Home again, safe and sound...

Hi All

I did not post anything yesterday, as nothing really happened.

Kearie and I few from Christchurch back to the north island at some God forsake hour.  Ben and Linda picked us up from the airport and they were on a mission, they hurried us through Auckland to a parking lot, practically had us running through the city to catch the ferry so we could get to the volcano island with plenty of time to see the place.  Kearie had planned for us to catch the 12:45 ferry so we would have had plenty of time, for her to change and get food etc.  Linda had thoughtfully packed food and so we didn't question the new plan, we just ran.  I had completely forgotten that there was a plan....

Ben and Kearie at the start of the climb.

Anyway we get to the island in plenty of time, and we start the climb to the top , to the crater.  well about 10 minutes in I remember that I am a fat little person and this is not a good idea.  I said to Kearie, "What the hell possessed me to agree to doing this?"  That is when I realised she was not very happy, she said "We were going to take the tour, a 4 wheel drive to the top."  That made much more sense, we had just been so rushed in Auckland that we hadn't realised.  Kearie was not dressed to climb, she was going to change before we came, as we had plenty of time before the 12:45 tour.  So I headed back down the hill, having a heart attack on a hill that is very similar to Mount Franklin was not my idea of fun.  I waited down the bottom and about half an hour later Kearie rocked up.  Her pants were too tight to do the vertical climbing closer to the top.  She was quite disappointed as she had wanted to do the tour, she likes to get the local commentary and learn about the places we visit and this time she didn't learn anything so wasn't very happy.

 Kearie holding some of the lava rock, it was actually quite light

The island, Auckland is in the distance..

It was a pretty spot.... Very cold on the wharf though, waiting for the ferry.

We decided that we had had a nice ferry ride and that was worth our $30, but we returned to Auckland on the very next one and went shopping.

They actually sell Kangaroos and boomerangs in some of their souvenir shops and when I asked why the asian shop assistant said some people aren't travelling to Australia and they ask for them.  I said "So they pretend they go there?" "No" she said, "But it is all the southern hemisphere after all..."  WTF, who thinks like that?  It was weird...

We met up with Ben and Linda about 4:30 and went back to Linda's.  Linda and I had a lovely spa and we brought a takeaway tea.  It was a pleasant evening and an early one, we were all buggered.

Today we caught a Air New Zealand flight home.  I was a little confused at the self check in as the message said you have to pay for a meal if you want one, but they do not take cash or eftpos.  I was like, well how then, no explanation on the screen.  Kearie thought I was just being difficult, but I mean how are you meant to pay then?  An employee heard me and said "That is correct madam, you have to buy a voucher, I don't recommend you do that as if you don't spend it all they will not give change, or you can use your credit card...  (If there is no eftpos how do you use a credit card?) Or you can take your own food on board  I was very disappointed in Air New Zealand, I expect do it yourself catering on the cheaper airlines, but I did think Air New Zealand was above that.  But at least the seats were comfortable, the games were okay and they landed this time.  So you can't ask for much more than that.

I am safely back home, and Kearie and Ben should be soon too.  They both had way further to travel than I.

It was a great holiday, the country is beautiful, and one day I will go back again

I hope you enjoyed our adventures, they were not very long this time, but thanks fro joining us

Cheers til next time

Lones

Last day on the South Island... It's gone so fast

Today we drove to Christchurch a rather long and boring trip.  Kearie was looking up motels for tonight, she found we could stay in a converted prison but I declined, shared toilets were bad enough, but I refuse to use buckets... She said at least we wouldn't have to share them... but you never know. we went for a more upmarket place and we have a small suite, it is very nice.

Each building is named after one of Henry the VIII wives.

But upon arrival in Christchurch we immediately went on a punt ride, it was excellent, lovely views and a lovely young Scot to deliver the commentary and pole us through the water.  We both really enjoyed it.  The park is lovely and the river we were on is called the Avon, like the one in Scotland.

Kiwis have a funny way of talking, it is like they just pick a vowel and don't use the recommended ones... They say es instead of as, so the a is pronounced as an e.  Today I heard a young lad tell his brother to stop being a deck, I looked and the kid wasn't pretending to be a patio, so I assume he meant "stop being a dick." So the i was pronounced e.  Very interesting.... They sound great though, I do like their accent.

