Pols on Hols

Wairarapa Day 8: Cape Palliser and South Coast. Decided to explore the southern coast today. Such a remote place 😳Headed first to Putangirua Pinnacles where Lord of the Rings fans would be fizzing to be able to visit I’m sure as was used as a major set location during filming. Officially closed due to a slip, everyone, including us, just ignored that sign! Walked up the creek bed for about an hour and discovered some spectacular natural formations, even if they were all very ph***ic in shape 😂 🍆 What with the lighthouses and this stop we seem to be getting a lot of ‘themed’ pictures 🤦‍♀️ After that drove around the wild coastline to Cape Palliser lighthouse which is still very much a working fixture these days although no lighthouse keeper lives there any more. Dad tells me he used to fly over from Wellington on Sunday mornings back in the 50s to drop off newspapers to the lighthouse keepers here and Bearing Head!! Climbed the 253 steps to the top and nearly got blown off it was so windy. How they lived here, especially before the stairs went in, is crazy! Found a wonderful seal 🦭 nursery with so many babies so spent a good half hour just watching their antics. Then on a recommendation went and found the old Lake Ferry Hotel where we possibly had the best ever fish and chips for lunch that we have ever had! No lie! This has turned out to be the most full on wining and dining holiday! Had a few hours chilling in the arvo enjoying the last days of hols before our treat last night dinner at Tirohana Vineyard. A super delicious way to end our wonderful trip to this area.

Wairarapa Day 7: Martinborough and Remutakas. First up headed off to Green Jersey cycles to get kitted out for bikes again. This time e-bikes. Joe then shuttled us to the start of the one day section at Maymourn Station where we started our 40km ride on the Remutaka rail trail. An old disused section of the railway line through the Remutaka Ranges has now been turned into one of NZs great rides. What a blast. Nothing too difficult but it was a very windy day. Fortunately most of the time it was a tail wind! It threatened to rain so many times but we managed to avoid it becoming anything more thankfully! Biked up to the summit yards through the old track pathway and had tons of amazing views along the way, heaps of exciting tunnels, and pretty much had the hills to ourselves. Got to Cross Creek then did a spot of downhill mountain biking away from the train lines to get to the road then carried on to Featherstone where we had a well deserved drink at an amazing old pub. Joe picked us up and we shuttled back to Martinborough again. Later that arvo headed out to Martinborough Brewery for some beer tasting at the local boutique ale house then went back to Union Square (hotel restaurant again) coz it was sooo good!

Wairarapa Day 6: To Castlepoint then back to Martinborough. Had a free day today so decided to do a trip out to see the Castlepoint Lighthouse. Neat little rural community with classic Kiwi bach’s and a great surf spot. Hung out there for a while (people watching mostly!) before heading back to Martinborough again. This time we are staying at the classic old Martinborough Hotel right in the heart of the town. Have an awesome room on the corner directly overlooking everything in the little town square from our balcony. Went to a gin tasting at the Tohi Gin Room across the road before having Sunday Roast for dinner at Union Square, the hotel restaurant. So good!!

Wairarapa Day 5: checking out Greytown. A low key local day today. Started off with a visit to Molewood Orchard to pick some apples and pears, as you do when it is the thing to do at this time of the year! Then we did a grove to table tour at a local Olive 🫒 place, which turned out to actually be quite interesting even though neither of us like olives! 😂 The flavoured olive oils were really great though. Then a quick visit check out the lavender shop even though the wrong season for the beautiful purples 🤷‍♀️😂. Checked out the cute little Greytown village shops in the arvo and of course had to do the gin tasting at the bike shop (as you do!). We then headed to the lovely heritage Cobblestones museum who were hosting the ‘Hendricks Hootenanny’, a gin and jazz afternoon. Included a teapot full of a gin cocktail 😂 and a high tea. Don’t mind if we do! Early night back at The Saddlery after our busy day!

