PART 2: 12 ~ 24 March
Sorry – I made a mistake as I’ve written the 12th then 13th in that order then I’ll revert back so that the 14th onwards will be on top of the 12th – it won’t let me move things around…it’s just those two days, the rest will be fine.
24 March ~ Christchurch
Our last night on The South Island and exactly halfway point of our entire trip!
We got up as late as possible, managed to check out more or less on time 😆 and set off to Christchurch. We’d given ourselves seven hours to do a four hour + journey and we needed all of them as there were so many roadworks and delays and we also needed three stops to break up the journey. I don’t recall much apart from seeing stunning silver birch trees – this picture I took from a moving car doesn’t really do them justice.
As we weren’t going to be spending much time in our room on our last night darn Sarf I’d booked an unbelievably cheap, very central motel so we weren’t expecting much but surprisingly City Central Apartments turned out to be pretty nice.
Within 45 minutes of checking in we were in an Uber on our way to meet Karen again. She’d booked us a table at the cool and trendy Amazonita on The Terrace. It was a great place. We had fab cocktails (mine had frozen grapes in it and I stupidly took a massive bite of one and could instantly feel the ‘frost’ rising up my front teeth!), delicious wine and yummy food and had a good catch up. I also presented her the bottle of wine from the vineyard along with the marmite!
We chatted away for a couple of hours then moved to an outside table. I’d contacted Rory (who I’d not seen since 1987!!) through LinkedIn to say hello when I knew we were visiting NZ and he suggested meeting up but we were short on available dates so Karen suggested he came along for drinks after dinner. It could have been a bit strained – it was 36 years and he’d not met Craig or Karen before but we all had a great time and stayed out until after 1am! It could have been longer – the restaurant closed and we headed off to find a club but after wandering around for a while and finding nowhere we’d be comfortable in we came to our senses and decided to call it a night.
It was a great way to end our time in the South Island. Thank you Karen for organising such a fantastic evening and thanks Rory for meeting up with us all. We hope to return and do it all again (minus the wandering around looking for a club part of course!).
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
It’s the turn of a Christchurch local today; someone that both Karen and Rory like and have seen live. I hope I’ve picked a good one of his for them…
Here’s Marlon Williams with What’s Chasing You (2018).
23 March ~ Marahau to Blenheim
I’m writing this and the next few days on 26th as the last few days have been an absolute whirlwind so you’ll need to forgive my memory…
We said farewell to lovely Abel Tasman and set off on our journey to Blenheim, back along the road we’d already driven. Don’t remember much about it apart from the song I’m playing in the morning disco…
At the last minute Craig had booked us onto a wine tour departing Blenheim at 1pm so we checked into our really lovely motel early (I’d messaged ahead and they kindly prioritised the cleaning if our room) and Bill collected us in a mini bus from right outside our room. Now, Craig doesn’t drink wine. At all. He booked the trip as a treat for me as he said we couldn’t come to Marlborough and not do a wine tour. Lovely. He decided he’d try the wines. We went to four wineries and we’re given 17 different wines to try! 🍷🥂. I, obviously, tried them all and Craig tried 14 as he went off for a while at the last one to take some drone shots. He liked most of them but he hasn’t had any wine since so unfortunately we don’t have a convert on our hands. I didn’t take loads of pictures as I was too busy tasting wine. We tried rose, Chardonnay, Pinot gris, Riesling (dry and sweet), Pinot noir and of course Sauvignon Blanc which is what the region is best known for. All of it was delicious.
After an excellent few hours Bill dropped us off at our motel and we were in the mood to keep going so we visited three pubs!
After a great day and evening we headed home and slept for nine hours, nice!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
No, I’m not playing UB40 Red, Red Wine or the hilarious Tubthumping by Chumbawumba or anything related to drinking as this song came on the radio on our way to Blenheim and I had no choice after that – I hadn’t heard it in years and it reminds me of my nieces and nephews.
Years ago I bought them Lego Band Hero for the PlayStation which include guitars, a drum kit and microphones; something they could all play together. This was a particular favourite of theirs to play and I can’t hear it without being immediately transported back – I can see us all right now playing this together in The Barn as clear as if it was last week. Love you guys! This one’s for Hannah, Jake, The Ev and Cassie x
Here’s Monster (2006) by the Welsh Band Automatic. Loads of fun, really catchy!
22 March ~ Marahau, Abel Tasman
After a good night’s sleep I knew today would be a good day!
We had booked a trip with Abel Tasman Water Taxis called A Slice of Paradise. The option we chose was a two hour boat trip along the coast following the whole Abel Tasman track right up to Totaranui and then back to Onetahuti where we would disembark and walk a couple of hours to Bark Bay before being collected and returned by boat to Marahau.
I was a bit nervous because I’ve not done much exercise since I went to hospital in Christchurch and I’ve not worn a real shoe on that foot since then. We had well over three hours to do the two hour walk so I thought that if I put my proper walking shoes on, took it easy and had lots of breaks then it would be fine. It was!
It was quite challenging and very up and down over the hill track but it was absolutely stunning the whole way whether that was deep in forest or looking out across beautiful bays. We had our packed lunch at Onetahuti (first picture below) before setting off.
This one below is Craig’s photo, I think it’s great so had to include it.
We had to cross this bridge to get to our final destination which doesn’t look that challenging but it scared me half to death! It was the wobble… I’d had to cross another bridge which was higher than this one but it was static and no challenge at all.
We arrived at Bark Beach in just over two hours and had 50 minutes until our water taxi arrived. We had a good rest and ‘adopted’ two gulls.
Craig had the birds fighting over him – just like old times eh hubs?! 😆
This one was really close!
We had about an hour’s journey back and because it was low tide our captain had to hook us up to a tractor to get us up the last bit of the beach. This one was doing the same thing just behind us.
We went into Hooked, a cafe bar next to the water taxi drop off point, had a drink then headed back.
Craig went out with his drone to catch the last of the glorious sunshine and I’ve been updating this on our veranda in the sun with this beautiful creature for company. No sign of the chickens though, I wonder why? 🐾
I’ll post the morning disco song later, I’ve got cooking and packing to do – woo hoo!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
No need for any explanation or story today – it has to be Lovely Day (1977) by Bill Withers!
21 March ~ Marahau, Abel Tasman
It’s the first day of Autumn 🍂 in the southern hemisphere and first day of Spring 🍃in the northern hemisphere – happy equinox wherever you are!
Whinge alert 🔔- I am not at my happiest or most positive today. Apologies. I’m writing this blog as if it’s my diary because we’re doing and seeing so many things and I don’t want to forget the details. That means that I’m recording what actually happened and how I feel which sometimes isn’t fandabidozi as my bro (almost in law) James would say. If you only want positivity today then just skip to the photos.
If anyone asks if I’m ever going kayaking again the answer is absolutely not. Unless of course I’m marooned on a dessert island with a kayak (not exactly the definition of marooned then!) and the only way to get to food is to get into one of the damn things and paddle…
I had an awful night. I was checking my credit card transactions after dinner and thought my card had been used fraudulently so I spent hours trying to message with the bank in the UK to get all the right information so I could follow up with the vendor and then a storm blew through with heavy rain, thunder and lightning and I hardly slept. I got through to the place where my card was used and managed to get it sorted but not until this morning so that contributed to my very restless night. Apparently there’s a self service petrol station company we used that take $200 as a ‘bond’ on international credit cards and then refund the difference between your petrol cost and the $200 as and when they feel like it. Apparently that’s written in very tiny writing on the pump. Got it. Thanks. Can I have my $140 back now please?
I then cooked breakfast, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. Things were looking up!
We walked a whole three minutes to Abel Tasman Kayaks for our safety briefing which was conducted in the rain (appeared from nowhere and only lasted 15 minutes) and included three different ways to get back into the kayak when it turns over. Great. So that’s all I had in my head of course! We had to wear spray decks which she called spray skirts because when NZers say decks she said it sounds like a naughty word 😳🫢. She’s not from NZ. They were tricky to get into and then you have to stretch them over part of the kayak (with you in it) which was also pretty tricky for someone with absolutely no strength in their arms!
It was all very professional and comprehensive but by the time she was done I really wasn’t in the mood. However Craig, quite rightly, wouldn’t let me talk myself out of it so we loaded everything onto a trailer and set off. We arrived at the beach and dragged the kayak to the shoreline. I know I scuba dive and there’s loads of equipment, tight outfits to get in and out of and it can seem like a bit of a hassle at times but seriously, kayaking seems far too high maintenance!
It’s also unbelievably exhausting if you’re as unfit as I currently am so I’m afraid poor Craig did most of the work. When you get into a rhythm it’s alright, you make great progress and speed along. I’m just too unfit and need to get my muscles back in shape.
Anyway, we kayaked without accident or incident to and from Split Apple Rock and the nearby beach. Those bits were lovely but I’d trapped my finger in some very tight rope on the kayak (it’s still in a lot of pain, of course it is, I’m having one of those days!) so I couldn’t face taking off the skirt and struggling to refit it hence some rather amusing photos of me not quite on the beach! There’s absolutely no doubt this place is stunning, even in my foul mood I couldn’t help but enjoy the scenery.
