Silence is golden

It’s been a while!

Since we last posted, we have done lots of stuff. The weekend was spent watching cricket. Or, to be more accurate, Jonny watched cricket and I read a book. A whole book in fact. Both boys were playing, and we got to watch Stefan. He did really well on Saturday, and got 40 runs (apparently this is good, I have a lot to learn) and his team won.

Yesterday, we set off for Manapouri, for our overnight trip to Doubtful Sound. From Manapouri, we had a 50 minute boat trip across a lake and a 45 bus trip over the mountains, before boarding the Fiordland Navigator at Deep Cove. So nice and easy to get to!

Doubtful Sound

We had a fantastic trip. To start, we had a safety briefing from Captain Dave, and then we were shown to our cabins. We had booked a ‘quad-share’ bunk rather than a twin room, because it was half the price, in the hope that it wouldn’t be busy and we would have our own room anyway. Not so. We were sharing our very close quarters with an English couple. Very cosy!

After a couple of hours sailing, we arrived in First Arm – an inlet off the main sound. This was our stop for the afternoons activities. Jonny went kayaking. I went in the tender craft – a motorboat that took us out on a nature cruise. We even got to see some penguins!

Don't fall in!

Then it was on a bit further, out to the Tasman Sea. We saw some seals, and more penguins. The sea was pretty rough and this was not fun!

After that it was dinner time where we had an amazing meal…lots and lots of food! It was also good because we had a chance to chat to lots of different people. We ate dinner with an Australian couple. He was in the Merchant Navy and had spent time in Northern Ireland!

The evenings entertainment was a slideshow about the area and New Zealand in general. I thought this sounded a bit boring, but it turned out to be really funny and well worth going to.

It was an early start this morning to we finished last night off with a game of snakes and ladders and off to our cabin. It was funny, we thought people would be propping up the bar the whole night, but everyone settled in with cups of tea and the board games provided on the ship!

This morning, we were up at 6, for breakfast at 7. We started to make our way back to deep cove. Along the way, we sailed into Hall Arm – another inlet. Captain Dave cut all the engines and generators, so we were in complete silence. This gave us the chance to take in the surroundings as they should be! It was pretty impressive.

We made our way back to Manapouri, via the bus and boat trips, and we are now in Te Anau. We are killing some time until later when we are going on a glow worm cave trip, so that should be fun.

Jill

Don’t mess with the Falcon!

Speight's Brewery

Hi people,

Last time we spoke we had seen a slightly different version of Niagara Falls! Thursday saw us end up in the city of Dunedin. Mainly because it started out a wet day and we didn’t feel like spending time on beaches in the rain further down the coast.

As the name suggests this city has a bit of a scottish feel to it, most street names are along that theme and big old british looking buildings everywhere. Our first stop was a tour of Speight’s Brewery near the city centre. It was pretty good, got to see the whole brewing process right through to finishing up in the bar for a taste. Personally I’m not sure what all the fuss is about….it didn’t taste like much to me!

Then it was on to see a world record breaker, a street! Yes the steepest street in the world lives in Dunedin. Baldwin Street at it’s steepest point is 1:2.86. Now that is steep and it’s a bit of a climb to get to the top. We decided not to try and take the spaceship up it, I think it might have ended in disaster.

Baldwin Street

Yesterday we were back at the farm in Riversdale and spent the day with Gill seeing some local sights and enjoying the sunshine. I aslo had a run in with some local wildlife. We went to a place called Piano Flat up in the hills near here. As it turned out Falcons were nesting in the forest near where we were walking and one of them took a disliking to me. First I knew about him being there was when he dive bombed me, I literally felt his claws brush my hair as he swooped past. Needless to say we beat a hasty retreat and left them to their nesting.

Today we are heading into Gore to watch the boys play cricket for their school teams so Jill is really looking forward to that. I think she might even be trying sneak a book in with her to read! Then early in the morning (6am in fact) It’s rugby time, where i get to watch the mighty Ireland beat the All Blacks with some genuine New Zealanders.

Jonny

The other Niagara Falls

Hi everyone! Jill here!

Well, we have just been taking it easy for the past few days, it’s been great! On Monday, we spent the day not doing a lot. We took a walk across the fields to the river that runs alongside the farm and then spent the afternoon in Gore, the nearest town. We discovered that Gore is the world capital of brown trout fishing! So there you go.

We also had a go at shooting and the boys took us fishing at the river in the evening. We’re turning into hunters!!! Didn’t catch much, apart from weeds and sticks!

Jill shows them how it's done

Yesterday, Jonny spent the afternoon on the farm with Wayne, employed in various tasks such as opening and closing gates when required. Gill and I went shopping!!

