25 October, 2024 Our journey home yesterday came close to extending another day. We duly left Kaikoura early in the morning, travelled sedately to Picton where we caught up with family, and were aboard the Connemara in good time for the 2 pm sailing. There was a blustery, at times gale force, nor’wester, but L … More Homeward bound
23 October, 2024 Yesterday, catching up with family. Today, the start of the journey home, again on an inland route. The first part was on SH1 up to Waipara, where we turned on to SH7. This part was not new territory for us, though the last time we travelled this road it was in 2017, … More Routes 7 and 70
October 21, 2024 For the return trip north from Timaru, we again decided to give SH1 a miss, and instead chose Route 72, the inland scenic route. Good choice. Much of SH1 between Timaru and Christchurch is straight, boring, and traffic-filled. Route 72 is far less busy, at least at this time of the year, … More Travelling inland
20 October 2024 Dunedin was the furthest point south on our mini road trip, and so today we duly turned and headed back to Timaru. It was a trip of two halves. For the first part we used the same coastal route as on the way down, with the addition of the Port Chalmers leg, … More Turning point
19 October 2024 Had a great day in Dunedin. I’d forgotten what a great central city it is. Low-rise buildings that have retained their character, pedestrian friendly main street, and cycle ways — Wellington could well take a leaf out of Dunedin’s book. We also drove out to Port Chalmers and Aramoana, and finished the … More Dunedin
October 18, 2024 We left Timaru mid-morning-ish and trundled along to Dunedin, mostly on SH1 but also taking the secondary coastal roads where we could–Oamaru to Kakanui and Waianakarua, and the Coast Road through Karitane to Warrington and Seacliff. It’s a fair while since we’ve travelled south along SH1 so lots of memories rekindled. And … More Not all State Highway 1
18 October 2024 Normally a seat photo like this would have the man in the hat sitting on it, taking in the view. However L declined to join me for an evening walk last night, saying he was already an overachiever in terms of steps and didn’t feel the need to do more. Not an … More Walking back in time
17 October 2024 It was a leisurely drive to Timaru yesterday, with frequent stops along the way for coffee or a bit of a walk to stretch the legs–I’m still having a bit of back trouble. As always it was nice to be travelling along the Kaikoura coast and the North Canterbury hill country. We … More Measured in coffee stops
October 15, 2024 It’s not a road trip without a road shot or several. So here we are, somewhere on SHI between Blenheim and Kaikoura. This section of road gets me every time. I love the hills from Blenheim and the coast along to Kaikoura. And every time I take way too many photos through … More Heading south again
It’s been a long time in the making, but I’ve finally finished a pared back version of our South Island road trip blog in the form of an online photo journal. Now all I need to do is make sure it shows up under the Travel tab (Travel|Travels pre-2020) as well as on the blog. … More Blog to Book: Revisiting our SIRT blog
November 19, 2023 Yesterday we came home. According to Google the whole nine yards from New Plymouth to Carterton should take 4 hours and 25 minutes via State Highway 3, or 5 hours and 10 minutes via State Highways 3 and 1. We took seven hours, and I am not sure exactly where we went … More Rules
17 November, 2023 It was raining when we woke up this morning, but that didn’t spoil the day. Started with breakfast at Chaos (our new favourite cafe), and then straight to the Govett Brewster in time for the 11.30 showing of the Len Lye kinetic sculpture Storm. Seeing the current Len Lye installations was a … More From Len Lye to Tupare
November 17, 2023 Well, it is raining today. Not unexpected. If anything, we thought the rain would set in yesterday. It was a good choice to do gardens yesterday and to leave the gallery until today. I can’t recall ever having described gardens as a good choice, but there you go. Describing gardens as a … More Gardens . . . and Len Lye
November 16, 2023 We visited two amazing gardens today, Pukeiti and Pukekura Park. These are big-scale gardens, more akin to botanic gardens, or a New Zealand twist on the grand landscape gardens of England, than the modest suburban gardens I’m used to. Pukeiti is a rhododendron garden set amid acres of temperate rainforest. I had … More Rainforest to rhododendrons
November 16, 2023 On the road again. Feels quite good, though as with the last trip the travel time, each day, is limited to three hours. I don’t enjoy driving as much as I used to. I guess somewhere along the way I got older. I particularly don’t like driving in traffic. I think the … More Small coastal cities
The last time we were in New Plymouth, just before the first Covid lockdown, we were entranced by the Len Lye kinetic sculptures at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery. So when we wanted a short week-day getaway in the limbo time of waiting for possession date for our new home, we decided to check out … More Highway 3 to New Plymouth
November 14, 2023 So here we are, on the road again. This time a short week day getaway to New Plymouth. But still within our self-imposed slow travel restrictions of two to three hours on the road on any one day. This is not an absolute rule, but one we have adopted to ensure we … More On the road again
