Epona

My final day of holidays and my last day in Singapore. I am up early. I am grateful that I don’t have to check out today. My transfer is picking me up at 5.15 pm, so I have all day, I am determined to walk the feet off myself to enable me to maybe get some sleep on the plane. I am praying my legs behave on the flight and decide to wear linen trousers to travel in, hopefully, shower and change into something warmer at Doha. I am guessing it won’t be 30 degrees when I land in Dublin!

I have a lovely breakfast. The Robertson is a very central hotel and the breakfast’s have been really nice. I walk to Chinatown in the search for some tea on a recommendation from Barbara. I thought I might go to Orchard Rd where all the high end fashion shops are, however, thankfully, I got myself a bit lost and ended up walking for miles to get myself back on track, which probably did me and my bank balance a favour!

Some facts/info re: Singapore

There is a chewing gum and vaping ban here – $2,000 fines! They prefer you smoke…..now what does that tell you about vaping! Smoking is limited to strict areas.

Orchard Road is for the High End Shoppers!

Singapore’s Independence was in 1965 – the British arrived in 1892!

They are the fastest walkers in the world averaging 6.5k p/hr – no idea how they calculate that one!

National Service is still in place – 2 years is required within one of the services which includes the Police, honestly I am in favour of this, I feel it would sort out some of our society out in a very positive manner! A controversial view I know.

Tanglin is the most prestigious area – the Mayfair of Singapore

Tangs – is the equivalent of Harrods or Bloomingdale’s

The population is approx 6 million

ERP – Electronic Road Pricing – is Sing’s road congestion management system using gantries to charge vehicles on busy roads during peak hours. Fees are deducted in in-vehicle units, so comes straight out of your bank account!

The cars are heavily taxed and when I say heavily HUGE! Most people do not have one, hence why the city traffic moves and is light for such a huge population in such a small area, all cars are disposed of at 10 yrs old, so even if you bought a small average car at 80k+ it is worth zero at ten years old!

The public transport infrastructure is fabulous!

Hawker – Street food markets – definitely go to one!

I love that even the bus stops have plants grown on the top of them, the whole city has greenery/flowers on the buildings and literally everywhere.

I have done over 20,000 steps so I think a nice light lunch is in order. I dropped off my shopping and went back out along the Quay, I spotted a nice French restaurant, the menu was so nice, I would have loved the 1 metre charcuterie board it looked gorgeous, however just too much, so I settled on a beetroot hummus, pomegranate, maison granola, pitta bread (the nicest pitta I have ever eaten) and a nice glass of of freezing cold Chablis!

I met 2 lovely girls who were having “The Grand Platter”, the one I fancied! 1m long selection of French cheese & artisan charcuterie, fruits, nuts, beetroot hummus, herb tahini, Kalamata olives and breads! Where is Fio when I need her? I have a feeling Fio could manage this one on her own! We had a really nice chat and we all had a 2nd glass of wine and then I really needed to get going! It is time to get back to the hotel, shower, change and get to the airport.

On my way back to the hotel earlier ie before lunch, I deviated through Clarke’s Quay shopping centre and found a little shop which just had lovely clothes, I bought 4 tops and a pair of trousers! OMG I have lost the plot! How am I going to get this all home lol!

And, just like that my wonderful trip is over and I am homeward bound. Goodbye lovely Singapore.

My flights are on time and I get the chance to very quickly shower and change at Doha, which I really felt the better of, especially keeping the itch at bay, creams re-applied!

Doha is huge, there is a train in the middle of it to get you to your gates! Anyway, I walk straight to the gate and it opens just as I walk up, I am first on, I don’t think that has ever happened to me in my life!

I arrive into a very crisp Dublin around 5.45 am, it is dry and the cold air feels great weirdly. I get the air coach up to Belfast where Christina, Caleb and Hannah are waiting for me and what a fine sight indeed. Caleb literally melted my heart, he was so genuinely pleased to see me, ran to me, huge hugs, well as big as a 3 year old can muster and kisses bless him and he smiled the whole way home, as did I. So good to see them all, Hannah has grown so much in a month and has definitely found her voice at 8 months old! & Christina in such good form too – my wee loves!

Until the next adventure – thank you for joining me on this one!

Some pics from last night…

Plan for today is to get to a chemist, which Barbara has recommended and I want to go to Little India & China Town, my plan is to go the the Gardens at the Bay this evening before I meet Barbara, we are having a late dinner at Ce La Vie which I think is the highest restaurant with the best views of the city.

I am up early so think about walking or taking the tube but end up deciding to get the bus again as it will allow me to see the rest of the city and hear the commentary so off I go again after breakfast…

I walk to Stop 8 as it early as I have time, I like the walk along the Quay, the bus doesn’t seem to be starting until 10 this morning so around 30 min of an extra wait ie it didn’t arrive at the stop until 10.30, the bus stop is rammed with people and when the bus arrives it is pretty busy. Yet again at this stop I met some people who are just about to go cruising, this time Jim and his wife, Jim originally from Durham and his wife from London now living in Essex, we have a long chat about life and what we do for a living past and present and long story short they need a will and I promise to get that sorted for them with the lovely Rebecca! Back to holidays…Off I go and I get off a Little India, I was a bit disappointed and whilst I had a good walk round and did go up into one of the clothing souks, this are was not floating my boat, so I popped back on the bus about an hour later.

Chinatown was totally different, I found it vibrant and interesting and just really enjoyed it, I decided to go into one of the restaurants for lunch and hit it really lucky, normally if I ask for something to be spicy I get meh! Not this time – it delivered in abundance and was absolutely delicious, I can’t remember the name of the dish as I was looking at the sea bass dish, which really appealed to me but having been so sick before I came away and my history with fish I chickened out literally lol :-).

My luggage is too heavy, as I might have bought a few things along the way, so, I buy another bag which allows me to spread the load, I do have sufficient weight allowance, I just need to do some re-arrangement! I make my way back to the hotel to re-pack. My plan is to go to the Gardens at the Bay and watch the light show this evening before I meet Barbara. We are booked for dinner at 10pm at Ce La Vie at the Marina Sands hotel – top floor, might be a bit windy up there, however, what a treat!

After last nights escapades I book a “Grab” and he leaves me off at the gardens in good time, sufficient time to do some shopping, hey! I have another bag now! I then make my way out to the gardens, I am mindful that it is very easy to be in the wrong place and I realise that the trees just outside the gift shop is the wrong place! It is a short walk across the bridge to the main observatory, light display and trees. It did not disappoint, the lights run twice nightly for 15 mins to classical music and it was just gorgeous and thoroughly enjoyable.

I walk across to the Marina Bay Sands, I just followed the crowd and the above pics were just as I walked and looked back at the views.

Barbara had again given me great instructions of where to meet and I am delighted to say I was in good time! I had bought flat pumps to wear but had brought heels for our special evening in Ce La Vie, also because of the inside joke with my travelling companions, about my shoes, least said about that the better! I go inside the Marina Bay and find some ladies toilets and change.

Barbara came along shortly and off we headed up to our table, it was quite windy but warm up on the rooftop restaurant, and we end up moving to a table right at the edge. The views were spectacular, our meal was absolutely beautiful and my company excellent, an all round lovely way to spend my final night in Singapore and indeed this trip.

A thoroughly great night, we had an early night, to be fair to Barbara I think she would have stayed on despite having to be up for work tomorrow, however, I have had so little sleep with this allergy driving me crazy, we head off off and say our goodbyes – thank you so much Barbara for making my time in Singapore even more special. Having some company especially lovely company just made it for me.

I am flying with Singapore airlines from Christchurch, do not hesitate to fly with this company, the service was exceptional and the food was the best I have ever had on a plane, plus the female cabin crew uniforms are just gorgeous! I was worried sick about how I would manage the allergy itch on my legs, however, it wasn’t too bad, I had my meal early doors and was able to get some sleep. I do feel I hugely benefitted by breaking my journey home, this was around a 10.5 hr flight and 8 hrs ahead here as opposed to 13 hrs ahead in NZ.

I am booked for 4 nights, however, have only actually have 3 due to flight times. I am meeting Barbara who I met on the North Island hopefully on 2 occasions after work, so that ends up being Tuesday and Wednesday night due to my confusion re the nights I was actually staying lol. I arrive in the evening around 17.40 pm and my transfer driver, Joseph, is waiting for me, such a nice guy, couldn’t have been more helpful with regard to suggestions of what to do etc.

The hotel is very central and Barbara has kindly suggested I go to a restaurant very close to the hotel, I was a bit worried about being out and about in the dark in a city, however, have no fear, Singapore is so safe and what will strike you is the cleanliness of it. I head out in search of Pizzeria Vincenzo Capuano and find it really easily.

I decide to walk along the canal before I go in just to stretch my legs first. It feels like a night in July in Spain, around 30 degrees with the most beautiful warm wind flowing through. The pizza’s looked huge and whilst I am hungry it would be too much, so I see a portion of lasagne coming out, it looked nice and not too big a portion and I order that. A lovely lad originally from Perth, who is here on business, ends up sitting at a table beside me and we have a chat during which one of the waitresses brings him a note from a girl outside who tells him she thinks he is very handsome, so funny, his wee face! I said she probably thinks you are with your mother and a lovely lad!Hopefully something came of it, I headed off back to my hotel to plan my day tomorrow.

