Long drive back through Port Elizabeth and Tsitsikama National Park to Knyssna, a very scenic small town set not on the sea but a lagoon connected to the sea. it is a feature of this coast that the rivers form lagoons behind, usually, big sand dunes but in Knyssna’s case a couple of rocky headlands called, oddly, Knyssna Heads. Spent a pleasant day shopping, mainly the window variety to C’s later regret, and walking round the Eastern Head (no Asiatic features evident.

We must mention Villa Afrikana, probably the most superb B&B we have ever stayed in. Immaculately kept and with stunning views over the lagoon, river estuary, heads and surrounding mountains, matched only by the décor and furnishings. Ross and Bianca who run it were extremely obliging and the service from the staff was, if anything, slightly too attentive, but not annoyingly so. A brilliant couple of days stay.

Pausing only for a spot of lunch at Wilderness (which, bizarrely, is a village and sports the Milk Wood shopping precinct) we headed on to Oudtshoorn (lessons in the correct pronunciation can be given on request). Scenic mountain passes en route to the “Pictures Guest House” which was full of them, all over the walls. It also sported a wind-up gramaphone dating back to 1929 with a volume control consisting of adjustable louvred doors on the front of the cabinet. Excellent hospitality again, but their bowl of blown ostrich eggs persuaded us to stop at one of the many ostrich show farms on the way out of town on a rainy Sunday morning. Oudtshoorn is the ostrich capital of the world. Its fortune was built on providing ostrich feathers for the fashion industry in Europe in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and there are still a number of mansions built of local red sandstone by the ostrich barons in the town. The trade declined in the thirties and then turned to meat production in the sixties. A productive, if expensive, hour was spent in the shop, but we declined to do the tour in the rain.

The rain was fairly well set in by now so that the mountains either side of the valley were often not visible. Some dramatic cloud formations (partly) compensated for the lack of visibility but the weather fortunately improved after Ladismith (I know, after Lady Smith did what?) and we then got some idea of the stark beauty of the Little Karoo. Excellent scone (served with grated cheese as well as cream and jam) and coffee fuelled us for the final push into Robertson.

Another excellent B&B with fabulous food, e decided to eat in along with a German couple, the only other guests, who come to South Africa every year at this time. Had an excellent meal and an equally good breakfast and then headed for Franschhoek. Literally translated, it means “French corner”. It would appear that back in the 17th and 18th century, Dutch, Portugese and British ships would call in at the Cape for supplies of fresh fruit, vegetable and meat produced by the Dutch settlers. The Dutch and British suffered from scurvy, but not the Portugese, because they drank wine at Breakfast lunch and dinner. Wine in those days contained all the leys and rubbish that we now filter out but which provided protection from scurvy, even though it did nothing for the quality of the wine. Unfortunately, the British and Dutch sailors reaction was that they would rather get scurvy than drink the crappy wine produced by the Cape Dutch settlers. Enter French Huguenots, invited in specifically to improve the quality of the wine and moved to the French corner – there is still a Huguenot memorial in Franschhoek and a lot of French names around the area.

Excellent wine-tasting, meal and tour in Haute Cabriere Wine Estate that we happened upon on the way into the town. Slightly odd but OK digs with John and Sheila up another dirt road but slightly less than 18km long and a tapassy meal to top up on Haute Cabriere’s efforts. And so to Cape Town with some trepidation on C’s part, but Parker Cottage, where we are staying, is quaint and quirky but very comfortable and Phil, the proprietor is a human dynamo and a mine of useful information. Went to eat at a restaurant just round the corner – - I had jambalaya that could be my dish of the trip, followed by blue cheese ice cream. Yes, blue cheese ice cream. Could be a fascinating final 3 days!

Set out for the game reserve next morning, some with more trepidation than others. Last 18kms was on dirt roads which had apparently been suffering in recent wet weather. Bit bumpy! Exhaust pipe started making occasional clonking noise somewhere along the way. Electrified fences and warning signs did nothing to cheer Coral up. Welcomed by Brian, who runs Rippon Lodge where we were staying, He predicted Coral would love it and want to come back; she remained ….. sceptical?

