NEW ZEALAND 2024

 WEDNESDAY, 16th October.

Having become somewhat disenchanted with long distance flights and the subsequent waiting around at airports, we sought alternate destinations this year rather than travel to the Northern Hemisphere.  After some discussion and much mulling over possible destinations, we decided that New Zealand was the place to go as we could endure the flight from Perth to Sydney, where we'd have a one night stopover with our family there, then fly to Auckland, collect a hire car and enjoy a month long road trip with 12 days on North Is. and 18 days on South Is., visiting places we'd missed out on previous visits. 

So here we are in the Land of the Long White Cloud, after a 25 year gap since our last visit and back where 'WE' began more than half a century ago, but that's another story!

We left home on Monday morning, 14th October, arriving in Sydney at about 6pm....on the way from the airport to the family's home it rained steadily but stopped just as we arrived and stayed away as we all walked to their local for an evening meal.  Choosing to sit outdoors (under cover) as there was much noise inside, we enjoyed our family time but just when we were ready to leave, the rain came again so we had to wait a while until it eased enough for us to rush home.  More chat ensued until it was time for bed, we had an early start in the morning.

On Tuesday morning, 15th October it was back to the airport for the 8.45am AirNZ flight to Auckland which actually left at about 9.30am and after a comfortable flight, we arrived in Auckland only a few minutes after our scheduled arrival time.  As our seats were toward the front of the plane, we disembarked quickly, breezed through immigration etc., and were at the baggage carousel in no time at all, had been there only a few minutes when one bag arrived and then waited and waited and waited some more for the second to appear.  After about 25 minutes....oh joy!  it's here!  We then left the airport for the long walk to the shuttle bus stop where we just missed a bus to the car rental place so had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one.  The sky was overcast and the wind bitterly cold, we chatted to a Malaysian man, waiting with his wife and daughter for a different rental company to collect them, passing the time very pleasantly.  Murray at the car rental place was cheerful, friendly and very helpful and we were soon on our way, in the heavy traffic on the freeway at first and stopped at a Woolworths supermarket for a few provisions along the way to our accommodation at Miranda.

 After we'd microwaved and eaten our supermarket meals we were ready for bed and had an early, peaceful night.

This morning, Wednesday 16th October, after a leisurely breakfast, showers etc., we packed up and left our comfortable little studio farm stay, making a little detour to the nearby Robert Findlay Wildlife Area to have a wander around seeking wildlife but, the tide was out, as was our timing, most of the birdlife had not yet appeared so there was little to see.  We did chat to a couple of ladies, Americans who worked with wildlife but there was no one else there at that time.  

From there we headed north towards the Coromandel Peninsula, stopping in Waiomu at the Beach Cafe for morning tea, including fa cakes, 

sat in the lovely sunshine and chatted to a man who was travelling around on a motor bike with his small dog, for whom he'd made a compartment which was attached to the back of the bike,  had a couple of decent sized portholes and seemed to be rather comfortable (the dog liked it!)

Just a little way past Waiomu, we turned off the main road onto the road leading to a Kauri Forest, parked the car when we could drive no further and began the walk, which we found very pleasant.  On reaching a ford in the stream, we chose not to cross as the water lying across said ford was a little too deep for us to wade through,

so we walked back to the car and moving on, we then followed the coast to Coromandel Town, stopping a couple of times for roadworks and taking many photos along the way...at one stop we talked to a couple of motorhomers from Masterton, a little north of Wellington I believe, seniors (like us) who go exploring whenever the mood takes them.

Arriving in Coromandel, we parked the car and went for a stroll along the main street, looked but did not find a dairy so missed out on ice creams, called in to couple of shops and checked out the fsh n chp shop, deciding to come back later as we both fancied fsh n chps for our dinner.  We then drove the six kms to Shelly Beach where we're booked in for two nights and have a self contained cabin in a holiday park.  Later in the afternoon, we drove back into and through town to a beach at Wyuna Bay, 

where many residences are situated at the end of extremely steep driveways, hence the row of mail boxes, making things a little easier for the postie!

