Saturday, 31 December 2016

Happy New Year

Nick & Bill enjoying (I think) each others company once again.
Beautiful day at Waihi Beach
The past few weeks of our return to NZ have flown by so fast, it was the end of another year before we knew it. Welcome into 2017
Lighting Chinese lanterns and sending
messages off to Pat
Within two days of returning, we found the vehicle that ticked almost all of Bill's boxes - a 2005 Suzuki Vitara. Very similar to our CRV that we owned before heading overseas, except a bit bigger. And a V6 so will guzzle the gas (Bill has told me I'm not to put my foot hard down on take off, but it sounds sooooooo good :))
That all sorted, we headed down to Waihi Beach to catch up with our three kids, my three brothers, partners and families to have a final farewell to Mum. Meeting Shannon's partner Andrew for the first time, he coped well with the Nicholas Clan. We had a stunning weekend, very reminiscent to the weekend we celebrated Mum's 90th 4 years earlier. As sad as it was to say our goodbyes, it was lovely all being together again. Mum would have loved it. With Mum's passing, not sure when we will all get together again as she was the pull (centre!!!!!!) for us all.
Jacky & Bill doing a little tiling. 

Rocky & Jacky decorating the "Christmas Tree"
One week later it was Christmas at Nick & Jacky's in Wellington. Arriving a few days before, in time for Bill to help Jacky do the tiling in the kitchen to almost complete the renovations of the kitchen/dining and lounge areas. They have done amazing transformation of their home in just over the year that they have owned it.
Joan (Bill's mum) flew over from Nelson to join us, along with Rochelle's Daniel later that night from Perth.
Jacky, Bill, Me, Claire, Rocky, Joan, Daniel, Shannon & Nick
Lovely brunch to start Christmas day

Daniel bowling to Bill
(With being an Aussie, we told Daniel no "Underarm")
With the large deck they have added on, and Wellington putting on a beautiful sunny day, 9 of us (including Jacky's sister Claire) enjoyed a lovely Christmas brunch before playing cricket in the park at the end of the road. Just the right amount of food, wine and exercise for the day.
Boxing day was the perfect for some to tube down the Hutt River - entry into river just across the park. Bill, Nick & Jacky, Rochelle & Daniel had a pleasant couple of hours travelling down toward Lower Hutt, making friends with some of the local ducks on the way. Apart from Rochelle's frozen feet and a few with sunburnt legs, they all seemed to enjoy the trip.
Preparing for entry into the Hutt river

Nick, Jacky, Daniel and feathered friend

Bill, Daniel, Rocky and feathered friend












Daniel's mate Kano (Jordon) flew in from Perth a couple of days later to travel around the north island with him checking out all the best surfing spots NZ has to offer over the next two weeks.
Nick, Jacky and Shannon headed north for New Year, Shannon to Andrew's family at Matarangi on the Coromandel and N&J to Waiheke joining old friends from Nelson.
Poor Rocky drew the short straw and saw the new year in with us here in Wellington with Geoffrey the cat. Pretty exciting wasn't it Rocky? particularly watching the Rolling Stones playing a concert when they were in Cuba earlier this year. Mick, Keith & Ronny looking pretty wrinkled & thin but still playing and singing like they were 50 years younger than they are. Pretty amazing musicians.

One of the walks over the xmas break with Joan
and Shannon. Walked out to the radar dome on
Hawkins Hill (amazing views over Wellington)

Bit confused as which direction to take on the Petone foreshore

Bill doing a bit of flashing!
Nick, Jacky with help from her brother Joe had re roofed the house
just before we arrived.
We are pleased to be back in our own country without all the crowds, catching up with family and friends. Still waiting for more of summer to show, hopefully it's just around the corner. A few swims before we head south would be great. We are here in Wellington till the end of the week, crossing over back into the south island and to Nelson on the 7th January, the day after Rocky flies out back to Perth.


Hoping the earth settles a bit more (the 5.5 shake the other day was a reminder our country is still settling).

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Aussie & Home to NZ

A memorable sunset on one of our final days in the UK
The Winchester cathedral concert primarily produced by the choir as a purist presentation, meaning it was a technical production with the organ and trumpet having minor roles and the choral presentation not being a popular or recognisable piece.  Soooo it was an experience I enjoyed but wasn’t the big organ & choral fest filling the venerable cathedral that I hoped for.

