstand it got steadily colder and so did NZ chances of winning the game as they threw away chance after chance! Suffice to say we could see where it was headed so scooted out before we froze to our seats & headed for the warmth of the van.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Christchurch

2011-01-28T23:50:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we ventured into the middle of Christchurch, which is often described as a replica of a typical English town and we could quickly see why. The Centre is dominated by an Anglican cathedral and punting is De rigor on the gently flowing Avon which winds its way through the city, whilst a tramway reminiscent of something from Blackpool promenade trundles its way in a circuit around the main sights.

However since the earthquakes of last year and the subsequent 4,000+ aftershocks the landscape has taken on a different view of concrete blocks used to retain building facades with masses of temporary supporting works. We were quite shocked at the level of damage as had really thought that although the city had 'rocked' the media had not really given the impression that much had occurred. We still managed to wander round quite well even if some of the museums, shops & restaurants were closed.

The Canterbury Museum was really interesting and had a fascinating exhibition on Scott and his expedition to the Antarctic and the Maori artifacts stunning. I don’t really have much more to say about Christchurch it’s pretty, green and very anglofied in a way that is positive only the Kiwi's could do it and I loved it.

The weather unusually (for us I hasten to say) had got very windy and a bit cold so we cheated on the cooking from and went for a very nice Thai meal. As write up this post snuggled up in the van a few drops of rain are bouncing gently off the roof. I suppose it couldn't last forever!

Tomorrow we are going to the International Antarctic Centre which coordinates the administration of the NZ, US & Italian Antarctic expeditions & then as we are not yet totally bored of cricket we are off to watch the 4th ODI between NZ & Pakistan.

Bit of cricket talk now - Glad to see England have pulled one back against the Aussies in their ODI series even if it is 3-1 now - I suppose we could potentially win 3-4!! Lastly I want to vent some steam in the latest debacle to hit the cricket world cup with the likely cancellation of the venue for the India v England game at Eden gardens. I know so many people who were just flying out for this game as a long weekend and are now faced with either a penalized cancellation or more internal flights. BCCI SORT IT OUT!!

Right signing off for now

Hugs

Sara

Bonjour Mon Amies

2011-01-27T23:47:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone

This morning awoke to the magnificent view from our camper van over the Akaroa harbour above the town itself. Its name means long harbour in Maori and is the site of the first French settlement. The peninsula was formed by three volcanic eruptions and looks from above like a giant cogwheel. We spent the morning wandering around the pretty town itself which in true french style is very chic and had the most sublime bakery, where we lunched on some truly melt in your mouth pies. We then climbed into the camper van and took the tourist drive around the summit road which covers the highest points of the area and each winding turn gave you tantalizing glimpses of other bays with magical Gaelic names such as Le Bons bay, Stony bay or Okains bay! I have to say that originally we only picked this spot as a potential meeting spot with Andy and Charlotte prior to them coming to Kaikoura, but we were both glad we still went as the scenery was something akin to Scotland meets the Swiss Alps! All the water was a translucent pale blue and the rocks around the bay were rippled with iron oxides and layers of black volcanic lava which contrasted so beautifully. It seemed only fit that our last stop was to walk the majestic Onawe Pa a spit which dominates the middle of the huge harbour. This was the site of the Ngai Tahu tribe who occupied the area at the time the first settlers arrived.

Sadly we had to take the road back towards Christchurch as there is still so much to see and headed towards South Brighton, where we are now parked in a campsite on the edge of a beautiful estuary. South Brighton appears from our sundown walk to be a bit of an arty suburb of the city with lots of sculpture houses and homes with galleries attached dotted in quite a few places.

Tomorrow we are off into Christchurch

Night everyone

Hugs

Sara

More Goodbyes

2011-01-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Well as I type this post I am sitting outside our camper van with a glass of wine next to me, half way up a hill overlooking Akaroa a small French influenced ex whaling town on the banks peninsula to the South East of Christchurch. The Sun has just set and the clouds overhead are the most glorious golden hues and the lights are starting to be switched on in the little town below. What a romantic way to end another spectacular day in the South Island.

