Blogs from Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 12

We flew in to Christchurch from Oz on 22 October and, as expected, New Zealand is very different from Australia. We’ve spent much of our time comparing the places we’ve visited to Wales / the Lake District / the Yorkshire Dales / the Peak District / Scotland….delete as appropriate! Beautiful as all of that countryside has been, we’re happy to report that we’ve also seen a lot that’s unique to NZ. Colonial Christchurch Christchurch (AKA ‘the Garden City’), is the largest city in the South Island but it’s more of a town than a city. Day 1 in NZ was a fairly grey day with a fresh breeze - lovely (no, seriously)! We didn’t achieve much on that first day other than a brief wander around and eating a scrummy Indian dinner that was also v ... read more

My Birthday!! In the morning we went to the Antartica Centre. Christchurch is "the Gateway to Antartica" as over 70% of departures leave from here. The centre was cool, we got to experience an Antarctica simulator - a room chilled to -5 C (a mild spring day!!) with the occasional snow storm of -18 C winds! We also got to ride on an amphibious vehicle that is all they use out there - it goes over metre-wide crevasses, climb slopes of over 40 degrees and even floats on water 3m deep!! Next we travelled to a cute little French town on the Banks Peninsula. All the road names are in French, but I was disappointed not to see them dressed up in traditional French cothes as they are on the brochures! It was a lovely, sunny ... read more

Hi everyone, Since we last wrote the blog we have been through sun, rain and pestilence!!! And I'm not referring to John in the last item. We left Wanaka (fabulous place) last Sunday morning. The weather was glorious - wall to wall sunshine and we had a fantastic drive to Haast on the West Coast on route to the glaciers. The senery was quite different from the brown gentle slopes and rock of Wanaka; we were now in rain forest country - towering mountains thick with vegetation right down to the roadside. But .... oh the sandflies and other big back flies. Absolute bastards!!! They bite and draw blood. John braved the elements and sat outside the van smothered in insect repellant courtesy of Culpeppers in York (remember Fleur??) but with his shorts on his head!!!! ... read more

Kia Ora! (original start, I'm sure) We've landed - a mere 18,000km from home - and soon as we stepped out of the airport we were greeted with flowers. Who told them we were coming? OK, so it's National Flower Week and everyone's getting the same treatment - but it felt like good karma. The flight(s) were great - managed to sleep a lot - as well as eat and drink the equivalent of 3 days food in 27 hours - must've been the time difference kicking in. Two days in Christchurch to acclimatise. Did this pretty well. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived at the hotel so we were found another. It turned out to be a 2-bed, 2-bath suite with lounge, dining room and kitchen in the Old Government Buildings. Huge - with ... read more

as I count on my fingers I figure this is Day 5. Yesterday was a 'shorts day'!!! Yeah! But I heard they were going to have 140 km winds at the south of this south island today... ouch. After many considerations tonight will find me in tiny Lake Tekapo, looking at star riddled skies; again, accommodation a bit limited by last minute bookings, but that is as shall be ... and continue in such vein I imagine. Before I wax lyrically and lusciously upon Akaroa, here is a 'near misses' catalogue from a few evenings ago as I left C/church for Akaroa... not exactly life amazing stuff, but enough to entertain my holidaying mind: 1. black cat on outskirts of C/church... another foot forth from this feline and he/she was going to be out of luck ... read more