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Christchurch - Day 2Thursday, February 8. 2018This was the day of another of our "bucket list" items - the TanzAlpine train. The train leaves Christchurch at 08:15 and you are told to be there at least 20 minutes before that time so, obviously, it meant an early start - we had a taxi booked to take us to the station for 07:30 (and he was early). Anyway once we arrived at the station and got our boarding passes (tickets were already paid for) we got on the train for the four and threequarter hours journey across the South Island to Greymouth. I must say that Mr Branson could learn a lot from Kiwi Rail - clean, comfortable, on time trains that actually have a luggage van so that there is somewhere to put your luggage (it has always baffled me why on British trains there is nowhere for luggage!) The journey goes through some of the most spectacular scenery in New Zealand and being on the train means that you can actually appreciate it as it is not that easy to do when driving. The trains are designed for the purpose with large panoramic windows and skylights as well as having a couple of observation carriages. Once we arrived at Greymouth we had just under an hour before getting back on the train for the return journey - which was just as long as the outward journey! We arrived back in Christchurch at 18:45 after a long, tiring day but one that we would not have missed for anything. Christchurch - Day 1Thursday, February 8. 2018Christchurch was always going to be a difficult place to visit due to the devastation caused by the 2011 earthquake which decimated the centre of the city and was all the more poignant by the fact that we were actually in New Zealand at that time (although nowhere near Christchurch) Having arrived and got ourselves sorted out we took a walk into the centre where there is still so many signs of what happened seven years ago and it is impossible to try to comprehend what it must have been like. Yes a lot has been done to restore the city but there are so many areas of land that have nothing on them that must have been demolished. The most poignant edifice is that of the Cathederal where the bell tower is no more and the rest of the building is shored up. It is only in the last few months that they have decided that the Cathederal will be rebuilt as close as possible to the original but be made to withstand an earthquqke - whether they sould spend 104 million NZD (about £60 million) and take ten years to complete it is still open to discussion. One thing that is quite evident though is the amount of rebuilding that has been done, but it has only scratched the surface - it will take another 20/30 years before Christchurch will be back to "normal" - and that all assumes that there will be no more earthquakes. In fact I was reading in one of the local papers this week that they have only just finished assessing all of the public buildings for their ability to withstand another earthquake. Timaru - Day 1Thursday, February 8. 2018Timaru was always only going to be a journey breaker as it was too far to drive from Dunedin to Christchurch in one day - well it was for me as I like to try and keep the journeys to around a couple of hours or so. Not really much here other than one of the top beaches in New Zealand which we went to have a look at but the whole beach area was well maintained wirg boardwalks all along it. Oamaru - Day 1Thursday, February 8. 2018As I said before the main purpose of stopping off here was to go and see the little blue penguins but as we could not get on the trip today we did it yesterday in Dunedin. Anyway we are here now so what is there to do in Oamaru on a Sunday afternoon? Pretty much the same as anywhere else on a Sunday afternoon - not much. What there is here is a Victorian Precinct - where all the original buildings are located and are being kept alive by small business and shops, many dealing in olde worlde things. In some respects as you enter the precict it remided me of somewhere like Beamish with all the old streets and no traffic! It is good to see that these building are being preserved and not demolished for high rise something or other. Whilst we were in that area there was an old train giving short rides along the coast so we opted to go on it and we were glad that we did as its terminus was at the piont where we would have been going to see the penguins - and we were so pleased that we went in Dunedin as this was just so artificial and touristy whereas in Dunedin it was all natural. Dunedin - Day 3Thursday, February 8. 2018The good news today was that there was no rain forecast and the weather was expected to get a bit (the emphasis here is on bit) warmer. That's as maybe but it was still cold!!! Our first stopping of point today was at the Original Settlers Museum. This has to be one of the best museums that I have been to - it is a modern style museum with plenty of hi-tech interactive gizzmos, but all in context. For example there is a large room that is covered on all four wall from floor to ceiling with photos/portraits of all of the early settlers and facing each wall was a console where you could select any picture and it would give details of who they were. The exibits were well spaced out with plenty of room to get around. The only problem was that really you need a couple of days to do it justice. For anyone visiting Dunedin this is a must and, best of all, it is free. We then moved on to the Chinese Gardens, which were in fact next door to the Settlers Museum. Again this is another excellent place to go for a bit of karma, but by now it was getting cold again so we did not stay very long. Now in the evening we went on a trip out onto the Otago Peninsular to see the little blue penguins. These penguins are found all along the coast in this part if NZ. Originally the idea was to this tomorrow when in Oamaru but when I tried a couple of days ago to book the tour there it was fully booked so we rearranged to do it in Dunedin. There was a lot of hanging about in the dark waiting for them to come ashore (you would have thought that they could be on time and not keep their audience waiting!) but when they did they were so cute waddling up the beach and going off to their nest. These little creatures are only abot 20 - 25 cms tall but full of personality. Dunedin - Day 2Saturday, February 3. 