Last days in NZ

Our last day travelling on to Auckland through Matamata where the hobbit's live in Lord of the Rings and the filming of The Hobbit is about to start, we didn't stop but the small volcanic hills which abound in this part of the country make it easy to see how they could be 'converted'. We also passed a Maori grave site. They are always on hills with the most important people being buried in the top plots and the rituals going on for a couple of days or more while everyone celebrates the life of the deceased.

Auckland has over a quarter of the population of NZ and is a huge city by comparison with the others including the capital Wellington but like that also built round a huge harbour area with lots of bays and beaches.

An iconic tower and some fancy skyscrapers (most boring of which has PWC all over it for my accountancy followers)

Dock area produced a nice visual,

with a huge container port, alongside the cruise liners.

A lovely meal out overlooking the harbour with one of my fellow travellers completed my stay in NZ. It was called Grand Adventure Tour and it lived up to it's name rather too well at times but I have wonderful memories of amazing scenery, flora and fauna, I am not surprised that people come back and I certainly didn't find it boring to visit, helped along by a good bunch of fellow travellers.

So Sydney next stop, back to travelling by myself.

Swing bridges, beach and Kiwi Dundee

Fortunately our farm was in our direction of travel so had a lie in, breakfast at 8.15, rather than 7.15 so real treat for me, together with freshly cooked scrambled eggs! Our first stop was at an old gold mine with 2 swing bridges across the river to reach them.

Only a short stop for us so no mine exploring although a group of teenagers were being herded in, not sure if teachers wouldn't have been happy to lose a few, but fairly stringent health and safety in evidence. We then stopped for lunch at Whangamata (wh is f sound in Maori so some interesting names are around!) anyway town with beautiful nearly empty beach, mainly surfers and their families.

The highlight of the day was a walk through the bush, or forest to us,  with a ranger one of a small group run by a man who gained the title of Kiwi Dundee for his work on preserving the wild areas. We walked up to a working gold mine (not let inside this one!) But this is gold ore

saw many more of the silver ferns which have reflective material on the underside of their leaves once they are mature

and learnt about the native trees all coniferous and the kauri a tree which grows very tall and without knots, as the lower branches fall off early on as the tree heads for the light at the top of the forest canopy. It is used extensively for building and canoes. A trip into some caves showed us both the witta

which caused some shudders amongst the arachnophobes mistakenly as they are in fact crickets, but since everyone went in the dark and they were suddenly highlighted by a torch not surprising.  I was rather pleased I didn't jump (particularly as ceiling quite low!) and some glow worms which are shown in the middle of the following picture.

I know but pin pricks of light don't make for good pictures!

Our hotel for the final night of the tour was on a slope with all the rooms amonsgt the trees so

a somewhat disturbed night with possums walking on the roof, rain and birdsong but had had enough wine to minimise their effect!

A Kiwi then Cambridge

Our first stop after leaving Rotorua was the geothermal power station, they are pretty green here with loads of hydro, geothermal and some wind power but usual nimby attitude for the big windmills, lots of gleaming steel and steam though.

Rainbow Springs is a where they have a number of endangered species of birds

including the kiwi which as it is a nocturnal bird we could see but not photograph, so the stuffed one outside will have to do!

Not sure I approve of playing with the biological clock of these birds by changing the lighting but I suppose it brings in the punters who help fund the breeding project. They also have the largest lump of green stone to have been found, type of jade and loads of jewellry for sale buit generally expensive so this must be worth a bit.

They also have good specimens of the 'silver fern' which will no doubt be flaunted later in the year as it is the emblem of the NZ rugby team.

This was followed by a show at the Agridome, showcasing the types of sheep they have here, shearing and a sheepdog at work. Unfortunately not so interesting with the advent of the discovery channel etc!  But here is lovely merino sheep looking suitably supercilious.

After a lunch stop with some fun corrugated 'art'

we went on to Cambridge, pleasant town further north where in groups of 4 we met our hosts for a farm stay. Mine were a retired couple George and Ann whose son now runs his dairy farm which we visited first, seeing the milking parlour etc and the family pigs

before going to his very lovely home on the side of a hill with amazing views.

One of their other sons is a general manager for Fonterra the main NZ dairy company in Sao Paulo, a familiar name from my time at Brebners. Lovely home cooked meal before retiring to bed.

Rotorua

Rotorua is in an area of hot springs and geysers and home to many Maori so I should be saying Kia ora meaning hallo and goodbye! We visited a village still inhabited by two Maori tribes to see their houses,

where they cook

  about 20 seconds to boil an egg!

Main meeting house and our motley group being nosey inside.

Unfortunately geysers not working so no pictures of steaming towers of water.

The hotel was in the centre of the town which is fairly touristy with hot springs all over the place. It was an old hotel but a very pretty room for me, all named after local dignatories, although not sure what the engineer whose name was on my door would have made of the girly décor inside!

In the evening we went out to a maori experience involving greeting the chief of our tribe (chosen on the bus) who musn't smile at their antics, tongue sticking out etc.

We then had a chance to walk round their village which is as it would have been when the Maori arrived 800 years ago and learn about their tattoos

fighting habits etc

before seeing our 'hangi' meal come out of the ground having been cooked over hot stones whilst buried.

