Monday 18th May

Today was an ‘at sea’ day so not much going on. After a ‘healthy’ breakfast we went to the Stardust Lounge to hear a talk on Alaskan history.

Got connected to the internet today - bloody expensive! Have signed up for 250 minutes for $CAD100 - so that amount of time is going to have to last for the week. No wifi in our stateroom though so we have to take this netbook to the Internet Café to use it there.

Being ‘at sea’ meant just that - mostly sea to the horizon in all directions during the morning and in the afternoon we passed between fir tree covered islands on both sides with waterfalls gushing down into the sea and high snow covered mountains in the distance.

View from stateroom window

While having afternoon tea we saw a pod of orca whales quite close to the ship. We were lucky enough to bag a window table for dinner and again sat there for ages as we sailed slowly past the many pretty islands. At that time we noticed a small red boat coming up close to the ship - getting so close that we thought those on board were on a suicide mission. But when it got alongside we noticed it was the Canadian ‘Coast Guard’ and we realised that it was something to do with us getting close to the US Border. It has been cloudy for most of the day, but the sun broke through during the evening and the day ended with the most amazing sunset.

Clocks, for us, go back one hour tonight which is a good thing as we have a very early start tomorrow morning for our Ketchikan excursion.

Sunday 17th May

Today is Cruise Day. We checked out of the HoJo at around 1030 and took a cab to The Norwegian Sun which was berthed at Canada Place East. The check-in passed very smoothly even though there were many hundreds of people there. We went through the usual fingerprinting, photo and green-form routine and eventually boarded the ship at around 12 noon carrying only hand baggage as we left our suitcases at check-in for delivery to our ‘stateroom’ later.

Our stateroom was not ready for occupation until 2pm so we went to ‘The Garden Café’ for lunch. This is a huge buffet and the food choices were endless. On the way there we passed the Fitness Centre - a large fully equipped gym with a big poster outside telling us that most people gain 7-10lbs during a weeks cruise. NO WAY! That prompted me to select from the salad buffet for lunch. (I won’t mention the rocky road ice cream for dessert!)

Our cabin is very nice - compact but more than enough storage space. Twin beds are against each wall with a window in between. Small but adequate shower-room again with plenty of space for toiletries.

We spent the afternoon wandering around this huge ship and we, like the other 2000+ passengers, are still trying to find our way around. There are 12 decks, and our cabin is on Deck 6A. There is a large casino and already there are lots of people there playing blackjack etc, and the machines - it seems to me such a waste of time when there is so much scenery to see and this lovely ship to explore. There is also a shopping mall with all sorts of temptations to encourage us to spend money.
The ship sailed at 5.30pm and that was exciting!

There was a ‘Sailaway’ party with a live band around the ‘Aft’ Pool and that was fun. There are 2 pools and several Jacuzzi’s. It was hot this afternoon and several brave persons were swimming, but not for much longer, I shouldn’t think, as we sail north and the temperature drops. There are a couple of interesting channels on our TV (as well as several satellite channels) - one showing a live webcam, and the other a bit like the ‘where are we flying over’ screen on an aeroplane - showing exactly where the ship is and other information such as current temperature, sea condition etc.

We sail until 6.00am on Tuesday when we dock at Ketchikan so Monday will be a full day at sea. We have booked a shore excursion in Ketchikan to include a Nature Sanctuary, Eagle Centre and see a master totem pole carver at work.

16th, 15th and 14th May

Saturday 16th May - our last day in Vancouver. We both agree that we will be sorry to leave this lovely city - it is such a vibrant place and has lots of atmosphere.
During the morning we were once again ‘culture vultures’ as we visited the Vancouver Art Gallery to see an exhibition of ‘Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’ highlighting the extraordinary works of art made by Dutch masters of the 17th century. This is a one-off exhibition for this summer only and we both enjoyed it.
During the afternoon we paid a second visit to Vancouver’s Pacific Central train station both to pick up our tickets for our first Amtrak journey next Sunday, and also to suss out the departure routine especially as we will be crossing the border into the USA. It all seems very straightforward. Let’s hope it turns out that way…

Friday 15h May was a quiet day catching up with washing and mooching around Vancouver. After lunch we took the bus to the Waterfront area and went in to Key West Tour Operators to say ‘Hi’ to Winnie - the lady there who I was in touch with when making all the Vancouver bookings from home.
From there we took a ride on the Sky Train to find the Pacific Central train station from where we are booked on the Amtrak for Seattle the day we arrive back from the cruise. The Sky Train is a bit like the DLR in London - no driver or human operator - all computer controlled and it whizzed along both over and under ground. This rail system is being extended out to the airport in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
We needed that easy day today after the long and tiring journey the day before.

