Wellington - Auckland - Home (2017-04-14)

We had a busy last week in New Zealand, fitting in several "lasts", including a last walk with my cousin, Shelwyn; a last visit with my nephew, Adam, and his family; a last visit to my sister, Tricia's, house; and our last date and orange scone at Revive in Petone (which we managed to do twice).

 

I had promised Tricia that I would do some construction projects at her house, and so we spent a day at Cross Creek, adding height to a fence to keep the animals from eating her shrubs, fencing in her vegetable garden to keep the rabbits out, and adding netting to another fence, to stop the sheep from eating her flowers.  It was a long day, and I was exhausted, but we got 'er done.

 

Fence Enhancement

 On Tuesday morning we said goodbye to my sisters, and flew to Auckland for the last few days of our trip.  We had been lucky in Nelson, avoiding the worst of cyclone Debbie, but the weather forecast for Auckland was not good - heavy rains on Wednesday from a low pressure system in the Tasman Sea, followed by cyclone Cook, which was expected to hit Auckland on Thursday, bringing winds of up to 140 Km/h and more heavy rain.  There was even talk of closing the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

 

The Wednesday rains were very squally, with sizeable gaps between the heavy showers, so we were able to get out for breakfast and get to Archives NZ for a little family research, while staying substantially dry.

 

We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights with my niece, Katie, and her family in Ponsonby, which is an old suburb of Auckland, close to downtown, with many lovely old buildings.  The area has become very popular with young professionals, and has been heavily rejuvenated.  While the family were at work and school, Marlene and I explored the local neighborhoods. 

 

Old Building on Ponsonby Road

 Our weather luck held, and cyclone Cook was a non-event in Auckland, with virtually no rain or wind.  She did hit the East coast very hard, bringing down lots of trees, taking out power to thousands of homes.

 

We spent Friday roaming the city with Katie and family, as we did not have to leave for the airport until 4:30 pm.  Auckland is crazy busy, with so much construction going on that tradespeople are hard to find - count the cranes in the photo below!  It was a beautiful day out and our last chance for some exercise before sitting for 12 1/2 hours on the flight home.

Auckland - A City of Cranes

The flight home was uneventful, and now, after spending Easter with our children and grandchildren in Vancouver, we will head home on Tuesday.  After 3 months away, we are ready to be home, and back to our Parksville routine.

 

 

 

 

Nelson week 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 (2017-04-06)

The weather deteriorated somewhat in our last week in Nelson, as the remnants of Cyclone Debbie hit New Zealand, but we still managed to get out every day, without getting significantly wet.

 

Early in the week, the weather was very calm, and we had a couple more bike rides along the waterfront, out to Clifton Terrace School.  On one return journey we spied a heron standing in a small dinghy which was moored in the harbour.  With no wind, the reflection was perfect, so I raced across the highway and managed to get a few photos before he flew off.

 

Heron in Boat

 We also took on a major hill climb, up to the TV tower which stands directly above Rutherford Road.  With 1200 feet of elevation gain from home, it was quite a climb, and not really worth the effort as there is absolutely no view from the top, due to the dense bush.

The Climb Ahead

 As we were feeling so pleased with ourselves at climbing to the top of the hill, we decided to take the long way home, and followed the access road down the other side of the hill, to Brook Street.  It was very peaceful on the road less travelled, and in all gave us a 2 1/2 hour walk.

The Road Down

 Near the bottom of the hill we came across two donkeys munching on the vegetation.  These were the wildest animals that we saw on the walk.

A Pair of Donkeys

With much rain in the forecast, and 500 year floods happening on the East Coast of the North Island, we did not expect to be getting out much on our last few days in Nelson, but apart from a few hours of strong winds and scattered rain showers, the weather did not prevent us from doing anything.

 

We saved a visit to the Melrose House Cafe for our last full day in Nelson, as it was only 2 blocks from our home, and I figured that we could do it in the rain, but the date scones with cream and raspberry jam were so good, that we went back the next morning before heading to the airport.

 

On our last evening in Nelson, we went to another play at the local theatre, Fiddler on the Roof.  It was their first performance of this play, but the cast did a great job, with a South African Tevye and an English Lazar Wolf, amidst an otherwise kiwi crew.  We managed to get to the show and home again, without getting wet, so that was a bonus.

