New Zealand - 19th Nov 2008 - Day 27

After a quick breakfast we headed off to the beginning of today’s challenge, The Queen Charlotte Track. The track can take up to three days to complete, so we had decided to tackle just part of the hike, from Anakiwa to Mistletoe Bay and back.

The sun was out in force and as the hours past the sky became cloudless. The hike was along forest tracks next to the island inlets. The sea was the most amazing aqua and the hills and mountains looked amazing.



We arrived at Mistletoe Bay for 12:30. What a wonderful place. A lady was cooking BBQ at the camp site. We needed to phone our Motel to book an extra night. She found the number and let us use her mobile. She would not take a penny from us. We sat down by the small bay and within minutes we were surrounded by a group of very cute ducks. We gave them some of our apples, which they loved.



We sunbathed for 45 minutes before beginning our hike back. We said hi to a donkey called Willow who lived in a field with two lama’s.

The walk back was equally as spectacular and we met a few Americans and Aussies on the way. This place is simply amazing to look at when the sun shines. We have seen so many amazing places this year and New Zealand is different yet again. It is so clean and the waters so clear.

After our walk, we went to a local Kayak rental company and reserved a two man Kayak for us tomorrow. We want to kayak to another bay along the Charlotte Trek.

After visiting the supermarket we came back to the Motel and had one of Fiona’s Fish Pies, using up some of the fish we caught the previous day. John is going to use the last of the Fish tomorrow, throwing together a Fish Curry.

Terminator Three is tonight’s movie. After a six hour hike, we think we deserve it!!

New Zealand - 18th Nov 2008 - Day 26

The wind had been howling around our chalet during the night. The alarm had beeped at 5.30am, as we had a two hour drive to Kaikoura for our deep sea fishing trip which kicked off at 8.30am.

We pulled back the curtains nervously. Blue sky greeted us. We had a quick cuppa, filled the car and began our journey. As we pulled out of Hanmer Town, the mountains were cloaked in a wonderful glow of red and orange. What a great sunrise. We pulled over and took a couple of photo’s.

The journey to Kaikoura was very enjoyable and we arrived at 7.30am. We went back to the Dolphin Discovery Centre for a muffin and a cuppa. We realised that we di not know where to meet our fishing bloke. The Dolphine Centre would not let us use their internet or telephone (we have gone right off them), so we found a public telephone. Luckily our guy was about to leave to get the boat. He met us on the main town road and we all went down to the beach. Hi mate, Tom, was going to take us out. Another English chap joined us, plus a second boat hand. They were very pleased to tell us that, next week, they are taking the actor Ewan McGregor out for a days fishing. Fiona was most upset we had missed him. John thinks he’s over rated!

We flew out to the middle of the bay in calm weather. Once at our fishing spot we cast our lines over the side. Within minutes, we were catching Blue Cod, Dog Fish (which we did not keep) and John caught one large Grouper. After an hour we had a crate full of fish. After almost two hours we had caught more than you could possible eat in a week. As we fished, the boat became surrounded by a whole host of bird life, including three different types of Albatross. We also got friendly with a lovely wee seal who hung out with us for much of the morning.



We travelled back to the beach to pick up the owner. All the way back, one of the crew cleaned the fish we had caught. Once back, we picked up the boss and then took a small ride to the Cray Fish (Like lobster) pots. Both pots had about 10 crayfish in them, most of which we easily big enough to keep.

When we arrived back to the beach, the tractor pulled us up onto the sand and we were given our part of the catch, about a pound of fish and two large crayfish.

After some lunch at Dolphin Encounters, we drove to Picton in heavy rain showers and checked into our Motel room. Luckily for us, the room with the full kitchen was now available, so we swapped to room 10.

John realised that he had lost his rain jacket, so we popped to the local supermarket then to Blenheim, where we purchased a new waterproof for John and got John a hair cut. John hasn’t shaved for about a week, so now he has more hair on his chin than on his head!

The sun had reappeared by the time we arrived back in Picton so we walked down to the beach and sat on some rocks and watched the ferry and other local boat trips come and go from the bay.

We came back to the Motel and John began to prepare the crayfish. Unfortunately, they can live out of water, so when John got the first one out of the plastic bag, it was moving a lot. The boat skipper had told us to put them in fresh water for 15 minutes which would kill them. The whole process was not pleasant. Fiona suggested we go back to the bay and out them back in the water, but the process was already underway. After killing the crayfish, John popped it into boiling water for ten minutes and then cold water for another ten. All the meat is in the tail. It was OK but nothing to write home about. Fiona made John prepare the second one immediately after dinner so as to put it out of its misery. We baked the Cod and Grouper. John liked it but Fiona thought it was not very tasty. Fifi is planning to make a fish dinner with flavour tomorrow.

After dinner we watched the directors cut of Saving Private Ryan and then passed out!

New Zealand - 17th Nov 2008 - Day 25

Well, the weather in the South Island has now returned to North Island status and now the North Island is having good weather. Last night the rain began to pour and this morning it is still raining and blowing a gale. It wasn’t supposed to be like this today but some forecasts are suggesting it may improve later in the day. However, the general weather trend is not good. Ho Hum. Just before breakfast, a wonderful rainbow appeared over the valley.

After breakfast, we popped into the local store to purchase goods for this evenings dinner, one of Johns specials, Spanish Omelet. We came back, kitted up and drove to the starting point of today’s hike, climbing up Mount Isabel the highest mountain above Hanmer Springs. The walk starts at 450 meters and peaks at 1490 meters. The sun and showers were trying outdo each other at the beginning of the hike which, almost from the start, was steep. As the hike continued the path became very steep. When we neared the top of the mountain, the wind took us by surprise. As we reached the top, the wind was almost unbearable. A constant force which almost blew us off our feet on many occasions. We found a small space on the lea of the plateau, where we escaped the wind for a spot of lunch.



