Wellington

Monday 31st October

We didn't get up early, and we ended up having a rather muddled morning. We didn't even wake up until after 8.30, so breakfast was late and then I had to spend time on the Internet looking for a camera shop so I could buy a new memory card for my camera. I have the pictures backed up on the iPad, but I'm reluctant to keep only one copy, so they are all still on the card as well.

Once we were in the shop, I recalled I had said I would replace Paul's broken camera as a birthday present, and we found a very knowledgeable person so I ended up buying Paul a camera. Then we had to return to the room to see if the existing case fitted, then back to the shop for a replacement case as well. So that was the morning gone!

We then made our way to the cable car to get an overview of Wellington. By that time the sun had come out and we found the city very attractive indeed. Of course we are staying in the central business district so everything seems quite compact. There are lots of attractive old buildings as well as the newer ones, everything is very clean and everybody seems very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the cable car ride up the steep hillside,




and the views from the top are terrific.




We couldn't resist the cable car museum. The cable car was originally built in 1902 to help with transport up and down the steep hill, and it seems it is still used that way, it isn't just a tourist attraction. This is one of the early trams, a 1905 one.




We went very briefly into the Botanical Gardens, and climbed up further to look at the Observatory, the Meteorology Station, and a German gun which was captured by New Zealanders during the First World War. We were greatly intrigued by the human sundial. You stand on a date spot, hold your arms up, and your shadow shows the time. The sun was coming and going a bit, but you may be able to see that the shadow of Paul's arms show 3 o'clock, which was the correct time!




We discovered we could have walked down the hill through the Botanical Gardens, but we were in a hurry so we took the cable car back down and went to the harbour where there is an outstanding museum called Te Papa Tongarewa. On the way there we passed this old route master bus, a 157, going to Sutton Garage, and marked St Helier, Rose Hill, Sutton High Street, Belmont, Banstead and Tattenham Way! It made us feel quite homesick, mentioning so many places near where we used to live. It is apparently now a tour bus and describes itself as a chocolate cafe. Goodness knows how it got there - there was nobody to ask.




The museum was as good as we had heard, and they had to throw us out at 6 when they closed. We looked at a lot of natural history, including a most gruesome preserved giant squid about 4 1/2 metres long. There were stuffed kiwis, but I really hope to see a live one. I photographed Paul with a moa - there are moa skeletons. We spent ages in a section on how the New Zealand landscape was formed, hearing about volcanoes and earthquakes, including an earthquake machine which shook us about. Paul was only just able to stop worrying about being killed by venomous snakes or spiders or eaten by sharks or crocodiles in Australia, now it seems he has to worry about physical phenomena that will kill him in New Zealand! There was a cannon from Captain Cook's Endeavour which had had to be thrown overboard when the ship was stuck on a coral reef and they had to lighten it by throwing off a lot of heavy things. It was discovered 200 years later.




It was still nice and sunny when we left the museum, and the harbour is most attractive. This would be a very pleasant place to spend some time. This is a little sheltered inner harbour.



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Christchurch to Wellington

Sunday 30th October
We arose at 5.30 this morning, since our pickup arrived at 6.30 - check-in time at the station was 6.40. So we were somewhat bleary eyed as we boarded the train. We did better than some people; one couple we met on the train whose hotel was much further away from the station had to get up at 4.30.

Our journey began on the Canterbury plains again, but we were soon surrounded by the most beautiful green rolling hills and lots of sheep.



We also continued to get lovely views of various braided rivers.



The train noise out on the viewing deck was so loud that it wasn't possible to hear the train manager's commentary, so I don't know their names. If I stayed in the carriage to hear what he said I couldn't have taken any pictures; it was a very bright day and the reflections on the window glass made pictures from inside the carriage impossible.

Some of the higher hills were covered in gorse which was in bloom and made a beautiful sight. Apparently the gorse, which is an introduced plant, is a real problem as it takes over the area and crowds out the native vegetation, but at this time of year it turns the hills gold and looks amazing.




