JTandJo
Joanna Brayson Joined: March 5th 2008
Logged in: April 3rd 2009
Logged in: April 3rd 2009
Travel Blog Posts
1 Waiting to board
The first thing to note in this blog is that we have been reviewing the ‘statistics’ on the travel blog website. I am starting to feel like an old rocker who had their heyday and is now just gigging to pay the bills. Can you believe that some of our early blogs were read by nearly 200 people? We are lucky if we hit 40 at the minute. I realise that this is probably not encouraging our loyal fans to stick with us, but even so I feel it is an issue that needs raising. Ok now that is out of the way I feel that I can keep going with some serious travel info. By the way I was reading a book the other day which stated that ok is the most recognised English word ... read more
1 Some more sheep
Kaikora to Whakatane Hello from Whakatane (said Fa-ka-tarney)! Due to a gale force wind warning out at sea, we are stuck here for another night; more on that later. Back in February we decided we may as well at least go to Kaikora and see if we could afford some whale watching although, as it turned out, the weather made the decision for us. Rain means no helicopters, which means no spotting of whales which means boats have no clue where to go so they just don’t go. So that’s that. Instead we spied a couple of seals, ate some fantastic fresh fish from a roadside stall, played some mini golf, got freaked out by all the tourists and ate some fudge. Then we were off back up to Picton (that’s where the ferry to the ... read more
1 Sunset from Nelson
Nelson Lakes So when we got back from Abel Tasman we ate a bit too much Mexican food, drank some beer and decided what to do next. It was clear - strap the packs back on and do a bit more tramping! Nelson Lakes National Park seemed to fit the bill. Initial plans to do a 6 day trek soon got voted out and Jo managed to get a 3 day trek down to a 2 dayer done over 3 days. Perfect. The photos speak for themselves here really - we climbed up above the clouds and walked along the Robert Ridge (our first ‘alpine’ tramping) to Angelus Hut. We woke the next day to rain which didn’t matter too much as we would have got wet anyway - criss crossing the stream down to Speargrass ... read more
1 Stu's point in the rain
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Abel Tasman National Park. Not necessarily in that order! Ok, the bad first - setting off on a 5 day walk (Abel Tasman Coastal Track), carrying a tent, in a torrential downpour. We were later to discover that there was a heavy rain warning out for that day. It’s funny how no-body mentions this when you’re handing over your money! Anyway, we survived and it actually cleared up around sunset (it took us a while to notice as we had been huddled in the tent for a while) which leads me on to.... The Ugly - John prancing around in his thermals (he has new stripy ones which he is very proud of!) hanging up all our wet clothes to dry overnight. Ha ha. Cue torrential downpour number ... read more
1 Confusing sign
Wellington This is going to be a photo blog as i’ve just written the next two blogs and it’s bedtime! Interesting fact: there are around 400 private cable cars in the Wellington area! ... read more
Traditional Kiwi experience
You will be pleased to know that the weather in Britain has made the news in New Zealand!! As you are all probably stuck at home in need of entertainment, we felt duty bound to provide you with another blog. Highlights of the last couple of weeks include our walk out to Cape Kidnappers. I know what you are thinking, what a cool name. Well it appears that when Captain Cook was heading down the east coast of the North Island of NZ he started to run out of names of rich British dignitaries and started to have to use his imagination. In this instance one of his crew was picked up by some Maori in a canoe (or for fans of the Maori language a waka) and is now Cape Kidnappers. Similarly, the other day ... read more
Amazing crazy golf!
Wow so much has happened in the last few months (or is it only weeks?) since we last uploaded a blog it is hard to know where to start? Right have just checked; it turns out that we last left you at Te Anau in the south island during our month long holiday October/November last year! I have just found this on the lap top which hopefully fills in a few gaps (we never posted it, sorry!): ‘Jo here! My sister has requested another blog so i thought I’d update things a bit - it’s been a while hasn’t it?! So we last left you in Te Anau... From there we headed to Milford Sound (the Lonely Planet tells you when to set off to avoid being stuck behind all the coaches but we mostly were ... read more
CIMG5531
Ok, so John has decided it’s my turn to write a blog-it’s not very long so we should be ok! After Te Anau we headed along the Milford Road to Milford Sound (another Fiord with the wrong name). We stopped on-route for a walk to Key Summit which 2 separate couples had both recommended to us, both warning that it was very steep but well worth the view. Well, I don’t know how one of those couples will find the walk we recommended them as it wasn’t really that steep…. Anyway, it started snowing just before we got to the top so we couldn’t really see anything at all! Back down at the car park, John was very excited to see a Kea - a mountain parrot that eats bits of cars! The sign warned that ... read more
234
It is raining. In fairness we are in Fiordland, where it rains quite a lot. Apparently in some parts eight metres is not unheard of. It does make finding activities to do more difficult to come up with. We have spent the day going to a Glow Worm cave (does not rain much inside caves) and have been to see a special video shot of the area in a cinema in Te Anau town centre (biggest town in the area, comfortably more than 100 people live here). The big expenditure recently has been an overnight stay on Doubtful Sound. It is pretty hard to get there over land and historically because the prevailing wind is westerly it is not easy to get out if you go by sea; even Captain Cook did not fancy it, hence ... read more
20080726151704
Crikey, it has been quite a week. Prior to last Saturday, we had been spending quite a lot of time working (arrghh!), sitting drinking cups of tea and reading about possible adventures. Last Saturday it all started up again. We have been trying to come up with a suitable UK analogy for our adoptive New Zealand city. It is difficult, because our stay has been quite functional; it is after all the biggest economy in New Zealand and the best place to get a job. It is so tempting to rubbish it, (as everyone in the South Island likes to) and describe it as being like Derby, but with more urban sprawl and a bigger giant phallic symbol (the Sky Tower is the tallest man made structure in the southern hemisphere, about half an inch taller ... read more
