Hamner Springs

Heading 2 hours north (although I actually managed to shave half an hour off the journey with my speedy driving, no cops involved. If only Will would let me drive me often we’d be $230 up…), we arrive in Hamner Springs to partake in the delights of the hot springs. Hot water, at 53 degrees, is pumped straight out of the ground and cooled sufficiently that we can dip in pools of water ranging from 35 to 41 degrees. The air temperature is a chilly 5 degrees and we run between pools, trying to keep warm. A mountain view provides a perfect backdrop and we all soak blissfully in 39 degrees.

Getting out of the pools was a slightly more difficult task. Firstly, I have to dip my necklace in Silvo as the sulphur in the pools has turned it a lovely shade of black. Then we have to run into the warm showers and finally wrap the kids up in our fleeces. Don’t worry about us, so long as you’re nice and warm…

Back to Christchurch for one night before we head north. We're just at the back of the previously visited Mount Cook, but the pesky mountain range means it's a 5 hour drive away, as is Christchurch. We seem to be doing an awful lot of driving between places.

Good to be back in Christchurch and nice to meet up with Chay, a friend who moved here 3 1/2 years ago. We take it in turns to go out with him and I opt for the warm-up shift of 7.30 til 9.30pm (so Will gets to put the kids to bed). Playing tag at the bedroom door, Will's off the leash at 9.35 and gets home at 1.30. How come I get 2 hours and Will gets 4? Bloody chauvinistic pig. Both of them.

Franz Josef glacier

As Ruby asks; why do we have to drive so far between seeing things here. One thing here, then get in the car and drive for hours; see another thing, get in the car again…and I have to agree with her, it is very much like that. Which is why we drive for 5 hours from Queenstown to Franz Josef to see the glacier that sits atop the mountains here.

Franz Josef is a very small town (population 250), of the one-store, two-pub, ten-motel variety and it’s, again, in the middle of nowhere (well, it’s actually 2km from Fox, home to the Fox glacier; small town of the one-store, one-pub, three-motel variety, but apart from that…) .

There are only 3 glaciers in the world which sit in a temperate region, amongst rain forest; that’s this one, plus Fox and one in Argentina. Added to that, most glaciers in the world are retreating but this is one of the few that are advancing due to the high annual snow fall. Luckily for us, there’s been one of those snow falls just a couple of days ago and the glacier is looking inviting.

Our transport crazy son has his eternal wish fulfilled when we are whisked up to the top of the glacier on a helicopter. At 300m deep, it’s a sight to behold. The ice below us is clear blue and we can see little tunnels as well as huge cracks in this monstrous beast. We land in a foot of fresh snow and clamber out (resplendent in 5 layers plus purple Ugg boots/slippers), to be hit with -10 degrees. There’s time for a quick snowball fight and tramp in virgin snow before we all bundle back inside the helicopter for a flight back down to mugs of hot chocolate. Even Ruby agrees this was well worth the drive.

Queenstown

Brrrrr, it’s freezing! We’re not ready for this; icy cold winds blow right through us and chill us to the bone. Lucky then, that we have a lovely apartment that we can spend our first day in, warming up and chilling out (is that a contradiction in terms?). We have a double-whammy of good luck as old faithful wotif.com has turned up a gorgeous 2-bed apartment at The Glebe ( www.theglebe.co.nz ) , just 2 minutes walk from town, normally $450 for $240 per night. And even nicer when I check in and the lovely Anne decides to check us in to a huge and luxurious 3-bed apartment for the same price.

Our original plan was to hire a camper van but we’d changed our plans when we realised it was going to be too cold to make it a fun experience. It was one of our wiser decisions. The snow is no longer just on the mountain tops but covers the trees almost down to the edge of the river.

There’s so much to do here that we can’t quite decide which adrenaline junkie activity to participate in so we all plump for the Shotover Jet Boat and then Ruby and I decide on the hang gliding.