 

Today we leave Nelson for Wellington, and our last week in New Zealand,  This will be our first use of motorized transport since we arrived 3 1/2 weeks ago, so our legs will be thankful.  We will certainly miss Nelson - our accommodation at Fairview Stay was excellent, as were the date scones at Melrose House, Red Cafe and the Suter Gallery Cafe, but we also enjoyed the closeness of good walking trails, the challenge of the biking trails, and the general feel of the city.  We will be back!

 

 

Nelson week 2 - 2 1/2 (2017-03-29)

We have had a busy week and a half, not really doing anything touristy, but a lot of biking and walking, another movie, and two visits to the Sprig and Fern.

 

Nelson has a lot of biking options, including several areas of mountain bike trails in the surrounding hills, but they are not for us.  We are more into enjoying a quiet ride, with a cafe stop at the end.  For a short ride (15 Km) with no real hills, we head into town and then North along the coast to Clifton Terrace School, which is the end of the bike trail (Cafe stop back in Nelson).  For more challenge we head South to Richmond (28 Km return), with one long hill and then lots of flat - the trail follows an old railway bed, and climbs 100 metres up to a saddle, just outside of Nelson, then, after the downhill, is relatively flat all the way to Richmond.

 

Low Cloud at High Tide

 On one day we rode to Brightwater and back (45 Km), which is South of Richmond, and although it adds 17 Km to the trip, there are no more hills.  To avoid the 100 metre hill coming into Nelson on the return, we rode the coastal route through Tahunanui, which avoids the hill but involves biking on the side of a major highway.  Marlene decided that she would rather face the hill, than be squeezed between a cattle truck and a parked camper van, again.

 

The path from Richmond to Brightwater is asphalt most of the way, with a short section of gravel around a river crossing.  But the ride is in the country, amongst vineyards, market gardens & animals, and is part of the larger Great Taste Trail.

Richmond to Brightwater Bike Path

 

Marlene Having A Break From Pedalling

 But you can't bike every day....my butt just won't take it, so we have done several walks.  On the return from one walk, we stopped into the Racial Harmony Day celebration at Victory Park for lunch.  Many different ethnic groups in the city were selling the cuisine of their homeland, and we sat on the grass, chatting with a Fijian woman, while munching on pad thai, spring rolls and Sri Lankan samosas.  I guess everybody gets along when they have full stomachs.

 

Marlene also has a favourite 2 hour walk, up the hill (150 metres of elevation) to the (geographical) Centre of New Zealand marker, along the ridge, down to the Japanese Gardens, and back along the coast path.  We walked that one today, and were very happy to see the Red Cafe, just after 11 am, as the heat and humidity were getting rather unbearable.

 

Just below, the Centre of New Zealand is the Botanic Sports Field, site of New Zealand's first rugby match, which was played on 14 May,1870.  The match was organised by Charles Munro, who coached both sides, and was the referee, while playing for Nelson Town.  It is probably no coincidence that Nelson Town beat Nelson College, two goals to nil. 

On Tuesday we went to the local movie theatre to see "Alone in Berlin", the story of one couple's fight against the Nazis during WWII.  It is a little slow in places, but a good show, just the same.  Then the walk over to the Sprig and Fern was just enough to build up our appetite for a pint and a burger.

We only have one week left in Nelson, and just over two weeks left in New Zealand, so Marlene tells me that we have to make the most of it.  I would settle for a few days at the library. 

 

Nelson week 1 (2017-03-20)

Our first week in Nelson has been busy, revisiting a lot of our old haunts, and a few new ones, as we are staying in the southern part of the city, whereas on previous visits we have stayed in the East and North sides of the city.

 

In the photo below, the street running down the centre, from the ocean to the base of the hill, is Rutherford Street.  If you look to the right of the green field on the left edge of the photo, you will see a house with its garage right next to Rutherford Street.  We are staying in the lower right hand portion of that house.  So we are about 5 blocks from the centre of town and right at the base of the hills, giving us the choice of walks on the flat in the city, or hill walks in the country.

Rutherford Street from The Grampians

 The South end of Nelson has a lot of beautiful old houses and cottages, many of which have been lovingly restored.  The photograph below is of Melrose House, which was built circa 1879, and is just a block away from us.

Melrose House, Nelson

 Our only transportation this week has been our feet, so we have done a lot of walking, with one walk up the Maitai River, two up onto the hills above Nelson, and one along the ocean.  We are here a little later in the year than our previous visits to Nelson, so no sign of mushrooms or plums on the river walk, but we continue to keep our eyes open.  We did spy a lot of peaches on a tree which hung over a fence into a nearby church property, and as there were a lot of peaches on the ground, we assumed that the peaches were not wanted.  So we prevented a few from falling onto the ground and bruising.  When we cut into them we found that they had black flesh, and thanks to Google, we learned that they are called Indian or Black Boy peaches....delicious!

Maitai River Walk

 I included the photo below, not to show how high we had climbed (about 500 feet), but because of the UFO that appeared unexpectedly in the upper left of the photo.  If you enlarge the photo you will see that it is a Cicada (tree cricket).  Cicadas are very prevalent in the local woods, and their cumulative song is very loud, so it takes a while to get used to the constant noise in an otherwise quiet environment.

City of Nelson (and Cicada) From The Grampians

 One of the most peaceful places in Nelson is the Japanese Garden, which is along the ocean to the East of the city.  It is a good place to sit and reflect, or simply as a walking destination.

Japanese Garden, Nelson

 But it hasn't been all walks in the woods.  We went to see a play by the local theatre group - "One Man, Two Guvnors", which we watched from the front row, and which was hilarious (thankfully we were not chosen for audience participation).  We enjoyed it so much that we booked tickets for "Fiddler on the Roof", for our last night in Nelson in April.

 

We also went to the movies, to see "The Lion", which everybody told us we had to see, not least because a lot of it was filmed in Tasmania.  We thoroughly enjoyed it also, but found that it dragged a bit in places.

 

On the food front, we did visit "our local" on the East side of town, the Sprig and Fern.  This pub has a symbiotic relationship with the takeout restaurant next door, so you can order food at the restaurant and they deliver it to you table at the pub (all at takeout prices).  So we enjoyed a pint on the patio, mingling with the locals, and a meal.

 

I spotted the sign below outside another pub in town.  The sign caught my eye, but you really do have to read to the bottom.

Read The Whole Sign

 Hopefully next week we will get out biking, and explore a little further afield.

Hobart to Wellington (2017-03-12)

 The drive from Strahan to Hobart was not as bad as anticipated.  First stop was the Hungry Wombat Cafe at Derwent Bridge for the morning coffee ritual,  and then lunch in the town park at Hamilton.  That left us only a 45 minute drive to Hobart after lunch.

 

On Friday morning we visited the historic town of Richmond, which is about 25 Km out of Hobart.  The big attraction is the oldest bridge in Australia, which was built by convicts in 1823.

The Bridge - Richmond, Tasmania

The main street of Richmond is lined with buildings from the early 1800s, which is nice, but the town has become a tourist destination, so most of the houses are now either accommodations or touristy stores, which to me makes it less interesting.

 

We enjoyed Devonshire Tea at a brand new cafe, the Stone & Barrow, wandered the stores, and then headed back to Hobart.

 

Cottages - Richmond, Tasmania

In the afternoon, the ladies visited MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), while I had some well-deserved downtime.  They found the museum interesting, but very different from any other art gallery.

 

Before heading to the airport on Saturday, we revisited the Female Factory (as we had not bought any books on our previous visit), then back to Jackman and McRoss, which is definitely the best cafe that we visited in Tasmania.

 

That left enough time for one last walk along the waterfront.

 

Downtown Hobart

We all enjoyed our two weeks in Tasmania, and wished that it had been three weeks, which would have given us a little more time in some of the places that we enjoyed, notably Port Arthur (to explore the area), Strahan (to do a harbour cruise) and Cradle Mountain (to walk more of the trails). 

 

Wellington greeted us with rain and strong southerly winds, when we arrived just before midnight, very different from our weather in Tasmania.

On Sunday we unpacked, repacked, and relaxed, as on Monday Marlene and I head to Nelson for 3 1/2 weeks.  But, more on that next time.....

Strahan, Tasmania (2017-03-08)

After a long morning of hiking in the sun at Cradle Mountain, two consecutive one-night stops, and long drives, I was totally beat when we arrived at Strahan.  Consequently, I was asleep by 8:30 pm and slept for 11 hours.

With two nights and a full day in Strahan, we did a local walk to Hogarth Falls, followed by coffee at “The Coffee Shack”, before driving out to the Ocean Beach. 

The walk to Hogarth Falls is about 25 minutes each way and takes you through lush rain forest.  Although the falls are not huge or otherwise spectacular, it was a very nice walk, and thankfully, the tall growth kept us out of the sun.

Trail to Hogarth Falls

 

Hogarth Falls

 The Coffee Shack is the #1 rated café (of 4) in Strahan, and we were not disappointed, with great coffee, and excellent muffins, banana bread and olive bread. 

 According to Lonely Planet, the Chicago Tribune newspaper once called Strahan “the best little town in the world”, and although it is a pretty little place, I think “best” may be a slight over statement. 

Strahan Main Street

 The Town of Strahan sits in sheltered Macquarie Harbour, but Ocean Beach, 6 Km from the town centre, is fully exposed to the West.  The beach is pure sand, 33 Km long, and the dunes along this stretch of coast are home to breeding Shearwaters (Mutton Birds).

 

Ocean Beach, Strahan

 Twenty of the world’s twenty-five most venomous varieties of snake are found in Australia, but there are only three types of snake in Tasmania, all of which are venomous.  The positive thing about Tasmanian snakes is that if you are bitten by one, you don’t have to identify the type, as one anti-venom can be used to treat the bite of all three snake varieties.  My best guess, with help from Google, is that the snake that we saw on the drive out to Ocean Beach was a Tiger Snake.

 

Tiger Snake

 In the evening we dined out, to celebrate the looming end to our mini-vacation, rather than fighting to find a place to dine at in Hobart.  We had an excellent meal, looking out over Macquarie Harbour, and watched the sun sink into the ocean.

 

We Four Dining Out

Tomorrow we head back to Hobart, the longest drive of our holiday, so it will be a tiring day for us all.

Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park (2017-03-06)

Today, the first stop was in Wynyard, a place that we had missed on our way out to Stanley, where we got enough petrol and groceries to keep us fed and fueled to Cradle Mountain and on to Strahan.  Wynyard is a good-sized rural town, but nothing of special interest for us.

We then followed the A10 highway down through Hellyer Gorge State Reserve, which was our lunch stop, and an opportunity for a leg stretch, then on to Cradle Mountain – Lake St. Clair National Park.  The park sits at around 1000 metres above sea level, with Cradle Mountain rising to 1549 metres.  Vegetation is largely alpine.

After an early dinner, we drove into the National Park in hopes of seeing wildlife around dusk.  As we were leaving our accommodation we saw a wombat ambling into the bush, which was a good omen.  In the park we saw many more wombats and a pademelon (small wallaby-like marsupial) with a joey.  The pademelons were too quick for a photograph, but we managed to get lots of shots of the wombats, including fresh wombat poop, which is square in shape (imagine square brown marshmellows).  So although you can’t put square pegs in round holes, it seems that you can get square pegs out of round holes.

Willy the Wombat

 At 8:30 pm we attended the feeding at Devils@Cradle, one of several captive breeding locations for Tasmanian Devils.  The Tasmanian Devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial, but its population has declined by 98% over the last twenty years, due primarily to a facial tumour which is passed from one to another by contact.  The captive breeding programmes are referred to as “insurance populations” and they do release some of the offspring into the wild, but the primary purpose is to ensure that the Tasmanian Devil does not become extinct, as the Tasmanian Tiger did.  Devils@Cradle also breeds Quolls (could perhaps be the official mascot of Qualicum Beach?), which are the second largest carnivorous marsupial, and which do not suffer from the facial tumour of their larger relative.  We watched a group of 6 young devils fight for a piece of the possum which was provided for their dinner, and were able to listen to the shrieks which earned them their name, as they ripped the carcass apart.

Tasmanian Devil

 

Quoll

 

Traffic within the national park is severely limited, so although we had been able to drive in during the evening, the next morning we had to take a shuttle bus, as the maximum number of cars had already been reached.  We took the shuttle bus up to Dove Lake (as far as you can drive within the park), and then walked the 6 Km track around Dove Lake.  The track was well formed, with lots of boardwalk sections, and is the most popular of the many walks within the park. 

 

Cradle Mountain reflected in Dove Lake

 

Boardwalk on Dove Lake Trail

 

The 3 Siblings on Dove Lake Trail

Marlene would happily come back here, stay for a week, and walk every trail within the park.  But we did not have even one full day, as we had to be in Strahan that night, so after coffee at the visitors centre, we were on the road by 2:30 pm, for the two hour drive to Strahan on the West coast.

Stanley, Tasmania (2017-03-05)

From Launceston we drove Northwest through Deloraine to Devonport, then followed the coast through Penguin, Burnie and Wynyard.

Our first stop was at the Lonely Planet recommended “Laneway” Café in Devonport, so that we could experience one of “Tassie’s best cafes”. Certainly no complaints from us.  As we had stopped, we also wandered through the main street of Devonport and up to the lighthouse on Mersey Bluff.  There was absolutely no sign of the Australian mainland, which is about 200 Km North of here, across Bass Strait.

 

Art Deco in Devonport, Tasmania

 

Beach at Devonport, Tasmania

 

We drove on to Penguin, a pretty seaside town, where the world’s smallest penguin breeds.  Despite all of the penguin statues around town, we did not see any real penguins, but ate our lunch under a shady tree on the beachfront.

Burnie is a decaying industrial town which is trying to reinvent itself as a “City of Makers” (paper, cheese, etc.), but the only makers that we were interested in seeing were the burrow-making platypuses, which supposedly inhabit a stream just East of town.  We had a nice walk, but it was a bright sunny day, with no sign of the elusive platypuses.

Stanley is a beautiful little town, nestled on an isthmus, between “The Nut” (a large flat-topped extinct volcano), and the rest of Tasmania.

 

The Nut & Stanley, Tasmania

 

Margaret and Tricia visited the historic Highfield House, built in 1835 for the chief agent of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, while Marlene and I had a walk along the main beach.  Highfield House is built on a rise overlooking the ocean, the town and The Nut, and seemed like a wonderful place to live, but is likely very cold when the Roaring Forties are blowing through in the Winter.

Highfield House - Stanley, Tasmania

 

The Beach - Stanley, Tasmania

 

Stanley itself was almost deserted, as there was a planned power outage.  Luckily we found one café open, the Touchwood Café, and a great little find it was.  Great coffee, great scones and great views.  It was too bad that we were only staying one night.

 

Main Street - Stanley, Tasmania

All too soon we were back on the road, headed to Cradle Mountain – Lake St. Clair National Park.

Launceston (2017-03-04)

The drive into Launceston was the most challenging to date, but we survived it without resorting to online directions.  I had carefully written down all of the turns (from Google maps again), and knew that when we turned right from David Street to High Street, we then took the next left onto Howick Street, which was one of the few streets in the area that crossed the #1 highway.  The problem was that when we turned onto High street, the left lane went downhill at a sharp angle, and the right lane, continued on straight.  I chose the right lane, and later realized that the turn onto Howick could only be made from the left lane.  So things turned to custard very quickly, and with numerous one-way streets to contend with, it took us a while to get across the highway and into the Big 4 Holiday Park, where we were staying.  So we saw a little more of Launceston than we had planned.

 

Just a few kilometres from our accommodation is the Cataract Gorge, a major attraction in the city.  We started at First Basin, where there is a free outdoor swimming pool (although a lot of people where swimming in the basin itself), and crossed the river on a suspension bridge, rather than taking the longest single-span chairlift in the world.

 

First Basin

From there, we walked down the gorge to the King's Bridge, and then back up to First Basin.

 

King's Bridge from Cataract Gorge

 There were several peacocks roaming around First Basin, and one posed very nicely so I could take his photograph.

 

Peacock at First Basin

 Launceston is a mixture of architectural styles, and we did a self-guided walking tour that took in some of the more noteworthy buildings, but not necessarily the oldest buildings.

 

The Custom House, early 1800s

 

Victorian-style Backpackers

 In the afternoon we visited the historical town of Evandale, about 15 Km south of Launceston, for two family history purposes.  Firstly, the Anglican church in Evandale was where my Great Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Hemblin, married her first husband, James Elder, in 1844.  The church was crumbling and was rebuilt in 1871, so while we could not see the actual church in which they married, we were able to get a feel for the church grounds and Evandale in general.

 

Evandale Anglican Church, built 1871

 The second reason for our visit to Evandale was to meet a "new" cousin of Marlene's whose wife I had corresponded with last week regarding their shared DNA.  I had told Kim in an email that it would be some time before I would be able to look at the information that she sent me, as we were travelling in Tasmania, and she replied to say that they live just outside of Launceston ....it really is a small world.  Several emails later we setup a meet at a cafe in Evandale.  Kim and Michael have led very busy lives, with one being a long-time MP in the state legislature, and the other being the local Mayor, but despite us feeling somewhat "under-achieved", we had a good visit, and we will perhaps see them in Canada later in the year.

 

 We finished our afternoon with a historical walk around Evandale, before heading back into Launceston.

 

The next few days are going to include a lot of driving, and two one-night stops, as we head over to the far Northwest of the island and then to Cradle Mountain National Park, so blog postings may be delayed, abbreviated or unintelligible.  Only time will tell which.

St. Helens (2017-03-03)

St. Helens is at the most Northeasterly point on the A3 highway, before it turns West towards Launceston, and was our destination for one night.

 

Enroute from Coles Bay we stopped for coffee at Bicheno and then a walk along the Henderson Lagoon at Scamander.  We saw nobody at all while at the lagoon, so it was a very quiet place, but no wildlife either, apart from a few black swans.  The signs told us to beware of snakes, but Marlene bravely led us through the long grass without incident.  That brought to mind a joke book title from my youth - "Through the Snake Infested Jungle" by Hugo First. 

 

Winifred Curtis Scamander Reserve

 

Just North of St. Helens is the Bay of Fires Conservation Area, which we thought was so named because of the colour of the rocks, but we learned that it was actually due to the number of Aboriginal fires seen from the passing ship of an early explorer.  The bay is a series of beautiful sandy beaches, punctuated by groups of large red / orange-coloured rocks, with unusual names, such as Binalong Bay, The Gardens and Cozy Corner.

 

Marlene at The Gardens

 

Looking South from The Gardens

  

Beach South of Cozy Corner

 Dinner was fish and chips from Skipper's, eaten out of the paper, with views of the harbour, which was achieved just before our first rain began to fall.  The rain continued to fall well after we went to bed.

 

By morning, the rain was gone and we got back onto the A3, headed towards Launceston.  First stop was St. Columba Falls State Reserve, which was recommended to us by our host, Jim, at Sweetwater Villas.  After days of arid coastal terrain, this rain forest park (just 35 minutes inland from St. Helens), was totally different, and you could imagine that it was somewhere in New Zealand - lots of tall green trees and tree ferns.

 

The Walk to St. Columba Falls

 St. Columba Falls is 90 metres high, never runs dry, and is the highest waterfall in Tasmania.  So obviously there must be rain falling in the hills above the falls on a regular basis.  The walk was very enjoyable in the cool shade, compared to some of the heat we have been enduring on our walks.

 

St. Columba Falls

 From St. Columba we headed to the Art Gallery in Scottsdale for coffee, and then stopped at the summit of the highway, where we ate our lunch with views out over the valley, almost as far as Bass Strait.

 

After lunch, as we headed down to Launceston, an Echidna ran (slowly) across the road ahead of us.  There was not much traffic, so I was able to rush back and get a photo.  For those unfamiliar with the Echidna, it looks somewhat like an overinflated hedgehog.

 

Echidna Crossing the Road

 Then we winged our way to Launceston, where we will be for the next two days.