Rottnest Island
A busy final week in the UK for us as we downsized our belongings, negotiated a suitcase swap to cram our belongings into, sadly attending Kath’s mothers funeral, and a delightful day out at a farm park, seeing the animals and farming practises of earlier times.
Our final hrs in the UK saw us up at 5:50 am to drop our car back & fly out of Heathrow landing at Singapore 12 hours later to a sweltering 30C with suitably crippling humidity. What a shock, having never struck that tropical heat on our travels, and the last 5 weeks in the UK thickening our blood.
Singapore was in Xmas festive mode making a spectacular spectacular of it, Orchard Road shops trying to out do each other with massive themed decorations. Obviously this  glitzy charade didn’t
Guess What!
sway me, opting as usual for black socks for the kids Xmas, (grinch)  ……………
Still a 5 hour flight to Perth, uneventful, and no good movies to watch, we arrived declaring our dirty farm muddied boots, which a lovely bio security lady whisked away returning them soon afterwards beautifully cleaned, quite embarrassing as we knew the NZ guys will be hot on that, but caught out  with the Aussy’s vigilance.
Rochelle was waiting patiently for us as we don’t stand to queue and by the time we cleared customs we were at the forefront of the next flight in, but Rocky new our relaxed demeanour and expected little else.
Need to be a little careful.
A comfortable 30C with no humidity had us grinning from ear to ear, or was that from just seeing R after so much time. I think we all had a damp smudge in the corner of our eyes…
Perth is turning out to be a lovely place. By all accounts their winter has dragged out, but we have arrived as it all settles and have scarcely seen a cloud in our first week, with temperatures in the early thirties, beaches to swim, mostly English spoken, it is all so welcome & familiar after our time in the northern hemisphere, (that’s not to say we haven’t had fun)
R is taking leave to settle us in for 2 of the 3 weeks we will be here and has proved a very able guide with prison tours, town walks, bush walks and island visits filling our days so far.
These are Be aches.
The antipodeans are surely a chosen people, in chosen lands. No longer are we looking at the people thinking how lucky we are to live in NZ, we are looking at these people and thinking, yes we are all a lucky people here down under.
Should we ever be able too, an extended visit of Australia may well be in order.
Rochelle and partner Daniel have a lovely home in the suburb of Innaloo, Scarborough, R is quick to point out she is only the lodger as this is Daniels foray into the home market, nevertheless he is tolerating the lodgers family well, and we are enjoying his company, and met his family on two occasions, slightly younger than ourselves but workers like ourselves with many things in common.
Daniel catching some surf

Kinda havin Fun.
Job Done

Have been able to fit a dishwasher into the house this week that went well,(Rochelle knowing I could “easily plonk it in”) helped by having a few tools lent by D mate, making the past reliance on my Swiss army knife for the last few jobs a thing of the past.
Little birdies
We are in the final week of our stay here now and planning our return to purchase a car ASAP in Auckland, scouring TradeMe  looking for “The Car” to get us through the next while as our motorhome plans are on the backburner till the new year when we hope the summer market forces have simmered down.
Seen a few of these now.

Still struggling with no tablet as we had dropped it having been damaged since we sold the van, and using borrowed devices, a huge inconvenience, hopefully will be restored with a new screen before we leave.

Our day of departure saw us on the beach at 8 30AM taking in some more of the stunning beaches and climate before packing up once more to fly to Auckland, 5 hours away and arriving at 6AM the next day, hiring a car and straight into scouring the car markets albeit a tad early, having to peer at contenders through locked iron railings. Our first day was not successful but did run into our friends Don & Dale at the Ellerslie Car Fair.
Lifes a beach !

Deserved Beer
After a catch up and a hard sell from Don trying (in vain) to off load his lads car to us we wended our way over to the North Shore for a catch up with Wayne & Kates clan including Amanda from Switzerland having arrived a few hours after us. Wayne’s selection of home craft brew (putting many craft breweries to shame, in my opinion) was most welcome as was the family catch up, before retiring too our most welcome bed.  

Monday, 14 November 2016

Southern England - the final leg of our European travels



Our tight Rental
We took delivery of a rented campervan for a fortnight to tour Devon & Cornwall. It is another Fiat Ducato with a mere 7k miles on the clock being this years model. An absolute delight to drive, and more efficient than our previous 14 year old van.  But tight…..well after all it is a standard van width, unlike our capacious Hobby, so it came to pass that we were needing to squeeze past each other and
Tidal Ports
as for the shower and toilet mmmmm…..We look forward to more space in our next van for sure… not that it was a real problem but being in such close proximity to each other for the last 18 months, we didn’t really need the super extra closeness now being foisted upon us. But we have survived and are still talking.

