Feb 12th – 18th – Goodbye to Tom, Gila and Lisa

Greg Says……
Mon 12th – We left Kaiteriteri, and moved to Nelson. At lunchtime we went with Thomas, Gila, and Lisa to a restaurant called the ‘Boat Shed’ in Nelson Bay. It was a nice place which specialised in a fish menu. Lucy had Thai Crab cakes, and I had Crayfish. Alistair had Marlin, and Rowena Blue Cod and Chips. It was really nice, and we all felt satisfied when we left. After a trip into Nelson for some shopping we went to the biggest campground in New Zealand and Australia by the harbour in Nelson. It has an exercise track around the outside for 2 km’s, which Tom, myself and the children completed before dinner! Tonight was a delayed Movie Night for the children, and they watched ’Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’! The adults had a quite time socialising with the children kept quiet in front of the film!
Tues 13th –After breakfast it was time to say ’Goodbye’ to Thomas, Gila and Lisa. It was very sad, and we had a tear in our eyes! We had spent a lot of time together for the last 6 days. Thanks to them for a great time, we are left with lots of great memories.
We went into Nelson for some more supplies, then headed out to Wakefield to go and see Lucy’s friend Linda. Lucy and Linda were flatmates in London, and travelled together on a number of trips.
We got there at about 5.30pm, and stayed the night. Linda has a lovely house with her husband Greg, and children Jesse, Annie and Sophie. Alistair and Rowena enjoyed playing with Annie and Sophie in the 4 acre wood that is part of their land, and with their horses. The house itself was built in the late 1800’s and has heaps of character. (Kiwi’s say ‘heaps’ all the time!). They are currently building a new kitchen, and guest bedroom, and it will be even nicer when finished. It’s the kind of house I would like with lots of space inside, and also all around it. It is set in the country, but only about 2 miles from Wakefield.
Wed 14th – We left Linda’s and Greg’s house and drove to Murchison. Thanks to Linda for a nice evening.
At Murchison we stayed at the Riverview Campsite. The drive here was lovely, through the Buller gorge. There are high mountains on each side of the gorge, which are a lovely lush green colour. The river Buller gushes down beside the road, and there is good rafting around here.
We arrived at the campground, and set up. Alistair, Rowena and I went for a run, and then a swim in the river. You have to be careful after you swim in certain rivers to wash the swimming togs thoroughly, due to the Didymo outbreak. Didymo is Algae which spreads easily, and cogs up the rivers.
Anyway, all that aside, we had a nice bit of exercise and a swim. We fully deserved our diner when we got back to the camper!
Riverview is a nice campsite by the river, with the sites in between the trees. There is a lovely bush walk through to the golf course which we ran on.
Thurs 15th – Today we went to the six mile drive walkway. Luckily it wasn’t six miles long, it was just that distance from the main road. We had a nice walk through the bush to the river and back again. Afterwards we drove to the swing bridge which is the longest in NZ, across the Buller river. It was good to go across the bridge which is suspended about 100 feet above the river. The bridge is quite strange to walk on as it moves! Rowena decided to come back over via the zip wire, which only took about 30 seconds and cost $10, but she enjoyed it.
By the time we got back to the same campsite as the night before it was time for lessons, then dinner, the bed
Fri 16th – We left Murchison and mad our way down the Buller Gorge towards Westport. On the way we stopped and picked up a Hitchhiker. She was from Hamburg, and was working at a backpackers in Punikaki. We dropped her on the road South, and went into Westport. It’s quite a nice little town, which has no Warehouse, no MacDonalds, or any other big chain, it’s really quite refreshing! Anyway, the main activity was getting Alistairs hair cut, so he looks like a boy again, and not a girl! We decided that the Top 10 campsite called ‘Top 10 Seal’ was the best place to stay for tonight.
Also, it was a day of exercise, so Alistair, Rowena and I (Daddy) went for a run along the beach to the mouth of the Buller River. It was about 3km’s there, and the same back. In retrospect it was a bit far for Alistair to run, but he eventually did it! Rowena was cycling, so she was ok. It was a really lovely run as the evening temperature was just right, and when we got to the mouth of the river, we were entertained by dolphins, commonly known as Hector’s Dolphins. This was the first sighting of several in the next few days! We limped home satisfied that we had done our exercise, and that we had seen the sea mammals.
Sat 17th – We Stayed in Westport Top 10, again, today. Lucy got up early at 7am and went for a cycle with Alistair on the same route as our run the previous night. The dolphins were there again, and gave another show to the cyclists! Rowena and I were woken to warm hot cross buns and coffee! Later we went to the Cape Foulwind Walkway. This was a lovely coastal walk, which reminded me of the Purbecks, although the sea was a beautiful turquoise colour, and there was a seal colony at our destination! Alistair and I ran back to the van, but really it was too hot to do this, but we did it anyway! When we got back to the campsite, I went for a cycle with Rowena to see if the dolphins were there, but we got there a little later than the night before, and they were not there…..never mind!! The highlight was Rowena trying to ride with no hands, which she did for at least 2 seconds!! She still needs to practise, and she’ll eventually get it!
Sun 18th – Alistair and I got up at 7am, and cycled, yes you’ve guessed it, to the mouth of the river to see the Dolphins. We saw them today, and it was the perfect farewell to the area for us! We returned the compliment of hot cross bus and coffee, and the day started well again! Later we went to the Pancake Rocks at Punikaki. These rocks are shaped like pancakes one on top of each other, and have formed some fantastic shapes. Guess what….we saw some more dolphins, this time jumping right out of the water and flipping back into the water. Today we had lunch on the beach with the seagulls feeding them our leftovers. We arrived later at Greymouth and went in search of LOW COST Camping, but couldn’t find it! So we ended up in South Beach, where there was just enough time for homework and then bed!

