Christchurch, Singapore and Home

March 11 - We found a nice little motel in a suberb called Addington (Addington Court Motel) and explored the city a little. We took the tram car along the downtown and visited the museum, window shopped and had coffee in the large square by the cathedral. There was an old-time fair going on with many people dressed in turn of the century costumes and lots of street musicians etc. We found the local mall, saw a movie, did some email, called the kids, and found a little Italian place which we visited twice.On monday March 13, we played golf at Clearwater resort, the site of the New Zealand PGA tournament. It was an excellent golf course, but it was another very windy day and our scores were indicative of it. The next day we turned in our gutless little Toyota and left New Zealand after 89 days - bound for Singapore.

We highly recommend Singapore Airlines - their service is wonderful and you have personal little TV screens with entertainment on demand. We watched four movies on the way to Singapore - sure helps pass the time on a long flight. We arrived around eight pm and it was getting dark, so we didn't see anything on the drive from the airport except the freeway. We stayed at the Peninsula Excelsior Hotel, one of the numerous high-rises that make up Singapore. The weather was hot and muggy - 30 degrees C. - but nice after the cold weather we experienced on the south island.We did the touristy sight-seeing stuff. There is a hop on - hop off bus that let's you take in most of the central area - lots of good shopping on Orchard Road. We took a
city night tour that included a river ride, a Chinese dinner, tour of the pewter factory and Singapore Slings (20 Singapore dollars each) at the famous Raffles Hotel.
We spent one afternoon lying around the pool and then visiting the Night Safari Zoo in the evening. You rode around in little tram cars in the dark and they pointed out the various animals. You could also go on walking trails, but that didn't appeal to us - chicken, even though they probably had electric fences to control the animals. Neither one of us was very impressed with Singapore - just a large city with high-rise after high-rise and lots of cars and construction - great airport though.

March 18 - Time to go home. Our flight was scheduled Singapore to Seoul,Korea to Vancouver to Calgary. The flight from Singapore to Seoul was packed - every seat was taken. When we got to Seoul, everyone had to get off with your belongings. We were lined up to get to the transit area when we were approached by representatives of Singapore Airlines. They offered us, along with another couple headed for Calgary, 290,000 Korean Won and a Singapore Airlines upgrade if we would consider going Korean
Airlines to Seattle and then Alaskan Airlines to Calgary. We would get in about an hour later than previously scheduled. We were a little reluctant since we knew nothing about Korean Airlines but we thought it over and said ok. We spent the next half hour rushing through the airport following this little Korean guy who was trying to get through all the paperwork. He then handed us each envelopes full of 10,000 Won
notes and got us boarded on the Korean Air flight. It was actually a very nice new plane and they also had a personal entertainment system and we arrived safely in Seattle about 10 hours later, luggage and all. We were a little concerned that our bags might get lost, but everything got there and we cleared US customs and then waited a few hours for the next flight. The Alaskan Ailines flight was a turbo-prop - haven't flown on one of those for a while - but it made it to Calgary ok. We cashed in our wads of Won at the airport and received 311 Canadian dollars each, so that was kind of a nice homecoming gift. So that's the end of Wrightstravels - back to reality and time to do taxes!

Te Anau and Milford Sound

(We've been home for over a month now and seem to have developed writer's block, but we'll attempt to cover the last portion of our travels)

March 8 - We left Queenstown for Te Anau hoping to stop for breakfast on the other side of Lake Wakatipu in the Kelvin Heights area, but we couldn't find any cafes or restaurants there. The road beside the lake was another typical winding, twisting one, and at the end of the lake, we found a little cafe in Kingston. The rest of the road to Te Anau was very good, lots of straight stretches through farms and ranches - many sheep stations and quite a few deer farms. Te Anau is a little village on the shores of Lake Te Anau and is the gateway to Fiordland National Park, Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound. We spent the afternoon strolling through the the shops and scouting out the best dinner spot (Luxmore Hotel). We also found a supermarket to purchase provisions for our breakfast and lunch the following day. We were booked on the 9 am Milford Sound cruise the next morning, so we had to get an early start. The drive to the sound takes about an hour and three quarters to two hours, depending on how fast you like to drive. The first part is pretty straightforward and then WOW - lots of elevation changes, narrow one way bridges,a one way tunnel, etc. We wondered how they get all the tour busses in and out day after day. The drivers have to be excellent. There are many different types of cruises available, even overnight ones, but we opted for a 90 minute Red Boat Cruise that covered the highlights. We were fortunate with the weather, it was cool, only 9-10 degrees C. but bright and sunny. There had been quite a lot of rain the previous few days, so there were numerous waterfalls coming down the steep sides of the surrounding cliffs. We had a very pleasant ride around the sound and even encountered a pod of dolphins which followed us for about five or ten minutes. They are really beautiful creatures.