2018Fortunely when we woke this morning the rain had almost stopped, but it was cold - it came as a shock only being about 12C when we have been used to temperatures twice that. In true British fashion we wrapped ourseleves up with what few warm clothes that we had and ventured out into the the great wide world - well Dunedin actually! Now I know that with the weather that I was probably not in the best frame of mind to enjoy this city but it does seem to be very miserable looking - but, and no disrespect intended, it was founded by the Scottish and in known as the Edinburgh of the South. There are many really spectacular buildings around the city and many of the old original merchant/trade buildings - but why do these countries have to spoil everything by [badly] modernising them? We started off getting our bearings and found a statue of Robert Burns, then had a great surprise when we looked in St Paul's Cathederal as the outside is what you would probably expect but the inside is both old and modern - very cleaver how they have managed to blend the two types of architecture. Next we venutured to the railway station which is impressive both inside and out. Unfortunately there were two Pricess cruise ships in port today so there were "day trippers" everywhere! After the railway station we had a look in the Art Gallery (free entrance) and whilst I am not a great fan of art galleries I have to say that there are some serious works of art in there bu many famous artists. As the day was still quite showery we went back for some lunch and to decide what to do next. We noticed that there is a house nearby caller Olveston which was built in the early 1900's so we decided to go and have a look at it. Off we set only to find that to get to it, on foot, meant that we had to scale Mt Everest - perhaps that is an exaggeration, but it certainly felt like it when we were walking up there! Once we arrived up there we were greeted by coach loads of cruise passengers on an excursion. This house is incredible with so many things that were way ahead of its time - such as a generator for electricity and central heating. The house has been preserved in the original state that it was in when it was last lived in and gives a good example of how [some] people lived in Dunedin a hundred years or so ago. I have to admit that the walk back down the hill was far easier than walking up it! Dunedin - Day 1Saturday, February 3. 2018When I woke this morning I knew that I was not going to enjoy today as I had a 250k drive to do to get to Dunedin and it was raining the proverbial "cats & dogs". By the time that we had had breakfast the rain had eased off somewhat but I still got drowned loading the car. Eventually we set off and for most of the time the rain was no too bad but when we got close to Dunedin it became torrential, and stayed that way for the rest of the day. Arriving in Dunedin in the pouring rain was not really the best introduction to the city and trying to find our accommodation was something of a nightmare as I could hardly see the front of the car. Eventually we located where we were staying - now why when it is that when it is pouring down that the location of your room is as far removed from the car park that it can possibly be? Apart from a quick dash to the supermarkey for more supplies that was it for the day - "rain stopped play" Invercargill - Day 2Saturday, February 3. 2018Today we awoke to some bad news - the weather forecast was for rain later in the day, and a lot of it. Now I know that the locals cannot wait for the rain but I am on holiday and I don't want it going colder and raining! So to make the most of it before the rain comes we set off on th 30km dive to Bluff (known for its oysters) - the first European settlement in New Zealand and the furthest point south that you can get in New Zealand's South Island. It seemed somewhat bizzare standing there in shorts with temperatures in the mid 20'sC and only being about 3k miles from the South Pole! There are some quite spectacular views around here and you can go up to Bluff Lookout for views of the surrounding area. Now going up to Bluff Lookout without oxygen is not recommended as it is one of the longest and steepest hill that I have seen, and NZ has many of those. We took the lazy route - we went up by car. After a couple of hours walking some of the trails around the coast we then headed back to Invercargill for some lunch and a rest before the next day's adventure - oh, and to keep out of the impending rain. The forecast was not wrong - it did start to rain later in the afternoon. Invercargill - Day 1Friday, February 2. 2018Another fairly liesurly drive down to Invercargill - furthest town in South Island. This is not the furthest south that you can go in New Zealand as that would be in New Zealand's third island Stewart Island which is not somewhere we were going to. Invercargill was a total surprise (in a good way) as it was nothing like we were expecting and nothing like anywhere we had been to in New Zealand. In some respects it resembles the likes of Florida with wide, muti lane roads. The other surprise was the "old" buildings that were so full of character. Having got settled in our motel, stocked up on supplies only to find that supermarkets in Invercargill are not allowed to sell alcohol!! - there appears to be some kind of cartel in operation whereby you can only buy alcohol from a "bottle shop" alledgedly in an attempt to curb alcohol abuse. Anyway in our continuing mission to support the New Zealand wine industry we managed to find one and replenish our supplies. Important matters sorted we set off on a walk around the town and came across Queen's Gardens which were bequeathed to the towm some years back and are the best "formal" gardens that I have ever seen. Te Anau - Day 2Friday, February 2. 