Fire, Flood, Pestilence ~

"One can't be angry when one looks at a penguin".

John Ruskin - 19th Century English art critic, philosopher, social thinker

https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/otago-peninsula-area/taiaroa-head-nature-reserve/

https://www.newzealand.com/uk/penguins-dunedin/

After our extraordinary Albatross tour at the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head, we returned to the on-site café, ate our pre-ordered very mediocre meals then joined everyone else in the foyer ready for our nightfall penguin tour.

Although the centre runs several Albatross tours throughout the day at Taiaroa Head, there is only one Penguin Tour as the penguins are out at sea from just before sunrise until well after sunset, so we were joined by quite a few others for our 9:00 pm Penguin tour that evening.

At just after 9:00 pm, we were walked down to Pilots Beach on the western side of the Taiaroa headland.

It was already pretty dark by then so we were advised to walk carefully as there was only limited lighting on the steps down to the beach as they did not want to distract the returning penguins.

We were also asked to keep noise levels to a minimum as very rowdy groups make the returning penguins think that there are predators in the area so they could turn back and swim to alternative beaches which would mean that we wouldn't see them at all.

Fortunately our group was impeccably behaved so we did have the good fortune of seeing quite a few of them returning to roost on Pilots beach on that balmy evening in February 2020.

"At dusk these birds return to their nests to sleep after spending all the daylight hours at sea in search of food (fish)".

"During these night time viewings, over 200 birds can be seen arriving on this beach during the summer months".

"These smaller penguins nest underground so they are only visible above ground from the moment they emerge out of the water onto the beach to when they waddle up the bank to their burrows", which is why we needed to get to the beach a good half hour before they arrived.

"Taiaroa Head/Pukekura is a strong-hold for this species on the Otago Peninsula".

"There are around 400 pairs of little blue penguins on the headland with nearly 200 of these located at Pilots Beach".

"The Otago Peninsula is home to several breeding colonies of Little Blue Penguins and a significant number of the rare Yellow-eyed Penguins, who reside there all year-round".

I don't think we saw any of the Yellow-eyed penguins that night but as they all swim back to shore together at the same time, it is difficult to know for sure if we did or we didn't as it was quite dark when they started to arrive

"The endangered Yellow-Eyed Penguin (the Hoiho) tend to nest in the coastal vegetation in and around that area of the Otago Peninsula, hidden away from other birds and humans" but they have been known to swim back to shore on Pilots beach at dusk with the little Blues.

"Dunedin is one of the few places in New Zealand and indeed the world, where one can see these beautiful birds in the wild, going about the daily business of life on the beaches and amongst the sand dunes".

The Little Blue Penguins, the ones we definitely did see, are "the world’s smallest penguins and they too are local to that area of New Zealand and can be seen returning back to shore in comedic groups or ‘rafts’, before waddling up to their burrows to feed their young".

We had seen penguins several times before in zoos so we were already very familiar with their distinctive little waddle but seeing them in the wild is a totally different experience, especially these rare little blues that we had never seen before.

Spotting them first in the distance emerging from the water then watching them waddle 'clumsily' towards us (the shore) quite close to our viewing point, is an experience we will never forget.

These are the same little penguins which can be seen in certain areas of Australia, even on Manly beach in Sydney if you're lucky, but sadly due to the ever increasing trend of mass tourism everywhere in Australia, their numbers there are now in serious decline.

It will be interesting to see whether the long periods of lockdown and social distancing during most of 2020, will improve these statistics long-term.

Back in New Zealand, a "committed conservation effort by local tourism operators, the Department of Conservation and other groups, have ensured the penguins are protected and given space to flourish", this should should guarantee that breeding pairs do not decline.

The only way one is now officially allowed to observe these birds in New Zealand is with a fully Eco wildlife tour operator such as the one we were on from Taiaroa Head.

The Taiaroa Head tours offer Eco-tourism at its best where the animals' interests come before profit, for that reason we were happy to support them and participate in the tour.