Feb 5th – 11th – Arrival in South Island – Paradise found!

Mon 5th – We didn’t do too much today, except go down to the beach. The children did some rock pooling at Ohwiro Bay, and then went swimming with their body boards. That evening Jill had her friend over to sort out her computer, Sean, and he stayed for dinner. The weather was beautiful, and we sat outside, although the mozzies were around!! The children had played on the Trampoline with Lux, which makes them slip and slide around. After this they were showered in the garden sprinkler!! They were as happy as anything, and all the adults could hear was the shriek over raucous laughter!
Thanks to Jill and Oddi we had a great time staying in Newtown.
Tues 6th –Got up at 5.30 am, yes 5.30 am!! Lucy’s Birthday!! However the reason we had to get up so early was not to prepare for this happy occasion (well I guess it depends how you look at it, Lucy is another year older, but there are the memories of other happy days on this day in the past!), it was so we could catch the Bluebridge ferry to Picton on the South Island. The trip across the Cook Strait was lovely, with bright blue sunshine. Picton is the gateway to the Marlborough Sounds, and it is stunning scenery with hills (probably classed as mountains!) with trees dropping sharply down in to the sound (the water inlet from the sea). The water is a beautiful clear Turquoise colour, and it’s very inviting to go for a swim. We didn’t, though, because we had to get to Pohara Beach to meet our friends Thomas, Gila and Lisa.
We arrived at the Top 10 Campsite at Pohara beach at about 5.30pm, and then promptly went for a swim. Even Lucy swam in the sea! After this we had a BBQ which Tom and Gila had organised, it was great…..Thanks to Tom and Gila for that.
Wed 7th – We moved from Pohara Beach up to Puponga. On the way we stopped at the Pupu springs, which is the largest freshwater spring. The water here is the clearest I have ever seen, when you look at it you can see right to the bottom, it was absolutely glorious! You used to be able to swim in it, but because of the spread of Algae called Didymo it is illegal to do so now. Apparently people do try to swim in it, but there are wardens to stop them doing it, and a minimum fine of $1000 to try and stop them.
After the springs we went to our campsite at Puponga, which was nice except for a ‘jobs worth’ manager who made sure that our campers were not taking up an extra inch at all on our sites, even though there was nobody else there, and made sure that we left dead on 10am the next morning! It was a shame really, because it is a nice site in a nice area.
That night we went to Nguroa Bay, which is reached down a 10km gravel road, and a great walk through sand dunes. We got to the beach and we were there by ourselves. The sea was crashing in between two islands, so we took to the water with our body boards. Alistair and Rowena had a lovely time surfing in, whilst I stood around looking cold! Lucy, again, came in for a swim, but retreated early to the warmth of the towel!
Touch Rugby was the order of the day after we came out of the sea, and it was a great way to warm up. Tom, Gila and Lisa played, and the boys won a closely fought battle, 10-9! Lucy and I went for a walk along the deserted beach, where we came across large caves and channels in the rocks which had been formed by the sea – what a place this is! We walked father, and spotted some sea lions on the rocks, and one was even right in front of us, so we got within about 10 meters from it before it realised and then retreated. It’s difficult to explain how nice this beach is, but suffice to say it’s another unspoilt paradise in NZ.
Thurs 8th – We left the campsite as soon after 10am as we could, and promptly drove 20 meters from the front gate and parked. Opposite the campsite was a walk at low tide out to an island which housed a seal colony. We walked out across the river of water to the island, and saw what we thought were a whole load of seals. They turned out to be birds! Anyway a bit further on we walked around the rocky point of the island, and came across the seals. There was also one seal swimming, and playing in the sea right by us. We spent some time watching them as they went through their daily routine, and almost forgot about the incoming tide! So we hurried back towards the car where the river that we had crossed had deepened quite considerably, but as we all had our sense of adventure with us we crossed quite easily, only getting our shorts wet!
