The occasion was a farewell dinner with Auckland Girl who is returning to Auckland.

I was interested to see whether MariLuca could keep up the excellent food and service that was a trademark of Maria Pia’s.

For the wine, we went with a bottle of Gavi  D.o.c.g. Duca di Aleramo 2010 Piemonte. At $42 a bottle it was very reasonable priced and a very good match to the pasta. So good, we had a second bottle. Very helpful that the wine list suggested foods it would match.

My entree was the Grigliata Impanata di Pesce, which was grilled prawn, squid, scallops and mussels in herbed bread crumbs. It was very tasty, and I had no complaints. 7.5/10. Auckland Girl had cockles, which were also delicious.

My main was the Pappardelle  con Anatra, which was with braised duck sauce. It was quite simply magnificent. The pasta was home crafted, and the duck was exquisite. A 9/10 easily.  Auckland Girl chose the gnocchi, which was also lovely.

My dessert (which I normally skip, but was a special occasion) was the gelato. Hard to get a bad gelato, and this one certainly wasn’t. AG went for the tiramisu, and from the sound of her groans of satisfaction, it was also very good. 8/10 for the desserts.

After dessert we had a port and a cognac. The service during the night was excellent and classy. The waitress (from Argentina) knew all the essentials such as how to properly pour wine, and was very friendly, but professional. The owner topped off the night by offering us a couple of lemoncellos on the house. I give the service a 9/10 also.

The overall bill was around $200, which for four excellent courses and two bottles of wine is very reasonable. A definite recommendation to those who want a classy night out, without paying the earth.

During the dinner, AG and I had fun playing Sherlock Holmes and trying to work out the backgrounds of all the other diners based on observation only. Our conclusions were:

1. A table of two older men, and an older woman. Conclusion was a businesswoman out with her husband a a business colleague.
2. A table of a young man dressed casually, a blond young woman in business dress and older woman. After considering they were a couple we decided they were brother and sister as they had no body language between them. Also he was dressed too casually for a date, and she had relatively little makeup on. The older woman was their mother, whom we suspect was from out of town, and this was her treat for them. Out detective skills were proven correct when at the end we heard her refer to them as her offspring.
3. A man and woman in their 40s. Had one course only. Conclusion was a local Thorndon couple and this is their regular.
4. Two men and two women, with one of each in their 40s and 50s. The men we decided worked together, and were out with their respective wives.
5. A young asian woman and a slightly older ginga. She gave him a card. Our conclusion is she is a law student and he is probably her tutor and boyfriend.
6. A man and woman in their late 30s. She was wearing an orange dress. Based on the dress we decided they were from Lower Hutt. They took 30 minutes to decide what to order, so were obviously not locals. Obviously a special dinner out, so I think it was an anniversary dinner treat for them.

We also discussed what people would probably guess we are, if they were doing the guesswork on us, we had done on them. We figured their guess on us would be a couple who had met over the Internet and were on their first date

Anyway, back to the restaurant, definitely has kept up the good standards of its predecessor, and a restaurant worth returning to.

Post Day One Sevens brunch for our group. Very good at soaking up the alcohol.

Day Two was great. I was convinced New Zealand would lose after their semi-final vs England, where they played awfully. And Fiji was very impressive in their semi-final.

But my God, what a final. I can’t recall seeing a better performance from the NZ Sevens team. Four tries in the first half. And it wasn’t that Fiji were playing awfully – more NZ was playing very very well. The Fijians got quite bad tempered as the game went on – I don’t think they are used to being thrashed.

So a great finish to a very fun tournament. The only downside for the girls is that the Ultimate Warrior never turned up again. One of them spent most of the day looking for him!

But all other things are not equal.

I have been a long-term fan of the Magician series of books by Raymond E. Feist. I’m even lucky enough to be on a mailing list with the author, where you can discuss his works with him.

His 29th and penultimate book in what will be a 30 book collection (in 10 series) has just been published. It is not yet available in NZ bookstores. To be fair, we do often get it in our bookstores ahead of even the US bookstores.