I am up early early very little sleep due to my legs, the only real ease I get is by showering them with freezing cold water, on the hour, and I just give up and get up. Breakfast starts at 6am and I am about the first one in, again I am not overly hungry, however, it is something to do and if I have a good breakfast, lunch won’t be required. My plan is to get a ticket for the hop on hop off bus, I find this helps me to orientate myself and get a feel for a city. The transport here is excellent, the underground is superb, both the underground’s here and in Hong Kong are broadly like London so easy peasy as long as you are going the right direction!

I buy an online ticket and download the app which even gives pictures of the bus stop, my nearest stop is No: 7 at Clarke’s Quay, however, because it is so early and the buses don’t start until 9.30 am. I go for a good walk along the Quay and then circle back, I end up starting at stop 8. I decide to go to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Stop 11 on the yellow line & then Raffles at Stop 18, then assess what I have time for after that, maybe the gardens by the bay?

I meet people at the bus stop, it turns out we are on the wrong side of the road so we hot foot it across and catch the bus……

Stop 11; Botanical Gardens – well worth a visit I just loved walking around and was able to download an app and listen to commentary on what I was seeing, the history of the gardens and the on-going work within them as I walked.

I spent a couple of hours here and as I walked I bumped into a couple of these chaps!

I was so lucky, I walked out to the stop as the bus arrived at the gardens and on I popped, next stop Raffles. Of course, and as you all know, as you go around on the bus there is super commentary of where you are, what you are seeing and general information. Singapore has a ban on chewing gum and vaping $2,000 dollar fines incurred! I arrive at Raffles and it is really impressive and opulent.

You are guided to “The Long Bar” by signs within the hotels grounds, there is a queue waiting to get in, approx 30 min wait which by all accounts is not too bad so I wait. It is really well managed and did not feel like a 30 min wait. My advice is go before 12 as the queues can be 1.5 hrs long.

In front of me is a couple from Macclesfield, really nice couple Caroline & Tony, who like a lot of the people I meet in Singapore are either just about to go on a cruise (in their case) or just off one. Anyway, nothing will do, they invite me to join them at the bar when we get in which was so nice of them. I order a vodka based cocktail as I am not keen on gin, to begin with!

Caroline lets me try her Singapore Sling, you could not taste the gin and it was absolutely delicious, and well I just had to then didn’t I? I was determined to send my mum a text she once sent me, which I just loved at the time (15-20 yrs ago)

And then for some shopping as you do!

I loved that once you were in there was no rush, you could stay as short as time or as long a time as you wanted. Anyway, by the time we are leaving it is coming up on 3pm so we all board the bus and say our cheerio’s, I decide to go back to the hotel, shower, change and walk into town to meet Barbara. I left 1 hr before our meeting time for a 30 min walk and I do not know what the heck I did, well I do, my data ran out unbeknown to me and because it wasn’t saying anything I just kept walking until I was nearly at the docks, it ended up I was walking for around 1 hr 20 mins lol – and eventually met Barbara a bit hotter and drippier than I would have liked as it is very humid in Sing.

We are booked for drinks at the Lantern, however, she takes me to a “Hawker” centre for a bite to eat first – it is a complete attack on the senses. First of all, you secure your seat, all you have to do is set down eg some tissues on a free table, Barbara leaves some tissues and hand sanitiser, plus one of her work bags……what? No-one will sit in those seats or indeed touch anything you leave, people are leaving down their work passes, Barbara has even seen people leave a credit card, no-one touches a thing! My appetite, despite not having anything from breakfast time, bar my cocktails, isn’t great but I am determined to try some of this food. You can order anything from any of the street food stalls, these are all health & safety checked continuously, so as safe as eating in a restaurant.

Barbara orders us Carrot Cake! Not as we know it, a traditional radish type dish & a gorgeous Indian Paneer/spinach dish with naan bread. It was the perfect amount and I really enjoyed it.

Off we go to The Lantern for drinks and a proper catch up…….so good to see Barbara and so kind of her to go out of her way to host me….we make plans for out next meeting which we hope to go to Ce La Vie! Plus she gives me top tips re finding a Pharmacy and things to do tomorrow.

In one of my previous blogs I mentioned I would do a separate one on the birds and this is really because there are some truly unique and often flightless birds are are and remain endangered. New Zealanders LOVE their birds and James our CEO is utterly passionate about them, and was really quite infectious! Conservation work in this area is huge and on going;-

Iconic Native Species:

Kiwi – The National Icon: First things first, you do NOT eat Kiwi these are endangered birds! You might get yourself in trouble saying the above, you eat Kiwi FRUIT!

The Kiwi is a nocturnal, flightless bird, it has hair-like feathers, an unusual beak with nostrils at the tip. only saw one of these in a controlled environment, no pics allowed, in the Rotarua conservation centre. Kiwi’s produce enormous eggs (this can be the size of an Emu egg despite the Kiwi being chicken sized), sometimes weighing up to 25% of the female’s body weight, making them the largest egg-to-body weight ratio of any bird, comparable to a human giving birth to a toddler!!!!!

Blue Duck: Endangerd species of wild fowl and I was one of the few that actually saw two in flight at the Blue duck station, just too fast for me to catch them on camera 😦

White Heron: A very rare sighting! RHS pic – as per one of my previous blogs we were so lucky to see one of these, a man that had stopped had been looking for 25 years! He was booked on the below tour the next day! Typical!

Kea: The world’s only alpine parrot. Known for its height intelligence and mischievous nature! The first sighting of these were at Franz Joseph, we were out in our Jammies as we could hear them just couldn’t see them but over the coming day they were not so elusive!

Weka: Another flightless bird, famous for its cheeky nature! Cheeky is an understatement “kleptomaniac” is a better description! They are fearless around humans and notorious for stealing shiny objects, food, socks or anything that isn’t securely put away, they can open zips, bags etc and Fio and I saw one in action trying to get into rucksacks!

Kakapo: A critically endangered , flightless nocturnal parrot, it is the heaviest parrot in the world. Often known as the Owl Parrot, it is a large nocturnal, ground dwelling parrot. They are two heavy to fly!

Takahe: Large, flightless swamp hens once thought to be extinct until their rediscovery in 1948 by Dr Geoffrey Orwell, who found them in the remote Murchison Mountains in the Fiordland. Famously monogamous and often stay with their mate for their entire lives.

Tui: Famous for their complex songs and white throat tufts (called poi). Early European settlers called them “parson birds” because they resembled clerical attire. They are clever mimics often heard in gardens and forests. They have a dual voice box that allows them to produce a massive range of sounds, including melodious notes, clicks, grunts and wheezes! Tui are incredibly intelligent. They are members of the “honeyeater family” and primarily feed on nectar from native plants like Harakeke (flax), the also eat fruit and insects. We were so lucky to see them with beaks covered in pollen which is a once a year opportunity!

Kereru: A large glossy “ very fat” pigeon, very small head, I am not sure they are that bright either, they play a vital role in dispersing seeds for native trees.

Karearea:

Others:

There are of course Shags & Boobies but apparently no Tits! Ellen did ask as she has Blue Tits! At Home in her garden. Which we all roared at, as poor Ellen literally goes blue with the cold, especially her hands, so of course she does, she also has some brown ones too. You can look these guys up, I did see this guy and you can see why he is one of the Shag family lol …

We load at 7.45 am, the mood has changed, the group are now looking forward to getting home to see their husbands, partners, children or starting the next part of their journey’s so there is lots of chatter on the bus, tonight will be our final supper 😦 as a group.

James as I may have mentioned loves “The Kea” and it is time he is presented with his new hat! Mandatory wearing required! this lad! Kind, knowledgeable, patient, he wears his heart on his sleeve and you can see he is genuinely touched that Ellen had listened and knew this hat was something he had seen and that Fio had got it and kept it for today for him ( we all chipped in of course), just a bit of fun and yes he got some very strange looks!

We have a short stop at Lake Tepako before a pie stop at James’s FAVOURITE Pie shop, I have resisted one for 3 weeks, well bar 2 mini ones, today is the day and to be fair it was soooo good – it you are in the area “Fairlie’s Bakehouse”!

How did the MacKenzie Basin etc get its name? You will read below he acquired 1,000 sheep at night, what this means is that he was a poacher/thief, his dog,Friday, was supposed to have a fork tongue which meant he could not bark, somewhat useful if you are a thief’s sheepdog!

Another short stop at Lake Tekapo & the Church of the Good Shepard at which there is a sculpture acknowledging Collie dogs, as the huge stations would be unmanageable, both past and present, without them in this territory would have been broadly impossible. We saw in eg The Blue Duck Station they have very highly skilled dogs for farm management eg sheep and hunting, we saw at least 10-12 there with on-going training for young dogs.

The Water here is so blue and so beautiful.

On the way to Christchurch James gets us to reflect on the things that we enjoyed the most, surprised us the most and that we will remember the most, so good to hear each person’s most memorable memories to them. Yep I am getting emotional!

We get into Christchurch at lunchtime by which time I am ready for the funny farm, we off load and then James who is returning the bus leaves me off at a medical centre, he takes me to one just out of town that has shorter waiting times and well my expectations were 4-5 hour wait times, nope, I was triaged and seen by a doctors within an hour, the bloods well they took 5 attempts! I need a huge dose of steroids to get this bad boy under control but at least I have it now. I just head back to our room and get ready for dinner and pack my luggage, setting out what I need for tomorrow’s journey to Singapore, everything is locked and loaded and this turns out to be a fortuitous decision.

