There's no place like home!

Thursday 26th Feb 2009

We've been home sweet home since Saturday night when we were met off the train by Annie and John and delivered back to the flat. Our journey went very smoothly and by the time I'd landed at Heathrow and collected my bags, then found the Terminal where Emirates flights land, Julie arrived on time and we had no hitches getting home from Euston.

It's taken a few days to get back to a normal rhythm of life. Julie stayed till yesterday and at first we were both falling asleep in the early evening and waking in the early hours to make tea and chat! Today however, I woke after a good night's sleep and decided to go for a swim before breakfast. It was a brisk walk to the local pool and as there was no-one at the desk I went right in. (I have a pensioners card for free swimming!) I thought it was very quiet and as I got into my cossie and stashed my clothes in a locker, two members of staff appeared to tell me the pool is closed for maintenance! So I had a good walk anyway!

Rich arrived last night for a few days and its really good to see him again. As I don't yet have broadband, we're in a WiFi Cafe in town. So that's all for now. Will continue when I'm online again. Now I have Michael's visit to look forward to this coming summer!!

Wet in Aukland

Friday 20th Feb 2009

I'm writing from the Airport at Aukland,where it's been raining since the early hours of this morning. We struggled here from our campsite on the coast through driving rain, low cloud and torrential spray from passing trucks. Julie drove manfully through it all and got us here safely by 1.00pm to deliver our faithful campervan to its destination, where others waited to start their trips. That's the worst weather we've had, so we're glad to have had the best of the weather for the past 16 days.

Julie's flight just left with her safely on board and I have another three and a half hours till my flight. However, this computer is not working very well, so I'll say goodbye for now until I return in a couple of days!

Bliss in Taupo

Thursday 19th Feb 2009

Imagine lying in a rock pool bubbling with hot green water from a thermal spring! Well its not quite as natural as that as the pools are concrete, but the water is for real. Last night, after having driven all day halfway through the North Island, passing Mount Doom on the way, saw us relaxing here at Taupo Hot Springs as it got dark and then, feeling in need of adventure, we ventured up a stairway to the top of a giant water slide, which was quite something. I'm glad I did it last night as it was closed this morning when we went for a last dip before leaving. We were camped next to Lee, a New Zealander who is usually to be found at a market stall at Camden Lock in London. If you get around to reading this Lee, didn't we enjoy that slide?!

Today is our penultimate day as we fly home tomorrow (Friday) night. We still have to visit Roturua to see the geysers and hope to camp on a beach tonight before delivering our faithful campervan to Auckland.

Julie's flight is in the early evening, while mine leaves at 10.45pm approx. She goes west as I go east and all being well, we meet at Heathrow within 2 hours of each other. Then all we have to do is get the train home (Julie already booked tickets) but by then we'll no doubt be jetlagged and exhausted and will probably need a month to recover!! I believe Cathy flies home on the same day from Sri Lanka and you never know, we could all meet up on Saturday at Heathrow!

I don't know when I'll be able to write again, maybe at the airport.

Hectic Travels

Tuesday 17th Feb 2009

Just to let everyone know, we're now in the North Island, having come by ferry this afternoon to Wellington. The past few days have been too hectic to blog, having all the usual problems of internet not working or too slow and money running out.

So we're doing fine and will write more ASAP!!!

We just Had to Do It!

Friday 13th Feb 2009

The leaflet said so. When we moved on to Queenstown we thought we'd missed the opportunity to see Milford Sound because of the grey day but Julie had picked up a handful of leaflets detailing various trips and singled out one that offered a flight from Queenstown to Milford Sound, then a cruise on the Sound, with a flight back making it a round trip. Expensive? Yes, but certainly worth it for a four and a half hour trip. So we debated... if the weather improved should we check if it was available the next morning? I expected it to be booked up; then we could move on to the West Coast and get some miles behind us. However, when I checked at the Camp office this morning there was a flight avaiable at 10.am, which gave us just 30 minutes to get ready. How could we not do it?
It's late and I don't have time to do it justice, so I'll end with a few words... Awesome! Stupendous! Incredibly beautiful! The highlight of any trip!!!

I didn't expect a big plane, but I must admit to being surprised at how 5 passengers and the pilot could squeeze into this shoebox with wings! I do enjoy flying, even when we soar skyward and drop a few feet in turbulence. The words of Peter Pan come top mind; "To die would be an awfully great adventure." Or as Julie commented... "Its a good day to die"... especially doing something so awesome! It makes living so precious!

This is a view of the open ground around a hill (called Paradise) at the end of the lake where they filmed parts of The Lord of the Rings. Then over the peaks and coming in over Milford Sound.

