Walk This Way: Ramblers Holiday - Campania and Basilicata

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Ramblers Holiday - Campania and Basilicata

On 26th March flew from Gatwick Airport to Naples as part of a Ramblers Holidays group on a 10 day walking and sightseeing holiday. We spent the first 5 nights at the Hotel Oriente in Vico Equense. The hotel itself was intriguing, having been built into the side of the cliff and added to, apparently at random, over the years. Our room was on one of the lower levels and we had to climb 113 steps to get up to reception!

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South West Coast Path Shaldon to Kingswear (via Torquay and Brixham) Tues 7 to Thurs 9 October 2008

Murcia, Spain September 2008

Here are a few photos to record my recent trip with friends (Jenny, June, Judith, Lynne & Carol) to Murcia in Spain. The others all live in the New Forest area, so the Ryannair flight from Bournemouth was ideal for them. For me it took a little longer, but my train journey to Salisbury was smooth and uneventful and Jenny was waiting to collect me at the station.
Murcia is a lovely city, very Spanish with few British tourists to spoil the place. Luckily we had June with us, she speaks fluent Spanish and we relied on her heavily when it came to booking restaurants and finding the right bus to the beach (Thanks June - I promise that I'll try to learn a bit of Spanish before the next trip).

A week in Brecon - August 2008

During this week we combined two of our interests, walking and jazz, with a holiday at Nythfa House, the HF house in Brecon, Powys. The first weekend was the 25th Brecon Jazz Festival and we spent two days wandering around the town, dodging the showers and listening to jazz in various open air venues. It was the usual high standard. For the rest of the week we joined the other residents of the house for walks led by HF leaders Alan, Freddie & Dave. Despite it being the middle of August, the weather was more suited to March with wind and rain most days. However, we were not deterred and despite one of Sue's boots leaking badly we joined in all the walks from Monday to Friday (with a day off on Wednesday)

June 2008 - South West Coast Path Lulworth Cove to West Bay

We have been walking sections of the South West Coast Path for several years now and have covered the distance between Poole in Dorset and Teignmouth in Devon. For some reason we had missed out the section between Lulworth Cove and West Bay (which includes walking all the way around Portland). We decided to put this right and spent four days covering the 'missing' section. Having completed this, we only have about 500 miles to go before we reach Minehead - it may take us a few more years!!!

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home on 23 April, having been away from home for almost 4 months. Although we had a wonderful trip and it was a marvellous experience, we were both very pleased to get home at last. During our trip we had taken 10 flights, 2 ferry trips, and 3 train journeys. We hired 5 different cars and travelled hundreds of miles by coach. We were away for 115 days and slept in 62 different beds, the longest we stayed anywhere was 5 nights!
This blog details some of the highlights (and low points) of the trip, but it really only scratches the surface. We met some lovely people and it was great to be reaquainted with old friends along the way.
For those of you viewing the blog from afar, here are a few pictures taken since we have returned which sum up why we love living in the UK.

Bangkok

We flew from Perth to Bangkok, via Singapore, a journey that took up most of the day and brought us a little nearer to British Summer Time. In Bagkok we stayed with Vincent, one of Paul's former colleagues, his wife Tasha and their three young children. The bustle of the busy city was something of a culture shock after the slow pace of life in WA. We were lucky enough to be ferried around by Vincent & Tasha's driver, and during the time we were there we took a boat trip on the river, alighting at the Grand Palace, had a Thai massage, and visited one of the city's many shopping malls. One of the highlights was a meal at a lovely Thai restaurant with some of Paul's former colleagues from Bangkok.

Grand Finale in Perth

Our final weekend in Australia was spent in Perth at the home of Paul & Heather Dutton. We spent some of our time there sorting out our luggage and offloading our excess baggage in readiness for the return journey home. On the Saturday evening Paul D very kindly hosted a barbecue, giving us the opportunity to meet some of Paul B's former colleagues from Perth. It was a great evening, with marvellous food and company and a great way to say goodbye to Australia. Thanks, Paul, for everything you did for us.

