Mike – Page 2 – Sam and Martha's travel blog

Goodbye New Zealand

After four weeks in New Zealand we must now bid it farewell! We travelled hundreds of miles, stayed in ten different places and met and made lots of friends! For all of us it was one of our favourite places.

My favourite bit of New Zealand was Hanmer Springs at the water park. My favourite water slide was one where you went down a huge drop. It was fun.
Martha

I liked the trampolines because I learnt to do flips. I liked making new friends at the holiday parks. I also like the view of the mountains and the cooler temperatures. I enjoyed seeing the glaciers, the Zirca Circus, Puzzling World, the luge at Queenstown and the kayaking in Wanaka. My favourite place was Hanmer Springs because the slides were fast and fun.
Sam

Yes, that huge drop was very exciting when I went on it too (arrrggg, the things I do for those kids!). It was lovely being back in New Zealand, I enjoyed it all (except possibly those dracula sandflies on the west coast, but they loved me!). It was great that the kids were able to make new friends at each holiday park – they were off on the trampolines, and playing games with new friends before we’d even unpacked at some places. I was able to catch up with my old friend Rhiannon at the start and the end of the NZ trip which was fantastic.
My favourite new place was Hokitika – we saw a driftwood sculpture competition on the beach, there were some amazing entries, plus we bought Jack London’s White Fang for only 33 cents at the local op shop (charity shop) – bargain!
Angela

I enjoyed the scenery. New Zealand is beautiful. We did some lovely walks and had some amazing views, ones that I won’t forget. I like the open space and the lack of people. I’ll be back!
Mike

We leave New Zealand and return to Australia, starting off in Melbourne. I lived and worked there for a few months over 10 years ago so it will be interesting to see what I remember and how it’s changed.

Lake Matheson (part 2)

In the morning I decided to go for a run and return to Lake Matheson. It tends to be less cloudy earlier on in the day, so I managed to get some great shots of the mountains and their reflection on the Lake compared to yesterday. It was a nice quiet little run!

Dunedin to Queenstown

Today we drove from Dunedin to Queenstown, stopping off at the (former) steepest street in the world, Ranfurly (with it’s Art Deco architecture), Alexandra, Roaring Meg (a turbulent stream driving a hydro electric power station) and the Kawarau Bridge just outside Queenstown, home of the first commercial bungy jumping site in the world.

Dunedin (part 2)

Today we went in to the city centre and visited St Paul’s Cathedral, the Art Gallery and the library.

In the evening we went for a walk along the beach and sand dunes of St Kilda to St Clair and saw a few sea lions along the way as well as a very nice sunset.

Moeraki Boulders (Te Kaihīnaki)

Today we dropped by the Moeraki Boulders on the way down to Dunedin. These spherical boulders on Koekohe beach were formed, according to scientists, around 60 million years ago from mudstone cementation and have been gradually exposed from coastal erosion. The larger boulders are believed to have taken 4 million years to grow.

Maori legends tell of a shipwrecked canoe, the Arai-te-uru, and the debris and contents of it washed ashore and became the boulders that we see today.

Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony

We stayed in Geraldine last night and then drove down to Oamaru, with a lunch stop at Timaru.

In the evening we went to the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony to see some penguins coming ashore at dusk. These blue penguins are the smallest in the world, at around 30cm tall.

We weren’t allowed to take any photos because the clicking and flashing would scare them off. Also, they didn’t start coming ashore till it got dark, so it would have been very difficult to get some shots of them anyhow. We did however see some sea lions lounging around, right in the path of the penguins. Luckily this type of sea lion did not feed off the penguins so they were safe!

The penguins leave around 3AM in the morning and then return from around 9PM. They swim out to feed and travel a distance of around 50km.

When they return to the shore they meet up with other penguins and form a ‘raft’ – this is a new collective noun we learnt! Then they come in together in small groups – apparently this helps them to navigate their way back to their particular shoreline.

They have eggs or young chicks waiting for them in their nests – we heard the chicks calling impatiently for their parent – they were waiting for their regurgitated feast!

Goodbye Australia (for now), hello New Zealand!

We left Australia yesterday and flew to Christchurch in New Zealand.

We arrived in the early hours so caught up on some sleep this morning and then went in to Christchurch city centre in the afternoon.

We were last here in February 2014 and it was interesting to see how the city had changed. There was some building progress on the Cathedral, which was heavily damaged in the 2011 earthquake.

Around the corner from the Transitional Cathedral (made out of cardboard) was a temporary art installation called “185 Empty Chairs”, with each chair representing someone who had lost their life in the earthquake. It was very moving to see the chairs and the list of names there, especially as I knew one of them. I had the pleasure of meeting RB when he visited a friend of mine back in Skipton. May he rest in peace.