Around 9.15, we started to get views of the sea, as the railway line passes close beside the beach. Sometimes, it is close enough for people on the viewing deck to get wet if the sea is rough. We had wonderful views of the sea with the backdrop of mountains with snow still on the slopes.




We stopped at Kaikoura, which is famous for whale watching, and the station is right on the beach, but we were asked to stay on the platform as the train only stopped for 5 minutes. There were further views of sea and mountain, until eventually we approached Picton. There were views of the bay, with salt pans in front. New Zealand gets a lot of its salt from here.

The weather was bright and hot in Picton, where we had just over an hour to wait until we could board the ferry. We had a quick bite to eat, then wandered down to the harbour, which was very pretty. We watched a seaplane land, and I did get two pictures, in both of which the plane is so tiny you might mistake it for a mosquito on my lens.




We boarded the ferry, and the first part of the journey was very scenic, with the ferry threading its way between islands whose steep green slopes fell straight to the waterline.



Once we were out at sea, we both fell asleep, and only woke in time to see the ferry entering Wellington harbour. We are staying a day in Wellington, before continuing on to Auckland on Tuesday. It's a 12 hour train journey - we aren't sure we will enjoy that.


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Christchurch

Saturday 29th October
We had a reasonably early start this morning, because at 8.15 we were being picked up to go to the Antarctic Centre. This is a visitor attraction which is based in Christchurch near the airport, because many Antarctic expeditions are organised in Christchurch and leave from Christchurch airport. As you go into the centre, you can see the next plane that is flying out there being loaded - apparently, one went last night and they are trying to get the next flight ready for tonight, if the weather holds.

First we went into what is described as the Scott Base, where there is a replica of part of Scott's hut at one end and the other end represents the modern Scott-Amundsen Base, with a modern hut, a Snow Cat and fuel barrels and various other bits of equipment. During 7 minutes, there is a sound and light show which takes you through the seasons. There is also plenty of information around to read as well.



The next room is called the 'Snow and Ice Experience' and you are given overshoes and a big jacket so you can go into a very cold place. The place is cold to start with and full of snow and ice already, not to mention an igloo of sorts




Once everybody is inside, they start lowering the temperature and blowing wind at you and shortly the temperature is absolutely freezing, the noise is amazing and the wind makes it hard to stand. It was at this point that Paul felt he had had enough and wanted to go, but shortly the wind dies down and the temperature gets a bit warmer, and you can give the jacket and overshoes back and go out.

In our case, it was to the Hagglund ride, where you get into the sort of vehicle that people have to use when being taken around out there.




There is a specially constructed scary track so you can experience the vehicle going up and down very steeply indeed - a bit like a roller coaster. There's another hill you go round at an angle to show the vehicle is designed to operate at a steep sideways angle without toppling over. Then you go over a crevasse - because it has tracks, it can span a crevasse of one and half metres. Then you go through a pond which is between 3 and 4 metres deep; fortunately, the vehicle turns into a boat, driven by its caterpillar tracks. Then you are allowed to get out, thankful that you only had about 10 minutes, rather than 5 hours which is what you can easily get if you have to travel somewhere in the thing!

We looked at a few other things until it was time for the penguin feeding. There are a number of Little Penguins there, all disabled in some way and rescued because they are unable to live in the wild. Some have injured feet or flippers (one has only 1 leg), some are partly or wholly blind, one has brain damage after a blow on the head from a boat. Little penguins are usually nocturnal, but these ones get fed twice a day, so they wake up to eat.



Actually, I think they find the people quite interesting, so a couple of them who had nothing to do (many are sitting on eggs) got into the water and swam to keep cool and watch the people photographing them through the glass wall that separates their swimming pool from the viewing public.

We went to watch a couple of 4D films, and got a little wet. We spent a long time in the Antarctic Gallery, which was full of information, and had a polar camp set up.



