The Indian Pacific to Adelaide

I had booked a cabin on a very expensive train from Sydney to Adelaide called the Indian Pacific back in November, and had since then been trying to justify the cost. But to heck with it! - besides I'd never been on a luxury train journey before.
The Indian Pacific train, runs between the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. The route used to comprise of a number of different gauges so a journey on the same train was not possible until 1970 when the gauges were converted to one standard, the Indian Pacific was the first train to travel the whole route. There are 3 classes, I was in Gold class in a single cabin.
I had spent a couple of nights in Coogee in Sydney at a lovely airbnb. It was hair drier hot in Sydney, after a walk along the coast I went to Wylie's baths on the waterfront, a sea water pool, which was splendid. My airbnb host, Sean, kindly gave me a lift to the train station where the Indian Pacific had it's own check in booth.

Wylie's Baths at Coogee

Looking towards Coogee beach

The train is in two parts in the station and hooks up when it departs because it's so long, a very nicely dressed crew member directed me to the Gold lounge where guest could have drinks whilst we waited for access to our cabins, it was an open bar. At 2pm we were allowed to check into our cabins, I was turbo excited about this.

I was turbo excited for probably at least 10 minutes after getting my cabin, opening every cubby hole and just marvelling at how ingenious the space was.

Double cabin and super fun snaking single cabin corridors

My room!

Cabin in bed formation, and the clever sink that folds away.



The Gold lounge

The lounge was open the whole time for drinks and nibbles, one of the crew members came to each cabin after the train left to take dinner time reservations. At dinner I was sat with an American lady and a couple made up of an Australian woman who was stuck on transmit and a quiet serene Dutchman who didn't feel like eating anything, despite this she ordered his food for him and then tutted when he didn't want to eat it. I was quite hungry and had eaten all my food, so asked if I could have his soup, he said yes, so I ate his soup while the Australian woman went on about bad everything was and that she had been on a 12 day train journey in Europe and it had cost $25'000, and she'd been on this train journey and that train journey and blah de blah..... she was mainly talking at the lady opposite from the states, I was glad of this. She made me think - I should never get used to this luxury, otherwise it will loose everything that's special about it and you no longer appreciate it.

During dinner service the crew had turned my cabin seat into a bed. More excitement. I was tired from all the excitement and went to bed somewhere past the Blue Mountains.

When I woke up the landscape was proper outback red earth Australia. Baby Roo had finally come home. We had an excursion at Broken Hill, a mining town which involved getting up at 6am as the train was due to arrive at 6.30.

Baby Roo looking out of the cabin window

 

In Broken Hill we had a choice of excursions, one to the minors memorial and one to a local artist called Pro Hart. I thought Broken Hill was going to be a couple of big sheds and bits of old mining clutter but it's a town of 19000 people. I went to the art gallery, think Lowry + Dali and you get Pro Hart. I thought it was brilliant.

 

Painted Rolls at the Pro Hart gallery

 

After the excursion we had breakfast, I sat with Diane, a nice lady from Seattle and a sweet lady from Perth.

 

At breakfast with Diane from Seattle

And then there was nothing else to do but enjoy the journey until lunch time and arriving in Adelaide. It was quite strange, a number of people of the train reminded me of other people, I felt like Dorothy quite literally in Oz.

A wonderful journey, and totally worth it.

The legend of Cuthbert

Once upon a time their was a man called Cuthman who pushed his Grandmother around in a wheelbarrow looking for a good place to build a church, he pushed the wheelbarrow for many years and eventually he stopped and built a church and was made a saint. Saint Cuthman is the saint of a local village near to where my parents live now and the church is still there, to wind my Dad up I called the Saint - Saint Cuthbert. When we bought the car in Whangarei I called it Cuthbert because he would be transporting us around many miles for many years, and so he did. And now he has stopped at A La Francesca's. Tatapuranga island knew Cuthbert was going to stop there because it's a magic island which is actually a church disguised as an island.
And so the legend of Saint Cuthman continues.



New owner TJ with Cuthbert

Cuthbert will be staying 'in the family' as he was bought by Dolf and Francesca's son TJ.

Cuthbert dear Cuthbert,
saggy old cloth roof bert,
wake up and see these things which I bring
oh Cuthbert, hear what I sing.

Cuthbert was just an old red Toyota, saggy and a bit pink at the edges, but Claire loved him.



Part of Cuthbert's joy came from the smiley face on the dashboard.

I took Cuthbert out for one last slow drive around the Wellington bays.

Traffic on Shelly Bay

Earlier in the day I also had to say goodbye to my favourite dog Leia, who I love very much and who loves me very much.

