Listons Down Under

NEARING THE END Wanaka was only a short distance from Arrowtown, but the journey was spectacular. Along the route, we stopped at the A.J. Hacker Bungy site. Hacker did not invent the Bungy, but he sure did commercialise it (see video right). There was also a zip wire at the site, but surprisingly no jet boat. Did he miss a trick? Following along the river, we came to the Gibbston Valley, which is a notable pinot noir wine area. Then, a little further along, we came to some water falls at a place known as Roaring Meg. Now, this is interesting because there is a wine that we are both fond of called 'Roaring Meg'. There is a story that two prospectors were escorting two ladies of the night across the river. One of them didn't stop hollering and shouting and kicking up a fuss. They called this woman Roaring Meg. Her friend was known as Quiet Annie and there is also a small stream nearby named after her. We arrived at our lodgings in Wanaka and were slightly surprised by th

ACROSS TO THE WEST We left Dunedin early for a four hour drive to Lake Te Anau, from where we would visit the Milford Sound. We left on State Highway 1 going west to an area known as Fjordland. Our lunch time stop was at Luggate, which had a signpost indicating distances to almost everywhere in the world. What it told us was that we were roughly equidistant between the Equator and the South Pole (see picture left). We arrived in Te Anau at the Lakefront Motel. I had been corresponding through e-mail with Megan. However, the owner was a Chilean woman called Soledad and her husband was from Patagonia. Soledad only used Megan as a postbox as far as bookings were concerned. Soledad owned 2 restaurants and her husband was chef in the Italian one and she ran a cleaning business.  It is interesting that we met so many people from South America, who have now settled in New Zealand. Is it the political freedom, the stronger economy or the opportunities that drive these people to New Zealand?

TRAVELLING SOUTH We picked up our nice little RAV4 with an inbuilt GPS in Christchurch and headed towards the east coast for Akaroa. I had high hopes of Akaroa. It was settled by the French in 1840; their were rare Hector's Dolphins and the coastline looked attractive. However, the clouds were hanging low and threatening rain. The drive started well but then, as we got nearer, the land rose and the roads became more twisty. We arrived at the Summit Hotel, above the Banks Peninsular, and the views looked attractive (see picture right). We drove on down, the roads getting a little scarier until we reached the bays. The towns now had French names, such as Duvauchel. We carried on the road around the headland and then the next, until we reached Akaroa and Mullberry Cottage where we were due to spend the night. We met the owner and she showed us our accomodation, the Garden Cottage, literally at the end of her garden (see picture right), and everything seemed OK. We walked into t

HAPPY NEW YEAR Debbie and Mark had promised us something different for our New Year's celebration and they certainly delivered. We were staying at the Theatre Royal Hotel in Kumara (see picture right). This was a restored hotel from the original gold rush mining town in the 1860's. The rooms have a blend of Victorian decor, antique furnishing and modern amenities. It was the best room we have had all trip with a lovely bath on claw feet. That night the hotel had no special meal for New Year but we ate and drank reasonably well anyway. However, the entertainment was special. We had a brother and sister with a combined age of 161 who played piano and trumpet. They gave us songs that everybody knew, especially those focusing on the war years. At the end of the evening, we joined in with the other guests singing 'Auld Lang Syne' and went to bed feeling very happy. Well, it wasn't long before our precious days with Debbie and Mark came to an end. They took us to Gr

GO WEST Cape Foulwind is an unfair name for this next stop on our tiki tour. There was no foul wind nor much wind at all. Having just stayed at the Settlers Motel in Hanmer Springs, we were now staying at the Settlers Motel, Cape Foulwind. Very nice motel room/chalet, quite spacious and with a hot tub just outside under the trees. We had a nice meal at the pub next door where I played pool with Mark whilst we waited for our food and was lucky enough to beat him but it was a low quality game! Next day we went to Denniston, an old coal mining town which is being set up as an historic village but they need to do more work if they want to bring in tourists.  Its perched high on the hills, above the clouds. It was very wet and visibility was very poor (see picture below right) but gave you a feeling of how hard life must have been. Westport is a reasonably big town next to Denniston. It has seen better days but apparently it is being revived.Not noticable yet. We had lunch there and shop

NEW ZEALAND FOR CHRISTMAS We flew into the quaint airport at Wellington. You'd never know Wellington was a capital city from the size of its airport. After a short wait, we boarded the 20 seater Air New Zealand prop plane for the 20 minute flight to Blenheim. Initially, there was a problem with two suitcases that had gone missing, which caused a minor delay, but that was resolved and we were off. Debbie, husband Mark and soldier Will were there to meet us and then our luggage arrived on a wagon - very high tech! We went straight from the airport to a restaurant recommended to Debbie for dinner, where we caught up with all of the family news and plans for our trip after Christmas. We had a very nice meal, washed down with a bottle of Fromm (more about this label later) Pinot Noir. It was so lovely to see our Kiwi family and it was very special staying at their new home in Blenheim. The dogs, Harley and Flecker, had certainly grown up since we last saw them (9 years on) and they w