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| Touring New Zealand 2014 - Introduction |
Introduction
We kept planning to take a break from doing our holiday write ups and the New Zealand travelogues and last year we did drop our write up and we concentrated on the cruise back from New Zealand with Cunard. It does not seem to be working as we ended up getting 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. This year they were written on Pauline's MSI Wind U100 Netbook and Pete's new Chillblast Defiant 13.3" laptop, both running Linux for security on the move.
The first week in North Island was mostly visiting friends, including our relations so we will not covered that period in great detail but refer back to past write-ups when essential. We have concentrated on South Island which we last went to in 2012.
We add 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
Index
- Introduction and Summary - This page
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua, Napier, and down to Wellington
- Part 2 - South Island: Marlborough and the Vineyards, Waipara, Christchurch and the Banks Peninsular
- Part 3 - Mountains, Lakes, Wineries and Goldfield: Mt Somers, Cromwell and Frankton
- Part 4 - Walks and the Central Otago Goldfields: Lake Manapouri, Alexandra and Omakau
- Part 5 - More Walks and Central Otago Goldfields: Naseby, Middlemarch, Dunedin and Lawrence
- Part 6 - Waikouaiti, The Vanishing World Trail, Oamaru, Arthur's Pass and Hokitika
- Part 7 - Greymouth, Buller, Blackbull and the Dredge, Murchison, Collingwood and Golden Bay, Nelson and Te Mahia in the Sounds
- Part 8 - North Island: Wellington, Stratford and Taranaki, The Forgotten World Highway, Taumarunui, Athenree and the Coromandel
- Part 9 - The Bay of Islands and the Wairiki Penisular Reforestation, Waiheke, Tounson and Kauri Coast, Kerikeri and Sandspit
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.