As a hardcover, it will probably cost NZ45 or so when it is released here.

I could order the book off Amazon to be home delivered. But the book is not available for delivery until 13 March 2012.  Cost with delivery would be around US$28.

But I managed to buy a Kindle version for US$10 last week, and am already halfway through it.

I love having a physical book collection, but I can see more and more of my future purchases being for my Kindle (technically Kindle on iPad).

The rugby side (yes I do actually go for the rugby) was good. Canada beating France was excellent, as was Tonga beating Fiji. South Africa playing quite well and beat England and NZ looking good in their three victories, but not unbeatable by any stretch.

Anyway two amusing stories. The first is of how not to pick up a girl.

A guy in a duff beer outfit is cavorting in the aisle and then sits down in the aisle next to one of our group (Anna). He doesn’t speak to her, just sits there for half an hour, occasionally smiling at her. We are having fun teasing her that she has picked up a friend. Then after half an hour of sitting there saying nothing he asks “So you’ll be going home soon”. As it was 9 pm or so, Anna answers “yes”. He then goes “So I’ll come with you then”.

Well you have to give some marks for the direct approach!

The other incident happened soon after that. A young guy (aged 21) dressed or undressed as the Ultimate Warrior came up. He was basically naked apart from his underpants/wrestling shorts. He very generously lowered himself over a couple of the girls and umm shook his booty in front of them. The girls were not objecting too greatly I must say (probably helped by the fact he did have a wrestler’s physique) and I was having great fun urging him to make sure none of the girls on our group missed out.

But as I was urging him on, he looks up from being draped over Kirsti and Anna and goes “You’re David Farrier*, I love your blog”. In fact he loved my blog so much, he insisted on also shaking his booty over me – to the extremely great amusement of the girls in the group, who I think now believe in karma.

Some very unfortunate photos were snapped on iphones, and my KiwiSaver savings are going to have to be raided to ensure sufficient bribes to stop them ever being published!

Anyway heading back in around 1 pm. Here’s hoping for a New Zealand win!

* People would be amazed how often people either get my surname confused with TV3′s David Farrier, or even mix the two of us up (as in I give them my name, and they say oh yes you’re that funny guy on Nightline).

UPDATE: Kirsti has provided this photo of the Warrior.

I’m always in two minds about posting about Great Barrier Island, as I’m worried too many people might start holidaying there, making it harder for me to holiday there. But it really is an iconic part of New Zealand that provide world class beauty, just 30 minutes flying from Auckland.

Myself and three friends stayed at Blind Bay, and you can see the view from the balcony. The weather was so nice, that we were able to drink and play cards out on the balcony until close to midnight. One can never get sick of views like that.

A couple of the locals very kindly took us out fishing over the weekend. This is their dog Max who just loves being out on the water.

Even I managed to catch a couple of fish, including this parrotfish. We also caught lots of snapper, which we had for dinner.

I loved this sight of the dog being towed along in his own boat.

After the fishing, we went to this very remote bay (basically only accessible by boat or a two hour walk) and it really was a piece of paradise. The water was wonderful.

Yum. I can never get enough crayfish. It was a perfect end to a great day out.

Also love the sunset over Blind Bay.

I love living in Wellington, and don’t think I would ever live in Auckland. But if I did, a big plus would be being able to spend more time on the Barrier. The locals are so absolutely friendly, and the scenery so wonderful.

Anyway a few minutes into the flight the underside of my right arm starts throbbing – quite significant pain. I turn it over to see what the problem is, and I see this:

This photo was taken two days later, so have faded a bit. You can’t see all of them, but in total there were ten cuts from just above my wrist to just below my elbow. Still fairly visible five days later.

Now the weird thing is I have no memory of them. I can’t think of any activity I did which could give me multiple cuts on my arm, let alone ones I would not notice until later. If it had happened in Africa I would assume it was some bush we drove through, but this was back in NZ.

And no, they are not self inflicted – unless I have a very bad case of sleep walking. Plus they are cut the wrong way for that.

