General Chat

Allan, can you please straighten your avatar? I have been trying but it wont budge. It is driving me crazy! Or should that be crazier?

Hello all,

Firstly, a belated Happy Mother's Day to all in Oz and NZ. I hope that you had a great day with your families.

AnninGlos, the emergency was declared when one passenger in Business class had a heart attack. Fortunately for him there were three doctors on the plane including one in our group ( a retired GP) Whilst we were aware that the pilot had asked for any doctors to make themselves known we didn't know the nature until the plane suddenly decelerated (a very disconcerting feeling when you are only three hours into a six hour direct flight) and we were told that we were already descending into Melbourne. It's easy to land under such circumstances with all other approaching flights put on hold, but taking off again ain't so easy :-(

Sue, meeting Persie was a great experience and was the highlight of the trip

Persie, we also enjoyed the afternoon with you and your OH. I hope that you have received my email and the two attached photos. As I said, anytime you wish to visit WA just let us know :-D

Huia, unfortunately there is nothing that I can do with my avatar. I don't have the original photo, just a scanned copy. That is how I received it :-)

Dear Allan

Hello to you and the missus


Welcome back to the boards.

So glad you saw Persephone and had a good holiday.


Take gentle care
Many good wishes to you and your family
Elizabeth,
xx

Thanks, EOS :-)

it's Mother's Day here as well :-)

Allen, are you able to rotate and crop? :-S


I am referring to your elusive Clifford and not yourself you understand. ;-)

:-D :-D

I have been known to do rotational cropping, but only in my vegie garden and when no one is looking ;-)

Sylvia, my apologies! I hadn't realised that Canadians also celebrate Mother's Day on the same weekend :-)

:-(

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 :-)

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

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

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

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

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?

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...

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 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!

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. :-|

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. :-)

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.