After a relaxing day on Tuesday to recover after the Ballymacoll party, we woke early to watch Munster take on the All Blacks. Thankfully the hotel had Sky so we could watch the match in bed. Munster put up a much braver performance than Ireland and came agonisingly close to winning. We packed up our bags and checked out of the hotel. Mum & Dad had picked up their camper the previous day, so we split our bags and bodies between that and a people carrier provided by the camper van company. The depot was out near the airport and took 30mins or so to get there.

Myself, Davy & Jim were elected by our significant others to take the tour of the camper by the owners. We were shown all the nooks, crannies and facets of this amazing contraption. All of us agreed that using the loo on the trip would be a bad idea, as this would entail emptying the ‘cartridge’! The van itself is a feat of engineering, with most facilities one would need or want fit into the back of a transit van. Once the paper work was complete, with a toot of the horn, we were on our way. I was now officially a white van man.

We didn’t make it very far, we stopped to pack the van with groceries at the local Pak N’ Save. This consisted mostly of wine, breakfast and snacks. After our brief interlude we were back on the road heading west. Our target was Akaroa on Banks Peninsula, this is about half an hour beyond Little River where Nadia is getting married. The road, as usual, was scenery packed and breathtaking.

We stopped off at a golf course I had read about about ten minutes short of Akaroa. Myself, Ash, Dad & Jim had agreed earlier to give the clubs a swing if we could. The club seemed closed as we pulled up. Eventually I found a green-keeper who said he would give someone a call to help us. Soon a lovely lady called Fran turned up. She was the Lady Captain of the club and couldn’t have been more helpful. Mum & Liz headed on in one of the camper vans, while the rest of us readied ourselves. The course was simple but elegant with stunning views of the surrounding countryside. Ash & Jim took on myself and Dad in a format that I devised. The ‘outlaws’ took an early lead that they held on to for most of the match. After a remarkable comeback we went up the last all square. The final hole was eventually halved which seemed appropriate for the whole adventure.

We dropped back the clubs and gear to the club house and left for the camp site in Akaroa. Getting setup in the site was great fun. Plugging in the electric and hopping between the vans. We popped down to Akaroa for a lovely dinner. Soon we were all back in our camper drinking wine and playing ‘Apples to Apples’, a card game Liz brought over from the States. Next up we all sang kumbayya sitting around a camp fire, well not really but it was fun!

We woke the following day to prepare for an event that took nearly as much planning as the wedding! Over the years a huge number of Kiwis have worked at Ballymacoll and we decided to invite, as many of them as we could get hold of, to meet up in Christchurch for a reunion. The response was excellent with most people commiting to turn up.

We arrived early to ‘The Bog’, an irish bar in Christchurch, to get the venue ready. Nadia had done plenty of prep work and laid out badges with everyone’s names on them. Some of the guys we hadn’t seen for twenty years so the badges could prove very handy. I had prepared a DVD slideshow of photos of Ballymacoll and the pub had a big screen I was able to play it on.

Soon people started arriving, and the party began in earnest. I think I gave some people a shock. They had not seen me since I was a child, and now I was all growed up and married! Others had only left Ballymacoll a few years, it was great fun catching up with everyone. Some of our Ballymacoll ‘families’ brought parents too, whom we were meeting for the first time. It was all a big friendly, family atmosphere.

After some food and plenty of drink, it was time for the big man to say a few words. He thanked everyone for turning up and revealed he had a little present for each of the girls. He called them up one by one and presented them with an a ceramic ashtray with the Ballymacoll racing silks ardorned in the center. They also recieved a couple of DVDs with photos and videos of Ballymacoll.

Gradually the numbers petered out and it was time for us to go home. A great day and a great reunion.

At roughly 18.00 on 17th November the full Walton clan were finally reunited. Liz, Jim & Ray had come in from a couple of days in Sydney. Caroline, Davy & Éamha had been in Christchurch for a few days already. Ma, Pa, Ash and myself arrived back from the bus tour. So we had no choice but to crack open the champagne and celebrate. Dad was the only one to have seen Liz & Jim since their engagement, so the rest pf us got our first chance to congratulate them.