We drove on through Pohara to Takaka to Tata beach, where the afternoon was spent sun bathing and swimming, a well earned rest!
That evening we drove to Totaranui Beach DOC Camp, where we spent the night. Before settling down for dinner though, we spotted some dolphins out at sea. They gave us a show, by jumping up out of the sea, and then diving down again….really was a lovely sight.
Fri 26th – I made the bicycle up for the children and Rowena, Alistair and Rowena spent some time riding around on these. We were booked on the water taxi to Mutton Cove at 11 am, so had a bit of time to mess about. At 5 to 11 we went to the beach to catch the taxi, but the man said that it had left early! Anyway he said he would detour to take us, so we got our ride. The ride was great because the helmsman took us to our destination, but on the way showed where the seal colony was. This was great because we got so close to them.
After being dropped on another amazing deserted beach, we walked up to Separation Point, where we saw more seals! We became quite Blaze about them now! Back at the beach there was time for more swimming and playing. Alistair, Rowena, Thomas and I went for a swim to the seal colony, and we managed to get a close up from the sea. On the way back Rowena spotted a ‘wall’ of fish, it was amazing there were thousands of fish in the shoal! We have never seen anything like this before, except on ‘The Natural World’ Mr Attenborough! You now know why the seals are there, because they have plenty of breakfast, lunch and dinner right under their noses!
The children made it back to the beach before me, and I managed to spot a manta ray before getting out. What a day so far, so many high lights! We still had to walk back to the campsite, which was about a 2 hour walk. This was a beautiful walk along beaches and through the bush, with great views of the sea crashing in below us.
We finished off by all going in for a swim, as the sea was as flat as a pancake.
A brilliant day which was full of great experiences.
Sat 27th – Could we repeat the day before? We got up about 8 ish, and left the campsite at about 9. Again we had to get somewhere before the tide had come in, this time we going south to Awaroa Bay. Thomas heard that there was a lodge there where we could have a coffee and an Ice Cream before getting the water taxi back.
We started along the track with the rain falling, and pretty soon came across a lovely beach, which we had to walk along. That was the story for the walk as we then went into the bush, and out again on another beach. We were starting to hurry because we didn’t know what the tide was doing, but in the end we got to the water inlet from sea, and crossed with no problem.
We had lunch next to the water inlet, and by the time we had finished the weather was changing with sun coming out. We walked to the lodge past their organic garden, which produces a lot of fresh fruit and veg for the restaurant there. Once at the lodge it was time for coffee and cake, this had been what we ad been looking forward to all along the track! We were not disappointed. Due to their error they brought us the wrong order, so they had to go back and change it. As they had made the mistake we ended up with what we had ordered (something with lots of chocolate!) and the extra order that they had mistakenly given us (not sure what this was, but it was nice!)….Great!
The lodge is a nice place, and to reach it you have to come in by water taxi, or by plane. Otherwise you can walk there.
We left the lodge, and Rowena and Lisa got a lift to the beach on a quad bike, whilst we all had to walk! Another beautiful beach…..getting boring now….NOT!! We followed our routine of going for a swim, then spending some time playing with the tennis ball, before getting the water taxi back to Totaranui. This was quite exiting because the sea was rough, and it we had to dodge the waves as they came in on the beach….the end of a prefect day!
Sun 28th – Today was another moving day. After doing the shopping, and filling up with gas we moved to Kaiterirteri. The beach here is also nice, but there are more people around. It was a bit overcast when we got there, but we still went for a swim. After which we went to the campsite, which had a lot of people on it, and met two of Tom and Gila’s friends – Johnny and Alien (pronounced allee en). We all had a BBQ, and a few beers! Twas another good day for us all.

