Island of Two Halves

Usually I'd refer to New Zealand as a land of two halves - the North Island and the South. But even the South Island has been divided over the last few weeks. While we in Canterbury basked in gorgeous winter sunshine the far south was plunged into Artic conditions.

Our friends, Kate and Craig, took themselves off to Queenstown with their 3 children. Despite weather warnings, record snow dumps and road closures they were determined to make it through to the Winterfest and Craig's long anticipated Shihad gig.

After nearly 2 days (with an overnight stop in Invercargill) they made it. And well worth it it was too by all accounts!

With temps below zero, hats and scarves required!

Alex looking uber-cute!


Mum Kate and Alex

Meanwhile, back in Waddington, we were filling our rented trailer with all the rubbish we'd pruned, weeded and hacked out of the garden - in t-shirts! This time last year were had been snowed in for a few days but, as yet, we've had no snow apart from some pathetic flurries last week. Mount Hutt is open now, but the higher slopes aren't in great shape... yet. It's a shame as Warren is itching to get on the slopes and I may go for some more lessons! Gulp!

Hmm, what else? Oh yes, the local firemen's social do! What a laugh. We got spruced up and headed off to the Sheffield Community Hall where we met with our neighbours and friends from the village. It was great to catch up with those I've missed since giving up my jobette at the garage. And, it was the first time in yonks that I've waltzed! What great fun and, despite having a few to drink, I managed not to sign up for the fire service!!

We're planning a trip down to Otago and Southland for August, can't wait, it's been a while since we did any exploring. Hopefully we can pop in and see Kat and Rob down near Invercargill and see how they're getting on!

This time next year I could well be round my parent's house as we're hoping to sponsor their emigration here very soon! Watch this space!

Oh, that reminds me. In a couple of months time we shall be eligble for CITIZENSHIP as we'll have been here 3 years! Time flies!

My Parent's Own Words.....

I asked my parents to write a bit about their visit and their thoughts on New Zealand. They didn't let me down! Great reading - I know where I got my love of writing from now!

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Our first visit to ‘Godzone’ was way back in 1990. We flew in to Auckland from Sydney, where George had spent 3 months installing and commissioning a flight simulator for Qantas Airlines, spent a week doing the ‘touristy’ things on North Island then over to Blenheim for a short stay with Ken and Margaret (Ken was best man at our wedding in 1967).

After a delightful time with them we wended our way over the next few days down the West coast road -- Westport, Punakaiki Rocks, Greymouth, Franz Josef and Fox glaciers then turning inland heading for Queenstown.

George decided that, rather than follow highway 6 for Queenstown from Wanaka, we could follow the ‘hypotenuse’ route via Cardrona and get the benefit of seeing some spectacular scenery at the same time. What we failed to realise at the time was that beyond Cardrona the pavement road ran out and the unmetalled road began!!

Not too bad to start with, nice and smooth and fairly level. Then came the descent into the back end of Queenstown – steep, winding and no safety barrier!! Definitely NOT to Vivien’s liking especially as she had a wonderful view of several hundred feet almost straight down on her side of the car!!!! “Stop the car for a mo.” she says. George dutifully stops the car thinking she wanted to take a snap!! Oh no! She then proceeds to walk down the road hugging the side furthest from the drop shouting over her shoulder “I’m not getting back in that ruddy car ‘til we hit level ground.”


She meant it too... still walking...


Needless to say we eventually got to Queenstown (without too much walking) and enjoyed it so much we stayed two days instead of the planned one.

The reason for this little tale is to put into perspective a little exploit, which yet again demonstrated George’s bravado (or should it be foolhardiness?!) during our recent visit last December.

Helen and Warren decided to let us loose on the roads in their Subby Legacy whilst they got ready for, and went to, Helen’s works bash (see Folks in the Boonies). Off we went, mid morning, to tour around the local area and take in the sights and sounds of the Canterbury area. Whilst cruising around Viv said “Oooh that should be interesting. D’you fancy driving over New Zealands longest road bridge?” Not one to turn down a new experience George says “You betcha doll” and off we set. To cut a long story short it was one of the most boring moments we had in NZ! The so called longest bridge was nothing but a raised piece of concrete road over the, admittedly very wide, Rakaia river.

Looking at the map we spotted a road which led down to the mouth of the river and decided to investigate. Half an hour later we had the magnificent Pacific Ocean in our sights. And what a sight, not a person to be seen for miles until George spots some figures in the distance fishing.


Now George isn’t a fisherman type, just a nosey Pom!! “Let’s go and have a look” he says and before Vivien could utter a word points the nose of the Subby towards what looks like a reasonable track (which other cars had obviously used) along the head of the beach.

A couple of hundred meters later it went strangely quiet in the Subby as both of us realised the Subby was struggling for traction. Beads of cold sweat broke out on George’s furrowed brow. Only one thing for it, pedal to the metal and pray. After all this car should be able to cope, it’s a four wheel drive. Scrabble, scrabble, scrabble. Cripes we’re slowing down!! Then suddenly a nice level firm patch with lots of tracks. Gotta turn back, mustn’t stop; give Viv impression I know what I’m doing. Spin the steering wheel, boot the gas pedal, throw up lots of dirt and point the nose at the first track that looks as if it’s the way back. Uh oh, there’s a six foot wall of loose sand and gravel straight ahead which a Land Rover would have been proud to conquer. A quick prayer with closed eyes. On opening eyes the windscreen was full of bright blue sky. Just then the Subby decided it wasn’t worth going into orbit and turned its nose earthwards landing in a commendably graceful fashion before scurrying off to the car park where we began. Phew, got away with that one. Turned to the still silent Vivien and said, nonchanently, in true Fred Dibnah fashion “Did ya like that?!!!” There was no comment!!!!

