Liz and Rob

Wales – Driving Across the Country

liz — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:21:04 +0000

For easter weekend, we decided to go for a roadtrip to North Wales. We had been told to expect castles, mountains and rain. We didn’t climb any mountains but weren’t disappointed on the other points. The castles were amazing and it rained most of the time we were there.

But first we had to get to Wales. We convinced a couple of Rob’s friends from NZ (M&M) to join us on our wee adventure. First adventure stop was the town of Ironbridge – a village that is home to the world’s first arch bridge to be made out of cast iron.

In the 18th century, cast iron used to be too expensive to use for large structures. However in 1775, a new blast furnace nearby lowered the cost and encouraged local engineers and architects to build a bridge of cast iron. The bridge was revolutionary, the town was renamed to Ironbridge and it became known as the birthplace of the industrial revolution.

One incentive for us to cross the river was to try a world famous Ironbridge pork pie from Eley’s. We got an Easter special pork pie with a whole boiled egg inside! It was pretty amazing.

Onward on our roadtrip… We drove through Chirk to see Chirk Castle, built by Edward I in 1295 as a defensive fortress. It was part of a chain of fortresses used to secure Wales for the English crown. At £11 a ticket, we decided to not go inside. Here’s me with M&M below!

However, what ended up being the highlight of Chirk was the Chirk aqueduct.

The 21m high and 210m long aqueduct was built between 1796 and 1801 by Thomas Telford and William Jessop to carry the Ellesmere Canal. Yep, it carries a canal up in the air.

What’s even more impressive is that this aqueduct is the smaller of two aqueducts in this region – the Pontcysyllte aqueduct is 38m high and 307m long. We didn’t make it up the road to see that one, but maybe next time we’re in Wales. :) This one was pretty awesome.

Another reason to come to North Wales was to visit Abergele – the village where my Dad lived when he was a baby. Yes, he is Welsh. The address I had was from Dad’s birth certificate – Gofanon Bach, Rhyd-y-Foel, Abergele.

So, we drove to Abergele, and promptly found why there was no street number on the address – all the houses have unique names, not numbers. Makes it a bit tricky to find places.

View Wales road trip in a larger map

The 2 locals we harassed for information unfortunately didn’t recognize the name Gofanon. So, all we had was what Google Maps told us, which was this top house. We’re still not sure if this is actually the house, but it looked like a residence, so we decided to leave them alone. Maybe I’ll call sometime and make enquiries. But anyway, I did visit the village where my Dad lived as a baby!

Now, it was time to get to our final destination – Llandudno. The double ‘l’ at the beginning of the name means its not an ‘l’ sound, but a ‘klch’ sound. Yep, that’s the best I’m going to do with spelling the sound. It’s a pretty lovely seaside town, though it was blowing a gale when we drove in.

What better way to finish the day than at the pub. We found the Cottage Loaf (down an alley, in the rain) and we weren’t disappointed. We went back every night for at least a pint. Gem.

All-in-all, it was a pretty great first day.

Suffolk – an Abbey, a Brewery and a Medieval Village

rob — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:40:02 +0000

A few weekends ago we decided to go for a road trip out to Suffolk to have a look around. Primarily to see Bury St Edmunds, the Greene King Brewery and a small town called Lavenham. When wandering through Bury, the walkway went through a derelict cemetery.. I still don’t understand how they treat cemetery’s like they do.

Bury St Edmunds is a lovely old town with quite a bit of history. Below I am standing outside one of the old Abbey gates.

It is host to Suffolk’s only cathedral and has the ruins of the once vast 11th century Benedictine abbey. The abbey ruins were absolutely massive!

They were so big in fact that below is a picture of some houses that have been built into the old Abbey wall!

After the wander through the abbey we headed to the Greene King Brewery.

The brewery was reasonably impressive, and used some of the same presses and vats that were installed in 1800.

But we didn’t just go there to see dried hops, oh no!

We went to taste some of the local beers as well.

After drinking an amount of alcohol that still allowed me to drive legally, we headed to Lavenham. The reason to go Lavenham? Harry Potter.

Lavenham is a small medieval village that’s been relatively untouched by modern architecture. So no wonder it was used as the town of Godric Hollow where Harry’s parents lived. Here is a screenshot where Bathilda Bagshot (aka the creepy old woman) wanders up a Lavenham street.