The plan is to meet at “Little High Eatery” at 6pm, it is one of those places that has lots of different restaurants and you can choose what you want, I go for Indian! The food was really good.

It is customary to give your CEO a tip and well this crew outdid itself artistically…….see Fio’s, me lacking in artistic qualities put mine in a wine bottle – flipsake, James plonked his hat on the top of if and it disappeared down into the bottle………….oopsie, we eventually had to get the bottle broken to get it back out. Janine surprised us all friendship badges which have the flags for Canada & Alberta intwined. It turn’s out she had brought one for everyone and give the North Island crew their’s when we parted in Auckland. We say our good byes to those not coming to the pub. We sad, happy and blessed as we hug each other. Gosh, I get how those people in I am a Celebrity get me out of here feel, 8 of us have been together for 22 days, and 14 days with this group of 13, and 8 days with our initial 15, you get to know a lot about each other and my experience with the people I have met this time, has been a thoroughly positive one. There was a general care for each other and thoughtfulness. Each person with their own unique qualities, each one on this/these trips for their own individual reasons including myself.

Time for Church, Housed in a gothic renewal building originally constructed in 1875 as the Trinity Congregational Church, which sat cordoned off post-quake for almost a decade, the brew bar is the result of three years of restoration by Inkster Company. It is considered one of the best city centre pubs!

James had told and showed us this old church that has been changed into a pub/live music venue, we get a drink and go upstairs to the balcony, it is one of those flat ones across the back of the church, I am rather concerned what the “stuffed” priest is doing to the “stuffed” nun in the red fishnets in front of the organ, but hey ho! Also, which I think is funny, I am pretty sure there are no priest or nuns in a Congregational Church and come to think if it No Bar either lol 🙂 anyway it is amazing that this beautiful building was both saved and preserved following the 2 horrendous years of earthquake’s that decimated this city over a decade ago.

The place is just getting going when we leave, most of us have early starts or just starts tomorrow.

Time to go: I am not sleeping, worse than ever with the itch and am up every hour having a cold shower, well cold showering my legs, it is the only thing giving me any ease. I have booked a “super shuttle” to the airport, I give up sleeping at 4.30 am, thankfully, I packed yesterday afternoon before I went out for dinner so I go over for breakfast early around 6am, first one in, and thankfully double check my itinerary and my flight to Singapore is 12pm not 3pm argh!!!!!! Anyway, it was an easy sort and I was able to change the air coach really easily to 8.30 am. Fio, is still out for the count when I get back in and in a way this is better because, when I get back after breakfast she is just stirring, this is my toughest goodbye of the lot, I have barely been able to look at her from yesterday without being an emotional wreck. She has an amazing adventure in front of her, she is taking 4 months out from her career to go travelling, folks why not! JFDI that’s my advice to you and myself. I/we all have places to go, see and people to meet. THIS my dear readers is what actual life is for …..LIVING! I feel so lucky, that I have lived long enough, have good health and that I am finally in a position to do these things without financial worry these days, not a position I have always been in, and so I must stop procrastinating, plan and stop emotional feelings from getting in my way……I will NOT look back on my life and regret what I didn’t do or what held me back. I want to be an example especially to my children and grandchildren.

By the way, I haven’t said this in my blogs or indeed to them, Anna & Ellen, have husband/partners and they travel for the very best of reasons on their own in these groups (which are hugely safe environments) or with friends regularly, for their own reasons, not bad ones I might add, without it impacting their home life in a negative way. So, if you are living with or in a relationship with a stuck in the mud, or have family that is restricting what you want to do, and obviously have no other major responsibilities, perceived or otherwise, bar them, you are not that necessary or needed! If, they love you and want the best for you they will support you. My mum could do poor me at 87 coming 88 and doesn’t, she encourage’s me, my daughter in particular, Christina, (& Tim) is pushing me on, despite knowing it is a inconvenience for them while I am away. John & Sarah too, their attitude is go and do, and all my close family and friends, you know who you who are and have been so behind me, thank you. Don’t wait, everyone, just go while the going is good. Nothing is guaranteed.

SINGAPORE is calling, I give Fio a huge hug and off I go again…..

As we leave Queenstown the bus is noticeably quieter even though it is the middle of the day and I think we all realise our journey together is coming to an end, however, a lot of people on this trip are onwards for more adventures, Rhonda & Bob are flying on to Sydney to join their cruise, Fio is hiring a car (after a lot of hassle) will remain in the South Island for another 10 days or so then will fly back to Auckland and do another 10 days in the North Island before she heads onto Australia and won’t be back in Germany to mid to late April. Janine, well our small and mighty Janine is is NZ to the end of June, she is going to cycle round both Islands over that time, she might pop over to Australia/Tasmania just for visa requirements somewhere in the middle of all this, still to be decided, I am Singapore bound for 3-4 days and then like most others am homeward bound. I know I will miss this lovely group of people, especially Fio.

As we drive out of Queenstown with our various lunches we see the original site of the world’s first commercial bungy jump, Kawarau Bridge, 12th Nov 1968. Founded by AJ Hackett and Henry van Asch, this 43 meter leap over the Kawarau River pioneered the modern adventure activity and it remains “World home of Bungy”. There is a victim about to take a jump and this livens everyone up – everyone is shouting JUMP! JUMP! JUMP! Alas, the victim was waivering and too slow, so we shot past without seeing them fall……

We make a coffee stop in Cromwell, renowned for its sunny climate, fruit orchards and premium Pinot Noir wines…..now you have my attention! Known for its hot dry summers and crisp winters it makes it ideal for stone fruit like cherries, apricots and wine. It is famous for the large fruit sculpture at the town entrance.

Ready for the next one….I am not sure I can prepare you for the excitement and the reasons places become famous…..in this case it was the job of “Shrek” the sheep, this area is famous for its Merino sheep farming, Shrek was from the Bendigo Station (huge farm remember) who became an national income after evading muster (shearing) for 6 years ie from 1998 to 2004 after hiding in caves in the Tarras hills. When finally caught in April 2004, he was carrying 27kg ie 60 lb’s of wool, enough to make 20 large men’s suits! He was shorn on live national to, turning him into an instant celebrity. Shrek became a symbol of NZ, raising money for charities like Cure Kids and helping to save the local Tarras School. He passed away at the age of 16 in 2011.

We stop for coffee in a local farm shop whose produce was fabulous and gardens simply gorgeous.

Ok here are some of the flowers……

Stargazing: Situated within Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve which offer exceptional stargazing opportunities. The are big dome/pods which you will see in the pics – I am sure that would have been worthwhile to have gone up to.

Sir William “Bill” Hamilton, remember I said I would come back to Bill? No? Ok – the clue is Jet boats, so there is this thing in NZ called ‘No: 8 Mentality”, broadly this came from people inventing things and having to improvise with the materials they had as opposed to what they actually needed and Bill was a prime example of this. He was a legendary engineer and inventor and most famous for developing the modern jet boat. In the 1950’s, he got fed up with his propellers get caught up and so he refined marine jet propulsion to allow boats to navigate the shallow, shingle-bottomed rivers. His design which expelled water above the waterline, eliminated the need for vulnerable underwater propellers. Before his engineering fame, he was a notable racing driver, why does that not surprise me, he was once holding the Australasian speed record. His boats later powered world first expeditions, such as the 1960 upstream journey through the Grand Canyon which really put this engine on the map.

Well, after being so many beautiful places, no-one could describe Twizel as beautiful, I am rather under whelmed, broadly, it is a big Tintown literally a tin town of corrugated homes, which developed into a town when people who had come to work in 1968 for the hydroelectric workers and ended up being here years, putting roots down etc. It is located, in their words, “in the heart of the Mackenzie District”, otherwise described as the middle of no-where. It is a hub for fishing (mostly salmon some trout), kayaking, hiking and cycling the Alps 2 Ocean trail (of which we are doing part of in the morning), surround by five turquoise lakes.

Fio and I grad some food in the groceries store, we just eat in and have a quiet one, I have been struggling with what turns out to be an allergy, I thought it was sand fly bites initially but things are really progressing and I have had so little sleep because of it, yes even less than usual.

I feel really off par when I wake, low grade temp I think, not sure, we are scheduled to do a 20km cycle this morning, anyway, I probably should not have gone but I did and I enjoyed it very much, the cycle started at Irishman’s Creek on Lake Pukaki and is part of Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail. It is within the Irishman Creek Station, a 6,000 hectare working farm, the Trail is a total of 315 km long, thankfully this was broadly, q flat cycle where there is a lot of farmed Salmon and people finish on the canals we are travelling along, it is very beautiful and hey maybe I shouldn’t have been so hard on Twizel. There are stunning Mountain View’s and glacial lakes.

Janine is getting excited about starting her bicycle journey next week round NZ both South and North, I have huge admiration for her and what she is planning to do, ie around 50k a day hoping to finish up in June. This tour has given her a good base feeling for what she wants to do. This is not Janine’s first rodeo ( she is from Canada and has cycled across it, albeit with her mum bringing her camping equipment etc from place to place ). This time she is on her own. Incredible woman.

I felt dreadful on the bus back and say to Fio that I don’t think I can do the hike this afternoon, I just go back and get into bed and sleep for 3 hours, I went round to the pharmacy and get some more creams! Fio and the crew had a chilly but great afternoon up at Mount Cook and whilst I am sorry to have missed it, I am grateful for all the things I haven’t missed. I message James our CEO and explain I need to see a doctor tomorrow when we get to Christchurch.

