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My journey home was uneventful and very comfortable, as far as Heathrow. We landed ahead of schedule, at just after 5 a.m., and I made my way across to Terminal 5, looking forward to a relaxing hour in the business class lounge before getting my plane back to Newcastle. But it was not to be. We were met by BA ladies who told us that all flights had been cancelled, and we should collect our luggage, clear customs and then go to an 'incident area'; there would, they said, be a coach at about 8, in two hours time. In the incident area, the queues were so long they were literally out of sight at first. I ended up next to a lovely Canadian lady, and we minded each other's luggage whilst each of us visited the Ladies'. Then I went to the departures area to find a customer service person, who told me we could just make our own arrangements to get home by train and claim later via the BA website. So we did: we took the tube to Kings Cross, bought First Class seats and travelled back together, at least as far as Newcastle (my friend had to go on to Edinburgh and then change for a train to Montrose). So I hope I've made a new friend out of the adversity: and in due course I hope BA will pay for it all! But it's good to be home, and to take up the threads again after such a wonderful nine weeks. And with that I'll close this blog. Thank you to everyone who's taken the trouble to read it.
I'm finishing this off having got back home: but I did want to complete the story. From Uluru I flew to Perth for the last part of my travels among Australian Quakers. After all the sightseeing in so many places, my knee was a major issue and so my sightseeing here was limited. But it was very good to be back among Friends and to have a chance to meet more people and to get the views of people living a long, long way from any other big town in Australia. I was met at the airport by my hosts, Tricia and Graham Wood: it turned out that even just as 'meeters' they had been subject to security, and put through some checks. A sniffer dog picked up where my banana had been: fortunately I'd eaten it shortly before landing, and had put the skin in the 'quarantine bin'. They are very strict in Australia about certain items including fruit, even on a state to state basis: imagine having your apples confiscated when you go from Tyne and Wear into Yorkshire!
Tricia and Graham took me home on the scenic route, and I was able to appreciate the beauties of the Perth/Fremantle complex. The river and its estuary
looked very lovely, and we certainly had some good views from the heights above it. My first 'engagement' was a workshop with Perth Friends after Meeting for Worship on Sunday. This went very well, and as usual with Quakers, the discussion widened in several directions. The following day I had a discussion at a Friend's home on Eldership and Oversight in small meetings. The problems in Australia, where distances are so very great compared to the UK, are rather different to those at home, and we raised a number of issues about oversight of remote individual Friends. It was the first time I'd done this as a workshop, having previously worked with several small meetings in the UK on 'link' systems: and as I'd not been asked to do this one until I'd arrived in Australia, I had no paperwork to support my thoughts, so it was quite a challenge. However, it too seemed to go well enough. On my last day, we were invited to lunch with another Quaker couple who lived a little way south of Perth. It was fascinating to see the BP refinery at Kwinana, a place whose operations had featured a little in my first job. The house we were in had a marvellous view over the sea, and although the weather wasn't perfect, I could see how pleasant it must be to live in a place like that. Western Australia, about a third of the whole country, has a different feel to the rest of it, but the inhabitants seem fiercely proud of their state, and it certainly has a lot to offer. But all too soon it was time to go up to the airport to start my long journey home: and I said goodbye to my final hosts and to Australia as a wonderful nine weeks came to an end.
After a night in Sydney and a pleasant meal with my sister's friend who lives there, we flew to Ayers Rock, known to the Aborigine peoples as Uluru. This is more than just one rock: in the middle of the Australian desert - in fact in the middle of Australia - there is the world's largest monolith (Uluru itself) and another outcrop of red rock in the form of 36 do
mes known as the Olgas or Kata Tjuta, To this has now been added a small tourist resort (four hotels of varying quality and a 'town square' with a few shops and a coupld of cafes) and an airport. As is usual in Australia, these are all quite spread out, so the resort is several kilometres from Uluru and further still from Kata Tjuta. This means that coach trips to the rocks are obligatory, thus making the place a cash cow for the operating company.
We had a trip to Kata Tjuta booked for our first afternoon, so after checking in and having a quick bite to eat (we'd had a minimal snack on the plane) we were off in the coach. We never did get told how these lumps of conglomerate came to be there, nor why they were dome-shaped: but we were able to walk down the Walpa gorge which takes you right in between the domes. I
was having a 'good knee day' so I was able to walk almost all the length of the gorge, 25 minutes in and another 25 minutes back out. Then we were taken to a viewing point to see the sun setting on Uluru. We were led to expect changing colours, but in fact this was something of a let down as the colour remained stubbonly red, with just the lighting changing. However, we did get some wine and nibbles to keep us happy. After that we rested back at the ranch and made a light meal in our room: the local restaurants were inevitably expensive, given their captive market.