Ha! I’ve just remembered we’re going white water rapid rafting next week so I’m sure that will be an equally interesting blog…
All the photos below are courtesy of Craig – thank you! X Sorry about the doubling up of some photos, had a problem uploading them and I can’t delete the duplicates.
After we’d finished we headed to the pub, had a drink and then it started to absolutely chuck it down. You have to laugh, it’s that kind of day! It’s still raining and supposed to continue until the early hours so we’re having a relaxing evening and getting up early for another trip.
Hope you have a more positive day than I have today 🤗
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
No need for any explanations of why I chose these two tracks today.
Spring. I can’t possibly play Vivaldi’s masterpiece and not mention my lovely Granddad Rowlands who surrounded me with classical music as I grew up (especially violin based). Thank you for the fun education! Love and hugs to you and Gran who are happy together in the next life. Spring will always remind me of you both.
Autumn. Can’t hear that word without starting to hum this catchy tune sung by Justin Haywood, the front man of one of the greatest and most wildly underrated bands of all time. The Moody Blues. This isn’t their track, it was written for Jeff Wayne‘s War of the Worlds, a fantastic piece of musical art.
I know I play tracks that are often a few decades old but I reckon this one wins… Here’s a pretty decent performance of Spring from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (1723) (there are not many on YouTube to choose from).
And here’s Justin with Forever Autumn (1978).
20 March ~ Picton – Marahau, Abel Tasman
We both managed to FaceTime our Mums before we went to sleep; it was really lovely to see them and catch up on everything that’s been going on back home.
Craig went to the communal kitchen this morning for the basic breakfast, he took his own marmite as he said he couldn’t face jam in the morning. I say to him “pump up the jam”! I’ll see you at the morning disco later… 😉 Karen told us that the marmite here is even better than our marmite from home so we bought some and we’re pretty excited about trying it. She lived in the UK for 18 years so we trusted her judgment. KAREN, what are you talking about? It’s like tar. Craig’s got a lot of it to get through as they don’t really do small jars! We will ‘gift’ it to her when we see her again on Friday.
We had quite a long journey ahead of us to Marahau so we broke it up quite a bit. First stop was Havelock for a takeaway tea and coffee. Then we stopped in Nelson (NZ’s 13th largest but sunniest city don’t you know) to do a supermarket shop for our three nights of self catering. Then we headed to Mapua Wharf – Tracey’s recommendation (thank you!) – for a late lunch.
What a lovely little place, apparently it’s ridiculously busy in the summer but it was perfect today.
We ate in the Rimu wine bar and I had a wine tree! It’s only 150 ml in total but a good way to try new wines. Great idea! They provide a wine guide and you can then get $5 off any of the wines if you buy a bottle but of course the two I liked were expensive and I’ve still got my award winning bottle to drink and only a few nights to drink it so I wasn’t tempted to buy any more.
Directly opposite was a sign for gelato so that’s what we had for dessert – here’s Craig with his teeny tiny peppermint and chocolate one…
I had the chocolate with a very yummy boysenberry sorbet. Then we drove another 45 minutes and checked into our absolutely lovely chalet in Marahau, right on the edge of the national park – the entrance is about a ten minute walk away, that’s how close we are.
I’ll take a picture of two of our view / ridiculously massive garden when it’s light.
We went for an early evening stroll and were virtually alone even though this is one of the most popular walking routes in NZ. Maybe they were all already in the pub…
Absolutely beautiful.
On the way back we had a drink in the highly regarded Park Cafe and I cheekily went to the (open air) kitchen to ask if there was any way I could ‘borrow’ some oil off them so I didn’t have to cook my fried eggs in butter in the morning 🤢 and they gave me enough in a paper bowl for the next three days; thank you lovely people! I had to carry it back very carefully and was worried it might be full of bugs by the time we got back but it was all fine! I cooked dinner, had a lovely glass of the award winning wine and am currently wondering why on earth I signed us up to go kayaking tomorrow🤔😬😵💫🛶….
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Lucy and I have agreed on a belated birthday song for her (it’s her birthday today – check out the post on my home page) which I can’t play until the 16th April… all will be revealed then. Lovely lovely Lucy. Enjoy your two cakes! 🎂🧁x
But today’s song is for my niece Hannah who is currently somewhere between Thailand and Laos. Hi gorgeous girl! She’s been travelling and working around SE Asia since April 2022; you go girl!
She asked for this a while ago and I had no idea how and when I could work in a connection to one of my blogs but you may have already guessed what it is from the “pump up the jam” comment earlier 😆.
Why on earth she’s chosen this I don’t know 🤷♀️; I’m sure she’s danced to it loads of times just as I have done over many many years, some of them with her Mum! I’ll get the story from her when I see her in the summer.
I saw Technotronic not long before lockdown – (my memory is not what is was but I’m pretty certain it was in Leeds the day after HFB and I met up with Hannah for a good old knees up! In which case this is a very fitting song choice). As I’m sure you can imagine it was a high energy fun set. 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼🕺🕺🕺
Here you go Hannah, here’s “Pump Up The Jam” (1989). Big hugs, lots of love, have fun and safe travels. PS there are chickens here so I’ll take a picture of Senora Banos’ NZ cousins for you!
19 March ~ Picton: The NZ Open 🏌️♀️🏌️♂️⛳️
Well of course we had a proper night out last night because I predicted it would be a quiet one…
We had a great stroll around Picton then gravitated towards what appeared to be a nice lovely quiet attractive hotel to have a drink. We definitely weren’t hungry! This lovely looking place – Oxley’s – has been here since 1870.
We found a seat inside and almost instantly a duet started playing in the corner not far from us. They were really good. No Santana or Floyd but Carly Simon, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton (and lots of country music we didn’t recognise) plus they played Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac; my favourite song of theirs and if it wasn’t Mother’s Day today I’d definitely be playing that on the morning disco.
So, clearly we stayed and had a great evening.
I’d told Craig that we had breakfast included in our room rate which I’ll admit I was surprised about as 1) it’s a backpacking place 2) we’re paying under £40 a night for a private double en-suite and 3) very few places seem to include breakfast. So he set his alarm early so as not to miss out. One of his favourite expressions is “boy needs bread” which is entirely true. I’m surprised that the baking sector in the UK hasn’t plummeted into heavy losses since we left the UK. I asked him to bring me back a up of tea. Boy got bread (toasted) and tea. Perfect. Not much else on offer but what was he expecting; a breakfast buffet?!
After a very relaxed morning we headed off to play the 18 hole mini golf course. There’s history here. I always start off with an impressive lead and Craig is always surprised that he’s being beaten but then I’ll have one awful hole and he’ll beat me. Not sure if I’ve ever won. We try and find one every holiday – I’ve been known to book specific hotels at silly prices for one night at the end of a dive trip specifically because they have mini or crazy golf!
So… this round was different. I fell behind by four shots after two holes 😱. We had a crowd with us who really bought into our competitive spirit – three young local girls on the hole in front who gave us lots of (extremely unhelpful) tips on how to play each hole and two gentlemen on the hole behind us who laughed quite a lot. Mainly because every time he played a great shot I praised him and every time I played a bad shot he laughed. Rude!
Craig then fell behind as I played some under par blinders on the next three holes so by the end of the front nine I was one in the lead…
The next five holes pretty much went Craig’s way then I came back with a couple of great shots that won me two holes by some margin so I was still just about in touching distance. At the 17th, equivalent of the Island hole at Sawgrass (thank you PlayStation!) which is notoriously tricky, I birdied and Craig bogied! Tense. Onto the 18th. He needed a hole in one – just play a straight shot up and through the shark jaws (a phrase that Ian Poulter must have heard many many times from his caddy!) – and victory would be his. Not to be! He got it in two which meant a draw. The crowd of five went wild! As the shark eats your ball (😳) you can’t have a tie break hole: good, I’m happy with my first draw thank you very much! I’m claiming the moral victory 🏆. Craig did get onto the men’s leaderboard with the highest score of the day though; class. That means I’d also beaten all the other men that had played so far that day but sadly neither of us could top the leader board for the boys or the ladies. Now that was a well spent £11.50!
It was mid afternoon and I hadn’t eaten so we went off to find somewhere to eat and we ended up in a place called The Thirsty Pig that Craig generously described as a dive (it had to be bad for Craig to say that!) because it had a lamb roast on the menu and I can’t resist a roast. Especially on a Sunday. We ate a lot of food and it was all delicious so we need to stop judging! Here’s Craig trying to smile – we admired their slightly pathetic leftover attempt at marking St Paddy’s day.
Stuffed to the gills (Craig had fish pie – gills 😆 – oh and a massive bowl of veggie chilli nachos on the side) we had a slow walk around the harbour then returned to our quite lovely balcony (I know, in a backpackers?!) to recover and catch some rays.
After chilling we headed out for a last look around Picton and a couple more photo opportunities.
We thought we’d continue the theme and found another dive to have a drink in; this one was right next to the industrial bit of the railway so we sat outside on a comfy sofa and listened to / watched the freight trains leaving. Craig loved it as he bought a pitcher of dark ale for $13; that’s about £7 for over two pints! I tried an award winning Marlborough gin called Roots which was delicious.
