Kaikoura means seafood

.... literally ... this gem of a coastal town translates from Maori .... Kai .... food ... koura ... cray fish (sweeter version of our lobster sold at similar premium price). Kiwi's seem to acknowledge aboriginal people (Maori) both historically (many key towns and villages retain original Maori name) and politically (Maori are increasingly well represented in government). Land claim problems are similar to those in Canada though. There is no Norman Rockwell picture perfect relations here.



We spent Mikaela's birthday "stamping" out to the cape and back with a stop at a fancy seafood restaurant for a birthday toast and some great grub. Everyone except Mitchell ended up with a "gift" ... I with an oilskin jacket, Karen with sheepskin slippers and a ring, Mikaela with NZ Uggs (big boots) and a ring. This is the first major "mail" being sent on from us to Canada.



Our nomadic RV days are grinding to a halt ... just like me downshifting and double clutching and missing second gear again at the local roundabout (cool version of intersection widely employed down under).

G2G to email and Google maps ... we need a house or apartment in Auckland area pronto and have nothing secured so far.

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Extreme Play

Our camp is just meters from downtown Queenston shops, supermarket and about 500 tour companies offering everything from kayak rentals to rent-a-Harley to "shot oven canyon swing". Karen and I toured the town by foot. Kiwis don't seem to like regular coffee ... everyone drinks cappuccinos. Even the bad coffee found in gas stations is limited to bad cappuccinos brewed from a magic coffee machine that does lattes and hot chocolate etc. This is a true tourist town at the height of high season ... 2 cap coffees is $9.00 and a nice NZ souvenir T shirt is $50. Upgrade to Billabong takes price to $75.00 ... for a T shirt.




Any who, we all had a great day at the top of the town ... we all rode up the gondola and then zipped back down on the luge race track. Back up again M+M steeled their resolve and successfully lept off the "Ledge" bungy ... 400 M above the lights of the city. Mitchell even managed a running swan dive.



Next they braved the sky swing challenge with Mikaela getting a bonus run to to a faulty video recorder (pre paid so they needed a second shot ... dang!) Bert decided to descend down the mountain via tandem para sail ... a first for me and a thrill too ... now that I am a 'senior' member of the Queenston extreme sport club.



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Lord of the Rings Tour

Whoa .... WOW .... what the?? is that Frodo I see climbing around up there? Drive from Franz Joseph to Queenston is unbelievably beautiful. Majestic glaciers followed by sea side vistas followed by narrow mountain passes followed by lush valleys dotted with vineyards followed by a spectacular gourge here and a scraggy hill there ... vaulting up from nowhere (surely must be Peter Jackson's preferred shoot for Lord of the Rings) So much to see ... we are beginning to regret that our south island tour has a 14 day limit. We are now in Queenston which is a major tourist mecca .... camping within walking distance of tours to WW rafting, para sailing, canyon jet boating, bungy bridge dive, alpine choppers, wine tour Lord of the Rings tour etc etc ... and all free of charge .... NOT!



It's great to be in NZ in February ... cool nights (alpine country) and highs in the mid 20's. Fruit stands are everywhere with cherries, plums and nectarines coming in fresh off the trees. Yum!

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Rain Forest Glacier

Travelled south today along the west coast of NZ's south island ... Westport to Franz Joseph village. 250 kms took us pretty much all day ... mucho buena vistas and more "highway" driving that seemed more like clinging white knuckled to the side of the precipe than cruising the country side. We were rewarded at days end with a caravan park nestled in what looks like a rain-forest at the base of glacier encrusted mountains. Weird juxtaposition of geography. Tomorrow we head over the Southern Alps ...400kms towards Queenston. Tonight it's scrabble and surfing (the net not the ocean).



Mikaela (chronic poor speller) SMS to Sophie: " I can't believe a beat my mom at scrable tonight."
Sophie (smartest kid in grade 6): "You spelled Scrabble wrong."

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Buller Gourge NZ

Picked up our new buggie at the depot near the airport at Auckland. I call it the mini bun bus. It's a turbo diesel ... kinda gutless but it sort of doesn't matter. Roads here are twisty and traverse mountain ranges seemingly every 100km. Posted speed limits here seem to me to be more of a dare than a limit ... kinda like " I dare you to get that rig up to 90 kms over the next bit ..." Kiwis have interesting bill boards reminding drivers about speed (eg dead guy with toe tag in the morge "Speeding ticket" or "Listen mate ... sorry you are not an A1 driver ... SLOW DOWN") Of course these don't apply to me cause everyone knows the I am an A1 driver.



