Haarst Township

Thursday 22^nd January 2015

Dear Futurest

I sit here enthused for the moment at the grandeur around me, on the south bank of the Paringa River. Currently it’s a shallow stream meandering across a wide river bed of white smoothed pebbles, deep in the West Coast Region of New Zealand’s South Island and the whole scene is quite magnificent.

Earlier this morning I was thrilled to witness the deep blue of the Tasman Sea again and to hear the roar as the surf hit the white sand and shingle beach.

 

 

The Tasman Sea with local inhabitants

 

From the beach across the dunes

 

The weather is perfect, as it has been for the whole period of our stay in New Zealand except for one day’s rain and I’m so glad I came.

I am sitting in a deck chair in the shade of a native Maruka tree, well protected from the intense heat of the early afternoon Sun and ahead of me, across a wide area of dunes covered now after generations with low vegetation, stretches a string of tree cloaked mountains. In the far distance I catch a glimpse of the snow capped peaks of the Southern Alps shining in the sunlight and I am inspired.

Luckily I remembered to bring along my laptop computer today otherwise I would have been sunbathing with Janis, after our picnic lunch of local smoked salmon sandwiches and tea brewed on Janis’s little camping gas stove. It’s been a delightful experience, another to add to the number that we have already shared so far.

Because of the rampart of high mountains running down this side of the South Island this area was until quite recently almost cut off from the rest of the country, being sustained by ancient cattle and sheep trails only. Even now there is just one main road, which, in a lengthy and roundabout way, connects all parts.

It is on this road that Janis and I have travelled since leaving her niece’s house at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu over a fortnight ago

 

 

Giant fern about to uncoil

 

After leaving Becky’s house we spent a few days at Te Anau on the lake of the same name at a comfortable family run backpacker’s hostel and spent our sunlit days walking the numerous tracks in the area. Most of our walks since arriving in New Zealand have been in the deep bush unique to this country and all have certainly been long enough for me to feel the healthy exercise. Every day we have walked more than five miles and though that appears to be nothing to the young mountain gazelle that accompanies me, I am very proud of myself on the accomplishment.

 

 

Reflections by a lake called Marian

 

 

The bush track up to Lake Marian

 

From Te Anau we motored across to Milford and joined a local ship, the ‘Milford Wanderer’, on an overnight trip along the breath-taking fiord. The Wanderer is a recently built modern ship but with many features to remind one of her Edwardian predecessor, such as dark wood panelled companionways and cabins, and sails which are set just for photographic show now on this powerful twin screw motor vessel.

 

 

Milford Sound with Mitre Peak on the left

And were able to

 

 

Seals basking in Milford Sound

 

We were served with a bounteous three course dinner in the evening after we were under way in the late afternoon, while an excellent full English breakfast the following morning couldn’t have been better. We anchored quietly overnight in calm waters in a cove and were able to admire the splendour of the night sky as well the mooring lights of the Wanderer’s sister ship nearby. On this trip we found ourselves close up to seals and saw many dolphins jumping in the sea ahead of us.

 

 

The majestic Stirling Falls on Milford Sound

 

 

From Milford we returned to Becky’s for two more nights and during the day in between, Janis and I experienced an exciting helicopter trip around Queenstown enabling us to explore a different thrilling aspect of the surrounding mountains as well.

Leaving the helicopter we were able to look around Queenstown, the largest habitation in the area, which thrives on tourists and while there we visited a below zero bar and enjoyed a cocktail in a glass made of ice; another unique experience for me.

The next day we set off for Haarst Township further north on the west coast crossing the high Crown Range of mountains to do so. The metalled, or sealed road as they call it in New Zealand was only completed in the 1960’s and before then the best way of contacting the region was via the sea, only the high mountain passes offering any sort of substitute. So even today there are few people here and Haarst itself, named after an early Victorian explorer and surveyor, consists only one or two single story houses, a backpacker’s hostel where we are staying for two nights and a number of corrugated roofed restaurants with the local delicacy Whitebait being top of the menu.

Even though Janis and I are very happy with the solitude here we move on north tomorrow to see the Fox Glacier, to which I’m looking forward. It’s all so wonderful.