York, Mundaring Weir and the Swan Valley wineries

After our horrendous journey, we arrived at our b&b in York to find that the host was absent, having taken his dog to the vet, and we could not get into our room. Eventually somebody turned up to let us in (the room turned out to be lovely and the breakfast was delicious) and we started to relax. We planned to eat out in York and were assured that there were plenty of restaurants in town. This is true, but what we didn't realise was that even on a Thursday evening most of them were closed. In the toss up between pizza and chinese, the chinese won.
The next day, we started the final part of our journey to Perth and on the recommendation of another guest at the b&b (an engineer from the Perth water board) we made our way to Mundaring Weir, site of a reservoir and pumping station, the first in a network of 8 that were set up to pump water out to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie at the height of the goldrush.
The original pumping stations are now redundant, electric pumps are used to pump the water, but pumping station number 1 has been preserved as a museum. It tells the story of C Y O'Connor, Chief Engineer in WA, and his fight to get water to Kalgoorlie. Sadly, he was the victim of very bad press and when it looked as though his project had failed he rode his horse out to sea and shot himself - three weeks later the water started to trickle out of the pipes in Kalgoorlie.
Nearer to Perth, we visited a few of the wineries in the Swan Valley, not as good as the Barossa, but we still managed to buy a few reasonable bottles for consumption with friends over the weekend.

Return Journey to Perth

It is 1200 km from Exmouth back to Perth, but as the roads are reasonably good we thought that we could easily make it in two days. We managed the first 750 km from Exmouth to Northampton with no problems. We had booked a night at Glenorie Lookout Lodge on the recommendaton of friends in Perth, and we could see why they liked it. The cottage was in a remote and very peaceful location, perched up on the hill top with 360 degree views and a wedge tailed eagle soaring gracefully around. We had been a little concerned when we learned that the access to the lodge was via a 20 km unsealed road (not uncommon in Australia), but the road was quite a good one and we got there with no difficulty. However, the next day it was quite a different story. We awoke at 5.30 a.m. to the sight of lightening all around us and it had obviously been raining during the night. Fearful that we would not get the car (a Toyota Corolla) back over the small creek that we had crossed the night before, we got up and left almost straight away. The creek was no problem, neither was the first few km of unsealed road, but suddenly we came across a river running straight across the road - it had not been there the day before! We managed to get through the water, but this was followed by another and another, probably six floods in all. We breathed a big sigh of relief at the sight of the tarmac road as we thought that all our troubles were over. We were wrong. The tarmac road to Northampton was also flooded in several places and the water had washed a lot of debris (including tree trunks) from the fields into the middle of the road. We took it gently and with the help of a 4WD driver made it back to Northampton where we could join the main highway back to Perth. Unfortunately, we did not escape unscathed as the wheel arch had been damaged and there was a piece of casing dragging on the ground. Paul contacted the car hire company by phone and they advised to try to drive a further 50 km to Geraldton where somebody at their depot tried to help us. We eventually made it to York (about 90 km from Perth) after the offending piece of casing had been cut off with a hacksaw and the rest of the underside of the car held up with string! What a journey!

Exmouth

After five days in Coral Bay we travelled a little further north to Exmouth. This area also concentrates on boat trips, including whaleshark spotting and diving, but following our recent disappointments, we decided to spend our time in the Cape Range National Park. We managed a couple of short walks, one in the Mandu Mandu Gorge and the other in the Yardie Creek Gorge. These were both very spectacular places, but so hot that we could really only manage 2-3 km of walking at a time. The beaches in the National Park were really beautiful, white sand and turquoise coloured water, with the northern section of the Ningaloo Reef just off shore. We spotted a fair amount of wildlife in this area, including a black footed wallaby and some bustards.
Exmouth was just a small town, but it had a great restaurant, Whalers, where we had a couple of very good meals - even better, our hotel had a shuttle bus which took us into town and collected us afterwards so that we didn't have to drive.

Coral Bay

We've previously mentioned the difficulties experienced in getting to Coral Bay, but we made it in the end. Coral Bay is really just an oversized campsite with a few shops and a pub. The place is extremely popular with families, and as our stay coincided with the WA school holidays, it was fairly busy. The main attraction is that the bay is shallow and sheltered, and the Ningaloo Reef (a coral reef) runs close enough to the beach to be reached by snorkellers. We hired snorkelling gear and spent quite a bit of time floating above the coral reef gazing at the amazing fish beneath us.
April to June each year is the time when the whalesharks come to the area to feed and several companies offer trips out to 'swim with the whalesharks'. We took the opportunity to go out on one of the trips, which entailed a whole day out on a boat with a group of about 20 people, following a spotter plane that was looking out for the whalesharks and directing the boats to the right area. Sadly, despite one false alarm when the shark was spotted but dived before we got there, we didn't spot any whalesharks, just a turtle and some flying fish. We had the opportunity to repeat the experience the following day, but having suffered from sea sickness first time round, Sue was not interested in going back for a second round! The whalesharks turned out to be more elusive than we had hoped (a bit like the dugongs at Monkey Mia).