2018Today was one of the highlights of this journey - the trip to Doubtful Sound. Unfortunately the day did not start off well as the coach driver failed to pick us up as he had gone to the wrong motel! Anyway after a couple of phone calls a young lady came to take us to the catarmaran. On this trip you go on a coach to get the boat to get the bus that takes you to the boat on Doubtful Sound. Now one thing to clear up is that this is not a "Sound" but a fijiord - dont ask as I too do not know what the difference is, but it got its name when Captain Cook was on his travels around this part of the world and decided that it "doubtgul that he would get his ship in there. Once we had spent an hout crossing the lake (they have some mighty big lakes in these parts) we boarded the buses that would take us through the forsest to the Sound. Roumour has it that this is (was?) the most expensive road built in New Zealand! On the drive the driver was giving a running comentary about the flora and forna that was around and also pointed out the trees that inspired Peter Jackson fot the "Talking trees" in LOTR. Eventually we arrived at the Sound and boarded the catarmaran that was to take us on our three hour trip through Doubtful Sound and out to the Tasman Sea. Probably due to the wind direction and the speed at which we were going there was mighty cold wind in our faces but being true Brits we stuck it out on deck. As I said before there is a shortage of rain in the area which meant that most of the waterfalls that feed into the Sound were dry and that probably meant that we did not see the Sound at its best - but nontheless there was some spectacular scenery along the way. Because the conditions were so calm once we reached the Tasman Sea we were ablw to actually go out into it where we saw a colony of seals basking on the rocks. The journey back was much less windy, in fact most of the time we had the sun blazing down on us. There was a pod of dolphins in the area and they "came to have a look at us" and we also saw a cormorant above. Once we arrived back it was then on the bus to get the other catarmaran to get the bus back to the motel. All in all an excellent and memorable day's trip and one that i would thoroughly recommend. Te Anau - Day 2Friday, February 2. 2018Today was one of the highlights of this journey - the trip to Doubtful Sound. Unfortunately the day did not start off well as the coach driver failed to pick us up as he had gone to the wrong motel! Anyway after a couple of phone calls a young lady came to take us to the catarmaran. On this trip you go on a coach to get the boat to get the bus that takes you to the boat on Doubtful Sound. Now one thing to clear up is that this is not a "Sound" but a fijiord - dont ask as I too do not know what the difference is, but it got its name when Captain Cook was on his travels around this part of the world and decided that it "doubtgul that he would get his ship in there. Once we had spent an hout crossing the lake (they have some mighty big lakes in these parts) we boarded the buses that would take us through the forsest to the Sound. Roumour has it that this is (was?) the most expensive road built in New Zealand! On the drive the driver was giving a running comentary about the flora and forna that was around and also pointed out the trees that inspired Peter Jackson fot the "Talking trees" in LOTR. Eventually we arrived at the Sound and boarded the catarmaran that was to take us on our three hour trip through Doubtful Sound and out to the Tasman Sea. Probably due to the wind direction and the speed at which we were going there was mighty cold wind in our faces but being true Brits we stuck it out on deck. As I said before there is a shortage of rain in the area which meant that most of the waterfalls that feed into the Sound were dry and that probably meant that we did not see the Sound at its best - but nontheless there was some spectacular scenery along the way. Because the conditions were so calm once we reached the Tasman Sea we were ablw to actually go out into it where we saw a colony of seals basking on the rocks. The journey back was much less windy, in fact most of the time we had the sun blazing down on us. There was a pod of dolphins in the area and they "came to have a look at us" and we also saw a cormorant above. Once we arrived back it was then on the bus to get the other catarmaran to get the bus back to the motel. All in all an excellent and memorable day's trip and one that i would thoroughly recommend. Te Anau - Day 1Wednesday, January 31. 2018Moving from Queenstown to Te Anau was our first real diving experience in South Island and I have to say that it was a doddle - hardly any other traffic on the roads (really that should be road as basically it is a straight road from Queenstown) and we did 170km in under two hours. Now Te Anau is totally different to Queenstown in that it is much smaller and quieter but still has some magnificent views across the lake oner to the mountains. The scenery in this part of New Zealand is totally breathtaking - much of it having been used for the Lord of Rings films. The main reason for our stay here is to go on the Doubtful Sound trip tomorrow. many visitors to this area go on Milford Sound but we were advised to go to Doubtful Sound as it is less crowded - apparantly there are times when you can hardly move on Milford Sound for the number of boats there - anyway we will see for ourselves tomorrow. We have been extremely fortunate in that the weather has been hot, sunny and in the 30's - although the downside of this is that there is a water shortage and everywhere is dry. Queenstown - Day 3Saturday, January 27. 