'Even the bloody poms can fish and make scones!!'

 The title of this blog is a direct quote from our NZ cousins Alan and Jude who took us to a bach in the Marlborough Sounds for a few days fishing!
But before that the first of a multi picture blog shows what we saw as we left Wellington on board the ferry sailing to Picton. The map below shows our route and final destination, a delightful port town at the mouth of the Sounds and the gateway to South Island. The map will help to show how fabulous the journey was, tree covered hills rising up from the water within almost touching distance of the boat.

 The bach, pictures follow, was set above the water completely surrounded by bush. The only way to access it was by boat and we had to take all the provisions that we would need with us as there is no shop anywhere near by! We also had to catch our own supper, in this case Blue Cod a delicious fish found in these waters but protected for future stocks. This meant that we could only keep those between 30-35cms. Any bigger or smaller had to be put back. Fogg was brilliant at fishing hence the comment from Alan. I was too but all my fish were too small or the wrong species (Terakihi). We caught our quota for the day - 8 and filleted them on the dock ready for supper. It was lucky that we had managed to catch this many as we were housebound by appalling weather for the next 2 days. It is a tradition in the Fleming family that the female guest at the bach cooks scones for the returning fisher'men'. I was able to find a cookery book and luckily had all the ingredients. As you can see from the photo my cooker was 'retro' but I have to say very effective and the resulting scones were hailed as the best ever!!!!

 It was very choppy when we were fishing from the boat (hence no photos) but there was a small weather window for dock fishing. So here is Fogg, suitably attired and under the guidance of Alan, fishing for our tea!!!

Our first sighting of our bach as we walked up through the bush from the boat, magical!!!!

 Here it is seen from the water, as with most of these properties nestled in the trees on a seemingly impossible near vertical hill. But that's the way they do it here and very successfully and beautifully too.

 From the deck all we could see was the water and surrounding bush. Despite being marooned for 2 days we were very comfortable, reading, playing scrabble, snoozing and keeping the fire stoked with copious amounts of bush wood - mainly manuka.

 On Thursday the weather changed and we were able to leave safely on the boat. This was good as we were nearly out of basics and had completely run out of wine!! Our farewell view of the dock as we said goodbye to this beautiful place and headed back to 'civilisation' in Picton.

 By contrast, here is the view from our motel room. Quite a difference but still not bad and the weather was warm enough for us to eat breakfast on the deck this morning.

We have booked a car and tomorrow head off to explore more of this beautiful country. The chance for Fogg to take more beautiful photographs.

So until next time, farewell from us both

Phileas and Fogg

Wellington postscript

 As promised this is a picture of the old Parliament Building followed by Sir Basil Spence's Beehive.

 After taking these photos we had lunch at a very quirky pub called The Backbencher. These buildings can be seen from the pub which is full of Spitting Image type figures of present and past politicians and sportsmen. This is the present Prime Minister John Key, leader of the right wing National Party, here depicted as the Blue Baron!! To his enormous credit he unveiled it!!

All for now, out of time. Best wishes

Phileas and Fogg

Farewell to North Island

 Good morning readers, lots to write about following our very successful visit to the capital city of Wellington. Loved this cable car - sort of San Francisco meets the London Underground!! Note the cunning design (Swiss). We then headed to the Parliament Building to catch up with a couple of locals that we had met in Padstow last year - Greg and Barbara. We had lunch with them in The Beehive (oddly no photograph available from Fogg, might need to rectify that today!) - the Executive offices of the Parliament, designed back in the day by Basil Spence. Then we took a tour of the Parliament Buildings and learnt about how they were rebuilt 20 odd years ago with state of the art earthquake defences. Basically the building was literally separated from its basement, giant shock absorbers were put in and so the main building literally floats above the ground held up by some 400 plus of these. Famous the world over and copied extensively they have not yet been put to the big test, despite Wellington sitting on a number of fault lines.

 We are staying at the Intercontinenetal on the waterfront and despite not particularly brilliant weather we have experienced some wonderful moons!!(of the lunar variety)!!!!

 We have spent quite a long time - over a couple of visits at Te Papa (our place) the National Museum of NZ. It is an absolutely awesome place, Science Museum meets Natural History Museum meets V and A meets both Tates. So just about every aspect of NZ life, history, art etc included. So something for both of us and we have now experienced an earthquake simulation, learnt more about the tangled history of this place, marvelled at the beautiful Maori wood and greenstone carving and met the largest squid in the world. The shiny structures in the foreground of the Museum are one of many pieces of public art around the city - many quirky, others with a story to tell or a poem to recount.

