Blogs from Mackenzie District, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Another fine, sunny and calm day. Wow! We know it can blow like mad here as we've been in Tekapo a couple of times before in strong winds, so it's not always faultless. As always, we stopped at the bottom of Lake Pukaki to admire the view up the lake to the Alps beyond. They were completely clear apart from a few clouds sitting on the back of the Alps on the West Coast side. The view was yet again, absolutely stunning. Mt Cook and other mountains alongside were snow covered and there was the layering of mountains in the front that you get when the sun sits in the North East. After the dam at the bottom of the lake, we wound our way up hill and onto the plateau of the MacKenzie Basin which ... read more

The stay at Lake Ohau Lodge has been fantastic. The service is excellent and the outlook stunning - looking up to the head of the lake with flat station grazing at the head waters. After a full breakfast we headed off early on a cool morning. We knew the day would be long so we wanted to get the hilly part out of the way before it warmed up. What was supposed to be rolling at the start followed by a long continuous uphill, turned out to be long continuous uphill from the start. It was a slow grind uphill all the way for nearly 11kms. The description says easy cycling. Yeah, right! Maybe for someone in their 20s or 30s! The track was often very rough with angular stones to bounce you about or slow ... read more

Last night the 10 of us met at our Motel in Twizel (The Chalets), some of us having travelled from afar - us from New Plymouth to Christchurch by plane and then car to Twizel. All of our group are Nelsonians - 2 from Nelson, the rest from the Ruby Coast, Tasman. This morning we all met at the Cycle Journey's office just along the street where our bikes were loaded onto a trailer and we piled into a mini-bus driven by Eaven. From Twizel we were transported up the northern side of Lake Pukaki to Jollies Car Park which is 12km beyond Braemar Station and right beside Mt Cook Station. The morning was cold and foggy but very calm. We broke out of the cloud near the top of the lake to a most fantastic ... read more

2 and 3 March. Today we transferred to Sydney without anything exceptional happening. Our flight to Christchurch was delayed by an hour so it was late when we arrived (around 01.00 am). They had arranged wheelchair assistance for me which enabled us to fast track through immigration and baggage but we had to open our cases at Environmental Control because we’d been walking in the forest in the Blue Mountains and our boots might have been carrying some undesirable bug. Anyway the nice lady with the nicely pressed uniform and holstered Smith and Weston hand gun took my boots and gave them a jolly good clean with some sanitizer but for some reason wouldn’t apply leather dubbing and weatherproof when I asked her! Because our bed and breakfast in Christchurch, booked before the quake hit, couldn’t ... read more

Hi All, Have visited loads of places and having a great time. A motor home is the way to see all. DAY 1 Antarctic Centre, then to Geraldine and stayed at Grumpy's Caravan Park. DAY 2 Lake Tekapo and Cook Mountain and Twizel Day 3 Cromwell and on to Queenstown The snow covered mountains are beautiful and the lakes bright blue. Our photos look like picture postcards. I never knew you could wear the same clothes so many times you only wash when they start to smell. Camping facilities are geared for motorhomes if you dont mind walking across a pitch black camp site to minus 2' shower blocks. ... read more