Carnarvon

We stayed overnight in Carnarvon and did a bit of sightseeing while we were there. As is the case in this part of Australia, most of the sights are some distance away, and we travelled about 70 km to see some blowholes (and very spectacular they were too - but half way there I remembered that I had left my camera at the hotel!). We tried to vist an artesian bore, but the road was closed because of floods. We also visited Carnarvon's 'Mile Long Jetty', this reminded us somewhat of the West Pier in Brighton as it was about 10 years ago. The Jetty had a train line running the full length, however, about half way along a large section of the jetty was missing and the train track was dangling precariously above the water. The locals want to reinstate the jetty, but as with the West Pier, this looks to be wishful thinking.

Floods

While we were in Denham we heard rumours that the road to Coral Bay (our next stop) was closed. When we reached Carnarvon, the only town of a reasonable size in the area, we called at the tourist office where it was confirmed that this, indeed, was the case. The recent storms and a previous cyclone had flooded a number of the rivers and one of them was running over the road at a height of 2.5 metres! There was, however, an alternative route but it meant a diversion which added 166 km to the journey. We had booked our accommodation in Coral Bay and with the school holidays approaching it was likely that we would have difficulty changing our arrangements, so we bit the bullet and travelled the extra miles. The road was reopened the following day - such is life!

Denham and Monkey Mia

After three nights in Kalbarri, we continued our journey northwards to Denham, arriving in heavy rain. Our accommodation at Denham was right opposite the beach and once the rain had stopped we had lovely views and some magnificent sunsets.
The main attractions in this area are the Francois Perron National Park, Shell Beach, Hamelin Pool with its living stromatolites, and Monkey Mia which has a resident pod of dolphins. Unfortunately for us, the heavy rain meant that the access roads into the national park were flooded, and they remained closed throughout the duration of our stay. However, we did manage to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia - about three dolphins came into the shore to be fed by the rangers and were swimming around our feet in the shallow water. We also took a boat trip out to try to spot dugongs who feed on the plentiful seagrass in this area. Sadly, the dugongs eluded us but we did see a pod of mating dolphins and a turtle.
We took a four wheel drive tour (it was an exclusive one because we were the only clients that day) led by our guide, Russell, who was very familiar with the area and the off road tracks. We were unable to access the national park, but Russell took us to some cliff tops where we looked down into the water and spotted a shark and some rays swimming inthe shallows. We had lunch on Shell Beach ( a part of the beach that cannot be accessed without 4WD), this was incredible as it was made up entirely of tiny shells. The shells on top were loose, but those below the surface were so compacted that they used to be cut out in blocks and used for building houses (until the area achieved world heritage status and this practice had to stop). Russell had keen eyes and spotted several lizards on the tracks which we stopped to photograph, towards the end of our trip he stopped suddenly and started to wrestle with a very lively snake - after a few minutes we realised that this was his party trick, the snake was a very lifelike rubber imitation!

Kalbarri

From Cervantes we headed north to Kalbarri, another small seaside town, well served with shops, restaurants, and holiday accommodation. For us the main attraction was the Murchison river gorge in the National Park. We did an 8 km walk known as 'The Loop' which took us from the cliffs above the gorge down to the river and back up again. It was not a particularly difficult walk in itself, however, the high temperatures and large number of flies made it rather challenging! Apparently people die in the gorge area every year because they embark on the walks without the right equipment (particularly enough drinking water), and we could see how this might happen.
We also visited a series of gorges and rock formations on the coast just south of Kalbarri, however, the heat and swarms of flies made this particularly unpleasant.
One of the highlights of our stay in Kalbarri was a visit to Finlay's Fish Barbecue, an extremely informal, but very good restaurant. The food was cooked to order and the owner dished out insults with the meals - it was very entertaining. One of the customers provided musical entertainment in return for a free meal.

Cervantes and the Pinnacles

After collecting our hire car in Perth and calling in briefly on Paul's former colleague, Raghav, and his family, we travelled north to Cervantes. This area is well known for the Pinnacles, hundreds of sandstone pillars standing in the desert. They were formed by the wind which eroded most of the sandstone, leaving just the pillars, it was quite fascinating.
Also near to Cervantes is Lake Thetis which is home to a colony of stromalolites, said to be the earliest form of life, the stromatolites are millions of years old.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much else in the area and we felt that we only needed to have stayed there two nights rather than the three that we had booked.

What time is it?

