20060508 Monday  Auckland to Christchurch NZ    Map Link                   Photo Link  

Up later than usual, continental breakfast in the club lounge, then out on the streets to walk around. Visited a bookstore and found the prices to be outrageous by our standards. For instance, "Firewalls for Dummies" was NZ$44.99. Even with the exchange of NZ$0.66=US$1.00, that's high.

We looked around some more but didn't see anything that struck us as necessary. We went back to the hotel and watched TV briefly, then caught the air-bus out to the airport. We were quite early, so we looked around, had a snack & a glass, then read until the NZ 737 took us to Christchurch.

We picked up the car and (after acquainting ourselves with it for several minutes - some things are where we think they should be, others aren't) drove into town. We found our Turret House B&B without problem (amazing) and checked in. Very english - cool rooms with beautiful paneling and furniture.

The weather here is definitely cooler - about 50*F at landing, with a good breeze.

The hosts advised us that, if we wanted a small meal, the casino is the place. We went there and had a small fish-and-chips(NZ$5.00-a real bargain) & drink. D gambled away $2NZ on the slots.

Back to the B&B, settled in and read until bedtime.

20060509 Tuesday  Christchurch NZ           Photo Link          

We got ambitious today. Great breakfast in our little B&B. A couple from Pasadena CA shared our table and told us of a wonderful tour they'd had yesterday. We asked Pam (of Pam and Mike) to book it for us, which she did. We were told to be ready at 1:10pm.

Then a walk to Cathedral Square (8-9 blocks) to the visitor's center. We checked out things and bought one gift. 

Then we did the Kiwi viewing in the adjacent building. Since they're nocturnal, the two on exhibit live under artificial light. They're most active just after dusk, but the center times their lighting so that dusk happens about 10:00am. 

So they were active and running/walking around their enclosure, grabbing at food. They're cute! No wings, just a big ball of feathers that look like fur, and with a long, slender, bill.

After watching them for a bit, we walked out into the square and watched a chess game being played with waist-high pieces on a marked bit of the square. Then the streetcar/tram ride, a circle around the downtown area.

After that, we stopped at the casino to get out of the wind; it's really fierce today. Then a stop at the chemist's (pharmacy) for aspirin, and back to Turret House.

At 1:02 we went outside to wait for the tour pick-up. At 1:30, we were still waiting. At 1:35, I went inside, looked up another company and called them. We were about to set out for Cathedral Square to take that tour when the original company pulled up at 1:40pm. The explanation was that (depending on whom you listened to) the door on the coach couldn't be unlocked by the substitute driver or that the hydraulics that operate the door had a problem.

Anyway, we took off and did a very nice tour, first of downtown, then the near suburbs, then over the pass to the Pacific shore and up it to Lyttelton, the port town for Christchurch. We had a nice walk thru a park area and rose garden in town. In Lyttelton, we stopped for tea in a small cafe, then continued the trip coming back over another pass to Christchurch. There is a shorter route directly to the port via a tunnel, one for trains and one for cars. The train hauls coal here for export to Japan and Australia from the west coast.

We got off at Cathedral Square and walked to The Vic and Whale for dinner. D had lamb shank & I had a sirloin, both very nice, with NZ wines.

Then we hiked back to Turret House against the wind (I'm still a little chilled) and settled in to do TV and download the pictures.

Tomorrow, we're off for Queenstown.


20060510 Wednesday Christchurch to Queenstown NZ     Map Link             Photo Link   

Today was the day on the road.

At the Turret House breakfast, we found out that TH has been sold and will cease to exist in three weeks. The purchasers are a large family who will use it as a residence.

We met two ladies at breakfast from Richmond VA and Washington DC. Fun to talk with them. They're on a long, long, trip all up and down the Pacific Rim on this side.

We finally got out of Christchurch (traffic) and cruised down Route 1 to Rangirata to pick up Route 79 to go west and south down the center of the island. Route 79 merged into Route 8, a good two-lane road. Most of the time, we did 110km/hour unless slowed by turns. We went through two not-too-high mountain passes.

Here in NZ, the primary pest is a possum. They were imported from Australia to raise for fur, but the importer went broke and just turned them loose. Now there are 4 million New Zealanders, 39 million sheep and 90 million possums. At the same time, the kiwi bird population has gone from 50 million to 50 thousand. Everyone is encouraged to run over possums on the road or kill them wherever one sees them. We only saw possums that others had already run over.