Thursday 14th May we had the long journey back to Vancouver from Lake Louise. We left the hotel at 0800 and shortly afterwards had to turn our watches back one hour to Pacific Time which meant we left at 0700!
The journey began well - we again watched the stunning scenery pass by and we had a couple of ‘comfort/coffee stops’ and a stop for lunch. Then around 2.15pm the driver suddenly pulled into a lay-by alongside a lake and went to the back of the coach to have a look at the engine. He was gone for some time without telling us what was going on - then we saw him take a large plastic container down to the lake to get water. He did this 5 times, then we set off. Apparently one of the hoses in the cooling system had split and we were ‘losing water like a faucet’.
The lake water took us to a ‘gas station’ at the next town where we pulled in and the driver phoned for assistance. The mechanic was about 2 hours coming, and after the split hose was successfully replaced we were on our way again at 6pm - three and a half hours later. It made a long day seem much longer and instead of getting back to the HoJo at around 8pm we didn’t arrive until 11pm. 16 hours on the road! Everyone on the tour (there was 17 of us) remained in good spirits as there was, after all, nothing we could have done about the situation. Luckily we had stopped in civilisation (and not at the top of a remote mountain pass) near to a pub, coffee shop, loo and other amenities (several of the party boosted the pub landlord’s profit for that day!)
Terry and I had a walk by the lake and marina and, on a rock offshore we thought we saw a couple of large-ish turtles sunning themselves. We were not sure, but on our way back to the coach we saw a ‘Turtle Bay’ notice, so we were right, what we saw must have been turtles.

Wednesday 13th May

(Canadian photos now on Picasaweb. Click on 'My Picasa Photo Albums')

Today dawned sunny and with high clouds although it had snowed during the night as new snow was lying on the ground. After a wonderful buffet breakfast (I didn’t even look what was on offer as I just stuck to cereal, fruit and yoghurt) we set of in our coach. Today turned out to be what “The Rockies” are all about - snow covered high peaks soaring up into the blue sky with deep valleys below.
Our day started at Chateau Lake Louise - the photo of which seems to epitomise the Canadian Rockies. The 1000 room hotel was first conceived by the Canadian Pacific Railway at the end of the 19th century, as a vacation destination to lure moneyed travellers into taking trains and heading West, and was gradually built up at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century to the world famous resort it is today. Lake Louse looked magnificent - still frozen over - nestled between the mountains. The next stop was Johnson Canyon. We walked the 0.7km to the Lower Falls - the high path following the river far below, and quite a lot of the walk was along a narrow boardwalk fixed into the cliff face with nothing underneath but the rushing river. The walk continued for a further 3km, but time restrictions did not allow us to go any further.

... and we also spotted a little chipmunk ...

We then paid a brief visit to the famous Banff Springs Hotel, another former Canadian Pacific Railway hotel constructed between spring of 1887 and 1888. The hotel was publicly opened on June 1, 1888 and rebuilt in the 1920s after a fire. A world famous golf course is at this hotel resort, and again the views are stunning. After a couple of hours free-time in Banff, where we had lunch, we took the gondola up to the top of Sulphur Mountain. This was opened around 1960 and is Canada‘s first gondola. The ride to the nearly 2300m summit took 8 minutes. The view from the top over Banff were wonderful, but the cloud came down after a while and it started to snow blocking some of the views. It was bloomin’ cold at that altitude too! Altogether a fab day with stunning scenery.

Tuesday 12th May

Today was our first day in the Rockies proper, having spent yesterday getting here. We checked out of our hotel in Valemount at 0730 and the first stop was Mount Robson - the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. And guess what ….. the weather was so crappy and the clouds so low we could hardly see any of it. The weather was very disappointing all day - we were at a high altitude for most of the day so therefore up in the clouds. I wasn’t too worried for myself as I was here about 10 years ago, but was disappointed for Terry as this is her first visit.
Our next stop was Maligne Canyon, an impressive 50 metres deep. A lot of it was still frozen. We had lunch in Jasper - set within the Jasper National Park. A $CAD5 burger and chips included a token for free entry into a ‘wildlife museum’ in the cellar of the pub. This ‘museum’ consisted of a stuffed version of every moving creature known in the area (apart from humans!) and was, in fact, very good and very interesting.
The afternoon took us to Athabasca Falls:

The Athabasca River originates at the Columbia Glacier about 70 kilometers south. Among the most powerful and breathtaking falls in the Rocky Mountains, the Athabasca River thunders through a narrow gorge where the walls have been smoothed and potholes are created by the sheer force of the rushing water carrying sand and rock.
We then drove along the world famous Icefield Parkway to the Columbia Icefields. Again the weather was awful, the clouds were low (or we were high!) and it was snowing so heavily that we again could not see any mountains. We transferred to a special snowcoach which had bloomin’ great wheels and trundled slowly up to the glacier wondering what the heck we had let ourselves in for. Our allotted time on the glacier was 20 minutes, but it was so cold and snowing so heavily that we spent less than 5 minutes outside the heated coach, taking the obligatory photographs, and the other 15 waiting inside the coach to return to base. Again, I had done this before so I knew how special it would have been if we could have seen the wonderful scenery there and not felt so cold!
We had a fantastic sighting of a bear on the way to our hotel - I got a really great zoomed-in pic, then deleted the ruddy thing my mistake! Lesson learned - delete photos with care!
We were booked into the Lake Louise Inn for 2 nights, and got there around 7pm. We had a quick pizza for dinner and early night as we were both pretty tired.

Monday 11th May - A Bear Behind

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIMEE - 8 TODAY

Today we started our Circle West Rockies Tour. We picked up the coach at Canada Place at 0830. We shared a cab from the hotel with an Australian couple who are on the same trip - and guess what - they disembarked from The Norwegian Sun yesterday and said they had a fab week, and even more of a coincidence is that we are booked into the same cabin as they had. How's that for a small world.

