My Lei - real flowers as well - beautiful scent

Views from the 32nd floor balcony - looked north to the mountains

Sunday 11th July 2010 - Honolulu - Oahu island

As I have crossed the International Date Line overnight I have the luxury of having Sunday twice. Bit of a discussion with the hotel front desk as I arrived at 0900 and rooms are not ready until 1500 hours. Needless to say after I had pushed my point that my arrival time was as planned it was only to be expected that my room would be ready - citing Singapore as a good example. I was in my room by 10.30 and able to talk to mum and dad albeit a trifle later than planned.

As soon as I arrived I was given all the tour bumf to peruse so after lunch met the tour operator and booked myself on 4 full day tours. Spent the afternoon exploring the town and beach - what a difference as it was hot and sunny and the streets and beach was mobbed. Still had a great time just wandering about, loads of Japanese tourists around. Got told off for crossing the street away from the pedestrian crossings - no traffic around but one is not allowed to jaywalk.

Tomorrow I will be spending all day in the Pearl Harbour complex, very secure so no bags, drinks allowed and require ID as well.

Hotel complex

One of the lily flowers in a small pond in the hotel gardens

Waterfront area close to the hotels

Fiji- 11th July 2010

Dark when I arrived, picked up from the airport and had a good conversation with the driver. During the evening he is the coordinator between the police and various hotels/clubs. Hotel is a sprawling complex of 2 storey buildings set in gardens. Land one side and sea the other split into ocean and inlet to Port Denarau. Plenty of sandy beaches to laze on but very empty despite plenty of people in the resort.

Dinner was buffet style and as I missed out on NZ oysters I had half a dozen as a starter. Not as good as Dubai but enjoyed my meal. Saturday spent chilling out, was hot and overcast for most of the day. Walked to Port Denarau and looked around, not a lot to see, very few boats around. Had a kip in the afternoon then walked around the complex. From where the hotel is situated you do not get a good feel of the real Fiji. One thing that was lacking was the tour information. Most hotels are there at the beginning wanting to entice you out on tours, which makes the lack of interest strange as tourism is the biggest income. All the local people very polite, greeting is "bulla" which is used by all that you meet.

Buffet dinner in the evening, no real change in the food - if that continues the fare could get quite boring, still enjoyed a few Talisker whiskeys - £100 for 4 drinks???? must be mental. Plenty of aussies here as school holidays.

Sunday spent loafing on the beach - ocean side. hardly anyone on the beach. Do not find the water that warm. Love watching the shore crabs come out of their burrows and rush about the waters edge scavenging, as soon as danger lurks back down their burrows they go. At high tide all their burrows covered by water, but as I had to be back for my lift to the airport for 1600 hours missed the crabs emerging.

Transport on time and efficient staff in airport. One difference though was that passengers on both USA flights had to go through a full body search, one through you were then quarantined from all other passengers. Had to wait in a tight stuffy area for about 2 hours. Still boarded on time and sort of enjoyed the overnight flight.

Over all I did not get a good feeling with Fiji. One thing that I was disappointed with was the lack of Internet cover, my phone told me I did not have SIM card installed and whilst I could get some access to Internet I could not skype at all, and being Sunday wished to catch up with my parents. I do not think I will be back.

What Irene and Daphne calls "snow in hot ginger liqueur"

Irene once she warmed up

Daphne just loves having her picture taken

Eventually we got there, even managed to get her to remove her hat

I am getting the finger pointed at me - cannot remember what for!

Last day/night in New Zealand: 8th July 2010

The reason for picking the Kiwi Backpackers was that both Irene and Daphne had moved there from the White Elephant. They had secured work packing lily bulbs and were to start the following week. But as they were cash strapped they were on the move to another cheaper hostel, then would rent a house with 4 other girls in Ashburton (just south of Christchurch). Would have loved the opportunity to have stayed longer, just for the craich and the food.

Day started with a trip to DHL to send back home a box of clothes, books, leaflets and merchandise that I had collected. The box was only half the size of a bankers box but still managed to pack 9.5 kilos.