Oh, I almost forgot… they had a sign “cold beer served here” so I suggested they should add “if you want great gin then come on in” then Craig said that a very fitting one for him would be “if you want a 💩 you can use our loo”. I apologise to one and all, especially on Mother’s Day, but it did make me laugh!
We’re off to Abel Tasman via Mapua in the morning so we’re going to have a reasonably early night. See you soon!
🪩💃🏼 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
It’s Mother’s Day! Love you Mums!
We’ve chosen tracks for our Mums. Craig selected Tom Jones for Barbara and I’ve chosen The Massive Attack for Mum AND I’ve slipped in the brilliant theme from Harry’s Game as I remember this one being played a lot in our house in my early teens. Three for one today! Love you loads x
Teardrop (1998) by The Massive Attack. Whoops, that’s MY favourite, Mum’s is Unfinished Symphony. So that’s going to be four tracks today! But it’s Mother’s Day so it’s allowed.
Unfinished Sympathy (1991) by The Massive Attack
Tom Jones’ Green, Green Grass of Home live – what an amazing jacket!! (1967)
Clanard with the theme from “Harry’s Game” (1982)
18 March ~ Kaikoura to Picton
I think most people go to Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island. We aren’t doing that. We’re staying in Picton for the absolute joy of it!
Before we start on our day I’d like you to cast your mind waaaaaaay back to Wanaka where we saw an unusual dinosaur and needed to consult our resident expert Sam. He’s just got back to us. He’s been busy on archaeological digs, categorising bones and going to primary school… 😆. Here’s a reminder…
We suspected it was a rare one, a hybrid maybe. Well, it’s been confirmed- it’s a fake. 😮 🫢At best it’s a hybrid, closest to an apatosaurus – here’s an example below.
Thank you Sam! We knew you’d know. Seriously, the boy’s an absolute genius. He wouldn’t have needed to look that up. He just knows. Amazing.
We checked out (not long after the specified checkout time 😆) and set off to Blenheim / wine country where I’d booked lunch at a winery some time ago. Of course I’d conducted a lot of research into which one. Some of their menus are too red meat heavy, some not interesting enough, some are far too expensive for our budget and some were just not in the right location for goodness sake!
I chose one called Wairau River, about 15 minutes out of Blenheim and half an hour from Picton.
We enjoyed the journey, lovely scenery and only 90 minutes long.
As we were quite early we stopped off in Blenheim and had a pleasant riverside walk. We’re staying there in a few nights so I’ll have more to share about it then.
We were not disappointed with the winery. It was in a lovely setting. I had a delicious blue cheese soufflé (autocorrect tried to change that to socks 😆) which came with a yummy salad, Craig had chicken laksa with extra chips then we had a cheese board. They recommend a Pinot gris with the soufflé – delicious – and I had a Pinot noir with cheese. Also delicious. I then bought a bottle of their three medal winning Sauvignon blank for $16, (about £8.50) an absolute steal! 🥂
We drove to Picton, checked into our backpackers (I think it’s the last backpacking place we’re staying in) and I’m now outside at 5.30 pm in the sunshine updating my site – that’s it, we’re completely up to date! Not sure we’ll have a big night after our large lunch so I’ll say farewell for now and see you soon.
💃🏼🪩MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
This one is for my Sophes, mother of Sam the Dinosaur expert.
It came on the radio the other day when we were on a channel we were forced to listen to as neither of the excellent stations The Sound or Brian (which Craig likes) were available. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to play it and today – the day that Sam solved our dinosaur mystery – is clearly the day.
It instantly brought back a very happy memory from last summer. Sophie had tried a number of times to arrange a belated 50th celebration for me but damn you Covid and sudden lockdowns… 😡. Finally we managed to get away for a fantastic weekend in Yorkshire last year. She’d booked a very fancy suite called The Princess and the Pea in a lovely country hotel and we spent a glorious 24 hours drinking Prosecco on blankets in incredibly thorny fields, eating yummy good and generally living it large! We finally returned to our suite at 3.30 am when I assumed we’d be going to sleep. Oh no we were not! It’s your 50th Catherine and we’re having a disco. Which we did. In our pyjamas! Brilliant! Despite our age difference Sophie and I like a lot of the same music including this “band” which some of you might be a little surprised about. We danced like crazy things to this track at my brilliant 50th celebration pyjama disco. Thank you Sophes, love you!
Here’s Five with Everybody Get Up (1998). “Get on down”
17 March ~ Kaikoura
We’ve been away eight weeks today! I should stop saying how fast it’s going but seriously, it really is 😆.
Happy St Patrick’s Day to all my Irish friends 🇮🇪🍀!
Equally as exciting and celebratory is the fact that my favourite NZ radio channel The Sound has named today St Petty’s Day. If you say that in a NZ accent then it sounds very similar to St Paddy’s day! I can’t believe it’s almost six years since Tom died, time passes so quickly.
I’ve selected two tracks that you can listen to on the Morning Disco.
We called the whale helpline first thing to see if our tour was running but they wouldn’t know for certain until 15 minutes before the tour so we headed off for an omelette breakfast.
When I was calling the whale helpline I imagined a number of whales lining up underwater at a “foam “ box” waiting to make a call. ☎️😆 Do you remember when (usually fairly dodgy) companies or individuals used to put calling cards / adverts in phone boxes? Craig suggested there might be adverts in the foam box for Shark loans 🦈 💰😆. You can relax now, the puns are over for the day.
The tour was on – hoorah! I wasn’t sure it would be, I slept very badly due to howling wind and what sounded like hail for much of the night but this morning it’s a bit calmer and dry. We’ve been told to take sea sickness tablets, luckily I brought some with me. It didn’t bode that well though…🤢
It was another large scale sleek operation – two massive coach loads of people onto one enormous boat. Lots of briefings and cheesy commentary as we head out on the water.
Started with sightings of a couple of albatross. Of course I missed photographing the first one, a large impressive and beautiful thing whose name I either didn’t hear or didn’t write down. I got a picture of one called a white capped or shy albatross which has a wingspan of only 2.5 metres – apparently that’s small for an albatross. Also spotted a fur seal and lots of gulls.
So here’s a bit of information about sperm whales, which is what we are hoping to see.
They are recognised and categorised / named based on the markings on and shape of their tails. They can live up to 70 years and this tour company have been going for over 35 years so they’ve seen many of the same whales over the years. There are only males in this area, usually aged four to 20 (teenagers basically) as the females and family pods remain up in the tropics. Individuals may spend a couple of days, few weeks, or most of year here. None of them are tagged so what they do when they’re not in Kaikoura is a mystery.
Sperm whales are the largest toothed predator on Earth. They are an apex predator, top of the food chain, and will pretty much try to eat anything including sharks, even great whites! The interesting exception to this is that there is no evidence they ever go after mammals so seals and other whales are safe around them, unlike Orcas.
Eventually we were told there was a whale ahead, hoorah! Unfortunately the boat was so packed I couldn’t get into a decent position at the side of the boat and of course they don’t stay up long so here’s my two best (terrible) shots – a blow and a goodbye!
They recognised this one as HL270 (HL = hole on left side of the tail), he’s not been named yet as they only do that when the whale shows some kind of personality or quirk.
We chased a couple more sightings of whales but didn’t make it in time.
Folks – if ya wanna see-a whale then go to Baja!
All was not lost… dolphin sighting!! Another boat had seen Common dolphins – which are not common in the South Island at all – so we caught up with them and were very lucky to see them.
Finally! A couple of great pictures where you don’t need to squint or get the microscope out!
And for good measure there were some duskies in the background jumping around!
There was some kind of feeding frenzy which we couldn’t see but I liked the mass of birds anyway.
Overall not too bad unless of course you had actually wanted to see more than five seconds of an actual whale…
We headed back, had a chilled afternoon then went out quite early to celebrate St Patrick’s / St Petty’s Day.
We’d booked a table in a place called The Strawbwrry Tree that was as close to an Irish bar as we could get – it had Guinness signs everywhere and played lots of Irish traditional music and Irish bands and we had a great evening.
Here we are after two main courses, three desserts (! 😳) and more than a couple of drinks. We had a good night and for once we were neither the last people out of the bar nor the only people out in town. More Saints days please!
🪩💃🏼 MORNING DISCO = St Petty’s Day 🪩🕺
You might be surprised by first of the two tracks I’ve selected as it’s probably a bit under the radar (unless you’re a die hard Stevie Nicks fan) and I’ve been more than a bit cheeky as it’s NOT a song by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers alone but also by Stevie Nicks – it’s not just a duet it’s a collaboration, written and performed together.
I know every word to every track of the amazing Stevie album Bella Donna (1981) from which this is taken and this is definitely one of my favourites.
The second track you’re bound to know. It’s from Full Moon Fever an album that I – and many of you I’m sure – know almost every word to almost every track…
Hang on. I’ve just noticed something…
What is it with Tom? What does he have against the letter “g”? Until I selected these two tracks for St Petty’s Day I didn’t realise that he clearly dislikes that letter. Why miss it off? What purpose does it serve? I guess I’ll never know. 🤔 It is irking me a little 😆.
That, however, should not stop us enjoying St Petty’s Day. Here you go folks:
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (1981, Bella Donna) and Runnin’ Down a Dream (1989, Full Moon Fever).