So this will have to go down as one of life’s mysteries – both how they occurred, but also why I only felt them when I was on the plane to Barrier.

$15 entry (Zealandia take note) and it’s a very pleasant 60 – 90 minute walk around. On a hot summer day, especially nice. If you’re into birds, or have kids, could be a good place to pop into. Kids are just $6 each and a family no more than $35.

Just after the entrance a large grassed area with a pond and lots of ducks.

A black swan being curious.

You can get a packet of duck food for $2 and the ducks are not shy. The literally surround you, and even walk over your feet if they think there is food nearby.

This is a kakariki, specifically a red-crowned parrot. I love how the green matches the grass.

A kaka.

A kereru or woodpigeon.

And the pukeko or swamp hen.

It’s biting a nail? Must be a kea!

Another little pond. It’s a beautiful setting.

And white swans this time.

There’s a loop bushwalk which takes around half an hour. I love paths where the trees are so abundant they keep the sun out.

And they have a few education notices out. 800 kgs a year of fruit from one tree is damn impressive.

Our silver fern of course.

The white-faced heron.

And feeding the ducks at the end!

As I said, a nice place to visit on a summer day.

My holiday in Africa was so exhausting (getting up at 5 am daily) that I needed another holiday to recover from it! I’ve been up at Waikanae Beach with my whanau and friends. We’ve got a great place for 10 days. It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, and the sloped roof has windows so pretty much all day sun.

This is the view from the back lawn. At high tide, you are around 10 metres from the water. A great view of Kapiti Island. There’s something very relaxing about being able to hear and see the sea from your living room.

I was a bit surprised initially to see a sail whizz past at high speed, until I investigated and saw they were on land, not sea.

The water here is seriously nice. Great waves and warm water. I’ve gone in a few times. Kapiti is only an hour north of Wellington but by not being Cook Strait, the water is heaps warmer. The temperature is a few degrees higher also, often.

We’ve dined outside pretty much every day, and even had the BBQ fired up. Did fish and chips one night which was great – something “right” about fish and chips by the beach.

Waikanae Beach is very long, so good for long walks to burn off lunch. One day we decided to walk to the cafe down the road, along the beach. We over-shot it by around 1.5 kms which was very funny. Not so funny was walking back along the road (we didn’t want to miss it again). Bare feet on hot melting tar is a painful mixture.

Sadly it has not been all relaxation, as have had quite a lot of work to do and reports to write for various clients. But working on the laptop up here with a view of Kapiti, sure beats being in an office in Wellington.

A great place to have a week off for Wellingtonians, so to speak. And usefully if for some reason you do have to head home, you can be there in just 45 minutes (30 minutes if doing a Lundy).

The Fork & Brewer is on Bond Street. The location used to be home to Syn & Hell Pizza, the Ruby Lounge and the Loaded Hog before that. I also recall it being the Bond Street Inn. You go up the stairs to be greeted with …

At present these are decorative, but in the near future they will in fact start to brew their own labels in-house.

On the good Wellington days, you can sit outside on the balcony and look down on all the worker ants scurrying up and down Victoria and Bond Streets.

I love their bar. The interior is quite large, and the bar forms a barrel almost the entire 360 degrees. The decor is cool with all the gadgets displayed on the wall, but what is most excellent is the 43 different beers they have on tap – almost all New Zealand independent and craft beers.

This is a bar made for beer lovers, owned by beer lovers. You can see their full range of beers here.

The food is great – much better than normal pub or bar fare. Not just my view, but also the Dine Out reviewers. I can only rave about the chicken wings – they are delicious, and you get a huge number too.

In keeping with their love of beer, they have matched beers to each menu item, as you can see above. You can see their menu here.

And as the final temptation to turn the Fork & Brewer into my mobile office, they have a power hot-point at every booth, so you can plug your laptop in.

All up, a highly recommended venue for drink and food. I plan to go there often.

If Jimmy Carter had Alzheimer’s, would they be making films of him as an old confused man, babbling about the SALT treaty. No chance at all.

