New Zealand 2011

20th - 30th September

20th Sept: Nomads Backpackers Hostel in Queenstown.Drunkeness is such a problem in hostels that the staff burst into your room to check you're not drinking. Luckily last night I wasn't	Cromwell. The first of many stops on the long journey from Queenstown to Kaikoura.No explanation whatsoever for the giant fruit sculpture	Not far away and not small	How do you like them apples? The far side of the fruit
Something to go with a Belgium beer at the Rovers in Shirley?	Telephone boxes in NZ come in one design. How dull	Lake Pukaki	Lake Pukaki - Panoramic 1
Lake Pukaki - Panoramic 2	Lake Pukaki - Panoramic 3	Lake Pukaki - Panoramic 4	Lake Pukaki - Panoramic 5
Lake Pukaki - Stitched together :-)			Lake Pukaki with vegetation
Geraldine Cinema. They're just about to get a brand-new film in: Gone With The Wind. The locals are excited	Total gridlock!	Come on cows. Give way to the Kiwi Bus	ThisT-shirt sums up the majority of the Kiwi Experience travellers. That girl never smiled. Not once
Hostel life! This is a posh one though. It's got en-suite and more importantly, no drinking ban	Pete has a day off & gets as far as here - Auckland War Memorial Museum	Didn't get to see the bits that Vic saw though. I'll be back.	21st Sept: Kaikoura - means Food-Crayfish
The view from the hostel in Kaikoura	The view from the hostel in Kaikoura which is called….	…the Lazy Shag. Not much chance of any sort with those dormitories. Merely an observation!	Seals playing in a rock pool at Ohau Point
22nd Sept: I've jumped off the Kiwi bus to spend a few days with Yvonne. She took me out for a drive. View from Cullen Point along Queen Charlotte Drive	View north towards Cook Strait	Yvonne and her (and Steve's) brand new Holden Captiva	View south towards Havelock and the start of the Marlborough Sounds
Me and the view	Me posing like Mum (sorry, Mum!)	Especially for Chris Bleach - a bath in a field	Two for the price of one!
Ngakuta Bay, along Queen Charlotte Drive	Ngakuta Bay	Nice spot for a picnic	Lunch with real coffee. How decadent. You can tell I'm not on the Kiwi Experience at the moment
A hungry injured duck, not shy of people. It took a piece of bread right out of my hand	Threatened birds board. The only thing threatening those gulls, in my opinion, would be people with chips	More birds	Ngakuta Bay
Fish quotas, or maybe the list of song names considered by the B52s before deciding	Another view of the Sounds	Another view of the Sounds	Evidence of the logging industry at Shakespeare Bay
I wasn't permitted to bring all of this wood home for 5BC's fire	Another view of the Sounds	Picton. Competing ferry companies	Picton
The fleet of the New Zealand Royal Navy	Rarangi. Lovely beach, shame you can't swim in the sea as the undertow is too strong	Cloudy Bay. Sounds familiar?	A whacky mailbox
Even whackier	A further use for a White Star cask?	23rd Sept: Proof that the sun does shine in Auckland sometimes	25/09/11. Tony and HJ's (friends of Steve and Yvonne) boat
26/09/11. Red umbrella, blue sky	Breakfast bread in the making: Delia, eat your heart out	Cleo next to the lemon tree	Breakfast bread made
Breakfast bread ready to eat	29/09/11. A running plumber on the way to Nelson	Steve asks him for a quote. "Nah, mate. Busy till next week. I'll give you a call."	Not really. He's running for a stroke charity
Palm trees in Nelson	Nelson Cathedral. A triumph of muddled building. Half Gothic/half 1950s compromise. It's not wonky, by the way. My photography is	Especially for Kevin. An Affairs Café	A classy joint, no doubt
What kind of a party is this? Don't forget your Judy Garland records or Steven will be disappointed	Mapua, Tasman Bay	Mapua, Tasman Bay	Knitted fish to mourn the local aquarium destroyed by suspected arson
Coffee break with our new cups at Graham Stream Picnic Area	Graham Stream, on State Highway 6 between Nelson and Blenheim	Trees at Graham Stream	Graham Stream, nice rock formations
View across SH6 from Graham Stream	Meanwhile… Pete has a day off & the Viaduct Harbour Bridge is opened for him (well, actually the boat he's on).	Yes, it's Auckland	Cruising out of the harbour on a whale (& dolphin) watching trip.
	The Quadrant hotel is the white one centre left at the back that you can hardly see behind the others	Still can't see it.	Guess what? Dolphins
			They do love playing with the bow wave of a boat.
On from here, we left the dolphins and did find a Bryde's Whale & her calf. But my camera isn't up to taking such photos. BTW, "'Bryde's" is pronounced "brutus" it seems.	Enough of the whales, follow the gannets to a dolphin feeding ground. The dolphins herd the fish & the gannets dive in.	The locals call this a 'work up'. As well as the dolphins underneath, all sorts of (bigger) fish & sharks come along to benefit from the dolphins fish herding skills.	"Well that bit's fished out, let's get on to the next patch"
"Here we go…"	A few dolphins hang around to play with whatever is left. Though you can't really see, a dolphin has been doing some backward swimming on its tail - in order to make a loud splash to confuse fish. This is unusual for Common Dolphins such as these, more of a Bottlenose Dolphin thing.	This might help see the dolphin swimming backwards, though it's no longer right up on its tail.	After that, off home.
We also saw a fur seal on the way back. Again, no photo	Auckland Harbour	Auckland Harbour & Docks	Yvonne, Steve and Rebecca. Rebecca modelling her new dress
Yvonne, Steve, Rebecca and Cleo	A proper phone box. Well, nearly. A K6-shaped money box	HJ and Tony's boat from the other side. Still can't remember its name	HJ and Tony's boat
Goodbye Picton and South Island. Heading to Wellington on the Bluebridge Santa Regina	Marlborough Sounds, heading north	Marlborough Sounds, after a right turn, or is that east?	Similar shot
Almost at the end of Marlborough Sounds just before entering Cook Strait	In case of emergency	Wellington in sight	Wellington
Navy ships docked at Wellington	A bonus kiosk! Who would have expected to find a K2 in Wellington? Plus a postbox for Chris which I didn't even notice at the time. I knew there was a reason I didn't take a taxi

Contents

Pictures from New Zealand 2011