On the way back to Te Anau, we stopped for a short walk at the chasm and then for our picnic lunch at a rest stop along the way. It was quite lovely, nice quiet little spot with a few picnic tables - but then the sandflies found us - and we finished our lunch in the car. They are vicious little biting blackflies so beware! We stopped in Te Anau for gas and ice cream - they have excellent ice cream in New Zealand. Just a few kilometres out of Te Anau, Bob passed a slow moving grader and the next thing we knew, there was a police car chasing us with lights flashing. So we pulled over and and the policeman gave Bob a $150 ticket for passing when unsafe to do so. He said that there wasn't enough room to see clearly and we think he was full of s___. We didn't pay the ticket yet. We drove on to Cromwell, a small town about 45 minutes north-east of Queenstown, where we spent the night. There was an 18-hole golf course right next to our motel and we were going to play the next morning, but the wind was howling and it was cold again, so we decided to head for Christchurch.

We have constantly been amazed at the different types of landscape in New Zealand, especially on the south island. This central part was a valley with numerous vineyards. Then there were some very stark rocky sections and another pass. We headed up highway 8 through Twizel and past Lake Pukaki to Lake Tekapo. Both of these lakes are a beautiful turquoise colour (like Lake Louise). You are supposed to be able to see Mount Cook from Lake Tekapo but it was cloudy in that direction, so we missed seeing the famous mountain. We went through a little place called Geraldine which seemed pretty nice, but we were getting tired of one night stands and were looking forward to staying in one spot for a few days - so we pushed on to Christchurch, where we spent the next four days.

