Home Sweet Home!

Well here we are home in France, and feeling rather jet lagged!! our bodies are here, but we think our heads are still in another time zone.

We've had a wonderful time in New Zealand, thats us cooking our last dinner in Amity.  Now looking forward to a busy season.  Its great to travel, but home is certainly best!.  Hope you've all enjoyed reading our Blog. look out for our next adventure...Sue & Chris

Auckland Airport

Had a great last couple of days in Amity, went to a resort south of New Plymouth called Oakura, absolutely brilliant , we had a great lunch, and then walked on the beach, the camper van was parked facing the sea, amazing views. Then back to Wanganui and Rachel's house, where we cleaned Amity ready for her next adventure, had a lovely evening with Rachel, went out for dinner, and had a taster menu, with 4 different wines. This lunchtime we flew from Wanganui to Auckland in an 18 seater plane, which just hovered above the white fluffy cloud, a great experience. Now waiting for our flight to Melbourne, then onto Dubai and last stage to Paris. A long journey, but it seems ages ago that we arrived here. More photos to follow soon. We've had a wonderful time in New Zealand, seen a tiny part of it, so I'm sure one day we'll return to do some more, and of course visit all our family here. Looking forward to seeing all our UK family next week, and friends in France.

Views of Hawkes Bay

Look out got the sheep running away from Chris!

Back in Hawkes Bay

Where has the time gone! We travelled back from the South Island on the ferry Friday to Wellington, then drove back to Colette and Nigel's house in Napier. We really enjoyed sleeping in a bed again after nearly 3 weeks in the camper van. From where I'm sitting this morning, through the morning mist I can see cows grazing on the hillside. Saturday we followed a trail, and had a view all over Hawkes Bay, it seems highly populated after the South Island, which it isn't. We are just used to so few people. Saturday evening we went to a quiz night with my sister's work colleagues, she works at Hastings Hospital, so needless to say some good fun, people here would definitely not be pc in the UK. Sunday today, and we have a leg of lamb for dinner kindly donated by Colette's neighbour, this is for letting him grave his animals on their land. Back to Amity tomorrow for our last couple of days.

Havelock

This is where all the huge green lipped mussels come from, and Chris enjoying a bowl of them!

Cable Bay

Lake Rotoroa

3days without Internet or phones!

we will never complain about lack of Internet coverage in Europe again, this is the first signal we've had in 3 days, so a bit of catching up to do! We left Greymouth which in on the west cost for a drive inland heading towards Lake Rotoroa via Reepton and Mirchison through the picturesque Brunner Range to the edge of Lake Rotoroa in the Nelson Lakes Nation Park. We were plagued by mosquitoes, bees and wasps but had plenty of spray, and headed on a 3km walk called the Braeburn Walk up to a waterfall and back down through the village. from the edge of the lake we had spectacular views of the snow clad Travers mountain range, and another amazing sunset. on Monday we had a lengthy drive up to Nelson, which is the 2nd biggest town on the South Island, we then drove to Cable Bay, so named after the first telegraph lines were laid from Australia to New Zealand at cable Bay. The road to Cable Bay had experienced lots of land slips and was quite tricky on lots of parts. Tuesday we left Cable Bay and on recommendation visited Okiwi Bay another twisty windy road to navigate! We had a walk round and decided to move on to a DOC site at Pelorus Bridge which is in the Rai Valley, beautiful site, looked like someone's back garden, loads of walks and trails to follow - pictures to follow.

Greymouth

Coffee stop on the way to Greymouth

Fox Glacier Photos

Even though Chris didn't put it on the Blog I was very brave today going onto the Glacier!

Fox Glacier & Thermal Pools

An early start to get kitted up before we were bussed up to FOX GLACIER.....quite an awesome site and sitting in another dramatic valley.as part of a group of about 10 we walked from the car park to the Moraine Area and then when we reached the edge of the glacier we put on our crampons and then ascended on to the ice field. The FOx glacier covers a massive area up to the high mountains,most of it inaccessible unless on guided tours.Ice caves and crevasses cover the glacier and the constant trickle of melting ice all around. When we returned to Fox resort we drove down to Franz Josef Glacier and spent the afternoon in the thermally heated hot pools ....40degrees Celsius makes you realise what a lobster feels like when it's time for poaching!! An excellent NZCMA campsite around the corner, and a steak and sweet potato dinner with fresh corn on the cb, onions and mushrooms and a hearty glass of Mill Road Merlot Cabernet...a good choice!!

Photos of drive to Haast

Wanaka to Haast and onwards

Yesterday we visted Lake Wanaka, sadly it was wet and cloudy, so not a lot to see, but loads of goodies in the supermarket to stock up on. We got on the road heading in the direction of Haast. Amazing views all along the road, photos to follow, we were going to stop off at a Doc campsite (Department of Conservation) which looked good, these are sites where you pay a minimal cost for minimal amenities, no showers, we have one in the van, long drop toilets, don't even ask! Luckily we have our own, and no power, but when we got to the site there were loads of midges and it was starting to bucket down, so carried on to Haast and a proper campsite, which was absolutely packed by 4.00 by people taking refuge from the pouring rain. This morning woke up to blue sky and sunshine, as they say onward and upward, we are now at Fox Glacier on the South West coast with a beautiful evening. Had a great day visiting a very remote beach with flat rocks, which was 12 Kms off the main road called Gillespies beach, then a beautiful lake called Lake Matheson, which is where the Maoris used to fish for eels and trout, had a great walk round, now camped for the night on a very pleasant site, with Chris cooking dinner, even better! Tomorrow I'm going to be very brave and go for a walk on Fox Glacier!

A short drive south brought us to another awesome landscape of LAKE PUKAKI and views of MOUNT COOK in the distance.A spacious site on the edge of the lake afforded us a peaceful and tranquil day of short walks along the shoreline and a welcome 'chill-out' period of sitting by the van in glorious sunshine reading our books and sipping chilled white wine I'm writing this at approx 8.45pm,the sun has finally set on the mountains which have taken on a purple and indigo hue, and MOUNT COOK is just about to fade in to darkness,it's great snowfields slowly dimming in the sunset. Probably our most amazing visual experience of the holiday, and we're sure there will be more to follow

Lake Pukaki & Mount Cook

Lake Tekapo