Dolores took pictures as we went, most of which came out nicely. At one point, we came to a sign saying "Stock", so we slowed. Over the next rise, we found the road blocked by sheep coming our way. We stopped and watched the sheep person and the sheepdog get them moving past us. Once, an eager sheep jumped over the right front fender. D shot several sheep pictures. We were told later that we had experienced a New Zealand traffic jam.

We found the Rydges Hotel in Queenstown, another English-style place insofar as they don't heat the room very well. We verified with our tour group that the tour will run tomorrow. It appears we're all set in that regard. We stopped in the bar and had a drink, then got practical and used the guest laundry to get caught up on that.

We downloaded the pictures of the day, did these notes, and now we're going down to dinner.

Back from dinner, orange roughy for me, lamb chops for Dolores and a great local sauvignon blanc. Very nice.

We were the only couple in the dining room. A gaggle of young people came in and were served from a buffet. When asked, our waitress said they are a group called "Connections", who visit places by bus, share rooms in hotels and do buffets as they wander. The group director told them to get their stuff in the bus by 6:30, breakfast, and on the road at 7:00; but if they were going to go into town and get hammered, tonight's the night! They can sleep on the bus tomorrow. Must be going up to Christchurch.

Down the hall from us, a group of rooms are let to "Waterhorse Productions" who are doing a movie here. No details yet, but we'll try to find out something.

Back to the room, take it easy, bed.

20060511 Thursday  Queenstown NZ                   Photo Link    

The day of the great tours of locations of Lord of the Rings......

Up to find a gray, misty day, with low clouds - perfect weather for middle-earth. Then a quick breakfast, and into the LandRover 4x4 with snorkel, rigged for stream-running. Driver is Fran, a 50's lady who could really handle the rig.

With Fran, we concentrated on areas south of Queenstown. Locations, in order seen (or other significant things) were:

The Remarkables Mountains - Misty Mountains in the movie.
Gandalf's ride toward Minas Tirith.
Kawarau River - the scene of the Pillars of the King.
A.J.Hackett's Original Bungy Jump - and we saw a jumper do it!
The Gladden Fields ride of Ilsidor.
The Ride of the Nine Black Riders down the river (Ford of Bruinen).
A terrible mountain road toward another scene of the Ford of Bruinen - one lane but bidirectional, no turnouts, slick clay. I would no more have run my truck down this road than into the ocean.
The super-sized arrow from the world premier of the third movie.

We also did some real four-wheeling, up a gravel-bottomed stream, across the stream, down the stream, up the banks, etc. The Land Rover is a remarkable vehicle. In the midst of all this, we stopped at a small village to have tea in a beautiful small cafe.

On finishing the tour Fran dropped us off to find lunch. We travelled about 100km with her.


After lunch, Tony (who was once an extra in the movie, playing a fully made-up but very dead Orc) picked us up and on we went. With Tony, we covered the area north of Queenstown, mainly in the region of Glenorchy.

Locations seen were:
AmonHen (one location)
Ithilien & the Oliphantsj
Lothlorian & AmonHen
Gandalf's ride to Isengard
Dunharrow and Rohan (where Tony played a dead Orc)

Tony also took pride in showing us how the Land Rover could run up/down/across streams and embankments. Our son Bill would have loved it. On this portion of the trip,we covered about 150km.

We hit the hotel bar and did the photo download into the computer there, then put things away. We were going to Luciano's for dinner, but it was closed for a private function so we went to dinner at Speight's Ale House. Excellent ale and good food. Sat by the fire and warmed ourselves as we ate. Then we walked back to the hotel and did more computer work and went to bed.



20060512 Friday Queenstown to Te Anau, NZ          Photo Link   

It was 2*C when we got up - chilly, with a little breeze. We walked downtown (6-7 blocks) and had breakfast at the Naff Caff - a coffee house. Good food.

We browsed the town a bit, and bought a small gift. We walked back along the lake to the hotel. Packed up, checked out, loaded the little car (our Hertz Corolla) and drove off. Back thru town to get out, then down Route 6. Bought fuel at a Shell station; took me forever to find the latch that opens the fuel door - it's on the floor next to the driver's seat.

