Cheerio to Aileen, Ronan and the South Island

It's time to move on from the South Island. Since the last blog we have visited a few places, photos below and returned our friends Aileen and Ronan, in Nelson (top pie country).

In Christchurch. We were lucky enough to catch the Lantern festival. We took these photos during the day and returned in the evening. Quite a strange experience, there was no-one around during the day, then at night there were traffic jams galore and you couldn't move for people.

Dragon lantern.

What a nice picture - begonias in the Christchurch Botannical gardens. Makes you want to be a gardener?

Punting on the river Avon.

This is cool. Whilst drinking a tasty alcoholic ginger beer in a sunny pub, a friendly kiwi gave Garry a loan of his electric bike. It's quite unique, as the electric motor works on the front crank so you still have full use of all the gears. Garry only got it up to 35 kph, but it will do 80.

Valentine's Day. We wnt to the rugby to watch a Super 14s match between the Crusaders (from Christchurch) and the Chiefs. Garry was confused by the title (Super 14s) as there were 15 players on each side. Super 14s is a tournament for the top clubs from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Anyway, it was a very exciting game and a great experience for us.

To continue our Valentine's Day celebrations, we went for a few beers and a curry. No surprise there then!

A new sport Alison would like to get into. Kite surfing with 180 degree turns in the air.

A shag having a good old stretch in the sunshine.

This was in Akarua, a former french outpost. Cool registration plate.

After Christchurch and Akarua, we visited Mount Cook. This is Alison holding a small lump of ice, that our boat driver fished out of the lake for us. This was on Lake Tasman at the foot of Mount Cook, at the bottom of the Tasman glacier. Just prior to our visit there was another "est". See below.

View of Mount Cook from the lake. What looks like a black mess on the shore line is the glacier, which is covered in rocks that the glacier has collected over thousands of years. As always with these pictures, there is no scale. The shore is 200 metres above the water line.

This is the "est". The biggest iceberg to break off from the glacier in known history. Again no scale. The lump of ice has tipped over, the black stripes were originally horizontal and the lump is about the size of Beverley Minster. As it is a fresh water iceberg, there is another 9/10ths of it below the surface.

Same iceberg from another angle.

Wow, another view of Mount Cook. Most of the time, the weather has been appalling, but we have been really lucky every time we have wanted to do something like a boat trip or kayaking, the weather has come good.

There is a visitors centre at Mount Cook with a museum to Sir Edward Hillary, we didn't know he was a kiwi. We knew he was the bestest mountaineerest Everest. Something else we learnt at the visitors centre is that the Southern hemisphere night sky is the same as the Northern hemisphere, but upside down. Figure that one out if you can! Answers on a postcard please.

Mount Cook across the Lake Pukaki. You cannot see here on the picture, but the water is a turquoise green colour. There is a series of canals which were dug to supply the hydro electricity and due to the churned up rock sediment, the blue light waves from the sun are reflected by the water giving it a fabulous, almost alien green colour. It was just so sunny that the colours have been muted.

We went to Hanmer Springs and enjoyed the 36 and 42 degree spa pools and the smelly minerals. We think it is a place where mature people aka pensioners, have holiday homes. Look closely at the picture and you can see a guy riding a moped with his golf clubs on the back. Strange golf trolley.

Could be Alison, could be Garry, but it's actually another seal having a kip on the rocks.

Garry thought this was funny. Can anyone ride tandem? It was a race! We reckon the guy on the back is never going to win.




Once again, we have tried to upload the video - Ring of Fire. Hopefully it works this time.

On our final night in the South Island we had a bbq but it rained, bugger. However we did finally manage to get a picture of Ronan. If the Cork constabulary are looking for him they now know where he is! We've had another great time here. We managed to do a bit of pie making but more importantly have some time with our friends Aileen and Ronan. We're really going to miss New Zealand and very much miss our friends there.

Aileen's dad, Alastair, had a road accident just before Christmas, as you can see he is recovering very well. It was great to meet him, a really nice guy and he's back on his feet with a smile doing fine.

We'll try to do another update before we leave the North Island in a few days time.

Bye for now.

P.s.

Ronan, your "end piece" of cheese is hidden in the fridge. We didn't eat it, honest.