The waterfront dominates the city and is a favourite area. This floating crane is called Hikitia, built in Scotland in 1926 she then sailed here to Wellington with the jib (crane) up. She was working up until quite recently and is now being restored to work again.

So we have been busy and also managed to celebrate Fogg's birthday in true Kiwi style with delicious seafood and a rather lovely local Chardonnay!! Today we are consolidating and re packing for our trip tomorrow across Cook Strait to Picton where we will meet up with Jude and Alan for a trip to their favourite bach in the Sounds. Only accessible by boat so we need to have everything we want before we leave and fishing will hopefully provide supper. The weather isn't looking too brilliant so not sure how long we will be there for!

I will now pass over to Fogg, best wishes to you all from the Windy city!!

Hi all

I have been keeping a close eye on what Phileas has been writing and really I have no more to add other than to say I had an excellent birthday and thank you all for your best wishes.

We are not sure what computer access we have when we first get to South Island so we may be out of communication for a while.

Very best wishes to you all.

Fogg x

Views from Napier - Art Deco City

 We are having a very frustrating morning techy wise and so these photos are slightly out of order. Never mind!!! This is Napier, a city flattened in the 1931 earthquake and rebuilt in the style of the day - Art Deco. Some very beautiful buildings many still in their original form. The streets are planted with palms and with the lights give a feeling of Los Angeles!

 We were staying in a converted church hall just outside Napier. The church had been moved some miles intact to its present position, a common practice in NZ - see our original blog for photos. It was very comfy, and we were well looked after by the owners.

 Close by was the wonderful summit of Te Mata from which this photo was taken. The story says that the bellicose Maori leader Te Mata carried out a number of tasks to win the hand of the princess from the rival iwi (tribe). One of them was to eat through this hill. This proved too much for him and he choked and died and the outline of his body can be seen on the skyline. Geologists say it is limestone pushed up  and tilted by the movement of tectonic plates, but we know the true story!!!

Hi . Fogg here. Incredibly Phileas has not mentioned the fact we were in the Hawkes Bay area, famed for its wine and of course we had to visit a winery ( Clearview ) and do some tasting or more strictly speaking, Phileas did the tasting whilst Fogg did the driving !!! We bought two bottles and had an excellent lunch.

We are now in Wellington staying at the Intercontinental hotel . We will be taking the ferry over to South Island on Easter Monday.

So very best wishes from both of us. Fogg and Phileas xx

A miscellany from Opotiki to Napier

 Greetings from wind swept and very wet Napier. We hope to explore here today and will blog about that another day. These jottings are from our last few days of travelling from the north Bay of Plenty to the East, Hawke's Bay. We stayed in a motel in Opotiki and explored locally along the East Coast Highway to Te Kaha, the coast is shown in this first photo. Very remote almost entirely Maori and a great success story with very successful locally run kiwi fruit orchards. We had a glorious drive back along this road with the setting sun turning the bark on the trees blood red.

 On the drive to Gisborne we came upon this wonderful suspension bridge, one of the oldest in NZ. The water in the river below the cleanest we have ever seen.

 We stayed in this wonderful house in Gisborne, well about 20 miles out into the bush. Glorious views across the countryside and only the local possum for company. He woke us at 2 in the morning jumping about on the roof, collecting spare walnuts that we had inadvertantly left on the deck!!

 This is a very typical sight in NZ, tree planting and also cropping. Some of the hillsides are so steep that the workmen have to be dropped in by helicopter and then abseil down the hill planting and then cutting down the trees.

 We enjoyed our visit to NZ's National Arboretum at Eastwoodhills. The autumn colours were spectacular and it is a hidden gem, hardly anyone else there.

 Gisborne, as all history students will know is where James Cook first landed in NZ in October 1769. Many people here rue that day, but if it wasn't him then someone else would have brought European life to this part of the world and amy not have treated the locals any better. This statue commemorates this first landing and Phileas took the opportunity of posing with her hero!!

 On the road to Napier we came across the Morere Hot Springs - no time for a dunk unfortunately but we did have another wonderful walk through the bush, this time a lot of Nikau palms and the ever present tui, goldeneye, pigeon and fantails.

