The bird men of Oamaru

Found my true vocation - at last - in Oamaru!


I hope you don't find this blog boring. The intention was to recall tales of interesting, and hopefully funny, adventures and people but somehow it seems to have morphed into a travelogue. I think thats cos we've spent the last 3 months in countries that, whilst new and informative to us, are quite similar in culture to home.

Still, thank you for sticking with us and reading this inane drivel in ever-increasing numbers. I'll try and make it more interesting.

We watched a bird man competition in Oamaru, 20 contestants, mainly dressed as superman, chucking themselves off a plank on the pier into the freezing harbour to be fished out by two divers. It was so windy, the sea at one side was doing a great impersonation of rain. Don't be fooled by the shorts and T-shirts. Oh man, it was cold!





Jim had to get on his soap-box to complain. I left him to it!



Leaving Oamru behind we headed down the coast, stopping briefly to admire the cylindrical Moeraki boulders by way of a private path down to the beach, for which privilege you are meant to pay $2. We didn't.








Over moors with low, grey skies and domineering mountains. It looked just
like Scotland. Down a steep, steep hill and into.... Dunedin. We were in Scotland!

Dunedin is where Scottish settlers landed, Dunedin is the original name for Edinburgh. It is windy, hilly, very, very pretty and, probably our favourite city so far in New Zealand. There's a Princes Street and George Street just like i the original model. There was friendly people, fab shops and great restaurants. Jim had another hair cut, I went T-shirt shopping, we took an architectural tour and visited the Royal Albatross colony on the spectacular Otago peninsula - which comes complete with a castle, Larnach, the only one in New Zealand, funnily enough!








Bit reluctant to leave here, we had great craic with Chris who owned the motel. But the pull of rain and mist was too strong to resist!!! On to Fiordland (I know it doesn't look right but thats how they spell it here)


- Posted using BlogPress from Annie & Jim's I-pad

Location:George St, Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

Christchurch and beyond

Christchurch is beautiful but our first impressions weren't so good. I'll explain.

We have usually stayed in apartments or motels on our travels through Australia and New Zealand. Motels are very like hotels at home, great quality and plentiful. They usually have a small kitchen and often have cooking facilities.


When we arrived in Christchurch we went to the I-site (visitor centre) which is temporarily housed in portakabins in the gorgeous botanic gardens.


The lovely lady there booked a train journey for us and also a motel, after showing us pretty pictures of it online. We charged everything to our - very overworked - credit card. She advised us to go straight to the motel which we did. We drove into car park, it was run down, weedy and strewn with rubbish. We looked at each other. We didn't speak. Foolishly we went inside to be met by a young girl holding a screaming baby with other kids running around. She sent us to a room which didn't really resemble the pretty pictures. It was filthy, had been beaten into submission and the bathroom - well, less said... We swiftly gave the key back and hot footed it back to the I-site where Kate, the Team Leader, booked us another hotel, rang the motel to 'request' our money back in full, refunded us $48 dollars difference and rang half an hour later to check we were happy. That's kiwi service for you!!








Christchurch has quite clearly been a gorgeous city but the earthquake and it's after shocks have devastated it. We were not prepared for such destruction, the whole of the CBD, containing shops, banks and businesses has been destroyed along with massive swathes of residential areas. It is fenced in and peering over the top of the fences, it is like looking at a war zone. It is eerily quiet, a ghost town.

It seemed to us that it will take many years to rebuild.

One retail area has set itself up in cargo containers, it is called 'Startup Street.' I think these will become an iconic landmark of Christchurch. What do you think - pretty good huh?








Obviously, as in all these situations, politics has raised it's ugly head and there are demonstrations against the mayor and the city council who the citizens of Christchurch detest. CERA, the government body responsible for rebuilding the city is also held in derision.

On Saturday night we watched The Outwits in a brilliant outdoor theatre production which told the abridged history of Christchurch. It was hilarious, of course the up to date stuff took the mickey out of the council and CERA. We needed some help with the 'in' jokes but the locals were happy to oblige.

We were up early on Sunday, but still last to arrive, to catch the TranzAlpine train which took us high up into the Southern Alps, above the cloud and drizzle into sunny skies.


We got off at Arthur's Pass and did some serious walking in the peaks, almost at the height of the snow tipped mountains, but not quite!








After scrambling up a river gorge to a waterfall, which was brilliant, we were entertained by the cheeky Keas (mountain parrots) who had no fear of people at all, stealing spoons and pushing cups off the tables. One danced into the cafe and came out 20 seconds later with a chocolate bar wrapped up in gold foil and proceeded to delicately unwrap it.








Train back, asleep by 10!!




- Posted using BlogPress from Annie & Jim's I-pad

Location:Mandeville Street, Christchurch

An aquatic life spectacular

Thursday, 2.2.12

HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY ALEX

HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY

Ok, that's family business over - we do miss them though, now and again.

Bloody hell, we bought a fleece each yesterday, it was damn cold and rainy. Who'd have expected that in February?

Anyway, back tracking swiftly to Rotorua, oh yes you could smell it and did it smell bad!


Hydrogen sulphide, obviously, drifting up through 'natural vents in the earth's thin crust.' That's the official spiel, what it really means is boiling water and steam, and I mean bleeping hot, bubbles up in pools, through rocks and cracks in the road. Roads and pavements have collapsed in some places and over it all this genteel little country town goes about it's business! Weird!


