Picton NZ - day 46 - 21st February

The first thing I must do is wish my mate Keith a very Happy Birthday today in Wisbech and the lovely "Wonder Woman" Emma a belated birthday on the 20th.

Hope you have a good one and we will have a beer for you tonight.

Still having a good time and been very busy since the last update with the following activities:

• Hung around in Queenstown for 3 days waiting for good weather to allow us to fly into Milford Sound and take a cruise. Have some early mornings and false starts with bad visibility and high wind but eventually flew on Sunday 17th and had great view of the mountains, glaciers and the sound before landing at this very small airfield. The cruise was breathtaking with dark waters, waterfalls, high sheer cliff faces and eventually a pod of Bottle Nose dolphins. The return flight took us to Glenorchy where we dropped of two people on an even smaller grass airstrip before returning to Queenstown and then starting our journey to Oamaru.
• During our wait at Queenstown we took a jet boat ride on the Shotover river at Skippers Cannon which was fantastic and we have the pictures to show you. But this was only half of the experience, in order to get there we had a 20 minute drive in a 24 seater mini-bus along this winding dirt road which was built in 1880 to support the gold mining activities in the area. The views were stunning and nobody wore their seat belts, would not have been any good with the drop beside us.
• We also had a visit to the Skyline gondola cable car above Queenstown, again for stunning views and all had a luge ride on a concrete course. Again have pictures to prove it.
• We also had a boat ride aboard the steamer TSS Earnslaw along Lake Wakatipu to Walter High Peak Country Farm and back and a few beers. During our stay we found a couple of good restaurants but if in the area avoid the WORLD BAR very poor service but we did get all our drinks for free which was OK.
• Spieghts Ale House Queenstown - excellent food and our waiter was a guy from HUNSTANTON called Pete. He trained at CITB as an electrical engineer and had worked in mining in Malaya. He was waiting for his work visa for Australia in NZ with his girlfriend before working in an iron ore mine.
• Oamaru, we had a great meal at Fat Sallys and visited two colonies of penguins, the yellow eyed, saw only 8 don't know what happened to the rest. Then moved onto see the small blue penguins which come ashore each evening to roost around the old town. Again only saw a few they were all standing on the far side of the harbour wall waiting for us to leave.
• Moved on towards Christchurch via Geraldine (just for you Gel) and visited this vintage car and tractor museum and met the local WI who were spinning wool in one of the buildings and having their lunch.
• At Christchurch on Monday 18th spent time with Bridgitte a Receptionist at Top 10 Holiday Park making arrangements for the next 6 days.
• Moving from Christchurch to Akaroa we stopped off at Chistchuch and had a tram ride around the city. The road to Akaroa was another fantastic drive with this wonderful small fishing port at the end for swimming with Hector Dolphins on Wednesday.
• Hector Dolphin swim was brilliant and we were in the water about 3/4 hour with a pod of up to 8 dolphins at a time. There was quite a swell on the sea but this was the first time they had been out for 3 days because of the storms. We then moved on to Kaikoura.
• Thursday today we were up at 5am, but received a text at 4am from Sheena so had an even earlier call, to go on a whale watching trip aboard the "Te Ao Marama" from Kaikoura. This was a fantastic experience to be so close to these magnificent creatures. We had 4 Great Sperm Whale sightings in just over an hour with first Tiato, then Saddleback, Little Nick and finally again Tiato. All identified by the fin or tail shape and named. We also saw a large pod of over 100 Dusky Dolphins before we returned to port exhausted.
• We have now moved on to Picton with Dave having a dive tomorrow and we hope to go fishing Saturday when the girls have a "Girly Day". We then catch the ferry to Wellington on Sunday.

Queenstown - day 40 - 15th February 2008

We are now at Queenstown waiting for the weather to improve so that we can have a flight down to Milford Sound. The flight has already been bounced twice at 8am and 10am and now waiting for confirmation for a 2pm slot.

Since the ferry crossing to the South Island on Monday 11th Feb have visited the following:

# Picton - lovely little port and marina, had a good walk around and meal in The Barn restaurant which is full of memorabilia from 1920 to 1970, most of which we could remember! This included a great collection of 60 & 70 45's which we played all night. Dave unable to dive due to poor weather prediction so we moved on and will be back later.

# Lake Rotoiti - on the way to stop at Greymouth we had a stop and spoke to this woman who was feeding the ducks, swans and long fin eels (enormous fresh water ones)and she suggested that we stop at Hokitika, 30k down the road as there was a site right next to the beach.