Fifty years ago when I last came to New Zealand I was never able to experience all this grandeur and when I recollect actually in detail, all those years ago were only spent in the nearest pub in the ports on the east coast. I never saw this side of the country at all and working aboard ship I was never able to see the many amazing features all over. So I feel very privileged to be able to see it all now, the thoughtful planning of which I have to thank my splendid travelling companion. The whole trip has gone extraordinarily well to plan thanks to her.

There are so many amazing photos to show that I shall send you a good selection of these by separate mail.

And how are you old friend? I hope all goes well being on your own with only ‘Roots and Wings’ to keep you company, though even she is moored some way away. The winter weather doesn’t appear to have been too bad in Warwick so far and I hope therefore that you are not feeling it too badly.

After a couple of days at Fox Glacier we shall be returning to Christchurch to stay another few days with Janis’s Mum before flying on to Queensland to see Janis’s sister Sharon. Then during the first week in March we shall be flying home so it won’t be too long now before we are reunited.

Until then old chum all the best for now.

Lake Wakatipu

Dear ‘Futurest’

A very happy New Year to you and I hope all is well at home.

I did hear that England has had a layer of snow in parts recently, which is quite normal for this time of year I suppose, but difficult for me to imagine scorching in thirty degrees of sunshine here in New Zealand.

 

Typical New Zealand home

 

A local duck variety

 

Janis and I are now well established in our tour of the South Island. We are currently staying with Janis’s niece Becky at a delightful little hamlet called Kingston at the southern end of the vast Lake Wakatipu. There are a few typically New Zealand single story houses here with a corner shop that also doubles as a cafe and a post office. There is a derelict railway line with an old steam locomotive called ‘The Kingston Flyer’ sadly rusting away there and we are surrounded by vast ranges of mountains some of which are still covered with snow in parts even in this height of Summer.

 

Fields of wild Lupin on the Canterbury Plain

 

 

 

Myself posing at Lake Tekapo

 

There are few roads in the whole of the area, one main one runs the full length of the lake through the largest built up area called Queenstown and up as far as Glenorchy right at the northern end, where we visited yesterday.

 

Mount Cook in the hazy distance

 

Most tourists visit Queenstown but we have the benefit of Becky, who is an excellent tourist guide knowing so much of the countryside around here. We were in a four wheel drive Suzuki and were able therefore to travel to all the normally inaccessible parts, up dusty gravel tracks and dried up river beds through narrow ravines. The flies bite like mad but it’s all been very exciting.

I have seen lots of strange birds, like the Tui, called the Parson Bird because of its white collar with a ruff at the front. It also has a very tuneful song. Also there is the small Fantail, about the size of our Robin with a long tail that he keeps spreading like an open fan. But most fascinating and amazing of all are the tall mountain ranges that completely surround us. This is real Hobbit country.

 

At and In Paradise

 

We spent over a week in Christchurch with Janis’s Mum, who apart from being a kind host was also an excellent guide. She took us to see the sad ruins of that once great, proud and pretty city before we set off south to Lake Tekapo. Here we stayed at a Backpacker's hostel for two nights and viewed the southern night sky from Mount St John alongside the lake. 

All was perfect.

 

Dried up River bed or almost

 

Our next stop is Te Anau another little town at the southern end of the lake of the same name. We travel on there tomorrow, always hemmed in by mountains all around.

Even though we are enjoying a lovely time in NZ and everybody is so friendly and welcoming, I am missing you and will be grateful when we return safely home. Today by email I confirmed your dry docking with Tooley’s in Banbury for the beginning of April.

All the best old friend. I shall write again soon.

Perth

Sunday 28th December 2014

Dear Futurest,

We are now drawing near the end of our memorable stay in Western Australia. We flew in last Tuesday afternoon from Sydney, after leaving the  fantastic ‘Voyager of the Seas’. A quick revictualling was all she needed  before she disappeared over the horizon again, towards Fiji on her next whirlwind trip with another four thousand excited passengers aboard.

At Perth airport we met Sharon, Janis’s sister and battled through a wall of heat outside the air conditioned airport buildings to find a taxi. This was no trouble as there were hundreds available.

 

Agapanthus and Pine in Perth

Exotic Frangipani….

….and Hibiscus

 

Soon we met Leonard, Janis’s Dad at his home. He lives on a retirement development similar in style to the McCarthy and Stone idea we have in UK, except here in Perth the dwellings are laid out as tasteful small bungalows instead of a block of flats. There are also one or two flats furnished for visitors and we are happily staying in one of these while we are here.