That done it was back to the city and find somewhere to park, max 2 hours outside the hostel during the day. All one way streets, few signs so ended up getting lost. A parking warden actually helped me out so got a free space until 1800 hrs, when the gates to the car park would be locked.

Met Irene and Daphne in the information office and after spending some of their money we headed out into drizzle. Actually got worse during the day and rained constantly during the day and night.

Paid for the girls to take the tram ride, they had little money for frivolous things, but really they were right as it was a total waste of time. Could not let on though.

Visited the Cathedral which was complete with beautiful stained glass windows and a rose window. If one did not know the history of Christchurch one could be forgiven in thinking that this building was much older than the Victorian period. Due to the weather we spent quite a bit of time inside looking at all the windows and information available.

We all decided that we would go for a meal and looked at the restaurant guide. We had a tramp to find some of them but even I was not impressed. On our way we passed a car showroom, entirely of classic cars, mostly British. Had to go in as one was a MKVIIM Jaguar - only NZ$28,500, drive away condition. I did fancy the car next to it though, an Alvis but this was priced at NZ$280,000 - oh dear! What was also amazing about this showroom was that around the walls were glass cases crammed full of motoring memorabilia, collections of old Dinky, Corgi and other makes (nice to see some old friends as well) and models for sale - including Oxford diecast models which are comparatively new on the market. They had three diecast models, MK VII, VIII and IX for sale - very good quality - priced at NZ$140 (£70.00). Never seen them before but well £70 each!!!

We found our restaurant, not in the guide books, but food was good. To start with we had strips of spicy chicken and I had a beef soup. 4 large meat balls followed plus chicken in a peanut sauce, a mixed seafood dish, bowl of plain rice each - all washed down with copious quantity of chinese tea. Very enjoyable, mad the girls laugh with the way I use chop sticks - kept asking if I wanted a fork - cheeky buggers. Cost was only NZ$20 each.

Had to leave the girls to pick up the car and agreed that I would meet them at their new hostel at 19.30. Got back to the hostel okay, used satnav - left here and right there etc. Ditto for finding the girls hostel. Just as I was leaving my hostel Daphne rings and says to contact Irene on my arrival but did not explain anymore. Find out that she had left her hot flask in the restaurant and had decided to walk into town in the pouring rain to retrieve. Thankfully Irene and I decided to drive in and pick her up - Daphne had got lost and could not find the place. Had a bit of a laugh when she found us - soaking wet and cold.

Anyway had a great evening eating snow in a hot sweet ginger liquor. Both girls tried to explain how the white balls are made but basic ingredient is a type of flour. Very tasty and on a cold night certainly heated the innards. Daphne then made her version of pancakes to which we smeared nutella on one and Irene's homemade sweet (notice the theme here) apple jam on the others. Absolutely gorgeous - yum yum yum. Plenty of chat and laughs and sad to leave. Again thanks girls for a great day, your company - one to treasure.

Early start the next day, drop the car off and fly to Nadi airport via Auckland. Both flights went well but had a rather smelly individual next to me on the domestic flight - pleased to arrive.

The sign says it all

The road to earthquake valley

More fossil Baleen Whale bones found in the rocks here

One side of the rift

The other side of the rift

7th July 2010 - Back on the Vanished World - Fossil Trail

Item 16 in the booklet simply states- Earthquakes. Huge blocks of Otekaike Limestone tumbled when the land slumped thousands of years ago. Caution! - rocks still fall and the ground is creviced! It goes on to talk about the fossils that can be seen in the rocks including the whale bones above.

I know this is not up to the size and dimensions of the rift valley in Africa but it is still quite awe inspiring to walk into a fairly enclosed area where the middle section had dropped by some 100 feet+ It was easy to spot some of the crevices, in fact to cross one of them you walked over a flattish piece of limestone that had fallen from the cliffs. Plenty wide enough but I could not see the bottom. Apparently geologists have tried to determine the depths of these crevices and have given up trying to ascertain the depths - so deep in places. Whole area is quite overgrown so was warned not to leave the trackways - umm - after crossing the makeshift bridge I took note. Spent at least an hour and a half there, very cold and frosty but with a lovely blue sky.

