Day 57 Tuesday 26th August
Up early again this morning – I thought we were supposed to be on holiday ? We decided to walk to Five Dock and catch the bus to Abbotsford and take the ferry to the Circular Quays in the centre of Sydney, this is a much quicker journey as the buses and ferries seems to be co-ordinated very well. As we got close to Sydney centre we decided to get off 1 stop early at Darling Bay where we walked up George Street which is their main shopping street, to their two Victorian Shopping Arcades. These arcades have been restored, one even has a working original lift with iron work gates. Most of the shops were designer but it was lovely to wander round looking at them. The next stop was Sydneys main department store, Myers, today they had 2 of the Australian Olympic Medalists advertising Davenport underwear, they had flown in this morning from Bejing. Bob was hoping to see women in skimpy underwear – he was unlucky ! Nearing lunch we stopped on the edge of the river for a sandwich on a bench with half of Sydney workforce ! Nearby an aboriginal man painted with white stripes, was playing his didgeridoo and trying to sell his CD – (this wasn’t obviously part of his culture). To walk off lunch we strolled to the Rocks area where we went into the Rocks and Discovery Museum which showed life in the 1800’s in the area. Then onto the Botanical Gardens where the sign at the entrance said “ please walk on the grass, smell the roses and hug a tree “ – so we did ! Our walk ended at the Hyde Park Barracks Museum (can’t they think of original names and not pinch ours all the time?) which was used to house the british convicts sent to Australia. There was a database we could check on to see if any of our ancestors were sent there – phew none of the Gallard ! There was however, 3 men from Coventry – 1 died on the way, and 2 were pardoned after serving their sentence. We saw the living conditions which weren’t very good and the hammocks where they slept, 60 to a room, so it was a tight squeeze. Finally we were thrown out of there at 5pm again so we made for home on the ferry again and picked up a bottle of wine for dinner on the way. Alan decided to take a day off tomorrow and offered to take us to Canberra for the day if we wanted. The down side was that it would be an early start as its about 3hrs each way !
Day 58 Wednesday 27th August
We were out by 8am and once through the morning traffic in Sydney the road was much quieter, fairly flat and uninteresting until we got nearer Canberra. We passed a huge valley called King George Lake which has no water unless they have very heavy rain which hasn’t happened for over 20 years. Once we arrived in Canberra we called in the Tourist Information Centre to see what there was to do – we started with the new Parliament Building where we had a 20 min guided tour then we could wander around on our own. After going up to the roof to look over the city we went into the Senate which is like the house of Lords (hope I have this the right way round) and listened to a Minister talking about water rites. Only about 10 other Ministers were in the house. Then we went across to the House of Representatives (House of Commons) where a Minister droned on to only a handful of people. We would have liked to stay longer as the whole government was sitting that afternoon but we were pushed for time , so onward to the War Memorial Museum. This was an enormous building with many exhibitions, we only had time to see the WW1 stuff and then we went to find some lunch – our first stop was a café/restaurant who said they only had 2 sandwiches left – ok “what are they” we asked “pumpkin and lettuce” was the reply!!!! We decided to try somewhere else. As time was running short Alan drove around the rest of Canberra to give us the flavor of the city. We found all the Embassies in one area – huge mansions on large plots of land and the Prime Ministers residence. Alan said he knew a back way out of Canberra and promptly drove straight into the airport – he said that the road layouts had changed dramatically since he was last there - to be fair to him there was a lot of road works. On the way home we saw several herds of wild kangaroos in the fields, I fell asleep as Bob and Alan shared the driving getting us home for dinner around 8pm. Our impression of Canberra was that it was very clinical, very new looking with no heart, it is solely an administrative city, build for just that purpose. There were very few people about, lots of offices and very few residents, the airport is expanding but its not really a place you must visit although it was interesting to see where Australia is governed from.