Australia is such a vast country that there are time changes as you travel from east to west. That's fair enough you may say, but only the Australians could make it such a complicated business. New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania are all on eastern standard time, Northern Territory and South Australia are half an hour behind that and Western Australia is two hours behind (I think). The complications come with Daylight Saving as not all states have daylight saving (Northern Territory & Queensland do not), and those that do do not necessarily make the change from daylight saving time to standard time on the same date. Hence the weekend we arrived in Western Australia (last weekend in March) the clocks went back an hour, but New South Wales etc. did not change until the first weekend in April. Unfortunately, nobody told the computers, mobile phones etc. that were all programmed to swich from daylight saving on the last weekend in March - thus chaos ensued in Victoria and New South Wales and there were stories on the news of people being late for work because they didn't know what time it was!
In Western Australia they are trialling daylight saving for three years then they will have a referendum to see whether or not they should keep it. Most people say that they don't want it (we saw a sign in a field which said 'save water not daylight'), but if they have to have it they would rather change back in February, not March - to my simple mind that will bring more chaos not less, but what do I know?

The Indian Pacific

We returned to Adelaide in time to catch our train to Perth, a journey which took 66 hours (two nights and one day). We found out just in time that the trains did not leave from the main railway station in Adelaide but a more remote station just outside the city.
The train journey on the Indian Pacific was really something, probably the nearest that we will come to the Orient Express. We had booked 'gold kangaroo' tickets which gave us a twin cabin with its own ensuite wc & shower (all in minature). The bunk style beds converted into seats for travel during the day. All our meals were included and we seemed to spend a good deal of the journey in the dining car. The food was excellent and it was a good way of meeting people.
Most of the journey was across the Nullarbor Plain (the name is latin for 'no trees''and this was certainly true) and all you could see for miles around was flat, red desert. Occasionally we would see a kangaroo or wedge tailed eagle, but that was it. We stopped in Cook, a very small town with a population of 4 plus the train drivers who changed over at this point. Again, there was nothing for miles and the only contact with the outside world was the train coming through a few times each week, it is incredible that anybody would want to live in such a remote place.
On our second evening the train stopped in Kalgoorlie, a big gold mining town and we took a coach tour around the town to see the sights (including the famous ladies of ill repute and the amazing 'superpit' gold mine which operates around the clock).
We arrived in Perth at around 9.30 on Saturday morning (29th March) and picked up our hire car ready for our journey north.

Victor Harbour

After our stay in the Barossa Valley, we travelled down to the Fleurieu Peninsula, which is south of Adelaide, and stayed in the small seaside town of Victor Harbour. Unfortunately, the town did not seem to have much to recommend it and it seemed to be reeling after the Easter weekend. Everywhere was short staffed and it wasn't easy to find anywhere decent to eat, but we managed! Despite deteriorating weather, we did a cliff top walk, part of which was on the Heysen Trail (a 1200 km track which stretches from the Flinders range in the north to Cape Jervis on the tip of the Fleurieu peninsula). The views were magnificent, and we didn't see any other walkers - they all had more sense than to walk in the rain!
We also walked out to Granite Island, a small island reached by causeway from Victor Harbour. The main attractions here are the horse drawn tram which regularly crosses the causeway pulled by Clydesdale horses, and the colony of Blue Penguins. Unfortunately, we were unable to see the penguins as they came back to the island at sunset as it was fully booked by a party of 200 school children - perhaps we had a lucky escape.

The Barossa Valley

After almost three months of travelling, never staying anywhere longer than three nights, we decided to spoil ourselves by booking a five night Easter break in the Barossa Valley. We stayed at Eve's Cottage, a self contained b&b in Tanunda and spent our time walking in the area and visiting some of the wineries for which the Barossa Valley is famous. This was much more up our street than the wineries in New Zealand and we managed to taste several very good quality wines - mainly shiraz & cabernet sauvignon. The winery names were familiar (Jacobs Creek, St Hallet, Wolf Blass etc.) as most of them export to the UK. As usual they keep their best wines in Australia, and the biggest surprise of all - one of our favourites was the bottle given to us by our landlord and landlady, made from grapes grown just behind the cottages (unfortunately, they don't sell their wine, so you won't be seeing it in the UK).

Adelaide

After the Red Centre tour we returned to Alice Springs for the night and flew to Adelaide the following morning.
We liked Adelaide as a city, but unfortunately Paul had a gum infection and had to find a dentist while we were there. Luckily the first dentist we came to agreed to fit him in, and we managed an afternoon of sightseeing, mainly in the botanical gardens (which looked very dry after Adelaide's record temperatures - they had just experienced 15 consecutive days of above 35 degrees!), and alongside the river. We also found out that the library has free internet access - that's always very welcome.

