2010, May 4th Sydney, Australia - May 23rd Sydney, Auckland, Rotorua, West Coast, Wanaka, Christchurch, NZ 👍

Dateline: May 23rd., Christchurch, NZ

NZ & Oz: What we did in the first 3 weeks of our holidays

Sun setting. Haast, South Island

Big picture to all you followers who don't really give a crap anyway: 

We have just weathered a 2 year financial disaster, courtesy of President George W Bush. He was responsible for many other disasters, but the financial one was a world wide disaster

Due to this, yours truly was requested to not only reduce my rates (which I did), but on a fateful day early in the spring, my manager at my major client, full of woe, sadly informed me that they could only engage me for 100 hours per month.

He obviously expected me to be sorely pissed off. My instant reaction?

GREAT!!! I can do that from anywhere in the world

Without further ado, I bought a new laptop, got piles of heavy duty tech security to work, and started investigating a Land Cruiser for purchase in Oz via my ex lover (from South Africa 1976 - 1978) Annie who lives in Sydney

Eventually, things started to work

Slowly getting our act together.
Cruiser nearly ready to roll. Side trips selected and engaged
This place is lovely!
Hmmm, NZ is (so far) so INCREDIBLY much much nicer than Oz
We will be back to do the Milford trail!
Be afraid!
Love,
Us

Ok dad here

Don't forget to water the plants and clean the kitchen
Are there any bills needing to be paid for the house or kingsways.
Love ugle

Great to hear your plans.
No, I'm sure Brian must come, even if it is only to see the magnificence of his table saw work....
I've been so looking forward to taking him off into the outback and using the newly (soon to be totally refurbished) cooking area.
So Brian, what insight did you use to change your mind? I'm sure we can overcome any and all of whatever reservations you may have invented.
The flight must be easy especially if you have upgrades, and we just needed a two hour snooze over in Oz, and we were almost re aligned. Honestly, it was a piece of Roo cake mate. The secret is DRUGS! Two on the flight, and one at night for two days certainly sorted us out.
Come and get your Didgerydoo carving licence!
See you there.....
?
Us

SYDNEY  May 4th 2010

Support person and Birthday Boy, 
finally relaxing at Annie & Garys

  

 Somewhat reminiscent of days long gone by
Your correspondent and Annie in some local legion boozer

Somehow, totally jetlagged, we are awake enough to have a bubbly and oysters picnic

Post arrival and general introduction
Annie takes a day off and we head to Sydney
Ilge forgets her beautiful mother daughter matching
coat on the bench.
Welcome to Sydney, it's gone on our return

And of course, we do the sights and take in the city

We have had breakfast at Darling Point 
(the missus left her lovely Mum & Daughter coat there
 - it was NOT handed in)

Tourists, but that's what we came for, wasn't it?

Sydney is a great place to hang out in

Late fall, almost winter.
It was a great place to hang out in

Doing the Sydney tourist bit in Sydney harbour

And of course, finally get a Flat white. a local delicacy

This was a surprise. The Royal Botanical Gardens
Yep, fruit bats. Lots of 'em

There's a full colony of them. Destroying all the trees
Last I heard there was a push (and counter push)
to "humanely" remove them

I know. I've grown to detest these things, but back 
when I was young and foolish. Monotonous and boring

Pleasant enough I guess,
but it's not exactly a cultural icon

It did however give a decent view of the harbour and 
some idea of where some places were in town

After a heavy duty flight, maybe this was a bit relaxing
This is 4 days after arriving

Another shot with the harbour and assistant

Finally free of the bus tour, we escape to a wine bar on

the harbour

Then, we are off to:

Auckland, NEW ZEALAND. May 7th 2010

Route: Auckland, Wellington, Wanaka, Christchurch

 

Auckland, in the company of my favourite Kiwi Kween. Chris from way back in Florida
We are straight off the plane, off to one of Auckland's favourite look out points. It's winter here 

Chris stayed with us just after Aiden was born.
He lived with us for about 6 months,
so we should have 
some freeloader credits here. Actually. 
I don't think that we have seen him
in over 20 years  

