The Great Adventurer (sort of)

Hello again
I've just completed the Queen Charlotte Track, all 71km of it over 4 days, so feeling quite pleased with myself! I promised myself I'd do a decent trek in NZ, so now my conscience is clear, can get back to the lazing, eating and drinking!

The Queen Charlotte Track goes through the stunning Marlborough Sounds, with beautiful bays overlooked by high peaks. Many parts are only accessible by boat.

The track has 2 advantages over most of the others
1) There is waterside accommodation along the way, lodges and hostels meaning a proper bed and shower, plus decent food and drink with beautiful views over the water
2) As these places are all on the water, water taxis carry your luggage on to the next night's destination, so no lugging packs around

This makes the trek more comfortable than most, but it is still a decent walk. The 3rd day takes you up the ridge, with a lots of steep hills on the way, and once you start the 23km of it, there's no exit, other than back from whence you came! The walk has many open sections, through young shrubland, with other sections going though mature beech forests (complete with a million droning wasps)

The track attracts people of all ages, a couple of elderly Canadian women (in their 60s at least) managed to complete the arduous 3rd day, by sticking to a sensible pace, and stayed happy throughout. By contrast a few younger (and less fit) people struggled on some of the easier sections, and it showed as I overtook them! (I was always one of the last to get going)

It was pleasing that my times (as if it matters) put me in the 'fast' category, clearly I'm fitter than I look. My secret weapon was eating lots of Weet-bix for breakfast, as it's the official breakfast cereal of the all blacks, my fellow top athletes

The attached is from my cellphone, and gives an indication of the beauty of the area.

Mike (who tomorrow is going on a Marlborough vineyard tour, as a reward for his hard work over the last 4 days!)

Goodbye North Island

It's been a fun 4 weeks, but now I must leave you, as I've found someone even more stunning than you, i.e. South Island. Yes, I've now crossed the Cook strait (nice smooth crossing thankfully) am in Picton. Tomorrow I get some much needed exercise, by starting the Queen Charlotte Track, which will take me 4 days.

The last week or so has been very pleasant, and a nice change from dull motels.

From Whakane I headed south, down to Hawkes bay, when I stayed with Roy, 'my first cousin once removed' and Jan. Roy last saw me when I was a baby, I've grown up a bit since then (physically at any rate). Hawkes bay has some very nice vineyards - I was taken to a concert at one of them, which was rather good, dancing amongst the vines has a certain novelty. The main town in the area is Napier, which was destroyed by a terrible earthquake and subsequent fire 75 years ago, and subsequently rebuilt in Art Deco style. I went on a tour that explained all the features, it is an interesting coincidence that I've been to the 2 best Art Deco towns (Miami Beach and Napier) on this trip. Napier has some scenic hills too, with very expensive property on them - it's not just London that has a property bubble! Thanks Roy and Jan again.

Leaving behind family comforts for a couple of days, I headed down to Martinborough (another vineyard area) stopping off (in the rain) at the Mount Bruce bird sanctuary, for a spot of feathered education, the Kaka parrots being particularly entertaining, being inquisitive and intelligent creatures.

My final stop in the North Island was the capital Wellington, and attractive city, as it has endless hills and bays, and also a very windy city (you can see the clouds racing over you). Robin and Mary (Tim Nicole's parents, Tim is another of the Vantis Numerica Kiwis) were my kind hosts, and looked after me very well (the photo of an angelic looking young Tim over my bed was a bit disturbing though!) While in Wellington, I also caught up with Tom Rainbird (yet another one of these Numerica Kiwis, the HR man who helped recruit me in the first place, for which he was sent back home to New Zealand in disgrace). Wellington has a really good museum Te Papa a hideous 60s designed goverment building (British architect Basil Spence) and lots of nice open space. I could easily have stayed longer...but the lure of the South Island couldn't be held back any more!!!!

Mike

Volcanoes, mudpools and geezers (sorry geysers)

Hello again
Quite a bit to catch on, so I'll try to be brief (hoorah I hear you say!)
After leaving the glowworms behind, I headed briefly southwest, where I visited New Plymouth (great view of Mount Taranaki) and Wanganui, where I had a nice ride on a steam paddlesteamer, followed by a lounge in the (bargain priced) motel pool to recover (it's a hard life).

Back on the road, I headed up to Taupo (in the middle of the north island). A very scenic drive, and exciting too with the steep mountain roads, followed by the bleak volcanic terrain around Tongariro (nearly running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere added a bit of extra spice!)

Lake Taupo is a massive volcanic crater, bigger than Singapore I am informed! Much of the scenery of the area was created by a massive volcanic explosion 1800 years ago, that was recorded in Rome and China. This part of NZ is very unstable, due to it being the boundary between 2 tectonic plates, the shifting of these plates causing numerous small earthquakes, hot mineral springs (which I happily lounged in), geothermal energy from the hot underwater source, and numerous geothermal sights.

Rotoroa nearby has even more of these geothermal wonders, with holes in the ground all over the place, bleching out hot sulphurous gases, and strangely coloured water, filled with minerals (arsenic!) - and yes, the place stinks as a result, that rotten egg smell everywhere! I spent several days exploring here, Waiotapu was the most spectacular, and has a wonderful pool of boiling mud (a bit reminiscent of Fraggle Rock someone suggested, though I can't remember!). Te Puia has the massive geyser, Pohuta, which blows water up to 20metres up, being well worth the one hour wait for it to go off. Yet, alnost next to these primeval looking scenes you can find thick forest, including a wonderful redwood forest, where you can lose yourself again.

Rotorua is very touristy, it's noticeable after coming from other less visited areas, wheremost of the tourists are us Brits!

Leaving Rotorua I headed briefly to Te Puke (which doesn't sound as rude as it looks) to tour a Kiwi Fruit farm, which was quite interesting, and visit a very good car collection, which houses a fine number of post war British cars, and a nice selction of old magazines to browse through, with many from the 60s and 70s. The highlight for me in the collection were the Ford Zephyrs, with all 4 four versions together, from the dumpy Mk1 of the mid 50s to the hideous Mk4 of the early 70s.

From there I headed to Whakatane (which does sound quite rude, the phonetic spelling would trigger the IT server censors!), where after being kept awake by a (tuneful) Polynesian sing song at 2 in the morning, I was not a happy bunny.......In fact I ended up calling the local council noise patrol, which did the trick, and nobody slashed my tyres as a result, so no hard feelings!

Mike