Lunch and then panic to find suitable clothes for first game drive. Warned that it got very cold in the Land Cruiser – no windscreen and therefore 40km/hr wind chill. Rapidly purchased beanie hats from the shop and emptied cases to find suitable layers. Into the vehicle with Nofias our guide and half a dozen other visitors. Rifle in the bracket on the dashboard sort of reassuring but…. Not sure whether Nofias explaining that he preferred guiding without a rifle but South African law required it, helped those of a nervous disposition or not.

Hardly out of the lodge before we saw warthogs, then lots of wilderbeste. Suddenly we came round a clump of bushes and there were three white rhinos. (“White” doesn’t refer to the colour, which is grey, but is a corruption of “wide”, which refers to their mouths. Their “black” cousins, also grey, have much more pointed snouts.) Saw lots of antelope of various types and stopped for “sundowners” and bush toilet (flushless).

Back to the lodge for de-layering, sprucing up, drinks in the bar and then dinner – very good. Seated on tables with our own guides, so lots of conversation about the day and great cameraderie. Then the black staff of the lodge all appeared and sang songs to us in Khosa – astonishingly good! And so to a nightcap and bed because…

5 am and Nofias knocking on the door, back into the layers and into the Land Cruiser pausing only for a quick cup of coffee and a biscuit. Out of deference to my diabetic status, I got a box of biscuits and cholate brownie to take with me. Drove down to the other end of the reserve, 30 minutes of wind chill, thank god for the layers and beanies, and then lions! Two females, grandmother and grand-daughter, on the hunt but with no prey in sight. Next we encountered two black rhinos, apparently a rare occurrence as they are shyer than their white cousins. These two performed beautifully by paralelling our track for a while then crossing it to drink from a water hole before disappearing back the way they had come.

Out onto the plain with lots of zebra and assorted antelopes, springboks, blazeboks, wilderbeste, hartebeste etc and then Nofias spotted giraffes. When we caught up with them, there turned out to be about 20 of them, an incredible sight. Their gait is rather like the brontosauruses in “Jurassic Park” and they happily stood munching all around us.

We had been told that the animals only see the vehicle as a single object, unless you break up the outline by leaning out or getting out, and that since they have never been threatened by it, they just ignore it. It was still amazing to actually be ignored by lions, rhinos, giraffe, zebras, warthogs and antelope only a few feet away. They would ocasionally give us a passing glance but, other than that, took no notice at all.

On the way back we saw an elephant, though some way away. Back at the lodge, we were presented with hot chocolate, not an everyday experience at that time in the morning, but a good start to the thawing process, completed over a very good breakfast. And so to bed….

Picnic lunch by the pool, overlooking the lake where we had seen a hippo the day before (well , its eyes and the top of its head) then a sunbathe before layering and heading back to the vehicle. An exciting drive this time, zebras, wilderbeste, four white rhinos on this occasion, and then a puncture. Nofias started fixing it and then another of the reserve vehicles arrived with another spare wheel. The weather, having been hot and sunny, turned sour at this point and started to rain a little.

Then we found a pride of four lions, who were very docile having apparently stuffed themselves on an elland they had killed the previous day. Nofias was telling us that there was a fifth member of the pride, a half-brother to the male we were watching, with whom he had a very tempestuous relationship, when Francis, the other Rippon Lodge guide came on the radio to say that they had spotted him just the other side of the ridge. The two vehicles swapped places and during the course of the move we came round a corner to find a big male giraffe munching peacefully and blocking the road. Eventually he wandered off and we caught up with the fifth lion sitting on top of a rise overlooking a flat plain. He was clearly interested in something and we could see down below a herd of zebra foolishly heading our way. They got closer and closer, coming up the rise, until the lion decided to give it a go and, after some cat-like stalking, disappeared down the hill at speed. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the zebra at this point but by the time we got down the hill it was clear that the zebra had been too quick for the lion. We followed him for a while but the rain got heavier and heavier and he eventually took shelter under a bush. We all donned ponchos and headed back to Rippon over some very rough and precipitous tracks – it was like ALL the rides at Alton Towers rolled into one!

