I have to be honest – we’re not in love with our latest hostel. After the high of the Old Slaughterhouse, we had high expectations of this new hostel, because of the high rating it has in the guide book. But sadly our expectations were dashed when we got here. It’s a lovely house, with […]
Read more "The Innlet Hostel"As always, it was time to leave. After four nights we’d become very attached to the hostel, it’s owner David, and had made great friends with Linda and Brigitte, a couple of German-speakers staying there. But all good things come to an end, and we had to move up the coast towards our ferry connection […]
Read more "To Golden Bay"As a result of being set in the bush, the Old Slaughterhouse is a bit different. For a start, it’s entirely constructed of wood, which was carried up the hill by helicopter. The water comes from the stream behind the hostel, rather than from a water pipe. And there’s no mains electricity, because the cost […]
Read more "Hydro-electric power, Sandflies and Sunsets"After yesterday’s quiet day, we woke to find the weather sunny, and great to be outside in. After walking down to the car, we drove to Charming Creek, which is only two miles away. This is a river valley, with an old coal mine railway running up it. For the first mile it was good […]
Read more "Blowing out the cobwebs"We’re now in our 5th hostel in New Zealand – the Old Slaughterhouse, in Hector. It’s almost as far up the West Coast as you can go, just above Westport, where everybody turns off to reach the rest of the island. Its much quieter up here than elsewhere, because the only reason to drive past […]
Read more "The Old Slaughterhouse Hostel, Hector"After breakfast we all piled back in the car and drove down the other side of the Southern Alps. Arthurs Pass is the key pass through the middle of the range, and connects the East coast (where we’ve been) to the West coast. At the sea we turned right, and headed up north, towards the […]
Read more "Long distances…"Having left Australia behind, we thought we’d waved goodbye to the long car journeys. But no – we’ve discovered that New Zealand is bigger than it looks on a map (its amazing isn’t it, I studied Geography at school, I even got an O-level, but I still seem totally incapable of looking at the scale […]
Read more "Arthur’s Pass"From our hostel we drove across to Mount Cook. We’d been expecting to see snow-capped mountains, as we’d had a peek of them on our drive yesterday. But we hadn’t expected to get this view – a stunning blue lake, a cloudless sky, and in the distance Mount Cook dropping down to lake level. The […]
Read more "A day in the mountains"Well, despite the rustic nature of the hostel, the girls were torn to leave. We all started the day with breakfast and a shower – you can see the shower cubicle above, which isn’t exactly luxurious, but out of the window (well, hole in the wall the size of a window) you can see all the […]
Read more "Moving on, leaving in tears…"The spookiest thing happened today. Tom, the hostel manager, turned up with the old Visitors Books from the hostel, and we found our original comment in the book from February 1994. That in itself would have been fantastic (hey, I got it right when I said “the night in the huts will be a memory […]
Read more "Life at the hostel…"We’re now in Akaroa, a small town on the Banks Peninsula, a two hour drive from Christchurch. It’s a weird place, because it’s a ‘french’ town – there are French flags flying from the church and town hall, and a very French feel to the town. I guess that a while ago it became the […]
Read more "Onuku Farm Hostel"As with every country we’ve visited, we had to do some research to find the most economical and practical way to get around. In Canada we had a fortnight of public transport, and a fortnight of car hire; in the States it was only practical to hire a car for the month; Fiji was travelled […]
Read more "Getting around New Zealand"One of the key attractions in Christchurch is the International Antarctica Visitor Centre, a cross between an amusement park and a museum. Christchurch is the home base to the New Zealand, American and Italian Antarctica teams, and houses all of the special aircraft used to fly people and stuff to the ice bases. The Visitor […]
Read more "Life in the freezer!"This is a spooky place – not only do we feel like we’re in the past, in a city themed on the mid-20th century, but we also feel that its been created to make you feel as if you’re somewhere else. Today, on our way to the art gallery and museum, we passed chaps providing […]
Read more "Deja Vu all over again"Even though the world scientific community won’t admit it, it’s definitely possible to travel through time. Take the trip from Australia to New Zealand which we undertook today. For a start you cross two time zones, as Sydney is 11 hours ahead of GMT, and Christchurch is 13 hours ahead. And a three hour flight […]
Read more "Time Travel"