We have spent most of the day in the coach. Even tho' on the map the Rockies look 'just inland from Vancouver', according to Google Maps we have driven around 675km and we are only at the beginning of the Rocky Mountain range. The day started off disappointingly with rain with low cloud, which did not bode well for the scenery we were hoping for, but it cleared up after we dropped down the other side of the Coquihalla Pass, and it remained fine-ish for the rest off the day with one or two short sharp showers. We had 4 breaks in the journey - two short stops in the morning, a lunch stop in Kamloops and one tea-break. We arrived here in Valemount (Pop. 1195!) at around 6pm and had a burger etc at the local burger joint for supper. This village, although on the main highway, is very small and is surrounded by beautiful tree-covered snowcapped mountains. The words 'hick' - 'cowpokes' - 'rednecks' and (according to Terry) 'duelling banjos' come to mind.

Oh yes, almost forgot - wildlife sightings. We saw several beaver lodges and real live wild bears on the way - here is a pic of one of them disappearing into the trees 'The Bear Behind' :

[Terry and I saw 2 others before this sighting but the driver and tour manager ignored our calls "Bears to the Left" so we were unable to take any photos as the coach didn't stop. (We are sure they ignored us because they were not the first to see them!)]. We think they were 2 cubs, and were sideways on to the the road so it was a shame they were not caught on camera.

We are hoping to have more sightings tomorrow.

Sunday 10th May

I can't believe I have been away from home for 4 weeks already. Time is certainly passing too quickly.

Today we had a quiet-ish day. We caught up with washing/ironing then went out for a walk to Canada Place, the downtown waterfront area. And to our utter delight - what should we see there but The Norwegian Sun, our Alaskan cruise ship. It does weekly cruises Sunday-Sunday and was in preparation for this week's cruise. It looks a lovely ship...... and we are both looking forward to boarding next Sunday 17th.

We spent the evening yet again sorting out suitcases. We are off on our Rockies Tour tomorrow and only taking 'hand luggage', leaving our suitcases here at the HoJo ready for our return on Thursday evening.

Saturday 9th May

Today we awoke to a beautiful day - hardly a cloud in sight. After breakfast (me to the local deli for an egg, ham and cheese muffin together with large mug of coffee while Terry nibbled on a granola bar and banana in bed!) we went out for a stroll. We wandered up Government Street, which seems to be the main tourist street, to find Chinatown (disappointingly small). On the way we could hear bagpipes and discovered a nice Square where many kilted men and women were gathering. We were told that next weekend is the start of the Highland Games here on Vancouver Island and that today, as publicity for them, the pipe band would march through town to the Parliament Building. So that was a nice thing to see so far from home.

After our obligatory stop-off at Starbucks we strolled down to the Harbour and took a Harbour Tour on one of the little ferry/tour boats. They looked a bit like a marine version of Dodgem Cars:

The harbour was lovely - big but now lined with waterfront condo blocks and hotels - and the ‘Captain’ gave us a commentary along the way. There is a lot of First Nation (Indian) history here and it must have been beautiful before all the development. We passed umpteen million $’s worth of big yachts and also some amazing house shaped houseboats similar to those seen the other day on Granville Island (pic on Thursday 7th May).

We were collected on time from our hotel and began the journey back to the Howard Johnson (aka HoJo) Hotel in Vancouver. We took the ’scenic route’ out of Victoria and drove through a very nice residential area with some fabulous houses and amazing sea views. We could see, in the distance over the sea, the high mountains in Washington State (USA) - they looked enormous and were covered in snow. On the way to the ferry we stopped for the long-awaited visit to Butchart Gardens -

http://www.butchartgardens.com/

- a look at the website is well worth the time, these gardens have got to be the most beautiful ones I have ever visited. I was here 10 years ago, and a second visit was just as awe inspiring as the first. We caught the 7pm ferry back to Vancouver and had our evening meal on board. We had to queue and it was a bit of a scramble to find a table but we found one ok. The crossing was beautiful - calm blue sea, blue sky and the pretty pine tree covered islands. The setting sun gave everything, including the snowy mountains in the backgroud, a pinkish hue.
Altogether a fabulous day, made even better by the lovely weather. Lucky us!

Friday 8th May

We had a very early start this morning as we were due to be picked up just after 7am for a trip to Vancouver Island. The coach duly arrived on time and we caught the 0900 ferry across to Victoria - the capital of British Columbia. The ferry crossing took one and a half hours and we were lucky enough to see a pod of killer whales on the way over. The others on the coach were only on a one day trip - we are here overnight - so after a quick tour of Victoria the rest of the party were dropped off for their '3 hours free-time' and we were taken to our hotel to check in and drop off our bags.

This afternoon we visited the Royal BC Museum and then popped into the Parliament Building, the home of the BC Legislative Council, and saw the main council chamber. The building sits at one end of the inner harbour and is in a lovely situation

We again both feel pretty tired after a long day so we returned to the hotel early, and I am sitting blogging this in our very nice 9th floor room looking down a short street to the inner harbour where I can see sea-planes taking off and landing

Tomorrow we are off to the world famous Butchard Gardens, so fingers crossed for a nice day.

