An Exhibition of Works by the World’s Top Selling Female Artist
The National Gallery of Victoria is currently holding an exhibition of the works of a famous Japanese artist. We gained a large dose of ‘culcha’ when we visited her exhibition today. It is so large that it takes up the whole ground floor of the gallery and is presented in two parts. Yayoi Kusama is […]
Read More
Coffee Encounters
One of my enduring memories of my service in Vietnam is that of being in a convoy way out in the boondocks resupplying a forward operation. There in the middle of nowhere, and in a potentially dangerous location, was an Australian Salvation Army Officer and his Landrover ready to serve us a cup of hot […]
Read More
My Milford Sound Photos are Recovered
I was extremely disappointed to find the my camera card was corrupt on the day that we drove to Milford Sound from Te Anau. This is one of the most scenic areas of New Zealand. However, patience has its virtues. When I discovered that there were no images on the memory card, I immediately removed […]
Read More
Christchurch – Our Last Days in New Zealand
On Tuesday 22 February 2011, Christchurch was badly damaged by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, which killed 185 people and injured several thousand. The earthquake epicentre was just 10 kilometres south-east of Christchurch’s central business district, only a few months after a previous quake in September 2010 . This was just a few months after our […]
Read More
Back to Christchurch
Saturday was the last of our long driving days as we returned to Christchurch. Our trip also completed the central loop of our ’figure eight’ tour of New Zealand’s south island – a driving trip of 4,250 kilometres. We started the day by driving down the west coast from Punakaiki through Greymouth to Kumera Junction […]
Read More
Back to the West Coast
On Friday, we headed west from Nelson through some forested country back towards Punakaiki where we had previously spent a night. This journey completed the top loop of our ‘figure eight’ drive around New Zealand. The country along the first part of the day was through mountainous pine forest. Many of the steep hills along […]
Read More
A Quiet Day in Nelson
Because we have two days here in Nelson, we deliberately kept our start to the day slow and relaxed. We were still in our hotel room at 10.30 am before leaving for a day of looking around this area of the northern South Island. We thought that we should put the car through a car […]
Read More
The Marlborough Area of New Zealand
Kaikōura where we have spent last night began as an isolated whaling location. Whalers first came to New Zealand waters in 1792, initially to hunt sperm whales from their ships. Shore whaling began in the 1820s. Southern right whales were killed and their blubber rended down. The oil produced from that process was used to […]
Read More
We are Back on the East Coast
After a nice night in the little town of Hanmer Springs, we were on the road before 10.00 am for a relatively short drive to Kaikoura on the east coast. Google Maps told us that today’s trip would be less than two hours so we didn’t rush and instead, built in some detours. For the […]
Read More
Across the Haast Pass to Hanmer Springs
Hanmer Springs is a resort town in the Canterbury region of New Zealand’s South Island. It is known for its thermal pools and spa. It is where people come to ’take the waters’. The surrounding mountains are home to trails and seasonal ski slopes. We began our drive to there by backtracking south to Greymouth […]
Read More
North, Along the West Coast
We travelled north along the West Coast today from Fox Glacier to Punakaiki towards the north of New Zealand’s South Island. My story today is much better illustrated by photos than by text. Although we were near the coast at Fox Glacier, we were also on the edge of the Southern Alps, the backbone of […]
Read More
Over the Haast Pass to NZ’s West Coast
We had about 275 kilometres to travel today but we were not rushed and today’s drive felt very comfortable and relaxed. Perhaps it was the coffee in Wanaka that we waited 20 minutes to get. The young barista in the cafe was working hard and she had our coffees up as fast as she could […]
Read More