However, flying there was only part of the trip as we went by smallish boat all the way down to the Tasman Sea and back again, coming in close to this waterfall on the way! On the way we got close up to seals basking on the rocks and a large bottlenosed dolphin keeping up with the boat, just for fun I presume! Then we had the further thrill of flying back with cloud obscuring the mountain peaks!

Remarkable!

Thurs 12th Feb 2009

Last night found us at Manapouri, the gateway to Milford Sound; the 'must-do' for tourists! We arrived late as the sun was setting in a rosy glow over the impressive mountains. Believing that the red sky at night portended a good morning, we intended to get an early start for the hundred mile round trip to Milford Sound; the only road there and back. Waiting for the only computer to be vacated by others, we had an interesting chat with Nigel, a Hydro-electrical engineer from Invercargill working on a small project locally. We always take the opportunity to talk to the locals and Julie says thanks for the beer Nigel!

Today however, the weather wasn't usual for a summer's day and we woke late and tired after the long drive yesterday, so decided to do the next best thing and make for Te Anau where we watched a wonderful film of flights aound the peaks and depths of this fantastic landscape. It was so impressive I just had to buy the DVD. The little cinema was very comfortable and we had coffee served while waiting for it to start. It was a warm relief from the cold grey outside.

With only one week left, we have to decide what to cut out or we'll be doing nothing but driving!!!!!

The drive from there to Queenstown became more dramatic as mountains loomed even higher out of the mist. We booked into a town centre campsite by 6.00pm and came for a walk around this very busy and popular tourist town at the foot of the range of the Remarkables mountains, a centre for skiing in the winter. Here I've found a Global Gossip internet centre, which I have credit to use!

So I should be able to download a few pics on the previous blogs!

SOUTHLANDS

Wed 11th Feb 2009

In the last two days we've visited Dunedin; a very nice city with an octagonal centre, a great Museum and Art Gallery, not to mention the wonderful Railway Station, decorated throughout in Royal Doulton tiles shipped out from England in the last century! It was cloudy and starting to rain so we decided to camp on the Otago peninsular, hoping to see some wildlife the following morning. It was so cold that night I wore my hooded jacket to keep my head warm and we were glad to have power so we could use the electric blow heater to warm up the van. This was only one night after we had all the doors and windows open because it was so warm! That was the night the moon came up bloodred and we were told it was because of the smoke blowing over from the dreadful fires in Australia where Rich and I had travelled only two weeks before!

From Dunedin we travelled south along the coast and through the Catlins, a most beautiful area often bypassed by tourists. Along the way we saw a few little rare penguins and seals way below at the foot of cliffs. One of Julie's sandals was lost and must have fallen out when the door was opened, but while retracing our steps to look for it this morning we chanced on an artist's studio with a Welsh name, so stopped to say hello. As we chatted to the the very interesting lady Janice, she invited us in for a coffeee so that was another interesting diversion. She lives in this wonderful little house on the edge of the sea and paints landscapes, angels and other interesting stuff. Thanks Janice for an lovely morning and I'll post the pics as soon as I can.

Right now we're at the beginning of Fiordland in Manapuri and my time is running out, so thanks to everyone who leaves a comment; I love to hear from you. Hello Jo-jo... so glad you're reading this and I hope it helps to practice your English!

WAITANGI DAY (cont.)

Friday 6th Feb 2009 was NZ's National Day and we were in the right place to to celebrate. Okains Bay on the Banks Peninsula is the local playground for the good people of Christchurch and we went to beautiful Okains Bay for a Settlers and Maori day, (where a longboat was rowed along the river by a motley crew of young people) before camping among pine trees on the shore of a bay. Simply paradise! Julie did a valiant job of keeping us on the precipitous, long and winding road around the rim of the ancient volcano that makes up this peninsula.

We were befriended by Vivien and Malcolm from Christchurch, with Carlos, a student from Saudi, who offered us a bed and a meal if we ever return. thanks for that Viv!

However, as we drove and listened to the radio it seems that not all New Zealanders are happy with this treaty that was drawn up in 18-something between the government of Queen Vic and some (not all) Maori chiefs at a place called Waitangi. Knowing virtually nothing of the history, we heard an interesting phone-in discussion, with contributions from some disaffected Maoris. This echoed the sentiments of Aborigines that we'd heard in Australia; that many of the original inhabitants regard 'Australia Day' as the day their country was invaded.
Much like our ancestors the Britons must have felt about the Roman invasion; building all those roads and cities, spas and country villas, defining boundaries and fencing off private spaces! We're just following their tradition after all.

(Trying to get online in different places can pose quite a problem. First I have to find a computer that works, that doesn't have a queue waiting to use it, will hopefully allow me to download pics and store them to my portable hard-drive and last but not least, doesn't eat up all my dollars before I've finished answering emails, checked who's on msn messenger and written a few words of the blog!) That's my only gripe... the trip is still fantastic, in spite of cold and rain!)