Well we were coming close to the end of our trip and time for our earliest start! The braver among our group (including all the Waltons!) rose early to go down to the octagonal in the centre of Dunedin, to watch Ireland take on the All Blacks in Dublin. A local kickoff of 17.15 meant a 06.15 start for us. There were a few tired and sore heads from the night before including Pa. As it turned out we could have spent the morning in bed. Ireland played okay for the first 30 minutes before being blown away by a far superior team. Luckily the sports bar we were in contained more Irish than Kiwis, so the abuse wasn’t too bad.

Soon we were back on the road and making our way up the coast towards Christchurch. We stopped off at a beach, about an hour away, to get a look at the Moeraki boulders. These boulders are built up over millions of years and are formed somewhat like pearl. They are very unusual to look at and seem quite out of place on the beach. After a brief stop and coffee we were back on the road.

Pete brought us to a very nice gift shop, another 40mins or so along the way, called the Tin Shed. They specialised in wool garments and other souvenirs. We all had a good poke around, and Pa topped up on some Manuka Honey. The shop try to create a fun atmosphere about the place and so have a number of farm animals. We wandered around chatting to the donkeys, goats, sheep, alpacas, pigs, and hens.

Our next and final stop was a late lunch in a coffee shop, owned and run by Pete & Marg’s eldest son Mark. Unfortunately Pete was in a spot of trouble, having failed to inform Mark that 40 hungry people were turning up at 3pm. They coped very well and all the customers left satisfied.

Only an hour further on to Christchurch and we were back to normality, well sort of!!

Getting up in the mornings is getting harder to do, but the rewards are worth it. Living out of one bag is also a royal pain. I started my day with an argument with a french waitress at breakfast, vented some of my anger and I was ready to start the day! We headed east for Gore, travelling across some of the flatest plains in the south island. This meant good farming land but not too much to look at apart from paddock lice (sheep), milking cows, and deer. We continued on to Dunedin. This land was settled by the Scottish, hence the name of the city, a cross between Dundee and Edinburgh. The landscape is quite similar to the Scottish highlands so I would imagine they felt quite at home. We stopped to pick up some lunch and made our way on to the Otago Peninsula.

Our first stop was a Yellow-Eyed penguin sanctuary. An area of beach where they nest has been cordoned off and a santuary established. We were bused over to the nesting site and led through camoflaged tunnels. The tunnels meant you could get very close to the penguins without upsetting them or frightening them. We also got to see a number of seals sunbathing on the rocks and playing on the beach.

We moved further up the peninsula to the head where there is an albatross centre. This is the only mainland site in the world where albatross nest. They are amazing birds, huge in size with a wing span of roughly twice my height (3 metres). They do not fly for the first seven or eight months of their life, but once they do take flight they circumnavigate Antarctica for 4 or 5 years until they are ready to find a mate. The oldest recorded albatross at this site was 62 years old.

We loaded back onto the bus and took the scenic high road back to Dunedin. After a brief stop to freshen up we headed into the octagon in Dundedin city centre for dinner. We ended up in a sports bar and all had stonegrilled food. Stonegrill is a large stone which is roasting hot, your food (meat, fish) is served raw on the stone and you cook it to taste. It was great fun and delicous to eat. Myself, Ash & Ma headed back for the motel, while Pa was lead astray by a few of the others! Big match in the morning, sports bar are showing live and serving brekkie.

A late start as Pete referred to it. ‘No rush’ he said, ‘breakfast at 7.45 on the bus before 9′. You can tell he’s a farmer, used to 6am starts! Our itinerary wasn’t too packed for the day and there was a chance we could fit in some helicopter flights. We left Queenstown and set out for Te Anau. We stopped off a couple of times along the way for some photo opps and toilet breaks. We arrived before lunch at the motel where we were going to spend the night. You can only get to Milford Sound via Te Anau, so we would be doubling back on ourselves after the boat trip. We dropped our bags and wandered around the town for a little while before grabbing some sandwiches to eat on the boat.

The road to Milford is quite slow going, with some steep climbs and descents. Pete explained to us that he had sorted helicopter flights, and that they would meet us along the road. Pete pulled in at a bend in the road and I could see a helicopter in the distance. There were 20 of us willing and two helicopters that could take ten between them. We split into two groups and soon the first team were up and gone. The rest of us travelled through a tunnel in the mountain and met the guys the far side after they had finished their flight.

Myself, Ma & Pa loaded up with three others into the bigger of the two helicopters and before I had time to prepare myself we were up, up and away. It is a very strange sensation flying in a helicopter, the movements are very alien. We meandered through the peaks getting up as high as 8,000 feet before the pilot landed us on top of a glacier to take a stroll. It is so surreal walking around this completely inaccessible place, with cliffs on all sides, and virgin snow surrounding you. We hopped back on the chopper and were safely delivered to the bus in Milford Sound. An incredible worthwhile experience but terrifying none the less.

