OZ...

For us, Oz was 3 months of stopping, not travelling, being with and around Jessie for longer than we´ve done for Years, and enjoying some decent grub and occasional bottle of plonk - see photo!
Also, less blog, so this is a summary: and one of our first feelings was culture shock! - Asia had seduced us with its simplicity, honesty and spirituality, and to be honest, Aus shocked us initially with its commercialism, choice and vanity. But, Australians are great people, who are straightforward, and honest, and do not suffer at all from the snobbishness and class culture of the UK.
We were now reunited with all our imports from Rajasthan, and hoping to make a few bob...and this often dominated the first half of our stay. Of course, we were up against the Aussie culture that also loves anything Australian - ´with love from Australia´is tagged on everything, so our markets were hard work, sometimes frutrating, and dogged with the only wet day of any week always being on a Sunday! Things got better when we finally decided to ship it back home and force it on all our friends and family in the UK! make special price for you all!

We had Jess´old flat for the first two months, bought a motor (Mitsi ´Nimbus´) and sold that for a profit at least, and moved in with Jess at her place for the last month. St Kilda is perhaps THE trendy spot of Melbourne, which probably didn´t help with the afore mentioned culture shock, but it is cool, and we got into the groove. Acland Street, coffee shops, wild cake shops, bars , bistros and trams- and also a turn-up for our books, wait for it - a GYM!!! The South Pacific Health Club became our 2nd home as we pumped and pushed our way to fitness - Jac coming down the scales, while I tried to get it back on after those asian blues...
OZ generally, especially St Kilda, is grabbing at anything alternative, most of it worthwhile, and Jac was able to up her Reiki levels and make good friends in that circle.
So times with Jess were also spent catching up with old friends: we all went to Adelaide for a week or so- and did the complete nature bit there at Kangaroo Island - roos, sealions and seals, echidna and a comprehensive guide to South Australian flora from Phil - top horticulturalist he is. Phil and Julie also came down to Melbourne for my birthday weekend - memorably we walked with the Wallabies on Phillip Island on my Birthday- the first one spent wrapped up in coats and scarves, but still a cloudless day!

It was good to catch up with Ken again, our brother in law, still in Armidale if the Immigration Department will let him, lets hope they at least allow him to make his own decision on what he does in the future. Australia is so far away- its its biggest problem really, brought home with Cob´s untimely and sad death back home in Hampshire. Jac has known him since she was a teenager, he was like an uncle to Jess, Mitch and Joe, and hard decisions had to be taken as to what we should do. As it is, Mitch and Joe did us, and especially themselves, PROUD with their honourable and dignified representation of us at the funeral...

So, the end of June came, but not too sad for Jac and Jess - Jess was joining us in Fiji!, so we were able to leave down under with lighter hearts, enjoy the winter!, and roll on the rest of it!

KiwiLand!

