Kaikoura Whale watch After the rugby match (yeah pretty long day but still) we drove up to Kaikoura, where we booked a whale watch tour for the next morning. well, first for the afternoon, but due to the flight changes we changed into morning. If this would be a right decision (whale watch technically) we'll see later on at www.whalewatch.co.nz where they show the number of whales seen on the tours. Anyway, after sleeping in a dorm (we thought we booked a double but we shared the room with 4 others; we decided not to complain as it was 1 [View Full Entry]

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Geraldine/ Rangitata - rafting!! The best place to go rafting in New Zealand should be the Rangitata river, the only place with grade 5 rapids (grade 6 is non-raftable). From Geraldine it was a 30 minute-drive to the office. There we got lunch, instruction and equipment and then drove up to the river. We were with a group of 49 people, so 7 rafts. After practicing the commands at 2 and 3 grade rapids, we went for the big guys. The tsunami, helicopter and hell's gate were three heavy rides! At the end we could swim around and take a [View Full Entry]

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Due to the changed departure times to Tonga we did not spent much time in Christchurch. Actually we only saw the rugby stadium, the burger king and the airport. Let's skip these lasts 2 spots. The stadium was very full keeping in mind that it could house 50.000 places... The match was a Big one.. against an Australian team (Western Force) and very important so we understood... It was number 2 against number 3 from the Super 14 (or the champion's league of the rugby). Well, number 3 in our opinion is far away from becoming number 2 because they [View Full Entry]

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Mount Cook - After spending the night in Twizel (not much to do there, but nice hostel with television), we drove to Mount Cook NP the next morning to do some tracking (because willem is such a huge fan of tracking). Normally when the NZ guide books or DOC offices tell you that parts are very steep, then it turns out to be not that steep. But this time I can't think of another word than STEEP climbing on the first hour of the Mueller hut track. From the top (Sealy tarns) there were great views on the glaciar and [View Full Entry]

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Dunedin & chocolate & beer - for one reason or another, the chocolate factory and beer factory grew out to be the main tourist attractions of Dunedin, even though the city itself was really worthwile visiting. Well, we couldn't miss those highlights so after spending the morning at Otago peninsula, we booked both factory tours for the afternoon. The peninsula was a nice drive around and we got to see the big royal albatrosses with a 3 meter span width (see pictures) and again seals. The chocolate factory wasn't that interesting, the beer factory had a nice museum and the [View Full Entry]

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Catlins National Park - From Invercargill we travelled to Dunedin via the southern scenic route, through Catlins national park. On the way we stopped at Nugget point to see pinguins, at a fossile forest, at the most southern part of NZ and we spotted dolphins, yellow eyed pinguins and sea lions. We brachten de nacht door in Invercargill, zodat we daar de volgende ochtend konden starten met de southern scenic route. Eerst even uitslapen en wasjes draaien. De southern scenic route gaat via een kronkelweg langs de kust en je kunt onderweg allerlei dingen bekijken. wij zijn gestopt bij Curio's [View Full Entry]

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Kepler track (Fiordland) We wanted to do a moredays tracking in fiordland. we chose between the two famous ones (the most famous one is milford but you have to make the booking one year before) Routeburn (32 kms) and Kepler (60 kms). We chose the Kepler because the walk was more on the mountains. Most people do the track in 3 or 4 days but we decided to do it in 2 days, which meant a long first day. It was a real nice trail, first two hours through beech forest, then 3 hours on the mountain tops with great [View Full Entry]

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O, willem heeft hier een apart item van gemaakt. Oke, dit is dus een stukje routeburn die we na de milford sound hebben gelopen. de vogel op de foto is de kea, die zag je veel in fiordland, maar behoorlijk irritante beesten. en beetje eng, ze sprongen op onze motorkap en begonnen aan de ruitenwissers te knagen. De bossen die je ziet is beech forest, ziet er heel mooi uit zo helemaal begroeid met bos. [View Full Entry]

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Milford Sound We wanted to do some tracking in Fiordland, part of the Routeburn and the Kepler track. But on the date we planned the tracks the weather would be very bad so we prosponed the dates and chose to do the Milford Sound trip, because this would be nice with rain because of the waterfalls. We left early from Te Anau and took the 9.30 boat trip. On the way to Milford sound there were already beautiful views on the fiords and mountains, but from the boat the view was the best. In the afternoon we decided to walk [View Full Entry]

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Queenstown, canyoning - Queenstown was a nice but busy town. We went canyoning for one day, gliding rocks, abseiling etc. Na een dagje relaxen in Wanaka, genietend van de zon en de vele tips van de Nederlander naast ons op de camping toch ff onze planning voor de 50ste x aangepast en ondanks dat hebben we toch nog ruimte voor een dagje queenstown.... We werden al gewaarschuwd door andere reizigers dat Wanaka leuker is en dat Queenstown ff iets too much is geworden. Het was inderdaad erg toeristisch en vol met toeristenbureautjes en tours. Aangestoken door alle verhalen over bungy [View Full Entry]

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