To get back to our trip. We'd spent three nights and two days on the Banks peninsula and could hardly tear ourselves away, but the rest of the country beckoned and we returned to Christchurch briefly to stock up with food and water. We'd found a large shop full of secondhand goods and thought it prudent to kit ourselves out with a woolly hat for me and gloves for Julie, as well as a large duvet for extra warmth, as surprisingly the nights can be quite cold. So by Saturday afternoon we were heading South-east along the Scenic Highway down the centre of the country with a huge mountain mass appearing on our right.

Early evening we paused at Geraldine, a small town where we bought home-baked pies; one of venison cooked in wine (absolutely delicious) and the other of curried chickpea and vege (equally delicious.) There we noticed a small poster advertising a local Folk music Festival, so always on the lookout for an interesting diversion, we found it happening on someone's small organic farm and stayed there for the night, enjoying some really good singing and lively music that kept us dancing until midnight. (Really!) When it was announced that a sweatlodge was ready for use, Julie was ready for it, (we had been drinking wine) but I was not prepared to take off all my clothes and sit butt-naked in a large oven before plunging into the waters of a small freezing river, so I went to bed. I should mention that it had got so cold I had to don my fleece, coat and woolly hat when not dancing. I awoke at 300am to find that Julie had still not returned and again had to cope with these reccurring fears; that she'd got lost in the dark or fallen into the river and been swept away. What should I do in such circumstances? Go and search for her in the dark? Wake everyone to find her?

It was only when I'd got to the point of genuine acceptance that whatever happened couldn't be changed by worrying about it, that she suddenly returned with apologies and explanation that everyone went through the ritual three times they were enjoying it so much! (Masochistic to my mind.)

Next morning after some great Yoga stretches in a group and a good breakfast, we continued on the Scenic Highway across wild highlands buffeted by strong winds, to the first of two lakes of the most incredible turquise blue, due to certain rock particles in suspension. It was so bleak we moved on the the second lake, (I'll put the names in later) where we had a good view of Mt Cook in the far distance. AWESOME!

By evening we'd followed the course of a river down to the coast at Oamaru, where we camped in relative comfort, though it was very hot that night and we had to leave the doors and windows open while we slept.

Setting off

Tomorrow, Friday 6th Feb is New Zealand's National Day with an unforgettable name that I can't recall right now. When we picked up our camper yesterday it was after 5.00pm because of late arrivals at the depot, so we decided it was too late to go very far. Not only that, we were both very tired and wanted to get familiar with driving gradually. I told you that this was the only van available right now as I hadn't booked ahead and everyone wants to get away on their National Holiday. This is not the most luxurious type of camper. Indeed the Toyota Hiace is the Hilton compared to this! However, it's servicable and has the basic amenities; one-ring gas cooker, cold box, sink, water and a large bed with duvets and pillows etc. The outside has been decorated by a demented artist, whose work adorns all their identical vans. We are not inconspicious! But it's Automatic, which makes driving so easy!

The man at the Camper Rental office suggested we make for the Banks Peninsular, which he promised would be a nice relaxing area to visit. As Julie has no experience of driving an automatic we were relieved to be travelling on quiet roads. Soon after leaving Christchurch we were driving through stunning scenery with hills and mountains on every side, so when we found a promising campsite for the night, it was in the middle of beautiful woodland with a stream running nearby and the incessant sound of cicadas. The only amenities were natural woodland toilets and one cold shower. I slept well although Julie woke at 4.00am and suggested we go for a walk as the dawn chorus was incredible, an offer I sleepily declined.

Today, following a steep, winding road up and over the rim of a long ago volcanic crater, we reached Akaroa, a beautiful spot on an arm of the sea and the place Capotain Cook first landed (I think.) He named the area, which he thought to be an island, after Joseph Banks, the naturalist on the voyage of the Endeavour.

It just happens that there will be a big gathering at another place along the coast tomorrow, with Maori longboats and traditional feast, so we've booked into the campsite and will be there early.

Thanks for your messages. Julie noticed she'd had missed calls but realised its been set to silent so has now changed it. Hopefully she'll now hear if you phone her!

Hello Jules!

I'm sure everyone will be relieved to know that Julie arrived on time at 3.15pm, jet-lagged but looking good! I surely am glad anyway! Now I have someone to share my worries with! Not kidding.
The other news is that I booked us a campervan as it seemed there were none to be had for another week, so I took the one that is available tomorrow. Its small but adequate and will do us for the next 10 days. After that we'll have a week to get to the North Island and Aukland.