Entertaining and informative tales from Brian and another excellent meal and bed again. Coral decided to give the morning drive a miss as her back was complaining after the evening “drive of her life” – good call. It turned out to be a washout in every sense – the rain started as we left, we did see antelopes, zebra and more giraffe, but not the hippos and elephants Nofias was hoping for and none of the other guides had found anything interesting. so we headed back and arrived rather wet and very cold despite the ponchos. Put a bit of a dampener on the end of our stay!

Worried by rattling exhaust though it seemed OK , pleased to get first to Port Elizabeth and on eventually to Knysna to … absolutely brilliant accomodation… overlooking the bay from high on a cliff, best B&B ever! Waited on hand and foot… though always by absolutely charming black staff which makes me feel bad.
Enjoyed exploring Knysner a town, by the sea. Interested with the shops but only bought books to read up on what we have seen… rather tame after previous adventures.
Set off to Oudsthoorn inland, known as Ostrich capital of the world. Through wonderful scenery, bit mountainous, bit NZ – like and once again through golden areas where ragged sheep graze and ostrich roam. New B&B is lovely too. Car behaving ok, rattling only round left bends!

Drove up the coast to St Francis Bay
Ate seafood watching fishing boats preparing to go out on 3-week fishing trip.
Encountered and conquered, in our VW Polo saloon, 18km of rough dirt road to Shamwari Game Reserve!
Half an hour to prepare for first 4hr game drive.
Yikes!!!!!!!!! Amazing………WOW!
Supper / bed / 5.00AM call….. second game drive……..Yikes again!!!!!!! AWSOME!
Picnic overlooking lake where hippo was yesterday.
4.00PM out in jeep again….. cold / puncture / lions and stalking the zebra / SHIT..SHIT..SHIT…… still alive …..rattled back over rough tracks in the rain and dark, freezing..brilliant but absolutely TERRIFYING!!!! (John’s version later…but it’s all true!)
John off next morning at 5.30am for last drive before we left….. back just a couple of hours later absolutely drenched, freezing and with limited animal sightings. Glad I stayed in bed.
So it was Thursday. Drove this time in our own car 18km back over dirt road to get to main road. Exhaust began to rattle…on own… fencing around ‘BEWARE LIONS’ had to drive real slow… it was the longest 18 km we’ve ever driven…. WHOLE EXPERIENCE ..WILD!

11 ½ hr journey good arrived safely.
Drove to Hermanus but did not see whales.
30 C Saturday
Drove further along coast… interesting golden landscape ,some n
Norfolk Pines as NZ. fabulous coast-line in parts.
Passed ostrich farms and monkeys at the side of the road (yikes!!!!)
Weather cool showery 20C at Heralds Bay Golf resort. Weird set up but very friendly and luxury room.
Ate ostrich (well John did)
Massage and spa while it rained.

THURSDAY 17th
To Heathrow via The Wadsworth Airport Transfer Service. Quick check-in for 20.30 flight (half an hour late leaving ) to Capetown.

FRIDAY – SUN (18th – 20th)
From our central seats at the very back of Premium Economy we awoke, yes awoke to breakfast enjoyed more by John than me and an easy descent into a warm Capetown. Rather a lenghty wait for passport check but we did our good turn by helping a young pregnant mum travelling with Ted, a lively toddler who wanted to exolore!