It looks like we are in for a very wet day so probably best to check out a local winery and then sit back with a good book!!

Best wishes

Phileas

Fogg here. As you can see I am now 'getting my eye in ' with some half decent photos! but time is running out on our computer so I also send my very best wishes to you all. Next blog from Wellington before we take the ferry over to South Island.

Fogg x

Phileas and Fogg's journey to the centre of the earth !

 Hi all,.
With no consideration for their personal safety, Phileas and Fogg have ventured along the Thermal Highway into the Volcanic Valley to bring you these amazing images of the earth on fire !!!! The rapids here begin our amazing journey and hence on into the sulphorous landscape known locally as 'Craters of the Moon '

In fact we are in Taupo and later in Rotorua which lie in a very volatile and facinating area of central New Zealand ( North Island ) It is very interesting indeed and I will leave Phileas to explain in greater detail, if she wishes.
Incidently, the bird is a Tui along with the Pukeko and Kakapo one of NZ' s iconic birds. It even has a beer named after it.

Now that we have our new gadget we have uploaded photos from both our cameras, however, you will notice a better quality in Fogg's!! The river shown is the Waikato, longest in NZ. Here at the Huka Falls it provides a brilliant boiling experience for the jet boats. The Craters of the Moon is a strange area of thermal activity released following the building of a power station further down the river. Imagine a large open area of scrubby bushes in which quite randomly appear spouts of steam and in some places bubbling mud. The whole area has an end of the world feel about it. Not as spectacular as Rotorua but from my point of view interesting to see how the plants have adapted to deal with the very hot conditions. We climbed up above the area to get a bird's eye and I spotted the tui. Fgg fortunately had the patience to wait to catch this wondeful photo.

 It was very foggy when we set off for Rotorua but cleared to give us a wonderfully hot day in the thermal centre of NZ. All along the road we could see steam spouting out of the ground, close to houses, petrol stations etc - I suppose it's just a fact of life here. Our main focus in Rotorua was the Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. Here live local Maori people who have welcomed visitors for over 100 years. Their female guides are held in high esteem and ours was excellent, giving us a very interesting tour of the village explaining how food is cooked in the hangi, how the water is used for communal bathing and the role of the Marae. We watched a very moving cultural display which involved the Haka as well as some beautiful singing and dancing. This photo shows the Prince of Wales Feather's and Puhutu geysers which were fairly quiet on our visit but none the less pretty impressive.

 Not sure that Fogg is very impressed with the idea!!

We found all this very interesting but on a scale of 1-10 find Taupo a more accessible town. Very beautifully laid out around the lake with awesome views to Mt Ruapehu. We leave here today to head for the Bay of Plenty and Opotiki. Before I sign off must mention Chilli dipping sauce. As we are on the road we carry limited stocks for cooking and we are never sure what kitchen equipment we will have in our baches. So I am here to sing the praises of the aforementioned sauce with which I have cooked salmon, tarihiki (fish) and chicken. All were delicious!!!

All from me now

Best wishes to all our readers

Phileas and Fogg

Missing photos and our journey to Taupo

 Hi again. Phileas had a moment's inspiration and we have bought a memory stick and managed to re-claim our 'lost' photos. The above is in fact in Auckland. A scuplture of a Maori warrior which Fogg liked very much.
But now we are back on the road again and the following pics are what we tried to describe on our previous blog.

 We drove as far as is safe to do so to just below the snow line on Mt Taranaki. As we drove it got progressively colder but it was worth it. The colour of the clouds was a stunning blue, unlike anything we have seen before. All quite breathtaking!

 As you can see the colour in the cloud was 'reflected ' in the colours on the mountainside where great cracks had formed. The photo of course does not give any idea of the magnitude of it all but suffice it to say it was 'awesome' !!

 I think Phileas mentioned yesterday that these are called Lahars. Small mounds that are in fact created by lava solidified over boulders. There were hundreds of them scattered all over the place. This was the view from our bach in Inglewood.

 On our drive along the 'The Forgotten World Highway ' we came to Whangamomana which in 1989 declared itself an independent Republic because it did not like the town boundaries being shifted as it would mean they would have to play for a rival rugby team ! This is the hotel. ( Up for sale ) where 'passports' can be bought. For a town of 30 people they have a marvellous money making scheme.