The Westcoast to Queenstown

On the road again -We left Nelson and drove towards Greymouth on the westcoast through the Buller Gorge, another series of twisting and winding and up and down. There was an upper Buller Gorge and also a lower Buller Gorge and I don't know which was worse. The weather was grey, cloudy and showerey, but we were lucky to hit a patch of blue sky just as we arrived at Punakaiki and the famous pancake rocks - along with a couple loads of tour busses. There is a lovely little walk to view these rocks with nice pathways and signs explaining the formation of the rocks. The rocks look like stacks of pancakes, due to years of erosion. They are quite spectaculer. On days when the waves are crashing enough, there are even blowholes, but not on this day.I guess we weren't close enough to high tide. We had a little picnic lunch and then drove on to Greymouth, where we found our motel and then went to play nine holes at the local golf course. It was pretty good for a country course, but the weather started to turn nasty with a biting wind and we were pretty cold when we were finished and wishing for the lovely jetted tub that we had in Nelson.
The next morning we drove to the quaint little town of Hokitika, where we did some window-shopping, but no buying. On through the glacier disticts of Franz Josef and the Fox glacier. We weren't really interested in glacier adventures so we only stopped at a small viewpoint where you got a glimpse of the Fox glacier, but it wasn't all that impressive. Through much of the south island, you encounter narrow one-way bridges, where there is a small sign that tells you who has the right of way. You eventually get used to them since there are so many, but along this stretch we actually came across two of these bridges that also had railroad tracks on them - I guess the train ALWAYS has the right of way! Our next stop was at a viewpoint called Knight's Point which was very nice and had great views of the Tasman Sea crashing on the rocks, but the wind was blowing and it was freezing, so we didn't stay too long.
It started raining that afternoon and didn't stop for 24 hours. We found a small motel in a town called Haast.The room was pretty small, the walls pretty thin and the TV only got two channels. There was a small hostel next door and a cafe that closed at 4 pm. There was a local tavern that has two choices for dinner - roast of the day or fish and chips - and it was packed. I guess everyone had come in for the night because of the rain, especially as the cyclists. We were amazed at the number of cyclists we encountered. Some of them on cycle tours, along with a coach and trailer for the bicycles, but many were just in groups of two to four and they were packing all of their gear with them. They must have been in great shape to be able to navigate all the elevation changes and also pretty fearless to ride on the narrow roads - not many places with shoulders.
We tried the cafe for breakfast and then on the road again. The highway turns inland now and there is still the lush vegetation of the rainforest. Sometimes you drive through tunnels of trees - both sides of the narrow road are covered with trees from 40 to 60 feet high and so thick that you can't see past them. The vegetation gets more sparse as you travel along the Haast river and up the pass and there are a couple of nice waterfalls along the way.After the pass, the road wanders along two very large lakes, Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea and the scenery is quite different now, stark and vast views. It's about two and a half hours to the nice little town of Wanaka - too bad we didn't try to make it there yesterday instead of staying in Haast. After Wanaka, there are two ways to Queenstown - one looked much shorter on the map and so we took that road. It was called the Crown Range Road - it started out just great - not much traffic and not too winding. It goes through a ski area called Cardrona and the road was still pretty good except for the last 30 km. of it. There was a great viewpoint where we stopped and we didn't realize how high up we actually were - good thing we were going down and not up because our gutless car would have had problems. It was actually a little scary going down from the viewpoint and then the last few kilometres were twisty, turny hairpins where you could only go 15 km/hour. We ended up following a road-work crew and their equipment and we were kind of glad because there was no pressure to pass them or go faster - it was simply not possible. We got to Queenstown safely and it was actually quite an experience. People keep telling us we should go on a jet-boat ride or some other adventure,(our son Rob went bungy jumping here) but we have enough adventures just navigating the roads.
Queenstown kind of reminded us of Banff,lots of hotels and shops, except for there is a large lake there instead of the mountains. There is a cable car ride which we took and the view was very nice. We could see a golf course on a point across the lake and we wanted to play the next day, but the weather didn't cooperate - too cold and windy. We found a nice Italian restaraunt and then the local casino, where Bob managed to win a few dollars.

Tongariro, Wellington to Nelson

Bob successfully completed the Tongariro Crossing on Feb. 26.Our son Rob had done it during his trip to New Zealand, so dad had to do it also. He said it was a very long, hard walk that took him about seven hours. He took some very interesting photos of the very rugged volcanic terrain. He also had some very sore muscles for the next few days to remind him of the experience.
We spent the next couple of days packing up for our trip to the south island and getting in the last rounds of golf at Taupo. We left for Wellington on Mar. 1. It was about a five hour trip, the first part along a stretch called the desert highway and it really was desert. We are constantly amazed at the varied topography in this small country. After we found our hotel in Wellington, we took a ride on an old cable car that climbs this very steep hill and ends up at the observatory and botanical gardens. There is a great viewpoint at the top along with the usual cafe. (They love their cafes here).We were up early the next morning to get in the queue for the ferry to Picton. We got on and then went for breakfast upstairs. The ride out of Wellington Harbour started out fairly calm, but soon started to get rougher (apparently quite normal for the Cook Strait). The ferry started to rock and roll back and forth and a little while later, Olga lost her breakfast - good thing she only had tea and toast. The rough part lasted about and hour and then it became calm again. The journey took about three hours and after we landed in Picton, we started to drive to Nelson.
The first part of the drive was through vineyards and orchards along some rather flat, straight roads - but we were soon driving through some more scenic reserves and the winding stretches that go along with them. We arrived safely and managed to find a brand new motel - quite nice with a jetted tub.(the Leisure Lodge) We then found the i site and booked a tour for the next day. We drove around a little to get the lay of the land. Nelson is larger and more spread out then we expected. In the morning,we drove to Kaiterteri and took a boat called the Vista for a look at the bays along Able Tasmin National Park.The boat stopped at a few of them to drop off and pick up various passengers, including a bunch of school kids on a field trip. We saw lots of little inlets and bays that looked inviting if you were camping and kayaking and had time to explore them. We have discovered that a lot of the activities in this country are meant for young, fit outdoors types. Anyway, we saw a little of the park, along with a colony of fur seals at Tonga Island along the way. It was a long day and we had a quiet dinner at the motel's restaurant,followed by a hot tub and bed.
The next day we were booked to do a bone carving stint with Stephan Gilberg, an immigrant from Germany who had fallen in love with New Zealand during a previous vacation. He used to do wookworking and guitar-making in Germany and after moving to New Zealand opened a small studio and started doing bone carving. Neither Bob or Olga are very artistic, so just choosing a design and doing the initial drawing was a challenge, but Stephan was very helpful. So we now each have a little polished necklace which we mad ourselves and plan to give to our kids - part of the Maori tradition of passing things on. We had planned to golf in Nelson, but Bob was coming down with a cold and the weather was cool and windy, so no golf in Nelson.

