Back in Oz....briefly

We're back in Australia for a brief visit before we fly off again.


We had pleasant flight from Wellington to Sydney for a one night stay at the Airport Hotel before we flew to Maroochydore to pick up our new Landcruiser and check up on the progress of our caravan.

We had a few days on the Sunshine Coast getting a few things added to the new car and then drove back to Sydney for a couple of days.  Then it was on to Canberra for a few more days and before we know it we're back at the Airport Hotel preparing for our next trip.


Tomorrow morning we're on the 6am flight to Rome.  We will be away until mid July.  Our plans are to spend 2 months in Umbria in central Italy, then a week in Germany with some friends and then we'll make our way back to Rome to fly home to Australia.


PS The new car is GREAT. Easy to drive and a view like you get from a small bus.  It's BIG!! - but we know we'll need all of its power to pull our caravan when it's completed.


WiFi permitting our next post will be from (hopefully) sunny Italy.

Back to Wellington

We boarded the morning InterIslander Ferry to Wellington and sailed through the magnificent Queen Charlotte Sound once again.  

We had a smooth crossing of the Cook Strait in warm sunshine and docked at Wellington at 1.45pm.  This is our final full day in New Zealand.  Tomorrow we’ll fly back to Sydney after breakfast on the Waterfront and a final walk around Wellington City.

A few facts:

• 80% of Wellington’s domestic power is wind generated.  It would be 100% except that it is too windy to run the windmills 20% of the time.
• There are more sheep than people in NZ.
• NZ produces some of the world’s best white wines.
• Petrol is expensive, around $NZ2.20 per litre (about $A1.80).
• Milk is expensive, up to $3 per litre.
• Until humans came to NZ 1,000 years ago it was 90% forest and 10% grasslands.  Now it’s 90% grasslands and 10% forest.
• Flax grows everywhere.
• Wellington City has really good sponsored free WiFi available in most of the cafes.
• NZ is a GREAT place for a holiday!

Our next post will be from Australia.

Marlborough

We left Kaikoura under overcast skies for the 2 hour drive north to Blenheim.  This is the heart of the Marlborough wine country.  Some of the best white wines in the world are produced here.  It’s harvest time and we’ve seen quite a lot of grape harvesting machinery on the road.  We can see grapes on some of the vines close to the road.

One of the reasons we’re stopping off in Blenheim is to visit the Omaka Heritage Aviation Museum – Knights of the Skies.  This museum has many replica vintage planes from 1910-1930s as well as memorabilia.  Many of these types of planes flew in World War I, on both sides.  The interpretations are excellent with anecdotes and facts about the planes and their pilots.  There are excellent life sized dioramas too.  Some of these show aircraft construction and others show wartime scenes.  There is a section on The Red Baron, with an original cross insignia that was cut from the fuselage when he was shot down.  A diorama and story about a pilot who stood on the wing to land his plane also explained that the British Royal Flying Corps didn’t provide their pilots with parachutes, the Germans did.  We really enjoyed the exhibits which covered many nationalities.

On the same site was a Classic Car Museum with cars from the 1960s -1990s.  We found a Rover P6 similar to one we owned in the 1980s.  There were a number of Jaguars including an XJS, a Rolls Royce, Mini Cooper S, Lotus Cortina etc etc etc….  all immaculate and ready for the road.

We took a short tourist drive around Blenheim and stopped off at a boutique chocolate factory where we watched the chocolatier making mint sticks before we made some purchases of delicious handmade chocolates.

Then it was off to Picton for our last night on the South Island.

Heading North to Kaikoura

After only one wet day this morning is dry, although cloudy and cool, as we head north from Christchurch.  We're on our way back to Picton and the ferry to Wellington.  We'll take a few days to get there.  We're going to travel along the inland leg of the Alpine Pacific Highway - we were on the seaward leg travelling south - to spend a couple of days in Kaikoura, about 200kms north of Christchurch.  We make our way north along SH1 and when we get past Amberley we turn inland.  At Culverden the road forks towards the West Coast.  This in the northern crossing to the western side of the South Island.  We're doing a short detour up this road into the alpine resort town of Hanmer Springs, where there are some hot springs and a ski resort and we think it will be a good place to stop for lunch. 



The countryside is hilly and the road winding.  We pass many sheep farms - New Zealand has more sheep than people - the farms are more intensive than we are used to seeing in Australia.  The scenery is great.  We've always said that the scenery on the North Island is "WOW!" scenery and the South Island has "OH MY GOD!" scenery.  So we take plenty of photos when there are places to stop.  We come across a number of photo stops where travellers pull off the road, but none of them are marked as lookouts.  It's chilly in Hanmer Springs, although we're only about 950m above sea level, and we find a cafe for some lunch.  There are plenty of people about and a lot of the accommodation is booked out.  The nearby mountains, Mt Una is 2,300m, have a dusting of snow on them.  Then its back in the car to make our way to Kaikoura on the coast.  Again the scenery is fantastic and the road is very winding.  A couple of hours later we are in Kaikoura.  

