Christmas Capers

Merry Christmas from New Zealand! We decided to take a light Christmas walk from Wanaka, near Queenstown, up to see the Rob Roy Glacier. The 60km drive up a dirt track across several fords didn't put us off, and neither did the first little bridge (above). The weather started nicely down in the dry valley, but after 1 hour of uphill treking started to turn. Still, we did get to see the apparently rare Kea (below), which sat on a branch above a group of picnicing tourists and then proceded to land everywhere anyone was eating any food all the way up the valley to the glaciers. Perhaps rare, but not shy! Indeed, yesterday I was attacked by one leaving the shower block at a campsite, then watched it hunting in its natural habitiat: tearing food scraps from a carrier bag on top of a wheelie bin! After our walk we retreated back to Lake Wanaka below, for Christmas Dinner.

Lou has been enjoying driving the van, with me navigating and getting her to take all the shortcuts across mountain passes and unmettaled roads. Now we're driving up the West Coast of the south island, which is only one long remote road, so our van is noticeable amongst the droves of other camper vans. We get lots of comments and questions about it and many people have been stuck behind it long enough to appreciate the artwork.

We have now arrived in Glacier Country on the west coast. Crossing over from Wanaka the change in flora is stark - we are now in a rainforst bordered by mountains. Lots of native ferns (koru) border the paths and moss hangs in football sized clumps from the trees. We have had a few walks in the undergrowth and had some typical weather. This morning was clear and we took full advantage and impulsively took a helicopter flight up Fox Glacier. This was breaktaking and at times stomach churning, but gave us a view right down into crevasses and up onto the fresh snow at the top, which is close to Mount Cook, but on the opposite side to our previous glacier walks.

Now, we are sat in a full scale west coast downpour, and trying to work out where to camp to escape. I wouldn't mind indulging my new hobby - this being New Zealand, land of plenty, I have started trying to fish in rivers and lakes. I have had little success and Lou waits expectantly for me to bring back a big trout, but no such luck. So far I have had one rod stolen and lost 2 lures at the bottom of lakes. Yesterday however, I caught 3 mussels by dragging my hook too low in the water and snagging them. We had this pitiful snack this morning with our breakfast. Better luck hopefully soon.

Trans Tasman adventures

Otso and Paula guided us to the beaches and wildlife around Sydney, including hiring a car for the weekend and then sitting in it as it was pelted with huge hailstones on the way to visit some Koalas, Kangeroos and Emus. The Emus had to be disuaded from trying to eat our picnic lunch, but fortunately are quite amazingly stupid and easily scared off, even by Lou waving her arms around. In the evening we went for a walk on the North Sydney beaches and watched the Pelicans.

After this, I headed over to Tasmania to catch up with some of my family, and Lou sampled Melbourne. This was a quick visit and we soon flew off to Christchurch in New Zealand. Initially New Zealand foooled us into thinking it was a warm country but having a hot spell in Christchuch the weekend we arrived. We strolled around the botannical gardens and watched locals punting on the river near the colleges before having cream teas. They almost tricked us into thinking we had landed in Cambridge, but everything was too cheap and people were not snooty enough.

We are now well into out trip, and have hired a distinctive camper van to make an impression on the locals. We have come south and walked around the Glaciers at the foot of Mount Cook, sometimes visible through the clouds. My plans to force Lou to walk over the Ball pass (the ridge leading up to Mt Cook) were thwarted by both the weather and Lou's fancy new walking boots wearing in, but it was probably quite an ambitious plan! We stuck to staying in our camper van using the 2 duvets and have not visted any mountain huts yet.

Yesterday we managed to bave to cold to see a colony of seals, fighting and cavorting, and a very rare breeding pair of yellow penguins. We could have paid 40 bucks to watch the night-time 'penguin show' in Omaru, but was much nicer walking around the sea cliffs without anyone else around clapping and throwing fish about. We had to find a camp spot late after this, but managed to camp next to some charcoal burners at the beach in Warrington (nicer than the one near Manchester), and consequently smell of smoke this morning.

If I don't get to write before Christmas, which is highly likely here as most places are pretty remote and sheep don't subscribe to broadband, then have a great Christmas and best wishes from us both. We plan to stock up for a Christmas Day barbeque and have yet to decide where to park the camper to celebrate.

G´day and Moi

Once we had been let into Singapore, with Lou disguising a growing fever at immigration, we were on the home straight. Singapore is slick and expensive compared to everywhere else we've been - for instance the metro makes London seem very clumsy. All this meas that we paid a lot for one night in a doss house, and while Lou slept, I went to see the city. The doss house was strangely close to Lou's old company's Singapore office, which is called the batman building (pictured). The Singapore zoo night safari was excellent, including visiting the bats in their enclosure as they flew around my head. The next day I looked around the Wharf and Chinatown where I sampled some excellent pork and chestnut wantons steamed in banana leaves before heading back to take Lou to the Airport. It was a quick visit to Singapore, but but the time we left I realised I was also catching the fever, so we were greateful to have someone to stay with in Sydney.

Otso and Paula, our local Finnish hosts, had bought some tea and No Frills bread in preparation for our arrival, but hadn't bought any ear-plugs to insulate themselves against my feverous snoring. We proceded to use every ounce of tissue in their house to wipe our noses and mope around infectiously, complaining about the cold. Otso and Paula live in Newtown, South Sydney and there are plenty of bars and restaurants, so much later on Saturday we went out for a meal, which was 4 times bigger than anyone would have eaten in Asia and had more potato than I'd had in two months. Our stomachs adjusted as quick as they could and I still managed to eat most of it.


After a day of hiding indoors we went around Sydney with Paula and have some typical photos of Sydney just to prove we're really here. We still didn't really know where we'd woken up, but we planned to look around more and prove it - So far, we have taken the ferry to Manly and eaten fish and chips on the harbour whilst being called poms. Seems like Australia.