We started off with quite a late start this morning, in Kaikoura, as we had been up very early the previous two mornings in the attempt to watch the whales. We had already agreed to repeat the coastal walk again but this time coming back via the beach so we could get more up close and personal with the wildlife. The sun was already baking and we knew it was twice as strong here so we duly "slip, slapped slopped" our sun protection on and off we went. As it was only 2 hours after high tide we went via the cliffs first and had a full over view of the impending tramp over the rocks back. All looked good, so we duly descended down onto the beautiful white pebble beach and spent a couple of hours wandering back along the shore taking pictures of the basking seals and cormorants washing them selves in the surf and basking in the sun. The younger seals would scatter into the water as we approached and then bit by bit swim back towards us flipping and waving their fins at us. It was very amusing.

The last leg into the last bay was a little bit tricky as the tide hadn't receded as far as we had hoped so we ended up scrambling around the bottom of the cliffs dodging waves, seagulls & rotting kelp in equal measures. All good fun!

Lunch for me was at the Seafood BBQ caravan which I had spotted on our walk two days earlier. Then it was down to the town Fush and Chuppery !! to say our farewells to the lovely Andy and Charlotte who had come to the end of their adventure down under (just for now me thinks!)

Scenic drive down the coast blah blah blah and here we are on the hill drinking wine and relaxing. It does not get any better!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Postscript after finishing this I started talking to our neighbour a lovely man from Blenheim who grows grapes for a living when he's not fishing. Apparently we are not buying and drinking enough NZ wine so I promised him I would do my bit............... Message issued Hilary!!

Wellington cricket, pies, pints and yet more cricket

2011-01-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Finally we have reached the capital city of New Zealand. I say finally as it seems a little weird to have not been there yet as usually you tend to arrive in the capital before venturing out and about in any place, but having spent the day here I understand why this place could never be a global airline hub. Firstly Wellington is situated in the most difficult place to build - Rome had seven hills, this place has more like seven ranges around it. Secondly the town planners in their infinite wisdom decided to create a green belt rather than parks around the city so huge expansion plans are somewhat quashed. Most of the increased land has been created from reclaimed land in the bay &o that created following the 1855 earthquake over the other side of Mount Victoria. This brings me neatly to my final point which is that Wellington is not only on one fault but eleven although only eight are active! I'm really glad I don't live here especially given what happened in Christchurch on September 4th!

We rose early as Dean was all excited as this was the first of the places we were to visit that he came to three years ago on the Barmy Army cricket tour. Our first stop was the Wellington Basin which is home to the state cricket side and the national cricket museum, which we spent a few hours wondering around, watching the archive tapes & talking to the volunteer guide. I have to say anyone who is a cricket fan this is fantastic place and even if your not there are still enough amusing little anecdotes & funny cartoons wiping fun at the Aussies (!) to keep you amused. Dean had a little reminisce around the ground then we wondered down to the next institution of the city - Trisha's Pies. Dean had been extolling the virtues of these pies since he had been there last time so we couldn't walk by without sampling one & he was right they were yummy - Chicken and mushroom for me and steak and cheese for Dean (not sure about that one!).

Te Papa is the museum of NZ and is absolutely enormous and absolutely free! We spent a good four hours wondering around the place which has a whole host of different and innovative sections all dedicated to the countries history and culture. The building itself is on prime position on the quay front on reclaimed land and is stunning in its own right. It is known by most Kiwi’s as ‘our place’. Completely pooped we ‘retired’ to the Feathers pub, which Dean frequented on his last visit, unfortunately it is now a swanky wine bar & the Manager had moved on, so we moved to the Irish pub across the road & watched the ODI between NZ & Pakistan, which NZ won very convincingly. On our way back to the van we called in at the Four Kings, where Geordie the bar manager from the Feathers had moved, but he had the night off (hope to catch him on the way back next month) so we left him a little note.

I’m not sure whether I like Wellington or not yet, but it was voted the coolest capital city in the world by Lonely Planet so will give it some thought over the next five weeks and get back to you when we come back.

Nite all

Back on our journey.............