Our rental car, through Hertz, was upgraded to a Polo saloon. It seems fine and conceals the luggage. 90 mins drive or so to Hermanus. Parked and paid, wardens go up and down the street, a rand (8p) a quarter of an hour, and had an explore round the town stopping for bite to eat at a place overlooking the sea. An African band of four struck up just in front of us on the grass…. a ready made cabaret! But not a whale in sight! Everyone seems very friendly and helpful and its sunny and warm.. well actually quite hot.. we are told probably the hottest day of their year so far. Set off to our accomodation, out of the main town centre a little and as we read on trip-advisor, through a strange-looking area, barbed-wired and high walls, black factory workers and just a bit intimidating but after one mistake found the Beach Club a gated community of houses and apartments where we found Whale View our guesthouse a magnificent home all white with picture windows opening on to a deck of white cushions overlooking the blue, blue sea by this time pounding the shore-line in a strong wind. Blue sky and 30 c …. A glass of beer, (or wine) and an hour or two gazing at the Indian Ocea searching the sea-scape for non-existent whales that according to the manageress have been passing quite frequently. It is, however, the very end of the whale season.

The day ended at a local and recommended Harbour Rock Restaurant. We won’t explain the menu since we get told about our constant references to food, enough to say I had Kingclip (fish). It was cold though by the time we left (the atmosphere not the fish!) and returned to Whale View. I got into bed for a warm and fell asleep…… early for us but hardly surprising after our eventful first day in South Africa. First impressions… not quite as expected…. bustling and a bit like Corsica at the airport and car rental place. Good road and driving, very friendly people, different sort of landscape, bit NZ like but brick and concrete buildings make it look different. We passed townships which looked full of character but pretty dreadful living conditions. An obvious black and white divide which makes us realise what a long way UK has come culturally. Black people cook in the kitchen, white people manage . interesting comparison to ‘The Help’ which I have just read and had enjoyed the fim on the plane,

Breakfast for 8 guests outside overlooking the sea cooked by 3 black ladies and served by the white manageress. Hermanus we enjoyed, a seaside town but not obviously so. Evidence of arts and interesting shops and cafes. Petrol two thirds of the price in UK. Food in restaurants considerably cheaper.

Saturday spent driving, after our whale-less time in Hermanus. Enjoyed the changing landscape, very golden colours, fields and plains of grass-land. We saw baboons walking along the roadside too! Once out of the city very little on the road, so similar to NZ.

Arrived here, Herold’s Bay at teatime to a rather strange Golfing Resort which initally didn’t particularly inspire. Our room is good and so is food too, staff friendly and passionate to please. It has proved to be a good place to be as the weather has gone off here, cooler around 20C I suppose and showery. BUT we had a wonderful afternoon as the only couple in a beautiful spa with the largest jacussi I’ve ever been in and we had a complete suite for massages, steam etc. tea and home-made cookies all for about £20a head… can’t be bad eh! Definitely a holiday destination Brits would enjoy and seems a cheap place to be if you didn’t have to pay for flights. Weather I imagine will suit us too as long as it doesn’t rain too much tomorrow!

Forgot to mention the ostrich… passed lots grazing in the fields (farms) and John had ostrich steak last night which I tried.. very good, red meat, tender and mild. Reminded us of the ostrich burgers we gave you kids without telling you what it was till you’d sampled it… remember…. very good for you!

Smooth return of the van and flight to San Francisco, even US Immigration apart from usual food declaration issues (but no worse than NZ).  White knuckle ride into city in “shared-ride van” – and to think we didn’t go via LA as we didn’t want to go to Universal Studios.

Return visit to Macy’s Cheesecake Factory, not for the cheesecake which comes in huge and very rich and gooey portions, but for the macaroni cheese balls affectionately remembered from 2 years ago.  Tuesday would have made a nice change, having just had two Mondays due to the effect of the international dateline (and no week should be burdened with that), had it not been raining, the first serious daytime rain we have had all trip.  Brunch in a diner and then a visit to the Westfield shopping mall for the free wifi – the hotel wanted $41 a day (£28), they have to be joking.  Hopped a cable car over to Fisherman’s Wharf and wetted our insides as well by tasting Californian wine for a change in the Winery Collective.  Tram to the Ferry Terminal and another pleasant hour or two browsing the food and drink shops/stalls there.  Franc, the larger-than-life hotel concierge, recommended a local restaurant called the “Anchor and Hope” with spooky resemblances to the one in London and turned out to be excellent.  It specialised in beer as well as seafood, so we had the chance to sample some local microbreweries wares via a sampling tray.  Crackin’seafood, Gromit!