So it has been lovely just relaxing and enjoying being in a house again, and not having to move about all the time. They are looking after us really well, and it’s great seeing them all again!

Today, however, we set off for a few days round the Catlin’s on the south coast. We made a few interesting stops today. First was to see some sealions at Waipapa point. I wanted to go right up to them, but Jonny (probably very wisely) wouldn’t let me! The warnings were everywhere about staying well away! Next stop was lunch, in a place (you cannot say town) called Niagara! We followed the sign for ‘Niagara Falls’ to see what it was all about. Turns out, it was being ironic. New Zealand’s version is a little stream! The sign even had a big picture of the American Falls…in case people get mixed up!

But we have already been there!

Then it was on to our stop for the night, at a place called Chaslands. We took a drive to the waterfall beside the camp site – McLeans Falls. We had a lovely walk through the forest, and the waterfall was very impressive. So lots of waterfalls today!

Much more impressive

The weather was lovely all day, but started to get a bit cooler by the time we eventually arrived at a beach this afternoon, and we were eaten alive by flies when we tried to site on the sand, so we soon gave up on that!

So it was back to the camp site to make dinner, and we’re now sitting in the resident restaurant - the Whistling Frog cafe, surfing the web!

So that’s about all our excitement for now!

Jill

Home from home

Hi there

 

We have now, after almost 8 weeks on the road reached my big sister’s house. For those of you who are interested and have a map their dairy farm is located just outside Riversdale, near Gore. We arrived this afternoon and are finding it nice just being in a house again, we haven’t met any of the rest of the farms inhabitants yet (1100 cows give or take a few) but I’m sure that will be sorted out in the next couple of days.

 

Let’s fill you in on what’s been happening since our last post. Yesterday we left Franz Josef and took the short drive to Fox Glacier to have a look at it from a distance. What can I say about it…..lots of ice flowing down a big hill! No that would be selling it short, very impressive again but it’s not the same when you don’t get to walk on it.

 

We made our way down the coast to Haast where we started to head inland, up into the mountains and across Haast Pass. Very scenic stuff, snow capped peaks, massive lakes the works! Last night was spent in the town of Wanaka and the southern end of the Lake Wanaka.

 

Today before leaving we made a stop at Puzzling World on the outskirts of town. This place had lots of weird and wonderful illusions to confuse you like the Hall of Moving Faces & the Tilting Room as well as an outdoor 3D maze to get lost in.

 

From Wanaka we took the Crown Range road over the mountain and down into Queenstown. We spent a wee while wandering round the town and had lunch but the weather started to take a turn for the worse so we headed on. We’ll get back here again in the next couple of weeks for a better look round.

 

So that takes me back to the Blakeborough’s homestead and or home from home for the next wee while. Looks like everybody here is busy actually doing some work tomorrow (not sure what that is it’s been so long since we did any) so we are going to take ourselves off exploring. Not sure where yet but we’ll let you know what happens.

 

Jonny

Jill holds it all together

Ice, ice, baby…

So after a few days absence, I (Jill) am back again! Getting lazy and letting Jonny do all the work!

Today was our glacier walk. Last night, we almost froze to death! But this morning, we woke to blue skies, and a lovely view of the snowy mountains (couldn’t see them for all the clouds yesterday!)

We were picked up at 12.30 today and brought into the town to the place we booked the trip with. To start, we were kitted out – given raincoats, gloves, and crampons. Their only rule is ‘no jeans’ so we were there in our shorts!

We also had to sign in, and were questioned as to any medical problems. Everyone else was like “no, no, no”. Between my diabetes and Jonny’s gammy knee, we were probably the only people who had to write anything down! And probably watched more closely than anyone else for the rest of the day, in case we keeled over or died or anything!

Franz Josef Glacier

So then it was another bus trip to the start of our journey. In total, we were walking (including breaks) for about 4 hours! So it was a long enough day! We had to start a good 2-3km from the ice so there was a big walk through trees, little rivers and over a lot of rocks before we even reached the ice. When we arrived at the foot of the glacer, we were taught how to attach the crampons to our boots. Now, those crampons were the business! You stick to everything! No fear of slipping!!

Jill meets a Yeti

The glacier was pretty spectacular. And it wasn’t that cold (except when you touched the ice!). It was great fun climbing it – up steps carved out of the ice, holding on to ropes etc – all very impressive!

