The rest of New Zealand and back to Melbourne
Hi,
Sorry it's been a while between posts but I've been pretty active here in Melbourne and the more I put off writing everything up, the more happens... The good news is that I've gone back and inserted some photos into the first New Zealand post and the Kangaroo Island post as well (both below), and written up what's been going on since my last post.
The Rest of New Zealand
From Te Anau we headed to Wanaka - another small town situated on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. We went via Queenstown and had a picnic on the 'beach' there which was glorious in the sunshine. I took a panorama there, which I think should look really good (the shot of Queenstown in the last post is actually from it). I took a lot of panoramas while in New Zealand all the spectacles are so huge that it's really hard to capture the enormity of the scene in just one photo. That does mean I'm going to have to spend quite a while stitching photos back together...
Wanaka is the gateway to the Mount Aspiring National Park, where we did the five hour 'Rob Roy Valley Track' up to a glacier viewing point. The views were stunning and we were even rewarded by a small avalanche on one of the glaciers. From Wanaka we drove to Twizel, a very small town mainly comprising motels which is the nearest place to Mount Cook national park, where we went the next day.
The drive to Mount Cook national park was along the side of the vividly blue Lake Twizel which was basked in sunshine, although it was cloudy and sporadically rainy the closer we got to Mount Cook. Bizarrely, I bumped into Laura from our year at New College in the visitors centre! She's currently working in Fiji and was there on holiday. In a gap between rainstorms we walked to the end of another glacier (mainly melted as it's autumn) and came back down via the allegedly Blue lakes, whilst it started bucketing with rain again. The scenery, as in many other places, was real lord of the rings stuff. There is in fact a guide to New Zealand featuring all the sites where stuff was filmed, where the crew hung out, etc. etc.
That night we drove back from Mt Cooke to Christchurch. In the morning we explored Christchurch, which didn't take terribly long, although it's the second largest city in New Zealand, the population is only 344,100. The flight back to Melbourne was long as we first had to take a flight to Auckland (away from where we wanted to go) before we could head back to Australia.
Back in Melbourne
The pace in Melbourne has been a bit more relaxed, which is definitely a good thing! The Sunday we got back we all went to Hanging Rock, allegedly famous for being the scene of the tedious classic Picnic at Hanging Rock. It is still a great place, despite the film and book, and the rocks are cool. There is also a fantastic cafe there serving really good food - which seems a little strange for a national park. There were also Kangaroos to round it all off.
On Monday we went to the Yara valley and picnicked at Badger's Creek Weir. One of the main features of the picnic area is there are huge numbers of wild parrots. They are so numerous that after a while they seem more like verminous pigeons, but the colour of them is still stunning. Afterwards we went to an alpaca and Hydrangea farm (!) and then to our favourite vineyard for a bit of a wine tasting.
Tuesday was a calm day and featured a trip to the botanical gardens, which were as great as I remembered them being. Really well laid out and full of fantastic plants. On Wednesday we went to the sea and on the way back stopped at the National Wool Museum, which was considerably more interesting than I thought it would be. I guess, that's the sign of a well designed museum.
On Thursday we drove to Richmond so Thea could have her swimming lesson, and I went for a dip myself. Then browsed the shops and had a chilled time. (Good) Friday was the last day we were all together as Mum and Dad headed back to Hong Kong in the evening. We had a look at some bookshops and then went for a nice lunch in the sunshine overlooking the river - then it rained lots.
I've now got three more days in Melbourne with Kate, Obi and Thea, then I also return to Hong Kong for a few days and then back to Oxford, arriving first thing on Friday morning.
Cheers,
Ali
Sorry it's been a while between posts but I've been pretty active here in Melbourne and the more I put off writing everything up, the more happens... The good news is that I've gone back and inserted some photos into the first New Zealand post and the Kangaroo Island post as well (both below), and written up what's been going on since my last post.
The Rest of New Zealand
From Te Anau we headed to Wanaka - another small town situated on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. We went via Queenstown and had a picnic on the 'beach' there which was glorious in the sunshine. I took a panorama there, which I think should look really good (the shot of Queenstown in the last post is actually from it). I took a lot of panoramas while in New Zealand all the spectacles are so huge that it's really hard to capture the enormity of the scene in just one photo. That does mean I'm going to have to spend quite a while stitching photos back together...
Wanaka is the gateway to the Mount Aspiring National Park, where we did the five hour 'Rob Roy Valley Track' up to a glacier viewing point. The views were stunning and we were even rewarded by a small avalanche on one of the glaciers. From Wanaka we drove to Twizel, a very small town mainly comprising motels which is the nearest place to Mount Cook national park, where we went the next day.
The drive to Mount Cook national park was along the side of the vividly blue Lake Twizel which was basked in sunshine, although it was cloudy and sporadically rainy the closer we got to Mount Cook. Bizarrely, I bumped into Laura from our year at New College in the visitors centre! She's currently working in Fiji and was there on holiday. In a gap between rainstorms we walked to the end of another glacier (mainly melted as it's autumn) and came back down via the allegedly Blue lakes, whilst it started bucketing with rain again. The scenery, as in many other places, was real lord of the rings stuff. There is in fact a guide to New Zealand featuring all the sites where stuff was filmed, where the crew hung out, etc. etc.That night we drove back from Mt Cooke to Christchurch. In the morning we explored Christchurch, which didn't take terribly long, although it's the second largest city in New Zealand, the population is only 344,100. The flight back to Melbourne was long as we first had to take a flight to Auckland (away from where we wanted to go) before we could head back to Australia.
Back in Melbourne
The pace in Melbourne has been a bit more relaxed, which is definitely a good thing! The Sunday we got back we all went to Hanging Rock, allegedly famous for being the scene of the tedious classic Picnic at Hanging Rock. It is still a great place, despite the film and book, and the rocks are cool. There is also a fantastic cafe there serving really good food - which seems a little strange for a national park. There were also Kangaroos to round it all off.
On Monday we went to the Yara valley and picnicked at Badger's Creek Weir. One of the main features of the picnic area is there are huge numbers of wild parrots. They are so numerous that after a while they seem more like verminous pigeons, but the colour of them is still stunning. Afterwards we went to an alpaca and Hydrangea farm (!) and then to our favourite vineyard for a bit of a wine tasting.
Tuesday was a calm day and featured a trip to the botanical gardens, which were as great as I remembered them being. Really well laid out and full of fantastic plants. On Wednesday we went to the sea and on the way back stopped at the National Wool Museum, which was considerably more interesting than I thought it would be. I guess, that's the sign of a well designed museum.
On Thursday we drove to Richmond so Thea could have her swimming lesson, and I went for a dip myself. Then browsed the shops and had a chilled time. (Good) Friday was the last day we were all together as Mum and Dad headed back to Hong Kong in the evening. We had a look at some bookshops and then went for a nice lunch in the sunshine overlooking the river - then it rained lots.I've now got three more days in Melbourne with Kate, Obi and Thea, then I also return to Hong Kong for a few days and then back to Oxford, arriving first thing on Friday morning.
Cheers,
Ali
