Full text of a review I’ve written on Power Up follows, if you’re interested.
We’re back in the swing of things. It’s been about two and half weeks since we got back. The last part of the trip was still good, but not as impressive as the first part. The west coast of New Zealand is pretty average - after Franz Joseph, we went through Greymouth, Nelson and back east to Picton and Marlborough Sounds, then off to Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs. Greymouth was a distinctly uninteresting town - it’s basically a stop-off point for travelling salespeople. The town’s located on what must be the only unattractive river in all of New Zealand. Apparently the flooding’s been getting so bad around the area, they’re actually talking about moving the entire town. No loss, in my opinion.
We stopped off at the World of Wearable Art in Nelson - it’s an annual show they run where the art is the costumes. Some seriously impressive stuff.
Picton was really nice - the place we stayed in had a spectacular view of the ocean. It was a really nice town, apart from not having an Indian restaurant in the entire town. Drove me crazy - for some reason, I desperately wanted some Indian.
Kaikoura was OK, but still fairly average. At least we saw some seals. Didn’t help that it was raining the entire time. The seafood was spectacular though. From there on through, it pretty much rained every day. It’s funny - looking back over the photos I took, I can tell exactly when it started raining. There’s no more photos from that point on.
So, on through the hot springs at Hanmer Springs, and back to Christchurch for a night.
Arrived back to happy and healthy dogs. Started my new job on the following Monday, and it’s been two weeks. The job’s great so far - really enjoying it, and I’m busy again (thank god).
Of course, just to top things off, I also got food poisoning middle of last week. And, I came down with the most horrendous sore throat of my life on Sunday, so I haven’t slept since. I’m feeling pretty tired at the moment, actually.
So, that’s where we’re up to.