Seats on the Beach

Flora

Native Wildlife

Humming Bird

Sunset from our suite

Angsana Resort

Sculpture in the Gardens

Eucalyptus tree

Tram in Regent Street & Cathedral

Bintan - Paradise

Well after a 10 hour flight, an overnight stay in Singapore and a quick 60 mins on a catamaran across the Singapore Strait / South China Sea, here we are in beautiful Bintan. This is everything I have ever dreamed of. White sand, blue skies, warm seas, humming birds and 1st class service. There are pieces of coral on the beach, lots of small pretty shells and the softest whitest sand. The beach is lined with coconut trees swaying in the wind. I guess you get the picture. Well that was yesterday currently we are having a monsoon downpour hence the blog session & not the beach! I am expecting this to be our last posting until we get home when I hope to enhance this, but it might just break our hearts to have to look at it for a while. We have had the time of our lives, really lived the dream and reality is going to be very, very hard. We have loved all your comments and it has been great keeping in touch with you all. Thank you for following us. We hope that you have enjoyed it as much as we have.

Christchurch

Well the sun finally came out so we manged to get round the Botanical gardens. Really good, beautiful rose garden and cool glades of trees. People got round to punting on the river Avon. Saw Christs College and walked through Hagley Park. Completed our tram journey from the previous day. Christchurch is a very lovely city, but it is a city after all!

Trans Alpine

Hokitika Beach

Sunrise over Mount Cook

Christchurch

A beautiful city if only it was not lashing with rain. We have done the tram ride and the Southern Encounter experience - aquariums and Kiwis very very good. Huge tanks filled with all sorts of fish, including sharks, rays and blue cod. Gave up and decided to get out of the rain to do the blog. Here are some more photos.

Trans Alpine - across Arthurs Pass into Christchurch

We board the train at Greymouth, leaving our car behind. Feels a bit too much like reality as we are heading into the city and the last few days in New Zealand! This journey is classed as one of the great train journeys of the world. Although there is very dramatic scenery it must be amazing in the winter or spring when the rivers and gorges are full of water and snow on the ground. We pass through about 16 tunnels on the way, Ian & I spend most of the time on the open air observation platform which is very windy when traveling at high speed. Hope to have got some good video footage though. Arrive in Christchurch which is much cooler than we are used to and bad weather is on the way. We have an apartment here for 3 nights which makes a good base as have loads of room to sort ourselves out.

Hokitika

Got up 7am as there were clear skies above the mountains. Legged it down to the Mount Cook viewing point & were not disappointed, managed to get excellent views of all the peaks. Set off then to our next stop over point Hokitika. We had a few stops along the way to admire the views as we had the mountain ranges on one side & the Tasman sea on the other, whilst driving through the rain forest. We have little or no idea what day of the week it is let alone the date. It will be a miracle if we manage to get to our flights on the right day if not the right time. Hey who cares??
Have fantastic accommodation at the Annabelle motel in Hokitika, beautiful room with all amenities, a bathroom that makes you want to shower all day as the drench shower pours straight out of the ceiling into a double spa bath. We also had a wooden deck outside with native planting and driftwood. After doing the jade shops we head off to the beach which is hot but with a cooling breeze off the sea. The Tasman is as wild as ever and huge surfing waves crash onto the beach. No one is swimming or surfing. There are not many beaches that we have come across where it is safe to swim. Driftwood lines the top of the beach, I mean whole trees that have been washed down from the forest. They have been out at sea and then washed ashore so they are smooth & worn and make a very dramatic sight on the beach. After a good walk we laze about a bit and have a really good meal in the Cafe de Paris in the evening.

Franz Joesph Glacier

View of Fox Glacier from Terra Firma

Mountain & Glacier

Mountain Range

Mount Cook

Mount Cook & us as well.

Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier - Mountains, Glaciers & Helicopters

What an another amazing day?? The answer is yes, NZ just gets better & better! This morning peeked out of the curtains fearful of what we might see but as they say here "No worries" Blue sky and a few puffy clouds over Mount Cook. Eagerly we head off the the town to book in for our trip. A bit too eager as we have to wait but not for long. We are soon transported to the helicopter & are up in the air before you can say lift off! Ian & I have the trip to ourselves (and the pilot of course) which is an added bonus and can recommend the company to anyone else who is thinking of coming here! We fly over Fox, Franz & Tasman Glacier then 3 other smaller ones. We circle round the mountain peaks, I will need to put the names in later. landing on an ice cap we have chance to speak to the pilot who is really friendly & points out all the sights and takes our photo's. Back on board we circle around Mount Cook. Ian has finally got his photo, mind you we were so close at one stage I thought we could reach out & touch it! After a good 45 mins we landed back in Fox - another first for us.
Later on we drove to Franz Joesph where we walked up to the glacier it was absolutely huge, people were completely dwarfed by it. Any twitchers watching we saw a Tom Tit and some Silvereye's today.

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Roaring Thunder

Lake Matheson Tree Fern

Tasman Sea

And Another

Fern Frond

Journey to Westlands across the Southern Alps

Today we have had a magical & most wonderful day. Leaving Wanaka behind we set off on a 6 hour drive, we were not really looking forward to it. In the end it only took 4 hours and that was stopping every 5 mins to look at waterfalls, rivers, rain forest, mountains, rainbows, glaciers, to mention but a few things. We passed rivers called Roaring Billy and Waterfalls called Roaring Thunder. We saw huge dry rivers that must have been a half mile wide. The mountains that were cloaked in cloud were on one side & the rain forest and the Tasman sea on the other, it was truly paradise. We stopped to paddle in the Tasman sea and once having reached the waters edge I was suddenly very frightened. There was no one else around the sea was roaring although the waves were not high. There was just a huge expanse of beach and miles & miles of sea, I felt very insignificant in such powerful surroundings. We arrived in Fox Glacier and booked our helicopter flights for the morning although today is good weather tomorrow is supposed to be better. We walked around Lake Matheson saw many wonderful ferns, tree ferns, mosses and beautiful plants and birds in a very quiet and green place.

Magical Wanaka

Arty Wanaka

Beautiful lake Wanaka

Milford Sound

Waterfall Milford Sound

Fiordlife

Under Water Observatory

Mountains & Snow

Milford Sound

Wanaka

Leaving Te Anau there has been as frost this morning. There is quite a chill in the air but it a good clear day. Retracing our steps back towards Queenstown we can marvel at the views that we did not see on the way down. The remarkables and many other mountains and lakes that were not visible previously. Heading over the Crown Range we spiral up and up on very tight hairpin bends towards Cardrona and onto the highest road in New Zealand. It is a hairy drive in places but worth it for the scenery, we can imagine what it must be like here in winter. There are laybys for you to stop & attach your snow chains! Have they been selling well in the UK? Dropping down the mountain we enter Wanaka and are both silenced by the sheer beauty of the place a magnificent setting, crystal clear lake, austere mountains, distant glaciers and of course the ever present sun. we are both suffering a bit with wind burnt faces today due to Milford Sound you might say we are glowing a bit! Yes Sarah we did find a lovely place to spend Valentines day it was here. We had a couple of glasses of Pelourus overlooking the lake and watching the sun go down.
I cannot upload any photos here so you will have to wait for them, maybe tomorrow? Sunday morning we have a good walk around the lake and watch the fish leaping out of the water. My father was fishing here about 15 years ago, I think it has changed quite a bit since then However the view will still be the same and I have to agree with him it is quite beautiful.
We are staying a deluxe B&B here so I must go as my hot tub and a glass of bubbly is calling me. TTFN Mrs F.

Fiordland - Te Anau - Milford Sound

Yesterday when it was cold we found the cinema was open & had the bonus of a log fire! Yes log fire. having warmed ourselves up we took a glass of Pinot Noir into the cinema and watched a good film about the area. Mostly filmed from a helicopter by an excellent cameraman it was quite breathtaking.
After a very sleepless night due to the fridge which must have been fueled by a diesel engine we set off early to to to Milford Sound. It was quite journey, again magnificent scenery, majestic snow capped mountains, mirror lakes and tunnels cut right through the middle of the mountain. The Homer tunnel is quite something I am not sure if there is anything on the web about it but see if you can check it out, quite an experience to drive through it.
The sun is shinning again as we get into the sound and soon we are on board our boat & off we go. Just after 4 mins the captain is quite excited s a pod of bottle nose Dolphins are heading towards us. We manage to get a good view of them they are massive compared to the Duskies and Hectors previously seen. Apparently not very often seen in the sound so we were very lucky. We see water falls, not many though due to the lack of rain, and head out into the Tasman sea. On our way back we see a Yellow Headed Gannet, another rarity or so I am told. we stop off to view the underwater observatory. Star fish, sea urchins and a myriad of fish big & small all swim past our eyes. The water is very clear and pale blue. we are 8 metres under the fiord. I will be adding links to this blog when I get home so hopefully it will give you all a better idea. Turned off the fridge & got a good sleep

