A day in Brisbane

 A created beach in Brisbane. Right in the city centre

The Anzac memorial.

We awoke to a really lovely start to the day, sun shining and many birds singing.  We went off to Brisbane to walk through the city.  It is a great mixture of old and new, but it was extremely hot.  We tried to find shady bits all the time or go into air-con shops.  The beach we saw has been constructed for the people of Brisbane (and visitors).  It really looked very inviting.  We went to an Italian restaurant where you were given a plastic card and then decided what you wanted to each.  Next step each person went to the food counter and chose what meal they wanted, which was cooked in front of you (there were different areas for pasta, pizzas etc.).  The card was swiped and that was your bill.  A wonderful way for large parties to pay for their own bills, instead of trying to spilt the bill.

We then walked on to the Anzac memorial and found a very old Catholic Church right in the middle of very tall buildings, a bit like St Patricks in New York.

After a very hot and humid day (although we thoroughly enjoyed it) we came back and are now sat under the fan, trying to keep cool!

Tomorrow we pick up the car and off we go again.  The hire car people have not been very helpful and will not let us pck the car up early, so we are back at 8am tomorrow to get the car.  The Aussies are definitely not as friendly as the Kiwi's and we will probably find this in most parts of the country.  Still we intend to enjoy very moment.

Brisbane

Real tourists!

 Looking across Brisbane from the viewpoint, Lookout Hill

Karen and Jeff took us to Lone Pine Sanctuary to visit the Koala bears and Kangaroos.  It was a lovely interactive place and we were able t come in close contact with Koalas and Kangaroos and all different birds of prey.  As you can see from the photos we were very close to them.  We also had to buy the Aussie hat, the only thing we need now is corks to go round the rim!!  Brisbane is a very spread out place and it seems you have to go miles to get anywhere.  It will take some getting used to the wide open spaces..

Australia at last, to Brisbane...

Well, if you want to go from Christchurch to Brisbane, don't go Jetstar.  The only good thing about this flight was that it wasn't too long.  Although a new A320 there was no room between each of the rows of seats and they wouldn't have fitted anyone over size 18!!  We also had very loud Aussie women who had obviously had too much to drink they made the flight unbearable with their loud and loutish behaviour, but the cabin staff seemed to encourage them more by selling then more alcohol. You had to pay for everything even a very weak cup of tea.

I thought that Ryan air was bad but they seem top of the small charter airline to me now!!

Still we arrived in Brisbane and there were Karen and Jeff waiting for us.  Although the immigration was slow and laborious, once through ,because we  had declared something, we went straight though customs.

We had a good night catching up on lots of things and then went off to bed (three hour time difference here).

The transalpine express

All these lovely photos are from out journey from Christchurch to Greymouth on our last  full day in NZ.  What a journey it was and the weather, as you can see from the photos was fantastic.  We travelled over the Arthurs Pass with the train stopping for photo shoots, then made our way down to Greymouth (as we had visited before we knew where the best coffe house was!).   We had an hour then made our way back again to Christchurch.  What a way to end a fabulous holiday.  We had just gone to bed in Enry for the last night when we had a tremor...the van jumped up and down, but it was as if the Country was saying a goodbye to us..
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To Christchurch

Hi everyone, there isn't much to blog today as the journey to Christchurch was straight forward and we wanted to get here in plenty of time so with only on break at a coffee stop we travelled to the camp site. Again we have chosen well and they are very understanding about letting us leave later on the 26th so that we don't have to sit about at the airport too long.  Today we went on the Transalpine Train to Greymouth. We had a very early start! Yes up at 6am..

We had a free shuttle service to the station, which unfortunately took us through some of the areas of devastation. It really looked very bad and they are having awful trouble here getting insurance sorted which does not help the poor people.  The children especially are very traumatized because of all the after shocks which can be up to 7 on the scale.

The tran journey was very good but unfortunately, that word again,  David took so much video and so many photos that the camera battery is now charging.  As soon as we get to Oz I will blog all the lovely photos.

