Firstly, Happy New Year to those of you I haven’t already said it to. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged because it’s summer holiday time down here … we’ve been away on our trip to the South Island for three weeks and now we’re back to Auckland and back to work. We’ve had a couple of birthdays during that time too … Regan was 2 and Bobby was … well, let’s not go there ;o) I kept a bit of a diary while we were away so that I didn’t forget what we’d been up to so I’ll give you an update on how it went.
Week before we headed off was really busy at work and I was off sick on Monday and Tuesday with a bug so we were completely unprepared for the holiday when the weekend arrived.
Sat 20th Dec
Took us a while to get everything ready so it was late by the time we left Auckland to start our journey down south. Bobby did a great job fitting everything in the truck … thank goodness we’d bought a roof box though! I have to say there was very little free space anywhere in the box or the truck when he was finished … obviously very good at jigsaws when he was a kid! :o)
We made it to Ohakune (which is a ski resort in the winter) quite late so unpacked what we needed to and basically went to bed!
Sun 21st Dec
Had some breakfast in a local café … looks like quite a nice little place. If Kyle ever talks me into going to the mountains to see the snow, we will probably stay there as it’s very close to Mt Ruapehu (the active volcano that erupted just after we arrived in NZ) which is the main ski area.
The weather was really bad on the drive down to Wellington so I was starting to worry (a lot) about the whole tent thing …
Made it to Wellington early afternoon … it reminds me a bit of Edinburgh to be honest, it’s kind of stuck between hills and the sea and seems more built up than Auckland because of that. I like the Auckland sprawl at the moment .. It’s different to what we’re used to which is good. When we’ve had enough of the sprawl, hopefully we’ll have found “that thing” that we want to do that isn’t IT and we’ll move out into the country somewhere.
Mon 22nd Dec
Got to the ferry terminal nice and early only to realise we’d left stuff in the motel! :o( Had to rush back and get it then get back to the ferry before check in closed. Luckily, I’d found a motel quite close so made it in plenty of time. Just a little adrenaline rush to start the morning/holiday off ….
Crossing went okay .. The kids were well behaved if a bit bored after 3 hours on a ferry.
As we came into Queen Charlotte Sound at the top of the South Island, I noticed a couple of coves with one house in the clearing with a little beach. There were no roads into these coves so the people obviously get there by boat. Total seclusion (except the occasional ferry full of passengers looking in obviously) … I want to live there!!! Wonder what I could do to make money that far from civilisation though?? More thought required on “that thing” I think …
Took the coastal route from Picton to Nelson which has some stunning views and some very twisty roads for Bobby. Both kids fell asleep half way across and I found myself thinking “wake up and look at the view!”. Now most of you won’t get that comment but my brother and sister will … I’m turning into my mother!! :o)
Although Nelson is a nice place .. It’s not what I was expecting. Everyone kept telling us that it was a really hippy/arty place so we were expecting a Byron Bay (VERY hippy place in NSW, Australia) and it’s not like that at all.
Bought supplies in Nelson to last us a couple of days then drove north to Kaiteriteri where we’d booked a campsite over Christmas. Put the tent up for the first time (except the practice run in the back garden) … what an effort! Still when everything was set up .. We actually looked quite organised .. Like we’d done this before.
Tues 23rd Dec
Weather had been better on the Monday and we woke up to lots of sunshine on the Tuesday … which was a relief. Didn’t do too much all day … wandered around the town, finished off setting up camp etc and generally chilled out.
Had some major theatrics at bed time though … we’d bought some camp pillows for everyone … three of which we’re grey and one of which was red. Only reason we’d done that was because that was all that was left … should have known better! Kyle and Regan both decided that they must have the red one and we had world war three that night over who was going to get it. In the end, we managed to get Kyle to agree to have a grey one that night and we’d go and find him a red one in Nelson tomorrow ….
Wed 24th Dec
Two nights in a tent and still in one piece! Actually, we have a really good setup and the tent is big enough that it’s very liveable. Bobby had gone for a wander around the campsite during the day and had found the “real campers” up at the top of the site … full size fridges, barbeques etc. Don’t think we’ll ever go that far … although we do have our camping fridge, camp kitchen and clothes dryer! How organised is that! :o)
Went into Nelson for some last minute Christmas shopping - presents and food plus the search for the red pillow! In the end, Kyle decided he wanted an orange pillow instead so we managed to keep them both happy.