 This drive was fantastic. Quite magical. Endless beauty with magnificent views in every direction. All quite breathtaking. The above is merely a snapshot.

Now in Taupo. This is our bach. Over to Phileas.  Best wishes . Fogg.  x

This is a beautiful place, Lake Taupo for the geographers was formed when the volcano erupted 26,500 yrs ago an explosion which completely overshadowed Krakatoa. The lake is beautiful as is the town and our bach is in a quiet suburb close to an 'English style pub'!!!! We are planning to explore locally today before heading to Rotarua tomorrow. We are blogging from an excellent internet cafe so should be able to post again before we leave the area.

Best wishes from us both

Phileas

Post without photos!

We are for some strange reason unable to upload our photos today. So we will just write a few words to tell you about our travels yesterday.After breakfast we headed out to New Plymouth to access internet and the Govett -Brewster Art Gallery. Then on to Surf Highway 45 which runs right round the coast and Mt Taranaki. We explored Lucy's Gulley where we walked through some beautiful native woodland. Then we picked up a couple of iconic beaches including Stent Road (so iconic it regularly loses its road sign) - right break, where we had lunch.
Back on the road we marvelled at the changing face of Taranaki and popped down to the coast again at Cape Egmont where we saw some excellent examples of lahars (boulders covered with lava from the volcano)
At Stratford we took a road which led up to East Egmont. The road rose higher and higher through native bush and the temperature fell and fell until we got to the end of the road. Taranaki was under cloud but from where we were the lower edge of the cloud was blue. Quite extraordinary and most unusual. We walked to the viewing platform where we had the most wonderful panorama across this part of NZ.

Pretty tired by the time that we got back and now pretty annoyed with myself that I have managed to compromise some of Fogg's photos while I was attempting to upload onto the blog.

He has forgiven me I think, so over to him

Phileas xx

Yes, I have ! Whilst Phileas has been typing this I checked my memory card and most of yesterdays photos have been wiped off so off to the camera shop to buy a memory stick and hopefully that will sort the problem.

So, we will be in touch again soon from Taupo.

Best wishes to all

Fogg

x

In sight of Mt Taranaki

Dear readers, we are blogging from Puke Ariki, the museum and i site in New Plymouth. The photos are from Raglan and our journey here yesterday. Raglan was a pretty cool place, and had some interesting architecture. The first photo is typical of many NZ towns the second is not!!! But we loved it and wondered what its original purpose was - Fogg is sure it is a flying saucer!!

 This was a beach house beside the sea at Ocean Beach. Photo of the beach below - black volcanic sand and nobody about despite it being a sunny Saturday.

 We took a wonderful drive and on the way came across the Bridal Veil Falls. This is from the top, an aweinspiring drop to a pool at the bottom. The water really did look like lace - hence the name. Beautiful native bush led to the bottom of the falls via a serious number of steps, however, the svelt new shape of the travellers meant that we leapt up and down with hardly a stop for breath!!!!!!! (yeah right!!!!)

 Houses in NZ do not have traditional letter boxes and people seem to express their personalities through the letter boxes at the end of their land, road or garden. This was the collection at the top of our road in Raglan!

 The drive from Raglan to Taranaki was absolutely wonderful. Wooded valleys fell down to tumbling rivers, farms were dotted through the hills which came in a variety of shapes and sizes. The road twisted and turned, rose and fell and at each turn we were delighted with an entirely new vista. Small farming towns served the local community (and us with good coffee and internet access) but overall this was open country with hardly anyone around. Occasionally we had glimpses of the Tasman Sea and we ate our sandwiches in the warm sunshine by the beach at the Three Sisters.
Suddenly we turned the corner and Fogg let out a shout - in front of us floating in the sky was Mt Taranaki. The photo does not do it justice but we have posted as today the mountain is covered in cloud and we may never see it again!!!

 We arrived safely at Inglewood and our latest bach. As you can see Phileas settled in quickly and made sure the deck was ok for pre prandial drinking in the evening!! She was also listening to the Bell birds a great favourite.

I'll pass over to Fogg now, best wishes from me.

Poor Phileas is feeling a bit out of sorts today. Not the result of too much wine. She has developed a nasty cold and is suffering. However , not daunted we are carrying on exploring and our intention today is to go round Mt Taraniki and do some walking.
So, as you can see, all well. The baches we have had so far have been awesome. Lots of potential Art possibilities.

Very best wishes from Fogg too.

x