October 24, 2023 We arrived home today to find the garden largely as it was when we left. Cuttings have survived. The troughs were filled with water, so clearly there’d been rain, but not enough, or not sitting long enough, for the roots to rot. I’m happy. The passion fruit vine, though, has clearly been … More Garden survival
October 23, 2023 I won’t say we saved the best till last, because that’s not true. But L did have a little surprise for the final stage of our Top of the South road trip. We had a leisurely start to the day, with a coffee and croissant at Flo & Co. Kaikoura was looking … More Scenic last leg
October 22, 2023 Notwithstanding that I’ve been a bit lax on the blogging these past few days, I’m not referring here to catching up with postings, but rather to catching up with family and friends. First of all, it was a couple nof days in Timary, refreshng our memories of places from back in the … More Catching up
October 10, 2023 J told me I need to up my game. She said my writing goes from fringe to lunatic and she says I need to go in the other direction from fringe. She said a bit of fringe is fine; however as this is a travel blog, would I please do some travel … More On the road
18 October, 2023 I wish I hadn’t written about the head-landing seagull. J read it and now I can’t look at her. Every time I do she laughs like a drain. Guffaws even. Women do not have any idea how threatening men find guffawing women. And she has taken to calling me Perch. I just … More Perch?
17 October 2017 Yesterday we had some navigation woes. I’d forgotten how inept we can be. The first mishap wasn’t, strickly speaking, navigational. Rather it was just plain duh (you can provide your own appropriate adjectives). All went smoothly for the bulk of the journey from Kaikoura , with a couple of stops along the … More Navigation 101: Fail
October 15, 2023 Lost one, won one . . . and that doesn’t include the Silver Ferns v the Diamonds in the second game of the Constellation Cup series — which at time of writing has not yet been played. But yay for the ABs, that’s all I can say. That game this morning – … More One lost, one won
October 15, 2023 I am about to write about seagulls, but it will have to wait a few moments while I do some further stuff about Flak Too (the speedboat). I have been trying to figure out the name and I have come to the following conclusion. It has to do with rooster tails. These … More Syd’s here … somewhere
October 14, 2023 We completed our circuit of the top of the South today – it started with Picton to Blenheim via Highway 6 to Nelson, where we stayed a few days and ventured over the Takaka Hill to Wharariki; then continued today, back along Highway 60 through St Arnauds and the Wairau Valley. There … More Full circle
October 13, 2023 A city day today, although it involved a decent amount of walking, and not all of it on urban pavements – our chosen destination for the day was a walk up the Centre of New Zealand. Just to be clear, this is the name of a hill in central Nelson, not a … More City walking
October 13, 2023 Amazing day yesterday. A long day. Breakfast in Motueka, over the Takaka Hill and an ice cream at Collingwood. On to Puponga and Wharariki to see the rock made famous to the world by Google but to us by L’s Mum, who grew up in the area. Her dad, L’s Pop, was … More Blowing away the cobwebs
October 12, 2023 Well, here we are, at the pointy end of the electoral cycle. The debates include boot camps, penalising beneficiaries for their reluctance to work, and claims that poverty will be solved by tax relief for the squeezed middle. In addition, at least one political party is advocating reform of gun laws that … More Wharariki
October 12, 2023 We boarded the Strait Feronia soon after lunch on Tuesday. Both the Tangaroa and the Ikaroa (NIWA ships) were just along the wharf, and it gave me a buzz to see them. Both are ships I have been to sea on. However, these are yesteryear memories. Cook Strait ferry trips never … More On the ferry again
October 11, 2023 We’re in Nelson, bunking down in backpackers’ accommodation. Takes us back a bit. As does Nelson itself, as L revisited places of his boyhood. The house where he grew up in the Wood is now gone, but two doors along the house of his grandparents still stands, in mint condition, architecturally unchanged. … More Going back in time
11 October 2023 So, yesterday was F day. You can choose whatever word you like for that to describe your day, but for us it stands for ‘farewell’ — we’re off overseas for a fortnight. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, I know. We were off over Cook Strait for a couple of weeks … More Off overseas
9 October, 2023 We’re off tomorrow for a fortnight of slow travel in the South Island. The idea originally was to ride the trains, Picton to Christchurch, Christchurch to Greymouth, with buses filling in the bits at the ends. But for various reasons, it all got too complicated (and expensive) so we decided on a … More Slow travel
June 23, 2023 . . . and don’t spare the horses. Well that was the saying in our household back in the day. And heading home it was for us yesterday, another long day on the train. I was less compelled to take photos from the train window on this trip. In fact, even though … More Home James . . .