February

This is sort of an update on most of February - we haven't been blogging much lately.
We continued seeing some local sights with out friends George and Lorraine. We took in Aratiatia Dam and then did a walk in geothermal area called Craters of the Moon. The landscape is quite unique, with huge craters with steam escaping and pools of boiling mud. It was very warm and sunny out and the heat from the craters made it even hotter, so we were ready for a cool drink and an ice cream at the end.

The next day, we drove about an hour north to Rotorua, where we visited a Maori village and a larger geothermal area. It has a long name which I don't have with me at present, but they called it Whaka for short. We had a excellent guide who showed us through the museum and later led us through the geothermal area. It was much larger than the Craters of the Moon and we were glad they had little trams for the tour. When we got to the area where the geyers were, the wind was blowing and the geyers were spewing and most of us got sprayed, but the guide said that was good luck. We also went into the Kiwi House where we saw two kiwi birds - they are nocturnal birds, so you don't see them very often.

We visited the Fat Dog Cafe for lunch (recommended by John Hutton) and just in time too, since there was a huge downpour that lasted for a couple of hours.

We spent a few quiet days in Taupo, playing a little golf and trying out a few local restaraunts before our next adventure. On Sunday, Feb. 12 we drove to the Coromandel Peninsula to a place called Hahei. I think we took the wrong road to Tauranga, another very windy road, where we saw people pulling over to puke. George and Olga almost had to join them - they both are prone to car sickness - but things eventually settled down. (not giong down that road again) Once at Hahei, we went to Hot Water Beach where you are supposed to dig a hole on the beach and it fills up with hot water, but there was no hot water that day. There were hundreds of people with these little shovels digging and digging but no luck. Bob and George then took the hike down to Cathedral Cove - it was about 45 minutes each way, but apparently the scenery was worth the effort.

We spent the night at a cottage in Hahei and the next day drove back to Tauranga and on to Mount Manganui, where we stopped for a few hours and walked along the lovely beachfront. We later took a much better highway back to Rotorua - Olga commented that they must have imported a Canadian engineer for this highway- and then back to Taupo in time to watch Mike Weir lose at Pebble Beach. (We now have Sky TV in our apartment so we get more channels)

Valentine's Day and we played 9 holes and then went to Huka Falls, before dinner at the Wolfe's.(rack of lamb,spuds, veggies, a wonderful spinach and strawberry salad with poppy seed dressing and homemade chocolates - way better than any restaraunt meal would have been - Linda Wolfe is a great cook)

George and Lorraine left for the South Island on Feb. 16 and we settled in to watching the Olympics and playing a little golf. The Olympic coverage here is not too great. It comes on at 7 am for three hours and then again at 9:30 pm, with a break for the evening news. You only get highlights of the events and they do a poor job of the standings and the medals. We were looking forward to watching the hockey, but all we got was a few minutes of goal highlights on some of the games, but I guess maybe that was a good thing since it looks like Canada didn't play that well and we didn't miss much. (the men's team anyway)

We have a few more days in Taupo and then we're off to Wellington and then the south island.