Oh and by the way… Jeff Lynne not only plays the bass and keyboards on Full Moon Fever but also contributed his songwriting skills. Just saying. The man is an absolutely underrated genius. 😍
16 March ~ Kaikoura
Before we start the day…I’ve been meaning to Google this since I saw some of Matt’s work displayed at Puzzling World. Matt Benedetto has created a number of clever and amusing ‘unnecessary’ inventions. I beg to differ. This one is absolute genius and exactly what I need! Where’s my credit card? ⛑️👷♀️🤕
Back to Kaikoura before I spend hours looking at all his other genius and hilarious ideas…
The Kaikoura area (not the town itself especially) is really attractive above sea level. Backed by mountains and skies that go on for ever.
Under the water it gets even better. The seabed gradually slopes way until it plunges to more than 800 metres where the southerly current hits the continental shelf. This creates an upwelling of nutrients from the ocean floor into a feeding zone which makes this place extremely attractive to marine life. Clearly we wanted to explore it.
Up early for another dolphin trip. I hope Craig doesn’t start suffering from dolphin fatigue the way he suffered from beautiful lake fatigue! The poor poor thing.
Different ones today – we were off to see Dusky dolphins.
They have virtually no beak and their dorsal fins are quite blunt. They are a bluish-black colour on the back and tail and white on the underside of their body. I tell you that now because you’ll need to get that microscope out again folks if you want to see them in my photos!
It was also quite a different trip altogether. It felt a lot more like a production line, ship em in and ship em out. They were forgiven though because this is basically why people flock to Kaikoura. They do not feed the dolphins, they do not do anything to attract them. The dolphins simply live here all year round so they know where they are and they take you to them and try not to impose too much whilst making sure we have a memorable experience.
They warn you that all interactions are purely down to whether the dolphins want to be near you if not. Despite the fact it’s a well oiled commercial machine they are respectful and cautious. This is NZ. Enough said.
You arrive. Check in, sign your life away, attend a briefing, try on wetsuits, fins (or in my case fin), hoods and masks. Into an auditorium with about 60 other people. Another briefing. Onto one of two large coaches. Divided onto three boats. They do this three times a day every day. They are raking it in! Extremely professional and very slick but it was not an intimate experience.
Only 25 minutes out onto the water, alarm sounded, gear on, another briefing, head to the back of the boat. Dolphins spotted! Woohoo!
From here on in it was magical. Craig has amazing underwater Go Pro shots that have already been turned into Tikety Tok videos for you to watch.
We got in and out of the water five times. As the dolphins moved so did we.
Each time was a different experience. My most special moment was when a single dolphin sought me out, we circled each other a full 360 degrees twice, sang to each other (they said on the boat it would attract them!), it looked me in the eye and swam off to join its friends. Special special special.
The Captain said that the pod was over 100 strong. At one stage about 30 of them swam in formation below and around me. At other times there were single or up to dozens of dolphins dancing in front, to the side and under you. So close. So unbelievably beautiful.
We got out of the water, I changed into dry clothes and we were able to watch and take pictures of the pod – loads of them spinning, performing somersaults, chasing the boats, one pair having a special cuddle (😳), generally having a great time until they grew bored of us and swam off.
I know I’m a hypocrite because I went on a tour that I’ve then been a little cynical about. Sorry. I wouldn’t swap the experience in the water – the tour was done well but it’s hard to follow George! I’m beginning to think I might actually be a little bit in love with George… Nah, it’s definitely love for Akaroa rather than George so we’re all fine. Especially fine for George who’s sighing with relief a few hundred kilometres away 😆. Yer land is safe me laddie!! 🇫🇷 🏴☠️ 🇳🇿
We had lunch, headed back to our place and I did some washing whilst writing up the highlights from the last couple of days. We stayed in tonight. Enough excitement for one day and – if the weather holds (it’s looking unlikely as gusts of up to 49 mph are forecast and it’s really my own fault as I played Weather With You on the morning disco yesterday) – then we’re off to see the whales tomorrow. 🤞
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩🕺
Ready for one of my dodgy tenuous song links?
You may have already guessed that I would choose Dusty Springfield for the dusky dolphins 🐬😆🐬. But which track? Tooooo many to choose from.
Take Another Little Piece of My Heart you gorgeous dolphins you? I Only Want to Be With You? All I See is You? So many relevant tracks.
I’m settling on this one after my eye to eye contact with a dusky – ooh, maybe I should have chosen that one, I like Edwin Starr and I’ve always loved boogying on the dance floor to that track so in fact I’m adding it in too!! Another two for one today folks!
Here’s The Look of Love (1967) composed by that amazing duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David followed by Contact (1978) by Edwin Starr. The look of love was clearly one way – I think dusky was intrigued by my singing and one fin antics.
Thank you Dusty and thank you Duskies!
This is also a nod to the other lovely Dusty 🐾
Get on down Edwin!
“(We made) Eye to eye contact- You and me. Contact!
You were looking at me – I was looking at you -You were looking at me – Contact!”
15 March ~ Akaroa to Kaikoura
Hectors only in NZ
Lightening definitely does not strike twice in a row. There was no follow up miracle this morning. We did not leave early or even on time and were the last pair onto the pier for the tour that Craig booked for us.
All was forgotten and forgiven immediately.
The tour was excellent from the very start to the very end.
Our captain – George – shared loads of really interesting information about Banks Peninsula and about his family. No apologies for the length of this entry. It’s mostly so that I can remember it all when I’m long gone so you’re welcome to read on or skip to the photos.
Before all that I’d like to introduce you to Albie. He’s trained to hear the high pitched frequencies of dolphins. I took a tablet as soon as I got on the boat even though I was mostly outside. Indulge me with a couple of Albie moments!
George – and his Dad – who I think was also called George (!) built the boat together. It took them 2.5 years and they finished five months before Covid. They had to sell his Granny’s land for the family to survive Covid as they’d invested everything they had into the boat. He gave a very personal account of the history of Akaroa and his family’s place in its history. It’s absolutely fascinating.
In 1840 a French whaler saw then wanted to claim Akaroa for the French and who could blame him. It’s spectacular. The French are tres chic after all and I am not surprised they wanted to live here. I do too.
He sailed home and persuaded 52 other French people to join him. The journey from France took seven months. They got lost and ended up in Russell, some of sailors got drunk (probably in the Duke of Marlborough where we had a drink as it is the oldest pub in NZ!) and whilst drunk one of them told the British their plans about the amazing place they’d found. Doh!
The British got organised quickly and Captain Stanley raced them down and reached Akaroa four days before French. He hoisted the Union Jack up on a hill and there is still a flagpole on the very same spot today.
When the French arrived they weren’t prepared to give up so easily and engaged in battle which Stanley lost.
As he’d already claimed the land, he conceded defeat by giving each French family five acres of land to live on. If they stayed more than two years they could keep it. Some stayed, some left. George’s extended family remain in various homes on their original five acres (minus Granny’s bit of land). So George the younger is seventh generation French but he freely admits that he doesn’t speak any and is definitely a New Zealander. Now that’s what I call social history.
It’s a part French, part British, part Māori town and Peninsula, made obvious by the mix of road and place names.
He also told us that the Waitangi Treaty I mentioned in Paihia was taken on a road trip around both islands to be signed by senior leaders and chiefs. It was brought to Banks Peninsula and signed by the local chief and to this day you can’t go onto their land unless invited.
Banks Peninsula is an extinct volcano – it blew up six million years ago and we sailed across the caldera which is only 12 metres deep despite looking much deeper. When the volcano blew it let in the Pacific – which you can clearly see below (not my photo). He told us that the name Pacific / Pacifica means calm sea. He mused that they must have only seen it once and named it on a particularly still day as it’s not really known for being calm and Banks Peninsula broke records with waves measured at 11.8 metres last year!!
This area is now NZ’s newest marine reserve. George’s parents were part of committee that fought for 18 years to get it approved.
Oh and by the way, the point of the trip was to see Hector’s dolphins, the smallest and rarest marine dolphins in the world. They have distinct black facial markings, short stocky grey bodies and a black dorsal fin shaped like a Mickey Mouse ear. We saw them. My photos are obviously rubbish though. Sorry.
We also saw two (on separate sightings) tiny white-flippered penguins (38 cm) which are very endangered but living happily in the Banks Peninsula. As I would!
Seriously; this is my best photo of the tiny thing! If you’d like to see what either of these lovely creatures actually look like then I’m afraid you’ll have to Google.
After all that information and excitement on the way back we were offered a beer or glass of wine plus Homemade cookies by George’s Dad. Very classy, very civilised, very, dare I say it, French. Then Albie decided he’d like to spend the homeward journey with me.
As I said, it was an excellent trip!
This one’s called Elephant Rock.
A couple of photo stops around Banks Peninsula then we set off to Kaikoura, our base for the next three nights which was a relief after three one nighters in a row with streaming colds. We’ll be back to Banks Peninsula for longer if we’re lucky enough to ever return to NZ.
It was a long four hour journey broken only by a stop for crisps and coffee for Craig. Can’t remember the scenery even though it was only yesterday but I’m sure it was nice!
