March 6th - Goodbye NZ

I've been slack on the blogging since returning to Napier - sorry about that. I am writing this in Auckland airport - we take off for Hong Kong in a couple of hours.


Our last day in Picton was warm and sunny and it was hard to believe there had been a huge storm the day before. However, when we checked in for the ferry, we were warned that it was very rough indeed in the Cook Strait and we would be delayed as they had to take extra measures to strap down the trucks and other large vehicles. Here is the interislander coming into port and turning around before docking.

We finally left Picton at about 3.15pm and Rick, who is a notoriously bad sailor, had upgraded to the luxury lounge and taken a pill to knock him out. Actually, we all took one as it seemed advisable given the dire warnings. I was secretly quite looking forward to it but in the end it wasn't really bad at all and we all dozed through it, courtesy of the Avomine. I've had worse sea conditions across the Channel - and much worse on one celebrated occasion 25 or so years ago in 'the ambulance'. We duly arrived in Wellington at about 7pm and drove back to Napier - in bed by midnight.


We have had a couple of fairly quiet days before departing this evening. Last night we had a barbecue with Rick and Judi's friends - many of whom we have met several times now over our three visits. It was a really good evening but I slightly overdid things on the electric soup front and felt a bit out of sorts this morning. I really must learn to 'just say no' to the Glen Slayer that inevitably sneaks out of the cupboard at the end of the evening but perhaps if I've not learned this by now, I never will. 

Today we visited Classic Sheepskins (owned by Maurie,on Judi's left above) and invested in slippers, hats etc and then we went to Shed2 on the waterfront for lunch, which the girls will remember. 

So that's it for NZ 2012! I hardly need to say we had a good time - hopefully that shines through - especially from the pictures.


Many thanks to Rick and Judi for everything - putting the whole trip together and looking after us. Thank you too to all their friends, who might be reading this, for making us feel so welcome. Napier is a special place for us, not only because it's beautiful and home to two of our best friends in the world, but also because you are such a great bunch of people! We will miss you all - until next time. Of course, if any of you want to come and visit the beautiful city of Canterbury in England, then you are welcome to come and stay. Rick and Judi will put you in touch.


Lastly, a special thank you to our daughter Ellie for the loan of her wonderful camera, which has produced some amazing images to remind us of such a great holiday - a select few of which you have seen on this blog. 

March 3rd - Chilling in Picton

We have had a very relaxed day after all the charging about of the last 10 days - and the storm has passed through. We had a lot of rain and strong winds in the night which blew the patio furniture around a bit - but this is a sheltered spot and we were spared the worst. The most serious damage was on the West coast of North Island. We heard one of those news reports on the radio where they desperately struggle to find someone with something interesting to say. Eventually they found a guy who said "there's a few houses here with no roofs but many houses with some roofs." That's OK then - so long as there are enough roofs to go round! But here the weather was fine and calm today.

It's hard to believe that a few miles away in the Cook Straight it's too rough even for a fairly large ship like the Interislander. 


We are in a lovely spot here in the Marina and this is a really comfortable apartment. We went into Picton for lunch - watched an old Brad Pitt film (Kalifornia) and then went for a nice walk among the boats.

All in all - my kind of day! As we were musing on our time in South Island we were reflecting on the end of this particular musical era in our stellar careers - but still time to get together one last time for ... The Final Cut.

We are all booked in for the ferry at 1315 tomorrow - so we will back in Napier late tomorrow evening.

March 2nd - mood indigo

There's a Storm front coming....


We left Rakaia at 8.30am perhaps feeling a tad tired and emotional as the previous night's libations were on the liberal side. We checked the van back in at Pacific Horizon and resumed our journey northward in Rick's truck.

and then there were three...

In 48 hours we have driven almost the entire East coast of South Island. We arrived here in Picton at about 5pm and we are staying at an excellent waterside apartment near the Waikawa marina. We have a great view up the sound...

...but as you can see the weather is closing in and we've just heard that all sailings to Wellington are cancelled for tomorrow with predicted 7 metre swells. It is supposed to be better on Sunday but we will have to wait and see. So we are going to be stuck here at least two nights. More news when we have it.


We learned on the news today that Christchurch cathedral is now damaged beyond effective repair following the most recent earthquakes in December. While it is obviously a tragedy it does seem to me that they don't have much choice other than to demolish it. As much as possible will be recovered from the building to be incorporated into a replacement cathedral. However, there were a lot of people on the news complaining about the decision.

