Barbara's travels continue 2018

Six days of some of the most majestic and diverse scenery in the world, starting from The Canterbury Plains, through the gentle tussock-covered foothills of the Southern Alps, the beautiful beech forest of Arthur's Pass, down the spectacular Otira Gorge with its vivid Rata trees, to pop out into a completely different world on The wild West Coast with its dense rain forest and spectacularly rugged coastline. .  It does not matter if you are visiting for the first time or the fifty first time, the coastline at Punakaiki is simply jaw-droppingly fabulous! It is all so accessible thanks to the wonderful tracks, such as the Truman Track. After an easy 10-minute stroll through the dense native forest, then you pop out at this incredible viewpoint across the cliffs to Punakaiki's famous Pancake Rocks in the distance. Here too you can enjoy the blowholes and the cliffs and caves across the beach. Of course, nothing quite compares to the Pancake Rock loop track where you can let your ...

A week has come and flown by in Switzerland. Great to be back at Trudi's and to catch up with other good friends too again, usually being treated to some delicious feasts, brunches and dinners. It's a good job I am walking so much in my free time. Also super to be back in Zuerich at the office surrounded by familiar faces. The walk to the office from the station is just gorgeous, if one can ignore the rubbish which has been chucked into the lake and which makes travel tricky for the newly hatched, extremely cute little ducklings. Lucikly there are not too many such spots and in general it looks worse due to the pollen which is  carpeting the water at the moment. Trudi, her friend Alice and I had a fantastic walk up to the Hoernli Restaurant, which surprisingly I had never been to before. The walk started relatively easily through the lovely, gently undulating  meadows covered in a sea of dandelions and buttercups. These young cattle just didn't move as we approached. I lov...