We stopped off here for lunch on our way south and it will be good to spend a bit of time here because there's plenty to do and see.  Kaikoura is a popular holiday town.  150 years ago is was a busy whaling port.  These days there's a thriving eco-tourism town.  There are whale-watching (Sperm, Humpback, Southern Right and Orca), dolphin watching and swimming, seal watching, fishing and walking activities; as well as plenty of restaurants to choose from.  The food specialties here are crayfish, mussels, whitebait and paua (abalone).  For dinner we opt for a seafood platter from The Craypot restaurant.  Very tasty - and the small one was plenty for both of us.

Friday 13th dawned with bright sunshine and the promise of a return to great weather.  The view from our cabin is of the mountains of the Seaward Kaikoura Range and they are covered with snow.  After breakfast we drive out to the Kaikoura Peninsula.  There's a big seal colony here, very close to the road.  Then we start walking.  We're walking most of the way around the peninsula.  It's very popular and there are plenty of tourists doing the same thing as us.  The start of the walk is quite steep as we climb up the cliff, and the path is paved.  The Peninsula was all under water until about 100,000 years ago.  Then is started to rise.  There are three plateaus.  The first rose about 100,000 years ago, then the second rose about 40,000 years ago and the final plateau, which is at sea level, rose about 1,400 years ago.  At that time this was an island and over the years the gap between the island and the mainland has silted over to form the Kaikoura Peninsula.  

We walk along the ridge of the second plateau about 30-50m above sea level.  Once we pass the first lookout point, we are walking on a (mostly) grassed track which is well maintained.  We pass by more seals - hundreds of them - down at the water, on rocks and on the beach.  We pass the Shearwater breeding site, but there aren't any there at the moment - summer is their peak time.  


Then it's on to Whalers Bay and the South Bay lookouts.  Great coastal scenery and all the time the inland view of the mountains is very impressive.  The round trip of our walk in bright sunshine took us about 90 minutes.  We stopped off at the Original Seafood Barbecue for lunch.  We stopped here a few days ago for whitebait and crayfish fritters, so this time we had seafood chowder and barbecued mussels - YUM!!

We've spent this afternoon relaxing in the sunshine and tomorrow we head back to Picton for the night before we catch the ferry back to Wellington on Sunday morning.

Christchurch and Antarctica

Wednesday 11th April is our first wet day since we have been in New Zealand (we don't count the day we arrived) and we're in Christchurch which is the largest city on the South Island.  It has changed a lot since we were last here in 2004, mainly due to the devastating earthquake in February 2011.  Many of the buildings which made up the skyline have been demolished.  The place is a hive of activity with construction works and roadworks everywhere.  The roads are difficult to drive on as they are uneven with many unplanned speed humps due to the earthquake.  As it's raining today, we're also finding pools of water on the low-lying parts of the road.  In the morning we have some family time and meet our newest relative - 4 week old great-niece Emily.

Then it's off to the City Centre.  Much of the main shopping centre is in the "Red Zone" and is being reconstructed.  The Cashel Mall has been "restarted" using brightly painted shipping containers.

After lunch we head towards the airport to visit the Antarctic Centre.  This is a fantastic attraction where we can spend a few hours in Antarctica.  Christchurch is one of the main departure points for Antarctica and Italy and the United States both have Antarctic Divisions based in Christchurch.  We donned overshoes and warm jackets to walk on packed snow and experience the icy blast of -20C.  We also had a ride in an Antarctic all terrain amphibious vehicle, climbing steep hills and floating in water.  We watched penguins being fed and experienced a 4D adventure.  We also learned a lot about the Antarctic from the excellent static and interactive displays.  Being a wet day in the school holidays it was very busy, but certainly well worth the 3 hours we spent there.

Wellington to Christchurch

We drove our car onto the Aratere ferry for the 3 hour trip across the Cook Strait from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island.  The crossing was very smooth, with a calm sea.  Again we were blessed with clear skies.  We sailed out of Wellington Harbour and through the heads.  

Once across the Cook Strait we entered Queen Charlotte Sound and made our way through some very photogenic scenery past some fish farms and mussel farms to Picton.  The Marlborough Sounds are true sounds, being flooded river valleys.    Milford Sound and the other "sounds" in Fjordland in the south-west are actually not sounds but are fjords or flooded glacial valleys.

We stayed overnight in Picton before venturing south along the coast to Christchurch on Tuesday.  We drove past many vineyards.  The Marlborough region produces many fine wines.  Harvest has started and we saw bunches of grapes hanging from the vines.



Further south we stopped at Ohau Point Lookout to see some seals.  This is a seal nursery and there were plenty of young seals.  Some were close to the road under bushes.  Others were basking on the rocks; and more were swimming in the rock pools.

We stopped at Kaikoura for lunch at a barbecue seafood caravan.  The local delicacies of crayfish and whitebait patties we had were delicious.

A couple of hours later we arrived in Christchurch.