This is the story of our travels during the Autumn of 2007.  Ramyshome remained resting on her moorings whilst her crew flew away to the far side of the earth.  Clicking on some of the pictures will reveal larger and extra images.

30th September 2007.   By early afternoon our Air New Zealand flight was touching down at Hong Kong's new airport, a reclaimed piece of land several miles out of town.  It is heaven compared with old Heathrow and a fast, efficient, train whisked us to Central Station, Hong Kong Island where we changed to a tube train heading east to Tin Hau and our hotel.  OK, in two days one can only scrape the surface of this fascinating city and with temperatures around 80 degrees F and humidity near 90% it is not a place to rush around.  But we took the cable car up to The Peak where there are great views of the city skyline, we came down to the Botanical Gardens, we visited a couple of temples and explored a few back streets of Hong Kong Island; we rode the Star Ferry across the water to Kowloon where we dived into the night markets trying to buy cheap not tat and we were lucky enough to catch a fabulous fireworks show, Monday being China National Day and thus celebrated in typical Chinese style.  We were sorry to leave, and will certainly try to return to Hong Kong one day, but we were also eager to travel on to our Southern Hemisphere reunion.

6th October 2007.  Soon after 10:00 am our campervan arrived outside the hotel and after completing the paperwork and taking some instruction we were left in charge of our latest home.  Having lived within the confines of a narrowboat for so long we were perhaps more equipped than most to adjust to the limited space and facilities but we never quite got used to making up the bed each night nor using an alfresco loo.  But the van served us well and carried us over 2000 miles on a very special journey.  First stop was the local supermarket, little different from English ones apart from the plastic money.  Soon after the two vans headed out of the city going south west towards the Southern Alps.  Our first night was close by the shores of Lake Tekapo, a wonderful sky blue colour and with snow capped mountains defining the horizon away to the west.  It was a windy night and the van rocked quite a bit although nothing like as much as when the earthquake struck the following week.  A 6.2 Richter Scale quake creates an awful lot of shaking and in the darkness was quite scary.  If that was the lowlight there were lots of highlights.  The sight of our first penguin coming a shore near Oamaru; the overnight stay on Stewart Island just about as far south as one can go before Antarctica; the first sight of a temperate rainforest many shades of green; the incredible 24 hours visiting Doubtful Sound.  It rained for more than 23 of those hours but the trip to one of the real wildernesses of this world was truly amazing.  We were energetic on several occasions including a two hour stroll along part of the Kepler Track by the side of Lake Te Anau and a six hour hike along part of the beautiful Abel Tasman coast providing a warm up for a three day trek along the Queen Charlotte Track, with fabulous views across the Sounds and three comfy hostels to rest our weary bones.  As well as penguins, sea lions, seals and dolphins we were fortunate to see three big sperm whales.  Sadly, we never got to see a kiwi - very shy and nocturnal - but keas and kakapos (both types of parrots), bellbirds and wekas were beautiful alternatives and the sight and multiple sounds of the tui will stay in our memories a very long time.

11th November 2007  After five weeks we were not all together sorry to see our campervan drive away without us but hugely sad to say goodbye to Heather & Chris as they headed off to new jobs at an Eco Lodge deep in the heart of the rainforest.  We two took the train north from Christchurch to Picton, then a three hour boat ride across Cook Strait to North Island and Wellington.  The next 9 days were spent whizzing round North Island in a hire car taking in Napier on the sunny east coast, full of art deco buildings constructed after the an earthquake destroyed the town in the 1928; Taupo and Rotorua in the centre of the Island and at the heart of the geo-thermal area where the earth literally steams and boiling water bubbling out of the ground is channelled away by the Maoris for cooking or bathing; on to the north coast and the Bay of Plenty at Tauranga and Tairua; across the Coromandel Peninsular and round the Hauraki Gulf to Auckland where 50% of New Zealanders live.  Finally a long, two day drive, staying overnight at Wanganui in another pleasant backpackers hostel providing cheap but comfortable self- catering accommodation, and we were back in Wellington with a full day to explore this attractive, hilly city by the sea.  It was all a bit fast and furious and after the dramatic scenery of South Island we found it just a little tame but well the effort and all the driving.         

The skyscrapers and harbour front of Auckland

The steaming grounds of the Maori village at Rotorua   →   and a friendly Maori chief   →

Wellington's cable car climbing uphill to the Botanical Gardens

22nd November 2007.   Our fourth and fifth flights took us from Wellington to Christchurch then across the Tasman Sea to Brisbane, Australia where our old friends Andy & Mary Massey were our hosts for six days.  Andy had visited us just six months ago on the Lancaster Canal but we agreed it was more than 10 years since we had last seen Mary, a born and bred Brisbaner.  We spent the next day exploring some of the green spaces and galleries in the city centre.  Having been intrigued by ibis, egrets and water dragons, on Saturday we got to see wallabies and some more native birds plus the flora of a tropical rainforest, so different from those in New Zealand.  On Sunday we all headed off to North Stradbrook Island, one of Mary & Andy's favourite places.  After an hour's drive and another hour on a ferry Andy drove his big four wheeler out on to Flinders Beach and shortly after turned onto a bush track coming to rest just a stone's throw from the beach.  Here we pitched the two tents, a rather grand sun & rain shade and set out a host of cooking equipment and seating.  Camping on the edge of a beach on a warm summer evening with excellent company has a lot to recommend it but we softies were satisfied with just one night.  The sight of kookaburras, a huge tree lizard and a family of sea turtles added to the enjoyment; a spot of sea fishing, with Roger actually catching one small fish, followed by a swim in the rolling sea were extra delights.  The Brisbane River winds through the city much like the Thames flows through London and on Tuesday we rode the bus downtown then took to the water for an hour or two on the river ferries.  After dining at a fine restaurant up on the hills overlooking the city we said goodbye to Andy, Mary and Brisbane on Wednesday and flew back to Christchurch for a final few days.

28th November 2007   After another overnight stop in Christchurch we collected our second hire car and drove for two days across the fertile Canterbury Plain, over Arthur's Pass one of the few routes through the high mountains of South Island and then on down the west coast to meet up with Heather & Chris again for a final couple of days.  The owners of the Lodge kindly allowed us to try out the guests' kayaks on the nearby lake and also to join a walk through the rainforest to a private beach where we were honoured to see gold crested penguins.  It is thought there are just 3000 of these small penguins, that afternoon we probably saw 15 or 0.5% of the world population.  And if that wasn't impressive enough on the way back we came across three heading through the bush just a metre or so in front of us.  Indeed we had to back off so as not to scare them.  Frightening penguins is definitely not the done thing.  All too soon it was time for us to say goodbye again and drive for two more days back to Christchurch airport.  After the cool and windy weather we had experienced here in October it was a little frustrating that summer had arrived and temperatures were climbing but we were now ready to go home even if that meant to a cold, damp English winter.  We had missed an Autumn but in return gained an extra December 4th as we flew across the Pacific beyond the International Date Line to arrive in Los Angeles several hours "before" we had left Auckland.  Following a rather chaotic two hour stop in L.A. we were up in the air again and soon after 10:00 am on 5th we were landing at Heathrow, speeding through customs to the tube, up into the gleaming new St Pancras Station and onto a train heading north to Loughborough.  We were back on board Ramyshome before 3:00 pm and that night slept for 10 hours.  Jetlag affected Roger a little more but within a couple of days we were back into the boating life.  In return for 10 weeks of our life and an awful lot of money we have had an unforgettable experience, lots of memories plus over 400 photographs. Click on the picture below to see just a few more.