Don’t get me wrong, once someone is dead, any portrayal of their life should be warts and all, and include their twilight years when their mental facilities were not what they once were. But my views were that such a film should not be made when the subject is still alive. And I still believe the film was premature.

But something wonderful happened with this film, despite the suspect motives of those behind it. Meryl Streep brought Margaret Thatcher to life, in a way I would not have thought possible. She made her strong, she made her powerful, she made her sad, she made her obstinate, she made her defiant, she made her out of touch, she made her lonely and most of all she made her human – not just a caricature.

If Streep does not win an Oscar for her performance, then there is something seriously wrong. It was a stunning performance by her. She looked and sounded absolutely convincing. Alexandra Roach as the younger Margaret also performed wonderfully.

The film is an emotional one. Yes, I got wet eyes at times. It was a very sad story, but also a very uplifting one at times. It is effectively a series of flashbacks of the present day Lady Thatcher thinking through her life from working in her father’s grocery store, to getting involved in politics, standing for Parliament, becoming Leader and then Prime Minister plus the highs and lows of her time in office with her eventual resignation 11 and a half years on.

The present day Lady Thatcher is obviously suffering from Alzheimer’s. In the main, they capture this remarkably accurately and with sensitivity. A good example is how she slips out of the house to buy some milk as she needs some for breakfast, and this sparks a major panic amongst her staff and Police. From her point of view of course she is capable of going to the dairy. But from their point of view they are worried that if she has a forgetful spell when out, she’ll get confused and may wonder anywhere.

They accurately showed that she was still somewhat active – signing books, the odd public outing – but also obviously frail. The big plot element was that her dead husband Denis always appeared to her as a ghost, and she was often seen talking to him to the dismay of her minders.

They over-played the ghost of Denis angle, but it was still quite endearing. They captured his charm very well, and there is no doubt she terribly misses him. Anyone who has lost a partner of 50+ years would understand.

On the political side, they got it absolutely right. People forget what a massive achievement it was for her to become leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. This was a time when few few women were in politics, and she battled to be accepted every step of the way. You just wanted to punch some of those patronising old men.

They showed her at her best when talking about doing what is right, not what is popular. Absolutely inspiring. And the scene where she verbally lashes the US Secretary of State for suggesting they negotiate (she called it surrender) to the Argentinians was superb – especially how then suddenly she goes all lovely and asks if she should play mother and pour the tea. The Americans are all pale white at this stage.

The film though is definitely not a sycophantic account. They show the hatred, and the protests. They show her unwillingness to bend on the poll tax and they show the humiliating way she treated some of her cabinet colleagues such as Lord Howe – which led to her downfall. They subtly made Heseltine out to be a type of rodent, which was excellent.

Finally the ending was spot on. In her hallucinations she has finally let Denis move on and he is seen walking down the corridor away from her with his bags packed. She cries out for him not to leave her alone, and he replies that he isn’t – that she has always been alone.

And that gets to the crux of Thatcher – she fought battles all her life – and generally she did fight alone. It was a lonely life, and in her end years an even lonelier existence. You feel both sorry for her and (if not a hater of her) inspired by her.

As I said, I was prejudiced against the film before I saw it. But as I saw reviews come out from the likes of Boris Johnson describing how well it captured Thatcher, I started to look forward more to the film. And Boris was right – it did capture her so well, warts and all. I still don’t like the timing of the film, but Meryl Streep especially made the film a magnificent portrayal of her life.

Incidentally I saw the film at the Shoreline Cinema in Waikanae. It’s a lovely little cinema with two rooms. Room 1 which we were in seats 40, but on two seater couches which were very cool. They also have room for wine or food in the spaces between each couch.

The plot does deviate quite a bit from the book or books, but that didn’t matter to me. When it comes to Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter I object to plot changes in film versions – but with Tintin it didn’t matter as it is really about the wonderful characters.

Tintin is the name of the lead, but as with the books not the real star. That is a toss up between Caption Haddock and Snowy.