We are really very sad to leave this lovely country and also the lovely people, nothing is too much and they are very generous.  We would certainly recommend a holiday here, there is something for everyone.  We only wish that we had decided on a longer visit as there is so much to see and do.

Well other than the photos its goodbye from us in NZ and hello Australia.

Dunedin (very wet) to Timaru

 Moeraki boulders

 The story of the boulders

 Steampunk (more about that later)

 Theres a driver in there somewhere!

Oamaru town




We had to make a hasty decision this morning...we had a very wet night at Dunedin and the visibility was very poor, so we decided to cancel our train trip, which was sad, and hot foot for another place to stay.  We had leaks all over the place...When we told the camp site reception that we were going to cut our losses (having paid for two nights) and move on hoping for better weather as we drove North.  They gave us our money back (where would that happen in UK?)

We set off in very bad weather, fortunately the roads were not too bendy.  The rivers and creeks were racing down and there was quite a lot of flooding.  We carried on to Shag Point where there are seal and penquins, but they were all out at sea!  We had a good break there, David needing a rest from the very wet roads.  We carried on to Hampden.  We had not heard anything about this place but it looked good and there were signs to see the Moeraki Boulders, so we followed the signs and found an interesting spot.  It was still bucketing down with rain so we did not venture on the beach, but they had a cafe and visitors centre which we made for.  They say that the boulders are the remains of long ago when an important Maori warrior was shipwrecked on the shore and the boulders are said to be the remains of his cargo.  But really they are boulders which have been buried in the silt and mud in the Ice Age and are now gradually being released through erosion of the cliffs.

We then went on to Oamaru which was the funniest place we have been to.  It is a Victorian relict that was used by grain merchants and gold rush people.  It has many of the original buildings and they are still being used today.  One of the buildings is the Steampunk building where this relic of a steam train has been made into a ghost train.  Put 2 dollars in a slot and it makes all the right noises and blows steam and flame, we do have a video of this as it was so funny.  The town became derelict when the money ran out and the workers moved onto other parts of NZ to find their fortune.  It has now been restored to its former glory, well worth the visit.

Our final run was to Timaru where we are staying for the night.  We have walked into town and looked around the bay.  It is a very pretty place and the bay is now sheltered from all the heavy seas.  There were two very bad shipwrecks here in the early 1900's because there was no protection from the very rough conditions.  Now they have a sea wall and the area is a calm bay

After a drink in the town we are now back in Enry and everything is dry again.  We are off tomorrow to Christchurch.  Fortunately the areas that have been badly damaged by the earthquake have been cordoned off so we won't have to be reminded of the devastation (and its still happening with shakes).  We hope to do our train ride to Greymouth and back again.  At least the weather certainly looks much brighter again.

Invercargill to Dunedin

Florence Hill

The journey today was much less than most of our days here so we took our time and went on the scenic route.  The road was a very good one and took us along the coastline and then inland into the rainforests.  From being fairly flat yesterday we started going on the bendy roads again and up and down the hills.  We stopped at the above bay and because when you come back and download all the bays look the same, we actually took a picture of the place name.

The road took us in and out of the coastline and we then went inland to Balclutha a small town and had lunch. This time we did our freedom campers bit and found a car park and eat lunch that we had prepared earlier.  (I think is was really because David wanted to find a loo and this little car park had one!)

We then travelled onto Dunedin.  It was covered in low cloud and misty rain and the City is built on a series of hills, really steep hills!  We found the campsite ok (not one of the best we have been to and probably the most expensive) and decided that we would stretch our legs and walk into the city centre.  We knew about the hills, and that Dunedin has the steepest road in the world..but gamely we walked.  First of all we went up hill and then downhill then uphill then down again and finally we got to the city centre (only 2km from our site).

When we arrived in the city we found a pub and had a drink to celebrate!  You know whats coming next..the journey back.  Up all the down bits and down all the up bits.  We got back put our feet up and thats all for now!

We are off on the gorge train journey tomorrow, but we will be taking a cab into town!