Apparently, out in the field scientists still use the same type of polar tents that were used 100 years ago, and the sledges haven't changed either. You drag them with a skidoo though. You could see the rations they take with them, and the stove - that hasn't changed much either, and was much like the one my father used to take on picnics when I was a child.

We spent 5 hours there, somehow or other, then we discovered that the Centre operated a free bus between there and the city, so we went into Christchurch.

The city centre hardly exists any more, many of the buildings are fenced off because they are unsafe, and there are hardly any shops open. We had hoped for a view of the Cathedral, but it was impossible to get near it, the streets were all closed. The historic buildings have suffered as well as more modern ones. No wonder we couldn't find a hotel near the city centre, there isn't really a city centre any more. Even shops in buildings that appear to be undamaged are not open, and their insides seem to be wrecked.

The bus driver explained to us that a real effort is being made to re-open the city centre, so shipping containers have been set up in cleared areas and shops have moved into those.



We noticed that it was mostly big name stores though - heaven knows what is happening to small businesses. I saw a notice on what had been a smart restaurant, saying they were operating a take away business from a caravan, and giving the address.

We found ourselves getting quite depressed at the state of the place and thinking how so many people would manage, and how many years it would take to sort it all out, so we caught a bus back to jail.

This is jail from the side view - we showed this to somebody we met on the train and she said 'Goodness, it looks just like a real jail!' That's because it really was a women's prison for a while.



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Greymouth to Christchurch

Friday 28th October

We woke to bright sunshine this morning, which was wonderful. Unfortunately, somebody had not stoked the boiler fire early enough, so the shower water was lukewarm - I suppose the other guests who have been there for more than a night know to bathe or shower at night while the fire is still going.

We went for a walk round the town. Apart from our hotel, which is over 100 years old, there are some other old buildings, though many suffered in earthquakes, floods or fires. This is one near our hotel, built in 1864.



The town clock, originally in a tower on top of the post office, was damaged in an earthquake. The tower had to be demolished, but the clock was restored and is now in a wooden tower on the Flood Wall.




This picture looks down towards the harbour, which was originally used for exporting coal from the mines which were very busy from the mid 1860s. Gold was also discovered in 1865, so there was a gold rush, which meant the town grew quickly. Both coal and gold are still mined in the area, though not to the same extent.

The area is also famous for nephrite jade, which was originally discovered and used by Maori people for weapons as it is very hard and can be given a good edge. We spent some time looking at jade, and then we went off to the local Museum, which has a fascinating clutter of objects and a huge collection of wonderful old photos.

Eventually we had to leave to catch our train back to Christchurch. The train and the cars share the main street, but there are relatively few trains so it probably isn't that inconvenient.




The train set off again, past the places we had passed yesterday, but this time we saw them in a different direction. The train manager mentioned that the Grey River is noted for whitebait at this time of year, though they seem to be different from what we would call whitebait. They are almost transparent and about the size and general shape of a match. We haven't tried them.

We started to climb gradually as we left the coast. The river had obviously brought down a lot of gravel, and this is being used, presumably for building.




We passed towns we had barely noticed before, like the former mining town of Dobson, or the site of the Brunner mine, now derelict. At Stillwater there is still a sawmill, but it's almost the last one left. Coal is still mined near here though, so the little town hasn't completely disappeared.

After Lake Brunner, we passed the small settlement of Otara, and then we really started to climb. We went into the Otara Tunnel, which is in a spiral, so it takes 8 1/2 km to travel 2 km in distance through the hill, at a steep gradient (for a train) of 1 in 33. The train takes 15 minutes to pass through this tunnel, and shortly after that, it arrives at the highest point, Arthur's Pass. After that, the journey becomes more scenic so I went outside onto the viewing deck to get some more pictures. We were gradually surrounded by snowy peaks, and it was cold.




This is the gorge of the Broken River




It is hard not to repeat the same views as yesterday's. The views on this part of the journey are so stupendous, with steep rocky cliffs, surrounding hills, and snowy mountains in the background, it is hard not to photograph everything.