On the way over to Nelson, Kyle was discussing Wellington and how cold it had been in comparison to Auckland … “it plummeted to 16 degrees” he says .. :o) I think the fact that he thought it was cold came from the discussion we’d had as I’d said that it was more than 16 when I left the house at 6.30am each morning to go to work. Plummeted comes from one of his train documentaries I think … It was amusing the way he said it.
Anyway, got back to the campsite just as santa was going round on his fire truck (an Antipodean Christmas custom). Additions to the family post Santa … Chocolate Bear and Olive Oil Bear.
Thurs 25th Dec
Kids didn’t get up too early thank goodness. Kyle got a bit upset as there were no presents in the tent … soon cheered up though when Bobby took him out to the truck as Santa had left everything in the back of the truck! Including Kyle’s new bike. He’d never actually had/ridden a bike without stabilisers before as he hadn’t wanted a new, bigger bike last year … he did really well though, within about half an hour of getting the bike he was steady enough to go on his own.
So that Reggie didn’t feel left out we’d updated Kyle’s old bike to make it girly and brought that with us too … with Elmo safely buckled into her babyseat and Chocolate Bear in the front basket she was very happy!
It was a gorgeous day so got a bit sunburnt … must be more careful as NZ sun is probably the most dangerous in the world. We use factor 30 and upwards down here which was just unheard of in Europe for us …
Had a great day just relaxing in the campsite and the kids playing with their presents. Moving on tomorrow so packed up a little too.
Fri 26th Dec
Packed up for the first time ever … even more effort than unpacking. Bobby did his jigsaw thing again but it was even harder this time as we’d bought more stuff since leaving Auckland.
Left Abel Tasman and headed southwest over more very twisty roads. Scenery started to take on that look that I remembered from the west coast … mountains with wandering gravel bed rivers running through the valleys between. Found the accommodation in Punakaika okay and the woman upgraded us to the bottom of a lovely tree house because she was quiet.
We were a ten minute walk through a national park from the beach so headed down there for a look. Some great rock formations but spoiled a bit (no actually a lot!) by the sandflies.
The garden of the tree house had a couple of semi-tame wekas (NZ bird) which Kyle ended up hand feeding … which he thought was great. Not sure whether it was them or something else but there were some very strange noises from outside during the night!
Sat 27th Dec
Realised the negative thing with the tree house … no curtains! Kids were up very early so by mid morning they were a complete nightmare because they were so tired!
Headed out to pancake rocks (the reason we were in Punakaika) … pretty awesome rock formations so took lots of photos but don’t worry, I have limited the number I’ve uploaded to Flickr! There was supposed to be a couple of blow holes as well but the sea was too calm so nothing much to see there.
Drove on to Greymouth which is much bigger than I remember it being when we went there on the Trans Alpine Express with my mum. Bought a bike rack since we don’t have to hide Kyle’s bike from him anymore … gave us a bit more space inside but not much.
Then headed further south to Franz Josef where we were staying in the campsite for a couple of nights to let us see the glaciers.
Sun 28th Dec
West Coast is renowned for it’s sandflies and this time was no different .. Made sure we were covered in repellent before heading off to the Franz Josef glacier. It’s changed a bit since we were there in ‘94 … the glacier river has completely changed course so you can’t actually reach the glacier and have to stop a bit away from it.
About 20 minutes into the 90 minute walk to the glacier we came to a river crossing … no stepping stones and looking around, everyone else was taking off their footwear and paddling across in bare feet. It wasn’t too far so we thought we’d do likewise.
Now I’m a fairly intelligent person … so I realised that a river running off a glacier might be a bit cold however even in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined just how cold a glacier river would be when paddling across it in bare feet! A couple of minutes in there and I think hypothermia would have set in!! It was one of those occasions when you don’t think clearly and because you want to get out of the water as quickly as possible, you get to the other side as quickly as you possibly can … when in reality, what you should have done was to GO BACK!!! I was dreading going back across when we were on the return journey.
Kyle on the other hand loved it and wanted to go through again!
Walked as far as we could to the glacier … taking lots of photos as we went. :o) Headed back to the dreaded river and got across .. Kyle decided to go back in since he loved it so much and ended up falling in! Got him back to the car as soon as possible, stripped him off and heated him up. He (and his sister) were so exhausted by the trip that they were both asleep before we got out of the car park. Drove down to Fox Glacier and Bobby had a quick look to see if it was worth doing the walk the next morning … decided not to because the sign said you couldn’t get near the glacier there either because it was unsafe (falling ice).