7am prompt departure time, breakfast at 6am for the 8th Wonder of the World, Fio & Anna have decided not to go, they are hiring bikes instead. The aim is to get to a small town called Te Anua around 9am, buy lunch for the boat here and any other things we think we might need, the cruise is 1-3pm and James has suggested we all use the toilet before we get off the boat and head straight to the coach so we can have a prompt exit and not get caught in the traffic up to the tunnel ie get back to Queenstown asap, everyone is in agreement on that one! Might get to see more Kea (my plan is to do a blog on NZ birds as we have seen a lot of them and been very lucky to do so and some of the group have captured some pretty good pics too.

The Homer Tunnel:

The day is grey, dull and wet but it set to be gorgeous by the time we get to Milford Sound so totally back to front to what it normally is, we have been utterly blessed with good weather, NZ have been having a dreadful time weather wise with slips/landslides killing some people in the North Island and we have missed most of it. The day improves as we travel and when we get to Milford Sounds it is simply beautiful, perfect timing by James, we get there just as they are announcing boarding so just 30 mins before we push off. Lovely big ship. On the way out, the heathen that I am, even though it was beautiful wondered if I should have just stayed behind and was this journey worth 2 hours, honestly, I am glad I did come, however, do yourselves a favour and make at least a night of it to enjoy it properly as it is gorgeous. I can imagine it would be really cold on some days and wet, it is really windy outbound towards the Tasman Seaman, when we turn to come back it is not and we have commentary by a really experienced young man whose name escapes me, he has been down her 8 years and has “tramped all of the surrounding hills and mountains, the waterfalls are amazing one of which is called Lady Bowen which provides all the drinking water for the area including on the ship, it was truly springlike and so fresh, Lady Bowen also provides all the power for the area, quite a lady!

Milford Sounds is at its full height is approx 1400 metres above and 300 metes below. It is one of 2 places in the world where you can see a Galcier, rain forest and a Fiord in Alignment.

The Kakapo is NZ’s, famous, critically, endangered ie less than 200, flightless, they are however excellent climbers, and nocturnal parrot. Whilst they are not found in the wild at Milford Sound (living on a predator free offshore islands instead) close by, they are the primary flightless parrot of the region. If you see a parrot at Milford Sound it is likely to be the mischievous Kea which flys! No we didn’t see one!

We meet back at the bus as directed to find another coach has parked directly behind us, James is not happy, however, there is a rule, apparently, that if you do this you leave your side door unlocked and your keys in the ignition or close by so that the other driver can move your bus as you are not meant to leave it. The Japanese driver who had thus far decided to make us wait sees James inside his bus and comes flying over – he went boogaloo! He was accusing James of breaking into his bus – to be fair guilty as charged but then went too far when he wanted to know what he had stolen! Then all hell broke loose within the group, cool calm collected James went for the parking attendants, oh my days eventually it was sorted and he finally after taking a picture of James and his number plate with his thumbs up smiling agreed to move his bus.

We got back into Queenstown around 7.30 pm – Fio and I went down for a swim in the lake she was hot for a crazy long cycle and I just needed air, walk and water……after that dried off and came back up and met up with Ellen & Anna for a bite to eat at Walter’s bar………now this was one of those unexpected nights which then turned a bit messy and included Karioke – such a hoot Fio went first and was great, there was a girl who went after who’s enthusiasm out matched her ability and thankfully even I thought I couldn’t be worse than that, my first song choice was not available and the 2nd one got lost to everyone’s mercy I promise you……Fio went on to do another song and indeed a German duet with Anna, the lovely Martina form Meath joined us also and we just had a fun night……not everyone was feeling so bright the next morning and I was up and ready for my tandem jump around 6.30, however, over breakfast I received an apology email that an error had been made and the rest is history, so I could have had a lie in, I did go down and waited to see if anyone dropped out but they they didn’t.

Warning: this is a long one, however, has something for everyone including petrol heads and engineers! I might to Milford Sound as a separate blog even though it is day 2 of the Queenstown trip.

We are staying in Queenstown for 3 nights, which is the longest I have stayed anywhere since taking off from home, what a treat!

The day starts with Fio, Fee and myself doing a Walshy workout, so good thank you Heather, this has now been shared to Canadians’, Polish, Germans’, English and Austrailians’ lol 🙂 – you should have patented it!

Have I mentioned that today is Anna’s, and following on from last nights festivities the day started with a birthday cake, candles, team card and a rendition of Happy Birthday to you in the shared kitchen much to the surprise and amusement of another family in there! A banner in the bus most of this organised by her roomie Ellen and I think Martina got the beautiful fresh cream cake. Issue: No one smokes, no matches, no lighters, we asked lots of people outside to no avail ……….so incoming warning I thought I might have a good (questionable) idea………I get some paper out of my book and after a couple of failed attempts, my folding was too thick,…..…..I lit it on the toaster, the cake had gone outside ….what ….everyone was panicking I would set off the fire alarm so had to blow it out and do it again, what a hoot, anyway, Anna came in the middle of the unfolding disaster and the 2nd lit taper chasing the cake, it was a hoot, plus, I had to say to young children beside us not to try this at home as it was very dangerous and I was a very irresponsible adult etc etc and yes I am rolling my eyes – flipsake is anything easy! Anna is really touched and then we load up onto the bus to the poster!

Onwards to Queenstown, we get there around midday, everyone hops off for lunch, a few of us are booked on adventures this afternoon, including myself, of course! We will stay in town, the rest will go and check in after lunch, some poor soul has to deal with my case, which has become James’s nemesis, however, at least he will escape from this one at the end of the trip, he did suggest laterally very under his breath and quite understandably that my case was fatherless hahahahah! I have learnt my lesson I should have split my luggage over two cases, or gone wild and just packed less, bought less, yada yada!

We went up to the street food trucks, I know Joanne, I can hear your shock! Get me going rogue! I got the most amazing Ramen, without the egg, I just can’t cope with an egg in my soup, each to their own I guess.

Anyway, it dawns on me that having lunch, a spicy ramen might not have been the best idea when I am about to be propelled and bounced around the place in the “Shotover jet” in the “Wall to Wall Canyons”. Yes readers maybe not at all wise! To give you an idea we will be travelling at around 90km – yes baby! Skimming around boulders – eh! Hold on? Doing 360 degree spins – what! And gravity defying stunts – dear Lord why didn’t I read the brochure first…..I hear you Samantha Snowball – why change a habit of a lifetime? lol – where were you when I needed you? Uncle James had this as a highly recommend so that is good enough for me…..I blinking LOVED it! Get me into training this could be my new career calling in life! I tell you what that wakes up the old brain cells and adrenaline. Unfortunately, when we were there they were in the process of changing over filming/pic providers and we were told not to bring cameras on board for obvious reasons, probably could have, so 3 of the below pics are screenshots just to give you an idea if what we did.

The Ngai Tahu, the Māori people of this land, and the proud owners of Shotover Jet. Over centuries the Ngai Tahu formed a special connection to the Kimiākau (Shotover River). The Awa (river) is part of who they are, and we are introduced to the long history of the area, and they share the beauty and excitement of the Kimiakau!

Here’s something for the petrol heads! These boats are made of maximum speed, strength and manoeuvrbility, the boats are powered by twin 350 Mercruiser V8 engines, producing a combined 700 horsepower. Propulsion, steering and control are provided through two HAMILTON (there will be more about Mr Hamilton in a future blog) 212 Jet units, thrusting 760 litres of water per second, Oh! I say Matron! Water is draw in through two intakes at the bottom of the boat, two jet units containing internal propellers then compress and drive the water per second out through two jet nozzles at the rear, at nearly 400 litres of water per jet unit. It’s the force of the water that propels the jet boat. Steering is achieved by turning the jet nozzles, which changes the direction of the water forced out the back of the jet boat. It can also brake and reverse using deflectors and thrust buckets, similar to a jet aircraft. I can personally attest to the amazing work of art this boat is and all of the above – incredible – what it lacks in looks (in my view) it makes up in abundance with performance :-).

While Ellen, Anna and myself go on what is a relatively tame activity compared to Miss Fio, she is booked on a Canyon Swing, I swear that girl is going to be the end of me, my nerves are wrecked thinking about it, there was an option for me to go up and watch, eh! Nooooo I would have needed the cardiac ambulance, thankfully I couldn’t do two things at once…….Most normal people would do it once, but, hey deal of the day she was able to do a 2nd one for just $69 – This one she did from a handstand, as you do! The first one she did from a back flip……what the actual! This caused the room to broadly turn into a spiral which she said made it spin like crazy when she righted so at that point she needed to close her eyes as was making her dizzy – all caught on the go pro! It does look amazing I just couldn’t do that. After my tandem sky dive experience years ago it’s just a no. Being that out of control. Ooooh no it just gives me the heebie geebies.

I go up to our accommodation whitch is at the top of a killer hill, it is really cute, The Scenic Suites, it is like accommodation I would imagine you’d might get in Austria or Switzerland.

Quick turn around and the 4 very tame hooligans go to a pub nearby and get pre-birthday dinner drinks, James has kindly booked a nice Italian restaurant (with no sign of burgers in sight on the menu!) for us all to meet at at 6pm.

We have a really early and long day to Milford Sound tomorrow, 4.5hrs drive each way if we are lucky for a 2 hour ferry journey on the sound, so we have dinner and head back through some street entertainment.