Eventually we were back on the Canterbury Plains which surround Christchurch, then back at the station. Even in the big city, traffic has to stop for the train


As we only had our rucksacks, we did the 25 minute walk back to Jail. We are in a different cell this time, and as it wasn't midnight, as it was the last time we arrived, I was able to photograph it before we filled it with suitcases!



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Christchurch to Greymouth

Thursday 27th October
We had to arise early today, because the train to Greymouth leaves at 8.15 and you have to arrive at least 20 minutes beforehand. So a shuttle bus picked us up at 7.30. The station is about a 15 or 20 minute walk away, but if you have luggage, even just overnight bags, being picked up is better!

The train has outdoor viewing platforms, and it is sensible to use them if you can, because there are too many reflections if you try to take pictures through the windows.




I went to the rear viewing platform as soon as we approached the mountains, though I nearly froze to death. It was not a very warm day in Christchurch to begin with, and much colder in the mountains. Also, it is very windy on the viewing platform, and you need to hold on because otherwise you fall over. And the metal rails are very cold. Still, at least it wasn't raining!

The train follows the course of the Waimakariri River, which is ice-fed. Once you leave the coastal plains, it begins to cut into its bed, though at this stage it is still slow and braided.



As you climb higher, the gorge is cut deeper; the train uses the river valley, so there are superb views of the river as it gathers strength and boils and gushes well below.




Eventually you reach a plateau. The snow-covered mountains can be seen in the distance, and on the plateau are occasional lakes.




Eventually the train arrives at Arthur's Pass, which was originally a Maori travel route, but was named after Arthur Dobson who led the first party of Europeans over it in 1864




My picture isn't a particularly good one, but it does show the snow on the mountains and a few of the shivering people!

The train passes Lake Brunner, the largest lake in the area, which is very popular for fishing and water sports.




The weather had started to improve slightly, but I was too thoroughly chilled by then after a couple of hours outside, and was sitting inside.

The train takes four and a half hours to get to Greymouth, which is a small town of only a few streets. We planned to spend the night here before setting off on the afternoon train back to Christchurch tomorrow.

We wandered the town, from which there are some interesting walks, some of which we plan to do tomorrow. There is a remarkable smell of burning coal in the town; this is a coal mining area, and many people still burn coal. Our hotel, which was built in 1905 and still has many period features, certainly does. There is a heating pipe from floor to ceiling in the corridor outside our room, which seems to be directly connected to the fire.

We walked along the Flood Wall, which was built for flood protection.



This picture looks inland, and is taken from the top of the Flood Wall. Before the wall was built, Greymouth was often flooded by the River Grey. In 1988, it was flooded twice, and the water rose to 1.5 metres in the bar of our hotel, which is just across the road from the wall.

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Christchurch

Wednesday 26th October

Today has been a rather muddled sort of day, and largely taken up with organisation.

We arrived last night, around midnight, the plane having been delayed. We just fell into bed, and slept until about 10.30; our bodies thought it was only 8.30, because Australia is 2 hours behind New Zealand.

We are staying in a historic jail, which has been converted to budget lodging.




I don't know if it will be visible on the small picture, but the sign over the green gates says 'Department of Corrections Addington'. Addington is the name of the suburb of Christchurch where we are staying; we chose it because it is reasonably near the station, and we are making some rail journeys, starting tomorrow. It is a real jail, as you can see.




We are sleeping in a cell, so it isn't very big. I'm glad I'm not in for 6 months!




This isn't our cell, which is full of suitcases, but it gives you an idea. The one above is an original cell which has been preserved complete with graffiti - you can just see some of it in my photo.

So, apart from huge walks round the suburb of Addington, we have seen nothing of Christchurch. We walked to a local cafe for lunch, we walked to the railway station and back to sort out train tickets for tomorrow to Greymouth. And we walked all over the place before finally finding the Telecom shop to buy connectivity for the local phone and the iPad, neither of which is yet working. So, although I have already paid for a SIM, I am having to use expensive wireless. I am waiting to see if it works overnight, otherwise I have to go back to the NZ Telecom shop and shout at somebody.

