New Zealand

Well, the last couple of days have continued in the same vein weatherwise with a mixture of small amounts of sunshine interspersed with clouds and heavy downpours. Stilll, we did manage to do a few hundred km to the north of Auckland taking in the great views from the Waitakere Ranges.

We then went on up the west coast to Helensville and across to Dairy Flat (we love some of the names of their towns!!!) and Albany before ending up in the north shore suburb of Devenport. We had hoped to meet up with some English friends who now live here, but as it was a bank holiday weekend (Waitangi Day) they had gone away for a few days before the children start back at school today.

The evening threatened heavy downpours, so we stayed close to the Motel and ended up in an Irish Bar (called "The Bog"!!!). To keep us entertained we took part in their weekly quiz - giving ourselves the name "The Not So Barmy Army"!!! This went down particularly well as England vs New Zealand was on the TV at the time!! Unfortunately our knowledge of NZ was not too hot, and although we didn't disgrace ourselves, we ended up last!!! However, we did get a certificate for this achievement and a free drink!!

Our abiding memory of New Zealand will be one of a land of contrasts with many amazing geographical phenomena, wonderful wildlife and sealife (apart from penguins!!) and friendly, cheerful people. Unfortunately the weather did not live up to expectations, but it has still not spoilt many wonderful moments we will store in the memory banks and look back on with pleasure.

We are now waiting for our flight to Los Angeles. Hopefully the States holds more spectacular experiences of one sort or another!!!

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.

We set off for Mount Cook not too hopeful as the weather forecast for the West Coast and Southern Alps was not looking good (again!!!).

The nearer we got to Mount Cook, the more our hearts sank as the clouds came down and any glimpse of the sun was overtaken by the rain starting to fall. Undeterred we made the 50k detour to the Mount Cook Reserve at the end of Lake Pukaki. By the time we got there the mountains were well and truly obscured and the temperature had fallen considerably.

We decided to sit it out for a while and went in to the local cafe (where there was a roaring fire!!!) and tucked into a bowl of hot soup!!! The sun tried its best to break through and we eventually got a partial glimpse of about half of the mountain!!!

At this point, Bob lost the plot!!!! I think all this driving round to see potentially beautiful views (according to Bob and Bonnie's photos we had viewed before leaving home) only to be thwarted by the clouds and rain had got to him at last!!! He was a man possessed with a mission to get to the next stopping point as quickly as possible (and the next and the next .....!!!!) and in that day we actually covered 484km!!!! During this time we flashed past Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekapo , various other lakes and the townships of Fairlie and Geraldine, before he eventually ran out of steam in Ashburton!!!

Ashburton proved to be a lovely place and the motel we stayed in was great!!! The owners, seeing we arrived in a somewhat fraught and tired state, immediately rushed to the Expresso Machine and made us a welcome cup of coffee!! As this was on the East Coast, the sun was actually shining brightly, which helped calm the nerves!!!

The next day we woke up to a beautiful clear sky and sunshine and had a more leisurely drive to Akaroa and then on to Christchurch, where we checked in for two nights. We even had enough time for a trip down the River Avon on a punt and a tram ride around the city. The lady who punted us down the river was Hayley and the name of the punt was Grace - a coincidence as Bob used to work with Hayley at ALT and her sister is Grace!!!

Continuing with our attempts at relaxation, and given that amazingly we had a second day of sunshine, we decided to have a day by the coast and travelled a short distance to the suburb of Sumner. Here we were amazed to see thousands of mussels growing on the rocks all along the beach.

We then travelled northwards to New Brighton and had a walk along its pier, watching the surfers in action and admiring the sand art.

We arrived in Oamaru for an overnight stop, a town renowned for its limestone buildings, many of which have been recently restored. We had a wander around the old town coming across an old steam train and horse and cart. We also went through the town gardens to admire yet more roses etc taking advantage of some fresh air before the rain set in!!

Over the last few weeks we have been keeping in contact with Mark and Alison Hirst, friends from Headington Road Runners. They have spent the last 4 weeks cycling round the South Island (must be mad!!!) and unfortunately have got very wet on the way!!

We eventually managed to meet up with them in Oamaru, the night before they were leaving NZ to head back home. They managed to book into the same Motel as us, and we spent a lovely evening with them sharing some pizzas and a few glasses of wine (or was it bottles??!!).

In Oamaru there are two different types of penguins - Yellow Eyed and Blue. We decided to try and see the first of these, as they came ashore to their nests. Unfortunately, you are not allowed down onto the beach after 3pm and have to view them from the cliffs some 200 yards away. To cap it all the heavens decided to open again and gale force winds blew!!! Two penguins graciously deigned to come ashore as we stood in the wind and rain - but they were mere dots in the distant mist!!!

The blue penguins were due in after dusk (around about 9.30pm) and with the rain still coming down and the wine taking effect we thought better of venturing out again so carried on with our sociable evening exchanging adventures of the last 4 weeks!!

We saw Mark and Alison off the next morning as they headed to Christchurch and the plane home. We headed inland towards Mount Cook.