Shed a tear

Wednesday 28th February

Happy 7th Birthday to my wonderful Neice Sophie, who is the grand age of 7 today. Whilst Sophie blows out her candles on her homemade chocolate cake I shed tears at the airport as I wave goodbye to my parents after 10 marvelous days of touring around with them. I can’t believe that 10 days ago I had only just met them at Wellington train station and now I was tearfully hugging them as they jumped on the plane from Christchurch airport bound for London Heathrow via souless L.A. I felt a little like L.A. – souless. I was nearly for following them but I can get through this, I knew it was going to be difficult, very dificult but I reminded myself that in a few days time I will be fine. We did however have a lovely last day in Christchurch, just meandering about the town, visting the arts centre and having a lovely meal at a typical english pub for less than £4 each. A write up in the “Rough Guide to New Zealand” was spot on “great food for the bargain hunter” including perfect Pavlova, a Kiwi speciality. Even the airport bus was a bargain at $5 each. We love bargains because we are still all tight fisted northerns at heart. Despite those tears at the airport I am very happy and I still love New Zealand. It’s always hard saying goodbye and we’ve had a fantastic time together – we’ve shared some amazing experiences including the amazing adventure of running out of petorl on my dad’s birthday. Its been just wonderful meeting my mum and dad in such an amazing country. I can’t thank them enough for coming out to see me, I Love them lots and wish them a safe journey home. I miss home. I do. My head hurts. It’s time to move on and see what my travel adventures hold in store for me next.

Ticky touring around Banks Peninsular

Tuesday 27th February

It’s raining outside, I hope its not going to be a dull day. I am still feeling a bit twisted inside. Homesickness – knowing my parents are leaving tomorrow. Part of me wants to go back with them, but I know I need to get through this difficult stage and sort something out. Or have I had enough of the travel thing? Or do I just loath Christchurch? I have nothing planned now until mid May where I need to be in Florida for my friends’ Wedding. I have a ticket out of New Zealand in mid March to South America but at the moment I don’t feel ready to leave New Zealand – yes I am contradicting myself I know. I don’t know what I want right now. Home isn’t the solution and I am not ready for South America. I don’t really think I want to go to South America, I think I would rather do Central America if I can change my ticket. Let’s see. Perhaps I will feel better in a few days once I sort out my head. People say its the ups and downs of travel. I am going through one of those phases of questioning whether I am travelling just for the sake of it, but remember this is a one in a lifetime experience and I must not bomb it because I am having a few homesick days, not yet anyway. I knew this would be the hardest point of the journey so far, and I wasn’t wrong. So today my parents full final day we ticky toured around banks Peninsular – an hour or so drive from ChristChurch, stopping off for a cup of tea at little Britain – or should I say Little River before arriving at the quaint french settlement of Aorokura and taking in the wonderful tourist drive around banks Peninsular. Both myself and my mum really enjoyed it, whilst my dad had a nanna nap for most of the journey. The scenic drive will stick in our minds, a good 20km or so around never ending bends to panormaic views of the peninsular with not another vehicle in sight. I thought this is what is called a “Tourist Trap” when a road never ends, its there to trap tourists – right at the end is a big Whale Pot where they capture all the silly tourists who take this road, they mix them up in the big pot and feed them to the whales. Lovely. How wrong was I? At the end of the scenic route a nice cafe greated us, on the menu a nice pot of tea for two, a long black with milk and some nice apple stuff to share – simply delicious. I swapped hostels – much much more friendly than the YHA. Not quite the luxury standard of some of the other hostels but friendly with the owner showing my parents around the hostel as much as myself. I was in a four dorm but a four dorm with its own sky TV, own kitchenette with microwave and en suite bathroom. The room even had a couple of sofas in it for good measure. Can’t really complain. Really.

Having a Whale of a time

Monday 26th November

After an enduring 2 hour plus drive from Christchurch we eventually rolled up at the quaint seaside town of Kaikoura to Whale watch. I was a little dubious as I had heard it was very touristy. Quite the opposite. I wish we had stopped in Kaikoura – a lovely little village like place with a scattering of shops and accomodation. KaiKoura is the Mauri name for Crayfish. After a yummy lunch of homemade sardine sandwiches and another cup of tea or two we wandered around the little town until time to check in at the “Whaleway stataion” for our trip to see Whales. The vessel – a 50 seater catermaran was fantastic. A wide screen panasonic TV supported amazing grapics of the journey some 4 miles out to sea along with supportive information on the Whales and other marine life. Our first sighting of a Whale was stunning, these 18ft creatures lay almost still in the water – could be mistaken for a large rock apart from their gentle movements and sprays emerging from the surface. We watched as it gracefully moved ready to go under and flipped its tail in the most elegant way possible. I watched memorised by this amazing creature as it went down to feed. We were lucky enough to see 3 sightings of whales on the trip – all three such a stunning sight. I will never forget the image of the whale tipping its tail as it went under, it was so pefect it was like watching a movie in slow motion. As if seeing the Whales wasn’t enough, we were also treated to views of what seemed like 100s of dolphins playing about as if they were putting on a show for us, and not just for 5 minutes, but for a good 10-15 minutes these dusky dolphins played about showing off their swimming skills and sommersaulting in the air all in their natural environment. What an amazing trip – recommended to do even though it is quite expensive. To finish off a perfect day we ate Hoki and Chips outside – all for the bargain price of about £1.50 each. The journey home was hard work as the sun was beating down into our eyes, making visability of the road unbearable so stopping off for a nice cup of tea was so refreshing – that being the cherry ontop of the cake of today.