Rick Stein meets David Attenburgh

We have moved on through the beautiful Catlins in the south of New Zealand to Christchurch. On the way, we passed through Dunedin and Moeraki. Valentine's Day will be with us tomorrow. We spotted this car in a supermarket car park. Lovely registration!

Another "est". This is the steepest street in the world. It is 1:2.8 at its steepest point. Before we drove up it, Alison said, "let me out, I don't want to go up there", but the good old van made it up and down OK.

Does this look familiar? It could be a street from an English mill town. It's in Dunedin.


This is a restaurant in Moeraki. It doesn't look much from the outside, just a tin hut, but wow! We were on our way north and had only been driving half an hour, when Alison said she was tired. So we pulled off the main road into the small village of Moeraki. How lucky were we! Fleur's Place, this restaurant, is absolutely amazing, so much so that Rick Stein has even been. He was allegedly asked to choose one restaurant anywhere in the world to go for lunch and this is the one he picked.
Not a good photo, but this is the lady herself - Fleur. Alison had blue nose (local fish) and Garry had flounder, washed down with some lovely local wine. A real gastronomic experience.

This is the harbour, right outside Fleur's restaurant. Note no leisure craft, only fishing boats. Fleur gets her fish every day, fresh off the boats.

Alison wants to tackle the next triathlon on this bike. This was in Oamaru, the only place where we have seen all the buildings made of stone.

A little story here. The day after our gastronomic experience at Fleur's, we went for a little walk. Above are the Moeraki Boulders, not man made or made by the sea, no-one really understands how they are formed.

Continuing the story, while we were out walking we came across this little fellow. It is a yellow eyed penguin, not many of these around as they are an endangered species. Obviously we didn't disturb him whilst he was sun bathing. A bit of a special sighting for us.

Still on the same walk, we spotted this fellow, a juvenile shag taking a rest.

This could be mum and dad.

And last but not least, this seal sun bathing on the rocks. So what a special place Moerake turned out to be, great restaurant, strange boulders and great wildlife. Also, coincidentally the best campsite we have stayed on.

We finally made it to Christchurch, despite the detours and met up with Val and Tony from Beverley. We think we may have bored them a bit with our stories, but it was fabulous to catch up with them, some familiar faces from back home.

If the video below works, you'll see that we are being bombarded with Johnny Cash enthusiasts. This is in Christchurch, but we posted a similar video from Thailand. It has got to be said, these guys were better performers.


Valentine's Day tomorrow, so we are going to the rugby. The first match of the season Christchurch Crusaders v The Chiefs.
Happy Valentines and bye for now

Waitangi Day

It has been a little while since our last blog, so once again there are lots of photos and quite a long blog. Put the kettle on now, as this could be a 3 cuppa job. If you are at work, make sure your boss is out before you start!

The reason why we haven't done more regular smaller blogs is that we have been struggling with the weather and internet access.i.e. the only time we have had good internet access has coincided with good weather and who wants to sit in front of the computer when the sun is shining. Today we are in wet Dunedin in the south east of New Zealand. Enough of the excuses, enjoy!

We told you we were going on a trip, thanks to Ronan, Aileen and Gavin. This involved a flight in a small Cessna 185, a trek across a small valley, over a hill and down to the river, where we were collected in a jet boat. The views were spectacular and we saw more glaciers in very remote areas. Above is a view from the plane of Lake Wanaka.
Looking down onto a glacial lake on our way up to Siberia Valley.
We flew along this valley and later landed to start our trek to the jet boat for a ride back.
Just landed.
This is on the river from the jet boat. The water is this colour as it has come off the glaciers.
This is the result of too much beer. This is one of the displays at the Wanaka Transport and Toy Museum. A strange place full of all kinds of junk but well worth a visit. It is attached to a small brewey. In Wanaka we met a family from Beverley - Samantha, Dave and Val who live on Victoria Road. (Mike and Trina - they may give you a call.) Hopefully they will deliver on their promise and put a picture up in the Standard, in Beverley. Whilst in Wanaka, we watched Quantum of Solace in the local cinema. It's not like a normal cinema, it is furnished with big comfy sofas that you can curl up on, just like watching a film at home, with a nice glass of wine.

