Christchurch to Brisbane to Singapore

A Singapore Sling - 26 dollars. Jim wouldn't let me have a second!

Raffles!


This sculpture was being made with the above plastic beakers.

Merlion Park.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

The day's journey from Christchurch took 24 hours from getting up to going to bed again. We lost 3 hours in the journey to Brisbane where we met Bill and Jill, our exchangees in October. I had bought a book in the airport in Singapore but had finished it while waiting for our connection in Brisbane where I bought another. The Captain on the flight to Singapore could not get the in-flight entertainment to work so I had my book finished a good 2 hours before our arrival (I was wodering if I could claim the cost of the books from Qantas, after all I had to buy my own in-flight entertainment and it was supposed to be part of the air fare!). I then spent the time building cities on my phone- there were some rather shaky tower blocks but I put that down to turbulence during the flight. Jim normally watches the flight information re distance, air conditions etc so it was fortunate that he had bought a crossword book.

Singapore is beautifully lit up for Christmas we discovered during our taxi trip from airport to hotel. It is a city and I have not yet discovered a city that I really like. We spent yesterday touring for want of a better word (going round in circles, with Jim again disproving his belief that he has a good sense of direction and that he is good at map-reading! I, at least, realise that I am useless at this). A hop on hop off bus had been recommended but it had little in the way of commentary so I know little more than I did before I arrived here. We hopped off for a quick tour of the Botanic Gardens - impressive if you had time to explore. It was interesting to see the number of people who begin their day with Tai Chi at the gardens - just like in Vietnam. We might make our way to the Gardens again today if the weather is kind - that means not raining but still around the early 30s and high humidity (not really kind but I suppose kinder than the weather at home!). We hopped off again at the Singapore Flyer (big wheel), simply because we would have had to wait 5 minutes on the bus, not because we were inclined to see the city from the air and in the process get air sick!. We made our way through streets full of construction of one sort or the other to Merlion Park for some photos and a coffee and it was downhill from there - not literally, but getting lost and wandering about without a clue where to hop on again does not appeal to me! The afternoon found us sipping Singapore Slings in Raffles - that was less frustrating than getting lost again. Then the heavens opened for the rest of the day!

Today we will endeavour to appreciate some more of what Singapore has to offer before we begin the long trip home. We will be transferred to the airport at 8pm for flight just before 11pm. This will be a 13/14 hour flight to Frankfurt where we have about 5 hours before our connection to Dublin where Brian will meet us and ferry us home. We expect it will be picture and no sound until well into Sunday so don't tempt fate or you might be snarled at! After that we hope to get into the Christmas spirit in conditions less incongruous than in New Zealand or Singapore.

Any final photos will be posted after we get home - if Christmas preparations allow!

As you can see, pictures have been added!

Queenstown to Dunedin to Oamaru to Timaru to Banks Peninsula to Christchurch

En route to see Albatrosses.

Nesting Albatross.

Stewart Island shags. They come in 2 varieties - all black and black and white. The black and white ones are often mistaken for penguins.


The boulders on the beach at Moeraki - they are spherical and formed by the same process as pearls.
If you look really closely you will see our Yellow-Eyed Penguin.

Strange rocks at the side of the road where we were to see Maori drawings. Unfortunately we couldn't get up close enough as there had been a recent rock fall.




Views en route to Mount Cook.

The Church of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo - it was hard to get a view without the swarms of cliucking ((interesting spelling there - thought I would leave it!) Japanese.

The view past the altar.

En route to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula.

A Pohutukawa tree in full bloom in Akaroa Harbour - this tree blossoms for Christmas in both New Zealand and Australia so they call it the Christmas tree.

Seagull posing at Akaroa.


Views of the Banks Peninsula.

The last few days have involved a lot of travel as we try to see as much as possible in our last days in New Zealand. After a brief stop in Dunedin we toured the Otago Peninsula going as far as Taiaroa Head to the Royal Albatross Centre where, unfortunately, we did not see any flying albatrosses but we did see 4 of 27 who are nesting. It seems, once there is an egg, one parent incubates the egg and the other goes to sea to feed for 4 or 5 days. Then they change roles and the other albatross can go to sea. One nesting albatross was very unfortunate as her mate left her for 14 days only returning on the 15th. This posed quite a dilemma for the rangers who did not want the nesting albatross to die of hunger but were reluctant to interfere with nature. However, all is well.