<Note here … a couple of days after we left a group of four Australian Indians ignored that notice and got caught in an ice fall. Two escaped with injuries, they dug one out the next day but he didn’t make it and the fourth is still in there. They say he may never come out and if he does he will probably be washed out in the glacier river … but that may take years!
You see people wandering up to these glaciers in flip flops (jandals to those of you who can speak kiwi), shorts and t-shirts and wonder what they’re thinking … take heed, this is a dangerous environment!!>
Mon 29th Dec
Headed off down the west coast and into the Haast Pass (for those of you who have never been to NZ … the South Island, due to the mountains, basically has one road running up the east coast, one up the west coast and a couple across the middle … the Haast Pass is one of the ones across the middle). There was some stunning scenery along the way .. The river is the most amazing colour of blue (this is one of my strongest memories from our last visit to the South Island). Got to a place called Makarora which is absolutely gorgeous (scenery wise) … blue river, flood plain with mountains either side. If only it wasn’t for the snow … I could definitely live there! :o)
Road continues on to Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea .. Which again are that blue colour … stunning! Between Wanaka and Queenstown (where we were headed for the night), we passed through a little place called Cardrona … we were literally passing through when Kyle screamed that he’d just seen a huge monster truck (which he is really into at the moment) .. We turned the car around to see what he’d spotted and right enough, he managed to find the only monster truck adventure park in the whole of NZ (we’ve found that out since). Stopped the car and went for a look .. The guy let Kyle have a seat in one of the monster trucks and explained that 6yrs+ kids could drive it with their families in there … while driving over some parked cars! Not surprisingly, Kyle quite fancied this idea … There were also some off road race cars that adults could take round a dirt track … sounds like fun! Unfortunately for both Kyle and me, they were about to close and since it was New Year, would not be open again until after we were further north. We will have to fly to Queenstown at some point and let him do it as he keeps talking about it.
Queenstown was very busy .. It’s obviously the place all the youngsters from the South Island go for New Year … :o(
Tues 30th Dec
We had some brunch and then got enough shopping to last us till the 2nd so by the time we left Queenstown it was early afternoon. Drove to Milford Sound … it’s a spectacular view as you near the Sound .. The glacial impact is very obvious .. The mountains are so steep that it’s basically a pure rock face so there were waterfalls running straight down the rock every now and again …
Got to the campsite … had a look around and realised that the tent sites were actually in the woods … couple of issues there:
1) The sandflies!
2) More importantly, the tent sites were set up for two man tents not three room tents like ours.
Had a mild panic as it was now late and we didn’t have enough time to get out of the Sound and back to civilisation to find somewhere to live. There were a couple of the sites which looked like we might just fit so got the tent out of the truck and had a go. The second site was just big enough to allow us to put the tent up however the two bedroom bits were unusable so we’d all have to sleep in the middle bit that night. Got the air mattress up that Bobby and I normally sleep on and the four of us squeezed in for the night.
Wed 31st Dec
To say it was an uncomfortable night would be quite an understatement! Kyle and Regan wriggled all night and Bobby and I ended up off the mattress on the uncomfortable ground for most of the night. On top of that .. It started pouring during the night and since the tent was not up correctly, we were worried about the rain coming in … And on top of that .. There are some VERY strange noises in the forest in the middle of the night … we think the really loud noise that kept waking Regan up was the keas …
By 8am, we were miserable … the tent was soaked through … and we’d decided that there was no way that we could put up with that for another two nights. Bobby took the tent down in the pouring rain while I entertained the kids in the lodge .. Felt really bad but what took Bobby a couple of hours to do would have taken even longer if the kids had been there.
We’d booked a cruise down the Sound for that day but the weather was so bad that we decided not to take the kids on the boat.
Left Milford worrying that we wouldn’t be able to find anywhere to stay on New Years Eve …
The views that had been stunning on the way in were absolutely amazing on the way out! The rain was so hard that those few waterfalls had turned into a near constant stream of water running down the mountain. Unfortunately, we didn’t get many photos as the weather was so bad I wasn’t taking the camera outside!
We decided to head for Invercargill (it wasn’t on our itinerary at all but thought that since it was a larger place it might have some spaces). We both love the film “The World’s Fastest Indian” which is set in Invercargill so decided to go and check it out.