We checked out the small village of Kingston at the foot of the lake - a residential/cottage place. A steam train runs out of here in the summer. Looked to be 3-foot or meter-gauge. Saw the cars, but couldn't find the locomotive.

On down the road. We went to Manapouri, where we'll board the Doubtful Sound tour tomorrow, and cased the place. Should be no problem parking or getting there.

On then to Te Anau (village named after the lake it's on). A real resort place, lots of motels and restaurants, but smaller by far than Queenstown. Cute little place. Reminds me of Saugatuck in Michigan. We checked into Campbell's AutoLodge and put our stuff into our little apartment (living/kitchen/dining, bedroom, bath). Very nice to have more space than a hotel room.

Walked up to the Moose for lunch. It turns out they released some Canadian moose here in the early 1900's, but nobody's seen any for 40 years. Still, the legend lives on that there are moose loose in the mountains (that's not where moose usually want to be). Good ale, good food, close by. Then we walked to the supermarket and bought things for breakfasts for the next two mornings, and a jug of Chard Farm Sauvignon Blanc - we were using the driveway into their winery yesterday when we saw the bungy jumper.

Drove back to the bird sanctuary on the edge of town. Saw a few birds in cages, very unique to NZ except for the Canadian geese. Several colorful parrots, a kea(pesky bird that loves to tear up your campsite), and others.

We did a few things around the apartment. Guess what movie came on at 7:00pm? Sure enough - Lord of the Rings (first one) So we watched part of it, trying to pick out sites. Then we walked down to the Moose for dinner. As we were eating, some rugby game started and everyone in the place gathered around one of the many TVs to watch it. Lots of people in the joint - Friday night crowds, I guess. Back rather quickly so D could watch the end of the movie. Yup, we saw a couple of scenes with locations we’d just seen. Funny.

Did the photo download and organized it. Cleaned up the in-bound e-mail (full high-speed internet here) and sent a couple. Now I'll organize the next trip report and get it out.



20060513 Saturday Te Anau, NZ              Photo Link      

Forecast for Queenstown (our destination) tomorrow: Rain, sleet, hail. Snow down to 1,000' (300m) altitude. Southwest wind, strong, gusty. It will be worse here where we are, but not much.

Wonderful. On the other hand, we did our tour today and missed most of the yucky weather.

Up, ate a small breakfast in our little apartment, and drove to Manapouri's Pearl Harbour to the embarkation place for our tour today. We checked in and picked up our lunches. 

The tour has several phases. First, one transits Lake Manapouri to West Arm. Secondly, bus over Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove on Doubtful Sound. Third, a boat tour of Doubtful Sound and back to Deep Cove. Fourth, the bus back over Wilmot Pass, but this time it goes 213 meters underground into a mountain, in which is the power generation machinery harnessing the drop out of Lake Manapouri. Fifth, the boat trip back across Lake Manapouri to Manapouri. Then home.

We boarded and rode to West Arm. The weather ahead of us looked pretty bad compared to the slightly miserable weather we were in. At West Arm, it was raining and cool (about 6*C). The heat on the bus felt good. 

Usually, one has a good view of Doubtful Sound from the top of Wilmot Pass. No view today - all cloud. Down at the base at Deep Cove, the visibility was all right under the cloud (a couple miles, maybe). We boarded the nice catamaran Patea Explorer and headed out. By this time, it was close to noon, so we ate our box lunches, very large and lots of little things in it. Bagle with salmon, wheat roll with meat, grapes, cookies, cheese, chocolate, more. White wine with it.

We headed for the place where a pod of dolphin usually hang out. They were there and several of them came out from close to shore to the boat to look it over. Got some very good pictures of dolphin.

Onward to the mouth of the sound, which is full of rocks and shoals. The explorer Captain Cook took a look at this place on his way around New Zealand. His biologist wanted very much to come ashore. Cook refused, named the place Doubtful Sound, since he knew he could get it but doubted he could get out due to the prevailing westerlies, and sailed on.

The boat rolled and pitched moderately as we rounded the rocks and got into the Tasman Sea. Two of the rocks had sea lions all over them, darker ones than we see in the US. Back into Doubtful Sound and then the trip (with a few diversions to interesting geological sites) back to Deep Cove.

