We travelled up Highway 80 today (Tuesday) and we could not have been more fortunate, as the above photo shows. No rain, no clouds, no tourists. Perfect. Well, perfect for us, but we are still very aware of the major…
TSS Earnslaw
Much of Saturday was taken up with a cruise on the Twin Screw Steamer Earnslaw, the only remaining coal-fired steamship in the Southern Hemisphere. It dates from Edwardian times and was launched in the same year as the Titanic: 1912.…
Doubtful Sound
Our trip involved a 50-minute boat ride from Manapouri across the lake to the Power Station, a 40-minute bus ride from there across Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cove, then about 3 hours cruising the sounds in another boat.…
Otago Peninsula and Dunedin Day 2
We both wanted to see Larnach’s Castle – Pip, because she has never been there before, and me because I was last there in August 1964 during a family trip to the South Island. It is essentially a Victorian Folly,…
Dunedin Day 1
After a busy few days, we had a quieter day on Sunday, with only one activity planned – a trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway. This utilises a line no longer used by Kiwirail from Dunedin to Middlemarch, a distance…
To Otago
On Saturday we headed south from Twizel through Omarama and Otematata to Oamaru and Dunedin. We saw many amazing vistas but this one was one of the most dramatic, looking down on one of the hydro lakes. South of Omarama…
Mackenzie Country
We drove from Timaru up towards Lake Tekapo. For much of this part of the journey, the land was flat – good productive land, by the look of it, with irrigation going full blast. Gradually we moved up to higher…
Timaru
A fairly low key start to the trip. We flew direct from Tauranga to Christchurch, a flight of just under two hours, picked up a rental car and drove for about two hours to our first night’s motel in Timaru.…
The Blog Strikes Back
Well, the last blog post was dated in 2017, so it has been a while. Settling back into New Zealand, then settling into a new apartment in a new city (Tauranga), then settling into what I like to think of…
Last Tango in Dublin
The last Guinness is drained, the last brandy and dry is sipped. We used our final Sunday afternoon to visit one of Dublin’s few remaining pubs with original Victorian decor, The Long Hall in South Great George’s St, which had…