Checked into our backpacking place called Dolphin Lodge, had a quick nose around and spent ages finding somewhere open to eat. Well, of course it was almost 8pm on a Wednesday night! Finally found somewhere that wasn’t determined to shut at 8pm and had a really lovely dinner at a restaurant on the front called Zephyr. Pushed myself to stretch to an unbelievably yummy (and pretty large!) dark chocolate and salted caramel tart with raspberry sauce and white chocolate and raspberry ice cream. With desert wine of course! Went to sleep. Stuffed. Happy.
Disco
Right, it’s about time I played some Crowded House. A great NZ – Australian band that had hit after catchy hit from the mid-80’s to mid-90’s. It’s so hard to choose just the one so I’ll throw a few more in over the next few weeks.
To start us off I’ve chosen “Weather With You” (1991). It’s pretty iconic. Impossible to not sing along to. Plus, apart from a one off deluge we’ve beaten the odds and the weather forecasts and taken glorious sunshine with us. So far… let’s not say that too loudly as you know what’s going to happen now! ☀️ 🌈
(The look on the face of the bloke holding a beer in the fairground near the beginning of the video as the lead singer passes him makes me giggle 😆”What’s all this palaver mate? I’m enjoying a beer and a day out with the missus.” Blink and you’ll miss it.)
14 March ~ Timaru to Akaroa
As much of this is done from memory you’ll need to forgive me for omitting some stuff…
One thing I remember vividly the morning we left Timaru is that an actual real life miracle occurred. Yes indeed folks.
Every single day we’ve had to check out of accommodation we’ve left after the check out time. Now, without being cheeky in any shape or form I’m sure you can guess why. Apparently, check out time (even if we’ve got a plane to catch) can mean anything to the Fluffs from a few minutes late to up to half an hour. 😳 It’s not good for my nerves. However, I actually wrote down 9.57 am on my phone as that’s when we vacated our room. I told you, it’s an actual miracle 😆. We found a place with great views that made an excellent fry up and set off.
Can’t remember much about the journey apart from we stopped for hot chocolate at this quirky cute place.
There was nice scenery along the way until we hit Banks Peninsula and then it turned into stunning. What an absolutely glorious place it is. I instantly realised we should be staying more than one night. Too late. Next time, for absolute sure. My first impressions lasted. Of all the places I’ve visited in NZ, this is the one for me. I love everything about it.
We arrived in Akaroa and checked in – even our motor lodge was glamorous (and not pricey which is a surprise considering the price of land and property here). We wasted no time and had a good walk around this small and perfectly formed place.
Craig decided to treat us to a last minute Bay tour for the next morning so he booked that and we shared a massive hot and cold seafood platter at Bulley Hayes. I had half a dozen Bluff oysters on the side (couldn’t persuade Craig to try one!) as they’re just in season. They clearly had miracle healing powers as I woke the next morning and no longer needed to blow my nose – hoorah! 🥂. Or maybe it was simply the magic of Akaroa. Either way, happy times! We were last out of the restaurant (as usual) – it was really late, about 8.40 pm 😆 and we strolled slowly and completely alone along the waterfront. Gorgeous sky. Amazing afternoon and evening. I’m completely and totally in love with Akaroa.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
For Akaroa I’m choosing a song called High On Emotion. Extremely fitting. As your resident DJ I have to introduce it properly. With a back story. Of course…
In 1985 I went on the school geography field trip to the Peak District. It was an excellent trip for many reasons. Cheryl and I took it in turns to carry her boom box around (hey, it was 1985 and it was the law to do that if you were a teenager). She introduced me properly to the music of Chris de Burgh. Stop that. Stop it right now because I know you’re rolling your eyes and muttering “bloody Lady in Red” under your breath. Yes, that’s his most lucrative song but it’s not representative of most of his stuff. He’s excellent at both punchy pop songs and moving story telling tracks. Stick with me people, this song is worth hearing.
In 2019 he was going to play at The Royal Albert Hall. He was performing two of his albums in their entirety – “Into The Light” and “Moonfleet” plus his other biggest hits that weren’t on either of those albums. I immediately contacted Cheryl in the States and she booked her flights and I booked two tickets. I’m not going to tell you how but we ended up sitting not in our cheap seats but in the two front seats of the box on the first floor directly opposite the front of the stage! Amazing! It was a truly wonderful evening. Even if I did myself roll my eyes more than once when he descended from the stage during Lady in Red to wander through “his people” letting them touch his hands. Seriously. Lots of women and quite a few men wearing red. I ask you. Wowsers. 🤣
After that, you simply have to listen to this. Try and enjoy High on Emotion (1984) without thinking of the red song or rolling your eyes.
Cheryl; here’s to shared happy memories throughout our life and to our great night out at The Royal Albert Hall in 2019 before the world turned upside down… x
Don’t forget to read things in order – the 12th and 13th are below then from 14th onwards above!
12 March ~ Stewart Island – Dunedin
So, as I’m writing this in the future (we’ve just arrived in Kaikoura on 15th) after not being very well some of my memory is a bit hazy so you’ll need to forgive me. Also, apologies for the lack of pictures for today.
We wore masks on the mini plane (the only ones to do so) as I was worried about sharing our colds with anyone else. It was a fine 20 minute flight until a few minutes before the end when it got very bumpy and everyone cheered quite loudly and nervously when we landed!
We then started our journey of over four hours to Dunedin – you can get there in about two and a half if you want to go quickly and inland but we wanted to drive through The Caitlin’s and stop off at Curio Bay to see if we could spot a dolphin.
It was a pleasant enough journey, made much more manageable and tolerable by the accompaniment of the radio station The Sound. If I had my own radio station it would basically be this one! Rock and classics from 60’s onwards although I’m not sure I’ve heard anything from the 90’s onwards yet (a bit like my own morning discos!).
As we’re talking about music, there’s a slight but important diversion at this point. Craig is not impressed with the Glastonbury line up this year. What?!?! Guns N Roses and Elton John? Stuff the rest, those two acts alone are outstanding once in a lifetime kill to be there opportunities. I do sometimes wonder who I married 😵💫. He’s forgiven most things – as he also forgives me! – but this I feel is maybe one step too far…
So, we did see quite a few dolphins at Curio Bay but you’ll need a strong microscope to see them in any of my pictures! 🐬Believe it or not this is the best one 🫤
We drove onto Dunedin and I need to do another mini detour here… I have absolutely struggled for months to get the pronunciation correct. I don’t know why it’s been so elusive! I still have to do it in my head first as done-Eden. Not dune-a-din or dune-eh-deen! 🤔.
We checked into the Leviathan Hotel which I’m absolutely certain was once as grand as it’s name; there were a couple of lovely art deco touches here and there but now it’s a tired old dame sitting right at the junction of two major roads that pass either side of her. We liked her faded grandeur but the lift was hilariously impatient and wouldn’t even let you get in before its very heavy doors tried to trap you quite forcefully! Craig said it reminded him of The Overlook Hotel from The Shining 😱. Despite all that the bed was comfy and the shower was good. Not that I slept at all because I was at that hideous stage of the cold where you had to blow your nose every few seconds. All night. All the next day. All the next night 😞🤧.
Everyone had been telling us how great Done-Eden was and we didn’t want to miss out on the student party capital of The South so we took strong cold and flu tablets and headed out to make the most of our one night.
We were about the only people out 😆. It was 7.30 pm on a Sunday night and we struggled to find anywhere to eat. We went to The Octagon area thinking it would be a safe bet and we chose The Social Club because 1) all the doors and windows were open so we weren’t sharing germs in a confined space and 2) it was $16 for a main meal (about £8.50!). I had steak and salad and it was great. Buoyed up by good food I ordered a margarita for old times’ sake (ah, Loreto my love). Here we are with our faces flushed by our colds and margarita! Craig’s 🦞 face is also quite a bit from sunburn.
You’ll see I’m proudly wearing my Isle of Skye Brewing Co jumper as Dunedin is about as Scottish as it gets in NZ. Representing!
We were the last people there (at 8.45 pm, genuinely) so we went back and I had a terrible night. So, we clearly didn’t get the best of Done-Eden and it didn’t get the best of us!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
As Dunedin is clearly a Scottish city it deserves a Scottish band. There are plenty to choose from but for me, there can be only one…(yep, that’s a Highlander film reference snuck in there!)
I first saw Big Country at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on my own in 1993. I’ve seen them loads of times since, most recently multiple times as part of the line ups at the great Let’s Rock one day 80’s festivals that I’ve attended all over the country with Lizzie, Phil and HFB. I’ve been quite surprised that they’ve been involved with Let’s Rock (they’re hosted by Pat Sharp for goodness sake) but I’ve obviously been delighted and can always be seen down right the front of the stage jumping up and down like a mad thing!
If you don’t know them or their songs, then I can only describe them as “big sound” Scottish rock which definitely suits the name Big Country. If you’d like to hear a genius make a guitar sound like the bagpipes then look no further…
If you like either of these tracks and want to hear more then I can highly recommend One Great Thing (big), Fields of Fire (big), Look Away (big), The Teacher (big) and perhaps my favourite song is Chance (not big but thoughtful and moving).
