To Hanmer Springs

A few parting shots of Kaikora.

A look across the ocean -

and one of it inhabitants.

Don't see too many of them off the beach at Western Super Mare. An Albatross resting its wings for a minute.

Well, you have to do something with all these whale jaw bones that keep turning up. Heather, Niles and Anne on yet another warm and sunny day.

Then we're headed through the range (the Alpine Pacific Triangle) towards Hanmer Springs where we'd once celebrated Niles' birthday. This time we all sat around in the hot springs. Actually, I got bored frequently and kept going back for a swim only to find the rest had moved on to an even hotter pool. Several small people have actually melted away altogether in the hotest pool so I didn't risk it.

Our journey to the springs took much longer than it should as we missed the turning, continued south through Cheviot and turned north again at Waipara. One of the many great things about NZ is that doesn't matter a jot which road you take - they are all amazing. One day I'm going to bike up all these mountains!

Kaikoura

A few more shots around Kaikoura which is north-east of Christchurch by about 150 km as the Kiwi flys.

Niles and Heather are now fully fledged Kiwis. Most Kiwis can fleece a sheep. These two fleeced all of us at poker.

There's plenty of room on most New Zealand beaches.

Mountains seemed ever present on this trip. Kaikoura was no exception with the Kaikoura ranges presenting an ever changing backdrop to the town.

Not sure which Cormorant these are but did you know -

The common cormorant or shag

Lays eggs inside a paper bag

The reason you will see no doubt

It is to keep the lightning out

But what these unobservant birds

Have never noticed is that herds

Of wandering bears may come with buns

And steal the bags to hold the crumbs. - Christopher Isherwood

Here's Niles 'Alone on a wide, wide sea'. There's an excellent book by that name and you can find it on the shelves of The Cotswold Bookstore at Moreton-in-Marsh. See http://cotswoldbookstore.blogspot.com/

Missing days

There are several days missing from our journeying but I'll do my best to fill in later. It's been such a mad whirl that I might end up a day or two short. I've put nothing in yet on The Coromandel but that really does deserve photos. OK Nothing more till I get sorted at home.
By Folks!

Hobbit Holes.

Are we the luckiest people in the world, or what? Our wander round the Hobbiton film set has to be the highlight of this tour and the competition was whale-watching, dolphin swimming and getting damaged while trying to body board (Tell you later) as well as some of the most amazing little places in the world.

Today, Heather, Anne and myself had a leisurly walk around Hobbiton having signed to say that any photos we took would not appear on the internet anywhere. They could have simply banned people or banned photography but joy, we will be able to show you over 400 photos of Hobbit Holes when we get back! Doesn't that make you happy. However, I'm ok to show you myself drinking 'Sobering Thought', the weak beer the actors drank on set, and eating second breakfast (yes, The Shire's Rest really do sell a 'second breakfast').

It really is a phenomenal tour. The detail those guys go to to get everything right. I felt quite at home. I think Sheree, Lewis, Henry, and Maggie would have loved it as the doors on the Hobbit homes are just the right size for them the little ones. Wait till you see the pictures guys! They are preciousss.

Shame though - Ian Brodie's day off. I've been hoping to see him again since our first visit about five years ago.

The journey from Mount Maunganui where we've been for the past two days was another scenic ride all the way but coming down over the mountains and looking down onto the plain surrounding Matamata was impossible to catch on a photo. Just miles of flat plain before the mountains in the blue distance. It's the flatest bit of New Zealand I've seen.

Speaking of Matamata, that's where Gary Snape and his family live and he was good enough to motor over and meet us at Maunganui. We had a great chat for about two hours in a bar near the front. He's loving New Zealand and is into dozens of different things. He looked great and was terrific entertainment. Great to see you Gary. That's him in the last photo. Anyone in Moreton remember him?

Well, we're here for just one more night and flying home tomorrow. I'll catch up on the missing days and put up some photos when I get home (and have stopped wanting lunch at midnight).
See you all soon.

Whale ahoy!

OK. So Whale Watching.

If I'd been born a few hundred years ago, and a crowd of 'jolly tars' had press-ganged me to sail the seven seas (or even one or two of them) aboard one of His Majesty's ships, they would have taken note of my greenish hue and chucked me overboard before even leaving harbour. I'm not a great sailor and Anne is even worse. Ginger beer was my saviour but Anne was feeling too bad to do much whale spotting. We saw 4 or 5 of these mammoths. The plume of their breath can be seen for miles and to see them dive, the great fluke tipping out of the water as they head for the depths below is quite moving.

Right, time soon to charge off north again.

Seals at Kaikoura

With six of us in the party, we hired two cars and could spread out a bit. Again a superb run north from Christchurch with a steady 6omph most of the way on practically empty roads (once we'd left the city). That translates to 100k and Niles loves seeing 100 on the dial. I was with him and Heather and he soon left the more cautious (sensible?) Brian behind. We were headed for Kaikoura to seal spot and whale watch. The seal was easy to spot. We stopped when nearly there and there he was, sat on a rock with no interest whatsoever in moving. However, five yards seemed the minimum safety distance as we'd not been introduce. Whale watching was a little more tricky.

Another comment on the weather - fantastic, the lodgings - fantastic, the food - fantastic.

Quake city and Ginger Tom

Next day was a day for journeying for we had to beat it back to Auckland to catch a plane down to South Island. We again avoided Hamilton on the way north and this time, avoided Mrs Mac's pies too. Then a nice easy flight to Christchurch lasting about an hour and a quarter. As you fly in, the plane banks over various mountain ranges and, on our first visit they were snow covered and I thought they were the Southern Alps filmed extensively in LOTR. This time around there was no snow and, anyway, my geography is better.

There were six of us now. Niles and Heather had joined us. We were in fairly late but not so late that Heather, Niles and I could miss out on a walk across town to 'Dux de Lux' to sample their Ginger Tom once again. The recipe has been changed folk! It's now stronger in ginger and weaker in alcohol. We could only squeeze in one jug. Niles went for another but they stopped serving at 11. We also fell for a plate of wedges between us. Their own specialty called Buffalo Chips.

Night time was a lot of fun. It was a low price apartment in the middle of town and we soon found out why it was so much cheaper on Friday and Saturday. The night club next door turned out the last of it headbangers at 5am! Not to worry. We were tired enough to sleep right through the thumping and howling.

Quick comment on what we saw of the damage to Christchurch. It really took a shaking. There are whole areas of street front fenced off with the businesses behind the fences closed down until the repairs are completed. Chimney stacks are down everywhere. Some walls are braced by massive timbers to stop them coming down in the next tremor. Our building, 'Living Space', was cracked in many places but the damage was all minor. The quake was about 3 months ago but the whole city still shows signs of damage here and there.