Christchurch and beyond

We arrived in Christchurch on Saturday evening and were picked up by Jo and Andy - friends from London who now have moved to Christchurch - who were very kind to keep their spare bedroom unoccupied just for us. They even had a feast waiting for us when we arrived, very good hosts indeed!!

After a nice evening we got up at the crack of 9 o'clock, had breakfast, joined them at their local church then headed to Christchurch's most scenic cafe for lunch, Cup. Unfortunately the glorious alpine range in the distance was all clouded over over though we could see the intention (and the photos on the wall), but the food was still great. We then headed out for a scenic drive around the volcano crater that sits just on the outskirts of Christchurch and down to Littleton which is on the inside of the crater. Now before anyone gets too worried - its inactive (or at least dormant) - so it was quite safe. One side of the crater was at some point either blasted of or had crumbled and water filled it, so it now resembles a bay more than a volcano, it even has islands in the middle. Or as Andy called one of them - 'the Cork'.

Once back at the house we started preparing dinner, roast lamb and vegetables and while that was roasting away happily settled in for a friendly game of kalooki (if there is such a thing) which lasted well into dessert.

Next morning, was an early start heading south into the alps...

Kauri

Tane Mahuta
When a tree hits the 1000 year old mark, it's only fair that it gets a name. When that tree is a New Zealand kauri tree, the significance of its age is shown in it's girth and aura. In fact, several ancient kauri trees in New Zealand have names but none are as old, or as large as Tane Mahuta, the "Lord of the forest". Seeing him standing there, its hard to take a picture of him which does him justice. For perspective, the diameter of his trunk is wider than Johan is tall.

Trounson Kauri park
Intrigued by these ancient trees, we followed the signs across 8k of bumpy road to the Trounsen park where a small forest of kauri trees are growing. None were so big as the lord of the forest however there were a few there that were undoubtedly several hundred years old.

It was getting late by this time and we still hadn't booked anywhere to stay for the night. To make things worse, my mobile phone had just run out of battery... Then we hit a streak of good luck. The nice man at the petrol station in Dargaville gave us a leaflet which had some places to stay including one in Matakohe which is where we were thinking of staying. The lovely waitresses at Jo's home cooking allowed us to charge my mobile in their plugs enough for me to call the number on the leaflet and discover that they did indeed have a room for us for the night.

It continued when we found the place, finally, and discovered that it was a "homestay" accommodation, run by a lovely couple in semi-retirement. Some friend of theirs had been over for dinner and were still there when we arrived and we were invited to pour a glass of wine and sit and chat with them. We ended up singing old Harry Belafonte and Maori songs (the woman proprietor was a Maori descendant). What a find! If you're interested, the name of the place was Moewaka Villa and their phone number is +64 9 431 6351. If you ever find yourself in North of the North Island, then stay there.

Kauri museum
Today we woke up and after a delicious meal, spent the rest of the morning in the Kauri museum. A bit odd at first, this museum of wood slowly draws you in as it takes you through a journey of the life of the loggers of the mighty kauri trees. It shows the evolution of the saws, mills and working conditions of the kauri bushmen throughout the 1800's to the modern day rangers who protect the trees. Samples of the wood are on display, as well as working mill tools and saws that were used. Oddly fascinating.

Bay of Islands

Ipipiri overnight cruise
We wanted to spend some time in the Bay of Islands however following our previous sailing experiences in Australia, I was a little reluctant to get back on a sailing boat so when we saw a new overnight cruise with an amazing introductory offer, we jumped at it. Turns out that this time our instincts were on the money as the cruise turned out to be fabulous! We met a lovely Irish couple as we boarded and ended up hanging out with them throughout the cruise. First up, we cruised through the islands....

Then we did some activities...


Ate, drank, watched the stars...

The next morning, some of us saw some penguins, and we saw loads and loads of dolphins...

Waitangi Treaty Grounds
I really enjoyed visiting the Waitangi cultural centre as it offered a far more involved and cultural experience than the cultural centre in Uluru in Australia. The Waitangi centre is located at the spot where the peaceful treaty was signed between the Maori people and the arrived Europeans which forms the basis of relations between the two people groups today. We took a guided tour of the grounds led by a lady of European heritage who is married to a gentleman of Maori heritage and learnt about the arrival of the Maori and the Europeans to the New Zealand shores.

