And in no particular order...
Napier: flattened in an earthquake in the 30s so rebuilt in art deco style, modeled closely on Santa Barbara. Pretty. Stayed in a great guest house called Mon Logis run by a very enthusiastic French bloke called Gerard. We luxuriated in the piles of strawberries (in season here of course!) and le bon pain francais every morning on our balcony for breakfast. Weather = glorious so did some fake exercise and cycled round the vineyards buying a bottle of wine in each. Hard life, someone's got to lead it.
Wellington: Top capital city. Flattened ourselves by wandering round the excellent Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. Hard to comprehend the geological diversity of this country until it's explained to you, and then you start to feel sick as you almost feel the tectonic plates shifting beneath your feet. 'Specially in light of recent, horrific events in Iran. :o( Also very good expo on the different sides of the story around the Waitangi Treaty. Written (in both Maori and English) in 1840-1 I think to set out land rights between Maori and the 'crown'. Extensive controversies surrounding the interpretation of the wording, and translation have taken up the time since then. But at least the arguments are being had. Important fact. Could only manage to go see a movie in the evening: 'Love, Actually'. Ok, so soppy and romantic but I'm glad I didn't see it before Xmas as it's also a paen to London and it looks fab just before Xmas with Somerset House rink and the like. Slight pangs of homesickness...
Wellington-Picton ferry crossing: Stormy coming out of the harbour then gorgeous as we entered Marlborough Sound with steep wooded forests on either side of the narrow waterways. Here's Marv enjoying the sunshine:
Drive to Bank's Peninsula, south of Christchurch: gorgeous drive down the very sunny and warm east coast. Much drier and less fertile than what we've seen so far. Down into Canterbury Plains, practically the first bit of flat land we've seen in 2 months. Then past Christchurch and camped on the edge of the gorgeous Akora harbour and watched the sun go down over the hills.
Last day of the year! To celebrate, we went swimming with dolphins. FANTASTIC. We couldn't have picked a better day for it. Gloriously sunny and calm. The dolphins were LOVING it. They don't get fed or anything by the tour people so only come swim if they want too. We basically bobbed around in our wetsuits (very bouyant, terribly unattractive) and the dolphins swam around us and under us. They are just gorgeous. The ones we swam with are called Hector's dolphins after the man who first studied them, and they're tiny - well, maybe a metre long. You aren't allowed to touch them as their skin is very sensitive so you just have to hang out with them. A really lovely way to end the year...
Napier: flattened in an earthquake in the 30s so rebuilt in art deco style, modeled closely on Santa Barbara. Pretty. Stayed in a great guest house called Mon Logis run by a very enthusiastic French bloke called Gerard. We luxuriated in the piles of strawberries (in season here of course!) and le bon pain francais every morning on our balcony for breakfast. Weather = glorious so did some fake exercise and cycled round the vineyards buying a bottle of wine in each. Hard life, someone's got to lead it.
Wellington: Top capital city. Flattened ourselves by wandering round the excellent Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. Hard to comprehend the geological diversity of this country until it's explained to you, and then you start to feel sick as you almost feel the tectonic plates shifting beneath your feet. 'Specially in light of recent, horrific events in Iran. :o( Also very good expo on the different sides of the story around the Waitangi Treaty. Written (in both Maori and English) in 1840-1 I think to set out land rights between Maori and the 'crown'. Extensive controversies surrounding the interpretation of the wording, and translation have taken up the time since then. But at least the arguments are being had. Important fact. Could only manage to go see a movie in the evening: 'Love, Actually'. Ok, so soppy and romantic but I'm glad I didn't see it before Xmas as it's also a paen to London and it looks fab just before Xmas with Somerset House rink and the like. Slight pangs of homesickness...
Wellington-Picton ferry crossing: Stormy coming out of the harbour then gorgeous as we entered Marlborough Sound with steep wooded forests on either side of the narrow waterways. Here's Marv enjoying the sunshine:
Drive to Bank's Peninsula, south of Christchurch: gorgeous drive down the very sunny and warm east coast. Much drier and less fertile than what we've seen so far. Down into Canterbury Plains, practically the first bit of flat land we've seen in 2 months. Then past Christchurch and camped on the edge of the gorgeous Akora harbour and watched the sun go down over the hills.
Last day of the year! To celebrate, we went swimming with dolphins. FANTASTIC. We couldn't have picked a better day for it. Gloriously sunny and calm. The dolphins were LOVING it. They don't get fed or anything by the tour people so only come swim if they want too. We basically bobbed around in our wetsuits (very bouyant, terribly unattractive) and the dolphins swam around us and under us. They are just gorgeous. The ones we swam with are called Hector's dolphins after the man who first studied them, and they're tiny - well, maybe a metre long. You aren't allowed to touch them as their skin is very sensitive so you just have to hang out with them. A really lovely way to end the year...