2011-01-21T23:17:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Despite the setback of the last 48 hours with a load of driving toady we would be back on track and down in Wellington by the end of the day. So we had to crack on, as although there are only about 4 million people in NZ the roads are no better than a B road in the UK so travelling the 450km we had to cover today was going to take a while, but with the scenery around us it was a pleasant pain. Before long we were back near Wakapapa and past Horopito where we had been rescued to just two days earlier further down the track we stopped at Ohakune , the carrot capital of NZ! This place is the largest producer of those little carotene packed suckers in the summer, but in winter turns into a chic ski resort. The journey back down to Wellington was pretty uneventful apart from a discernible increase in the wind and we landed at Rowena’s backpackers in enough time to get down to The Cambridge pub nearby for a few reviver's before bed.

Nite all

The day after............................... the nightmare continues

2011-01-20T23:17:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today was the day we had to sort out all the logistics of yesterday’s accident. Let’s just say that Wicked were less than helpful, they insisted on not doing anything until we had returned to Auckland or gone to another Wicked office (Either Christchurch or Queensland) How helpful! I spend at least an hour trying to speak to the mentally stunted person in their accident department who just screamed at us down the phone, giving us the same line over and over, without deviating and slamming down the phone. I eventually got through to her that I just wanted an address to which we could drive to and then gave up when I dared to ask what time they shut and she slammed the phone down on me……… Some customer service!

Unlucky for us we had to spend ages emptying the van and try and shake all the broken glass out our belongings. Lucky for us there were three Aussies staying at the place and it turned out that the garage we had stopped at on the way back called the Smash Palace and was famous around the country and they had even made a movie about it. In the light we could see that the place had thousands of cars around some of them extremely old. It was a giant spare parts place really and these guys had come over to pick up bits for their MGA’s. As I said luckily for us one of these guys, Ian was on his way back to Sydney so kindly gave a us a lift back to Auckland some 4 hours away so we were on our way. The paperwork was filed and after a couple of hours we were given a new van with a recent cert of fitness with two new tyres to boot! We didn’t have much choice as we would have lost over $3,000 on the hire if we had refused as they wouldn’t refund the money & we wouldn’t have been able to afford another so it was a bit of a ‘Hobson’s Choice’. Let’s just say we drove extra carefully after that all the way back down to Otorohanga. Fingers crossed we won’t have any more upsets.

Nite

Sara

The land of the dangerous sport!

2011-01-19T23:15:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we had planned a quiet little trundle from the northern side of Lake Taupo down to a small village in the Tongariro national Park called Whakapapa and it all started that way. We went back up to the Aratiatia Rapids to check that our assertion that the sluice gates were open was correct. It was so we mooched our way over to a little place called Honey Hive New Zealand, which goes into infinite detail over the production of honey and then tries to flog you loads. The highlights, which make it worth visiting is a live hive, which has a tube linking it from inside the building to the outside world & secondly that you get to taste all the honey they are trying to sell! Yummy I really love honey..........

We then mooched our way around the vast Lake, stopping for lunch so that we could admire the view right down to the Tongariro National park with its fabulous three huge mountains. The road winds its way round the l

ake to Turaunga famous for its fishing competitions. The road then leads around to the Wakapapa the village which serves as a favourite spot to base yourself for summer walking & climbing and winter snow sports in the area. The Local Doc had a great office with some amazing displays about the region and a special exhibition on the almost extinct Kakapo which is now doing really well in Bluecod island just off Stewart Island. They gave us some great tips for walks to do and although Dean still has his heart set on walking up Ruapehu. I was greatly swayed by the Tongariro crossing walk, which is alleged to be the greatest one day walk in NZ. Dean persuaded my to come and have a look at the climb, for which the first section can be covered on the ski lift leaving only 3 hours of climb & two to descend!!

We drove up the 6Km of very windy road to the ski resort, which at this time of year is a ghost town at this time of year, but is where the ski lift is located and works at restricted times. We had a mooch around, took some photos & then decided to drive to our campsite. We had just set off when catastrophe struck!