On to Oamaru where we decided to spend a few hours in the evening watching Blue (Little/Fairy) Penguins returning home after their day at sea. Before that we went to Cape Wanbrow in the hope of seeing a Yellow-Eyed Penguin, the 3rd largest penguin in the world and the most unsociable. Yellow eyed Penguins return to their homes a few hours before dusk so it is possible to see them in daylight as long as they don't see you. We watched one for quite a while but it was a good distance away and it was not possible to capture the yellow eyes on camera. The Blue Penguins were very entertaining and very noisy but we were not allowed to take photos - sorry Mairead! They come in on a wave and clamber up the rocks, many falling in the attempt. After fluffing their feathers, shaking their heads and holding their arms out from their bodies, all the time seemingly gossiping about their day, they come up as far as the track, appear to observe the safe cross code by looking right and left, and scuttle hurriedly to their nests. We saw about 100 of them. We were warned that some of them wander and are attracted to the spaces under parked cars, so we were to make as much noise as possible getting into the car - you should have seen Jim flapping his arms and shaking his head and ruffling the last few wisps of hair that are still clinging bravely to his scalp!

The next day we travelled from Oamaru to Mount Cook, via Oamarama and Twizel, on to Lake Tekapo and then to Timaru - very scenic even when there were clouds. Today we made our way to Christchurch via the Banks Peninsula. We lunched at Akaroa Bay in temperatures of around 26! Tomorrow we are going into Christchurch to see the effects of the earthquake and whatever else is to be seen. Then it's Singapore for 2 days before we make our way home to arrive in Dublin on the 18th.

Lazy days in the sun

Tussock - the native grass that is being reintroduces everywhere.

The Cardrona road home - a great place for skiing seemingly.

Christmas decorations!

Lake Wanaka with its Christmas tree to the left.

At the local public convenience!


How many legs do you see?

How many animals can you see?

We were actually looking for the Green Corner!


Where exactly is that Green Corner?

Little Santa's Helper!

The Leaning Tower of Wanaka.


The scenery!

Had a trip to Wanaka, on Wednesday, along a different route for more beautiful scenery and a visit to Puzzling World - good fun. Spent more than an hour in a maze searching for corners, had a picnic on Lake Wanaka and spent the evening mopping up the damage from a leak in the house. In fact have spent many hours on this leak!! Today wrote Christmas cards on the balcony in blazing sun - what a sight, wearing a sunhat while writing Christmas cards. Walked along the lake listening to recordings of "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" - incongruous or what! Visited The Kiwi Centre to see more protected species and to watch a kiwi feeding - I love kiwis! I love Tuis/Parson Birds! I love New Zealand!

Wilderness Safari in Mount Aspiring National Park.

One of the many huge rocks in the river which our expert driver narrowly avoided as we screamed in terror!
A brief lull before we spun off again.


The view from inside a 900 year old red beech.

Inside the red beech.
The river bed of the Dart over which we bumped.

The road to Paradise.

OUr 4WD terrain.
Pig Island in front and Pigeon Island behind - islands in Lake Wakatipu.


Views on the journey to Glenorchy.


We have had a most exciting day! We woke to a beautiful bright morning - this had not been forecast - and decided to take advantage of the weather by doing a safari in Mount Aspiring National Park. This involved a coach journey around the west of Lake Wakatipu as far as Glenorchy - a beautiful journey on a beautiful day as you can see from the photos. At Glenorchy we boarded our 4WD safari vehicle for our very bumpy tour over dirt tracks and the Dart river bed. All of this is in the area where many scenes from Lord of the Rings were
shot as well as many, many other films and TV ads. The inhabitants of Paradise make their living from the films etc. shot in the area. We then had a guided walk through ancient native Beech forest, where Jim and others couldn't resist getting into a tree. Finally, the highlight of the day - our jet boat jouney through the (ever-changing, we were told) shallow channels of the glacier fed Dart River back into Lake Wakatipu. This was, as the brochure said, complete with thrilling jet spins. When the driver signalled a spin we had to brace ourselves and hold on tight - I didn't have a hand left to stifle the screams so I just screamed. At one stage I had closed my eyes and opened them to see a wall of water that seemed about to engulf me but I'm still here to tell the tale! We had about 2 hours of this hair-raising adventure. Talking about hair, I have to prepare Brian and Carol for the spectacle of an almost bald Dad. The few he had on the top of his head are blowing in the wind and he is left with a few tufts around the ears which bravely hung on. I had an interesting Jedward-like style at the end but it gradually subsided to simply a very bad hair day. It was an amazing experience - the jet boating in itself - but the most fantastic thing was the spectacular scenery in which it took place. We are still deciding which day we preferred - today on the Dart or yesterday in Milford Sound.

To keep up this type of excitement I suppose we will have to do a bungee jump or a sky dive. Kathleen would probably recoomend a sky dive!