We enjoyed a very pleasant few days last weekend in the Little town of Martinborough in the Wairarapa Region and in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We stayed in the little town of Martinborough (about 90 minutes drive from Wellington) for two nights at this very nice boutique hotel. Martinborough is the centre of the wine growing area in the Wairarapa district and is noted for its Pinot Noir. I find ...

Now that I have been home from Antarctica for a few days, I have thad some time in which to sort out my photos (2983 of them) and select the best few to show in a public photo gallery. I have created four separate galleries in this post - 1. Ushuaia, 2 Falkland Islands, 3. South Georgia and 4. Antarctica. I have also gone back and added some other pictures to each of the original posts from my trip. The com ...

Having just spent hours on planes and in airports, I found this article from NBC News very interesting. Just remember it when next you fly!   Flying increases flatulence, according to an article published Friday in the peer-reviewed New Zealand Medical Journal, and passengers should release the gas -- or risk painful medical consequences.Lead author Dr. Jacob Rosenberg, professor of surgery at the Universit ...

Today has been our final day at sea. It's been another day of little wind, sunshine and smooth seas. We've been making good progress towards Ushuaia at 14 knots (about 20 km / hr) means that bee have made up too much time. In the afternoon we have slowed down to a little over 5 knots because we can't get tot the Beagle Chanel before 2.30 am as that is the time we have a contract to pick up our pilot.  Even ...

I'm taking the risk of writing tis in the middle of the day as I don't think that anything much is going to happen here for the rest of the day. We are now at sea on our return trip to Ushuaia with another day and a half of sailing. We are blessed with calm winds and the sea is dead flat. This is an interesting contrast to my previous trip where we had 8 metre waves as we crossed the same stretch of sea - t ...

Today was our last day in Antarctica. We were meant to be here for only two days, but because of the fog at Elephant Island, we have been able to fit in an extra day.  Our day started at 6.00 am with a wake-up cal as we entered the Lemaire Channel. This is a narrow waterway that stretches for about six nautical miles between the continental mainland and Booth Island. It is incredibly scenic with high mounta ...

Today has been a stunning Antarctic day. We woke up in Willhemena Bay in the northern end of the Antarctic peninsular. The weather was sunny, the sky was blue and the air temperature was -1C. We were off in Zodiacs to see the sites by 7:00 am, before breakfast. Wilhemena Bay is noted place for finding whales. Humpbacks forage here over summer on the plentiful supplies of krill before migrating north to bree ...

Well, today has been a great day, We are at the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsular in calm seas and brilliant sunshine. The weather has really made up for the windy and wild weather that we had during our crossing from South Georgia.  We awoke this morning to our first view of Antarctica - a scene of ice covered mountains all around us, a beautiful yellow sky as the sun rose and a temperature of -1C. ...