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Finally I have managed to sit down and write a New Zealand update! We're actually in
Australia now but we are staying with Katy's relatives so have managed to sit
down on a computer and write about what we got up to in NZ. We did a lot in 3
weeks as we tried see as much of the country as much as possible so this may
have to be quite brief!!
After landing in Auckland we spent a couple of days there just looking around the
city and getting used to city life again, which was actually a bit of a shock
coming from Fiji! It was a bit wet to start with but quite nice and warm- still
shorts weather so we could show off our tans!! A few days later we picked up
our hire car which would be transporting us round the north and south islands
for the next 3 weeks! We had a little dihatsu hatchback which was cute. That
morning after picking it up we headed north up to the bay of islands area. We
drove pretty much all day to get to a town called Paihai which was where we
stayed for the night. Unfortunately it was really wet the whole time we were
there and couldn't really see anything so we didn't get to do much of the bay
of islands. Sad but nevermind, we got a feel for it.
Instead we decided to head up to the very north of the island- Cape Reinga- to see if we
could get away from the bad weather!! It took us most of the morning and the
first part of the afternoon to get up to the cape, but it was worth it. We
drove into lovely sunny weather and all the scenery up there was beautiful.
Looking out from cape reinga you can see the choppy water where the 2 different
oceans meet, that was cool to see. We also stopped off at ninety mile beach
too. Standing at one end of the beach you can't even see the other end. You can
drive along the beach if the tide is right but we weren't allowed as we weren't
insured for that and knowing our luck we would probably have got cut off by the
tide or got stuck in the sand or something!! But anyway, it was a lovely spot
to stop and have lunch. That evening we headed back down towards Auckland as we
needed to hurry on with our trip really if we wanted to see as much as
possible.
The next day we stopped at a place called Orewa just outside of Auckland to see a friend
of Katy's from home who had come over to get his helicopter license. He took us
to a place near by where there were thermal heated pools and water slides etc.
That was good fun! There were several different pools of different temps but
the hottest was 50 degrees I think. It was soooooooo hot that none of us could
bear to put our foot in for more than about 5 seconds!! Later that afternoon we
drove back through Auckland and made a quick stop off to go up the sky tower. I
cant remember all the statistics but it was a very high tower that you could go
to the top of and there were amazing 360 views of all the city. That evening we
carried on driving south with the aim of getting to Rotorua but made a stop off
in a place called Mt.Maunganui for the night. A random little place by the sea,
but that was the great thing about having the car, we could just drive wherever
we wanted. It meant we got to see the places off the beaten track that most
tourists wouldn't usually see. The next morning we got up to go for a run along
the beach as it was a beautiful morning and afterwards we went for a swim in
the sea to cool down. Most of the locals had wetsuits on but us crazy brits
were just jumping around in our bikinis. Was pretty darn cold tho!! Aunty Carol
would be proud of us!! I managed to find a kiddies body board that was a bit
broken so had been left on the beach but I took it in the sea and managed to
get a bit of fun out of it on the waves! After we had dried off we headed on to
Rotorua.
Rotorua is
a werid place as there are loads of bubbling pools of hot water and mud
everywhere and steam coming out the ground. The whole town also absolutely
stinks of farts!! I can't quite remember the scientific reasons behind this all
but I think the smell is due to sulphur deposition in that area and so the
whole town stinks!! You get used to it after a while. We did a nice walk around
the town and the weather was lovely. The next day we decided to do a white
water rafting trip! Katy wasn't too sure at first but I managed to twist her
arm!! It was a Grade V river with some good rapids but the highlight was the 7m
waterfall that we threw ourselves over!! As you go over the nose of the boat
(and pretty much all of the rest of it!) is forced vertically into the water
and then it bounces back up and most of the time will land the right way up.
Which ours did too but somehow on the bounce back up I managed to get launched
out of the boat!! No one else, just me! I managed to hand on to my paddle and
the boat tho so it was all fine! The only problem was my contact lenses. I
think the impact of the water must have forced them round to the sides of my
eyes so I couldn't really see anything!! After I got back in the boat they
reappeared tho!! I also went down one of the other smaller waterfalls lying on
the back of the safety kayak which was fun!! Also whilst in Rotorua we went to
a 'thermal village'! Which had loads of weird and wonderful pools and rocks etc
of many different colours.
From Rotorua it was a short drive to Lake Taupo, a small town on the edge of a big
lake. It was a really beautiful place and we had amazing weather there. Taupo
was where we did our skydive!! (much to Mum's disgust!). We did it as early as
possible in the morning so we didn't have too much time to think about it!
Somehow tho I didn't really feel that scared, just excited. I think its cos its
something I've always really wanted to do. And it was definitely WELL worth it!