The Red Centre

From Lorne we travelled back to Melbourne and spent an uneventful night in a motel near to the airport. The next morning we flew from Melbourne to Alice Springs, the starting point for our Red Centre tour. Alice Springs is a surprisingly large town (28,000 inhabitants) and copes well with the constant stream of tourists.
After a night in Alice Springs we got up early to meet our tour group. Although it was a small group, we were surprised to find that there were only four Brits (ourselves and a couple of young girls who were backpacking), six Germans and about a dozen French. We had an Aussie guide and a Belgian who was there to translate for the French.
We travelled by road from Alice Springs to Yulara, the small town that has been created to service the tourist industry for Ayers Rock. This was a journey of about 400 km and in the heat (between 36 & 39 degrees while we were there) we were very glad of the air conditioning on the bus.
We stayed in tents on permanent campsites - not bad, but still pretty hot at night so it was difficult to sleep. The food was all prepared by the guides with the help of the group and it was surprisingly good. On our second night at Kings Creek Station we cooked over the camp fire.
We had a whistlestop tour of the area, including sunset and sunrise views of Ayers Rock, a walk around the base of the rock, a visit to the Olgas and a walk up to Kings Canyon. The landscape and rock formations were quite amazing and we decided that it was certainly worth putting up with the heat, flies and thousands of other tourists to see it.

Lorne

After we finished the Great Ocean Walk we felt in need of a rest! We decided to stay for a couple of nights in Lorne, a small seaside town on the Great Ocean road which was easy to reach by bus from Apollo Bay. We stayed in a cabin just outside the town and were surprised to be told on checking in that there was bird seed in the cupboard. However, once we reached the cabin we noticed a number of sulphur crested cockatoos hanging around the balcony. They seemed quite sweet and innocent, but the moment the bird seed came out, about thirty birds flocked to the balcony in what seemed like the scene from a Hitchcock film!

The Great Ocean Walk

The walk starts at Apollo Bay and stretches 91 km to the west, ending at the Twelve Apostles. We arranged this part of the holiday through a company called Auswalk and they organised our accommodation, luggage transport and transport to and from the track each day. We walked over seven days, between 15 and 20 km each day (although the first day was a lot longer and the second day a lot shorter!). The track was very well signposted, and our written instructions from Auswalk were mostly very clear so there was no chance that we would get lost.

The walking was mainly coastal, up on the cliffs and down on the beach, although there was also some forest walking, which came as a welcome relief on the hot days. The beaches were lovely, but the sand was quite difficult to walk on and it was always good to climb inland again. We thought that it was quite similar to the South West Coast Path in that there was a lot of ascent and descent, and although the climbs were steep they were relatively short.

Our accommodation was a mixture of b&b and motels, all very good, but the one that stands out is the Cape Otway Conservation Centre & Ecolodge. It is run by a young couple (Lizzie & Shayne) who are dedicated to conservation. They work really hard to achieve their aims, the Ecolodge funding the rest of their work, and they have an extremely good reputation in the area. We were lucky enough to see kangaroos on the lawn outside the lodge and koalas in the woods nearby. Lizzie had two wallaby joeys that had been orphaned and was raising them by hand - this meant 4 hourly feeds day and night!

Spirit of Tasmania

We left Tasmania via the overnight ferry to Melbourne, The Spirit of Tasmania. Our cabin was small but adequate (not quite up to the standard of The Navigator on Doubtful Sound). Everything went well with the crossing other than the fact that about an hour after departing the Captain announced that instead of docking in Melbourne at 7 a.m. we would be an hour early because the QE2 was coming in to port. This caused us a bit of a problem as we were foot passengers and not being met by our friends until 7.30 a.m. On enquiry we were told that we would not be allowed to remain on board the ship and that there was no lounge or other area where we could wait - as you can imagine Paul was not happy and he spent sometime discussing the issue with the receptionist! Having obtained the name of the managing director of the ferry company we spent the rest of the voyage in bad humour. In the end it did not turn out too badly as we docked at little after 6 a.m. and by the time we had collected our luggage we only had a short while to wait for our friends, Rod & Julie to collect us.

Cradle Mountain

We were disappointed that it was raining when we arrived at the Cradle Mountain Lodge. This area is fantastic for high level walks, but not in the rain! Luckily, it was dry the following day, although the cloud was still quite low. We decided to take the shuttle bus into the National Park and walk towards Cradle Mountain, leaving the final decision as to whether or not we would attempt the summit until later. The cloud lifted as we walked, leaving the summit clear, and we decided to give it a go - you never know when you might get another chance. The walking was fairly manageable until we got about 500 feet from the summit when it became very rocky and steep forcing us to scramble quite a lot of the way. Sue gave up short of the summit, it was just too steep, but Paul persevered and made it to the top. Unfortunately, when he got there he found cloud on three sides so the views were limited. We took a different route back to the shuttle bus - on the map it looked fairly easy, but of course it turned out to be very challenging and by the time we finished the walk (7 hours and a lot of ascent and descent) we were both aching all over. The aches lasted for another couple of days - a sure sign that this was the toughest walk yet!