After our punt ride we went on a tram ride around Christchurch.  It has been 4 years since the earthquake, but the devastation is still everywhere, it is a city under construction.  A lot of people must have left too, as the city is no longer the second largest in New Zealand, it is now the third largest.  They lost 185 people in the quake, that would not be enough to alter the statistics that drastically.  We saw a lot of the buildings that fell, and some that had to be demolished due to damage.  It was quite sad and very sobering.

 You can see the damage to this beautiful old church.  After the first quake they put up some scaffolding to protect the wonderful windows, but in subsequent quakes they acted like battering rams and broke all the windows.  The bell tower also collapsed.

Many shops are still operating out of shipping containers, they are all around the area, being used for different things, but business must go on, for people to survive.

We then went to a nature reserve to see the Kiwi's we saw two, which was great, but we were not allowed to photograph them, I was really happy to see them though.  We also saw wallabies and emus...  Come to new Zealand and see Aussie animals... It was a taste of home.  They had some awesome birds etc, but most of them were not native to new Zealand.  It was worth the visit though, just to see the Kiwis.

 Wallaby

 Lemurs

Gibbons

Lots of other animals and none of them New Zealand natives.. But I don't think they must have many native animals, only birds and small rodents.  Not sure.

We went to the RSA  for dinner, like our RSL, only the Kiwi version.  The food was really good, Kearie is still drooling... I loved the menu.  The Entree was called The first Mission, the main course was The main operation, with the sides listed as Reinforcements and Sweets were The Final Push.  I thought it was really clever and shall attach a pic.

We have really enjoyed Christchurch and will one day hopefully come back.

We are off to Auckland tomorrow and will be flying home Sunday, it has been such a whirlwind trip, next time I shall come for a month...  we hope to do a volcano in Auckland so I shall let you know.

Extreme sports and extreme idiots

Kiwi folk are strange folk, lovely  but strange and the ones in Queenstown are even odder, they have discovered hundreds of ways for you to die and they are like "give us your money and we will let you try it."  So maybe they are more smart than odd, after all they must be making lots of money around here. I am sure the saying, "Hold my beer and watch this." originated in New Zealand.  WTF. People pay big bucks to risk their lives here everyday... Normally that would not concern me, it is none of my business, but today it is my baby risking her life and paying them almost $200 for the privilege, what an idiot.  So here I am sat, and here I will stay until I hear one way or the other if she is still breathing, Unbelievable, to think of all the shit I went through all those times to keep her alive... that's gratitude for you... Kidding, her life, her choices, but I don't have to like it, so I shall look at the view and try to think of something else...

After spending the morning, walking around Queenstown and thinking every time I purchased something, "Here you are buying a coke (etc) and your daughter could be dying right now."  It was very disheartening, until I received a message from her telling me she had chickened out and was only doing the Gondola ride and the Luge run... What a woose... lol.  Seriously, I was bloody relieved.

Queenstown is really pretty..

More of the wonderful Queenstown views

Kearie and I left Ben in Queenstown, we will meet up again in Auckland on Saturday.  We headed to Arrowtown, a small historical village, it was kind of cute so we had a walk around before heading to Wanaka for lunch.

Reminded me of the Pioneer Settlement in Swan Hill a little.

At Wanaku we visited Puzzle world.  Quite a place.

 The toilet floor

 The low high room...

Kearie outside

After Wanaka we headed towards Oamaru and stopped to view some Maori cave paintings.

 I loved the cliffs they were on

The paintings themselves, not so much...

It has been a long day of travel but we are back on the east coast.  We drove over mountains and between ranges, concentration needed and a few amazing views.  Although the South Island has some lovely spots, they are far too isolated with way too much nothing in between.   There are not enough roads and too many really barren mountains to navigate around.  I have decided that I far prefer the North Island.  I am sure the south island would be devastated if they knew.

We are staying in our first back packers tonight, not by choice, merely by error.  It is not too bad, but shared bathrooms are a thing of my past and I want them to remain there.  Still it is warm and clean so that is the main thing.  A 5 star backpackers, whoever heard of such a thing.  In my day they were all 1 star but we were young and didn't care.... They also cost about $5, now they are $95, backpackers are way more affluent these days....

It is five am now and I can't sleep,  Wifi is crap here, and I am starving..

Cheers

Lones

What a Day...