29th January- 4th February – Alistair’s tail

Alistairs’ first post- We walked from Eastbourne car park around all of the bays and bends. It took around 1 hour and 40 mins to get to Pencarrow Head Lighthouse. Pencarrow Head is at the end of Wellington harbour and it was very windy. On the way back I found very big Paua shell. Paua are beautiful shells that belong to a sea creature which lives on rocks in the sea which lives on rocks in the sea. You can eat Paua because it is meant to be very nice.
One day we went to wave Dad off to Wellington then had our lessons on the beach after we had been into Days Bay café for breakfast. That day we had a look for someone to look at the vans exhaust but we couldn’t find anyone to do it, so we went to the campsite and booked in. Then we went to pick Dad up from Days Bay.
We went fishing from the wharf but I didn’t catch anything but I had some bites.
We went to Wellington by ferry and went to the food court to have a coffee and do some lessons. Food court is a place where you get lots of different types of food like Mexican, Indian, Thai, Japanese and Turkish.
At lunchtime we saw a rugby parade for the Wellington 7’s. The players threw lots of chocolate bars at us, one of the bars went under the cars wheel and I picked it up completely flat!
In the afternoon we saw loads of people dressed up in fancy dress going to the 7’s. then we went to the museum, TePapa where we did some work about Captain Cook and the Endeavour and the Maoris.
On Friday afternoon we went to see Jill & Odette, who we had met in Fiji. When we got there on Friday we had a water and soap bubble fight. On Saturday morning we went to the climbing wall and I climbed a very high rope and lots of walls. We had to have a harness around our waist and through our legs. Then we had to clip ourselves on to the rope so we didn’t fall. Then we went to Tiger Eye beads and we chose some beads and made some earrings, Jill met us after her bike ride and arranged for us to go bowling which was fun, Mum won somehow, Odette can second and I was third.
At 10am on Sunday we went to Lyall Bay Surf club with Odette for her training session. I decided not join in but went in the sea by myself and played with the body board in the waves. Mum and Dad took us all to a Chinese restaurant for lunch, called Yum Cha. Where people come around with food on plates and you choose what you want and eat it with chopsticks, near the end we decided that in China you wouldn’t cut things to fit the size of your mouth. After that we went to Staglands, with Jill, Mum and Dad didn’t come with us.
Staglands is a place with lots of animals that you would find in different countries. After that we went Blueberry picking and me and Odette got an ice cream.

PS…Dad went to the Wellington Sevens at the Westpac Stadium on Friday and Saturday. He said it was great!

January 22nd – 28th – Arrival in Wellington

Wellington is the Capital City, but it’s not like the European cities it’s quite small and easy to get around. I like it because you can park easily, there’s not a lot of traffic, and you can easily get out. You can be in the middle of nowhere very quickly, and there are Mountain Bike tracks all over the place. The beaches are only about 15 minutes from the city centre, and in fact you can get to one within about 5 minutes! Al in all it’s a great place, and we enjoyed our stay here.

