Have just had a few days in Sydney, visiting friends. As I've been here before, I didn't feel the need to climb the Harbour Bridge etc., so it was nice to hang out and catch up with people.
Mainly I stayed in Penrith with Petrina, Ian and their little girl, Aaliyah. Penrith is close to the Blue Mountains so we did a drive up there today, to Leura. Very sunny, but lots of flies!
Penrith is about an hour out of Sydney, so on Thursday I took the train into town and meet up with some of my EY colleagues who are now working in the office there. They showed me around their brand new building, and then we went for drinks at the Opera bar, by the Opera House. And then we had gorgeous seafood at an outdoor restaurant by the harbour.
Stayed the night with Sacha in Newtown. Spent a pleasurable morning wandering around Newtown's shops and then we had lunch.
Just about to board my flight back to London now!
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Sunday, January 08, 2006
prominent!
Colin was born in Ahmednagar in India, the same birthplace as Spike Milligan. To mark this, I've added Colin's name to the Wikipedia entry for prominent persons born in the town.
shaky!
Well a visit to Wellington wouldn't be complete without an earthquake. A 4.1 earthquake woke me up on Saturday morning - I was staying with Stephen and Aoife near Porirua and the quake was 10km west of that so we were relatively close. Not the big one thank goodness!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Thompson family at Milford
This is our family photo taken as we are about to board the Red Boat Cruise on Milford Sound on New Year's Eve Day. Photo was taken by the lovely Fernando. We're all very excited because we're about to eat at the limitless buffet! Click on the photo to see who's who!
Monday, January 02, 2006
Latest adventures in New Zealand
After a lovely, but uneventful Christmas, it was time for our family trip down to Te Anau and Milford Sound. John and Fiona travelled down together, doing some fishing and spending the night in noisy Omarama camping ground.
I drove down with Mum and Dad a couple of days later, taking the Cave / Tekapo / Fairlie / Omarama / Cromwell route. It was a glorious day, beautifully sunny. We stopped at Mt Difficulty winery in Bannockburn, near Cromwell for lunch. Lovely spot overlooking the valley. We had a bottle of the 2005 Pinot Gris with our lunch - yummy!
In Te Anau we were staying with Angus and his girlfriend Tiana. Angus was working over at Milford Sound taking sea kayaking trips and he organised for me to accompany him on his trip on Saturday. This meant that I was picked up at 6am by the company van for the two hour trip into Milford - argh! It's a lovely road though and always a pleasure! Angus stays at 'Paddle On In', a group of ramshackle caravans by Deep Water Cove, about a kilometer away from where the big boats leaves. There were eight other people on our trip - two English, two Slovenian, two German and two Kiwis. Angus and I were in a double kayak. It was another gloriously sunny day - quite hot when we were in full sun and in shelter, but we were glad of the layers of gear when out in the wind. Gear was polypropelene shirt and long johns, a fleece, a spray skirt, a waterproof jacket and a flotation jacket - no wonder it was so bulky! But once you were in it was fine. We paddled out along the Arthur River first of all, then along the north side of the fjord, then over the south side, where a nesting gull got a bit freaked out and pooped on Angus and I. Then we went under Bowen Falls, across the fjord again, and up the Arthur River to Sandfly Point (where the Milford Track ends). Went up a very narrow river that one of the kayakers said reminded her of the New Orleans swamp tour. After coming out of there, Angus saw a Weta on my shoulder - wasn't too happy about that (they're not poisonous) so he flicked it away.
Mum, Dad and Tiana were waiting for us at the take out point and took some photos of us coming in to land. After getting changed and having something to drink, we travelled round to the cruise ships for a boat trip - thanks to Tiana and Angus's connections, we were able to get a free trip on the boat, and a buffet lunch - brilliant! I've done the trip a couple of times but it really is quite spectactular. Went all the way out to the Tasman. Amazing the number of planes taking off and touring from the airstrip at Milford - apparently if you look at plane movements, it's the busiest airport in New Zealand - up to 200 take offs a day!
That evening, New Year's Eve, we had a barbeque back in Te Anau, then checked out the fireworks on the lake at midnight - we were all pretty tired though, especially me! I was also suffering the effects of not putting enough sun screen on my face during the trip and was somewhat red of face.
New Year's Day was not very sunny and became rainier as the day went on. We went to the Fjordland Cinema to see Ata Whenua, a film about Fjordland, much of which was shot from helicopters. Truly spectacular, and like the cinema guy said, no rain and no sandflies!
After lunch at the Olive Tree Cafe, Fiona, John and I went on a trip to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves. The caves are across the other side of Lake Te Anau so there was a 30 minute boat ride. The trip into the caves involved ducking under a couple of very low rocks, getting into a couple of flat bottomed tin boats and walking along a walk way. It was great fun but very noisy due to the water rushing. Actually seeing the glowworms was spectacular - it was amazing how many would appear the more your eyes got accustomed to the dark.
Today, after breakfast at the Sandfly Cafe, we returned to Timaru - route this time was via Gore, Waihola, Dunedin (we didn't stop) and Moeraki.
I drove down with Mum and Dad a couple of days later, taking the Cave / Tekapo / Fairlie / Omarama / Cromwell route. It was a glorious day, beautifully sunny. We stopped at Mt Difficulty winery in Bannockburn, near Cromwell for lunch. Lovely spot overlooking the valley. We had a bottle of the 2005 Pinot Gris with our lunch - yummy!
In Te Anau we were staying with Angus and his girlfriend Tiana. Angus was working over at Milford Sound taking sea kayaking trips and he organised for me to accompany him on his trip on Saturday. This meant that I was picked up at 6am by the company van for the two hour trip into Milford - argh! It's a lovely road though and always a pleasure! Angus stays at 'Paddle On In', a group of ramshackle caravans by Deep Water Cove, about a kilometer away from where the big boats leaves. There were eight other people on our trip - two English, two Slovenian, two German and two Kiwis. Angus and I were in a double kayak. It was another gloriously sunny day - quite hot when we were in full sun and in shelter, but we were glad of the layers of gear when out in the wind. Gear was polypropelene shirt and long johns, a fleece, a spray skirt, a waterproof jacket and a flotation jacket - no wonder it was so bulky! But once you were in it was fine. We paddled out along the Arthur River first of all, then along the north side of the fjord, then over the south side, where a nesting gull got a bit freaked out and pooped on Angus and I. Then we went under Bowen Falls, across the fjord again, and up the Arthur River to Sandfly Point (where the Milford Track ends). Went up a very narrow river that one of the kayakers said reminded her of the New Orleans swamp tour. After coming out of there, Angus saw a Weta on my shoulder - wasn't too happy about that (they're not poisonous) so he flicked it away.
Mum, Dad and Tiana were waiting for us at the take out point and took some photos of us coming in to land. After getting changed and having something to drink, we travelled round to the cruise ships for a boat trip - thanks to Tiana and Angus's connections, we were able to get a free trip on the boat, and a buffet lunch - brilliant! I've done the trip a couple of times but it really is quite spectactular. Went all the way out to the Tasman. Amazing the number of planes taking off and touring from the airstrip at Milford - apparently if you look at plane movements, it's the busiest airport in New Zealand - up to 200 take offs a day!
That evening, New Year's Eve, we had a barbeque back in Te Anau, then checked out the fireworks on the lake at midnight - we were all pretty tired though, especially me! I was also suffering the effects of not putting enough sun screen on my face during the trip and was somewhat red of face.
New Year's Day was not very sunny and became rainier as the day went on. We went to the Fjordland Cinema to see Ata Whenua, a film about Fjordland, much of which was shot from helicopters. Truly spectacular, and like the cinema guy said, no rain and no sandflies!
After lunch at the Olive Tree Cafe, Fiona, John and I went on a trip to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves. The caves are across the other side of Lake Te Anau so there was a 30 minute boat ride. The trip into the caves involved ducking under a couple of very low rocks, getting into a couple of flat bottomed tin boats and walking along a walk way. It was great fun but very noisy due to the water rushing. Actually seeing the glowworms was spectacular - it was amazing how many would appear the more your eyes got accustomed to the dark.
Today, after breakfast at the Sandfly Cafe, we returned to Timaru - route this time was via Gore, Waihola, Dunedin (we didn't stop) and Moeraki.
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