Blogs from South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

A very lazy day today. After a sleep in and a late breakfast the four of us drove over to Cable Bay for lunch. Its original Māori name was Rotokura before the Europeans gave it the inauspicious name of Schroders Mistake after he stranded his cutter on the sandbar in 1843! The name Cable Bay arose when it became the site where New Zealand’s first overseas cable link came ashore. In February 1876 the international telegraph cable that came ashore at Cable Bay established a connection with the worldwide telegraph network via Sydney. From the cable station, messages were sent to Nelson via telegraph wire. This new service meant that communications between New Zealand and Europe took only four days instead of up to six months for letters. We drove home via Nelson Back Beach and ... read more

So lovely to sleep properly in a bed! After very little sleep in the last 24 hours Bernie slept like the dead and I slept OK. I was awake about 3.30am, which is pretty normal for me, but then went straight back to sleep until about 6.40am. This morning we made ourselves a light breakfast in our room with the fruit, cereal and yoghurt we purchased at the supermarket yesterday afternoon. After said breakfast we re-packed the car and set the SatNav for Hanmer Springs. We were on the road just after 8.00am which was a little earlier than we needed to be, but it’s always better to be ahead of schedule than behind. Our trip up to Hanmer Springs was uneventful apart from some roadworks and a shower of rain. It was just after 10.00am ... read more

We went on our last overseas holiday after one of our longest ever breaks from overseas travel. We have departed on our second overseas trip this year after one of the shortest gaps ever between our overseas holidays. After being at home for just 24 days, late this evening we boarded flight JQ 173 bound for New Zealand. Well, actually, we were due to board our plane late this evening, but … Kerry dropped us off at Tullamarine about 9.00pm and we breezed through Jetstar’s self check-in. It is very quiet at Tullamarine late in the day! Screening and immigration was deserted so we made our way through in record time … even though I was selected for the full body scan and Bernie’s bag was taken aside for extra scrutiny after it passed through the ... read more

What an adventure we had this morning! We all piled into a jet boat and went white water rafting up and down the river, through the rapids and doing 360 spins. Anne & I were screaming & squealing with laughter. A couple of times we screamed because we came within a foot of cliffs of the river canyon and thought we were going to crash. But the driver was experienced and she knew what she was doing. Then it was time for lunch at The Stoaker Room. We were in an outside tent at a long banquet style table with birds flying around inside looking for handouts. The food is slow cooked/smoked in oak barrels and then served on long curved barrel staves. First we had fresh baked bread with olive oil and roasted red pepper ... read more

What a difference a day makes (and a decent night’s sleep!) After what felt like a very long day yesterday, we had a nice quiet night in our motel room and managed to get a good nights sleep. We awoke today feeling very refreshed and with the added bonus of sunshine peeking in the curtains, which made a pleasant change from the endless rain we had yesterday! As we left the motel, the owners mentioned the drive down the coast was lovely, and specifically recommended a bay about an hour away where you could see the seals. Armed with this knowledge, we jumped in the car, sunglasses on, windows down and set off on our way. The drive down to Christchurch was about 3.5hrs according to the sat nav, but we probably took 3hrs to do ... read more