Dateline: 2011 March 21st - May 5th New Zealand
This trips travelling map around Auckland
Just another trip, New Zealand
This trips travelling map around Auckland
Just another trip, New Zealand
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| Akaroa, with view. Sav Blanc, (by request) and a fish BBQ. Nirvana! |
From Jim
Let the trip continue.
Here's Auckland to Invercargill. Lots of sea stuff and generally green
NZ everywhere you look
I will stop there, and let those good folks who want more, let me know
they want them, as a lot of this can turn into just spam.
From here, we head off into the Fiordlands and mountains - cool stuff.
jim
Well, last year we had 15 days and we traversed both islands very quickly. But slowly enough to know we had to go back. I'm amazed that we did and it was so soon after our last trip. Lots to tell. NZ is a fantastically spectacular place for scenery, food, wine (Savs especially), outdoors and people. For us folks with Canadian $'s, it was also very cheap. We had a blast. The pix are slightly miss sorted, mainly due to us having 4 photo methods: My old gphone and my new Nexus phone, both of ..
Message from Jim Smith:
Its here!
At long last, the NZ trip, expedited after a month in the bowels of my sub conscious, captioned AND GPS co-ordinated.(don't forget to view the locations, and/ or Google Earth/ streetview the locals.
Please leave comments as per your perusals. There should be some video clips here too.
Now I've got this up, I will start trying to load up the Oz pix from last year.
Live on vicariously or otherwise.
Happy perusings.
At long last, the NZ trip, expedited after a month in the bowels of my sub conscious, captioned AND GPS co-ordinated.(don't forget to view the locations, and/ or Google Earth/ streetview the locals.
Please leave comments as per your perusals. There should be some video clips here too.
Now I've got this up, I will start trying to load up the Oz pix from last year.
Live on vicariously or otherwise.
Happy perusings.
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| This looks familiar. Just arrived in Downtown Auckland, checked in and wandering |
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| Cheers! Fantastic downtown accommodation in Auckland central. Harbour Bridge in sight We have just done a 24 hour trip, but in an Emirates Airbus 380. The only way to travel folks |
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| Almost straight off the fight from Dubai Early Fall afternoon in the park. A great change from Toronto winter and Dubai sand |
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| I've made it my arriving routine to head down to the Auckland Domain It's just Middle Earth here The quest to Mordor can begin! |
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| One tree to bind them all... The Domain is pretty much right in the centre of Auckland |
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| But it could be in the wilds of anywhere in NZ |
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| A general wander around the city. A welcome break from coding. Yes, lots of work to do once I got here |
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| From our room looking towards the Auckland harbour The most urgent thing now is to send the 4 litres of Maple syrup as requested by Annie, from Costco, Canada Only problem "There is no longer any surface mail" I'm told. ARE YOU SERIOUS!??? What to do...... So, I spend $150 shipping (AIR!) something that can be got for a 1/3 of the price in Sydney |
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| More Walkabout with attitude |
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| Where I have hired this. What a crap box that was Marketed as "sleeps four comfortably" but in reality, maybe one uncomfortably |
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| I couldn't even drive it comfortably |
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| It really was a green coffin |
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| And there was no space for anything After 36 hours, I had a shouting match with a manager and exchanged for a car, with some refund |
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| There's a place called "The Giants House" in Akaroa |
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| All concrete figures. |
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| Cute, but really a waste of time |
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| It was a lovely day |
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| And after my shouting match, |
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| Was happy just to move on Even if it was to a Motel Piss on living in that shitbox |
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| We find a truly fantastic place to stay in Akaroa, which is itself, a fantastic place to be. |
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| Our patio view, with barbeque |
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| We have bikes and have a great ride along the shore. |
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| The Garden of Thane... Lovely place for a bike ride NZ has mandatory helmet laws. The cops stopped us and Ilge told them their laws were crap We let them go for a coffee then biked back without helmets! |
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| A Motel with a view and a bed not in a coffin |
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| If I could hire a bike, I can head up a local loop |
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| A local hill makes a good hang out for another bike hike, this time a solo expedition. Lots of views: the motel is down in the bay It was actually bloody difficult |
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| But quite a rush getting up here eventually |
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| Just to prove I made it this far... About 600 metres vertical in 3 hours. Maybe 6Km. Felt like a lot more |
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| Back to sea level after a freewheel descent with not a cop in sight to arrest me for no helmet Sav Blanc, by request and a fish BBQ. Finally, Nirvana! |
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| Well, we have decompressed from the shitbox saga Passed through Christchurch, and thankfully! Changed vehicle Here destruction from the recent earthquake |
