General Chat

Persie,

Your Mum sounds like a lot of fun. !!

By the by, my missing parcel has been located by the friend I was with and I should see it again next week. :-).

I must admit I have not walked any tracks here in NZ :-(...

I have photos of me down in the pancake rocks. It was not as touristy then, I think you have to pay to go in there now.. I even went up to the Strongman mine after those poor blokes (19 of them) were killed.. it was in 1967 not long after that I went there.. now you are not allowed up there. I have a photo taken there as well.

Yes, I have seen pics of it. I have 'done' most of the S. Island, including walking the Milford, Kepler, Routeburn, Greenstone, Caples and Hollyford tracks. There are others I haven't done, and wont be doing at my age :-(

Did you visit the pancake rocks at Punakaiki (have I spelt that correctly?)? Of course you need to be there when the tide is right, to see the blowhole.

The gondola has been in Queenstown for ages, I reckon it spoils the look of the place.. in fact I prefer the Queenstown of the 1960s to what it is today. However, it is one of those best airports to land into even if you do have to walk across the tarmac. OH can't sit in the window seat, but I love it.

Well there is now Huia, and it is extremely steep

http://www.new-zealand-travel.com.au/queenstown/skyline-gondola-restaurant-luge.html

Please, Allan, it is Te Anau.

There wasn't a Gondola in Queenstown when I was last there.

Skippers Canyon was an optional tour. Those who went on it said that it was fantastic but if they had known about the road there was no way they would have signed up.

It's strange, but I couldn't do the Gondola at Queenstown due to a fear of heights; many on the trip called me a wuss, yet when we went to the Glow worm caves at Te Anau I was quite happy to go underground. Nearly 75% of our group refused to go into the caves.

Horses for courses

Edited to change my spelling mistake

In about 1958 dad drove down to skippers, with mum, my sister and I and sisters friend. Coming back the radiator boiled.

In about 1984 Phil and I went down to skippers. We went early in the morning so we didn't meet any buses coming the other way.

My grandparents and mother went to skippers in about 1918, in a horse drawn vehicle. I have a photo of them at the end of the bridge.

I think they should have got them to do the Skippers Canyon, Susan.

I put up a picture on Facebook and a lot of people said they would not do it. Admittedly I was only about 13 when we did it but if my mother could do it then anyone can.. no actually she liked doing these things she thoroughly enjoyed the Matterhorn Roller Coaster at Disneyland .. this was way before Splash Mountain etc came on the scene. Yes come to think of it she did seem to have that give it a go streak at times.

She once helped me climb out a hotel window in Wanganui and I had to crawl along this narrow little ledge and in the next window so I could apple pie our Marching Team Leader's bed. I went back years later and looked up there and thought holy expletive.. did I do that.

You packed in quite a bit Allan, glad to hear you would like to return to NZ.

If doing a self drive, please drive with your headlights on... I always do now, hopefully easier to be seen. We are not the best drivers in the world. :-D

My parents met while working in the Milford Hotel in the '50's, both from the UK...
Shame you didn't see Milford Sound at it's best, next time maybe. :-)

Allan, do you mean to say you didn't climb up Ruapehu, or do the Tongariro crossing? Or are they things you forgot to mention? No, you would never forget such things. :-|

I was in NZ about 35 years ago, on holiday (long before I knew I had 2nd cousins there).

Funniest memory is of the trip on Milford Sound.

The captain invited passengers to the "steering wheel"....... and he left the speakers on, so that everyone could hear the conversation between him and the visitors........... one man (he was from the US) asked "how far above sea level are we?"...... there was about ten seconds of silence.... then the captain said "about 20 feet".

Allan ~ my day on Milford Sound was beautiful, no cloud, no rain, got close enough to rocks to spot tiny orchids!

Huia,

we did most of the tourist places (co-incidentally, when my daughter went to NZ last year on a self drive holiday, she went to may of the same places). We went via the Kauri Museum to the Bay of Islands and the Treaty Ground. At the Bay of Islands we did an overnight cruise on the 'Ippiri' and then went to Rotorua where we saw most of the sights. Down to Wellington, where we caught the Ferry to Picton, and then via the Coastal Pacific train to Kaikoura before heading to Canterbury.

From Canterbury we took the TranzAlpine to Franz Josef and then to Queenstown. From there we went to Te Anua and saw the Glow Worm Cave, and then on to Dunedin.

From Dunedin we went to Christchurch from where we flew home via Auckland

Obviously, I've missed out many of the places we visited along the way between the various destinations. If Persie has your email address, she has a copy of our itinerary that she could send you.

As for photo's, between OH and myself we took over 2000, but we do need to edit them as some were taken from the moving coach and have come out blurred :-(

I found that in Tasmania, it only rained when we were asleep or in the car. And we stopped whenever, wherever... the only time we stopped longer than we wanted to was when the keys got left in the car... I had been reading a map and he had exited and had left the keys on the seat.. I saw they weren't in the ignition got out and pressed the lock. Luckily we were not in one of those places (and they have a lot of them) that does not have a garage or service station.. I walked and found a chap who rang the Australian version of our Automobile Assn.. which we belong to here.. so the service was free. Phew...

I have been meaning to ask what you did/saw on this trip. So apart from Milford Sound, what else? Did you take photos at all?

Hello Susan-nz and Persie

We were lucky with the weather, particularly as the first week and a bit which included the Easter period was spent in the North Island.

We saw the damage caused by the most recent storms in the South Island, but the only really poor weather we had was when we did the cruise of Milford Sound. Usually when it did rain we were on the coach.

Apart from the early starts the main restrictive thing I found on the tour was being unable to stop at some of the smaller towns and country pubs, which is why I would like to go back and do a self-drive tour

Have you checked with other shops you were in?

That NZ arty farty gallery and really good paintings shop around on the waterfront
has some great stuff for sending overseas.. quite a bit of Maori art in there.

I don't think Allan got good weather for quite a bit of his holiday which makes the hustle and bustle of coach tours even worse.

Persie

Hi Persie,

You were lucky with the weather, we were in Rotorua and it bucketed down, the car wipers could hardly cope.

I was in Devonport last Saturday, caught the ferry across from the city. It is quite a lovely spot to wander around.

This morning I have discovered I am missing one parcel of shopping from Devonport... gifts for family in the UK.. :-(. Oh dear.


Susan

Actually the rain held off Susan when we took them out on Good Friday.. picked them up from the Copthorne in the city and took them to Devonport.

The sky was not as clear as I would have liked it for their photos but Allan thought it was great. You do get a good view from Mt Victoria and even closer one of Rangitoto from North Head.

They saw our gun emplacements and could see we would have been well defended ha ha. And the coffee shops were open and Devonport street parking was packed, seemed like everyone was enjoying the sun before the drenching.

Persie

Hello Allan,

I am delighted to hear you enjoyed visiting our fair shores. :-). How nice to meet up with Persie and her OH.

I was just remembering the awful weather we had here at Easter, I hope it didn't interfere too much with your sightseeing.?

Susan :-)