Next day was the dawn tour: my sister decided not to go because of the flies we'd experienced the day before, so I set off at 5 a.m.to see the sun rise on Uluru and to walk round some of the base. This too was a little disappointing: the sunrise was much the same as the sunset the previous day, and I encountered my first fly as early as 5.35, well before dawn. I spoke to the tour guide about doing an hour's walk in view of my knee, and she said it was 'a little longer' - in fact an hour and three quarters! So I took the alternative of a coach tour round the base, with a short trip to the Mutijula water-hole, an unlikely little lake at the base of the rock
(though apparently it can dry up in a really dry season - there had been rainfall the day before we arrived so we were fortunte). Then, after leaving quite a few people to join a party climbing up the rock, we went to the Cultural Centre where it was impressed on us why you shouldn't climb it! Uluru is 'sacred' to the Aboriginal people, though I was told afterwards that they had never had any idea of a God, so the word 'sacred' is perhaps a little inappropriate: 'special' might be better. The Aboriginal law, lore and culture is passed on in an oral tradition known as Tjukurpa. Some of this is kept strictly on gender lines: men are not allowed to know the women's lore, whilst women are not supposed even to look at the places where men's ceremonies take place. Little of the Tjukurpa is revealed to anyone outside the local tribes, let alone white settlers and tourists, so it is hard to understand the mindset of the original guardians of this place, and this may be part of the reason why climbing Uluru has not been banned. I found it hard to have any feel for what moves the Aborigine people: this contrasted strongly to the Maoris in Aotearoa, where I felt quite some affinity for Maori culture and beliefs (especially in looking after the planet).
In the evening, the culmination of our trip was the 'Sounds of Silence' dinner. This began with yet another view of the sunset! but with champagne and canapes. Then a short walk round a concealing dune brought us to our tables for the meal. We sat with some delightful people, some from England and some from Australia, and feasted on a lovely buffet meal with good wine and excellent company. The table had a small light on it, which attracted some fascinating insect life of many kinds! As the sky darkened, a lady astronomer talked us through the night sky of the Southern hemisphere, along with a little of the local mythology. It was an altogether delightful end to our holiday time.
Our journey from Rotorua took the long way round via the famous Glow-Worm caves at Waitomo. We'd decided to do just the main cave, as we had more journey to do. We were taken through a typical limestone cave - the ones at Cheddar came to mind at once - with stalactities and stalagmites, but nothing particularly special until the lights were turned out and you could see the tiny spots of light on the roof, hundreds and hundreds of them. We climbed into a boat and were floated downstream in the dark, with more and more glowing creatures visible, an amazing sight. Later we found there were several glow-worm caves in New Zealand and that this was by no means a unique phenomenon. But it was fun to do: the boat took us back out of the cave and we walked back to the car and continued our journey. We took the alternative route north, less direct but with much less traffic, and we were in Auckland by about three. We went straight to our guest house, and spent the rest of the day resting and going out for a 
very good meal. Next day we packed up, loaded the car and drove into the middle of the city to visit the Sky Tower, one of New Zealand's best known landmarks. In the entrance was a Maori style carving as a kind of symbolic entry point: and from the top we could see the whole city laid out beneath, including a view of a motorway junction to rival Spaghetti! Fortunately our route out avoided this: after taking a great many pictures we returned to the car and drove out over the harbour bridge which we'd seen from the tower, and on our way up to the Bay of Islands. The journey wasn't too far, so we decided to take a detour and visit the little village of Russell, once a notorious port and place of sailor's doubtful pleasures. This turned out to involve a long trip on a very winding road round some very pretty coast. My knee prevented a long look around, and my sister wasn't too bothered, so we stayed but briefly and then headed for Paihia where our final Homestay in New Zealand was. We followed the more major road, and suddenly found it ended abruptly at an inlet, where a car ferry would take you across! This wasn't marked on our main map, though we later found it on the little tourist leaflet we'd been given. We decided to take the ferry, which cost little and took only about ten minutes, and after this diversion we were soon at the Homestay. Our hosts were charming people: Sheelagh had been to a private girl's boarding school in Petworth, Sussex, and was very much in the English mould. We were invited to join her and John for wine and nibbles before we went out for a meal. In fact we'd been planning a DIY supper, and had bought supplies for it, but we felt it wasn't really appropriate in our beautifully furnished bedroom and so we went out up the
coast a little and sat in deteriorating weather eating bread and ham and very little else. Next day we were booked on a cruise in the Bay of Islands. We were down at the quay in good time, but there was a huge organised tour there even earlier, so they all marched on board first and we didn't get very good seats. However, it was a good cruise to start with: we saw some bottle-nosed dolphins, though they weren't very playful, and then headed out to the famous 'hole in the rock'. The sea was a little choppy and we couldn't go through the hole, but we did back into it and had the sensation of being in a cave open at both ends. The journey back was a little long, with explanations about various islands about which we didn't really want to know. But on the whole it was an enjoyable morning. 
We did a little driving round in the afternoon, and then had some wine and nibbles with our hosts: then we went out for an excellent meal to one of the restaurants they'd recommended. We had a lovely roast with no fewer than six vegetables, very welcome as these had been rather in short supply over the last few days. Next morning it was an early start back to Auckland. We'd virtually packed the night before, and were a little dismayed by traffic in places: but we'd been shown a less busy route, and so it proved. We were at the airport in good time to hand the car in and check in for the flight to Sydney: and thus ended our holiday in Aotearoa New Zealand.