From the air to the sea, on to a boat for our third mode of transport for the day. We all boarded a cruise ship which took us up the Milford Sound (it is actually a Fjord not a sound), out to the sea and back again. The captain narrated all the geographical features around us, and I felt like I was back in geography class. All those things I had been told about like U shaped valleys, hanging valleys, terminal moraines, I was now seeing in the flesh. One of the highlights of the cruise was the view of a waterfall we got. The sun was shining behind creating mini rainbows and the spray glistened like smoke in the air, it was unforgettable.

Off back to Te Anau for a bite to eat and bed. Another action packed day and the stamina was waning.

A very early start to day 2. We had decided the previous night to try a helicopter flight early in the morning if the weather had lifted. I opened my curtains at 6.30 to see nothing but mist covering the mountains, so no flight again today. We headed back into Fox again for brekkie and hit the road, heading south towards Haast.

Time for some action!! Jet boating down the Haast river. Pete dropped us off and most of us boarded two jet boats. Pete drove on to meet us further down the river. The jet boats are amazing, they are a local invention and work by sucking water in the front and pushing it out the rear. They can travel in as little as two inches of water. This suits the rivers in NZ very well, they tend to have large flood plains but with small rivers running through them. The full size of the river is only seen in flood time. We had a great tour from a local guy, who spends most of his time hunting and fishing when he is not driving the boat. We also got to sample some high speed spins which were great fun.

We travelled on through another pass in the mountains, this one called Haast Pass and stopped for some lunch in Makarora. Ma was kept happy at lunch by the small grass airstrip they had, very similar to Trim. Our next stop was a fascinating one. Pete has a pal who has recently built a house on Lake Hawea. The house is incredible, definitely worthy of a visit from MTV cribs. His views over the lake are stunning. Himself and his wife were very hospitable, filling us with scones, cakes and tea. 

We passed alongside Lake Wanaka, through Wanaka town and eventually on to Queenstown. We stopped just at the top of the valley leading down to Queenstown for a photo opp. The view was breathtaking, just like something out of a movie. You had snowcapped mountains in the background, sloping hills covered in trees leading down to a lush green valley floor with a river snaking through it. Caroline, Davy and Eamha were waiting for us at the motel as we pulled in. They had been in Queenstown for a couple of days and were happy for the company I think.

That night we were pencilled in for a Maori concert and a panoramic dinner on top of a mountain. There is a short but very steep gondola ride up to the complex. Ash, who is not great with heights, had a bit of a freaker when she saw the gondola (as did most people I suspect!). Between myself and Leah (Ash’s cousin who is currently living in q’town) we managed to coax her into a gondola. She closed her eyes and before she knew it she was swigging a G&T at the top. The Maori concert was very entertaining, although Eamha found it a bit too much to handle.

After a brief stop with a crazy dutch barman in the motel we were off to bed. Knackered!

Click here for Bus Tour Day 2 photo gallery

Well it had finally arrived. We met in the centre of Christchurch at an ungodly hour, bags in hand. 40 brave souls boarded a very fancy bus driven by Nadia’s father Pete and we were on our way. Pete immediately began narrating via his headset, giving us plenty of insights about the surrounding countryside. We headed straight for the mountains and Arthur’s Pass.

As soon as you get close to the mountain ranges here, you can see why kiwis laugh at what we call mountains. The southern alps which encircle the Canterbury plains are awesome, full of snow capped ridges. We passed by a farm that a friend of Pete’s had sold a couple of years previously, a measly 25,000 acres. They don’t do small farms over here! We made our first pit stop at the visitor centre in Arthur’s Pass and stocked up on some much needed coffee. Just driving through the mountain range is incredible, the views and the scenery are nearly too much to take in.

Having reached the west coast via the pass, we stopped for lunch in Hokitika. I think this place might have been forgotten about in the seventys! There is a huge proliferation of jade in the area and plenty of factories where they clean, polish and shape the stone. Pete was soon marshalling us back on the bus and trying to keep us on schedule.