Overnight snow leaves plenty of snow on the mountains and a freezing cold wind, a fact we didn’t quite appreciate until we were in full throttle on the Shotover Jet Boat (http://www.shotoverjet.com). A $250,000 boat flies you through the water, doing 360 degree turns whilst heading straight for the rocks. As if that’s not already enough to take your breath away, with the morning wind factor of –5, the water that flies into your face turns straight to ice on contact with your skin. Lovely. We weren’t sure how the kids, especially Harley, were going to cope with the hairy ride but, after initial wariness, they were both soon laughing whilst hanging on with white-knuckles. And, of course, the minute we get off, Harley’s begging to go again.

A 10 minute drive takes us up to Coronet Peak, a ski resort from 1 June each year. We’re a couple of weeks too early for skiing but there’s enough snow around for a snowball fight.

Lovely as the snow looks, it’s caused the cancellation of our hang gliding due to low cloud, which is a real shame as I was really looking forward to it. Oh well, retail therapy will fill the hole. I know Ugg boots are slippers here, but they can’t be beaten for warmth. So what if I’m wearing slippers in the street, no one here knows me.

Arrowtown

To say that the South Island of New Zealand is beautiful would be stating the bleedin’ obvious, so let’s just take that as a given, especially at this time of year when the leaves are all turning various shades of red, orange, yellow and gold. Everywhere you turn is a beautiful lake, a beautiful mountain, a beautiful something or other. But where are all the people? 1million people live in the South Island but we hardly pass a house or even car on the roads as we drive along. Sheep, yes. Cows, yes. Alpacas, yes. But no houses or cars. Which means that on long stretches of empty, straight road, a 100kmh speed is easily broken. Unfortunately, it also means that lone police women parked up at the side of the road can get a good angle on us with radars as we come around the corner doing 111kmh and speed up to 120kmh…I did ask her to be kind with her fine and she agreed to put us down at 115kmh meaning the fine was $80 instead of $120. A lot more reasonable that the $250 we were fined in Oz.

Arrowtown makes a perfect halfway stop and, in this drizzle and slight fog, the autumnal leaves, stone buildings and wood fires burning give the place a slight Lake District feel. Except I don’t think you can get a shot of wheatgrass in the Lake District. It’s my lame attempt to redress the balance after so much wine consumption.

Wanaka

We’re headed to Queenstown, 56km away and there’s not too much between the big towns here. You can drive for miles and it’s the same scenery - lots of trees, mountains and sheep. Nice, if you like that sort of thing. Personally, I prefer a little more action. But, never wanting to be accused of not making the most of things, we stop at Puzzling World in Wanaka, which the kids really enjoyed. A huge maze, lots of games and some illusions for them to enjoy. And Wanaka village itself is a really lovely little alpine village with wood fires burning and ski shops a-plenty.

Unfortunately,we’re not staying here but at Cardrona, 26km down the road. So we leave lovely little Wanaka and drive into the middle of nowhere to stay in our little house in Cadrona. At $100 per night for a 2 story, 2 bed house, Will thinks we’ve got a bargain and should stay here instead of Queenstown and simply drive the 30km into Queenstown every day. I can’t think of anything worse and would gladly remortgage the house right nor if it meant getting out of here. Yes, the house is lovely, but we are in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!

And have I mentioned how cold it is?

As we drive out of Cardrona on the morning (Karen 2, Will 1), we notice how close we are to the Cadrona ski resort which open on 1st June ans see lots of lovely little chalets being built nearby, so no doubt this will be a thriving little alpine village in iys own right in a few years time. But until then, I’m off to Queenstown for some action, baby.

Mount Cook

At 3,755m high, Mount Cook is the highest mountain in Australasia and is a quite magnificent sight. For miles, you drive along mountainous roads and then suddenly, you turn a corner and there it is, looming above you, dominating the skyline. Well, at times it is, and at others, it’s just completely covered by cloud.

