On the Road again again (again again again aga…)

It’s 6pm Monday 2^nd March and I’m sitting by our new (rented) camper, named Mog (saving extended nomenclature until we buy in USA) having a cup of tea and looking at spectacular mountains. No beer, it’s Monday (!wtf???)

We had a fantastic last week in Sydney. Highlights were a lovely seafood platter at the Watson’s Bay Hotel, courtesy of Emily and Holly’s friend Aaron, fish and chips at Doyle’s famous fish and chip (what else?) restaurant, a wonderful churasco barbeque at Holly’s restaurant (check out my unbiased review on TripAdvisor!), a memorable last night with Holly and Emily at a great Spanish restaurant called MoVida, prior to which we enjoyed bubbles on our 13^th floor balcony at the hotel in Surry Hills paid for by Avios! And a yummy brunch with Holly at a trendy café in Surry Hills where I heard Tom Waits’ ‘Somewhere’ on their playlist – raptures!

After a number of interesting moments, we made it without any real dramas to Kingsford Smith airport, where we dropped off our hire car and checked in for our flight to Wellington (they wanted to make sure we had flights out before they let us on the aircraft, though!).

It was great to see Steve and Kathy at the airport and Steve and I spent a memorable few hours that night seeing off 24 bottles of Heineken…

We spent a great week in Wellington, where Steve and Kathy showed us around some of the local area, including Weta Cave – the workshop where many of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit characters, costumes, props and sets were brought to life. I was tempted to buy a Gandalf staff, but sadly they were all sold out. The weather was uniformly gorgeous and one of the highlights was a trip to Kaitoke Regional Park, where we went to the remains of the set for Rivendell (read the book or see the film if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

After a great week it was up at the crack of sparrers’ last Friday to get the ferry across the Cook Strait – one of the most beguiling ferry crossings in the world. Once again, the weather was beautiful and the Strait was as much like a mill pond as you could hope a stretch of water between two oceans to be. Didn’t spill my coffee, anyway. Our coach to Christchurch took us along the east coast where we saw loads of seals and some very blue seas. Back there tomorrow for whale watching.

We stayed at a very pleasant Airbnb in Christchurch, near the city centre and went in to see the ongoing regeneration of the city on the Saturday morning. New Zealand’s second largest city was pretty much flattened three and a half years ago and the work to restore it is moving on apace, but it’s going to be a while yet. However, the spirit and friendliness is very much evident.

Needless to say, New Zealanders were very exercised by the impending cricket match in the afternoon, against the old enemy – Australia, not England (for a change) - and we met up with our friend Joan and her son Alex from Fleet to enjoy pizza, beer (lots) and talk (also lots) as they are in the middle of a massive trip, taking in Egypt, Jordan, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, USA and St Lucia – a pretty eclectic selection of countries, but very exciting, so we had lots to catch up on.

(In case you didn’t know, New Zealand blew Australia away for 140-odd runs, then just managed to squeeze over the line with one wicket left. The last six runs were achieved with one glorious blow, though).

The pick-up time for our new camper was delayed as someone had crashed it the day before (!), so we didn’t set off until about 4.30 – and immediately went the wrong way! Only for a couple of hundred yards though. We drove across the most glorious mountains over Arthur’s Pass and arrived in Greymouth as the sun was setting for our first free camp in NZ.

Today we drove back across Lewis Pass (because we could) and are camping in Hanmer Springs before our re-scheduled whale watch in Kaikoura tomorrow. Some slight jiggling of the schedule may be necessary, but we aim to get to Dunedin in time for some of the city’s Fringe Festival as I’m having withdrawal symptoms from a lack of culture – of any kind, so may have to gorge ourselves for a couple of days. If anyone’s been to the Dunedin Fringe, would welcome any tips.

Next blog won’t be so long coming (I hope) and may contain some weak and feeble efforts at arts criticism (or not…)

‘Nuff said about England’s capitulation to Ireland in the 6 Nations…

PS. Gillie here!!  It’s so hard to believe we are about as far away from the UK as we can be as I sit here surrounded by sparrows pecking at the grass.  We worked it out that when we are in California we will be 19 hours behind the girls and that Hawaii is 23 hours behind New Zealand…weird isn’t it?

Anyway here we are again on the road, doing what we should be doing and not wining and dining in the fleshpots of Sydney, Wellington and Christchurch.  (Or spending hours negotiating IKEA with the girls, which we loved really and they bought some great stuff). We’ve actually got a shower AND a loo in this camper, we don’t know which to use first as they are within inches of each other!! 

We are really looking forward to seeing this amazing country at a slower pace than Oz, maybe, just maybe, I’ll get my paints and pastels out of my rucksack and create a masterpiece.  The scenery is breathtaking, the mountains so high and the sea the most fantastic colour of turquoise I’ve ever seen. 

On our bus trip to Christchurch we spent about an hour travelling along by the edge of the sea, watching seals swimming and sunbathing on the rocks.  The weather here has been hot and sunny all the time!!  We brought our big boots, thick jumpers and heavy duty rain gear for this section of the trip...Fingers crossed!!

Hope you all are well and looking forward to the approaching Spring and the lighter evenings.  We still love hearing from you, so please keep the comments coming in.  Take care…luv us  xxxxxx

Last night in Oz - it was a very small balcony!

Steve, Kathy and Gillie. Oh, and some trolls!

Help - flattened by big rock...

On Wainuiomata coast - a bit windy!

crossing the Cook Strait

Our first free camp in NZ - not bad

A result of the IKEA trip - Holly's bedroom re-imagined

A lovely meal at Watson's Bay Hotel!