We pushed on down the coast to Franz glacier, where we were due to take a helicopter up on to the glaciers. Unfortunately when we got there the mist was down and we would not be able to see anything from the helicopter. The helicopter company had another base in Fox Glacier, the town we were staying in for the night, so we decided to try the weather from there in an hour. The mist didn’t budge and instead we all headed up to the terminal face to get a close look at the glacier. There was some great excitement when we got up there. Nad’s friend Ginevra got engaged to her boyfriend Barney. We trooped back to town and got some great food after a long wait, and were delighted to hit the hay. End of day 1!

Click here for Bus Tour Day 1 photo gallery

We set off early from Karen & Roger’s for Windsor Park Stud. Surprisingly for myself and Ash we were early arriving. Nelson Schick gave us a great welcome and we sat around chatting with him and his team over a welcome cup of coffee.

After lots of chin wagging it was time to look at some horses. First up were his stallions. Windsor Park stand a number of their own stallions along with a couple of northern hemisphere stallions that ’shuttle’ to NZ for the southern breeding season. One of his shuttle stallions is Ballymacoll bred and raced, Golan. Golan won two Group 1s for Ballymacoll and finished second in the Epsom Derby. He looked magnificent and according to the guys has been going well down there. We also saw High Chaparral, serial Group 1 winner, another shuttle stallion. The local bred stallions are much larger horses, sprinting types. We moved on for a tour of the rest of the farm. We saw the foaling, yearling and racing units.

Off then to Cambridge Stud, home of Sir Tristram, producer of 45 individual group 1 winners. Sir Patrick Hogan gave us a very warm welcome, with hats and brochures. His current roster of stallions (Sir Tristram is unfortunately long dead) were paraded for us. One Cool Cat looked fantastic and our final stallion to see was Zabeel, a son of Sir Tristram. He is 22 and looked to be getting on, but after some fertility research done in Kentucky he is still able to handle a book of 70 mares at $100k a pop. Cambridge Stud is immaculately kept, with flowers and trees in abundance. Sir Patrick, Nelson & Pa posed for some photos with Sir Tristram’s statue and we were off for lunch.

Conversation flowed over lunch and the three wise men debated the various aspects of foaling and breeding. The locals foal all their mares in paddocks while us visitors foal in stables. Tips and tricks were readily exchanged by all sides. Disappointly for Pa his flight to Wellington for imminent and it was time to head for Hamilton airport. We all said our goodbyes and dropped Ma & Pa off at the terminal.

Myself and Ash headed back for Auckland for the night. We stopped off to see Ash’s Mum’s cousin, Sister Irene, who is based in the Auckland suburbs. She was delighted to see us and filled us with tea, biscuits and sandwiches. We signed the visitors book, said hello to the other sisters living there and got on our way to our hotel. The hotel if fabulous, very fancy and quite reasonably priced. We popped into the city centre to take a look around. After a quick stop to pick up Davy’s left property (a wallet full of cash!!), we strolled down a pier. There wasn’t too much to see and we were back in the hotel soon enough. Tomorrow we are off to Christchurch!!

Click here for Windsor Park & Cambridge Studs photo gallery

Well we made it to New Zealand at last after years of planning we finally arrived. This did meaning leaving our lovely hotel in Sydney. We set out just after 9am with an estate taxi packed with bags. The queues in Sydney airport for check in were massive. It took us over an hour to check in, after which we had to hot foot it to left luggage, to drop off a bag of tricks (heavy stuff). Ma & Pa will pick it up on their way back through Sydney.

Pa did his best not to be allowed out of the country. When he went through security screening his bag was pulled aside. I could see the bag being emptied of electronics and scanned again. I walked over just in time to hear the security guy say “there is definitely a knife in here somewhere, I can see it on the x-ray”!!! After completely emptying the bag, the guy started looking through the contents again. He leafed through one book, then another and unbelievably out fell a kitchen knife. A look of revelation crossed Pa’s face. “Ah yes, I did use a fork and two knifes as bookmarks this morning at breakfast”, he explained. Pa gladly donated his new acquisition and we headed on our way.

We picked up our ropey 200,000Km old car from Auckland airport and headed off to Cambridge. It look us just under an hour and a half to get there. We got our first glimpses of the NZ landscape and it is so similiar to Ireland. Very green and lush. Nad’s sister Karen and her husband Roger put us up for the night. They live very close to the farms we were due to visit. We were well entertained by Oliver and Bria all evening. After a good feed and some local wine we were happy to hit the hay. Off to meet Sir Patrick in the morning!