11th-14th July 2009: Sydney

On my way home from NZ, I stopped off in Sydney for three days. I had a new relative to meet, a few friends to see, and wanted to fit in a little sightseeing.

It turned out to be a sociable stay. Kate, a colleague of Tim's, very kindly picked me up from the airport to drive me to my hotel and waited while I got settled in. Perhaps too kindly; Sinclairs at Bondi has a quirky feel and a very friendly and helpful host. By the time he had finished showing me round and giving me maps and useful information, I fear Kate's brother may have demolished the lasagne she had left in the oven.

Bondi Beach

In the course of the next couple of days I was plied with gin and tonic, cooked dinners, and generally welcomed by Kate, her brother Jon (who cooked me a delicious roast even though I'd never met him before), and ex-colleagues Rich and Nick. I also had the pleasure of meeting my three-month-old second cousin Lorelei, who frankly cannot be real. When I arrived she was asleep; she soon woke up and spent some time grinning at me; she then had a meal and went down for another nap. Is this really what babies are like?

In between times I fitted in a few touristy things, starting with a visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the Aboriginal art. I just love those bold colours and spotty crocodiles, although I am woefully uninformed about the meaning underlying the pictures.

I also walked the Manly Scenic Walkway, which wasn't honestly all that manly, being a well-graded 10km walk that any girl could manage. It was certainly scenic though, taking in surf, beaches and the native bush of the Sydney Harbour National Park.

Tourism-wise, the highlight of my trip was whale watching. This was something I had never quite got round to doing in Auckland. I'd love to say it was because I knew it would be better in Sydney. I discovered that Sydney is situated next to a highway for humpback whales, which every year swim north to the tropics to breed, right past the mouth of the harbour. My boat - a triple-decker ferry-like affair, but fast and with plenty of viewing space - located a passing humpback in minutes. We spent at least an hour watching two of these amazing creatures rolling along, surfacing to breathe, and diving with that classic tail-flick.

Humpback whale

14th June 2009: Kitesurfing Lesson Two

I had my first kitesurfing lesson a couple of weeks ago. My ambition this time was to get up onto the board. I managed that, but I've got a very long way to go until I can call myself competent!

I had to spent another hour or so body-dragging myself around behind the kite before the instructor let me have a go with a board too. I thought that I was getting pretty good at flying the thing (hey, it's just a kite!) but once you've got to think about flying the kite as well as balancing yourself on the board, things get a little trickier. You could say I was a touch over confident.

After a few face-plants (it's only water), I managed a few times to stay on the board for around 10 seconds before stacking it. Mostly I was alternating between sinking and being launched skywards, not quite how I remember those guys on the videos doing it. It seems you've got to get the kite maintain a smooth power delivery, without really looking at it. Not easy.

While I was drinking seawater, the instructor was teaching the more advanced students how to jump. He could effortlessly lift himself 5m into the air, before landing and blasting off in a different direction. And he made it look so easy!

6th-7th June 2009: Coromandel Peninsula

Coromandel is another trip that has been on our to-do list since we got here, but we saved it until winter, knowing that the weather would still be passable up here when it got cold further south. We were rewarded with a balmy weekend and a brilliantly blue Pacific.

Tim's colleagues James and Ken came along for the weekend and we drove around the standard tourist haunts. Hot Water Beach was similar to the one we previously visited at Kawhia, but with even warmer water - plenty of people were wallowing in their bikinis despite the fact that it is really not quite summer any more, even here.

Cathedral Cove was beautiful, with weather-sculpted rocks towering over the water. Some local walkers pointed out an eagle ray in the shallows and we watched it for some time. It was hard to get a good sight with the sun reflecting off the water, so Ken waded in to get nearer, much to the detriment of his jeans. He wore them for the rest of the weekend anyway.

Anything for a good photo

In Coromandel Town we enjoyed a surprisingly good meal at the Peppertree Restaurant, one of only two restaurants in the one-street town. Coromandel is a centre for farming green-lipped mussels and these ones were particularly succulent. We stayed away from the local wine though, assuming there was a good reason we hadn't seen it on menus outside the peninsula. Maybe it was great and we missed out.