Day 59 Thursday 28th August
This morning Bob had booked a round of golf at Ryde Golf Course, it was a difficult place to get to on a bus so Alan’s son, Simon offered to drop us off on his way to work – the downside being another early morning – leaving at 7.30am !!! The weather hadn’t been too bad so far but this morning there was light drizzle. We arrived at 8am on the course and after 5 mins practice off he went, I was driving the buggy for him and we were setting off from the 10th hole as there was a ladies competition starting on the 1st. As Bob was playing on his own it didn’t take long for him to get round to the 1st tee and as some of the ladies were still waiting to start their competition Bob decided to play 10 to 18 again. The sun came out for a while and we had a bit more drizzle but most of the round was ok. When we finished we asked for directions to the bus for the city and set off up the road, where after about half a mile we found a bus and hopped on, arriving in Darling Harbour area where we headed for Paddy’s Market. This indoor market is in the Chinatown area and most of the stalls are run by Chinese but it was very colourful and very cheap. We bought a few souvenirs and Bob bought some pyjama bottoms as he was expecting it to be much colder at night in NZ. We walked back into Darling Harbour and into the café area for lunch before catching a ferry round the harbour to see the sights once more before leaving Sydney tomorrow. We arrived home before Alan and Lynne had finished work so we packed out bags ready for the morning and changed for dinner. We had said that we would take them out for dinner to say thank you for looking after us so well, just as we were leaving Simon arrived home and said he would join us. We walked to a local Thai and Chinese restaurant where the owner, William, welcomed us and made us laugh with his banter. Simon left after the meal to see his girlfriend Nicole, so we went across the road to a club where we had a coffee and spent half an hour playing the game machines. We had an early morning again tomorrow (for a change !) as we had to be at the airport by 8am as our flight was at 11am. Alan had a doctors appointment so he offered to drop us at the airport but we had to leave at 7am.
Day 60 Friday 29th August
Alan dropped us at the airport at 7:15am but our flight wasn’t on the board so we found a seat and waited til 7.45 when we realized that the queue for the possible checkin desks was getting long, so we joined it. At 8 o’clock I checked the flight board and realized that our checkin desk was at the other end of departures so we left that queue and joined another. We were only about 10 from the front and check in was painless so we then joined the next queue for passport control which was another 20 mins. Then we queued again to get the tax back on the computer I had bought in Australia which was 66$ - so worth queuing for. We then went looking for breakfast but Sydney Airport seems to be in the middle of an extention and face change as the only facilities were two poorly stocked sandwich bars ! Bob had a luke warm bacon and egg roll and I had a fruit salad – rubbish! The flight was called then, an hour before take off so we went to the boarding gate but they were not boarding and we waited about 20 mins before they started. The flight was actually a LAN flight to Santiago in South America so it was full of Spanish speaking people and crew, which was stopping in New Zealand on the way. We were served a light snack – most of which Bob didn’t like and we watched a movie called The Iron Man – very entertaining and passed away the time very quickly. On landing in Auckland we walked through a duty free shop very unusual! We walked to immigration and found that there was no queue and quickly passed through, we had filled in a form to declare that Bob had golf shoes with him and 2 kangaroo scrotums ! don’t ask ! so we were diverted to an area with our luggage for checking. The lady there, cleaned Bob’s shoes for him as there was a bit of dirt on them, and even his golf shoe bag too – he was impressed and the other items were smiled upon but ignored ! On our way outside we looked for a shuttle bus for Britz Campervans, we made a couple of calls to their offices to find out where it was and a few minutes later it picked us up. Two hours later, after much messing about we left with our van in the dark and headed for a campsite Lucy had recommended 10 mins away, booked in and went for some provisions at the local supermarket. After dinner we used the computer to check the emails on wifi and began to get the bed ready – this was fun, we hadn’t been so cramped for years so it took some time. Then we realized that one of the curtains was missing from behind the cab – no hanky panky tonight ! The next morning we would have to go back to Britz and get one.
Day 61 Saturday 30th August
The girl in the office at Britz was very apologetic when we explained that we had had to hang towels over the windscreen last night, they quickly put a curtain in and gave us an extra duvet to compensate – the nights were chilly so we did appreciate the extra duvet. Back on the road again we headed back the way we had come and having phoned earlier and got the directions from our friends Archie and Carol we set off to fine them. We headed across country towards Tauranga, stopping at lunch time for bread and ham and we had lunch by the river Waihoou in a gorge that was so picturesque. We chatted to an old dutch couple who lived in Tauranga and were just out for a ride, in half an hour we had their life story and lots of info about New Zealand. We continued on towards the coast then south to Papamoa Beach where Archies directions brought us to their lovely bungalow. It was about 3.30 when we pulled up, Archie and Carol who hadn’t changed apart from a bit of grey hair, came out to greet us. We went inside and chatted about old times and realized it was nearly 20 years since I had seen them, then Carol said stay for dinner, and Archie said stay the night in their spare room – which was much preferable to our camper with 2 duvets. Archie fired up the barbeque and cooked steak while Carol did potatoes and salad and over a glass of wine we showed them the wedding photos and continued getting up to date with our families and mutual friends til bedtime.