From Taupo to Rotorua isn't too far, and soon we were at our first port of call: the thermal area of Wai-O-Tapu. Here there was various walks one could do, so I settled on the shortest one whie my sister went rather further. It was yet another amazing place, with hot springs, craters and steam coming out of everywhere! After a light lunch here, we went on to our destination. There was nobody in at our B & B when we arrived, so we drove down to the lakeside and enjoyed the sun while investigating what we wanted to do. After a bit we went back to the B & B and this time the owner was in, a Scots - born South Korean with some charming eccentricities. Our room was rather small, with a bathroom opposite, but we had leopard-skin robes provided for wandering about in decency! The place had its own little geothermal pool, which we both tried: the water was very hot and needed stirring to mix the hot top layer with the cooler waters below before you could get in comfortably. We had a full day's sightseeing next day, and went first to Te Puia, another place with a mixture of local culture and geothermal activity. There was a mini-Maori Village, a Kiwi House where we saw, in the dim light of simulated night, one of these 
nocturnal birds that are the symbol of the country, and then the mud pools and the geyser. This last blew spectacularly while we were there, and I was able to get some good video of it. After Te Puia we went on to the Paradise Valley wildlife park. Here there were trout to be seen in very clear streams and pools, and a huge variety of other wildlife, though mostly in captivity. We saw alpacas, goats, wild pigs, wallabies and many more - a photographer's paradise! Again, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. But the best was yet to come: we'd booked on a Hangi, a traditional Maori feast. We weren't disappointed. We went by coach to Tamaka, a small village a few kilometres outside town that we'd seen on our way in. We had to choose a chief for our coach: this was Zak, a pleasant Canadian man who performed his duties on our behalf well enough. We watched the welcome rituals, and then were taken into the village itself to see examples of Maori craft and games. Then we went to the Marae, the Maori meeting p
lace, for a performance of song, dance and other traditional skills: and finally to the dining room for a sumptuous feast, some at least of which had been cooked in a Hangi oven over hot stones underground. It was altogether a lovely evening, and we felt we'd really been given the Maori hospitality which is an important part of their tradition. Rotorua, then, was certainly a place of experiences. Next, we were to visit the Waitomo Glow-worm gaves before heading for Auckland: and I'll put that in the next post.
We've had no internet for three days! So I'll try to condense again into a couple of postings the incredible things we've been up to in North Island. If South Island was about scenery, North Island is about experiences. So I'll start with our second full day in Wellington, when I elected to go round Te Papa, the National Museum of Aotearoa New Zealand. I particularly wanted to go on the 'taste the treasures' tour, which has a Maori culture theme: when it came to start the tour, I was the only person on it! So I had the guide, a lovely Maori woman (mostly Maori, she said, there are virtually no pure bred Maoris left now) called Mariah to myself. Mariah was lovely, and she really gave me an insig
ht into the traditions and mindset of these fascinating Polynesian people who came to Aoteroa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, over a thousand years ago. Though regrettably war like at times, the Maori have a strong sense of honour, ritual and indeed of peace. Their symbolism is fascinating - I'd bought a pendant of a carved whalebone Koru, the curled up young fern, which symbolises peace and also new life. They particularly value the Greenstone jade, known as Pounamu (South Island is called Te Wai Pounamu in Maori), and stones of it can still be found on the beaches near Hokitika: but Mariah explained that you don't find Pounamu, it finds you. I told her about my crystal from Glastonbury which found me, and she was delighted with this mutual understanding, a common wisdom about the relationship between humans and their planet. Mariah also explained to me that when James Cook was making his first contacts with the inhabitants of this land, he was under instructions to communicate and understand, and trade, rather than subdue. Aoteroa New Zealand is an example to the world: two totally different cultures can meet, co-exist and eventually integrate without fear or problems if they simply have the will to do it. It is the fear between Catholic and Protestant, between Sunni and Shia, between Israeli and Palestinian, that makes such integration impossible: lose the fear, begin to trust and the problems can begin to be solved. The visit ended with some Maori food - bread with a pesto made from young fern fronds (Koru) and some Manuka honey, a potato rice cake and tea brewed with leaves from the Koa Koa tree. I felt really privileged to have been shown this wonderful museum by someone who was truly a soul mate, culture reaching out to culture and finding a commonality, for are we not all one? I'd been hoping to go later in the day to a Choral Eucharist in the Cathedral, but my knee was so bad I f
elt I had to stay at home and rest it. Later we went out to a nearby pub for a meal, our last in Wellington. Next morning we set off for Lake Taupo, our longest drive on one day so far. We stopped at a couple of scenic spots en route, including one place for lunch opposite Mount Ruapehu, a snow capped peak towering above the rest (and used in 'Lord of the Rings' for Mount Doom). We found our B & B easily enough, and the lady who ran it was simply delightful. Bonny couldn't have been more welcoming: she took u
s through to the patio at the back of the house and there was a stunning view of the river! If you ever want to stay in Taupo, I recommend 'Riverview' very highly. Alas we were here only for one night: we sussed out the local waterfall (Hoka Falls) and the Aratiatia Dam before going to eat, and next morning were up at the dam for the opening - literally - of the floodgates at 10 a.m. This produced some fantastic rapids, and I filmed some of them (silly me filming sideways for part of the time!). Then it was on to Rotorua for yet more experiences which I'll put in the next posting.