Grim Mouth

Sunday 25th November

Grim mouth wasn’t any better in the daylight, even the YHA hostel was a bit grim – a little unfriendly and not that welcoming. A small windswept walk to what the locals call a beach which was a grim pebblestone embankment down to the beach didn’t make any of us feel any better so the only option was to find a coffee shop in hope that the tea and coffee wasn’t grim either. Our well deserved cup of tea and muffin was the best thing about Grimmouth. We were taking the Trans Alpine train across to Christchurch today so had to wait around till 2pm in this gorgeous grey town. Time did actully pass by the time we had gone into the only two shops open on this grim sunday at the mouth of a grey town, sat and had lunch on a railway station bench and gone for a wee or two. The station soon became packed full of Obnoxious Americans, so even before we boarded the train a grey vibe was begining to exhale around. The train journey although beautiful in its own way we felt it was overhyped. My parents after their wonderful experience on the “overlander” in North Island which they thoroughly enjoyed felt it lacked a special something. I was disapointed for my Parents that the train didn’t stop at Arthurs Pass – a fantastic little village that I stopped at last year. It all felt a bit rushed and a bit touristy. Shame we should have drived it really and stopped at the very cute “flock hill” accomodation where we stopped at last year. Once in Christchurch we found our ways to our accomodations. My parents at the luxurious “Copethorpe Hotel”, me at at the rather large YHA central. The hostel was clean, but rather too large for its own good, and therefore impersonal. People come and people go and I feel really lonely here, really quite lost, even though my parents are just round the corner.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Saturday 24th February

My dad’s birthday, a craft market in Nelson, booking to see the Whale Watching in a few days time and a long long drive inbetween wishing my dad a very happy birthday and unwrapping presents in the middle of a park with an obligatory cup of tea and biscuit. Did I not mention the detour to Nelson Lakes on the way with a scrumptious Panini lunch whilst the sun blazed down on the National Park, a walk over the longest suspension bridge in New Zealand – Buller Gorge and a drive down the wild west coast – all in one day. I have also failed to mention that we nearly ran out of petrol at Pancake Rocks. Pancake Rocks by the way was a little disapointing after last time as the sea wasn’t choppy enough so there were no blow holes and rainbows. Though what I did witness this time was a nice relaxing walk around with no tourists as we didn’t arrive until around 5pm – by which time we had ran out of petrol. So the petrol “thing”. A few Km up from our turning onto the Wild West Coast there was a petrol sign “no petorl for 87km. A bit late to tell us now we are already on the road. We plodded on anyway, running the car on economy mode (i.e. 60km / hr) and turning the a/c off. We were getting pretty low by the time we had reached pancake rocks so went into the tourist information centre to ask about petrol. Apparently next door the “wild West cafe” sold 5 litres at very inflated prices but I don’t think we cared at that point – however they were shut. In true Kiwi style the owners were sat around the back supporting a bottle or two and taking in the early evening rays of the sun. When we told them we’d ran out of petrol the guy there said it would cost us “an arm and a leg” (only one arm and one leg – not bad between us) but we needed it to stop my dad turning into Casper the friendly Ghost on his birthday. Indeed we were the 12th vehicle to run out of petrol today, and the arm and the leg translated into $3 a litre instead of the roughly $1.50 a litre charged at petrol stations. So translated back to UK £ it cost us only £3 more for this 5 litres. My dad seemed to find all this very amusing after he had destressed and onwards and downwards we went to Greymouth. More over he was amused at the story that the owner told us about one guy who asked for petrol – thought it was too expensive at $15 for 5 litres so went down the road, came back 5 minutes later saying that they were going to charge him $50 for 3 litres so he would take some. The owner turned round and told him it had gone up to $20 litres due to inflations and wars in Iraq. Small stories please small minds ey? Greymouth – renamed to Grinmouth was just that. We didnt arrive at the accomodations until nearly 8pm – myself at the somewhat harsh YHA and my parents at a hotel on the grey front. The hotel was doing a special saturday evening buffet for $25 so we opted for that as we were all hungry and it was my dad’s birthday after all. Happy Birthday dad – I know you will never forget the day we ran out of petrol.