Everything is amazing here in Western Australia, especially the weather. Each morning we have woken to cloudless skies of crushed emerald with temperatures well into the thirties. The weather never varies apparently and can be guaranteed throughout the year. Rain, what little there is, conveniently falls only during darkness hours.

 

Sunset over the Indian Ocean at Scarborough, Perth

 

Janis’s eldest sister Raeleen, arrived on Christmas Eve and though we had a memorable and very happy Christmas, I have to say that it didn’t quite feel the same as it does with the air temperature hovering around freezing point or worse and with the possibility of having real snow outside.

Here in the shopping malls little children dressed in festive tinsel are greeted by Santa Claus looking most uncomfortable and almost incongruous in white woolly beard and scarlet fur coat sitting amongst cotton wool snow. Somehow I feel it doesn’t fit in with the azure skies and searing heat outside.

Every day we have been out visiting or shopping somewhere with Leonard insisting in doing all the chauffeuring though with plenty of positive help from the back seat. I think he and his girls are particularly happy being together at this time of the year; a rare happening these days since all four live so far apart.

Leonard has two brothers living in Perth and with them and their families we spent Christmas Day at one of the cousin’s homes. There were thirty four in the party altogether and I was made to feel very welcome by uncles, cousins, both once and twice removed together with spouses. The hospitality was  typically generous and Australian.

Leonard has took us to Fremantle one day and it was great to be able to see the port that I used to visit, so many years ago. After forty or fifty years the place has obviously changed but the wharves where our ships tied up are still there, even though they are not used now as they were originally intended. There are expensive yachts and ferry boats tied up there now and the adjoining sheds have been turned into classy tourist shops and restaurants. We spent a long time at the Maritime Museum along the quay which painted a vivid history of all the different immigrants that have passed through Fremantle over the years.

We  have walked in the city and sunbathed on beach at Scarborough and Rockingham and Some of us have actually plunged and frolicked in the warm Indian Ocean.

But tomorrow morning early Janis and I have to leave this wonderful paradise. We fly to Christchurch in New Zealand on the next phase of our trip to begin five weeks of exploration in the land where Janis was brought up; Aeotearoa, the land of the long white cloud; the land where Hobbits now reside.

I think of you often old Friend and recount all the stories of you and and me together to the locals here. They are most interested always. I hope all is well with you and the weather is not too cold so as to cause drastic catastrophes aboard.

Be assured that I shall write again soon.

From

Old Salt (the Ancient Mariner)

 

Sydney Bound

Thursday 18th December 2014

Dear ‘Futurest’

Here we are in the Tasman Sea again, having in the meantime circumnavigated the the North Island of New Zealand. We are heading back to Sydney now, the port from which we left ten days ago and our estimated time of arrival is on Saturday 20th December.

 

Our luxurious cabin aboard the ship

 

The cruise aboard this magnificent ship has been wonderful and though it has rained occasionally, as I remember it was always prone to do in New Zealand fifty years ago, this hasn’t spoiled our experience too much, as it has thoughtfully only commenced during our shore leaves just as we were returning aboard.

 

The ‘Voyager of the Seas’ berthed at Auckland

 

There was only one occasion when the weather was a little less discriminatory and that was on the day we docked at Tauranga when the rain began soon after we berthed and continued throughout the day till we sailed.Janis and I arrived back at the ship in this case thoroughly wet through having climbed to the seven hundred feet or so summit of the local Mount Maunganui.

Of the five ports visited in five consecutive days only Auckland, our first port and Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, were of any size. The others, Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, Napier in Hawke’s Bay and  Picton our only port in the South Island, were really not much larger than villages.

Auckland and Wellington are graced still by much of the Victorian architecture that displays their early British heritage and Napier, which unfortunately was completely destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1930’s, was rebuilt completely in the Art Nouveau style popular at that time. This is now listed and the town looked very spruce since the exterior paintwork has been maintained so well ever since. During the ship’s stay there the passengers were rightly entertained in the streets by musicians and singers imitating that Gatsby style period. Many fine pre-war motor cars were there as well waiting to be hired with suitably dressed chauffeurs.