As we began our return hike, we came across another couple of Brits who were also sheltering from the wind. They had planned to take a different route down, via the top ridge, however, when we looked behind us they had decided to follow us. The wind was now dangerously strong and we all hiked as quickly as possible to get off the top. We took the waterfall route home, a steep route through the forest. The waterfall itself was worth the walk.



We then walked along a gravel road back to Brian, our car. The perfume from the broom bushes was amazing. It smelled of peaches and nectarines and was the deepest yellow we had ever seem. At times, the broom reached up the mountains, as far as the eye could see. Some of the branches were so full of flower they looked like they would break.



The hike took 5 hours and 15 minutes and the rain had kept off for most of it. At times the sun was quite warm but the wind was always there to take the edge off.

We popped back home, showered and relaxed.

New Zealand – 16th Nov 2008 - Day 24

Our unwanted holiday companions, Mr. Rain and Mr. Wind were back with us this morning. The alarm had beeped at 7am as we had to drive out of town for our cave rafting adventure (see: http://www.caverafting.com/). It ‘s a three hour combination of caving, canyoning and rapid riding in rubber tubes.

We arrived at 9am, paid and then changed into our wet suit stuff, plus hard hat with light and special webbed gloves to help you navigate when in the river.

After a quick bus ride, we mounted very small open carriages on a small gauge railway. The train whisked us up the mountain in 15 minutes. We passed rain forest on the way. Our guide explained that the BBC had been in this area for three months, filming for the “Lost World” series. They filmed all the real stuff here and then superimposed the dinosaurs after.

Once at the top, we met all our fellow adventurers, three English, two Aussies and some locals. We walked up a steep incline for another fifteen minutes to arrive at the cave system entrance.

We checked all our lights and in we went. It soon became dark but our wet suits kept us nice and warm. We walked through two upper chambers. A few sections were very low but still wide. We had to bend down and roll our inner tubes in front of us.

We came across some good examples and stalagmites and stalactites as well as other weird forms. In one of the chambers, we all switched off our lights. It was the inkiest black. Fiona was not too happy about this but she got through it without any problem.

We then walked down to the lower chamber where a river runs through the lower section. We turned our lights of again, but this time to see the unique glow worms that live in the cave. The ceiling had about twenty sparking bright blue lights dotted around. Very impressive. We walked down even further until we came across the underground lake. We all jumped into our inner tubes and were positioned so that we formed a long chain by sitting on our backs in the tubes and holding onto others legs.

We slowly floated down the cave river with our lights off. Suddenly we entered a large cave. Wow!! The whole ceiling was covered in the glow worms. It was like watching stars but much brighter and more intense. The went on for about twenty minutes and was a wonderful experience. We have seen quite a few caves in our time, but have never seen this before.

We eventually came across the cave system exit point. We jumped back into our tubes and rafted down the river.

It had some rapids but was quite tame, but still good fun.
The train and bus took us back to the centre where we got changed, said our goodbyes and began our journey to Hanmer Springs (see: www.hanmersprings.co.nz ).

It took us four hours to reach the town and what a great place it is. As our journey continued the weather improved. The scenery was breathtaking with whole valleys of bright yellow broom. There is some skiing to be had close to Hanmer in the winter and it really feels like a wee ski resort (no surprise really).

We had a beverage in the sun, soaking up the higher temperatures. We checked into our Motel. Great place. It’s a good size, has great views over the valley and has a full kitchen. After being here a while we decided to stay an extra night.

Fiona felt tired, so she stayed at our Chalet to read in the sun while John popped down to the local Spa where they have natural springs, hence the name Hanmer Springs.

We had a healthy salad and chilled out with a DVD.

New Zealand – 15th Nov 2008 - Day 23

Cloud drizzle were back with us this morning. We booked onto tomorrows Underworld Rafting Adventure (see: http://www.caverafting.com/ ) before a late breakfast, followed by a drive out of town for our Quad Biking event.

We met all the guides at the hut, all of whom were from the UK. All were graduates who could not get work in the UK, so were working for a pittance in NZ, but having a ball.

We donned our water proofs and helmets (with accompanying hair nets), had a ten minute “get to know your quad bike” session and then jumped on. These five gear machines were fast and responsive and we were soon flying down muddy country paths. After a wee while we hit the main tracks.




There was, mud, water, sand, thick bush and cow poo to enjoy, with some very steep and narrow sections. As the trip went on we got faster and faster until John managed to tip his quad over on a steep incline. Luckily, the quad bike did not roll on top of him. He was fine, if a little bruised.

Fiona took the lead and we crossed a coupe of sections of river and then moved onto some differnet tracks. Yet again, John managed to get stuck in the middle of a massive stretch of very muddy water. As much as he tried, he could not get out. By the end of his attempts, he was covered in water and thick mud. Our two guides helped to get him out.





After two hours of fun, we arrived at a new stretch of river bank. We managed to get along the bank for about 500 yards but then had to turn back due to the thick, thick mud.

We ended our tour at the river, where we left the lads cleaning down the bikes. Great fun!!

We came back to our B&B and logged onto the web so we could make some Motel reservations. We also planned some fishing in Kaikoura were we are returning to, as this place looked very good and we are going to wait out the forecast bad weather on the east coast which is looking a bit drier.

After a piece of fruit for dinner, we watched Roger Federer being beaten by Andrew Murray, after which we drove back to the activity centre for our Jet Boat Adventure.

