These 2 and others on the farm wake us up every morning at 5.30am!!!

Hi today we visited the Stratford Pioneers Museum. In the grounds are actual buildings that the first Europeans built in the 1860s. Each building has been taken from its surroundings and rebuilt exactly as it was to make a pioneers town.(A bit like St Fagans museum in Wales).

As you see from our pictures we enjoyed ourselves! In the school house, rules for teachers’ employment were on display. They were so harsh to live by!

After this we went along the Forgotten Highway for about 25 miles. It is an experience! There are 4 natural saddles dividing the rivers and their hill formations and the road twists up and down and around them. It is all farm land and hardly any cars passed us all the time we were driving along.

The clouds lifted by 1pm and we went back to Stratfoed and then to our motel to do our washing!

Our loving  thoughts are with Trevor Alex and the all Forbes family  today. May Hyacinth rest in peace.xxxxx We feel so much part of your lovely family Trevorxx

We left Hawera and travelled along the coast north to New Plymouth. This stretch of the road is called Surf Highway 45. It is a lovely road between the coastal landscape and the mount Egmont national park. ie the volcano area of Taranaki.

First stop was a coastguard look out and we got chatting to a New Zealander and putting the world to rights!

Next stop was at the Cape Egmont Lighthouse. Both these view points had fab views over the Tasmin sea. There were high waves due to the tail end of the hurricane which hit and has reached NZ with humid air.

Loved photographs of the lighthouse with the volcano behind!

All the teletubby bumps are unique to this whole area and are rocks which flew out from the volcano and have been covered with grass.

we stopped at various views along the coast and inland at Lucy’s Gully.

When we reached New Plymouth we had fun photo’ing a mirrored building with our reflections in it. There is a clock tower which features a glockenspiel and a balcony and 4 times a day it enacts the Shakespeare  Romeo and Juliette scene!

On the way back we followed the highway 3 and it took us an hour to get back to the motel.

Today has been hot with blue skies and loads of white and fluffy clouds.

Happy birthday Blandine the hour differences confuse me but I think I got the right time for you xxxxx

The back view of the Taranaki volcano! love it !!!

 

The sunrise was pretty this morning and when we set out the sky was blue with a few clouds. As the day progressed it got overcast and cooler 19c. It rained slightly and was  a bit humid.

We travelled up to Lake Rotoramgi, it is about 25 miles away from our motel. The road takes you up into sandstone and silver mud hills. They are steep at times with sheer drops and also large bumpy hillocks. Like Hobbit land!  Or Otis like Tele tubby land!

The lake is completely protected from predators by secure wire fences totally enclosing and surrounding this huge natural area of bog land wetlands. Traps are set for rats, feral cats, hedgehogs possums and stoats; all these rodents were introduced by Europeans in the 19th century. they have multiplied and killed off most of the native birds and kiwis.

Well we walked all around the lake in the bog land forest, very similar to the rain forest but without sand flies, only a few biting insects. the walk took us one and a half hours and I  found it hard going, but was proud I finished it. I was hot and red faced when I got back to the car.

We took photos of the river further along and saw sheep dog trials in action. In another area a group of men were shooting game.  This was along the high Mangamingi Saddle.

After lunch in the nearby town we decided to see the volcano, it is so mesmerising!

It was mostly covered with cloud today, but just as beautiful. We visited the visitors centre. the last time this volcano Mount Egmont was active was 1666. one day it will spew out ash and lava again. it is only sleeping for now.

Lots of love to our grand children, Anona Lilyana Louis and Otis xxx

lily I have sent you a photo on skype!

These were the words that greeted us as we came to the volcano area.

We woke up to this view this morning before leaving

The journey to hawera was 3 hours through lovely hills and gorges and rivers running through valleys. It looked like hobbit land but I will take photos of this another day!

We passed beautiful surf beaches too.

at Hawera we found the annual procession of American cars and quickly stopped to watch the parade and wander through the streets looking at all the fantastic vintage cars. 

This is our first pictures of the volcano..its lush!

And lastly looking down from the volcano xxxx

Hi 

we arrived in Auckland Airport with no hitches and then we’ve travelled for 4 hours to a stop over motel ,tomorrow we travel on to the volcano area of Taranaki where we will stay for at least one week to Hawera.

we are  a bit tired so one week in Hawera will do us good and we may stay there all the time if we like the area.