The next day we took a tour bus to the tip of the peninsula to walk the Coromandel Coastal Walkway. Our driver was a very well-meaning lady who told us everything she knew about the local history, and persisted in referring to our three-hour amble as a great achievement, even giving us certificates for completing it. She advertises it as a 7km walk, but told us after the walk that it was 10km, but she doesn't tell people in advance because they wouldn't do it. The DOC website lists it as 8km. Sigh.

Tim colour-matches with the Pacific

After the twisty, unsealed road back to Coromandel Town in the bus, we got back into our rental car (a cheap-as Nissan Sunny of 1990s vintage) for another 3-hour drive home. Our mood was lifted half an hour later though, when Tim spotted a pod of dolphins in a bay by the coastal road. We stopped to watch and saw lots of fins and a few leaps. These appeared to be bigger than the dolphins we saw in the Bay of Islands, and there were plenty of them, maybe 15-20. The road home seemed much shorter after that.

More photos here.

17th May 2009: Kitesurfing

I've been meaning to have a go at kitesurfing for years and I thought that, coming to Auckland for a year, I'd finally get the chance to have a go. You see lots of people doing it on the beaches around here, and the conditions are great: warm water, regular sunshine and lots of wind. As it happens it wasn't until Fred said he'd tried it that I finally organised it, with the weather here having turned distinctly autumnal.

The place we went for lessons is on the South coast of the Manukau harbour and has a huge deserted area of waist-deep water. Perfect for learning to be dragged at speed by an enourmous kite. They look big when you see people using them, but they look even bigger when you're attached to one. We've been playing with a 3 square-metre trainer kite for a while, but there's a big step up to the 8m kitesurf kites.

The first lesson is all about learning to control the kite and getting used to the power by "body-dragging" without a board. I got on okay with this so hopefully next time I go I'll get on the board and do some kitesurfing proper.

10th May 2009: Surfing at Muriwai Beach

Mel and Dom returned to Auckland for the last few days of their holiday in NZ, so we spent the weekend with them.

Our travellers had tried surfing at Raglan on their first full day in the country and wanted another attempt. I hadn't managed to try surfing at all yet, despite it being a bit of a kiwi national sport, so I tagged along too. We headed out to Muriwai with two of my accomplished surfer-dude colleagues: James and Ken.

It seems to me that surfing is about spending a lot of time and effort battling out through waves, to be launched briefly back towards the beach. If it goes well you get a short bit of speed and exhiliration, otherwise you seem to drink a lot of seawater. Mostly, it goes badly.

I actually managed to stand up quite a few times (I surfed!) and it was good fun. I might go again!

After the surfing we flew the power kite for a while in the strong breeze, though still not strong enough for blokarts, annoyingly. Sophie's now fixed the kite twice, after we smashed it into the ground during some over-excited and under-skilled flying.

We finished off the day with some large and very delicious steaks at The Jervois Steak House, our favourite restaurant in Auckland. A good end to Mel and Dom's trip, I hope.

29th March 2009: Muriwai Beach

Another Sunday, another beach...

I've been wanting to go to Muriwai beach for a while as they rent out Blokarts there, and I'm dying to have another go after our previous brief sail. Unfortunately there wasn't quite enough wind on this occasion - it seems they only operate when it's really honking.

We went anyway, in the hope of the wind building. Ken (from CHP) came too, planning to catch a few waves. The wind didn't pick up enough for the karts, but we did have a good go with the kite.

We'll be back when the winter storms start rolling in...

21st-22nd March 2009: Around Raglan

After Jenny and Eric left Raglan to catch their flight home, Tim and I stayed for an extra night to make the most of the weekend. We stayed in the Harbour View Hotel, an old-fashioned building built in 1905, with high-ceilinged bedrooms and a shared bathroom down the corridor. I imagined ladies in long skirts treading those same floors long ago.

The next morning we climbed Mount Karioi, the only significant peak in the area. It was a sunny, clear day - summer just doesn't want to end round here - and we had beautiful views over the Tasman Sea, Raglan Harbour and the surrounding countryside. We didn't see a single person all morning.

On the side of Mount Karioi

Back down by lunch time, we made our way to Kawhia, via a quick stop at Bridal Veil Falls. The road to Kawhia is 40-odd km of gravelled road, and at the end of it is a hot-water beach. An hour or two each side of low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and see it fill with hot water from underground springs. It is slightly strange to watch a few dozen people sitting in holes dotted along the beach, but great fun. Lacking a spade, we availed ourselves of existing holes that had been abandoned and enjoyed a soak.