I couldn’t restrict myself to one song so if it has to be only two then it must be their jump up and down catchy eponymous iconic In a Big Country (1983) and for Dunedin specifically it’s got to be East of (Dun) Eden (1984) 😆. Don’t go too far east of Dunedin though as you’ll fall into the sea!
13 March ~ Dunedin – Oamaru – Timaru
After a terrible night (not the fault of The Overlook but of our colds) Craig went to see if he could get breakfast in the hotel but they’d stopped serving before 9am. Oh well. So we packed up, took our cold and flu tablets and headed to Oamaru. We went straight to the penguin centre – not to see penguins as they wouldn’t be there until dusk – but to see if we could see seals. We saw loads in the water but again, my photos aren’t great so get out your microscope!
We then saw loads sitting only a few metres from us on the rocks! They’re quite well camouflaged…
Here’s the only penguins I saw…
We then headed into the Victorian part of Oamaru. It’s very different from the rest of the town and only consists of a couple of streets but it was fabulous. Steam punk and Victoriana rule here; the quirkier the better.
We went into this guy’s gallery and shop. He’s Martin, originally from north Wales, he lived in Auckland for decades and bought this place in October on what he describes as the coolest street in NZ. He makes robots, oh yes he does, 🤖 are becoming a bit of a theme on this NZ trip. He makes them from industrial bits and things and he’s clever, amusing, gentle and talented. I told him when I win the lottery I’ll be back to commission my own Robbie!
We then had food at the Star and Garter: $20 roast – on a Monday lunchtime! – pork with seven veg and of course I asked for extra roasties and gravy! Craig had the same but with fish (as in fish and chip type fish) which was a bit odd but he loved it. My cold then urged me to order the equivalent of sticky toffee pudding (date sponge) with sauce and ice cream 😍.
Sated and very satisfied with our time in Oamaru we headed up the coast to Timaru.
Can’t remember the journey, I’m sure it was fine. Checked into our fairly dodgy motel quite late then headed off at dusk to see if we could spot an actual real life little blue penguin, they’re the smallest penguins in the world. They go out to feed early in the morning and return after dusk.
We turned up with about 20 other people at a viewing platform next to the glamorous port of Timaru (it’s a functional town rather than an attractive one) and waited. The sun set. Lovely. This is the view towards the shore as opposed to the port; much nicer!
We waited. It got cold and dark. We waited.
Then someone spotted a baby on the rocks which we think had been there the whole time that we were looking out to sea waiting for the adults to come home. They never did. This cute guy more than made up for it though and he rather seemed to enjoy the limelight as 20+ people crowded around the fencing to take his picture. Not bad pictures considering they were taken pretty much in the dark with a phone and no flash.
The view of the beach with Timaru behind as we left was beautiful. I’m glad my phone could capture most of the array of colours.
We then headed off to find somewhere to eat but we’d forgotten it was a Monday in a small town and after 9pm so we went to bed hungry and I was still blowing my nose. A lot. I’ve got plenty of “lard” reserves (and had a pork roast followed by sticky toffee pudding for lunch!) so no harm done!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
So this one’s for Aunty Shirley and Uncle Paul.
We’ve been hearing Dire Straits everywhere in NZ: Auckland airport lounge, on the boardwalk in Queenstown (Atlas Beer Cafe), on most stations on the radio…We also heard the very first live band we saw attempt to play Sultans of Swing waaaaaay back in San Jose Del Cabo so I sent a video clip of that to UP for his birthday treat! He himself was in The Caitlin’s at the time. With AS of course!
I went with them to see Dire Straits live during the On Every Street Tour (sorry, I can’t quite remember if it was 1991 or 1992 but they will I’m sure) and we had a great time bopping away! When I last saw UP and AS before Christmas we were discussing and swapping our NZ itineraries and listening to the amazing live version of Telegraph Road. Epic.
My first exposure to them was an album that Mum and Dad bought in Baghdad (bootleg I’d imagine!) called Communiqué (1979). It’s a great album that’s often eclipsed by their later great tunes so I’m selecting a track from it to share. Here’s the fantastic Once Upon A Time in the West.
IF YOU ARE A BIT BEHIND DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT STEWART ISLAND 9 – 12 MARCH
PART ONE = 27 February – 8 March
Te Anau / Milford Sound ~ 6 – 8 March
8 March
After a relaxed morning (washing, sorting, chilling) we set off for our Glowworm Cave Tour. It was a 25 minute speedy and very pretty boat journey along Lake Te Anau before reaching the caves where they tell you that phones and photos aren’t allowed so the picture below of the cave is downloaded…
Pretty impressive stuff! There was an amusing presentation afterwards and it was a good trip. I think I’ll cancel the Waitomo Cave trip we’ve got booked in The North as once you’ve seen a load of maggot bums shining above you, well, probably no need to see them again!
The poor poor Fluffs declared he has lake fatigue… 🥱😆, I guess we’ve done quite a few in a row but luckily for him this is the last lake until we reach The North in a couple of weeks.
We had a very pleasing curry for dinner – much tastier than the one in Paihia but we definitely missed Robbie 🤖… whilst we were eating it started thundering, then came the lightening and then the torrent of rain which didn’t stop until this morning. It was a muggy night and I hardly slept but we were up early to drive to Invercargill to catch our plane to Stewart Island. More exciting times to come!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
I could easily choose Glow by Ella Henderson for this bit but I’ve been waiting to get a song by ELO in! If you’ve spent more than five minutes alone with me in a room then ELO will bound to have been mentioned… I’ve seen ELO II a number of times (they’re not a tribute band – they have between one and three of the originals playing depending on, I don’t know, how busy they are in the garden or something), I’ve also seen quite a few good ELO tribute bands (one with Barbara and Fiona in Salisbury when I popped down for the evening and caught, yes, the “Last Train To London” back…) Finally I got to see Jeff 😍 at The 02 in his first tour for over 25 years then two years later, one of the best days EVER, Ant and I had front row seats at Wembley or Bust. What a joyful concert that was. Amazing. Thanks Ant for letting me persuade you to spend half a year’s annual salary on your ticket! I know Jonnie up in Solihull will also love this – he’s a massive fan too, well of course he is as he’s man of taste and style; he’s in love with my HFB, good man, love you! 💜
This one has a fitting title and it’s from my favourite album of theirs Out of the Blue (1977) Here’s Summer and Lightening. Fab-u-lous!
6 – 7 March
The scenery changed again as we left Otago and headed into The Southlands. We’d been to The Northlands so it was only fair we visited these too! I immediately felt at home and enjoyed the two and a half hour journey to Te Anau, our home for the next three nights. We arrived fairly late so we went out for dinner but as it was a Monday most places were closed or packed. We parked up, I looked up and saw one of Craig’s favourite words – Carvery! It didn’t look like it would be amazing but it turned out to be just what we needed. We had five courses each 😆! Gravy. Proper gravy. Real healthy salad. Five roast meats. Heaven. Went to bed, woke up early, popped outside and saw a lovely sunset from the back of our not particularly impressive – but pretty cheap – hotel.
We were being picked up by Fiordland Tours at 8 am. I thought it would be nice to have a day trip where Craig didn’t have to drive and it turned out to be an excellent decision.
Before I tell you about our great day trip to, in and from Milford Sound (another place I’ve been waiting years to visit) I need to tell you about the weirdest small world coincidence. We’re supposed to be seeing Paul Buckley and his wife Clare in Napier at the end of the month but due to the cyclone it is looking unlikely and Paul and I had agreed to FaceTime to discuss the situation and work out whether we could still meet up.
When we got on the small comfy coach the driver / guide introduced himself as John Bruce, an ex policeman from Napier. As soon as we had our first stop I approached him and said I’m sure you won’t know him as I’ve no idea how big the Napier force is but do you know Paul Buckley? “Buckles? Yes, he’s an absolutely lovely guy and I used to work with him quite closely”. Well, blow me down, what are the actual odds of that?! 🤔😳. Crazy times.
We stopped off at lots of lovely places along the way (some of them LOTR film spots!), had a tea and scone break then arrived in Milford Sound. It took three and a half hours but didn’t feel that long. John supplied great commentary and humour along the way. Some of it about his wife which he admitted he’d never be brave enough to do if she were there!
Gandalf rode Shadowfax across this plain!
Milford Sound gets 200 days of rain a year. If you turn up after the rain then you get to see lots of great temporary waterfalls. There are two permanent waterfalls – we didn’t see any others as it only started raining after we arrived – of course 🙄. We boarded our boat and off we went!
Milford Sound is stunning. If you want to see just how stunning it can be then Google it as we didn’t have the weather but here’s a taster.
Loved it!
After two hours we got back on the bus and had plenty more stops on the way home but my foot was hurting so I didn’t get off much 😞. Brilliant day out. Got to finally wear my cold weather gear I’d been lugging around for almost seven weeks!
When we got back I caught up with Paul – told him about JB and our very very small world! – and we’re trying to see if we can sort something out about meeting up as it’s currently not looking promising… let’s see.
I’d booked a place called The Redcliffe Cafe some time ago (good job as they were fully booked) and I had Fiordland venison which was delicious.