Leia knows how to dress

And of course my good friend Josie who I met up with several times this week, she's been a great friend to me.

Leia and Josie and baby Chloe

But all too soon it was time to leave, like Bilbo leaving the Shire or Paddington Bear leaving Deepest Darkest Peru, or Christopher Robin leaving the Hundred Acre Wood or so I had to leave Island Bay.
I said goodbye to Dolf at the house and Francesca took me to the airport, I checked in for the first time using my Kiwi passport and then we had a glass of wine in the upstairs Mojo café that no one knows about. It was very nice not to have to wait on my own, we whiled away a pleasant hour chatting until it was time to go through, we said our goodbyes. I knew I had about 1 minute before I would need to find somewhere quiet or put sunglasses on, I got as far as the spirits sections of the duty free after going through security, so I had to spend some time in a corner by the Dows aged 10 and the Deutz Bruts to regain my composure before continuing. I felt sad, but it was a happy sad from leaving people I love, who I care about and who genuinely care about me, a very different departure from 6 months ago on every level.
See? It was it a happy ending after all.

 



Special Wellington Day Tour

Airbnb guest Thomas was staying for a few nights before going the south island and asked if I'd be his guide for the day around Wellington. The night before we went to the Meridian Magic free concert in the botanic gardens and saw this splendid example of Steampunk.

 

The next day was the special Wellington day tour, first to Mirarmar Weta cave where the shop is with the creatures and things from the films the Mirarmar studios produce. Outside were these chaps:

 

He was heading out to the shops with his wee bag



After Weta Cave we went to The Roxy - the art deco cinema in Mirarmar, it's had more movie characters like this Stomtrooper:

Armed and practical.

 

There's also a statue of Gandalf outside.

Looking good.

 

Next we went to the Chocolate Fish café for lunch and for some lovely plum smoothies, then a short walk to the Massey Memorial at the end of the Mirirmar Peninsular.

After Mirarmar it's was up Mt Victoria for the lookout and then into town for a walk along Oriental and to Te Papa so Thomas could go inside the Earthquake House.

The tour also included crawling inside a whales heart, because its a special tour.

Thomas and Whale heart which you can crawl inside (found in the kids section)

 

In addition to the voyage inside a whale heart, the tour also included two dinosaurs talking/ possibly arguing but at least they didn't forget their bag.

 

There was just enough time to show Thomas the Embassy cinema that had the film premieres and the Black Sparrow bar underneath for its lovely décor, then it was back to Island Bay for a bbq up on the deck.

 

Dolf, Ashley, TJ and Thomas enjoying themselves.

 

For Lord of the Rings locations, DOC has this useful list.

Hawkes Bay again back to Wellington

Eskdale Campground

I stopped at Rotorua for fuel, 161.9c per litre, cheapest yet. I was last at Eskdale campsite 7 years ago, it's a lovely open campsite as you can see here. The next day I visited Esk Valley vinyard and the lady was very nice, I was also here 7 years ago, in Napier I visited Port Napier and had lunch at a lovely twee Kath Kidston style shop/ café called Port O Call, the owner called everyone my dear and darling and asked if they wanted tea or coffee, they had Devonshire Tea how about that, so I had a Devonshire Tea, everything had flowers on it, even my Devonshire Tea. I thought it was as close to my imaginary 'Mother Dears Tea Shop' as something could be.

Port O Call

Now with a bit more time, I had a walk up The Bluff Hill lookout which is a very nice walk to get there and watched the container ship being loaded and unloaded.

 

Back in town the pier looked a bit different from last time:

 

Would you look at that!

 

For lunch I went to Mission Bay vineyard which looks proper posh, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner but they a reasonable snack menu, so I got fries and steamed veg which were very nice. That evening I stayed at Clive campground in Clive, a nice long haired showed me to my tent spot on his bike, it's probably the friendliest campsite ever, I was visited by one of the long term residents cat called Mischief, who wanted to play.

 

Mischief playing with the tarp tie that goes around my tent. Beautiful animal but deadly I'm told.

 

Next day I decided to go back to Wellington, I had coffee at Unisons Vineyard which looked very Tuscan, it was really lovely, I had a good chat with the owner who is very easy to talk to and told me about her career change from H.R in corporate London to running a vineyard in Hawkes Bay. From there I went to Havelock North to Craggy Ranges Vineyard and did some tasting and collected a bottle and then had a walk up Te Mata peak, and realised I had been here 7 years ago too. It's a splendid hill, reminds me of the Lake District in the UK as it's fairly open and makes a change from green tunnel walks which is most of NZ. I had a picnic lunch of cheese and crackers and plums on a fence style looking out towards the peak, I could also see the vineyard I had just been to on the plain below.