Thursday 7th May

We both had a good night's sleep last night - me 12 hours and Terry 14! So we woke up feeling good and ready for the day.

We had breakfast in the bar/restaurant adjoining the hotel (we are booked in 'room only') and then went for a walk along the waterfront of the Yaletown district of Vancouver. The body of water there is called 'False Creek', named so by George Vancouver who was the navigator for Captain Cook (ok - so we are back to him!) who thought he had discovered the North West Passage - but the creek is a dead-end hence the name! We walked past a huge stadium, the home of the Vancouver hockey team (Canucks?) - the opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held there. On the other side of the creek from the stadium there is a huge building site - the Olympic Village.

After the walk and a snack lunch (breakfast was late) we went off on a 6+ hour coach tour of the city. This included 2 hours at the Vancouver Aquarium. We both had the pre-conceived idea that 2 hours was maybe too long to spend at an aquaruium, but not so - this one was really interesting and had some great displays of fish, marine life and amphibians. Other highlights of the tour included Chinatown and Gastown in the downtown area, Stanley park - where we saw a wild racoon

and lots of totem poles

We also visited Granville Island, not really an island but a sort of peninsula in False Creek. It used to be a very run down area but is now a centre for arts nd crafts and includes a huge 'public market' selling all sorts of crafts, flowers, fruit and veg and other culinary delights. There were some great houseboats moored on the island - made to look like real houses:

The tour finished at Queen Elizabeth Park - a park outside downtown in the residential area and on top of quite a high hill. From there we had great views over the city to the mountains beyond. There is not much snow left on them now.

We bought our 'dinner' at the market on Granville Island- a tray of lovely mixed salads and took it back to our hotel to eat, both of us being too tired to go out again. We have both decided that Vancouver is a great city.

Wednesday 6th May - from 'Confused of Vancouver'

I am now blogging from Vancouver. We have been on the go for over 28 hours, most of which time was spent travelling, Air New Zealand to Sydney then Air Canada to Vancouver. We have settled in to The Howard Johnson Hotel in downtown Vancouver. It is OK - not plush nor a skyscraper type building that most other hotels seem to be - but clean, and fortunately we have a room at the back of the building because road/sidewalk works are going on in the front. Our guess is that the city is being tarted up for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

We do not, at the moment, feel too tired so we will have a quiet afternoon, eat early this evening and fall into bed early. The flight passed fairly quickly. Terry had a few hours sleep but I only managed to catnap occasionally for a few minutes at a time. We have ‘gained a day’ as we crossed the international dateline so I feel totally confused time wise - we actually landed in Vancouver before we left Auckland. I had just got used too being 11 hours ahead of the UK in NZ, now I am 8 hours behind!

Tuesday 5th May

It has been a pleasure to have been back in Auckland again. We have not done very much apart from visiting various friends and relations, and I have really enjoyed staying with Heather and Michael who have made us very welcome. Today is our last day so we spent most of today at the house doing washing and sorting out packing etc. etc.

We left Titirangi during the afternoon and met one of Terry's sons for a meal. After we had eaten he took us to the Kiwi International airport motel where we were booked in for the night. We have a very early start looming tomorrow. Our flight departs at 0700 (2000 Tuesday 5th UK time) so we will be checking in around 0500 - yuk! We have about a 3 hour flight to Sydney where we change to an Air Canada flight for Vancouver. That second leg will take over 14 hours. Bring on the red wine and sleeping pill!!

One thing which has caused much hilarity during our travels though the North Island is either of us trying to find things in our various bags or suitcases. As most items of luggage these days have numerous zips and pockets you can guarantee that whatever we are looking for is not in the first, second or even the third place of searching. So the whole trip has echoed with the sounds of zips being opened and closed, noises of shuffling amongst the contents, the rustling of plastic bags and mutterings like ‘Bugger, I’m sure I put it in there’ or 'I know I put it somewhere really safe' etc. This, I know, will continue for the next three months!

So... that is it from Aotearoa (The Land of the Long White Cloud), and I'll see you all again in Canada.

Saturday 2nd May

As expected the band last night was somewhat loud - the bar being directly below our bedroom at The Admiral's Arms, but a sleeping pill made sure I wasn’t disturbed too much!
We left Coromandel Town at around 0900 under heavy cloud and pouring rain. I wasn’t too bothered by the weather - had it been blue sky, sun and blue sea that lovely peninsula would have been harder to leave. The first 50km of the drive was along a lovely coastline - at least it would have been had it not been for low cloud and rain. We were heading for Auckland but had a planned stop in a small town called Pokeno just south of Auckland. Terry to meet up with her ex brother-in-law and me to call in to see the daughter of an ex neighbour of mine in Woking. It was good to catch up with Carolyn again.
We arrived at our destination around 2.30pm and are staying with friends of Terry, Heather and Michael, at a place called Titirango on the outskirts of Auckland. We have been made very welcome and we are staying her for 3 nights.
So nothing else to report today….

