Greetings from sunny Singapore.

It all sounds fantastic, Greatnan! And you sound so very, very happy.

Nice to read about your trip, gn,

What an amazing experience GN. It sounds wonderful and you paint such a beguiling picture of NZ. I'm only sorry it's sooooo far away from the UK, and I don't suppose I'll ever get there. So, you'll need to keep up those detailed reports so those not able to be there can enjoy the vicarious experience.

How wonderful greatnan, enjoy every minute!

Greatnan enjoy sounds fabulous.

Second day of my road trip and it is hard to avoid hyperbole! Last eveningI climbed up to the Fox Glacier - more awe-inspiring than pretty. A vast river of greenish ice with warnings that blocks the size of camper vans sometimes break off. Today I drove through Haast to Wanaka through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world - deep blue ocean near Haast then through gorges, surrounded by high mountains.
I am now in the Wyndham hotel at Lake Wanaka. I am off to the pool as it is about 30C here.
I love travelling to new places especially when they are as lovely as NZ so I am one very happy Greatnan!

envious. Lovely South Island. chip shops sometimes do kumara (sweet potato) chips and sometimes deep fried scallops.
Occasionally paua (abalone) but I have never tried it. Abalone rustling can be a problem (much prized kai - food - and by Chinese as well as maori. ) The flesh is tarry black.
The one i don't get is "whitebait". they go crazy for it. Scooping baby fish out of estuaries. It really only has a faint fishy flavour but is very expensive.
Tiny cinemas are definitely worth a visit. Often you can get cake and coffee to take into the film.

Anno - I have been advised that Doubtful Sound is better at tjis time of year.
I am planning to take the mail boat round the islands of Marlborough Sound and to go white-water rafting at Buller River Gorge. Thdre is so much to see and do here.
Please overlook typos - I still find the tablet hard to use!

New Zealand has vast vistas, range after range of mountains, lakes, forests, rivers, glaciers and little villages - very like my bit of the Alps, in fact, but. with the inestimable bonus of having my daughter and some of her family here!
The food in restaurants is better than most I have had in other countries. Last night I started with six large mussels in garlic butter, followed by lamb shank on a bed of savoury mash and really hot vegetables including broccolli which often arrives cold in France.

I have been very lucky with the weather - unbroken sunshine and I am very brown although I always wear a shady hat. It is getting a little cool in the early morning.

I love the little brightly painted wooden churches and have started to photograph some. The main street in most small towns is often the only street and consists of single storey wooden shops - you could imagine yourself in a Western - all that is missing are the hitching posts! Of course Nelson is a modern, vibrant town full of bars and restaurants and my gd and her fiance have a nice flat right next to her college but with. lovely views of the mountains
To make life perfect my daughter just needs her othet three children and their families to emigrate and one son is hinting that he is considering it.

What a lovely trip, Greatnan. I love the West Coast, though it's a very wet area! You're very lucky with the weather and I hope it holds for Doubtful Sound. Aren't you going to Milford? Wanaka is one of my favourite places. The puzzle house is fascinating and the cinema tiny! Te Anau had the feel of a frontier town because it's the base for people visiting fiordland and setting out on those hikes that they call 'tramps' in NZ. Enjoy the wonderful scenery and watch out for those omnivorous and mischievous keas!

Can't wait to see your photos Greatnan. Sounds like you're enjoying your adventures

Back to the Kindle today as I am on a road trip to the South. I am in a hotel near the Fox Glacier. It is a very hard to climb up to the glacier but well worth it. I will get my gd to post my photos onFB when I get back on Sunday. Tomorrow I go to Wanaka then ln to Te Anau where I will go by coach and boat to view Doubtful Sound.
The weather is perfect - I love New Zealand.

I am borrowing my daughter's car and driving down the beautiful West coast route to Franz Josef glacier tomorrow, where I will stay for one night. Then I will stay for two nights in Wanaka, and from there I will book a cruise on Doubtful Sound. Photos will be on Facebook, unless can suggest a way of putting them on this site for me!
The weather is perfect - about 24C, but a bit cooler in the early morning, letting us know that summer here is almost over. I am taking at least an hour's walk every day, but the weight is not falling off me as my daughter is a superb cook and I cannot resist her meals.
I have visited my grand-daughter and her fiance in their flat in Nelson and I am taking the whole family out to lunch today at a restaurant in Motueka, which is on the coast.
I have given the Kindle Fire tablet to my grand-daughter - it drove me mad trying to post by tapping on each letter when I am used to touch typing. Next November I will bring my laptop with me, but at the moment I have sole use of their desk top pc!

I am researching the cost of hearing aids in various coutnries as NZ is very expensive, and so is France, but I will have a hearing test with the audiologist here next week to see what level of aid I need.

We loved our short time in New Zealand but never made it to Nelson. We were supposed to visit some old friends there but the campervan we'd hired wouldn't make it over the mountain from the east side against the wind!

greatnan You sound so much happier. Good to be with family isn't it ....... and chicks and piglets.

Good to hear about the good times you're having with your family, Greatnan. Piglets are a joy to be around

Another lovely day - I had a three hour walk. then we took Patrick to a talk and book singning by his favourite fantasy author and he had his photo taken with him. Then we took him to Sea Scouts on the harbour at Nelson and while he was there we took Sam and Lara to dinner in an Italian restaurant. I love Nelson, it is so 'buzzzy'. The meal was superb and afterwards we picked up Patrick and drove home in the evening light.
My daughter spends part of each day riding, which gives me time to catch up on Facebook, e-mails and Gransnet.
Four chicks have hatched successfully - now we have to see if they are hens! Roosters get given away. I love seeing all the animals - the two piglets are especially cute!
I am going for a hearing test next week - I really need a hearing aid and I will have to curtainl my travel plans a little this trip as I have been quoted a price of over two thousand pounds. I am researching prices in the UK and France, but it is hard to get an exact comparison. Still, health has to come first.

I hear some very loud birds but I am not able to identify them yet
chick no. 2 has just hatched - Fiona and I have been hovering like anxious grandparents!

Do you hear the tui and the bellbird on your walks?

Sounds idyllic Greatnan, and wonderful to be with your family too

Wonderful! Enjoy!

Home grown food is wonderful - newly laid eggs poach without falling apart! Last night we had home grown ham, baked with a glaze of maple syrup, studded with orange and cloves, and lost of home grown salads. I don't know where my daughter learned to cook so well - certainly not from me!
I have found a one hour walk which I can take every morning while the family do the chores - up a small hill, through a nature reserve and back along a river.
We had a great trip to Golden Bay on Saturday - the sand is so soft and fine and the sea is aquamarine. On the way, we visited some limestone caves - the mountains are honeycombed with them. The stalactites are not smooth like those in France, but very impressive.
My grand-daughter and her fiance came to supper and it was lovely to hear all their plans. She finishes her nursing degree at the end of the summer and then she will have a placement in a hospital and her fiance can start his degree in physiotherapy. They are a very organised couple!
We have six eggs in an incubator and one chick hatched out last night - it feels like Call the Midwife waiting fo the others to hatch.

Wonderful photos, Greatnan! Can feel the warmth of the sun as I sit here looking out on a rather cool, though dry, Fife morning.

GRRRR.......damn auto prediction- darkness,not fitness!