Foto - Aoraki (Mt Cook)
Flew down to Christchurch, the city in the world farthest from the UK, late last Friday, 30.06.06. Met by Julian, Pete Chaddy's brother, old friend and gardening guru who lives about 40 minutes from the airport with his Kiwi wife Susan, in their typical country house with an acre of ground and 12 Springer Spaniels! (10 of them are puppies born the next day!). So different from St Kilda, NZ is the England we think it used to be, where tea is still served in cups and saucers, you take your gum boots off before going into the local shop, and you argue whether the car that just passed you is a Morris or a Wolesely...
Anyway, a joyous weekend of reunion and puppy birth behind us, we rented a Nissan Sunny (less romantic) and headed off into the sun drenched snow fields. Firstly, over Arthurs Pass: snowy iced lakes, snow deep enough to make you fall over immediately, empty roads, long single-lane bridges, sheep and our only encounter with a Kea, at the top of the pass. We cross to the west coast, to Hokitika, a small , single-storey town with a driftwood strewn beach and a pounding ocean.
The next day we realise that Hoki is a Large Town. We drive down the west coast to the Glaciers - no towns, just settlements of handfuls of people, living amongst thick, wet forest land; we are lucky, a rare cloudless day to enjoy the flax and cordyline, ferns and trees, wide shingled river beds, sheep and deer farms. We arrive at Franz Josef in time to walk to the Glacier in a freezing wind, this is winter and the wind whips right thru´, but worth it - one of the few expanding glaciers in the world.
We watch the Italians beat Germany in bed in the morning, then down to Lake Matheson for THE most amazing walk - views of Aoraki - Mount Cook - reflected in the Lake, we walk round the lake, snapping furiously at the views- all in clean, crisp air surrounded by the snow-capped peaks. Mount Cook will loom over us for a few days, a beautiful mountain and reminder of our dear ´Cob´Cook, passed away just before we came to NZ.
Then its down the west coast, as far as this road goes, lush, verdant hills and flat, fertile plains. The wide rivers dump their trees and stumps on the beaches, coming from mountains which we need to cross before dark. Its cold, dusty and dry, still with cordyline and Phormium everywhere, but increasingly pine and willow as we slowly climb inland towards Wanaka, past Lakes Hakea and Wanaka. Here, we book our morning ski transport, (no snow here?), to Cardrona. The bus winds us up there, and theres plenty of white stuff. We spend an hour or so getting kitted out, I feel really cool in my shades, my ´cat in the hat´hat, and gardening gloves! Yeah, anti-fashion! Booked in for 2 x 2 hour lessons, by the end of the morning we are hovering downhill at 5mph, just about learning how to stop, head thumping from where I fall off the Pelmer lift thing! Best meat pie ever for lunch, then back at it. Jac wacks her head falling off the Pelmer, and I fall off another three times! By the end of the day we have learned how to brake and sometimes turn. And sometimes ski! I still prefer Boltons Bench or Farley Mount on an old bit of tin, although it does wonders for your appetite! Friday we check out of Wanaka, limping and trying to not move our aching necks...
We drive over the Lindis Pass to Omarama - a typical Kiwi town: Four Square supermarket, bar, cafe, souvenir shop (this one specializing in woollen clothing made from a mix of merino wool and possum fur!), public toilets, petrol station. Friendly staff everywhere, so we buy some apples. Now in quite thick snow we stopped to gawp at the fog hugging the plains, then moved on towards Twizel, even thicker here;too early to decide to stay here we head towards Aoraki - Mt Cook. Up past the turquoise Lake Pukaki we get as far as we can - the Hermitage, where in freezing rain we can raise our cup of tea to Cob, then decide to bee-line to the next lake - Tekapo. Because it gets dark so early decisions have to be quick - but this is awesome winter, deep snow everywhere, trees and fences look as though they haven´t defrosted for weeks!Every corner, bend, every light, mountain and valley is stunning. Backpackers Hostel for the night- good because we can cook for ourselves, meet a few people, pick up tips and use a phone:
!CONGRATULATIONS! Emily and Matthew on your baby: Dexter Butch!!
In the morning the snow laden Spruce tree that we spotted last night and were going to foto ourselves with for Xmas cards for all you lot, has had all the snow blown off! so we go, first to the church of the Good Shepherd, overlooking Lake Tekapo, a final farewell to Cob, and check out the monument to all Collie dogs (!) - useful pets in these parts!. We leave Mackenzie country clutching a cone of Pinus caulteri, biggest pine cone ever, and head down to the Peel Forest, - land of the Podocarp, and fight thru the snow-damaged woods to Acland Falls. We end up staying in Methven, in a budget lodge run by the Kiwi coach to the German Ski team, drinking fine wheat beers and eating Bratwursts und sauerkraut! The evening gets even more exciting, as the final of Young Farmer of the Year is on Channel 1 telly tonite, and John, most deserving local lad, storms it! A masterly display of technical knowledge, building a bridge from a load of logs, herding the sheep across his bridge, shovelling a ton of coal, loading a sack of moss, and cooking whitebait on an open fire!
Cheered, its back to the puppies and our friends, and a day in Christchurch before heading to north island on the train.
The train to Picton takes us past seals and rocks, mountains and rolling grassy hills - pure ´hobbitland´. An old Poole cross-channel ferry takes us to Wellington thru the Marlborough Sound, and we check into a nasty backpackers, but escape 10 minutes later. Suddenlt we are in a busy city, loads of people, so we spend the evening in Molly Malone´s, drink wine and Mac´s sassy red beer, and almost singalong to the Gaelic music. The best part of Wellington is Te Papa - the museum which , for us, starts to make the Maori culture more understandable. I cannot tell you now though what its all about, not in less than 10,000 words! We drive to Auckland, straight thru the middle of the island, pleasant but busier than the south. Taupo Lake is eerily beautiful, and we eat an amazing Rajasthani meal here, before seeing the wonderful volcanic geysers and geothermal activity in the area, before heading to Roturea for a Polynesian Spa, to wash off New Zealand in its open-air sulphuric waters...brrrr! bring on summer! - Fiji!