The Maori name for Mount Cook is Aoraki, which means Cloud Piercer and as we watch the clouds moving across, we realise that this is actually what happens. The clouds gether on the surrounding mountains and, as they move across the top of Mount Cook, they are literally pierced and dispersed. It’s a pretty amazing sight to watch being repeated.

There’s really only one place to stay here and that’s in the Hermitage Hotel (www.hermitage.co.nz) where I manage to secure us a $760 per night room for $175, complete with binoculars for viewing the spectacular view of the mountain. And there’s really only one thing to do here once the rain stops; walk, so we take the Hooker Valley track, which leads us across a couple of swing bridges and onwards, past the Tasman Glacier atop the mountains and towards the terminal lake. As we climb the final hill and round the final corner, we all delighted to notice huge lumps of ice floating about in the river which have broken off from the glaciers. I even hear a huge cracking; a piece of the glacier breaking off.

It’s taken us 2 ½ hours to walk here and we reward ourselves with our picnic, washed down with the bottle of Laurent Perrier I’d wisely invested our last Aussie dollars in as we left Sydney airport. We’d been waiting for the right time to drink it and this seemed like it. Our first true champagne (not that muck the Aussies call champagne) in 8 months and we savoured every drop, in spite of the wind and cold.

We’re very proud of the kids for walking 2 ½ hours back again, especially Harley who only needed a carry for 10 minutes and then somehow managed to run for the last 15 minutes. Crossing that final swing bridge seemed to give him super powers.

We were really lucky not to get rain and even luckier that the cloud which normally covers the top of Mount Cook has cleared today, a fact we only realised the next morning when it was pouring and with zero visibility. Giving us a perfect opportunity to check out the in-house Sir Edmund Hillary exhibition and planetarium show.

Around Christchurch

We’ve been given the low-down by a local who says we should visit Sumner where there’s a great restaurant on the beach so we head out through the rather industrial looking harbour of Lyttelton, via a 4km tunnel cut straight through the base of mountain that happens to be in the way.

Sumner is a very small place and we easily find the (only) restaurant on the beach. In Summer, this would be perfect but it’s getting too chilly for us to fully appreciate the fantastic location. A bride makes her way down to the beach, resplendent in white wedding dress and hiking boots, and almost gets blown away as she’s having photos taken.

Akaroa, meaning Long Harbour in Maori, is fittingly named. Formerly a French settlement, it’s a huge stretch of lake, backed with a cute selection of bars and cafes. From here, you can take boat trips out on dolphin-watching and swimming trips, but a warm drink is more fitting today than a swim in the freezing water.

New Zealand, South Island. Christchurch

On arrival at Christchurch, we’re greeted by the friendliest passport control ever. Not only do children under 5 get their own channel, to be shared only with diplomats and airline crew, but the staff are so chatty and busy finding stamps to put on the kids hands, just for fun, that a veritable-sized queue is forming behind us.

On first impressions, Christchurch seems like the land that time forgot, but actually, get away from the main street and it’s very quaint. Cathedral Square is a hive of activity on Saturday morning with everything from mobile coffee bars, a market, musical performances and even Irish dancing.

Step beyond this and you find the Botanic Gardens, trams, the Avon river where punters (literally, punters who punt their punts) ply for trade and a street full of trendy bars and restaurants (known as The Strip). We even manage to find some culture and make a trip to the William Morris exhibition on at the Art Gallery.

And don’t believe it when people tell you there’s no nightlife to be had in Christchurch. We were woken up several times during the night by music coming from a nearby club and by 5.30am I was considering getting dressed and going down to join the revellers. Luckily for them, it stopped at 6am.

Goodbye Australia, Kia Ora New Zealand

It feels weird to be without our car, which has effectively been our home for the last 5 months. We’ve been able to buy things without worrying about how we’re going to carry them, always had food handy for overnight stops or just snacks for long journeys and the kids have been comfortable enough in the back to play or even sleep as we’ve been travelling. We’ve done almost 11,000 miles down the east coast since we bought it and we’re all sad to say goodbye.

