Day 19

In Charleston & Punakaiki. Hells Bells! Zack gave us the surprise of our lives this morning. He had filled his nappy, his pyjamas and his gro-bag with poo. Yes, with poo. We had a pretty quiet time yesterday afternoon, but I didn't think anything of it - it wouldn't be the first time. But this morning... My oh my. It's one of those stunned parent moments - you aren't completely awake but you know you have to do something IMMEDIATELY. Whew! We grabbed him and air-lifted him to the shower where we stripped him of all garments. I pulled on the rubber gloves and Keith rinsed Zack in the shower. We aren't stupid - we'd bought some NapiSan at the outset of our travels and have used it many times in the last few weeks, but this morning it came into it's own. After rinsing everything we sprinkled it with the magic stuff, and got some breakfast in. The motel lady said we could use the laundry, much to our relief.
We walked down to the beach where Zack discovered the sea for the first time, and couldn't get enough of 'waves'. He kept saying, "More!" and the sea was happy to deliver - ain't nature great ? He loved the rocks, the stones, the seashells, and of course, the sand - handfuls of it. We investigated the rocks and rock pools. Delighted to discover tiny crabs, small mussels everywhere and two magnificent starfish. Have you ever ? Goes to show how untouched this beautiful country is, when you can get starfish bigger than your hand, with more than 7 arms, on a regular beach.
Had a bit of a task getting Zack to take his afternoon nap, so gave up the struggle and drove down to Punakaiki. Zack fell asleep within minutes - little blighter ! So we headed into the cafe for a nice cuppa and a read of the paper. I even got onto the 'net before Zee woke up. Time to go and see the famous pancake rocks and blowholes. Really special sights - the pictures are going to say more than I can write.


Dinner was in the Punakaiki Tavern where Keith had the best steak in NZ - so tender and delicious. They have a lovely garden too, where you can sit at rocks like the Flintstones, and eat your meal in natural environs. No honestly, it was good.
Ruth and Zack home, Keith off to photograph the sunset.

Happy New Year everyone !

Day 18

Fox Glacier, drive to Punakaiki. Keith was up bright and early to go off and photograph Lake Mattheson at sunrise. It's glassy and smooth, so every bit worth the long walk through the forest to see it. Zack was up at about 7:30am so we got ourselves dressed and started packing up in time to have brekkie with Keith. We headed up the Heli-chaps around 9am, only to find that the English family who'd said they'd be joining us hadn't showed up. We had two options (they'll only fly with 3 or more passengers, and we weren't paying for Zack), to leave now or to hang around until 10am when they had 3 definites booked. Keith was rattled by this, so took a quick wander around - there are so many diff companies there doing the same thing that you can easily shop around. No luck, so we went for a cuppa coffee to kill time. Zack made friends with more visitors - an American family with 2 adopted sons who looked Somalian. I was feeling pretty sceptical about things by now... But, if anything was worth waiting for, it was this...
We were really blessed with a stunning morning - the weather all around us was grey, dark and cloudy, but in a ring around the mountaintops, it was clear blue sky. Perfect weather for flying over the glacier at close quarters, and for touching down on some pretty impressive snow. Zack was freaking out initially, and didn't like the noise, but once he could touch his earphones, and point at mine, he seemed to settle down. Before I could blink we were taking off and into the air - helicopters really are exactly like you'd imagine them to be, they just leap off the ground, unlike the trundling and heaving of light aircraft. We flew over the mountains, looking down onto tiny huts and glacier-walkers and then the enormity of the Fox Glacier. We hopped over the hill and saw a bit of Mt Cook and then around to Franz Josef, where we circled, and then landed about 200m from another 2 helicopters on the snow. Looking down, as we were touching down, I noticed that the snow was about 1 - 2 feet deep in the footprints of previous visitors. Heh, heh, we were in for a bit of fun trying to walk around. Zack was not keen on being in it at all and insisted on being carried, so we didn't go too far, or cavort in it like our fellow passengers. The pilot was very sweet tho' and hung around with us and chatted in the sunshine. Keith dashed hither and thither taking pics. We made some snowballs and threw them - all pretty solid, even on impact - and gave them a lick for Zack's benefit. His observation of "wet" was confirmed. I'd sat down in the snow when I'd lost my balance at one point and my corduroys were quite soggy by this time, as were the hems. I was pleased to get back in the heli. We flew back with some great swoops over the terrain, while I watched the pilot tapping one of the instruments because it appeared to be stuck. Ahem, not too sure about that one. Made me comment to Keith that the heli's were probably as old as the Cessna's doing these tourist hops. Remarkable scenery though - everywhere you looked. We were touching down and jumping out and running to the waiting van. Zack said, once he'd been clipped into his seatbelt, "more". LOL, wouldn't that be great?
We managed to get out of Fox before 11am and across to Franz Josef - it's an incredibly beautiful but winding road where you're surrounded on all sides by rainforest, with the enormous snow topped peaks above you. Really spectacular scenery from every angle.
In Franz Josef, we called to confirm our accommodation in Golden Bay, near to Abel Tasman. It sounds just lovely with lots of extras like a bed for Zack and some independence. Hurrah! We don't feel quite so bleak about the mess up without the camper van any more. It should be lovely up there - just a pity about the long drive from Punakaiki on New Year's Day... I guess that's the way it goes when you're trying to get around a whole country eh?
From Franz Josef to Hokatika (where we stopped for a tacky lunch) it continued to be rainforest, but then the enormous mountains started falling away until we got to Greymouth. Neither Keith nor I could understand why anyone would want to live in Greymouth - it's a nasty little industrial hub in an otherwise beautiful part of the world. It does have one redeeming feature tho' - it is home to Monteith's Brewery. Now don't faint, because you know that Keith and I are the last of the great beer-drinkers, but Monteith's is yummy stuff. So far on our journey, we've been having a nice frosty bottle of it almost every other night. We popped into their store and bought a sixpack of their "Collection" and a sixpack of Keith's favourite - Radler. Zack got a freebie bottle opener for being so charming (again).
The drive from Greymouth to Punakaiki brought us into coastal bush, and then the stunning open seashore with the ragged, toothlike rocks leading off the coastline, like the spines on the back of a giant submarine lizard. The sea was a beautiful grey green, and looked like it was washing in that slow-motion kind of way, where it looks like a soft veil. The shores are striking as they're a dark charcoal grey - rocks and sand. We'll get back to Punakaiki tomorrow, and kept going to our place of rest - Charleston. The bush changed between the two, now it's like the fynbos in the Cape (S Africa).
Late night watching crap on TV - 2 films we've already seen. We must be starved for it, tsk tsk.

