Hi from Andrew in NZ

[thevon]

Just stuck some coins into a kitchen internet PC at this campsite on the side of a volcano in NZ to do some banking and couldn't resist checking in and doing a quick skim thru the top 40. Wow, some great news there guys and some great photos.

I don't think this report will be up to any witful standards. After spending a week with 6 of us crammed into a campervan I don't really have any humour to give away. It's obvious when they say "6 berth campervan" they never actually expect that 6 people will try to live in it further than the agency's front gate.

My kids have taken to walking down scenic paths chanting "we're taking the Hobbits to Eisengaard!" at full voice. In between times, my son Nick insists on doing a maniacal shrieky bubbling crazy-laugh at (very frequent) random intervals. The more I yell for all this to stop, the more the other kids seem to find it hysterical, which only encourages him more.

But the scenery's really great. I've seen heaps. Not so much the kids who are usually staring at Gameboys, or eyes-closed humming to Ipods as I yell "wow, look at that snow capped mountain behind the lake!" ... which they can't hear way at the back of the van, particularly due to the roaring of the diesel and the crashing of plates and other objects thrashing around in the cupboards.

To make it all more exciting, our disabled daughter Sarah managed to have an apparent epileptic fit back home in care (not funny at all) so for a bit we thought we were heading back home but things seem OK, and thanks to daughter 3 also at home who suspended her schedule to help with sorting things out. Thanks God (we prayed a lot about that so I have to give him public recognition for miracles).

Flying-wise, I have to wind up by saying that so far this is an extremely calm place. We've only been on the Nth Island (heading to South on Thurs) and we've seen plenty of birds thermaling in the nil-wind conditions. Saw hundreds of gannets sloping above their colony on a beachfront cliff, but even they weren't getting a lot of lift. I HAVE seen some awesome looking DS ridges, but they're a long way from anywhere! NZ's geology is so young that the ridges are terribly sharp and rugged. Normal farmland in some areas is a series of sharp ridges - the cartoons of NZ are accurate!

Better go. Have fun guys.

[thevon]

Here's an update from a van park internet at Dunedin. Last time I posted, I said that NZ seemed to be such a calm place. Up to that point I wasn't really missing the gliders at all. Well, the next day we got to the coast at Wanganui and there was HEAPS of wind. With the combination of strong wind off the sea and huge grassy slopes I could really feel the obsession returning fast! We climbed up some big viewing towers and man that wind was powerful! (and cold!@#!).

We headed into Wellington which is called "The Windy City", and it lived up to its name! Strong, powerful cold wind all the time. It calmed down during the night and early next morning but by lunch it was really pumping again. We took the inter-island ferry and it was amazing sailing out of the harbour with huge tree-less hills everywhere and great wind. Very inspiring. One area has big, slow turning wind power generators. I started to feel like I'd love to come back armed with gliders and scout these HUGE slope sites! But the maximum daily temp in Wellington in mid summer is 20 deg, so we'd need to rug up like the Poms!

Arriving late arvo in Picton, we drove south thru more amazing looking hills in great wind, then the wind went totally crazy! I had trouble holding the van on the road at times and trees were getting whipped everywhere. We didn't see much as it got dark and rainy, driving past superb coast rising straight up to big mountains. The guy at the van park later told us that the wind was their regular "Antarctic Southerly". It was too much for me - I wouldn't have tried flying in it.

But the highlight was a place called Kaikoura, where you can walk around a hilly rugged peninsula. The main aim was to look at a seal colony and seabird roost, but I was very distracted by the huge near-vertical coastal slopes and cliffs and grassy hilltops. It's really accessible, and the place has fingers pointing in all directions and offers many options for sites in different wind directions. Lovely grassy cowpaddocks on top to land on. And some nice razorback ridges for DS possibilities .... I'll post some photos when I return.

Yesterday and today have been really cloudy and rainy so we're not seeing the snowcovered peaks looming close by. But we've had constant wild wind all the time driving down the coast. More sloping site possibilities than you could imagine. Haven't seen anyone flying gliders however!

In summary, we need to send out an exploratory party to scout some hills and try some serious flying between Wellington and here! We might have to ask permission at a few spots but the people are so friendly I don't anticipate any problems. Things have improved a lot since Captain Cook sent a party out to collect some "scurvy-grass" in 1777 and all 10 of them were killed and eaten by the natives!

We're at Dunedin now and tomorrow I'm hoping to meet up with some local Albatross and ask them for some DS advice.

