Category Archives: New Zealand

Rolling blog: New Zealand day 7. Rotarua to Napier.

04 Friday Jan 2019

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We’re on the move again today. Our day started at 6am due to the strong sunlight streaming through our chalet windows straight onto the bed. The day seemed too good to miss so we were up early, sipping tea and coffee whilst watching the backpackers stumble into life. A bonus was that a staff member pointed out the Saturday market opposite our rooms on the nearby car park so we wandered over to have a look and see what we might grab for breakfast. The market was a relaxed little affair selling some excellent local fruit and veg, bric-a-brac, handicrafts, plants and a variety of Asian cuisine. You could get Indian street food (Dosas ,bhelpuri etc). Chinese steamed pork buns and dim sum or (for the real carnivores) steak sandwiches. We opted for the buns & dim sun. The market was popular with people of all ages and communities and seems to be quite an institution.

We’re temporarily homeless again right now and taken up residence outside the tourist office for the next hour until the Intercity bus arrives to take us to Napier. It’s an attractive place to while away an hour, watching the world go by…

18:13

We’re now relaxing in the sun on the roof of our backpackers in Napier after a really interesting day.

When a fairly old single deck coach pitched up to take us to Napier I didn’t hold out much for the journey, but it was far better than I expected. Our first stop was at Taupo, which sits on the edge of a massive lake of the same name. It makes Lake Windermere look like a puddle! You can see it behind this rather odd tourist train that perambulates through the park.

Clearly, Taupo is a base for lots of outdoor activities and seemed a really busy, touristy place. But it wasn’t where we wanted to be. The next part of the journey was the section that surprised me. Our coach began twisting and climbing some roads that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Alps, whilst the scenery was so Scottish it’d have made many tartan-wearers homesick! The only thing that wasn’t typical was the weather, which was stunning. We had horizon to horizon clear blue skies. I gave my phone to Dawn to take a few pictures as she had the window seat. Here’s a sample.

Napier’s a lovely little place with a really interesting (but tragic) history because the town was flattened by an earthquake in 1931 that left scores dead. It was rebuilt in the contemporary architectural stye of the time: Art Deco, which gives the place a time-warp feel and a legacy of some stunning buildings. I’ll add some pictures in the next blog.

Rolling blog: New Zealand day 6. Rotorua ramble

03 Thursday Jan 2019

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It’s a beautifully sunny day here in Rotorua so we’ve started the day slowly, enjoying coffee in the sun whilst watching the comings and goings at the backpackers where we’re staying. Our chalet room is on the basic side of basic, but we’re only here for a couple of nights so it’s no problem. We’re right next to a park full of the hot springs and bubbling mud pools that have made the place famous. You certainly know they’re around due to the sulphur content – which is enough to close off your sinuses!

The springs run throughout the town. Many hotels offer hot spa pools and where ever you walk in town you’re likely to get a sudden nasal assault, as if you’ve just walked passed a blocked drain!

Right now we’re off to visit a Maori village…

17:40.

We’re back from Whakarewarewa, the Maori village, so here’s a quick selection of pictures, I’ll add details later.

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After a day toasting from the sun and breathing hot sulphur springs, it’s time to cool down with one of these…

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The Maori village was really interesting because this wasn’t a Government sponsored tourist site -it was a genuine Maori village run by the people who still live there. They’ve been welcoming guests ever since 1874, when they were approached by the Government who wanted to attract visitors. The local clan chief had the nous to say to them “alright, but this is our gig – we don’t need you”. As our young lady guide said “the difference between other places and us is we live here, we don’t go home from work at the end of the night, this IS our home” 60 Maori still live in the village which is built amidst the most amazing landscape of hot springs and geysers. It was a much more interesting experience than the normal tourist ones because our guide was part of the community she was showing us around and could give you so much more detail about real life in the village – almost gossip if you like, rather than detached, dry history. So, all the dancers you see in the performance can be seen back in the village later, just living their everyday lives.

20:26.

We’re now back in the backpackers, catching up on the internet of things before heading off for an early night as we’re on the move again tomorrow. This time it’s to yet another contrast, a place called Napier. This is a town that was flattened by an earthquake in 1931 so most of it was rebuilt in the architectural style of the time: Art Deco.