After that little excitement we decided to go for a stroll along the beach. On getting out of the car we were faced with the results of George’s sojourn into the wilderness, the car was FILTHY!! It was covered with a thick layer of what can only be described as powdered rock. It looked as if it had just survived driving through a volcanic dust cloud!!


Panic!! “We can’t take the car back in this state.” says Vivien. So after our stroll we set off to Ashburton to find a car wash not, as you’ve probably guessed, via metalled roads. Oh no, the scenic way via dusty dirt roads along the coast. Well at least the dust cloud was behind us all the time. At least I think it was because we couldn’t see out of the back window!! Got to a petrol station with a car wash and came away gleaming. Then we thought ‘hang on, the car is now cleaner than it was this morning, the kids are going to smell a rat and if we tell them what happened they’ll never trust us with the car again’.

The next hour or so was spent concocting excuses for the superclean Subby. We were concentrating so much on the excuses that we forgot about the fuel in the tank. Ooops, down to ¼ of a tank, never mind Methven is just up the road. What we didn’t realise, in rural Canterbury most things close at 5.30pm, it was now 6.15. Yup, everything sure is closed around here. Never mind we should be able to make it back home, we can get fuel tomorrow. “Oh no we can’t” says Vivien “we have to pick the kids up from Christchurch later tonight.” Nervous giggle from George!! Right, featherfoot the throttle, turn off the aircon, delay using headlamps for as long as legally possible, cut down the consumption as much as possible. Passing Sheffield and a glance at the fuel gauge, gulp, 1/8 full. Reduce speed to what is practically a crawl, more beads of cold sweat!! Kirwee, Aylesbury, rivers of sweat. The suspense is unbearable waiting for the first signs of fuel starvation. Then suddenly, salvation, the welcoming lights of West Melton and, more importantly, an open petrol station. That fuel tank took an awful lot of filling!!

The journey into Christchurch was a joyous one culminating in the best kebab we have tasted for a long time. About an hour later the mobile phone rang, we expected a call from Helen to say they needed taking home. It didn’t happen! Again, see Folks in the Boonies.

Nothing for it but to go back to Waddington to pack for our second trip to Queenstown.

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Nice one, folks!

The Folks in the Boonies - Chapter Two..

I thought I'd never get round to updating this blog. I'm not entirely sure what's been keeping me so busy but my excuse for the last 3 weeks is a prolapsed disc, say no more.....

Mind you, in that time Warren has organised the photo's, which is nice!

Now, where was I... Queenstown..

Remarkably, we made it to the airport, on time. And remarkably we were fairly hangover-free. And "remarkable", said in a very Coogan-stylee, was about to be the word of the week....

The flight to Queenstown was awesome. We'd hit lucky with the weather and as we came out of the Cantabrian clouds we entered the realm of lakes and mountains that surround Queenstown. Including "The Remarkables"...


That's a photo Dad took of The Remarkables from our apartment at the Outrigger. It really was a superb apartment, highly recommended and a great Xmas pressie from my folks who paid for our stay. Cheers!

Anyway, back to the trip. Mum and Dad had been in Queenstown about 15 years or so ago and were very surprised by how much it had grown, the airport was no longer a shack! The drive to the apartment from the airport swept us past huge construction sites and blocks of "lake view" apartments for sale, lease and holiday rent. It was much more built up than I had expected.

We struck gold with the apartment, which I'd booked online. We stayed at the "Outrigger at the Beacon" which is situated right on the lakefront. The apartment was superb, 2 beds, huge living areas, jacuzzi, full mod-cons kitchen and a huge deck with the the most amazing views out across Lake Wakatipu to The Remarkables. This is Mum and I on the deck.




The TSS Earnslaw cruised back and forth in front of us all day (you can just see her in the pic at the top of this post - click on pics to enlarge) and we'd all stand and watch her and wait for the horn to sound - what a lovely sight she was! Remarkable!

We took a trip on her to the other side of the lake where we were treated to lunch and a tour of Walter Peak High Country Farm and it's grounds, followed by wine tasting! A really lovely day out, and Dad was in his element examining the TSS Earnslaw's steam engine rooms and watching the guys keep the fires stoked.



Whereas I decided to take control of things!




In our two days in Queenstown we had a lovely time. We went up the gondola (I nearly went paragliding but had ordered food and advised not to!) and we ALL (yes, even Mum!) went on the luge at the top! Warren and I did it twice but I rather think Mum regretted doing it just once! Ah well, we're all proud she gave it a go - remarkable!




We also did one of the jet boat rides - we plonked for the Karawau Jet as my parents had done the Shotover on a previous visit. It was great.. as you can see, we were the quiet family in the back .. hahaha


We finished our trip with a scrummy meal at The Boardwalk - Dad and I shared oysters to start, nice to have someone to share them with! Yummmm!

We'll definitely be back, I still have my paragliding to do and Warren is keen on the Flying Fox. It's not somewhere we could live, it's a bit too resorty for that, but it's not a bad weekend location within driving distance, eh?

All in all, a REMARKABLE trip!