Last Night of the Blogs

A quick update before I get back to the bottle of champagne (Californian) to mark the last night of the holiday. We have had two perfect Californian days,  the first driving from Monterey to Cambria was probably the most spectacular drive I've ever done.  The second, from Cambria to Santa Barbara was less spectacular but was compensated for by even better weather. The weather has been warm enough to have the lid down on the Ford Mustang we have hired (unfortunately  not red, but silver), listening to songs from our youth. We have seen sea eagles, otters, sea lions and elephant seals along the way (as well as some toothy Californian Girls).

Tomorrow about 100 miles to Los Angeles and the flight home at 1600. We will be back the UK on Saturday morning.

I  intend a final postscript at some point after we arrive home, so keep looking.

Ra Ra Rarotonga and San Francisco Nights (and days)

I love the Cook Islands! Rarotonga is all you imagine a tropical island to be, friendly locals, slow pace of life, stunning scenery, special beaches and a reef which has created a huge and sheltered lagoon. Unfortunately there are also some mosquitos who seem to love me. Sue's developed a theory that as we are in the Southern hemisphere the mosquitos have switched to preferring men to women, I think her GCSE Science Grade E is still some way off.

We were fortunate with the weather, this is the rainy season but even so we only had one slight shower during the day and one substantial shower in the evening. Temperatures were constant 25-30 degrees, but humidity was quite high on some days, surprisingly this affected Sue more than me.

Highlights of Rarotonga (not in chronological order)

a. Captain Tama's Lagoon Cruize – This glass bottomed boat ride on the lagoon where we saw large numbers of tropical fish was good fun, the snorkelling was interesting (even I did a little), the crew singing and their show (tying sarongs, opening coconuts and island harmonies) entertaining. All of this followed by a BBQ on a small coral island in the lagoon.

b. Sue going scuba diving in the lagoon. First a trial at a hotel swimming pool, then Sue came out with a grin that lasted two days, she attacked and hugged the diving instructor (James please note she'll do it to anyone given half a chance). She told me that she saw an even greater variety of fish than snorkelling.

c. The Island Night at the Pacific Resort, a meal followed by local singing, dancing and drumming. I have to be careful what I say, but Sue's description of the young women dancers was “stunning” and they waggled their bums at an amazing rate!! All wore coconut bras, but I read that these are not traditional in the Cooks but an import from French Polynesia. Before that, no coconuts – the old ways are the best.

d. Cook Islands Television – only one channel and filled with some programmes from NZ and other imports, mixed with local content. The local content is slightly amateurish but very community focussed (an announcement of a memorial service to a local person, congratulations to a local school team who have done well and forthcoming community events), some reminded me of the UK in the 1950's (the public service film at 8.15 in the evening featuring a very young child talking to “Kuki”, a rather alarming person sized parrot,saying it was her bedtime and that she had done all of her homework and brushed her teeth. All of this followed by the injunction to children that it was time for all Kukis to be in bed.

e. The friendliness and kindness of the locals. As with most places we have been local people are open and welcoming. Sue's scuba instructor, Steve, was charming, understanding, and kind to her. Robyn, who was the joint owner of the Kabanas and who drove the pick up van, was booked to take us to the airport at 22.00 but phoned the airport to check the flight was on time. As it was late he phoned us to say he would pick us up later so we didn't have too long waiting at the airport, so he came at 23.00 instead.

f. The tropical flowers growing like weed. Plants which only grow in greenhouses in Europe were prolific, makes me sick!

I will leave Rarotonga with many happy memories and one or two strange ones. Perhaps the strangest was seeing two (very attractive) female police officers with a speed gun trying to identify speeding motorists. The maximum speed out of towns is 50kmph, in towns 30 kmph! No-one drives at this speed because the roads are so bad. Steve the scuba instructor, explained they are trying to recoup the cost of the speed gun. I can believe this as a major concern at the moment is the size of the Cook Islands government deficit, $2.5 million.

Back to "civilisation" in San Francisco yesterday. We travelled almost 24 hrs to get here. The flight frm Rarotonga (9.5 hrs) was scheduled for midnight but left at 01.30 instead. We arrived at Los Angeles airport at 14.00 expecting to endure the rude security and long delays for which the airport is famous, not a bit of it!. The staff tried minimise the delay at security and the officers were pleasant and polite. Our planned five hour stop over at LA was shortened to three hours and we caught our American Airlines one hour filght on time. AA are similar to Ryanair in many ways, except they do allocate seats and you get a (small) drink. They encourage people to use hand luggage so the plane was jammed.