Happy Birthday Rob - (Dad is doing the Tongariro crossing right now) - more later.

Tourney results etc.

We played in a golf tournament called the Harcourts on Jan. 28 and 29 and guess what, we both won prizes. The first day was very hot and humid - you were dripping wet after only one hole. The ladies played on the easier course and Olga shot a 77 with 40 stableford points. Bob played the harder championship course and shot 89 with 35 points. The second day was a little cooler and Bob shot 85 with 38 points and Olga came back to reality with an 85 also and 32 points. But we both won prizes. They gave 4 low gross, 4 low net and 4 stableford prizes in each division, along with some day prizes. So Bob got a bottle of wine and $85 gift certificates at a home improvement store - luckily, he was able to trade for pro shop credit instead. Olga also won a bottle of wine and $100 in gift certificates to a local chemist (kind of like a drug store), which she will have no problem spending. So our tourney was a success.

Monday we went to the golf course to watch the last round of the Buick Invitational and then played 9 holes. The next day, we played the Tahara course and Bob finally beat Olga - 80 to 81. He celebrated by going to the pub and ordering beer and natchos.

Feb. 1 we moved into the apartment we will have for the month of Feb. It's quite a nice change from the little cottage we were in. Our friends George and Lorraine Morley arrived in Auckland and we drove up to Hamilton to pick them up on Friday. They had spent a couple of days with a friend from Canada who has moved to Auckland. He was nice enough to drive them down to Hamilton and meet us there. They got settled in with us and then we were off the next day to Napier and the Hawke's Bay Wine Festival. We met our friends Ken and Linda Wolfe at the Mission Estate winery for lunch and then visited four other wineries for tastings.It's kind of neat - you taste all of these different wines and if you like a particular one, they are very happy to sell you a few bottles. Ken and Linda had been there many times before and knew their way around, so we just followed them. We then went back to Napier and had dinner, after which Olga drove back to Taupo since she was the designated driver.(she doesn't really like wine) It was a long day, but a good one.

Sunday, we played golf and had the Wolfe's over for a BBQ and played a little card game called Sequence - girls against the guys - and the girls kicked butt. I guess we're pretty good at games for ages 8 and up as it said on the box.

Today, we drove down to the south end of the lake and visisted Mt. Ruepehu, which is a large volcano that last erupted in 1995/96. The scenery was pretty amazing. They filmed part of the Lord of the Rings there, the part about Mordor. They have a ski hill there in the winter and have a chair lift with good views, but a large black cloud came along and stuck around, so we skipped the chair lift ride. We drove along a route called the volcanic loop. We saw forest, lake, scrub, volcanic rocks, farmland, and desert all in a couple of hours, and while there was somevery interesting scenery, but we are all getting tired of the windy roads. Back safely to Taupo and a steak BBQ and wine for the boys.

update

Jan.25 - Haven't had much to say over the last couple of weeks. We've kept busy playing golf, looking for alternate digs, playing bridge and sightseeing.

First of course, the golf. The course we play has 36 holes - one course,Centennial is the harder 'championship' course. It's about 6080 yards for the women and 6500 for the men.It's quite hilly and you get some uneven lies. The other course, Tahara, is shorter and more straightforward, but the fairways are in terrrible condition, much like Scottish or Irish links courses, and you play the ball as it lies. When we get back to Canada, we'll be able to play the ball from any kind of lie.(hopefully) Both courses have small, inconsistent greens, but if you chip and putt well, you can score decently. Olga made the mistake of playing pretty well the first couple of weeks and is stuck with a handicap index of 7.9 which converts to 9 on Centennial and 8 on Tahara. Bob was much smarter. He didn't play that well and is currently a 13.5 index. We can't remember the last time he was that high. Anyway, Olga has to give Bob strokes! (but he still loses) You keep that index for two weeks when they update them.