Milford Sound – Separate Post

Day 3 at Queenstown turned out to be a bit of a disappointment initially as I had tried and ultimately failed to do a paraglide, however, I ended up just having a slow nice easy morning with Fio, a wee bit of shopping and I found a great gadget for Fio in a shop called Small Planet, the best outdoor shop I have ever encountered, a camping salt, pepper, spice shaker, so it has been a running joke about what Fio has in her luggage, she generally has the most off the wall things that no normal person has though of or has made room for, all of which has been blinking amazingly useful, I have learnt so much and when I find this golden nugget, not a chance would you have guessed what it was, she had been saying when you cook for yourself here there never is any salt or pepper so she was so pleased with it. Neither She or James who is an avid camper guessed it! When we meet up after my disappointment and to be fair to the lovely Ellen she wanted to give me her spot (it’s a long story but she felt she had taken mine, as I explained I was just annoyed an the incompetence more that the loss of the experience this was an extra for me so no biggie and the last time I had a tandem experience it took me a year to get over it so maybe my miss was my mercy! Fio had managed to source James’s hat…more about that later too.

Fio and I walked round the beautiful Queenstown gardens I feel so stiff today I think it was that long journey yesterday that did it. Everyone meets at 12.30 and off we go again, this time to Twizel and it really feels like the end is in sight 😦

It is Anna’s (spelt Anne pronounced Anna) birthday tomorrow, she is rooming with Ellen, who has a really bad nut allergy and so has to be so careful where and what she eats and so it is agreed I will manipulate Anna into going to an Indian restaurant tonight, twist my arm then!

Anna & I had seen a lovely Indian restaurant previously, can’t remember where, and didn’t go, however, this will ensure we can go as a group to a restaurant that Ellen is able to go to tomorrow night ie on her birthday. And, so as we were out walking looking for somewhere to eat, I had seen this restaurant earlier, upstairs, beautiful view over the lake, in the area of nice restaurants and I suggested we go, and of course Ellen & Fio encouraged us to go, so in we went to the Bombay Palace in Wanaka. It did not disappoint, the service was exceptional and the food amazing. So, I decided to have a bit of fun and paid for the bill unbeknown to Anna, I explained that I was going to try to get Anna to do a runner with me and could he chase us…….totally up for it lol, however, my lovely honest friend from Cologne, initially looked at me, like I had lost the plot and said (noooo Elaine we could not!), I continued and said what a laugh it would be and that we would pay but it would be fun to try it, she said she knew I would never have done it, but when she found out the full plot, I think she and I both wish she had just gone with it lol ;-).

We leave the beautiful and memorable Franz Joseph and make our way to Lake Matheson, Te ARa Kairaumati Walk. The walk through a portion of South Westland’s ancient rainforest – a glacial gem which is renowned for its mirror reflections of the towering Ka TinTin o te Moana/Southern Alps.

Kairaumati/Lake Matheson takes it’s English name from Murdoch Matheson who ran cattle on these Cook river flats in the 1870’s, and opened a store and butchers shop 15 km away at Gillespie’s Beach to service the mass of gold seekers. It is part of Westland Tai Poutini (place of the green stone) National Park.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves – truly beautiful.

On this journey we get our first views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman and go over the Haast Pass and out of the West Coast and the difference is instantly noticeable. Our 2nd stop of the day is at Ship Creek, which is a walk near the Haast River taking us through to Thunder Creek Falls which is aptly named, the water is very fresh and would certainly be breathtaking to get into so I passed on that one.

En route to Wannaka we pass through Cardrona which hosts one of NZ’s most iconic pubs, I will get to that shortly, the town is completely original and looks like it is out of a Wild West movie set. So, the story goes that “the gorgeous Dan Carter” sustained and injury, then Colin Slade and then Aaron Cruden, the rule in NZ rugby is that to play for the All Blacks you must live/work/play in NZ and because of Dan Carter’s dominance is his position. The All Blacks were desperate. Stephen “Beaver” Donald was whitebait fishing and the coach rang The Cardrona Hotel and called him up – he hung up on the first call but took the 2nd one – he was flown up for the match against Italy the next day, In 2011, Beaver was came off the bench and kicked a crucial penalty to give the All Blacks an 8:7 win, the story was truly one of rejection to redemption as in 2008 he had debuted, however in 2010 a poor performance made him the target of intense public and media criticism, causing him to doubt his future in the sport, following this Beaver continued his career playing for the Chiefs in Bath, England.

One other unusual sight in Cardrona is the Bra fence! Apparently four women were celebrating the 2000 New Year at the Cardrona Hotel. After leaving the put late at night they each hung their bra on the nearby fence as a celebration of the millennium and it literally took off from there!

As we travel over the Crown range, the view over Queenstown is quite something, we are so high we are above the aeroplanes in the valley beneath. On we go through Arrowtown again with all the original buildings, again this was an old gold mining village, This is a huge area for Skiing in the winter and Coronet Peak is one of the big 5 in this area. We drive up Lady’s Mile which was the first road that women could drive a horse and cart up themselves!

Queenstown was named officially in 1863 like to honour Queen Victoria with the popular belief suggesting miners named it after Queenstown in Ireland (now Cobh), another popular legend suggests miners, finding the location beautiful, proclaimed it a “town first for a Queen”.

…………here we come and I cannot wait! This is one of the key reasons I wanted to visit NZ ie to see the glacier. I am booked on the Helihike tour and just need Mother Nature to be on our side to enable us to get up there and see it.

On route to FJ we stop off at The Brunner Mine, in 1896 the mine was a big producer of exceptionally high quality coal, bricks and coke. This continued to be the case right up until the 1960’s.

The Brunner Mine Disaster; on the morning of the 26th March 1896, mine workers tried three times to coax a team of pit ponies into the mine, each time the horses reared and kicked as they neared the mine entrance and only when they are blindfolded and led in backwards did they enter, did the ponies know the mine was not safe that morning? At 9.30am a loud explosion from deep within the mine stopped everyone in their tracks, a flame roared out of the mine entrance followed by a column off choking smoke.

In that instant 65 men lost their lives, 43 women lost their husbands and 169 children lost their fathers (and family provider), nothing below the pit surface including the ponies survived.

The Aftermath; One horror behind the Brunner mass grave in the Stillwater cemetery, is that most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and could not be honoured in a personal burial. Because the mine company owned their homes, many families faced eviction as their homes were required for replacement workers. Across the counter $32,000 was donated to support the families.

Experienced miners felt the explosion was caused by poor ventilation, however, a government enquiry unfairly blamed it on a negligent worker, the real reason may never be known.

We will be in FJ for two nights, thank goodness and this moving every day is tiring, I am going to be ruthless the next time I travel with the things that I bring and I mean it this time! Having said that I am doing much better this time and haven’t needed to expand my case …..yet! As I said in my earlier blogs Fio and I decide to eat in for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next two days…………happy days so we go and do a shop at the local super market on arrival.

It is another long day on the road to get there, however, the scenery here did not disappoint, it is stunning.

We have a free day, however, as I have said I am booked on the Helihike with 4 of our party, others choose to go eg Kayaking etc yesterday, the weather was not good and whilst the forecast was good enough for today there is a risk of high winds. We woke to the most beautiful morning with no sign of wind in the town of Franz Joseph and our hike is confirmed as being on this morning, Yay! I will let the pictures speak for themselves, broadly, we were kitted out with our gear, safety chat and then flown up to the Glacier by Helicopter, we were on the Glacier for approx 2 hours and if you ever get the opportunity – do it! The Franz Joseph glacier is without doubt one of the natural wonders of the world.

We have some soup for lunch and then head up to the base of the Glacier for a walk/tramp. My brother, David was here in 1985 and has asked me to look out for the marker of where the Glacier was at that time. Unfortunately, when we do the walk up to where you used to be able to walk up there are 2 reasons why I won’t get to see this. 1. It is not possible to walk up to it as the Glacier whilst still growing has receded hugely and 2. In 2020, 20 stupid people ignored all the signs regarding not passing a certain point and well whilst they were rescued it was decided to close off the area and opportunity to go any farther. Our 30 min walk was a 15 min walk, we had decided to do two walks, this one and the Alex Knob 1.5 hr walk to the lake and back – there is an 8hr walk, this took just short of an hour, there is a shuttle bus that goes up and down, we had thought we would be on the 6pm one but were back in the car park at 4.30 pm so rather than wait for the 5pm one we decided to walk back to town. We were well warned by James NOT to walk on the river bed as the water can rise suddenly in this area, so we cannot believe our eyes when we see some people out walking on it. Fools! The max rainfall recorded here was 6 feet in 36 hours!

I am so glad we did as there is an Anglican Church called St James’s and it gave us the opportunity to go in and see it. It has plain glass windows as originally it had a beautiful view of the glacier, the view is still beautiful, however, the glacier is now out of view :-(.

As we walked into town the red rocks on the river bed, lichen covered rocks. These reddish hues often come from algae or lichen thriving on the moisture-rich rocks, and offer a striking contrast to the water, glacier and rain forest.

The blue water comes from the glacial silt (rock flour) suspended in the meltwater rivers, making them milky blue, while the glacier’s blue ice itself is due to dense ice with few air bubbles absorbing other colours and reflecting blue light, a result of it’s rapid movement down to a rainforest.