We had literally driven off from the car park and as we approached the first bend Dean the brakes decided to not work and let’s just say we ended up upside down in a culvert which was a far better choice than going over the cliff on the other side of the road! It was pretty scary, but we both walked away with just a couple of glass cuts. No we were not going fast say 30km/hour & yes we were sure the brakes failed as the mechanic who picked us up checked them and the peddle went down to the floor! We had to wait for about couple of hours for the breakdown truck to arrive and them managed to turn the van back over and get it on the truck without losing any of our stuff. They then took us back to their garage Smash Palace (more about this later), where we arranged to stay at their rooms at their place. I was pretty shaky, but they had dinner ready for us when we got there when I forced down and then we joined the rest of the guests in the lounge for a while before we retired to a lovely bedroom – the only highlight of an otherwise dreadful end to the day………………….

Rotorua to Taupo

2011-01-18T23:12:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Oh lordy of all the days to wake up to grey skies this was probably the worse as the clouds kept the rotten egg smell firmly at ground level and even the rain did nothing to dissipate it. Poohy!! We thought we would give the rain chance to clear before we hit the thermals so headed off to a Maori village Ohinemut just outside town on the lake, which neatly traces the fusing of Awara Maori and European cultures. There is a very simple Anglican church which is covered in Maori carvings, scroll work and woven flax panels and behind it a simple Maori military cemetery . We were restricted from too much more wandering as there was a traditional funeral in the sacred historic Tamatekapua meeting house.

So we flitted of to the impressive Museum of Art and History which is housed in an old mock Tudor spa built in 1908. They have kept some of the rooms and parts of the basement intact so you can see the mad therapies which used to be practiced including putting an electric current through bath water to cure various ailments including 'nervous exhaustion' and skin complaints! There are also some tremendous galleries showing the treasures of the local Awara Maori's, the wholly Maori WWII 28th Battalion. There is a great film and displays about the terrible 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption that killed many people and changed the local landscape forever including the submerging of the white and pink terraces for which the area was famous at the time.

The rain had still not stopped so we had to plough on and move onto Te Whakarewarewa the largest thermal reserve in the area, but you have to gain entry via Te Puia, the Maori Arts and cultural centre. They have a meeting house in which they put on cultural shows including a very enthusiastic Haka. Once we had escaped the show we started to walk around the park in the pouring rain, but within 10 minutes it had pretty much stopped so we were quite lucky. The area had loads of bubbling boiling mud, steaming rocks and boiling pools, but the biggest attraction is the famous Pohutu (big splash/explosion) geyser which is supposed to erupt twice an hour. The geyser next to it the Prince of Wales feather Geyser is supposed to provide notice to the eruption, but due to the rain that one was gushing continuously whilst the former was conspicuously quiet. Oh well we had seen enough water anyway!

The weather had only cleared a little so rather than spend another night in stinky town we decided to escape down to Lake Taupo a little earlier than planned. Lets face it once you have seen one bubbling spring you don't really need to see 10 more! The journey down the SH5 is very pretty and about 10km out of Taupo

town itself we reached what is known as the Huka falls tourist loop. At the top of this loop is Aratiatia rapids which used to be a really spectacular park of the river until the government stuck a hydroelectric dam across the waterway! (there are before pictures there as a bit of propaganda!). However to appease the public, they now open the sluice gates every two hours from 10am to 4pm. When we arrived at round 6pm the rapids were pretty spectacular with water crashing down the chasm so were a little confused at how this gushing stream could be made any bigger as we could see it the sluice gates were fully open. Anyway we took our photos had a walk along the river and duly departed to our final watery stop for the day - Huka falls. On a scale of waterfalls I doubt this fall would make most travellers top ten, but this little fall does pack a punch! The counties largest river, the Waikato is forced down a narrow chasm and then makes a 10m leap down into a large swirling pool. The spectacular bit of it is that the water is forced out down the falls into a frothing mass of white spray and glacial blue water which the Maori name of Hukanui or Great body of spray which is very appropriate. We had a walk around for a while, but as it started drizzling we pottered off down to Taupo to complete the days travelling.

Tomorrow we will travel around this great lake which is considered by most to be the heart of the Island. It was formed by one of the biggest volcanic eruptions ever more than 26,500 years ago and the area just like Rotorua is still active and has thermal areas. Nowadays the 606-sq-km lake is extremely popular for trout fishing and for people like us to drive around a gawp at!