I'm getting behind with the blog, so I'll condense a little. Blenheim is an amazing place, wall to wall vineyards! We were taken to seven, at the first of which we had a very tasty lunch with a glass of one of the wines we'd just tasted. Most of the places were quite similar: one was organic and 'biocultural', and so more expensive, but I can't say the wines tasted anything particularly special. One was a small vineyard, Bladen, was owned by a couple fulfilling a dream, and they had an agent in the UK who delivers there. Their wines, mostly white, were very good and not over priced as so many are, and I was on the point of ordering: what held me back was a prospect of something even better later. But in the end they were the best of the day, and I wished I'd followed my instincts and spent £150 on a case. I still can, though, once I'm home. Another vineyard was Cloudy Bay, well known on supermarket shelves at home, with several brand names including Nobilo. I think you pay for the name here: Our last port of call wasn't wine at all, but chocolate! We went to the Makana chocolate factory, where they hand made the most delicious truffles, and I bought three very expensive boxes, one of which is now half a box! Next day, we drove up to Picton for the ferry to North Island. We'd planned to go the 'pretty way', but we had no detailed map of the Blenheim area and got a bit lost, ending up at the chocolate factory again! We both felt tha
t North was the way to go, but the road took us back to the main state highway. So we went the short way to Picton, arriving in very good time, and then took a detour along the sound, on the most twisty turny road we'd been on yet! But the scenery was delightful and it was well worth taking the trip. Back in town, we found the ferry, checked in our cases and then went for lunch. We handed in the car and boarded the ship, a largish car ferry and not at all crowded. We had a very smoorth, sunny crossing - it's a three hour voyage - and on disembarking collected our luggage and another hire car in short order, and drove to our B & B. This was more like a cheap hotel than a 'homestay' that we'd had up to now, but the owner was friendly enough
and it's very conveniently placed. On our first full day in Wellington we visited the lovely modern cathedral, which is quite reminiscent of Coventry, with a similar modern altarpiece and light, wide nave. It was good to sit here for a little and reflect on all the blessings of this holiday. Then we looked at the 'Beehive', the modern building for MPs attached to the parliament building: but we didn't want to wait the 45 minutes for the next tour, so we went on into town, and then up in the cable car (more a funicular tram) to the botanic gardens. We walked through these back to Tinakori Road where our B & B is, and reached home for lunch. After a nap we drove out to the Lookout Point, the top of a hill in the south of the city, from which you can see a long way in all directions. Then my sister dropped me in town so I didn't have too far to walk, and met me again at the cafe where we were meeting Quentin and Marion, Quaker friends who used to be in Newcastle Meeting. We enjoyed a meal together and exchanged a lot of news. We had one more day in Wellington, which I'll describe in the next post.
From Christchurch we went first to Hanmer Springs, a small spa town which I'd thought from the map would be up in the hills, but turned out to be just below them. We'd thought about treating ourselves to a spa bath, but it took longer than we'd thought to get there and over lunch we decided that the spa had looked rather crowded, so we passed up that one and pressed on towards Kaikoura, a place famous for its wildlife and particularly its whales. We went via a shortcut that the map indicated would be a scenic route: in fact it wasn't all that scenic, and a lot of the minor road we took had loose chippings and we couldn't go too fast at all. We stopped for one view, and it was there I discovered my camera had jammed: the lens wouldn't either come out or go back. What a disaster!
We arrived at Kaikoura in good time. We'd booked on a whale watching trip, so after finding our B & B (splendid views, tiny bathroom) we went down to ask the whale watch company what the prospects were. Some trips that afternoon had been cancelled for bad weather, and we'd been told by someone we met that the whales had all gone north anyway. This proved to be very pessimistic: the lady was very helpful and said they'd spotted two whales, which were not in their usual place because of a trawler that had gone fishing there. The weather forecast was reasonable, and she thought our trip would probably be on. Thus encouraged, we set out for a camera shop to see if I could get my camera fixed. The man there said it might be possible, but would cost virtually as much as a new camera, and he couldn't do it there and then. So I went for plan B: a shiny new little Nikon Coolpix camera, smaller, cheaper and better than the old one, with
the added bonus of being pink! I spent most of the evening learning how to use it. First, though, we did a little exploring and went down to Fyffe Point, at the end of the beach, where we saw seals, a heron and oystercatchers. We climbed the cliff and enjoyed a beautiful view both up and down the coast. Then we went back as far as a beach-side stall selling shellfish suppers, and treated ourselves to a huge crayfish between us, which was delicious, and more so for being eaten in the open air - a lovely way to dine! Next day, we packed up, checked out and went down to the whale watching place which was crowded. They were running a little late and it was full of people for the 10 o'clock boat: once they'd gone to their coach, there was more space and we sat on front seats for the cinema and safety briefing. In due course these were shown, we boarded the coach for the ten minute drive to the marina, and so on to the boat. The sea wasn't exactly calm, and the boat was driven at about 30 knots so it was, shall we say, quite exciting! There was news of a whale, but it had dived and was likely to be some time feeding on the bottom, so to pass the time we visited a huge school of dolphins. These were very difficult to photograph well, but lovely to look at. Then we headed for the whale's feeding area. After a bumpy ride we stopped for the crew to listen through hydrophones. They can apparently hear the whales 'clicking' which indicates that they are feeding, and shows where they are. Location confirmed, we moved more slowly to the exact place, and a second listen showed we were right above the whale. Then the clicking stopped, meaning it was on its way up - and there, just about fifty yards away, we saw it surface. We moved slowly up to lie alongside, and everyone was snapping cameras like mad. The whale was blowing from its blowhole about every 15 seconds, as it re-oxygenated
itself. This went on for about ten minutes, with views of about half its body for part of the time. Then it stopped blowing and started to move in a different way. 'Cameras ready' said our commentator, and sure enough, in seconds it flipped up its huge tail, giving just time for a last picture, and then dived again. And that was it: we turned and sped through an increasingly choppy sea for home. It turned out we were very, very lucky. The previous trip didn't see a whale at all: the following one was cancelled for bad weather. Ours was the only trip that day to see a whale! By now the weather had turned pretty nasty, so we drove north up to Blenheim, our next stay, right in the middle of Marlborough wine country. We passed quite a few vineyards, but this was nothing to what we'd see next day, and I'll tell you about that in the next post.