Tomorrow the Queen Elizabeth liner is coming into port on here on the Queens Jubilee Year visit.  Unfortunately we are going out for the morning,but hopefully it will still be here when we get back and we will take a taxi to the docks, it we have time.

Te Anau to Invercargill

 The chain link is the Maori symbol of the link between Invercargill and Stewart Island (furthest point south of NZ)

Ay the Bluff the signpost to the rest of the world

The sign for Lands End NZ style

View from the Bluff and below Enry gets in everywhere!

We had a lovely drive from Te Anau to Invercargill taking the scenic road.  The landscape is totally different now that we are in the plains.  The area is vast and flat, with lots of sheep and cattle and deer, mainly sheep though.  The roads are very straight and make a pleasant change to the twisty roads we have been on.  It also makes travelling much faster.  We did not have a long journey today and so we stopped off at a town called Riverton which was as the name says on a big river.  The towns in the south are very Victorian, from the times when all the tourists were English (and Scottish).  We found a lovely cafe which was in the old post office, even had the big safe door.  We find the people here so helpful and friendly and wanting us to tell all the folks at home that NZ is a great place to visit.  They have been very down on visitors this year because of the economic climate and of course the Christchurch earthquakes.  

We then set off for Invercargill, a very Scottish part of the south.  All the place names are Scottish.  We found the campsite and then went off into Invercargill city centre and took the road to the Bluff, a peninsular which is the farthest south.  It looks over to Stewart Island, a nature reserve.  We found the inevitable sign at the end of the Bluff and had our picture taken by a very kind lady (local) who had the job of taking photos for all the visitors.  She said that she would have to start charging 5 dollars for each photo if any more people came up! We had a cream tea in the Lands End Hotel and then left for Bluffs Hill, which is the highest point in the area overlooking the South Pacific.  The views were amazing and David was able to take a good video showing all the islands in the area.  The weather was really clear (unusual for this end of NZ).  The hill was really steep and poor Enry really suffered going up, but we made it and it was a lot quicker going down..

We are now back at the site relaxing before our journey to Dunedin (yet another Scottish town).  One thing though, there is a touch of the Irish here too.  We came upon a Boyne Street.  (we get everywhere).

Jet Boat on Lake Manapuri

Just a taster of the boat trip today.  It was flat calm as we jetted down the river into the lake and we went passed three of the scenes of the Lord of the Rings first film, Fellowship of the Rings.  There were only three passengers in the boat and the skipper gave us a really good tour of the lake and did some 360's as well.  Again we were blessed with the weather and had a really good time.  Tomorrow we are off on the move again and will  be sad to leave this area as it is so beautiful (I keep using that word but it really is!).

Milford Sound

 Mirror Lake on the way to Milford Sound

 View from coach

 All these pictures are on our journey around the beautiful,  peaceful Milford Sound.

We had a wonderful trip along the Milford sound road and our coach driver (as Irish as they come!) was really very good.  The coach journey took 2.45hrs because we stopped a lot on the way to get photos.  We arrived at the Milford Sound and began our boat trip.  The boat was the one pictured in the guide book and was one of the smallest, but still we had plenty of room to move around.  The weather had closed in a bit, but that made the scenery all the more dramatic.  Because of the heavy rain the day before we were able to see lots of waterfalls. We were so impressed with the journey that we bought a dvd to bring home because we could not get all the beauty on our camera.  The trip lasted about 2.15hrs and took us into many bays, even right up to one of the permanent waterfalls, to get wet...We saw a pod of dolphins and also fur seals and we were all very lucky to see a penguin (yes just one) they are very rare and do not show themselves very often. Unfortunately by the time everyone had got their cameras ready it had disappeared.

Our return journey was a lot quicker because we did not stop on the way back and some of the passengers had travelled from Queenstown and would not arrive back until 7.30.  A very long day for them.  Tomorrow we are off on another jet boat.  We loved the first one so we are having another trip.  Hopefully we will not be going on the same type of road as the last one...