 

 

Art Nouveau street in Napier

 

 

Statue of ‘Pania of the Reef’ today

The same spot in May 1958 with crew of MV‘Imperial Star’

Of course I took my camera ashore on all occasions as there was many strange birds and flowers to record.

During our shore leave in the last port of call Picton, Janis and I boarded a small aeroplane on floats and were treated to a thirty minute flight around the creeks and islands in the area.

Flying a bit bumpily at an altitude of 1000 feet the thick tree covered promontories and sandy bays, mostly untouched by Human hand and the water so clear that one could see beneath the surface to great depths, could be appreciated so much more. It was magnificent.

But now we are on our way back to Australia, for Sydney Airport on Saturday afternoon, to catch a plane to Perth in Western Australia, where we have been invited to stay with Janis’s father till after Christmas. That will be wonderful too as it was 1968 when I was last in this city.

So how are you old friend? Looking at the BBC weather forecasts in your area over the last few days, it doesn't seem that you would have suffered too much from the freezing cold as temperatures seem to have hovered above freezing point day and night. Long may it continue.

I think of you a lot and miss you of course. This is the longest that you and I have ever been apart. I know your leisure batteries are suspect and I have arranged for Rob the engineer to come aboard a bit later on to change them ready for next year’s cruising. So when he clumps aboard don’t worry old girl and you will feel so much better when he’s done the job.

 

The midships shopping area etc of ship

 

In the meantime I’ll sign off and write again probably from Perth. Since there is no economical wi-fi aboard the ‘Voyager of the Seas’ it is not likely that this letter will be forwarded till we arrive in Sydney. But the date shown at the top is the date of writing.

Goodbye for now old friend

From

Old Salt the Ancient Mariner

A Letter to ‘Futurest’

Friday 12 December 2014

Dear ‘Futurest’,

I hope this doesn’t shock you as everything has happened so quickly but Janis and I are currently in the Southern Hemisphere, in the middle of the Tasman Sea on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship ‘Voyager of the Seas’ bound for the port of Auckland in New Zealand. We were standing on the platform at Warwick Station only as recently as last Sunday morning. 

 

 

Terminal 5 Heathrow Airport

 

At Hong Kong awaiting our aeroplane to be loaded up

Patiently waiting at Hong Kong

It’s something we have been planning for most of the year now and I am sure you must have noticed in the meantime that something unusual was afoot.

Other people will probably call me stupid and wonder why I should be nuts enough to write to a boat, but you are my little ship and I am responsible for you. Therefore I have considerable guilt at leaving you for what in fact will be the whole of the winter.

 

Departure Sydney on ‘Voyager of the Seas’

 

Looking aft towards the Bridge

 

 

Looking along Deck 5, the shopping mall

 

In our life together over the years it is the first time that I’ve ever left you for more than just a few days so I am naturally feeling a bit apprehensive at being away for so long, even though you are well protected and winterised while Janis and I are away on our adventure.

But let me tell you of that planned adventure in a bit more detail. Currently We are on a course of 096 degrees true heading for the Cape Reinga, the northernmost  tip of New Zealand which the ship should round during the night. However our speed has been reduced to 13 knots so as not to arrive at Auckland before  0830 tomorrow morning. We shall be spending the day there before continuing our journey south to Tauranga, Napier, Wellington and Picton  and then travelling back across the Tasman Sea to Sydney, from where we set off last Tuesday evening 9th December. We shall arrive back on the 2oth.

It’s really a voyage of rediscovery for me as the last time I passed this way was back in 1967 and the above mentioned ports were all those in the North Island that my shipping company Blue Star Line used to call at. I have many happy memories of good times past while associated with these ports.

After we arrive back at Sydney we fly on the same day across to Perth in Western Australia to spend Christmas with Janis’ dad, before returning to Sydney en route for Christchurch, to stay for a while with Janis’ mum, during the period while we explore New Zealand’s South Island.

After five weeks we return to Sydney to fly to Brisbane in Queensland, where Janis’ sister Sharon lives. After a few days there we finally fly down to Hobart in Tasmania during the last weekend of February next year for a weekend’s Blue Star Line reunion before returning to UK during the first week of March.

