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| Touring New Zealand 2012 - Introduction |
Introduction
We kept planning to take a break from doing our holiday write ups and the New Zealand travelogues last two years have been considerably cut back as we have concentrated on the cruises to New Zealand with Cunard. It does not seem to be working as yet again it has only been a week or two before we have been contacted by some of our usual recipients asking when we were starting so it looks like we will have to carry on. These travelogues are written as we go. They started as a regular series of lighthearted Emails sent out as "News from The Antipodes" where the text was written on a palmtop and copied into the emails with little polishing and only a superficial spell check. They are being written on our MSI Wind U100 Netbooks running Linux for security on the move. We have been slow starting as Pauline has once more started OU teaching and had a lot to do at the start of each course.
The first week in North Island was mostly visiting friends, including our relations so we have not covered that period in great detail but refer back to past write-ups when esential. We will concentrate on South Island which we last went to in 2008. The first part this year (2012) will probably go out as an email but after that we plan to repeated the approach we have used for the last couple of years and uplifted them as we went to our web site and limited the emails to a summary. At the time I am writing I have virtually completed the initial time in North Island and all of South Island using some of best old pictures with 250 new pictures added.
We have added pictures as we go, mainly from our Canon A720 IS cameras. We also try to reuse the best previous pictures from earlier years, old film and some stills from Peter's digital video camera. All the pictures on the pages provide details of where they were taken if you hover the cursor over them and they can all be clicked to open a larger version in a popup window. The popup windows are reused and then closed up when you leave the page so you do not need to close them. Our digital pictures (going back to 2004) are in two resolutions and the initial size depends on your screen size. You can chose the small size if you have a slow internet connection or want to restrict data flow on a mobile connection. Click here for high detail popup images and click here for lower resolution images. You can also toggle the resolution by double-clicking an image but it may take an extra click to display the picture in the new size on some browsers. With some systems you may be asked to if you wish to allow popup windows as a protection against adverts.
Index
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua, Napier and Wellington
- Part 2 - Marlborough and the Vineyards, Moulsworth Station, Waipara and Christchurch - a few layout changes are planned.
- Part 3 - Mountains, Lakes and Backroads: Mt Somers, Tekapo and Cromwell
- Part 4 - Central Otago, the Goldfields and the Snow: Omakau and Lawrence
- Part 5 - Dunedin, the Otago Peninsula, Catlins, Invercargill and Lake Manapouri
- Part 6 - Lake Wanaka, Haast Pass, Glaciers and Ross and Hokitika
- Part 7 - Hokitika and the Pounamu Story - some layout changes are planned
- Part 8 - Greymouth, Buller, Blackbull and the Dredge, Waiuta, Reefton, Murchison and Kaiteriteri in Tasman Bay
- Part 9 - Golden Bay: Takaka, Collingwood, Nelson and Te Mahia in the Sounds
- Part 10 - North island
Background Material
After each visit we also try to extract more from the chronological organisation and consolidate the content into specific pages. Some background pages which may be of interest are:
- New Zealand Wines, Wineries and Vineyard Restaurants - brings together our favourite vineyards to visit. Selection is not solely the on the quality of the wine but is biased towards those with good vineyard restaurants, magnificent scenery and a friendly and helpful approach.
- New Zealand Goldmining - Introduction to Goldmining Techniques and Travels in various Goldfields.
- Kauri, both logging and the gathering and use of it's gum forms another unique part of New Zealand history worthy of investigation.
- Active Thermal Areas - New Zealand is also an area which is very active geologically and has a number of fascinating thermal areas, predominantly North Island.
- Maori Culture and Heritage - One can not fully understand and appreciate New Zealand without gaining some understanding of the Maori Culture and Heritage and the interactions with the first settlers and their way of life.
- Sailing in New Zealand - An Introduction to Sailing in New Zealand with an index to our own sailing in the Hauraki Gulf, The Bay of Islands and the Coastal Passage between them and on up to Whangaroa Harbour. Also covers our single experience of sailing in the Marlborough Sounds.
- The Whanganui River Story The story of the River and the river boats that served it.
- Taranaki and the Forgotten World - Mountain House, walks round Mount Egmont and the Forgotten World Highway (SH43) featuring the Republic of Whangamomona
- Other pages of interest include:
- New Zealand Books - We have built up a library of books on New Zealand during our visits and have initiated a catalogue. Our books cover many topics from Sailing and Fishing through the Goldfields and Art Deco to Maori Culture.
- Interesting Web Sites: We have found a number of useful Web sites on New Zealand that you may want to have a look at.
