Waiting for the whale watch
We are at the “whaleway station,” the converted train station in Kaikoura, waiting for our boat to take us whalewatching. This is our third attempt. Our booked trip yesterday was deemed too rough for under-fives. So we swapped it for a later one, which was cancelled because the sea was rougher not calmer. This morning though dawned blue and sunny and, we hope, still too. I can hear the aiebrakes of the bus come to pick us up.
Later: the best of both worlds. We saw a whale, but such a small glimpse (a couple of spouts from his blow hole and a few feet of back) that the crew counted the trip as unsuccessful and we got 80% of our money back! What a great value day.
Later we drove to Christchurch, for the last night of our New Zealand leg.
South Island
New Zealand needs more free wifi, or maybe just more wifi, as our last campsite, at Kaiteriteri, “has it, but can’t get it to work”. Now having paid for half an hour’s access at Kaikoura, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
The ferry from Wellington took us on a scenic voyage (if the views are becoming a monotonous feature of this blog, I’m sorry, but they are great) to Picton on South Island. The voyage was enhanced by a touring folk band on their way to Blenheim giving an impromptu concert in the passenger lounge.
We had fish and chips in Picton. People have raved about the quality of New Zealand “fush and chups” but we weren’t that impressed.
The next morning though, we were impressed by the twisting (and yes, scenic) coast road to Havelock. We caught the end of Nelson’s Saturday Market, where Lily met her souvenir nirvana, buying a much longed for Maori Doll and a pair of Poi. Then we drove on to Kaiteriteri, where the campsite afforded us views across the sea to the back to Nelson.
Sunrise from the top pod of our Spaceship, over the little island in our bay, foreshadowed a great day catching a launch up into Abel Tasman national park, a challenging (if you are four) hike to a secluded Cleopatra’s Pool, a paddle in the icy waters there, a return to the coast for lunch, and a leisurely sail back to camp on a catermeran.
The next day was spent on the beach across the road from our campsite. And today we awoke to our first cloudy day. Which didn’t matter as we’d planned to spend most of it driving across South Island to Kaikoura. It’s raining this evening. What will tomorrow bring?
Wellington
I like Wellington, the best of both worlds, a cosmopolitan city and a hip seaside town. A sort of Antipodean San Francisco.
Last night, after we arrived, we ate at Catch, a great value Sushi bar, with a supersonic conveyor belt. Now, after a visit to Te Papa in the morning, we are among the last customers lunching at Espressoholic, a grafitti’d hip coffe bar. It’s closing down at the end if the week to move to a new location, so had we been here a week later, we’d have been cursing our Rough Guide. Hip as it is though, there’s still no free wifi, so I’m not going to post this until I find some (or until I’m reduced to paying for it!)
We like the views
Late evening at Blue Lake, near Rotorua. We like the views in New Zealand. And finally, after all these years, I’ve worked out what I want to be when I grow up. A jet-boat pilot! Lily and I went for a great ride on one at Huka falls near Taupo yesterday. Today we are driving to Wellington.
The buried village
Here’s a picture of Tom in front of a great waterfall that we explored when we went to the buried village of Te Warera, where the National Trust’s Maori house came from.
New Zealand
We arrived in the middle of last night. Today we picked up our Spaceship, and drove to Matamata, where Hobbiton was filmed for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We’re on line!
Siloso beach, Sentosa. After some wrestling, I’ve managed to log on to Singapore’s free wifi. So here’s a picture of Lily this morning on the beach. We’ve just come out of Undersea world, where Tom was pleased to see some real sharks.
Mid-flight
It’s 4:45am, GMT, 12.45pm in Singapore. The cabin is dark, windows shuttered and lights dimmed, but brilliant sun outside, and down below, the War on Terror continues apace in Afganistan. It looks so peacefull from here.
