Blogs from New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Well it's time to dust of the old travelling shoes and get the packs out of the wardrobe. It's just over 12 days until we set sail for Africa for another adventure. We started talking about the possibility of this one while sitting around a campfire at Yosemite National Park one evening nearing the end of our American trip. We first ventured to mention it in company the day after Liz and Toby's wedding while driving Anita and Ryan to the airport and got the thumbs up from them..with one proviso...take us with you!! sounded like a good idea so here we are 12 days out from departure ready and rearing to go.... read more

Here is a snippet of our New Zealand trip... New Zealand 2013 from Charles Green on Vimeo. Or go to this link: http://vimeo.com/65503658... read more

Dear all, Since I last wrote we have left Pohara Beach and driven back over the crazy mountain! I call it a huge mountain but its known as a hill here! Anyway the drive was fine and we headed to Nelson for our 2 nights in a motel. The motel was walkable from the city centre which was much easier than staying on a campground and driving in each day. Not that Nelson is huge but parking a campervan isn't always easy. So we checked into our motel which was really lovely. We walked into town and wandered around shops, had lunch in a cafe and I even managed to walk past Starbucks without going in! We found an old church which was converted into a bar and much to the delight of Ash it sold ... read more

Queenstown and Activities Once in Queenstown as most activities were cancelled due to inclement weather all we could do was to go out, familiarize ourselves with the town, get back, have dinner and get ready for the trip to Milford Sound early tomorrow. Queens town is little picturesque town on the lake Wakatipu but more importantly it has become the center of activities for tourist. There are numerous daring and not so daring activities organised from here. Starting with the serene Milford Sound Cruise, bungy jumping, gondola, paragliding, jet boarding, parachute jumps, scenic flights, flights to glacier and glacier treks.. the list just goes on and on. In our case we had put everything to the day after as the full day would be taken up with Milford Cruise. We had an early start as we ... read more

Fandag mogtun wu Firlu hellupun met kookun. Wu haddun heul veul sin in pannunkoekkun, maar Firlu sei dat wu dat niet kondun bakkun want su hat geen bloem. Äpe sei dat hij wel un bloemutju kon plukkun. Su hebbun heule mooju hier op du kemping, ooranju en geul. Mar Firlu sei dat ut wittu bloemmun moestun sijn en die hebbun su hier niet. Dat fondun wu wel jammur, want pannunkoekkun sijn heul lekkur! Firlu sei dat wu wel un eitju kondun bakkun. Dat findun wu ook heul lekkur. Irst gingun wu allus op ut aanregt settun: eitjus, melluk, sout, peepur en kaas. Toen allus klar stont was Äpe kwijt. Guus ging hum ooferal soekun, maar hij kon um niet findun. Äpe hat sig heul goet ferstoppult. Firlu moest Guus hellupun en toen fondun su Äpe tussun ... read more

A short testimonial to the joy of being able to pop onto the beach, day or night, high or low tide, all weathers, with the exception of the strong Westerly, to run run run. Hence i describe her at her best "MOODY" Porangahau -Te Paerahi Beach As the dawn rises, the sky turning red, reflecting on the water, often breathtaking, Or running along the soft sand into the fog or an incoming storm. It calls up another presence and sets the tone for a remembrance or chat with those departed. Jessie and I cruising up the hard pack on the tidal edge, light shimmering on the water , the river mouth beckoning in the distance. Running barefoot in the vast, shallow, tidal backwash where all is reflected light, ethereal, moving in one's destiny. Soft sand shuffling ... read more