They made good use of 3D, and had some great action sequences. The chase sequence with the bird (and the papers) was very well done. My favourite though was the swordfight with the cranes.

Snowy adds the same comic tough as in the books. His sandwich tug or war with the rat is good fun, but most of all I love how he intimidates the much larger guard dog into becoming his plaything.

If you are a Tintin fan, go see the movie.

Tintin and Asterix were the two series of books I grew up on the most. We had every book, and could read them often. Every kid should have them.

I just hope that one day someone can make just as good an Asterix movie. The ones to date have been pretty crap.

The Labour Department has closed its investigation into a complaint by Australian computer programmer Glenn Watson who claimed to have been pressured to work up to 120 hours a week at the Auckland studio of games-maker Gameloft.

Spokeswoman Ailsa Mannell “no substantial evidence” of a breach of health and safety laws had been found and no action would be taken against the French multinational.

Watson’s description of working conditions at the Auckland studio, where he was head programmer, was widely reported in computer games publications around the world after he blew the whistle on his employer in July.

He said he resigned after a four-week stint in which he worked 14 hours-a-day, seven days a week. Watson accused Gameloft of creating artificial deadlines to encourage a frantic environment among the 70 Auckland staff and said a junior programmer had worked for 24 hours in a single, straight shift.

Ha, I can beat that. In 2000/1 when rolling out a new database system, I actually worked a straight 60 hour shift, broken up only by showers. It is amazing what you can manage when there is a non changeable deadline approaching.

The reason the deadline was not changeable is I was booked to fly/drive around the country doing installation and training starting on Tuesday, so I worked Saturday morning to Monday evening without sleep to complete everything.

What was funny was that when I completed the final testing and documentation just prior to my flight to Auckland on the Monday, I landed at Auckland early evening and had to drive to Warkworth. But I got a call from a friend inviting me to a party. I actually declined initially, but then he put on the phone the attractive blonde (knowing my inability to say no to them) who pressured me into attending, so despite no sleep for 60 hours I then attended a party (drinking non-alcoholic) for a couple of hours before resuming the drive to Warkworth.

It’s quite interesting when you go long periods without sleep, the cycles you go through. Every 12 hours or so you have a really tough period for 2 – 3 hours when staying awake is damn hard, but if you push past that, then you feel fine for another 9 – 10 hours or so.

I was very lucky with the four places I went to. They were all great, but also all different enough that each was special. Below I blog a comparison between the four places I stayed at. I had an excellent time all four of them – the differences are minor, so don’t sweat the choices too much.

I did find &Beyond consistently great, and many fellow travelers said they swear by them, and only stay with them. However the first place I stayed at, Tintswalo, was easily equally superb.

I stayed at four places, with stays ranging from two nights to four nights. With the benefit of hindsight I would make all my stays three nights each. Two nights is too short as it only gives you one full day in camp, and traveling every second day is exhausting. Four nights on the other hand can drag on slightly on the final day. That means eight safari drives in the same area.

What I intend to do in future, and would recommend, is three stays of three nights each. That’s nine nights in total and 18 drives.

Now to the four I stayed at:

With the location important to note three of the four sites were in private concession areas. That means there are few other people about, and the guides are allowed to go off the main routes, can drive with spotlights after sunset etc. Chobe National Park is more restricted with what you can do, but the quantity and diversity of wild life there is higher than other places – so it is a trade off. I recommend rather than one or the other, you include Chobe but also include some private concession areas.

All the accommodation was luxury. Where-ever you go, you should be comfortable. Tintswalo was the most luxurious, and Ngabexa my personal favourite as being under canvas fits the environment.

The amount of time you spend out on each drive varies. I think four hours is a good maximum as Tintswalo did. You get a bit tired beyond that. Nice to have a bit more siesta time during the day also.