Its just the most amazing/crazy feeling I've ever felt and it was such an
adrenaline rush! You go up in this tiny plane with as many of you crammed in as
possible! You sit in front of ur instructor and then on your way up they clip
you on to them. Apart from you can't really tell that they've done it so you
feel u need to check u are actually attached! It took about half an hour or so
to get to 15,000ft and on the way up we got to see great views over the lake
and surrounding scenery. Then two by two you are all thrown out of the plane in
very quick succession! If you choose to pay the extra to have pics and DVD
taken of ur jump then you have another person who dives with you to take the
pics. They aren't attached to you but just as you and the instructor are about
to jump, they hang out of the plane in front of you and jump at the same time
so that they can get shots on the way down. They make funny poses at you which
you can copy to make the dvd more interesting!! Else you just get 60 seconds of
you screaming!! You get about 60s of freefall from 15,000ft and then once the
parachute goes up you get about 4 mins of canopy time. All in all it was a
brilliant experience and easily one of the best things I've ever done! For the
rest of the day we were on such a high and both couldn't stop smiling and
talking about what we had done! We did a walk along the river later that day
which was nice. Had to get rid of some of the adrenalin we had built up!!
From Taupo we drove on to a town called Wanganui via Tongariro national park which is
where the volcanoes were. The scenery there was amazing to look at and that's
one of the many places where Lord of the rings was filmed. The very conical looking
volcano in my pics was Mt.Doom in the films I think?? I'm not really a LOTR fan
tho so I wouldn't know! Wanagnui itself was a weird little town and we didn't
stay there long as there wasn't really much to do. From there onwards it was
all about getting to Wellington really. We stopped at a few scenic spots on the
way tho. Once in Wellington it rained a lot so we didn't get to do much apart
from museums and coffee shops! When the sun finally did come out tho it was a
pretty city, and right next to the water. I really liked Wellington as a city.
We met up with a girl there who we had met from Fiji and she cooked us lunch at
her house which was a lovely treat!!
From Wellington it was over to the south island and we had to catch the car ferry
over there. Cost us a bit more than we expected but it had to be done! The
crossing took about 3 hours and it was beautifully sunny so we sat outside the
whole way. On the way into the south island we saw loads of dolphins so that
was an added treat for us! Over the next couple of days we spent our time
getting across the top of the south island and then down the west coast. We
passed through Nelson but didn't really stop there for long. On the way down
the west coast we stopped at a seal colony and had a nose at the seals- they're
such lazy animals but still fun to watch!! We also stopped at some funny rock
formations called the pancake rocks- they look like lots of pancakes stacked on
top of each other!
Our next main place of interest was Franz Josef glacier. We decided not to do a glacier
hike or take a helicopter onto the glacier due to the budget. Instead we took
ourselves on lots of free walks around the glacier! We walked up to the face of
it to have lunch and then after lunch we did a walk up this hill which was
meant to have a good view point. We didn't realize it would be pretty much
vertical all the way up!! But when we got up to the top it was worth the hike
as we had a brilliant view of the glacier and we were really high up. We were
actually standing higher than the helicopters that were flying past! We also
went to see Fox glacier which is quite close by but weren't allowed to get up
close due to rocks falling. 2 people died recently as they went past the danger
barrier to get closer and ice fell off the glacier and killed them. Pretty
silly I say!! The glaciers are very surreal to look at as you would expect to
find them only in a really cold place and really high up in mountains but these
ones come down pretty much right next to the sea and it was a scorching day
when we were there! You wonder how it can be so hot and yet they still remain!!
After we had done the glaciers we drove through the Haast pass which is a deep valley
and on to a place called Wanaka, which is another quaint town by a lake! The
drive down to Wanaka was my favorite drive of all I think. There was such
dramatic scenery all around and we were lucky in that it was a really sunny
evening, with the sun low in the sky when we did it, so the sun was shining on
all the right places! Got some good pics too. Stayed in Wanaka for a day or so
but didn't do a lot there apart from having very yummy fish and chips! In the
winter Wanaka is quite a big ski spot I think, I can imagine it would look
stunning with snow everywhere. However for us it was mainly a stopover on the
way to Queenstown.
Whilst in Queenstwon we met up with Maria who has moved over there. Her and her flatmates very kindly let us stay at theirs whilst we were there so it was nice to have
home comforts again! Queenstown is know as the party town of NZ so of course we
had to keep up with its reputation and Maria kindly showed us a few of the best
spots!! I also committed myself to doing a bungy whilst I was there!! All along
I had said I wanted to do one when I was in Queenstown. It's also said to be
the adrenalin capital of NZ so thought it would be a good place to do it!
Crazily I decided to do the highest one possible called the Nevis bungy. It was
134m high!! Since I have been away I think I have realized that I'm a bit of an
adrenaline junkie actually! Katy had decided that the skydive was enough for
her as she is actually scared of heights so did well to do the skydive in
itself! So I did the bungy alone. I won't lie….. I was very scared beforehand!