2018This is our last day in Queenstown before moving on tomorrow. Our plan was always to take it easy today and try and see something of the town but due to yeterday's rearranged plans we had already seen the majority of the town. We started off by taking a walk through Queenstown Gardens which are about a 10 minute walk from where we are staying and lead into the tow. Rather than taking the shortest route, which we had already done, the idea was to walk the lake route. One issue that we have found with Queenstown is that any maps that are providwd locally are a bit (no make that a lot) lacking in scale - somewhere may look as if it will take half an hour to reach when in fact it only takes a few minutes. Anyway we took the lake route which meant that we had done the route in less than half an hour - so what next? Ah there is a steamer boat that goes up and down the lake so we thought let's try that. At bour appointed time we arrive at the steamer, have obligatory photos taken, board the boat and get some seats out on deck. All is going to plan until there is another invasion of Japenese tourists. Now I habe nothing against the Japenese but when they take over the whole of the deck area taking photos of each other in every possible combination you could imagine and being totally inconsiderate about anyone else being on the boat. Fortunately they got off at the halfway point which meant that the return journey was far more enjoyable and more like we had expected on the way out. Queenstown - Day 2Friday, January 26. 2018Today did not start off as expected, went downhill and eventually ended with having a really great day. Before we left the UK we had booked a combined helicopter and jet boat "adventure". The helicopter ride was due for 10:00 and when checking on it at 08:30 I was told that due to low cloud that we would be put back to 13:00 but our jet boat ride would still go ahead at 11:00. This was all OK apart from the fact that we had to find our own way around Queenstown, somewhere that we had no clue as to where anywhere was. Anyway we eventually found the jet boat and got as far as putting out life vests on only to be told that a large party booked on the boat had been delayed and the trip was cancelled and was rescheduled for 13:00. As we now had an hour and a half to kill there was little else to do other than test one of the local "watering holes". This delay also gave us the opportunity to have a look around the centre of Queenstown - it probably takes no more than half an hour to see all that there is! Eventually the time arrived for us to be picked up for the helicopter ride - something that is (now was) on my "bucket list". The whole process was relatively straightforward and after a short safety briefing we were soon on board and in the air. the sensation of being in a helicopter is nothing like I had imagined, and definitely nothing like you see on the films - you hardly feel as if you are moving until the pilot starts to maneuver the helicopter. After a short flight we landed at the top of one of the mountains where the views were spectacular. So after a few photos we were all back on board and heading back to the base and it was all over too soon. It really is a great experience to do. Next we were taken back into town for out jet boat ride, but this did entail waiting around for just over an hour in 30C+ temperatures and everyone had grabbed all the places in the shade. Whilst we were waiting we booked one of the local restaurants for dinner later on - something that was a good move. Now on to the jet boat ride. We have done a jet boat ride before several years ago. Now for anyone who has never been on a jet boat this is a large boat that takes about 25 passengers and has a mad driver who takes delight in doing maneuvers that result in the passengers getting extremely wet from the spray. The whole ride lasted for about an hour and gave us the opportunity to see some more of the spectacular scenery that abounds here. It was only when we were getting off the boat did we realise how wet we were. Back now to our accommodation for a change of clothes and a shower before we ventured back into town for dinner. Queenstown of an evening is "alive" and reminiscent of many Mediterranean countries. The meal we had was excellent and was added to by the atmosphere of the many people walking around. It would seem that now would be a good time to invade Japan as virtually every other person in Queenstown is a Japenese touris! Our impression of Queenstown is that it has some really spectacular scenery but is very "touristy" and commercialised - aimed at the adrenaline junkie. Queenstown - Day 1Thursday, January 25. 2018Today we started off on our "Grand Tour" of South Island. Before we came over to New Zealand we spent quite a lot of time working out what would be the best/easiest way of getting down to South Island. Eventually we decided that we would fly down to Queenstown and then drive around South Island eventually ending up at Picton to take the ferry across to Wellington - but more of that later. Never having done an internal flight in New Zealand before we were pleasantly surprised as to how well organised it was - with a confortable plane with plenty of leg room. However the "snack" during the flight was another matter, let's say this - the best part of it was the cup of water!! We arrived in Queenstown around 14:00 to a hot and sunny day (the temperature this afternoon was recorded as 30C). The next task was to collect the hire cae which was pre booked in the UK before we left (actually we got a good deal with Hertz via an offer on Saga - 20% off if paid in advance). OK car sorted, and found in the parking lot, the next task was to find the accomodation - not easy in a strange town. Anyway we eventually arrived and we have an appartment overlooking the lake and the views are spectacular (photos to follow) Next job was to get some supplies (I am on a mission to support the New Zealand wine industry!) and then get ourselves sorted out. Tomorrow, hopefully, we will, for us, be going on an "extreme"adventure - weather permitting, but you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out about that.
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