Day 11 Dunedin to Te Anau

Wednesday January 9th 2013

Finally a sleep in this morning & less disturbed sleep. We awoke around 7.30 to an overcast day & after showering, re packing etc made our way to breakfast. After all this time away the novelty of a full cooked breakfast has long worn off, so I usually just have a little cereal with stewed fruit, then some fresh fruit & coffee. No toast or the endless supply of pastries. That said, my healthy start does not often interpret to the remainder of the day. Lunch can be difficult due to the type of place we stop & the amount of time we have (often only 40-50 minutes for all 47 of us to eat, drink and use the bathrooms). There is usually no time for them to cook food from scratch so we have to grab something ready made. I usually have fish & salad if available though. Dinners are mostly buffet so always a choice and mostly the quality is good, if not my ideal form of dining.

After breakfast we dropped our hand luggage on the coach and walked into the centre of town (The Octagon) where I uploaded yesterday's blog entry. Then we went for a walk, had a coffee, purchased a few things (sandals for me, polo shirt & hat for Mike) then wandered back to where we were to meet the coach at 11.30am. All aboard & heading towards Te Anau.

Next stop was at Peggydale for lunch and a leg stretch, then off again. It was at this stage that the weather gods, which have shined on us the entire trip, began to let us down. As we neared Te Anau the rain commenced & became heavier as we arrived in town. This is such a beautiful place right on a lake it was a pity there was no sunshine.

First stop was the local cinema, where we watched a film on the Milford Sound. Very beautiful and great filming, all from a helicopter. This ran for 30 minutes & then we were taken to our hotel arriving just after 5.30pm.

This is a lovely hotel & situated right on the lake. The rain has continued since we arrived with lots of thunder & lightening. We were told that it rains here on average 300 days/year & average rainfall was 6 metres! I'm sure some Aussies would love some of that rain right now. We have a drive to Milford Sound, then a cruise planned for tomorrow, however, that is in doubt due to the torrential rain over recent days. The road has been closed because of the dangers of landslides. There is a slight chance it may reopen tomorrow (Thursday), however they have a backup plan fr a lake cruise just in case. We won't be too disappointed if it doesn't happen as we did this cruise on the Diamond Princess 3 weeks ago. For those who have not done it, I hope the sky will turn blue and they will reopen the road.

Well we ave unpacked the essentials, recharged batteries and just getting ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight was al a carte & just beautiful. I had a raw salmon entree & a tender rib eye for main. We had a glass of wine in our room before dinner, then a Speights cider (yes we had to check & make sure it really was that good last night) with our meal. It was a really nice restaurant in the hotel and great to have a break from the buffet.

It's 9.30pm & still daylight ... & still raining so no walk along the lake. The weather forecast for tomorrow is still grim, however the plan is to get up early, have breakfast & be ready to leave Te Anau by 7.45am Thursday & head to Milford Sound. I guess we will be informed in the morning of any changes.

Not a lot of photos today due to the rain ... But will post a few of Dunedin and its beautiful buildings.

Day 9 - Omarama to Dunedin

Tuesday January 28th 2013

Weather - Overcast & Mild (no idea of temp as no Internet service)

Early start today (no problem for me as i am still having problems sleeping with my painful right shoulder) as we will be reaching Dunedin by early afternoon. There are a few optional excursions both this afternoon, evening & tomorrow morning. Amongst these are a couple of different castles, a wildlife boat trip, Cadbury Factory & Speights Brewery Tours. I have been to the main castle before as well as doing the brewery tour (which was fantastic & I think Mike will enjoy) so we have opted for that. Will let you know more about that later.

Luggage out & off to breakfast at 7am .... Then all aboard the coach and on the road just after 8am. So far this tour, with a couple of minor exceptions, everyone has been very punctual as far as being on time for departures. We are also travelling a little lighter for the next week as we left one large suitcase in the hotel in Christchurch because we will be returning there on the last night of our tour. Because that suitcase only contains our dressy clothes and things we required for our cruise, it seems pointless to drag it around everywhere. We did ask if we could leave it on the coach, however were told this was not possible due to insurance reasons? Not a problem now though.

