The McNally adventures: Ka Mate ! Ka Mate ! Ka Ora ! Ka Ora !

Mcnally maoris .

It is death, it is death
It is life , it is life .

Lovely words !! for the most breathtaking country... we had arrived and in true Maori spirit , got into the swing of things ...
We left Sydney at 6am on the train to the airport for our flight to New Zealand, I was fortunate enough NOT to be sitting next to Brian with his channel changing elbows or his YO YO getting up and down the whole time, however my heart sank when I found my seat to was next to 2 elderly american women with overcooked perms . As I sat down one piped up " we have been waiting on you, and we were so excited as to whom would be sitting next to us , I am Lola and this is Margaret, we are with the church of St Joseph .. enough about us , we want to know all about you " so for the next 3 hours I was blessed and prayed upon by my new friends... Unfortunately Brian was sitting behind me ! and had his table up and down 8 times and turned the TV over which was in situ behind my head about 50 times .. which made for again an uncomfortable journey ... what with my bible bashing friends.. and HIM ..... the journey was livened up when a didgeridoo fell from the overhead cabin and clunked Lola on the head followed by her walking stick ... God is Love !!!!! right on the napper ...
We had arranged for a camper van company to pick us up from the airport , so we could check out their vans to hire one for a month ... Nobody waiting , and tired and cross I phoned them.... they quickly came and seemed unaware of our emails ...

Our house , Ceide xx

Again I had to play bad cop , whilst Brian played good cop , and of course the only one they had available was the luxury 4 berth with everything in ... I knew Brian wanted it. I wanted the smaller one... the sales girl wanted us to take it whatever... it was a game of chess, she was the pawn to my queen ... I have to say I was playing hard ball, so I sit here now in my 4 berth camper, with microwave, air con, satellite TV , dvd, full shower and loo.... it is ridiculously huge, I told her I still did not want it, unless we got full insurance , sat nav , and one way drop off fee thrown in ..... and bingo ... all in for less than we would have paid for a small 2 berth .. I am good !! but I am mean ,.... should have been a buyer , not a rep !!

Christchurch city centre

We stayed in Christchurch overnight as we were a bit jaded , and caught the bus into the city centre the next day ... OMG ... the earthquake has utterly devastated the whole town, it looks like teeth have been pulled out of mouths, gapping holes are left where shops were or Cathedrals stood.. not only that the whole city is shut..... metal fenced off for Health and safety... nothing open... some shops had opend into shipping containers but it looked like the Mary Celeste, shops either wrecked or shut with ceilings caved in and stock all over the floor , it was really depressing to see, the poor people and town. Hard to imagine what it must have been like, and in 2011, you seem to think these things happen a long time ago or to "poor countries" not New Zealand,

New shops In containers.

It was a really lovely day , but there was a real chill in the air, in fact it was bloody cold, but when out of the wind the sun was really strong, we headed back to the and sat in the sun drinking lovely New Z wine and cooking food for the first time in 3 months ..
The next day we set off South to Oamaru , I have never seen so many different shades of green , and blue, the sky blue above with the turquoise blue of the rivers filled with glacial melt, funnelling into the clear waves of the, sea fringed with the lime green perfectly rounded hills, dotted with sheep , a makes for the most wonderful vista ... there is going to be a lot of ooh and arr on this trip..

Oamaru Victorian town

We arrived in the beautiful town of Oamaru, a Victorian town built from Limestone, and they really went for it with the chiselling, the banks and town halls were beautiful, there was a Victorian fete on and everyone was dressed in traditional garb.
We were so cold from the biting wind, we ended up buying 2 new coats, a woolly hat , shoes and Brian finally bought a Ukulele .. whoop whoop , so every waking hour he is having a right old pluck, I say pluck away my friend, I don't give a flying pluck ... That night we had booked ourselves onto the penguin tour - no surprises there as we are so closes to Antarctica and it is soooo cold .. our friends for the night Hyacinth Bucket and her down trodden husband Ken joined us ... she was an utter pain in the hole !! they were from " Shakespeare Country " sounded more like Swindon ...but hey who am I to judge ... I am still trying to find myself !!!!!!!

Yellow eyed Penguin

The first stop in the ball freezing wind was the yellow eyed penguin, very rare and very shy.. it was very exciting as we climbed down sand dunes to find a nesting pair preening each other ... Brian was open mouthed ... ( I had seen a similar thing in Melbourne with my sister Kate ) It was then onto see the Blue eyed penguins at another site... we sat in a benched area, at 8pm waiting for them to come ashore.. I had my woolly hat on , a vest, two jumpers, new coat and a blanket wrapped around me... they eventually came, they build rafts at sea then come to shore in numbers for safety, they seem drunk on land, stumbling around and tripping up, they looked like me heading back to the bus , tripping over my blanket , Brian said I looked like Gadaffi !! ( alive I hope .. I think .. god .. why him , why not Angelina !!) the penguins having had a busy day at sea were heading back to their nests to regurgitate their catch to their young ... ( bulimic s ).. see even nature is at it , worrying about their weight ..

Go On Brain !

The next day we set off to Dunedin, a town in the South, the drive was just beautiful, I think we will get sick of saying " oh man , look at that , its just beautiful " you need to take our word for it , it is just simply unbelievably stunning here, so we will put more phots than words ( thank god I hear you say - you don't have to read it you know ) .. so first stop Moeraki Boulders - 2m in diameter , large grey perfectly spherical boulders on a beautiful sandy beach on the tide line , we clambered and climbed over these amazing rocks, inside them it is like honeycomb and the Maori's believed them to be baskets dropped from canoes .... bloody big baskets , ...

We decided to have lunch at a peninsula called " shag point " ... Hello ... Fat , hairy , mammals , laying around, then getting jiggy with it , no not us !!!! the resident fur seal population, they were slathered over all the rocks here, along with a abundance of shag !! not many times you get to write that in a sentence and a colony of gulls with bright red beaks and bright red feet , who did not stop fighting, reminded me of a bunch of birds in red high heels and lipstick all bickering and fighting over a boy called Leon !!

From here onto Dunedin, a lovely pseudo Scottish town with bagpipes and road names named after Scottish towns.. the camp site was on a lovely beach called St Kilda , a bit like Camber sands with wind swept sandy beach, protected by grassy sand dunes and nothing on the beach not even a pebble, except the obligatory driftwood tree trunk for that photo opportunity ,, so after a bracing brisk salty walk it was back to the camper where we skyped mum , spoke to sis Kate and trod sand into our gritty bunk ...