While we couldn’t find the exact street where this was shot, you can certainly see that Lavenham is full of medieval houses. It’s a picturesque village, for sure.

In the movie as well, Harry and Hermione visit Harry’s parents’ house – still damaged from when Voldemort attacked it.

In the real world, the movie makers used Lavenham’s Guildhall as the basis for the Harry’s parents’ house. The amount of CG used, though, means that there’s little to really recognize. It’s a beautiful building though, and Lavenham is an amazing town with all the wobbly houses and winding streets.

It great finish to an enjoyable day.

Everyone should go for little day trips from home sometime. It’s nice to wander around and explore.

New Zealand – Was Wonderful to See You

liz — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:17:13 +0000

We were in NZ for a month, all up. It was brilliant seeing all our friends and family. What was not brilliant was some of the worst Christmas/New Years weather we’ve ever had. But at least, socially, everything was great. We got to catchup with all our friends at parties, weddings and baches.

The Bilkeys were in top form, as usual.

We saw various parts of the Mountain whanau at Mum’s, or the zoo, or up north. All the little cousins are getting bigger and taller. Was lovely to see all of you!

We made sure to see all of Rob’s grandparents. Here’s Helen’s parents, Ten and GramBob, out for a coffee with us at the Shore Road Cafe. They’re both keeping well and still playing plenty of lawn bowls (as well as organising the competitions too).

Also, when we drove through Hamilton, we visited Alma (Barry’s Mum) with Rob’s cousins. So here’s Alma with Rob’s Uncle Bruce and all 5 of Alma’s grandchildren (Mark, Rob, John, Michael and Laura). Alma was in good spirits and telling stories, like how she was named after the street where her parents lived before they came to NZ (Alma St in St Albans, England).

With my family we walked the dogs, went to the movies, had delicious feasts. Generally, I spent as much time with my parents as possible. I miss Mum’s home-cooked meals already!

Our last night in town, we had a dinner with all of our parents and my brother (John and Jax had already gone back to Perth at this stage). It was great to catch-up properly one last time before heading back to the UK.

It was great to see everyone while we were back in NZ. We won’t be back until 2013 for another visit, we estimate. We’ve got some more travelling to do in Europe yet (there’s far too much to see). But we’ll move home sometime for certain.

If we didn’t get to see you on this trip, we’ll try for next time, eh? Just give us a buzz. Or come and couch crash in Cambridge. You’re certainly welcome.

Arohanui and keep well everyone.

Until next time,

Liz and Rob

New Zealand – Walking Up One Tree Hill

liz — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:53:06 +0000

One Tree Hill is an icon in Auckland’s landscape – the largest volcano on the skyline with a tall monument at the top. It’s surrounded by a great park, Cornwall Park, and is a nice place to walk dogs. So that’s what we did.

The hill used to have one tree at the peak, but due to a chainsaw attack, the old pine tree that was there died. So now it’s nicknamed ‘None Tree Hill’. The local iwi don’t want a replacement tree planted until their Treaty of Waitangi agreement is signed. Patience until then I guess.

The 183 metre volcano was the largest and most intensively settled pa (Maori settlement) in Auckland, and was the centre of the Maori occupation during the 18th century when tribes of the region were united under the paramount chief Kiwi Tamaki. Would’ve been a sight to see.

The monument itself is on the grave of Sir John Campbell who gifted Cornwall Park to the city. He requested in his will that an obelisk be constructed to commemorate his ‘admiration for the achievements and character of the great Maori people’.

Such a great view from the top. I might be biased, but it was wonderful to see my home town laid out. In this photo below is Mt Eden (Maungawhau) on the left, then the city scape just to the right behind it and on the far right is Rangitoto in the background. What a beautiful city.

Thanks to Mum for the great walk, and a little bit of history as well.

New Zealand – Auckland Zoo with the Cousins

liz — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:25:57 +0000

When we got back to Auckland, we had a few days to spend time with our families. One of our days was spent at Auckland Zoo, which has developed quite a bit since we last went a few years ago. We went with Mum, Matta and my younger cousins Emere, Hana T and Takimoana.

The kids must’ve played on every playground in the whole zoo as we wandered around.