Then it was back to the fsh n chp shop to buy our dinner, which we ate at a picnic table by the water, attracting a crowd of ducks, seagulls and small birds whose names we don't know.  Most of them left after a short time when they realised we weren't sharing! 

By the time we'd finished eating it had become very cool, time to go 'home'.  Back at camp we rugged up and walked the short walk to the beach to watch and photograph the stunning sunset.  

It is very quiet here, not many holidaymakers here at present, we've had a very satisfying day, it was sunny & warm for most of the day and we hope for more of the same tomorrow.

THURSDAY , 17th October.

This morning we drove the short distance to Driving Creek for the 9.45am run on the Driving Creek Railway.   There were just 8 passengers and 1 driver on board which was great as when we stopped and alighted twice at viewing sites, there was none of the pushing and shoving which often occurs on similar occasions.  The train driver gave a commentary and told the story of Barry Brickel, who fought hard to build the railway which travels through a native forest of regenerating kauri, timu and ferns.  It was a fascinating story and a thoroughly enjoyable ride.  Mr Brickel is buried on his beloved mountain.

We then drove into Coromandel Town, searched for a computer mouse as ours has sadly died, did not find one anywhere, but as it was nearly midday, visited the bakery and bought lunch of a steak & mushroom pie for Mike and a bacon & egg pie for me, both pronounced excellent.  Back to base for a couple of hours, then a drive north along the coast to Colville, 

where we bought ice creams on sticks from the general store there and ate them by the beach. 

Tide's out!

The sun shone for much of the day, we actually donned shorts for a short time but the wind was cold so the shorts didn't last too long and were exchanged for the jeans.  Mike cooked us a barbecue dinner on one of the park's bbqs and while doing so chatted to a young man from Hanover, Germany who was also cooking, for himself and his lovely lady.  Tomorrow we head east towards the Pacific coast into the unknown (i.e. places we haven't visited before).  

MONDAY, 25th SEPTEMBER :  SARDINIA to PERTH

There is some catching up to do with the blog as it's several days behind, so I will try to remember the sequence of events since Tuesday 19th, our last day in Cagliari, Sardinia.

We left our hotel at 8.30am on WEDNESDAY, 20th to walk to the railway station to find a taxi to take us to the airport.

Taxis are not permitted in our street, which didn't cause a problem for us as it was an easy walk, with just carry-on luggage and although there was another cruise ship in port, it had only recently arrived and its passengers had not yet been released into the town.

While waiting at the airport for the 10.30am flight to Frankfurt-Hahn, we had coffee and a bite to eat, in lieu of breakfast, and on arrival at around 12.40pm, we had a filled roll and a cup of coffee each while waiting for Carlo, our hotel owner, to collect us for the 3.7km drive to Sohren where we stayed the night.  After a snooze in the afternoon, we sorted out our luggage, (we'd left a large bag at the hotel the previous week, which contained another large fold-up bag in which we carried the bike gear) in readiness for the next flight.  Carlo and his wife Angela run the hotel, and the next door restaurant and in the evening we strolled to the restaurant for an excellent meal accompanied by wine and beer, followed by a short walk around the block.  The restaurant was almost full with locals out enjoying good food and socialising with family and friends.  The atmosphere was loud and convivial, it's good to see people having a good time!

On THURSDAY, 21st SEPTEMBER :  After breakfast in the restaurant and another walk, we packed up the remainder of our belongings and were driven by Carlo to the airport to wait for the coach which would take us back to Frankfurt am Main.  We had a little over an hour to wait so had the inevitable bite to eat and coffee (there was a pattern emerging here!).  The coach was a double decker but with not a lot of room and Mike couldn't stand upright upstairs, we both hit our heads on the shelf above the seats, which was not a lot of fun.  The journey was more than 2 hours long, along now familiar territory as we'd travelled the same route the previous week, once by bus and once in the motorhome.  It's lovely scenery all the way so we didn't mind.

