The travel log of Vic and Steve

Kia ora koutou from very cold Milton Keynes. Our first day here in the UK so this is a pretty short blog post. We stayed up til after 10pm successfully last night but struggled to get up this morning so Paul left for the marathon without us - and as we failed to get up til 9am we ended up watching the race from the comfort (and warmth) of the couch. Paul was pacing a friend who was running a 2hour 45 race today so had a relaxing time and apparently went for an extra few kms running around the place but had fun and brought a medal home.   Our 3 flights over were ok, we didn't get our upgrades - actually only 1 person got an upgrade and the couple who were offered that one seat described it as a marriage test choosing who (he took the seat). Shanghai airport has changed heaps with noodle bars and tea / coffee shops alongside the many duty free shops now. But their crazy entry processes have not changed so the first hour was queuing and temperature checks (which I passed thank goodne

And we’re off. 19th of April 2024.  Koru lounge for a wine before our first of 3 flights today Wellington Auckland. First confession, we checked in our carry on bags. Second confession, mine weighed 10kg’s and Steve’s weighed 8kg’s - hopefully those extra kg’s are taken up with gifts to lavish on Karen and Paul so we’ll be under before we head back - we think AirNZ is the only airline we’re travelling who limits you to 7kg carry on.   Anyway. Welcome to our blog. Who knew we used to blog, at some stage we moved away from this and started sending emails but with so many of you asking for photos I decided to blog this trip. Also gives me something to do on travel days, which there are many of - trains, planes and ferries.  It’s been fun reading our UK 2016 travels. Sadly that was the last time we saw Mary who lost her battle with brain cancer earlier this year. We had such a lovely time in York with Don visiting Lawrence, Mary and Aimee.  Which leads me to why we are here. Life is sh

It was a perfect spring like day today so we headed out on the Red Rocks walkway from Owhiro Bay carpark to the seal colony past Red Rocks.  Lovely coastal walk with stunning views of the snow capped South Island mountains. We walked 5km, sat and ate an apple looking at the view then returned.  There were tonnes of seals today basking in the sunshine. Man they stink en masse like this. Hard to get a good photo but the one above gives you an idea - yes the lumps that look like seals are seals.  As it is a stunning Wellington day there were also hundreds of people, tens of cyclists, a handful of trail bikes and we thinks we gave way to over 200+ 4wd vehicles.  My tiny rant is what a load of dickheads. This path is multi user yet the 4wd's sped, forced bikes and walkers to scramble up and down banks by not just slowing down and giving us room. Honestly of the 200+ only 7 vehicles did the kiwi index finger raise thank you gesture when we got out of their way. The

Foolishly believing the Metservice forecast we set off for a hike on Saturday. The weather in Wellington was pretty terrible and while the whole country was facing record winds on Sunday the forecast for the Wairarapa was mild Saturday in comparison.  We chose Waiohine Gorge as the swing bridge looks spectacular- and it is! As is the gorge it crosses. A 120m suspension bridge, 40m above the river apparently, it's one person wide with a loading of 7 people. This is somewhere I wish I had brought Don and Imogen when they were young - very wow. There was a family down below us as we crossed. In the selfie pic you can see the bridge above.  Back to our hike. We drove over the hill planning to hike and stay the night in Martinborough - the latter part we did.  As we left the sealed road and hit gravel, realising we had no cell coverage on either phone it also dawned on us we didn't tell anyone else where we had gone.  The rain was pretty bad and was sticking to the Tararua ranges, i

This two weeks has flown by yet we are happy to have seen so many people and Steve enjoyed a great first visit to my former home town.  Our last morning was pissing down. We packed, chatted with Paul who kindly worked from home so we could spend some time with him and headed into town to meet Karen for lunch  Our last selfie at stop P Isle of Dogs and one last photo at Canary Wharf DLR station.  Our big plan for the last day was going up the Walkie-Talkie building to the SkyGarden. As you can see from this before and after pic series when we headed to our long awaited booking time we couldn't even see the building for the cloud.  So sadly we cancelled our booking. Impossible to get another the same day that has gone into the list for next time.  Another of the things on the list was lunch at Caravan which we did achieve. Great coffee as promised Sophie.  We escorted Karen back to work so we could delay the goodbye. So last photo on the tube.  She works in such a fantastic part of L

After our shorter than ideal sleep we headed off to York, a short train ride from Leeds.  York is a walled town with Roman ruins, a cathedral and a castle too. We had yummy breakfast and set off on the wall walk, it's about 3km but we stepped off and on walking 13km in our short day there.  We found the walk lovely but curious watching normal life go on in homes alongside it. Here are a few pics that sum York up really.  Part of the walk had no wall section as it had formerly been a lake and moat section of the castle protection. Now it's a megacentre and housing. We saw baby geese and swans though.  Around midday we spotted a gorgeous pub so just had to stop and sit in their courtyard. Lovely day for it.  That's the wall behind Steve.  The cathedral is massive and ornate. Great windows and gargoyle display.  Hard to photograph up close so these don't do it justice.  The castle cost £5 EACH! To walk up but oh what a view.  The pedestrian streets are full of standard hig