We have been playing about 5 times a week. On Friday nights, there is a competition of 9 holes for stableford points.It costs $5 and there is a roast buffet after which costs $15. The first Friday, we thought we did rather well, with 19 and 20 points, but fifth place had 23 points and the winners were 25. How in the world do you get that many points? Must be some sandbagging going on. Anyway, the next Friday, Olga squawked and complained that she wasn't going to enter the competition anymore since
she didn't have a chance for the stableford points and we could just play the nine holes with our friends Ken and Linda and stay for the dinner. Well, she ended up shooting 38 on the back nine of the Centennial course and winning four bottles of Smirnoff Ice for low gross for the women and some socks for a K.P. So I guess we'll be competing again this week. Also, we have entered a weekend tournament called the Harcourt's(a local real estate company). I guess it's a big local tournament - they use both courses and have a women's division and two men's divisions, 0-18 and 19+ .
It's this weekend, so we'll let you know if Bob reverted to usual form and cleaned up in his division.

We've also started playing bridge after a two month break. There is a nice local club that is under utilized, like many of their clubs here. They meet Monday nights, Wednesday nights and Fridays at 11 am . The first couple of times we went, we did pretty well and know they call us those hotshots from Canada and we are handicapped on the Monday nights. Didn't know they handicapped bridge! We met some nice people at the bridge club, one of them a lady from Kelowna who showed us a couple of flats. We also looked at an apartment in a newer building. It's owned by some Americans who rent it out. It's really very nice and the buiding has a pool and a gym, but at first they were asking $100 a night. We said thanks, but too much money, and they got back to us and we settled on $400 per week. We move in Feb. 1 for the month and we can hardly wait.
Some friends, George and Lorraine Morley are coming to spend a few weeks with us in February, so we wanted to find something with two bathrooms.

We've done a little local sightseeing, since we're waiting for George and Lorraine to arrive so we don't have to do things twice. We've been to the local thermal hot pools - pretty good, but nowhere as nice as Radium Hot Springs back home. We went to a shrimp farm and had lunch, shrimp chowder. We have visited Huka Falls, the Volcano Activity Center where they have some very good displays and exhibits on the area from White Island to Mount Ruapehu, along with some movies that had footage of the eruptions in 1995 and 1996. We didn't realize this area was in the middle of this semi-active volcanic area and we hope it stays inactive during our stay.

Read the election results on the cbc website last night. I bet most of Alberta is pretty happy about the results. Barb's boss, Karen Redman, who is a Liberal MP from Kitchener was thankfully re-elected, so she still has a job, but things will be different for them now.

Hope you are all well - talk to you soon.

Jasmine Cottage

Jan. 9 - Beware what you rent over the internet. We met Jim Taylor at the cottage we arranged to rent - we had seen a few photos on the website, along with what ammenities the cottage had - and I guess you can say we were a little disappointed. The place was quite roomy with two bedrooms and a nice front deck and a garage, but it was very sparsely furnished and not entirely clean. The beds were pretty good, but had old pilled sheets - yuck! We started making a list for Mr. Taylor. We have spent the last few days cleaning, shopping, etc. Mr. Taylor got us better sheets and is supposed to bring a dresser and a coffee table - he did offer us his old cell phone to use while we are here, so we now have a phone.

Jan. 11 - Today we went to play golf at Wairaki International, a course just five minutes north of Taupo. It's the best course we've played so far on our trip. In fact, we liked it so much, we played 36 holes. It was in great shape, super layout, well worth playing if you are ever in the area. We were pretty bushed after 36 holes, even with a cart, but we still played nine more holes the next day.

On the Road Again

Jan. 4 - Hi again - the rain had stopped and it's quite nice out now. We decided to do a little sight-seeing instead of golf. We went to Whangarei Falls and had a little picnic with the ducks and gulls. We didn't expect the falls to be too great, but they were quite nice, with a lovely path down to the bottom and some hiking trails (we skipped the trails but did go down to view the falls from the bottom). Then we went down to the town basin, where many sailboats were moored. We really liked walking around and viewing the different boats, some of them quite spectacular. There are also nice cafes, shops, walking paths and an interesting clock display. Later we went to a restaurant called Bogart's where we had an excellent dinner.

