Thirty one years ago in 1977, Sheryll attended a Girl Guide camp at "Omatua" the local area guide camp near Rissington in Hawkes Bay. She made friends with Georgina Sagote who was attending the camp from the Solomon Islands. After returning home to the Solomon Islands Georgina and Sheryll continued communicating as penfriends for about 6 or 7 years up until Kris was born in 1983. For one reason or another the link was broken and they lost contact. Georgina's address remained in our address book for the next 15 years and I often said to Sheryl we should try and [View Full Entry]

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BLACKBALL Blackball was named for the Black Ball Shipping Line, which leased land in the area to mine for coal. It was formerly known as Joliffetown and Moonlight Gully, it began life as a small gold settlement towards the end of 1865 but its development was impeded by the pull of the major goldfield a few miles up the Grey Valley at Moonlight. There the gold was purer and the prospects brighter. The local hotel 'Formerly the Blackball Hilton' was founded in 1910, as the Dominion Hotel, renaming itself to the "Blackball Hilton" after the mine manager, Mr Hilton, after whom [View Full Entry]

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Greymouth's Brunner Coal Mine We were on our way to Blackball from Greymouth travelling alongside the Grey River when this tall brick chumney came into view, there was a carpark beside it so we went to investigate. I have to admit that I didn't know much at all about the Brunner Coal Mine so it was helpfull to see that the Department of Conservation had upgraded this site and it was obvious that a lot of work had gone into it. The chimney that we first saw was in fact not part of the Brunner Mine, the mine itself was on [View Full Entry]

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A trip along the West Coast is never complete without a trip to Shantytown. The last time we were there was many years ago when we were on holiday with the children. Unfortunately my camera battery went flat so I didn't get to take many pictures, but here is the few I did get. Shantytown is a worthwhile stop for a look into early life on the West Coast, it is well presented and has a nice authentic feel about it. The steam train ride along the old sawmill track in Katie. The main stay of the railway at Shantytown since [View Full Entry]

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Who knows where Okarito is ? Well it seems that more people than I thought do now, the last time I visited here was about 20 years ago and it was the remoteness that attracted me to Okarito then. Even though it is only 10 km's or so from the main State Highway to the Lagoon and Beach at Okarito it's attraction has always been over shadowed by the better known Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers which are on the Main road. The purpose of my visit nany years back then was to stay at the Okarito YHA, I have always [View Full Entry]

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FRANZ JOSEF GLACIER We arrived in Franz Josef late in the afternoon after dawdling along the way. The sun was starting to set as we booked into the YHA, so there wasn't too many oportunities for photo's. However the next morning dawned bright and clear, so we took a walk to the Glacier observation platform to take a few pictures before we headed off to Okarito [View Full Entry]

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The trip from Wanaka to Franz Josef initially follows Lake Wanaka towards the west, then Lake Hawea and after leaving that lake starts to climb steadily towards Haast Pass. The only village along the way is Makarora and also the only place for petrol for quite some kilometers. I was keen to see Makarora again as I had memories of being stranded there one time when I was in my 20's hitch hiking with my sister Bronwen from Wanaka to Haast. We had beem lucky enough to get a ride from Wanaka after staying with Nancy and Chris for quite some [View Full Entry]

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TSS EARNSLAW & WALTER PEAK SHEEP STATION TSS Earnslaw is a vintage Steamship, she was built in 1912 to service the remote farming communities around Lake Wakatipu including Walter Peak Station. She was built in Dunedin, 280 kms away then dismantled and railed to Kingston at the southern end of the lake. The NZ Railways was responsible for her operation 66 years and primarily she was used as a cargo sheep and was capable of carrying 1500 sheep and 30 cattle on her decks. Today the Earnslaw carries a maximum of 350 passengers. TSS Earnslaw is one of the last [View Full Entry]

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QUEENSTOWN & GLENORCHY THE REES & DART RIVER VALLEYS The following day we had planned to visit Queenstown for the day. Queenstown itself is not our sort of town, far too touristy, but the surrounding areas have an amazing array of outdoor activities and great scenery. One of the reasons for this trip was that my sister Bronwen and her husband Sakaye and our friends Donna and Dick from British Columbia had given us some money to spend on something special during our holiday. The plan was to take the TSS Earnslaw steamship evening dinner cruise on Lake Wakatipu from [View Full Entry]

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CROMWELL Our home for the next 4 days in Cromwell was the Police Holiday Home , as the weather had turned a little bit cooler it was nice to be out of the caravan and staying in a home. It was intended to be a relaxing time but we did manage to get in some local 4WD trips and a trip to Queenstown. The new Cromwell town is situated on Lake Dunstan which is a man made lake as a result of the Clyde Hydro Dam damming the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers. The original Cromwell town was flooded by the dam [View Full Entry]

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