The wild west

Today we have arrived at Wanaka, after a few days exploring the wild west coast of the South Island. The most memorable aspect of this part of our journey was the lush rainforest, which lived up to its name at times. On the way we have visited hot springs, crossed the watershed of the Southern Alps, camped on the fault between the Australasian and Pacific tectonic plates (well, we were about 5 m to one side of it), walked up to two glaciers (see pic), found some lovely free places to park our van overnight, and we have all been bitten numerous times by sandflies - like midges but bigger and nastier!

The campervan is small and quite confined, but we are gradually getting used to living in such a small space and the children are using an indoor voice some of the time. Poor Adam has found the darkness at night a bit scary -- it really is too dark to see your hand in front of your face so we are very sympathetic -- but Peter and Felicity are sleeping with him in the space over the driving compartment and are looking after him too.

We're planning to stay in Wanaka for a couple of days to enjoy the lake (see pic) and surrounding hills before heading back across west to see some fjords and, no doubt, to be bitten by sandflies again!

Richard.

So today is the first day of our three week expedition to explore the South Island - and it is pouring with rain! Yesterday (Thursday) we left Auckland, returned our rental car, and flew down to Christchurch. The last day or so have been very humid in Auckland, and it was good to arrive to find slightly fresher conditions. Adam weed all over me on the plane, but fortunately all the poo had arrived earlier in the day.

We picked up our camper van, which is quite a large vehicle and so is interesting to drive. We made it to our first stopping point in Christchurch without incident, and we are gradually finding somewhere for all our stuff to go. The children slept (kind of) in the large space over the cab, which was very exciting and rather noisy. Hopefully they will be tireder tonight.

Today we are off to see the Antarctic centre in Christchurch, where there are penguins. Then we are off to find a campground away from the city, hopefully with some better weather.

Over and out.

Richard

On the beach

This weekend was another holiday weekend, and we had been invited by Graeme and Barbara to join them at their bach (beach house) at Langs beach on the east coast, which is about 1.5 hours drive north from Auckland. The weather was perfect and Graeme and Barbara made us feel so welcome.

After we arrived on Friday we headed straight out to the beach (see pic), where we found some impressive surf and Catherine discovered body boarding.

Saturday and Sunday were spent at the beach, swimming, and enjoying various sand-based activities. We made a sand Adam, a Felicity trap, a working (with seawater) volcano with magma chamber, as well as lots of castles, and only incurred minor sunburn in places where there were gaps in the sunscreen.

Richard also discovered body boarding on Sunday afternoon, and can confirm that it is quite exciting hurtling towards the shore, and from time to time if it all goes pear shaped in the wave then at least your sinuses will get a good clean.

Unfortunately the surf was a bit too big for Peter and Felicity to have a go, but all three children spent some time in the water, gradually growing in confidence jumping the smaller waves and running away squealing when a larger one came along.

So, a lovely weekend -- and grateful thanks are due to Graeme and Barbara for their kind and generous hospitality. Back to Auckland late on Sunday night, and to make all you UK folk feel a little better on Monday it was a rather cloudy rainy day, though still warm.

Richard

Settling in

At long last we are getting some decent nights' sleep, and are settling into the Auckland rhythm. We've been out exploring the local rainforest (see pic), which is very different from anything we've seen in Europe. We are off up north (i.e. to the warmer bit) this weekend. It is another holiday weekend as Friday is Waitangi day, which commemorates the signing of the Waitangi treaty between the British crown and the Maori - still the subject of some dispute.

One of the things that is slightly disorientating about living here is the angle of the sun, which makes figuring out directions very difficult. The bright part of the sky is to the north, opposite to the northern hemisphere, which means I am constantly muddled about north, south, east and west - I'm sure it will be equally confusing when we come back.

The weather continues to be settled and warm, much in contrast to the UK at the moment. We've booked a flight to Christchurch on the South Island in a couple of weeks time, and hope that we can make the most of what remains of the austral summer to enjoy exploring it.

In the meantime I am having a luxurious time at work, ignoring all the emails from Sheffield and concentrating on my research. Its great, and I'm feeling more relaxed than I have for ages.

Thanks for all the comments, its nice to know that you are keeping in touch.

Richard