# Hokitika - Shining Star Beachfront, super location next to the Tasam Sea where we looked for jade. Had a meal in the van and then went on beach to see the sunset, fantastic.

# Franz Josef - stopped at the Top Ten site and had a great hot tub. Booked a helicopter flight over the glacier for the Thursday morning but it rained all night and they said it would not clear until Sunday! So we cut our losses and moved on in the rain towards Queenstown.

# Lake Hawea - on the journey to Queenstown the weather improved to glorious sunshine and we again saw the convoy of old Vauxhall cars we first saw in Picton.

# Queenstown - arrived to overcast evening and booked the Milford flight and had our first Indian meal.

Sorry to all but I have some great pictures to add but system is so slow will add at a later date.

Stop Press News - received a text message and email today with a photo of the "ROCK" Tammy and Mark have got engaged. Congratulations to you both. XXX

Wellington - Sunday 10th February 08

Cape Kidnapper - Gannets


Napier Duck trip.


Our campervan!!!


Unfortunately the only one I could photograph was stuffed!

Currently in Hutt Park Top 10 Campsite waiting for the 2.15pm Monday to take us to Picton on the South Island.

Activities completed since the last update include:

• Visited Cape Kidnapper to see the Gannets - very smelly.


• Walked round Napier which was rebuilt art-deco style following a major earthquake in 1931 and found the Bennetts which was on of the few left standing because of its design.


• Toured the area in a DUCK - great way to see the town and port.


• Visited the Pukaha Mountain Bruce reserve and saw a breading programme for Kiwi's.

Napier - NZ day 32

Have now been in NZ a week :

• Stayed at the Kiwi Internation Hotel Auckland first night and had a meal with Grant, Trea, Grace and Tess.
• Collected the VW campervan DPQ912 and moved to the Langfords for 2 nights visiting various areas of Belmont and Devonport where they live.
• Sunday moved out and drove 311k to Lake Taupo and spent 2 nights there, looking at the Huka Falls, a dam, a animal petting farm and saw an alpaca being born. The WOFSHT team then took to the skies in a seaplane over the lake and surrounding area for a 20 minute flight with Grace.
• Grant then took us to the outback, going bush, to Lake Waikaremoana down the roue 38 which included 30k of mud and shale road, not easy and covered the van in mud and rained nearly all the time.
• Dave, Carole and Paul then went down with a bug which we caught from the Langfords, Trudy OK and we are still trying to recover. Trudy and I did have a white knuckle TAXI ride across the lake with the Langfords which was as good as any white water raft.
• Today have moved on to Napier 188k and the weather is now sunny and warm again. Hope to stay here a few days to recover our strength and explore.

Again photographs are difficult and I am having a problem with my SKY email connection.

Will try and catch up later.

Photographs of WOFSHT - up to 2nd February.

Four Pom's in Coogee!


The Coogee Bay Hotel - just for Ian


At the top of the Pylon Lookout having just climbed the bridge.


WOFSHT in Castlereagh apartment.


WOFSHT with the Langfords in Belmont NZ.


Dave busking at Circular Quay, have got to pay for the trip somehow!


Australia Day celebrations!


Two Sheilas at the bridge.


King Paul with his Queen and Princess.


They get everywhere!


The three sisters rocks from Koomba in Blue Mountains.


Pina-coladas at Kam Poo - Patong Beach Thailand.


Ladies of the night - Patong Beach.


Lady-boys of the night at Simons Cabaret - Patong Beach.


WOFSHT at Sai Rougn Residence - Patong Beach.


WOFSHT with pale faces setting off on their expedition.

Creamer Road - New Zealand

Moved on to Auckland on 31st Jan having completed the following activities in Sydney since the last update:

• Australia Day 26th was a great day we should have a similar National Day in UK, everyone was out partying.
• Billy Elliot musical at Capitol Theatre.
• Day out to Coogee Bay for a dip in the sea and a beer at the Hotel where Ian had a few and lunch in FIVEO.
• Climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge early in the morning and had fantastic views - 1437steps.
• Walked the 200 steps up and down Pylon Lookout to photograph and video the views which we could not take from the top of the bridge.
• Visited Sydney Wildlife World to see all the Aussy animals.
• Visited Sydney Power House Museum of Science and design - including DIANA exhibition.

Now staying with Trea and family after picking up our Apollo 6 berth motor home and setting out to Lake Taupo on Sunday for 6 days with the Langfords.