As Greenpeace has been saying for years:

"Eco-tourism is the only way forward if we hope to preserve the many endangered species in our modern world and secure their survival for the benefit of future generations and for the continued well-being and natural equilibrium of our planet"

First sighting of penguins coming to shore

Penguins waddling across the beach back to their burrows

Penguins scrambling up the bank to their burrows

Penguins ready to return to their burrows

Penguins heading for their burrows

Little Blue Penguin on Pilots Beach, Dunedin

Penguins scrambling up the bank to their burrows

Hilarious little waddle up the bank

Beautiful Pilots Beach

Model of Korora, the little blue penguin as seen at the museum of Wellington a few days later

Model of Yellow-eyed penguin as seen at the museum of Wellington a few days later

Tuesday 25 February 2020

Dunedin

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin

https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/dunedin-nz-ot-d.htm

It had been a long day and a very special birthday; one that we knew could never be matched by anything else we ever did again, and that was before we experienced any of the lockdowns and social distancing restrictions that would totally engulf us all just a few weeks later.

After our magical Penguin tour on Pilots Beach underneath the Southern Hemisphere's beautiful starry skies, we set course for central Dunedin.

To mark the final half hour of this unique birthday celebration, we found a little bar in the town centre where we toasted the birthday boy for one last time and looked for directions to our Airbnb accommodation which we had altered a few days ago from Queenstown to enable us to re-book our Milford Sound tour.

Now would be the moment of truth.

As our booking amendments were made directly with the landlords rather than via the Airbnb site, there were no guarantees at all as to whether the accommodation would still be available to us.

We had no internet access at Taiaroa Head so I had to wait until we reached central Dunedin before being able to check the Airbnb app on my phone to see whether we had been sent any check-in details; fortunately for us, we had.

The landlords had sent detailed directions to their property, the key box code to access the entry key to our section of the house and other information on bedrooms, bathrooms plus where to access a vast selection of food and beverages which they had left in the fridge and in various cupboards in case we were hungry on arrival.

They were clearly very kind, generous people.

At that point, we relaxed and had another drink (I had a cup of tea as designated driver) and a chat with the landlord who assured us that our accommodation was no more than a ten minute drive away.

The pub was called The Thistle and it was the only one still open when we got there just before 11:30 pm but the landlord was pleasant, the drinks were not over priced and it was very centrally located in one of the main squares in town, so on balance, it would have made a perfect 'local' for us had we been in the area longer .

After that second drink, we paid up and programmed our accommodation address into the car's sat-nav.

Although it was dark, it was easy to find and the landlords had saved us a space for our car at the entrance of the very steep driveway up to their home. (I am certainly glad I didn't have to drive up that at 1:30 am)

The accommodation was perfect: two double bedrooms, our own personal bathroom, a private fridge well stocked with food; a kettle, microwave, toaster and more.

Such a shame that we were only there for one night.

The following morning we enjoyed an abundant and very generous breakfast in our accommodation then set off to see the main sights in Dunedin before embarking upon our long drive north.

"Dunedin (Māori: Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

The urban area of Dunedin lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour, and the harbour and hills around Dunedin are the remnants of an extinct volcano.

The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.

Dunedin was the largest New Zealand city by territorial land area until superseded by Auckland with the formation of the Auckland Council in November 2010.

Archaeological evidence points to lengthy occupation of the area by Māori prior to the arrival of Europeans.

The province and region of Otago takes its name from the Ngāi Tahu village of Otakou at the mouth of the harbour, which became a whaling station in the 1830s.

In 1848 a Scottish settlement was established by the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland.

Between 1855 and 1900 many thousands of Scots emigrated to the incorporated city.

Dunedin became wealthy during the Central Otago Gold Rush, beginning in the 1860s.

In the mid-1860s, and between 1878 and 1881, it was New Zealand's largest urban area.

The city population on the 5 March 2013 was 120,246.

While Hamilton, Tauranga and Lower Hutt have eclipsed the city in size of population since the 1980s to make it only the seventh-largest urban area in New Zealand, Dunedin is still considered one of the four main cities of New Zealand for historic, cultural and geographic reasons"

This is definitely a city with a significant history; that is clear as soon as you drive into it.

"Small and extremely hilly, Dunedin lays claim to having the steepest residential street in the world".

I always believed that the steepest street in the world was the one I lived on when I was at university in North Wales, but Baldwin Street in Dunedin, is so steep that the houses look crooked when you look at photos of it.

The town centre is compact and easily navigated on foot, with many fine examples of late 19th-century architecture still well preserved.

We didn't have time to see very much when we were there as we only had a few hours but we managed to drive past the main sites and admire them from afar if nothing else.

We certainly saw enough to want to return there and get to know it better when we are all able to travel abroad again one day hopefully in the not so distant future.

