Now that the holidays are over I’m on my way back to Malaysia from New Zealand.
With son Henry in Austria and daughter Emily going to her boyfriend’s family for Christmas, there was a distinct danger that we would be celebrating the festive season as a sad old couple on our own in our converted Bedford bus, dreaming of a white Christmas in the middle of summer. So instead of going straight home we flew to Queenstown.
Christmas Eve saw us bouncing across Lake Manapouri to get to Doubtful Sound which has no road access with the rest of the country. This is Fiordland, New Zealand’s most isolated area and the one significant part of the country that we had not visited before. Arriving there felt like we had entered through the looking glass, or the wardrobe or hopped on the train at platform nine and three quarters; we were in an imaginary world. In a few miles we had gone from barbecue beach parties on the sunny shore of Lake Wakatipu with its dazzling sapphire water, to a place where even a devout atheist like myself could sense the stirrings of the spirits in the swirling mist as it performed the dance of the seven veils with the majestic rock faces.
We had booked an overnight cruise on a motor/sailor built specifically for the task and we were quickly under way, nosing through the coal black waters. Fiordland is far wetter than anywhere else in the country and its average seven litres of annual rainfall causes the Sound to be refreshed with many waterfalls which provide a layer, a few metres thick, of fresh water on top of the briny. Even if there is a sunny day in this other-worldly place the water remains stubbornly black.
Real Journeys gave us a nice balance of adventure and luxury with a comfortable cabin, good companionship and excellent food. The icing on the cake came Christmas morning when we were joined by a pod of dolphins playing in the bow wave.
The New Year looks good for travel. I’m currently in Indonesia finding my way back to Malaysia and then I will be planning a trip for us both to America for a friend’s wedding, probably calling in at Austria and England and maybe even the Caribbean where another friend is sailing a catamaran. There is a lot of euphemistic drivel spoken of Senior Citizens and Golden Years, but 65 is actually a very good time of life; a regular pension going into the bank without the need to work and still young enough to make the most of whatever opportunities arise.
With son Henry in Austria and daughter Emily going to her boyfriend’s family for Christmas, there was a distinct danger that we would be celebrating the festive season as a sad old couple on our own in our converted Bedford bus, dreaming of a white Christmas in the middle of summer. So instead of going straight home we flew to Queenstown.
Christmas Eve saw us bouncing across Lake Manapouri to get to Doubtful Sound which has no road access with the rest of the country. This is Fiordland, New Zealand’s most isolated area and the one significant part of the country that we had not visited before. Arriving there felt like we had entered through the looking glass, or the wardrobe or hopped on the train at platform nine and three quarters; we were in an imaginary world. In a few miles we had gone from barbecue beach parties on the sunny shore of Lake Wakatipu with its dazzling sapphire water, to a place where even a devout atheist like myself could sense the stirrings of the spirits in the swirling mist as it performed the dance of the seven veils with the majestic rock faces.
We had booked an overnight cruise on a motor/sailor built specifically for the task and we were quickly under way, nosing through the coal black waters. Fiordland is far wetter than anywhere else in the country and its average seven litres of annual rainfall causes the Sound to be refreshed with many waterfalls which provide a layer, a few metres thick, of fresh water on top of the briny. Even if there is a sunny day in this other-worldly place the water remains stubbornly black.
Real Journeys gave us a nice balance of adventure and luxury with a comfortable cabin, good companionship and excellent food. The icing on the cake came Christmas morning when we were joined by a pod of dolphins playing in the bow wave.
The New Year looks good for travel. I’m currently in Indonesia finding my way back to Malaysia and then I will be planning a trip for us both to America for a friend’s wedding, probably calling in at Austria and England and maybe even the Caribbean where another friend is sailing a catamaran. There is a lot of euphemistic drivel spoken of Senior Citizens and Golden Years, but 65 is actually a very good time of life; a regular pension going into the bank without the need to work and still young enough to make the most of whatever opportunities arise.
