Renaissance Pale Ale

The Sawmill Pale Ale

Monteith’s Radler bier

Speight’s Distinction

Swine lager

Tui

Mac’s Gold lager

Mac’s Sassy Red

Mac’s Hop Rocker

Stoke Amber

Steinlager

Winnie’s Pale Ale

Monteith’s Original

Emerson’s Bookbinder

Emerson’s 1812 Pale Ale

Mac’s Great White

Tuatara

Three Boys Porter

Monteiths Gold

Monteiths Summer Ale

Moa

Fiordland Pilsner

And the winner is: Mac’s Sassy Red, with honourable mentions for Emersons and Renaissance.

Lake Tekapo —> Kaikoura

Went on a whale-watching trip.  Didn’t see any.  Got refund.

Kaikoura –> Hanmer Springs

Spent whale-watching refund on thermal spa.  Soaked in hot water all day.

Hanmer Springs –> Christchurch

Went to wildlife park on the understanding that they had pavlova there.  They didn’t.  Went to different wildlife park.  Saw kiwis! 

Did a parkrun.  Returned Ivor the campervan.  Was emotional at having to return Ivor.  He served us well.   

Christchurch –> Auckland

Search for pavlova.  Only find it as part of three-course meal for $70: screw that. Do parkrun. 

Auckland–> Santiago de Chile

South America: here we come!

Later that day we drive to Lake Tekapo.  This is pretty much the middle of nowhere, which makes it a good spot for an observatory.  If you live in London and then come to NZ, you will be amazed by how many stars you can see.  So we signed up for a tour of the observatory where you get shown around the night sky and get to have a go on some of the big telescopes.  The observatory in top of a mountain so it’s chilly by night, but they provide you with enormous padded jackets to keep you warm.

It was meant to be cloudy, but we were very  lucky as it cleared just at the perfect time and visibility was great.  There was no moon, which was good as to an astronomer the moon is just light pollution.  We could clearly see the Milky Way and through the telescopes we got good views of Mars and Saturn.  Astronomy is a pretty mind-blowing subject and we were well and truly impressed by some awesome statistics about the number, distance and size of stars that I immediately forgot, but which were very impressive at the time.

More pictures from Mt Cook on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

Apart from that, it was a nice run.  That big lump in the front of the shot is a slumbering sea-lion.

Mr Beet has declared that he will consider his NZ holiday a failure if he does not see a wild penguin, so we have come here specifically to try to spot some endangered yellow-eyed penguins.  We arrive at a couple of hours before sunset, which is penguin o’clock.  We are in luck as we spot a couple coming ashore.  We also see some seals lolling on the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs.

The next day we drive on through Dunedin to the Otago Peninsula, another wildlife hotspot.  Here we see many more penguins and we also get to share the beaches with some great big sleepy sea-lions.

More pictures of the Catlins and the Otago Peninsula on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

For the first time, I have a go at sitting in the back, which means that I am responsible for steering and Mr Beet is responsible for photos.  This role reversal leads to a bit of “front-seat” driving, as Mr Beet keeps telling me to go left or right, and I keep telling him to take photos of things.  The winds make everything a bit like hard work, so we can’t go too far out towards the sea.  We spend most of the time trying to stay close to the edge and sheltered from the winds, but occasionally we need to cross a body of water.  This involves digging very deep and paddling like demons.  But on the bright side, it does mean that on the way back, we can just sit there and let the wind blow us home.

More pictures from Milford Sound on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

We arrived in Queenstown over Easter, which meant an early morning sugar-high before we’d even had our regulation shot of adrenaline. 

I will use the universally understood Nando’s scale for describing how adrenaline-filled our activities in Queenstown were. In order to manage expectations, I will remind you that earlier that week I had balked at jumping 5m into a river. Therefore, you can rest assured that I did not venture into the realms of “extra-hot” i.e. sky-diving, bungy-jumping etc.

1.  Jet-boat ride (medium)

The famous Shotover Jetboat takes you at ridiculously high speeds through a narrow gorge. At some points you feel like you could lean over and kiss the rock. Just when you are getting used to that, the driver gives you the signal to hold on and spins the boat 360 degrees, soaking everyone. Great fun.

2.  Luge (medium)

We went on the luge in Rotorua and it was good fun, so we did it again in Queenstown. Only this time we raced each other. Mr Beet pretty much thrashed me 5-1, but it wasn’t for want of effort on my part. I kept going up on two wheels and crashing into the barriers – I still have a big bruise on my hip.