We are just at the gates of Chinatown and so went for a Chinese meal, we seem to be developing a knack of arriving at restaurants just as everyone else is leaving!

Today is President's Day in the US so is a public holiday, along with many others we've been tourists in SF, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Chinatown and Trolleys, and photos of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge have been on the itinerary. Very fortunate with the weather which was clear and bright and springtime warm. Being a bit jetlagged we are somewhat knackered! At least Sue agreed to take the trolley car up the hill rather than down!

Tomorrow we leave to drive to Monterey and the Pacific Coast Rd, and a surprise for someone.

Cook Islands, Tropical Paradise

I've just had to chase two mynah birds off the balcony, cheeky things! We arrived late in Rarotonga due to Air New Zealand wanting five volunteers to be bumped off the flight as they had weight issues with the plane. This delayed us by about an hour, but I suppose it's better than running out of fuel with nothing within 1000 miles. I had visions of being greeted by dusky eyed polynesian maidens (Sue had just poured cold water over me!) but in fact it was a sixty something man. Despite this we were given traditional eis which are necklaces of flowers, mainly frangipani. The journey to the cabins was in the Cook Islands equivalent of an air conditioned shuttle bus, an old Toyota pickup with open windows. It was two o'clock in the morning when we arrived and we flopped, not having seen anything on the way to the cabins as it was raining. Both of us had a disturbed night with strange noises and cockerels crowing from three o'clock. The latter is something we'll have to get used to.

Woke up the following morning to this view from the cabin:

Haven't really done much since we have been here, except acclimatise. After NZ we both wanted a flop. Sue, though, took advantage of a dive school, opposite to the cabins, offering a free intro

scuba session in a local hotel swimming pool. She was apprehensive but liked it so much she is about to book a lagoon dive, I'll go along to watch.

Rarotonga is a small islands, thirty km in circumference. Today we went to the capital, Avorua, which is like a tiny seaside town (except for the court of justice financed by the People's Republic of China, the Parliament and the civic offices). As the total population of the island is about 13,000 you can get some idea of scale.

There is limited internet access available so I don't intend another post until the USA .

Note from Sue:  

Just to add that we have both been in the lagoon, which only comes part way up our shins. We scared off the little fish and the black herons who were stalking along the edge. Our garden has multiple crab holes, rather than my more traditional moles and masses of exotic flowers, hibiscus, frangipni, together with the obligatory coconut and banana palms. Last night we went out to eat at about 7.30 only to find very little open. We went into one of the small residential complexes and sat outside on the beach with a cold bottle of white wine and some wonderfully sweet, unchewy calamaris. I have made friends with a number of mozzies and have their love bites to prove it.

Coincidence, pancakes, alps and goodbyes

The drive up the west coast was varied again. Hairpin bends in rainforests followed by wide valleys and windswept coasts. The towns along the coast were very small, and most looked run down. At Hokitika artistic locals had made driftwood sculptures on the beach. Driftwood  is a real feature of this coast, including tree sized pieces. We passed Greymouth where we were to get the train, a sign said "Welcome to the Grey District" an apt slogan! ''

At first sight Punakaiki didn't have a lot to recommend it. The hotel looked out on the sea but we had half a view of the back of the restaurant building. As is common in NZ the hotel was environmentally friendly, including dimming hotel lights at nights to protect the burrowing petrels (how low light did this I don't know). The hotel menu looked overpriced and unexciting so we headed for the Punakaiki Tavern for beer and bar food. As we were entering Sue was accosted by a pretty young woman with blond boyfriend in tow. When she started to kiss Sue I thought something was awry. The girl was called Becca and was Sue's hairdresser from King's Lynn. She and her boyfriend had left KL in September and have travelled through Asia and Australia and ended up in tiny Punakaiki at the same time as us! We spent a pleasant couple of hours with them swapping stories about our travels.

The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki are a geological oddity well worth seeing. Limestone rock stacks are layered like a pancake stack - each layer being about two inches deep - these layers are absolutely horizontal. Apparently geologists haven't really worked out how they came to be like this.