Found a great motel and booked in for a couple of nights … phew! Actually managed to get the tent dry in the garden of the motel as well which was great and the owners gave us the keys to their garage as well so we could store the camping stuff … What started off as a horrible day .. Turned out really well … I like Invercargill! :o)
Thurs 1st Jan
Didn’t expect much to be open but found that the local museum which houses the Burt Munro exhibit (the World’s Fastest Indian guy) was, so spent some of the day in there .. It was really interesting and Kyle loved it when we explained what he did. There was also a tuatara exhibit which Kyle also loved as he‘s learning all about them at school .. The oldest tuatara there is called Henry and he’s 111.
From the museum, we headed out to Oreti Beach which is the beach that Burt raced the bike along. Spent a while there watching Kyle do his fastest Indian impression on this new bike! ;o)
Kids then fell asleep so we headed down to Bluff which is the most southerly point of the South Island and is famous for it’s oysters. Realised while we were there that on 1/1/08, we’d been in Cape Reinga which is the most northerly point of the North Island and on 1/1/09, we were in Bluff! It’s strange how things turn out as we hadn’t planned to be anywhere near here at any point in our trip!
Fri 2nd Jan
Headed to Dunedin but decided against tent as the weather was a bit cool/wet/windy … campsite had some room in the lodge so went there instead. Had a look around the city centre (and found the railway station for the next days trip). Dunedin definitely has the Edinburgh influence .. Apart from the city centre being full of streets like Princes St, George St, Hanover St, Frederick St etc, the architecture is much more like the UK than anything else I’d seen in NZ .. From everything I’d heard from other people, I’d expected to like Dunedin but I have to say … it didn’t really do it for us.
Sat 3rd Jan
We had booked the train trip through the Taieri Gorge before we got here … the one track railway line is a bit like Bo’ness and Kinneil .. It’s run by a bunch of enthusiasts who take people like us for trips on their trains! The journey wasn’t as spectacular as I’d thought it would be to be honest, but there was still some lovely scenery and Kyle loves being on trains of any type so it was a good day nonetheless.
We passed an old station house which has been sold on as a holiday home and has no gas, electricity or phone. There was a old bath down by the river which the guy explained that they have to fill with river water and heat with a fire underneath if they want a bath. For those of us who watch McLeod’s Daughters that may not actually sound so bad … but you’d have to check the train timetable before you decided to go for a soak! :o)
After the train, we went to the transport and settlers museum. The Settlers museum was all about the boat loads of Scots who arrived starting in the mid 1800s .. With portraits of them all hung on the walls and details of who they married etc .. it was really interesting. They also had a lifesize version of the inside of one of the boats that brought them over … not a very comfortable passage I would think.
Sun 4th Jan
Next stop was Oamaru which we’d chosen because of the blue penguin colony. Got there to discover that Oamaru has a whole lot more than penguins! Its claim to fame is that it’s NZs only Victorian town. Where we’d thought that Dunedin had a lot of architecture .. It’s got nothing on Oamaru. Apparently, the architect came from Glasgow so all the buildings were based on similar designs … and it’s pretty obvious when you look at them .. They all look very familiar.
We were supposed to go and see the penguins that night but Reggie had a sore tummy so managed to reschedule to the next night instead.
Mon 5th Jan
Spent the day wandering around the town … they are currently in the process of restoring all the Victorian buildings that are left and are doing a really good job of it. In the older part of town, all the people in the shops/tourist info type places are dressed in Victorian costume as well which is quite nice. There are some interesting shops .. A guy who makes carvings in the local sandstone, a furniture maker, a soap factory etc.
Kids had quite a long sleep in the afternoon to make sure that they could stay awake for the penguins that night … as they don’t start to come back onshore until it gets dark which is around 9.30pm at the moment. The penguins come in in “rafts” (groups) of around 20 to 30 at a time. They jump out the sea and waddle up the rocks to their holes in the ground homes. You can hear them coming from quite far out and when the noise starts, all the babies come running out of their holes squawking for mum! They are very cute and very fluffy but also very noisy. It’s an amazing sight watching those little guys. By the time we left, they’d counted around 220 of them back in but they were expecting around 300 that night.
Tues 6th Jan
North to ChCh (Christchurch) … typical city with lots of shops, motels etc. We bought Reggie some little presents for her birthday the next day (big present to happen when we get home) and had a wander around.