  

I tend to keep all of my
passports,
cash etc on my body,
or in a safe

A Queen by any other name. 
Chris is looking a bit well worn

I settle into the new vacation location by 
hitting the keyboards for my clients back in Toronto

Chris, eventually looks after us, even if it is 
somewhat grudgingly

You are never quite sure what Chris is at, his finances
his activities or his lovers. But he did live in a lovely
little cottage with a well stocked garden

From one of the many ferry
stops. Here we get it into town

As we wait for the next ferry, I notice that the local birds have worked out
how to open the automatic doors by flying in front of the sensor

The Auckland Domain. No, don't know 
why its called that, but it Tolkeinesque all over

 

I seem to remember SIM cards and some electronics like a GPS
But we also do the tourist bit.
NZ is marvellous. You should try it

Ah! This is what being unemployed
should be like all the time

Auckland is such a lovely little town

This is a village up the coast where Chris used to live. Here with some of his various sexually fluid friends

Ever the outrageous gay in your life

Chris said it was his tenants daughter that did the haircut
It could just as easily have been his landlords

New Zealand is home away from home for expat Brits
I certainly felt at home here, in a 1950's kind of way

 

Any excuse for a bit of S&M and Chris is all over it
Still an almost practicing Catholic

 Our 3rd night here and Chris
makes an event out of it

It's dress up night so we become Manahaja's
by wrapping ourselves in old curtains
He gets a kick out of it

Breakfast in Bed. Then Chris brings in some grub and coffees
Note how chicks are attracted to the new hairstyle

We leave Chris and continue south heading to the ferry
There is so much natural land here. Lots of parks with
lakes, green stuff. All very well looked after and organised 

We arrive in Rotorua, and of course,
take in the tourist excesses
This is supposed to me an impressive war party
arriving in their war canoe, but by design, or just plain
failure, it unceremoniously sinks on arrival
I thought it was hilarious

  

The locals put on a pretty good show,
well, as a tourist I guess

Hot thermal pools. Hells Gate, Rotorua. The entire town is built around them

I think this on was for everyone working 
back in Toronto. Stick it to 'em

Maye it's not tourist season here, 
but there were only about 5 of us here

Again, we head south towards Whanganui
this being Lake Taipo, passing several
Maori "Sacred Mountains" 

This is our life on the road picnic set up.

The wheels were still turning as we arrived at this
speed induced accident. (she overtook us at speed a few minutes ago)
I rescue the two kids through the windows. The mother, I help out of the door
We leave once the cops have taken over

That's it! Mt Doom as per
Lord of the Rings

We did not have as much trouble getting here
as Frodo did

The wrong profile for any money shot I guess
"Mt. Doom"

New Zealand constantly

impresses us

There's always a diversion 

Or two 

on hand to get out of the car for

As long as rural landscapes are
high on your list that is

It's late Fall here. No crowns, but delightful
Picnics are a standard pastime

We have an appointment with the Wellington ferry

After an all nighter with very little sleep, 

We head out from the Picton ferry terminal

And head for the west coast 

Amazingly, I don't kill anyone driving on the
wrong side of the road

This is a local honey stall, just take what you
want and leave the money
It was the best honey since I had to live off of
a jar full in Malawi (I think)

Heading south in May means a lot more of this
Here, somewhere near Cape Foulwind can you believe

It's getting more like a real fall.
Our first night in the south at Westport

Heading down the wet, west coast

We only have 2 weeks to "do" NZ, so we leave major tourist draws like the glaciers till our next trip. Here, heading south near Punakaiki

Punakaiki hotel.
Great bar and restaurant

The local sights

Looks like we need to get used to grey and rain

Hokitika, wet and miserable
Definately not in tourist season

Pretty as a picture

Into the unknown, more south than ever before

It's been raining most of the day as we head to Haast

We grabe the sunset on the beach before we turn in land to Wanaka

The road is not for the feint of heart, or legs

However, you don't need to worry 
about those if you have gas in the tank

This is the average view on the drive 
from the coast

And this is the view that launched a 1000 
anecdotes, as in
"Oh fuck! We have to stop for another photo op"