We've also had to book hotels and organise other things, all those things that were previously done by tour companies, and somehow or other the day has gone.

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Sydney to Christchurch

Tuesday 25th October
Photos to follow later - access has not yet been properly sorted out!

With only a few hours left in Sydney, we decided to stay fairly near the hotel, so opted for a visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. We packed, checked out and put our luggage into storage for the day, then set off to catch the bus. While we were sitting waiting for the bus, Paul realised he no longer had his phone, so we had to run back to the hotel, get back into the room and search it carefully. It turned out the phone had slipped down between the bed and the bedside table, and being black on a very dark carpet, had not been noticed when I checked the room.

We gave up on the bus and walked to the Art Gallery, it was only about a 20 minute walk. We walked right across the central business district to St James Cathedral, then round to the Art Gallery.




There was a section on European art, and others on Australian Art. We looked at the European Art, which was somewhat sparse before Reubens. The only thing I really liked amongst the early things were a Reubens self-portrait. There was a beautiful Tissot



and a lovely Millais but the photos, without flash, can't do them justice.




I also noticed a beautiful Cezanne



and a couple of Vlaminks.




I also noticed a Van Gogh I didn't know.
There were statues too - a little Degas dancer, and this Rodin of the Burghers of Calais.



As time was getting on, we thought of going to look for lunch. But when we attempted to leave, we could see that the rain was lashing down outside, so we went back and lunched at the Museum cafe.

When the rain had stopped, we set off back to collect our luggage by a different route, and had time to admire the Sydney Hospital, celebrating its 200th year in McQuarry Street. That probably isn't the age of the building!



We had to be quick in our appreciation because the rain had started again.

We collected our luggage in very good time and waited for the airport shuttle. I had told Paul that a shuttle time around 2.30 would be ideal, and when he said he had booked the 3.10 one, I assumed he had discussed which one would be suitable with the shuttle operator. It turned out he had not, so we really didn't have enough time to get to the airport, especially since the shuttle was late.

I explained to the driver that we had a deadline to make, as the check-in would close at 3.55. The driver, not a native English speaker, seemed to understand, but went to the domestic terminals first, and then dropped us at the wrong end of the international terminal so we had to run dragging our heavy cases to the other end. The check-out had indeed closed, but fortunately we were told the flight was delayed, and somebody on another desk would kindly check us in.

This seemed to be complicated and took a little longer than normal, but by 4.15 we had boarding passes and instructions to be at the gate by 4.25, and that the gate would close at 4.55. So then we joined a big queue in Customs. When we finally got to a Customs Officer, we discovered we should have filled in an exit form, so we had to go back to the beginning and start again.

Once through Customs, we then had Security. I was delayed because I had forgotten my sun cream was in my hand baggage and that had to be thrown away, then my baggage had to be re-scanned.

I had originally intended to throw out my jar of Vegemite, but Paul had insisted on stuffing it into his hand baggage. Security confiscated that and threw it out, then Paul's baggage was re-scanned! So we were very late, and scampered past the shops to our gate, making it only a few minutes before 4.55, only to discover that the flight was delayed by at least an hour, and we needn't have bothered hurrying at all.


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Sydney to Blue Mountains and back

Monday 24th October
Today, our last full day in Sydney, we had booked a tour to the Blue Mountains. However, things did not go entirely to plan! First, I chose a tour company whose brochure advertised that they had been voted the No. 1 Blue Mountains tour company. Also, they were extremely inexpensive. In retrospect, I think we might have done better with a different company - at least the driver might have told us where we were!

Our first stop was at a lookout over the whole area. This was not a well-known spot and there were no railings so I was careful not to go too near the edge. My picture does show the blue haze for which the mountains were named.