Mon 22nd – We left the campsite in Levin in the rain, and no sooner had we gone less than a mile and I spotted a brewery! Well, of course we had to stop and investigate. Half an hour later we left with 6 bottles of their finest. This brewery is called the Loaded Hog, and they have a number of beers and lager. They all sounded nice, but I was only allowed 6 bottles!
After a quick stop at Otaki, we got to Paraparaumo. My mother’s friend’s friend lives here. So we thought we would pop in and see Ron Barnes and his wife Vera, to try and organise my mothers visit to them in April. We called at the door and were promptly invited in for a cup of tea, and ended up staying for evening meal of ‘Fish and Chips’. Wonderful!! Thanks to Ron and Vera for putting up with us, and Vera you look nothing like ‘Norah Batty’, although you sound a bit like her!!
That night we stayed in the local campsite, which was full, but we were squeezed in on the front of a static caravan.
Tues 23rd –Yes, still raining! We left and went to the local shopping centre, as it seemed the only thing we could do in this weather. That’s the problem when you live out of a camper van you can’t go and get wet then dry everything quickly, like you can in your house, so you are sometimes left wandering what you can do when it rains.
Anyway we went shopping, and remarkably didn’t spend too much money! Afterwards we went to Porirua, as we had heard of a Park over property at the NZ Kennel Club. We arrived there, and sure enough we got power, and toilet facilities provided all for the princely sum of $10. After a quick trip to the local video shop to pick up some cheap videos for our movie nights, we settled down for the night.
You would think that the kennel Club might have some dogs around, but no (luckily- as there was no yapping), this was a showground.
Wed 24th – Today we went to Wellington on the train, it only took 20 minutes, and cost $20 for all of us. We left the van at the kennel club. Wellington is a nice city, and one of the first views we had of the central district were of the Rugby Ground! Heaven! We got off the train, and walked along the waterfront, which is really nice. There is a heliport for scenic flights, a kayak hire and shop which has 3 great climbing walls (probably more suited to the children, as Lucy and I are not that agile anymore!), and a children’s play area. We were quite impressed with all this. Anyway we stole our way from the play area and made for the Post Office. Once there we picked up all of our post. Wellingtonians looked upon us a bit strangely as we opened Christmas presents and read letters in the middle of a pedestrian area. Still, it was really nice to know that we weren’t forgotten after all! We made our way towards the cable car which is famous here, but on the way were drawn into a second hand bookshop. ‘We don’t need anymore books’ was the shout from Lucy, but we ended up with 4 or 5 extra ones to take back and fit into the van somewhere! We went up the cable car, which gives you wonderful views of the city and the harbour. The Harbour really is quite big, and the Turquoise coloured sea with a backdrop of the city is quite a sight. The cable car has been here since 1902, which I suppose from European standards is young, but they have a really good museum about it, which is as good as any similar one I’ve been to. We didn’t go down on the cable car, we decided to walk down through the botanical gardens which also has an observatory, that’s a visit for another day! The park includes cemetery as well, where a lot of Wellingtons famous fore fathers are buried, however there was a bit of a storm when they built the main motorway into the city, as they went straight through the middle of the cemetery and had to move a number of these dignitaries!! To finish the day off we popped in a waterfront pub for a beer or two, would have been impolite not to have done!

Thurs 25th - Today was a moving exercise where we left Porirua, and moved to Lower Hutt. On the way we went to a little town called Eastbourne, which is a beautiful little place. It would be a good place to commute to Wellington, as it only takes 20 minutes on the boat, but seems like a world away!
We stayed in the Top 10 campsite in Lower Hutt, but didn’t see much of the town.

Fri 26th- Today was another moving day where we moved, this time from Lower Hutt to Upper Hutt. Again we didn’t really see much of the town except for the super market. The distance was only 14 km between the two cities, but we spent a lot of time with lessons, and we found free Internet access at the Lower Hutt Hospital.
We stayed at a nice quiet campsite next to a park called Harcourt Park, whaich was where some scenes for The Lord of The Rings were filmed, the bits where Gandalf gets to Isangaard to met with Saruman the White.

Sat 27th – Today we decided to explore and drove to the Rimutaka Rail trail, which is an old rail track through the mountains. It was good weather. We were aiming to go about 10km up to a tunnel. Lucy and Rowena walked and Alistair and I cycled there, with the girls leaving about an hour before the boys. The trail is an easy incline to the tunnel, and the tunnel itself is pretty cool! It’s 570 meters long, and even with lights you feel light you are peddling into the unknown. It’s a strange feeling cycling in darkness, with the only thing you can see is the tunnel wall where the light is shining.
On the way back to the car the girls cycled down hill all the way, whilst Alistair got me to run most of the way. He is a good trainer, we walked for 30 seconds, then jogged for 30, ran for 10, jogged for 10, walked for 30 and so on. We did this the whole way back, and it took us about an hour and 10 minutes, compared with the 2 and a half hours that the girls took to walk.
We all slept well that night!

Sun 28th – We awoke to another sunny day. Alistair and I rode down the Hutt valley cycleway for about 7 km’s, where we stopped and let Rowena take over from him. On the way we saw where Frodo left Rivendell using the Elven boats! Alistair decided to try and do some cycle acrobatics, and promptly landed on the floor!
Rowena took over from Alistair, and by the end of the ride I have to say that I was glad it was finished! We continued down the cycleway to Petone, where we met the others for a late lunch by the beach.
Another early night tonight!