More from NZ

Hi everyone,
Having left Auckland Monday we drove towards Rotorua visiting Hamilton Gardens and climbing Mt Maunganui.  The gardens were lovely especially the rose gardens charting the development of hybrid teas by the French in the 19th century.  They also had gardens from around the world - the persian carpet (Indian garden) was stunning.

The Mt is an old volcano on the coast and a little jaunt up it seemed appropriate.  The views from the top were amazing - 360 degs over surrounding countryside and the estuary.  We walked, many ran it - mad!

On to Rotorua, through the pouring rain and a cabin in a park.  The town is a thermal wonderland with steam coming up all over the place and an overriding smell of sulphur.  Had a fantastic morning at Whakarewerewe - a Maori village built on volcanic pools etc.  Even lunch was cooked geothermally.  Steam and bubbling mud pools all around.  We even did the tourist Maori performance thing which was actually quite good. 

We also visited a couple of lakes in the hills which were very pretty and good walking.  Back to the park and a soak in hot mineral pool - great.
On to Taupo Weds which has a massive lake which invited a leisurely stroll.  Next stop Tongariro National Park and another cabin - very small but adequate.

The next day we arose at 5.30am (Liz please note) to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  This is billed as the best 1 day walk in NZ - at 19km (we added a 3km loop to climb Mt Tongariro).  It took 8hrs but was an amazing experience walking through the volcanos.  Note that Mt Tongariro is 1968m compared with Yes Tor 1968ft!  Bottle of wine earned today.

In NZ

An exciting day at Rockhampton Airport when we discovered that our flight was wrongly booked for 2 weeks later.  The Virgin Blue person (note the polite term) refused to change it but offered new tickets for 400 quid.  Fortunately the Quantas desk was much more helpful and we got tickets with them for half the price.  Travel agent is investigating and will refund.  The panic was about not getting to NZ.  We were lucky cos it was a Friday - busy travelling day.

Arrived in early hours of 14th and got to our luxury apartment (complete with washing machine and dishwasher).  The Medical School team had provided us with lots of shopping - wonderful - and a hire car. Auckland is a fairly ordinary new city - nothing much to say about it except it does have some nice parkland and lots of ferries to outlying islands.

Spent the first weekend exploring north of Auckland with beaches and a visit to a kauri tree - these were one of the bases of NZ's wealth and were almost wiped out between 1880 and 1920.  The one in the picture is about 800 years old, so they take a while to regenerate!  Also went to a kuari museum which was not just all about trees but a whole social history - very interesting.  Lovely scenery, rolling hills and sharp craggy bits.  The beaches were great - sat and watched gannets diving here.

Chris spent the week working while Judy did the sights.  We also had some work to do to check measurement for the house in France, a lot of which were slightly wrong so took some sorting out - hope they're right now!  Hashed with Auckland Hussies on the Tuesday night (Judy walked) - very jolly.

The picture is of a lava field on the most recent volcanic island (only 600 years old).  I spent the day just walking around including the summit - quite spectacular.  Apparently the Maoris on the neighbouring island watched it appear.  It was especially good because I'd been to the Auckland museum (amazing place - 3 hours and I still hadn't seen it all) and seen a volcano exhibition which included sitting in a house while a volcanic eruption was taking place!

This weekend we went up to the Coromandel peninsula and visited Hot Water Beach where you are supposed to able to dig your hole and have a warm spring fill it.  Could only do this in a couple of places (grossly over-rated) and Cathedral Cove (beautiful!) this one you walked down a cliff path and could only get to via the arch below from another beach.  Even the walk down was pretty.

Today was a bit wet to start so we booked lots of stuff on the internet, then went west to see the coast and a waterfall.  The coast was really wild - quite different to what we'd seen before.  The walk to the waterfall took some finding including stopping at the local cop shop (they handily provided us with maps) and stopping to ask a local.  However once found the walk was lovely but spent so long looking for it we didn't have time to do it all.
The holiday starts tomorrow, more news later.

 

Leaving Oz

Left Jundah at 0630 last Thursday having scrubbed, cleaned and packed for a few days.  Who'd have kids?  Drove to within 65km of Mackay in our convoy.  What a shower.