Wairarapa Day 4: Martinborough to Greytown. We were supposed to do The Chasm hike at Patuna Farm today but there was a mix up with times unfortunately and we didn’t end up doing it. Will just have to come back for another trip as it looks like an amazing walk with stunning scenery…. So instead we decided to go and check out another vineyard on the recommended list, Three Little Words, which actually turned out to be a very lovely little spot to hang out in the autumn morning sunshine. Next up we had already pre booked a platter at the famous Poppies for lunch after our hike so we just brought that forward a bit and headed on out to enjoy that a bit sooner than originally intended. And how absolutely awesome it was!! Martinborough was full for the weekend (this is peak wedding season after all!) so we then moved to Greytown for the weekend. Stayed at The Saddlery, a beautifully restored bed and breakfast on Main Street. Had a great evening hanging out on the deck people watching at The White Swan, right in the heart of this excellent little historic village. Staff, drinks and food were awesome, and it didn’t hurt that they are hosting the Hendricks gin festival this month so had some great gin cocktails!! 🍹

Wairarapa Day 3: Martinborough
Hired some bikes today to go and explore the local vineyards and the excellent cellar doors. Bikes were from Green Jersey tours and they were super helpful. Armed with a map and a vague idea of where we wanted to go we set off. We lucked in because it was a simply stunning day, it really couldn’t have been more perfect. It was a bit of a long day though! First (and best) guided tasting was at the early drinking hour of 10am at Nga Waka with the super informative Orla. Then to Palliser Wines but we were not so impressed with their delivery, although the wines were fine. Filled in some time then with a couple of briefer stops at some smaller vineyards, no formal tastings but great atmosphere and wines at both Schubert and Margrain, and then had lunch in the Scottish Longhouse Moy Hall. Then mosied on up to The Runholder, our last stop of the day for another good guided tasting which also included their Lighthouse Gin. All in all an excellent way to spend a day! Needed a wee nap after that but we did enjoy a delish meal at The hotel’s restaurant York Bistro later that evening.

Wairarapa Day 2:
Pahiatua to Martinborough. First stop, besides coffee in Pahiatua at the most wonderful coffee cart ever (Susie’s Coffee Shack for great chat and coffee!) and a police check point (at 9.30am on a Wed morn) was the Tūī Brewery. No police check after that fortunately! Interesting tour, esp surprising since they don’t even brew here any more, and a few samples, coz it would be rude not too. Then travelled to Featherston to check out a famous cheese 🧀 shop before ending up at our accom for the next couple of nights in Martinborough. Parehua Resort, out in the middle of vineyard country, was a surprisingly nice treat, and again was so nice to have excellent peace and quiet to enable another great nights sleep. Exactly what a holiday break is for! Had an awesome early meal at little bistro in the town square called Cool Change Bar and Eatery, (extra fab for people watching opportunities!) before heading out to the countryside to NZs version of a stone circle, Stonehenge Aotearoa. March 20th just happened to be Autumn Equinox so we joined in the celebrations. A bit of a talk about the stones and the stars and significance of the equinox etc and then we spent some time in the circle at sunset. Had a funny little man play some funny little pipe music to set the scene 🎶 Day and night are exactly the same length on this day each year.

Wairarapa Mini Break March 2024
Day 1 - via Taupo to Pahiatua. A late getaway from work and long drive meant arrival was just on dusk but we loved the peace and serenity of our tiny church Airbnb stopover. No electricity, no fridge etc. Was given an ice bucket and an extra blanket (coz it might be a cold night!) and left to it. Had a fab fire pit, a bbq that Andy cooked excellent steaks on, and the best outdoor bath tub… bliss. Best of all got 8 hrs non stop sleep in the peace and quiet. Next morning we met Eli the pet eel and had a superb brekkie cook up on the barbie, and treated myself to another morning soak in the bath (with coffee instead of wine!) while enjoying all the farm sounds around before heading off. Plenty of wind farms around this area, windmills galore!

