Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Jetboating on the Shotover River - Queenstown
Moeraki Boulders - South Island
Cruising in Milford Sound
Pancake Rocks - Punakaiki - South Island
22 November 2006
Fantastic Photos - yay!
Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Jetboating on the Shotover River - Queenstown
Moeraki Boulders - South Island
Cruising in Milford Sound
Pancake Rocks - Punakaiki - South Island
Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Jetboating on the Shotover River - Queenstown
Moeraki Boulders - South Island
Cruising in Milford Sound
Pancake Rocks - Punakaiki - South Island
21 November 2006
Southerners go South (then East a bit, then West a bit, then South then more West)
10th November
Cruised from Motueka to Greymouth. Was supposed to be a scenic 350km drive around the coast stopping off at a couple of parks and sights. However, and there's always a however, we took a wrong turn. How? Well, most of the time we've been here joey's driven and i've navigated. Why? The roads here are poorly marked and small. They're also windy and bendy. If I drive then joey has to navigate (which sadly she's unable to do) - therefore differences occur. So, since we've been here joey drives and I navigate. Except today I drove... Consequently we took a turn too early. We still got to greymouth ok, but we missed the paparoa national park, punakaiki and the pancake rocks and blow-holes... So we checked in at the park and then made a 100km round trip back up the coast. Painful, but worth it. The beach on the west coast is big pounding surf and crumbling rock formations. The pancake rocks are strange layers of rock in weird shapes. The blow-holes occur when waves crash into caves and then burst out of holes in the top of the cave. After that we did a spot of caving! Only 100 yards or so but quite creepy and smelly in places. It's not often you see joey on her hands and knees in mud. It rained and rained and rained in the evening, so we shut ourselves in the van with chilli and tacos... Sweet.
11th November
From greymouth to franz josef glacier. Don't worry, joey drove and so we made good time. Guess what? It rained. And I mean severely rained. This part of the world can receive in a day what london receives in a year. Thankfully our current van doesn't leak. Basically (or so i'm told) hot winds from oz pass over the tasman sea and pick up a lot of water. They then reach the south island's east coast where they get very cold and then dump all the rain on the southern alps. In the evening, a couple, who we met a few days back in Nelson, very kindly offered to cook us dinner. Fajitas and beer. They cooked us fajitas and I drunk beer, as opposed to putting beer in the fajitas. Awesome. In the afternoon we also booked a trip for the following day...
12th November
...Heli-Hiking! Does exactly what it says on the tin. Helicopter trip up to the glacier, and then hike on it. My adjectives are currently restricted to awesome and sweet, so I looked up a few more that should help describe it: amazing, picturesque, stunning, awe-inspiring, incomprehensible, awesomely sweet! What happened was that we got picked up by helicopter (joey and I in the front and phil & fiona - chefs from prior night - were in the back) and flown up for a tour and then dropped off with a guide half way up. The pilot was a bit of a comedian, and so did a couple of ridge drops. A gust of wind lifts you over a ridge or peak then drops you over the other side. First you think you're going to die, then you see the pilot grinning. Cue two men laughing and two girls screaming... After a quick change of undergarments, we were met by our guides who gave us crampons and ice-picks. Not to be confused with croutons and ice-pops. They wouldn't be much use. Anyway all tooled up, they led us on a 2hr hike over the ice. Due to the huge amounts of ice involved and the incredible pressures, the ice is mangled into all kinds of shapes with rivers carving through it and all manner of caves and crevasses. My descriptions won't do justice, and I don't think the photos will come close. It was silent up there except for the occasional thunderous noise of rockfalls and ice blocks collapsing. The hike was a fair pace, but we both kept up well and were pretty pleased with ourselves at the end! After being helicoptered back down (just as the weather turned foul) we stocked up on provisions and celebrated with curry and of course beer... Perhaps the best day of the trip (neck and neck with off-roading in utah).
13th November
Cruised to wanaka. A long long arduous drive down the west coast past some pretty beaches. Originally we were going to head straight down to Queenstown, but an inside tip pointed us to Wanaka. Our campsite was on a hill above the town. We had an excellent pitch overlooking the town on the lake with the southern alps in the background. You Beauty! The rough guide book listed a number of walks in the area which we decided to leave til the morning as we had campervan-admin to take care of: emptying the pot, emptying sinkwater (stinkwater), cleaning and washing. It's a glamorous life on the road.
14th November
Option 1 - a quick breakfast followed by a three hour walk round the beautiful sights and sounds of lake wanaka. Admiring the flora and fauna. Looking at the mountains. Fresh air... Sounds delightful. Option 2 - late brunch in a nice café and a massage for jo. A trip to puzzleworld for matt. Put it this way, three hours later we were ambling around a three dimensional maze trying to find the green tower! After that we hit the road to queenstown. Spent the next couple of hours planning the following days activities, followed by another splendid team dinner. Ripper!
15th November - Queenstown AKA Adrenalin City!
Woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a fun packed day of fun:-
1:30pm The world famous-ish Shotover jet. Okay, not that famous, but larry delaglio, alanis morisette, carl fogerty, and most world cricket and rugby teams have been on it. Add two more names to that illustrious list - mr & mrs hillsy. It's basically a bloody fast boat with two sodding great engines underneath that sucks water through (as opposed to outboard motors) and only needs six inches of water depth to operate. Science lesson over with, in short it means it can steam up and down rivers and rapids and turn on a six-pence whilst scaring the crap out of you. Half an hour later, each of us wearing large quantities of the shotover river we were done. Our driver/captain/guide/pilot enjoyed putting the boat through 360° turns and saturating the dozen or so of us. After we'd dried off we popped to arrowtown for lunch. It's an old goldrush town which still looks like one. Think wild west. Pretty cool. Anyway, one chicken satay pie later...