Eventually, we arrive at our time share in Wanaka

You actually "get" something?
Interesting.
Just arrived at time share after a FABULOUS¡!! Treck down south islands west coast
Far too much to do here in NZ
Mummy enjoying her morning coffee at 3:00pm at our final (for now) resting place.
I'm off hiking the hills for the rest of the week, looks like milford track will have to wait till next time.
Hi to Santiago!
Us

Wanaka is quite simply, stunning. In fact, 
It's probably the most stunning habitable place in the world

I guess we enjoy it as it's almost totally
deserted 

Delightfully deserted in fact 

I had a great time here, the pix almost took themselves

Of course, I shared these with my workmates back in Toronto
Note top left glacier, that's on my list for my next trip here

But first, it's a local peak

I walk from the time share

Here, I'm trying to climb a local peak for the view
I didn't make it, but several runners passed me both up and down

It's Roys Peak, these days (2024) celebrated
as one of the most stunning views in the world

Turns out it's a 1578M hike
Wanaka is 290M. I've done 1300M in a day before,
or more likely since, but not today
It's been dark for a long time when I get back
My feet are wrecked

I can hardly walk, so we car down
to queenstown for a break

The view heading back

Fall continues in the deep south of NZ

I can walk again, sort of, so we meander around town on the lake footpath

The scenery is simply superb

Delightfully so

There's a path all along the
lakeshore for the towns 2 tourists

Local wild fauna

Local wild flora

The Edgewater Hotel has fabulous scones
Here they are hosting a wedding party

The famous Wanaka tree and backdrop mountains

I can, and do take all kinds

Of what I consider,
pretty cool shots

What a great place to hang out

All you need is a camera 

And a bit of arrogance that you know
how to use it

I don't know, or care if I do

Nor does the Muse

The local wedding party
has started

So we explore the local environment again

The famous Wanaka tree with backdrop (yes, again)

Fall gives such subtle colours 

Just right for a few sun, cloud,
tree water earth aesthetic 

The sun sets, and the photographer is still on duty

Next day, I'm coding for a living at the local
Internet cafe, but there's still time

For some last minute photo fixes

We're nearly out of time here

So with final reverence, and a last minute barbeque, we prepare to leave

Our last view of the Wanaka lake view, till next time anyway

Well, so far it's been wonderful.  New Zealand is definitely a place I would come back to; everywhere you look the scenery is just spectacular, the people are wonderfully welcoming and friendly, there is so much to see and do that the 3 months we are giving Australia would be useful here.  Being that we are here in the fall has worked out well as there is never any problems with finding accommodation and sometimes there are winter rates applied.  Being autumn here the colours are brilliant but there are still flowering plants around; a lovely combination of living and fading colours.We did stay with our friend Chris in  Auckland; that was a  trip I need more space than this to relate that.  Also ha is my gmail account I cc'd so could you  use that one ilgeorama @gmail.com.  So, alive and well and just loving New Zealand.  Off to Oz on Sunday.  Take care love me

A friendly reminder of possibilities

This is New Zealand
There's 5 times as many of these as 2 legged

The trip begins to Akaroa around 12
We have not booked anything as we don't
know what's there if anything

The Chatham Wood Pidgeon spotted
on our way to Akaroa
Almost extinct

I have lots of NZ phone bandwidth left, and we are leaving in less than 2 days, back to Oz.
Having a blast.
Mail me back for more as our fable materialises
Jim & ilgs

Our time in new zealand is coming to an end sadly, love this place, we both would come again. Could you phone val and rus and pat and get them to send me an email on my gmail account?  Thanks love mom

Akaroa, an incredibly beautiful ancient
volcano. This is the caldera

We stayed at a run down pub (I was exhausted after 500+ Km's and it was really late), but we should have kept on till the harbour
Oh well, tonight, we're back to Sydney to start our real adventure tomorrow

From Your Correspondent