Seaside Villages 

We left sunny Winchester with our friend  Chris assuring us that the weather was to be settled, rather think she was just thankful for us to go as we  had been in her space for a few days and she was not giving us the excuse to stay longer:-):-). Many thanks Chris for your hospitality and look forward to seeing you soon.

Quiet Habours
Our English hosts Owen & Kath have been so generous to us, helping  to sort many little glitches encountered whilst we are itinerant, however with them undergoing  major renovations and very sadly Kath’s Mum passing on whilst we were down south, we have also relied on Chris, their wonderful neighbour, to fill the void of somewhere to park up and full use of the house. So grateful to them all. We owe our friends in “Nobs Crook” for their hospitality. They will always be welcome “down under” should it transpire.

Stunning Locations
Our map had been well anointed with locations to see, and have managed to visit many stunning authentic small coastal villages. They are naturally inundated over the summer and have done well to retain their village charm, now is a good time to visit, perhaps a little late in the season as many attractions and camps start closing at September’s end, and the weather can be a  bit ordinary or downright cold & blustery. We saw it all, and were thankful for the vans awesome heating system.
That & the welcome old English pubs with the nice pub grub, Devon & Cornwall have not been unpleasant. Some of the highlights have been the long golden clean beaches we have missed from home and sadly not been able to always find (well clean anyway) in our EU travels. But as you can guess the missing link is the sun.
Lands End
The sun is scudding just above the horizon this time of year, much lower than NZ, and with it dipping below at 4:30 it's dark at 5, makes for very short touring days, with the nuisance of trying to find our camps in the dark.

With the short days and long nights the 2 weeks in our compact van flew by, and we are now back in
Blustery Headlands
Winchester to discard and pack to our bag limits of 30 kilo each plus hand luggage. We have tried, painfully at times, not to buy STUFF as we have seen sooooo  many things we like, but still have a lot of gear to get back, & fear some will be sacrificed.

Riverside Walks
We have bought tickets for a choral and organ recital at Winchester Cathedral tonight, and am looking forward to it. I am sad to say we have not been able to attend much of this sort of thing in our travels as it does need to be a bit organised with sourcing tickets and transport to
venues etc. So tonight’s concert will be a bit special, with advice from our local friends to dress warm and take a cushion. Those Cathedrals are awfully big and difficult to heat.
We fly out Wednesday morning to Singapore, and are looking forward to sunny Aussie, with Rochelle and Daniel for 3 weeks before landing back in Godzone for Xmas.

Monday, 24 October 2016

Another step closer to returning home

The lovely colours of autumn
The motorhome is sold! We advertised it on Ebay a week before we returned from France and were surprised at the interest as we thought with it being left hand drive and the end of summer it might take the 5 weeks we had left before leaving England.
A University Hall in Oxford
But a keen buyer from Hull put in an offer higher than we asked so we accepted it but didn't want to celebrate until the money was in the bank which just happened last Friday.
We are now homeless for the next 3 weeks so have been catching up with friends from New Zealand that are now living over here.
Lovely catching up with Ros in Oxford and see how much her lovely garden has flourished over the past 16 months since we last caught up. And Pauline today here just out of London in Dartford, wonderful after so many years since we last caught up.
We still have Cornwall and Devon to see, so the plan is to hire a camper for the next two weeks before returning to our hosts in Winchester to pack up. Hopefully we can organise this quickly as Booking.com is great but isn't as cheap as our motorhome was.
Homeless with a wee bairn

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Return to England - Motorhome for sale.

Our lovely Hobby up for sale
We had a good crossing back from Calais to Dover, and spent our first night back on English soil in the Village of Hastings. We walked around the streets and enjoyed a wonderful meal in a local pub. It was great to be able to read the menu and know what we had ordered. Bill enjoyed a local craft beer at room temperature! Welcome back to England :)
The streets of Hastings

Fabulous burger & beer
We returned to our English Hosts Kath & Owen in Winchester, who are in the middle of major house renovations. Just to add to their already hectic lives of work, raising 3 large dogs (Hobbs, Ella & Ruby) and house in chaos where they have moved into their own motor home for a few weeks, they welcomed us back. Along with their wonderful neighbour Chris who is like extended family with her two dogs (Poppy & puppy Brook) we have been able to get on and get our motor home cleaned up, personal items packed up, and prepared for a sale.

