23rd - 27th February

Sunday 27th February
Today I am enjoying my first day in Terry's company at her lovely bungalow in Waikanae. Carolyn left on the train for home this morning (2 days on a train, good on you Carolyn) and Terry and I have been re-planning part of our South Island tour vis-a-vis the Christchurch earthquake. We were due to spend 3 nights in ChCh but as it is now a disaster zone we have to give it a miss. We tried to rebook our flight to Queenstown instead of ChCh but the Air New Zealand phone lines were continually engaged, so we have decided to stick with the flight to ChCh, hire a car at the airport and head straight out of town to a small town called Geraldine, about 2 hours south, where we have booked a motel for the night. The following day we will drive 4-5 hours to Queenstown where we will hopefully meet up with Clare, Dave and Georgie.

The remainder of the day is being spent quietly with a visit by Lynne, Terry's niece. Lynne stayed with me in Woking for a few days in early January when she was doing her 'European Tour'.


Saturday 26th February
Today Carolyn and I travelled by the Tranz Scenic 'Overlander' train to the Kapiti Coast situated on the south west of the North Island, just north of Wellington. http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/overlander.aspx
We had an early start, leaving the house at 7am in order to be in good time for the train which was due to depart at 8.15am. The train runs daily during the summer months from Auckland to Wellington and vice versa. We boarded it just south of Auckland at Papakura and travelled to Paraparaumu, just short of Wellington where Terry met us. It was a very long train journey, 10 hours, but time passed quite quickly as there was so much to see on the way.

After leaving the industrial, built up Auckland suburbs the scenery changed to gentle farmland then up onto the mountainous Central Plateau. Much of the gentler scenery reminds me of 'tellytubby land, - lots of small gentle rounded hillocks. There were several stops on the way, both to drop off and pick up passengers and change engines (from diesel to electric and vice versa) and crew. The final few hours changed to gentle farmland again but there were always mountains in the distance. I just love the New Zealand landscapes. In many ŵays similar to England but also, in many ways, so different.

I have to say the train was not all that comfortable. Although I wasn't exactly expecting luxury, I did expect better than we had. It was a very bumpy ride - I would think hardly any springs in the undercarriage. It was quite a challenge carrying coffee, tea etc from the buffet car! The carriages were old, it was like travelling by train in the 60's.

Here are a few photos I took along the way - camera pointed out through a somewhat dirty window.





Friday 25th February
Today Carolyn and I visited Waiheke Island, an offshore island in the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland. We drove to Half Moon Bay at Howick, an Auckland suburb, and took the 45 minute ferry ride across to Kennedy Point Wharf. We had intended taking Carolyn's car on the ferry but the cost was prohibitive - $NZ200 (about £100) and it worked out far cheaper to leave the car on the mainland and travel as foot passengers and hire a car on the island.

The island and it's bays were beautiful:


My reason for wanting to go to the island was to visit a lady called Wanda Cowley, a cousin of the late Desmond Harper. Even though I have been to NZ twice before, this is the first time I have met her. And what a savvy old lady she is! In her late 80's and is a well known children's author, although she told us she has just completed a historical novel which I presume is for the adult market - not sure. She is very 'into' her computer and is well into emails, the internet etc. She lives in a beautiful house, old, not very big but with views to die for.

View through Wanda's window

We took her out to lunch but didn't stay afterwards as we wanted to get the 3pm return ferry. We arrived back on the mainland around 4pm and drove back to Pokeno. Unfortunately we got caught in the rush hour Auckland traffic, and the southbound State Highway 1 was somewhat congested for a few kilometres but it soon eased. We arrived home around 5.30 and it was time for me to gather my belongings and pack ready for an early start tomorrow.


Thursday 24th February
There is nothing really to blog today. Carolyn is having a really busy week at work so I had my usual slow start to the day and we just vegged out in the afternoon and evening. The continuous TV coverage of the Christchurch earthquake is practically compulsive viewing.

In have come to have the greatest respect and admiration for Bob Parker, the Mayor of ChCh. He seems to be continually on the TV giving the latest updates. He is very articulate and has all the facts and figures readily available when asked questions by the journalists. I can't imagine when he gets time to see his family or sleep. A great guy.

Wednesday 23rd February
After Carolyn came home and had a short rest, we headed off to the Botany area, just outside Auckland, to visit "Geneva's" (the brothel) and to browse a nearby shopping mall.

The brothel visit was a bit of a non-event as Julie (Carolyn's daughter and the owner) had a business appointment elsewhere and could not be with us, and we felt slightly awkward with the 'girls'. We were only there for 5 minutes or so when a client arrived so we beat a hasty retreat! So I sadly didn't get to see much of the place, although my imagination was working overtime!!

From there we went to a huge shopping mall. Julie met us there a bit later and I took them both out for an early dinner. I had a meal I had never had before - my raw lamb filet came served on a very hot stone, called a 'Stonegrill', and I cooked it to my liking on the table in front of me. Delicious!


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22nd February - A Devastating Day for New Zealand

As usual I spent the morning pottering in the house with the usual sojourn to the local coffee shop. Carolyn came home at lunchtime and we went out in the car to Port Waikato. The Waikato River is the main river running through North Island, and is huge. Extremely wide in places and very dangerous in others. The river has claimed many lives. It was a very pretty journey through lovely scenery and bush. The Port itself is nothing but a commune of houses mainly favoured, I think, by second home owners and hippies. We couldn't even get a cup of tea there! It is very remote.

Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful beach there:




And here are some pics of the river itself:


It was while we were out enjoying ourselves that we heard on the car radio of an 'aftershock' in Christchurch. We didn't know then how devastating it was. We meandered home through beautiful countryside during which I received a text message from Clare's friend, Georgie, who lives in Christchurch, saying that she was OK, at home safely but with no electricity. We then began to realise that it was quite serious. We put the TV on as soon as we got in and the first thing I saw and heard was that Christchurch Cathedral was in ruins. We just couldn't believe it. The news coverage was continuous and we watched it for a long time trying to take in what we were viewing. It is just awful especially as the city was just beginning to recover from the September earthquake last year.

Clare and Dave are due to fly to Christchurch on 11th March to spend a holiday with Georgie, and Terry and I are due to join them there on 19th to celebrate Clare's birthday on the 20th. I am really hoping that we can all continue with our plans and that Christchurch will be 'open for visitors' by then. We can only wait and see...

A truly sad day and my thoughts are with the victims, their relatives and the survivors who must be severely traumatised.

21st February - Pottering Around in Pokeno

I have spent the day in Pokeno. Carolyn runs a catering business so is out to work before 7.00am until around lunchtime, which left me the morning to lazily start my day. Jet lag seemed to catch up with me today so I was quite happy when Carolyn came home saying that she had new orders to deal with and had paperwork and telephone calls to catch up with, therefore we wouldn't be going out. So I spent the day at home resting, reading and sitting in the sunshine trying to add a bit of colour to this pasty body of mine! I did stroll into the village in the morning for the obligatory 'flat white' and muffin, sitting outside a nice little cafe in the sunshine.

I spent a very interesting evening as Carolyn's daughter came for dinner. Julie is a business woman in her early 30's and apart from running a property development business she is also the owner of a brothel. I hasten to add she is a 'non working' owner! Brothels are legal in New Zealand and it was most interesting to learn about the 'ins and outs' (no pun intended!) of the business. She has about 12-15 girls/ women working there, some on a part time basis with 5 private rooms. Our conversation was a bit of an eye opener for me. We live and learn. I am hoping to pay a visit there later this week to see a brothel for real for the first time in my life.

20th February - First Full Day in New Zealand

It's now Sunday morning and I feel refreshed after a good night's sleep. It looks as though it will be a lovely day. Carolyn has made me feel very welcome. It feels good to be back in New Zealand.

The short flight - well, around 3 hours, but it felt short after the two previous long ones - from Sydney to Auckland was not all that enjoyable. Very crowded plane and very little leg room. I had requested a window seat as I was looking forward to the view on the approach into Auckland but my 'window seat' was in fact next to a wide pillar between two windows so I could see nothing at all. I felt cheated! For once my luggage arrived at the carousel the same time as me. Immigration went smoothly and I was out of the airport within 20 minutes of landing. Carolyn was waiting for me. It took half an hour to drive to the small town of Pokeno, south of Auckland, where she lives and we spent a quiet evening chatting and eating dinner. I had a much needed shower and managed to stay awake until around 9pm when I retired thankfully to bed.

Today, Sunday, has been my first full day in New Zealand. After a slow start to the day Carolyn took me out to see a bit of her local area. Her nearest big town is Pukekohe where we stopped for coffee. From there we went to The Glenbrook Vintage Railway where we had a trip to Waiuku and back on a wonderfully restored old train pulled by a gleaming old steam engine. www.gvr.co.nz

After that rare treat it was lunchtime so Carolyn drove us to Wrights Water Gardens - a water lily 'farm'. We had a lovely lunch in the cafe there followed by a walk around the water lily ponds to the impressive waterfall. www.wrightswatergardens.co.nz









The day ended by a quiet evening indoors sipping chilled white wine. It has been a very warm day today with the temperature in the high 20's. Lovely!

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17th - 19th February. En route London-Sydney

I am on my way to Auckland in a Boeing 747. Quantas Flight QF2 departed London Heathrow roughly on time at around 2200 on Thursday 17th February. I have a wonderful seat. I am in premium economy class and have all the legroom in the world as I am by an emergency exit. The seat is comfortable and wide. I have been given my menu and, as far as I can see, I get two dinners and two breakfasts. Proper cutlery too, none of that plastic stuff!

So far I have had a glass of Rose before boarding, a glass of champagne on arrival in seat and a glass of red with my meal. That, together with a sleeping pill should surely guarantee a few hours sleep? We shall see......

Breakfast was served a couple of hours before we landed at Bangkok. I had the 'continental' ie muesli, fresh fruit salad and small cinnamon Danish pastry with orange juice and coffee.

I am now on the Bangkok-Sydney leg of the journey. I did not get much sleep on the previous leg. Probably dozed off for an hour or so but was always aware of noises etc so didn't get into a deep sleep.

We had about an hour and a half at Bangkok. Enough time to stretch legs. I avoided the shops! The person in the seat next to me is a 'platinum frequent flyer' and has access to First Class Lounges so he invited me as his 'guest' into the Quantas First Class Lounge a Bangkok, and very nice it was too.

It seems a very short day today. I have pre-set my watch to Sydney time and it is 10.35pm already. Soon be time for another go at having a sleep. Dinner first though although I haven't long had breakfast!

I had another glass of champers on arrival in my seat followed by a glass of Chardonnay, and a third glass with my dinner but I still did not sleep much. Dinner was a very tasty Thai lamb dish with rice.

We are due in Sydney in about an hour where I have to catch a connecting flight to Auckland. Luckily my luggage is checked through so I won't have to bother with that and hopefully there will be wifi at Sydney airport to enable me to publish this. I have a 3 hour wait there before my Auckland flight departs.

All in all the journey has passed well. I would have liked more sleep though. I will post again when staying with my friend Carolyn, just outside Auckland.

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