Perfect Postcards

Friday 23rd February

I was looking forward to returning to a place that I had been before and loved – the outstanding beauty of Abel Tasman National Park. We opted for a different walk from Tonga Bay to Torrent Bay – a good 2 hour inland bus walk supporting magnificent views of golden sandy beaches, views to die for. An hours water taxi first took us to one bay then picked us up late afternoon at the other bay. A stunning day of walking and viewing this amazing landscape. Along the way we got to see a few seals. Last year I Kayaked up the bay, stayed overnight on a boat and walked back. It was brilliant to experience a different part of the track and to share the experience with my parents.

Trafalgar Square

Thursday 22nd February

Waving goodbye to Picton and Travelling north-west following the heritage highway along the coast around the Queen Charlotte Drive – a twisty road around magical crystal clear waterways of the Malborough Sounds led us to the delightful town of Nelson. It was a most inspiring dirve to Nelson with an obligatory stop for a nice cup of tea. Arriving in Nelson around lunchtime the parents accomodation was posh to say the least, with a lovely balcony we decided to have lunch there before venturing out to nosy around Nelson. I was at the “accents on the park” hostel – a lovely old villa type place on Trafalgar Square – no sign of Nelson’s Column but who needed the Column when you had Nelson full stop. The hostel is cute and the owner at “Accents on the Park” think that its cute that I am travelling with my parents. Cute. As the evening drew in one thing I missed out on last time was “the centre of New Zealand” so after a 15 minute grunt up a steep and windy path we made it huffing and puffing to the Centre of New Zealand – supporting stunning views over Nelson and the surrounding area. Absolutely stunning.

Saddle without a Horse

Wednesday 21st February

Last year I missed out on tramping on one of the great walks – the Queen Charlotte Track around the Malborough Sounds. This year I did not miss on out on one of nature’s wonderlands. Supporting stunning views over the Malborough Sounds this walk was the best ever. We took a water taxi from Picton over to Toreo bay and walked to Mistletoe bay – a good four hour grunt up and down and round about with panormaic views over the Malborough sounds on both sides of the saddle walk. A truely amazing walk – even better to share it with my parents. Invited back to the Tomestone Hostel (dead good) to eat Fish and Chips was a delight after that big grunt. What a fantastic day. I wish all days could be like that.

Even more Simply New Zealand

Tuesday 20th February

I was at my parents hotel for 5.50am this morning. I don’t think they were too pleased to see me. However we did have an 8am ferry to catch to the South Island. The interislander takes about 3 hours from one island to the other and is a magical journey that I had completed some 10 months ago. The skies were blue, the sea sat there like a Mill Pond and the tea tasted great. What more could 3 pommies ask for? Meandering through the glorious maze of deep coves and sheltered bays of the Malborough Sounds. Arriving in Picton – a Maori settlement now a sweet seaside township the blue skies were still present, the rays of sun were beaming down. Checking into our seperate accomodations – my parents being at a more hotel type setting, me at a brand new backpackers up the hill called the “tomestone” which is actually better than my parents hotel all for under £8 a night, was lovely. My parents I think very surprised at what a hostel can be like. The very friendly owners were keen to show off their lovely hostel and showed us a typical en suite double room for just over £20 a night with free breakfast. Its a gorgeous place, backpacking Luxury style. The bathrooms are spotless, the dorms although quite small are so clean you could eat your tea from them, much more a mature lot staying here, infact I feel almost the youngest here. Its just ‘dead good’. 10 months ago I was in Picton, it hasn’t changed its even more beautiful, even more blue, even more sunny, even more stunning. The hostel is even more amazing than the one I stayed in before. Even more everything than 10 months ago. Even more Simply New Zealand

A Pefect Moment

Monday 19th February

How do I describe this mornings walk to my parents hotel. I stuck the MP3 player on (I don’t do ipods) listening to “The Feeling” – blue picadilli – London was a million miles away twelve stops and home or 12 million miles way and home amongst meandering my way across a suburb or two with the biggest grin ever on my face. Life just felt perfect. Here I was in Wellington, New Zealand going to meet my parents on the most perfect summers’ day ever. Just a perfect moment. My turn to play tourist guide as we went up the Wellington Cable Car, sat around the Botanic Gardens enjoying the rays of sun and a packed lunch, giving my dad some pocket money for an ice cream and sending him off to Te Papa to enjoy some Kiwi culture, mouching around the shops failing to buy anything and topping ourselves up with a relaxing cuppa at Te Papa later in the afternoon. It was my parents last evening in Wellington so as a thank you to Mel for being Taxi driver and Laundry Woman for my parents we all went out for a harbour meal at one of the old converted sheds. A nice meal with very naughty deserts. A visit up Mount Victoria supported stunning sunset views across Wellington. A perfect end to a perfect day.