The Freycinet Peninsula

Port Arthur

We hired a car in Hobart and drove south to Port Arthur where we stayed for a couple of nights. Port Arthur is the site of a former penal colony that operated in the mid 1800s. It was something of a 'high security' jail for prisoners who had offended again following their deportation from Britain. It is extremely interesting and we spent a whole day there looking around the site and learning some of the history of the place. Sadly, Port Arthur is more recently known for the massacre in 1996 when over thirty people were killed by a gunman.

Hobart

We flew from Sydney to Hobart, the capital of Tamania, where we stayed with Paul's former colleague Tom and his wife Anne. They took us straight from the airport to Mount Wellington, a mountain which dominates the city. You can drive all the way to the top and we were rewarded with lovely views of the city and surrounding mountains. It was clear that day, but less than a week later we learned that 10 inches of snow had fallen there!
Hobart has a fine harbour, and a strong yachting connection. Tom and Anne live in an apartment in a converted silo very close to Salamanca Place. We had some lovely meals out in Hobart, there are many good restaurants to choose from and Tom took us to his club (the Athanaeum) for lunch. It was quite hot while we were in Hobart but Paul and I managed to do a walking tour of the older parts of the city.

Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on Friday afternoon and took the train to Killara where we would be staying with one of Paul's former colleagues and his family. Rod and Liz were very hospitable and their children, Theo and Holly, were delightful.
On Saturday we went in to the local shopping area to see a range of entertainment being put on by the local Chinese community to celebrate Chinese New Year - unfortunately I forgot to take the camera!
On Saturday evening we were treated to a night at the Opera where we saw a great production of La Boheme

Kaikoura

From Picton we travelled south to Kaikoura with some trepidation. We had booked accommodation in the 'Garden Shed' and it was very cheap, we wondered whether we would regret this! As it turned out the garden shed was small but perfectly formed. It had everything we needed and was even cheaper than we thought. The only drawback was that it was right behind the railway station, but not too many trains use that line and certainly not at night so this was not really a problem for us.

Kaikoura is renowned for its resident pod of sperm whales and most visitors go out to whale watch, either by boat or plane. We decided that we would not do this and instead walked the Kaikoura peninsula which took us close to a large colony of fur seals and allowed sightings of several species of sea birds.

The poor weather continued and we had extremely heavy rain on our last night. This continued for our journey southwards to Christchurch and we were quite glad to be getting on a plane to Sydney. Our run of good weather in New Zealand had obviously come to an end.

Picton

On our return to Picton we found a note from rambling friends, Grahame & Irene, who were making their way north from Christchurch. It was great to hear that they were in Picton too and we spent a couple of happy evenings with them.

There are endless possibilities for taking boat trips from Picton and we decided to take a trip out to Motorua Island, a bird sanctuary in the Queen Charlotte Sound. This turned out to be a great afternoon, and although we didn't see any birds that we hadn't already spotted whilst out walking, we had a good view of a pod of Hector's Dolphins playing around in the water near to our boat.

On our final day in the area, we drove west to Nelson. Unfortunately, the weather was already changing for the worse and we were in for a wet day. However, just outside Picton we had to stop for tree cutting work, which gave us the chance to see a tremendous rainbow - a really spectacular sight and probably the best rainbow that either of us had ever seen. Sadly we didn't find the crock of gold and the rest of the day was a bit of a wash out.

The Queen Charlotte Track

From Christchurch, we boarded the trans scenic train to Picton in the north east of South Island. We stayed overnight in a lovely b&b (Grandvue had an excellent view of the harbour from it's vantage point on the hill just outside the town). The following morning we were collected early and transported by water taxi to Ship Cove, the start of the Queen Charlotte Track.

The Queen Charlotte Track is 71 km long and is usually walked over 4 or 5 days. We had booked with Wilderness Guides, a company in Picton that organised the pick ups, accommodation, luggage transfers and lunches. We stayed in three lovely lodges along the route (Furneaux Lodge, Punga Cove and Portage Hotel) and apart from some rather chaotic management at Furneaux Lodge (no luggage when we arrived and head chef gone missing!) everything worked well. The walking was good, although days three and four were quite challenging (for Sue!), and apart from a downpour on the final morning we had good weather throughout. The views of the Queen Charlotte Sound were stunning, and on the first day we spotted dolphins swimming in Endeavour Inlet.