Day 17

Around Fox Glacier. We drove over to Franz Josef Glacier today because we'd only been able to book onto a 2pm heli trip. It worked out well, as we were able to spend an hour in an internet cafe sorting out accommodation in Golden Bay & Nelson for the week after New Year. We have seriously got shafted without the campervan, as we'd thought that with camp sites booked, we'd be able to change them to cabins with ease. Not so! We've actually scraped the barrell for somewhere to rest our heads in the Abel Tasman region, and were about to give up when we rang the iSite (Tourist Info bookings etc) and they found us somewhere to stay for the entire time. What a relief.
We bought some steaks for supper and drove back to Fox, through the dense rainforest bush sheltered by the towering mountains above to the east. Once we'd checked on the helicopter people, they said we'd need to delay it until 3pm as things were changeable. But at 3:30pm we were still waiting for a helicopter to land and pick us up when they got radio'd to say, "no luck today. we'll have to try for tomorrow". So we're booked for a 9:30 am flight in the morning. We siezed the opportunity to pop up to the Dept of Conservation's offices where Lisa & Kevin's (our Kiwi mates in Berlin) friends live - Kim & Gary. They were very welcoming and we had a walk-around their garden and showed Zack their chooks. It wouldn't last though as Zack started acting up again, so we thought, 'let's exit now, before it all goes for a ball of chalk.' So we did.
We came home and cooked up our steaks, while Zack jumped on the trampolene. I bought some great sundried tomatoes in Ashburton, that are in liquid but not oil. They're fabulous - such an intense flavour - so we popped a handful of them into the salad.

We must be bonkers ! Day #2 of no dummy and we're both taking strain. The biting has gone up a notch, and we've had a child completely out of control at certain points today. The hardest thing is that smacking is illegal in NZ, and Zack knows how hard it is when he's embarrassing you in public. Disciplining your child in these circumstances requires quite a bit of creativity and stamina.
Zack has been in his bed for more than 30 minutes and still going strong, talking at length, using all the words he knows, and constantly returning to "down" and "ladder" because I've put him in the bunkbed. He is now lying with his blanket - which he'd thrown away about 10 times, and saying repetitive phrases. I hope this means sleep is not more than 30 minutes away... And true to form we have suddenly gone into silence and more regular deep breathing. Praise the Lord! All in all it's taken about 40 minutes to get him to this point. We had an early night too - how marvellous.