A highlight of New Zealand was to be the train trip across the Southern Alps, one of the world's most scenic railway journeys. We arrived to check in our luggage, only to be told that most of the scenic part of the trip through the mountains would be by coach, due to 'scheduled track maintenance'! We were very disappointed: if this was scheduled, we should have been told at the time of booking, not when we arrived to check in.
In due course we boarded the coach. It was still raining, and the windows were streaked with water so my sister couldn't get any decent pictures, and in any case you can't see as much from a coach. The trip through the mountains was pretty spectacular, as far as anything can be in a downpour, and fortunately the weather was improving once we were over the watershed and going down the other side. Arthur's Pass station was almost out of the hills altogether, and there we boarded the train. It had observation decks - a half an open cattle truck - in t
he middle, but for most of the journey I chose to sit in comfort and to treat myself to coffee and cake and just relax. There were a few points worth photographing - my sister, on the observation deck nearly all the time, took about a hundred pictures - but I took only a few of what should have been the highlights.
Eventually we reached Christchurch, and were met by Jan, our hostess for our 'homestay'. This was quite a way out of town: but as we had to get our hire car next morning, this didn't really matter. We took the bus into town, had a look at the statues of the Queen's corgis made for the Silver Jubilee, looked round the Cathedral and then went to get the hire car
- a nice automatic Toyota Yaris, better than the previous one. We parked it, and after lunch took the tram ride round the city - shades of Melbourne! We then decided that I'd go to the Art Gallery while my sister did some exercise walking in the Botanic Gardens, and I'd meet her there. This worked very well for us both: the Art Gallery was great, two very good exhibitions, and I was able to stroll slowly through the beautiful gardens at my own pace to find Hilary asleep on the grass! We had ice creams and then set off to find our way back to the homestay - no mean feat of navigation!
And that was really our time in Christchurch. I could have done with a week!
Our second day at Fox Glacier was as bad, weather-wise, as the first. After a stormy night we had a dull, wet morning and decided to do not much, stay at home and catch up on blogs, emails and photo processing. By lunchtime things were improving a bit, and we thought we'd look at least at the Franz Joseph glacier, the next place on, and get that done before we were travelling up to Greymouth. We drove up there, found the glacier access road, and started with a 20 minute walk to Peter's Pool, from which - when there's no wind at all - you can apparently get good pictures of reflections of the glacier in the pool. Today, though, there was some wind and the pictures were less than brilliant. I sat in the car while H. climbed Sentinel Rock, from which you can also get good views, and she took a couple of pictures there too.
Then it was back to the ranch, and eventually out to the local cafe for our evening meal. Again we ran into the problem of having a full, slap-up meal or ..well, there was little alternative. We just had a main course but it was still pretty substantial, and expensive by UK standards.
Overnight the weather cleared a little. We'd negotiated the chance of a flight if there were any going, and when we got up the clouds were much higher and we could see both Mount Tasman and Mount Cook, so we were quite hopeful. We dashed out to take pictures of their reflections in the pond at our B & B! But by the time we'd finished breakfast, they were in cloud again and the next weather front was coming in. We packed up, loaded the car and checked out, and stopped hopefully to enquire at the helicopter office, but it was the same story: too low cloud, too much wind and no flights at all today. So we had to abandon that part of our holiday, and just drive on northwards.
The drive was pretty good. There were several scenic points along the coast where we stopped for pictures. Eventually we reached Hokitika, a small coastal town famous for its Pounamu jade. We looked in a place called 'The Jade Factory', and I bought a pendant and earrings: we then had a light lunch in the cafe adjoining before driving down to the beach itself. Here, it seems, you can still find stones of jade, though we didn't go looking as the sand was wet and sticky and would have been a problem to clean off our shoes. Instead, we took more pictures, drove along the beach and the quayside up the river, and then on up towards Greymouth.
We had plenty of time in hand, so we went on first to Goldsborough, a small place off the main road and the site of a former gold-rush area. Here we went on a shortish walk which began through a mining tunnel and then went on through a forest with some unusual vegetation, ending with a return to the road through another mining tunnel. It was yet another unexpected delight: such things have been quite frequent in this amazing country.
Then we drove up to Greymouth, but we were still too early to go and check in at our B & B, so we went on northwards to Punakaiki where there are some fascinating 'pancake rocks', looking like a stack of pancakes. Apparently nobody has yet worked out how they came to be like this. In some of them are 'blowholes' where the sea comes crashing through in a cloud of spray. It was all quite a sight and we had great fun photographing and videoing it all.