We left Heathrow Airport on Sunday evening bound for Hong Kong. It took us eleven long tiring hours to get there after which we had to wait another nine equally tedious hours in the airport buildings till we could make our connecting flight onward to Sydney. This flight took us a further eight actual hours of flying before we touched down on Tuesday morning to join the ship the same afternoon for sailing in the evening. So after twenty eight hours of actual flying, across numerous time zones we were exhausted when we arrived and it has taken us until now to  set up new sleep patterns.

But so far the sea trip has been a wonderful experience. The weather is fine and the sea smooth and deep blue, just as I remember it from so many years ago. But the  ship is so different that it makes the ones I sailed on seem so primitive (which they were in comparison of course). Very sophisticated and automatic navigation systems abound on this ship that make the navigational bridge look more like the one on the Star ship ‘Enterprise’ than the traditional one that I was brought up with. The only piece of navigational equipment our ships had were the sextants that we navigating officers supplied ourselves and a lot of the vessels didn’t even have a radar set aboard. On my first trip as 2nd Mate for example I sailed on a ship whose only piece of equipment was a magnetic compass.

The food and entertainment here is plentiful though with four thousand passengers on board the effect is one that I associate rather negatively with our family holidays so many years ago at Butlin’s Holiday Camps. But the ship is enormous and good exercise when one can walk around the full circuit, which is getting on for half a mile.

But I’ll keep you informed of our continued progress later. It will soon be time for dinner and Janis and I feel like a little exercise before then.

I hope all is well with you and I’ll be back to report some more news later.

The Motor Car

 

Shakespeare’s Birthplace without any tourists showing!

 

When I first moved aboard ‘Futurest’ in 2009 having sold my house and ninety per cent of my other ‘precious’ possessions so that I would be able to fit into this fifty seven foot long ‘cigar case’, the one thing I felt I could never do without was my car.

Two years before I had bought myself a brand new Smart ‘Fortwo’ two seater and with its sparkly and sporty burgundy and silver colour and light blue interior it was really something special. It was a wonderful little machine that was so cheap to run as well. It cost only thirty five pounds a year to tax and did eighty five miles per gallon I remember and yet it could pull away from the traffic lights quicker than most.

Thrilled to pieces I was. I thought with its quirky and hippy look as well It couldn't fail to be a real head turner and I had no doubt that it would ‘pull’ the girls as well. It was my real phallic symbol and I needed it …... to do all sorts of useful things. Well life wouldn’t be complete without a car would it?

 

My Smart ‘Fortwo’

 

So for the first year on ‘Futurest’ I trailed it behind me. Not literally of course but at the end of each day’s cruise, like so many other boaters do, I was prepared to go back by public transport to collect it (this was in the days before I owned a folding bike). However I soon found that this was tedious but it was worth it since I needed the car so much. I needed it to get down to ……the local shop at the end of the day and to empty my rubbish as well. And I needed it also toooo………… well you know what I mean. I needed it!

But at the end of the first year’s cruise I noticed that other heads seemed to have far more interesting things to do than ‘turn’ in my direction when I went past and certainly I had pulled no girls in the meantime so at last I asked myself the very important question. Was having the car at my disposal really worth all the effort?

The answer was certainly a  big NO.

So in the end my son relieved me of it. His need was really much more than mine having a two hour commute to work and back each day and I was sure with his young and handsome looks he would stand a much better chance anyway of ‘pulling’ the girls than I ever did.

And in fact I didn’t miss the car at all. I bought myself a bike but mostly I walked everywhere. At the end of the day I used to make sure I tied up within walking distance of any facilities I might need. If I was too far away then I was happy to use the bike.

It was all very good for my general fitness too. I became a different man, much better off psychologically as well as physically. I came to discover that walking is the only safe method of travelling while taking in one’s surroundings as well. In all other forms one has to concentrate so much on where one is going exclusively that everything else is missed.

As a result I soon became aware that there was more to life than the trappings of humanity that previously I had taken for granted for so long. Nature had so many beautiful magic stories to tell me now that I had never known before. I became more knowledgeable about the lives of all life around me be it fauna or flora; in the air, on the ground or in the water and I came to realise that my life was no more important to the World than the most humble animal and far less important than the life in a leaf of grass for example or a wooded coppice, on which it depended completely. Soon I came to realise that all life in Nature is a struggle, which all the participants take on without complaint. They just have to carry on; that’s what it’s all about. Only Humanity feels hard done by and feels the need to whinge about its sad life while blaming somebody else for it, thereby alleviating its need to do anything personally to make things better.