All in all it was an excellent four days and well worth the effort

Return to Christchurch and goodbye to the Ramblers

All good things have to come to an end, and our three weeks with the Ramblers group is up. We returned to Christchurch and most of the group will be flying back to the UK this evening (5/2/08). However, the fun was not quite over, we managed a walk on the Mount John Walkway near to Lake Tekapo (one of the lakes connected with the hydro electric scheme) and true to form managed to complete the walk just ahead of the rain.
Our driver, Scottie, managed to whisk us back to Christchurch in time for a visit to the Antarctic Centre near to Christchurch airport. This was a very interesting place, mainly dedicated to New Zealand's part in the Antarctic research programme. The highlights were a spell in the ice chamber where the room temperature remained at -8 degrees, but when they turned on the wind machine, the wind chill reduced the temperature drastically. Luckily, they provided some protective clothing as T shirts and sandals would not have been any good. We also saw some of the injured Litte Blue Penguins that are being cared for at the centre - they are mostly old and/or infirm and will not be returned to the wild.

The Fiordland Navigator

Our next treat was an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. Apart from Milford Sound, this is the only fiord in the huge national park that allows public access. Even so, access is very much restricted and we (along with the others on the boat) had the whole fiord to ourselves for the time that we were there. This was a great luxury, the food and cabins were marvellous and we were able to take part in various activities such as Kayaking, going out in the tender boat and swimming in the fiord. Paul and I were not brave enough to do any swimming but those who did said that it was a marvellous experience, and not too cold - honest!
The boat sailed out of the fiord into the Tasman sea and we spotted seals basking on the rocks. We had hoped to see dolphins aswell, but it was not to be.
The following morning we cruised back to the starting point, Pearl Harbour, and returned across Lake Manapouri to Manapouri village and then on to Te Anau to collect our luggage.

The Milford Track

From Queenstown, we travelled to Te Anau. Once there we called at the Milford Track office for our briefing and to borrow the gear that we needed for the trip. Larger rucksacks were needed for the four days walking along the track as we had to carry everything except for meals (which were supplied at the lodges along the track). I can't say that I ever got used to the weight of my pack, even though I tried to keep it down to a minimum. The weather was fantastic all the time we were on the track, in some respects it was too hot, but we certainly didn't need the thermals or waterproofs that we carried all the way!

Day one was very easy, we were taken by coach from Te Anau further up the lake where we joined a boat which took us to the end of lake Te Anau. From there, it was less than a mile to Glade House, our resting place for the night.

Day two was also fairly easy, 10 miles along a clear and fairly flat track to Pompolona, the second of the huts for guided walkers. We stayed in single sex bunk rooms with 4-8 people in each. They were pretty comfortable, but there were quite a few complaints about the snoring! At Pompolona we were woken several times in the night by the loud call of a kiwi - unfortunately we couldn't see it, but it was good to know that they are alive and kicking on the Milford Track.

Day three was very tough (for me), it consisted of a 3000 foot climb (with very heavy pack and in warm and humid conditions) up to the Mckinnon Pass and a 4000 foot descent over the other side down to Quintin Lodge. The slow ones amongst us were rewarded by the sight of the clouds clearing just as we reached the top of the pass. The view was absolutely stunning, and our guides were waiting at the top with soup and hot drinks!
After arriving at Quintin Lodge (exhausted) we then set off for a further hour and a half walk up to see the Sutherland Falls - a great spectacle and probably worth the trip.
The heat of the day continued and Quintin Lodge had warmed up like a greenhouse, making the evening quite uncomfortable for some.

On day four we walked the final 13.5 miles through to the Milford Sound along a fairly flat track. Thankfully, it was cooler, although the ever present sandflies made it uncomfortable to stop for too long. We reached the Sound in good time and were taken across by boat for a very comfortable night in Mitre Peak lodge.

Queenstown

We moved on from Wanaka to Queenstown, quite a large town with plenty going on (bungy jumping, jetboating, white water rafting etc.). Unfortunately, it rained heavily on the first day, Sue hid in the internet cafe whilst Paul and the rest of the group did a soggy day walk along the Routeburn Track. The following day was much better and we set out for the gondola to take us up the hill towards Ben Lomond. The ascent after the gondola was a good 3000 feet (quite a struggle towards the end) but the view was well worth it. A very good day's walking.

Wanaka

After two nights at Franz Josef, we moved on to Wanaka, a delightful small town nestling beside Lake Wanaka. The journey was good, with several stops for walks.

The first morning we were rudely awoken before 6 a.m. by a loud megaphone from the town. Wanaka was hosting a large triathlon event and competitors were lining up to run (a marathon) swim and cycle in the blazing heat (it was above 30 degrees that day).

We did two half day walks, one up to Rocky Mountain and the other up Iron Mountain - the latter was a sweltering climb and most of us wished that we hadn't bothered!