We were had been told to arrive for 2.30pm, which turned out to be too early, as a coach load of Kiwi adventurers had been delayed. Still, the sun came out and we sat outside getting to know, the dog, the cat, the goat and all 14 horses.
John asked the owner, if they could bag the front seats. Much to our delight, she said that we could go down to the launch site with the driver and could then get the front seats.

We jumped into the prize seats and the tractor took us over farm land down to the Buller River. There were three Aussies with us and the husband did not draw breath for twenty minutes. Turns out he is a cattle farmer near Perth! Interesting?? We launched the boat and flew up the river to another loading point where the 18 other riders boarded the boat. These boats have two enormous inboard jet engines which takes the boat up to 60 kilometers an hour.



We started our trip upstream, flying around corners, skimming the river banks and rocks. We stopped a few times to hear about the river and how they cope with flooding.

We then turned round and headed back down stream at max speed, twisting and doing ten 360 degree turns on the way back. It was great fun and we got absolutely soaked through. Luckily John had jammed the video camera down his front, so it was the only thing to keep dry.

The whole think trip took a couple of hours and was a blast.

We drove back to our B&B, warmed up, watched the last half an hour of NZ Strictly Come Dancing, relaxed, changed and popped next door to a local restaurant for some local NZ grub. Fiona’s steak was wonderful, John’s Whitebait Patti was non descript. This is the first time we have dined out in the South Island and it seems a little more expensive than the North.

After dinner, we chilled out over a film. Tomorrow we are up early for a long drive. The weather is not looking good, so driving will not be such a bad thing to be doing.

New Zealand – 14th Nov 2008 - Day 22

The sun was shining this morning, so we popped to the office to try and contact Brian to arrange some horse riding. However, we was not to be found. So we decided not to stay another night at Abel Tasman but to travel to our next port of call, Westport, on the west coast. We have seen a couple of activities we fancy in and around the area, including Jet Boating, Quad biking and White Water Rafting. We drove through some wonderful mountainous scenery on the N6, eventually stopping at a town called Murchison for a mid journey rest. We stopped off at the activity company we plan to use for our local activities, called Buller Adventure Tours (see: http://www.adventuretours.co.nz/) . They are still waiting to see if they have enough people for the White Water Rafting. Still we can do the Quad Biking and the Jet Boating. We will phone at 8pm tonight to see if it is on.

After a visit to the local tourist info office (all main visitor info offices are called iSite Centers, over the whole of NZ). The two ladies in the centre gave us lots to think about and pointed us in the right direction for a small local hike.

We took their advise and hikes an one and a half hour trail through forest, following a small river, up to a section of valley where one side had come away in a recent earthquake. Very impressive, if a little scary!

After the hike, we continued along the N6 to Westport. We checked into our bargain Motel (see: http://www.westportspamotel.co.nz/) found the local supermarket, bought things for tonight’s salad and jumped back in the car for a 40 minute journey to Punakaiki, where they have some weird coastal rock formations and impressive blow holes.

Unfortunately the clouds had rolled back in and we missed the high tide, so when we visited the blow holes, they were not blowing very much. Sill, they had some impressive views.

We drove back to the Motel, showered, ate dinner and watched some TV. At 8pm, we phoned the adventure people only to find out that the White Water Rafting is not running. We will do the Quad Biking instead.

New Zealand – 13th Nov 2008 - Day 21

Today started with a few clouds and some fog. However, after breakfast, the clouds had rolled back. We checked out of our B&B and moved all of 100 yards to our next B&B. They have a great dog here called Ruby. She is a three year old golden Labrador and is very, very friendly!

We checked in and then drove next door to Abel Tasman Water Taxi’s. We boarded our boat at 9am and then the tractor took us and the boat down to the quay. Once in the water we sped of to bark bay.

Once there, we began the seven hour hike, back to Marahau. After about an hour we came across a couple of Scottish hikers. We got chatting and spent the next hour and a half walking with them. Gavin, about 50, we from Edinburgh, as was his niece, Mary. He had come out to NZ three years ago having left his wife and son and a girlfriend! He was now living with a Kiwi girlfriend in Christchurch and loving NZ. His niece had been working as a midwife in Scotland and was now enjoying working in a Christchurch hospital. .They both love NZ and have no intention of moving back to bonny Scotland.

On the way back we stopped at a wonderful place called Cleopatra’s pools. You have never seen such clear water. John walked through the ice cold water to the water falls for a photo or two. What a great place.

Later on we stopped at another bay for a spot of late lunch. There were muscles clinging to every rock in the bay. We picked eight huge babies to have to dinner tonight.

We continued on our hike, meeting the Canadian couple who we had kayaked with the previous day. They were hiking in the other direction. The views from this hike were stunning. We have never seen so many picture perfect bays in such a concentrated area. The beaches here are pristine.

We arrived back at Marahau seven hours to the minute from leaving bark bay. What a wonderful hike. The best in NZ so far. The good weather helped to make this a memorable event.

We arrived back at our B&B after trying to book some beach based horse riding. We had seen some people riding on the way back into the bay. It looked great.

Once back at the hotel we met a couple from Manchester who have been living in NZ for a year. John and Rachel are both GP’s and fancied a year away form the UK. We ended up sitting with them in the sun having a drink and chatting about travelling. They have decided it is too depressing to go back to the UK for too long, so thay have booked a place in Morzine, in the French Alps and will ski for the entire season. John turned Green!!
When the sun set, we came back to our cozy cabin and finished our tuna pasta meal. John cleaned the muscles from Stilwell Bay and added them to the mix. Delicious!

