A new grandson has arrived

When walking back from the city centre in Dunedin we received a phone call from Chris (our son) telling us the good news that Edward William James had just been born. He is doing well.

Dunedin

Today the weather has been disappointing - with drizzle after lunch and thick mist over the Otago Peninisula so, we did the city sights today. These included the famous Victorian railway station, a building built in the same grand style as St Pancras in London. Inside are an impressive staircase and stain glass windows. We then visited the Settler's Museum, which has some fascinating information on the early Scottish and Chinese settlers at the time of the gold rush in the mid-1800s.

Penguins and albatrosses

The weather was good when we arrived in Dunedin, but the forecast for the next day was not so promising, so we decided to head straight out to the Otago Peninsula to catch a glimpse of the royal albatrosses at Taiaroa Head. Several glided over our heads on their enormous 3m wings, looking just like gliders.

We also visited the yellow-eyed penguin reserve, a few miles away, where we saw several of these delightful birds in their natural habitat. Two had just come up the beach as we arrived. What amazed us was how far up the hillsides these birds nested. In a couple of cases they must have been 300m from the beach and 50m up the hillside. The picture is of a 3 month old chick.

Christchurch to Dunedin

The first part of this journey was through the flat lands of the Canterbury Plains, a landscape not that dissimilar to the Fens. After Timaru , the landscape again became more interesting with stretches along the Pacific and through rolling hills not unlike Perthshire. You can see why the Scots came here over 150 years ago.

On the trip we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are a strange geological phenomenon causing almost perfectly spherical bolders on the sands as big as 4m in circumference. They were formed on the seabed about 60 million years ago.

Also on this journey, we stopped near a place Shag Point where we got good views of NZ fur seals. Again, we enjoyed this view from about 20m distance on our own.

Here is a picture of the room where we are currently staying in Dunedin. It is an old chapel in what was formerly a Catholic school.

A day in Christchurch

It was beautiful today, despite an unpromising forecast. We managed to do three things in this pleasant English-like city. Firstly, we punted on the River Avon, which winds through the city and its splendid botanic garden. Then we took a trip 10kms south of the city to Lyttelton, where we ascended in a gondola to Crater Rim a high spot from where the view was stunning. In gaps in the clouds we could see the Southern Alps to the west. To the west we could also see all of Christchurch and its port. To the south and east we could see the beginning of the Banks Peninsula as well as Lyttleton harbour. On our return to the city we enjoyed a trip around town on the clunky old trolley buses, stopping off to walk around the botanic gardens, considered one of the top ten in the world.

Tranzalpine train across the Southern Alps

After an early morning breakfast (6am) we caught the Transalpine train from Christchurch via Arthur's Pass to Greymouth on the west coast. The train crosses the Canterbury Plain before climbing up through dramatic mountain scenery to reach Arthur's Pass. After this point it descends through an 8km long tunnel and eventually on down to the sea. The journey takes around 4.5 hours each way. It made a welcome change from driving.

Nelson to Christchurch (via Blenheim)

Today, Feb 24th, we traveled down the east coast of South Island to Christchurch. The run, in many parts with the road hugging the Pacific coast, reminded us of Highway 101 on the other side of the Pacific from Seattle down to San Francisco, a run we did back in 1994.

The main road we followed, SH1, is the NZ equivalent of the M1. However, this is more reminiscent of a B road in the UK, but with less traffic. It was a delightful run. At one point we stopped at a view point where we could see New Zealand fur seals lounging on the rocks just a few metres below us.

Abel Tasman National Park

After a lazy morning, we drove to Kaiteriteri at the start of the Abel Tasman National Park where we joined a small cruise boat to take us up the beautiful coastline as far as Onetahuti and Tonga Island. There were plenty of Australasian gannets and Caspian terns flying about all the way and at Tonga Island a small seal colony was lazing on the rocks.

It's amazing how many English tourists we have met and spoken with on our holiday so far. This seems to be the year in which everyone from England is having a holiday in NZ.

Crossing Cook Strait

Today (Feb 22nd) we crossed from North Island to South Island on the Interislander ferry. This went from Wellington to Picton via Cook Strait, Tory Channel and Queen Charlotte Sound. The scenery on this trip (3hrs) was breathtakingly beautiful - mile after mile of unspoilt coastal fjord scenery with untouched forests reaching down to shimmering turquoise coloured waters. The bright and sunny weather helped, of course. We then drove 110 spectacular kms to Nelson which is the gateway for the Abel Tasman National Park area. Nelson is a handsome city with hanging flower baskets everywhere in the main streets.

Wellington in sunshine

After yesterday's rain, Saturday turned into a beautiful sunny day, ideal for exploring the city. After breakfast we went up to the Botanical Gardens high above the city by cable car ($3 single). From the top there is a very clear panoramic view of the city and harbour. The walk back down into the city through the gardens was wonderful with plenty of shade along the leafy pathways. Unfortunately, through an error in navigation on Roger's part we ended up at the wrong end of the gardens and spent an hour retracing our steps to find the right exit. In the middle of the gardens it is hard to believe you are in the heart of a city as we saw no-one for about 15 minutes of walking at one point.

A map of New Zealand

I thought it was time we added a map of New Zealand. Click on the small image to bring up a full sized map.

So far, we have travelled 2400kms in North Island covering all the way from the far north down to the capital, Wellington, in the south of North Island.

Without doubt, our favorite place in North Island was the Bay of Islands up near Paihia in the far north.

Rain, rain, rain.....

Today we travelled down from Taupo to Wellington by car, a distance of 355kms. The weather was appalling with persistent heavy rain all the way down. We have a great hotel room overlooking the harbour and as we look out now, the lights of Wellington are shining across the bay.

