Today (Monday) had an itinerary worse than a Corporate Monday morning......
8:30 Meet school Matron at the hostel
10:30 Meet old IBM friends at Lake Tekapo at the top of Mount John
13:00 Lunch invite from people met at Pete's 10 year celebration
James was really keen that we met Paula Cross who was the boarding Matron as he got on very well with her.
We left Karen and Pete which was very sad as we had become good friends and met Paula - James was right she was lovely....and he even managed to get up as well.
Leaving the Walsh's....
We had then been in contact with very old IBM friends Rona and Peter - they were at our wedding and by sheer coincidence were in New Zealand. We arranged to meet as we made our way over to Queenstown.....only we agreed to meet up Mount John at the Observatory near Lake Tekapo - we drove, they walked:o)
Pete and Rona were with two old friends of theirs Bill and Sheila - the picture shows Bill, Peter and Arthur. Bill is a professional mountain guider and is so fit. He had a wonderful collie with him called Tristan.
So from the front Sheila, Pete, Arthur, Rona and Bill - we just laughed for about 2 hours and Pete was so hyper about meeting us up a mountain - worse than me!
Rona collapsed in hysterics in the UK when we said we were going to be in a camper van - but I think she ended up impressed :o)
Well the next appointment was fascinating - at Pete's business celebration we had met Justin and Gillian. They owned Irishman's Creek near Lake Tekapo - 11000 hectares and 9000 sheep. They had led amazing lives - they were both British but Gillian had been born on a tea plantation in India and Justin had gone to Pembroke College Oxford at 16. They were both glider pilots and Justin had been in the British Gliding Team and therefore met Prince Philip several times who was patron of the British Gliding Association.
After starting his own business in the City Justin became disillusioned with that life and he and Gillian bought Irishman Creek. It is beautiful....
Arthur with Gillian and Justin...
As well as the commercial sheep they have their own little pet flock...
These are Merino sheep and the garments made from Merino wool are so soft. (All these pet sheep have names!)
The other fascinating fact about Irishman Creek is that the Hamilton waterjet engine was invented here in 1954 by Sir William Hamilton (the HamiltonJ et). There is a small museum showing his developments and tests and now the jet boats shoot up and down many of the gorges in the west of South Island.
Their farm is powered by hydro-electric power - the water comes from the river and is dammed - the water runs out from the dam, through the turbine and back into the stream lower down.....imagine having our electricity in the UK delivered like that.
We finally left Gillian and Justin about 4:00pm to drive over to the west and Queenstown......it had been a truly amazing few days, the people are so friendly, it was brilliant to see James so happy and the country is just fascinating..and quiet!
Interesting fact - the population of New Zealand is just over 4 million - 3 million live north of Hamilton on the North Island - which means the South Island has a population of just under 1 million.....amazing.
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