Renovations, mud and all.
Bring on the buyers!

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Farewell Italy Hello France

Lake Iseo sunset through the haze
Sheryl, my social & events convener, is in contact with all, which the hermit in me is a bit wary of. However, our next stop had been a recommendation and was to be Lake Annecy. A lake in France very close to Geneva, so a rendezvous was planned  with the Petrillos, this being a mere 3 hour jaunt after work on the Friday for them.
Lake Idro looking across to the Fort high on the hill

Hot at the top of the lookout over Lake Idro

Just out of the hills to look out over Lake Iseo
A bit more difficult for us as we haven't done much work for a bit thus an "after work" scenario is a bit awkward but we persevered.
This was a week away. And Italy still had some lakes on offer. Leaving Riva Del Garda, we went directly into a 4km tunnel that went straight into the mountain side and wound its way up inside the hill and around to a small lake in the hills above. This is very scenic country. We drove for 3 hours or so in hilly country, (not unlike Lewis Pass) arriving at Lake Idro, another small gem. What is interesting in the deep country side is you are never far from industry. We came across villages with huge industrial complexes, busy with lots of traffic, which some how disburses out to supply the world. I understand historically these industries required much energy thus were always near the rivers and swift mountain rivers are good to generate energy. Always a surprise when you round a corner and find these factories, supporting many people with all the related infrastructure.
Lake Idro had some mountain walks, with which we engaged one. It took us round the back of a hill on the lake bringing us up & out to views of the lake, leaving us hot and sweaty. The track had many options from there and we opted for the shortest route back.....big mistake...... it dropped us down the escarpment and down we went steeply for an hour, an activity our legs were not conditioned for. We arrived down on the lake front still 3kms from camp but thankfully a flat road to stride out, albeit very shakily. We were spent to be honest, and were plenty stiff the next day. The lake also had a great fortress on it which was of historic importance and luckily the last english tour of the summer season was the following day. Our camp host was not helpful to make a call and we were unable to find the tourism office by bike 3 villages away so were not able to schedule the tour. Felt a little let down by the efforts of the community to promote their areas. Never mind we were in a nice position for two days to marvel at the fortress and Google does a great job to access the history.
Along the shoreline of Isle Iseo, looking across to the mainland 
Another day, another lake! The next one called Lake Iseo, considerably larger than Idro with many villages, towns, an island plus the added advantage of a huge cement works on the shoreline. The lake again ringed with an amazing road tunnel network. We had no need to travel the lake sides as we came to the camp almost immediately with an old town, complete with old old rediscovered frescoes, what more does a town need to draw the tourists.
Autumn in the cemetry of Saulieu

Bill chatting to his mate
Lake Iseo has a island 9 kms around with a church,"surprise! surprise!"  on its 600m peak. The ferry over with bikes was a day excursion not to be missed, our stiff legs were almost a distant memory so off we went.
The islands population are only allowed scooters for transport with services and contractors allowed only tuk tuks including the undertaker, which we didn't see ourselves, but were told was a hoot. The roading system is very limited but did allow a small bus and the only other "real" vehicles being the emergency services. We had a pleasant day with the most delicious sandwich up at the church, a fresh bun and prosciutto. Not even a beer to be had being close to the seat of power so to speak. What should have been a stunning view was sadly marred by a haze.
Since Lake Garda we have been engulfed in a bluish haze which often limited the views down to no more than a couple of k's depending on the position of the sun. It was very noticeable and kind of disturbing as it was so wide spread, and long lasted (like 7 days), We spoke to some travellers and they hadn't really noticed it, then asked a  local lad with some good english and he looked confused, in total surprise denying it was normal and had only appeared that day as far as he was aware. They're in denial on air quality here i'm sure. We met an english couple at the camp whom we had a drink with that night as they are hoping to visit NZ in Feb, so answered some probing questions on how difficult it may be to travel in our far flung homeland, but were able to reassure them it would in most probability be a pleasant experience, albeit possibly lacking the endemic cafe culture found here. We look forward to meeting Richard & Sheila again in NZ or perhaps earlier in Bath, their home, should circumstances permit.
Hotel Dieu - the multi coloured roof of the
Hospice de Beaune in the lovely town of Beaune

