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New Zealand so far...
When we left Australia to fly to New Zealand we knew the temperatures were going to be a bit different but we weren't really ready for what we got! We landed in Christchurch on 18th April and lets just say being in 30 degree heat only 4 1/2 hours earlier made the 12-13 degrees of Christchurch feel freezing! It was a big shock to the system having been in a hot country for so long, so the furry boots were purchased and the winter coats came out and we've pretty much been wearing them ever since!
2 days after we arrived we went first to pick up the campervan we had hired and then on to pick up my mam from the airport, as she came out to join us for a few weeks, it was very exciting! Our camper van is a real step up from the Wicked vans we had in Australia, we have a kitchen with a fridge and electricity and a heater, which has been very much needed!
So off we went in our camper to start exploring New Zealand, and this is what we got up to...
Our first few days were spent in Christchurch which is a really nice city, very English, you could almost be in a nice English city if it wasn't for all the sheepskin shops everywhere! One day we were there we went to the Antartic Centre. Apparently Christchurch is the gateway to Antartica and all the trips there are planned and departed from here. The Antartic Centre was brilliant, there was loads of information on the research they are doing out there and the work they do, it was really interesting. There was also this room you could go in that was full of snow and you get to experience an Antartic storm, it was absolutley freezing, it got down to -18 degrees! They had little blue penguins at the centre as well, they were so cute. It was really funny because one of them was scared of water and wouldn't go in to swim and one of them was blind, bless! Those 2 had to be fed seperatly out of the water, how cute.
From Christchurch we drove to Kaikoura, this place was beautiful. As we were driving into the town mam spotted something in the water so we stopped to have a look, it was a seal eating something but it was playing with its food and kept throwing it out of the water. This went on for about 20-30 minutes, it was great to watch, also while we were sat there we saw about a hundred dusky dolphins jumping out of the water, it was amazing. From Kaikoura we went on a whale watching trip, this was really good apart from the sea was quite choppy and there was a bit of sea sickness involved! It was really amazing though we got to see 3 sperm whales and really close up too. We also walked to the seal colony and saw loads of seals on the rocks, Kaikoura was an all round little wildlife mecca!
After a really long drive from Kaikoura we arrived at our next place, Franz Josef, which is on the west coast of the south island. Again it was beautiful, a lovely little village surrounded by mountains and our campsite was in a rainforest setting, it was lovely. It was from here that me and Phil did a guided walk on the Franz Josef Glacier, it was unreal. We were out most of the day on the ice, it was really amazing, we had a great day. We went through some pretty tight crevasses and crawled through a tiny little cave at one point which was a real squeeze! We were exhausted by the time we made it back down from the ice, haven't done excercise like that for a while! The next day we all walked to the foot of the glacier which was good, there is a river that runs from it and it has big blocks of ice in. That night we ate in a lovely restaurant in the village, mam treated us and then we splashed out on desserts, they were huge, it was really nice though!
Moving on again we arrived at Wanaka and again, beautiful. You will probably get sick of me saying this but it really is the only way to describe these places, every time we left a place we didn't think it could be beaten and then the next place would be just as beautiful. Wanaka was a small town on the edge of a lake, one day we were there we walked part of the way around the lake, it is one of the most amazing lakes we have ever seen. With it being Autumn as well, all the trees were orange and red and all the leaves were falling, it looked really pretty.
From Wanaka we headed to Queenstown which is one of the larger towns on the south island. Queenstown was really cool, there was loads of shops and cool cafes and bars, a lot different to all the other places we had been. Phil managed to find a really nice golf club and had a round of golf, the views from the course were amazing. One night we went on the skyline which takes you up to the top of a mountain with great views of the town. Here we watched a traditional Maori performance which included the Haka, it was really good. Another thing we did in Queenstown was to go to the Minus 5 Ice Bar, it was great, everything was made of ice, even the glasses you drink out of, very clever. Even though Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand we didn't actually get up to anything too adventerous, didn't really fancy the bungy much!
Next stop, Te Anau, there isn't really much to say about this place to be honest, it was pretty small and is basically just a stop to get to Milford Sound. The journey from Te Anau to Milford Sound is pretty amazing, you drive through the mountains and get some great scenary. We went on a boat trip on Milford Sound which was good, it was freezing though! Milford Sound itself was lovely but maybe not quite as impressive as we were thinking, maybe this was due to the fact that we'd seen so many beautiful places in New Zealand so far, it was still good though.
On the move again and we arrived at Mount Cook. Mount Cook village is quite small and there isn't much to do other than walks really but the place is stunning. We didn't get good views of Mount Cook itself because of the low cloud when we were there but we did see the actual peak which was covered in snow. Apparently Mount Cook is the only mountain in New Zealand which is covered in snow all year round and is incidently the highest peak in Australasia. We did a short walk to view the Tasman Glacier which was cool and there is a lake with huge icebergs in, it was pretty surreal, like something out of a Star Wars movie.
Last stop before heading back to Christchurch was a little place called Akaroa. Phil and I hadn't actually heard of this place but mam found it in the guide books so we decided to check it out and we are really pleased we did, it was a beautiful place. It is actually a French settlement and there are lots of French characteristcs to it, it has a real charm about it. The shops and the streets have French names and a lot of the buildings are still in their original state. We got great weather when we were here as well, it was actually quite warm, didn't even have to wear our coats!
And so we ended up back in Christchurch again. We had another day here before mam had to fly home so we went punting on the Avon river, it was lovely! And that is the story so far, unfortunatley mam had to fly home but we had a fantastic few weeks when she was here. Phil and I will continue to roam around in our camper until 16th June so watch out for the next instalment! Bye for now...XX
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