On our arrival at the bus station in Frankfurt, we collected our 2 large bags (now containing the bike gear and our two folding carry-on bags) from the coach's baggage hold and walked to the nearby railway station, stored the bags in lockers, and went walkabout to fill in the time until our 10.00pm departure for Singapore.  First stop was at a cafe where we sat and had a glass each of refreshing, freshly made lemonade, then we walked to the Main Tower where for 6 euros each (pensioner price) and after going through a security check, we rode in the lift to the 54th floor, then climbed a couple of flights of stairs to the viewing platform.

Markets had been held in a closed off section of the street and were being dismantled when we arrived.

Frankfurt is home to some lovely old buildings

and attractive parks with interesting sculptures, which we passed on the walk to the tower

Frankfurt is large city with many modern buildings successfully mingling with the old

one of which is the green roofed Old Opera House

We decided to walk the couple of blocks from the tower to the Main River and noticed along the way, several members of the police force (some we saw at the railway station were wearing riot gear) and as we reached the river, two police vehicles blocked off one of the streets where we could see in the distance, what appeared to be an exceedingly large group of people, predominantly wearing red clothing, marching along and chanting though we couldn't make out what they were chanting.  We wondered if there was a protest or a soccer match about to happen and discovered a little later that a game was to break out in Frankfurt at 6.45pm between Frankfurt and Aberdeen.  Many Scottish accents were heard as we wandered along so I'd hazard a guess that their owners had journeyed across to Frankfurt to watch the game.

After the police vehicles drove off and the traffic started moving again, we walked down the steps to the river path and strolled slowly along to the old town

enjoying the view as were these ducks

We found an unoccupied bench and claimed it as our own for half ann hour or so, to sit and wath the passers by pass by, on the river and on the land

and when mounted police arrived

we, and a few others, followed to see what, if anything,  was happening.   They were obviously off duty and about to be transported back home, but we're still in the dark about the heavy police presence.

Leaving the riverside then, we wandered into the old town, taking care not to step in the evidence of the horses' recent presence, bought ice creams and sat on a bench to eat them, wondering all the while why so much rubbish was lying about.  A newly wed couple emerged from the church in the square and were serenaded by Scottish football fans who were drinking in a pub opposite.  I don't know if the fans were responsible for the rubbish and of course, don't know how the newlyweds felt when confronted with the broken bottles, broken glasses and all the accumulated rubbish.  

At an outdoor cafe with cold drinks, we discussed what our next move would be and decided to take a tram ride back to the railway station, collect the bags and take the train to the airport to wait, which is what we did.  By this time, I'm happy to say, a team of expert cleaners had been to the square and cleaned up all the garbage.

Inside the Frankfurt Railway Station

And so we waited and eventually boarded our flight to Singapore, and as the plane was not completely full, were lucky enough to have an extra seat so were able to spread out a little.  It was still a long flight though and we arrived in Singapore at 5.15pm on FRIDAY, 22nd.  We were informed before landing that Singapore now requires an electronic immigration card to replace the old paper/cardboard one. Being extremely tired, just a little emotional and both feeling unwell, we had difficulty accessing the information needed to carry out this request.  In the arrival hall, there are monitors available and people to assist in filling in these forms but some of the information required is not easily  attained.  For instance, when filling in a home address, it's not possible to type in Perth, Australia, you have to scroll through the whole of the country to find your city of residence and it's the same for your city of departure.  Then, you have to take a photo of the document with your mobile phone, take it to the  immigration officer where your passport must be presented, your photograph will be taken again, as well as your thumbprints.  By the time we were allowed into the country and had found our carousel, our two bags were sitting forlornly beside it as all others had gone.  We took a taxi ride into the city, it was raining heavily most of the way but we could still appreciate the drive in, it is the prettiest airport drive we've seen anywhere.

After checking into our hotel, we found a cafe nearby where we had a meal, then went back to the hotel, showered and fell into bed.