Late night 'Birthday drinks' at the Thistle in Central Dunedin after our Albatross and Penguin tours

Beautiful hill-top view of Dunedin from our Airbnb accommodation the following morning

Our road trip hire car and our private parking space at our accommodation

Very steep driveway up to our accommodation which I am very glad that I did not have drive up on our arrival there at 1:30 am

Baldwin Street, Dunedin - the steepest residential street in the world (photo courtesy of https://www.pinterest.com/pin/29625310027819528/).

Photo of a residential home on Baldwin Street, Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/baldwin-street)

The Octagon

http://www.dunedin.nz.com/octagon.aspx

Without realising its historical significance on our arrival in Central Dunedin the evening before, we had selected Octagon Square as our late-night drink venue.

We returned to The Thistle Café/Pub for coffee that morning and we had a lovely walk around that beautiful and very unusual square.

"The Octagon is at the heart of Dunedin's city centre; it is an eight sided plaza bisected by George Street, the city's main central street".

"Though first designated "The Square of Moray Place", even in its earliest years, it was colloquially known as The Octagon".

"Laid out by surveyors in 1846, Moray Place and The Octagon form two concentric streets, creating a ring of civil and public buildings around a central plaza, including the Dunedin Town Hall, the Dunedin Public Library, the Public Art Gallery, St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, a cinema multiplex and various cafes and bars, including, of course, The Thistle.

"Uniquely for an inner city plaza, and certainly not surprising in Dunedin, The Octagon is on an incline, sloping uphill from the sea".

"The central pedestrian reserve, bisected by George and Princess Streets, is a paved plaza in its lower half, and grassed terraces in the upper".

"The terrace is surmounted by an 1887 statue of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, whose nephew Thomas Burns was one of the city's founders".

"A statue for Thomas was later erected but removed due to its unpopularity in the 1940s".

"Running west out of The Octagon, Lower Stuart Street leads straight down to New Zealand's most photographed building, the Dunedin Railway Station, which is what we visited next".

Dunedin Town Hall

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_Town_Hall

"The Dunedin Town Hall is a beautiful, historical building right in the heart of the city extending from The Octagon, to Moray Place through a whole city block.

It is the seat of the Dunedin City Council, providing its formal meeting chamber, as well as a large auditorium and a conference centre.

The oldest part of the building is recognised as the only substantial Victorian town hall still in existence in New Zealand".

St Paul's Anglican Cathedral

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/new-zealand/dunedin-and-otago/dunedin/attractions/st-paul-s-cathedral/a/poi-sig/1202988/362683

"The city of Dunedin may be recognised as a Presbyterian stronghold, but it is the Anglican Cathedral of St Paul's which occupies the prime, central spot on The Octagon"

"A Romanesque portal leads into the Gothic interior of this beautiful Anglican cathedral, where soaring white Ōamaru-stone pillars spread into a vaulted ceiling".

"The main part of the church dates from 1919, although the sanctuary was left unfinished until 1971, hence the slightly jarring modern extension".

"The Cathedral's massive organ (3500 pipes) is said to be one of the finest in the Southern Hemisphere".

We did not have time to spend too long in that Cathedral that day but we were there long enough to appreciate the exquisite music resonating from that organ and echoing all around the church right out into the square.

We definitely selected the perfect moment for our very fleeting visit of Dunedin's magnificent Anglican cathedral

The Octagon - Dunedin

St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin

The magnificent organ at St Paul's Cathedral Dunedin (photo courtesy of http://dchamberlinarchitect.com/travel-south%20pacific-new%20zealand-dunedin-ST%20PAULS.htm)

The Town Hall in the Octagon, Dunedin

View of The Thistle pub on the Octagon, Dunedin

Statue of Robert Burns at the Octagon, Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=octagon+dunedin&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=minv&sxsrf=ALeKk01O9ehAF-MqpoHhy_VxXZa48VWupQ:1612003504968&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwin6KiCvcPuAhW7TxUIHeDRBjEQ_AUoAnoECBcQAg&biw=375&bih=553#imgrc=hmU07cEx_c6PdM)

Dunedin Railway Station

https://www.newzealand.com/uk/feature/dunedin-railway-station/

I am sure anyone who has been to Dunedin and seen its extraordinary railway station, will agree that it has to rank among one of the grandest stations anywhere in the world.

"Dunedin's Railway Station is one of the city’s most prominent architectural landmarks, taking pride of place right in the heart of that spectacular South Island city".

"Dating back to 1906, this magnificent Flemish Renaissance-style edifice features white Oamaru limestone facings on black basalt rock, giving it a dramatic air and it’s characteristic ‘Gingerbread House’ appearance".