The next lookout had a sign saying it was called the Cahill lookout, which our guide told us was a lookout over the whole Megalong Valley. It gave us our first view of the Three Sisters.

After a brief stop to explain the possible walks for the afternoon, we drove into Katoomba for lunch. After that, we drove to Echo point where we had a much better view of the three sisters, a series of 3 sandstone rock formations. There must originally have been more, you can see the collapsed bases of other ones.




The area has changed somewhat since I was last there; there is now a cableway, called the Scenic Cableway, which is an alternative way of returning from the bottom of the valley. There is also a huge glass-bottomed cable car called the Skyway which crosses the void, from one side of the valley to the other. We elected to walk down towards the bottom of the valley by the Furber Steps, and to return by the old Scenic Railway, (a funicular railway) which was what I did 12 years ago. Some other people in our bus did the same, others decided to go down on the Scenic Cableway and return by Scenic Railway and do no walking. One brave soul elected to walk down a very steep descent called the Giant Stairway, which also involved a very long walk at the bottom, before returning by Scenic Railway.

The Furber steps were quite steep, but there was often a handrail, and there was usually a fence at the lookout points. There was only one point where the steps and handrail were broken, and I had to descend backwards facing the steps and holding onto one of the steps above. We had some wonderful views on the way down, and the Katoomba Falls looked very refreshing on such a hot day, although there wasn't a lot of water going over them.




Eventually, we were down nearly as far as the lower station for the Scenic Railway. From there was a boardwalk, again new to me, and we walked along to look at the remains of a coal mine. The first mine opened in 1878, and there were eventually about 40 mines in the area. The coal was sometimes moved by horse-drawn wagon inside the mine, and it could be transported up the mountainside in various different ways.




There was a system of buckets at one time, but it broke. The Scenic Railway, which we intended to take back up again, was originally used to move the coal, which explains why the shaft up which the railway travels is nearly vertical - it is the steepest funicular railway in the world.

The boardwalk itself was quite interesting, with views of the dry temperate rainforest, and we were amazed by the height of the tree ferns. Some were more than 30 feet high, which, given they only grow a quarter of an inch a year, probably makes them 1500 years old.




As we walked along the boardwalk, we became aware of the smell of smoke, and we soon noticed a lot of smoke at the top of the hill. We walked back to the foot of the Scenic Railway, and could see that there was quite an extensive bush fire at the top of the hillside opposite. We were a bit worried about sparks falling down into the valley and causing fires closer to us, so we were quite glad to see the Scenic Railway carriage appear, ready to take us up to the top again.

The journey up is amazing, because the shaft is almost vertical. You start out sitting tilted back at a steep angle, and as your carriage starts up the vertical bit, you are suddenly sitting straight up and the ground is rushing away beneath your feet. I was fenced in at my side and asked Paul to take a photo for me, but we were moving too fast.

Once up at the top again, we got a good view of the bush fire, and could see it was quite serious.



It was decided to evacuate all tourists still in the valley, and only to run the Scenic Railway to bring them up again. This was a bit hard on our driver, who was waiting for the cable car so he could return to pick us up, and ended up doing a lot of running - and he was still late!

All tourists were being asked to leave the area, so that was the end of our trip to the Blue Mountains. As we departed we could see the helicopters flying over with buckets, and on the way back into Sydney, we passed 25 fire engines on the way to the fire - I counted them all.

Our driver took us to another area where you can often see wild kangaroos, and allegedly there were some, but Paul and I failed to see them - wrong side of the bus again. Finally, we went to the ferry stop at the Olympic Park, quite a long way up the Parramatta River, so we could return to Sydney by Rivercat. To our dismay, we discovered that, owing to difficulties in implementing the new ferry timetable, which started today, there would be no ferry service from Olympic Park today. So we drove back to Sydney through the heavy traffic in the bus.

Paul wanted to spend much longer in the Blue Mountains. But we leave for New Zealand tomorrow afternoon, so he'll need to think of a further trip to Australia some other year!





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