Peter and I have just returned from a long-awaited holiday to New Zealand. Or Aotearoa if you prefer the Maori name. It was a small group bus tour, travelling in a full-size coach which normally seats around fifty. But this coach has roomy, single seats like airline business class seats, ten to each side. Everyone…
I love New Zealand. It’s such a magical mix of rolling green hills, glacier-carved valleys, steep mountains, mist, rain, great food, weird animals. I’ve ticked two more items off the bucket list (Hobbiton and Rotorua), learnt heaps, met people and generally had an overall good time. Yes, there will be blogs but I have been…
Here we are back at a Saturday post, still coughing a little. A few thoughts have crossed my mind since we came back from holidays but I don’t think anybody wants to talk about Australian politics, so I won’t. I’m delighted to hear that Ash Barty has made it to the French Open women’s final….
Today would be our last in New Zealand. We opened the curtains for our final look at Mt Cook before we went down to breakfast. It wasn’t there. The weather in the mountains can be fickle, indeed. On our way to the dining room we passed those members of our group who’d been hoping to…
After a very pleasant high tea at Castle Larnach we set off back towards the mountains for our penultimate stop – Mt Cook Aoraki. The weather continued to remain bright and beautiful and I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one with my fingers crossed. We drove along the coast, looking over the cold waters of…
Sunshine! We’d almost forgotten what it looked like. It glinted off the water, sparkled off the fresh snow on the mountain peaks, streaked the native grasses with golden highlights. I’d like to say it warmed the skin, but the air was still cool. After breakfast we caught the local bus downtown and walked up the…
From Fox Glacier we headed back over the mountains to Queenstown, following the coast to the Haast river mouth, then going up over the Haast Pass. From there, we’d drive along the shores of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea through to Queenstown. Taking photos from a moving vehicle isn’t easy at the best of times…
I’d always wanted to visit New Zealand’s South Island, so when I saw an advertisement for Grand Pacific Tours’ 10-day small group South Island escape I figured I’d hit pay dirt. Especially when I looked at the pictures of the bus interior. Now that’s my kind of bus. Business class leather seats, everybody with a…
B and I went for a walk around the town of Akaroa, which is a typical holiday town catering for tourists – lots of eateries, souvenir shops, and tour operators. There’s a lot of French influence here, with many French street and business names, but it has a very normal history – a Frenchman bought…
B’s friend, S, picked us up from our Christchurch hotel and took us to her holiday home in Akaroa, about 90 minutes drive from the city. The Banks Peninsula is the result of volcanic activity. Both Lyttelton and Akaroa are the remains of volcanic craters. Read more here. It’s a very pretty drive from Christchurch,…