On SATURDAY, 23rd SEPTEMBER :  After a night interrupted by a couple of bouts of intense coughing, we somehow managed to sleep until late morning.  Feeling almost human, we ventured out into the steamy heat, first to find breakfast/brunch/lunch and then to the MRT where we were informed that it is not possible to buy a single ticket, a credit card must be used to tap on and off through the turnstiles.  I don't know how a visitor could get on without a credit card.  A day ticket can be purchased for 22 Singapore dollars but we  weren't intending to make enough trips to warrant buying two of those.  Our first train ride was to the Marina Bay area and we spent the afternoon walking about, trying to recognize the Singapore we last visited.  It's been a while, much has changed and many new buildings have been added to the landscape,  softened by the beautiful gardens throughout.

The Customs House

The Helix

The Fullerton Bay Hotel

where staff were preparing for a very large wedding

Old Fullerton Bldg    -    Westin Stamford Hotel (now Swissotel the Stamford)    -    One Fullerton Bldg

Merlion    -    F1 Grand Prix seating    -    Singapore Flyer

We left the Bay, crossed this section of the road used for the Grand Prix held a week ago

to walk through the air conditioned Marina Square shopping centre to find the MRT station

Train Entrance/Exit doors on an MRT station

Saturday Night at Newton's Circus

where we've had several excellent meals on previous visits, tonights's meal was not one of them!!  Finding a vacant table was difficult as the place was packed but we managed to secure a couple of seats near Kiosk #78, ordered meals from the menu the woman in the photo brought over to us, but when they finally arrived they did not resemble the photos shown on the menu.  They were only just warm, were tasteless and overpriced.  Unfortunately there was a language problem, otherwise we would have complained bitterly and demanded replacement meals or a refund but the best we can do is to warn others.....do not buy meals from Kiosk 78 in Newton's Circus!!!!

SUNDAY, 24th SEPTEMBER :  Our last day and it was raining.  We went out for a brief walk then decided to return to the hotel, finish packing in order to check out at midday, leaving our bags in storage until the early evening and spend some time in the fresh, though steamy, air.  A very good bakery/patisserie a few doors up from the hotel was the first port of all and we ordered coffee and a pastry each. The air conditioning was turned down rather low so we didn't linger.  It was a short walk to Bugis Street from there

which was crowded, we didn't find anything we fancied so walked to the MRT station where we boarded a train to Chinatown, also crowded

but we enjoyed shuffling around with the crowds....for a little while

and admired the superb murals painted on the otherwise drab walls

The use of lots of colour we found rather cheerful on a wet, grey day and shuffled around a little more

until finding a nice, quiet Vietnamese cafe which served excellent noodles

We then decided to visit Little India, but only briefly.  It was raining, there was little shelter and didn't feel very inviting so,

up the escalator to the train back into the city and to a shopping mall where we had coffee.  We agreed

that we'd had enough wandering, went back to the hotel, collected our bags, rang for a taxi and drove out to the airport, thinking that we might as well wait there as anywhere else.

We'd already checked in on-line and took the bags to the kiosk for the baggage labels, scanning our passports as required, then took them to the bag drop, once again showing our passports and having unburdened ourselves of baggage, walked to Terminal 1 to "The Jewel".  Luckily, there are several travellators on the way as it is quite a walk.  There is a train between terminals 1 and 3 but I think it's only for transit passengers.  Our first visit to the Jewel was about a week after it opened so we were interested to see what changes had been made since then.   The waterfall and the gardens remain though it is now mostly a large shopping centre with a few cafes and many rather expensive looking shops...and large crowds.

We stayed a while and watched the waterfall change colours, then walked back to Terminal 3, showing our passports again before going through security, then found seats near our departure gate and waited for the call.  When it came, we showed our passports yet again, went through another security check, again showing passports and soon after, boarded the plane bound for home.

There were a few hiccups along the way, there always are, but none that couldn't be overcome (except for colds which we have still).  Although 4 of the last 5 days were mostly spent travelling, or waiting to travel, it was a most enjoyable holiday.  The bike ride was great fun, the motorhome itself was not the best but the times we had and the places we visited were fantastic and Sardinia was just awesome.

We love to go travelling but are always glad to come home...there is simply no place like it!!!