Day 14: Last day Muscat. Another day on the water, this time in the Gulf of Oman. Went with a small group out to the Deminyat Islands to snorkel with turtles, and had the massive bonus of swimming with whale sharks also. Shouldn’t be the season for them at the moment but we just lucked out!! A definite highlight of the trip and a bucket list experience. Quick final visit back to the souk before spending the rest of the day chilling by the pool, psyching ourselves up for the long trip home. What a fab trip we have had. ❤️❤️❤️

Day 13: Muscat, Oman. What a contrast to Cairo! Where Cairo buildings are all grey and brown and dusty and dirty from the desert sands, Muscat was pristine and white. So clean! First impressions are excellent. While waiting for our hotel room to be ready we opted for a half day tour to go to the main sights. We went to the Grand Mosque, the Opera House, the fish market, the museum, the Mutrah Souk, and the Royal Palace, and saw saw the Royal yachts in port. All were fascinating and stunning. Chilled arvo by the pool.

Day 12: Cairo. Last day in Egypt. The brand new Grand Egyptian Museum is not officially open yet,however they have been running a ‘soft’ opening as a trial and we managed to get tickets. Such an impressive building, it is going to be incredible when it is open. The big statue of Ramses 2 was put there first and the building erected around it! We then went to the ginormous Khan el Khalili bazaar for a wander and a bit of a last minute shop, then had the perfect end to our Egypt adventure with a sunset felucca cruise on the Nile before heading to the airport for our midnight flight to Oman. So good.

Day 11: Hurghada to Cairo. Naughty punters today. Ditched the group 6hr bus trip back to Cairo and booked flights to give ourselves a free day to chill at the beach and pool. So nice to just do nothing for a day. Also decided to ditch the group hotel as didn’t like the location so treated ourselves to a bit of luxury at the end of the hol. Wanted to be in downtown Cairo for our last free day tomorrow. Stayed in the Steigenberger Hotel right in Tahrir Square which was a definite treat.

Day 10: Hurghada. Second free day. Opted for a full on Desert day today for something different. Quad biking, spider cars, 4-wheel jeep ride (amazing!!) hanging out in a Bedouin Village and another camel 🐪 ride to top things off. Fun day.

Day 9: Hurghada. Free day so did a Red Sea day trip with the group. Supposed to go diving but both have bad colds so opted for snorkeling trip instead. Pretty disappointing coral and sea life after my memory of it being so fantastic. The water was beautiful and warm though and still stunningly gorgeous. Did my dive ticket here 32 years ago and it still ranks as one of the best underwater experiences ever so was really hoping to emulate it but not to be. So many people and boat’s everywhere 😢 The trip included a stop at a ‘resort island’ (think Cloud 9 in Fiji) which was full of Europeans posing for instagram which was not really us but was still fab to be out on the water for the day 🤩

Day 8: Luxor to Hurghada. A fab start to the day with a hot air balloon ride over Valley of the Kings and Queens, Hatshepsut Temple, Tombs of the Nobles. Crossed the Nile by boat both ways. What a great way to put into perspective how they planned their forever lives. East bank of the Nile was for the living. West Bank was for the dead. A stunning experience. Awesome to see from above the defined line between the Nile fertile land and the Sahara Desert. Followed by a bus trip across the Eastern Desert to the Red Sea. A chill arvo by the pool surrounded by 1000 Europeans on holiday was how we spent the arvo.

Day 7: Part 2. Karnak and Luxor Temples.
Karnak is my favourite temple. So mind-blowingly massive, especially the Hypostyle Hall with its 134 massive pillars. Over 30 Pharoahs contributed to the building of Karnak so it was built up over several generations, expanding and growing it with each new ruler to end up as the huge complex it became. Many successful restorations meant I saw things this time not seen 30 years ago! This is the second most visited ancient site after the pyramids. Luxor Temple is much smaller but also fabulous and has some great stories. They found by accident a bunch of sphinxes below some houses so moved the people off and realised that there was a long 3km corridor of sphinxes linking Karnak and Luxor temples. Now called the Avenue of the Sphinxes, they are creating the largest open air museum of the world as they gradually restore them all.

Day 7: A massive day in Luxor for ancient civilisation history!
Part 1: Started the day with an early visit to Queen Hatshepsut temple, a stop at the huge Colossi of Memnon and then to the Valley of Kings to explore some of the dozens of discovered tombs of past kings. We decided not to include Tutankhamen’s tomb as he only ruled for such a short time as a child king that his tomb is not as spectacular as some of the others. Middle of the day included a short visit to an alabaster workshop.

