Wednesday 20th February Oh to be in England now that ..err winter’s still here; England appeared covered in frozen fog as we took the train up to York then over to Harrogate (white sky reaching down to white earth with fragile white trees and only a couple of hundred yards visible in any direction); but a great welcome home with balloons everywhere! Then when the 'kids' got back we had a seasonal Singapore Sling and headed off to the exotic purple baize at the Hotel du Vin in subtropical Harrogate (now up from a chilly -7 to a balmy +6C). Time [View Full Entry]

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Great time too with Paula and Arthur such a lovely size, views and lots going on, its the start of the festival there soon & look to be some good stuff on, including Black Watch which we saw in Sydney and was fabulous]. 18th Feb Just another day left then we will be flying home but what a finale, I am sat in our 'colonnial' villa in the Banjon Tree in Binton absolutely beautiful, wonderful attention to detail and service. Great beaches, pools and food overlooking the South China Sea and it is very hot but the breeze off the sea [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 14th Feb Paula was our guide this morning and took us round the coastal road past some lovely coves and beaches and stunning views out into the bay and across to the city. Stopped and looked at a local mans creativity with pieces of scrap! A big spider, a dragon, lots of abstract, really good, it is on his own land but by the side of the road so a real head turner and slowing down to look art. Paula thinks they may now be opening a cafe, so people can park and have a real good look at his [View Full Entry]

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Sat - Feb 9th Nelson - Bought local cheese, peaches and bread from Nelson market and headed off to Abel Tasmin. We had an exhilarating trip by water taxi to Awaroa Bay, the lodge is about 300 m from the beach - a true oasis, surrounded by forest and wetlands. Walked out in the afternoon to the sky walk; wonderful views; then meandered back down taking in the wetlands. Saw lots of tuna eels, very long and meaty. Also had a look at the lodge’s organic gardens to see what we would be having for our tea. The lodge is very [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday Ann’s birthday! Ann took us to Waimate North to see Mission house and the church (first mission house in new Zealand). Beautiful church, the mission house was next door with some beautiful trees. We then went on to have a look at Pete and Anns surgery in Kaikohe which is a fab building they built a few years ago Went to see Millie at house - sampling produce- delicious apples straight off the tree. and then to farm to see Ivan and Gordon shearing sheep Rawene to boatshed for lunch then back to main road - beautiful little place. Whiri [View Full Entry]

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Saturday 1st Feb Left Pomonol and headed for Arrarat which was a small pleasant looking town and made our way onto Ballarrat which is a city with wide streets not a lot of traffic, some lovely buildings and a tourist information centre that was difficult to find. We only had a few hours to spare so could not do the whole ‘Eureka gold rush’ experience. Instead after lunch we headed out to look at a couple of the original gold rush towns, Creswick and Clunes. We stopped in Clunes first and had a wander round, sleepy, a bit like the wild [View Full Entry]

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After breakfast we departed first of all for a walk in part of the rain forest called Maits Rest, a lovely 30 minute stroll through cool temperate rain forest - myrtle beech, tree ferns lots of birds and carnivorous black snails the latter sadly we did not manage to see! We then drove down to the Otway light station looking out all the way down the 12 k road for koala’s, which we were assured we would see but did’nt. We parked and hiked 500 m to the loo’s and lo and behold there were a couple of koala’s asleep very [View Full Entry]

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After a reviving cup of tea then did a twenty minute walk to Carriageworks an amazing building fairly recently changed into a theatre venue. Graeme told us that it was used to produce a lot of the build boards etc for the Sydney Olympics. We had a drink before it started and there was no interval. It was an 1 hour and 50 minute production of the most amazing drama in a setting that really made use of all the space. Mari got the tickets quite a while ago which were great because it sold out very quickly. The play was [View Full Entry]

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Friday 24th Steve and I caught the train into Sydney, you get the most glorious view of the SOH as you draw into circular quay. Went and did the inside tour of the SOH which was really good, very interesting and you get such a different perspective. Stupidly we had forgotten the camera! Saw the new side wing they have put on which Mari & her company were and are still working on. We then caught the bus to Bondi and it will be a miracle if we do not succumb to a virus or 2!! At one stop it seemed [View Full Entry]

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Late lunch at the Hunter Valley information centre - brilliant apple and blueberry crumble - followed by tastings at Capercaillie Wines (named after a nearly extinct Scottish bird for which 20% of profits of sales in Scotland go) who produce a good Bordeaux-type wine as well as a complex old Semillon and a desert gewürztraminer. We then followed that by a last orders tasting at Petersons (not the sparkling one) where we tasted a superb shiraz made from Hunter Valley grapes only (apparently most vineyards use grapes from Mudgee over the Blue Mountains) at $50 a bottle - we settled for [View Full Entry]

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