Hope you are all ok. Thinking of you mum and dad xxx

view from air over acres of vineyards South Island

We were sad to leave Kaikoura this morning! But our journey continues…

We followed the scenic Pacific triangle route as far as Rotheram and then headed to Christchurch. It is a pretty route and the weather today is hot with blue skies and whispy clouds.

We are sitting in a coffee shop in Christchurch and will pick up Grandads card in a minute Louis, how exciting!

Will write more tonight xxxx

We are in Quality Hotel Elms tonight and celebrating Grandads birthday,

Grandad opening his card from Louis xxx

It is VERY hot today got to get up early tomorrow to return car to the hire cars at airport for 8.30am. North Island here we come xxx

I am missing you all very much and worrying about Trevor and Alex for Monday. Just imagine I have my arms round you both to keep your courage up on the sad parts of the day and try to enjoy the happy bits with family and friends. It will all work through ok ..thinking of you xxxxx

 

Well today is our last full day in this area and we headed north along the coast to see our favourite viewing spot of the seals. When we saw the seals, this time the Dolphins came in quite close! I was making a little video of the seals for Lily Louis and Otis (and for Anona and everyone else of course) and so I managed to video the Dolphins too. See I was in the right place at the right time.

We went up as far as the vineyards at Ward and were amazed how many acres of vines there were in every direction over the hill sides.

Back at the motel we are throwing excess baggage away ready for the flight to North island. It’s amazing how much we have to throw out!

here hopefully are the photos of the west coast storm never to be repeated in my lifetime I hope! Xxxx

This is Roaring Billy,normally a little trickle onto a broad dry gravel river bed not a violent river we saw after the storm.

This river was swollen and very fast flowing you wouldn’t stand a chance if you fell in it, again normally it is much smaller and calmer . We thought all the waterfalls we saw ll along the mountains in the gorge were mind-blowingly full and beautiful,

can you see how close the water is to the roads as it finds its way down to the river.

After we took these photos the rain got worse and worse and carried on for another 48 hours. we were pleased to leave Haast to go to Greymouth, but travelled in torrential rain all the way to Greymouth.

We went whale watching with Kaikoura Whale Watching today.

We saw 2 sperm whales seals sea birds, a shark and loads of dolphins.

Look at my photos…..

This is the first sperm whale we saw

 

This is the other one and we had to wait for a while for it to come up from the bottom of the ocean, it was so close to the boat and a giant!!!

Nr the harbour we saw a large pod of dolphins.

we saw many dolphins under and around our boat

Ths is the shark they said it was either a shark or a merlin.

What a fab morning xxxxx

Today was a fun day. We followed the road north up the coast from Kaikauro. The mountains meet the sea all round here and the road and railway track follow the coast. The first turn off the road as so exciting. dolphins were jumping the waves and a whale was off shore’ On the rocks in front of us were many fur seals. The babies were moving so fast over the rocks and the adults were sunbathing. Seals were playing in the water and there was a large rock pool where baby seals were swimming. We got loads of photos to show you one day! The penguins are around there too but again we didn’t see any.

As we travelled along the road we saw seals all along the coast on the rocks and in the sea swimming. There must be plenty of fish out there!

At our second stop just as  was getting out of the car, I looked out to sea and a dolphin jumped right out of the water horizontally, did a twirl and dived back into the sea. Unbelievable!

In the afternoon we travelled back along te beautiful Alpine Pacific Triangle route.

We had time to stop and admire the views …so pretty.

It is our anniversary today. 46 YEARS AGO WE BOTH WENT TO OUR FRIENDS PARTY AND GOT CHATTING, THEN DAD WALKED ME HOME AND WEVE BEEN TOGETHER EVER SINCEXXXX 

We are now at Kaikoura on the beautiful East Coast of south Island and by the south pacific ocean which looks vivid blue.

We left damp drizzly Greymouth and travelled over the Lewis Pass. As you can see from my photos the skies changed from grey to blue and hot with sunshine. THANK GOODNESS to be away from that rain. I’ll never complain about UK rain again we don’t understand what rain is!!!!!

The pass was picturesque, like being in the Alps and Austria. My photos don’t do it justice. There were forests and rivers in beautiful valleys, hairpin bends and steep drops. The roads were safe and because we had no rain we could relax and enjoy all the prettiness.

We went over  limestone outcrops and rock formations. The road followed the gold trail passing thermal springs and through gorges.We were on  the Alpine Pacific Triangle route.

We saw birds of prey and saw pukeko birds vivid 2 tone blue with a red head and beak. One bird had 2 tiny chicks with her…so sweet

Love to you all xxxx