We’ve all thoroughly enjoyed being here and it feels like we’re homeward bound now, even though New Zealand is actually further away from home than Australia is. We’re two-thirds of the way through and I have a feeling this last part is going to fly by.

Sydney and Blue Mountains

Our final few days in Australia and we have chores to do…sell the car, pack and send home all the superfluous baggage we’ve manage to acquire over the last 5 months (which costs A$450…) and buy presents for our gracious hosts and then we’re all off to the Blue Mountains for the weekend. In between, we’ve got tickets to see High School Musical on Ice as a treat for Ruby. The show was quite good for Nicky and I too as we were treated to the sight of Troy Bolton removing his shirt to reveal a rather impressive 6-pack.

We’ve rented a gorgeous house at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, a couple of hours from Sydney. It’s absolutely beautiful and has every little extra that you wouldn’t normally even dream of finding in a rental property. We loathe to spend too much time away from it, especially as it’s so cold and wet, but manage to take a drive around the surrounding areas and into Katoomba, escaping the rain by ducking into a café for lunch, before heading to Scenic World, where a short but very steep railway (more like a funfair ride than a railway) takes you abruptly down the mountains and a cable car whisks you back up again. Spectacular views, even if it doesn’t look very blue…

Sunday morning and we’re off on a Thomas The Tank Engine steam train ride trough the mountains. Harley and Cooper are very excited to board the train, complete with Thomas face, and puff off through the trees to meet James, and are even more delighted to be allowed to hop up into the driver’s carriage. Very cute.

The nearby town of Leura is very quaint, tree lined and full of cute country stores and cafes. Our lunch spot has a huge floor to ceiling glass window at the rear which would normally give a far-reaching view out across the mountains, but today, it’s unfortunately to thick with fog to be able to see anything.

Our final night in Australia needs to spent in style so we have drinks at The Argyll and dinner at Rockpool, one of Sydney’s top seafood restaurants, complete with close-up view of the Harbour Bridge.

Melbourne for the third and final time

Back for one night just to see Nick and Lisa and then to have dinner with Will’s old work colleague, Sarah Maclean plus her husband Nick. Last time we saw them was before they moved from Notting Hill 2 ½ years ago, so it feels slightly weird to see them with 6 month old baby Matilda now. Poor Nick is recovering from a hospital stay resulting from him choking on a piece of meat and leading him to have major surgery on his oesophagus, meaning that he can only eat soft food and drink water for the next 2 months. Sounds like pretty scary stuff. Gorgeous house, lovely evening and Melbourne doesn’t seem like such a bad place after all.

Back to Adelaide

Adelaide has really grown on us this trip and it’s good to be back. We didn’t make it to Chinatown last time, but Saturday lunch here is excellent and the Saturday afternoon/evening Caiporoska making-session goes down a storm, as does almost the entire litre bottle of vodka between the two of us. Oops.

It’s even better to leave Rob in charge of 4 kids and head out the door on Sunday night for a girlie evening. There’s really only one street of restaurants and we’re planning on eating then hitting Distill, the coolest (for which read, only) cocktail bar in town. Trouble is, it’s closed. Sunday night obviously isn’t a very happening night in Adelaide. We manage to find another bar which also serves passable cocktails and stumble home to find that only one of the kids are crying and keeping Rob up. That’ll be the one with the dirty nappy Rob. He’s doing his best to rock baby Emily back to sleep but he doesn’t seem to have realised she’s in dire need of a change. My cue to slip off to bed.

Morning coffees with Jackie and Bec, who’s got 10 days to go before she gives birth. She’s looking fantastic and says she just can’t wait to pop the baby out…so I’m glad to hear that she has baby Frederick just 24 hours after I said goodbye to her.

And now I have to say goodbye to Moni, Rob and all the kids not knowing when I will see them again. I hate keep having to do this. Made even worse by the fact that, at Adelaide airport they can practically walk with me onto the plane. Just say goodbye at the door and sod off, would ya!