Day 16

Wanaka, drive to Fox Glacier. We were up early for breakfast with the Wilsons after a relatively good night with Zack. It proved to be a glorious day, with clear skies and sunshine. Keith and Zack went down to the edge of the lake to throw stones and play on the dinosaur slide again, while I popped into town for some last minute shopping. We left Wanaka before noon and headed for Lake Hawea which was just lovely - another part of NZ that is untouched and breathtakingly beautiful. We passed through a neck and then were back on the northernmost end of Lake Wanaka, a glorious acqua coloured expanse of water reflecting the mountains and snow-topped Mt Alba in the distance. We then began our trip towards the coast with our first stop being lunch in Makaroa, where they were driving sheep. Their bleating was so loud and sustained that we parked the car at the cafe and then went to show Zack the gazillion sheep, and the source of the noise. After lunch (more great NZ pies) we drove into the coastal bush that covers most of this part of the West Coast. We stopped along the way to see a seal colony on a crescent of white beach far, far below, and then had to push hard to get through Haast, and on to Fox Glacier by 7pm. It was an awful lot of driving for one day!
After checking in, we quickly had some dinner in town, before bed.
We must be insane, but we've decided to strike while the iron's hot and end Zack's dummy dependency, with immediate effect. We'd had an insane time with him on the drive from Haast through to Fox while he screamed "dummy, dummy, dummy" for about an hour or more. It was enough to make me scream, but I think it steeled our resolution. This must end ! After dinner Keith took Zack for his bath and then settled him on the floor in our room. He came back sometime later to discover Zack playing with his toys and everything else he'd been able to get his hands on at floor level. So Keith had, had to lie with him until he fell asleep. Hmm.... not quite what we'd had in mind.

Day 15

Around Wanaka. We slept in and arose to a glorious breakfast with David & Jocelyn : muesli, fresh fruit salad and yoghurt with rubarb too. Then put on a load of laundry and headed out the door to see the playground on the Lake's edge. They have a giant slide which is a dinosaur - you climb his tail and then slide down his neck to his head. Zack was in his element. Lots of wonderful things for little people to play on and get grubby doing. From there we drove out to the Wanaka Fighter Pilot Museum. They were having a aerial acrobatics show so we settled in with chairs and hot drinks, and Keith and David went off and took some photos of the planes. I went for a long walk after a few unsuccessful attempts to get Zee to sleep (too much excitement with the planes and noise), and got it right. We then had to walk a very long way from the airfield back to the mainroad, and then a further 1/2 km to get to the Museum's entrance, because the large Maori "bouncer" wouldn't let us through a gate we were stupid enough to ask whether we could pass through. We should've done what everyone else was doing and just walked, without being polite and English! Stupid.
Well, I've got that off my chest - I was pretty miffed with that guy.
The Museum was fantastic! One of the best aircraft museums I've been to. They have some wonderfully restored WWI and WWII planes, with alot of film footage, stories from RNZAF pilots, gear, models, and more. I was really impressed by the quality of the presentation and the overall look and feel of the display - world class. They host the "Wings over Wanaka" airshow every year at Easter, and I think it's kept them well connected with the world's aviation museum networks. It was pouring with rain at this point so we were a bit torn about what to do - Zack asleep, Jocelyn waiting for us in the car, so Keith went off with the Wilsons to get our car, so that they weren't obliged to stay on. Once he got back, we explored the Museum further and then drove to the World of Puzzles. It was a bit of a mixed bag, because we've visited the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh so recently. Their hologram exhibition was OK, but small in comparison. What was really impressive though, was the maze and the slanted room. Wonky and it did my balance no good - even Zack was stumbling into the walls. A bit of fun! It was still raining when we tackled the maze (a monster of a thing), and after doing 1/2 of it in the drizzle, which took more than 20 mins, we decided to take the EXIT. Then into town for a cuppa coffee before heading home with a ratty boy.
David and Jocelyn and cooked up another wonderful dinner for us, altho' they were disappointed that the rain had persisted and we weren't able to have a BBQ. They did make Keith's favourite - roast chicken and potatoes - so we were all v happy. We spent the rest of the evening just chatting about world affairs, New Zealand and the UK.
We also got a chance to look at their neighbour's beautiful photographs of Wanaka & surrounds.