3. Mini-golf (Lemon and herb)

A close match, as the golfing incompetence was evenly divided between me and Mr Beet. You can see him sinking a shot here, and in the end he just edged it 103 to 104.

4. Paragliding (Hot)

I’ve tried paragliding before, and it was fun but did involve me being dragged along the South Downs on my face.  Fortunately, I avoided that fate in Queenstown, with a very smooth take-off and landing.   Here’s a video of me doing some spins and coming in to land.  Apparently my landing problem last time was due to my not running enough on landing (I maintain that it was not my fault as my feet weren’t touching the ground so how could I run?), so this time you can see I was running for my life and the pilot has to tell me – stop, it’s not a marathon! 

5. Via ferrata (Hot)

The steepest and most challenging via ferrata that we have done.   The climbing sections were tricky in places with a couple of overhangs and some pretty long abseils to get back down again.  I wasn’t really nervous at any point, but the guide seemed convinced that I was and kept talking me through things gently and then saying that he could tell I was a bit nervous about that bit. I obviously have a nervous-looking face, whereas Mr Beet looks like a climbing ninja. 

More photos from Queenstown on Mr Beet’s flickr page. You’ll be tired just looking at them.

Unfortunately, on the day we went it looked like this:

However, views or no views, a couple of laps of the lake were still good for a parkrun.

Re the leggings: it was not cold, they were an anti-sandfly precaution.

To get a closer look, we booked a full-day trip on the Fox Glacier. This involved hiking up to the face of the glacier, then donning crampons and ice-poles to venture out onto the ice itself.

As you can see, it doesn’t look much from this distance. It’s a lot bigger than it looks, as much of it is covered in dirt and rock so doesn’t look like part of the glacier.

It’s much prettier once you actually get on the ice. This is Mr Beet and me in a moulin (technical term for big hole). The big holes are one of the many reason why you aren’t allowed on without a guide.

It quite tiring walking on the ice and trying to stay upright. This is Mr Beet modelling his crampons and walking pole.

To make the ice more navigable, the guide sometimes carves steps for us with her ice-axe.

Misuse of the ice-axe.

Pretty, pretty ice.

More pictures of ice on Mr Beet’s flickr page. 

After a sleepless night (for Mr Beet – I slept like a log), the next morning we were waiting by the side of the road to be met by our instructor.  As we were waiting, this song came on the radio.  Before we knew it, we were suited, booted and life jacketted and ready to ride the rapids.

The Buller Gorge is a very pretty stretch of grade 3+ rapids.  The instructor knew that Mr Beet was not keen (the tourist information woman had told him, plus Mr Beet was looking a bit green), so he thoughtfully tailored our trip so that he told us to hunker down on the floor of the boat when we went over anything too big.  It was still very fun, very wet and very bumpy, but there was little risk of either of us falling in from this position.  After the first couple of rapids were over, Mr Beet had completely settled in and he really enjoyed the trip from then onwards.

At one point, we had the option of hopping out of the boat and swimming down a set of rapids.  As much as he was now enjoying himself, this was a step too far for Mr Beet.  I hopped in and, to the sound of the instructor saying “just hold your breath” and Mr Beet saying “I don’t think this is covered on our insurance“, I was swept into a washing-machine-like rapid.  To say that I was swimming would be a downright lie, I was just trying to keep myself pointed in the right direction.  It was a real thrill, but I couldn’t breathe at all so I was glad it was all over in about ten seconds.  Before I knew where I was, Mr Beet had hauled me back in the boat and I was stuck face downwards with my legs in the air.  Once I had righted myself, we had another few rapids to negotiate.  We stopped off at a point where you can, if you so choose, jump off a 5m high rock into the river.  I had a look and decided that, on this occasion, I did not so choose, and got back in the raft!

More pictures on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

I try to keep this blog as uneducational as possible, but I guess I should tell you that Abel Tasman was the Dutch explorer who was the first European to discover New Zealand in 1642.  He also discovered Tasmania, as you might have guessed.  A stretch of the coast at the top of the South Island is named after him, and is a beautiful place for a spot for sea kayaking.  At the kayaking company’s office we all got into the big boat that was going to drive us up the coast.  The boat was then towed by a tractor along the road and out onto the sands until the water was deep enough for it to be launched.

We did a quick tour of the famous Split Apple Rock and then it was straight up the coast to Onetahuti Beach.

