Rotorua, North Island (NZ)

Having spent 2 weeks in UK helping to organise Mum's funeral, and feeling pretty miserable about having lost her so soon after Dad, we decided to return to New Zealand to continue with our world trip, as Mum would have wanted. She was going to come out to see us in France in the spring, but sadly neither she nor my Dad managed to make it. After 64 years of being married, I hope they are reunited and watching our adventures from afar.

23 January 2010

Arrived in Rotorua just in time to catch Richard's latest performance,
this time with a Maori score.......

The Maoris were very welcoming, as were the
hot springs and geysers which spouted forth.
















This native guide was called Paul O'Garvey and was fiercely proud of his Polynesian/Ulster parentage!












The other geysers spurted on cue and we all splutterd from the sulpurous vapours.












This mud cauldron was actually bubbling furiously, but Irene failed to capture its palpitating pulses.

Governor's Bay, South Island (NZ)

In Omaru we happened across some more 40s nostalgia; Ford Prefects, Standard 10s and Hillmans outside this local Heritage Radio Station broadcasting vintage songs on vintage equipment. This was the source of my dedication to Mum - Mario Lanza's 'Be My Love' which was followed, coincidentally, by one of my Dad's favourites, 'On Top Of Ol' Smokey'.

We found the most idyllic camping spot overlooking Governor's Bay and spent 3 nights watching the stars from our Spaceship. The local beach Maoris helped Anton to complete the ethnic clues from the Christchurch crossword. See Anton surveying the Bay from his memorial bench.

A fossil - fossil gazing!

Dunedin, South Island (NZ)

Early January, just before we heard the bad news, we arrived in a pretty chilly Dunedin but stayed in a delightfully friendly B&B. The following day we explored the mystical, unspoilt peninsular, teeming with bird life and devoid of all humans.
No-one was using the extensive Pukehiki Library!

We trekked out to 'Lover's Leap' and didn't take the plunge. Instead we met up with this lump of lard - too sleepy to attack me this time.




























Speaking of lumps of lard, I caught this one doing some exercises in the entrance to New Zealand's only castle, at least the hedges were trim!

Mount Cook, Wanaka, Otago

New Year's Eve

Having left our lovely beach house, we now head back to Christchurch to swap our juicy car for a 'Spaceship' - euphemism for a tin can on wheels with makeshift camping bed hanging out of the hatchback. This switch turns out to be truest 'sublime to the ridiculous' we have ever experienced.

The mountains of the west coast deliver us the strongest antarctic winds they can manage, so we try to huddle behind any bits of tundra scrub we can find. In our tin can existence, these conditions are combined with "er indoors' " need to be hermetically sealed, and my preference for some oxygen, however frozen. Some lively evening debates ensued, punctuated by excursions to the great howling outdoors - "I may be gone for sometime........"

Anyway Mt Cook is just amazing, play-ground of the young Sir Edmund Hillary and destination for thousands of teeming Jap tourists today. We walked and walked before we could lose them.

Moved on to the lakes at Wanaka.

2nd January 2010

Irene has been worrying because of receiving several texts from family and not being able to make contact. Today at last she has managed to phone home to receive the shock and cruel news that Betty, Irene's dear old Mum, died suddenly from an unexpected heart attack yesterday. We are dumbfounded and will suspend this trivial diary until we can arrange our return.