We have had an eventful few days. We are moving pretty fast, not spending as much time in each place. Today we drove from just north of Queenstown to the Franz Joseph Glacier on the west coast. We started the day driving along plains and then we went up through a mountain pass, drove along a stunning lake and then headed to the coast. It was a gradual transition but pretty soon we were in the mountains.

There were streams tumbling down the slopes with rivers which are still fed from melting snow in the high mountains. We went up and over and then all of a sudden there was the Tasman Sea with sand dunes along the water. The road led us a little bit inland and then we were in glacier country. We passed the Fox Glacier where 2 people were killed the other day and then we stopped at Franz Joseph Glacier, which is also the name of the town we are in. The place is filled with mountain adventure companies, offering sight seeing tours, heli-skiing, river jet boat adventures and glacier tours.


We walked up to view the Franz Joseph Glacier which is apparently one of the world’s only glacier’s that ends in a temperate rain forest, quite unique. It doesn’t have a patch on the Columbia Ice Fields or the glaciers we have seen in the Yukon, although I must say there wasn’t a temperate rain forest anywhere close to the ones I have just mentioned.
We stopped in Queenstown to find a place to stay and happened on a rugby game.
It was a pub charity event so the games were really short. I buttonholed a friendly Kiwi and figured out most of the rules. It was a beautiful day, beer, rugby, sun and gorgeous mountains just seemed to be a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. While we were in Invercargill we stopped at a museum and we got to see an exhibit on the World’s Fastest Indian and the life of Burt Munro. If you haven’t seen that movie it is well worth watching.
We are going to head further north tomorrow, perhaps getting to Nelson where we hope to visit with some friends.

We drove to Dunedin, it was surprisingly like driving across the prairies, except once in awhile you would see the ocean. The area we were crossing was the Canterbury Plains, with the grassy flat plains reaching right out to the Pacific Ocean. As we got closer to Dunedin the hills reappeared and it we were in the foothills. The harbour at Dunedin is very protected and the city has a beautiful setting. Once we had found a motel room we set out to visit the railway station. It was absolutely stunning. There were very small tiles set in intricate patterns throughout the lobby floor as well as stained glass windows, wrought iron railings and a beautiful circular wooden staircase. The outside had fabulous granite pillars, as well as beautiful white and black rocks shaped into an outstanding clock tower, a truly magnificent building.
We headed to the Cadbury Chocolate factory to try and get a tour but it was too late in the day. I guess the secret of how they get the caramilk in the Caramilk Bar will still be a mystery to me.
Bright and early the next day we headed off to the Royal Albatross Centre. There we were given a half hour informative lecture about the albatross and then taken up to the viewing platform. From inside the building we were treated to a wonderful display of flying by about 5 your albatrosses. There were 3 faithful fathers sitting on their nests and we had been guaranteed we would see these but the 5 young guys were an added bonus. Some people do not get to see any birds flying and these characters soared around in the air for most of the time we were there. It was fantastic. You could see them moving their feet about at slow speeds and when coming in for a landing. They have more joints in their wings than most other birds, so they have a wonderful shape to them. We had fun trying to capture them on film. I got a pretty decent video and we got some great pictures of half of an albatross. We all agreed that this was pretty much the highlight of our trip.

We headed back to the train station and went on a four hour train ride up the Tieria Gorge. The scenery was superb, there were about 8 tunnels and 6 viaducts on the rail line that was constructed by hand with pick and shovel in the 1880’s and 90’s. We relaxed and had Devonshire Tea and watched the scenery unfold as we clicked shutter after shutter on our cameras. Aren’t digital cameras wonderful!!
When we got back to town Mom took us out to a celebratory dinner as it would be our last evening. We saw her off at the Dunedin Airport at noon today after we went to the world’s steepest street and she should be winging her way east across the Pacific, after landing in Christchurch before heading to Auckland. I hope she manages to get some rest on the way home.

Barry and I continued on our way south. We are now in Invercargill the home of the World’s Fastest Indian. On our way here we drove the scenic route; we stopped to visit a lighthouse, a waterfall and the most southern point on the South Island. Once again we were treated to some fantastic scenery and I loved the sign that was posted at Slope Point. I had not realized we were as far as 46 degrees South.
We are once again touring on a cruisers budget so instead of a snazzy motel with beds, a sitting area and kitchen complete with fridge, microwave, stove, dishes and utensils we are in a backpackers room which just has a bed and some end tables. We use a communal bathroom and there are no towels. Well at least there are sheets. Not sure what we will do tomorrow but we will head from here to Queenstown and then up the west coast. There should be some more great scenery as head through the mountains.