We saw our first kauri stump and the beautiful traditional Maori war canoe which was built from the wood of the tree. We saw the house that the English governor lived in and the Maori meeting place built nearby. Of most significance was the tri-mast flagpole which, to this day, flies the flags of the British, Maori and New Zealand nations.

We also enjoyed some Maori songs and the famous Haka, which Johan even got the opportunity to participate in!

Auckland

Devonport
We were sad to leave Sydney but excited to meet up with Tim and Claire in Auckland. Our first night we drove around Auckland a bit and stopped for dinner at a sleepy little suburb by the bay with a beautiful view of the sun setting over Auckland. Lovely. Next day was a planning day and we sorted out plan for traversing NZ. We had thought we would start at the north and work our way to the south island, but the lack of cars to rent meant that we had to switch that around and fly south and then drive north. So we booked flights for Saturday and spent a few days going up to the Northland, to the beautiful Bay of islands first, the next day but we still had the day in Auckland to enjoy.

Bay cruise
Known as the City of Sails, we thought that we'd spend our final day in Auckland checking out why by jumping on a ferry around the harbour. A nice trip, but the time we chose to sail meant that we couldn't jump off at any of the stops for fear that we wouldn't get back to the mainland as it was the last cruise of the day.

In the evening we went around to see Johannah and her new husband and beautiful baby. It was a lovely reunion - only Scott was missing from our old Oxford house. Good times :)

Sydney

Balmoral beach
The next morning we flew from Brisbane to Sydney and headed straight for Balmoral beach where we were staying in a friend's flat (thanks Alasdair!). A train, a bus and a short walk later we found it, a beautiful apartment overlooking the beach. After settling in, we headed straight out to pick up some sheets and meet a friend who we met in Xi'an for a drink at The Rocks.

My birthday
My birthday dawned sunny and bright and we decided that the best way to spend the morning was at the beautiful beach on our doorstep :) After a lovely, relaxing morning we got dressed and caught the ferry into central Sydney where we made our way to Darling Harbour to meet up with some old friends of Johan and enjoy a delicious and some more beer at the Rocks. A lovely day.

Heatwave
The next day we got up early and headed to a local church before heading back to the flat to pick up some stuff and going on a walk around Lady Macquarie's chair. The flat was a bit warm so Johan went to open the door to the balcony to let some air in and a blast of hot air hit us. We found out later on that evening that the temperatures had reached 41 degrees in Sydney. But then we knew it was not the kind of weather for walking so that plan was soon abandoned and we stayed in cool shelter instead.

Bondi beach
Our final day in Sydney was spent with Kate who had come down from Straddie for the day for an interview. We visited the infamous Bondi beach and watched a couple of surfers who decided to climb down the rocks to the waves, then decide that it wasn't a good idea after all and climb back up. We could have told them that!

We also found a cafe which sold the most delicious chocolate mud cake in the world and Kate convinced them to stick a candle on it as they sang happy birthday to me. Thanks guys!

Brisbane

Movie 2012
Kate gave us a lift to Brisbane where we easily found our hostel Bunk before quickly deciding to head out and see a bit of Brisbane. It was afternoon time and Brisbane doesn't have a whole lot of things to do so we decided to do something a bit different from the usual. We went to see a movie. Actually, neither of us could remember the last movie that we'd been to so it was about time for another one. Interested to see what Hollywood thought the world would be like 3 years from now, we chose to see the acclaimed end of the world film 2012. Overall, a good film however our hero's impassioned speech at the end didn't come close in vigour to the president's speech in Independence Day.

It's my second time there and my opinion of Brisbane hasn't changed, it's a very nice place, but a little boring.

Straddie

From one paradise island to Brisbane and then onto the next, where our friend and host exraordinare Kate was picking us up. Stradbroke Island is a the second biggest sand island in the world, narrowly beaten by Fraser Island just to the north, but it shares all the beauty of its bigger relative. But Straddie has people (but only 3000) and paved roads so its beauty is much more accessible.

We arrived on monday night with a few objectives in mind, I wanted to try out surfing, we both wanted to try out the most amazing seafood in the world and maybe most importantly just relax for a couple of days and catch up with Kate who we've not seen in a long time. After we got to their house and were introduced to Stuart, her father, and his oyster farming friends we headed out for some Kangaroo spotting. The urgency of this mission was brought upon by our failure until that point to see any real wildlife (barrier reef fish and dingoes excluded of course). And Straddie came up with the goods immediately.

