Just a quick update Hanmer Springs. This morning we walked up Conical Hill (550 m) through a pungent conifer forest to the peak where we could look out over Hanmer Springs (population about 1,000). This afternoon, George and Frances tried to explore the Molesworth Station, the largest cattle station in Read more
Today we walked along the Kaikōura coast where a new shore surfaced in the 2016 earthquake. The 7.8 magnitude quake lifted the seabed by 0.5 to 2 meters (2 to 7 feet) along a 20-km stretch of the Kaikoura coast. The exposed white rocks were lovely, and the terraces seemed Read more
Well, Team New Zealand are the America’s Cup Winner and what an exciting ten races it took to get there. Final score 7:3! Congratulations Te Rehutai! Today, we hopped islands, taking the early morning ferry from Wellington, in the North Island, to Picton in the South Island. We are traveling Read more
Yesterday we took a final walk on the Waikanae beach. It was a perfectly glorious day, and there was quite a crowd on the beach – about 20 people over 6 km! Then, while Jim was Zooming with his siblings, Frances found a lovely local artisan market. The proprietor was Read more
We had such a busy day today, we had to catch a re-run of the America’s Cup. Italy won the first race and NZ the second. The boat that wins the start seems to win the race. It is getting to be a pattern. More light winds expected for tomorrow’s Read more
We’re back to the fine weather. Light winds were not so favorable for the Emirates Team New Zealand in Race 3. In Race 3, Italy won the start and was the stronger player throughout, consistently ahead of New Zealand and beating them by 37 seconds. In Race 4, NZ dominated Read more
Where has the week gone? We are on Thursday already and we’ve been slacking a bit on the blog. On Tuesday we drove down to Wellington to lend some extra hands to our niece, Lizzy, who was expecting her movers the following day. We loved being able help, usually we Read more
The weather over the weekend was a bit wet – bucketing down, actually. But, in between the rainstorms, there was a bit of beach walking to be done. There were a lot of Portuguese man o’ war or bluebottle jellyfish washed up on the shore. The Portuguese man o’ war is distinguishable by its float Read more
As we mentioned in an earlier post the day began early with the first of several earthquakes. The risk of a tsunami on the North East coast of NZ was closely monitored and dominated the news. We had an appointment in Palmerston North mid-morning and so were captive in the Read more
We have had an extraordinary experience over the last two days. Early on Wednesday morning we headed to Paraparaumu Beach (about 15 minutes south of us) to check in with Kapiti Island Nature Tours. Kapiti Island is around 5km off the west coast of the southern North Island. It’s the Read more