Made it down to South Island in one day. We had heard about 10M seas in the straight and Karen was popping gravol early this am. Turned out to be calm all 3.5 hrs at sea. We followed Buller's river for 150km through and over and back again along the gourge towards the west coast. Incredible scenery. Excitement enhanced by the mystery of whether or not we would survive the day careening down the narrow highways shared with campers and trucks and Mario Andretti wannabes in slammed El Camino type vehicles that are everywhere down here.

We made a stop at NZ's longest swing bridge across the gourge, M+M enjoyed zip line ride (double harness) back across. Karen and I are liking the "self contained" facilities in the new bus. This one even comes with hot water shower and DVD / TV. Thank God for the video ... cause I was getting desparate for "Dallas" reruns and catching up on the latest Cricket tests. Tommorow likely heading down west coast towards Queenston and bungy jump madness. Still no Tim Horton's in sight anywhere ... still settlling for instant decaf with Baileys. Life (and the instant coffee) is good.



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Town and (what a) Country!

Australia was wonderful. Australia is great ... in every sense of the word. On the advice of new found friends (thanks Barry, Jane, Brendan, Claire and Melanie) we finished our stay with a bit of Town and Country.

Country first ... we left the coast for west Sydney and the Blue Mountains ... play ground of the city folk much like Muskoka is for Toronto. Due to a persistent drenching rain that drought stricken NSW desparately needed, we decided to visit Jenolan caves. World heritage sight and destination for travellers for generations, these caves have to be seen to be believed. Majesty does not translate through my words. According to Michell they are "sick". Mikaela said "awesome". Enough said. Go there someday if you ever get down under.








Next we saw "the town" ... mostly the harbour and central business district of Sydney. Took a ferry cruise to Manly wharf and trundled around the opera house and the backdrop for Sydney 2000 games. Sail boats were out in full regatta ... so I was happy and now want to move here! Loved everything about Oz except for the the prices in peak season ... this blog courtesy of $27. / hour broadband and 2 rooms required (thankyou very much) for family of four to stay near to airport in prep for take off to New Zealand tomorrow at 0700.

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Flora, Fauna and her Mate named Bonny

Finally back online after a 3 day hiatus. We have travelled up the coast as far as Coff's Harbour, about one quarter the distance to our target destination (Whitsunday Islands) ... and ... were done! We have relied on local advice for the majority of our destination decisions and relented to the overiding consensus that our original plan for driving was too aggressive for the time we have in Australia. Our experience has been that any right turn heading north on the pacific highway uncovers spectacular beaches and well appointed camp / resorts. We have been dodging bad weather bullets, apparently. our entire visit and the prospect of flooded roads and monsoon rains further north has us turning back south headed for another few days in our favourite spot so far at Bonny Hills.



Sand is so clean and fine on the beaches here it literally squeaks. The closest comparison I can think of for in the Canadian context is the way snow squeaks when walking on it at minus 40. Brrrrrr ..... banish the thought.... cooler weather is moving in here tomorrow down from 29 to 28 ...



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Well I'll be stuffed ...more yabber from Oz

Leaving Sydney in the caravan was bonkers. Sheila (me mate) was certain we'd be in a bingle if I didn't keep more centre than left. I kept say'n "apples she'll be" but she'd have none of it. When she saw I was getting on fine she smiled and said "you're a right bastard". I smiled back and said "love you too" sheila. Now that we're on the coast everything is bonzer. Couldn't believe all the ankle biters with boogie boards runnin about the camp. I asked if I could try and the one wee lad said "How ya goin, mate... sure, give it a go ... but from the look of ya, I'd say you're a shark biscuit... right?" I said "right mate ... better not try to be a show pony for the sheilas today."