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| Oamaru, supposedly, a Blue Penguin colony here |
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| Downtown Dunedin. Lovely feel to the place. Big university town |
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| Fall begins, students back to work in Dunedin |
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| The area around Dunedin is also amazing. Here at our "Boutique Motel" on Harrington point |
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| Sunset from the Portobello Village tourist park |
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| Eden Point, an unexpected breakfast on our way to the Albatross colony boat trip |
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| Breakfast and view of the Royal Albatross colony, Harrington Point near Dunedin |
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| Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout, Taiaroa Head, Harington Point |
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| Well, lets put it this way, your correspondent is not the family twitcher |
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| We have adequate photographic equipment but we are not even amateurs compared to the real competition |
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| It's a great day for watching Albatrosses |
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| Yep, not the best. Albatross. We saw 5 or 6 species. this is one of them... One guy with a huge lens showed us a really fantastic shot But we didn't take it, so we pretended to be unimpressed |
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| But not for taking photo's of them |
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| But you get the picture, as it were This was maybe the best Getting these things in shot is difficult! |
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| Once we are beaten at taking pix, we move on to easier subjects just around the headland |
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| They really stink, but guaranteed to take adequate pix |
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Nugget Point Cliff View, maybe 40 Km south of Dunedin |
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| Nugget Point. The date line is just over the horizon, and the next stop in this direction is Tierra del Fuego |
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| And just down the road, Cannibal Bay. Yep |
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| In yet another deserted bay |
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| A small colony of seals, minding their own business You don't get too close to these guys folks, so mind yours |
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| This incredible green fecundity is everywhere here |
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| We stop whenever we feel like a walk |
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| Matai Falls |
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| And just down the road, yet another deserted park Well, we are on the "Southern Scenic Park" road |
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| We've only travelled about 70Km south from Dunedin This was a great little guest house in Owaka Note suitably loaded wine glass |
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| Porpoise Bay |
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| Downtown Invercargill I've got a few requests from my clients, so we book into a motel (with a pool for the missus) and I do my consulting schtick |
Ilge's mass missive. I can't find any from me...
We just did the Caitlins Trail, down along the southern coast of south island. Spectacular scenery alongside some spectacular spotting of wildlife: albatrosses, blue penguin, sea lions, and fur seals along with birds ++. The scenery is mountainous with the sea beside you and some precipitous roads; someone afraid of heights would not do well on these roads or even some of the walking paths. We had some great weather as well, sunny and warm though today and yesterday it got cooler and rainy so we are holed up in this motel for a night or two in Invercargil. They have something called Bluff oysters which are supposed to be a gourmet treat so after a delicious coffee this morning in town we went and bought some so will let you know if they are worth the hype. We are both quite pleased not to be in our camper van any more. I think I already mentioned to some of you that the sleeping arrangements were the pits; like sleeping in a coffin and as Jim put it a "Hobbit coffin" at that. You had to climb up this ladder onto the roof the van which had this lid which opened up on a slant and you had to lie head to toe to fit in and heaven forbid if it rained then you couldn't get out without getting everything soaked as the opening was on slant. Really quite claustrophobic design. Then there was no place to store any of your stuff except on the seats.....Well, this is better; just drive to a motel and since it is the end of the main tourist season we are not anticipating any problem with accommodation. We are heading up towards the Milford Trail tomorrow or the next day? Christchurch is still off limits and it is guarded by the military "the red zone". You can see some of the devastation in building just outside the red zone. I didn't get the gun mentality last time we were here but they are definitely into guns here. They advertise on the radio all the time and Jim went into a sports store today which he said was essentially a gun shop and they were touting the fact that a child under twelve could get a gun license for only $12!!! Yes, Jim just had the bluff oysters and the verdict is yes they are quite good. I had one and it was quite fresh and had that distinctive sea taste so worth the trip here. Chat soon Love me
So, my consulting is now up to date, and we are heading to Te Anau
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| Hold the Front Page, Oh they did. News in Invercargill |
So, my consulting is now up to date, and we are heading to Te Anau
A spectacular trip awaits you dear reader
From Your Correspondent
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