Lake Tekapo

After the trials and tribulations of moving house we pottered around Lake Tekapo - so for those of you who would really like to learn something about New Zealand and not just how we are coping in a camper van.........

The lake water is a turquoise blue created by 'rock flour' which is rock ground down by the glaciers at the head of the lake.





The town is a hydro-town (for those who did not do that useful geography degree hydro electric power (HEP) is when you use the power of water to produce electricity). Tekapo is the start of a series of 8 hydro power stations that make up the Waitaki Hydro Scheme.





This is the Church of the Good Shepherd built in 1935 as a memorial to the pioneers of this area - 1935!!

and this sheep dog statue was erected by the 'runholders' as a tribute to the collie dog who enables sheep to graze the mountain country.






Apparently the sky at night here is the clearest, darkest and most spectacular in New Zealand - but we were too busy falling over each other in the van to see this!

Off to Mount Cook ..........

Map of New Zealand

For all those geographers amongst you it might help to know roughly where we are - so here is a map of New Zealand.




Hopefully you can read this - if not I am sure you will let us know.

I'll try and point out where we are by picking up a location on the map - eg Lake Tekapo is just west of Mount Cook on the South Island :o) Got it??? Whoops no it isn't - its just east of Mount Cook.....

Home Sweet Home!

Well - we never thought that spending 3 weeks in a camper van was going to be easy.........but we nearly fell at the first hurdle :o)
The words 'luxury' and 'six berth' had conjured up visions which jetlag, being late and still too much luggage refused to allow to materialise.

I have been trying to come up with an analogy for our situation.......the best I can do is 'think Donald and Ivana Trump or David and Victoria suddenly transported into a Wendy house on wheels :o)' It was like that!!! (but without the glamour).

We landed at Christchurch and met the camper van rep - she took ages to sort out the 'admin' which mainly consisted of a long list of instructions about 'what not to do' as it resulted in not being insured eg leaving cooker cover up, leaving van plugged into onsite electricity and driving off!

Eventually we were on our way to Lake Tekapo managing to stop off at a supermarket on the way - we threw about 8 bags of groceries on top of the luggage and kept driving. I think the scenery was great - if only I had been able to stay awake!


Here is the first glimpse of our home for the next three weeks as we arrived at Lake Tekapo - looks organised doesn't it?

........and this was the chaos inside -










Now as you know Arthur does not handle chaos too well and had to be sat down while I tackled trying to store clothes and food into a few overhead cupboards - there are NO wardrobes:o) My own stress levels rose when I discovered that the shower was in with the toilet and was about 1m square.





Yes the shower is in there!!!

......and then came the going to bed bit - well for those of you who have ever been on holiday with us you will remember that Arthur is amazingly fussy over the bed - as we tried to work out how to pull out the slats and sort the cushions he declared that he 'had no idea' in a 'I've had it' voice. We managed to get the cushions sorted but which way to put the sheets?? more debate. Finally it was sorted and boy was it worth it - because this was the view out of our window this morning.....









.....unbelievable we had never seen a sunrise like it and reflected in the lake......

We sorted out the remaining chaos and now it looks more like home.....




lots of chores to do ......filling up with water









So now you have the picture - this is home for the next three weeks:o) Luckily the campsite facilities are really good with great showers.....so providing only one of us is standing up in the van at a time we should be OK!

Blog Blips and Bits

As I boarded the flight in London I was feeling very smug about our blog....huge step forward and posting away very confidently (I feel a Bridget Jones quote coming on - maybe not!)

Imagine then landing in Singapore and Sydney and receiving lots of texts saying that the blog could not be accessed.....what an idiot I am! Well fingers crossed that if you are reading this you now have the right address:o) I spent more time txting from 12000 miles away than I ever do in the UK

Feel free to pass the address to other friends and family - we are bound to have missed someone.

So this post is really directed at all the under 35's...
..there will be a fair number of us for whom blogging is a fairly new phenomenon - a few hints and tips would be appreciated -

Firstly I cannot see the advantage of becoming a 'follower' other than we can all see who is tracking the posts - perhaps being a follower sends you an alert when a blog is posted?

Secondly it seems that if you leave a comment I need to publish it? - quality control in action - although knowing who has access to this blog and the huge age range perhaps QC is sensible :o)

So do feel free to leave comment,hints and tips on blog protocol - would be much appreciated.

PS I am sure I will not normally be blogging at 4:30 in the morning - wonderful thing jetlag. We have just checked in for the final flight from Sydney to Christchurch.

Travelling in Style

I know I should be acting 'cool' but this is so exciting travelling business class - the airline lounge is fab and each ladies loo is bigger than our bathroom at home!!

So firstly I would like our ski mates Alison, Peter, Steve and Lesley to take a look at this:





Yes its true - we are taking less luggage than we normally take for 1 weeks skiing - not quite sure how that happened!

Now for all those techno-bods amongst you.....Arthur went to great lengths to ensure that we are flying on the latest A380 airbus - the largest passenger aircraft in the air.




We took this picture when we went to the Farnborough airshow....it can seat up to 800 people. There is an upstairs which is where we will be swanning about. I just asked Arthur to find me some interesting facts about the plane - 80m wingspan, more fuel efficient, less carbon dioxide!.......and hopefully lots of champagne in business.

We will fly to Singapore where we are going to refuel and then on to Sydney where we sleep over for 8 hours - and then finally change plane (because the runway in New Zealand is too small to take the A380) and fly to Christchurch. In total the journey will take 23 hours and we land at 00:30 Tuesday morning GMT.

For those of you who had a good laugh about us blogging - I just wish you could see this - I am using the ipad and have a wireless keyboard - just fit in perfectly next to the computer room in the lounge. Its just a shame I keep having to put my glasses on and off - spoils the effect.

Whoops Art just warned me to be very disciplined about handling the enormous amount of alcohol they are going to try and ply us with on this flight.......fantastic :o)

Well we will catch you when we get to New Zealand and I guess the next blog will be from the Camper Van.

Enjoy the weekend and I'll just say hi to all the kids who may be dipping into this blog - Isabelle, Izzi, Isobel, Amy, Amelie, Florrie, Josie and of course George......and if Chesterfield work out how to access the blog hi to Ben, Mathew, Daniel, Jack and Aimee.......strange how all the girls are in the South and the boys in the North!

Lots of love

G'day Pommies

G'day everyone....

Well here we go - tomorrow morning we head to Heathrow to fly to New Zealand. I'm not sure if I am more nervous about putting the first post on our blog or flying half way round the world.

Due to unprecedented demand Arthur and I are going to try to keep a blog of our travels - we have already had a few technical challenges and huge thanks to Sarah, mainly for her patience, with helping us set it up! Hopefully you will find it both interesting and amusing - judging by the reaction of a couple of our 'friends' when we broke the news of the 'camper van' our trip is already amusing :o)

When George Bernard Shaw visited New Zealand in 1935 a reporter asked him his impression of the place and, after a pause, Shaw is said to have replied
'Altogether too many sheep'

Well we will see - and we promise photos of sheep!

As far as the itinerary is concerned its still a little fluid - the main communication with James has been 4 requests to take out his red England shirt - we can only assume that there is competitive activity about to take place between New Zealand and England.......and to be sure James will be in the England shirt. The cricket match fixtures finally came through this morning so we have a rough idea where we are headed and when.....but who knows.

So next post from Heathrow - hopefully


- Posted by K & A x