Brilliant day.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
The brilliant Stone Roses with Waterfall (1889). Enough said, no explanation required methinks! Loved by Lizzie, HFB, Craig and all you people for whom the late 90’s meant Madchester. Get out yer maracas you groovers!
Wanaka ~ 4 – 5 March + Arrowtown / Queenstown ~ 6 March
I would like to apologise to all the residents of the Otago and Lakes District region for what I’m about to write. I will extend that apology to all of you who’ve spent time there and like Wanaka, Queenstown and this area in general…
I don’t get it. I don’t get the hype. It was alright but I didn’t connect at all. Sorry.
Maybe nothing could match the drama of Mount Cook, the amazing blues of Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki (on the way to Mount Cook) and my immersion in the landscape of McKenzie Country. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe we should have gone to the lakes first. I’d like Wanaka and Queenstown to take some of the blame though! It didn’t bode well when we started playing “guess the dead fluffy thing” (there were hundreds!) on the road as the drive between Tekapo and Wanaka was pretty dull. The highlight of the long trip was stopping for a loo break.
I was excited about our room at our backpacker accommodation though which Lonely Planet had described as the best view in Wanaka. Amazing value and indeed a fab view. It was a cute cabin almost separated from the rest of WanakaBakpaka.
We set off to explore and found a lovely walkway along the coast with information boards about the local birds. The Southern Crested Grebe is extremely endangered and they’d built lots of little floating platforms for them to build safe nests and we saw quite a few instantly. Brownie points to Wanaka!
We also passed a pretty cool kids’ playground with this in it – Sam Manson (Sophie and Al’s son is our resident dinosaur expert) I’m going to need your help identifying this species please!
We then had a pretty good evening on the town in the lovely Speights Ale House (tried an excellent local gin called The Source) but a very disappointing meal further down the front. Went to bed, woke up, thought I had a hangover and was a bit surprised as I’d hardly drunk the night before but it turned out to be a weird fever, went back to sleep, woke up at 5.15 pm, felt a bit better, got up, walked to a restaurant I’d read great reviews about called Trout, got excited about ordering “deconstructed” flaky pastry fish pie then was inordinately disappointed as it tasted of nothing. Seriously… 😞.
Luckily the view on the way back was nice. I can see why people think it’s a beautiful place and I understand that much of the attraction is adrenaline fuelled lake based activities that I couldn’t do but I just didn’t get it. Could quite happily have missed it out of our trip. Sorry Tamara, we didn’t find the Wanaka tree…
After two nights we packed up and headed off – we’d passed the very exciting sounding Puzzling World on our drive into Wanaka so we headed there on our way out. Excellent. Loved it. The best £12.50 pp I’d spent in days!
After two hours of getting lost in a maze and looking at great illusions we set off. I had said to Craig that I didn’t want to go to Queenstown. He thought that was strange. On our journey to our next destination we first stopped briefly at Arrowtown, an ex goldrush town which was vaguely pleasant then Craig insisted we went to Queenstown where we had to pay anywhere on our travels for parking for the first time. We walked along the front pushing past hoards and I mean hoards of people, had a drink, took a picture of Craig with a kiwi and of a nice looking boat then got in the car, drove off and sighed with relief.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
There are plenty of songs I could choose but once we arrived in Arrowtown and read about the gold rush there was only one choice as I can’t think of a song for Wanaka…
No, it’s not Gold by Spandau Ballet (HFB and I have been virtually eyeball to eyeball with Tony Hadley and he’s a bit creepy…) but clearly it’s Gold Dust Woman from one of the best albums of all time – Rumours (1977) by Fleetwood Mac (“Big Love” 💕 to Christine, we love and miss you, rest in peace and thank you). I’ve seen them live quite a few times, the first time in 1987. I also saw them with Lizzie on her birthday 1 September 1990. Turns out that was the last time Christine played with them for over two decades. Craig and I last saw them with HFB and Debs at Wembley. They were fantastic! We won’t talk about the time HFB and I were supposed to see them in Manchester, bad sad times 😡.
It’s a pretty hefty 11 minutes long so I’ve included a shorter version too, not quite by The Mac but pretty good!
Here it is sung by the fantastic tribute band Rumours of Fleetwood Mac whom I’ve seen a few times, most recently in Wimbledon and I’m off to see another one called Fleetwood Bac (I like what you’ve done there guys) with Aunty Shirley and Uncle Paul at a mini festival in the summer. Well, it’s a good enough song to hear twice, plus this version is a third the length!
Aoraki / Mount Cook ~ 4 March
We set off from Lake Tekapo for a 90 minute journey to Aoraki / Mount Cook. What an awesome beautiful beast it is! It’s the highest mountain in New Zealand. It is 3,724 metres / 12,217 feet and is part of the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. We caught glimpses of it on our flight but much of it was covered in cloud that day.
We headed past this place and clearly had to stop and take a picture as we live on Glentanner Way! Craig had a Glentanner coffee. It was OK. A bit like Glentanner Way; functional but nothing particularly special 😆.
We were heading for The Hermitage, a very fancy hotel next to The Beast as I’m now calling it. The Sir Edmund Hillary centre is there and it’s the spiritual and practical ‘home’ for all climbing and mountain enthusiasts. Anyone who’s been to / knows about The Slig hotel on Skye, well it’s got that same kind of meaning and history for climbers but is ultra fancy and supersized.
Craig was going on The Glacier Experience that I’d had to cancel 😞 and I settled down with my foot up for three hours (updated some of my blog, did some research on how to rearrange our time in the North Island, stared at the awesome Beast and drank a lot of tea!).
Awesome.
On his trip Craig went on a boat, found out lots of facts about glaciers and ate some glacial ice. He had a good time and at some stage I might get to see some photos…
We then drove for just under three hours to Wanaka – our home for the next two nights. I was really sad to leave the dramatic McKenzie country; the landscape completely changed as we hit the Otago region and I wasn’t very impressed!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
There’s clearly only one song I can play that’s awesome enough to match Aoraki. Enough said – here’s Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell with Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (1967).
Lake Tekapo ~ 2 – 3 March
3 March
It was a big day so this might be a long one…
When I messed up my toe again I had a number of trips to cancel or amend. One I was particularly looking forward to was a glacier boat trip and mini hike on 4th. It was going to be my only chance to see glaciers (I loved Fox’s Glacier Mints as a child and I think it wasn’t until my 40’s that I realised Fox’s Glacier was an actual place. 😳😬🙄). I contacted them to see if I could just do the boat bit but there was a long walk to and from it (three hour trip in total) so that was a no go. Sad times. Craig was also booked onto a helicopter flight over and onto Mount Cook and the glaciers on the 3rd but there was no way I was going on that. Terrifying.
I contacted Air Safaris to check Craig in and they told me the trip had to be cancelled due to weather rolling in during the afternoon. They told me there was a flight on a six seater at 10am (not helicopter) that should miss some of the weather but Mount Cook would be partially covered with cloud. On impulse I booked is both in. Now, if you know me at all then you’ll know that as soon as I put the phone down I was terrified!
I had every right to be. I can’t describe it to someone who doesn’t have “the fear”. They think you can overcome it, learn to face it, talk yourself out of it. You can’t. I’ve spent a fortune on therapy, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, pushing myself up hills, mountains, volcanoes, onto cliff edges, balconies, bridges, stepladders… facing my fear. It always ends the same way. Jelly legs, tears, complete immobilisation and having to be rescued or helped down. It’s completely debilitating and I hate it with a passion.
I’m really glad I did it. It was awesome. I was terrified. I could only see what was right in front of me. I couldn’t move my head or turn to look out of the window on the other side. I gripped the seat in front with both hands, my entire body was tense. Every so often I hastily grabbed my phone and snapped a picture very quickly. Luckily there were only there of us on the plane plus the pilot. Tim the pilot was amazing. There was a lot of turbulence because of the weather and at one point we suddenly dropped quite a way. He kept checking I was OK. Thank you Tim! Yes Mum I actually went up (and came back down thank goodness!) in that!!! I think you actually can see my jelly legs (and my “special” shoe)!
Craig took loads of amazing photos so I’ll add some at some stage but we’ve not had time to share those yet.
We then drove up Mt John – I thought my extremely recent flight would at least help me a little bit to overcome my fear on tiny windy mountain roads but no, it was still there – to the observatory and Astro Cafe for lunch. Nice.
We headed back to our backpacker place and both caught up with some stuff. That’s when I was in the garden and the Koreans were learning Tickety Tok dances. Initially it made me smile but seriously, hearing the same phrases from a couple of songs over and over for a couple of hours is very wearing!!
After a long drive down an unpaved road along the lake so Craig could safely drone (minimum 4km from the nearest airstrip) we tried to find somewhere to eat but it was impossible so we grabbed very unremarkable fission chips (😉) and ate them in the hostel kitchen. Lake Tekapo needs more affordable eating places – who’s with me? I can cook casseroles pretty well!
Then at 9.45 pm we went to the Dark Sky centre. There are ten places in the world that are designated dark sky areas and Tekapo is one of them. No white light allowed; all street and visible lights have to be orange. Interesting.