We watched some TV, where the weather forecast looks good. If we can horse ride tomorrow we might just stay here another night. If your reading this blog with an eye to going to NZ, put Abel Tasman on our list. It is truly stunning.

New Zealand – 12th Nov 2008 - Day 20

After a quick, home made breakfast, John popped down to reception to sign out booking in form. Don, the owner had us down of the three nights, as we had asked if it was OK to consider staying a third night if we wanted too. He announced that as far as he was concerned, we were saying three nights and if we did not, he would charge us for three anyway. John explained that the third night was an option, but he said that he would still charge us for the third night, which we did not want. John asked him to try and resell the third night if possible. He said it was an outside chance.

We were picked up at 8:50am by our Kayaking tour company, The Sea Kayaking Company (see: http://www.seakayaknz.co.nz/ ). After the standard safety check, we got into our two man Kayak and headed off. The sea was quite calm, so we crossed the bay to the first headland. Wow. What a row! It lasted about one hour of fast paced rowing. We crossed a few other bays and by the time we had reached our resting spot the clouds had faded away and the sun was peeping out.

We stopped at a small bay and dragged our kayaks onto the shore line. Our tour leader, Jane, brewed up some tea and coffee and offered us some great tasting cake.

After half an hour, we were back in the sea and heading towards our lunch stop. The sun was now out in full force, we rowed for another hour and a half, stopping to view some seals and bird life on the way.

We reached our lunch stop. A wonderful, empty, golden sanded bay, with clear waters and no wind.

We ate our lunch in the blazing sun with our fellow adventurers, thee German lads and a couple from Canada. After a while, John decided that this might be his only chance to swim in the sea, so in he went. It was very cold indeed, but he managed to swim for five minutes!

Drying off was another matter altogether. The walk to the top of the island helped. After a twenty minute walk we reached the top of our tiny island. The views from the top were amazing. This is the most beautiful part of NZ to date. Numerous, picture post card sandy bays, mountainous back drops and azure green sea. Wonderful!

We re packed the kayaks, dressed up in all our kit, took a few photo’s, and rowed to our final destination. However, as we approached the final bay, we all joined up in a raft formation and tied a sail to two ors and sailed our way into the bay. Fiona and one of the German lads held the sails bottom edge, whilst John and the Canadian girl held the sail high on their ors.

Once at the final bay, we awaited our water taxi back to our B&B resort. We had been actively Kayaking for over five hours. At times the sea was quite choppy, it was great fun. The Sea Taxi managed to load 9 kayaks and 8 people into the water taxi. Mad! Once back at our bay, the water taxi (See: http://www.aquataxi.co.nz/) , pulled the boat with all of us in it, up onto the quay with a tractor. The tractor then drove us all in the boat, back to the water taxi car park. It was certainly strange driving along the road, in a boat!

We arrived back at our B&B, only to find that Don had now sold our third night to someone else. Bad News! We had now decided to do a 6 hour hike, so needed the room!

We called into another B&B in the same town (next door). Luckily, they had a room free, so we booked it there and then.

We popped down to the local store, checked out some stuff on the internet, bought some food and returned to our Chalet. We took some stuff to the launderette and then sat on our veranda with a glass of wine and our dinner, crisps and dips!

We watched some TV and went to bed happy and tired. What a great day. Wonderful scenery, great weather and good company.

New Zealand – 11th Nov 2008 - Day 19

After a good nights sleep, we had a quick breakfast and headed for Kaikoura for our Dolphin Encounter. The weather was looking good with a few clouds and lots and lots of blue sky and sunshine. At last!!

We drove through some stunning scenery, snow capped mountains with green rolling hills and beautiful bays with sparkling blue water.

As neared Kaikoura, we began to see seals leaping about in the clear waters. We stopped the car for a good look. Half an hour later we were in town visiting an internet café so we could book hotels for Sydney and check out the Helicopter Glacier trips at Franz Josef.

We arrived at Dolphin Encounter (see: http://www.dolphin.co.nz/) for 12.30, checked in and walked down to the bay opposite to take some photo’s of the surrounding mountains and bay.

They called us into the wet suit area, handed out two piece 10mm suits, headwear, snorkels, masks and flippers. After squeezing into them, we sat in a small auditorium where they showed us a video about the sea life in the area and some tips on how to behave when swimming with wild dolphins. They kept ramming home the message that the dolphins are wild and not fed, so there was always a chance you would not see any. Our expectations were definitely being lowered!!

They loaded us on to the coach and we realised there were only eight swimmers, including us, and approx. twenty people who just wanted to watch dolphins from the boat.

We travelled over calm water, in the blazing sun, for about 25 minutes before we were called to the back of the boat so we could put our head gear, snorkels, masks and flippers on. They then moved us to a platform at the back of the boat where we waited for the signal to slid into the water. Our feet dangled in the water and the water was freezing cold.

Suddenly the signal to get in went off and we both got in quick. Immediately we were surrounded by dolphins. According to the skipper we were swimming with a pod of 150. There were so many and they were swimming within inches of us, looking into our eyes, darting under our stomachs and legs and leaping into the air. This went on for twenty minutes. Fiona and l continues to make squeaking noises as the crew told us that this would encourage the dolphins to stick around. We both stuck our heads out of the water for a few moments just as five dolphins leapt into the air together just in front of us. At times there were six or more swimming with us, mimicking our movements. They are quite large but were always smiling at you. Not once did you feel threatened being in the water with so many huge mammals. They were just magical.