4:00pm - kawarau bridge. Me, a 150ft ravine, a bridge and a length of elastic. Plus several spare pairs of smalls. Was the satay pie such a good idea? With my legs bound together by a large rubber band (not nearly enough of it in my opinion), I waddled to the edge of the bridge. On the count of 5! 5 - 4 -... And I went. I think at this point my brain switched off until half way down when the bungy cord started to do it's thing. After a good head dunking in the river, I bounced around and swung for what seemed an eternity until the raft collected me. It wasn't frightening standing at the top (as i'm not scared of heights) but there is something un-natural about throwing yourself headfirst off a bridge. Photos and dvd purchased so I can watch later...
6pm - back in town. Now that i'd bungyed (bungied?) the bug swept fast. Phil (fellow glacier hiker) decided he wanted to do something similar so the four of us got a gondola up the side of bobs peak 1200ft over queenstown. Here they have a bungyesque thrill thing called the swing. No, not swinging, silly! Basically you do a 75 odd foot drop attached to a harness, but instead of attached to bungy cord you're attached to rope from another point creating a swing arc of some 200ft but 1200ft over queenstown. This bad boy didn't have the psychological monster of diving headfirst off a bridge and you're therefore much more aware of the fall. I screamed like a girl. A lot. I may have even used profanities that would offend a sailor. Phil was a tad more manly about it.
8pm - my fourth and final adrenaline rush of the day came in the form of a dozen red hot chicken wings. Oh my god. I nailed my six but had to down a pint just to stop the burning. I actually thought my jaw might fall off. These bad boys were hotter than anything we experienced in the US. Anyway, a few more beers and some pizza later, my day was done. Thought i'd never recover. My body was wrecked, though that was just those damn wings. Reminds me of a johnny cash song: burns, burns, burns...
16th November
Got up and spent until lunch time in the pouring rain looking round queenstown. Glad we did. We found fergburger. Me and ferg got on famously. I had a mountainous double with cheese and bacon. It gets my heart racing just thinking about it. Or is that the high blood pressure? Jo had some vegetarian crap. No comment. In the afternoon we drove to te anau. Of course it rained and rained. And rained. Why te anau? It's the main access point to the mighty milford sound in the world heritage fjordland (fiordland in kiwi). Despite the constant torrential rain we bbq'd bravely and had a nice evening.
17th November
(Joey) Drove from Te Anau along the Milford Road to the Sound. A beautiful journey through the mountains down to the water which is actually a huge Fjord. Saw wild Kea -the worlds only mountain parrots on the way. Took a 2 hour cruise on the water, through the Fjord to the mouth of the Tasman Sea, saw leopord seals and yellow eyed penguin. Waterfalls tumbling down into the water and mist revealing the steep mountains eitherside.....nothing can prepare you for the sense of place that the Sound offers......beautiful.
Did a few short walks on the way back - The Chasm = churning mini Canyon/ rapid/ swirling Chasm!, Lake Marion and the Mirror Lakes (self explanitory really!).
All in all an excellent day in natures best offerings....
18th November
(Matt again after a rude yet brief interruption). Left te anau at a reasonable hour and pottered to dunedin. Dunedin is a scottish settlement. All the streets have the same names as edinburgh. Joey is a quarter scottish. Perhaps it was so overwhelming for her being in touch with her scottish roots that caused her to lock us out of the van? Oh. Even with our heap of crap van we couldn't break into it. The keys were visible but I just couldn't will them out. The manager of the campsite turned up looking like he might be able to pick the lock with a coat hanger, but he just prodded the windows a bit and then called a locksmith. When the locksmith arrived, joey hid in phil & fiona's van. She said that she didn't want him thinking she was an imbecile. Apparently it's okay for him to think that of me. How did he open it? A pressure 'cushion' opened the top of the door enough for him to open the lock from the inside using a giant coathanger. $60 well spent. I said that whilst I didn't want to see him again, I probably would. Consequently Joey isn't allowed the keys any more.
19th November
Went in to dunedin for a good sniff round. Dunedin is the home of Speights brewery. They sell the numer one selling beer in NZ. Not sure why. It tastes of crap. So to research a little further we went to the brewery and ale house. First stop lunch. Pie, chips and salad for $9. That's like £3.20. So cheap. Fortunately they do a reasonable porters and a good pale ale. Second stop was the brewery tour. Our group was 4 english, 8 americans and 4 kiwis. The guide was scottish and hilarious. He wanted to know why the americans hadn't tried the kiwi national dish of marmite when he had tried their national dish - mcdonalds. This was followed by a number of anti-australian and other very funny jokes. It finished with free beer tasting where the americans proclaimed their intention to get 'wasted' shortly before buying all the tat from the gift shop. After the beer tour we strolled round town. Didn't take too long as most shops close early and nothing is open after midday.
Next stop seal and penguin beaches. About 35km around the peninsula on the pacific coast. We got there at sixish not knowing what time to expect the penguins. We should have returned to the van for dinner and then gone back to the beach, but we spent three hours waiting for the little buggers in the freezing cold. Sure enough at 9:30pm they turned up. They were quite small, and about twenty of them ambled up the beach off to their homes for the night. Pretty cool.
20th November
From Dunedin to Timaru - a short overnight stop to break up the journey to Christchurch. First stop Moeraki and it's boulders. These puppys are huge round rock boulders 3-4ft across lying on the beach. I read some jibber jabber about them being formed by some honey comb type process under heat many moons ago. As the sea erodes the soft cliff face the rocks fall out onto the sandy beach.
Next on the way up we stopped at Oamaru for lunch. A really nice victorian town on the coast with beautiful architecture. Everything's made from a local white stone and most of the buildings remain intact. This place is also home to penguins. Instead of the romantic ideal of the penguins strolling up the beach like the night before, here they walk down the road at night and live in people's basements! From here we went on timaru. A pleasant enough town but very eerie. After 5pm it was an actual ghost town. Everything closed and everyone gone into hiding. The campsite was a bit quiet too.