They performed a musical concert for us showing their south sea island ancestry before a final 'haka'.

The meal was then served which was extremely tasty with meat so very tender. The drive home enlivened by a driver encouraging the child in all of us, including driving round a roundabout a number of times while we were singing 'the wheels on the bus go round and round'!! (and yes I'd had some wine!) 'tho even the sober ones enjoyed it, well that's my excuse and we could not of course be rude to our Maori hosts.

Wellington to Napier

Roger our new driver arrived more or less on time having flown down that morning, flights being all over the place still from the earthquake. So we set off up the Waipura valley, stopping at Bruce nature reserve catching sight of a rare takahe bird, althouigh one flightless bird looks pretty like another to me I'm afraid!

It had been thought extinct but a small colony had been found deep in some mountain ranges and so they are being bred for re-introduction where possible. Napier was our final stop in a hotel by the sea. Napier is a lovely Art Deco town having been re-built after an earthquake within the space of 2 years from 1931. The whole town lifted about 2 metres which raised an area of flat land that had previously been swamp, allowing the town to expand quite considerably . There are some lovely examples as below one of which survived the earthquake and isn't a re-build, prize for which!!

and some nice art work

We then continued to Lake Taupo, catching sight of 'Mordor' and 'Mount Doom' for lord of the Rings fans

This is the area of major pine tree growth which is a major export from NZ, mainly as logs rather than any processed log products which would give more employment to local people. The trees take about 30 years max to mature and the sites which are very steep get re-planted very quickly

the little green dots are trees.

Went on to Huka falls where the river Waikaka leaves the lake, hugely powerful force of water but beautiful colour.

Next stop Roturua.

Goodbye to South island

Volunteered for an early start but really wanted to see the Tasman Able National Park and wasn't disappointed, wonderful beaches,

rock formations.

Saw a stingray in one of the bays, surprised the boat didn't collapse as a rush to one side ensued. Unfortunately not clear enough for photo bur I know I saw it! More seals and some very disdainful birds who turned their backs on us.

The weather was cloudy to begin with but turned sunny during the latter part of the trip and clear blue sky by the time I returned to Nelson. Quick trip to the cathedral which has an unusual bell tower

and back for little laze in sun and swim at hotel which I felt I deserved for getting up early! Hotel right by the tidal river and the good restaurant looks over it, however went into town for supper and came across the NZ version of Morris Dancers in the street near the cathedral!

Our driver had departed back to Christchurch to sort out family problems so we waited at the appointed time next morning (friday) for a new driver to arrive. He had a different timetable so was late. had difficulty in opening up the bus and informed us he was only taking us to Wellington and flying straight back that evening, not a promising start! Still he managed some commentary on the way to Picton to pick up the Interislander ferry, passing the birthplace of Rutherford the Nobel scientist and making a comfort stop at a village with a good mussel shop!!

Shouldn't then fail to mention mile upon mile of vineyards in Marlborough, lovely flat growing area

and certainly haven't had a bad wine yet here. Area also grows apples and kiwi fruit and some olives too. Picton looked quite picturesque in the lunchtime sunshine and sailing out through Marlborough Sound (flooded river valley if you were paying attention earlier) houses only accessible by boat, photo's say it all.

Wellington

This post should come after Goodbye to South Island, posted two at same time, sorry.

Journey time about 3 hours and after some of the passengers had helped the driver to get back into the bus we set off for a little orientation tour which since the poor man hadn't been to Wellington for about 10 years proved rather time consuming. Since I had phoned to set a time to meet my cousin Frances I was increasingly anxious and ended up collecting my own luggage and rushing up to the room to do a quick clothes swap and out. Lovely to see her and John in their home about half an hour from the centre, we had venison casserole (possibly home shot!!) and caught up on some family news.

You can see my concern over the timer on my camera!!

A lie in, followed by a trip to Te Papa the main Museum where many of my fellow tourers were also wandering around. Also much to everyone's relief  2  of the travellers we had left in Christchurch who were caught up in the earthquake. They so so fortunately had decided not to visit the Cathedral about 10 mins before it happened, all their baggage is impounded in the hotel so they had spent the night outside in the rain and then come to Wellington to get new passports before returning home. Scenes of great joy all round. ( I have also heard from Mike and Lori that unusually they were in Christchurch centre at a meeting with the building shaking alarmingly but fortunately holding up and so had to walk back to their school which was also damaged along cracked and liquified roads. As I had assumed they were much further away from the centre and out of danger I was mortified I had not confirmed they were OK before!)

Any way returning to my trip with Frances after leaving the Museum we did a tour of the centre seeing the parliament building

and some fancy skyscrapers quite a change from everywhere else we've seen so far. The main housing is clapboard and on hills so hope they have good foundations and the house Katherine Mansfield the writer was born in is a fine example.

Close into the centre they are 2 storey further out they tend to be single storey as there is plenty of space and flatter land. We then drove round the bay to one of her favourite bays for lunch before returning back to her house. A trip to the ballet followed in the evening a lovely finale to our meeting.

Note in my room says be checked out by 8.30am to meet driver for trip to Napier I wander what he will be like!