Jule here ... I hear I was lucky to leave Heathrow before the snow closed it down. Not only did we touch down in Dubai, but also Bangkok and Sydney, going through customs and all the security checks with our baggage, losing my Aloe Vera in the process! I was randomly selected to be electronically searched at Sydney. A lady sitting by me on the plane stopped breathing as we were taking off from Bangkok while her husband pleaded for help and I held her hand waiting for oxygen equipment and the ship's doctor to resuscitate her. Quite an eventful journey and I'm glad to be back on terra firma after nearly 30 hours travelling! Whew!! Patsy's typing furiously as I'm too tired to concentrate. when I get my phone working tomorrow I'll be getting in touch with everyone.

Amelia... I'll try to Skype you tomorrow at 5.00pm here which should be 10.00am in thailand. If this fails, let's email

Bag found... Daughter not!

I expected to meet Julie today at 3.15pm and was duly there with camera at the ready to capture her arrival. It just so happened that four flights arrived at around the same time and there was quite a crowd waiting to greet all the arrivals. We all waited patiently as passengers began to trickle through; it does take some time to clear customs and security. After an hour my wayward mind began to conjure up the worst scenarios; she'd missed her flight from Heathrow because the London train had been held up or worse... she'd been taken ill enroute... she'd got lost at Dubai and missed the connecting flight... or she'd been caught carrying some illegal substance, like food.

I'm not kidding; on arrival I was confronted by large posters warning of the dire consequences of not declaring any food; not just fresh fruit, veg, meat or fish, but anything at all! I was also instructed to declare if I'd been hiking in the country or camping in the forest, in case there were deadly substances on my boots, or any water sports equipment. So, fearful of being fined or imprisoned, I filled in my declaration that indeed I had been hiking and camping in the countrysde of Australia and I was actually carrying snorkelling gear that Rich had bought. When I reported my lost bag I was interrogated by a very nice security man, who looked bemused when I admitted to smuggling a small half-bottle of olive oil, an opened jar of pesto and some rice and pasta in my bag.

Anyway, back to this afternoon. When I'd waited for almost two hours and was assured that the last passenger had come through, I looked for assistance at the Emirates counter where a very nice lady informed me that she couldn't give any information on a passenger because of privacy laws, (how ridiculous can things get?) then suggested that I'd come on the wrong day. Now I'm not really stupid, but Julie did give me this date; Monday 2nd Feb. However, neither of us had taken into consideration the tremendous time difference, so yes, its tomorrow that she'll arrive, having left Heathrow at 8.00 this morning NZ time and will arrive here on Tuesday 3rd.

I did get my bag back and the food was still there, although customs had obviously been through it. So I was able to have pasta with pesto for my dinner with veg I'd just bought. Now I can change my clothes too, when the young men in the dorm are not about!

Anxious in Christchurch

I've been having strange feelings of unease since Richard left me in Sydney. Maybe I was just feeling vulnerable on my own and getting paranoid about losing something valuable, like money, credit cards or passport. Late at night as I was returning to my hostel in Sydney I was approached by a young man who asked for money, claiming he'd had his wallet stolen. I was immediately on my guard and told him I had nothing to spare, which was true as I was eking out my last few dollars. Afterwards I was overwhelmed by the feeling of being alone without any means of support and regretted not giving him my day bus ticket, valid until midnight, which would have taken him home.

After having my phone stolen from my baggage, (I was stupid not to have it on my person all the time) and my wallet lifted in Cambodia, (I put the blame on Mark for insisting I didn't need it chained to my bag!) I've been working on all my latent fears of loss with EFT, which has been interesting to say the least! My fears were realised when my bag was lost in transit from Australia, confirming the idea that thoughts create our reality! It's not always so easy to change the thought patterns of a lifetime and I'm having a real challenge with this one!

I booked into this Hostel as it was reccommended by the bus driver, and later found that its all unisex, so there's no privacy and I'm sharing a dorm with four young men, so that's a first! I was in bed by 10pm and asleep by the time anyone else came in and they didn't disturb me, although I probably disturbed their sleep when I got up at 8.30 this morning. The only place to dress was in the shower, which was roomy enough anyway. Because I don't have my case I don't even have a change of clothes and I had to buy a fleece last night as its so cool here!

Now I'm in New Zealand, the land I've been so looking forward to visiting because I wanted to emigrate here when I was 19, I'm wondering what I'm doing here so far from home! However, I'm sure I'll feel much better when Julie arrives this afternoon.

I've been having real problems with my picture memory cards, telling me they were full when I knew they were not. So I just found a photography shop where they were checked and found to be OK. Suddenly they are working again and I wonder if it was the heat affecting the camera! Anyway, I'll download a few now and onto previous blogs. I've bought credit on this Global Gossip card which means I can use their computers in most towns and the phone anywhere, which is a great relief.