We loved the new tiger enclosure. There’s a pool right next to the glass of the enclosure and the tiger playing with a ball. Must’ve been full of food! Pretty awesome to have the tiger so close.

Feeding parrots was good fun. In other bird news, we didn’t see any kiwis in the kiwi house. Are there still kiwis in there?

The cousins looking for meerkats.

Lonely Burma at the elephant show. Hopefully she gets friends soon! Lovely to her though.

Little baboons in a row. Awesome enclosure.

A giant tortoise and a little red monkey.

Finally playing on the dragon playground – it’s still in the zoo! I thought they would’ve retired that dragons years ago…

Great to see how Auckland Zoo is developing. Note: I think it’s hugely better than London Zoo! By miles! Brilliant day out.

xx To the whanau.

New Zealand – Heading Up North

liz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:55:58 +0000

After a few days in Auckland catching up with the parents again, we decided to head north for a couple of nights. First, we went to the beautiful Rawhiti, where we hadn’t been since our wedding. It was a bit grey and gloomy, but still a great break.

Matta and Rob got straight in the boat to go fishing. You can see the tiny dot of their boat in the distance of the bay…

We weren’t having fish for dinner, though, but a big delicious home-cooked boil up with kamo, dough boys and kumara. Delicious!

It was also the first time Mum had seen the cousins since Christmas, so we brought their Christmas gifts as well.

It poured with rain most of the time we were in Rawhiti, but was lovely to see the whanau and catchup on the latest news. Thanks for having us! :)

The next afternoon, we were off to Russell to go to Rob’s cousin’s birthday. Most of the Bilkey family was there, which was awesome, and we had a great night of seafood, pizza and beer. Happy Birthday Emlyn!

The next day, we were tourists in Russell and wandered around. First, we went to the Russell Museum (very interesting but small. A mix of Maori and colonial artifacts, with some interesting historical pictures of the Bay of Islands). You couldn’t take any photos inside, so you get this:

We bought the Russel Heritage Trail guide at the museum and headed off. We went down to the Four Square, which is in the old Russell General Store. It was originally the site of a harbourmaster’s residence and office. The store was built in 1880 with sleeping quarters upstairs, reached by an outside staircase, with a single storey livingroom at the back. It still has the same pointed roof and windows from back in the day.

There was the old cannon, which used to be at the north end of Russell Beach to defend the town before Heke’s last attack. We went up into the Swordfish Club, established in 1924, and looked at all the old photos of the various large fish landed over the decades. There are records there as well for the world-famous angler Zane Grey’s catches. (Why didn’t we take photos of these things??)

Christ Church was the highlight of the Heritage Trail. With its old graveyard and musketball holes in the wall of the church, it certainly has character. It’s the oldest existing church in New Zealand, built in 1836. Wonderful.

On our way out of Russell, we drove up Maiki Hill to see the famous Flagstaff. The original flagstaff was felled 4 times by Hone Heke between 1844-5. The present flagstaff was erected as a peace offering in 1857 and named Whakakotahitanga (Being at one with the Queen). On 12 days of the year, the Maori Confederated Tribes flag of 1834 is flown.

The final site to see (in the pouring rain) on our way back to Auckland was the Kawakawa public toilets. Yep. Some loos. For those in the know, they are of course the Hundertwasser toilets. Freidrich Hundertwasser, a world renowned Austrian artist, ecologist and architect, designed the toilets for his adopted home of Kawakawa. They are impressive, with colourful columns of stacked pots and different coloured glass bottles, tiles, shapes and corners all the way through. If you’ve never been, you should go and use these loos. No cement grey seats here, not at all.

Rawhiti and Russell, thanks for having us. Was wonderful to see you both again. Arohanui to our whanau and hope to see you all again soon.

New Zealand – The Buried Village

liz — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:04:11 +0000

While we were at Lake Tarawera, we thought we should do some touristy stuff. Namely, a stones-throw down the road, we wanted to see The Buried Village.

The little museum at the Buried Village was very interesting because of all of the photographs. The Pink and White Terraces ones were great. Back in the day, tourists visited the terraces for bathing, and some would record their trip, like in the photographs below. It was fantastic to see these images and how marvellous the terraces were before they were blown to smithereens by Mt Tarawera exploding in 1886.

The buried village was called Te Wairoa and it was literally buried in the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera. Volcanic ash preserved many of the buildings and other features of the village and visitors today can get a rare insight into 19th-century NZ life.