Friday 1st May

OK - the other people staying here were wrong about last night - I lay in bed and was forced to listen to what was probably the worst karaoke ever! Luckily I was quite tired so fell asleep after a while, but was woken at 1.15am with shouting and goings-on in the car park below our window. I discovered this morning that there was a ‘fracas’ outside last night. The shouting, both male and female voices, seemed to go on for a long time. So, not the best night’s sleep ever.
And tonight a band is playing - a NZ group called One One One. Talking to one of the band, who were upstairs in the hotel accommodation relaxing before their gig, he said they play 70’s and 80’s music and it will go on until 1am and gets louder as time goes on. Hey Ho!
We have spent today around Coromandel Town area. This morning we rode on the Driving Creek Railway - a little train that runs up to the top of a mountain to a specially built look-out point (called the Eyefull Tower!) with tremendous views of the Peninsula and Hauraki Gulf across to Waiheke Island and the Auckland area.

http://www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz/

The 60 acre wooded area the train runs up through is owned by a Barry Bricknell and it took him 27 years to build the nearly 3km track and has tunnels, spirals and viaducts. Barry has planted thousands of trees, including kauri, and the whole area will be left to the nation after his death with the proviso that no trees are ever cut down. Quite a man. Barry started out as a potter and the train first evolved as transport to carry clay down from the mountain, but it has grown and grown and is now one of the major tourist attractions in the area. He is now in his 70’s and spends his time ‘potting’ and writing his life story.
We spent this afternoon in the town. I have to confess to being a bit disappointed with the town. Having the same name as this fantastic peninsula I was expecting something a bit special, but it is a it seedy and run-down and not so nice as the other towns we drove through yesterday.

Thursday 30th April

We are due to leave this beautiful spot at Opoutere this morning. but before doing so I just had to publish a photo of the view we had over the creek from the hostel whilst eating our breakfast outside.

I spoke to the only other 'hosteller' his morning and he said this place closes tomorrow for 6 months. Boy, were we lucky!

After having our ‘breakfast with a view’, we loaded the car and left that little bit of New Zealand paradise - only to find some more.
We drove north on State Highway 25 as far as Whenuakite then took a detour to visit ‘Cathedral Cove’, near Hahei. I had heard of this place before and pictures of it are used for Coromandel Peninsula publicity. It was a lovely clear day with a few clouds, which was lucky because I knew I would want to take lots of photos. On arrival at the car park, we thought we were there - wrong! We discovered it was a 45 minute walk to the cove so after sustaining ourselves with coffee and carrot cake muffins we set off.
It was a beautiful coastal walk through bush and was very steep both up and down in places, but on arrival at the cove we decided it was worth every puff and step! What a place. Completely unspoiled, unlittered sand, blue sky and blue sea with white crashing waves. The ‘cathedral’ itself was huge - not just a cavern in the rock but an arch shaped tunnel joining two beaches. Awesome!

And I do have to mention the loo!! It was a new wooden building, up a flight of steps and although it as a chemical loo and a little bit smelly - that didn‘t matter at all because there was a huge picture window opposite the seat overlooking the pohutukawa trees and beach - the best ‘loo with a view’ I have ever been in! (On the subject of loos I have to report that neither of us had to take a night-time walk last night at the hostel, thank goodness!)
We stayed at the cove for about half an hour, strolling along the beach and soaking up the atmosphere. There were a few other people there, but not enough to spoil it.
After the long walk back we headed off in the car again to Whitianga for lunch. All the roads we have been along on this peninsula are very scenic - we either drove over mountains, drove in pretty valleys between them or drove along the beautiful coastline. Whitianga was a nice coastal town - the usual straight, wide streets and covered pavements There were expensive looking boats moored in the estuary, and long sandy tree-lined beaches with a backdrop of wooded hills. Some of the coastal houses literally had the beach at the bottom of their gardens - lucky owners!
From there we headed westwards towards Coromandel town, over the top of the northern end of the Coromandel mountain range - a very steep and twisty road both up and down. We are booked in ‘The Admiral’s Arms’ for two nights. The accommodation consists of 4 or 5 bedrooms - we have a twin room - and there are shared bathrooms and a nice clean shared kitchen and TV lounge. The snag? This is a pub and we are over a large bar and tonight is karaoke night! The other couple staying here have been here before and assure us it will not be noisy. Time will tell ….
Today has been a fabulous day and the Coromandel Peninsula has more than lived up to my expectations - it is beautiful here.

28th and 29th April

Wednesday 29th April
This morning we left the comfort of Judy’s unit and once again hit the road heading north. Our destination is Opoutere on the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula. I drove the first 100km to Tauranga where we stopped for ‘morning tea and scones’ at the home of a friend of Terry. Kerrye and Pat were neighbours of Terry when they lived in Auckland. Kerrye and Pat took over the care of Terry’s beloved cat. Sophie, when she left Auckland so there was a somewhat emotional reunion on arrival. Tauranga is a big town (city) on the coast and is very hilly. On leaving there we drove on to the small town of Waihi - a gold mining town. We stopped a while and walked up to look down into the Martha Gold Mine - the biggest hole in the ground I have ever seen.

I kept a lookout for a few discarded gold nuggets but was not fortunate enough to find any! There is also the remains of a huge mine pump house. (I must ‘google’ Waihi when I get home as I am sure there is some interesting history to read about).