Day 6: Part 2 - Luxor
After passing through the lock the pace of the ship then slowed somewhat and we leisurely cruised on towards Luxor. Arriving too late to view one of the temples we opted to go on a tour of the back streets to see how the people lived their everyday lives away from the tourists. Very eye opening. We did go by horse/buggy but these horses were in remarkable condition and obviously well looked after. Finished off the nose sheesha/coffee shop. Final night on the ship docked at Luxor. And some general on board captures of the cruise.

Day 6: Part 1- Edfu / Esna
Another early start (along with the other 000’s of heaving masses of cruise boat passengers) to visit the temple of Horus in Edfu. The horse and buggy business is thriving here sadly (as a means of transport for the tourists) but the poor horses were not treated well so thankfully we had bus arranged. It was absolute mayhem in there. Nothing wrong with Egyptian tourism at the moment that’s for sure! And it is not even peak season!!
Returned to the boat then it was a race for all the ships to see who could get to Esna lock first. All 40 or so boats literally sped to Esna where they earned their pecking order for going through the lock and we then parked up and waited for our turn. Very entertaining !

Day 5: Part 2. Cruising and Temples. Back to our cruise ship, the Lady Mary, for the afternoon and we set off down the Nile. Kom Ombo Temple was our quick hot stop side trip in the late afternoon before we continued on to arrive at Esna for our overnight stop later in the evening

A very early 3am wake up for our nearly 300km each way trip to see the extraordinary Abu Simbel temple. Cut into pieces and relocated to save it from submersion when the dam was built, it remains an engineering marvel. Twice a year on King Ramses birthday and his coronation, the sunlight comes in just at the right angle and reaches the inner sanctum of the temple and lights up the faces of three of the four statues. The fourth was god of the dead so he doesn’t get lit up! When the temple was moved it was relocated so it would exactly continue to do this! We just happened to be there on one of these two days. So technically amazing and visually awe inspiring. Usually they have big celebrations for this occurrence but decided to cancel this year because of the next door neighbours fighting. Literally this is the only time where we have heard ANY comment or action about the current Gaza situation and if I hadn’t asked I wouldn’t have even known that. There has been nothing anywhere and you wouldn’t know anything was happening if you didn’t watch the news!

Day 4: Aswan
An early flight to Aswan today for a jam packed (hot) day. First up was a visit to the military controlled Aswan High Dam and British Dams. Created to stop the annual Nile floods and in the process created Lake Nasser (one of the largest man-made lakes in the world at 500km long). A stop at the incredibly huge unfinished obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut and the granite fields where they extracted the crazy huge lumps of stone for all the ancient creations. Then a visit to a local perfumerie/essential oils place. Checked onto our cruise boat and had some free time so managed to have a wonderful catch up with an old Nubian friend Aladin from my Top deck days here and had a fab afternoon with him on the river. We ended the day with sundowners in The Old Cataract Hotel (where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile). Had an interesting evening walk home along the corniche which included a quick pop in to the Aswan Night Market to see the Spice Markets. So good to be back in this beautiful part of the world!

Days 2 & 3: Some other generally captured candid Cairo moments

Day 3: Egyptian Museum / Coptic Cairo / Old Cairo
Seeing Tutankahmon’s golden treasures is humbling. No pics permitted sadly. Their belief in the after life possibly came true as they are certainly living on in history! So many special and unique artefacts and we only saw 1%!!
Old Cairo/Coptic Cairo included the Hanging Church, the oldest synagogue, Cave Chuch where Mary and Jesus hid for 3 months, and then we visited the Alabaster Mosque (Mohammed Ali Mosque). Spectacular.

Day 2: Part 2. Sphinx and National museum of Ancient civilisation (or the Mummy museum). What an enigma the Sphinx is. Potentially way older than the 3500 year old pyramids. 12 mummified kings and queens in the mummy museum. So fascinating. Couldn’t take pics unfortunately.