[ibmaxed]

Glad you are enjoying NZ, Raglan is about 40 mins drive on the west coast from Hamilton, in the North island. The winds havent been the best in the past few weeks, have managed a couple of fllights, ah well summers around the corner and will bring coastal sea breezes, ah and a bit of warmth, enjoy your trip.

[mikey100]

Nice to hear you haven't killed the kids...or them you- living in such close quarters. Hows Jannet coping with putting up with you for such a long time...we can only last a few hours!!
Back here it is just light winds blue skies and warm thermals....but we won't talk about the dust storm!!

[thevon]

Hey Ibmaxed - thanks - wish we'd been able to meet up. We went Auckland to Rotorua pretty much direct. Not sure how far we were from you but it looked mostly flat north and NE of Hamilton!

Mike, we've certainly had our moments. Yep heard about the dust storm from home and it's also been on the news here too.

Today at the tip of the Otago Peninsula, near Dunedin I got to see several Royal Albatross in flight. We were standing high up in freezing wind on a cliff, above seals and a big gannet colony, and other bird roosts - very scenic stuff. I wouldn't have spotted the Albatross but I got some help from a bird enthusiast. I was looking up in the sky, but they come back in from the ocean swooping at wave height way below our height. Straight away I felt excited seeing that it was really DSing. They dip down the leeward side so low their wingtips seem to touch the water then arc up thru the shear, and gently bank back down again so they're zigzagging, not looping. I didn't expect to be so impressed but there really is something special about them and I think having played around with DSing gives you a perspective that non-flying people just don't have!

They have a 3m wingspan but are fairly heavy and have a highish aspect ratio. They only live in areas that are very windy apparently, and when there's no wind they won't fly as it's too much work. The bird expert was saying that they can only fly when the wind was strong, and I immediately thought - "but they can't get lift from horizontally flowing air!" It really seemed to me that they rely on DSing as an essential part of their flying, not just as a nice extra.

There were plenty of other big birds there - such as black backed gulls and gannets, and they were flying and sloping heaps - carving around in the powerful lift. But the Albatross looks quite different - I guess it's fair to say they look like a heavy ballasted 3m ship with big limousine style flying, as compared to the more nimble birds.

Gotta go!

[thevon]

Camped at Te Anau tonight! Milford Sound tomorrow. This area now is a fairyland of lakes and snowcapped mountains. Quite amazing. Kane passed on some good advice for spots to look for over here - Glenorchy and Paradise.

[zipper]

If you get the time, you have to go back up the west coast of the south island, it just gets better.

[thevon]

Glenn yes we're going back up the west coast - looking forward to that. I wanna try some white bait fritters. And looking forward to checking out the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers.

We're at Queenstown now. Very touristy and expensive. Nick and Joanna did the Shotover jetboat ride at lunchtime. Spending a squillion bucks on a once-in-a-lifetime family day of skiing tomorrow. Then next day heading via Wanaka back to Hass on the coast. Amazing how warm it is here really!

Milford Sound was great. Pretty tired from all the driving etc now though.

Joanna has her Macbook with her and discovered the joys of videoing with the basic digital cameras, so she's been obsessed with filming and editing a video as we go along. She's very creative so it's a great vid. I'll post it on Vimeo after we return!

Ken did I hear you mention "these strong westerlies" ... I wanna come home! I hope someone scores at Lemontree

[thevon]

We're at this absolutely beautiful van park called "Jacksons" in the foothills of Arthurs Pass. Unbelievably nice place. The west coast is very beautiful. Never seen such dense rainforest. You couldn't walk 2 feet into it. Amazing.

It rained a lot overnight and we skipped Fox Glacier as we wouldn't have seen anything. So we drove further and walked in to Franz Josef Glacier. Raining still, so we donned wet weather gear, so of course it fined up! Ended up with backpacks full of jumpers and raincoats. It was excellent.

There's so much amazing stuff over here. I thought there were lots of creeks in Nth Qld, but here there are raging torrents every minute or so! Roads seem very quiet and not many towns or roads between each spot. NZ is really very much less "developed" than Aust. My only complaint is that if anything's worth seeing they find a way to make you pay to see it! Gets expensive with a family.

They seem to be obsessed with catching and eating "White Bait" over here. So we tried White Bait patties today. Completely tasteless. So expensive people call it "Gold Bait".

Cheers everyone. I'll be back annoying everyone with constant posts early next week.