A morning shopping and then an abortive attempt to visit the Modern Art Museum (closed on Wednesdays, dammit) but fortunately their shop was open, so we amused ourselves until it was time to get the shuttle bus back to the airport.  Second upgrade to bulkhead seats (with more leg room) of the trip due to Coral’s blandishments, but she still didn’t manage to sleep.  Virgin definitely not as good as Air NZ, menu managed to get the description of all three main dishes wrong and the “award-winning entertainment system” clearly won the wooden spoon.  Martin the hero picked us up without too many alarms and excursions and now we begin the return to normality, not easy when we were both awake at 5.30am the following morning!  There are also the twin issues of restoring the bank balance and the waistlines!

A fabulous “escapade” (we christened it that as it was shorter than the “adventure” two years ago) even though it was overshadowed by earthquakes.  As we set off from Christchurch for San Francisco, somebody asked us why we wanted to go from one part of the “Ring of Fire” to another!  But New Zealand was still fabulous and again we met so many great people.  Here’s to the next one!

Headed for Kaikoura via the mountain scenic route – it was, very, but “I don’t think we’ll come back this way on Sunday”, said Coral. Excellent camp site in Kaikoura despite exorbitant prices for internet access, but we discovered that sitting in the car park outside the Fishtank Lodge back-packers hostel meant that we could log onto their network and use up the time we had left with an outfit called IAC who provide internet access for a lot of hotspots.

Excellent meal in Tuti’s restaurant across the road, fish of the day for Coral and an amazing seafood curry for me, another contender for dish of the trip. Learned the dreadful news about the Japan earthquake and tsunami from the TV as we left and noticed a tickertape message across the bottom of the screen that NZ Civil Defence advised staying away from beaches. Where was our campervan parked? You guessed, next to the beach with only a (single track but very busy during the night) railway line in between. Enquiries revealed that there was no real cause for panic and the tsunami was apparently less than 40cm high when it reached NZ.

Woke up to a dull and very cloudy morning. What do you do in Kaikoura on a day like that? No, we’d seen the sheep-shearing demonstration 2 years ago, so we went to the Springbank Estate Winery. We were the only ones there so we spent a very pleasant hour or so chatting to the owner (Taffy Davies, we were warned by the sign saying Croeso on the driveway) who had been a secondary head teacher and then a publican in a former life. He got into wine-making when he was deputy head of a small school in a place called Cheviot. The school ran adult education classes in the evening and about a quarter of the population of the town went to the wine-making one. He then discovered that they had tasting sessions in peoples’ garages on Sunday mornings after church. So he was hooked and the wine-making gradually took over. His daughter is also now a winemaker and about to marry another one. Excellent wines, all a bit out of the ordinary.

So then we head for the Seafood Barbecue – notice saying they are closed due to unforeseen circumstances, but there is now a rival operation next door. Crap, don’t bother, they’ll never make the Lonely Planet guide. On to the seal colony, only one (comatose) seal evident and he’s always there (and comatose). Maybe he’s stuffed and they just move him round a bit each night. But then we meet a couple who’ve just arrived to do the coast walk who said they’d just seen loads of seals at a place beginning with T a couple of miles north of the town on the main road. Well, it was Oahu Point and it’s more like 8 miles from town, but they were right about the seals, about 40-50 of them including lots of pups cavorting around and even one or two adults not sleeping but stretching and scratching. Only problem was that it was raining quite hard by this time.

Back to town where the weather was better, and another excellent meal, a magnificent seafood platter with half a crayfish added (to make up for lunchtime). And so to bed, wet on the inside from Sauv Blanc….