Your brain cant quite comprehend why you are willingly throwing urself off a
ledge 134m high I don't think, and so its quite hard to actually make yourself
jump but there are lots of people cheering you on! And the second you have
jumped off that platform the feeling is great. Feels very strange tho as you
don't actually feel like ur attached to anything on the way down! Until you
bounce back up that is. I would have loved to do it again and again but my
budget was stretched at the one jump really! We stayed around Queenstown for
about 4 days and one of the days we did a drive out to Milford sound. It took
us a whole day to get there and back. Whilst there we did a boat trip around
the sound (which is actually a fiord, not a sound) and saw some more seals and
lots of water falls that all run off from the very high hills and into the
water.
After Queenstown we started heading back up north as we had to be back in
Christchurch in a few days time to take the car back and fly on to Melbourne.
On the way up we stopped at a few sights like Mt.Cook, which I think is the
highest is NZ. Unfortunately it was covered in cloud so we couldn't see the
top. It started to get very cold at this time too. We managed to discover
another glacier nearby called the Tasman glacier. In the last 30 years or so it
has melted much more rapidly and formed a lake at the bottom of the glacier. In
the lake were great chunks of ice that had broken off and were floating around.
It looked like a scene from Titanic! We also stopped off at lake Tekapo
(another pretty lake!! There are lots around in NZ!!). Our final stop before
Christchurch was Kaikoura, which is actually north of Christchurch but we had
heard good things about it so wanted to make sure we fitted it in. There is a
lot of marine life there due to warm waters and a steep shelf on the seabed
which causes an up flow of nutrients apparently!! Most people go there to do
whale watching as there are lots about. We didn't go on a whale watching trip
but we did lots of walking/cycling around the coast to look at all the wildlife.
I managed to get a flat tyre unfortunately so had to walk most of the way
home!! There were snow-capped mountains right behind the coastline which is
different to see. NZ is full of extraordinary landscapes that I've never
experienced anywhere else. And I love the fact that there is always something
different around every corner. If you fell asleep in the car for more than ten
mins you were guaranteed to have missed something!! We also did a visit to a
winery in Kaikoura and did some tasting and a tour there which was fun. I am a
bit more clued up on wines now!!
Friday was our last full day in NZ so we headed back down to Christchurch. We had to take
the car back at 5pm so we had a quick browse around the town and then returned
the car. Luckily there were no extras to be paid!! Our flight out to oz wasn't
actually until very early Saturday morning at 6am. Because we had dropped the
car off at the airport there wasn't really any point in us booking into
anywhere for the night as we had to check in at 3am anyway. So we just stayed
in the airport for the night! 12 hours it was in total but it went quite quick.
I felt like I was in the film The Terminal where Tom Hanks ends up living in
the airport!! And so that was that for NZ! To be honest we could have done with
a little longer there as we were a bit rushed but we did pretty well to fit
most things in. We did spend a lot of time driving tho! However, we still both
absolutely loved the place and the people were all so nice and friendly. All
the scenery was stunning and I think we decided our most commonly used word
was, 'WOW'!!!! Despite what people say I've decided that its actually nothing
like England at all! I would love to go back again in a campervan and spend
about 2 months there just visiting all the different places off the beaten
track. Something to do in the future maybe?!
Right now we are in Melbourne. Katy's relatives have very kindly put us up whilst we are
here and have been showing us around. They have also been spoiling us with lots
of lovely home cooked food! We have had a delicious fish pie and tonight a very
yummy roast lamb!! Mmmmmm! We have even tried kangaroo sausages already! Sorry
skippy. Melbourne has been a bit wet since we've been here but they desperately
need the rain so we'll let them off! Today we went and did the Neighbours
tour!! We got to go to the real life Ramsay street where real people actually
live! That was fun seeing all the houses, and we took lots of pics there. In
real life its actually called Pin Oak Court! And the people who live there get
very annoyed with trips of people turning up there every day!! We also went
into the studios where they do all the other filming and saw the set for
Lassiters and Harold's shop etc etc! In real life it all looks tiny and a bit
skanky to be honest! Very clever how they make it look so much better on film.
We also met one of the cast. I was hoping it would be good old Harold but we
got Janelle Timmins instead!! At least it was someone we recognized a bit!!
Then after that we just wondered around the city today seeing all the sights
that there are in Melbourne. We are here for a few more days and then heading
up to Sydney on Tuesday evening on the bus. I think it takes about 12 hours! We
are taking night buses to save on accommodation! Lol. Well now I am well and
truly knackered from all this writing! In future I shall be doing more regular
updates I think!! Hope you have enjoyed a little insight into what we have been
up to and I shall update again from Sydney I should think. Hopefully the
weather will pick up a bit!! Lots of love to you all, hope ur well. Jo
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