After twenty minutes, they called us back onto the back of the boat and maneuvered the boat towards a second pod. Within a few minutes we were back in the water again, swimming with the pod. After another fifteen minutes we came back on board to change out of our gear, dry off and get changed. They gave us hot chocolate to warm up, however, the gear was fantastic and we did not feel the cold too much.

On the way back to base, we came across another pod of dolphins with young as well as a colony of seals. At one time, we hit a spooky bank of sea fog but for most of the trip the weather was perfect. What an amazing experience, made all the better because they do not encourage the dolphins in any way. They simply wanted to swim with us out of curiosity. Once back at the centre, Fiona purchased a T-Shirt and we were back in the car for our five hour journey to Motueka near Abel Tasman.

The journey was fine with some more stunning scenery, however we had to go through the mountains to get to Motueka and as we got higher, the clouds came in and the rain began to fall, again. We are still amazed at how local the weather can be in NZ, sunny in one place and raining just a few hours down the road.

After four hours we hit Motueka, but couldn’t find the Motel. After logging back onto the Laptop, and looking up the details, we realised that our Motel was in fact in another location. A town called Marahau, 19 kilometers away! We stopped and asked a wee girl how to get their and her directions were spot on. We arrived at our B&B for about 8pm, after an almost 5 hour journey. They had left the keys in an envelope, taped onto the reception door.

We settled into Marahau Lodge (See http://www.abeltasmanmarahaulodge.co.nz/) , munched a salmon salad and watched Mission Impossible III on the TV. Luckily, the Motel manager had contacted the company with whom we have booked a days Kayaking around Abel Tasman, tomorrow. They will be picking us up from here at 8:560am, which means we do not have to travel 19 kilometers back to town.

New Zealand – 10th Nov 2008 - Day 18

At 3.30am, John’s head was brimming with things we wanted to say to BA after having been put through the mill the previous evening by their alliance partner Qantas.

At 4.00am John got out of bed, wide awake and began writing an email to BA. At 4.45, he went back to bed, only to get up again at 5.15am to add some finishing touches, by which time it was 6.30am and Fiona had risen.

If you think the met office weather forecasts are poor, you ain’t seen anything yet. In NZ, it seems almost impossible to get a forecast anywhere near reality. Today was supposed to be good, but pulling back the curtains revealed a day of light rain, steel grey skies and wind.

After a spot of breakfast, we filled the car and headed down to the port to catch our ferry to Wellington on the South Island.

Once on the ferry, we found a comfy window seat and settled in with a cup of tea and coffee. After five minutes, we were told that the area we were sitting in had been reserved for some children, so we had to move to the other side of the boat. By the time we found the lounge, it was almost full. We found a couple of seats and settled back in.

John slept for most of the three hour journey, having not had a full nights sleep. We arrived at Wellington just after 11.30am. The weather was awful. Cold, windy and raining.

We found the local supermarket, purchased goods for a couple of days and visited the visitor info centre. Yet again, they did no have any maps for the famous local trek, The Queen Charlotte trek. They always seem to want to sell you an official tour which in this case was $62 each. Due to the weather, we decided not to do it, as the whole area was in thick cloud.

Instead, we headed out of town to another info centre and a found a hiking area on one of their maps. We found the hiking area and set off. The walk was so akin to the Pentland Hills above Edinburgh, it was spooky. There were Scottish thistles, sheep, cows and wind. Just like Scotland.

At one point, we thought the wind might blow us off the side of the hill. The weather here was better than in Wellington, with just a few drops of rain in the wind and a few hints of sun. We found our way back to the start, jumped back in the car and drove to one of Fiona’s favourite NZ Vineyards, Villa Maria.

The vine tasting was free of charge and they were all delicious. We ended up purchasing just one bottle, but could have bought the lot. It turns out that the export over 30% of their total yearly production to the UK.

We drove back into town ,listening to our iPod through a clever devise that lets you play your MP3 device through the music cassette system. Decent music at last.

We found our Motel which is wonderful. Brand new huge rooms, with a great kitchen, huge beds, massive flat screen TV, DVD player and a massive DVD library. Perfect,as the weather in Wellington was still not great.

We logged onto the internet, checked some local activities out and watched some DVD’s over a glass of wine.

New Zealand – 9th Nov 2008 - Day 17

It’s not often you get woken up at 5 in the morning by a helicopter out side your room, however, this is exactly what happened this morning. Well, sort of. This lovely B&B is surrounded by vines. should the air temperature fall below 5 degrees, these vines need to be kept warm, otherwise they will get damaged. In order to keep them warm, they fire up these huge propellers on tall steel towers which blows warm air over the fields. When John opened the lounge windows to see why the helicopter wasn’t taking off, he realised that the noise was coming from one of these propeller heaters, directly opposite our room.

Nothing would block out the sound. Just when we were about to get up and make tea, they stopped! Wonderful. We jumped back into ebd and slept until 8am.

At breakfast we met a whole host of people. Three from Poland, then the four English, followed by two Germans.

We finished breakfast, paid and started our drive to a place called the Putangirua Pinnacles at Cape Palliser, about an hour from the B&B. We walked up the river bed and into the forest. It was a steep uphill climb, but well worth it when we arrived at the viewing area for the pinnacles. They comprise hundreds of rock spires, eroded by the weather. Some areas look like an open cathedral. The walk was supposed to take 4 hours, we killed it in 2.

Then we drove to Wellington via a place called Featherston. Fantastic drive, with wide green valleys, filled to the brim with cattle and sheep, with mountains in the distance. We drove up and over the mountain range into Wellington and found our B&B in a trice.

The place is well equipped but has a damp smell to it. Still, we can do our washing, cook in, connect to the web and watch Sky TV. The weather today was great, plenty of sun, quite warm and DRY!!!