We first heard about the quake when we arrived at a B&B in Turangi at the southern end of Lake Taupo on North Island. Our worries about picking up campervans in Christchurch five days later were very trivial compared with stories we heard from then on. Two days later, we met an old Monk’s Walk colleague and her husband in Wellington who had, only a couple of days beforehand, stayed in a Christchurch hotel, part of which fell down. In Tekapo, we met a couple from the UK who had arrived at their hotel in Christchurch only 15 minutes before it happened and went out in time to experience the quake by the cathedral and see the tower come down. They were far enough away not to be hurt and escaped to one of the parks where they spent the next couple of days under canvas but were extremely well looked after. They were fortunate to have passports, credit cards, money, travellers cheques and mobile phones with them, but had to buy replacement clothes. Their hotel was not badly damaged, so they are hopeful of retrieving their suitcases intact before they return home in a couple of weeks time.

We met a couple with their two small children who were teachers in Christchurch and who had moved out to stay with parents who happened to run the B&B we stayed in near Blenheim. They rented an old wooden framed house that had withstood both the September quake and the recent one well, but there were a lot of breakages in September and 4 to 5 times as much this time. The daughter and son-in-law of Kim Gabarra, the artist who is paintinga picture for us had both been working in the city centre at the time of the quake, but had managed to get out safely and had retreated to Picton. A friend of theirs got under her desk, as the standard procedure says, but it fell over and she realised the floor was tilting so she got out quickly. The daughter of owner of Rocco’s Restaurant in Blenheim is a student in Christchurch and was working on the 10^th floor of one of the university buildings but went down to the computer room on the ground floor just before the quake.

We found accommodation a bit tight the weekend after the quake. The proprietor of the St James Motel where we stayed in Hanmer Springs had been in Christchurch for the September quake and was in bed at the time and didn’t know whether to get out of bed; she did in the end and crouched alongside it, realising afterwards she should probably have got under it! She was saying that they had a number of Christchurch evacuees staying there. We met a couple and a elderly lady with her teenage grandson who had decided to take a holiday in the Catlins until they could go back. The grandmother’s house was one that was affected by the landslips that occurred after the quake and they didn’t know whether they would be able to go back. The grandson was in school when it happened, it was lunchtime but he was inside with some friends and a teacher was just telling them to go out even though it was raining when it suddenly became urgent! They all waited well away from the buildings until they could be picked up.

At Dunedin Central Rotary Club we met a couple by the name of Smith from Hastings who had just bought a house in Christchurch where their daughter lived. They had been accommodated in the Dunedin Club by the owner, who is a member of the Rotary Club. The Dunedin Club is where the Rotary meetings are held. On the campsite at Poumawea in the Catlins there was a couple who had gone to visit his mother on Stewart Island, but were feeling guilty about having left the city.

And back in Hanmer Springs, we found ourselves in a spa pool with four Met police officers who had been over helping in the mortuary, having volunteered in response to a call from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They were waiting for a flight back having finished working the previous day. They were concerned that it had been under-reported back in the UK as the devastation in the CBD is much worse than what has been shown. The death toll is currently round 180 and thankfully now seems unlikely to reach 200.

One of the worst features is the liquefaction where the ground turns into the equivalent of quicksand and in some places silt has appeared up to waist-deep. It then sets like concrete. The ground can apparently be stabilised but the cost of doing so is high if any rebuilding is to be safe and insurable.

One of the striking things has been the reactions to the emergency. There has been an almost total lack of the recriminations, blaming and back-biting we would get from the press at home. Only recently have there been some arguments emerging about specific issues such as the feasibility of restoring some areas where the ground has become unstable through liquefaction; the residents want their neighbourhood restored but the government is suggesting that the cost is so high the money could be better spent

The events of the last 6 months seem to have brought Aussies and Kiwis closer together with mutual support over the Australian floods and the Christchurch earthquakes. When jetboat pilots start speaking well, if not emotionally, about Aussies, there’s something in the air! There were talks going on before the recent quake about closer economic ties, but they have not featured in the news recently due to more pressing concerns.