Photos of the whole Raglan trip are here.

19th-21st March 2009: Raglan with Jenny H

Jenny, my oldest friend, came on holiday to New Zealand with her boyfriend Eric. His parents own a beautiful bach in Raglan and I joined them there for the last few days of their holiday. Tim came down on the Saturday for their last day.

Our last experience of a bach, on Waiheke Island, was of a hut that was a bit like Guy's beach hut at Wrabness but with a few more mod cons. Eric's family bach was even more shiny: a compact wooden two-bedroom house, right on the shore, with fully fitted bathroom, electricity and everything we could want. There was a dinghy moored in the bay, high and dry on an expanse of mud-flat at low tide, and a feeling of time standing still as we gazed at the water. I thought I was pretty chilled out before I went there, but rediscovered a level of relaxation I don't often achieve.

Raglan is all about beaches and boats. We weren't able to sail the boat due to inconvenient tides, but we visited a couple of beaches: Ruapuke, reached down a gravel road and deserted except for us, and Ngarunui, the main Raglan beach. There we swam - or rather jumped about in the surf, and marvelled at the rip currents either side of the very narrow swimming area. You really get a feeling for how treacherous the sea on the West coast is.

Other than that, Jenny and I spent most of our time nattering, catching up on the last year which has been eventful for both of us. Eric gets serious brownie points for putting up with a deal of wedding-related chat. Having a bridesmaid in the same country as me was a rare opportunity not to be passed up, and Eric bore it stoically, assisted by beer.

15th March 2009: Tamaki River Walk

Way back last July, Tim and I did New Zealand's notably short Coast to Coast walk. The leaflet describing the route had two other walks to offer, and we gave one a go on Sunday: the Point to Point walkway along the Tamaki River estuary.

The Tamaki River goes almost all the way through to the other side of the North Island; it's only around 2km between the river and the west-coast Manukau Harbour. The Maori used the isthmus as a portage point for their canoes.

The walk was good, hugging the beach on the wide sandy estuary as much as possible. At one point you walk out onto the Tohuna Torea Nature Reserve sand spit and at low tide you can walk back to land on an expanse of sand that is usually under water. It was fairly low tide when we did this and we escaped with only mild dampening of the feet. We later worked out that it was neaps, which possibly explains why we didn't stay drier.

23rd-26th January 2009: Sydney

The CHP annual partners' dinner was in Sydney, so we headed over for the bank-holiday weekend. We also took the opportunity to visit Sophie's cousin Matt and his wife Celine, who live in Darlington, a suburb of Sydney. Sophie and Matt spent Friday evening catching up on the last 10 years.

It was Sophie's first trip to Sydney, so we set out on Saturday to see a few sights. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating: 42℃ is not an ideal temperature for wandering around. Gusts of wind in the botanic gardens felt like an oven door being opened nearby. Eventually we escaped to the Sydney Shangri La, our CHP-provided hotel for the next two nights.

The CHP dinner was at Guillaume's restaurant, in one of the sails of the iconic Opera House. The seven-course extravaganza was predictably excellent, and the matched wines were also very good.

Sunday was busy. We went for a 15-minute seaplane flight in the morning, giving us excellent views of the harbour, its bridge, and the beaches. After that we met up with a few other CHPers to board the 18-foot-skiff spectator ferry, which follows the fleet during their races. These overpowered sailing boats are excellent to watch, particularly with beer, as their crews struggle to keep them upright and guide them round the course.

After the sailing, we met Matt, Celine and some of their friends on Bronte beach for a relaxed few hours. Tim went for a swim and nearly got carried off by a rip-tide, but all finished well.

Monday was Australia day and Syndey was packed. We had a 3:30pm flight to catch, but we managed to catch sight of the annual Ferrython (a race between ferries, obviously). We also saw some funky close-harmony singing at The Rocks before heading to the airport.

Tim, Sophie, Celine and Matt

More photos, from the seaplane and of skiffs, here.

22nd - 24th December 2008: Marlborough region

From Kaikoura we headed for Marlborough Sounds, spending a couple of nights in the DOC Cowshed Bay campsite. Before we got to the Marlborough wine region we'd already seen at least a dozen vineyards, with many more to come. We stopped at the Montana Brancott winery to taste and buy a Pinot Noir for dinner.