We joined the Crater Dark Sky experience at 10pm. It was excellent. Almost two hours in a crater in darkness apart from the stars and moon. Informative guides told us all about the night sky in the southern hemisphere and we learned lots of really interesting stuff. Very powerful telescopes, amazing things to see. Loved it. Craig took a photo down the lens of one of the telescopes – it’s called the tarantula nebula (you can clearly see it!) and it’s a nursery for baby stars! Beautiful even if a little out of focus…
Home, bed by 1am, up early to pack and head off for the next adventure.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
A big day requires two morning disco songs! Both of these are very catchy so you’ll be tapping your feet to the first one and grabbing a hairbrush to sing the chorus of the second one.
Mum and Max are big fans of Moby so I hope they enjoy this one.
We Are All Made of Stars (2002):
Absolute 80’s classic ~ Boy Meets Girl with Waiting for a Star to Fall (1988)
2 March
SIX WEEKS AWAY TODAY! We’ve reached the one third mark, having a brilliant time 😃 but it’s going very fast 😞
After brekkie we headed off in an Uber to collect our hire car for the next three weeks and no, it wasn’t hidden in a remote hotel car park!
Headed off to Geraldine which took a couple of hours. Stopped for a delicious ice cream, bought some cheese (the town is famous for it), Craig bought the most expensive Americano coffee (not through choice, it’s a very expensive lovely small town) and we got back on the road for Lake Tekapo. The journey from CC to Geraldine was flat, flat, flat. We travelled for miles on a straight road through the Canterbury Plains which is known for arable farming. It all changed after Geraldine as we headed into McKenzie country (sounds like something from a ‘50’s cig ad and it’s exactly how I imagine Montana to look like even though I’ve never knowingly seen a picture)and I immediately fell in love. Rolling hills gave way to mountains, windy roads and breathtaking views. I took this from a moving car.
It took about 75 minutes to get to Lake Tekapo. I told Craig we were staying in our first backpacker place and he said “great, are we staying in a dorm?”. With no facial expression or change to my tone whatsoever I said, “no darling, we’ve got an en-suite double”. In my head I was thinking ‘17 years. 17 years and he asks me that question, does he know me at all?! 😆🙄🤔).
The room is absolutely fine and the place is lovely.
We explored the lake area then went off for dinner – almost everywhere was either packed and / or unbelievably expensive so we ended up having noodles (still cost us almost £50. £50!!!) in a fairly nice place.
I like this picture because the cloud looks like a grumpy frog fish (Google them, I love them!) with an exploding volcano to its right…We grabbed some beers from the supermarket and headed back for a glorious sunset.
Went to bed to get up early for a day of exciting (and more than a bit scary) adventures.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
I was singing this in my head (Craig would have shushed me immediately if I’d sung out loud!) as we hit McKenzie country. Lizzie absolutely loves this so I know the song fairly well and we’ve sung it pretty loudly on (Staffs and Derbyshire) country roads a number of times. It’s very fitting as I feel at home here but I’m also thinking of those I love at home. The chorus is a great one to singalong to so get out your lighters and wave your arms back and forth above your heads! Here is John Denver with Take Me Home, Country Roads (1971). Yee-hah! 🤠 🐄
“The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin’ down the road I get a feelin’
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday. Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong”
Night out with Karen in Christchurch ~ 1 March
We met Karen plenty of times in London at various gatherings organised by the lovely Phil. We’d always really liked her and when we heard she’d returned home to the CC area during lockdown we were sad we hadn’t had the chance to say farewell. When we forged up our travel plans I sent her our dates for CC and we arranged to meet twice – on the 1st and on our return visit on 24th March.
We went to a lovely restaurant, had a lovely meal, etc but that’s all backdrop. It was brilliant to see her; she looks so well and was as lovely, happy and smiley as always! We of course had a quick WhatsApp video with Phil too! We were – as always – the very last people to leave the restaurant and we’d have carried on if it wasn’t so late and a school night for Karen who had to drive hand an hour home then be up early for work. We’re already looking forward to seeing her in three weeks. Thank you Karen for a fabulous evening!
💃🏼🪩MORNING DISCO 🕺 🪩
This is currently Karen’s favourite tune, it’s out right now so a little more up to date than my usual choices! Get on the dance floor and boogie on down to Miley Cyrus with Flowers.
The TranzAlpine Railway and Moana ~ 28 February – 1 March
Great news; a trip I haven’t had to cancel because of my toe! This one has been planned a very long time, in fact I’m sure I booked it before I booked our flights. It’s one of the great railway journeys of the world and I’ve been looking forward to this for years.
Up before 6am, no brekkie, then a free shuttle from our motel to the train station. The lovely lady Gena at the motel also stored our cases (we just brought a back pack each) and is picking us up tomorrow at 7pm when we get back to CC. We’re then straight off to meet Karen for dinner, extremely exciting but more of that once it’s happened…
Originally I thought we might just sit on the train one way (from CC to Greymouth) then back again but that’s an 11 hour round trip. The Fluffs needs to DO STUFF so that would t work. After much research I chose Moana as an overnight stop. It’s a tiny village on the stunning Lake Brunner. If you look at the map follow the line from CC on the east to Greymouth on the west coast and Moana is not far from Greymouth. If you enlarge the map you can see a body of water – that’s where we are.
The train departed at 8.15 am and I was of course very excited! I sent Craig to the buffet car (my disability comes in handy occasionally) and he returned with a massive bacon, sausage and hash brown baguette for me along with my tea. Not that that was the point of the trip but you gotta eat and it was delicious!
Four hours, a few stops, an 8.5 km tunnel (!), plenty of bridges, shorter tunnels, stunning scenery, mountains, valleys, gorges and we arrived in Moana. Not the best ever pictures but it’s a moving train so what do you expect?!
Six minute walk to “town”. We checked into the Lake Brunner hotel after seeing absolutely no one and I thought, ah, what a lovely quiet peaceful place. Straight into the bar for a beer and I knew I’d love the next 27 hours as they played Brother Louie by Modern Romance (anyone remember them?! Euro-crap, I mean Euro-pop from the 80’s – I own their best of album. Of course I do!) followed by Daddy Cool from Boney M then Staying Alive by the BeeGees. Another music time warp!
Craig and his new best friend Drone #2 (I may have omitted to mention he crashed and lost the first one in San Jose Del Cabo marina. Replaced with Santosh’s help in LA) went off to explore whilst me and my painful toe relaxed. Meanwhile the place started filling up until it was a packed party venue, who knew! We had dinner, fell asleep early and completely missed what has been described as the best showing of the Southern Lights in well over a decade. That’ll teach us not to watch the news 😡.
– OK, this is really bizarre (I’m writing this “in the future” as I was locked out of my blog AGAIN for a while) the group of four middle aged Koreans in the garden with me just played Brother Louie on their phone😱, I’ve not heard it for years, spooky… we just had a chat about it and apparently it’s big on Tickety Tok right now. –
Back to Moana…
Had a nice brekkie whilst they played Salt n Peppa Push It (a track loved by Tamara who saw them in concert) and watching Fulham beat Leeds (sorry Phil and my nieces and nephews) then an extremely slow walk around part of the lake (it’s massive and much of it inaccessible). I walked a total of 40 minutes and rested for over 90. To save time in future assume if I say I went for a walk please assume that it was slow and included lots of sitting down rests, I’m not being stupid (I’m just very clumsy).
We got back half an hour before the train so headed down to the busy station – there were two actual train enthusiasts there plus two other passengers, it was packed 😆. Craig scared me half to death by tracking the arrival of the train with the drone and the guard had to shout to him to get on! Drama. Four hours later after more dramatic scenery we arrived in CC.
Oh, and we passed this station (not a stop on our route) – apparently the area called Cass is known for being an uphill struggle, no one, and I say no one should read anything into that except it’s a fun fact😆. Cass has a population of one. Brilliant.
Gena picked us up, we collected our cases, took an Uber to Break Free on Cashel and checked into the tiniest room I’ve ever stayed in – clever storage and layout and it was perfect for a night.
Then downstairs to wait for Karen…
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🕺 🪩
There are lots of songs I love about trains or meaningful journeys on trains (especially Last Train to London by ELO) but there’s only one song I kept thinking about before, during and after our journey. I persuaded Tamara to “invest” the best part of a month’s mortgage to pay for a great seat when this amazing lady last played in London. She of course had a great time. OK, the train was at 3.05 pm and not midnight and it was to CC not Georgia but hey, it’s a brilliant track by a true artist – please enjoy with Tamara and I “Midnight Train to Georgia” (1973) by Gladys Knight.
Christchurch ~ 27 February
So… the only parts of CC I’ve seen are the pub that Craig took me to for dinner – in an Uber from the hospital – and the car parks of our motel and the train station. He took a couple of pictures whilst I was in hospital so I’ll have to share those. He hasn’t really captured much of the city! We’re back again briefly a couple more times so hopefully I’ll see a bit more.
Ate, went to bed. Exciting times.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
It pains me to do this as I’m not a fan by any stretch of the imagination and HFB will be giggling away (that’s Hannah Barnes to you!) but there can be only one band for the beautiful South and it is, quite clearly, The Beautiful South! 😬
Here’s one of their least painful tracks, it’s a pretty good one to sing along to. Actually, I’ve just googled their songs and there a quite a few that I’m not offended by! Here’s Keep It All In (1989).