Joey: I whipped Matt at Whist too - result!
Matt: She cheated, using her feminine charms against me.
Joey: Loser.
Joey's musings:- well as I sit here musing, I come to realise that we only have 4 nights left in The South Island. This part of NZ is commonly thought of as "better than the North" - in my humble opinion they both have equal merits and it would be unfair to make a choice, The south is more dramatically beautiful i.e. Fjords, mountains, glaciers etc., however, the North offers unique geothermal sites and an insight into the Richness of Maori culture (not to mention the existance of human beings, technology and the delight that is Foodtown)....all in all, a stunning country.
We have enjoyed hanging out with Phil and Fiona (nice couple from Luton) over the last couple of weeks - it has been fun to do stuff together....they make a mean fajita too! (hello if you are reading!)
Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the cold winter! (it has reached 19°C today).
Lots of love from me!
Cruised from Motueka to Greymouth. Was supposed to be a scenic 350km drive around the coast stopping off at a couple of parks and sights. However, and there's always a however, we took a wrong turn. How? Well, most of the time we've been here joey's driven and i've navigated. Why? The roads here are poorly marked and small. They're also windy and bendy. If I drive then joey has to navigate (which sadly she's unable to do) - therefore differences occur. So, since we've been here joey drives and I navigate. Except today I drove... Consequently we took a turn too early. We still got to greymouth ok, but we missed the paparoa national park, punakaiki and the pancake rocks and blow-holes... So we checked in at the park and then made a 100km round trip back up the coast. Painful, but worth it. The beach on the west coast is big pounding surf and crumbling rock formations. The pancake rocks are strange layers of rock in weird shapes. The blow-holes occur when waves crash into caves and then burst out of holes in the top of the cave. After that we did a spot of caving! Only 100 yards or so but quite creepy and smelly in places. It's not often you see joey on her hands and knees in mud. It rained and rained and rained in the evening, so we shut ourselves in the van with chilli and tacos... Sweet.
11th November
From greymouth to franz josef glacier. Don't worry, joey drove and so we made good time. Guess what? It rained. And I mean severely rained. This part of the world can receive in a day what london receives in a year. Thankfully our current van doesn't leak. Basically (or so i'm told) hot winds from oz pass over the tasman sea and pick up a lot of water. They then reach the south island's east coast where they get very cold and then dump all the rain on the southern alps. In the evening, a couple, who we met a few days back in Nelson, very kindly offered to cook us dinner. Fajitas and beer. They cooked us fajitas and I drunk beer, as opposed to putting beer in the fajitas. Awesome. In the afternoon we also booked a trip for the following day...
12th November
...Heli-Hiking! Does exactly what it says on the tin. Helicopter trip up to the glacier, and then hike on it. My adjectives are currently restricted to awesome and sweet, so I looked up a few more that should help describe it: amazing, picturesque, stunning, awe-inspiring, incomprehensible, awesomely sweet! What happened was that we got picked up by helicopter (joey and I in the front and phil & fiona - chefs from prior night - were in the back) and flown up for a tour and then dropped off with a guide half way up. The pilot was a bit of a comedian, and so did a couple of ridge drops. A gust of wind lifts you over a ridge or peak then drops you over the other side. First you think you're going to die, then you see the pilot grinning. Cue two men laughing and two girls screaming... After a quick change of undergarments, we were met by our guides who gave us crampons and ice-picks. Not to be confused with croutons and ice-pops. They wouldn't be much use. Anyway all tooled up, they led us on a 2hr hike over the ice. Due to the huge amounts of ice involved and the incredible pressures, the ice is mangled into all kinds of shapes with rivers carving through it and all manner of caves and crevasses. My descriptions won't do justice, and I don't think the photos will come close. It was silent up there except for the occasional thunderous noise of rockfalls and ice blocks collapsing. The hike was a fair pace, but we both kept up well and were pretty pleased with ourselves at the end! After being helicoptered back down (just as the weather turned foul) we stocked up on provisions and celebrated with curry and of course beer... Perhaps the best day of the trip (neck and neck with off-roading in utah).
13th November
Cruised to wanaka. A long long arduous drive down the west coast past some pretty beaches. Originally we were going to head straight down to Queenstown, but an inside tip pointed us to Wanaka. Our campsite was on a hill above the town. We had an excellent pitch overlooking the town on the lake with the southern alps in the background. You Beauty! The rough guide book listed a number of walks in the area which we decided to leave til the morning as we had campervan-admin to take care of: emptying the pot, emptying sinkwater (stinkwater), cleaning and washing. It's a glamorous life on the road.
14th November
Option 1 - a quick breakfast followed by a three hour walk round the beautiful sights and sounds of lake wanaka. Admiring the flora and fauna. Looking at the mountains. Fresh air... Sounds delightful. Option 2 - late brunch in a nice café and a massage for jo. A trip to puzzleworld for matt. Put it this way, three hours later we were ambling around a three dimensional maze trying to find the green tower! After that we hit the road to queenstown. Spent the next couple of hours planning the following days activities, followed by another splendid team dinner. Ripper!
15th November - Queenstown AKA Adrenalin City!
Woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a fun packed day of fun:-
1:30pm The world famous-ish Shotover jet. Okay, not that famous, but larry delaglio, alanis morisette, carl fogerty, and most world cricket and rugby teams have been on it. Add two more names to that illustrious list - mr & mrs hillsy. It's basically a bloody fast boat with two sodding great engines underneath that sucks water through (as opposed to outboard motors) and only needs six inches of water depth to operate. Science lesson over with, in short it means it can steam up and down rivers and rapids and turn on a six-pence whilst scaring the crap out of you. Half an hour later, each of us wearing large quantities of the shotover river we were done. Our driver/captain/guide/pilot enjoyed putting the boat through 360° turns and saturating the dozen or so of us. After we'd dried off we popped to arrowtown for lunch. It's an old goldrush town which still looks like one. Think wild west. Pretty cool. Anyway, one chicken satay pie later...
