Driving west from Ohakune we made our way to the tiny town of Pipiriki to find the Bridge to Nowhere tour office. The Bridge to Nowhere is a Whanganui River attraction, a large concrete bridge built to connect a road with a remote farming community. With the collapse of wool markets and other economic hardships […]
A summer holiday: Tama Lakes
The next leg of our summer holiday took us back south, destination Ohakune. We took the scenic route through Te Kuiti rather than joining the increased traffic on SH1 and made good time, arriving at the Venture Lodge in the afternoon. Travis and Sophie were already there having retreated from the heavy rain they had […]
A summer holiday: Hamilton
With a week off we had a few little adventures planned and started with the drive up to Hamilton. We stayed a couple of nights with Dean, Bridget and Adam and managed to get in some shopping, playtime and a visit to the Hamilton Gardens. We also got to catch up with Grant, Sally-Anne, Jorja, […]
April Maze
The April Maze are an Australian band who will be in Wellington next February, apparently they’ve been here before and played some songs in a cable car. I hope they do it again 😉 For tour dates and info on tour mate Faye Blais click the link.
Christchurch and Timaru
Earlier this week I had a quick visit down South, taking in Bridget’s graduation in Christchurch and a day and a half in Timaru to visit my recently arrived nephew Liam. Bridget was receiving her Masters from Canterbury University and I was tasked with taking a few photos. There was a graduation parade first up […]
One Saturday
Saturday was another in a long line of sunny, warm days to have hit Wellington so we got outside and spent a few hours walking around at Zealandia. We got to see lots of wildlife, Keryn say the falcons for the first time and we managed to get dive bombed by the feisty male, even […]
Karearea
As mentioned on twitter a while back I’ve become addicted to watching the Karearea (NZ Falcons) at Zealandia. The breeding pair have one chick this year and it has recently fledged. I was lucky enough to stumble upon the chosen resting spot earlier this week and got some good photos. I’m also lucky enough not […]
U2
We travelled up to Auckland last week, primarily to see U2 on Thursday night at Mt Smart Stadium. Along with Keryn’s parents, Travis and Sophie we drove to the stadium (so glad we didn’t use public transport) and found parks easily enough, if a little distant from the stadium itself. Approaching the stadium we could […]
South Island: Kaikoura to Picton
Out whale watching trip was booked for 7.45am so I figured up get up extra early and see the sunrise. The weather looked good as I walked across the railway lines out the back of the hostel and went down on to the beach. I watched as the snow capped mountains turned pink with the […]
South Island: Arthur’s Pass to Kaikoura
We had breakfast in the restaurant area and it was simple but OK. We then packed and drove to the nearby carpark we had walked through yesterday to do the other waterfall walk, this time to see the Bridal Veil falls. Through quiet forest we followed the track again upwards, though not as steep as […]
South Island: Concerning both Ginger and Lemon slice, but mainly Ginger
I’ve mentioned that we’ve been eating slice made by Keryn and Elaine. Keryn carefully puts together a daily serving of both the lemon and ginger slice so we get one piece of each every day. Both are non-bake, everything just comes together nicely in the fridge rather than needing an oven. Photo by Brendon & […]
South Island: Hokitika to Arthur’s Pass
Our last few hours on the West Coast started by heading north from Hokitika towards Kumara Junction where we turned eastward. At Kumara we stopped to have a look at a photo gallery. The work was very good and I bought a print, I’ll have to have a look at it later to get the […]