After settling into the house, we headed down to town. Wellington is like many other big cities but it sits on a very large bay, which looked lovely in the sun. Fiona wanted to buy a summer dress for our stay at Hamilton Island, but after trawling 5 shops, we gave up.

We took the tram up to the town viewing point and then took the 30 minute walk back to the other side of town, giving us the opportunity to walk back through the centre to the car.

We popped back home, met our host, and watched the end of the All Blacks V Scotland Rugby. Not a good result for Scotland!! Kiwi’s were very happy, both due to the rugby and due to the Nationalist Party winning yesterdays general election. They have had the same party in power for ten years so seem to just want a change.

Fiona made a wonderful Spaghetti Bolognaise. With twenty minutes to go before dinner, John phoned Qantas Airlines to chase our Christchurch to Sydney flight change on the 7th of December. To our horror, the Qantas lady told us that they had now decided they could not change the flight, having already toldy us a week ago that they had. John explained in the strongest terms that this was not an acceptable situation. After being on the phone for over an hour and talking to various supervisors, John lost it big time. Eventually, they told us that, if we were willing to change our BA flight back to the UK to a Qantas flight, same class etc, they could allow the Christchurch – Sydney flights to happen. We agreed, as they also pre assigned us window seats on both flights, put us on the top club deck and said we would be able to claim all our BA miles. So now we are flying back to the UK with Qantus. Don’t you just hate BA!!

Dinner was had whilst talking to Qantus, so it was not the relaxed night we had hoped for. We also booked up our Kayaking and Dolphin safari for next week.

Fiona phoned pat to wish her a happy birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT!

New Zealand – 8th Nov 2008 - Day 16

Sun welcomed the day today. We were up at 6.30am as we wanted to get to our next destination and enjoy the sun they had forecast for today. We were out of the house by 7am and drove constantly until we hit the town of Martinborough.

We parked up, found the tourist info office, rented a couple of bikes, had a coffee and hit the wine route. It was not until we had been cycling on flat roads for almost an hour that we realised the gears on both bikes were not working properly. Fiona’s gears were in a poorer state than John’s. So, John being the wonderful husband he is, swapped bikes.

After half an hour we passed a farm where they were grooming some great horses. Within a few minutes, a wee Jack Russell dog had joined us on our tour. We tried to encourage him to go back back he was determined to join in the fun. An hour later he was still with us, running his legs off as we flew down hill. After an hour and a half we were getting worried as he seemed to be completely lost. John flagged a car down and asked the two ladies inside what to do. They eventually agreed to take the dog with them to the local vet, in order to find out where he had come from. Great little dog, with plenty of energy and a cheeky personality.

John became a little tired of the hills as his gears were not able to get him up the hills, so he had to walk the bike up.

After a couple of hours we came across some vineyards, but they were not open. We carried on until we found a vineyard which was open. The Te Kairanga vineyard (see: www. http://www.tekairanga.co.nz/ ), offered a $5 tasting menu which we both opted for. Great wines. We ended up purchasing one bottle and a couple of glasses. The weather was still playing up, with cold grey skies and a cold wind.

We arrived at The Old Manse (see http://www.oldmanse.co.nz/), our next B&B, for about 4.30pm. What a great place, huge lounge, big fire and sky TV. So, we watched the NZ version of Strictly Come Dancing, whilst warming up around the fire. Fiona inserted herself right next to the fire and decided not to move.

After NZ Strictly had finished, we showered changed and arrived back in the lounge for 6pm Happy Hour. We met the other four guests over drinks and finger food, all of them from the UK.

We went to a restaurant called est. Fiona had checked it out earlier and everything looked fine. We arrived at just after 7pm and the restaurant was already full. We waited 45 minutes for our main course to arrive. Fiona’s lamb was just warm and unimaginative. John’s duck casule was awful. Dry and with a piece of duck the size of a thimble. John complained to the waitress who apologized. The chef took half the value off of John’s meal. We were so annoyed we just paid the bill and left. NZ has not impressed us at all with food. Our local pub in Chaddleworth serves food far better than most establishments we have visited in NZ. They have the great looking places but the main reason for eating out, the food, almost always disappoints. Maybe the South Island will be better.

We came back to the B&B, watched a movie and went to bed.

New Zealand – 7th Nov 2008 - Day 15

After a good nights sleep (this B&B is the best so far), we opened to curtains to sunny skies. We turned on the TV and they were reporting the heaviest snowfall on the hills above Christchurch for decades.

After breakfast, we headed for the Panekiri Mountain Range where a place called Waikaremoana promised some excellent walking. As always, the journey took longer than we anticipated due to us hitting a queue in one of the mountain passes where they were laying new tarmac. Towards the end of the drive, we hit the infamous NZ gravel tracks. After three hours we found the visitor centre at noon.

A lady at the centre showed us a 6 hour hike and gave us directions to the start which we double checked. She did not seem to know as much as her colleague, who was on the phone. She assured us her directions were sound, telling us we would reach the lake in just over an hour.

We set off through dense forest, up quite steep tracks. The wind was, as ever, chilly and the track wet under foot. After a while the ever present showers kicked off, falling as sleet at times. Howere they did not last long and the dense forest afforded us some protection.

After an hour and a half of rapid walking we decided we had been sent the wrong way. After a couple of hours we met a group of Kiwi hikers coming down the track. They informed us, with some concern, that we were going up to the lake on the hard track and therefore we would probably not make it back to the information hut until after 6pm.