4:00pm - kawarau bridge. Me, a 150ft ravine, a bridge and a length of elastic. Plus several spare pairs of smalls. Was the satay pie such a good idea? With my legs bound together by a large rubber band (not nearly enough of it in my opinion), I waddled to the edge of the bridge. On the count of 5! 5 - 4 -... And I went. I think at this point my brain switched off until half way down when the bungy cord started to do it's thing. After a good head dunking in the river, I bounced around and swung for what seemed an eternity until the raft collected me. It wasn't frightening standing at the top (as i'm not scared of heights) but there is something un-natural about throwing yourself headfirst off a bridge. Photos and dvd purchased so I can watch later...
6pm - back in town. Now that i'd bungyed (bungied?) the bug swept fast. Phil (fellow glacier hiker) decided he wanted to do something similar so the four of us got a gondola up the side of bobs peak 1200ft over queenstown. Here they have a bungyesque thrill thing called the swing. No, not swinging, silly! Basically you do a 75 odd foot drop attached to a harness, but instead of attached to bungy cord you're attached to rope from another point creating a swing arc of some 200ft but 1200ft over queenstown. This bad boy didn't have the psychological monster of diving headfirst off a bridge and you're therefore much more aware of the fall. I screamed like a girl. A lot. I may have even used profanities that would offend a sailor. Phil was a tad more manly about it.
8pm - my fourth and final adrenaline rush of the day came in the form of a dozen red hot chicken wings. Oh my god. I nailed my six but had to down a pint just to stop the burning. I actually thought my jaw might fall off. These bad boys were hotter than anything we experienced in the US. Anyway, a few more beers and some pizza later, my day was done. Thought i'd never recover. My body was wrecked, though that was just those damn wings. Reminds me of a johnny cash song: burns, burns, burns...
16th November
Got up and spent until lunch time in the pouring rain looking round queenstown. Glad we did. We found fergburger. Me and ferg got on famously. I had a mountainous double with cheese and bacon. It gets my heart racing just thinking about it. Or is that the high blood pressure? Jo had some vegetarian crap. No comment. In the afternoon we drove to te anau. Of course it rained and rained. And rained. Why te anau? It's the main access point to the mighty milford sound in the world heritage fjordland (fiordland in kiwi). Despite the constant torrential rain we bbq'd bravely and had a nice evening.
17th November
(Joey) Drove from Te Anau along the Milford Road to the Sound. A beautiful journey through the mountains down to the water which is actually a huge Fjord. Saw wild Kea -the worlds only mountain parrots on the way. Took a 2 hour cruise on the water, through the Fjord to the mouth of the Tasman Sea, saw leopord seals and yellow eyed penguin. Waterfalls tumbling down into the water and mist revealing the steep mountains eitherside.....nothing can prepare you for the sense of place that the Sound offers......beautiful.
Did a few short walks on the way back - The Chasm = churning mini Canyon/ rapid/ swirling Chasm!, Lake Marion and the Mirror Lakes (self explanitory really!).
All in all an excellent day in natures best offerings....
18th November
(Matt again after a rude yet brief interruption). Left te anau at a reasonable hour and pottered to dunedin. Dunedin is a scottish settlement. All the streets have the same names as edinburgh. Joey is a quarter scottish. Perhaps it was so overwhelming for her being in touch with her scottish roots that caused her to lock us out of the van? Oh. Even with our heap of crap van we couldn't break into it. The keys were visible but I just couldn't will them out. The manager of the campsite turned up looking like he might be able to pick the lock with a coat hanger, but he just prodded the windows a bit and then called a locksmith. When the locksmith arrived, joey hid in phil & fiona's van. She said that she didn't want him thinking she was an imbecile. Apparently it's okay for him to think that of me. How did he open it? A pressure 'cushion' opened the top of the door enough for him to open the lock from the inside using a giant coathanger. $60 well spent. I said that whilst I didn't want to see him again, I probably would. Consequently Joey isn't allowed the keys any more.
19th November
Went in to dunedin for a good sniff round. Dunedin is the home of Speights brewery. They sell the numer one selling beer in NZ. Not sure why. It tastes of crap. So to research a little further we went to the brewery and ale house. First stop lunch. Pie, chips and salad for $9. That's like £3.20. So cheap. Fortunately they do a reasonable porters and a good pale ale. Second stop was the brewery tour. Our group was 4 english, 8 americans and 4 kiwis. The guide was scottish and hilarious. He wanted to know why the americans hadn't tried the kiwi national dish of marmite when he had tried their national dish - mcdonalds. This was followed by a number of anti-australian and other very funny jokes. It finished with free beer tasting where the americans proclaimed their intention to get 'wasted' shortly before buying all the tat from the gift shop. After the beer tour we strolled round town. Didn't take too long as most shops close early and nothing is open after midday.
Next stop seal and penguin beaches. About 35km around the peninsula on the pacific coast. We got there at sixish not knowing what time to expect the penguins. We should have returned to the van for dinner and then gone back to the beach, but we spent three hours waiting for the little buggers in the freezing cold. Sure enough at 9:30pm they turned up. They were quite small, and about twenty of them ambled up the beach off to their homes for the night. Pretty cool.
20th November
From Dunedin to Timaru - a short overnight stop to break up the journey to Christchurch. First stop Moeraki and it's boulders. These puppys are huge round rock boulders 3-4ft across lying on the beach. I read some jibber jabber about them being formed by some honey comb type process under heat many moons ago. As the sea erodes the soft cliff face the rocks fall out onto the sandy beach.