The “Moulin water holes” is caused by melting water on the glacier creating vertical shafts and features like ice blue caves and steep drops. You do not want to fall down a moulin hole as you are unlikely to be ever seen again and no-one would be allowed to attempt a rescue as the risk of death is so extreme.

The Māori name for the Franz Joseph Glacier is Ka Roimata O Hind Hukatere (Tears of Hine Hukatere).

Some glacier facts:

Guess what age the oldest part of the glacier is? Nope….30 years! The ice is being replaced continually as it grows. The Glacier moves on average 3 metres per day. It stretches over 12 km and descending from the Southern Alps is 300 meters above sea level, it is one of the rare glaciers that reaches so close to a temperate rain forest, creating a dramatic contrast of icy terrain against lush greenery, Nature’s power and beauty here is breath taking.

The glacier’s striking blue ice and deep crevasse’s draw all sorts and types of people from all over the world. Over thousands of years the glacier has carved deep valleys, polished rocks, and the surrounding rain forest. Seasonal variations transform this landscape as you can imagine.

We get back and get a well deserved drink in a pub called Snakebite! Can you remember what one of those consists of? And no I didn’t I passed on that delightful option.

A few add on groceries and make a lovely omelette for dinner with lots a charcuterie board of sorts on the side, So nice. What a day, a sensory over-load, I cannot imagine what would top today’s experience.

A full re-pack of my case required tonight, urgh, I have made a decision to do some laundry tomorrow, I can’t cope with the amount of laundry that is building up, so Fio and I pack my big day bag so that I can shove it in the washing machines/tumble driers when I get to Wannaka as we are on a short commute tomorrow and have free time in the afternoon.

Some amazing women….

Amazing experience – loved it and I do not know what would ever top today 🙂

On these trips, often we stop at points along the way and today is one of those days, our first stop is at Tauranga Bay, which has one of the entry points to Cape Foulwind walkway, this track passes a kekeno/seal colony and offers a view of the Cape Foulwind lighthouse. In the pics below I have attached panels that tell stories of the Māori history, sea voyages and early explorers in this region. Just as a point of note the Māori people arrived in NZ from the pacific Islands around 11-1200. There are 4 walks here, a short 15 min, 1 hr, 1 hr 15 mins and a 2 hr 30 min one 6.4km is the longest. In my experience, the times for these walks seem to be scaled on fairly unfit slow walkers.

Some of the views here remained me of the Mourne’s and Royal County Down Golf Course, you can let me know if you see the resemblance also.

Our next walk en route to Lake Brunner was to the Pancake Rocks where there is also a big surge pool. The rocks are broadly sculpted by the forces of nature over millions of years; wind, air and ocean waves chipped away at the softer layers of rock, creating the striking flat and stacked appearance.

Lake Brunner is on the west coast. Greymouth is the largest town in the South – according to James the people are different here “ manners and cleanliness optional” lol and then he retracted this statement very quickly, however, I have a feeling there is an edge of truth to most sayings! The huge Monteith Brewery is here. The Westland National Park has Kahikatia Trees, which are the tallest trees, this is a low energy forest. It is very dense and they have seen the biggest boom in birdlife here. So many of the native birds are flightless and often like the white heron nest on the ground and so they and their eggs/chicks are so vulnerable.

Onwards to Lake Brunner where we got to the pub on site, yay, whilst burgers and pizza’s are available so are some lovely salad options yay! This is a really nice place/area with a nice walk option along the lake.

Some more fun facts:

A batch is the NZ description of a holiday home, I am fairly confident that I have told you this already.

This is hops and apple country there are miles of Bine yes Bine not Vine – the difference being Bine is entwined to grow whereas Vine are natural climbing plants.

Kiwi fruit, New Zealanders will always give it it’s full name, eg James had a guy on one of his trips who asked him if he ate Kiwi, and in James’s head he thought “mate you are asking me if I eat endangered birds!”, well I found it amusing lol. It transpired of course he was talking about Kiwi fruit.

Kiwi Fruit was originally called Chinese Gooseberry , a school teacher from the North Island went to China in the early 1900’s and brought some seeds home and grew them, by 1959 the name was changed to Kiwi, by this time it had changed from the small cherry size to what we know and love today, the largest ones are the size of a Mango. The new sweeter Golden Kiwi is grown under the Zespberry licence as they have the patent for it, the key difference is that it is smooth on the outside and is a pale brown colour. It is a very vulnerable fruit particularly to fruit flies and PSA and in the early 2000’s the NZ govt were sued for millions of dollars for not protecting them adequately, hence the strict rules and regulations for entering NZ now.

Ironically, the kiwi is now exported to China and in recent times a red kiwi fruit has been created with picking commencing around 5 years ago, these fruit are very mild and not as flavoursome and very expensive! I can’t remember the full details, a person from China tried to take seeds back to China to grow Kiwi and was not only blocked from doing so but was heavily fined – hence why I find it ironic!

Final, fact readers…..this is the only area in NZ that all 5 types of beech tree grow and are managed mainly by conservation volunteers.

I knew I had rushed it folks, just some additional information for you……..I omitted to mention that Abel Tasman National Park is the smallest and the newest National Park in NZ. In 1642 Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer was the first European to come, this is how Tasmania got its name which there is more detail on my blog on that previously and then the Tasman Sea. Abel came but never put a foot in New Zealand. Instead he docked in Golden Bay and sent a scouting party over to the land to “make friends” with the local Māori who instantly got ready to “greet” them with a “Haka” and yes you have got it they were slaughtered, hence why Golden Bay then became Murderer’s Bay, Abel having seen this, left in a hurry!

Roll on 300 years, in 1942 NZ being a relatively fresh Colony and in the midst of war, the NZ forestry commission was cutting down a lot of trees decimating the landscape and wildlife, also very against Māori belief, there was a huge landslide and fires in the “slash” wood cuttings/left overs that were left. Something needed to be done!

A woman named Perri Moncrieff started a petition to parliament to which she got no response, she was an ornithologist and decided she needed to take a different approach, perhaps a more manipulative one? The fact that no-one had the courtesy to respond to her petition made her very angry and indignant. Her parents were aristocratic and she knew all about influence, now there is a nicer word for it. She needed to create a want/need/fear to do something so she wrote to the Queen of Holland saying that the government was going to create a National Park on the 300th anniversary of Abel’s journey here, the Queen thought this was a marvellous idea. Broadly, what happened next was she then went to the NZ government and said how embarrassing it would be if they now didn’t and so this area became “The Abel Tasman National Park”, hence protecting Perri’s beloved wild birds and the habitat. Pretty clever huh!

After missing a beautiful day being on the bus all day yesterday, rain came in and it absolutely bucketed down last night which made going to the loo outside even more depressing! Also, with me being such a light/non sleeper the sound of the rain on the hut did not help. The good news is my wishes were granted having Fio as a roomy as I think she could sleep through “an earthquake” lol :-), I thought that reference was rather more appropriate here than the usual “bomb going off”, with all the tsunami signs around here. Fingers crossed we have neither a quake or tsunami.

It is raining pretty heavily as we get a bite of breakfast, the forecast is for light rain most of the day, maybe it will improve, we are going to get wet anyway so it’s no big deal really. We walk down to catch our “Aqua Taxi” Blue Ford tractors are everywhere, all of whom are individually named, my grandson, Caleb, would be in his element here so, yes I took lots of pics. Enjoy Tractor lovers!

We board the Aqua Taxi’s whilst on the trailers, and a short distance away “Cleveland” the trusty Ford 7000 drops us off into the water. The Skipper reminds me of kiosk Kev (off I’m a Celebrity get me out of here fame), very dry, very funny, I don’t think he had any awareness of his “charm”.

We travel in the taxi from Marahau to Torrent Bay, where we walk the most beautiful walk along the coast through the rainforest. Oh! Sorry I meant to say we are surrounded by rainforest here in the Abel Tasman National Park, which is just gorgeous. From Torrent Bay we “tramp”, which is the NZ descriptive word for walking/trekking, to Bark Bay. The Park is doing a lot of work removing wildling pines, projects Janszoon, through the Department of Conservation (DOC), to reduce the fire risk and allow the native forest recover. The brown in colour dying trees we see are the remains of unwanted 40ha forest of maritime pine, which if left, would have completely overwhelmed the Bark Bay landscape in 20-30 years. The trees will break down naturally overtime. Removal of these pine will transform the Bark Bay skyline, and allow the return of a diverse native forest, providing habitat for native animals.

Wildling Pines are any of 13 species of conifers introduced to NZ that have “gone rogue” and spread uncontrolled, into native habitats, in Abel Tasman, they have dispersed over more than 8,000 ha of the park until a control programme was started in 2016. The reason they are a fire risk is that they suck all the water out of the ground impacting and killing native trees and making it really dry.

Oopsie, I have gone off on one about the trees, I just found it interesting!

Where was I? Oh, yes tramping to Bark Bay. We have some lunch and the Aqua taxi arrives to take us to Observation beach where we will be having a guided kayak journey back to Marahau.

The rain has is light and it is very warm, well I am very warm, everyone else puts on the coats provided and I was having that dilemma, will I be cold and I was the only one who didn’t and boy am I glad, I was perfectly warm until I got out of the kayak and then I was cold, everyone else was worse because they had to take off their coats too. The sea water was so calm and so warm, I would have loved to get in for a swim, however, to do that, it would have meant tipping Anne (pronounced Anna), from Cologne, in too and she did not want to get wet. Also, I had no idea how I would heave myself back into the kayak, it would not have been a pretty sight for sure.

