Keith Murdock leaving the Angel Hotel, Cardiff
In 1972 the All Blacks toured Britain, Ireland, France and North America. A tour which saw them play 32 fixture with the ABS running out winners in 25, losing 5 and drawing 2. Unusually, by modern standards, the tour spanned Christmas and the New Year with the ABs playing the Combined Services on boxing day at Twickenham (and all conducted in the amateur era).
Rainbow Warrior memorial Matauri Bay, Northland
In July, 1985 Greenpeace’s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, docked in Auckland ahead of a journey to Morura protests against a planned French nuclear test in the region. On the 10th July, French secret service divers attached two limpet mines to the ship. Continue reading
As a spritely 40 years of age my venture to New Zealand is accompanied by the desire to play some sort of rugby so that I could trot out the line “New Zealand, oh yes, I played rugby for a few seasons when I lived there” when the situation presents itself. Continue reading
Downtown Christchurch
We’re heading from Queenstown to Timaru and onwards up the east coasts to catch the Inter-Island ferry back to the North Island. This first leg is a 5 hr road trip past Mount Cook and aquamarine lakes (implausibly aquamarine, as if someone has tipped dye into it). We stopped for lunch at Twizel and then pressed-on for Timaru where we camp.
In the morning we head to the beach in Timaru where there was also a lido and small fun fair. Afterwards we drive to Pleasant Point to visit David and Janet Morgan (from Middlewood Farm, Bwlch). They have move out here to manage a 5500 acre deer, beef and sheep station on behalf of an international agricultural investment group. Two years ago, when the group decided to sell, the Morgans raised the money to buy it. The scale of everything is incredible, 300km of deer fencing has been put up since they arrived and, if I heard correctly, there are 24,000 head of stock on the land (did I mis-hear?). We were given a warm welcome and spent the afternoon there before driving a further 2hrs onto Christchurch (about 2hrs).
Huw and Gethin Baldwin in a crap pub in Christchurch.
In Christchurch we meet-up with Huw and Gethyn Baldwin who had stayed with me in Auckland when I first arrive in New Zealand. Huw is heading back to the UK but Gethyn is staying on. We gave Huw the keys to the house in Auckland so that he could stay there later in the week while we are still travelling around.
Leafy Christchurch.
Christchurch appears very ‘English’ its is very leafy with the the river Avon flowing through its centre with people punting not he river. The grid pattern streets are named ‘Hereford’, ‘Gloucester’, ‘Worcester’ etc. We wandered along the river in the morning and then in the afternoon we took a boat around the harbour to see the Hector dolphins.
Hector dolphins surfing the boats bow wave.
This is our third attempt to see dolphins and finally we have succeeded. We saw several pods and probably 20-30 dolphins in total with half a dozen racing the boat in its bow wave at one point. The experience was all the more satisfying having failed on out previous dolphin watching trips to spot any.
Camping at Lake Hawea.
Today is New Year’s eve and we are camped at Lake Hawea, a huge lake surrounded by mountains near Wanaka. Continue reading
Anchorage Bay, Abel Tasman
Our sprint around the country continues and we head north to the Abel Tasman National Park. We catch a water taxi from Marahau to the beautiful Anchorage Bay where we are dropped of on the deserted beach for the morning. Continue reading
Inter-island ferry to Picton.
We packed up the car today and said good-bye to Howell, Tracey, Iwan and Megan who are heading north from Taupo to Auckland, where they’ll stay in our house for a a couple of days before heading back to the UK. We’re heading in the other direction to Wellington where we’ll stay overnight before taking the ferry across to the Cook Straight to South Island.
Today was St Heliers School End of Year Achievement Assembly. St Heliers is a primary and intermediate school catering for children up to year 8 (13 years of age). We chose the school on the basis of a meeting with the spectacularly impressive Craig McCarthney who had recently joined. St Heliers is a decile 6 school. Continue reading
Beach Wedding, St Heliers Beach (Rangatoto hidden from view)
My best mate from home, Howell Havard, rang a few months ago to let me know that he was coming out to New Zealand for three weeks in December with his partner Tracey and their two children Iwan and Megan for a holiday. Howell runs a Breconshire-based sheep farming operation with his brothers and has been to New Zealand before shearing. I can’t remember quite how the telephone conversation went but it concluded with the decision that I would arrange for them to get married while they are in New Zealand. Continue reading
After the swim, with Movember moustache.
For some reason I have entered Auckland Harbour swim. The 2.8km from Auckland’s across the harbour with Auckland Harbour bridge on your right hand side to the Viaduct harbour. I am an average swimmer and have done little in the way of open water swimming. All very different to laps of a pool. Continue reading
NewZealandly 