EC-Rider Travels

Oh my goodness, how kind are Tim and Sarah (Todhunter) Dehn to include us in their Christmas. We have had such a lovely time in their gorgeous little house in Surrey Hills with their daughter Caroline (wonderful and hilarious!) and Molly their rather senior Labrador. They have been so unbelievably generous to us and we…

Today has been somewhat frustrating – almost the only one since I left three and a half months ago. Just before we were about to leave for the airport we received news that our Air New Zealand flight to Melbourne had been delayed by three and a half hours. Quite boring… particularly as we shortly…

Wow! What a day. For Christmas Mum gave me a helicopter ride over to the Milford Sound. All very weather dependent of course, and amazingly we woke to the most beautiful day. We headed off to the airport where we met our flying friends, an Indian family from Texas. We were then assigned our rather…

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful drive we have had today and could not believe the changes in the scenery and suddenly, the population! For the first hour or so, we were still in deep rainforest coming along the west coast, only occasionally glimpsing the sea. Not a soul or a car on the road,…

I was woken by the amazing and rather wonderful sound of the Tui and Bellbird who are abundant here and early risers! We had a leisurely breakfast and despite the wonderful surroundings we find ourselves at Wilderness Lodge, Mum and I decided to have a bit of a R&R day. We barely feel we have…

Rimu Lodge is a seriously nice place to stay and we could not have been more welcome of comfortable. Sue Ellen gave us the most delicious breakfast, but we sadly had to leave soon afterwards as I had booked a boat tour on the Okarito Lagoon to see their great white herons and spoonbills. It…

We bid farewell to Bob and Anne and the beautiful Rakaia Gorge to cross over to the ‘other side’ on the West Coast via Arthur’s Pass. Our SatNav was very much in the holiday mode and, despite there being only a handful of roads in New Zealand, it managed to find us the most ‘scenic’.…

This morning I got up early to go for the most wonderful ride with Ben’s wife Donna. They live just down the road from Bob and Anne and farm about 4,000 acres along the gorge. We went for the most stunning ride up the hill. Donna is a great environmentalist and is trying to reduce…

We woke up to a bit of a grey day which was a little disappointing in this beautiful place, and particularly as we were to go to Lake Heron for lunch which has been described to me, by so many, as the most beautiful place in the world. It was about an hour and a…

I had a happy last morning with Philip in their beautiful house and garden as he awaited the arrival of Scarlett, Isabella and Dominic who he had not seen for three years. Mum was kindly delivered by Rosie at lunchtime and we went to meet another, rather more distant, cousin called Robbie Tapley (nee Murray)…