We then drove on to Opoutere, where we were booked into the YHA. Our accommodation is half of a little hut set among tall trees. Like the previous hostel it is very basic but clean - twin beds and a small table, that is all. The only snag is that if we need the loo in the night it will be walk by torchlight to the main building. Nothing more for me to drink this evening I guess!

We did not bother to stop off for supplies on the way, thinking we would settle in first, take a look around the area then perhaps go and get a takeaway or eat out. But we were foiled! There is absolutely NOTHING here except a few houses and beautiful scenery and bush walks.

We took a walk though a nature reserve which opened out onto the most fabulous unspoiled beach I have ever seen, with offshore islands. It was real paradise.

We were the only people there and all we could hear was the pounding of the Pacific waves on the shore and the call of the birds, especially the distinct call of the Tui.

Dinner tonight will be eating what remains in our food box - a couple of toasted slices of not so fresh bread, a tin of salmon with mayo, fruit and yoghurt! Good for the diet I suppose. I blame Terry of course!


Tuesday 28th April
Today we had a quiet day taking advantage of staying in Judy’s comfortable little apartment. A day with no driving was welcome. We just pottered around and took a short visit into Whakatane to do some shopping and to have a brief look around. It is a lovely coastal town. We had a walk along the beach during the afternoon. This house is tucked down behind the sand dunes so the beach is right on the doorstep. It is completely unspoiled - no buildings or promenade, just sand, trees and driftwood. It probably looks much the same as it did when NZ was discovered! There are some interesting looking offshore islands and it was a shame that the weather was cloudy so the scenery was not very photogenic.

Monday 27th April

Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sunrise and although I wake early I resisted the temptation to get out of bed that early too see it! Breakfast this morning was made in the large shared, but very clean, kitchen where others were also preparing their own breakfasts.

There are 2 beaches in Gisborne - Katai Beach where Cook landed and Waikanae Beach (the same name as Terry’s home town down on the Kapiti Coast) which is a very large bay lined with Nofolk Island Pines and other trees and has a wonderful backdrop of mountains.

After an early start we left the hostel to go to Waikanae Beach to see the statues of Captain Cook and ‘Young Nick‘ - (Nicholas Young, who was Captain Cook‘s cabin boy and who was the first person on board HM Bark ‘Endeavour‘ to sight New Zealand) - it got too dark to see them yesterday evening.

It gets dark around 6pm here and darkness falls very quickly.
Gisborne is a very nice town with wide palm tree lined streets and has a real ‘holiday’ feel to it. Both beaches here, especially Waikanae Beach, are very popular with surfers. The weather has been very warm for an autumn day - temperatures in the low to mid 20’s

We finally left Gisborne at around 1030 for Whakatane. Here ‘Wh’ is pronounced ‘F’ so it is pronounced ‘Fock-a-tarnie’ (no comments please!). The distance was just over 200km, about 50km of which was a fabulous drive through the Waioeka Gorge - a twisty road following the Waioeka River which cuts between very high bush covered mountains. The temperature dropped dramatically there and it rained but it was nonetheless quite an experience to drive through.

While here we are staying at the home of a friend of Terry’s - another Judy. But she is not here at the moment as she is visiting her son in Perth, Australia. She is kindly allowing us to stay at her house - a new 2-bed ‘granny annex’ adjoining her daughter’s house. It is right by the sea and in a lovely situation.

Sunday 26th April - In the Footsteps of Captain Cook

We packed up and left Napier for Gisborne at 0930. After about an hour we stopped for coffee then drove on to Wairoa and had a picnic lunch by the large estuary of the Wairoa River. Again we had a lovely scenic drive through mountains and yet again there was not much traffic.

We arrived in Gisborne around 3.30pm where we were booked into a YHA Hostel for the night. It was very basic but clean and we had a private twin room with bathroom. After registering there we went to Kaiti Beach in Gisborne - the landing place of Captain Cook when he discovered New Zealand on 7th October 1769.
We met some interesting people at the hostel including a lady who lives in Bracknell, quite near to me in the UK. When researching her ancestry she discovered she had a Maori grandfather and has since visited New Zealand several times and found and met relatives. She regularly attends weekly Maori gatherings at New Zealand House in London and I intend to keep in touch with her and go to one of the meetings with her - probably when Terry is in the UK with me as she would find it interesting.,

Saturday 25th April

Today is ANZAC Day.
We spent the day in Napier - known as The Art Deco City. It is a quite large city and port, situated at the southern end of Hawke Bay on the east coast, and suffered a devastating earthquake in 1931. The city was completely rebuilt in the 1930’s. Art Deco was popular at that time and the buildings echo that style and are really colourful and beautiful.

During the morning we wandered around the streets looking at the pretty buildings. It seems such a shame that the old Art Deco facades have been spoiled by 21st Century shop fronts and large garish signs, but that’s progress I guess and the buildings are, after all, shops and offices. One building in particular caught my eye:

After a snack lunch at our motel unit we went out again in the car to the top of Napier Hill. Before the earthquake this hill was all that there was of Napier and it was an island. The surrounding seabed rose 2-½ metres and allowed Napier to expand and have it’s own airport.