Day 14

3 of us at Bluff - a very long way from home

Boxing Day, Riverton, Invercargill, Bluff, drive to Wanaka. We got ourselves gathered up and into the car, said our goodbyes to Leigh-Anne and Andre, and then drove out of town and down to Riverton with Clive, Diane and the boys. A really beautiful (and obviously desirable) part of the world with a fishing boat harbour, lovely homes and a very picturesque setting on the edge of a large bay - looking across to Bluff on the opp side. We drove up to a look-out point in some natural bush (the first we've actually seen in NZ) which was absolutely heaving with ferns and palms. A bird call above our heads, while we were taking photos, made us pull out the telephoto lens and the identification book and discover that we were looking at a small fluffy green friend with the most beautiful, liquid call - the Bell Bird (the call = the name). Very exciting! Then zoomed down the hill, back through town and down highway 99 into Invercargill. It being boxing day, it was sales and busy busy busy, so there was far too much traffic on the roads. We got to use our new bit of local lingo - there were boguns everywhere in their souped up cars with thumping music. Out the other side of Invercargill we headed on to Bluff, the southern most point of NZ. Again, we climbed up to a look-out point and got a 360˚ view of Stewart Island, the bay across to Riverton, the Aluminium smelting plant and the craggy coast line stretching off in both directions. Back at the car park we got a photo next the sign that said that home (ie. London) was 19 000kms away. Sadly no indication of the distance to Cape Town, which I'm guessing is equally far. By now, Zack was getting antsy and hungry (it was after 2pm and we hadn't had any lunch). We filled up with petrol before driving back to Invercargill to find some lunch - first at the Art Gallery (closed) and then in Queens Park at the crazy Lama Café. Poor Zack's meal came last and he was close to hysterical with hunger. Not a happy camper at all. Anyway, the hunger pangs were soon assuaged, and we could enjoy everyone's company again. Sad to come to the end of our time with the family, we had to say goodbye and make the 3 hour trip up to Wanaka for the night. We said our goodbye's and set off, stopping on route to see the magnificent views through the mountains. The 3 hour journey turned out to be 4 1/2 hours, so we arrived at the Wilsons somewhat later than anticipated, but were welcomed like family and immediately felt at home with them. Jocelyn had cooked up a fabulous blue cod curry (we must get the recipe!) which we wolfed down at 9pm. By 10pm Zack was being put to bed and we were able to chat to them and get to know one another a bit better. Another late night.

Day 13

Xmas in Otautau with Leigh-Anne & André. The kids slept late and we got up to a racket of breakfast and opening presents. There was loads of loot, and Kenneth wanted to open everyone's gift for them. Clive got a fabulous Afrikaans music CD which we put on immediately - Aaargh, there were some real clangers, but he said it was a tradition for Di's brothers to send him a tacky CD for Xmas. We came away with lots of lovely NZ goodies - choccies, mugs, and Zack got an All Black teddy bear. We didn't go large by any means - we'd need to cart it all home to the UK via Australia and SA, and we'd rather not.

Kenneth with his treasured golf-clubs

Kenneth & Christopher playing with their walkie-talkies in Leigh-Anne's sleigh

Soon everyone was heading next door for our Christmas Day Party with the neighbours - Leigh-Anne and André and their extended family. They have a beautiful home (Andre is a builder) and we felt so welcome and treated. The lunch spread was expansive with ham, beef, chicken, turkey, veggies and all the trimmings. We met some other locals including a Dutch farmer and his wife who are our age, and farm dairy cows nearby. Just after 1, Zack was starting to get ratty so Keith took him next door for a nap, and at 2:30 I went and joined him for a wee bit of shut-eye. It felt like heaven to be able to go and have a rest (something Keith's family used to do when he was young) after a big lunch. Sadly I missed the opening of the presents but the debris was much in evidence when I woke up. Zack was very spoilt and was given a car and a book - both of which he thinks are the greatest. He can label some of the objects and knows that the book is about counting and spent a while saying "two, two, two" and pointing to each item. heh heh, my child is a genius !
The afternoon drifted into the evening and some guests left and others arrived. We were told "Tea" would be a seafood BBQ! Oh my, where were we going to put all that ? There was a huge seafood salad, and then fresh prawns, blue cod, grouper, gurnard, paua (abalone), lamb sweetbreads, venison AND steak. Eina !! (Afrikaans for "ouch".) All the fish was caught by Leigh-Anne's brother, so fresh as can be. More pudding, and more drinks. We left at about 10pm having listened to the jokes about how late everyone had stayed the previous year and been thrown out by Andre.