Feb 2007

Having stayed in Wellington overnight, we headed back up the North Island towards our overnight stop of Wanganui.

On the way we managed to contact more friends who were in NZ - Dave and Phil Beasley of B-Line fame!!! They happened to be travelling to Palmerston North and we arranged to meet up for a drink. They couldn't understand our bad luck with the weather - they had had sunshine most of the way during the last few weeks and whilst we were with them the sun did manage to shine once more!!

It was good to meet up with them and to hear from Phil, who had been in Sydney at the same time as us. Phil was, as usual, trying to stop Dave doing any wheeling and dealing (a thankless task!!!).

We then carried on northwards to Wanganui, passing through a town called Bulls. Here they had entered into the spirit of fun by naming most of their public buildings with "bull" associations!! Hence there was a pharmacy called "Cure-a-bull", a library called "read-a-bull" and even the police station had joined in with "Const-a-bull"!!!! Great fun!!

Wanganui was a lovely town on the river where we witnessed a regatta with several local rowing teams participating. We also enjoyed our first "stonegrill" meal where we were given hot stones and raw meat and cooked our own dinner!!!

As we set off from Wanganui towards Hamilton it was all blue sky and we admired the wonderful scenery and rolling hills as we headed towards the National Park and Mount Ruapehu.

Unfortunately, as has happened so many times in the last few weeks, the clouds and mist came down along with the rain and our chances of a sighting of this still active volcano were blown apart!!!

When we reached Hamilton we had hoped to visit their wonderful gardens but unfortunately the heavens once again opened, so we spent a quiet evening in watching the cricket (again!!).

Today we have made our final journey northwards to Auckland where we will hopefully be taking in the sights for the next couple of days before flying out to Los Angeles on Wednesday (7th).

Having spent a couple of restful days in Christchurch we headed further north to Kaikoura where we had booked a trip to go whale watching, if the weather was okay. We arrived to find that the trip was on, but they were recommending we take seasickness tablets - not a good omen!!!

However, once we were on our way, we discovered the sea was really quite calm and although overcast the visibility was good for whale watching and it wasn't raining!!!

Fortunately the trip was successful as we spotted two giant sperm whales on the surface taking in air, spouting water and then diving gracefully back to the depths, with their customary wave of their tails as they disappeared!!

The whales were named by the local guides as Tiaki and Noodle, two almost permanent residents in the depths off Kaikoura. It was a magnificent sight so close in to the shoreline - made possible because of the massive drop in the ocean bed - from a depth of 200m to 1500m in a very short distance where the whales feed on squid (1000 a day!!!), sharks and anything else in its way!!

With a vast abundance of sealife along the Kaikoura coast with seals, dolphins and all manner of birds (probably including penguins but we didn't see any - again!!!) there were trips for everything, but unfortunately at a cost, so we just drove round to the peninsula and saw most of it for free!!!

Having spent the night in Kaikoura we then took in our final views of the South Island as we headed for Picton and the ferry to Wellington, arriving there to find a huge amount of hussle and bustle as an International Rugby 7's Tournament was taking place, much to the excitement of all Kiwis (they don't seem get out much!!!). The only other entertainment we have seen advertised on our travels has been an Evening with Pam Ayres and a Burt Bacharach Concert!!!

So it was farewell to the South Island with its less than favourable weather but wonderful scenery nonetheless!!

We now head back north from Wellington to Auckland over the next few days.