Rolling blog: New Zealand, day 5 (Auckland to Rotarua).

02 Wednesday Jan 2019

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I’ll be honest, I’ve had mixed feelings about moving on from Auckland as it’s been great being here. I really like the feel of the place and staying at KKs AirBnB has been a pleasure. On the plus side, we’re both feeling much better physically and we’re looking forward to exploring.

Getting from Mt Roskill to the Sky City bus terminal was pretty painless. The 25L bus stops almost outside KKs gate, so for $11 we got dropped by the Civic theatre, five minute walk from the terminal. Admittedly, it’s a fun 5 minwutes as you’re dragging suitcases uphill as Auckland is anything but flat!

This is my first bus trip here since 1999 and my, has the quality changed!

This double-deck beastie has Wi-Fi, plug sockets, table seats in bays of four and many other mod cons. What hasn’t changed is the fact the drivers are still comedians (something I remember vividly from my last visit). There’s no seat reservations, so I asked the driver if we could sit where we liked. His reply was “sure, just leave me the one with the steering wheel”!

We’re departing Auckland now (09:30) for the 4 hour journey. I’ll keep you posted on the trip…

09:47.

On highway 1 heading South. Lane discipline here is somewhat on the liberal side…

09:56.

Our first stop’s been at Manukau on the outskirts of Auckland. The whole area appears to have sprung up in recent years and the bus terminal appears almost new. Dozens of passengers have joined us and the coach is now 90% full with a mix of young European backpackers, senior travellers (I suppose that’s me now!) and Kiwis from all communities.

10:20

Next stop: Papakura, a small town on the railway with a real mix of buildings (some colonial) and a wide variety of shops. I’m struck by how much food’s improved in NZ in the past 20 years thanks to the Asian influx. Sushi’s a staple nowadays and spice shops are common. It’s all a far cry from how I remember it! The top deck of our coach gives grandstand views into the suburban gardens we pass and the tally of children’s trampolines makes me realise just how homogenous the world’s becoming.

11:11.

Lovely! We’ve just passed the yard of a house relocator near Hampton Downs who does exactly what he claims. His yard contains a couple of dozen wooden bungalows of all shapes and sizes that’s he’s picked up from elsewhere and put up for sale!

11:26

We’re South of Huntley now and it’s easy to see from the landscape why the Scots felt so at home here.

The road parallels the railway for long stretches at this point. There’d be some great photo opportunities along here – but nothing’s running!
12:00

We’ve arrived at Hamilton, where there’s a melee as we exchange passengers. I’ve lost count of the numbers rushing to the top deck front seats only to find them occupied! On the way in we passed the local locomotive depot which was full of stabled electrics due to the holidays.

12:33.

Our penultimate stop: Cambridge. There’s not a University in sight and the oldest building’s less than 200 years, but it’s a well-kept little place that’s provided more churn to our numbers.

17:30.

We’ve settled into our backpackers and enjoyed an afternoon enjoying the sights (and smells) of Rotorua, which is pretty much tourist central nowadays. There’s a lot of modern development combined with some lovely old touches, such as this former Spa (latterly a museum) which is being restored following damage suffered in the 2016 earthquake.

Our day ended by sampling a local craft beer establishment as well as a former police station that’s been converted into a pub and named the Pig and Whistle, after which, we ended up at the Thursday night market and sampled some stunning food. Here’s a sample of what was on offer.

We ended up eating at Johnny’s dumpling house, a stall so popular that the queues were massive. When you sampled his wares it was easy to see why. The portions were huge and the dumplings divine! dg315474crop

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Rolling blog: New Zealand. Day 4…

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by in New Zealand, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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It’s 07:45 in New Zealand and we’re finally shaking off the lurgy that’s laid us both low since the day we arrived. Most of our time has been spent housebound although we did have a lovely New Year’s Eve. For the first time on these trips we’ve booked homestays via the Airbnb network and I have to say, it’s been a lovely experience. We’re staying in an area of Auckland called Mt Roskill, a few kilometres the South of the city centre. The area has a local hilltop park which has a great view of the skytower, which is used as the launchpad for the firework display that announces the arrival of the New Year as Auckland is the first major city to celebrate the arrival of 2019 . Having travelled half-way around the planet there was no way we were going to miss seeing the fireworks, so we dragged ourselves up to the park for a grandstand view. I’m afraid the results were a tad underwhelming! The display lasted for little more than three minutes before fizzling out. A local lad stood nearby summed it up when he said “Aww, there wasn’t even a grand finale”.

