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Ben & Sara's Trip
Hey Everybody
It's been a pretty crazy week so this might end up being another long one so apologies for that!!
We left off last week in Wanaka and on Sunday we drove the 3 or so hours up to Fox's Glacier to do our afternoon walk. Amusingly enough after what I said last time it started to rain about half an hour after leaving Wanaka and its followed us all the way except for a couple of days!! The Glacier walk was amazing, we started off climbing up through the bush to a point where we could climb out onto the Glacier. We were all kitted out in waterproofs and crampons and so it was pretty cool but absolutely throwing it down!! The walk on the Glacier was along a staircase that had been carved into the ice and we also walked through a 20ft Crevasse (spelling?!). Then we walked down the side of the Glacier and had a look at the terminal wall, absolutely incredible. By the time we got back to the centre we were soaked through and so Sara went to the van to get some towels and clothes. Unfortunately she locked the key in the van and so I had to stand in the rain with our guide while we broke into it!! We then drove to Franz Josef and stayed in the rainforest camp site.
Monday was a bit of a pain as we had to drive the 550km from the Glaciers on the West Coast to Kaikoura on the East Coast which is no real fun in a van!! Still we arrived after about 8hrs of driving and booked into a campsite before heading out for "fush and chups"! In the chippy we bumped into Hayward who lived a couple of blocks away from me in halls which was quite bizarre!!
Tuesday morning we got up early to book oursleves onto a tour to swim with Dolphins, we booked onto the 12.30 one so we spent the morning looking around Kaikoura. At 12.30 we went back to the centre to be told there were no Dolphins in the bay so our trip was cancelled but they would put on an extra Whale Watching tour if we wanted so we did that instead. We saw a couple of Sperm Whales and also some Albatross and other Sea Birds which was cool. That evening we drove up to Picton where we were Sailing to Wellington from.
Wednesday morning we sailed the Cook Strait and spent most of the time watching Finding Nemo again! That afternoon we walked around Wellington a bit before heading up to, just for you Ducky, the Botanical Gardens and Observatory which was really picte\uresque and pretty cool. Our camp site that evening was a bit outside Wellington so we just chilled out that evening.
Thursday we headed to Te Papa for a few hours, it's the national museum of New Zealand so there were exhibits on the geography and culture of New Zealand which was interesting. On the afternoon we went to the National Cricket Museum and then drove up to the National Park area, almost running out of petrol on the way!!
The following morning we did a couple of walks around Tongariro National Park as the weather was not really suited to do the crossing but we got to see some Lord of the Rings filming locations and some really amazing waterfalls. That afternoon we drove to Taupo and Sara booked her sky dive for Saturday morning, although the weather wasn't looking too good.
We got up early the following morning for the sky dive but the weather prevented Sara from doing one so she did a bungy hump instead. It was more scary for me to watch her than it was for me to do one!! Especially seeing as she didn't jump properly and so went down feet first!! We then went to see some geothermal sites and rapids which were awesome. That lunchtime we drove up to Rotorua and booked onto a Maori experience and got a free trip to the Polynesian Spa's which were very relaxing. Yesterday evening we went to the Maori Hangi which was a meal and a Maori concert. Stupidly I volunteered to be chief of the "Tribe of 8 Nations" which meant I had to accept the peace offering on behalf of the tribe, perform the Hongi with the chief and make a speech, very embarrassing but Sara found it amusing!! We then watched them perform various Haka and Poi Dances which were amazing.
Sorry if this one seems a bit rushed but I'm a bit pushed for time on the net, hope your all well I've added some new photo's.
Ben
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