After a brief, but full visit to Wellington, on the morning of Tuesday 27 July, I got up early and headed to the ferry terminal for the next stage of my trip: New Zeland's South Island. The ferry journey was beautiful, particularly going out through the Wellington harbour bay and then into Picton through a series of sounds. In Picton I collected a hire car (a very nice Toyota Corolla hatchback with CVT automatic gearbox) and then drove to Nelson. After finding the very nice self-catering cottage that my cousin Lorna had organised for me and doing a bit of shopping, I went into Nelson and had a lovely dinner at a restaurant in the town centre.
On the Wednesday I drove down to Christchurch. Due to recent earthquake damage, the scenic coastal road was closed, and so I had to take the less scenic (and rather busy) inland route, which still went through some very, very pretty scenery. In Christchurch I stayed with Ian and Wendy Dore (ex-Grahamstown and Rhodes friends).
Ian had taken the Thursday off to show me around, and we started with a drive to the port hills, and then through Lyttleton, stopping for coffee in Clifton. From there we headed into the city, where the damage from the 2011 earthquake was still very apparent. In particular, the cathedral was in a very sad, semi-collapsed state with concrete and steel supports (visible in the picture above). We had lunch in the container mall, a very vibrant temporary shopping area. We had parked near the botanic gardens, so spent some time in the museum and the botanic gardens on our way back home.
On Friday morning Wendy and I took Probie the dog for a walk at Styx Mill dog park/reserve, which was lovely. After that I packed up and headed out via Airways NZ where Ian works. He gave me a very interesting tour of their facilities (essentially managing air traffic control through most of the Southern Pacific area). I then drove to my next stop, the small town of Geraldine, South-West of Christchurch. That journey took me through the very beautiful Rakaia Gorge, where I found a geocache. There were good views of snow-capped mountains in the distance for a lot of the journey. In Geraldine I was staying with Jayne (an old university friend) and her husband William. We ended the day as I had started it, walking their dogs in the "domain" (local nature reserve/park area).
On Saturday morning Jayne made some delicious blueberry pancakes for breakfast, after which we visited the lovely village church next door to their home. I then set off for Queenstown. My plan to take the scenic mountain route was thwarted by recent snow, which had closed the pass between Fairlie and Twizzel. Unfortunately, that meant that a scenic 4-hour journey became a 7-hour rather-less-scenic journey back to the coast and South before heading inland to Queenstown. I did get enjoy a delicious salmon pie for lunch in Fairlie (world-renowned for its pies apparently!). After arriving rather late at my AirBnB in Queenstown, my supper venue was chosen for convenience and speed at Burger King!
Sunday started with a very nice breakfast at the B&B, and doing some laundry, before driving into Queenstown proper. After visiting the i-SITE and getting some information, I headed to the Queenstown gondolas. Unfortunately, the top of the cableway was shrouded in mist, so I gave up on that and had some coffee and a scone at the nearby kiwi sanctuary. After that I headed back into town and walked along the waterfront and through the town centre, doing some geocaches in the Queenstown Gardens. Queenstown is a beautiful little town, nestled on the banks of Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by mountains (all covered in snow). I had a panini in a little bakery for lunch, after which the mist was clearing, so I headed back to the gondolas and and took a gondola to the top of one of the hills overlooking Queenstown. The views from the top were amazing. After enjoying a hot chocolate in the restaurant I took the gondola back down (the mist was starting to close in again - I had been fortunate to take advantage of a brief window in the weather). I walked back through town to a restaurant near the Gardens for a delicious dinner of pork belly.
Monday had me back in the car heading South again to Dunedin. My phone's GPS managed to lead me astray and I ended up on a less scenic route than I had hoped (we won't blame the GPS operator!). The journey was still very pretty, with snowy mountains, rushing rivers, stark hillsides, and later rolling hills and green fields. I did some caching en route, picking up three geocaches in Balclutha, which now has the distinction of being the Southern-most place that I have cached. I also had some very tasty fish and chips for lunch in an old pub in Balclutha. My accommodation for the night was a lovely home in Brighton near Dunedin on the seafront (organised by Sarah — my cousin Lorna's cycling buddy).
On Tuesday morning I spent a bit of time exploring Dunedin itself. I visited the Octagon, the railway station, and a couple of art galleries, before grabbing a coffee and heading back up to Christchurch (the weather predictions were a little grim and I didn't want to risk getting snowed in as I had a flight to catch out of Christchurch the next day). So, most of the day was spent driving. The threatened snow didn't materialise, but the first part of the trip was in rain. That did clear up leaving sunny conditions for the later part of the day. That night was spent with Ian and Wendy again in Christchurch. It also marked the end of a too-short, but very enjoyable visit to the South Island, the less-developed and more rugged part of New Zealand.
On Wednesday morning I dropped off my hire car at the airport and took a flight from Christchurch to Palmerston North where Brett picked me up from the airport (with lovely views of snow-capped mountains from the plane). I got to meet Rhys, Kevin and Lorna's younger son, who I had never met before. He is studying at the University of Otago in Dunedin, but was home for the mid-year vacation. Brett headed back to university (in Christchurch) that afternoon. In the evening my aunt joined us for dinner, as it was my last night there.
On Thursday I packed (somehow managing to squeeze everything into my luggage, including various souvenirs and gifts). My aunt gave me a lift into Palmerston North where Lorna slipped out of work to meet us at the bus terminus to say good-bye. I took the bus to Wellington airport (some lovely Lord of the Rings and Hobbit features around the airport!), in good time for my flight to Melbourne and then a connection on to Perth, where I arrived very late at night and checked into a convenient hotel near the airport.
On the Friday morning I enjoyed a huge breakfast in the hotel and then relaxed and read for a while before meeting up for lunch with Darrell Baker (an old school friend from Zim). After a rather long wait around the airport, I caught my flight back to SA. That arrived in Jo'burg at 4:30am the next morning. I had some coffee at the airport and read for a while before being picked up by Theo, Brenda and Caleb who were on their way to a ten-day holiday in Ramsgate, which was exactly the relaxing break I needed after a wonderful, but busy time in Australia and New Zealand.
Some final thoughts: As this was my first trip to Australia and New Zealand, it was very interesting. One of my first observations was that Australia was a "first-world" country to an extent I hadn't expected (my preconceived idea was that it was somewhere between South Africa and the first-world, but it is properly first-world). New Zealand is a little more rough around the edges (in a lovely, down-to-earth way), and closer to what I had expected. The nanny-state issues are also less apparent in NZ than in Australia. As former British colonies, both countries felt very "comfortable" — the general way-of-life is not very different to that in South Africa (or Zim). One difference that was quite marked was that NZ seemed to have dealt with the worst parts of its colonial past far more productively and positively than Australia — there seemed to be far less tension with the Maoris than with the aboriginal people in Australia (possibly helped by the fact that the Maoris had not arrived in New Zealand very long before the European settlers).
The other main take-home from the trip was just how good it was to reconnect with many friends and family members from Zim and South Africa (some who I hadn't seen in decades, and the one second-cousin I had never met before!). I hope it won't be too many years (and certainly not decades!) until we meet again.
