One Ring to Rule Them All!

Yes, that is the actual ring from the movies! The man who made it has a shop in Nelson. Unfortunately, he is dead now but his son (aptly named Thorkild) runs the shop and kindly let me try it on.

Mural

This fantastic mural can be found on the Esplanade in Kaikoura. It is on the side of a dairy. I love the sunlight on the back of the whales.

Mud

 

Chch at Last

At about 6PM we reached Christchurch and checked into a backpackers hostel. The backpackers can sometimes be better than hotels. We have a double en-suite room with patio doors leading out to a secluded garden. Cooking facilities and the internet are available and it only costs about 16 pounds a night.

We decided to spend our first night in my favourite pub, the Duxdelux in the arts centre. This is a great pub which brews several excellent beers and I spent many an afternoon there with members of the Antarctic program in past years. We walked in, got a pint of my favourite ale (Nor'Wester) and sat in the beer garden. Tracy wondered if I expected to see any of my old mates there. I said no as I thought they had all left the program by now and anyway it was fairly early spring. Well just as I finished speaking, who walks in but Doc Betty Carlisle, the doctor from my winter! Well we had a good old gossip, and I found out that my old mate Snackbar was also in town.

This is a good omen! 

Tracy and a Fur Seal

We stopped for lunch at the small coastal town of Kaikoura which is famous for whale watching and dolphin swimming. At the end of the peninsula is a seal colony and I took a photo of Tracy sat next to a fur seal who got quite uppity and snarled at Tracy making her jump.

In the afternoon we continued south through the canterbury plains which are the flat farmlands surrounding Christchurch. It is actually very hilly in parts but compared to the Alps which run across the horizon I suppose it could be called flat. It is also very, very green. Sometimes here I get the feeling that nothing is quite real, the sky seems impossibly blue, the sea seems too green. Well it was great to spend a couple of hours driving through such wonderful, and deserted, scenery. Sorry if I seem carried away here! 

The Long Drive South

We drove south passing through the wine regions of marlborough. The land here seemed quite dry and dusty but it produces excellent wine, we saw the Montana winery amongst others.

For a couple of hours we drove along the pacific coast, beautiful green waters next to towering snowy mountains. 

Queen Charlotte Sound

The boat took another 1 ½ hours to wind its way through Queen Charlotte Sound, snaking past islands and round bends. The hills were covered in trees, sometimes typical new zealand bush (ferns etc) and sometimes swathes of fir trees. It was very deserted, just the occasional yacht, an isolated house or oyster farm. It reminded me very much of pictures of the rives in Canada.

Eventually we reached the small town of Picton where we disembarked. We had a quick drive around the town which is very pretty, the water was almost unbelievably green and there were palm trees all along the shore. 

On the Ferry

We were out in the open sea for about 1 ½ hours and the wind was back up to gale force but as the boat entered the fiords around the top of the south island the winds dropped, everything went silent and we could feel the sun. 

Entrance to Tory Channel

 

First View of the South Island

Today the winds had dropped a lot and there was even blue sky visible occasionally between the angry grey rain clouds. Of course it was our day to sail south. As the boat pulled out we got a nice last look at Welly and then as it rounded the exit from the harbour we could see perfectly blue skies down south and the snow topped peaks of the Kaikoura mountains. A good sign I think! 

In the afternoon we drove to the other side of the bay to the city of Hutt which was mildly less windy and safe enough to give Tracy's kite a good fly. I even managed to control it this time. Its a great kite, more like a parachute than the traditional diamond shape and the force from it is enough to drag your heels across the ground. 

Admiral Richard. E. Byrd Memorial

On top of Mt Victoria is a memorial to Admiral Richard. E. Byrd. He was the first man to fly over the South Pole on Nov 29 1929.

View of Wellington From Mt Victoria

Today the weather was a little better (gusts of only 100 kph) so we had a drive through the surrounding hills which give great views of the city, which is really very pretty nestled amongst the mountains next to the sea, but also very exposed. 

Rare Birds!

The weather turned really crappy again so we spent today in 'Te Papa', the museum of New Zealand. This is a brand new museum and contains some excellent stuff about the wildlife and environment and some really cheesy theme rides.

They had some seriously large birds here a few hundred years ago. First there is the moa which was like a giant emu and stood up to four metres high! Unfortunately the maori ate them all before europeans even got here. Scarier sill was the Haast eagle which used to eat the moa. They had talons as big as a tigers paw! There is an excellent life size model of a giant eagle attacking a moa in the museum. 

Wellington Cable Car

Today the sun finally started to shine and the wind dropped to a less fearsome level. Wellington actualy is very pretty in the sunshine. It is built on hills around a crescent shaped bay. The houses perch precariously on the mountain side and are surrounded by forest.