Well folks here I am again. It finally happened what I have been waiting for all trip and thank heavens it wasn't me...After a long night of snoring fit to wake the dead, I finally got up after midnight and found my earplugs, I offered a pair to Kearie who declined, I also wanted her to jab Ben so he would roll over, but she declined that too. So I snuggled back into bed and was just about off when she asked if she could have the second pair after all... grr 

At 5 am the day started out great. Early departure so we could get in a good full day at Queenstown. We dropped the car off just after 6am, Well Ben did, after dropping us at the airport, a brisk jog and he joined us to catch our flight (Kearie and I were too tired to jog). Most of the flight was uneventful, I slept for most of it... Then we hit the turbulence, it was like being on a roller coaster, I have had turbulence before, but it has never lifted me completely off the seat about 4 inches before. It was quite exciting, Kearie and I were laughing and joking with each other, in other parts of the plane, people where being sick poor things. It was quite an adventure, until they told us we couldn't land at all and would be rerouted to Christchurch, what a pain, it is a full 5 hours at least drive from Christchurch to Queenstown and we are going to lose a day... Bugger

We flew to Christchurch and by the time we landed it was about 10:30.  The airline had put on buses to get us back to Queenstown, but Ben did not want to get on a bus, he was determined to hire a car. Kearie and I did not really want to do that as we already had one booked in Queenstown.  Ben booked one for 3 days as he would be using it while in the south Island so Kearie and I just bummed a ride with him to Queenstown, it took 5 hours with a quick stop for lunch.  We did not arrive until about 5pm....

The south island is nowhere near as pretty as the North, it was very flat, very windy and very dry. We actually passed a lot of dust storms, I was really surprised

Very flat

Very Windy, very difficult driving conditions Video would not upload...

Very Dry, you can see the dust storms that surrounded us in the distance

We did stop at a lovely lake and had lunch, but the wind was unbelievable.  Blowing a gale, you can see another dust storm behind the lake.

Once we arrived at Queenstown we picked up our rent a car at the airport only about 7 hours late.,..  If you are booking hire cars in New Zealand remember to check out ACE rentals, they are by far the cheapest we found.

We then went to our respective hotels and Kearie and I love ours, We have wonderful views and the rooms are quite nice.  Ben is staying in the center of town as he is staying here until Friday, Kearie and I will leave tomorrow to drive across the island in our own time.

Ben joined us for dinner, the views from the balcony were amazing

How awesome is that?

The selfie lessons are not going that well

But They are getting better, although we did end up in hysterics..  this stuff is hard..

It has been an amazing day, we did get rerouted but we didn't die.  We did spend the day in the car, but we saw sites we wouldn't have seen.  And we ended up having a lovely meal in a wonderful setting, the south island is finally showing us her beauty.

Night for now

Lones

Last day on the North island

Well today was a quiet day, we drove along the Bay of Plenty and back to Auckland. The countryside really is amazing and I would love to spend a year or two over here, maybe I will if my house ever sells. I really love the place. I brought a new phone this morning in Tarunga and it is very flash compared to my last one, but was pretty cheap, so I am happy. I took some pics with it and they turned out fine

We stopped at a river and I took some pics.

The water was crystal clear

We went to the sky Tower tonight after a nice dinner in town. The place is way too high for me, and my knees were shaking, but I went up and have the pics to prove it..

I am still in shock that I managed it....

And this one from the bottom

We are heading to the Suth Island tomorrow, to Queenstown. We will spend the day and then Kearie and I will head East to Christchurch and Ben will stay in Queenstown to do extreme macho stuff.. I am looking forward to sharing more adventures with my baby in the next few days.

I like this photo of the two of us, Kearie is teaching me to do selfies.... God help us all.

 We will be up at 5am to return the car and catch our flight, so am off to bed now

Cheers for now Lones

Little fat Aussies and adventure sports...

Okay, only kidding, no bungie jumping for me. But I did join kearie for an awesome Huka Falls jetboat ride just outside Taupo. It was brilliant, I loved it, the 360o spins were brilliant. We have a video, but they put it on a disc, so I can share it with you as this little notebook can't cope. Here is a pic

Another pic, of the falls and the amazing water colour We then had traveled back to Taupo and had lunch by the lake, it was really nice. Ben had been busy filling the car and having a look around. We then travelled to Rotorua and Ben and Kearie did the OGO which is a Zorb ride, they loved it and i just watched, somethings are just too much for little fat people to deal with.

Kearie coming down the hill

kearie at the bottom, before getting out and falling on her butt... We then headed towards the Bay of Plenty and stopped at some falls on the way.

Kearie and Ben heading to the Okere falls

The falls in all there glory, as I watched, three different guys in kayaks came shooting out of the opening, like a rabbits out of a hole... Pretty awesome to watch. Lovely falls, and different vantage points to look at them from. New Zealand really is beautiful.