June 21, 2023 For today, the last day of our Auckland getaway, we planned to take it easy. Sadly, I forgot how much walking is involved with shopping. So another day where we arrived back at our accommodation shuffling. Still, it was a great day, not least because it included a train trip, completing the … More In search of the perfect bag
June 20, 2023 Every night since we’ve been here, the weather forecast has not been promising. But every day bar one, we’ve had fine weather. And even the one day it rained while we were out and about, it was a short shower only, and no drop in temperature. The trend continued today. In fact, … More Island in the sun
June 19, 2023 Yes, no ferries today. Instead a walk in the park. Plus a bit of pavement pounding. We started the day with a coffee and croissant in a cafe (1920s Cafe) and finished at a bar (the Brit). In between we walked … and walked … and walked. So much so I’m exhausted. … More A walk in the park
June 19, 2023 I’ve been having photo woes on this trip. In the interests of travelling light, I decided not to bring my camera but use my phone camera instead. This has led to a new refrain of ‘Well, that would have made good photo’, to add to my usual one of ‘I just don’t … More From the train
June 18, 2023 Today’s little jaunt was to Hobsonville Point, a 30 minute ferry ride to the new suburb at the former airforce base. Not a particularly early up and away today; we were both feeling the effects of yesterday’s outing. For our first coffee of the morning, we went back to Espresso Workshop in … More Another day, another ferry
June 17, 2023 The day started out fine, and we started out with a coffee and pain au chocolat at a Britomart cafe, maybe 10 minutes walk from our accommodation. After getting our Hop cards — needed to use our gold cards for free transport — we headed for Devonport. This was as much to … More Bob and Dottie go to Devonport
June 16, 2023 The clock says it all. Checked in and on board by 7.20 am, and 12 hours later, almost to the minute, we arrived at Auckland Strand station. Long, yes, but boring, no. If it had been long distance air travel, it would have been punishing, but on the Northern Explorer — a … More Northern Explorer
June 6, 2023 Well. It’s nearly nine months since I posted anything. So long that I’ve almost forgotten how to do it. But here we are, finally back into writing. There’s been no particular reason for the absence other than lack of motivation. Even my garden blog has suffered, though I’ve managed a few more … More Moving on
September 24, 2022 It seems an age ago now, our travels across Canada, down to New York and back across the States to San Francisco, all by train. It was back in 2015, and at the time we fully intended to do the trip again, or at least the Canada part, in reverse order and … More Remembering when …
April 18, 2022 Easter Monday, and what better way to spend it than a trip to Castlepoint. No particular reason other than it is a great place to visit, whatever the time of year. Today it was fine and warm (17 degrees) but extremely windy. There has been some big weather recently which has taken … More Castlepoint
Here we are again, in full Level 4 lockdown as a result of a community outbreak of the delta variant of Covid-19. Most of the current 51 cases are in the Auckland region, but there are also, worringly, five in the Wellington region. The good news is that those investigated so far have a genomic … More Retrospectively . . .
Off Highway One 