We kayaked around Adele Island, whose husband, Jules Dumont d’Urville founded it in 1827 named the island after his wife Adele Pepin and it has a colony of seals and is famed for it’s birdlife, halfway, we stop for a nice cup of tea/coffee on a sandbar and then off we go again. This kayak was much better as it had a rudder which the person at the rear of the kayak, that would be me, in our kayak, broadly steers it, I was ok when concentrating, so those who know me well know that I have the attention span of a knat, and so when listening to something interesting or spotting something or talking (imagine me doing that!) we would career off course, and it felt to me like when you are in the car and have a lapse and do that small swerve back on course. I thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon, so relaxing out on the water. When back at the campsite it was a race for a hot shower of which there were only 3!

At this point in my travels I have resolved to try to find places to eat that offer something other than pizza’s and burgers, to be fair I have only had one of each, I think the burger I had last night put me off and it is just the thought of it. Fio and I have a discussion about this and we are of the same mind ie to try to shop and cook for ourselves at the first opportunity.

Obviously, there is a lot of lamb dishes on offer in NZ, which is a complete no for me also, urgh, the smell, I wish I did like it, oh well, everyone else is enjoying them.

We leave this beautiful place in the morning and are traveling towards Lake Brunner.

I am booked to go snorkelling with the dolphins and this is a 5am early start, it’s is a 25 min walk from where we are staying, in the dark to the dolphin centre. James is picking us up at 9.30 am to start our long full day travel to Abel Tasman. We receive our briefing, wetsuits, hoods, snorkelling gear & flippers and are transferred to the boat by bus, a short hop. There is a choice to swim with or watch “The Dusky Dolphins” on this tour. It says on the briefing that you need to have a good level of water confidence, and this is really just to do with launching yourself off the back of the boat each time the horn is sounded, there is little to no chance of sinking in these wetsuits, they are so bouyant. The snorkels are of an excellent quality and I managed not to choke for the duration of this experience which was a big win for me. Broadly, the interaction with the Dolphin’s is dependant on what mood they are in and we are asked not to try to touch them and to sing to them, swim in circles with them if we get the opportunity, plus dolphins like to eye ball you! I cannot begin to tell you how much I would love to be upload Fio’s go-pro video with sound as it is utterly hilarious, strangled cat/howling wolf comes to mind lol, HOWEVER, the dolphins clearly liked it, in fact, one “young couple” had some “jiggie” time listening to her to her dulcet tones as they past her! We had around 3-3.5 hours out on the water, in and out of the boat and it was such a lovely experience. The sea was pretty calm, however, despite taking ginger a few people felt a bit seasick, luckily, I am not one of them. I did loose part of one of my fillings unfortunately, luckily I am not in pain or that would have been a polava out here!

James picks us up at 9.30 am and off we go again!

So, ten points for who can guess what we are doing for lunch today and why I am smiling? I will give you some clues avid readers……we travel through the Marlborough region! The sea water is pink here and in this area is associated with Lake Grassmere Saltworks. The pink to purple hue of the salt water ponds is a natural occurrence caused by microscopic green algae that change to a pinkish/red pigment in high salt concentrations, this process is intensified in the summer months.

This area is not suitable for dairy cows for those that are interested, I will let you work out the why, I thought it was pretty obvious! It has the maximum sunlight exposure in NZ. We are booked at Whitehaven Winery for lunch – who got it right? I don’t feel hungry as I had eaten something at our first stop this morning, however, I am thirsty and I most definitely will not be spitting!

The weather has been so much colder and wetter since we arrived in the South Island and I have got it all wrong today, bear in mind the time and temperature of our 5am start, by lunchtime I am cooking, and so some shopping was required at Whitehaven, so much so, I looked like one of the staff lol ;-).

There were 4 choices of wine tasting, Classic, Aromatic & Premium where you get 4 tasters and the 4th, Bubbles where there was one. I chose the Classic, they were very good at changing the first one from Sauvignon Blanc (which anyone that knows me well knows I don’t like at all) to a 2023 Riesling which was delicious, followed by a 2023 Pinot Gris, a 2024 Pinot Noir Rose & finally, a 2023 Pinot Noir, the wines here were truly lovely and they export to most places in the world bar NI, they do export to O’Brien’s in the South which, if you were in one, I would recommend these Whitehaven wines. The food at this winery look and was excellent by all reports also. Rhonda and Bob did the Premium option and said it was superb. Again, 4 choices; 1. 2023 “Greg” Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, 2. 2023 “Block 11” Barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc, 3. 2023 “Greg” Single Vineyard Chadonnay & finally, 4. “Greg” Single Vineyard Pinot Noir. The “Greg” range is named in honour of Whitehaven’s late co-founder Greg White (1952-2007).

Onwards to Abel Tasman, James has told us to all be on the look out for a white heron they are extremely rare and he has only ever seen 5 in his life and round the corner we came and I said, is that one? I think he thought I was joking but there it was and so we came to a very quick halt and all got out, his excitement was infectious. We meet a couple with huge cameras, the man had been trying to see one of these for 25 years and was booked on a white heron sanctity tour tomorrow lol and there he/she was. It is there only nesting place in NZ. We did feel hugely lucky to have seen one given James’s reaction.

When we get there we are in a large campsite near the sea, it has been a glorious day which we have missed completely as have been on the bus all day broadly. It is around 6pm when we arrive, shower, toilet and kitchen facilities are all outside and we are in small huts, very small huts, well this should be interesting in the middle of the night!

We don’t really see much of Christchurch at this point of the tour as we will return at the end of the journey and so we Northbound.

Kaikoura is a scenic coastal town, famous for its spectacular marine wildlife, including whales, dolphins, and seals due to the deep Kaikoura Canyon close to the shore, hence, offering incredible wildlife tours and crayfish (rock lobster) to eat, living up to its Māori name meaning “eat crayfish”. It is situated between the Seaward Kaikoura range and the Pacific Ocean.

We have a free afternoon to do what we please and I was planned and ready for this afternoon lol – the rest of the group went for a trek after lunch, I let our guide know not to wait for me and that I would meet them all later – just to let me know the name of the accommodation, “sweet as” lol – getting into the NZ Lingo!

This girl went for a pamper afternoon at Diamond Nails “of course you did I hear you say”. Off I went in search of a beauty/nail salon, Fio had googled and there were two, the first one, no-one seemed to know and the second one, I found fairly easily and turned out to be broadly just across the road from our lodgings and oh happiness I spend 3 plus hours in there having a pedicure, manicure and some waxing – ready for the next 3 weeks, I was lucky this salon was super clean, every one wore gloves and new files were used for each client, the pedicure chair gave me a back massage while I sat and the pedicure included a lower leg and foot massage ….. bliss!

So, I just meet up with the team later and have dinner, Anne (pronounced Anna) and Fio have brought my luggage in, we go to dinner and have yet another early dinner as we have a long day on the bus tomorrow travelling to Abel Tasman National Park, the furtherest North we will travel in the South Island on this trip.

It is a short 1.5 hour journey down to Christchurch in the South Island, James our CEO and guide is travelling with us, we collect our and his luggage while he goes and gets our new bus, it is blowing a gale and bucketing down which is a bit of a shock to the system.

Christchurch had a devastating earthquake in 2011 and it has taken all this time to re-build the city, most of the city is new, however, there are some of NZ’s oldest buildings still remaining alongside some very modern architecture. Christchurch is very flat and easy to explore on foot.

Christchurch Botanical Gardens

…is located in the central city and were founded in 1863, the gardens sprawl over an area of 21 hectares ie 52. Acres and lie adjacent to the loop of the Avon River. We pass by/through it on route to our accommodation and it looks stunning and well worth a visit, I might get to do this when I return to CC at the end of my trip, we are staying in the Bealy Quarter which is very central, tonight we may get to meet our 5 new joiners after dinner if not it will be in the morning, we have 3 Australian’s, and a Welsh/Spanish couple joining us.

Tomorrow we will travel north to Kiakoura, it has been a very long day so it’s laundry and an early night for me.

We embark on a day of exploration along the Whanganui River on kayak’s and go for a hike near and around the Ruakuri Caves, another glorious day, the weather is being very kind to us so far.

Next on the Agenda was kayaking, some of our team cannot swim and I just think it is so brave getting into a Kayak in the hope your life jacket holds you up. Martina decided to walk and took a lot of the pictures as was too nervous to get in.

This was an area of holiday baches pronounced batch that’s holiday homes to you and me and we are clearly here is peak season, some of the homes and facilities were truly decadent. We all get into the kayaks and take off for a very leisurely jont up the lake and into the above river that flows into it, the waters are so warm, millpond like and gorgeous, we get an opportunity to pull in and go for a swim at the half way mark. I thought I was seeing things at first, there were floating rocks which turn out to be pieces of lava rock and some very substantial pieces floating. There were a few jokes re watching out for the floater… you get the drift excuse the pun!

You really wouldn’t have noticed you were kayaking against the current on the way there, however, when we turned back we literally had little to do until we entered the main lake again bar steer and gently paddle.

On towards Waitomo, where thousands of years of natural forces have carved out awe inspiring limestone caves and passages. This underground wonderland is renowned for their amazing array of glowworms which light up cave ceilings like a starry night, creating a magical setting to enjoy.