We carried on up the steep track, stopping for water and fruit on the way. We eventually hit lake Waikareiti at 4.30. It had been a hard hike and, due to the thick forest, there had not been muck to see. The North Island has a great deal of forest walking which gets a bit boring after a while as they have no indigenous animals to speak of. The famous Kiwi flightless bird comes out at night. That’s about it!!

The lake was very pretty, with crystal clear waters. We came across a hut where walkers can rest. There were boats you could row on the lake, but they were all chained up. We began the descent back to the info hut, reaching it for 5.30pm, knocking a full hour and a half off the official time. At the base we met a local guy who had his hunting rifle over his shoulder. He was off to find himself a deer for dinner.

We drove back to B&B in record time, with Fiona doing a very good impression of a rally driver. Once back, we showered, had a very nice ham and chicken salad, watched TV and went to bed, happy and tired.

New Zealand – 6th Nov 2008 - Day 14

fDuring the night, we were woken by very loud cows, mooing at levels we had never experienced before. It sounded like they were in our room! Two of them started at 4am and continued calling to each other until day light. Fiona managed to sleep through most of it, but John had a harder time.

The sun was peeping out of the clouds at breakfast, however, Barbara warned us that snow had been forecast over the mountains where we had planned to go hiking. It turned out that Barbara had separated a mother and calf the previous day and it was these two who were responsible for the endless mooing. She thought it was funny!!!

The Tongariro crossing is a famous 6 hour hike, offering breathtaking views and today was the only day we could hit it. We went to the visitor centre and it became obvious that the weather was too cold. Winter had returned, it was -6 at the top and snowing hard. Sods law! She showed us some other walks near by, that would be OK, so we opted to do them. We went to a sports shop where John purchased a par of extra warm outdoor trousers. They look almost wooly, are not that fetching but do the job. Fiona also purchased another pair of walking shorts.

Whilst at the visitor centre, we used the phone to cancel our planned B&B and book another, as now, we will be driving to a Town called Napier, due to the weather. There is not point staying in this area as the weather is not supposed to improve until Saturday

As we drove to the start of our walk the weather closed in big time. The heavens open and snow began to fly in all directions in the string wind. When we reached the car park, everything was covered in an inch of wet snow and heavy sleet was falling.

We waited for the weather to clear, dressed in our warmest walking kit and headed out. Within 5 minutes the snow had retuned, forcing us to run for cover, into someone’s porch. After 20 minutes, we set out again, only to be hit by more snow, rain, sleet and cold winds. We gave up, walked back to the car feeling very fed up and decided that all we could do was to begin the drive to Napier.

We stopped off at a sports shop in Taupo to purchase some waterproof trousers as both of us had soaking wet legs within five minutes of walking today. We plan to do more hiking, what ever the weather, so these will most probably come in very handy.

We also visited Woolworths, which in NZ, is more of a supermarket chain. We bought enough for two breakfasts and two dinners as the next B&B has a self contained flat with a full kitchen and you can opt not to have breakfast, which makes it cheaper.

The drive to Napier, took another couple of hours and offered some spectacular scenery. Very alp like, straight out of the Sound of Music or Lord Of The Rings, most of which was filmed in many areas of NZ. The weather also perked up and the sun began to shine. We passed areas of mini mountains, covered in deep green grass, some of which reminded us of Austria.

Our next B&B is called The Grange (see: http://www.thefarmstay.com/) We have the self contained lodge, so we can do as we please, which will be nice. It’s great to meet people on your travels, often it’s what makes a visit memorable, but you can grow tired of meeting new faces every day, it’s good to occasionally be antisocial, especially after two days of our last hosts Barbara and Ray. Lovely, warm people, but my lord could they talk and talk and talk and talk…………………….

We arrived at The Grange at 5pm, but could not find anyone to show us our lodge. We eventually found the son of the lady who owns the place. He was still cleaning our pad, so we went down to town for a wander. This town is supposed to be full of Art Deco buildings. We found a few but were not that impressed with Napier. We are sure it would look and feel better in some summer heat.

We headed back to The Grange for 6pm. This place is so much nicer than the previous B&B. It is clean, warm, very large and has great views over the vine yards and down to the bay.

Tonight the showers have just about died out and they are promising a slow improvement tomorrow and into the weekend. Today has been the worst weather so far. The southerly half of the South Island is having heavy, heavy snow and some of the coldest November temperatures on record.

New Zealand – 5th Nov 2008 - Day 13

Rain, rain, rain!! Did it rain last night and it was still pouring this morning. The wind was also up and it was chilly, again!!

After breakfast with Ray and Barbara, we drove to Waimandu, near Mount Tarawera where they have a great deal of volcanic activity and Lake Rotomahana, created after a huge eruption in 1860.

We began our walk down to the lake, which is supposed to take two hours. The clouds kept rolling in and the rain was heavy at times. We reached the lake after an hour and a half.

Suddenly the sun came out and we were able to sun bathe for 40 minutes on the jetty. With blue skies above us and the sun shining, it was warm. What a delight! The boat left for a 40 minute tour around the volcanic lake. However, once underway, the clouds and wind came back and we had heavy, heavy showers. Luckily, the sun peeped out again when we arrived at the geysers. One of them shot up unto the sky on time, the other just whimpered. Still, they are vey impressive and the smell is quite something.

Boat trip over, we began the walk back up to the visitor centre. Most people take the bus back to the top, but we were determined to walk the steep trail. One section of the trail consisted of high wooden steps. The steps went on for over then minutes but we were rewarded by the most magnificent views of one of the volcanic lakes. In the sun, the steam from the lake was swirling round, making the most amazing shapes. It looked so prehistoric. We sat on one of the viewing benches for 15 minutes, taking in the weird views.