After approx 900kms and quite a bit of rain stopped at a roadhouse at about 1800 for the night - very friendly, good food and topless barmaids!  Helped Donna and Jacko move in on the Friday (fortunately lots of sun so able to dry out the soggy furniture) and had chook and chips for dinner kindly supplied by their friends Adam and Leonie.  No outside furniture or indoor chairs for that matter so table was the back of the truck!  All the best parties are truck based!

Great house, storage and workspace downstairs and all living upstairs. Big grass yard for the dog at the back.  Now settled in having spent Saturday rushing around garage sales looking for various items of household goods.  Bought lots of stuff but not the chairs we were desperate for.  Got them eventually in cheap store so all settled in now.

Exploring Mackay area - seems very good.  A bit of a boom town with huge coalmines inland.  Weather gone from hot to wet to humid, but we are in the tropics!  Poured this morning so spent 4 hours at Mackay Bridge Club.

Leaving tomorrow for Rockhampton, then flying to Brisbane then Auckland on Friday.  Next post from NZ.

Arrived in Oz

Left Nicky's on Monday 25th for London, Singapore, Brisbane then Rockhampton with our life in 2 rucsacks.  The weather obligingly beautiful as we hope it will continue over the winter. Then two days recovering on the beach east of Rocky at Yeppoon (or Cooee Bay to be precise) as you can see a thoroughly relaxing time (not sure about the model!). 

Then the 700km drive west to Longreach which we hit Saturday evening.  Decided to stay over to avoid hitting roos in the dark. The highlight of Longreach is eating huge steaks and drinking beer in the RSL club. Drove the remaining 215km south to Jundah in time for Sunday lunch with Donna.  Saw 10 cars on the way!  Maybe that's because Barcoo Shire has a population of 462 and covers an area of 62,000 sq kms.  Last time we were here (May 2009) everywhere was brown and dry.  This time there's been loads of rain and everything is green - what a difference!

Donna is leaving her job in charge of parks and gardens in Jundah and moving back to the coast at Mackay to start a new job next week so we have hired a big ute to help her move - will be towing a trailer (complete with 3 piece suite, table and chairs and sundry boxes) the 1000kms back while Donna and Jacko tow the boat ... hmmm.

And it's just about cool enough at night to sleep without the air-con!  Today's job is cleaning the cooker - my favourite!  Might take a break and walk the dog (huge hound more like) then go for a swim in Jundah's pool.  What a hard life.  Although - what is the point of flies???

The travels begin

Arrived back in UK just before the troubles started in France.  Spent some time trying to sort our life and help Nicky in North Wales.  Then down to Devon to run a workshop at University of Exeter and celebrate a friend's 60th birthday and retirement.  We leave tomorrow for the grand tour, starting with a visit to Donna in Queensland.  Return booked Bangkok to Heathrow on 13th April, so lots of time to visit places.  Will try and update when we can.  Thanks to everyone who has housed and fed us while we've been homeless in the UK.

End week 2

OK, so it does rain in France.  Last Monday was a wash-out with storms, even put the extra straps on the awning!  Today it's raining too, but we've had 5 days of fabulous weather in between.

The access to the plot is complete but we have a pause.  The engineer doing the calcs for the foundations decided at the last minute that he needed more info - very irritating.  If he'd told us in August we could have sorted it.

We've been working on stopping the leaks in the barn roof.

White van man drove into the back of us at a roundabout in Agen, so some damage to repair when we get back - another irritation.

Leaving here Weds, arriving UK Thurs.

End of week 1

Four days of earth moving by Philippe and team.  Now have a big hole in the ground and a platform for the house.  The wall at the bottom is partly demolished.  A quick shower on Thursday but otherwise warm and mostly sunny.

Spent Sunday pm and eve with a bunch of very nice ladies from Condom - lunch, a slightly tipsy dash across the countryside to a concert in a private chateau:  very interesting.

Some photos including our view and a couple of the town attached.

Today Monday 4 Oct it's raining heavily!