Friday 24th April

Today we left Masterton at 0930 and headed for Napier. Not far along Highway 2 we came to the Mount Bruce Wildlife Reserve which had been recommended to us. We stopped there for coffee and took it out onto the deck which overlooked a Takahe (pronounced tack-a-hay) enclosure - a very rare and almost extinct native New Zealand bird. The numbers have now increased to 225 and we were lucky enough to see two of them. They are about the size of a large chicken and were a beautiful blue/green colour with red legs. It was thought they were extinct until a couple were rediscovered in the 1940’s. I felt very privileged to see them.


The journey to Napier was around 230km and it was my turn to do most of the driving today. Driving is very easy here as the roads are usually very quiet outside towns.
We arrived at the Gardner Court Motel , where we checked in for 2 nights, around 3.30 after a leisurely drive which included a stop for lunch at Waipukurau.

Thursday 23rd April

Today phase 2 of the ’big trip’ started. After leaving Terry’s house in good order for the house-sitter we departed at around 1pm for Masterton. It was a journey of just under 100km, the first 30km of which was over the Akatarawa mountain range and Tararua Forest Park. The road was very twisty and steep in places. We were advised by the local AA office NOT to take that route because of the condition of the road but - us being us - decided to give it a go! And we were very pleased we did. Not only was it the most direct route but it was beautiful and the scenery - in the gaps between the trees - was stunning. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the top of the climb and sat and looked over miles of bush to the coast beyond.

We had coffee at Greytown on the way. That was a nice little town, with lots of old colonial style buildings and, in the churchyard, the biggest tallest Eucalyptus tree I have ever seen with a trunk which must have been nearly 10ft in diameter.
We arrived at the Chanel Court Motel in Masterton around 4pm. Motels here are great - we have a 2 bed ‘unit’ with kitchenette complete with cooker, microwave and fridge, shower and loo. I remember from my previous visit how good the motels in NZ are and they are such good value for money. This one is $NZ90 per night - $NZ45 each - roughly just over £15. Can’t be bad. We bought remaining food from Terry’s house with us and cooked our own dinner - tuna/mayo jacket potato and for pud - a real ‘Kiwi’ kiwi fruit - lovely!

21st April

Today is going to be a 'doing chores' day - getting Terry's house ready for our departure and for her house-sitter to arrive. So there is not much to blog at the moment.

I have created a map of the route north we are taking from here in Waikanae to Auckland. We leave here tomorrow and the trip will take around 10 days including various stopovers. I shall be visiting parts of the North Island that I didn't see when I was here in 2006:

17th - 20th April

We have not been doing very much these few days. It’s good to be relaxing and recharging batteries before things kick off when we leave here on Thursday and head north to Auckland. The weather has been quite good, although on Monday it was blowing a cold south wind and it rained occasionally. The evenings and early mornings tend to be chilly and one of the first things I did after arriving here was to go to the local ‘op shop’ (second hand shop) and buy a warm dressing gown!

Time-wise I am still not quite in the NZ zone. I wake very early and tend to nod off in front of the television around 7.30pm in the evening (ok, I know - what’s new!) I will probably just get used to it then we take off for Canada where there is a 17 hour time difference to here and I will have to start adjusting again.

The Kapiti Coast area is really nice. On Sunday we walked up to a lookout point and had great views over the coast and local countryside.

It’s lovely being back in New Zealand.

April 16th

Today Terry and I took the local train to Wellington to see the 'Monet and the Impressionists' Exhibition at the Te Papa Museum. It was a great exhibition and the paintings were lovely to see. We had a lovely walk around the harbour from the train station to the museum. So far the weather has been very kind to me but it was windy there. I am told it nearly always is!

I visited the same museum when I was in Wellingon in 2006 so didn't go to any other part of it today. It is a really interesting museum, showing all aspects of life in New Zealand. The website is worth a visit:

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/Tepapa/English/

Wellington is a lovely city - the home of the New Zealand Government. It is very hilly and some of the houses on the hills must have incredible views over the city and harbour.

The hour long ride on the local train is very scenic in parts as it runs along the coast. The journey from Paraparaumu to Wellington takes around an hour.

15th April 2009

We are spending a quiet day today here at Terry's house which is really lovely She was so lucky to have found it when she moved here to the Kapiti Coast from Auckland last August:

I woke up this morning feeling absolutely fine - not tired or jet-lagged at all. It did hit me last evening and I went to bed at 7.30pm and slept through until around 5.30am this morning.

We spent the morning having a walk along the lovely beach here at Waikanae:

Kapiti Island (a wildlife reserve) is on the right, and way in the distance ahead I could see the mountains of South Island although it is not clear in this small photograph. We then went to the local shops in Waikanae where I am pleased to report that Woolworths is alive and well - albeit a supermarket and not like the 'Woolies' we had before it's sad demise.

