Sydney and a sunset

Arrived in Sydney to lovely sunny afternoon so great introduction. Had a chance to view some of the skyscrapers from my hotel room

whilst doing quick change so could head to the opera house.Ended up walking as not that far took just over 20 mins and gave a chance to judge distances on map.

Picked up ticket and then went for vastly expensive meal by the water before the performance began. Auditorium not as large as London but well laid out with comfy seats, not so impressed with the performance unfortunately, not good enough to stop my tiredness from travelling plus additional 2 hour time difference from keeping my eyes open all the time! Tried the subway on the way back which works pretty well.

Gentle start to the morning, no fixed call so eventually left hotel at 10am (a record for the last 3 weeks!) and headed for the museum which had some good displays not only of indigenous population history but also dinosaurs, gem stones and birds and insects, quite a mix. Picked up the hop on hop off bus outside and started my tour, weather dull and had rained while in the museum but stayed dry and got some pictures of the architecture both modern and old with rather attractive small cottage type houses with balconies and all close together.

Got off the bus next at the maritime museum which had a very interesting exhibition on the child immigrants from Britain which went on up to 1967,

kids only 10 to 14 in age being transported in reasonable luxury by ship and then moved to outlying farms and missions for minimal education and lots of work, some managed to make it through but quite a few rather sad stories from them not really feeling they belonged anywhere. Outside there was a replica of The Endeavour full size but still very small alongside a destroyer and interesting submarine amongst others.

Walked around Darling harbour and then to the Chinese Garden which is a lovely quiet area in the middle of the city and clearly a favourite place for weddings, two brides on the premises one being married while I was wandering around.

Also passed this 'fountain' rather more successful than the Princess Diana one!

Back on the bus to The Rocks area which had a market going on so wandered around that, fairly touristy but some interesting things and older properties right by the famous bridge.

Got nearly back to the hotel but decided to try out the monorail first so did a more or less circular tour on that above street level, picked up some shopping and had quiet night in as have to be up very early for wine tour tomorrow.

Up at 6.30am, not my time of day, but first stop was the reptile farm where there was more coffee (!) and we fed kangaroo's

and saw a baby koala up close

as well as the endangered Tasmanian devil

and Galapagos turtle.

Also more surprisingly pure bred dingos which are more and more rare and tired!

Continuing our journey on some back roads through the wooded hills and some farmland we saw kangaroos in the wild, white cockatoos, heard the bell bird (tinkling sound) and saw eagles, quite a bonus. Tasted quite a few wines before lunch never a good idea(!) an interesting slightly oaked Chardonnay much better than unoaked to my surprise and a good Shiraz.. More wines with lunch and then more after lunch where the sparkling ones were best both white and red to my surprise. Hazy remembrance of trip back to Sydney! Did revive enough to go out for supper to Darling Harbour for the view.

Nice late start again, for walk to circular quay to pick up the ferry across the bay to Manly which has a sea coast so quite a few surfers out plus a surfing school.

Walked round to Shelly beach in the distance

for some sun time then wandered around meeting some spiders (look away now the squeamish)

on way back to catch return ferry. Walked round the quay to catch evening dinner cruise on tall ship,

lots of other sailing boats out as lovely evening so good pictures of the opera house, bridge and sunset.

Great end to my short time here.

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.