Blogs from New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

George (with commentary by Carla): On Tuesday we go to the airplane museum where there are lots of life-size model planes and some of them are flyable, and one of them is the only one of its kind left in the world. Some of the models are very odd. The drive down from Linkwater to Blenheim took us from fjords, inlets and wooded hills into the big country of fertile plains and vineyards. The New Zealand Royal Air Force has a base at Blenheim as there’s lots of flatness to land planes on. Peter Jackson the film director has also located his WW1 aeroplanes museum here, capitalising on the space available in the same way. It’s called the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre and it focuses on planes and flyers of WW1 both on the Allied and ... read more

Wednesday 2nd May At 8.30 sharp we were over in the Fox Glacier Guiding office (just 2 min walk across the road from our campervan) to confirm our booking for the Heli-Hike up to the top of the glacier. They don't finalise your booking until the 'last minute' to ensure that all is well "up there" before your flight. We are quite impressed with the safety preparations and as Mary has never been in a chopper before she is a little apprehensive but also excited. This is not a cheap outing but we may never get the oportunity again, so what the hell! 8.50am and the flight is on. We all (about 15 of us Australian, German, French, Dutch, Canadian, Chinese and even a Kiwi!) then boarded an old (but refurbished retro) bus to run us ... read more

CHRISTCHURCH TO MOUNT COOK We have limited WIFI access at the moment so just a few photos. (More to follow later) We had booked a two berth motor-home with shower and toilet, to allow us the flexibility to freedom camp in the wilds, if an opportunity arose. It turned out to be much bigger than I expected, but that just added to the challenge of driving in New Zealand. Our intention was to head south on the flatter east side of the island, and then move across to the more picturesque west. The distant mountains provided a bit of a picturesque backdrop, but other than that, the countryside was flat farmland and realistically had little special to offer in terms of scenery – we could have been in many places in the UK. The offer of ... read more

Monday 30th April We arrive in the town of Wanaka which lies right on, surprisingly, Lake Wanaka. First impressions were, "wish we could spend more time here" as we came in from the south past the airfield and it's aviation museums and old vintage cars. Saw a Canberra bomber perched up on display outside the museum and it brought back memories of the first aircraft I was to get to know in the RAAF way back in the early 60's. Further in towards town you go past the "crazy' Puzzling World with it's crooked houses of all shapes and colours. Combine this with the usual stunning avenues of autumn trees in vivid reds and golden hues and set on a beautiful lake with snow capped mountains reflecting against the boats.....nice. We make our way out thru ... read more

Well, it's been a while. My only excuse is that I really haven't had a chance to update the blog because I've been enjoying myself a bit too much. Seems fair enough to me. Anyway, think the last time I checked in was in Brisbane so I shall tell you my story from there. After I left mike's I went down to Surfer's Paradise for a day where I took a surfing lesson for a couple of hours and spent the rest of the day working on my tan! The next day I moved on down to Byron Bay and I really loved it there. It was quite a small little place but was really relaxed. No one was in a hurry and I just chilled out for most of the time i was there. I ... read more