Nite all

Hugs

Sara

Katikati to Rotorua

2011-01-17T01:25:00.001-08:00

Dear all

Today we headed on a long trip to Rotorua. It shouldn't have been a long trip but I wanted to check out the Hobbiton site at Matamata, but when we arrived I found that we would have had to spend the rest of the day there just for a two hour tour. So pressing on after our fruitless detour we pressed onto Rotorua.

Our first stop was at Zorb Rotorua just before the town in an area rich in adventure sports. In case you have no idea what I am talking about zorbing is basically sliding into a plastic sphere and being rolled down hill for about 200m all for the princely sum of $50. Most people were going the extreme route instead of being strapped inside climbed in with some friends , throw in some icy cold water and then slip, slide and tangle yourself up as you go down hill. We watched with amusement for a while & then moved across the road to Agrodome. This has to go down as one of the most bizarre tourist attractions I have ever been to - Agrodome.

The whole place is dedicated to the largest animal population of the country .......... sheep. They have sheep auctions, shearing, sheepdog displays & educational shows. If that's not enough they do tractor rides around the grounds and you can see around 20 different breeds of sheep and meet Titan the Giant Sheep. There were hundreds of people there on coaches no doubt paying huge sums to go and see all this stuff. We just had a quick walk around and escaped behind to the Agrodome adventures section where they had every possible extreme activity you can think of bungy jumps and swings, jet boats simulated skydiving and other fun stuff. Again we just watched the terrified looks of the mugs who had parted with about $80 for a minute of sheer adrenalin!

As we approached the town we detoured to the Skyline Skyrides and took the Gondola up to the top of Mt Ngongotaha for a truly beautiful view over the lake. We then flew down the mountain on a luge (a sort of toboggan on wheels) which was great fun and you go back up on a special chairlift that takes your luge with you. By the third & final time I even managed to stay ahead of Dean - despite a huge head start and nearly smashing him off the track ........ ha!

We finally reached the town and true to what everyone said the whole place had a underlying stench of sulphur from the thermal activity. We took refuge on the other side of the lake which was supposed have less of a pong and I'm really looking forward to exploring the area tomorrow.

Nite all

Hugs

Sara

Around the Coromandel Coast and a very long mine!!

2011-01-16T01:23:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Although Thames was wonderfully pretty we had to move on and decided to spend the day winding our way around the incredibly beautiful Coromandel coast. The road winds tightly through beautiful rocky little beaches and sunny bays with loads of shellfish attached to the tidal rocks. We were lucky in the we were around for the last Scarlet blooms of the pohutukawa (NZ Xmas tree) that feature so much in this area turning the roadsides red. As you reach the northern part of this peninsula you reach the sleepy Coromandel Town. At the height if its gold rush over 10,000 people lived in the town but its population of about 1600 is now usually outnumbered by tourists.

One of the draws is the Coromandel Smoking Company which sells a huge range of smoked fish and seafood. I had to order some smoked mussels and after some deliberation I settled on some Garlic smoked green lipped mussels which I had for lunch with some fresh bread - Yummy! Dean had another pie - I swear he is going to turn into one before we leave!

The journey was was via the infamous 309 route - a windy gravel track that has the worst reverse camber I have driven for a long while, but was worth it for the lovely walk we did. At the other end of the track on the east coast is Whitianga a very lovely small town, but as time was short we moved on to the south to two of the areas famous natural attractions, firstly hot water beach and then Cathedral Cove. Hot water beach is exactly what it says, where thermal waters springs seep out through the sand just in front of a rocky outcrop in the middle of the beach. If you come at low tide you can did your own bath in the sand lay in it and relax as your bum boils in the sand below you. We missed the low tide, but arrived in time to stand in the surf and sink our feet into the sand and burn the soles of our feet instead! Its a very surreal experience, especially when most other people are just getting on with normal beach activities. We then moved onto cathedral cove where there is a fantastic limestone arch which you can walk to at low tide - missed as well but the view down the coast was still amazing.