More falls. They really were magnificent

We passed this adorable little church this morning, it reminded me of New England...

I love the countryside

We passed so many large hedges, we began to realise they were wind breaks to protect something, we just weren't sure what, they looked like grape vines, but unless they have really woosey grapes it seemed a little over the top. We finally got that they were kiwi fruit vines, we did not know they grew on vines but apparently they do.

The sheep and the graveyards in New Zealand are amazing, they cling to the sides of mountains and steep cliffs, like mountain goats, it is really extraordinary. They even have to put retaining walls around some of the graves to keep the inhabitants from slipping down the hill. I have been amazed at how the livestock don't just fall down the cliffs, but they are pretty sure footed. I guess that flat land is at a premium and they keep it to build houses, I have never seen cemeteries like these before.

 We are now at Tauranga and are going to spend the night here, we have just had a delightful meal and some lovely wine, Kearie is now half cut and in the spa in the hotel room. I shall have to keep an ear out in case she drowns... It would be such a shame....

 It's okay, she has started to sing... Oh the joy...

 Tomorrow is another day and another adventure...

Til then, cheers for now Lones

Hi Everyone, welcome to our next adventure. I am having trouble with the paragraphing and am working on it, so apologies if this is hard to read.

 Day 1 started very early, with a 3:30 am rise and 4:30 pm departure. Ben’s Mum was awesome and drove us to Tullamarine. We stopped in Sunbury for breakfast and then our adventure began. Flight delayed by an hour so later arrival in NZ than expected. No meals provided by Virgin Australia, so Kearie paid $17 for a sandwich and a couple of small chips. I had the complementary cup of tea and starved instead… So once in Kiwiland I needed sustenance. Off to the airport McDonalds, not cheap like back home, over $9 for a burger…. WTF. But hunger prevailed and I had my first ever McDonalds meal for $15. I of course then had to find a place that sold proper coke, none of that McDonalds watery crap. I found a small kiosk and purchased a bottle, Kearie meanwhile had purchased a data sim card for her phone and we then found a seat outside for Ben and I to eat our lunch. I was feeling much better with a full stomach and I stood up I realised that I couldn’t see my suitcase. “Where is my bag?” I asked, Ben and Kearie looked around and it suddenly hit me, I probably left it at the kiosk. With visions of armed soldiers surrounding it and ready to blow the poor thing sky high swarming through my mind, I rushed back inside, Kearie on my heels. We rushed through the airport and finally spotted the poor abandoned forlorn looking thing, just sitting there, like nobody owned it. I was that relieved that no one had reported it as suspicious I slowed down, asked Kearie to give me her bag and go get mine please, she is much quicker than me and also no one would know that it was mine….. I know she is not going to let me forget this and neither is Ben, he was shaking his head and saying things like “seasoned traveller?” “I thought you were supposed to know what you are doing.” Etc. Well Ben you have a lot to learn, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

 When travelling with Kearie I can do some pretty crazy things. It is almost like my brain just goes home, it somehow thinks “Kearie will do it, or Kearie will handle everything.” And it just shuts down. It is amazing, when I travel alone I am fine, but as soon as we are together my mind just takes a hike. We picked up ur hire car and then drove off to find Bens friends, where we are staying tonight. Linda and Brian, Ben met them in the Himalayas last year and they are really lovely people. We went out to tea and had a lovely evening with Ben catching up and Kearie and I getting to know them. We did not get to bed until almost 12 am NZ time, so we were really tired and had to be up today at 6:00am.

 Today we left Auckland and traveled through the most amazing countryside, this county is so beautiful. I always thought it was like England, but today it reminded me of Scotland. Hilly and beautiful, I could move here quite easily.

Kearie in front of some of the amazing scenery Kearie and I went to the Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms, they were amazing. The caves were beautiful

No photos allowed, so I have taken a snap of a postcard for you to see. The glow worm post card did not photgraph so well,

see... After leaving the caves

We then had lunch in a wonderful restaurant with excellent views and a really good meal. We had to pick up Ben at 3pm, he had been black water rafting. We travelled through to Turangi where we are staying the night. A stop on the way for a photo op....

Kearie and Ben in front of Lake Taupo. We are off to Rotorua tomorrow. I will blog again when I can. I am having trouble with the laptop and have borrowed Ben's tablet for tonight.' I hope you enjoy our travels Cheers fro now Lones