Next on the way up we stopped at Oamaru for lunch. A really nice victorian town on the coast with beautiful architecture. Everything's made from a local white stone and most of the buildings remain intact. This place is also home to penguins. Instead of the romantic ideal of the penguins strolling up the beach like the night before, here they walk down the road at night and live in people's basements! From here we went on timaru. A pleasant enough town but very eerie. After 5pm it was an actual ghost town. Everything closed and everyone gone into hiding. The campsite was a bit quiet too.
Joey: I whipped Matt at Whist too - result!
Matt: She cheated, using her feminine charms against me.
Joey: Loser.
Joey's musings:- well as I sit here musing, I come to realise that we only have 4 nights left in The South Island. This part of NZ is commonly thought of as "better than the North" - in my humble opinion they both have equal merits and it would be unfair to make a choice, The south is more dramatically beautiful i.e. Fjords, mountains, glaciers etc., however, the North offers unique geothermal sites and an insight into the Richness of Maori culture (not to mention the existance of human beings, technology and the delight that is Foodtown)....all in all, a stunning country.
We have enjoyed hanging out with Phil and Fiona (nice couple from Luton) over the last couple of weeks - it has been fun to do stuff together....they make a mean fajita too! (hello if you are reading!)
Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the cold winter! (it has reached 19°C today).
Lots of love from me!
14 November 2006
Phrollicking Photos of Phun Part 2
Rickety Rope Bridge - Abel Tasman National Park, NZ
Camper Van Life - On The Road, NZ
Kiwi Rush Hour - West Coast South Island, NZ
2nd Wedding Anniversary (Slightly Inibriated) Wine Tasting - Hawke's Bay, NZ
Kayaking at Abel Tasman NP - South Island, NZ
Camper Van Life - On The Road, NZ
Kiwi Rush Hour - West Coast South Island, NZ
2nd Wedding Anniversary (Slightly Inibriated) Wine Tasting - Hawke's Bay, NZ
Kayaking at Abel Tasman NP - South Island, NZ
Phrollicking Photos of Phun Part 1
Rotorua Geothermal 
action... Hot Stuff! - Rotorua, NZ
Craters Of The Moon... - Taupo, NZ
Bloody Great Tree - Devonport, Auckland, NZ
Imbicle and Maori sculpture - Rotorua, NZ
Waterfalls - Tongariro National Park, NZ
action... Hot Stuff! - Rotorua, NZCraters Of The Moon... - Taupo, NZ
Bloody Great Tree - Devonport, Auckland, NZ
Imbicle and Maori sculpture - Rotorua, NZ
Waterfalls - Tongariro National Park, NZ
09 November 2006
9th november 2006
9th November 11pm... We are tucked up in bed. Sleeping bags, duvets, bed socks, wooly hats and hoodies. Woah! We're in the southern hemisphere. This can't be right. It should be cold in england and hot down here. Yeah right. Last night it must have touched zero. Not a problem if you're in an insulated house or vehicle, but for some reason this thing's achilles heal appears to be insulation. Maybe it was a refrigerated van in a former life and they left the refrigerating units in it, and every time my eyes start to close or a limb is exposed, the evil refrigeration units kick in and I wake up numb. I swear my toes froze to the door last night. Like the tounge scene from dumb and dumber. At least the beer's cold.
This is the first update in a while, so we'll keep it brief. I must first mention the van though. After it took us three and a half hours to get the van, the next seven days uncovered a few problems. Gas leakage. Blocked sink. Fresh water leakage. Rain water roof leakage. Grey water (not poop) backed up in the drains on to my bag and clothes. Two drips to the garage and one to the laundrette. A replacement van. The drivers seatbelt in the new van is faulty. The most frustrating thing is that all the staff are friendly and helpful, but they've not maintained their vans well. I think a large refund plus compensation is due...
30th - Hahei Beach - Corromandel Peninsula. Rainforest and amazing beaches. An impressive introduction to kiwiland. Do you kno why the NZers are called kiwis? Because, the troops used to have kiwi brand boot polish and the aussie army noticed it and started calling them kiwis. Interesting huh!
31st - Hotwater Beach - the beach has thermal springs. You dig a hole at low tide and hot water bubbles up making you a personal spa. As the tide comes in the waves keep the water cool enough for you to sit in - neat-o! Drove down to Rotarua, and had our first BBQ. All worked a treat.
1st - Went to Ta Puia thermal park and maori settlement. They have boiling mud pools, geysers, and the country's official carving school. There was also a performance of the haka with 'volunteers' from the crowd of manly men joining in. Of course, they were short of manly men so I was called up. What an ass. In the evening we went to the Polynesian Spa and sat in a natural hot pool whilst watching the sun set over lake rotarua.
2nd - the first was an expensive day, so today would be cheap. Cruised down to Taupo (via the "Thermal Explorer Highway"). First stop was a huge boiling mud pool. Joey said I should test my swimming strength there, but I refrained. Next, the Craters of the Moon park. A 20 or so acre area of steam escaping from various craters and cracks and crevises due to the geothermal activities underground. Surreal. Thundering Huka falls - very nice. Aratiatia rapids and dam - a creek with a small stream which becomes a thundering rapids when they open the dam three times a day - cool. Finally Taupo Spa Thermal Park. A town park with a river at the end and waterfalls that create natural spa pools. Pretty amazing. Total spent today - $9. Just over three pounds. Good huh? Woke up in the night with the van shaking. Thought it was the wind. Turned out to be an earthquake. Cool.
3rd - Tongariro National Park - the tongariro crossing is one of the most famous walks in NZ. It takes 6-8 hours and is 26km long. You get picked up at about 8 and get home at six. Incredible views and many varieties of flora, fauna, geology and wildlife. Joey and I overslept by four hours so missed out. We did however do a shortened (2.5hr) version where we saw mountains and forests and got to walk behind a waterfall! Muy bien.