However I deviate somewhat from my story about the car.

After six years now getting along very cheerfully without a car one would think that I am well cured of the ‘automobilic’ affliction of my previous life. But I have to admit that this is not  quite the case.

My GP, who I like to see every year during the winter whilst I am at Warwick for my MOT, has his practice in an outlying village about ten miles away and difficult to reach without a car. Previously my brother has been kind enough to ferry me there and bring me back afterwards. However this time he has been unable to do so personally but was most happy to lend me his car. That was on Monday last and as we are meeting on Saturday for ‘Loves Labours Lost’ at the RSC at Stratford he generously said: “Why not keep it till then.”

Consequently not only did I keep my doctor’s ten minute appointment on Tuesday but I then went into Banbury to do some shopping and while I had the car I thought it would be a good nostalgic opportunity to see again the house in which I was born …… and my old school buildings of course (I had such a happy time there)…… and the house where I last lived (and I might as well do the one before that as well while I’m at it!) ……. and it would be a good thing to go to go to the cemetery to see my wife’s grave again while I have the means to do so. Then on the way back to Warwick at last, why don’t I drive up to Burton Dassett Hill, where as a family we all loved to go on a day out years ago? There’s a beautiful ancient church there too with well preserved remains of Medieval wall paintings.

Then yesterday I needed to go shopping to Morrison’s. Normally I would have been quite happy to walk the two miles there and back carrying the load, but yesterday, easily I persuaded myself that I needed to travel in the car. I managed to accomplish in fifteen minutes what otherwise would have been a morning or afternoon out. I convinced myself that by going in the car I would have lots of time left to do all the other things in my day. But what did I do after returning? I had lots of time to read a very exciting novel I’m into currently. Hooray!

In consequence I have to say that it appears I’ve missed the car, just like I would a drug, for all these years ….. and maybe l have lapsed this week. But I shall be very happy to return the machine on Saturday, thanking my brother nonetheless for his kind generosity and gratefully I shall return to my normal way of life.

 

Ancient, lichen covered Burton Dassett Church with its South Transept

The End of the Voyage

Having been tied to the towpath opposite Kate Boats Yard for sometime Janis and I were quite ready when the time arrived to move our two little ships the short distance across the canal to take up winter moorings.

In the late low sunshine on the afternoon of 1st November we let go and they moved smoothly but eagerly on this last short leg of their 2014 voyage. Pretentiously I am calling it Voyage 6 for ‘Futurest’, since it’s the sixth year that  she and I have enjoyed life together.

Statistically during the year we have covered a total of 546.3 miles, passing through 352 locks, 14 tunnels, 11 lift bridges and 52 swing bridges. All this happened during a total cruising time of 314.5 hours which gives us an average speed of 1.74 miles per hour taking us through, again on average, one lock every 1.55 miles.

Though the voyage was most memorable and happy, especially as neither Janis or I had travelled across the Leeds and Liverpool Canal before, and generally the weather had been very kind to us, there is nothing quite like the expectation of winter moorings.

The thought that one can catch up with meeting family and friends again is very powerful, but the biggest joy, having been relying on the vagaries of 12 volt battery power for seven months, is the initial pleasure I receive from the benefits of connecting up to 240 volt power from ashore again. The feeling is absolute bliss.

The pleasure of hot water on tap without having to run the engine is heavenly or being able to use the washing machine without turning on the generator does make life so much easier. The pleasure of taking only a minute and a half to boil a kettle of water instead of the usual ten minutes on the gas hob or the decadent ease of making toast in an electric toaster instead of tediously under the gas grill is so rewarding. Whilst being able to switch on more than one light at a time if I so desire on these long dark nights, in total makes me feel almost guilty at my apparent lack of responsibility.

Things that were taken so much for granted when living ashore become so precious during one’s life on the water.

Kate Boats yard doesn’t change very much. They were busy sending hire boats out on Saturday, the day we arrived, while others were returning. It was good to see Nick, Cheryl and Rebecca again and as always they made us feel very welcome.

My winter friend the Robin was there as well welcoming us in with his loud distinctive song.

 

Shaggy Ink Cap Mushroom ?