nhawi

yesterday we did the trip from blenheim down to christchurch, another amazing coastal drive in the south island, i think the so called ‘great ocean road’ has been relegated to about 4 places down the list to “quite a nice ocean road”.

whinging victorians can call me when there are snow capped mountains on one side, the beach and ocean on the other, baby seals swimming in a pool underneath a waterfall, 250m up a fresh water stream and a caravan beside the beach selling fresh crayfish cooked in garlic butter.

the baby seals at ohau point are amazing, they only started this behaviour about 12 years ago, they come up the beach, enter the stream and clamber their way about 250 m upstream to a big pool under a waterfall. the incredible thing is no adults make the scramble up the stream, in fact only pups about 3 months and under do it!

once the pups reach about 3 months they return to the beach and behave like every other seal!

i just realised that i missed posting an update about Nelson, beside the rugby game. we had 3 days here and really enjoyed it, such a pretty town with lots to do and see. we finally found great coffee in NZ, like australia there are very few cafes that have any idea about really making a good coffee.

but a little cafe called kush certainly pulls it off, great coffee, nice old “Has Garanti” roaster in the shop, friendly and very skilled baristas, wait staff and roaster makes for a memorable cafe!

kai most enjoyed his friendly neighbour, Kaye who runs an electric bike hire business and let kai run riot on her little electric scooter.

we stayed in a cute little 2 storey apartment in south st which is the oldest complete st in Nelson with rows of pretty little workers cottages, after pulling out from Nelson we drove across to havelock for mussels for lunch and then along queen charlotte drive to picton which is another amazing piece of coastal driving in NZ.

after a good look around picton we drove down to blenheim and picked up ben, jeremy’s 6 year old nephew, from his nanna and went back to their farm in waihopai valley to have a few days with jeremy’s sister raych, her partner mike , ben & mr pig pig.

one of my items on the list of things to do in NZ was to go to a rugby game, tonight the local team in nelson, where we are staying, the Tasman Makos were playing Canterbury so we rugged up in all our winter woolies and walked down to the end of the main street to the Trafalgar Stadium and managed to fluke seats in the first row of the stand, about 2 metres from the sideline!

thats my boof head watching the scrum pack down, I wore my Waratahs hat just so the locals had someone to throw their empty Speights cans at (and so Aidan would be able to spot us in the crowd, he claimed I was hogging the camera!)

it was a fantastic game with the lead see-sawing thru the game until Canterbury got a late try to go ahead, all seemed lost for the home side but they managed to work the ball up to the other end, got a crucial turnover on the line and then ran a try in under the posts to get up 23-18 as the siren went!

sal, kai and I had a ball, despite being frozen to the bone by the end of the game. I had sneakily parked the car right outside the stadium earlier in the afternoon so we didnt have to walk home in the cold anyway.

 

last night we stayed in the little west coast port of westport, we picked a B&B to stay at this time as that was something we had not done before on this trip, once again our choice was inspired – a quaint not so little cottage owned by a lovely dog named Toby.

Toby’s parents, Helena & Duncan do all the hardwork while Toby runs around playing with the guests, teaching them to throw his ball, getting patted and other doggy delights.

due to my laziness and the brevity of our visit I have no photos of the house so I pinched these images from their website.

we had a lovely evening chatting with Helena and Duncan, Helena was borne in Prague and moved to the US as a young woman, living there before coming to the land of the long white cloud. Duncan made his way here from England and both are very well travelled and fascinating companions for a chat round the wood heater!

Helena is a very talented photographer and many of her beautiful images adorn the walls of the cottage, Duncan is an artist and his paintings are also hung through the cottage for your pleasure & inspiration!

a highly recommended stopover if you find yourself driving up or down the west coast of the south island.

in hindsight it would have been great to spend a couple more nights around the fire chatting about travel, culture, places & people, but after a hearty cooked breakfast we took our leave and headed further north, to the jewel of the north – Nelson.

 

today was an amazing day, on what has been a fantastic holiday! we got up early and after a hot breakfast we headed across to catch our helicopter to the glaciers.

I have been on a few helicopter rides, I have even done some flying lessons in a chopper, but this was something else, sadly there is no way the photos can do justice to the experience of flying a chopper past those vertical walls of rock, snow and ice as you fly up from the bottom of the glaciers, up to the neve where the snow forms into ice to start the glacier, and then across and around the peak of Mt Cook.

it was breathtaking, magnificent, awe inspiring, slightly scary, humbling, fabulous and incredible – yet that doesnt start to tell you the story of just how amazing it was, right up there as one of the best experiences of my life!

I could just put 50 photos up and try to let them tell the story – but it wouldnt work, it truly is one of those moments where I can honestly say, “you had to be there!”

I will get the rest of the images up on our web gallery here, i think Sal & Kai had just as much of a fat time as me!

we spent about 10 minutes up on top of Fox Glacier and with a nice fall or fresh powder snow overnight it was lots of fun!

somehow we managed to add to the day by spending the rest of it at the hot pools in franz joseph, sal had an hour massage and kai and i enjoyed the various hot pools until sal joined us after her massage. although the pools themselves are fibreglass with local rocks incorporated, the setting in the ferny rain forest made it memorable.

 

so yesterday we loaded up the cars and drove the 30kms or so up to the slopes at treble cone, one of NZ’s premier ski fields. the drive alone is pretty incredible, winding along the side of lake wanaka and then up the mountain, winding up through switchback corners to the carpark.

we spent an hour or so fitting ourselves and the kids with all the required gear and booked everyone in for beginners lessons.

the kids had a group lesson – but there was just the four of our kids signed up so that was perfect, we adults also had a group lesson and the four of us were joined by a columbian guy & his venezuelan girlfriend.

progress at first was pretty slow for all of us except lisa & sal who showed their skiing pedigree fairly quickly (ie they had actually been on skis before even if it was 30 years ago!)

we were also joined by a guy filming for the treble cone ski resort, so there will be a video of us learning to ski and being interviewed about the experience.

here you can see me carving up the powder on my snow board after a couple of hours lesson,

ok, so its not me, its some other random who actually can ski.

no one got a photo of my most spectacular incident, a high speed crash into the side of the beginners slope – actually a carefully designed move to terminate my uncontrolled descent.

the kids all got the hang of it and had a ball, although they were pretty shattered by the end of the day. lisa carved the slopes up like a pro, sal wasnt far behind, aidan went up the top of the beginners slope to prove he was slightly less out of control than me and I demonstrated why there are no mooneys in the winter olympics.

all in all a fantastic day and an experience not to be missed – all the better for doing it with the reillys.

 

 

Well here we are in god’s own, the land of the long white cloud, puha & pakeha. We are settling in at Aidan & Lisa’s, the kids were very excited to catch up!

The photo above is the view out the lounge room window, it’s hard to see the snow on the hills, because the cloud is so low and just about covers it.

So far the weather has been a bit bleak, drizzly, windy & cold – but hopefully we will get some clear days soon.

The lovely big fire in the lounge keeps the house warm, and a few glasses of the local Pinot noir don’t hurt either.

Next weekend we are all going up to wanaka to have a few days there and to hit the ski slopes.