Above:  Auckland’s west coast before landing at the airport. I woke early today to drive to Nelson Airport before 0800.  My 1040 flight got me back to Auckland a little earlier than the scheduled time of 1205.  I grabbed a sandwich to eat while waiting for the shuttle to pick me up, to take me […]

Above:  Very strong climber on the horizontal surface of the rock at Paine’s Ford. The weather had turned dull and cloudy today with considerable humidity.  It felt warm despite little direct sun. I decided to do some minor exploration to Collingwood and then Milnthorpe Beach near there.  Along the way I saw some hitchhikers.  I […]

Today I had made plans to go to Doctor’s Beach with another guest Dean.  I had been the only guest at the accommodation until Dean turned up. We weren’t leaving till mid/late morning so I took a short visit to Pupu Springs (officially Waikoropupu Springs).  The waters of the springs are amongst the clearest in […]

The weather today was fine but not stunning for the region and this time of year.  I decided to repeat a hike to Wainui Falls in the Abel Tasman National Park. I stopped at the Abel Tasman Memorial on the drive to Wainui but the light wasn’t right and the scene didn’t look that great. […]

Landing in Nelson after midday, I had to collect my rental car.  The last-minute decision to travel meant that rental cars in general were horribly expensive.  Fortunately, I found a good rate from Hardy Car Rentals whom I had never used before. I was supposed to ring them for a shuttle pick-up but when I […]

Above:  Flying past the city of New Plymouth. I had wanted to return to the Golden Bay area before summer started to fade.  My original dates two weeks ago met with a couple of hiccups.  The weather coincided with severe storms in the region.  Also, the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak was just starting and contact-tracing rules […]

I finish my trip today after more than 11 weeks.  Because the last few days have been a domestic holiday, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been overseas at all.  In fact, yesterday wasn’t even a domestic holiday.  After dropping Kim off at the airport, I had lunch with a former colleague, then visited an uncle […]

We left the Lake Benmore camp site at 0930, heading for Christchurch.  It had come highly recommended that we try out the pies at Fairlie along the way.  That recommendation came with the advice to order from the side window rather than the front walk-in area where a queue was almost guaranteed. The smoked salmon […]