From Punakaiki it was time to take the trans alpine train (from Greymouth), this is one of the main passenger trains in NZ and runs from Greymouth to Christchurch. King's Lynn station is huge by comparison with both stations, each of which has one platform. The infrastructure of NZ is creaky in places! The four hour journey was delightful, crossing the Southern Alps with magnificent views of mountains and braided river valleys. There was an outside viewing platform but we decided just to sit and enjoy the view, no photos only memories.

This morning, our last in NZ, we went for a walk through the nearby park to the Christchurch Botanical Garden and the Christchurch museum. A gentle way to pass the last morning. Even in the hotel we are staying at there are signs of earthquake damage, including supports on some walls. Walking round the area last night we saw walls leaning at odd angles, houses being rebuilt and a shopping mall which was still largely closed because it was structurally unsound. The centre of Christchurch (the Red Zone) is still a no-go areas and cordoned off. The hotel receptionist told us that the hotel we were to stay in is being demolished floor by floor as it has been condemned. The rebuilding work will take years. She showed us pictures of a new shopping mall near the red zone - built from brightly coloured shipping containers!

We are just about to leave for the airport for a flight to Auckland and then a connecting flight to the Cook Islands. Our accommodation in Rarotonga does not, I think, have internet access so the blog is taking a rest for a few days.

Glaciers

As planned we booked a helicopter glacier flight, having decided that my knees really couldn't cope with a three hour hike on a glacier. We arrived at the booking office in time for a 0900 flight, only to be told that weather conditions meant that the tour we had booked, which included a circuit round Mount Cook, could not go ahead because of the weather. Instead we were offered a thirty minute flight round two glaciers, Fox and Franz Joseph, with a landing at the top of Fox Glacier. As it turned out this was ideal. The take off was much smoother than I expected and we quickly climbed and followed a wooded valley up to the glaciers. At times we seemed to be skimming the treetops. Just as the pilot said we had reached Franz Joseph the clouds cleared and we were in bright sunshine, the views were magical, or awesome as they would say here (NB awesome is a much devalued word and seems to have become a synonym for thank you in some circles, especially short slim NZ female servers!). The pilot was very skilled at giving everyone a good view by zig-zagging along the glacier. At the top of Fox Glacier he landed on a flat snow field and visibility conditions were almost ideal. The temperature was much the same as in the valley, and there was no wind.

The views on the way down were, if anything, better as I was invited to sit next to the pilot. At times a little hair raising, particularly as he banked, it was an experience to be remembered.

As the flight was early morning we decided to walk to the edge of the glacier. This involves a walk through a glaciated valley which is still in the process of formation – again the geologists and geographers amongst you would be in ecstasy. The sheer size of some of the boulders and debris is astonishing. Needless to say it's not possible to get too close to the leading edge of the glacier as bits keep falling off, so we had to content ourselves with being about 100m away from it. Pictures do not give a true idea of scale.

In the afternoon we took a gentler stroll to Lake Matheson which is famous as a lake which has tremendous reflections of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. It was cloudy and a bit windy so the lake surface was rippled, so no reflections. Still, a pleasant walk.

Today we have driven from Fox Glacier up the West Coast to Punakaiki where there are pancake rocks and blowholes. As we haven't been to see them yet I don't know how impressive they are, but the scenery has been. Part of the journey was through gold mining country and we stopped at Ross where there are some restored buildings. Sue took up Can Can dancing!

Tomorrow we drop off the car and take the train across the Alps to Christchurch. We leave NZ on 14^th Feb, I may able to do one more post before we leave.

Milford, Wanaka and Fox Glacier (no mints)

The road to Milford was as spectacular as we thought it would be. Soaring mountains, low clouds and peaceful valleys all added up to  a glorious day out. We decided against another scenic cruise, Milford itself was much busier than Doubtful Sound, a purpose built harbour and at least four operators all added to the impression that there would be less sense of peace and tranquility on the water. As Milford Sound is less than half the length Doubtful I think we made the correct decision.

After three nights in the B&B we left for Wanaka. Although the B&B was good quality the impression we both had was that the landlady's heart really wasn't in it, we discovered on the last morning that she had been trying to sell up for two years. Slightly disorganised and amateurish covers it.

The drive to Wanaka meant retracing steps to Queenstown. Sue drove most of the way but we changed just before Queenstown and rove over to Wanaka using the Crown Range road. This is about half the distance of using the major roads but involves hairy hairpins and sheer drops before reaching the highest tarmac'd road in NZ. A difficult drive took us to Wanaka via old gold mining country round Cardrona.

