New Zealand road trip

March 9, 1999 Marenui Farm Holiday Camp, near Mangaweka

We are here with Granny and Grandpa.  Their last week with us, in fact they fly in 3 days.  We are staying at a farm stay.  12 kilometers from the main road, nothing to hear but birds and rain.  They have had a terrible drought this summer, but since we arrived it has rained a good deal.  They are happy.  The family is David and Sue Sweet and their son Matthew.  David took us for a great 4x4 drive around the place when we got here.  730 acres.  They lease out about half of it.  They have 1000 sheep and a few cattle (steer not cows.) David took us for a demonstration of his sheep dog’s skills yesterday morning.  It was great fun, probably at least partly due to their rustiness.  He sounded just like the Fred Dagg tape.  “ So normally, we muster the sheep  BEHIND!  DUKE! GET BEHIND!!!  Bloody dog.”  From the porch I am sitting on now I can see hills all around, a mile or two across one valley, down the road in the other direction, up to the sheep in the other.  It is great. Sarah said she wanted to find  a place to really get away and relax, like Sun Mountain.  And she did it, even more so.  We hear no one else.  Nobody.  We just played cricket and made up for the lack of noise.  Douglas and Dick and Sarah did very well.  It was good fun.

We have been on the road for about 2 weeks, after our 5 ½ weeks of boat refit and 3 days of sailing up north.  Lots of touristy stuff up north.  We went over a waterfall in a raft (Bronwen, Sarah and I.)  7 meters tall.  It was very thrilling.  Two smaller falls before hand.  Really a blast.  Great guides, playing it up but also being very sure to explain the safety issues and test us all before proceeding.  After it was over they told the fourth passenger to get in the bow for safety.  “Leave your paddle here.”  Then Sarah asked if she shouldn’t go up as well, or didn’t they care about her safety.  “You’re right.  Go right up to the very bow and sit down on the floor.”  They then proceeded to stuff the bow into a low water fall and held it there.  It pulsed in and out, pouring hundreds of gallons of water over our heads.  He only stopped when I screamed “MUTINY” and charged him.

We did go carts and the land luge in Rotorura, and the circular maze, and stayed on a nice little cabin on the beach.  We did the thermal hot springs and even found an off the beaten path stream on Kerosene Road where there was a thermal water fall to play in.

South Island

April 5, 1999 – Frankin, Northeast of Queenstown. 

We had a brilliant trip to Fiordland last week.  Watched the weather and then zipped from Qtown to Hollyford for a fantastic 3 days.  Went to camp at Gunn’s place, but on getting there it was getting dark, very wet, drizzling and I was grouchy.  We paid for a tent site, $17.50, then I went back and asked about the cabins.  $25 for the 5 of us.  Very rustic, mind.  But there was a wood/coal range that Douglas had a love affair with.  He was up early, S finally told him not before 7 am, and tended it for 3 hours in the morning then started again when we returned from the day and kept at it until we were in bed.  The owner, Murray Gunn, is a real character.  Had a horse, Jane, that lived for 38 years.  He painted the word Horse on her starboard side and then Cow on the other.  The reason was to keep the deer hunters from shooting her as they had done his12 others.  He has a great little museum about the area, his father’s heroic life (not as a father says Murray.)  He has a come back to everything.  “Did you kids enjoy yourselves?”  of course they said yes.  “Well, you’ve only yourselves to blame.  I won’t take any credit for that.”  I loved talking with him.  He warmed up after the second day.  Even told us, sort of, why there was burnt toast hanging up out on the clothes line.  It is really just because he has always done it, Jane used to love it.  Now she is gone but he carries on telling people to do that.  Lots of burnt toast with a wood range.

We went for a great walk up the Key Summit.  About 3 hours total, great wet forest at the bottom  and fantastic 360 deg view from an alpine meadow at the top.  Perfect weather.  Kids really liked it as well.  Then we drove to Milford Sound.  Nothing there really but a fantastic view and a few tourist shops.  I bought gas from a man who said “This is the most expensive petrol in NZ.  Don’t buy more than you absolutely have to.  Understand?”

We had a long talk with Murray the last morning, wandering around his museum.  It was burned down with the house in 1990, built  back up with the help of lots of friends.  He has been there since 1954, came to help out his father who was really a in.  Not a business man and the place was a total wreck.  He drowned the next year and Murray took over.  Quite a guy.