"Fitted out in the lavish style of the times, the booking hall alone features a mosaic floor of almost 750,000 tiles of Royal Doulton porcelain", the effect of which is absolutely extraordinary.

"The sheer size, grandiose style and rich embellishments of the station earned architect George Troup the nickname of Gingerbread George".

"The station is open to the public to marvel at the ornate interiors and period adornments"

We certainly did that when we were there in February 2020.

"A large restaurant takes up the much of the ground floor and the upper floor houses an art gallery and a sports hall of fame"

So it is clear that the locals consider this to be far more than a means of travel.

"Every Saturday the adjacent carpark transforms into the Otago Farmers Market, where local artisan producers sell all manner of delicious treats from fresh produce through to decadent pastries and cheeses".

We didn't experience it ourselves alas, but we did hear that it is something of a ritual for the locals who like to stock up on Dunedin-made goodies.

A morning at the market is a social occasion anywhere but in an area such as this with so much local produce grown everywhere in the surrounding areas, it must be amazing.

Such a shame that we could no experience it for ourselves on that occasion

Dunedin Station - photo courtesy of: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_railway_station

Gingerbread House style architecture of Dunedin’s magnificent railway station

Stunning Royal Doulton mosaic flooring at Dunedin Railway Station (photo courtesy of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_railway_station#/media/File%3ADunedin_Station_and_Courts.jpg)

Vintage steam train at Dunedin Railway Station

Vintage train carriage in sidings at Dunedin Railway Station

One of the trains in use today at Dunedin Railway Station

Long distance express train from Dunedin to Picton

Anzac Square - Dunedin

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_railway_station

https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/dunedin-nz-ot-d.htm

"Immediately outside the station is Anzac Square which is roughly triangular in shape, and was extensively remodelled and extended in the 1990s to create a formal knot garden".

"Directly across the square is Lower Stuart Street, which leads to The Octagon, from where the station is clearly visible as a major landmark.

It is when we were walking around The Octagon that Anzac Square, the station and the Law Courts first caught our eye.

That square and those beautiful imposing buildings were such a draw that we just had to see them even though we realised at that point that we would probably be driving well into the night to reach our next destination.

"The station forms a terminating vista for Lower Stuart Street".

"The square is at the southern end of Anzac Avenue, a kilometre-long tree-lined street running roughly parallel to the railway, which leads to Dunedin's Logan Park".

Such a beautiful sight to behold. It's like a smaller version of the Champs Elysees in Paris.

"The central part of Anzac Avenue is part of State Highway 88, which links the central city with its port facilities at Port Chalmers".

"Logan Park was the site of the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and the avenue and square were named to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the "ANZACs", who were New Zealand's main military force during the First World War",

"After the refurbishment of the square, a large plaque dedicated to New Zealand's Victoria Cross recipients was relocated to its northern end, close to the start of Anzac Avenue".

"This has since been relocated again, and now stands close to the city's main war memorial, the Dunedin Cenotaph in Queen's Gardens, 400 metres to the south".

We only saw the Cenotaph from a distance on that lovely sunny morning but it definitely strengthened our resolve to return to this city again one day soon (hopefully) and spend at least a week visiting all the sights properly and getting to it Dunedin better.

The Law Courts

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_Law_Courts

The Dunedin Law Courts are located directly opposite Dunedin's historic railway station at the corner of Lower Stuart Street and Anzac Square.

You cannot help but notice this building when you are there as it is without doubt one of Dunedin's most notable historic landmarks.

Since 1902, the building has been used as the city's law courts, and contains four court rooms, including the ornate High Court, as well as housing the offices and library of the Law Society.

The Law Courts building was one of the first major works to be designed by Government architect John Campbell, and was built in 1901 at a cost of £20,000 and it opened in April 1902.

The Law Courts are located alongside the former Dunedin Central Police Station, another Campbell building, though built in a completely different style.

While the 1890s police station (which was actually the city's gaol for most of its existence) was deliberately modelled in a Queen Anne style uncommon in New Zealand but designed to imitate London's New Scotland Yard (now the Norman Shaw Buildings), the Law Courts are in decorative but stern Victorian Gothic style similar to the buildings of Dunedin's University of Otago Registry Building.

As is common with many of Dunedin's more substantial historic structures (including the railway station opposite) the Law Courts are constructed of dark Port Chalmers breccia ornamented with lighter Oamaru stone, a local compacted limestone mined to the north of Dunedin, and is topped with a roof of slate and granite.

