Blogs from Picton, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 14

Day 20 - Wednesday 3rd It’s a pleasant morning, sunny and warm with some cloud. We head around Queen Charlotte Drive and Marlborough Sound to Nelson. The scenery is spectacular but Doreen doesn’t like the winding roads close to the edge of steep ravines, especially as the timber barriers seem too flimsy to save anything. We stop at a fantastic viewpoint near Havelock. David takes a walk to the summit through native bush but finds that he left the anti-midge cream in the hotel. Don’t panic! Fortunately, he gets the photos and didn’t get bitten so we survive for another day. The views around here are sublime, fantastic vistas all round. We drop downhill to the town famous for green lipped mussels. We can’t enjoy them because we’re not staying here. Drat! An old man, in ... read more

Motorhome News from New Zealand 6 19th November 2008 Farewell to South Island Greymouth, Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks), Kohaihai, Oparara Valley, Westport, Lewis Pass, Kaikoura, Blenheim, Queen Charlotte Track and back to Picton. New Zealand's South Island roads have been such a joy to travel; courteous and careful drivers with all the time to get wherever, whenever. Just very occasionally a car appears out of nowhere to overtake on a bend or a sleepy European visitor pulls out on the wrong side of the road. There are traces of accidents here-and-there however; crosses with flowers in the most unexpected places - drink or speed the most likely causes, or wheelies, Saturday night's twisting tyre marks left on the tarmac from hand-brake turns and high-speed swerves. The road north from Greymouth was quiet, a leisurely drive past rocky ... read more

Greetings wizards, orcs and ents. We are writing from beautiful New Zealand, know for many things: astonishingly beautiful scenery, sheep farming, kiwis (both birds and fruits) sand flies, and (most recently) as the setting for Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" films. Now, we're not really SciFi/Fantasy people, but we did enjoy the movies and can't help getting caught up in our gorgeous surroundings. It really is an otherworldly kind of natural beauty that pervades the outdoors here in New Zealand. Flying in from Sydney to Christchurch and particularly on the connecting flight to Queenstown (our first New Zealand stop) we got our first taste of the splendour of the kiwi landscape: emerald green valleys and expanses of lakes guarded by snowcapped mountains looking like blankets draped over the countryside. Bob Ross could not paint ... read more

It poured all night and as we left the next day headed for Wellington to catch the ferry to the South Island. Our ferry was a 1pm so we had lots of time. We walked around a little while we waited and came upon a film crew doing their thing. The ferry was gigantic and uneventful and now that brings us to Picton where we decide whether to stay put a couple of days or not. So you've caught up with us and if you feel as if you've followed a whirlwind, then you are truly sharing our experience! Nighty night. We did decide to spend at least 2 days in Picton and we had a beautiful, sunny day for activity. We ask about tramps (walks here) and find one that they say is a 40 ... read more

Well hello everyone. Jason here, and i know that once again there is several blogs for you to read. Two proper blogs and one containing all the videos of importance up to this point. Hope you are all well, we are doing great, still feeling the homesickness but we are getting by ok and enjoying it all as much as we can. Well this is it, the day we move from Wellington in the North island to Picton in the South island. It has only been two weeks in the North Island but is feels like so much more, what with everything we have done. I am quite exhausted from it all, but not time to rest we still have two weeks in the South Island to go yet. Saturday morning started the same as any ... read more