Tintswalo and Chobe had pretty well formed dirt roads to drive on, and would often go at reasonable speeds. With Tintswalo you would often go off road and literally push your way through and over trees and bushes. The two Okavango locations tended to be less well developed roads – sometimes just slightly worn tracks through fields. These would be very bumpy, but that is part of the fun. Normally driving around 15 km/hr or so (which is good for spotting things). I did discover that even on those roads, they can do around 60 km/hr as when we had to drop some water off to a broken down jeep on the way to catching my flight. I was almost bouncing out of the jeep, but loving every minute of it.

The hospitality was impossible to criticise. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. I give Nxabega slightly extra points for the fun we had on New Years Eve, with great hospitality from Megan and Dave – the co-managers.

With meals, you will also have nothing to complain about. Each place has a chef or chefs who will even make meals on demand. The challenge is to not eat too much.

I’ve included the trip advisor rankings and reviews. Again I would stress they are all excellent places to stay. Some of the reviews are years old, so I suggest anyone interested focus on more recent reviews.

It is worth noting that Nxabega was ranked 1st out of 40 in the Okavango Delta, and I’m not surprised by that. It was the perfect end to my trip. I’ll definitely be going back there. I’m keen to return to some of the other places also, but have to weigh that up against exploring new locations in Kenya and Namibia also.

The trips are costly. If it were not for the cost, I’d go there annually.

In terms of other things to do, outside the safaris – I would put Cape Town and Victoria Falls into the must see categories. Sun City was fun, but not a must do or see.

When will I return? I hope to do Latin or Central America in the next two years as have never been there, and that will cost a bit also. So realistically probably won’t get back until 2017, but will be something to look forward to.

Normally I prefer to arrange my trips myself, and research places, activities and accommodation through sources such as Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. I tried to do this with the Africa trip, but I found it too challenging for a first time visitor to Africa. There were three significant challenges:

1. Safety – I wanted to minimise safety risks such as travel in unsafe areas, dodgy internal airlines, being exposed to touts etc
2. Connections – it was difficult to work out by myself how one would actually get to and from certain safari camps
3. Variety – there are so many different lodges and camps to choose from, that even with Trip Advisor, deciding where to go was challenging – even deciding what countries to go to was a challenge

So in my googling I came across a package from World Journeys for The Cape, Kruger & Victoria Falls. Now these were three of the places I wanted to go to. However I was dubious, as I am not really into group tours, as you lose flexibility. However I filled in the form to see what they could do.

This put me in touch with Kirstine from World Journeys. She informed me that their packages are not all group tours, but in this case they put together individually tailored trips. So over the next few weeks I probably drove them crazy with my “Can we do Chobe also” and “How difficult would it be to also go into the Okavango Delta” and “Would a couple of days at Sun City blow the price out much” and they dealt with all my variations. They knew all about how you could fly from one camp to another via small safari planes to and from obscure air strips.

What was very useful is that Kisrtine had actually been to Africa, and stayed at all the places I was staying at. This was very reassuring when making decisions about whether to stay in a lodge or under canvass in certain areas. I’m glad she pushed me into the under canvass options.

After it was all agreed, World Journeys sent out a very helpful package of itinerary, travel advice, medical requirements, tipping guidelines, baggage guidelines (you need to travel with soft bags) etc. They were great to deal with, and I highly recommend them for this sort of trip.

But the really useful them is they were partnered with &Beyond in Africa. What this meant was from they point I arrived in Africa, &Beyond took over responsibility for my trip. They had a driver met me at Cape Town airport, who gave me vouchers for the rest of the trip. They had their own reps or other companies meet me at every destination where a transfer was needed. And when something happened such as a strike at one safari camp, they arranged me to stay at another camp at no extra cost. Knowing that no matter what happened, they would take responsibility for making sure the trip all fitted together was hugely reassuring.

&Beyond also owned several of the safari camps I stayed at. I will do a seperate detailed post on the four camps I stayed at, but suffice to say for now they were all great. In my travels I chatted to many other people staying at the various camps, and many of them were return visitors who swear by &Beyond and say they will only stay at their lodges and camps. They are at the higher end of the market, but have a mixture of price packages over their 35 lodges and camps.

