Wayne & Julie Down Under

Day 27 (Day 2 in Australia) After a hectic month in New Zealand, we are having a quiet day. Phil, Carolyn and Sophia all have to work until mid afternoon so this morning was a chance to catch up on laundry and have a stroll around their neighbourhood of Glen Iris, about 6 miles from the city centre.  Glen Iris is a charming suburb of Melbourne with an eclectic mix of colonial and modern housing. The current trend is, apparently, to demolish old places and build new. There is plenty of evidence of that as we take the short walk to a local coffee shop. Traditional Exactly opposite the first house Next to the second house A couple of houses along  Doer-upper or puller-downer? There was a car in the drive When Phil got home from work he took us on another walk, an 8km route that is his usual exercise run. The Aussies, like the Kiwis, certainly put money and effort in to recreational facilities. So much is provided by the local council for residents to use. And for free! Electric b...

Day 26 (Day 22 in New Zealand; Day 1 in Australia) Travelling day today so there won’t be a lot to say.  Our hire car had to be back by 9am so we knew we had a few hours to kill. We covered 2,005 miles (3,227 km) in the hire car  and my pre-holiday estimate had been “up to 2,000”! Then our flight today got put back 2 hours so even more time to hang around. Flight now 15:25 so boarding will start at 14:25  Just 4 hours to wait at an airport but we’ve had worse. We were able to check in our bags early and paid £12 to store our cabin bags while we went for a wander and a browse around a huge supermarket. Julie wants to buy stuff for her choir friends.  10:30 so time for a coffee first. I need to be caffeined up to face a busy supermarket.  11:30 actually it wasn’t too bad. Now off for an early lunch 12:30 lunch over (scrambled eggs on ciabatta with sausage and bacon) now a walk back to the airport to sit and stare at our phones until we board 14:00 stupid us! We mi...

We loved it! We spent 2 weeks in the South Island and a week in the North. Both gob-smackingly beautiful. A few things that struck us: - the people were friendly - everything was clean  - everything worked - no vandalism  - no graffiti  Whatever is good or bad about their government and their politics, they certainly get the infrastructure right. For example: - the roads were great despite the physical challenges - no potholes - EV charging points even in remote places - lots more free recreation options per capita than UK Would we go again? Definitely! Just a shame it’s so far away but if it wasn’t…

Day 25 (Day 21 in New Zealand) Today was our one full day in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city with 1.5 million people. We had arranged to meet up with a former colleague of mine from IBM, Rachel* and her husband Danny. We were lucky with the weather. It was a glorious, hot autumn day here in Auckland. Rachel (from Poole) and Danny (from Malta) picked us up from our hotel at 10am.  After a drive around the major sights we parked at the bottom of Mount Eden (an extinct volcano) and walked to the top. At about 650’ above sea level it is the city’s highest point. Thanks to the weather we had glorious views all around. A Pohutakawa (New Zealand Christmas Tree) Covered in red flowers at Christmas (mid summer) Walking back down the hill we stopped at a new coffee shop (only opened 3 days ago) before driving to their house for lunch. Their fabulous house is at the foot of another extinct volcano, Mt St John. It is literally at the top of their garden! After lunch we all went for a...

Day 24 (Day 20 in New Zealand) We were quite sad to leave our studio flat in Rotorua, especially as the sun came out first thing in the morning.  Last breakfast view in Rotorua But hey ho, tempus fugit, carpe diem and pro bono (other pretentious Latin phrases are available) it was time to set off on the 150 mile trip to our final destination in New Zealand, its largest city, Auckland.  It’s about a 4 hour trip with breaks so we had plenty of time to spare. As we drove back through Rotorua Julie mentioned some thermal areas she had seen on the way in 2 days ago.  Neither of us were sure where they were exactly but, lo and behold, we stumbled upon them in a residential area beside the main road. Kuirai Lake (just looked it up - Google it if you don’t believe me!) It was fascinating. Steam and hot bubbling water coming up through the ground, sometimes even in people’s gardens. We both took loads of videos and a few photos but only room for a few here. The rest of the journey...

Day 23 (Day 19 in New Zealand) Waking up this morning to light drizzle and grey skies was a little disappointing. Then we remembered where we were and the view outside! We hadn’t planned ahead for an activity today. The thinking was we might be getting tired and need a quiet day plus some of the options were weather dependent. We decided on a 10 minute drive to visit the Rotorua Redwoods - a forest of giant trees similar to those found in California. Free options included walks of between 30 minutes and 8 hours were available.  We started with a treetop walk. 20 metres above the ground, you pass between these 75 metre giant trees over 28 bridges suspended between platforms around them. It was a “soothing and replenishing” (not my words!) to be high among these majestic trees. Another vertical pano hoping to show the size of the tree They are all relative youngsters at 123 years old. Some in the USA are as old as 3,000 years! 240 seeds weigh about 1 gram and yet they grow rapidly in...

Day 22 (Day 18 in New Zealand) Some of you may have spotted one or both of us wearing a poppy in recent photos. This is because today, Apr 25th, is ANZAC Day here in New Zealand and Australia. Click the link for more info should you want it. After yesterday’s glorious sunshine we awoke to find a) it was a drizzly, grey day and, b) someone had quietly stolen our volcano and replaced it with a trillion tons of cotton wool. The rain soon stopped but it remained fairly overcast for the whole day. First (brief) stop on our 130 mile journey from Hiropito to Rotorua was to take a photo of Lake Taupo, the largest in New Zealand (29 x 21 miles). Then it was on a short way to Huka Falls . Absolutely stunning breathtaking falls. It was the first attraction we had visited on this holiday that was packed with people. The reasons for this are they are: a) stunning, b) a few steps from the car park, and c) free.  We took dozens of photos but the ones on Wikipedia are almost exactly the same so c...