 

Te Mata Peak, Craggy Ranges

I really like Hawkes Bay. I think it's actually my favourite area in New Zealand. Cuthbert carried me to Wellington, back to my lovely Island Bay sanctuary.

Oubliettes and hidden mazes on the Karangeheke Gorge

Today was the day to say goodbye to the animals which I have become fond off. I took Jake for one last jog in the morning and played fetch with Shilo, I'm fond of them all but especially the cats, I'll miss them and the lovely house.
After tidying the house and packing with as much cat cuddling as possible I booked a last minute airbnb in Paeroa because its very near to Karangeheke Gorge.

Lovely Airbnb

How cool is this place for $40! And I have my own bathroom!

So off I went to the gorge, I got the last parking spot (clever Cuthbert) and straight away got onto the wrong walk, none of the signs made any sense as there was no map to give anything context. So I ended up walking through a massive 1.9km dark tunnel first and then ended back where I started. I tried again and this time ignored all the signs and turned the only other direction available and got onto the path I was looking for.

Feels like an Aztec ruin

What a cool place, like some sort of Indiana Jones landscape.

And then I found this place, which is not on the map:

So spooky

 

The walls were really high on both sides, at places along the length were thin oubliettes that disappeared into darkness... I carried on past the swimming hole through another tunnel and took Dubbo track over the hill back to make a loop walk instead of going back the same way. The sign said 2 hours to get back but I ran all the way in my sandals and managed it in 1 hour, the first half is muddy and rooty and goes up a lot, then you get to this point:

 

 

And after this point its all downhill on a much more even track, I passed lots more old mine oubliettes, cold air comes out of them, the first thing that came into my head was the film I am Legend and its horrific zombies that hide in dark cold places, I spooked myself out and carried on running which is how I managed the track in half the time. Near the end a tiny hedgehog was walking across the track, he wasn't afraid of the monsters in the oubliettes, so I stopped and shared my last Nature Crunch bar with him.

After a lot more walking than I had planned to do, I was pretty pooped and glad to have a nice place to go back to, with no oubliettes in.

Cornwall Park is very nice.

Cornwall Park, it's got a nice name, a comforting name. Yes a Devonshire tea please, I think I'll have the fruit scones with English Breakfast, clotted cream? Excellent.

 

But first I think I'll have a nice walk up to that big obelisk up there on the hill, there must be a nice relaxing viewing point from up there...

 

Trull la la la la...

 

!

Some people didn't get out of their cars, there was actually a queue of cars waiting to not see the view.



 

Oh dear, oh deary me. But the rest of the park was very nice indeed, but there's no Devonshire Teas, it's New Zealand, they don't know what a cream tea is!

 

I stopped for a nice lunch in Ellerslie and went back to the house to endure some more affection from the cute ones. Just look at them:

Witness our cuteness

And so ends my last full day looking after the lovely animals and enjoying this beautiful house I have had the privilege to house sit.

Cliff walk and Karekare near Phia

Still raining today but went out for a walk at Karekare beach near Phia. There are a number of loop walks there, there are lots of forest walks in NZ so I thought it would be nice to do a cliff walk.

At Karekare main carpark there is no sign for the walk, there is a map:

 To get the cliff walk you have to go out of the car park and wander about looking lost for a bit and there is a road with a name but no signs to any walk, but its the only obvious road so up there you go and at the top is a sign to a walk except it's called something else but after that there is a sign for the track. The walk go up atop the cliffs and offers plenty of views to the rugged bays below, its a fun walk. I took the Ahu Ahu track back which is a very easy consistent gradient back to the top of the road, you could get a wheel chair down it except in a few place where trees had fallen across the path, you'd probably have to tip the wheel passenger out here and carry them across.



When I got back the dogs were in the front garden again and had made some deposits on the front lawn, Jake had been sitting on my sandals which now smell of dog. Inside Molly had been sitting on my bed, dang it! Is this a conspiracy?!
I put the dogs back in the back garden and reinforced the metal sheet they push out the way in the gap in the fence by wedging a large moving trolley that was in the back garden against it. I fed the cats and then Molly but made her wait a bit and then Jake and Shilo and made them wait much longer than usual before allowing them to eat. In the front garden I then noticed a massive amount of earth works had happened by the path. Naughty things!
Anyway, there is more Kapiti ice cream in the freezer, and Burt Munro to cheer on.