Finally we turned back and drove down to our B & B. When we arrived there were two visiting Americans, Tom and Linda, sitting on the terrace over a glass of wine - clearly our sort of people! We chatted to them with a cup of tea made by Alison, the landlady, and we decided to go and eat together at the nearby restaurant which Tom and Linda had found earlier. It made a pleasant change to have company for the meal.
Next morning it was still grey and wet, so we again spent some time indoors, catching up on our various recordings of our holiday, and then we set off for Greymouth Station. I'll describe our journey to Christchurch in the next posting.
We ended our visit to Queenstown by picking up a hire car and driving to Arrowtown, a former gold rush town nestling under the mountains. En route, we stopped to take pictures at Shotover Gorge, yet another remarkable feature in this country where the merely beautiful is just the norm!
Next day we packed up, loaded the car and set off for the West Coast. We took the route via the Crown Range, very much over the hills and providing another couple of photo stops. This took us to Wanaka, a small town at the foot of a major lake, and from there we headed up through Makarora and the mountains towards the coast at Haast. En route we paused at the Thunder Falls, not a high fall but a long one and very spectacular to look at: I was able to take a video clip as well as still photos. The weather had steadily deteriorated as we progressed, from pretty fine and sunny in Queenstown to drizzle and then serious rain. I was glad I'd bought a new umbrella in Queenstown to replace the one I've left behind somewhere.
Eventually we reached Haast, and stopped for a light lunch - a pie and an ice cream in my case. We drove - well, Hilary drove, I navigated, we both prefer it that way - along the coast, pausing to look at what we later discovered was 'Rock Art', a large number of curious little mementos along the land edge of the beach: crosses, mini cairns, rocks with things written or painted on them. We were told that these are just a way of 'leaving a bit of yourself'' there, and that they get washed away by the sea pretty well daily. Apparently we'll see more on the East coast north of Christchurch, where we'll be in a few days time.
We arrived at Fox Glacier in very good time, and decided before going down to our B & B at the far end of town to go up the Glacier access road and see what we could see. At the end of this, we could see the bottom of the actual glacier, a substantial chunk of ice which presumably breaks off from time to time and feeds the river, and allows ice movements behind it. We got within quite a short distance of the ice itself, though the weather and my knee made going right up to it not a good idea. But it's the first time I've seen an actual obvious glacier close to: I never did in Canada three years ago.
Photos taken, we went on to reach our very nice B & B. The owner was very friendly and talkative, and over a cup of tea suggested we go at once down to Lake Mathieson, which in good conditions is a 'mirror lake' and on the right day will reflect both Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. Alas, today neither were visible, the clouds being well below their 14 and 12 thousand feet summits. We drove down to the lake, but as we left the car it started raining, and by the time we'd done the ten minute walk to the lake itself it was fairly chucking it down. We walked through to the first viewpoint, but decided then to abandon the trip as there was no mirror effect with the rain and it seemed set in for the evening. We went back to the ranch before going out again to the same place for a delicious meal, and then back for a fairly early night.
During the night we had rain and wind in storm quantities! Next morning, our intended helicopter ride was clearly off, and it seems unlikely that we'll be able to do this because there is now a long queue of people waiting to go who've all been held up by bad weather. Ah, well, we had a good day on Milford Sound, so you can't have everything.
Our first day in Queenstown was marked by rain in the morning, so we had a lazy time sorting ourselves out, and then walking down into the town a little later when it had cleared up somewhat. We looked at the shops, booked ourselves a place at the Skyline dinner in the evening, did a bit of shopping and checked out the quayside, having a 'light' lunch in a pub there. We wondered about a boat trip, but in the end decided to go back and rest before our evening out. I went back first, as Hilary wanted to do a couple more things. The B&B is up about 500 metres of very steep hill, so it's not easy to walk up to, and by the time I arrived I was ready to flop! The Skyline restaurant is quite special. You go up in a cable car to the top of the first set of hills overlooking the town. We went early to catch the sunset, and the views were really beautiful. Then we went for a pre dinner drink, chatting to a New Zealand couple from North Island. We'd registered our arrival and been given a gizmo a
bout the size of a drink mat, and when it suddenly burst into life with flashing lights and a buzz, we walked down to the restaurant itself. The food was fabulous: you could have a six course meal if you wanted. We both ate well, with a very good bottle of NZ Sauvignon Blanc. As we left, we asked the reception to order us a taxi to save that steep walk home, and it was waiting for us when we got down in the cable car.
Next day it was up early for our trip to Milford Sound. This is a very beautiful fior
d, only about 40Km as the heli copts, but well over 200 Km by coach, a good four hour trip. However, the coach ride itself was worth doing: we stopped first in Te Anau, a small town on a pretty lake, where we bought sandwiches for lunch and had a coffee. There were several more photo stops, including one at The Chasm, a hugely deep gorge (in New Zealand, you just run out of superlatives!) and one at the Mirror Lakes, reminding me of the BBC4 signature picture. We boarded the boat at the Milford Sound terminal for a cruise in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I took about 100 photographs, but mostly sat and just enjoyed the beauty and peace of this glacier-made inlet (fiords are made by glaciers and sounds by rivers, we were told). Coming back, we were taken close to a waterfall and stopped by Seal Rock to see some seals playing. Words just can't describe the atmosphere of this place: such a shame it's so far from Newcastle!! We stopped again at Te Anau on the way back, and
bought fish and chips for our supper at a mobile stall, to save going out at the end of the day. The coach took us right to the bottom of our road, so one last climb up the hill and we were home from a most memorable day.
