18th April - 4th May 2003

This trip was a little different to any of the others on this site. Firstly, it was not based around seeing new things and meeting new people in unknown places. With the exception of a couple of days, everywhere I went on this trip I had lived or spent considerable time. Secondly, I had a mission to buy an investment property in Wellington - which is not really a usual occurance for any holiday and certainly doesnt involve much travelling.

Ive broken the diary of this trip into three distinct chunks, of around similar lengths..

The first bit - Abel Tasman National Park

I flew into Wellington on Good Friday and was met at the airport by my bro, Nat who took me into the city where we got a coffee and I reacquained myself with a city that had changed considerably in appearance since I had lived there move than six years previously. We discovered that because it is a public holiday, some of the things that we thought might be open were closed, so we got a curry from a local takeaway and ate it before going into town to see some super12 rugby at the pub and returning home to pack for the trip accross Cook straight the next morning.

The next morning, we jumped in the car and boarded the Lynx fast ferry to Picton, where we continued west towards Nelson and a chance to stock up on food for the coming few days as well as meet Nat's partner Kristina, who had just completed a 24 hour multisport race around Nelson. We had lunch in a cafe in town before I met up with Al, a mate of mine from school days and his wife Julie who now lives in Rose Bay in close to Nelson, for a few drinks. Due to the nature of Kristina's teams win (a massive margin) in her race and that the double kayak that we were to use for the next couple of days and was not being used by her team, was still racing. In fact it didnt arrive into Nelson until 10:00 or 11:00 that night. Eventually however it worked out that I stayed at Al and Julie's place in Rose Bay and Nat stayed in Nelson and caught me up the next morning with the kayack.

After breakfast, we got on the water early-ish at Marahau at the very south of the park and after a reasonable level of portage (with a particularly heavy boat full of all the food for the next couple of days) accross the estuary there, we set out fighting the incoming tide northward. The progress, even with me only learning how to paddle properly was reasonably rapid and it wasn't too long before we stopped for our first break at the lovely beach in Te Puketea bay. Then we swapped positions so that I could do some steering and we wobbled back and forth on the way up the Torrent river where we stopped and walked to clepatra's hole where we slid down a rock slide in the river which was despite the beautiful weather about as warm as a fridge. Suitably refreshed we jogged back to the kayack and continued paddling up to Tonga beach where we stopped for lunch. After lunch we left the boat behind and wandered over to Awaroa where we had a beer at the cafe there then got back in time for dinner before the sun set.

On Easter Monday morning, we started getting things together and eating breakfast just before 6:00am and got on the water around 7:00 and headed out toward Tonga Island, a small rocky piece of land that sits in the middle of a marine reserve. There we ran into a few of the local inhabitants, seals, of which one took a very close interest in our presence. The pup dived underneathh around our boat and although there wasnt too many more of his peers around that morning, this was certainly a highlight. We continued on rapidly back to the car and continued back towards the Wellington ferry, stopping in nelson and pelorous bridge on the way to picton where we crossed back to the nations capital.

After the next two days looking at property and getting finance sorted I made an offer on an apartment on the Terrace in the middle of the CBD. Later that day the offer was accepted and I booked a flight down to Christchurch to see my folks, leaving the next day.

The Second Bit - Southern excursion

Kristina took me down to the airport before her early morning kayak, and I got off the plane on time in the freezing cold of the South Island. I got settled and that morning went out shopping with Barb for a home entertainment cabnet to replace the table and birds nest of wires that presently existed below the tv at their place. After that Barb and I went out and played 9 holes of very ordinary golf- certainly on my part.

That night we were sitting at home watching the preview to the Highlanders game and decided that we would drive to dunedin to see it the following day. The next morning we got up, got into the car and drove the four and a half hours south before beginning the search for a place to stay the night. We found a nice little boutique hotel, got out of the car and right in front of me was my old university flatmate, Karen who was wandering down George St with baby, husband and one on the way. That night, we went for a wander into town and had a pint before watching Highlanders demolish the ACT Brumbies. After getting back from the game I wandered around some of the old drinking haunts before a very sound sleep.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast at Modaks espresso and wandered around the varsity before driving out to the beach at St Clair for a look and then hit State Highway 1 back to Christchurch.

The next day I had a bit of a cruisey day in the morning, but in the afternoon I headed over to the bottom of the porthills of Christchurch to get some mountain biking in. It was a really nice autumn's day and despite forgetting a helmet, and attracting a few comments from passers-by I was soon ascending up the hills and having a look over to Lyttleton and over the city towards the Southern Alps. Being in a 'not particularly fit' state, I decided to head down after a couple of hours and returned back home to have dinner followed by a slide show of my previous years adventures in China for Jim and Barb.

The following day I just relaxed - the first day that Id had nothing planned, and picked up Kristina, who was down from Wellington for the day, from the airport before heading out to the golf course with Jim for another 9 holes at Waitekiri. I completed my southern safari the next morning before the flight out by another trip to the porthills- this time with camera - and caught the flight back to Wellington ready to start the finalisation of the purchase of the new place.

The Third Bit - Putting a stick in the ground

I arrived into Wellington and went straight to meetings with my new solicitor and also with my mortgage broker to sort out some more information, and then wandered back to Nat and Kristina's place somewhat held back by the gear that I had picked up from Christchruch for them. The next day was spent sorting out more property stuff and through the terrible weather in contrast to my previous time here everything was finally signed at 4:00 on Friday. Nat, Kristina and I went out for a celebratory beer and curry at an indian in town that night.

The next day dawned fine and after a morning reading the Whale Rider, by Witi Ihimira, Nat and I went off to Karori to go mountain biking at Makara (somehow interpreted to be Makra by some of the locals) Peak. It is a purpose built MTB park and was great fun to play on. Nat had a little accident trying to pull a wheelie off a see-saw and we finished soon after that. After cleaning up all the cuts and scrapes, we ended up getting on a harbour cruise for one of Kristina's school friends birthdays which was an enjoyable way to spend my last night in New Zealand for this time.

The last morning of this trip saw myself and Nat get out and have a look at the new place at 9a 163 The Terrace and then I got a ride to the airport with Kristina's brother Karl before heading back to Sydney and reality.