We had a great look around Christchurch. Yesterday we headed over to the Antarctic Exhibition and learned all about the southern continent. It was very educational and interesting. We got to ride on the vehicles they use down there and went through water that was deeper than the vehicle. I thought we would just go along the bottom but the vehicle floated. The driver could maneuver the tracks in the water and the tracks propelled us through the pond.
We saw them feeding the penguins and learned a great deal about them. A bunch of penguins in the water is called a raft and penguins drink salt water and filter out the salt and then sneeze it out. Fish in Antarctica would normally freeze because the water temp. is below the temp of their body but they have enzymes in their blood that allows their blood to flow at minus 2 degrees Celsius (crazy). Mom and I went in a room to experience a snow storm in the Antarctic, once we were in there we wondered what the heck we were doing. Mom figured that she was just getting reacclimatized for Winnipeg on Sunday!!!. I wish I could have convinced Barry to come in because he may have figured that cruising isn't such a bad lifestyle after all.
Today we cultured ourselves. We hit a number of museums and strolled around an arty area that had a number of craftsman shops were you could speak to the artists and buy their wares. Mom had a great time in the quilting, weaving studios and I cruised the potters and jewellery making spots. I manage to resist a $7,900 sculpture of an albatross as well as a gorgeous red wool stole but could not resist a sweater made from possum's wool that was $100.00 off. It will be my NZ souvenir, it should keep me warm in Yellowknife next winter (maybe the waiting list for hips will be very short in the NWT and we will be back by this time next year).
The architecture in Christchurch is magnificent, we visited the Christchurch Cathedral as well as Christ's College. We did not go punting on the Avon although that would have been a great choice today as it is 30 degrees outside. We are planning on attending a Joan Crawford movie on at the Art Museum tonight. Hope all is well at home.
These are some sandstone formations we saw just north of Christchurch. We drove to Gore Bay which apparently is a surfing mecca. Could imagine Trish & Graeme enjoying themselves in this spot.

As promised the Haka picture. Need you ask if we are having fun yet!!!

I actually loved Wellington, or at least the parts we saw. It is situated around a beautiful harbour on the side of a hill. There is a public walkway around the harbour and there are museums, restaurants and theatres all along the path, as well as sailboats and working ferry terminals it is a major port as well. The day we were there was sunny and I could spend the rest of my life there.
We did the tourist thing and took the Wellington Cable Car up to the top of hill. It was a great view from up there. There was a botanical garden there on the hill. You had to walk down the hill to see it though and we had bought a return ticket and Barry did not want to walk down so we said we would meet him at the top. That meant that we had to walk back up the hill, quite a steep climb and challenging for Mom. I had to stop occaisionly so she would and we made it without too much stress. Good thing I have been walking up that huge hill in Opua for 3 weeks.

Check out the waves, the wind was just howling as we crossed Cook Strait. This point in the southern tip of the North Island. Apparently this was a good day to go across, the wind was only 30 knots!!
When we got off the ferry in Picton we took a drive up Queen Charlotte Sound, the scenery was fantastic. I will have to see if I can convince Barry to bring the boat down here.
The further south we went on the South Island the dryer it got. It felt like we were in the interior of B.C. around Kelowna. This is wine country, with Mom not drinking because of her medications and Barry driving we did not stop at any of the wineries.
Salt being extracted from sea water in giant ponds. Don't you just love the colour of the water.

We are about 150 km north of Christchurch. On the agenda tomorrow is going to the Museum of the Antarctic. We have perhaps the worst room we have gotten yet, carpets are worn, chairs have rips in seats and the bathroom had toothpaste on the sink!! Wonder if they changed the sheets??? Oh well, there is a gorgeous view out the sliding doors, mountains with snow on them. I think it has been since May 2007 that I have seen snow!!!

We are in Wellington, NZ at the bottom of the North Island. WE had a great day yesterday at the volcanic area. WE saw gysers, and bubbling mud and there was a Maori presentation. We also saw some live kiwi birds in their habitat as well as a carving and weaving demonstration. It was pretty pricey but we got a 45 min. cultural presentation and then a 90 minute guided tour of the facility. I left with some mud for putting on my face. Last night Mom and I did a mud facemask and then did our impression of the Haka for the camera, lots of fun. I have pics. that I will upload later.
Today we just drove all the way to Wellington, we stopped and saw one set of falls and then Barry stopped at the National Trout Research Centre. They had the biggest rainbow trout I have ever seen just lazing about in the stream there. They started the hatchery in the 1950's, I thought that was pretty far sighted of them.
We also drove across a desert, at altitude. There were no trees, lots of sand, but it did rain the whole way across. We drove into the quay in Wellington before finding a motel. It looks like a wonderful spot to explore.
Mom is going to fly from Dunedin to Auckland on the way home so we don't have to hurry back. The ferry ride return from North to South Island in over $600 so we decided we would stay a bit longer and visit some friends. The trip is too expensive to do twice. All is well hope everyone at home is doing fine.