Then the bus again. Took a look at the tailrace for the power station's turbines ten miles away through the mountain. Still couldn't see anything at the summit. Down the other (east) side and into the hole in the ground. The hole makes one and a half rotations as it spirals down into the mountain to the turnaround place. After turning, the buses stop and safety people show you into the machinery hall, which is 364 feet long and 99 feet wide. Maximum power output is 590 megawatts. All of this blasted out of granite. We took many pictures.

The reason for the power station is to feed an aluminum smelter 170km away down the island. It needs daily five times more power than the whole area of Auckland. 

Then the buses climbed up out of the hole and down to the pier at West Arm. A few backpackers were there to join us on the way out. We hopped onto the Lake Manapouri boat and crossed that lake heading home. At the dock, we jumped into our little Corolla and headed for the AutoLodge.

We downloaded the pictures and killed off the duplicates and poor shots. Then I took Dolores to church and returned to finish the picture work and do this journal. I went back to get her at what would be a normal time, only to find her alone in the dark under the front eves of the church. It turns out the mass took 25 minutes and she talked with several people after that, turned down several ride offers, and waited. Oops.

So we went to Bailez's for dinner and plyed her with wine to warm her up. She had more lamb, I had a unique chicken & mushroom thing. She warmed up by the end of dinner and we returned to the little apartment. She watched the second episode of Lord of the Rings and I'm finishing this prior to sending it. Don't know when we'll have as good an internet connection againi. Here in Te Anau, we’re as far south as we’ll get this trip - 45*30’S. That’s not very far south, but there isn’t anything between here and Antarctica.


20060514 Sunday Te Anau to Queenstown to Christchurch NZ                  Photo Link    

Sort of a goofy day.

Woke up and made a small breakfast in the apartment in Te Anau. Paid the motel bill ($80/night US). The weather was still wet and unsettled, so we decided to drive to Queenstown directly rather than the long route.

We started in a light rain that ended soon. The clouds were in two layers, low and high, which made for very little sunlight. It was also hard to see the mountains, but where we could see them, they had snow nearly down to road level (maybe 100m above us).

So we drove carefully to Queenstown. We stopped in Kingston enroute to see if the steam train was running. There was a sign in the window that no run would take place today due to the inclement weather and the fact that a tour group had canceled. We went beyond the depot and found two steam engines of the Pacific type under roof in an open-sided shed. One had a little steam up, so the cancellation must have come after someone started getting up steam in the old beast. So we went on.

We parked near Rydges in Queenstown and walked into the main part of town. We stopped in a gift shop and bought some things, then arranged that they be shipped home so we wouldn't have to tote them all over. Then we succumbed to a McDonalds lunch - tasted rather good after all the fish-and-chip and other lunches. 

Then the light rain changed to light hail. Then the sun came out. Then it snowed for a while. We decided not to go too far in the car, so we took a time-killing ride to Cromwell and back. 

We parked in the rental car return lot and hauled the luggage into the terminal. The signs for our flight said, "Suspended." When we asked, they said that meant they weren't checking in any passengers or luggage for the flight since it might not be able to land. As an aside here, they say Queenstown is the world's shortest-runway international airport in the world; there are no overrun areas because one end is at a road and the other at the brim of a canyon.

Finally, the clouds moved away enough that the flight could get in, so we checked in and a flight for Auckland also checked in. We moved to the passenger area. Someone pointed out a 737 coming over the runway; it continued along the runway axis then made a large orbit to the right to get around a small mountain and landed. It huffed and puffed with full reversers and stopped in time. Our smaller turboprop got in with no problem.

We finished loading first and taxied out the runway (no taxiway at this airport), turned around, and took off. After we got up a little, the pilot pulled off to the left and went around a hill higher than we were; we could also see mountains ahead of us much higher. We went 270* around the hill, then 90* to the right to go up the gorge and gain altitude to get above everything. Strange place to fly, but I guess they're used to it.

We landed at Christchurch in a monsoon, called the hotel and got the driver to fetch us in the hotel van. As we checked in, we arranged for the van to take us to the airport at 0445 and for a 0400 wakeup call. We headed into the dining room. I had a glass of pinot noir (the big red variety made around here) and Dolores was presented with a little bottle of champagne for Mother's Day. We both selected the pasta special. Had a drink in the bar after that, then retired. I think D was asleep by 8:30. Tomorrow we leave NZ and fly all the way to the west coast of OZ at Perth.