The Southern Alps

Some more pictures from our holiday. It is retreating rapidly into the past as Summer grills on. Here we have Stuart with a fish that he did not catch on New Brighton Pier. He was modelling it for the fisherman! Then you see the road that leads from Christchurch to the Southern Alps. Snow covered even in high Summer. Check out the beatiful lupins that line the road for mile after mile. And all the tourist buses coming the other way. The 3rd pic shows the campsite near Lake Ohau where we spent one night. It was my personal favourite because we were in the midst of such fantastic scenery. I had a dawn walk up the hillside and got to see my first ever Riflemen. These are the smallest NZ birds and are similar to a goldcrest in the UK.
The 4th pic shows paddy bringing his gear over to camp. We were surrounded by sandflies which were a bit of a minus (to put it mildly). Paddy did not complain !
Finally Stuart (again! - he manages to worm his way into most of our pictures) shows us Aoraki (Mount Cook) in the distance over an impossibly glacier coloured Lake Pukaki. Just a few days 2 japanes climbers were killed trying to climb this mountain.

Stunning comet.

If you go to the link provided ,you will be able to see what the buzz over here in NZ is at the moment.
This stunning comet really does look this good ,with the naked eye. it's so long and clear ,when you wathc it you can almost see it move.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420247

More on the holiday

We have switched to the Google version of Blogger and I hope this post works out OK. A week ago today we were still driving in the dusk towards Okahune having left the campsite on South Island in the morning and caught the ferry across to Wellington. It feels like more than a week, mind you the camping gear that is strewn all over the house waiting to be put away is a constant reminder that we have not long since returned.

These 5 pictures find us pushing South into new territory, down the wild Kaikoura coast where there were lots of campsites squashed in between the huge hills and the wild crashing sea. Perhaps it is not always wild there, but I would not fancy spending 2 weeks being buffeted around. We made it to Christchurch to a very pleasant and surprisingly quiet campsite in South New BRighton. It was only 20 minutes from the city centre as we discovered when Paddy split his head open in the playground that first night and we had to go to the 24hr doctors in the city centre. Fortunately he just needed some glue. His brothers were most impressed by the plasma tv in reception - where people often have to wait for several hours to be seen - which had just started showing LOTR as we sat down! They were disappointed that Patrick was seen to within 15 minutes. Very efficient friendly clean and all for $45 .

The next day we went back to the cente to spend lots of money, to await the opening of the UK shop (which didn't) , to enjoy the range of shops - second hand books, magic shop, sushi etc. We enjoyed the buskers in Cathedral square and the giant chess was very dramatic too.

The first picture is of me fishing. I am having a very poor run of fishing at the moment, having notched up some 16 hours of fishing in about 10 different places using a variety of techniques, baits times without catching anything big enough to eat. The picture shows me trying at Blenheim, but I also tried Brighton Pier, Okarito Lagoon and today we went back to Tokerau Beach. The water has warmed up and I have been hearing other people talk about catching fish around the place so I was mildly optimistic. Instead the sea was full of red seaweed that clung to the line and bait and made it impossible to fish. Perhaps I should see how long I can go without catching anything even though I am trying my hardest.

To add insult to injury Eric took my swimmers having decided that he did actually want to have a swim and then he left all the towels next to my fishing bag, just before a large wave came in and swept everything up the beach. I have to say that I was in quite a bad mood after that! Trying to salvage something I spent 20 minutes untangling the stunt kite that Uncle Nick and Aunty Kala (spelling dodgy?) had bought for Stuart many moons ago. We figured out how to build it and it was ace, ducking and diving in the strong wind with its 20 foot long tail. All the boys had a go and Eric was the best at keeping it aloft. It was nice to do something that they all enjoyed and made up for the other disappointments.

The boy's

The boy's.

Cute as

Well here he is ,our new addition to our family. And in honour of our trip south we have named him .......Picton. The name is just right for him. He is the brother of dearly loved posy. He has both the same mum and dad as Posy. And he is just as silly as posy was. Picton has settled in well ,Mo is not so sure ,Jo is ok, he tried to hiss at him ,but he found it too much effort and stopped. Zephyr doesn't know what to do with him ,he licked him, and poor Picton nearly took off. Bless him

Crossing to South Island

Our second night's camping was at a lovely site next to a municipal park in Upper Hutt, a short distance to the Interislander ferry where we were due early the next morning. We enjoyed walking round the park in the evening and discovered that our tent was next to the Wellington Fault. There are periodical pieces in the paper warning that Wellington is well overdue for a major earthquake. I slept slightly uneasily that night.
There are some pictures of activities in Blenheim. We spent New Year's Eve there on a pleasant enough camp-site that had a swimming pool and a lovely clear stream. We liked Blenheim with its surrounding vineyards and horticultural enetrprises. The town has single sex schools only which is interesting. The New Zealand Falcon was as close as we got to the species in the museum. I did see a few possible wild ones but did not get the views necessary for positive identification.
The train was running in Blenheim even on New Years Day so we had a pleasant trundle through the water meadows into town and back. There was lots of wild fennel growing.

First set of holiday pics showing our transport: called Daisy. First campsite at Turangi and snow capped Ruapehu whose crater lake did not collapse releasing a deadly lahar down the mountain-side. The first of many natural hazards that we avoided!

We've all been on a Summer Holiday ....

..... and we got home an hour ago!
Camping holidays are good for making you appreciate things that you spend the rest of the year taking for granted:
- a roof that will not let in the rain
- a wall that is designed not to let flood-water in
- places to dry clothes
- electricity to run kettles
- tv and video players
need I go on?
We travelled a long way today, from a place at the south end of Lake Taupo called Okahune all the way back home. The weather was pretty rough, rain that was torrential at times and a gusty wind. That did help to keep Daisy's radiator cool. The boys were ecstatic to get home and puppy dog was pleased to see us back. The cats showed their appreciation in typical feline manner by bringing us a half paralysed rat!

Anyway we have taken about 400 pictures of our voyage and when they have been downloaded, some of the cream of the crop will find their way onto this blog.

In the mean-time you can try to put together the information above into a prediction of how our holiday was.