So for someone who normally likes to do it all myself, I was very happy with the service I got from World Journeys and &Beyond. It was really good having both a company to deal with in NZ, and a company to deal with when actually in Africa. If you are a first time traveller especially, I would highly recommend both companies. I had nothing but good experiences with them.

So the day consisted of an outdoor African massage, reading a biography of David Livingstone in the sun, and cooling off in the pool, plus food and drinks.

This is a view of one of the tents, merged into the surrounding area

This is the view from my balcony

The inside of the tent. Camping was never this fun when I was a kid!

A monkey making himself at home in the communal area

This is where I spent most of the day. Just fantastic. Great sun, amazing views, the sounds of Africa and no disturbances except refilling drinks.

The swimming pool.

This is the hat I wore pretty much non-stop when I was outdoors. It is a hand-me-down from my father (I think he saw it more as a temporary one off loan:-) ) and was fabulous. For it is not just any hat, but a Tilley Hat. They are well known, and quite a few people commented on it.

It handles sun and rain equally well. Highly recommended for travels in Africa.

A little tree snake. I was very grateful that I saw very few snakes and spiders during my three weeks in Africa.

After that I flew home. Four flights. A small Safari plane from Pompom air strip to Maun. A Botswana Air flight from Maun to Johannesburg. Then Qantas to Sydney and from Sydney to Wellington. Qantas had the entire Series 4 of The Big Bang theory, so that kept me busy, along with reading George RR Martin’s A Dance with Dragons on my iPad.

Another new bird, we had not seen before.

This large feathered beast is another type of Eagle. I would not want to get into a fight with one!

That afternoon we headed out back onto the delta. But rather than being in the relative safety of a motorboat, we were in traditional African canoes, called mokoro, where your method of locomotion is punting sticks.

Me pretending to be relaxed as we headed out. I wasn’t worried about any crocodiles as in theory they can’t jump up and get you unless you hang your arms over the edge, but the hippos are a major concern. Just two months ago a guide was almost killed by a hippo after it attacked them.

The trick is to not get close to them, as they can move a lot faster than you in the water. They are aggressive beasts, and are credited with killing more people than any other animal in Africa.

This frog is tiny – this is taken at close range with 12x zoom. It is smaller than a finger nail, yet can make quite a noise.

Another water lily.

This frog is slightly larger and more yellow than green. Still less than twice a finger nail in size. You find them on the reed stems.

Oh dear. They were hoping we would encounter no hippos, but this hippo was directly ahead of us, in the middle of the waterway we needed to go down. The lead boat, which was a guide only, spotted it at the same time as we did. I started to get nervous when my guide took us ahead of the lead boat to observe the hippo better. We were still a few score of metres away, but I was definitely getting bloody nervous as there was no land mass close to hand.

After around a minute the hippo submerged and we could tell from the bubbles it was heading towards us. I was much relieved when we decided to go back to the launch area and call it a day. Hippos move far faster than mokoro.

On the way back to camp we saw one of the largest beasts – a well tusked elephant.

And one of the smallest – a steenbok. This is a fully grown one. I guess lions see them as a plain hamburger, compared to say impala which is more a quarter pounder.

We tried the mokoro again the next day, and glad to say the hippo had gone, so we had a very pleasant journey

A fig tree

You can see here how it is covered with figs – and they unusually grow off the main branches.

The Safari Air plane. Half the pilots are kiwis, and the other half South African. They are really good at flying low, so you get magnificent views as you fly.

Shot from the plane.

A view of two elephants from above.

And a final aerial shot.

Due to flooding they have had to construct some bridges. But these are not bridges as we know them – more some poles secured together that you drive over – very slowly.

Some Tsessebe antelopes

A baby warthog

This was amazing. All this damage has been done from elephants rubbing their tusks against the tree. They have chopped away more than half the mass, and I reckon at some stage in the next few years some elephant will actually bring the tree down on them.

A great sighting as we drove in from the airport. A leopard up a tree, eating an impala it had killed.

The same leopard later that day out looking for more food. The cats have to kill regularly or they starve.