Some of the many rennovated half timbered
houses of Troyes from the 16th Century
Coming out of the lakes district we raced across the top of Italy then back into the hills to cross into France. There is a tunnel naturally but Sheryl dislikes tunnel's almost as much as mountain passes, so we opted for the pass. We spent a night in the village of Susa, our last night in Italy.
Susu is a humble village with very authentic medieval streets & houses, still in need of serious renovation in places, also a roman amphitheatre, indeed the works. The amphitheatre very low key but renovated enough to allow regular community use. Amazing such historical depth. Being the last stop out of Italy, Susa had some visitors but not thriving tourism. Back in time this pass was historically important with many conquerors including Hannibal and his elephants passing this way. Sculptures of elephants appear along the route.
The other notable occurrence was this was the first rail link into a foreign country that was used to "train" in the troops IE Napoleons army to support Italy in it's fight against Austria. "All troops report for the 9:45 to Italy don't forget your guns and bring your bloody lunches this time"

Driving through the pass from Italy to France
Terrifying for the poor elephants
We wound our way into the mountains the next day, sadly cloudy and misty with little to see but did keep S's panic attacks under control, not a good time for my brake warning to start flashing but discerning a low fluid alarm, we cautiously straddled the pass between to great nations and graced France with our presence. We were well up in the alps as we passed numerous ski lifts reaching higher into the hills. Also a great series of French forts to keep out the hordes. So much history, so much to learn.
         
Bill hanging around the streets of Annecy
         looking cool in his new leather Jacket         
Looking through the streets of Annecy
We arrived at the touted Annecy in cool rain, sad to leave the Med climate far behind us now, and found our camp after a tortuous route because of local road closures.  Still, once parked up, it was a mere 20 min walk to the Petrillo's Air B&B in the old town. And indeed it was a stunning old town. Another catch up with welcome friends in a great location.
Sunday Market in the streets of Annecy
Amazing amount of chickens cooked & sold

Amanda & Rico, Luna & Caio on the cycle trail

We took in the town that evening, later enjoying some nibbles back at their 400 yr old quarters. The next day biking with all six of us scouting the lake, nearly to the bottom on a scenic bike ride. The trip was had in fair weather and didn't involve the emergency services however the rescue chopper was put on standby after the third mishap but luckily not needed. A great day had by all. A visit to the chateau, amongst other visits, made for a pleasant stay.  Sadly we said goodbye as we again headed our separate ways till next time. Always enjoy family and friends.

Now closing in on the UK, its cooler, we are in longs, jackets, shoes and socks. A shock.
But still time to fit in Paris on our way through. Unfortunately the day was a bit grey on our arrival. We struggled through the renovations of the multi level railway station where we got off  near Notre Dame. Who knew there were so many rail lines so far underground!! What a rabbitt warren.Thankfully a lovely woman saw our confused faces and asked us if we needed help, then sent us off in the right direction to pop out not far from Notre-Dame which was a great place to start our tour of Paris. We tried to catch an English 3.5 hr walking tour of the city but arrived too late, so we bought the Paris Guide book to do it ourselves.
Recognise this?

Can you see the queue for the Lou -vre? 

River Seine busy with plenty of boats but not many tourisits

Constant traffic around the Arc de Triomphe

Notre-Dame - pretty impressive
After a lovely coffee & orange juice, (Bill telling the waiter what robbers they were with their prices just after the waiter had warned us of the Gypsies who he called "pick Pocketers". He had abused them as they passed his cafe.) We started our own tour. Sadly with an over cast day, and almost more street peddlers selling crappy trinkets than tourists, Paris struggled to impress. Although we were here 38 years ago, our memory isn't that great of it. We walked the tourist route along the Seine covering Notre-Dame, the Louvre, many historic bridges & gardens, Arc de Triomphe,  the Eiffel Tower (with so much more security now of course, lots of temporary fencing all around it sadly adding a dejected atmosphere to this iconic monument). Paris has so many beautiful large parks, which was amazing the fore fathers of this great city planned it well.It may have been the weather, or all the street peddlers, but one day in Paris did not do it justice and looking at all the Museums & Gardens to visit, one would need at least a week to do this. So perhaps 3rd time lucky on our next return.Onward now for our last 2 days in France, autumn has definitely settled in. We woke to zero degrees the other morning, bit of a shock. Hopefully we will be on our way home before the frosts start.