The main entrance to the court sits at the foot of a short tower which is decorated with an un-blindfolded statue of Justice in Italian white marble.

This entire area of Dunedin really does need to be seen if you are travelling in that area.

It is as pretty a city centre as you will see anywhere and as historic and imposing as any of our major European cities.

My only regret that day is that we really could not see more or we would be driving all night and we definitely didn't want to do that, so at that point we did have to return to the car and set off on our very long road trip north.

I particularly regretted not seeing Larnach Castle and the Moeraki Boulders.

Larnach Castle is New Zealand's one and only castle and is recognised as Dunedin's top tourist attraction.

It was built in the late 19th-century by wealthy banker William Larnach who made his fortune during Otago's gold rush years.

No expense was spared in its construction, with Italian marble, Welsh slate, and Venetian glass being shipped in from the other side of the globe to create a sumptuous house with a façade similar to the Scottish castles of Larnarch's roots.

Despite Larnach's wealth and career success, he led a tragic life, with both his wife and favorite daughter dying young.

In 1898, while serving as a politician in Wellington, he committed suicide.

After his death, the castle fell into decline, serving as an asylum, soldiers' barracks, and nunnery until it was purchased by the Barker family in 1967 who undertook a mammoth restoration project to restore the castle to its former grandeur.

Today, this fascinating building is full of period furniture, and its wonderful sprawling gardens are open to the public to explore.

As it is a 14 kilometre drive from outside Dunedin's city centre, we were not able to visit it that day but I read that the views from the castle tower are mesmerising and high-tea in the old ballroom can certainly give London's Ritz Hotel a run for its money.

The Moeraki Boulders are located on Koekohe Beach near the provincial town of Moeraki.

These 50 smooth, spherical boulders are a geological wonder on this otherwise lonely sweep of beach.

In the pictures I have seen they definitely look like left over marbles from a game played by giants.

The largest of them weighs approximately 50 tonnes and some are three meters wide.

These ancient boulders are concretions (ball-shaped masses of hard matter) that were once part of the coastline cliffs but are all that were left behind when the cliffs wore away due to wave erosion over millions of years.

We came close to Moeraki but decided not to divert to it.

Now in our 10th month of lockdown and isolation, that remains one of our major regrets on our entire three month antipodean voyage.

Beautiful Anzac Square Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://eservices.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/facility/anzac-square-gardens)

Police Station and old jail Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=police+station+dunedin&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=minv&sxsrf=ALeKk03t6cfHR8URd-7rXIAXrKuTFgjOsA:1612004146643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOuqW0v8PuAhVNQMAKHRa-A3MQ_AUoAnoECAMQAg&biw=375&bih=553&dpr=2#imgrc=EUWvdQpQgSY0RM)

The Cenotaph at Logan Park, Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_Cenotaph)

Statue of Justice sculpted in white marble imported from Italy (photo courtesy of https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=statue+of+justice+law+courts+dunedin&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=minv&sxsrf=ALeKk00pZw9rbkYSuq8dA6IC25IAYsamrg:1612003955432&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiq8Y7ZvsPuAhWTnVwKHSlbAnEQ_AUoAnoECAMQAg&biw=375&bih=553#imgrc=Y7cocq8YVdOwDM)

The Law Courts on the right and the station on the left in Dunedin's beautiful Anzac Square (photo courtesy of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_railway_station#)

Magical Larnach Castle Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=larnach+castle&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=imnv&sxsrf=ALeKk02K-aQhMdEN9UQ8rjI6KFclwTa76g:1612003828202&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjftrmcvsPuAhVQQEEAHY-2Al4Q_AUoAXoECBkQAQ&biw=375&bih=553&dpr=2#imgrc=cNrJTRAg3TF1hM)

Moeraki Boulders, Dunedin, a glimpse into this ancient land's extraordinary pre-historic past (photo courtesy of https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/dunedin-nz-ot-d.htm)

The Moeraki geological wonder, a few kilometres from Dunedin (photo courtesy of https://www.newzealand.com/in/moeraki/)

Final Birthday drink in Palmerston

Our very long road trip north started much later than we had planned for it to start on our itinerary, so by the time we set off we were already two hours behind schedule.

We had to fill the tank with petrol at some point soon but we decided to do that en route rather than in central Dunedin so we ended up stopping in the town of Palmerston approximately 45 minutes into our drive.