4th - cruised to Napier in hawke's bay wine country. This area was levelled by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in the style of the day - art deco, my favourite. Did a self guided walking tour. Some amazing buildinga, but unfortunately a lot of them have all been ruined at ground level when converted to shops. You have to look up to the first floor or above to see the designs.
5th - Anniversary number two! Scrambled egg and beans on toast for breakfast. A gloriously sunny day. A five hour wine tour with many many tastings. A beautiful dinner at the oldest winery in the country, Mission Vineyard, with lovely food and great company (joey) and a mild hangover. A really memorable day.
6th - Drove to wet Wellington. Went to the garage re van fixing. Not the best day.
7th - got the boat to the south island. Pretty uneventful other than nearly missing it! After discovering that rain was leaking in we managed to get someone to drive six hours with a replacement. Stayed in Nelson. More rain.
8th - Drove to motueka near the Abel Tasman national park. In the afternoon we kayaked! The weather was hit and miss, so we weren't allowed too far from Kaiteriteri. It was a tandem kayak and, amazingly we got on alright. Explored some bays and coves and splashed around like children. Have met loads of people in tne camping holiday parks. There are probably more germans and dutch than english and very few other countries represented...
9th - got up earlyish. Back to the abel tasman park. This time a water taxi to bark bay (via split apple rock and a seal colony) and a three hour hike/walk to torrent bay (via a rope bridge!) and then a water taxi back home.
There you have it. Painless eh? Tomorrow we're heading down to greymouth on the way to the glaciers...
Joey's asleep, so no musings from her tonight. So goodnight for now. Sleep well...
This is the first update in a while, so we'll keep it brief. I must first mention the van though. After it took us three and a half hours to get the van, the next seven days uncovered a few problems. Gas leakage. Blocked sink. Fresh water leakage. Rain water roof leakage. Grey water (not poop) backed up in the drains on to my bag and clothes. Two drips to the garage and one to the laundrette. A replacement van. The drivers seatbelt in the new van is faulty. The most frustrating thing is that all the staff are friendly and helpful, but they've not maintained their vans well. I think a large refund plus compensation is due...
30th - Hahei Beach - Corromandel Peninsula. Rainforest and amazing beaches. An impressive introduction to kiwiland. Do you kno why the NZers are called kiwis? Because, the troops used to have kiwi brand boot polish and the aussie army noticed it and started calling them kiwis. Interesting huh!
31st - Hotwater Beach - the beach has thermal springs. You dig a hole at low tide and hot water bubbles up making you a personal spa. As the tide comes in the waves keep the water cool enough for you to sit in - neat-o! Drove down to Rotarua, and had our first BBQ. All worked a treat.
1st - Went to Ta Puia thermal park and maori settlement. They have boiling mud pools, geysers, and the country's official carving school. There was also a performance of the haka with 'volunteers' from the crowd of manly men joining in. Of course, they were short of manly men so I was called up. What an ass. In the evening we went to the Polynesian Spa and sat in a natural hot pool whilst watching the sun set over lake rotarua.
2nd - the first was an expensive day, so today would be cheap. Cruised down to Taupo (via the "Thermal Explorer Highway"). First stop was a huge boiling mud pool. Joey said I should test my swimming strength there, but I refrained. Next, the Craters of the Moon park. A 20 or so acre area of steam escaping from various craters and cracks and crevises due to the geothermal activities underground. Surreal. Thundering Huka falls - very nice. Aratiatia rapids and dam - a creek with a small stream which becomes a thundering rapids when they open the dam three times a day - cool. Finally Taupo Spa Thermal Park. A town park with a river at the end and waterfalls that create natural spa pools. Pretty amazing. Total spent today - $9. Just over three pounds. Good huh? Woke up in the night with the van shaking. Thought it was the wind. Turned out to be an earthquake. Cool.
3rd - Tongariro National Park - the tongariro crossing is one of the most famous walks in NZ. It takes 6-8 hours and is 26km long. You get picked up at about 8 and get home at six. Incredible views and many varieties of flora, fauna, geology and wildlife. Joey and I overslept by four hours so missed out. We did however do a shortened (2.5hr) version where we saw mountains and forests and got to walk behind a waterfall! Muy bien.
4th - cruised to Napier in hawke's bay wine country. This area was levelled by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in the style of the day - art deco, my favourite. Did a self guided walking tour. Some amazing buildinga, but unfortunately a lot of them have all been ruined at ground level when converted to shops. You have to look up to the first floor or above to see the designs.
5th - Anniversary number two! Scrambled egg and beans on toast for breakfast. A gloriously sunny day. A five hour wine tour with many many tastings. A beautiful dinner at the oldest winery in the country, Mission Vineyard, with lovely food and great company (joey) and a mild hangover. A really memorable day.
6th - Drove to wet Wellington. Went to the garage re van fixing. Not the best day.
7th - got the boat to the south island. Pretty uneventful other than nearly missing it! After discovering that rain was leaking in we managed to get someone to drive six hours with a replacement. Stayed in Nelson. More rain.
8th - Drove to motueka near the Abel Tasman national park. In the afternoon we kayaked! The weather was hit and miss, so we weren't allowed too far from Kaiteriteri. It was a tandem kayak and, amazingly we got on alright. Explored some bays and coves and splashed around like children. Have met loads of people in tne camping holiday parks. There are probably more germans and dutch than english and very few other countries represented...
9th - got up earlyish. Back to the abel tasman park. This time a water taxi to bark bay (via split apple rock and a seal colony) and a three hour hike/walk to torrent bay (via a rope bridge!) and then a water taxi back home.
There you have it. Painless eh? Tomorrow we're heading down to greymouth on the way to the glaciers...
Joey's asleep, so no musings from her tonight. So goodnight for now. Sleep well...