Back to Melbourne

Will drops us off at the airport before heading off for his child-free 11 hour ferry crossing. I’m quite happy too as I only have a one hour flight before getting them into bed. All goes as planned and he arrives to collect us the next morning just as we are tucking into breakfast.

We spend the morning at St Kilda’s and then head down to the beachfront, indoor swimming pool. Melbourne is known for it’s changeable weather conditions and this is typical. So hot in the morning that we head for the beach, by lunchtime it starts to get chilly and by late afternoon we’re all digging out jeans and fleeces.

Will’s best friends from Uni days are both in Melbourne and we start by staying with
Dave and Sharon plus their 3 kids, Matt, Lucy and Ali. We haven’t seen them since the last time we were in Melbourne, 5 years ago, but it’s as if we saw them last week. Will’s soon out the door with Dave, off on a darts night and, when they finally return, drunken and loud, we all hop into the outdoor hot-tub. An hour later, we have company. At first we thought someone had ordered stripograms but no, turns out these two were a real-life policeman and woman, called by a neighbour who was complaining about the noise. I think they were a little surprised to see that there were only 4 of us in there, working our way through the 10 litre bottle of port. Poor Sharon was mortally embarrassed, as they’ve lived in that house for 12 years without a visit from the police, yet our first night there…I think Dave was secretly quite cuffed!

Sharon’s mum has kindly offered to baby-sit the kids for us the next day so that we can all go off to a winery for lunch and then they have friends and family coming over for a bit of a party in the evening. We arrive back from lunch to find that Sharon’s sister had to dive, fully clothed, into the pool as her 2-year-old daughter had gone under the bubbles and sunk like a stone to the bottom, without any of the other kids noticing. Kids drowning in pools is a massive problem in Australia and it really makes you stop and think when something like this happens.

I’ve managed to wangle getting a flight back to Adelaide for a final weekend, taking Harley with me. Although we spent 3 weeks in Adelaide over Christmas and New Year, I really didn’t get to see a lot of Moni since she was either in hospital having baby Emily or back there with her when she caught a nasty virus and I don’t know when I’m going to get to see her again after this trip. So I’m off on a plane again (don’t mention carbon footprints. I know, I know) on another one hour flight, leaving Will and Ruby in the capable hands of Nick, Lisa, Henry and Charlotte.

Mount Wellington

Dominating Hobart’s skyline is the 1,270m high Mount Welllington which, when you drive to the top, give you a fantastic bird’s eye view over the surrounding area. We drive up through the clouds and the outside temperature drops to 10 degrees. The clouds are swirling, the wind is blowing and it’s freezing, but hey, it’s scenic! We even manage to step aoutside the car for a few minutes before almost being blown off the top. Quite an achievement.

Port Arthur

We’d mistakenly believed that Port Arthur was a village, but actually, it’s the site of an old penal colony. Built in 1830 on the Tasman Peninsula, it made a great prison as it was connected to the mainland by a strip of land less than 100m wide, across which were chained vicious guard dogs and surrounded, so the rumour had it, by shark-infested water. Prisoners were not just incarcerated here but put to work ship-building or brick-making. Between 1830 and 1877, 12,500 convicts were imprisoned here. The sentencing did seem a little harsh though – for example, a 12 year old boy was sent on the 3 ½ month boat journey from England, over to Australia and given 7 years for the theft of a handkerchief. In reality, he probably never returned home.

We also took a harbour cruise around the Isle Of The Dead, literally a tiny island, full of graves for which people paid huge amounts of money for the privilege of being laid to rest here.

There’s a huge amount of wildlife here and we saw most of it….squashed in the road. The amount of road kill is unbelievable and obviously a problem since on certain roads, there is a 50kmh enforced between 6pm and 6am. We race along at 100kmh watching the minutes tick down towards 6pm after which it will take us twice as long to get back home.