The drive from Picton to Cowshed Bay was a little longer than we'd bargained for - almost two hours of bendy roads punctuated by one 5-minute stretch that was more or less straight. It was worth it though. We slept between Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Sounds - the former bright blue, the latter equally intense but a bit more greeny - surrounded by lush forest and right by the beach.

The following morning we slept in - our only lie-in of the holiday, as it turned out - then went for an amble on part of the Queen Charlotte Track. The views over both sounds in the sunshine were spectacular and compete for my best view of the holiday.

Having lunch at Black Rock shelter, we met a group doing the Queen Charlotte as a guided walk. Day 3 of the walk is reputedly tough so they were delighted when we told them they were only an hour and a half from their hotel. We met them later eating a slap-up meal in the Portage Resort restaurant - the difference being that while they returned to their en-suite rooms, we had a 10-minute walk to our luxury site ($12 for the night).

Christmas Eve dawned rainy, with no sign of let-up. After some indecision, and helped by the sales skills of the amusing Frenchman hiring kayaks, we took a double kayak for a paddle in Kenepuru Sound. After some leisurely exploration around the mussel farms, we decided the wind had got up and we'd better head for home. Coming round the lee of a point we saw the most obvious wind line imaginable - glassy calm water where we were, chop and white horses a few metres off. Sadly we had to paddle upwind through it to get back. We felt we had earned our lunch though, unlike most of the bored couples in the cafe waiting for the rain to stop.

From there we headed back to Bleinheim, where we were booked at Herzog winery for dinner. Our first shower in four days, at Watson's Way Backpackers, was very welcome and we felt quite presentable afterwards. As soon as we got to the restaurant, however, it became apparent that we were woefully underdressed in jeans and flip-flops. Still the service was impeccable and nobody batted an eyelid. We had a fabulous five-course tasting dinner, each course with its own wine, which cost nearly as much as our week's campervan hire. A fine flashpacking moment.

21st-22nd December 2008: Christchurch & Kaikoura

On 21st December we set off for our summer holiday - two and a half weeks on the South Island.

The holiday feeling started straight away with a hilarious driver on the Auckland airport bus. He was a very jovial chap who kept stopping to wait for people to visit cash points, not caring that the cars behind him would have preferred him to go when the traffic light was green! He raised a laugh by ticking off a couple saying a fond farewell at the bus stop.

A couple of hours later we were in Christchurch. We spent an hour or two there, catching sight of the Botanic Gardens and the inside of a supermarket before heading off with our camper van. We had a Jucy Crib for 8 days - a converted people-carrier/minivan with a bed in the back. It was rather cosy but served us well, handled like a car and allowed us to overtake lots of larger conventional camper vans.

We reached Kaikoura that night, ate a tasty dinner at the White Morph, and more or less managed to assemble the bed in the dark with a bottle of wine in us.

The next morning we were out early for a guided kayaking trip around Kaikoura's fur seal colony. It was pretty good, but we were a bit hampered by a Japanese couple in the group who spoke no English and couldn't get the hang of making the thing go forwards... Still we enjoyed paddling close to a few swimming seals and admired some more on the rocks.

High spot of the outing was when we brought the kayaks back to the beach. Paddling at the shore we were a few feet away from two huge sting rays in the shallows - one of them must have been 6ft across.

We finished up our Kaikoura visit with barbecued crayfish at a beachside stall, before heading north up the coast - we had a long way to cover in a week.

20th December 2008: Bethells Beach

Sophie's friend and ex-colleague Lucy was in town for a few days, so we headed back out to the Waitakeres for the afternoon. This time we drove to Bethells Beach, north of Karekare and Piha.

The surf on these western beaches is always impressive, and today especially so since it had been windy. We strolled north over the warm black dunes and sat playing in the sand for a while. (Tim built a pyramid and a camel. -- Sophie)

Tomorrow we're off to the South Island for two weeks. Christmas in a camper van this year...

30th November 2008: Goat Island

Encouraged by a couple of Tim's scuba-loving colleagues and some fabulous sunshine, we headed up to Goat Island for an afternoon of snorkelling.

Goat Island is a marine reserve about an hour and a half north of Auckland and maybe 100m off the mainland, an easy swim from the beach. We spotted snappers, rays, a crowd of blue mao mao, and some funky zebra-striped fish, and watched the CHP boys get yet another set of interesting sun burn marks from yet another set of funny-shaped outdoor kit (this time sleeveless wet suits).