Further down the peninsula we ventured back inland to the Puketui Valley where the Broken Hills gold-mine workings are located and a century ago about 200 men lived in this wilderness. We went on the Collins drive hike which took about 3 hours and starts by tracing along the water races and then climbs and climbs, until you reach the 500m long Collins Drive (mine tunnel) which we had to walk through with a tiny wind- up torch (thanks Hilary) and Deans mobile phone torch app! I have to say this was pretty scary and my mind kept shifting back to the earthquake that Christchurch had last September and collapsing roofs - not great, but natural I suppose. Once out we climbed again & then it was a long steep decent to get back to the car park. I don't know how those men did it for a living I was knackered! One last push took us down to Katikati and our campsite just on the edge of the Kaimai range - beautiful.

Once again thanks for looking - don't forget to leave a comment as we are missing you all!

Hugs

Sara

Around and about in Thames

2011-01-15T01:21:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Yesterday was predominantly a driving day with us motoring down the SH1 to Thames . Yawn Yawn.

Before we left though we did have time to visit the Waipoua Kauri Forest. This is the largest remnant of the once massive kauri forests of northern NZ. The first stop was to Tane Mahuta (named after the Maori god of the forests) the largest Kauri in the forest at about 51 metres and is about 1600 years old.

Te Matua Ngahere (The father of the forest), with a 5m diameter and believed to be about 2000 years old is pretty jaw dropping and if trees could take I bet this one would have a lot to say!! It just looked all gnarled and old. Nearby are 4 huge trees which are very close together and are know as the four sisters and even though they were only about 800 years old they were still impressive.

Today we decided to chill out in Thames on the south Coromandel and have a break. The main reason was that we found a very pretty campsite which was surrounded by forest and due to its layout felt very private, yet was pretty busy. It also housed a butterfly and orchid garden.

We spent the morning wondering around Thames itself as it had loads of 19th century wooden shops and a Saturday street market until 12.00pm selling organic home grown fruit and veg and handicrafts including a very lovely lady who is a full time carer and makes cards to sell on a stall to supplement her income and in her words 'keep her sane'. This was the only time she left the house each week and she valued it as her time despite working a stall.

On the way back to the campsite we stopped off at a hide on the foreshore. Its at the end of a boardwalk through a mangrove so the birds don't get spooked at all. If you go 2 hours either side of high tide you get really good views of all of the seabirds. In the afternoon Dean sped off on a goldmine track up around our campsite which took him about 3 hours and I sat in the sun, finished my book and got ahead with the blogging etc.

Tomorrow we are heading up and around the Coromandel and I am really looking forward to it.

Thanks for looking

Sara

Cape Reinga & ninety mile beach

2011-01-13T01:18:00.000-08:00

Hi All

At the top of Northland is Aupouri Peninsula and at the end of its 116km road is Cape Reinga, almost the most northern point of NZ. There is a lovely windswept walk out to the lighthouse with the cheesy AA signpost showing distances to far off places. By god was it windy, but at the same time is was pretty warm so it wasn't unpleasant but it really does have an end of the earth feeling to it with an 800 year old Pohutukawa tree clinging to the rocks just in front. The roots hide the entrance to the mythical Maori Underworld and it their legends this is where the spirits of the dead leave the earth. Most of the peninsula was originally covered in Kauri trees, but with the arrival of man that all changed so now it is dominated with commercial timber pines, however down the west coast is the sands of Ninety mile beach (actually only 68!), which are so hard that tour buses and private vehicles drive either up or down it depending on the tides. Unfortunately hire vehicles are prohibited albeit we did drive on at the southern entrance just to say we had been on it! At the top end we ventured down as far as the start again, but really only walked down to the beach just so we could go through the Te Paki Reserves.

Giant sand dunes which everyone leaps off or toboggans down on body boards. They looked cool, but having already had the unpleasant experience of removing sand from your whole body including most intimate areas you thought sand could never reach (plus its in your ears for weeks after), in Peru, we decided the best route was to watch - chickens that we are! After the marathon drive back again we just had time to catch the ferry at Rowene so we could spend the night at the campsite in Opononi with wonderful views over Hokianga Harbour.

Thanks for looking

Sara

Around the coast to Whatuwhiwhi!

2011-01-12T01:15:00.000-08:00

Dear all

Today we did manage to drive further than the next town and slowly wound our way up the coast to the very cute town of Russell.