Climbing up a crevasse

So this evening, it was back to the camp site to cook some dinner! Now, the kitchens at all the camp sites we have been staying at are great. Great facilities, plenty of space to cook etc. Normally. It’s the weekend now, and the world has descended upon this camp site. It was a mad house tonight! There were 5 2 ring gas hobs in this kitchen. We managed to commandeer one to cook our chilli (which was an event in itself – turns out we misjudged how much we had and ended up with an overflowing pot and nowhere to put it all!) There was a man beside us, cooking up a storm – using 3 of the 5 hobs! It was like masterchef! He didn’t seem to notice the queues of people around him waiting to cook, all standing with their little tin pots and pans. He was in full flow, wearing his apron, glass of wine in hand, while the rest of his party sat waiting to be fed! We walked past the kitchen on our way to the computers, and they’re still there, and now on their 3rd bottle of wine!

So these camp sites are interesting places! We have made some Dutch friends – this is the 3rd campsite in a row we have been at with them!

Tomorrow, it’s on to Wanaka, and then on Sunday, we should arrive with Jonny’s sister.

Until then,

Jill

Weather like home!

We have arrived at the foot of the Southern Alps and staying at a campsite in Franz Josef. The weather has been pretty cold and bleak here since we last blogged but apparently it’s going to get better over the weekend.

Lets start back where we left off last time first of all. We headed west from Richmond yesterday morning along state highway 6 towards Westport (isn’t that supposed to be in Mayo!?!?!). Part of this road took us through Buller Gorge where the Buller river flows. We made a stop at the site of the longest Swing Bridge in New Zealand, 110m. $5 each lets you take a walk across it and explore a bush walk on the other side. Gold panning used to be big business along the river and if you want to can hire a pan and try and make yourself rich! With all the rain though the river was to high for any of those sorts of shenanigans.

Don't look down

Westport itself has a bit of a frontier town feel to it, which I suppose comes from the gold mining history as well as the coal mine that’s still in operation just a bit north of the town. The main attraction for us was to be found at Cape Foulwind a little bit out of the town. Now the place lived up to its name, as it would have blown the head clean off you out there. The cape is also home to a seal colony. After a little walk from the car park around a headland you see a whole pile of seals lying about on the rocks. They are a bit lazy around this time of year as it turns out next month they start having pups.

The weather steadily deteriorated last night and with a good bit of the south island already having snow yesterday we thought we would wake up to some today. Instead we got lashed with rain and a whole pile of hailstones most of the night, which as it turns out makes a lot of noise inside our little spaceship!!

So after a peaceful nights sleep it was time to soldier on south along the coast. We made a stop at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks. Now these rocks are not as I thought a couple of big circular pieces of stone sitting in the sea that look like pancakes…they are actually stacks of rocks with lots of layers in them and they do look like pancakes. After that description you all know i should have been a geologist!! Anyway the rocks have been eroded into lots of crazy formations and were pretty impressive. (Unfortunately we haven’t been able to put photos on again which would help with the description but sadly wireless conections in New Zealand aren’t all they are cracked up to be!)

Pancakes anyone?

So that brings us back to a computer, at a campsite in Franz Josef. We got a quick glimpse of the glacier itself as we arrived in town this evening but we will get to see it properly tomorrow. We doing a half day trip up onto the glacier, so I’m guessing we might be cold again!

Jonny

The Pigs Head

Wellington from the Ferry

It was an early start yesterday (Monday) so we could catch the ferry to Picton. We made our way through Wellington to the terminal and got there by 7am. After getting parked up below deck and finding a seat away from a rowdy school trip who were joining us for the crossing it wasn’t long until we got under way. Now a ferry trip is a ferry trip, so not to much excitement occurred I’m afraid. About 3.5 hours later we arrived in sunny Picton where we stopped for a walk around to stretch our legs before hitting the road. 

We had decided our general destination for the night would be the city of Nelson, after a couple of hours driving along twisty mountain roads most of the way we arrived. We were pretty wrecked by this stage so had some lunch then took a wander around the centre of town to take in the sights then on to our campsite in Richmond on the south side of Nelson.

Today we headed up towards Abel Tasman National Park from Richmond. Sadly it was a bit dull and overcast unlike the last couple of days but we can’t complain I suppose. We headed along the coast to the town of Motueka. Now nothing too exciting about this place apart from the fella we met in the supermarket while buying some food supplies. On a shelf in the meat cabinet was……a whole pigs head! Just sitting there looking out at us from it’s empty eye sockets! Unfortunately we decided we couldn’t cook it in the spaceship so we had to pass on buying it.

We spent the rest of this afternoon at a couple of different beaches in Kaiteriteri and Marahau. Beautiful places and hardly anyone about so we had the place almost all to ourselves. My time on the internet is running short so i’ll have to run but we head further south again tomorrow down the west coast.

More updates soon hopefully,

Jonny

Football fix

Jill and Jo

Well, we haven’t made it online in a few days. We’re in Wellington, visiting with Jo (friend from school who I haven’t seen in 9 whole years) and Glenn and staying with them tonight (and currently using their internet!)