I wrote a blog all about our adventures sailing from Opua to Whangarei. It is on the other computer and we are now traveling and I did not get to upload it before I left. Suffice it to say Mom is not cut out to be a sailor, stay tuned for more details.
We left Whangarei on Dec 30 and our trusty little car has been hanging in their as we torture it on the windy NZ roads. Kiwis love to go boating over the Christmas holidays.

The first day of our tour we headed to Auckland to go up the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, the Sky Tower.

On the way, we stopped at Sheepworld, when you visit New Zealand you need to stop at Sheepworld. They had an animal farm and then there was the sheep herding demonstration. There were 3 dogs that took turns showing their stuff and then a little 9 week old puppy rounded up the sheep, that was very impressive. There was a demonstration on how to shear a sheep, it was a pretty big one and the guy had a little trouble controlling it but at the end he tickled it under it’s ear and the sheep just lay there.
The Sky Tower was very tall, we were in downtown Auckland, we had a great view of the whole Auckland Harbour and parts of Haraki Gulf where the America’s Cup was raced. It was fun watching people get ready to jump off the tower, you would never catch me doing that.
We headed up the Cormandel Pennisula the next day. We took a tour of a gold mine that was started in the 1870’s. They had a working stamper battery that would crush the gold. It was a great tour and the best bang for our tourist bucks yet. We headed further up the peninsula and stopped at the butterfly and orchard house. The colours on the butterflys were amazing. We drove across the top of the peninsula and went to the Hot Water Beach. At the beach the volcanic water seeps up to the surface. It is really hot, we dug our feet into the water and I almost burnt the tops of my feet. It was New Years Eve and there were tons of people on the beach. They had shovels and dug holes in the sand and then they would sit in the hot water. After, I headed towards Cathedral Cove, one of the most scenic spots on the coast. It was quite a climb up and down.

Today we drove from the peninsula to Rotarua, which is the area where there is lots of volcanic activity. On the way we stopped at an open pit gold mine at a town called Whahai. The pit opened in about 1875 an it closed down in 1952. The Rotarua area is known for its hot springs, geysers and bubbling mud baths. We went to the museum that used to be a famous bath house in the 1900’s. People used to come there to take the cure. They also had a great display about the volcano that devastated this area in 1886. It was rather fascinating to look at pictures of what happened. Tomorrow we are going to stay here and check out the hot springs. I am trying to convince Barry that a mud bath would do his hip a world of good but he refuses to even consider the idea. Mom and I are planning so quality time in the hot springs. We will head to the bottom of the North Island and visit Wellington. We have a reservation to cross by ferry to the South Island on Jan 5. We hope to make it as far south as Dunedin, Mom leaves from Auckland on Jan. 10. The bath house in Rotarua.

Mom has arrived safe and sound. She was pretty tired as she was unable to sleep on the 12 hour flight. We didn't do much the day she arrived but have been touring around ever since. The day after she arrived we went to Russel and visited the oldest chuch in New Zealand as well as an old Caltheolic tannerty and printing shop. That was pretty interesting, they had a guide that demonstrated how to set type and print a page in very old printing press.

Yesterday we took a bus tour up to the very northern tip of New Zealand. We drove along 90 mile beach, the bus zooming along the beach as the tide was coming in. There were spots where fresh water streams emptied into the water and the bus would slow down and then plow across the water. I am glad we did not decide to take the car up there as I do not think Barry would have attempted some of the spots the bus went carooming by. At one point there were a couple of car skeletons that had gotten stuck in the sand on the beach and they were still there.

At the end of the beach we drove up one of the rivers and then we stopped and went sand tobaganning. The sand dune was really steep and I was a bit worried about flying down the hill. If it had been snow you would have been out of control going down the hill but the sand had enough friction that the sled did not go too fast and I had so much fun I climbed the hill twice.
We headed up to the northern tip of the country from there. There was a path down to the lighthouse there and you could see where the waters from the Tasman Sea collided with the Pacific Ocean. There was alot of upheaval and current in the water and I would not want to get my boat anywhere near there!!
We stopped off at several beaches and view points after that and ended the day at a shop where they made furniture and carvings from Kauri wood. These trees were logged extensively at the beginning of the centure so the wood they are using now has been found in swamp land that has been drained. The wood is as old as 45,000 years old. It is lovely strong wood that was used in ship building and making spars for masts, there are few knots in it due to the way it grows. There was a table and 6 chairs for $20,000 NZD!!!!!!! I would have to buy quite the house to put that in.
Today we are planning to go and look at the one of the oldest building in New Zealand as well as a waterfall and the mission buildings.