03 November 2006
30th October - NZ Wilderness
And so, as one chapter ends (america), another begins (new zealand). We join our two intrepid explorers in the romantic setting of hahei beach in the rainforests of the coromandel peninsula. They sip wine and eat luxurious delicacies as they pontificate over all things bright and beautiful. All creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful...
Yeah, right. Okay, the scenery is amazing, and jo has cracked open a bottle whilst i'm laying into NZ's finest Steinlager. We have just finished our first campervan dinner of lightly sauteed beans and toasted sliced baguette with fromage cheddar and sauce de tomato. Beans on toast. The conversation is restricted to campsite toilet etiquette. Okay, just toilets in general.
The van is 'cosy'. I can't stand up straight in it so already have a stiff neck. We don't have an obscene amount of stuff, but already it's pretty cluttered. I can't imagine what it'll be like after a week, let alone five of them... My brand new bbq (the first i've ever owned) is all boxed up waiting for tomorrow night to arrive. I just hope I don't need too many tools to get it cranked up... I'm not sure my fisher price 'my first toolset' is going to be enough.
And the van? Like a bloody great transit van with a mfi kitchen unit and some ikea-esq shower-cum-toilet unit. And it's a mercedes as opposed to a ford. Some would say it's the mercedes-benz of it's class.
Today has been an arse. We left the hostel early doors (about ten thirty after brekkie) and got a cab to the airport. Of course, we had the kiwi equivalent of a london cabbie. He had an opinion on everything and was very amusing. However, he spent more time chatting and less time avoiding traffic jams, and so it took an hour to get to the airport to pick up the van. The tools at the van company very kindly took three hours before our van was ready (most unhappy) and by the time the food shopping was done it was gone four and we got here by seven.
It is however stunning here. Incredible white beaches with rocky outcrops and rain forest behind. Gnarly.
So that's where we are. Where were we between the 25th and today? Auckland:
25th - arrived in nz. Had a shower and nap. Uneventful. Explored town and had a stir-fry. Job done.
26th - Explored the suburbs. We walked all day (maybe 10 miles) in aucklands hilly central suburbs. Parnell, ponsonby and newmarket. All very nice. More to the point, we discovered the delight of the pie. Of course, we have pies at home, but they're obsessed with them here. All shapes and sizes and all manner of fillings and toppings. I feel a piewatch starting...
27th - Mount rangitoto dominates the auckland skyline sitting in the hauraki gulf. It's only 600 years old, 250m high and uninhabited. The mission, if we chose to accept it, which we did, was to walk/hike to the top. So we did. The ferry from auckland lands at the pier on rangitoto where your given a warning - the ferry leaves at 3:30 prompt. Miss it, and you'll be sleeping rough! Got to the top in about 50 minutes. Quite hard work and bloody hot. The island is essentially black lava (mostly forested) and gets really hot. Consequently by the time we got to the top we were a little sweaty - oh sorry, I was a lot sweaty and princess joey was full of freshness and smelt of the prettiest flowers. The views from here were pretty spectacular. I got to look into my first ever volcano crater too. Here we met florian (if spelt correctly). A french guy who was in NZ for a year. He was a nice chatty chap who then accompanied us back down. On the way back we diverted to the lava caves which were pretty cool though a little dark. Considering how popular they are, they should install some strip lighting, give them a little clean and flatten out the potholes. Don't worry, we made the ferry back.
28th - Devonport - in Aucklands North shore. A ferry ride to this delightful suberb and a lovely sunny day spent watching the world go by. White sandy beaches over looking Rangitoto Island - sweet!
29th - mission bay:- I (Joey) will write this bit! Met up with my friend Lititia (who is a New Zealander), she took us to Mission Bay, which is a lovely suberb of Auckland. Despite the rain we had a nice lunch together after which we drove further round the bay and saw the boats out on the water and caught up on all our news...
30th - pick up "The Beast" (mark 2!)
Joey's musings:-Am loving the Kiwi land....Good food (fresh and organic as they can afford not to participate in intensive farming in light of their small population), nice people..(am looking forward to learning more about the Maori people - Rotarua where we are now staying is the Maori heartland) and beautiful scenery. I enjoyed meeting up with my friend Lititia who I used to work with in the wheelies, there's something so nice about hearing about NZ from the locals. I can certainly see why the brits love it here, it's clean, underpopulated and beautiful....(don't worry we will come back to Blighty though!). The Camper van is fun, if a little "cabin fever" inducing! Matt is a little tall to appreciate it but hopefully he may either shrink or aclimatise! I write this message on a full tummy as Matt has just completed his first BBQ of the trip, he is feeling very masculine after such a stirling effort and his chest is puffed out almost as far out as his tummy (on account of the 2 months spent lording it round the USA!)....seriously though, he has done very well, a success all round.
Camper van etiquette is as follows:- book a van with a toilet and shower (so you can be self sufficient in either the hood or the back country) and then refuse to use it as the thought of emptying 5 wk old poop is not pleasant! The W.C makes a useful storage cudboard instead and campsite toilets here are both flushsble and clean! The Kiwi's take their camping very seriously and so far all facilities have been delightful!
That's all from me for now, off to cosy up in my sleeping bag with the van doors open looking out to the stars in the dark night Kiwi sky - beautiful........
P.S forgot to tell you about "Shorty and his wife".....Shorty is an American we met at the hostel in Auckland - the funniest man ever! He has never left West Virginia and has decided to randomly fly to NZ to live in a van for a year. Unfortunately I think he was expecting a U.S style R.V. (and has shipped his own 10ft raft, diving gear and house contents accordingly) unfortunately his face was priceless when the van turned up at the hostel looking more like a Ford Cortina Estate with a bolt on roof extention! - he was dressed like the next Crocodile hunter - with an emergency whistle and everything! As Matt would say......What a tool!