DG315372. New Year fireworks. New Zealand. 01.01.19crop

Afterwards we returned to the home of KK and his Chinese Malaysian family where we spent a lovely evening with the extended family, some of whom had flown in from Australia and Malaysia to get together for New Year. Also present was his son-in-law, who was originally from Iran. Many of the family are construction professionals (including KKs wife, who’s a Quantity Surveyor). I had a fascinating conversation with them about the levels of investment and construction in Malaysia (a country I know well), politics and Chinese economic expansion as well as the crisis in housing affordability in many countries. Truly, we are the lucky generation. What struck me was what an international family they were (KK himself had studied in Aberdeen) and how Britain has completely lost the plot with its fears over immigration. People like this are an asset to any country and should be welcomed, not demonised. It seems New Zealand realises this, which is why the population has grown from 3.8 million when I was last here to nearly 5 million now – almost 20% It was an entertaining evening full of fun and laughter, but it made my heart ache as it made me realise how disconnected I now feel from my own backward looking country. 2019 is going to be a very difficult year in the UK.

DG315365. Viking Orion. Auckland. New Zealand. 30.12.18crop

Auckland’s changing skyline, with the cruise ship Viking Orion in the harbour.

Right, it’s time to stop penning this and grab some breakfast before heading out into the city. I’ll write more soon…

12:39.

We’ve had a lovely stroll along to the little suburb of Onehunga, which has an interesting place in social history. In 1893, Elizabeth Yates was elected mayor of the borough, becoming the first female mayor in the British Empire. Her picture is one of many historical images from the town that are on display by the railway station.

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We’d actually come here to catch the train into town only to suffer the curse of railways the world over: bustitution! Nearly the whole of the Auckland suburban network was closed over the holiday period, leaving just one service operating into Britomart.

On the bright side, the town had been without a railway from 1973 until the line reopened in 2010 in a welcome retreat from the country’s previous policy of running down the railways to invest in roads. Now there’s some really exciting projects going on here – as I’ll describe in a separate blog.

The one good thing about the bustitution was it allowed us to see parts of Auckland we wouldn’t have otherwise and I have to say I’ve been impressed. Despite the modern building boom here, there’s still plenty of old ones left which have found a new lease of life, like this one, where we are now…

Just around the corner’s the cities main railway station. It’s pretty unassuming from above ground and could easily be mistaken for an industrial shed…

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Below ground is a very different matter…

DG315417. Britomart. Auckland. New Zealand. 2.1.19crop

Only the two left-hand platforms are in use at the moment due to engineering work – hence all the temporary barriers blocking off the other three. 

DG315422. Britomart. Auckland. New Zealand. 2.1.18crop

 

 

 

Rolling blog: New Zealand here we come…

28 Friday Dec 2018

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06:00

The alarm’s gone off and we’re rising, bleary eyed from bed. Why is it that you so often have a lousy nights sleep when you’re about to embark on a long trip? Nerves, excitement? I’ve been doing this for decades but it still happens. Then one disturbs the other and you’re both tossing and turning! Add in a surreal dream too – at one point I woke up and thought “hang on, I’ll get arrested when I land in the USA!” After a moment thinking “where the hell did that idea come from?” I realised this was tied in to a scenario in a previous dream! I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve not eaten any cheese (renowned for triggering dreams) this Christmas.

Right now, I need coffee – and a shower – in that order!

08:29.

We’re being chauffeur driven to Heathrow T2 by Darren, Dawn’s brother. Mercifully, the roads ate quiet due to the Christmas shutdown.

10:04.