The Lonely Planet refers to it as peaceful and pretty and I can certain vouch for that. It has that stylish old colonial feel about it with smart freshly painted clapboard buildings on the waterfront lined with Pohutukawa trees and because most people travel over as a day trip from Pahia blissfully lacking too many cars. It was originally a fortified Maori settlement known as Kororareka (sweet penguin),but the europeans arrived and it soon decsended into a magnet for fleeing convicts, whalers, prostitutes and drunk sailors. Charles Darwin described it in 1835 as full of 'the refuse of society' and was also known as the 'hellhole of the pacific'. Today it more resembles the backdrop for a Martha Stewart show.

We then took the car ferry from Okiato Point, just South of Russell to Opua a ten minutes journey that was so slick and just $16 for everything. As we crossed we got a much better idea of the reasons why this is such a popular spot for tourists. The coastline which had been stunning for most of the journey now opened up into a huge bay with wonderful views of hundreds of coves and more than 150 small islands in the bay. The sea is so clear and shimmers in varying shades of turquoise to deep blue. The hub of this side of the bay is Pahia (not that impressed, but the beach was pretty!), but literally next door is the site of the first permanent English settlement and was where the Treaty of Waitangi was drawn up and first signed by 46 Maori chiefs in 1840. The land where the treay was signed was donated to the state and a reserve created to stop it being subsumed into the town. There is a very informative show and ouside there is the very well restored treaty house and the Whare runanga (meeting house), completed in 1940 to celebrate the centenary of the treaty. It is now the centre of all the celebrations on Waitangi day each Feb 6th.

Heaving ourselves out of the grounds we tripped our way around the coast to Whatuwhiwhi to possibly the most expensive campsite in the world, but certainly in NZ (that we have found!),there were loads of kids all over the site shouting and screaming but the sunset was stunning!

Yawn.............Nite all

Hugs

Sara

Moby Dick's big..................... and the lost day in Hikurangi

2011-01-11T01:13:00.000-08:00

Hi all

The great thing about being in a camper van is that you can pretty much go where you want when you want. Today was a very good example of that we set off early to wend our way up to the very photogenic Whangarei Falls .

We had the text from Andy & Charlotte early doors that they were not far up the coast so we agreed to meet in Hikurangi. Hikurangi is one of those one street villages that have state highways passing through and you don't really stop unless you need to buy provisions.They were there slightly before us and the boys quickly spotted the open pub/hotel despite it only being just after 11.00am - Oh dear boys.....

We were the only patrons so Tony the manager kept us well topped up with drinks and stories about this famous old whaling hotel (hence the big whale willy) for an hour or so until Andy and Charlotte had to get on their way south. I think Dean and Andy were definitely there for the day, but Charlotte reminded them how short a time they had left so the die was cast. Dean gave me one of those looks that said try and move me at your peril and so we stayed..... right until the chip shop (the only source of hot food in the village) was about to close at 7.30pm. We had already agreed with the hotel owner that we could stay in the car park fir the night.

We had spent the afternoon being entertained by a rolling precession of locals who called in at various times of the day. Steve the Welshman, Dougie from Southampton who sailed round the world 20 years ago and ended up marrying a Tongan lady and stopping in NZ. Bruce the rather inebriated 'local' who lived about 20km up the road and only popped in every 2 or three years (our lucky day!). There are too many to mention by name, but they were all lovely and very generous with their time and advice.
After dinner we retired to the van, about 8.15 thinking we could watch a movie, but no that was not to be.

Within 5 minutes we had a knock on the van and one of the locals Dickie offered us a drink at his place, stay the night and have a shower, which being typically British we politely declined. Another 10 minutes passed and there was another knock, Dougie the Southampton sailor, turned mechanic was there with his 10 year old daughter Geraldine and a case of beer. He really wasn't taking no for an answer so we jumped in his 4WD and sped off up the road to his mate's house. Lets just say the drink drive rules are rather more relaxed around here! Grahams pad was a typical bachelor pad - Massive TV, sofa and fishing kit everywhere! I found a spot on the sofa with Geraldine and the boys tucked into the beers around the table. The highlight of the night was being introduced to Billy T James a legendary NZ comedian from the eighties - very funny.

Do look him up on UTube if you get the chance.

Thanks for looking

Sara