1st March - Albert Ross!

Only my girls will understand the title - but for anyone who really cares, Google Ralph McTell, Alphabet zoo.


I mentioned that the coast road to Portobello was slightly scary - and that is because there is 18 inches between you and the Ocean with no kind of barrier. It was easier on the way back because you're on the inside.

We carried on to the end of Harrington Point to visit the Royal Albatross Centre. This is the only mainland Royal Albatross breeding ground in the world so definitely worth seeing. If I have given the impression that we've had bad weather then that is wrong - we have actually had perfect weather for whatever we wanted to do. In order to see the Albatross fly we needed strong cold southerly winds - and that's exactly what we had this morning. This is because these birds are primarily gliders and they need steep slopes to take off and strong winds to stay in the air. They spend 90% of their lives out at sea and only come on shore to breed. At this time of year the females are keeping their chicks warm.

The Royal Albatross has a wingspan around 3 metres plus and watching them fly around was truly wonderful.

The site of the Albatross Centre was built over a military installation. The Russians developed a naval base at Vladivostok in the 1870s and sailed into Wellington which put the wind up the naval authorities here. So they staffed up the peninsula and installed an amazing disappearing gun that popped up and fired and then retracted - made in Newcastle. The only trace of the barracks is the cells cut into the hillside. This made us think of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and we felt a live album coming on.

Jane Chapman says we need to smile more on our album covers but this is ridiculous. We suffer for our Art. What does she think we are - a bunch of tourists?


On our way back to Dunedin we called in at Larnach Castle which is billed as the only castle in New Zealand. Actually it's not really a castle - just a smallish Victorian mansion with a few crenellations. 

But nevertheless - it has a fascinating history which you can check out on their website. Also, the view from the top was awesome!

We then resumed our journey northward back to Christchurch. Since we left Gore the day before we had been sharing the route with the railway. Most of the way it is just a few yards from the road. It's single track and not electrified. Unlike railways in the UK there are no protective fences. The railways were built in the 1860-1880 period - but these days they are little used. Freight trains still travel between Dunedin and Christchurch but road transport has almost totally taken over. The railways are narrow gauge (3ft 6in compared to the standard gauge used in the UK of 4ft 8 1/2 in) because that lowered the cost of construction over the various mountain passes etc. 

This shot was taken at a place called Rakaia - the site of New Zealand's longest bridge. After crossing, we turned off the main road towards the sea - hoping to find a nice place beside the river. In the end we went all the way to the coast and stopped here - though it was a bit crowded....

We enjoyed our last night in the van with the help of some tasty NZ reds - Syrah from CJ Pask and Cabernet Sauvignon from Mission Estates. Sadly we began to pack up - and so encountered Camper van mystery no.3....

I suppose the obvious answer is that they were skulking in a dryer we used at one of the camp sites but that, dear reader, is a dull explanation is it not? Alas on this occasion the thargs must be exonerated as these knickers had the conventional two leg holes, whereas thargs hav three legs "as any fule kno".  

Feb 29th - don't understand your banter

Monty Python banter sketch (for reference)


Yesterday's post was a bit of a picture-fest with the Milford Sound et al - but today is a more modest affair because it's mostly been a day on the road - and also extremely wet.
We left Mackay's Creek at 8.30am - but I have to tell you the sad news that Trout Athletic increased their lead to 3-0 - and now with not much time left in the game the fickle Napier Anglers fans are beginning to trickle out of the stadium...

The rain was lashing down - but despite this we were making good progress towards the East coast. These days, the roads in the deepest south are pretty good but not so long ago the isolated communities were dependent on a band of intrepid airmen to keep the supply lines open. Just before we reached Gore we came upon a museum commemorating these brave pioneers - including a guy called Dave Cross who built his own plane and became the first man in NZ to be fined for flying without a licence in the 1930s. Once again, we found ourselves inspired - and this got the creative juices flowing for a new LP....

We stopped for a quick lunch in Gore and then travelled on through the rain to New Zealand's fourth largest city - Dunedin. For many years all 'Dunedin' meant to me was the Montgomery's house on Red Lane - but of course the house was named after Gill Montgomery's home town. 

After a quick look around the 'Edinburgh of NZ' we drove along the slightly alarming coast road out to the Otago Peninsular and found a campsite in Portobello. I suspect the views from the road are pretty stunning when the sun shines but today we did not see much. And so here we are with the rain still pouring down and the wind literally shaking the van. We invested in some classy NZ wine at the supermarket which is helping us compensate. The inclement weather makes it hard to keep things clean and tidy - which brings me to camper van mystery number 2...