Jim, along with every other bloke, thought it was brilliant, a real farters paradise!

Our motel had a little room where the hot, not boiling, water comes up and you can bathe in it. Picture this, a shower sized room, a deep bath with loads of steam where you go in as a couple and lock the door behind you!! Are you thinking what I am? Do they change the water? Anyway it stank of rotten eggs so I politely declined the offer and gave her the key back!

Next stop - Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal site, otherwise known as heaven and hell. We had to be there at 10.15 to see the Lady Knox Geyser erupt, which we managed by the skin of our teeth!


You then walk round the most peculiar landscape made up of pools of different colours, formed by the minerals dissolved in them, there was caves, bubbling water, waterfalls, etc, all gorgeous colours.





The best, and funniest bit, was the boiling mud pool, it was huge and reminded me of one of those computer games where you have to hit the one which is bubbling!


On from the weird, to the just plain beautiful. Napier, in Hawkes Bay, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt in the modern style of the time, art deco. It is like stepping back in time, very gorgeous, very glamorous and dead on Saturday night!!








The guy who owned the fantastic motel we stopped at was born in Knaresborough, lived in Chesterfield, moved to New Plymouth in New Zealand, retrained as a butler when he was 40 and spent several years working in LA and London as Rod Stewart's butler when he was married to Rachel Hunter. Doesn't get more surreal than that does it?!
Leaving the glamour of Napier behind we headed south over the mountains to Wellington, the compact little capital city. It has a pretty harbour, industrial type architecture and art work on the harbour front, it's edgy and alternative.





The locals call it 'Welly,' it's known as the windy city and, whoa, that wind bites. A trip on the cable car, a wander around the city, admiring the 'beehive,' the Parliament building and people watching in Civic Square and our brief city sojourn was over.





We had to be at the ferry terminal at 7.25 on Monday morning, oh joy! I don't have a great track record with car ferries and when I saw that the 'Kaitaki,' the Interislander car ferry had originally been 'The Pride of Cherbourg' which I must have vomited on several times in the early '90s my heart sank!

Three and a bit hours later, after sailing through the lovely Malborough Sound, and we were off at Picton, stomachs, well mine, still intact. I must have drifted off a bit, blame the sea sickness tablets, cos I woke up an hour along the coast, and what a spectacular coast. And here we are, in the wild and wonderful town of Kaikoura. It sits in the lee of the Kaikoura Peninsula wedged between the mountains and the sea. Just offshore the sea bed drops away to about 1600m deep. This is the Kaikoura Canyon which is rich in fish and stuff which attracts big mammals.

It chucked it down yesterday and the wind was cutting, hence the fleeces, I'm sure they'll come in handy on our travels of this island. We walked the peninsula, about 10 miles, and the sun came out, it was scorching. Point Kean has a big fur seal colony and we walked amongst them, keeping a wary distance!











We've just come back from, what has to be one of the highlights of our trip, a whale watching tour on a catamaran. Of course, this meant some hours at sea which entailed a visit to the nice pharmacist before hand. He sold me some of his own remedy sea sickness tablets and I am pleased to report I spent the trip watching a sperm whale, albatrosses, dusky dolphins and seals rather than hanging over the side.


It was brilliant getting about 5 miles off shore, the catamaran bounced about and the spray was flying. We got to the canyon and waited and waited until eventually a huge sperm whale came into sight. It stayed on the surface for about 10 mins then dived with it's spectacular tail suspended in mid-air.





Sadly our photos don't do it justice. We were then lucky to find ourselves in the middle of a pod of dusky dolphins. Fantastic! They swam in synchronised style and right under the boat. On our way back to the Marina we came across a playful fur seal which entertained us for a while clapping it's flippers, rolling and placing them over it's eyes!





It was amazing, how will we better this. Well tomorrow we're on our way to Christchurch and praying for a calm introduction to this unstable city.



- Posted by Annie & Jim using BlogPress from THE iPad

Location:Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Love is SO fickle

Let me introduce you to Fred, our new friend, a Subaru Forester. I know the reg. is FLD but you know that dyslexic thing...

Two days in and I couldn't wait to tell you how gorgeous the North Island is, I know I thought I loved Australia, but it must have just been a crush cos this is the real thing. My husband just called me a travel tart!

We left Auckland and drove to the Coromandel Peninsula, passing through alpine type countryside, rolling hills, green fields, pastel coloured beehives, rushing streams and meandering rivers. Just gorgeous. The weather was hot, hot, hot!



What a relief - New Zealanders drive like Europeans! They drive a bit faster and overtake! Phew.

Whitianga is delightful, a small town on the coast on the peninsula with beautiful beaches and towering cliffs. Today we've been to Hot Water Beach where you can dig your own hot tub on the beach as its over a hot spring. From there we went to Cathedral Cove, oh man, paradise. It has gorgeous volcanic islands in the bay and the water is turquoise. Once again a hot, hot day.
















Tonight we have eaten some of the best fish and chips ever, sitting on the beach watching the ferry go backwards and forwards across the bay.







Unlike Australia, where it is dark by 8pm, it stays light here until about 9.30 which is fantastic for evening wanderings. Tomorrow we're heading for Rotorua, a town in a geo-thermal area. Apparently here it's known as heaven and hell, it's beautiful but smells of rotten eggs! I'll let you know presently.


- Posted by Annie & Jim using BlogPress from THE iPad

Location:Whitianga, Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand