Tuesday 3 February Working day for Russ so the rest of us kept ourselves busy for the morning… Louis & his swim wife Nickie swimming several kms at the Recreation Centre and me stocking up at New World. Swung by the best bakery in town on the way back, to pick up a crunchy, crumbly, perfect croissant 🥐 from Pembroke Patisserie. The ducks and a few sparrows and chaffinches joined us for lunch back at Albert Town. Louis & Russ set off cycling to Hāwea after a siesta and I too

Monday 2 February Started the day with a shock - as a dedicated Wordler with a streak of over a year and player since pre-NY Times days, I was horrified to find they had reused a word… and not just any word, but the first ever Wordle! That’s just not on!!! With a nasty weather watch in place for the West Coast and the Southern Alps, we hit the road early and convoyed down to Haast through cloud & wind & rain. At Haast I hopped in with Nickie & Russ and Louis went ahead with

Sunday 1 February A fabulous dawn chorus at Jackson’s Retreat - we woke to speckles of sunshine and single digit temperatures! Got a wiggle on and we were heading west again by 8ish. Out to Kumara Junction then south on SH6 first to Hokitika (breakfast, wild pies and biltong) then retracing our route back to Franz Josef via Whataroa where I was finally able to buy some more pounamu earrings from my favourite carver. Back at Banjo we wished Nickie a very happy birthday with a

Saturday 31 January A chores morning - printed off final wedding script after few changes from rehearsal, some shopping in Rangiora, quick lunch at Ella & Josh’s where a working bee was going on prior to putting the house on the market next month, then we packed everything into the Pajero and set off to the Edmonds Factory Gardens for Mickayla & Hamish’s wedding. I took on this lovely couple back in September just as my celebrant licence looked set to expire… their booking en

Friday 30 January Early alarm - both on the phone and from the birds outside. We handed over responsibility for Banjo to the Fernandi and hit the road moments after 8am - heading north then over Arthur’s Pass to Ōtautahi Christchurch. Beautiful day for a long drive - 5 hours plus stops - and first time for us heading UP the West Coast. Paused in Hokitika for diesel then swung inland at Kumara Junction along SH73 up the stupidly steep Otira Gorge... through Arthur’s Pass (stil

Thursday 29 January After a couple of nights in Hokitika, we split our resources and while Russ was working we set off south to Franz Josef, leaving behind a soggy NZMCA Hokitika... going via Ross with it's hysterically kitsch teapot house, Harihari with the most wonderful eclectic mosaic & tile garden, and Whataroa where my pounamu earrings shop was shut but we had a fantail encounter at the local cafe - funnily enough up on the fans! And finally Franz Josef where we nabbed

Wednesday 28 January Time to explore Hokitika - Nickie and I went wandering… through pounamu stores, craft galleries and op shops! Russ was working and Louis was working on a video. In the old Bank of NSW (beautifully restored) we met Ian Phillips of IaNZ Art who creates fabulous sculptures, mainly wetas, frogs, centipedes, spiders and butterflies using old copper pennies and cents. You can commission a special piece with a coin from your birth year if you were born pre-dec

Tuesday 27 January Wooo hoooo! Summer finally arrived - if only for a day! Russ worked, Nickie & Louis swam and I walked around the nature reserve by the quay. A lovely walk around the nature sanctuary lake - spotted mallards, grey ducks, pāpango diving ducks, piwakawaka, tui, gulls and a cone!!! Late morning we packed up and left for Hokitika “a cool little town”, just down the road, where we squeezed into a corner of the NZMCA. We had lunch at the campsite then headed into

Monday 26 January Auckland Anniversary up north so Russ got the day off! We left Gumboot Paradise in the rain, drove down the coast in the rain and set up at Nelson Quay freedom camp… you’ve guessed it… in the rain! However an hour or so later the clouds parted and we got intermittent sunshine for the remainder of the day. After lunch Nickie & Russ spent an hour or two at the Māwhera Pa, Pounamu Pathway exhibition while I did the laundry and Louis decided to cycle a section

Sunday 25 January A spot of sunshine as we left the NZMCA at Westport North Beach (waving a quiet goodbye to the Leopards), and hit the misty twisty turny road south - accidentally forgetting to visit the wild pie shop (nearly had to turn back but that’s too hard with a convoy of 8m caravans!) Trekked down the coast, through Fox River with its busy Sunday Market and Punakaiki with its pancake rocks and settled into Gumboot Paradise, a cute POP in Barrytown - with 5 gravelled

Saturday 24 January A big day on the west coast - we had booked to go on the “Outwest” tour of the Stockton Mine and showed up promptly at 8.45am armed with cameras, packed lunch (including Wild Meat Pies), long sleeves, long trousers, heavy shoes and many, many spare layers! Micky picked up about 12 of us in the Unimog, glammed us all up with fluro vests and safety helmets, and we headed for the hills. This amazing trip is part goodwill gesture, part education and part propa

Friday 23 January Westport = WETport - or so it seemed! I popped out at 8am and loved seeing the sun’s faint rays echoing the shape of the driftwood teepee in the early morning light. Nickie & I walked up to the Buller Estuary pier wall along the beach, inspected the sad memorials to those who died crossing the bar and marched back an hour or so later, sneaking into the caravans just as the rain hit… and stayed hammering down for several hours! Said a quick hello to Max & M

Thursday 22 January Big day - not such big weather, fortunately! Heaps of rain and a bit of a swamp by morning as we walked up to the public toilets - past a lovely hitch-hiking couple who were singing "Tūtira mai ngā iwi” - she was kiwi and teaching this anthemic waiata to her Swiss partner! We met them again later - and we all look odd as we respond with “Hi aue hei!” https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffarcuri/video/7559609349937564958 Nickie and I took a walk down the Black Valley

Wednesday 21 January “Weather warnings” up north and “weather watches” down south - Aotearoa really is the Land of the Long White Cloud (or rather grey cloud). We revisited our itinerary again and decided that we should stick to our original plans to head west, but just hang out in Westport for now rather than the lovely Gentle Annie’s a bit further north. After Russ had completed his office chores, Louis & Nickie had swum, Nickie & I had purchased an op shop treat each and

Tuesday 20 January Russ had a bunch of meetings and online work to get on with in the morning, so Louis got on with some video work while Nickie and I went for a lovely walk - down to Hans Herzog, along the Wairau River and back along Paul’s Lane. Lots of glorious wild flowers along the way! The vineyards were edged with wilding agapanthus in a multitude of shades from white, through lilac to heliotrope - stunning - and wild clematis, wild carrot lacecaps and fennel. Along t

Monday 19 January Woke to find the ginormous tractor still abandoned by the shed, and a bunch of people fiddling with it trying to get it working again! They left and it stayed - oops! Must have done something though as it disappeared later… Chatted online with the Fernandi as they boarded the InterIslander in Wellington, then Louis headed into town for a long swim at the aquatic centre while I pootled around at the vineyard - a spot of admin, caravan housework and a walk ove

Sunday 18 January After a chilly, rainy night the outlook at Kaikōura seemed to have swapped around - with bluer skies to the north and threatening storm clouds offshore to the south. Had a wee morning stroll, met a couple of Jack Russell’s and stole a few herbs from The Pier’s herb garden! Then off to town - Louis for a swim and me to the laundromat. Serendipitously the Liquid Laundromat was right next to the SPCA Op Shop, but no bargains, the store was rather over priced..

Saturday 17 January Trekking north again - deja vue as we hit SH1 to Kaikōura en route to Blenheim to meet the Fernandi on Monday. Quick chat with John from Treehouse Retreat POP then off we trundled in dreary grey weather. Brief pause at Cheviot - couldn't believe it when I saw a Contiki bus - these things were doing the rounds back in 1989 when I first visited NZ on my trip round the world! Also loved the roll call of contributors to the Cheviot toilets murals! Then it wa

Friday 16 January Friday was all about appointments - first up, drop the Pajero off for a service plus addition of a transmission cooler to assist on towing up & over the steeper hills. The dodgy blue boy racer Subaru was waiting for a WOF (could be a lonnnnggg wait!) so we got this two-tone rusty orange Lafesta as a courtesy car instead! Secondly, dental appointment for Louis as some of his tooth fell out when Shadow head butted him on the beach back in December (delayed as

Thursday 15 January Pouring with rain all day so a lovely walk on the beach was out of the question. Instead Louis worked on a video and I took the dark washing to Liquid Laundromat in Kaiapoi and dropped some stuff into the op shop. Very proud of being able to jam all our dark washing and towels into a large washer, and then second guess the "25 minute" timer to get back 29 minutes later with 1 minute to go on the machine! Bumped into Ella at the Sallies while the washing wa