We’re through check-in, security (which was efficient and surprisingly painless) have stocked up on a few bits and now we’re enjoying a bacon and egg muffin washed down with more coffee. Terminal 2 is remarkably quiet compared to how I’ve seen it so it’s quite relaxed.

From here we’re off to Chicago aboard a United Airlines Boeing 767, Then to Auckland aboard an Air New Zealand Boeing 787-900 ‘Dreamliner’ which I’m looking forward to as I’ve never flown on one before.

Whilst hanging around in airport lounges is great for people watching it’s a waste of a few hours that could have been spent sleeping, or doing something more productive. It’s my great complaint about modern air travel. By the time we take off at 12:05 we’ll have been up for 6 hours.

11:16.

Our chariot awaits…

Right, where’s the wine?

11:42.

Boarding’s complete and we’ll be in the air for the next 9 hours, so we’ll see you on the other side of the pond this evening!

15:04 (Chicago time) 21:04 (UK time).

We’ve just landed at Chicago O’Hare. The temperatures a chilly -4 and snow’s forecast but as we won’t be leaving terminal 5 we’re not too bothered.

This hasn’t been a bad flight 3,254 miles in under 9 hours. There’s plenty of legroom on these 767s but the seat pitch is poor. You can’t recline far to get some decent sleep.

The food was pretty good. Due to her allergies Dawn ordered the vegan menu, which produced a very acceptable curry!

The salad accompanyment was just as tasty.

22:58 UK. 16:58 Chicago time.

Getting through Chicago O’ Hare’s a bit of a faff. This is the first transit flight I’ve been on where you have to collect your baggage to go through customs before dropping it off again. At least we already had our ESTA’s after being in New York in May. Even so, it’s quite a bureaucratic process. Now we’ve made it through to T5 departures. I must admit to being a little disappointed by the airport. Considering T5 is the international terminal, it’s not a patch on many. We’re both dog-tired at this stage and desperately hoping we can get some decent sleep on the next flight.

New Zealand, here we come…

17 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by in New Zealand, Photography, Railways, Travel

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Today I put the finishing touches to our plans to visit New Zealand and booked the last set of accommodation for our month-long tour in December – January. It’s going to be an epic trip (and an expensive one thanks to Brexit and the devaluation of Sterling). I’ve wanted to revisit the country for donkey’s years. I was there in 1999 during an 18 month around the world trip. We’ll be visiting some of the places I saw then plus many new ones. Last time I made the trip entirely by public transport, this time we’re hiring a car to travel around the South Island – although we will be taking a trip on the Tranzalpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth which is one of the world’s great railway journeys. We’ll also be visiting one preserved railway near Dunedin, but the rest of the holiday will be taken up with outdoor activity and sightseeing as we’ve got a very busy schedule but then there’s no point in travelling half-way around the world just to sit on your bum!

One aspect I I’m really looking forward to is the chance to shoot more pictures. New Zealand’s a stunningly beautiful country but going through my slide archive I’ve been surprised at how few I took during six weeks there in 1999. I suspect that’s because it was towards the end of our trip and I was conserving rolls of film as Fuji Velvia was a rare (and expensive) commodity in that neck of the woods (and we still had Fiji and the Cook Islands to visit). Still, here’s one or two to whet your appetites.

T8899. Franz Joseph glacier. New Zealand 1999.crop

The Franz Josef glacier on the South Island seen from a helicopter just before we landed and went hiking on the glacier itself.

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An intermodal train from Picton to Christchurch passes Kaikoura on the East coast of the South island. This line was closed after a devastating earthquake but re-opened earlier this year.

T9075. Queenstown. S Island. New Zealand. 1999.crop

Looking across Lake Wakatipu at sunset, Queensland, South Island

Expect a host of pictures from both North and South islands and regular blogs. It’s going to be good to take a break from the madness of Brexit before the sh*t really hits the fan.

Another change since 1999 has been in the ease of finding places to stay. Then, the internet was just taking off. I remember using dial-up in a post office in Yogjakarta, Indonesia to try and book a hotel, and how frustrating it was (but also exciting because of the possibilities). Now, I’ve been browsing properties via Booking.com and AirBnB from my smartphone!