Te Anau

Just to let you know its been raining most of the day & its cold!!!! Not impressed. Hope it brightens up tomorrow as we go to Milford Sound!

Lake Tekapo & Mount Cook

Arrowtown

As you can see from the pictures below Arrowtown is a very quaint and beautiful place, it looks like it came straight out of the Wild West. We spent a lovely day here, nice & sunny again. We walked around the ruined Chinese village which was built in the gold rush era, looked around the museum and panned for gold but no luck!

Arrowtown - Gold fever

Central Otago - Pinot Noir and Vineyard dogs

Leaving Lake Tekapo we miss out on the sight of Mount Cook as it is covered in cloud. Hopefully we will get to see it when we get around the other side of the island. Magnificent scenery all the way into Central Otago where we are excited to get to as a lot of the Pinor Noir is made here. We stop off at Brennan Wines http://www.brennanwines.com/index.htm check out the website! We are greeted not only by the extremely hospitable wine maker himself Sean Brennan but also his lovely dog gives us an ecstatic greeting. We spend a while tasting the wines which we both agree are excellent and reflect the dare I say "terroir" of the area. You can really taste the minerals in the whites and the 2007 pinot is beautiful and rich. We set off for a quick walk around the vineyard accompanied by our new 4 legged friend. (Sean if you read this please let me know her name as she definitely be in the vineyards dogs book. I will have to nominate her to go in Decanter magazine).We hate to go but have to move on to Arrowtown

Lake Tekapo

We leave a cloudy Akaroa & drive through the rain, yes rain! Through the Canterbury plains, sheep,sheep,sheep. (Don't get excited Tim if you are reading this!) Eventually we climb up and into clear blue skies and the stunning site of a mountain range, nothing can prepare for the real life picture of this. Unfortunately you will have to wait for our pictures as we cannot upload here. We arrive in Lake Tekapo and are totally lost for words at the beauty of the place. The lake is an aquamarine colour which is cause by minerals held in suspension in the water. We go for a walk around the lake, sadly all the wild lupins that grow here have finished flowering and only the solitary one or two are still showing some colour. We try to drive up to Mount Cook as it is going to be cloudy tomorrow, cannot make it as too far. We did manage to get a glimpse of it though, still a bit of snow on the top. The summer has been so hot here there is very little vegetation for the sheep & cattle to eat every where is very brown.

Happy Birthday Jeremy

We are heading on up into the mountains now & are doing a few one night overnighters in places. Have no idea when we will get the time to blog so......

Have a great birthday, if anyone would enjoy the delights and beauty of New Zealand it would be you! So until you can get here we will enjoy it for you.

Happy Birthday Lots of love Ian & Shelley. XXXXXX

Akaroa - Yacht Sailing & Hectors Dolphins

Here we are in a very sunny Akaroa 33+ both days but a souherly has just got up & the weather is on the change. Had a great drive down from Kaikora through Christchurch (doing that later) Landscape changing all the time. Have had a glimpse of the Canterbury plains, they seem to stretch for miles. Dropping down into Akaroa was just breathtaking. It is a very beautiful place. hairpins all the way up & then all the way doen into a beautiful town & harbour.This place was discovered by the French & has remained typical so even the street names. Our accomodation is ok & we have a fantastic views out over the bay, lots of sea birds. Last night was a full moon and was so clear. This morning went sailing on yacht Fox 11. Fantastic smooth seas and glorious weather, Hectors Dolphins swimming alongside us, Blue Penquins as well just perfect.Off to Lake Tekapo tomorrow however weather due to change. As we type this the hillside in front of us is slowly being engulfed in cloud like custard pouring over a pudding!!! For those in the know have been to Fire & Ice!!!!

Leaping Dolphin