Drove on then up along the Waitaki river to Kurow. Here the road forked, left for Mount Cook and the upper part of the valley - one place I wished I had time to visit and right which would take you back along the opposite side of the river to the Pacific Ocean and the main highway to Christchurch. Due to time restraints I took the latter course and drove up to the Kiwi backpackers in Christchurch.

One thing I was told and how true it was - travelling around both islands one must allow additional drive time. In the UK I generally work on an average speed of 50 miles traveled per hour's journey. here it was down to 40 kms per hour travelled - much slower. There is a great place up near Mt Cook called Twizzle which was the site of the construction camp for the two dams at the head of the Waitaki river. Apparently all the building materials was trucked in and houses built for the construction staff. At the end of the project these houses were to be demolished but the construction company found that the locals (and not so locals) were very interested to buy them, so the town of Twizzle remains. This was also one of the sited for Lord of the Rings.

They really mean it as at dusk the blue penguins come back onshore and just before dawn breaks they go back out to sea to fish

A blue penguin in a nest box, 'catnaps' for a few seconds at a time

The route the majority take from the sea to the nest site

View of part of the nest site.

July 7th Blue Penguin colony at Oamaru

Decided to revisit the colony as in the day time you can photo the birds (without flash) - that is if any are to be seen. There is a purpose built viewing platform/hut built over 12 nest sites, arranged in a circle. Whilst you cannot film in there you can watch the birds in their nest/burrows. Half were full with 2 birds in each - mating pairs as this was the start of their breeding season.

Outside the same same type of burrow had been constructed as Ortago peninsula and in one box we found a penguin waiting out the day.

These birds are a delight to see and watch but I think quite rare so there is a drive to support the conservation at the Oamaru site by adopting one, for a fee of NZ$75.00 (£37.50) plus p&p I would imagine if you are outside of NZ. The best way to see for yourself what the package entails is to visit www.penguins.co.nz

Excellent Christmas present especially for the kids or those who are kids at heart and like the ahhhh factor.

Ramsay Lodge Dunedin - 4th July 2010 - Farewell dinner



Daishiro, Jane and Dexter with Yvonne taking the photo - thanks

All the merry crew: Daishiro (Japan), Jane (Malaysia), Yvonne (Taiwan) and Dexter (Philippines)

The "happy couple" seated with Yvonne. I say "happy couple" as Jane and Dexter was always arguing when cooking in the kitchen and who did what and who would do the washing up. All I will say is - Dexter be careful as I think Jane fancies you!!!!! How far is it from the Philippines to Penang Harbour?

Daishiro cooked carbonara, Yvonne cooked the roast chicken legs and Dexter cooked a lovely soup to start and chopped and mixed the salad. I think Jane did some supervising and lots of giggling as well as taking photos. Yvonne washed whilst Dexter and I dried the dishes and Jane , well she created more mess which we left her to clear up :-) - lol

Had a great last night in Ramsay Lodge and as usual it was gone midnight before we retired for the night.

Not sure why Yvonne had to get on her knees to take the shot, thought she was praying for a minute. It took so long for all the photo's and laughter to subside that Daishiro's carbonara had to be reheated in the microwave which was a shame, still tasted good though.

The other laugh is when our Asian friend take photo's. Since starting to understand their love of life I have watched other far eastern peoples take their shots, they all seem to have to either stand on one leg, make funny faces, silly finger gestures - or attempt all 3 at once. The funniest one I saw was in Christchurch Cathedral where a rather plump young girl tried to do a jump (sort of sideways) whilst giving two reverse V signs and laughing as well - all on the raised area between the choir stalls. How her friend was meant to capture that I do not know but she had several attempts at it!!!.

Thanks guys for a bundle of laughs and friendship in such short space of time.

Some pictures of Victorian Dunedin -

City Hall

Cathedral

This was the first church that was built in Dunedin for a scottish minister

Not Victorian but I liked to see some colour