We would then spend the day kayaking back down the coast to where we started.  It was a bit windy and wavey so our guide took us through all the advice about how not to get capsized, and what to do if you are capsized (get out of kayak quick-smart).  But then when we actually launched off the wind died right down and it turned into a  perfect calm day.  Clear turquoise waters, sandy coves, lunch at the idyllic (and, thanks to its name, deserted) Mosquito Bay, a trip over to Pinnacle Island to visit the seals and as many biscuits as we could eat (Mr Beet was biscuit monitor).

More pictures on Mr Beet’s flickr page.   

The next day we took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens overlooking the city.

From there, we walked to Zealandia. This is a protected wildlife reserve, mainly for the benefit of endangered bird species like kiwis (which we didn’t see as they are nocturnal). It is a beautiful place, and we saw lots of birds like the takahe, a big friendly peacock-blue bird, and the tui (which I re-named the artui-deetui because of all the clicks and whistles it made). As well as birds we saw a couple of tuataras; lizards that are called “living dinosaurs” because they have remained evolutionarily unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years.

After an evening of Mr Beet diligently researching his beer chronicles, we got up early the next morning to catch the ferry to the South Island.

More pictures from Wellington are on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

Now for the fun bit. After a couple of high-speed spins in the jet boat, Mr Beet and I get dropped off on the riverside 10km from our starting point. The rest of the passengers wave as they get spirited away, leaving Mr Beet and me to figure out our two-person Canadian canoe. It’s good fun, but the wind is strong and we are paddling against it so we have to work hard. We even manage to successfully navigate the “50/50″ rapids, so-called because half the canoeists take a bath there.

Apart from canoeing, we have little to report from Whanganui. Our only other entertainment was watching huge birds of prey eat roadkill possums and playing on our campsite trampoline.

More pictures of Whanganui on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

We get up at 6am and get a bus to the start of the hike to start at 7.30am.  The sun has yet to get over the top of the mountains so it is pretty chilly; it’s gloves, hat and (in the absence of a proper jacket) five layers of clothing temperature.  We start right at the bottom of Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom), a perfect symmetrical volcano with a reddish hue.  We then cross through one huge crater, and trace the ridge along another.  At the top of the ridge we find a cosy spot near (but not too near) one of the steaming hot-spots, eat our lunch and take in the views across the Blue Lake and the Emerald Lakes.  It’s pretty easy to tell them apart, their names are very apt.  We then slide down the scree slopes (I end up on my bum more than once) to walk around the lakes and to the far side of Mout Tongariro.  The sun is hitting these slopes and at the lower altitudes the alpine meadows look glorious after the barren volcanic landscape we’ve just trekked through.  We figure that we can make the early bus if we put our foot down for the last couple of hours, so we are suitably exhausted by the end of the trek.

More photos are on Mr Beet’s flickr page. 

In our position by the lake, we can see the sea-plane taking off and landing on the water. Eventually the temptation proves too much and we wander down to the lakeside to enquire about having a go. Within minutes (during which time we eavesdrop on the pilot telling someone over the phone that his previous passenger was nearly sick) we are in the plane. I give the pre-flight safety briefing more attention than I ever have before. The take-off is actually very smooth, although it is strange to be able to feel the waves underneath you as you taxi around. We take a ten-minute scenic flight over Lake Taupo, the “Craters of the Moon” (a geothermal area with big steamy craters) and the magnificently turquoise Huka Falls. Well worth every penny (and it was quite a lot of pennies).

The next day, our planned kayak trip on the lake is cancelled due to high winds. So we entertain ourselves by watching lunatics throw themselves off a cliff at Taupo Bungee. And I find yet more hot springs to splash about in, although I don’t persuade Mr Beet to join me.

More photos of Taupo on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

There are literally steaming ponds and bubbling mud pools just dotted around the town, but the most impressive is the Pohutu Geyser, which obligingly did its thing just as we were watching from Te Whakarewarewa, a Maori village cum tourist attraction where they show you their traditional lifestyle among the thermal pools.  I suppose that after a while they got used to the smell.

Later we took a cable car, which gave us great views over Lake Rotorua on a beautiful day. Then we got to luge back down the hill in little buggies. This was kids’ stuff really, not very entertaining for us sophisticated grown-ups. But as you can see, I made a good show of pretending to enjoy myself.

More photos on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

The hot spots are not everywhere on the beach, so you have to push your feet around in the sand until you find a warm place, and that’s where you dig.  You need to be careful because in some places the water is about 80 degrees, which would mean tourist soup if you made yourself a pool there.  Soon, the little area on the beach with all the warm spots was a hive of activity.

