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Published: October 12th 2007
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It was so strange arriving in Auckland after South America. It felt really English, especially as it was raining! Being so similar to home made us feel quite homesick; we expected to see friends and family, but of course you weren't there! We soon perked up, however, when we tucked in to our first fry up for 4 months and the sight of Wagamama, our second home in London, was also rather reassuring. Appropriately enough, given the jetlag, our first outing in Auckland was to a coffee festival. Bruce first discovered 'Flat Whites' in a Kiwi coffee place in Soho and was eager to sample them in the land of their birth. He was not disappointed. Even though I don't like coffee, I really enjoyed the festival, because they had a competition where they had to produce a certain number of coffees (including a signature one) with decorations on the top within a certain amount of time. It was highly entertaining and almost as addictive as the coffee, even if they did perhaps take it a little bit too seriously! After taking in more of the delights of Auckland, including watching people jumping off the 194m Sky Tower, we hired a
car, described by the company as 'El Cheapo' and headed north to the Bay of Islands.
It was early spring in New Zealand and the drive north was so beautiful. The sun was shining and the scenery was so lush and green. There were lots of different ferns, trees scattered with red blossom and calla lillies growing wild on the sides of the roads. As we drove over the brow of a hill a glistening lake would suddenly appear nestling within the surrounding hills. We did a day cruise in the Bay of Islands and saw lots of dolphins. We were hoping to swim in the wild with them but unfortunately we couldn't because there were babies there and they are very vulnerable when young. We then headed to a small village called Omapere on the West Coast. As it was out of season and the place is quite remote (it was an hour and a half drive to the nearest cash machine) we practically had the hostel to ourselves and it was so relaxing. We walked through the Waipoua Forest and saw giant Kauri trees. The two largest living kauris, Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere have girths
of 13.77m and 16.41m and trunk heights of 17.68m and 10.21m respectively. They take your breath away when you first come across them and the gum that they extrude gives them a surreal glow. The downside to this time was knowing we were missing cousin Andrew and Sadhbh's wedding, which was really difficult. On the day of their wedding we spent a day with a Mauri couple doing a bone carving workshop and I carved them a little gift to mark the day.
We couldn't believe the quality of food and drink in New Zealand and as the places we were staying in had good kitchens we enjoyed visiting supermarkets and cooking dishes with local ingredients. The green lipped mussels were absolutely incredible and really cheap so we had many a happy night cooking them with some onion, white wine and cream and eating them accompanied by a glass of Marlborough sauvignon blanc. We also roasted some lamb and had it with gooey kumara (sweet potato) and garlic shoots. We were convinced the lamb tasted better, however, we were subsequently told that the best lamb in NZ goes to the export market and so the lamb is not as
good quality in the domestic market. We also had the most marvelous fat juicy kiwi fruit for breakfast everyday.
We then headed south towards Lake Taupo. To break the journey up, we stopped on the way on the outskirts of Auckland. This would have been a rather inauspicious stop, however, as Bruce wanted to watch the Grand Prix and therefore needed cable television, we enquired at a slightly more expensive motel and got a room not only with cable t.v. but a spa bath. Having not had a single bath for four months I was over the moon and spent no less than 3 hours in there accompanied by a book and some wine. I would just like to clarify at this point that although I had not had a bath, I have been partaking in showers throughout our trip! It would seem that you are not allowed to leave New Zealand without undertaking some form of adrenaline activity and Bruce chose Lake Taupo as the place to throw himself out of a plane at 12,000 feet. Lake Taupo is apparently one of the cheapest places to do such a thing and we got a free trip in a
very grubby limousine thrown in with the package. I am sure that there will be pictures of the skydive accompanying this blog and there is also a highly amusing recording of this event, where Bruce finds himself unable to come up with any last words to say to friends and family so it's just as well he landed safely!
We then headed down to Wellington, which we really loved, particularly the Te Papa museum, which gave us an insight in to the Maori culture. Our good friend Kylie comes from Wellington and we had a great time as she lead us via text message to different cafes and restaurants. After Wellington, we headed to the South Island, where we drove along winding roads past the glistening Marlborough Sounds. We had the most amazing fish lunch in sunny Nelson and then headed along the West Coast towards the Franz Josef glacier.
The West Coast route was lovely with the ferocious coastline on one side and lambs gambolling on the other. We were in fact quite relieved to see an abundance of lambs in the south as they had not been so ubiquitous on the north island and we did not
feel that a trip to NZ would be complete without a sighting.
The weather at the nearest town to the glacier was awful. It was cold, overcast and rainy. As Bruce had treated himself to skydiving, I had planned to go on a heli hike, where they drop you in a helicopter for a hike on the glacier. Bruce had opted for the cheaper option of the full day hike. Unfortunately the weather was not good enough for them to land a helicopter on the glacier so I missed out but Bruce did his walk. He spent 8 hours walking on the ice in constant rain. Although I was quite relieved to have missed out on this ordeal I regretted not seeing his comedy moment. Apparently he had to squeeze through a crevice that was only just big enough if you walked sideways with your hands to each side. Bruce did this but lost his footing. He started falling sideways and could not use his hands to catch himself so he basically fell sideways to the ground like Del Boy in the bar scene of only Fools and Horses. It took rather a while to extract this story from
him and the people he was with because everytime it was mentioned they cracked up with uncontrollable laughter!
After a drive through the southern Alps we reached our last destination in NZ, Christchurch. We stayed with our friends Penny and Isaac and they took care of us wonderfully. After our 3 week road trip, where we put 3000 kilometres on the car, we were quite tired and we didn't see much of Christchurch, but we had a lovely time relaxing by the beach in Sumner Bay, where they live. Unfortunately, on our last day, Bruce had a bit of a Frank Spencer moment and, as well as almost knocking a pot plant on to their floor (which he fortunately caught just in time) he also dry boiled the kettle causing a massive explosion in the kitchen and completely ruining the kettle. I think it was just as well therefore that we left New Zealand before we were forcefully evicted!
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