We had a nice drive through the region between Omarama & the coast where all the large dams are located. One which provides all the water for the power station was full & flowing over the spillway. Very spectacular, as the photos will show. We stopped for about 20 mins to walk along the wall & take photos. Once again the clouds cleared & we saw brilliant sunshine just after departure. Can't believe how lucky we have been with the weather so far!

Back on the coach and a scenic driver for an early lunch stop at a little coastal town called Moerki Boulders. They are famous for the boulders along the beach & fresh fish & chips, so we had to try .....yes it was amazing & so fresh. More photos, then back on the coach and a short drive into Dunedin. This is our 2nd visit in 3 weeks as we spent a day there from the cruise just before Christmas. At least we know our way around the city and where to locate free Internet

Our hotel is great .... Right in the centre of the city, within 5 minutes of the Octagon (main shopping and cafe area). Once inside we discovered a wonderful view of the harbour area. Very nice indeed & the rooms are huge, unlike the one in Christchurch which was tiny.

After a quick unpack, coffee & little rest, we walked down to the Octagon & were soon hooked up to the free Internet there. I uploaded yesterday's blog entry whilst Mike went for a walk. It is not cold out, but is extremely windy. We then walked back to our hotel, opened a bottle of wine and sat & relaxed before getting changed & ready to meet Phil, our tour guide, for the Speights Brewery Tour. Only 5 of us sighted up so should be good.

We met Phil in the foyer of our hotel at 4.45pm and we walked to Speights Brewery about 5 minutes away. There were a couple from Wales, a guy from Melb (Norman) & Mike & I. Well the tour was good, but a thirsty process so we couldn't wait to get back to the bar to sample their wares. Included in the $22 tour price was an "all you can drink" deal at the bar. Their 5 best selling beers plus their new cider were all on tap and the group were able to pour our own for a period of 40 minutes following the tour. We began by trying their beers in order. I am not much of a beer drinker, but they were all great. Then we tried their new cider, which we had samples in a couple of places (bottled) earlier in our tour. It was delicious on tap & I managed to consume 5 before time was up. Mike was a little slower :) Next we headed towards our hotel and discovered Phil, our tour guide in the Speights pub next door to the brewery. We had to go in and check he was OK. Well we then had another 2 ciders each & had to leave because dinner at our hotel was booked for 7pm. We all had a great time and Norman was quite inebriated. It turns out he doesn't drink normally so he kept thanking me for a great time when we were at dinner. His wife thought it was hilarious. Hope he is OK tomorrow!

As I am typing this Mike is unconscious on the bed .... Some people just can't hold their alcohol. I actually feel OK and we have a late start tomorrow so all is well. I will try to upload some photos and post this before we leave Dunedin & head for Te Anau tomorrow.

Goodnight all!

Day 8 - Christchurch to Omararma

Monday January 7th 2013

Weather - Fine, warm approx 21C

We had another wander around the container shops, had a coffee and used the free Internet to check emails & upload my last 2 blog entries. We then walked back to our hotel, grabbed our carry on bags & boarded the coach. Departing the hotel about 10am, we took a short drive to the Christchurch Museum & Botanical Gardens. Both were virtually untouched by the earthquakes and well worth a visit. We spent most of our time in the gardens as it was such a beautiful morning. The trees & flowers were amazing, as my photos will show. We then made a brief visit to the museum which was very well set out & informative, until it was time to depart beautiful Christchurch.

After about 2 hours travel we stopped in Geraldine, a little coastal town, for lunch. Next we headed towards Omarama, stopping at Lake Taupo with the Church of the Good Shepherd & another lake (forgot the name) for a photo shoot along the way. The water colour in these lakes is an amazing pale turquoise, this combined with the green of the foliage, blue sky & snow capped mountains in the background makes for picture postcard views. I must have taken 200 photos today so you will see a small sample below. We have been so lucky with the weather this trip as today it was fine in Christchurch, then it became overcast with some rain as we were driving. Once we neared Lake Taupo the sky cleared and the sun came out, a perfect backdrop for our photos.