As New Zealand is 13 hours ahead of the UK in our winter and their summer, we calculated that although it was almost 1:00 pm in Palmerston, it was still before midnight on 24 February in the UK so in the UK it was still my husband's birthday.

We therefore decided to have one final birthday drink at the road side tavern next door to the petrol station we had stopped at.

The barman was very amused by our time zone calculations but he concluded that as my husband was born in the UK then strictly speaking, it was UK time that counted in calculating when exactly his birthday began and ended.

That was all very true but as we had been celebrating that birthday since 22 February in Queenstown, that theory was somewhat academic,

It was while we were having that final birthday drink in Palmerston that we considered driving to Moeraki to see the boulders as we were only 15 minutes from it at that point.

We decided against it in the end as we were already behind schedule and we really didn't want to still be driving at 2:00 in the morning when we were bound to be sleepy.

We regret that now so very much but at the time safety and common sense prevailed, though why we didn't consider the pocket coffee option as we do in Italy totally baffles me.

After Palmerston we stayed on State Highway 1 without stopping until we were almost back in Christchurch.

We had to stop for petrol again at some point so we stopped briefly in the town of Timaru where we also had coffee and food so we could then keep driving until Kaikoura.

The two young women who served us in that café were quite surprised to hear about our very long drive that day and they thought we would be staying in Kaikoura that night, they would have been totally shocked had they known we were driving to Blenheim.

The journey from Palmerston to Timaru may not have been as scenic as the previous day's drive from Queenstown to Dunedin but it was a beautiful, sunny day and as on that day I shared the driving with my husband it was easier as we could rest in between drives.

My data package from Sparks on my New Zealand SIM card purchased at the airport hadn't been quite as effective as I had hoped so whilst in Palmerston I took the opportunity to call them and 'discuss' my options and payment with them.

Eventually they agreed that an error had been made and I was provided with a generous data package free of charge which did then last until we left New Zealand a few weeks later.

As I hadn't been able to check emails for a while, I used my breaks from driving that day to do a little admin.

It was at that point that I discovered an email from Air Asia informing me that if we wanted to change the date of our flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to a later time of year, we could benefit from their one-time no fee offer.

We had already amended the date of that flight from 14 March to 23 March, when we had to cancel our South East Asia travel plans and so change our flight date from Sydney to Singapore from 12 to 22 March, so we were surprised to receive that email just a few days after our last amendment.

We certainly could not alter the dates of those flights again as we had to return back to the UK at the end of March so we did not take them up on their one-time offer.

I also found an email from a good friend sent a few days previously, who was concerned about the situation in Italy and was wondering whether we should postpone our Easter trip there in April.

We hadn't appreciated at that point how serious the Covid-19 situation in Italy had become; it is not easy staying abreast of world news when one is travelling and does not have a TV or reliable internet access on a regular basis.

Due to our data package error we had been totally reliant on WIFI which is not at all reliable in remote South Island New Zealand.

I checked various internet news sites at that point and discovered that as of 24 February 2020, a total of 164 cases of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 had indeed been reported in Italy, all in the region of Lombardy.

At that point very little was still known about that virus and it was still considered by many to be a particularly nasty strain of winter flu which surely would be eliminated by the time we were due to travel to Italy in April.

I therefore replied to my friend and explained that it would be better to wait at least until mid March before making any decisions about our trip to Italy in April.

I had a cold myself at that time which I may have caught from my daughter's fiancé who actually arrived from Australia with a cold the previous week.

Luckily for me I did not have it for long as it only lasted three or four days; my colds usually last at least a week and they tend to be quite nasty.

What with lockdown, masks and social distancing for most of 2020 and now also in 2021, I have not had a cold since then.

Driving through busy Christchurch did slow us down a little during late afternoon but at that point we followed signs to Kaikoura so we were able to bypass the city centre.

Once we had cleared Christchurch and all its commuter traffic, the drive to Kaikōura took approximately 2hr 30 minutes.

This was a very scenic drive indeed through the beautiful Waipara wine valley and the pretty town of Cheviot in the Hurunui District of north Canterbury.

Then from there the Mt Lyford Inland Route 70 road from Waiau to Kaikoura.

Mt Lyford itself is a ski resort located 146 kilometres north of Christchurch on the Inland Kaikōura Road.

We did not go that far as we were only taking that road as far as Kaikoura where we would be stopping for a few hours, then travelling onto Blenheim which would be that evening's final destination.

But what we did see of the Mt Lyford inland route was truly spectacular.