Main difference in ChCh was the weather … temp was up around 28 degrees (although we heard on the news a couple of days later that it reached 40 the day we left!).
Wed 7th Jan
Happy 2nd Birthday Reggie!
Last stop in the South Island was Kaikoura … home of the whales! I like the scenery up that way too … I studied the impact of flooding on the Kaikoura Ranges by aerial photography as part of my Uni geomorphology course so it’s especially interesting to me.
Checked out the Whaleway Station to see whether we were going to lie about Reggie’s age and risk the boat but most of the boats had been cancelled due to bad weather out at sea (it was gorgeous weather on land) so that made the decision for us. Couldn’t decide whether to go via helicopter/plane instead until we saw a notice in town saying average whale sightings were one per trip … not really worth the $180 each cost. Decided to go to Hanmer Springs the next day instead.
Ate out that night since it was Reggie’s birthday .. Nice meal … then went back to the motel for birthday cake.
Thurs 8th Jan
Drive to Hanmer was another spectacular one … lots of blue streams, gravel beds etc.
On the ferry over we’d been advised of the didymo bio security warning in the South Island … (it’s an algae problem they have in the South Island rivers which hasn’t reached the North Island yet … and they are trying to stop) … and there was actually quite a lot of evidence of it up here .. Haven’t noticed it anywhere else.
The springs themselves are great … lots of different pools, some thermal, some freshwater so we spent the rest of the day in there. Everyone had a great time .. We must do this more often at home as there is a similar place 20 minutes up the road from the house.
Fri 9th Jan
Drove up the coast to Picton and got the ferry across to Wellington. I’d cancelled the motel in Wellington a couple of days earlier as we’d decided to try and get further up meaning we’d be home on Saturday late afternoon rather than Sunday … means I’d have time to do the washing!
Crossing went okay and kids were well behaved. Got up to Ohakune that night so the drive up to Auckland was not too bad the day after.
It was Kyle’s 6th birthday at the end of May. On the Sunday before his birthday, we took him and four of his friends to the movies to see the second “Night at the Museum”. To say it was like herding cats would be a bit of an understatement. We ended up with a wanderer … youch! I kept losing him!! Movie was okay and they seemed to enjoy it. Then came back to ours for play and food. Tried to make it a bit healthy so got real chicken nuggets (rather than those disgusting things you buy in cafes) and only our two would eat them! Oh well…. good try!
On the Tuesday was the school MOTAT trip. Arrived early at school and got told my six children … most of whom I knew which was good. A double decker arrived to take us to the museum, which they all thought was great as it’s not a common thing down here. Spent the day walking around the transport museum but I didn’t see very much as I was constantly checking I still had six! And if I thought the wanderer at the movies had been bad then I was completely wrong as I’ve now discovered there is such a thing as a sneaky wanderer! This little guy would keep an eye on me out of the corner of his eye and as soon as I looked the other way … he’d be off! This happened a couple of times before I realised what he was up to! Once I had worked him out … it was fine, but made it difficult to keep an eye on the others. End result?? Six out, six in … so I have to take that as a success! :o)
On Queens birthday weekend, we went to Sandy Bay on the Tutukaka Coast (north of Whangerei). I think we’ve now found “that place” that if we could afford a bach … that’s where it would be! Gorgeous. The bach we were staying in could have been lovely but it wasn’t very clean and the fireplace smoked out constantly so the air was always a bit dusty/smoky. They are actually trying to sell the house but are not really presenting it very well so I’m not surprised it’s not sold yet. Maybe we should offer our services as the house doctors …. seemed to work well when selling our own houses. The weekend was good though … didn’t do too much as I could only hobble at that point due to my ankle.
Work has been very busy this week … 45 contractors leave … there’s bound to be an impact on the permanent staff left. Haven’t had a lunch hour all week and have been working till 11 or 12 most nights. Needless to say I was extremely tired come Friday night ….
Today was the nursery day out at the zoo … we were meeting at Western Springs Park first for a picnic lunch. Had lunch …. Reggie slept through the whole thing because she had been swimming in the morning … then everyone started to head off to the zoo. Since it was so hot and we’d been at the zoo a couple of weeks ago, we decided to head to the beach instead. Went north again to Big Manly Beach and spent a couple of hours up there. It was a lovely day and both kids were exhausted by the time we got home.