We arrived in Omarama around 6pm and were taken to our hotel, the same one i stayed in last time I was here. As soon as we arrived the memories of the guest laundry, the bar, restaurant & tables outside on the lawn came flooding back. Especially sitting outside in the late afternoon sun drinking wine with fellow travel companions. I wonder if anyone else can remember?

Our dinner tonight was a buffet at 7pm, so we quickly unpacked the basic necessities & walked over to the bar/restaurant for a drink before dinner. The meal was great, as far as buffets go, nice veggies, salads, fish & meat. We sat with 2 nice Irish gentlemen who are travelling together (one is a university lecturer & the other a Catholic Priest).They are both very nice and we had an interesting conversation.

Unfortunately it is just a little too cool to sit outside tonight so we had to have our wine indoors. It is a beautiful clear night, however the wind is quite cool. We have managed to do our laundry as well .... So clean clothes for the next few days!

I think we will have an early night tonight as the coach leaves here at 8am for beautiful Dunedin.

Here are a selection of photos from today.

More tomorrow.

Day 7-8 Christchurch

Sunday 6th & 7th January

After dropping our hand luggage and getting our suitcases we headed off on a stroll around Christchurch. What a change from my last visit! So very sad to see damage almost everywhere, but strange how on building would be totally demolished & the next still standing with minimal damage. The beautiful town square I loved is no longer. Our hotel is one of only a few Buildings standing & operating in central Christchurch because it is very new. Other buildings, shops are there but closed or fenced off because of the danger of collapse.

The really good part is the shipping containers which have been painted, decorated and made into shops, cafes, businesses etc. The really strange ones are the banks. We saw Bank of NZ, ANZ & Westpac all operating with ATM's from the containers. There are also lots of container gardens with beautiful flowers to brighten things up. In the time we wandered around there were lots of other tourists doing likewise.

I have taken lots of photos so will add some to this post.

After we came back to our room we enquired re somewhere to go for dinner as the hotel dining room was fully booked with another coach tour. We discovered that there are very few restaurants actually open for dinner in the vicinity (the container cafes only open during the day) so eventually found one quite a walk away. We were with 3 other couples from our tour and enjoyed a nice dinner and a few drinks. We discussed the reasoning of the tour company actually. Bringing us into Christchurch with no provision for the meal, especially as we will return to the same hotel for the last night of our tour in 1 week. It is obvious Christchurch needs tourism to survive through this difficult period of reconstruction, however depositing us in the centre of the city is probably not the best option, especially when there are very few resources around us.

I guess I have seen so much on the news etc, but one really can't take on the magnitude of this disaster until viewed with ones own eyes. This city has a long haul until it returns to normal.

More tomorrow :)

Day 7 Picton to Christchurch

Sunday January 6th 2013

Weather ... More of the same, warm, sunny around 21C

Awoke bright & early to another beautiful day in Picton. We could see the first ferry of the day arriving about 6am. They are so close to the hotel, but we can't hear any noise. This is one of the nicer hotels we have stayed at, it is privately owned and has a more boutique feel. The rooms are large with kitchen facilities and a spa bath. The balcony is huge and you could fit about 12 people on it. Would be a great place to stay for a longer period, to base yourself in Piction and visit the many attractions & wineries in the region. It is a small town and very quaint. We would have loved to stay longer ..... Maybe next time.

Today we have a late start, leaving the hotel around 9am & then spending approx. 1 hour exploring the township where we found free internet & had a coffee. Then we left for Christchurch, following the coastline and stopping to view & photograph all the fur seals on the rocks. The ocean here is a beautiful clear light green colour.

Today our lunch stop was in Kioraki, a sweet little coastal town. We only spent 40 mins there so to a lot of time for exploring, however we did take a short walk to the beach and took some photos.

I have mixed feelings about seeing Christchurch after the earthquakes as I just loved it when there several years ago. Our hotel is in very central position & new so I assume it was built since the earthquakes. The shipping containers which now house all the shops, restaurants etc which used to be in the CBD are visible from our hotel and just a 5 minute walk away.

We finally arrived in Christchurch around 5pm and headed to our room. Tonight is a free choice as far as dinner is concerned, so we will take a walk & see what we find.

I will finish this entry and commence another on Christchurch.

More soon.