The relief effort for individuals, fronted by the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, seems well organised. We keep coming across food collections in all sorts of locations and we walked into a free concert on the waterfront in Queenstown, a mini-Band Aid, to raise funds.

The person who seems to have come out of this best is the Mayor of Christchurch, who has always come across as very level-headed and bang on the money in terms of keeping people informed He seems to be doing a Rudi] Guiliani! But then, he did have a practice run in September.

Kiwis are keen to play down the impact of the quake and say it’s business as usual, but the cracks do occasionally show. We were in a restaurant a couple of days ago that didn’t have it’s usual draught beer because the distributor is based in Christchurch. Having said that, we have hardly noticed any impact in our travels around South Island, despite the fact that they have just drafted 40,000 chemical toilets into Christchurch. Somebody is surely going to notice that!

The trip consisted of flying over milky, turquoise Lake Tekapo, (the one that Matt used to claim was the bluest lake he’d ever seen!) and the glacier that feeds it. Above the Tasman Valley and across the head of NZ’s longest glacier (see previous post). Over the iced-capped and snow topped mountain ranges to the top of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers (we saw where we landed in the helicopter two years ago) looking down to the West Coast where puffy clouds were building, alongside the summit of Mount Cook shining majestically in the blue sky. Finally back down past a couple of remote sheep stations into the McKenzie Basin. It was simply breathtaking. Straight out of the pages of better geography books! The views were stunning and at the highest point, about 12,500 feet, we were looking along the tops of the whole chain of the Southern Alps. Unbelievable! We were also starting to breath deeply, from the altitude as well as the emotion.

Coral was taking photos for Katie to add to her teaching material on rivers, but there was plenty of extraordinairily photogenic material to keep me occupied too on the other side of the plane. Fabulous weather, apparently just ahead of a front coming in to spoil it. Looking back, we did the helicopter trip on Friday 13^th March 2009 (how could we forget) in similar weather but from the West Coast side. Anyway we think it perhaps deserved the title Grand Traverse!

The rest of the day was an anticlimax, with a return visit to the little church whose altar window looks out up Lake Tekapo and the to the statue honouring collie dogs role in opening up McKenzie Country, lunch in Geraldine and a long and tedious drive along SH72, the so-called Inland Scenic Route. It’s only scenic by comparison with the alternative, the SH1 through the commercial parks on the outskirts of Christchurch, and doesn’t hold a candle to the places we’ve been for the last week-and-a-half! Even the evening meal was eating up leftovers with supplements from the New World supermarket in Rangiora. Thanks to the supplements, we now have new leftovers…..

Into Queenstown for various maintenance bits and pieces, during the course of which we ran into a Queenstown rotarian selling raffle tickets (don’t know quite what we’ll do with the car if we win) and while talking to him a rotarian from Ringwwod (ex of Finchley) appeared. Turned out his family owned a sports shop in Finchley that Coral remembered from her youth. We then stumbled across an event to raise funds for the Christchurch quake victims with lots of local bands and performers appearing, starting with a Maori group. We finally got some movie of a decent haka.

On to Wanaka, an excellent site with free spa pools and sauna which, as we arrived early, we managed to get in before anyone else. Unusual for us1 It also has free wifi internet access, but it is VERY slow – apparently Wanaka slows down at teatime most days, there’s only one provider and limited bandwidth apparently. Accessing servers in the UK is an uphill battle in the circumstances.

Having feasted on goodies from the deli in Arrowtown, we succumbed to the inevitable and went to Cinema Paradiso to see “The Kids Are Alright”. So was the film (but well acted and some good cinematography) but it doesn’t matter what the film is, Cinema Paradiso is an experience in it’s own right, with sofas, armchairs, an old Morris Minor sticking out of the wall and an interval in the film for home-made cookies and home-made ice cream. Beats UK multiplexes and even Campus West (or whatever it’s called this week).