We took the cable car (really a funicular) up to the hilltops and explored the botanical gardens which are excellent, very maze like with interesting and unusual plants and some modern sculpture. It was easy to spend the whole afternoon there and it felt like we walked quite a few miles first down to the bottom of the hill and then back up to the top to catch the cable car down again (duh!). It was nice to feel the sun on our faces again and the fresh air gave us a great appetite so we headed back to the home brew pub for some excellent fish and chipsand a couple of beers. Wellington play in the rugby tonight so we are going to watch that in a local pub. 

On Friday I met up with a recruitment consultant for a useful chat, she has some jobs which she thinks I am suited for but Tracy and I have more or less decided that Wellington is not for us. I don't think we could face the constant year round wind. So on Tuesday we are catching the ferry south and are going to rent in Christchurch for a while. I have a recruitment consultant in CHCH who is trying to find me work. Housing is cheaper there and it gives us a great base to explore the south island which we both love.

At night we hit the town, watched some rugby in a sports bar. Saw a great band in an Irish bar and finished up in a home brew pub which brews some excellent and potent beers. 

We Had a Drink With This Guy!

At night we had a meal in the hotel bar and got talking to some locals including an orc from 'Lord of the Rings'. He was just an extra in the film but his picture is all over the world (that's him in the picture). and he even has his own action figure. The scary thing is that even without the makeup we could recognise him! 

Scorching Bay

The peninsula drive is very scenic and when we got out of the wind the weather was great. This little village has the lovely name of Scorching Bay.

Windy Welly

 

Peninsula Drive

Yesterday we walked around the town and harbour area but the sky was overcast and the winds were cold and gusting to gale force. A bit of a comedown after the sunshine in Auckland.

Today we went shopping for a suit for me (for interviews) and I got a decent haircut instead of a number one. In the afternoon we did the scenic coastal drive around the peninsula and almost got washed away by the waves.

Mt Taranaki

What we really wanted to see was Mt Taranaki, which is a 2.5km high dormant volcano on the east coast. There are no mountains around it and it rises straight up from the sea all on its own and is very spectacular) good for skiing down Sis).

The route we took, went right around the coast circumnavigating the mountain but the New Zealand weather conspired against us and all we could see was the base, the summit was in cloud. After about an hour of driving the cloud thinned a bit so we decided to stop for a look. At first we couldn't see the top but that was only because we were looking in the wrong place. It is a very high mountain and we were looking too far down, it was way up above our heads. Needless to say it was very spectacular (note to self, must buy thesaurus).

We got in to Wellington after dark and it really lives up to its reputation as the car was getting blown all over the road on the final leg. We had a bite to eat and a drink and then bed, we had been on the road for ten hours. 

Drive Through the North Island

This morning we set off for Wellington. We popped into the post office to say goodbye to Jim the mailman (it is really impossible not to make friends here) and had a pie for breakfast from the best pie shop in Auckland. After a couple of hours driving we were in the mountains. The road passed through lots of unspoilt bush, along the coast and through a couple of spectacular gorges. 

Auckland Sky Tower

 

Auckland at Night

We stayed up until nightfall and watched the city lights appear and said our goodbyes to the city.

At first I found Auckland a bit too busy and housing is expensive so we thought about moving to Wellington or Christchurch where houses are half the price and the poulation is far smaller. However, now that we are leaving, Auckland has grown on me.

It is so exciting living here and there are so many cool places to visit within driving distance.

Well we shall have to see where we end up. That will probably depend on where we get work but the good thing is that we have both seen Christchurch and loved it. We have had a great time in Auckland and would love to live here if we can get good jobs. Wellington is the one city we haven't visited and if that is as good as the other two then we know that wherever we end up we should be very happy. 

Don't Look Down

The tower has some glass flooring so you can walk across the glass and see the streets below your feet. Tracy was realy not happy walking across at first but after a while she was jumping up and down on it. 

View from the Sky Tower

Today we finally got our car! It drives great and the sound system is excellent, much better than my old peugeot. In the late afternoon we took a tour up the sky tower which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. The view of Auckland and the surrounding mountains and seas was terrific.

I didn't realise how many volcanos there are in the city itself. I counted at least five in the city centre! Thankfully a new one hasn't appeared for a couple of hundred years. 

Interesting Birds at the Nature Reserve

We eventually stumbled across a coastal nature reserve just 20 minutes from the city centre. It was populated by a bunch of wading birds, and we saw a bunch of Pukeko which are very comical looking birds. They are duck sized with black and blue feathers and bright red heads and very long red legs.

We walked for about an hour through the reserve. New Zealand never fails to amaze. Even when you go for a short drive you keep finding something fascinating to do.