Nxabega stands for Land of the Giraffes, and there are plenty about.

We went out on an eight seater for a cruise up the delta. Saw one hippo which we avoided. The boat is not that large that it would come out best.

Close up of a water lily.

The guides showed us how to make a necklace from a water lily, by breaking the stem every couple of cm.

They told us we would have a coffee break on an island – but didn’t tell us it was about 5 square metres in size, sitting in the middle of nowhere. I asked if the island had a name, and when they said no, declared it to now be called Kiwi Island, which it now is.

The early sunset over the delta.

And the later sunset. Sigh.

The next morning we saw six hyenas.

They were tracking a leopard hoping to find its kill.

And they did.

Another type of antelope.

This little pool had over 100 birds in it – it must have been packed full of fish, so it was sort of like McDonalds for birds.

I liked the reflection in the water of this bird.

We had drinks here. Nice.

The buffalo is well hidden here. It could be fatal not to notice one, if you were on foot.

Another colourful bird.

Lots of monkeys at Nxabega – in the trees, on the paths and specifically in the tree next to my tent, which means they often jump up and down on the roof of my tent!

Not many laundry services have to warn that hyenas may raid the laundry room.

This is the open lounge area at Sandibe.

This tree overlooks our breakfast table and our cousins look down at us.

They quite make themselves at home in the lounge.

This is a giant eagle owl. The tracker did well to spot him in the tree.

I loved this tree – a sausage tree.

We ran into those five lions for the third day running – by accident the last two times. We were tracking a leopard and instead of finding the leopard, we saw the lions again, but …

Someone then looked up a tree, and saw the leopard. The lions must have turned up suddenly and the leopard did not want to risk a confrontation, so he headed up the tree. Lions will not eat leopards but they might kill them, as it reduces the competition for food. I guess deep down lions are socialists who don’t like competition

The leopard came down the tree after around 15 minutes, and sure enough one of the lions set off after it, and chased it for 600 metres or so.

Now this is a truly rare daytime sighting – a porcupine. Don’t get too close to it unless you want a face full of quills.

Some giraffes.

A crimson breasted stripe.

Didn’t note this one’s name down.

A red lechwe antelope (I think).

This is a hammerhead, for obvious reasons

Another colourful feathered friend

We heard the lion roar from around 100 metres away, otherwise would not have known it was there. At one point he stood up and stared at us which was unnerving.

But then he went back to the customary lion position

A typical landscape.

Some Marabou storks

Yay we spotted a cheetah – the last of the big cats I had to see. Not as large or strong as the others, but very fast. The collar is for some research programme.

She got joined by her son who had been unsuccessfully trying to hunt prey.

So mum consoled him with a good hug and kiss.

Also came across a group of five lions. Three of them here.

And the other two here.

It’s dark but this is another jackal

A frog we almost ran over

And a hyena out at night – their normal hunting time. Of course their idea of hunting is normally to scavenge.

I’m not normally a big bird watcher but I can’t get enough of the variety they have here

A Kudu staring out at us

A hippo moving alongside

And another up ahead

In an ideal world the camera would also be a dictaphone so I could record down the names as I get told them.

Some tsessebe, another species of antelope

This is the second day at Sandibe. We had been driving around three hours and I needed a bush toilet break. The guide said that we were only 30 minutes from where he planned to have the morning tea, so I agreed to hold off until then. However as we got to the planned spot for morning tea, we found to our surprise the five lions from yesterday were there. This was 20 kms away from where we saw them yesterday. As you can imagine I had to hold on for another 20 minutes or so, as me marking out the lions’ sleeping place could be a bad idea.

They got quite playful with each other.

Lots of licking and pawing

But their idea of a friendly nibble is not one I’d like to try

This is one of the many crossings the landcruiser makes through slightly flooded areas. This is the wake from the vehicle. Sometimes the water gets close to coming in over the sides.

Then at the end of day two, went out on a small boat in the delta

This is the boat – seats eight

Some truly beautiful sights