I choose to go caving, another challenge! I have mild claustrophobia so I am very nervous about abseiling down to the underground of caves and crawling thought very tight tunnels, the thought of being trapped down there, getting lost, the battery to my light running out etc are high on my scaredy cat list atm! 5 of us choose to have a go! Fio, aka Lara Croft put’s on her luck “Sexy Ass” socks and as you can see she has a fine Ass to match lol 🙂

We get some training on the roping, abseiling techniques and off we go, dear Lord what the heck am I doing?

Mission Accomplished: I did enjoy this, however, I was glad to be back out in the daylight and air and I am not sure I would rush back to do his again. There was abseiling through the waterfalls, climbing up shear faces, abseiling generally, belly scrambling through water and low rock -less than 2 feet in height I reckon – first time in my life I felt a little like a marine, my forearm, belly down and leg push scramble – turns out this came very naturally to me or was it the incentive of getting the heck through this as quickly as possible……..hmmm either way I can scramble (not sure what the proper description is, you get my drift)

Tonight is our last meal together as only 8 of us are going on to the South Island, the rest are either going back to work, travelling on as have all ready done the South Island or have other things planned. Even James our guide gets up a dinner and says that this group have been such a pleasure to be around and have been so kind and thoughtful to each other, looked out for each other etc and that has been so true, I feel so lucky to have spent the last 8 days with such nice humans. We are going to the glow worm caves in the morning, very early start, and then all go to the Auckland Int Airport and in my case and 7 others we are Christchurch bound, still we all celebrated our week together in the usual fashion and there were some very quiet people including myself on the bus the following morning.

We arrive at the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and the mood is a bit somber, and we take a boat ride through this spectacular underground realm and see thousands of flickering glow worms light up in the dark. Joel is our guide, this is his family’s business and he guides us down and through the caves to a boat which he guides through the water, there are ropes suspended in which he pulls and guides us along, it is truly spectacular and has either a night sky vibe or Christmas feel to it. The glow worms are really pupae and dangle threads down in the hope of catching eg a fly or insect, it will then draw them up and eat it, they typically catch 3 in the pupae phase and then emerge as a fly with no ability to eat and it’s sole purpose is to mate, lay eggs and die all within 48 hours. The glow worm will emerge as a female if there are no others about and if there is they will emerge as a male with the purpose of mating and then their job is done!

We leave here and head to the airport – I am truly grateful to this lovely group of people and as we wish the leavers well with heavy hearts we are hopeful the new joiners will be just a nice. See you in Singapore Barbara :-).

On a closing note James our CEO and guide we have been so lucky what a lovely lovely human you are, and whatever person that gets you as a life partner will be the luckiest person on earth. So well informed, so patient and so kind. Thank you, you completed us a as a team. Xxx

I knew I forgot something! Oh yes …..the after dinner Axe throwing: not everyone had a go, we got a demonstration from Dan who just happened to be ther – bullseye first go of course, James went next and had clearly had done this before as well, whilst not as initially accurate as Dan he had this sussed, Fio and Jeff, were determined to get that axe landed and both eventually got bullseye’s, I, however, despite taking some chunks out of the board could not get it to stick arghhh!, only a few had a go, however, everyone supported, it was good fun if not a bit scary to watch as you can see below by Jeff’s face!

Oh and some camp fire pics…

So, to start with, a Station is a huge farm, in Blue Duck’s case 7,200 acres of which 3,700 acres are owned and the balance leased, the owner/tenant is Dan Steele, a pretty impressive guy who has written a book and is hugely forward, progressive and laterally thinking which hasn’t gone down well with all the neighbours. I is worth a read, the book was too heavy to buy so I will need to look for this when I get home.

There is approx 5, 000 sheep, 200 head of beef and suckler cattle ( no dairy – the land is just not conducive for it ), there are some horses for those interested in trekking, you can bring your own horse and have some stabling facilities. There is a team of around 12 working on this farm, they unsurprisingly have a high attrition rate. About a third of the team seem to core longer term employees.

Dan, was out with some sheep as we arrive with his son River aged around 9/10 (the youngest of 4) and he kindly stops and speaks with us, as we had driven the long road into the station we came across a lot of commercial vehicles leaving, it turns out Dan has bought a struggling honey business, another big punt, this definitely fits with the ethos and vision of this farm, however, by Dan’s own admission he knows nothing about bees or honey! They have a lot of Manuka trees so the area is perfect for it and “staff” have come with this business ie they tend to the bees, honey & hives.

We meet Mel next, who seems to be involved mainly with the tourism side of things, meet and greet for both the groups that come and go and the guests for The Chef’s Table Restaurant. Mel gives us an insight into the farm just before dinner that Jodie, the chef has prepared, there is no menu and a big sign that say’s “Food Options: 1st – Take it, 2nd – Leave it!” – love it! We take it and say thank you very much! BYO in this restaurant…

A major area of issue and controversy is pest control – pests/predators come in many forms in NZ, mainly introduced mammals. The key predators of the Kiwi is primarily stoats which decimate chicks and eggs, and dogs alongside ferrets, cats and possums, all contributing to high mortality rates and making predator control vital for Kiwi survival.

Humane traps are widely used killing (normally double sided as is one mammal is killed it attracts others and therefore just makes sense. These are labour intense and whilst mildly effective attracting only “the young, dumb or curious” and do not currently deal with the issue sufficiently.

So, often pest control pellets are used, they are typically cereal based, containing poisons like 1080 (Sodium fluoroacetate), these tend to be flavoured with eg sugar/cinnamon to attract pests and dyed green to deter birds, they are used in bait stations or aerial drops. 1080 is soluble so dissolves into the land and water, hunters hate it, however, it has been very effective. NZ use 90% of the worlds supply of it – it is banned in the USA, suffice to say it is a highly controversial subject, so far it has had a hugely positive impact on conserving particularly endangered birds like The Kiwi.

After dinner we light the fire at the cabins and everyone has agreed to do a party piece, joke, game or a story. This was such good fun and what a laugh. The best of which was Janine who told us a story of her saving a baby goose, whom she named 10-4, his mother had either died or he had got lost, anyway, Janine brought him home and Janine raised him and trained him to fly and when she couldn’t walk or run fast enough, she rode a bike, many drivers stopped as they thought she was being attacked when out with him lol. Her core him was to increase his flight strength and fitness, eventually 10-4’s wingspan was over 8 feet and he was strong and mature. She realised it was time he joined his own kind, he needed to be dehumanised which meant she had to be really tough with him and return him to his natural habitat which meant she and her children had to stop speaking/playing with him, he was no longer allowed in the house and had to go into one of her barns on their farm. Eventually he flew off and joined a flock of migrating geese, she only saw him once again about 1-2 years later when he called for a visit. Great story!

After the party pieces we head out in search of Possum, who evade us on night one, however, some of the team saw some on night two, the Southern Hemisphere sky at Blue Duck is stunning.

The following morning we were up and out for a guided bush safari with Michael, who loads us up and introduces us to the area’s rich history, conservation work and sustainable farming practices. Michael has been at Blue Duck for 7 years, his partner Laura, is the farm manager and has been there approximately 11-12 years with a short break in the middle when she went to work on another Station. She seems to be a formidable girl/woman. He was saying she had come home in poor form the previous evening as she found 50 of the flock of sheep down with “fly strike” – I hope you aren’t having a meal when reading this – broadly flies lay their eggs in the poo at the sheep’s back passage and as you can imagine that can go way past an itchy bum, this has to be cut away as can be fatal and in one case she had hat to slit the sheep’s throat as it was to far gone. That’s farming for you, often brutal, however, this farm has a strict humane ethos, so cruel to be kind.

Michael’s role also involves taking hunting parties out and again they are very strict regarding people’s shooting abilities ie to ensure kill’s are clean.

Mel brings us beautiful cheese and onion scones for mid morning tea, half of the team go up to the high end Chef’s Table Restaurant max 12 diners 8-12 course fine dining menu’s – the chef here is a chap called Jack who had worked on the farm as a young guy then went off and worked in Michelin star restaurants, came back to Dan with the idea of setting up a restaurant and fancy pods on the highest part of the farm with spectacular views – initially it was a pop up and it was so successful that they are fully booked for up to 3 months in advance – approx $950 dollars for meal and overnight, and I thing $1,300 in the Honeymoon pod. It is a stunning set up, and no we didn’t get to go in. One of the girls, Anna, her pals had been and had highly recommended it, Mel explained it is mostly New Zealanders that come and you can get dropped off in your Helicopter if you want to!

The other half of the group go kayaking in a gorgeous part of the river, beautiful waterfall and narrow canyon, I couldn’t resist a swim. Then we swapped over. We have the rest of the day to do what we want and I choose to go back down to the lake, so so relaxing.

We have another Take it or Leave it meal with Jodie at the helm, Lamb tonight, I leave it, however, there was beautiful mash and lots of veg so all good.

As health, well-being and fitness champion lol of the group I offer the opportunity to the group to do an early morning “Walshy’s workout” (Heather Walsh kindly gave me her 2020 Covid Workout plan before I left and the Warriors kindly did a class of it so I knew what I was doing before I left – thank you Heather & Co), anyway we did approx an hour including warm up, work-out, 6 rounds of core and cool down which was great before we get breakfast and leave Blue Duck – I love this place there is just something about it.

Apologies for any errors in my typing I am normally getting this typed up and uploaded when I have WiFi at pace xxx