These are the remnants of a blacksmith’s workshop, where the dirt walls around were where the original building walls were.

This is a recreated whare (house). The little stone stove down the bottom left was the key clue that this was once a home.

This was a stone pataka (storehouse). It was rare for pataka to be made of stone. It would’ve been used to store potatoes and kumara crops.

These are the remains of the Rotomahana Hotel, a Victorian establishment which would’ve accommodated visitors from around the world. It was here that arrangements were made for their journeys to the Pink and White Terraces. You can still see some floorboards from the hotel jutting up.

The other nice thing about The Buried Village is the surrounding grounds. It’s just really beautiful NZ nature.

Beautiful. Thanks Buried Village!

New Zealand – Chilling at Lake Tarawera

liz — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:25:09 +0000

It drizzled through Christmas and poured through New Years. Well, it was no different at our next holiday destination. Well, we got a couple of days with sunny mornings, but it rained in the afternoons. So we made the most of the sunlight we got!

John being dragged by his niece Olivia. Awesome.

The front 9 are from the Gavin bach. Wonderful wonderful hot pools.

The baches at Lake Tarawera have a couple of competitions the baches hold every New Years. We always enjoy the croquet and pentaque ones.

The petanque competition is also called C*cks in Frocks (ie all the boys wear dresses). Rob and Pam won the competition!

Though winning the petanque competition was one highlight for Rob, the other was catching his first trout after 7 years of fishing at Lake Tarawera. We reckon the hat did it.

We were also treated to a fire dancing show by one of Jacqui’s brother’s friends. Brilliant.

A fantastic few days. Thanks so much for having us Gavin whanau! It’s always fun. :)

New Zealand – Catching up with Friends

liz — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:14:59 +0000

We got to catchup with almost all of our friends when we were back in NZ. (Sorry to those who we didn’t get time to see!) The highlight was certainly Eric and Prue’s gorgeous wedding!

But first, there was a Hen’s party. The start of our day was learning to lawn bowl from Rob’s grandpa, GramBob. Don’t you love Prue’s dress? It was full of ruffles!

No photos from the rest of the day, but it involved a drawing class, a great Thai dinner and heading out on the town! Though my jetlag meant I didn’t make it to that last part. But it was a fantastic fun day! No photos from the boys day – though apparently Eric wore a dress almost as nice as Prue’s. :)

The wedding itself was beautiful. Eric and Prue got married at Parnell Rose Gardens under a huge pohutakawa tree. Jacqui and Prue’s sister Mary were bridesmaids. Thanks to Sandie for these photos!

Prue was walked in by her Mum, Kathy, and her brother.

The ceremony was settled at the base of the pohutakawa, with the branches wrapping around. Wonderful location. (P.S. John was Eric’s bestman and looked very handsome. No picture evidence here though – sorry John!)

And then they were Mr and Mrs Stoneham! And rose petals did fall!

The reception was a brilliant party rounding off a fantastic day. Great speeches, great drinks, great music makes for a great night! Well done guys!

The day after the wedding, we were off to Pauanui for New Years. A cyclone meant that it poured and poured and blew and blew the whole time we were there, though. We didn’t go outside except to get between the baches where we were staying. Regardless, it was a great crowd though, so a great couple of days!

Big ups to JD and Abra for hosting us! Happy New Year!

New Zealand – Xmas and Snells Beach

rob — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:18:57 +0000

All done with Canada, we leapt on another plane (the All Blacks safety video on the AirNZ flight was classic) to get home for Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at the Harte’s.

We had a lovely 3 course meal which Helen ( Liz’s mum ) made – a salmon salad, roast turkey and trifle dessert. NOM NOM.

Christmas day we headed up to Snells beach for the Bilkey Family Christmas.

Firstly, we went straight out to get some scallops for the big feast.

Once we got back the party had started. It gets more extravagant/eccentric each year, but the neighbors haven’t complained… yet.

Mum had got everyone a costume, which ranged from Santa suits to red sacks! And the alcohol flowed.

The next day we work up early and went out for a fish.

We caught a few, but that wouldn’t have mattered as it was a lovely day anyway.

And I’ll leave you with the memory of John being slapped in the face by a fish.

( He didn’t really)