The tide is going out as we dig; our first few efforts are destroyed by big waves, but soon the tide is far enough out for us to construct a little pool for long enough for it to fill with warm water.  I hopped in and enjoyed a soak.  Mr Beet just kept on digging.  He was having more fun digging the holes than anything else.  He was reinforcing our pool, helping other people with theirs, and he even built a secondary pool in front of ours to act as a barrier.  People kept coming along the beach and thinking – aha, free pool, I will nab that – but more fool them as the secondary pool was full of scorching water.  After just a couple of hours, the tide started to turn back and we had to abandon our little spa.

After another horrendously stormy night, we woke up to a beautiful morning, perfect for a stroll along to the scenic Cathedral Cove.

More photos on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

We then continue up the East Coast to our first campsite in Tutukaka.  Our first night in the van is marked by sausages and mash cooked in the campsite kitchen and an episode of Doctor Who on our campervan dvd player. I could get used to campervanning.

The next morning we head off on a cruise to the Poor Knights Islands.  We pop in for a snorkel, as the Islands are in a marine reserve and the waters are teeming with fish.  It is pretty chilly, so I only last about three minutes.  Mr Beet braves it for a bit longer.  Then we have a nice lunch on the boat, cruise round the islands looking at big caves and rock arches, and finally head back to shore soaking up the sun that has belatedly decided to put in an appearance.

The next day we further up the coast. The weather is good so we stop off along the way at anywhere that looks nice, including some gorgeous beaches at Matapouri Bay and Whale Bay.

Our ultimate destination is Waitangi.  This is where the treaties between the Maori and the British settlers were signed.  We took a tour of the museum and the treaty grounds, and we also see a Maori cultural performance.  Unfortunately, this involves audience participation.  I try my hand at a poi dance and Colin gets to do the haka.  The first thing he has to master is the “big-eyes-tongue-sticking-out” expression that is used to intimidate the enemy.  Of course, being a child of the 80s, he is already well-practised in this thanks to Wacaday and Mallet’s Mallet (look at each other and go “bleurrrrgh!“).

The following day we are undecided whether to go for Plan A: kayaking in the Bay of Islands or Plan B: sandboarding.  However, after a night spent being buffeted in the back of our van by strong winds and heavy rain we decide that we need a Plan C.  Plan C is to drive up to the Northernmost tip of NZ at Cape Reinga, where we can see the Tasman Sea meet the Pacific Ocean.  It is by all accounts a pretty wuthering sort of place anyway, so bas weather shouldn’t make too much difference.  We head off north through torrential rain, only to be stopped in our tracks after about an hour’s drive by flooded roads. Plan C duly scrapped, we decide that Plan D will be to head south to get as far as we can in the direction of our next destination, the Coromandel Peninsula. We head back to Waitangi, and about an hour south of there, we get stopped by flooded roads again. Plan E is to return to the campsite that we just left, eat some fish and chips, watch another Doctor Who and try again tomorrow.

More photos can be found on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

First stop was the national museum.  New Zealand doesn’t have a lot of history, but it does have a lot of natural history and the natural history floor was definitely the best.  They had a huge skeleton of a moa – an extinct ostrich-like bird that was 3m tall, and also some pretty big model penguins.

There was also a good exhibition about volcanos, because NZ is all volcanic.  There is a simulator you go in where you are supposed to be in a house in Auckland harbour and you can see a volcano erupting.  The house starts shaking and on the screen you see the whole city being completely levelled.  Then a man comes on TV and tells you to be prepared for volcanos.  The whole city has just been annihilated – I don’t think that having plenty of spare batteries and drinking water would have helped in this instance.

Across the park from the museum there is also a very pretty winter garden.

It’s a nice walk through parks into the city and we pop into the art gallery.

On our second day we get a ferry across Auckland harbour to the small volcanic island of Rangitoto. It’s a one hour climb up to the crater, for great views back over the city. It’s funny to see people who have obviously come to NZ for a walking holiday tackle the one-hour climb with walking boots and poles, being overtaken by small children in flip-flops.

We decide to take the long route back down and around the island. My map says this takes three hours, which means we will get back for the last ferry of the day in plenty of time. However, on the way back the signposts we pass suggest that the walk will actually take four hours – which means missing the ferry and spending the night on the uninhabited (apart from a few campers) island. Not knowing whether my map or the signpost is right, we proceed at top speed. Fortunately, my map was right and our brisk pace means we actually arrive back at the harbour with an hour to spare. Good exercise though!

After checking out of our hostel we pick up our campervan to start exploring the islands. The van is called Ivor (the Engine) because of the noise it makes going up hills.

More pictures of Auckland on Mr Beet’s flickr page.