Day 62 Sunday 31st August
Being Sunday we didn’t get up til 8.30 and after a shower and breakfast we took some photos of the wonderful view from Archie and Carols bungalow – the front of the house was only 200 yds from the beach and the back had undisturbed views for miles over rolling hills. They then gave us some advice about places to visit, we said our thank you and goodbyes and set off to Rotorua. It took only an hour to drive and after circling the town we noticed that a park looked like it was on fire – we parked the van and went to inspect it to find that it was steam from the sulphur lakes and holes in the ground- very spooky. We had decided on a campsite but when we got there we found it was closed so our next choice was a top 10 site just outside the centre. The lady in the office was very helpful with things to do so we parked up and had a bit of lunch. I had a headache which wasn’t going away so while I shut my eyes for a hour Bob went exploring the town. He walked for over an hour through the town to the Polynesian Spa, where we were thinking of taking a sulphur spa and massage, then back. He said there was only a couple of cafes open on a Sunday and many of the shops looked empty, giving the impression of a town in decline. After dinner my headache was still there, so we had an hour on the internet before having an early night.
Day 63 Monday 1st September
We had to be off the site by 10am so after breakfast we decided to do a different spa at “Hells Gate” where they had a winter special for 140$ (about 55 pounds) this included an hours walk round the thermal park, a visit to the woodcarving shed – the Maori’s are excellent woodcarvers – and Bob made a carving of a fern (the emblem of NZ). Then we changed into our swimsuits and climbed into the outdoor mud pool for 20 mins, which was at 40˚where we soaked in the muds, then came the shock – freezing cold shower to clean off all the mud before plunging into one of the two the sulphur spa baths we chose the warm one at 39˚- heaven - aaahh then climbed over to the 41˚ pool which seemed much hotter and Icould only stand it for 5 mins. After 30 mins in here we were given towels and thick toweling robes and awaited our masseurs. Bob got the older ugly one and I got the pretty one – thank goodness, we had a double room so that we could hear each other even if we could only see the floor. My massage was very gentle but Bobs was a bit rough – ha, although we both felt great afterwards. The final bit was to relax with a cup of herbal tea with honey – I made Bob drink some but he screwed up his face so I had 2 cups. Worth every cent and much relaxed we drove on to our next stop which was Te Puia. The weather today had been changeable, some rain, then sun , then rain again and as we drove into Te Puia we found it raining quite heavily so we made some lunch and waited for it to stop. This place was a Maori Village set at the bottom end of the town and quite expensive to get in so we planned to make the most of it. Firstly there was a free traditional Maori welcome at 3.15 so we headed for the meeting place in the village at 3.10 and were shown into the meeting house where we had to remove our shoes. The welcome was performed through singing and dancing and showing of their traditional skills and their most famous dance THE HAKA. It lasted about 45 mins and was very interesting, the only thing that spoilt it was 3 japanese people who insisted on talking almost all the way through even though I gave them several scowls. The next bit was the tour of the whole place, we met our guide Shaun and he began to explain the basis of the Maori traditions, the rain was falling again so he managed to get us a little train to take us round. We saw two natural geysers that blew twice while we were there, shooting steaming hot water many feet into the air and bubbling mud and 2 kiwi birds that are protected in New Zealand as they are only 25,000 left in the world. Finally we went into the carvers and weavers workshops where the old traditions are still taught today. The carvings depict people who have died and tell their story as the Maori’s didn’t write things down they carved them. Our next challenge was to find our way to Taupo and the next campsite, it was over an hour away and it was starting to get dark. I had phoned ahead and booked the site but it was a bit out of the way but only 25$ a night. We set off for the 75 km trip and after stopping at Woolworths for some dinner took a wrong turn and drove for 10 kms the wrong way. We finally found the site and the owner, Richard and Australian from north of Sydney welcomed us, showed us round and said we were the only people on the site so the laundry, kitchen and toilets and showers were all to ourselves. We used the kitchen to cook dinner in an oven as we didn’t have one in the van and as we had already planned the next days trip we settled down for a read before bed.