On the way back we had a thrilling race in which one car sat in traffic for 45 minutes while the other (driven by a reluctant me) skittered over unsealed roads in a hilarious attempt to beat the queue. We just about succeeded too.

23rd November 2008: Long Bay Marine Reserve

We didn't have much spare time, but we managed took a short trip to the Long Bay Marine Reserve.

We had a good few hours' walk along the sea front, and spent a bit of time watching the wind- and kitesurfers enjoying the conditions. There are some pretty good sites for BBQs and general enjoyment of the beach.

On the way home we narrowly missed being attacked by a runaway shopping trolley in Foodtown's car park. We reversed in a hurry and a nearby parked car bore the brunt, losing a rear light. It's a jungle out here.

16th November 2008: Piha & Karekare

Took a load of CHPers to the Waitakeres to see Piha and Karekare beaches. Both were riddled with surfers; good weather, and high season, seem to have started in earnest the past couple of weeks. I never previously realised how much surfing requires you to be able to dodge other surfers in the water - a bit like skiing on a busy slope.

We wandered up Lion Rock at Piha, then drove round to Karekare and took the Zion Hill Track over to Pararaha Stream. Back to Karekare along the beach. Took around 3 hours, much quicker than our last walk in the area, because the rain had let up for enough days that there were no mud-bath sections on the track. A bit of paddling to round off the walk was lovely on a warm day.

14th September 2008: Motuihe Island

Spent the day on Motuihe Island, an uninhabited island in the Hauraki Gulf. 80-odd people from IBM were on the ferry with us, planting trees for the Motuihe Trust.

Lovely, peaceful island. We walked along the ridge to Bald Knob (hur hur) at the southern tip of the island, then discovered we could get all the rest of the way round without leaving the beach. Probably a 2-3 hour walk in all, at a leisurely amble.

Saw lots of pairs of birds which were either fighting or flirting, had a beach picnic, and admired lots of weird rock formations, we think caused by erosion of conglomerate or layered rocks at different speeds. Some really good pohutukawas too, clinging to the cliff where no tree that big had a right to be.

The planted trees look really impressive. The ones from 2004 are already shoulder high and give a feel for how the island will be in a few years when it's all returned to forest. We may well come back some time and do some tree-planting ourselves.

24th - 27th July 2008: Port Douglas

Went to Port Douglas, Queensland for CHP Australia annual company conference. Stayed in the Sea Temple Port Douglas.

Friday:
Tim went white-water rafting on the Barron River with CHP. Good fun, good screaming from a few people.
Sophie went for a short walk in the Mossman Gorge. Pleasant undemanding walk, about an hour through rainforest with occasional pretty views of an overgrown rocky stream in the gorge (with overgrown rocks to match).

Saturday:
Sailed on Sailaway IV to the Low Isles for snorkelling at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef (http://www.sailawayportdouglas.com/). Saw lots of green turtles, giant clams, and some funky fish. Mostly soft coral, ie. greens and browns, at Low Isles - think the other trips further out would have given us more bright colours and more wildlife variety.

Sailaway IV was a good fun 60' cat and they let Tim helm the boat home :)

4th - 15th July 2008 - around Auckland

Sophie arrived 4th July.

5th July - ferry to Waiheke Island with Steve Saxon. Went for a short wander & a beer overlooking Oneroa Bay.
Lovely peaceful bay. Must go back and spend longer, walking and/or wineries.

6th July - ferry to Devonport with Steve Saxon. Tea in a lovely tea shop on left side of Victoria Road, with conservatory & jazz-themed room at the back. Climbed Mt. Victoria.
Pretty village-like feel with older, more pleasing buildings. Must go back for a longer walk around the place, though suspect we saw about half of it in 45 mins.

12th July - day sail on Spirit of New Zealand tall ship (http://www.spiritofadventure.org.nz/). $60 each, well worth it. Sailed round Rangitoto & Motutapu, came home through a yacht race.

13th July - drove to Waitakere Ranges park. Saw Piha & Karekare beaches, an hour from Auckland.
Beaches beautiful - must go back to Piha for picnic & surfer-watching when the weather is warmer.
Walked Zion Hill Track, Buck Taylor Track, Zion Ridge Track from Karekare - all forested with occasional stunning views. 3 hours round trip.
More walks in Waitakere Ranges definitely worth doing.