Leaving Brisbane marked the end of the first phase of my Quaker visiting. Now I'm on holiday! The flight to Sydney was totally full but simple enough. I took the train into town and checked in at the hotel, a different one from before and conveniently very near the central station. After a short rest, I went up to the Meeting House to collect the package I'd left there and to arrange with Nick about tonight's opera, for which he is joining me. We agreed it was easiest to arrive independently and meet in the bar: but in fact I came upon him walking up from Circular Quay to the opera house. There was some kind of pop concert on the forecourt, so loads of crowd control and security people, but we weren't delayed at all. The production of Tosca was the Opera North one I'd seen and didn't like. For those of you who know Tosca, this production used only one set, a dingy church basement, and changed the story significantly in places, so that some of the words didn't make sense. However, the singing was glorious, and Tosca herself - a last minute substitute as the billed singer was ill - was superb, with one of the best Vissi d'arte performances I've heard (the famous aria in act 2) which received well deserved applause. So it was an enjoyable evening, and good to have company. Nick, bless him, ran me back to the hotel, having seen how I was walking on the path back to Circular Quay. Next day I was very restful. I posted a package to my hosts in Perth - 2.5 kilograms of weight not to be in my suitcase! I won't travel so heavily again, though to be fair I don't think there's anything I won't have used or worn by the end of the trip. The Australian 'Post Shops' are excellent, they keep all sorts of packaging materials and will tape packages up for you, so I was able to walk in with a carrier bag of stuff and send it securely wrapped. Four days or so, they said, from Sydney to Perth: try that with Parcel Post in the UK!
This done, I had a light lunch and flirted with the idea of doing the Opera House tour, but decided that an hour's walking around wasn't going to help the knee. So I rested and wrote up my journal, and went to eat in the hotel - a huge steak, very good value, with a glass of house red (less so but at least acceptable). At about 9.50 my sister was due, so I went down and stepped outside to see if there was any sign, and at that moment her taxi drew up. She'd had a good journey: we went up to the room, did minimal unpacking and went quickly to bed, as we had a very early start.
Next morning we were up at six, and took a taxi along surprisingly busy roads to the airport. We were on different f
lights, my agent having not done what I wanted, so we separated and I took the plane to Christchurch and then waited for the connecting flight to Queenstown. This latter has a small airport and you fly in literally through a gap in the mountains, a quite spectacular approach! The B & B proved very nice with lovely views of lake and mountains: in the evening the sun was just on the mountain tops. I think this will be a good start to our New Zealand holiday.
The flight to Brisbane was another in a small, twin propeller aircraft, and most of the way you could see the countryside, lots and lots of trees and some meandering rivers. In parts of Queensland there have been floods recently, but at the coast there are still signs of water shortage: drought and floods in the same land! It just shows how big Australia is. I found the train easily enough, lifts all the way to get there, and space for luggage - but the fare to just beyond the city centre was nearly as much as the trip from Sydney to Newcastle! However, it was an easy enough journey and Valerie was waiting for me on the platform. We drove back to her house in her campervan, Vanessa, and I took my case down to my downstairs bedroom which is very comfortable. We chatted a bit, and a friend arrived so I went and unpacked and we had a quiet evening.
Next day we went into town - quite a walk for my knee to the bus station, but they have a wonderful bus system here. They have busways, which are rather like railways but with road instead of track. The bus stops are like stations, and only buses run on the busways, so even at busy times the delays are no more than you'd get with a train stopping at a signal. It works really well, Valerie tells me, and they are so successful that more are being constructed. A good green idea for the UK? We were going to the film circle at Valerie's women's club, the Lyceum. The film we saw was 'Black Book', a complex tale of the Dutch resistance set as a memory from a post war Kibbutz, but with a reminder that this setting too has its conflicts. I'd recommend the film very highly: it's well directed and acted, and had sufficient impact on the audience that they found it hard to discuss it afterwards (the usual format of 
these meetings) and shied away from the thoughtful questions Valerie had prepared. I think I might get this from Amazon when I get back home. After the film, we walked (ouch, the knee!) to a cafe for a light lunch, and then down to the riverside to take a boat down the river a little - all included in the day bus ticket - to the South Bank Gardens. These are a very pleasant recreation area, with cafes, a beach, a few shops and shaded paths with lots of planting. We walked though these back to the South Bank bus station to take the bus home: Valerie had parked her car early that morning, to get a space, near the bus station so thankfully we rode home. By now my knee was protesting so I was glad of a rest, before a meal and a lazy, television-watching evening. Next morning it was clear that the knee didn't want any more. I spent most of the day resting, until the evening when David Johnson came to talk about the Australian Quaker Centre that I'd visited in Canberra. This was fascinating: he is the man who originally thought of the idea, and I felt it would be a place I'd be happy to go and live at for a time, and teach at as well. A possible long term plan? David was well aware of the difficulties as well as the benefits of having a single-location centre for learning, and I found the discussion very much to the point.