Kate's fathers house is in the town of Point lookout, which follows the beaches on the northeast side of the island, so you are never far away from the beach and the beatuful green areas on the slopes that separates them from the residential areas. In these areas a lot of wildlife lives and within 5 minutes, we spotted skippy obvilously just awoken from his afternoon nap. The dolphins, however, were a bit shy this particular evening, so instead we headed home to our hosts for Kates traditional welcome-home Taco dinner, a bit of wine and a good rest in preparation for what looked to be a busy Tuesday.

The plan for Tuesday contained: surfing, seafood hunting, koala safari, dolphin watching on the Gorge walk and roast lamb dinner. Sounds mad?? Well, we are nothing if not ambitious so we started out bright and early by heading down to the beach for some surfing lessons. We stopped by Maine beach where there were really good waves, for professionjals that is - for amatures they are scary and deadly, and rejected that for a more calm site. And when I say surfing I really mean 1 hour, 59 minutes of battling waves and about 30 seconds of attempting to stand up on the board. The morning was not ideal for surfing, with waves coming in very frequently and a bit messy, but that was the hand we were dealt and Kate seemed to manage easily enough. After two hours I had nealy managed to stand up three times and was really enjoying it, but it was tough and almost lunchtime so we had to call it a day and instead went seafood hunting.

Seafood hunting on Straddie is quite easy, you get into your car and drive to where the fisherman lives (they all live in Amity, btw) and buy this mornings catch straight out of their fridges. As fresh as it comes. We picked up some huge raw prawns and Moreton Bay Bugs to complement the few dozens of oysters that Kate and Stuart had brought home the day before. But before we could have lunch, we went koala spotting, since they also live in Amity. The nice lady that sold us the bugs advised us that there were usually three koalas living just across the road, but since it was getting a bit busy in the buildup to christmas (there is now at least 3 cars driving past each day) they had moved further into the forest. So we went a little bit into the forest to try to spot them in their gum-trees, and thanks to Kates keen eye we managed to spot one just as we were giving up. And to top that off, we managed to spot another two on the drive home, and we were only slightly worried by the fact that it was Kate, who was driving, that spotted them. But we got home safely and consumed a gorgeous seafood lunch accompanied by some nice wine - of course.

After brief rest in the early afternoon heat we went out to walk along the Gorge walk which goes along the east coast at point lookout and ends up at maine beach. This boardwalk has stunning views and today lots of turtles, manta-rays, sea-eagles and other birds were out in full force, as well as the surfers catching the last few waves before sunset. On our way home we stopped by the office where Kates brother Hugh is working, were treated to a chilled beer and let our feet rest for a while before heading back to the Roast lamb dinner that was being prepared by Stuart.

Wednesday morning offered a chance to remedy the unsuccessful attempt at surfing form the previous day, but unfortunately the waves were too small instead. So we had to leave the beach again with nothing more than bruised and scraped knees. Instead we headed to the local shops to try to find some Jamaican spices since we'd had a request for Jamaican jerk chicken for dinner that night, and four guests. On this shoppingtrip the Straddie wildlife came through for us again, this time dolpins were putting on a show in the bay. After just catching the very end of the show we managed to pick up most of the ingredients for dinner and made a marinade that was close enough to the real thing.

We left Vaniah behind to cook dinner and headed out so Stuart could get some pictures taken by an old disused oyster farming platform, and at the same time I got a mini tour of their oyster lease. It's quite an interesting place an oyster farm, full of cages to grow oysters in of course, but also full of other imposters such as sea cucumbers, razorclams (which Kate started hunting for since they have a scallop like centre that apparently is delicious) and fish. All in a stunnig setting out in Moreton bay.

The next day we woke up and reluctant to leave, we turned down going surfing one last time and instead just had to try the locally-made gelato one more time and eat lunch at the infamous Fishes. When we finally caught the ferry off the island, we met a local fire prevention guy and learnt all about controlling the bush-fires on Straddie. An impressive and hugely important job!

It's sad to leave Stradbrook island, we've had a great, relaxing time there and it was good to catch up with old friends. Still, with Brisbane and Sydney ahead, we had lots to look forward to...