The B&B outside Wanaka was very luxurious and more like a small private hotel with 7 rooms. I'd like to say what Wanaka is like but in reality we both flopped at the B&B, just leaving it long enough to have a pub meal - meant to be a small one as the meals are catching up on us, portions were still too large.

Today we have driven to Fox Glacier, a tiny village resembling a Western two horse town. The Westhaven Motel is adequate but the real reason to be here is to view the glacier. We've done a short walk and seen it in the distance but have booked a helicopter flight and landing on snow for tomorrow morning. We had hoped to do a hike on the snow but my knee is not up to it.  Hopefully we'll have lots of photos from the flight.

No photos on this post as the internet connection is slow

Queenstown and Te Anau

After an idyllic time in Lake Tekapo area where we managed to see Mt Cook in all its glory and walk part of the Hooker trail over two suspension bridges and scary railings anchored to a cliff, we left to go to Queenstown – the “Adventure Capital of New Zealand”. We were travelling on Waitangi day which is the NZ national day and a major public holiday. We were a little concerned that the road might be more busy but it was incredibly quiet. The journey took us only about three hours and we arrived earlier than we expected.

Because of the early arrival I stopped at A.J. Hackett's World of Bungy, allegedly the first place at which lunatics threw themselves off a bridge tied to an elastic band. Sue thought about trying it (only kidding), so we went in. We did see one person jumping (or was he pushed?) off the bridge. At least I saw him, Sue could not even bear to watch. Strange how some people get their pleasure.

At first sight our hotel was a bit of a disappointment as it was about 2km outside of the town. This soon dissipated when we saw the view from our room – direct onto the lake and the Remarkables (a mountain chain). A bed so large we had to use a loud hailer to communicate and super plush bathroom were bonuses. In the afternoon we went on a scenic cruise round the lake during which Sue chatted to a man from Montana who spends half the year in NZ as he got sick of shovelling snow. The town was very busy with lots of young people fuelling up for the evening with boxes of beer in the park. It wasn't at all threatening but it was clear that the evening would be rowdy. In case it hasn't twigged with you yet, Queenstown is where the English Rugby team disgraced themselves recently. All of a sudden an out of town hotel had its attractions. If we were thirty years younger though..........

As it was the following morning saw us heading south towards Te Anau which is as far south as we will go. Another lovely drive through mountains, lakes and fruit growing valleys and we arrived at Te Anau ANOTHER lake side town. Where Queenstown is brash and lively, Te Anau is sleepy and low key. After booking in to the B&B we sauntered down to the lake and the temperature soared through the afternoon up to 28 degrees. Smugly I emailed Sian and Thomas telling them this and pointing out the contrast with UK weather. Comeuppance was rapid with the first deluge of the holiday, complete with thunder (no visible lightning). It continued like this throughout the night.

We were a bit concerned about this as today was a full day out to Doubtful Sound, and involved two boats and a coach trip over a gravel road. Luckily the weather had sorted itself out and we had calm sea (and Sound), no wind and no rain. The latter was surprising as it rains most days here and the annual rainfall is between 5 & 8 metres (although a recent year saw 12 metres!). Apparently it has been quite dry for the last few days so the downside was that the waterfalls were not in full spate. Doubtful Sound is a fiord created during the last ice age and it is spectacular. The whole of this area (and I mean virtually the whole of the Fiordland area is a World Heritage Site and is virgin rainforest wilderness. During a three hour trip we saw three other boats and at one point the captain shut down all of the engines and let the boat drift in total silence, all that could be heard was the wind and the call of a few birds in the distance. Magical. As the weather was so calm the captain took us out of the Sound into the Tasman Sea, apparently these conditions happen only 4 to 5 times per year, so we were able to see the entrance to the Sound from the seaward side – Just as James Cook would have done in the 1770s. Not all was rosy, though, as from time to time those hardy souls on the upper deck had to wrap up against sea breezes, not a pretty sight!

Tomorrow we are going to drive over to Milford which has been described as one of the great car journeys in the world. Whether we go out on Milford Sound will be dependent on the weather.

Akaroa / Mount Cook

The sun is out, the scenery spectacular and the walking great. Say...No...More!

Moving on

The weather didn't improve in Kaikoura so we left the following morning,as planned, but sans dolphin experience. Christchuch to a peninsula called the Banks Peninsular and our stopping point, a small town called Akaroa. We were supposed to have a studio apartment but were again upgraded to a two bedroomed apartment which could easily have accommodated a family. I'm not sure whether people think we've been arguing and need space to sleep alone or (more likely) it's because of the reputation of the company we've used to book the trip and the desire to keep well in with them. Whatever it is I'm all for it.

