South Island Trip Photos (71 photos)

Here are some images from our trip to New Zealand's South Island. If you can't see them, try this link.


Catherine

Food - Pies, Lemon and Paeroa, Hokey Pokey Icecream

Well, what is it with New Zealand cuisine?

This is my first blog which might sound slightly critical of NZ. But well, really.

Here we are at the end of summer, in a country justly famed for it's agriculture. Just down the round there's Fruit World. Every time we drive past it, the children chant a paean to the wonders of it's wares. Great bins of fruit, four different kinds of nectarines, three kinds of peaches and melons, four varieties of apples, plums, kiwi berries, grapes, raspberries, blueberries, all grown in New Zealand. There are heaps of vegetables too, locally grown. But what do you get if you go out to a cafe? Deep fried fish (or meat) and chips. Not even a sprig of parsley. Nothing green, nothing fresh. You can't even order it as a side salad. The only vegetable option is baked beans.

Kiwis seem to be addicted to pies. At every dairy (cornershop) and cafe, pub and bar, hoardings proclaim "Pies". Great, greasy things with limp, tough pastry and minute portions of filling. In the Lifestyle section of this week's Saturday paper, there was a colour food feature on up to the minute canapes - "when you want to impress your friends, you can't go past a pie" - mini cottage pies with a pastry crust and wavy potato topping, sorry crust.

However New Zealand posses some hidden weapons for world (food) domination... L&P - too good to restrict to one small corner of the Pacific. Lemon and Paeroa is the fizzy drink of choice in our house. Coke is passe for Peter, and Felicity wants to import it to the UK in a container shipment. Hokey Pokey icecream - those crunchy toffee bits are just fab. Lisa's Kumara and Pumpkin hummus, crunchy breakfast cereals...yum yum yum.

Wish you were here?

Catherine

Back Home

We've been back in Auckland for a week now, and although we had a lovely time in our campervan, it is great to be back in a house with space. It was fantastic to explore the South Island, there are so many places we would like to go back to one day, and there are quite a few mountains to climb too.

Peter, Felicity and Adam are settling back into life at home - learning as well as playing. This is a struggle as there seem better games to play than sums and writing. Reading is now very popular with Peter as his reading book is a new Captain Underpants story. Felicity is reading anything we can borrow from the library with big print - she's a superstar! Adam prevents us getting too stuck into anything as he is still learning to use the potty. I am unutterably thrilled with his poo progress this week. Dealing with three poo accidents a day in the campervan was no joke.

They all love to use the computer. As soon as he sees it, Adam cries, "I want to go on my blog" - he loves the CBeebies Squiglet site. Felicity and Peter are only too happy to manage the mouse for him. He never wants to come off and lies across the table pushing the screen round for a better view whenever it's someone else's turn. Peter or Felicity love Google but I have learn the hard way always to be in the room when they are online. Peter found a Spiderman clip that gave Felicity and Adam nightmares and Felicity found a Barbie animation on YouTube that went right over her head.... I'm restricting them to Ask Kids or KidsClick in future.

We have got to know a few people - including a lovely local family who home school. We all enjoyed going there to play this week and I have plans to meet up with another home school family next week. Felicity is going to Pippins, the most junior branch of the Girl Guides and Peter to Keas, part of the Scout movement. They have really appreciated being with other children their age. But it is hard for me to get to know people - Mums at Keas and Pippins don't seem very friendly however I have started Aqua Aerobics which is the most fun I have ever had at an exercise class.

We're planning our next trip - to Rotorua.

Best wishes,

Catherine

Heading East

Today we have arrived in Akaroa on the east coast, which is about 80 km from Christchurch. The last few days have involved long drives through the high country in the central part of the South Island. Once more the scenery has been magnificent in scale, although we have been driving on huge alluvial plains, there has always been a mountain range either up close or visible on the horizon.

We have been reading the local papers with great interest. There are adverts for agricultural products (dietary supplements for cattle), updates on the price of sheep, and news of the latest low-key (by UK standards) misdemeanours. One letter to the editor celebrated the reaction of a couple of British tourists who, when stuck in a queue of traffic at some roadworks, were astonished that one of the workmen took time to walk along the queue offering sweets to each driver and explaining how long the wait would be. We had a similar experience without the sweets ("It'll be about ten minutes mate"). Although NZ is not without its problems, this sort of courteous behaviour does seem to be normal here, and that is worth celebrating.

Best wishes,

Richard

Milford Sound

We stayed overnight in lovely Te Anau and woke up to another beautiful hot blue sky day. We have not been waking up until 8 am as the children have such trouble going to sleep although when they do, they look so cute. It's just not the same when they wake up. We struggled to leave the campsite on time.

Our late start meant that we missed the stream of coaches and cars heading out along the Milford Road. We stopped to take a few photos on the way, but otherwise headed straight for the Sound (actually a fjord but I'm sure you knew that anyway) It was amazing to be surrounded by so many beautiful mountains, some snow capped, many unclimbed.

Richard finds the vistas endlessly absorbing, but I find that one beautiful mountain starts to look like another after a while. I need to interact with nature - walking or climbing to be in touch with the landscape.

At Milford we took a boat down the Sound. It was amazing to see Mitre Rock against a vivid blue sky - the classic view. We sailed out towards the Tasman Sea. No pengiuns or dolphins on our trip, but we did see fur seals sunning themselves on a large rock. The strong wind whipped out the spray from the falls soaking us as the boat drew near and creating curiously geometric patterns of bubbles on the water, radiating outward from the falls.

The beauty and majesty of the sound was spoilt for me by the feeling that I was on a tourism conveyor belt. Two other cruise boats preceeeded us up the sound, all on the same route. Five or six boats overate from Milford, with four sailings each per day.

We stopped on the Milford Road at Cascade Creek, a quiet campground with just a few fireplaces to use. The strong winds kept the sandflies away so we enjoyed a lovely evening surrounded by unfamiliar mountains with a beautiful sunset.