Bec T and Gina B
Bec Taylor & Gina Bloom from Plymouth, Devon, England are taking 12 months out of their mundane little old lives to explore the world!Bec and Geen
Travel Blog Posts
Bubbling mud pools and smoking thermal spas in Taupo
Published: July 8th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo
July 8th 2009
The longer we spend in New Zealand, the more we are astounded by just what an incredible and varied country it is. From the snow capped mountains and beautiful mirror lakes of the the South Island and now to the volcanic terrain of the North. Truly amazing. Staying right by Lake Taupo at the Great Lake holiday park, our first day was spent at the Huka Falls waterfall, where after marvelling at the waterfall, we then walked for an hour up to a natural thermal spa where we dipped our hands and feet in the warm bath water. We drove to L'Arte cafe for lunch, a lovely place with a small gallery of mosaic art in the gardens attached, before visiting the Honey Hive to sample the free local honey products and making ourselves feel thoroughly ... read more
July 8th 2009
As soon as I set foot in Napier, I realised that my mum, a lover of all things 1930s, would fall in love with it here. Most of Napier was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and had to be rebuilt and therefore most of the architecture is in the art deco style, which the town continues to embrace. Its an absolutely delightful little town, with wonderful examples of art deco wherever you look, it's almost like you've stepped back in time. We did our own little tour, taking photos galore of all the wonderful buildings and stopping off for a cuppa and slice of carrot cake to sustain us before another little drive up to Taupo.... read more
A Wellington welcome to the North Island
Published: July 8th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » WellingtonJuly 8th 2009
Having made good time driving from Nelson to Picton, rather than waste a night in Picton, we decided to chance our arm on changing our ferry ticket to the North Island to go that very afternoon and as luck would have it, we could! After a choppy 3 hour crossing, we arrived in Wellington and booked into the Capital Gateway Motor Inn. This park seemed nothing more than a carpark with a small kitchen and bathroom consisting of 2 showers and 1 toilet, all for the extortionate price of 27 dollars per person! It was the most expensive yet, with the least attractive facilities, but needs must . . And to top it all, our damn heater broke! Grrr. We headed to the Te Papa museum, which was a brilliant, interactive place, with loads to see ... read more
Nelson - and then goodbye to the South Island!
Published: July 8th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region » NelsonJuly 8th 2009
A 3 hour drive later and we arrived in Nelson, booking in to the Tahuna Beach Holiday Park. Nelson has a nice town centre and we has a stroll around the Saturday markets where we just had to indulge in a bun with our flask of tea! We then took a longer stroll around the Nelson Lakes National Park, enjoying the views of the lake and the sunshine, which was a welcome change from the cold and wet weather we had been experiencing. We had a night out in Nelson, ending up at the Little Rock club, which by all accounts, appears to be the only club in Nelson, but although it was a bit cheesy and dated, we drank and shook our booties with the locals before indulging in what was probably the worst burger/ ... read more
Heating up in Hanmer Springs
Published: July 3rd 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hanmer Springs
July 3rd 2009
Hanmer Springs is most notable for its thermal spa pools and easing our aching limbs after all the hiking we'd done in the last couple weeks was the main thing on our minds. We enjoyed a nice meal and a couple beers in the local the night before and then, donning bikinis and freezing our behinds off in what seemed like subzero temperatures, we skipped from one hot spa to the next, luxuriating in the 38 degree bath like pools. Ahh bliss. The only problem with a couple of the 9 pools at the spa was the smell of sulphur that was emitted, but other than that, we enjoyed a nice relaxing dip, before taking a stroll around the lovely town, perusing in the shops and indulging our sweet tooth once again by buying loads of ... read more
Magnificent Mount Cook
Published: June 25th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Mount Cook National Park
June 25th 2009
We (or should I say Geen) booked into the Glentanner Camp park. What amazing views we were greeted with, simply wonderful to wake up to those snow capped mountains all around you. Having to stock up on fuel and provisions, it took us a while to get started on our intended walk, the Hooker Valley trail. With an estimated walking time of 3-4 hours we thought "piece of cake", but we should have known better considering our vanity and the apparent need for us to take a photo of ourselves with the ever approaching Mt Cook behind us at every turn! When we did reach the end the view of the imposing mountain was pretty awe inspiring and it was incredible to see the lakes completely frozen over and icicles dropping from the trees. We even ... read more
June 25th 2009
With the confidence of hardened crims (ha ha!) we blagged our way into the Dunedin Holiday Park. This place, whilst comfortable enough, gave me the creeps a bit because it was so dark and every time I went the toilet I kept hearing strange noises . . maybe just a guilty conscience. Getting our priorities right, the first place we visited was the Cadbury Factory. Its a whole Willy Wonka world for adults and whilst the whole spiel about how many litres of milk goes into a bar and what the productivity levels are like is all very interesting, not being funny or anything but JUST GIMME THE CHOCOLATE!!! With freebies in hand - Geen more than I cos the swat was taking all the info in whilst I was trying to sniff out the fruit ... read more
Cruising in the Milford Sound
Published: June 25th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound
June 25th 2009
As there is nowhere to stay at the Milford Sound, the nearest place to stop is Te Anau. This is where our criminal life began. The Great Lakes Holiday Park had good facilities and a lovely TV room with a roaring log fire and so this was the place where we attempted our first blag at only paying for one of us to stay, so whilst Geen did the bizz booking in etc, yours truly hid out in the back and pretended she was invisible. Result! We were in, paying only $13.50 instead of $26. Which made us feel somewhat guilty, considering the friendliness of the site managers, but hey, we got a budget to consider! We booked with the Milford Adventurer to take us on a 2 hour cruise out to the Sound. Whilst freezing ... read more
The Obligatory Roast Lamb Dinner!
Published: June 25th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown
June 25th 2009
During our drive from Wanaka down to Queenstown we stopped off at the small but very pretty Arrowtown, with it's street lined with quaint shops selling all kinds of nick-nacks, but mainly all things sheep skinned from what we could see. After topping up the old supplies at the ubiquitous lolly shop (they call chocolate covered honeycomb, aka, crunchie bar, hokey pokey here. Love it!) we set off for Queenstown. Checked into the kiwi camping ground (Lakeview, I think it was called) which was a short walk from the town. The facilities were excellent but it aggrieved us somewhat that they seemed to require us to pay for everything, including the showers, which were a dollar for 8 minutes! And that was on top of the $32 charge for the campsite! Our grumbles about the money ... read more
Lake Wanaka - the day(s) we took our bravery to the next level . .WE ONLY WENT AND DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Published: June 16th 2009Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Wanaka
June 14th 2009
So. Those of you who know and love us or even those who don't but have been following our little blog of our travels will know by now that Geen and I, whilst arguably hardcore party girls, intrepid explorers and open minded souls (ahem), we are NOT the kind of girls who will throw ourselves out of a plane at 15 000 feet and free fall for a whole minute before parachuting across Lake Wanaka. So guess what? . . . Wanaka is Ma Bloom's favourite place in NZ and you can see why. Its a gorgeous little town, with the beautiful lake which reflects the mountain range behind it. Wonderful. Just the sort of place to take your life in your hands. With both brother Nick and mother Lorraine already undertaking a skydive over Lake ... read more
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 17; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0632s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.5mb
