Tim and Patrices Travel Blog
Tims amazing weblog, so you can see what he’s up to.Archive for January, 2009
Goodbye (or au revoir) to New Zealand
We arrived back at Orewa yesterday and went to an excellent Thai restaurant with our friends. The evening progressed, as most do in the Hubbuck family, into an ad-hoc dancing session at Steve’s house. We leave for Santiago tomorrow. We would like to thank our hosts for a very memorable trip to New Zealand. For the hospitality shown by all. It is much appreciated.
Thank you Chrissy and Jacko for an great Christmas day, thank you Steve and Linette for the many nights accommodation and use of Steve’s outdoor toys, his (well Linette’s) camper and the Kayak, and thank you to Tony and Sylvia for their great hospitality. Thank you Dean and Sally for a great trip to Wellington (we WILL find you) and to Don and Val for their hospitality in Picton. Needless to say we expect to see you if you are in the UK.
On our travels we have seen a lot of New Zealand. This is my recipe.
Take a country the size of Britain, add 40 million sheep and sprinkle with 4 million inhabitants. Add the diverse geography of Scotland, Norway, Norfolk, southern England and the French Riviera. Add a generous handful of grapevines and surf beaches. Bake under a long hot summer for 4 months.
Very tasty indeed.
Tour of the north island
It was difficult to tear ourselves away from the hospitality of Steve and Lynette and in particular Lynette’s new net curtains. We headed south on Tuesday the 20th. Our first port of call was the strange town of xxxxxx. Having few historical resources to fall back on towns in New Zealand relay on good old fashioned ingenuity to put themselves on the map. You can almost imagine the town council meeting where the proposals were first put place. ‘So lets get this right Bert, you want to build a 40 foot high sheep from corrugated sheet metal to put the tourist information centre in?’ It gets my vote.’
Then onwards to Rotorua and a look at the hot springs. We also went on the luge, a great go-cart ride down a mountainside. The following morning we discovered Kerosene Creek, a naturally warmed stream in the middle of no-where heated to around 38 degrees. We spent half an hour under a mini waterfall listening to the birds – paradise.
We drove south to Taupo and watched a couple of young people jump off a 43m high platform into a river below. Patrice informed me this was where she had previously done her bungee jump. I admired her bravery but declined to follow.
At the small village of Whakapapa we did a two hour walk on the slopes of a volcano where great photos were taken.
We arrived in Wellington a little smelly after two nights under canvas without wash facilities. A visit the local swimming pool and their shower facilities made us more acceptable after where we explored Wellington.
I phoned an ex colleague of mine, Dean and we made our way to his house despite him giving us the wrong address. This was a genuine mistake and gave us chance to see the plot of land which him and his partner Sally are building a house.
We spent an excellent evening catching up on old times over a bottle of Jim Beam. Tim bravely fought through his hangover the following morning and with Patrice’s friend Clare we explored Wellington. In the evening Dean cooked a most excellent BBQ.
On Sunday we headed north from Wellington and had a relaxing beach walk with Dean and Sally after which we parted company.
We headed to Palmerston North where we spent the night with a fellow traveller Patrice had met six years ago in South Africa. We then headed around the coast to the nice town of Whanganui. Here we looked around the charity and outdoor shops and replenished our wardrobe ready for south America in less than a week. We camped at an excellent site called Ashley Park which was not only a great site set in ornamental grounds but had loads of friendly farm animals to get to know. Patrice now wants a pig. Further west we explored the foot hills of mount Egmont another dormant volcano.
In the evening we stayed a New Plymouth. The town doesn’t have much to offer but as with so many New Zealand towns the park was amazing. Each evening in the summer there is a free music concert. The park’s ornamental pond is decorated in ornamental lights and as dusk fell the park was full of townsfolk, young and old alike taking a stroll and enjoying the sights. It reminded me of Peasolm Park in Scarborough and of my childhood.
A long days drive took us up the west coast to a great beach walk at Raglan and a camp nearby. The follwoing morning we made our way back to Auckland.
Camping in dramatic scenery
We made our way down the west coast stopping to look at the local museam in Timaru and onto Oamaru where we made our first overnight stop. Near the town is the nesting ground of the blue pengiun which come ashore at around 21:15 each night. We booked tickets and amidst a hundred tourists who despite being asked for absolute silence couldn’t shut up, saw around 170 of the 30cm critters come ashore with bellies full of fish for their young. Cameras were not allowed.
The following day we continues south to the Otago peninsula at Dunedin where we saw further dramatic scenery but no nesting Albatross as the weather was calm and the birds not in flight. We then headed inland inot central Otago and the weird town of Middlemarch which was a very remote sheep farming community. We hired a bike for a morning and both cycled separate parts of an old railway track to Ranfurly. Here we got back into the car and continued west to Wanaka and an excellent remote campsite next to the lake.
We then drove through the Haast pass to the west coast and picked up Highway 6 northwards. We stopped at the Fox Glacier and did a 90 minute walk to a wonderful viewing site overlooking the ice. We then made our way to another remote campsite on the coast at Gillespies Bay where we did another 3 hours walk and watched the sunset. Plagued by biting sand flies we made a hasty exit in the morning and continued northwards and followed the coast. We stopped at Ross to look around an old Gold mining town and then continued to look at the blow holes and pancake rocks at Punakaiki. We camped at a site in Westport.