Akaroa is a strange place in a number of ways. Firstly, it is built on a bay which was formed by the collapse of a volcano rim and is surrounded by three similarly collapsed (and extinct) volcanoes. This gives the whole peninsula a strange, almost circular, shape and a coastline which looks as though it has been nibbled by a giant.

Secondly, Akaroa is a French town. Strange but true, it was established by French colonists who hoped to claim New Zealand for France but who were too late! Instead they built a town with a Rue Jolie and a French butcher's shop. Some of the locals still speak French (with a New Zealand accent).

Akaroa's economy has benefited by an influx of cruise ships into the deep water harbour. Most have previously used Lyttleton which is at the other side of the peninsula but this is still recovering from the effects of the earthquakes. Akaroa was affected and signs are still apparent (our apartment had floor tiles which had been damaged. The war memorial had lost two buttresses and the local Gaiety Hall had been declared unsafe.

On the subject of the earthquake, we have been talking tonight at our latest stop, Lake Tekapo, with a young couple (English emigres) who live in a suburb of Christchurch. When asked how they had managed they said they were lucky as there house was still habitable - it soon became clear that this meant one wall was braced to stop it falling down, door frames were buckled and windows needed replacement. The Government indemnifies people against earthquake damage and their house has been identified as needing two walls replacing as well as more cosmetic repairs ("we never liked the floor tiles anyway"). Tales of living in the aftermath with no heating, lighting or working sanitation began to bring home how much people have suffered, but they were stoical and resigned.

We are now in the Alpine region of Southland. From our bedroom we can see snow covered peaks in the distance and Lake Tekapo itself is a bright turquoise colour. Today we went up Mount John where there is an observatory and looked at the 360 degree vista of the lake, mountains and rivers. Stupendous.

Tomorrow we will either stay locally or drive the 60 miles to Aoraki, Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand.

Pictures will follow tomorrow

Food and Drink Musings

I'm writing this with a Sassy Red in front of me, no it's not the latest woman I've picked up but Mac's Best Bitter. It's a good drink with "five different malts forming a rich base for gratuitously generous hopping". From this you might gather it is not generic lager. In fact all the pubs  and bars we've been in sell a range of beers much wider than I expected. Although some are well known international brands most are home grown. As you would expect the beer is served cold and gassy but is fine nonetheless. Price is another matter, typically a "pint" is $7-$8 and a "glass" (just over half the metric pint) $6. Divide by two for sterling equivalents.

I've already commented that wine is by no means cheap, one Kiwi I was talking to bemoaned the fact that when he is in the UK on business he can get NZ wine cheaper than at home. All that we have had is palatable, mainly sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. The Renwick vineyard we visited was unusual in specialising in Pinot Gris.

Coffee has been the big revelation, it is uniformly excellent. All places, even the smallest, have proper espresso machines and produce really good drinks for reasonable prices ($3-$4). For those who like such things there is always a range of tea (including yucky herbal ones) on offer. All of our accomodation has had coffee facilities and a range of teas.

There is a huge range of food available. There are the usual food chains, especially McDonalds, Burger King and Subway, and a few KFCs, but most  food is provided in local restaurants, bars and bakeries. This is certainly Pacific Rim territory, the range of choice is ecletic and has absorbed many influences - some better than others. The Asian influence is strong, with all towns having Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants (we also ate in an Indonesian restaurant). European influence is still very visible, especially Italian and British. The latter is especially strong in pub food and fish and chip shops. Sometimes the influences are not always well assimilated, yesterday Sue had a warm Salade Nicoise with a seared tuna steak on top. If you're not careful your fish and chips will come complete with fried egg!

I can't leave the subject without mentioning pies. There seems to be a national obsession with the things. All bakeries have an enormous selection, including traditional mince, steak and onion and chicken and mushroom. There is no end, though, to the fillings available. Butter chicken ( a mild curry chicken) is a favourite, and many others with oriental influences are available.

To give some idea of the scale of the obsession you may remember that our ferry crossing was very rough. The captain told everyone to sit down as it was dangerous to move around and everyone remained seated. Until, that is, the announcement that hot pies were being served in the cafe!

One final thing, portion sizes are generous. We have not managed three courses anywhere and usually are sticking to one!