Feb 28th - The Sound of Mordor

This evening's campsite is at a place called Mackay's Creek on the Milford Road which is an isolated spot. There is no signal even on the cunning NZ telecom mobile wifi hub - so this will have to be posted tomorrow morning on the road. This place is very Lord of the Rings. We only need a couple of brain dead midgets, an old wedding ring on a string and a shaved monkey on helium for the full effect. But, dear reader, I am leaping ahead.

This morning we rose at stupid O'clock as the Milford Sound is 120km from Te Anau and we wanted to get there before the bulk of the crowds (bussed in from Queenstown) arrived. So we were on the road before the sun pixies had found the crevice nozzle which has always mysteriously become separated from the hoover. Here is a bit they just shoved into a low ravine hoping nobody would notice. 

Words are wretched clumsy things to describe this drive. Suffice it to say that anyone who has the remotest opportunity to come here should grab it with both hands, both feet and anything else they have two of. 

We stopped at Lake Gunn for breakfast and Rick did some fishing. So far it's Trout Athletic 2 Napier Anglers 0 - but as I speak he is hoping to pull one back - standing in his waders in the Mordor river. Fingers crossed!

We then resumed our drive to Milford Sound through the famous Homer tunnel - which enabled tourists to reach the sound for the first time in 1952. The tunnel took 20 years to complete and when you drive through it you can tell why. It is 1.2km hacked out of solid rock. There is 3.8m clearance and our van is 3.5m so we procdeded with caution but without incident. After a steep decent we arrived at this famous stretch of water. We bought tickets for the 11.45 sailing - complete with barbecue lunch and visit to the underwater Discovery Centre - and set off towards the Tasman Sea. Again - words are pretty pointless.

I was interested why one of the world's most beautiful places should have inherited a whole bunch of names from a dreary Welsh container port - but the answer is pretty simple. The first (western) man who accidentally discovered the place when running from a storm in 1812 was a Welsh Seeler called John Grono. He came from Milford Haven so that is what he named the place. But then John Lort Stokes, the captain of a Royal Navy vessel on surveying duty, who coincidentally also came from Milford Haven, changed the name to Milford Sound and added all the other derived names - e.g. Mount Pembroke. In fact, this stretch of water is technically a Fjord (having been created by a glacier) and not a Sound at all. History lesson over!


Once again we were lucky with the weather. Our guide aboard told us that frequently the sea is far too rough to get anywhere near the entrance to the Sound, whereas today we got right out to Anita Bay. Today's record breaking concept album can only be called 'The Milford Sound!'  

After leaving Milford we headed back through the tunnel towards this campsite - but first had to empty wastes at a place called Knob Flats (OK too much information) - but I relate this because it was an instance of the first of a number of 'motor caravan mysteries' we have encountered. 

One can only conclude it must be the evil thargs of Suparon who get caught short while rummaging our lockers for supernatural jewellery.

Feb 27th - All aboard the Kingston Flyer

The day dawned rather gloomy - both because the weather was cloudy and because some minor North London team had beaten the mighty Spurs 5-2 which did not please our host. However, the weather began to improve quite quickly as the sun pixies swiftly hoovered the lingering clouds from the mountains. We headed back to Queenstown for a coffee on the quay - where the 100 year old steamer TSS Earnslaw had just docked.

Over our coffee we were musing as to how a 168 ft, 330 ton ship was transported to the lake in 1912. We concluded that it must have been constructed at a shipyard on the lake as in 1912 there wasn't even a road to Queenstown let alone vehicles that could move a load that large.


As the weather had now turned distinctly perfect we decided that the cable car up the mountain was a 'must do'. Not a bad view from the top!

We had decided to head for Te Anau that night so we departed Queenstown at about 2pm. On the way out of town we spotted a sign to Kingston and we thought we should call in and get a photo for Phil and Jane. So here we are at Kingston station....

They did a good lunch at the station so we tucked in - and at 3 O'Clock the train arrived! This was pulled by one of the engines that ran on the original line from Dunedin and Invercargill - now run by volunteers for the tourists. It was a truly impressive sight.

And thus we solved our mystery about the Earnslaw. She was built in Dunedin in 1911 and shipped in parts to Kingston on the train. She was assembled on the lake shore and launched on Feb 24th 1912. From there she was moved to Queenstown to be fitted out. We were inspired by this story - and felt another album coming on.