The last few days haven’t been terribly eventful. On Friday, we travelled to Wanganui and spent the afternoon looking round the town and down at the beach. We also found this little glassworks place where we got to watch a man making paper weights, I think! All very exciting. The highlight of this day for Jonny however was getting to see premiership highlights on Sky Sports on the tv at the campsite. For me…not so much!

Yesterday, it rained in a hideous way the entire day. We drove down to near Wellington and stopped in a little place called Paekakariki for the night. With all the rain there wasn’t much else to do until we found a cinema in the next town, so ‘how to lose friends and alienate people’ helped us to pass the evening!

Today, we drove to Wellington, and spent the afternoon being shown the sights, which included the view from Mt Victoria over the city and a trip to the botanical gardens. Jonny even got to play football with Glenn and his mates as the they were one short, hopefully he hasn’t wrecked his knee again! Soon, it’s time for the huge roast dinner they are currently cooking for us, so all in all it’s been a great day!

Tomorrow morning, we take the ferry to the South Island. It’s an early start for us – we have to be there for 7am. Now i know that’s not that early but we have been getting lazy lately and that sounds early to us! So it’s on to another land mass and who knows what we’ll find!

Talk soon

Jill (and Jonny who kept adding bits!)

Snow snow snow

Orc holiday to Mt Doom

We have been hearing reports from home of snow…well, today, we found some too!

We spent the morning driving from Lake Taupo to Tongariro National Park. This took us within sight of lots of snowy mountains! The most exciting of which, Mt Ngaurauhoe – was used as Mt Doom in the LOTR films!

We took a drive as far as you could up into the ski resort on Mt Ruapehu, which is where we got up close and personal with the snow. Everyone else around us was appropriately dressed. We, on the other hand, were wearing shorts. (I was actually wearing flip flops!)

cold feet

After lunch in the cafe, we took a walk in the snow, and got our feet quite wet! Although there was still snow, there’s not a lot of skiiing going on, and they were taking the ski lifts apart – so the season is obviously over.

From there, we headed on to our stop for the night at Ohakune – where we found the best internet connection we have found so far!

So we haven’t done too much else today. We’re now making our way down to Wellington, where we have booked a ferry crossing for (early) Monday morning to take us over to the South Island.

Jill

Is the Jumping Pillow just for children?

So today saw us leave Rotorua. We headed off early this morning (up at 7 and it nearly killed us!) Our plan today was to head to another geothermal park – Wai-o-tapu. It was on the way to our next stop – Lake Taupo. The reason for the early start was we needed to be there before 10 to get our tickets, as the resident geyser – Lady Knox puts on a show every day at 10.15am.

Lady Knox Geyser

As we sat in the little ampitheatre full of people staring at a hole in the ground, we wondered how they know for sure that it will go off at that time every day. We found out soon enough …they throw a bar of soap in it! Something about prisoners washing their clothes in the hot water in the ground back in the day…adding soap, and finding their clothes blasted into the air! So they use this method to regulate the geyser every day, to make sure people get to see it in action! And very impressive it was too!

Then it was back to the main park for a 3km walk round some more smelly stuff! A wide variety of steaming vents, mudpools, strangely coloured lakes and a lot more. All very interesting, but the smell really does get a bit much after a while!

So after that, it was on to Lake Taupo. Now, the weather today was a bit miserable. So bad in fact that our raincoats got their first airing in the entire time we have been away! By the time we arrived at our camp site the weather had improved considerably.

It was at this point that we decided we couldn’t really be bothered doing anything else today – we have had our fill of looking at stuff over the last few days, and just wanted to relax! Turns out this was a good place to do so!

First of all, we had a game of larger than life  draughts set out on the ground. Jonny beat me. Then we played Petanque – which is boules. Jonny beat me (although narrowly).

Then it was on to the ‘jumping pillow’. Which is exactly what it says. A huge, pillow shaped, trampoline type thing. We have seen these at other campsites before although none as big as this one. While in the office hiring the boules, Jonny enquired… “See the jumping pillow…” The woman smiled. Jonny asked… “Is it just for children??????????” The woman laughed. “Absolutely not, but be careful! Children never hurt themselves on it. Adults do!”

Jumping Jill

So we were off! We spent a while jumping about (I think we scared most of the children away) and had some jumping and running races.

Then it was time for a swim. There is a lovely outdoor pool here and even a little shallow hot pool, so I spent most of the time there!

So all in all, we have had a very nice day. Jonny is sitting in the sun reading, I’m typing this and then we’re doing to cook some dinner! Busy, busy!!!

Jill