We were up early only to be confronted by a dingo's breakfast. Oh well, headed out hungry but met another early riser, a greenie with good oil about koala sightings. Her mate said she had a kangaroo loose in the top paddock ... koalas are almost never seen in this camp ... certainly not in the 12 years he'd been coming. Turns out the bloke was a knocker ... a group of us stood gobsmacked under the calypso watching koala fill his boots up in the canopy. The same greenie said that if we went up the lane tonight at dusk it would be London to a brick that we'd see roos out grazing the paddock. Spent much of the day down at the surf. Watching the locals and taking advice from the nipper we stayed between the flags .... powerful rip tides. No worries though, worst that happened was a bum burned ankle biter (Mikaela). We had to head out to the chemist for some aloe. But overall we were quite stoked about our first day of R and R in Oz. Finished up with some snags I stirred up on the barby. Just now I'm into the amber fluid ... picked up a slab at the grocers today. Life is good and so is the weather ... 28 with sun and surf and cloud thank God.

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Touch Down in Sydney

Crazy start to our visit down under.... navigating a large vehicle through narrown lanes through Sydney (twice due to wrong turns) and driving on the left for the first time. I don't think the town has a single straight road and signage is not worth a kangaroo carcass. We finally got out to the coast and put some KMs heading north ... an am looking forward to putting our feet up after the long flight in from San Francisco and are taking a couple of days to recharge on a beautiful beach camp resort near Fort Macquarie.



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California Cruisin Hwy 1 to Big Sur

Our second day in San Francisco was spent much like the first ... cruising around in the van ... this time due more to the fact that I always wanted to drive down Pacific Hwy 1 to Big Sur than to bad weather. We were all really thrilled with the drive ... spectacular winding roads and sweeping views of the crashing surf below. Big Sur ... Big Surf .... for sure!

United 563 out of San Fran is a good way to go to Sydney it turns out ... leave late at night ... so most go to sleep (bring your own sleepeze) then watch a movie .... have a nice breakfast and land in Sydney the next morning (having skipped a day in the process) .... we were all grateful that we got 6-7 hours sleep which is 6 hours more than I thought I'd get.

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Really Gone!

Not without the requisite number of last minute itinerary curveballs, a cornucopia of loose ends to tie up and a small dash of international travel angst, we finally pulled the trigger and blasted off on our world tour. We left in such a rush we didn't even hear the (literal) roar of mother nature lashing the west coast and our first destination ... a major storm hit San Francisco on the a.m. of our departure date. We felt the after shocks bumping through the air, zooming toward the landing runway. Too much yaw and not nearly enough yawn for my taste!



We were greeted in "sunny California" with a down pour. We ended up forgoing Alcatraz (not dressed for a monsoon on the Bay trip out to the island) for a day of driving around (mostly lost but not minding) downtown. Every where in SF is Buena Vista. Not that I could enjoy these views while trying to drive the world's crookedest street and lanes that launched us up what looked to be 45 degree grades.


We eventually landed at pier 39, Fisherman's wharf and Ghirardelli Square ... all very soggy ... except for the chocolate at the Square. Mikaela seemed pumped to ride the first spiral escalators in the U.S. at Westfield San Francisco Centre. We managed to find good deals (I'm told by the shoppers in the family) on sandals, caps, another backpack and a smart car sized parking spot (no can opener supplied with in the sky. Gotta love cruisin the malls of America!

On a more serious and considerably more freaky note, we confronted a situation new to us all about half way across on the pedestrian walk on Golden Gate bridge. A young woman appeared to be having an animated conversation with the steel cross members of the bridge and again with the icy looking sea below. When she heaved one leg up over the edge I told her to "stop right now, get your leg down before you get hurt" or some similar befuddled blather.



She said "No, I'm cool, this is all positive for me." Karen approaches her too and got equally rebuffed. I'm thinking she's going to jump right in front of the kids, including Mitchell who has refocussed the camcorder from being pointed out towards Alcatraz to record something horrible.





We did not make any heroic move. Thank God we didn't have to ... cars whipping by had started to hit the binders and someone must have called 911 ... in no time there were 4 cruisers and about 6 officers jumping the rail onto the sidewalk. They basically snuck up on her and yanked her off. They didn't say "please" like we did. They got the job done, thank God. The last pics are stills taken from videographer Mitchell ... including her getting arrested and taken away. Apparently it is illegal to perch on the edge of the Golden Gate bridge scare Canadian tourists in search of only goodness in the land of Rice a Roni. We're not in Kansas any more Toto, hang on to your helmet ... tomorrow has us driving down and back to Big Sir and then over the big big pond ... Sydney departure tommorow at 22:10.





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