The following day made up for it though - we swopped our coach for local minibuses which took us up a dirt road towards Rob Roy Glacier. We had a lovely gentle (in comparision to previous days) walk through the shade up to a view point below the glacier. This was something really special with many waterfalls coming from the ice (somebody counted 50). The pictures really don't do it justice, but we all agreed that this was one of the best views ever.

First walk with the Ramblers

From North to South Island

On Monday 14/1/08 we left our hotel in Wellington early so as to catch the ferry across the water to the South Island. This was a great journey with picturesque scenery all the way. The crossing took about three hours in a big ferry (cross channel size). It was windy so the sea was quite choppy. We landed at Picton, this seems to be a lovely little town (we hope so because we going back there for four nights in a few week's time). The next stage of the journey was a five and a half hour train journey on the Trans Scenic train to Christchurch. This was also a fabulous journey, with marvellous scenery. We even spotted seals on the beach near to Kaikoura (another place that we will be visiting again). We arrived in Christchurch just in time to meet the Ramblers group just arrived from the UK.

Wellington - The Capital City

We were pleased to arrive in Wellington and get rid of the rental car which had been causing us some problems. The weather was fairly overcast, but extremely windy (not good news for us contact lense wearers!).

We only really had one day to look around, so stuck to the central areas such as the botanic gardens (reached by cable car), government buildings, converted docks area (which has some very expensive restaurants) and the marvellous Te Papa museum. The museum gave some good information on New Zealand history and geology.

Wine Tasting in the Hawkes Bay region

On Friday (11/1/08) we spent a good day visiting a selection of the many wineries in the Hawkes Bay region close to Napier. It was a lovely day, and Paul gallantly volunteered to do the driving so that I could taste the wine in the 7 wineries that we managed to fit in(he managed to taste a few too, so don't feel too sorry for him). This area is mainly known for its white wines, but they are starting to produce some good reds too. Most of the wineries were happy to let us taste a selection of their wines free of charge but some charge a nominal fee. At the end, we only bought one bottle, unfortunately we can't fit much into our luggage.
We finished the day at a restaurant overlooking the west quay at Napier with a large bowl of the biggest New Zealand mussels that we have ever seen. Wonderful!

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing - Wednesday 9 January

We were really lucky that yesterday's heavy rain moved to the north leaving a beautiful sunny day for today's walk. We completed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, said to be the best one day walk in the North Island, and it was certainly spectacular. Local companies arrange transport to the start of the trail and collect you at the end - as with everything here it is very popular and there must have been several hundred people walking the trail today, but this didn't really seem to be a problem. We walked along a very well made track up over the side of a volcano and into the bowl at the top. Some of the ascent was steep and rocky (I now know why the devil's staircase is so named, it nearly killed me!). We had some marvellous views and a very varied walk. Tomorrow we are off to Napier for some wine tasting!!

Rotorua

We found Rotorua to be a very interesting, if busy, area. The town and surrounding area sit in the bowl of a volcano and there are many places where evidence of volcanic activity below the surface can be seen. We visited the Waiotapu Thermal Park and saw several of them, including the Lady Knox Geyser (pronounced Guyzer, not Geezer), which erupts daily at 10.15 to a collected audience. This was a fascinating place. We also visited the Rotorua museum and the lakeside area.

In the evening we attended a Maori cutural evening - again we weren't alone, but it was a very interesting evening including a Mauri show and meal of 'hangi' (meat and vegetables cooked in the steam just below the surface of the earth).

On Tuesday we travelled south via Taupo to the Tongariro National Park. Sadly the weather has changed for the worse and it is by no means certain that we will be able to do the Tongarior Crossing (meant to be the best one day walk in New Zealand). Still things may have improved in the morning.

We've Made it to New Zealand!

We arrived at Auckland airport on Thursday 3rd January to a less than warm welcome from the immigration officer who immediately wanted to know when we were leaving - and to show him details of our departure flight! The accommodation close to the airport was not great either, but we survived. The next day we picked up our rental car (has seen better days, but so far so good), and drove to Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula. Our accommodation here was lovely, a small motel just outside the town, very peaceful. We spent Saturday looking around the Whitianga sights - the main one being Hot Water beach. The name comes from the fact that there is volcanic activity about 2km below the surface, this means that at low tide in a certain area you can dig the sand and hot (very hot) water will come up to fill the hole that you have dug.

Later that day we walked from Hahei beach to cathedral cove, a very pretty walk along the coast, although as it is peak summer season here we were not alone!.

That evening we ate out in a local restaurant -the meal was great (local fish and shellfish).

On Sunday 6 January we left Whitianga for Rotorua, a large town famous for its hot springs and geysers. The smell of sulphur pervades the town. We have yet to explore the sites - watch this space.