Bold Spirit in the sunset. We were within VHF range for 7 out of the 10 days so we had someone to talk to and they could report our position to the Ham net we were following.

Sunset near the Tropic of Capricorn




Repairing the radar, notice the fishing tape around my arm. I must have shoved that thing up and down the mast about 10 times before it finally worked.


My morning walking buddies.


Hilly, hilly New Zealand.



Saturday afternoon saling for the juniors at the Opua Crusing Club. They take their sailing seriously.



We went to a Santa Clause parade in Kawakawa about 20 minutes away. This train is a big tourist attraction.




Santa New Zealand style.




We bought a little car to get us around. It is a Daihatsu, a Japanese car and it is called an Applause. It is a 1995 and it has 200,050 km on it, but it seems in pretty good shape. We only paid $1000 NZ Dollars which we figure is about $750 Canadian, a pretty good deal I figure. And yes I am sitting on the correct side of the car. Whenever I am driving I have to think, outside shoulder to the middle of the road, so far it has worked, but sometimes I really have to think about it!!!

Hi there, I have been having a break from the blog. I have just not had the energy to do much of anything since we arrived. Our passage was a pretty good one as crossings of that stretch of water go. Reading the log entries, we had a bit of everything. We had calm winds and seas where we motored and then we had seas we had to beat into where the boat was bashing to weather. At those times it was hard to sleep because it felt like the boat was going to come apart it was smashing into the waves so hard. The calms and the bashing bits seemed to alternate quite nicely though so we were given time to recover from the bad bits during the quiet times. The last day and a half the wind moved around to the north and we had the wind behind us blowing us into New Zealand. We were in short sleeves and shorts enjoying the sunshine as we sailed into the Bay of Islands. It was a marvelous way to end our trip.
We were very happy to arrive, it was a huge relief after all the horror stories we had heard about sailing here. It took me about a week to get my head around the fact that we were here and that we had to figure out what to do now. Everyone kept asking what are your plans and where are you going and when??? I just wanted to tell them to quit asking me questions and when I had anything figured out I would let them know. Barry has been very busy getting repairs done to the boat, he knew what he had to do and I just watched him do it.
The marina had a welcome to cruisers week the first week we were here. There was an open house at the chandlery and the sail loft as well as a bus trip to Whangarei. We ordered a new genoa and got a bit of a discount at the sail loft and took the bus trip to Whangarei, which is another port south of here where we going to leave the boat when we go touring with Mom. New Zealand is very hilly, the roads are extremely windy and narrow and there is something different around every corner. The hills are grassy and have sheep or cattle grazing, most of the land is fenced as well. We are staying at the Opua Marina and have a slip here for a month. It is nice to just be able to step off the boat and access all the businesses that cater to boat repairs. The only trouble is that it doesn’t have much else. There is no grocery store, only a small convenience store, one restaurant and one coffee shop.
Our buddies on Taran have bought a car and they have very generously taken us shopping a couple of times. The other day they were going to a bigger town near here and we went along. We replaced our camera which was one it’s last legs after being smooshed when I fell on it in Apia and I finally replaced the sheets the laundry lady in the Marquesas lost. I got my glasses adjusted so they no longer drop off my nose as soon as I look down and Barry got a new pair of fake crocs after he discovered a hole in the pair he has been traipsing about in.
Barry has been working away at all the small jobs that need to be done in order to get the boat back into shape. He has packaged up the ham radio to send it back to Canada to get it repaired under warranty. I spent about five hours hanging half way up the mast trying to string the new cable for the radar. We finally got it done and the electrical guy is in the boat at the moment trying to connect it and then Hallelujah we might have a working radar again!!! (If you want details ask me when you see me, I can’t believe how much work it was.) Barry took the water maker out today and took it in to see if they can repair a small leak which it had developed. I made a huge list when we were under way so I guess we need to look at it to see what else we need to do. Barry was going to put a replacement part in the head yesterday to stop it from flooding and when he went to turn off the sea water inlet the inlet flange broke, so we no longer have a head that works. Good thing there is a small washroom that is fairly close. The plumber is supposed to arrive today to have a look at that; I sure hope he shows up. That is our life so far, I will try to keep more up to date.