On the road again to Gulf Harbour, a lovely Robert Trent Jones course (and community) just north of Auckland. It was very well groomed and the entire back nine had glorious views of the city, various bays and the ocean, along with many passing ships and sailboats. We spent the night in Auckland and went to the movies to see 'Rumour has it' - it was ok.

Since we were in Auckland, we decided to return to Ace Rent-a-Car to see about getting a better car and also to get the radio fixed. No better cars available, but they fixed the radio - loose connection. It worked great for about half an hour and then after we went over a large bump on the motorway, it died again. Oh well, another quiet drive and we have to talk to each other. Yikes! We made it back to Taupo and Ken and Linda's place and the boys rushed out to get in a quick nine - We think Ken was just waiting for us to get back so he could go play golf.

Jan. 7 - Happy Birthday Olga - Breakfast at Wairaki, picked out new golf shoes(Calloway, white and ORANGE), 18 holes at Centennial, and a great dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant that was way better than any we went to in Thailand. Linda's sister Theresa and her nephew Cameron joined us as well. Cameron is a 35 year old Kiwi who has been teaching English and Japan and South Korea for about five years and prior to that, he worked on some cruise ships. He was pretty interesting and had some good stories to tell. All in all, a great day. The next day, Linda read Olga's horoscope in the paper and it said that yellow was her lucky colour that day, so she wore her yellow golf shirt and shot 78 - the first time under 80 so far!(it was on the easier of the two courses at Taupo)

Last night at the Wolfe's - tomorrow we get our cottage.

Happy New Year

Jan.1, 2006 - Happy New Year to everyone! - We took a bus tour to Cape Reinga which is a lighthouse at the top the island and the spot where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. It was a pretty spectacular place to be on the first day of 2006 and apparently many others felt the same way, since it was quite busy. We took the road on the way up, the last 18 kms were gravel, and then on the way back, we drove down to the beach. We stopped at some sand dunes on the way in to the beach and people tobaggoned down - Bob did it twice-. Then we drove down 90 mile beach. It was amazing - this huge flat stretch of beach where you can drive for miles, and miles and miles(isn't there a song something like that). We actually travelled for about 70 kilometres down the beach, watching the waves crashing along the shore. The beach was really quite deserted, only a few people fishing, driving or riding motorcycles or quads. We really enjoyed this experience. Next we stopped at the Kauri house, where they made funiture and gift ware out of the old kauri stumps - some very beautiful pieces and also quite expensive. That's it for Kaitaia.

On to the Karikari Peninsula and Carrington Estate, where we had lunch at the winery overlooking the golf course and bay - nice view but extremely windy day, gale force winds. We thought about cancelling our golf game, but of course, we didn't. Strange course designed by Matt Dye, some relative of Pete Dye. British type links style - a little rough around the edges and some questionable holes - good greens though. The wind and the course won that day and we won't tell you what we shot, but we both broke 100. We spent the night in Mangonui and had fish and chips from the famous? Mangonui Fish Shop - pretty good, but we were most impressed with the number of TV channels in our motel - there must have been at least 20 - normally there are 5 to 8 channels depending on whether there is Sky TV - this was CABLE!
I guess we are pretty spoiled in North America and we must watch too much of it. We called home and talked to Barb before she went back to Ontario and campaigning for the election.( She'll be in Kitchener door knocking for her boss, Karen Redman, who is running for the Liberals.)

Next day, we drove to Pahia which is by the Bay of Islands. We took the boat tour out to the "hole in the rock" and Cape Brett. It was pretty awesome, lots of little islands and sailboats and yachts, with a little history of Captain Cook thrown in. Once we were out of the protection of the bay, the ocean was pretty rough and we bounced and bobbed around a few times, with spray crashing the windows and we were sitting on the second floor of the boat - good thing. It was too rough to actually go right through the hole in the rock, but they backed the boat in about half way an it was kind of cool. Then a stop at one of the inner islands for a break and back to Pahia.
One the road again to Whangerei, where John and Linda used to live. We are staying for a couple of nights, and we planned to golf today, but we woke up to RAIN - so we finally had some free time to catch up with email and this posting. More later.