After we arrived we went to the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa) which is simply awesome, as New Zealanders seem to say all the time. It is without doubt, the very best museum we have ever visited. We have to go back again tomorrow as there is so much to see and do there. Many of the exhibits are interactive and it would be a marvellous place to take a school trip!

See http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/Tepapa/English/

Lake Taupo area

We have been staying in Taupo (pronounced "toe paw" in Maori) for the last few days and move on to Wellington in the morning. In the last two days we have visited Orakei Korako which is a geothermal area a few miles north of Taupo. It is a wonderful place full of interesting geothermal activities including geysers, bubbling hot mud and silica beds of various colours as a result of flowing very hot water from deep underground. Locally, this geothermal resource is used as an energy source.

Last night we visited a Maori village and enjoyed Maori dancing, singing and cooking. It was a good introduction to the Maori culture which is important to New Zealand. These two girls are demonstrating how they weave flax bags. The Maori people started to arrive in NZ from Polynesia some 1000 years ago.

See http://history-nz.org/maori.html

Today we drove around Mount Ruapehu which, although snow capped, frequently erupts into violent activity. Luckily it was benign today. This mountain is visible from our hotel bed across Lake Taupo when the weather is clear.

Nice Bugs

So far, we have not been troubled by the dreaded sand flies or mozzies. However, we have seen some very nice insects including a very big cicada (first picture in the Bay of Islands), a green cricket like creature (in the Coromandel) of some kind and a very beautiful large butterfly next to the croquet lawn in central Rotorua, a place which smells of rotten eggs because of the hot springs.

New Zealand has flightless crickets called Wetas, one of which is known as the Giant Weta and grows as big as a human hand (9cms long). It is totally harmless. These inhabit the kauri forests, but not seen one yet.

Hot Beach

This picture shows people bathing in the hot thermal pools on the Hot Sands beach in the Coromandel area. Dig a hole in the sands and the water is VERY hot. It looks very crowded but the rest of the beach is deserted as just this spot has the hot thermal spring water.

Taupo

We arrived at Taupo this afternoon in excellent sunny weather. On the way down we stopped for coffee in Cambridge, NZ, which is a leafy town not far from Hamilton. Our hotel in Taupo overlooks the lake with two volcanic mountain peaks visible in the distance across Lake Taupo from our bed. More later....

Coromandel

We drove down from Russell through a Kauri forest in which we saw the oldest Kauri tree in NZ. This dates from around 2000 years ago. It is awesome standing tall and majestically in a dense tropical rain forest in the NW of North Island. Its name is Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest).

To get to Coromandel we had to pass through Auckland where the traffic was like the M25 - very busy indeed as 1.5M of the 4M inhabitants of NZ live there. The Coromandel was another beautiful area of the North Island with spectacular coastlines and empty beaches, one of which we chose for a quick swim in the Pacific Ocean. There was no-one else in sight.

Other highlights of the Coromandel included a 1 hour trip on the Driving Creek Railway (narrow gauge) up through the rain forest trees. Also, we walked to Cathedral Cove where the some of the scenes from the Chronicles of Narnia were filmed. Finally we went to the hot sands beach where a dig in the sands reveals piping hot water to laze in.

A wet end to the Bay of Islands

Today, in bright sunshine, we visited the beautiful Treaty Grounds at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi between the British and the Maoris was first signed in the early 1840s. Afterwards we traveled further north to Kerikeri and then on to a point from where the most northerly point in all New Zealand, North Cape, could be seen on the far horizon. Since returning to Russell tonight it has been pouring with rain, making this place look and feel like Salcombe on a wet summer day! Tomorrow we travel south 150 miles to Thames in the Coromandel region of North Island, about 1 hour south and east of Auckland.

Paradise on Earth?

Today was amazing. We took a cruise for 4 hours around the Bay of Islands spotting bottle nosed dolphins (swimming right along side us), shearwaters and Australasian gannets. The islands that form the collection are truly stunning: unspoilt, green and many forested with native trees and all surrounded by the bluest of waters. This is the sort of scenery one can only dream about. The photo was taken by Lis when we landed on a small island called Moturoa which was a few miles out from Russell.


The second picture, of a quiet beach, was taken by Lis .

Arrived in the Bay of Islands

After a 12 hour flight from San Francisco we arrived in Auckland at 5am. Our hotel apartment was overlooking the marina with great views and a very comfortable bed in which to get our bodies back in sync with the time zone.

Today we picked up the hire car and drove 180kms north to Russell on the Bay of Islands. It is a most beautiful spot with stunning coastal scenery with islands, unspoilt coastlines etc. Tomorrow we are doing a 4 hour boat trip.

Eating out with an old colleague

Last night, our last in San Francisco before moving on to Auckland NZ on Monday evening, we met up with Jon and Rachael Griffiths for an Italian meal in the North Beach area. Jon was an old colleague at Philips in Cambridge who moved out to work in the Bay area 12 years ago. He and his wife Rachael both work for Qualcomm now. It was a great evening.

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, on a cold February day. We were on a tour bus going around the city and pulled up underneath.

The journey has started

After all the snow and a night at the Comfort Inn near Heathrow (good value at £39 a night) we left almost on time on the 747-400 to San Francisco. There was snow almost all the way (UK, Greenland, Canada and northern USA) until we hit California. This picture is over the Canadian Rockies 11kms up in the air.

On arrival we checked in to our central hotel and headed for Fisherman's Wharf where we enjoyed crab and shrimp sandwiches and fries in pleasantly warm sunshine. A cable car trip brought us back to central SF where there was a Chinese street parade. Then an early night....