We’re all going on a summer holiday..

Hang on a minute, it’s the middle of winter! Ok, not where we are, but we couldn’t resist the title when we saw 1 bright red “Routemaster” bus sitting in a car park today..oh yes, and it’s raining, which has been par for the course for a few summer holidays I could mention!
No it’s not Summer; it’s the first day of Autumn. Oh Dear, it’s going to be a difficult blog to read – M’s typing and R’s interrupting!
How it got here, the driver wasn’t sure but apparently it’s original number was RMA 1660. I’ll get Ron to talk through it’s finer points – to me it’s just an old London bus!
Philistine! Built at Park Royal, London, for London Transport, it was originally powered by an AEC diesel power unit. This has now been replaced by a Leyland power unit. Inside, apart from the provision of a large pa speaker, it looks pretty much original. Shame that they have painted out the RMA number on the cab (Routemaster AEC as opposed to RML Routemaster Leyland), engine cover and the passenger entry platform, and of course the original number plate is not being used, but...!
Ok, Ron, anorak away please!
Wanaka has been the first place we’ve actually been a little disappointed with. I don’t think we’re getting jaded by all the wonders we’ve seen. We had been told Wanaka was a really good place to come, with lots to do. True, it is very beautiful – lovely lake surrounded by fantastic mountains, but rather like some of the poorer of our own seaside resorts, money talks and there’s plenty to do and all the support you need if you want to sky dive, bungy jump, jet boat or go on a fancy cruise or a fishing trip. If you want to explore the area, do some walking and so on, there’s very little information available, even front the TI. Everyone seems to be encouraging you to do an expensive trip. At this stage of our holiday, that’s not what we had in mind.
So, what’s the solution? Go somewhere else!
How yer gonna keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen...... Oh Dear, Ron’s in a daft mood; you’ll have to put up with the interruptions! We didn’t move the tent – it wasn’t worth it for one night, as we had relatively easy access to Arrowtown (1 hr drive through a stunning mountain pass) somewhere we did want to visit. Arrowtown is where they first discovered gold in this part of NZ. It was a man named William Rees from Wales who came here and set up a sheep farm in 1860 two years before the first gold find by a Maori named Waika Jack who had no financial acuity about him. Since Maori didn’t have coinage or any real value / use for gold he showed it to Rees and kept quiet about it. This suited Rees who wanted to get his sheep sheared and the wool sold before the inevitable invasion occurred. There could have been some self interest as well, of course.
Today Arrowtown is a medium sized village, with many of the properties dating from the 1860s. Being up in the mountains and subject to the obvious weather problems, some were built of stone, rather than the more usual wood. Many have been preserved in as near an original state as possible and the old bank and assay house has been converted inside into a really interesting museum about the gold rush days and history of the town and area thereafter. A good way to spend a wet day.
What M hasn’t said is that while I was outside in the pouring rain taking all these fantastic pictures for your blog you had snuck into “the Remarkable Sweet Shop”! OK! I know I’m being modest about the pictures, but give a guy a chance, please!!
I didn’t snuck anywhere! I walked in quite openly – followed fairly swiftly by YOU Mr B! And I hasten to add, once you arrived, we came out with 3 different sorts of fudge, rather than the ONE I was going to buy!!
Look, it’s only right we should support the local economy. After all I had designs on a micro-brewery just opposite. You didn’t think I would miss that one did you!
Nope, nor did I expect us to come away without beer as well as excessive fudge!
I think we’d better stop this here or nobody will ever read the blog again
We’ve just got back, and guess what – the rain’s stopped! Wahoo! That’s an improvement. The tent mark II has now had had it’s first wetting...yes there’s a couple of tiny leaks (the Velcro/seam tape thing again ) but nothing major, so that’s good. We’re not actually using the tent tomorrow (Tuesday)..lazy things! We’ve booked a cabin on the site in Te Anau as we’re off on a steamboat ride during the morning (the TSS Earnshaw built in 1912 - Ron couldn’t be expected to resist that one really!) and we then have to drive quite a long way to Te Anau, so we didn’t really want to be bothered with a wet tent. The following day (Wednesday) we’re going on an overnight cruise on Doubtful sound, so again, a wet tent would be a real nuisance. Back in it again on Thursday night though – we can’t have it developing agoraphobia!
Talking of summer holidays, it seems ages since we were in Rarotonga, but today we had a reply from a Professor of Zoology we met there, about meeting up in his home in Dunedin. We will share stories about what they and we have done over a bottle of wine and a nice “tea” – NZ speak for supper. The last time we saw Phil and his wife Debbie we were all covered in mud after the jungle walk. Phil was probably wetter than most as he’d been scrabbling around the rivers looking for frogs – his specialisation! It should be a fun evening.
(Please don’t hum the “Frogs Chorus” as we go in M!)
Not very likely, dear!!!