Blogs from South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1173

Evening all, and hope you are well. Its been an eventful couple of weeks, mostly for all the wrong reasons. I’ve been travelling round New Zealand and have a number of scrapes to tell you about. Banks Peninsula My first stop was a small town called Akaroa near Christchurch on a piece of land called the banks peninsula. The peninsula is a big semi circle of mountains with a large sea inlet running up the middle of them. So I get there at about 3pm… go for a quick bike ride up on of the big hills so I can get a good view of the place.. and it starts pissing down. I took shelter under a tin roof at a lookout poiint while a huge storm passed over which involved hail, fork lighting (only about ... read more

Evening all. Firstly, I would like to thank Matt Grest of Veronica Moser technologies© for implementing a new gallery system to deliver pictures of my varying escapades to you lucky people. The new system lives at : www.steveshinn.plus.com The navigation system is pretty obvious, but for PlusNet’s Content and design team heres some detailed instructions… 1.Turn on the computer….2… login into windows 3… oh, how I do make myself laugh. So.. I’ve got to NZ and I’ve been in Christchurch for a week. Due to the realisation that I have become horizontally challenged over the last couple of months due to excess beer consumption, I have decided to do some damn exercise. What else is New Zealand good for but Mountain Biking!! - It’s a myriad of trails, mountains, rivers, lakes, more mountains and forests. I’ve ... read more

Hi all Travelled over the Haast Pass from Wanaka to Fox Glacier yesterday. Wanaka very nice along the lake front - sat out and had a coffee and would have been nice to sit and relax there for a day but had to move on. Driving times are longer than you would expect despite very little traffic on roads but winding roads and lots of stops to look at views all take time. Arrived at Haast on West Coast at about 2pm and it started raining as we pulled into the local tourist office and has rained almost non-stop since. planned a flight over glaciers and alps for today but have rescheduled for 08.30 tomorrow if weather ok. If not we'll press on up the west coast and have to come back to do the flight ... read more

Hello all Had a good journey down from C'church to Dunedin vie Oamaru. Set off late from C'church due to delays with campervan so stopped a night in Oamaru. went to see the yellow eye penguins on the way but could only see them from about 100m away on the beach. Stopped for lunch on the beach and saw these boulders - amazing geological phenomenon. Called in at Shag Point and spotted several fur seals on the rocks. Arrived Dunedin Sunday and went out to Otago peninsula ( went along the Highcliffe Rd to get there - sheer drops and tight bends but great views if you could bear to look - the driver couldn't and the passenger wouldn't and wanted to get out and walk - not fot the fainthearted!! ) to see the yellow ... read more

Hi all Hope you are enjoying this trip as much as we are. Christchurch is a wonderful place great people and a great community feel to the place. Pace of life just right and very relaxed attitudes - not seen or heard anyone stressed yet! I've put some photos on the earlier entries. Hope they look ok. Took a tram trip around centre of C'church today takes 25 mins right round then you can get on and off as often as you want. Ticket lasts 48hrs. Nice buildings and lovely botanical gardens lots of flowers out right now. Had a meal in local pub last night cooked by stonegrill method. You get a piece of stone at 400 degrees temp and a piece of choice of meat and then you turn it over as often as ... read more