Back in Makarua for more karaoke. This is Nick from Hebden Bridge, the barman responsible for turning off the music when Garry started singing. He is stood next to New Zealand's biggest patio heater. Everything in New Zealand is a something "est", i.e. longest, oldest, deepest etc. However, we found our own "est" in Makarua, with the nicest, friendliest bunch of guys - hopefully see you again, Nick, Hoppy, Grant and all the staff at the Makarua Wilderness resort. Thanks for a wonderful time.

Just in case you cannot read from the picture above, this is what the sign says.
When you have run out of things to spend your money on, you can buy one of these pokers.

This was in Arrowtown, a lovely little place, just out of Queenstown. Guess what? It had a little brewery, and guess what? We visited the brewery.

We didn't do it but it looked like fun.
Near Arrowtown, there was a cheesery and mmm Grommit.
Now we've moved on. Another "est". The deepest hydro electric power station in New Zealand. You might think it strange to visit a HE power station, whilst travelling, but this place is amazing. To get to it, you travel across Lake Manapouri (another est - probably the beautifulest lake) then 2 kilometres by bus underground. We won't bore you with the facts that it was built in 1963 and was extended again in 2007, or that 16 people died whilst building it, but one of these was in a brawl.
Old Morris Minors never die. They just rest in Manapouri. This was a cracking camp site with all kinds of old vehicles hanging around (including about 20 Morris Minors).
Our first view of Doubtful Sound, the Fiordland area of New Zealand. It is only accesible by boat. We took an overnight trip, more details below.
Looking out to sea from the boat.
After the first days cruising, we had an opportunity to go kayaking. It is an amazing experience as you are surrounded by fabulous scenery and we saw seals and dolphins.
A couple of friends we met on the cruise - Ruth on the left, Sharon in the middle and some dodgy bird on the right.
Justt thought we would put this picture on of Sharon - having fun or what?
After kayaking, the girls decided to practice their synchronised swimming. This is in Doubtful Sound and the water is kin cold! They seemed to suffer with Torrets whilst doing this but the opportunity was too good to be missed of swimming in such a beautiful and remote wilderness.
Looking from the Tasman Sea down Doubtful Sound. Captain Cook would have had this view when he named the area. He wouldn't sail into the Sound as the prevailing winds would have made it nearly impossible for him to get out again. If only he had sailed in, he would have seen what's below.
Sailing back down the Sound in the early morning.
It's great isn't it?
Cheeky Kea - largest alpine parrot. Very intelligent and inquisitive.
Ready to go kayaking on Milford Sound for the day. Milford Sound is a little bit further north of Doubtful, but still in the Fiord region. We paddled out to a small beach and on the way saw seals close up and dolphins at a distance. On the beach we had lunch sat on old bits of driftwood in the most wonderful environment. It was so great sitting there looking out over the waters.
From Fiordland, we have travelled along the Southern Scenic route. We stayed at Invercargill, the Scottish part of New Zealand. This is a sundial that tells completely the wrong time. From Invercargill we moved down to Bluff for Waitangi day. Hence the title of the blog.
Waitangi Day is the national holiday to celebrate the signing of a treaty between the Europeans and the Mauris in 1840. This is the traditional maori meeting house in the small town of Bluff. On the day, most of the locals gather here to socialise and enjoy lunch. We, at first, felt as though we were intruding, however, we were very quickly made welcome. The local police explained Waitangi Day in more detail, we met Marj, one of the crew from the cruise we had been on and Sir Tippin Regan invited us to join the locals for a great lunch. Sir Tippin Regan is a regional big wig and has done a lot of work for the Maori cause. He is well known and well respected by everybody in Southland. We wanted to say thank you to Sir Tippin and the residents of Bluff, but couldn't find the right person to thank. Therefore, we asked a reporter if he could do it for us. We made the front page of the Southland Times the next day with various quotes! Try the link below to "Read all About It".

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4840068a6568.html

This is the "Southest" we've ever been.

Garry doing a runner after checking out a cave with the tide on its way in.
Alison blinked in this shot.
Nugget Point - more seals.
No, this isn't Alison sleeping on the beach. It's an Elephant Seal.We think one of our blog followers got to Tunnel Beach before us. Mike Kennedy - was this you?

Bye for now.