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We have made it to New Zealand in one piece. We have been here for about a week now and we have squeezed in a lot. We landed in Auckland and after a lazy first day of wandering aimlessly around the town centre and buying some essentials we met up wit our friend Mel who has been very kind in letting us stay in her lovely house and borrow her very fast car. She took great care of us whilst we struggled to deal with heavy jet lag, in fact she took us to the beach for some fresh sea air. And what a beautiful beach Piha Beach is too. Its all roaring sea and dramatic bluffs. I liked it a lot.
Whilst in Auckland we did all the tourist trail things, we went to the top of the Sky Tower, we visited the crater of the extinct volcanoe Mt Eden and went to Kelly Tarltons Antarctic Adventure where we saw stingrays being fed by hand, penguins, sharks, giant turtles and all sorts of other exotic sea creatures. Apparently they used to have a octopus at the centre that had learnt to climb out of his tank at night, traverse the corridor and drop in to the crayfish tank whereupon he would help himself to a crayfish or two before returning to his own tank before any of the staff arrived in the morning.
From Auckland we got the Overlander train along the scenic rail route that would take us to Wellington, then a ferry to Picton then another train to Christchurch. Wellington was lovely. We dropped of our Passports at the Chinese embassy to get our visas sorted then went to the botanic gardens and then on to Te Papa museum. Te Papa is a fantastic museum in an elegant building. The exhibitions are well thought outand obviously done with a great deal of love and care. We learnt a great deal about Maouri culture and history as well as there involvement in the whaling industry and NZ history. I would recommend a day spent there to anyone.
On to Christchurch where we watched England nearly draw against NZ in the final ODI. Rain stopped play just as it looked like it was going to come down to a very tight finish. Then we picked up our Spaceship camper van. He is called Eros by the company but I have called him Eric as he lacks the potency on the roads that the name Eros may suggest. He is very comfortable and reliable but speedy he aint. But he has taken us to Kaikoura, where we didn't whale watch due to rough seas but we did have a delicious crayfish meal for two on the beach watching the moonrise before bedding down in the back of Eric. It was a very pleasant night though we awoke surrounded by holidaymakers cars. From Kaikoura drove across the Kaikoura ranges to Hamner Springs for a sulphur bath then on to Punakaiki to watch the famous seaward blowholes in pancake rocks. After sleeping in a motel carpark last night we visited Shanty Town. A replica of a NZ Goldrush Village where I amused myself greatly by taking photos in an old style Sepia setting. Ho ho ho! What a wag I am. Next, southwards and the Fox Glacier.
Chris
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