Northland

Dec. 30 - We have rented a cottage in Taupo, but we don't get it until Jan. 9, so we decided to go exploring a different part of the country and not overstay our welcome at the Wolfe's. We are going to visit the part north of Auckland which is appropriately named Northland. (Olga had talked to the golf pro's before we left and said we were going to North land', and they laughed at her pronunciation - they said it was Northlund - they talk funny down here) . We drove to Hamilton and Bob actually let Olga drive from Hamilton through Auckland - there was actually a motorway or freeway for some of this drive. Soon after the motorway stopped, there was a huge traffic jam - about 25 minutes worth of bumper to bumper traffic - and then it went ok for a while and then there was another similar tie-up later on - we guess it was just due to sheer volume of people leaving Auckland for the New Year break and the lack of bi-passes through the towns along the highway. We stayed in a place called Dargaville (kind of a old looking town) with a neat beach called Bayley's Beach a few kilometres away. You could drive right down and along the beach, but we didn't think that was a good idea for our little car - 4Wdrive would be better - so we just went for a beach walk and then back to town to their local "club" for some dinner. The next day, we drove north and visited the Waipoua Forest, where they have some huge Kauri trees - some of these trees are thousands of years old. We saw the God of the Forest which is the largest living Kauri tree and drove up to the lookout on a very steep gravel road. Unfortunately, it was misty out, so we couldn't see much, but it was interesting anyway. We stopped for lunch at Opononi and then took a ferry across the river (don't know what river). We got to a sign that said Kaitaia, 47 km and took this road - big mistake. We looked on the map and it said it joined the #1 highway which it did, but 30 km. of it was through another 'scenic gorge' that was up and down and round and round and at times we didn't think our gutless little car would make it up the hill - and there is always someone right on your butt since they drive too fast here. Anyhow, we eventually made it to our destionation, Kaitaia, where we spent New Year's Eve at our motel cooking lamb, shrimp and pasta and opening a bottle of bubbly. It tasted pretty darn good!

Taupo

Dec. 23 - We had gone to the local AA office to get some maps and directions on the best route to Taupo, so we headed out. We had to back tract through the Scenic Reserve, but we were prepared for it this time. We managed to follow the directions for the most part, but we took a wrong turn about somewhere (their road signs here are not made for tourists - very poor) and it actually worked out ok - the road was pretty good and it was a short cut - lucky this time. We were staying with some friends from Calgary, Ken and Linda Wolfe. Ken is an old hockey buddy of Bob's and Ken and Linda live in Taupo six months and in Calgary six months. They have a lovely villa type home in Taupo and they made us very comfortable. (Taupo is a nice little holiday town at the north end of a large lake that was created after some volcanic activity in the area many, many years ago. ) We visited the Golf Club (36 holes) and signed up for their summer membership - $350 each. The weather had been cool and cloudy for most of the month, but we made plans to play the next day. You don't really need to book a time - you just sort of show up and play which every course is the least busy. One course is Tahara and is wider and shorter and the other course is called Centennial and is their championship course and is much longer - over 6000 yards for the ladies. The elevation at Taupo is about 2000 feet above sea level, so we felt more at home with our club selection because the ball went farther than the courses we had played at sea level in Australia.

We spent Cristmas Eve with Linda's sister Theresa and her family in Turangi, about a 45 minute drive from Taupo at the south end of the lake. Her children were coming down from Auckland and Tauranga and Haley, the daughter, brought her Canadian boyfriend and his Canadian friend along. She cooked a nice turkey dinner and we had a great evening. On Christmas morning, we opened a few gifts, had a lovely breakfast and then went to play nine holes - golf on Xmas day, a first for us. We went back to Teresa's for a ham dinner with some of their NZ friends. It was very nice, but it didn't feel like Cristmas and we did miss our family and friends. Hope you all had a great holiday season wherever you were. We spent the next few days playing golf and sightseeing around the area. (Olga keeps winning in NZ - Bob kept winning in Oz - we'll see what the new year brings)