‘Back’ to the door, where it began.

18th January, Saturday. Drove the short distance back to Kaikoura and saw another outstanding sunrise, with the moon above the mountain.

My eyes were starting to ache from seeing so many beautiful and unusual sights.

Then it was along the coast road towards Blenheim. A much brighter day but still windy, with great waves breaking on the shore right next to the road and we saw lots of seals. They were in the car park and did not care how close you got to them.

 

I said to Gill that when we get home I am going to get a large sheet of grey paper and just stare at it for a few days, so that my eyes and brain can recover from all I had seen. Many of which, just didn’t seem natural..

Saw masses of vineyards as we entered the Marlborough district but first we went to Omaka to see the Aviation Heritage Centre, were there is a display of WW1 aircraft.

http://www.omaka.org.nz/

The German Stuka and British Hurricane were ‘props’ made for films in the 1960’s and I was told that they actually are airworthy.

The indoor exhibition was brilliantly made by Sir Peter Jackson’s team. Full size aircraft set in very realistic settings. Nice to see as many German aircraft as Allied.

 

I think Gill was still grumpy about her speeding ticket, ‘cos she was fairly quiet all morning.

Perhaps a little wine might cheer her up?

We went to a few wine tasting vineyards. I was driving so only sampled a couple and after a while Gill cheered up (I wonder why?)

Tried to find the ‘Astrolabe’ label but it seems it is a very small vineyard and does not have a cellar door or even an address.

Stayed the night at Rarangi, right on the beach and with very good facilities. We walked along the nearby cliff path to Monkey Bay.

19th January, Sunday. I wrote this on the ferry. ‘So now we are on the ferry back from Picton (south island) to Wellington.

The ship is rolling and the view outside is making my head spin, so I’m hiding in the coffee bar. I can see my coffee rolling back and forth in the cup! Eurgh! Gill is on the top deck loving it. Someone is behind me talking about this being a calm day compared to a few weeks ago and how everyone was throwing up (which is not helping). Finally got off the ferry and still kept my breakfast.

We had a little drive around Wellington. Ok, nothing special about it but we  didn’t have enough time to have a good look around. Went through Mount Victoria Tunnel. There is a tradition among Wellingtonians of tooting (sounding) a vehicle’s horn as they pass through the tunnel, leading to the local colloquial name of “Toot Tunnel”.
We were now running short of time in New Zealand so we had to just drive about 380k with a couple of stops. One was at the roadside, in view of Mount Ngauruhoe.

 

Of course we had to do the touristy ‘Lord of the Rings’ thing.

 

This was Peter Jackson’s inspiration for Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings films.

We ended up the day at Purreora Forest Reserve, just NE of Lake Taupo. Stayed overnight but did a runner at 6am before the parkie came to collect the camping fee.

20th January, Monday. A dull, wet day as we headed for Auckland. Got there quite early and were planning to have a look at the city campsites there but it was pretty miserable, so we checked into the hotel, returned the camper/car and relaxed. It was the same room in the hotel that we started the New Zealand trip in. Again, the same Hobbit-sized bath but it still felt great. I should mention that everyone, Gill included, forgot that it was my 64th birthday!
21st January, Tuesday. Early flight to Melbourne. Going through passport control, the passport officer wished me happy birthday for yesterday. Well at least someone said it… Got birthday emails from both the kids. They can be forgiven though, as there was a 12 hour time delay.

Kilcunda, Phillip Island & Ferry to Bighill campsite

16th November, Saturday. Booked into a campsite at Kilcunda, before going onto Phillip Island to see the Little Penguins in the evening.

We first went to The Nobbies on Seal Rocks, home to Australia’s largest Australian Fur Seal colony. This, I thought, was a tourist trap and to me had all the charm of an Oriental fast food service station. You also had to walk a long way to even see the rocks and as for the seals???

Then it was on to the penguins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Penguin

I was a little worried that it might be another tourist trap and was very much geared up for that but it was well-organised.

However, seeing 7,000 little penguins waddling up the beach in near darkness was pretty neat and I soon changed my mind. The penguins didn’t care about us or the low-level lighting there and just shuffled past us back to their nests.  It was bitterly cold and windy (where was the Australian Summer?).  It was quite late as we returned to Kilcunda and as we had been told not to drive at night, when the kangaroos are about, we were on high alert.

Photography is not allowed here so the above 5 shots are all from the internet.

17th November, Sunday. Took the ferry across from Sorrento to Queenscliff.  This way we could avoid going through Melbourne and get a good boat trip at the same time. Gill particularly likes boat trips and says you can always get a better suntan on a boat, even if it is blowing a gale!

We were now driving along The Great Ocean Road

Melbourne from the ferry

Freecamped at Bighill near Deans Marsh. This was up in the hills, along a semi-made road and very ‘rustic’ to say the least. Long drop toilets are particularly common on freecamping sites and work just as well as normal ones. Just don’t look down! Gill refused to use them but as our camper van, which we christened Daphne, was self contained and had a loo, she never needed to.

All through our travels we tried to spend two nights in a free or very basic camp and one night in a decent paid  camp, with power, internet and showers. This kept the cost down and was more ‘interesting’ than just having power and amenities all the time.