Day 64 Tuesday 2nd September
It had been a cold night so although I was awake at 7am I didn’t venture out until the camper heater had warmed up the van at 8 o’clock. After breakfast and a shower we set off via the site shop to speak to Richard about Bob playing golf tomorrow. Being a golfer himself he offered us some advice as to which courses were the best and we plumped for one about half an hour south at Turangi. He said he would phone them for us and offered Bob his own clubs to borrow – this was amazing as we hadn’t even paid for the site fees as he kept saying pay me later. Our first stop was the BP station the empty the waste water from the van as the site had no facilities like this then onto the Aratiatia Dam – apparently every day at 10, 12 and 2pm they opened the sluice gates to let the water from the lake cascade down the ravine into the river valley, we arrived in time for the 12 o’clock opening – wow was it spectacular. The river filled up so quickly and when the gates were closed the water level dropped as quickly. Our next stop was the Lava Glass company where we paid 5$ each to watch Chris making glass star fish – a lady explained how it all happened and the star fish was so lovely that we bought one so she took off the 5$ each from the price. We also bought a perfume bottle which we had posted back to the uk as it was very heavy. From here we drove to the Borefield Lookout where the thermal waters are captured in hundreds of pipes and used to drive turbines to make electricity – the pipes ran up and down the huge valley and from our vantage point high above the valley we could see the whole site. Back on the main road, we crossed to the other side so that Bob could go and look at a 9 hole course called the Wairakei International Golf Course, it was very cheap and in good condition but at only 9 holes he decided to stick with the one Richard was setting up for him. We were aiming next for the Huka Falls but we got side tracked to the Prawn Farm on the way. We stopped to see what there was there and found that we could fish for prawns and any we caught could be taken away or cooked in their kitchen for free, we had missed the last tour of the day so she reduced the price for us and before we knew it we were sitting on the edge of pool no. 3 with a bamboo cane in our hands and a hook in the water. After a few mins I got a tug on my line and I waited (as told) but nothing more happened so I lifted my hook out to find the bait gone! In the meantime Bob said “I’ve got one” but he got away too. Then a few minutes later Bob got another tug and this time he waited patiently and he lifted out a large prawn ! Thank god it was his, it was ugly and it fought him getting the hook out and then it splashed about trying to get out of the bucket. A young Chinese girl a few minutes later caught one too – she squealed with delight but couldn’t touch it either. Then Bob got another one, this time a big bugger with long blue legs. It was nearly time to stop as the fishing finished at 3pm so we proudly took our catch back to the restaurant to be cooked. While this was being done, we visited the facilities and found a notice telling us that male prawns spend their life fighting other male prawns and if they win enough fights they become a stud and don’t have to fight anymore. Interestingly, they have 2 “thingys” and their legs go blue – one of Bobs prawns had exceedingly long blue legs – so we put a stop to his hanky panky ! Then Bob decided to have a go at the golf challenge – to get a golf ball in a ring in the lake – he came very close a couple of times. Our lunch was now ready so we went back to the restaurant to taste our catch – yummy. Next stop was Huka Falls a fantastic free view from the lookout point then we walked right down beside them – roaring water cascading over the rocks – fantastic sight. We had passed the honey bee centre on the way to the falls but didn’t stop so we went back to it now and tasted some strange honey concoctions – honey and blackberry ? They also made wines and liqueurs from honey which we tasted but their “Baileys type” wasn’t a patch on the real thing so we didn’t buy anything. On the way back to the campsite we stopped in the town of Taupo for a wander until they closed at 5pm. When we got back to the site, Richard the owner had lit the log fire in the cabin by our van and put the tv on and said we were welcome to go in. Fabulous – a roaring log fire, so while Bob cooked tea I sat and typed up some more of my diary. TV was a bit disappointing as they only got 3 channels and 1 wasn’t a very good picture, (they did have Coronation Street on but from about 6 months ago !! ) but it was cosy.
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