14th April 2009

I have arrived safely in Waikanae, just north of Wellington New Zealand, and am at Terry's house. The long journey passed really well and I do not at feel as though I have been travelling for something like 28 hours. Fortunately both long flights (London-Hong Kong and Hong Kong-Auckland) were night flights so after take-off and dinner the lights were dimmed and everyone went to sleep or settled down to watch a film of their choice (I think there were 80 films to choose from!) I changed my watch frequently so as to quickly get into the different time zones and I think that helped. We had just a short hour or so stopover in Hong Kong for refuelling and that was a welcome break.
The upgrade to Air New Zealand 'premium economy' was worth every penny of the extra cost. Lots of leg room and space and the food and service were very good. I was served dinner and breakfast on both flights, both meals consisting of several courses, and wine (as many refills as I wanted) came free! So that, together with a sleeping pill, helped me get some sleep and thus pass the time. I don't think I ever had a 'long' sleep, but just sort of 'cat-napped'. I watched 2 films - Frost/Nixon (or is it Nixon/Frost) - that was good. I also watched 'Doubt' with Meryl Streep and found it very boring and fell asleep so have no idea how it ended!
I had a 2-hour wait for a connecting flight from Auckland to Wellington but that time soon passed. It was about a 12-15 minute walk from the international to the domestic terminal and I really enjoyed that - having the chance to walk in the fresh air and move around a bit.
All flights were pretty much on time, and all in all the whole long journey went incredibly well.
The weather here today is beautiful, end to end blue sky and sunshine. The scenery during short flight over NZ from Auckland down to Wellington was lovely. NZ is such a beautiful country.
A few days R & R here now. I expect I will feel the time differences tomorrow - I am still on a 'high' and reality hasn't kicked in yet.

Trip Maps

Here are a couple of maps. The first is a map of the trip Terry and I are undertaking across the USA. It doesn't include the Rockies Tour, the trip to Vancouver Island nor the Alaskan cruise. Are we mad?

The green line is the Amtrak (train) route, and the blue is the route we are taking by road.

The second map is a map of my complete trip.

It has just dawned on me that I am, in fact
'going round the world'
Yikes! I never, ever dreamed I would be doing that.

The Start of the Big Adventure

I depart on 12th April 2009 (Easter Sunday) and return on 21st July 2009.

My full itinerary can be seen if you click on:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pcxigNN7dUR-ItB6FHBkZNg&hl=en_GB

I have now just about completed all bookings and reservations for my forthcoming trip to New Zealand, Alaska, Canadian Rockies, California then Amtrak train across the USA to Boston. All airline tickets are booked and paid for and Amtrak seats (and bed on the journey from Chicago to Williamsburg) are also booked and paid for. I have also booked a Rockies Tour from Vancouver and an overnight trip to Vancouver Island. The internet makes these things so easy.

Hotel accommodation is reserved for the whole trip, and the great thing about that is that I have not had to pay any deposits whatever. Just reserved the room giving my credit card details - and that's that. Rooms can be changed (or cancelled) up to 24hours before arrival with no charge, and payment is on check-out.

For the 3 weeks or so in New Zealand I am staying with my friend Terry and we will be travelling around a little bit during that time. Then she and I depart from Auckland for Vancouver on 6th May for our 'adventure'.

Although it is still over 2 months before I depart there is a lot to think about. I have to pack for 3 months covering all weathers from bloody cold in Alaska in May to bloody hot in Arizona and New York in June. And I am intending to "Travel Light" (hence the blog title) with just a large(ish) holdall type bag on wheels and a small backpack for personal belongings and documents. I definitely do not want to be lugging a heavy suitcase on and off trains. I guess will have to develop a 'throw away' culture - ie take cheap warm clothes for the Alaskan cruise and just give them to a charity shop (assuming they have them in the US!) when I no longer need them. That will really go against my nature!

Also, closing up the house for 3 months takes a lot of thought, making sure all bills are covered by direct debit etc and also ensuring it is left clean, tidy and, above all, safe. I am very lucky in that I have super neighbours next door who will keep an eye on things for me and look in daily.

India Blog just about completed

I have now just about completed my India Travel Blog.
It's a bit confusing as I had to edit what I had already entered and can't work out how to 'copy and paste' to get it into true date order!
So to read it in the correct order, the daily blogs are in date order under the city headings Delhi - Agra - Jaipur, the last blog is called The Longest Day. So scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 'older posts' to begin. The first post is 'The Start of the Saga'.

Photos

I have spent most of my time today editing and uploading my photos.
Photo link: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/judystevens17/India#

The Longest Day

Sunday 2nd/Monday 3rd November. Five of us left Le Meridien on time at 1500 for the coach trip to Delhi. The journey wasn't as bad as I had anticipated as the road was quite good. The only hold ups were due to the amount of lorries on the road. The law states that heavy goods vehicles cannot enter Delhi until 9pm because of the conjestion there, so if they are early they park-up anywhere along the road sometimes causing traffic jams.
We arrived in Delhi about 8pm and went to a very nice restaurant for a meal, taking our time over it as we were very early for the plane.
We checked in with no problems at around midnight and then had to spend nearly three hours sitting in the airport. There was nothing to do there - no coffee shops, and only one duty free shop which was very small and sold very little. Time dragged somewhat.
I had a comfortable seat on the plane in Premium Economy (no upgrade this time). But as per usual on an aeroplane, I didn't sleep much, just cat-napped. Breakfast (curry) was served around 0600 and we landed on time at around 0715. A car was there to meet me and I arrived home just before 0900, feeling a bit spaced out.
I lasted until around 5pm, pottering about unpacking etc, then I thought I would have an hour's snooze, then get up for the evening. Not so! I awoke (or tried to) at 7pm, but was so sleepy I just climbed into bed and slept for 12 hours.