We made our way to the top, purchased John a new NZ hat and drove back to our B&B. Ray was there to welcome us back and to offer us a glass of wine. We declined, came back to our room and planed the next 3 days.

John popped over to their house and used their broadband to up lift these entries to the blog and to use their phone to book our next B&B’s. By using a local phone card we can do all this phoning for just 2 pence a minute.

CNN just reported that Obama has won the presidential election. FABBY!!!! Lets hope he can undo all the bad that Bush has managed to create over the past 8 years. Some task!

New Zealand – 4th Nov 2008 - Day 12

Rain greeted us this morning. All the Americans had left the previous day. Leaving just the two of us. We ate breakfast with Robin, our host discussing our planned NZ itinerary. Robin has travelled extensively over NZ, so her comments were well worth it.

We had begun to suspect that 8 weeks in NZ, would be too long, especially as the good weather does not really arrive until January. Robin’s comments and suggestions confirmed our thoughts. After much replanning we decided to change our flight from Christchurch to Sydney so we could go to Hamilton Island. This island has good snorkeling and warmer weather as well as a host of other activities.

We phoned Qantas Airlines and much to our surprise, they agreed to bring our flight forward at no extra charge. We phoned Hamilton Island and they confirmed they could accommodate us for six nights.

However, when we phoned Qantas back to book the Sydney – Hamilton flights, the price had doubled. We searched the web and found a far cheaper alternative. So, after an hour of phoning we were booked in and all flights were changed. Now we return to Sydney on the 7th of December, fly to Hamilton Island for six nights, return to Sydney on the 14th of December, allowing us 6 nights in and around Sydney before flying back to the UK on the 20th of December.

Robin allowed us to use her phone card, which resulted in all the calls to Australia and the airlines costing next to nothing. We plan to get one of these phone cards as they allow us to phone both the UK and NZ at approx 2 pence a minute.

We said our goodbyes, jumped in the car and headed for our next destination, Taupo, via Rotorua. We are staying at Brackenhurst B&B 16km North of Taupo.

The weather was not great with rain and cloud. As in many other places we have visited this year, the early summer weather in NZ is very cold and cloudy!!! Many parts of the North Island look like England, so it’s really like driving through England on a cold, rainy day, a bit disappointing to say the least.

We visited a volvanic visitor park on the way, as we plan to walk there tomorrow, weather permitting. After a cup of tea/coffee, we drove to our next B&B, where we met our hosts, Ray and Barbara. Very hospitable people indeed. Within a few minutes of arriving, we had a glass of Wine and Beer in our hands and were chatting away.

We settled into our room and were about to make our evening meals when half the lights went out. Ray and Barbara’s freezer’s had also gone off. An electrician was called and within half an hour everything was back on. We watched a Harry Potter movie and went to bed, listening to the heavy rain hitting the tin roof. We don’t like tin roof’s.

New Zealand – 3rd Nov 2008 - Day 11

Breakfast was another jolly affair today with our American guests. Just the family of four were left today. They seemed disappointed with their evening meal the night before, so just as well we went to the Pepper Tree.

After breakfast, we said goodbye to team USA and drove to a local farm to try a spot of horse riding, NZ style. When we arrived we explained that we were intermediate riders. We mounted our horses and were off.

We had warned Fiona that here horse, Amber, was fast. He was not joking. After ten minutes, Amber decided it was time to fly. This was a turbo horse who was only stopped by the next fence and gate.

Johns horse was an altogether different story. Ziggy, behaved himself impeccably, shifting into gear when asked, but knowing when to stop.

Our leader, Jake, was a mine of information and gave us a detailed history lesson for the entire hour and a half.

After the riding, we headed back to our B&B via Smokey Joes, the local fish smoking establishment. They had a wonderful array of smoked sea life. We purchased, Salmon, muscles, tuna and Rock Fish. We intend to have salad for the next few evenings, so the fish will come in handy. Robin, our landlady, has offered us same fresh salad from her garden for our evening meal.

After a bite to eat, we dorve down to the local bay and met, Tony. He owns Tri Sail Charters, chartering a wonderful 11.2 mtr, multi hull yacht. We had chartered the boat for the afternoon.







What an amazing chap. He built the yacht himself, from scratch. IT took him four years to complete. After a quick safety check, we set sail. He was very happy to let us do much of the sailing as there were just three of us anyway.







He has done so much in his life including farming for many years. He now earns his keep chartering his yacht and doing various other seasonal jobs. For more info about his yacht, see: www.trisailcharters.co.nz/intro.html .







When we started our sail, the weather was partly sunny and quite warm. The wind was up and down like a yoyo, but this craft was happy to eek every ounce of power from the available wind. We were soon pushing 7.5 knots. Compared to single hull craft, these boats are so, so stable at speed. The cabins are huge and the even the toilets are superior to your typical yacht, with no smells and an electric flush!







As the afternoon continued the clouds rolled in and a keen but cold south easterly wind set in. We pushed 9.2 knots, visiting a very impressive muscle farm in one of the bays. They seed ropes with muscles then allow them to grow for a year on long ropes suspended by hundreds of buoys in the bay. They harvest an average of 14 tonnes of muscles every day. Some industry!







We visited dome great bays and learned a lot about sailing multi hull craft. Not so different but in some respects easier, especially has this beast had motorized main sails.

We returned to the bay for 5.30pm, cold but happy.





After showering and blogging, we had our smoked fish and salad and then settled down round the fire (yes it's cold tonight) and watched a filom called Whale Ride. Robins brother is very big in TV and Film and he directed this one which has won a heap of awards. See http://www.whaleriderthemovie.com/ for more info. Great film.