We then left the coast and headed north east stopping off at New Zealand’s longest swing bridge at over 110m. We continued our drive arriving at Pickton in the afternoon. We found a very quiet little spot for the night at Whatamango Bay and the following morning drove back into Picton. Here we phoned Val and Don and this time made contact. After finding their house and cup of coffee we made our way to the Queen Charlotte Track. We walked for three hours. We returned to Val and Don’s for a lovely spaghetti bolognaise with home grown salad. After a couple of glasses of wine it was decided that it would be best if we pitched camp in their garden for the night. Thank you Val and Don for your wonderful hospitality.
We slept well and made our way down the east coast to Kaikoura where we went of a 3 hour coastal walk where we saw a seal colony very close up. In the evening we headed for Goose Bay to camp. The following morning we continued our way down the east back to Christchurch.
South Island
The south island of New Zealand is very different from the north. For starters there is around a third of the population of the north island and it is noticeable. Here we are in almost peak holiday season and you can drive for miles without seeing anyone.
We arrived in Christchurch and quickly found a cheap hostel. Maybe a bit too cheap it was reminiscent of bail hostels back in the UK complete with noisy drunken swearing domestics. We got our heads down and hastily packed in the morning. By 8 o’clock we had hit the streets of the town looking for a bargain vehicle to hire. We quickly established campers were too expensive and so would have to rely on the single skinned tent that had been found in Chrissy’s house. After four attempts we found a suitable car, more money than we had hoped for but non the less a nearly new Corolla for $39 a day. We needed sleeping mats and extra bedding for our thin tent. Over the road was a nice Katmandu camping shop. We walked past this on into the Salvation Army charity shop. Here we found a couple of duvets and pillows for $16. The assistant even threw in a child’s wetsuit which I hoped to turn into a laptop case. We hit the road and travelled south.
The countryside was reminiscent of Norfolk whilst the place names made an almost surreal experience as we headed through Canterbury, past Ashford, through Winchester, Arundel and Brighton. Right at home.
Learning New Zealandeese
Having spent months travelling through countries speaking languages we didn’t understand it was a refreshing change to come to New Zealand where they speak English, or so we thought. New Zealandeese is easy to master with just seven rules.
Rule 1 Awesome. Now in Britain this word is used for occasions which inspire awe and wonder. Heart stopping moments you remember for the rest of your life. After paying a $26 campsite bill I was told this was awesome. I passed my menu back to the waitress in a restaurant – awesome. Either New Zealanders don’t get out much or the word is used for just about every transaction going.
Rule 2 Choice. This is an abbreviation of what I believe should be ‘a good choice Sir,’ or similar. This is used liberally to convey agreement in a transaction. Examples include, ‘Two singles to Auckland please.’ ‘That’s nineteen dollars twenty Bro. Choice.’
Rule 3 Aye? New Zealanders have abolished statements of fact replacing most sentences with non rhetorical questions. This is done by adding aye? to the end of most sentences and raising the inflection to become a question. It becomes a bit confusing, aye? Responses are not expected.
Rule 4 Howareya? This is a non responsive greeting and not, as you may think, a question as to your welfare. Responses such as ‘Fine thanks how are you?’ are met with confused looks. Awesome.
Rule 5 Bro. Most people are Bro’s. No relations are needed. Choice, Aye?
Rule 6 Most letter e’s are pronounced i. A letter becomes a litter etc. Mind the stip there Bro. Awesome.
Rule 7 That’s about it really, I haven’t yit cam across any other rules. I’ll keep you posted.
New Year’s
We spent the new year at Steve and Linette’s house. After packing we wandered across Orewa to their house where Steve showed us around his camper van which he had very generously offered to lend to us for a couple of days to explore the northern peninsula. The evening started with Tony and Sylvia coming around with a Thai takeaway. After this a couple of beers or wines and we spoke to Wendy on Skype. This technology thing never ceases to amaze me and Wendy looked equally impressed.
Afterwards we headed down to the town centre where a local rock band the Sticky Fingers were playing. These aging rockstars had aging groupies the Stickyettes who entertained us with their antics most of the evening. As the night wore on evenTim took to the dance floor where Patrice had been most of the night. Fair renditions of old rock songs were interspersed with unknown numbers of Kiwi origin which proved very popular with the locals. Thankfully most were basic rowdy numbers with guttural choruses. We managed to sing along quite well. ‘Another Kiwi song, we don’t know the words, la de da, oh ar, oh ar.’ etc. It was a bit like been in Somerset to be honest.
After we saw the new year in we walked the mile or so back to Steve and Linette’s where we took to the van for our first night.
In the morning after breakfast we headed northwards up Highway 1 and had a coffee with Chrissy and Jacko in Warkworth. Having bought provisions we resumed our trip northward. We turned off onto Highway 12 through Dargavile and found a very quiet camp site in Waipoura Forest. In the late afternoon Patrice found the nearby river and enticed Tim to have a swim. It was refreshing and not too cold.
The following morning we continued northwards stopping to make a sandwich overlooking fantastic views of the bay. For our second night we stopped at Whangaroa at an overpriced camp site. However it did have electricity so we were able to watch a DVD in the back of the van. In the morning we headed south to Whitangi and caught a high speed cruise boat, the Excitor around the Bay Of Islands. Reaching 40 knots we soon reached the hole in the rock at Cape Brett. The trip was awesome which is a word well used by New Zeallanders for most things. After a quick cup of coffee we continued southwards again to the city of Whangerai where we stopped for another coffee. Then onto the DOC campsite of Uretti.
In the morning we headed back south and met up with Patrice’s extended family at a beach Sullivan’s Bay where a family BBQ and picnic had been organised. We headed back to Steve’s house at around 5pm.