PPS, Unable to update this or read emails very often at the moment due to lack of internet infrastructure here (in the middle of nowhere)... Very poor! Thankyou and good night.
Yeah, right. Okay, the scenery is amazing, and jo has cracked open a bottle whilst i'm laying into NZ's finest Steinlager. We have just finished our first campervan dinner of lightly sauteed beans and toasted sliced baguette with fromage cheddar and sauce de tomato. Beans on toast. The conversation is restricted to campsite toilet etiquette. Okay, just toilets in general.
The van is 'cosy'. I can't stand up straight in it so already have a stiff neck. We don't have an obscene amount of stuff, but already it's pretty cluttered. I can't imagine what it'll be like after a week, let alone five of them... My brand new bbq (the first i've ever owned) is all boxed up waiting for tomorrow night to arrive. I just hope I don't need too many tools to get it cranked up... I'm not sure my fisher price 'my first toolset' is going to be enough.
And the van? Like a bloody great transit van with a mfi kitchen unit and some ikea-esq shower-cum-toilet unit. And it's a mercedes as opposed to a ford. Some would say it's the mercedes-benz of it's class.
Today has been an arse. We left the hostel early doors (about ten thirty after brekkie) and got a cab to the airport. Of course, we had the kiwi equivalent of a london cabbie. He had an opinion on everything and was very amusing. However, he spent more time chatting and less time avoiding traffic jams, and so it took an hour to get to the airport to pick up the van. The tools at the van company very kindly took three hours before our van was ready (most unhappy) and by the time the food shopping was done it was gone four and we got here by seven.
It is however stunning here. Incredible white beaches with rocky outcrops and rain forest behind. Gnarly.
So that's where we are. Where were we between the 25th and today? Auckland:
25th - arrived in nz. Had a shower and nap. Uneventful. Explored town and had a stir-fry. Job done.
26th - Explored the suburbs. We walked all day (maybe 10 miles) in aucklands hilly central suburbs. Parnell, ponsonby and newmarket. All very nice. More to the point, we discovered the delight of the pie. Of course, we have pies at home, but they're obsessed with them here. All shapes and sizes and all manner of fillings and toppings. I feel a piewatch starting...
27th - Mount rangitoto dominates the auckland skyline sitting in the hauraki gulf. It's only 600 years old, 250m high and uninhabited. The mission, if we chose to accept it, which we did, was to walk/hike to the top. So we did. The ferry from auckland lands at the pier on rangitoto where your given a warning - the ferry leaves at 3:30 prompt. Miss it, and you'll be sleeping rough! Got to the top in about 50 minutes. Quite hard work and bloody hot. The island is essentially black lava (mostly forested) and gets really hot. Consequently by the time we got to the top we were a little sweaty - oh sorry, I was a lot sweaty and princess joey was full of freshness and smelt of the prettiest flowers. The views from here were pretty spectacular. I got to look into my first ever volcano crater too. Here we met florian (if spelt correctly). A french guy who was in NZ for a year. He was a nice chatty chap who then accompanied us back down. On the way back we diverted to the lava caves which were pretty cool though a little dark. Considering how popular they are, they should install some strip lighting, give them a little clean and flatten out the potholes. Don't worry, we made the ferry back.
28th - Devonport - in Aucklands North shore. A ferry ride to this delightful suberb and a lovely sunny day spent watching the world go by. White sandy beaches over looking Rangitoto Island - sweet!
29th - mission bay:- I (Joey) will write this bit! Met up with my friend Lititia (who is a New Zealander), she took us to Mission Bay, which is a lovely suberb of Auckland. Despite the rain we had a nice lunch together after which we drove further round the bay and saw the boats out on the water and caught up on all our news...
30th - pick up "The Beast" (mark 2!)
Joey's musings:-Am loving the Kiwi land....Good food (fresh and organic as they can afford not to participate in intensive farming in light of their small population), nice people..(am looking forward to learning more about the Maori people - Rotarua where we are now staying is the Maori heartland) and beautiful scenery. I enjoyed meeting up with my friend Lititia who I used to work with in the wheelies, there's something so nice about hearing about NZ from the locals. I can certainly see why the brits love it here, it's clean, underpopulated and beautiful....(don't worry we will come back to Blighty though!). The Camper van is fun, if a little "cabin fever" inducing! Matt is a little tall to appreciate it but hopefully he may either shrink or aclimatise! I write this message on a full tummy as Matt has just completed his first BBQ of the trip, he is feeling very masculine after such a stirling effort and his chest is puffed out almost as far out as his tummy (on account of the 2 months spent lording it round the USA!)....seriously though, he has done very well, a success all round.
Camper van etiquette is as follows:- book a van with a toilet and shower (so you can be self sufficient in either the hood or the back country) and then refuse to use it as the thought of emptying 5 wk old poop is not pleasant! The W.C makes a useful storage cudboard instead and campsite toilets here are both flushsble and clean! The Kiwi's take their camping very seriously and so far all facilities have been delightful!
That's all from me for now, off to cosy up in my sleeping bag with the van doors open looking out to the stars in the dark night Kiwi sky - beautiful........
P.S forgot to tell you about "Shorty and his wife".....Shorty is an American we met at the hostel in Auckland - the funniest man ever! He has never left West Virginia and has decided to randomly fly to NZ to live in a van for a year. Unfortunately I think he was expecting a U.S style R.V. (and has shipped his own 10ft raft, diving gear and house contents accordingly) unfortunately his face was priceless when the van turned up at the hostel looking more like a Ford Cortina Estate with a bolt on roof extention! - he was dressed like the next Crocodile hunter - with an emergency whistle and everything! As Matt would say......What a tool!
PPS, Unable to update this or read emails very often at the moment due to lack of internet infrastructure here (in the middle of nowhere)... Very poor! Thankyou and good night.
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