Saturday was another lazy morning. In the afternoon, Valerie had invited all her neighbours round to hear three people talking about green issues, and to have tea. This was inspired by the idea of 'Transition Towns', something started at Totnes in Devon and now rapidly expanding world wide. I'd come across the idea at the Sustainable Living festival in Melbourne: why haven't I seen anything at home about this? The first talk was on composting: I'd no idea it was so complex an issue, nor that there were so many things anyone can do. I'm thinking of getting a Bohashi Bin, a kind of mini-composting bin which would suit the available space, and just using rather than throwing out my food waste. Then we had a go-around on the issues that concerned or interested us most. I was last on this, which was quite good: I was able to say that the issues are different in Australia from the ones at home (here insulation isn't necessary, for example, but it's assumed you go by car and water is the no. 1 problem). I said I was surprised nobody had mentioned transport, nor diet, repeating the lesson I'd learned from my own Quaker Meeting that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than transport - even including aviation. The final speaker talked about neighbourhood watch, and creating a good and coherent local environment in which to live. Again, much for me to think about as our local Neighbourhood Watch scheme is a bit defunct at the moment.
On Sunday I went to Brisbane Meeting: it's the largest I've been to so far in Australia, over 40 people plus quite a few children. There was some good ministry, a reflection on the need to be fallow at times. Then after tea I talked to the Meeting about Ministry. After an introduction and some extracts from Samuel Bownas (oh, this 18th century Friend really is good value for money!) I put people in threes to discuss how we help each other, and particularly new Friends, to discern a true leading to minister. The feedback was fascinating: as usual, Friends had talked about what they wanted to, but we had some good stuff including a lot of shared experience of physical indications such as an increased heart rate and some sort of shaking. I've been very happy about the way Friends have been able to pick up and run with the thoughts that I've shared with them, and I've certainly learned a lot on this extended visit amongst Australian Quakers. After the talk, we drove into town to the Gallery of Modern Art, where a film of a journey amongst people in Israel/Palestine was being shown. The film was mostly interviews with both Israelis and Palestinians, and whilst rather one-sided (all the Israelis seemed to be hard-liners, all the Palestinians were ones who had been displaced in some way) did illustrate in the words of ordinary people the context of the conflict. A lof of mindset-changing will be needed if it is ever to be a peaceful area. I would have loved to have seen something of the gallery while we were there, but my knee was still being awful, so we went home and I rested some more, before getting much of the packing done ready for tomorrow's flight to Sydney. Brisbane has been a bit frustrating because of my injury: but nevertheless it's been a time for learning, and both the Quaker Centre discussions and the Green event were very worthwhile, and I'm grateful to Valerie for arranging both of these when I was there. I hope New Zealand will prove relaxing and healing, and that I'll be able to see a lot without being too strenuous!
My time in Sydney ended, after the wonderful Opera evening, with a very pleasant bridge evening with two visiting Americans. I'd been to Meeting on the Sunday, quite quiet until I felt led to speak, reflecting on the double standards depicted in 'La Traviata' and how our Testimony to Truth was a refusal to have two standards: but how well did we keep it, and other testimonies, me being well aware of how far I'd flown to be there! I suggested that was was vital was to submit to the Light and listen to the guidance. In the evening we had a shared meal which Nick had prepared, and bridge: and Julie, bless her, helped me take my luggage to the station and minded it whilst I got my ticket - and even ran back for my lunch which I'd left sitting in the fridge!
The train journey to Newcastle, NSW, was interesting, with some attractive lake and mountain scenery, lots of woodland which is always heartening. We arrived at Broadmeadow on time (the previous stop was Cardiff, and the train home from the opera had gone to Liverpool! so many English names here), and I met with Jean, who took me back to her lovely home. She has a superb tropical garden, and, as I discovered, real tropical birds. How about breakfast looking at the Rainbow Lorikeet through the window! We had a short trip out that evening, seeing some black swans and a kookaburra (related to the k
ingfisher, I'm told), and the following day I was taken round the town, looking at the cathedral and the town centre, and the up and coming area known as Collingwood which has some fine colonial architecture, as does the town centre. Back for a rest in the afternoon, and a bring and share supper (lovely starters of home-made houmus and arabic bread, and smoked salmon canapes) and a talk on Ministry. We had a really good discussion, and some deep sharing: the best this talk has gone so far, I thought.
I was sorry to have been in Newcastle for so short a time: I'd have loved to go a little way up the Hunter Valley and see a winery or two, and more of the region. Australia's Newcastle is a little larger in population and a good bit larger in area than the UK one, and it's still a coal town: they are tearing coal out of the valley as fast as they can ship it out, and I counted ten ships waiting to come in and load up with it. New loading facilities are being built, and much of it is exported to China: all in all it must make a significant contribution to global warming, though when you look at the CO2 per head of the Chinese, it's way, way less than ours, so we can't really complain!
Next morning I was off good and early, with other Friends driving me to the airport, smaller than our Newcastle Airport (it did seem odd seeing the familiar name in a strange place!) but very easy to go through, and soon I was in the air en route to Brisbane. I'll describe that in the next post.
