Hello from Invergargill - the southern tip of NZ

Today Thursday 26th we are venturing onto Stewarts Island which is just offshore from Invergargill and is termed an ecological island with spectacular views and bays I hope that we will see something quite unique to NZ. Yesterday we went to a local Museum in Invergargill which house (for some unexplained reason) a prehistoric reptile – a tuatara. Apparently this reptile, which resembles a lizard is supposed to be a possible missing link between the dinosaurs and birds. The reptile has feather like bristles along its spine and a mouth which is more akin to that of a bird. These reptiles were ‘saved’ from extinction by being resident in a small area of NZ, although they were prevalent throughout the globe, this colony was saved. They have remained unchanged genetically for over 150 million years. A curator of the local Museum has become an expert in ‘breeding’ these reptiles and has the distinguished reputation of being their savior. The ‘beast’ I have been talking about is shown below


On a lighter note we are still amazed on the natural beauty of the countryside. It’s has been a ‘wet’ summer and so the grass and the hedgerows are very green and in the late summer sunshine look very attractive. We saw lots of rolling hills just as one would traveling around southern England and many small hamlets – the main building being a bungalow !!
The standard of hotels has been great and the New Zealanders very friendly and quite knowledgeable of events in the UK. Certainly knew were there to escape the cold blast we had from Russia early in February !! We have not checked the weather in the UK - we just hope that you are seeing a sign of spring !! Will write more after the weekend.,

To Boadly go to Dunedin

We finished off our tour at Christchurch on Sunday in glorious sunshine. We took a gondola as mentioned in our last log and the views were spectacular…. Sue took some great videos to show – I’ve unfortunately deleted them whist sorting out the facets and features of the video-editor. Know how it works now but some lost videos later!! Me in dog house must spring to mind.
From Christchurch yesterday we took the coach down south to the next big town of Dunedin – so called as it has a great Scottish heritage and the name if formed by amalgamation of Dundee and Edinburgh – first impressions as we pulled in yesterday was of a ‘Scottishness’ with a statue of ‘Robbie Burns’ overlooking the town centre – all road with good Scottish names Today we tour the city and also go to on a very scenic route to visit the Taleri Gorge but more of that in the next posting. On the way to Dunedin we stopped off at a place on the coast called The Moeraki Boulders which are very unusual and very particular to this place in New Zealand. Below are two pictures of such boulders.



(I just had to crack one)



They are formed through time by the encasement of sea creatures in soil elements akin to cements which is tossed by the sea and forms sphere-like shapes. Much like rolling a small snowball to make a rolly-polly snowman. Over time they have settled in the sea bed – which is mud based and not sand and with passage of time have been elevated into land areas adjoining the seas and are now been washed out of soil based cliff faces. Well it sort of that scientifically!!

Just to sign off it is true that NZ is a country of four seasons ….. on Sunday we 24 degrees of sun and yesterday a low blew in making it feel like 7 degrees and pouring with rain.. Hopefully it will change back again today (Tuesday Morning).

Living in a parallel universe

Gosh Christchurch is so 'English' Yes we had rain on landing and by lunchtime out pops the sun !! Today (Sunday) it looks as if it is going to be brilliant. Off to see Christchurch from the hilltop taking a gondola from the low heights to the high heights. Plenty of scenery promised so the camera will be in great use. What is truly amazing is that the plants are so much like the ones in the UK - suppose has to be as they emigrated here with their 'masters' but they much bigger. for you hoticulturists amongs you the rose garden we visited yesterday was so wonderful - all varieties of rose petals and big !! Talking of 'freebies' as I was last time we managed to find a cavery which did the equivalent of the three pound fifty meal but offered as much as you could eat and covered three courses. No I did not make a pig of myself - but can't vouch the same for Sue..... Hope all our readers are well. Will update more; especially after today.

PS Marlene if I've made any spelling and grammatical errors please forgive me - I am on holiday !!

Must use the 'freebie'

Just had to take advantage of the free access….. we are at Chiangi Airport awaiting our flight call. Have had a good morning on a cruise around the mad !! shipping lanes around Singapore habour and then stopped off at Kuzu Island which is a refuge for the turtles, How they manage to navigate around all the ships anchored up beggars belief ….. no wonder the Singaporeans provide a sanctuary for them. They need it !! Weather remains hot and humid but I think we are heading for ‘Mancunian weather’ at Christchurch seems a cool 13 degrees and raining !! I can ‘see’ you all smiling…. fancy spending all that time in the air just to get weather like home which is free as well !! Actually I hope you are all okay and looking forward to the onset of spring….we will be enjoying late summer in NZ so maybe we will be enjoying a few ‘harvest festivals’ in the towns we visit. Enough now …. Will sign off and go and seek another G&T,,,,, Ian & Sue.

Here we are Gin Slinging it

Arrived safely in Singapore to a warm 36 degrees…. I think I can just about handle this !! Flight great as one would expect with Singapore Airlines – passenger attention was superb nothing was ever too much trouble and if Sue kept having the champagne then trouble there could have been !! We are off to a ‘Welcoming Party’ this afternoon to meet other compatriots on this holiday. Ones we have met so far are very friendly and seem to be of the same ilk as ourselves. Spent most of the day around the pool and here are few photos to give you an idea of the luxury we are enjoying. So far so great. Will update Blog when we get to Christchurch which is on Saturday/Sunday next.

This is the very beginning

Well our bags are all packed and ready to roll.... well I hope not roll in reality as I'll never stop them !! Tickets and passports are safely stored away...... just hope Sue can remember to find them again. We won't be sad leaving the backend of the winter but sad to leave all our friends for 5 weeks still if I get this hang of 'blogging' you'll be able to share our venture with us. I sign off now and see if this training exercise has been fruitful and I can see this effort posted on our blog.