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Published: July 15th 2006
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Hi everybody. Sorry has been a while since my last blog but have been on the move alot!
Since I last wrote from the glacier we travelled through Narnia ( aka Arthurs Pass ). We had to wait 4 days for them to open the road due to a snow storm ( The town we were waiting in for this to happen was on flood alert and we were nearly evacuated!). So more freak weather for us. So far we have slept through an earthquake in Christchurch, a Tornado in Greymouth, seen an avalanche at Mount Cook and just escaped flooding and snow! Anyway we survived the road trip through Arthurs. We stopped here for the night and it was just like Narnia. We went on walks and ended up waist deep in snow. Quite beautiful even if slightly dangerous!
Once back to Christchurch and to the haven called Sue and Rons house we had to start moving on. We went up to Kaikora where Beth swam with dolphins and then to Nelson where I was met by my cousin-once -removed ( we think thats it anyway ), Richard. I had never met
Mr Wellington
with 2 gorgeous birds! him before so was wierd when he kept calling me cuzzie! Still him and his wife Kaye made us feel at home. Kaye even lent us her car for the weekend. Is she mad??? I think she regretted it straight away when she saw me reverse out of her driveway nearly with the garden wall attached!!! We vistied Abel Tasman national park where we did a day walk which seemed to go on forever. We ate sandwiches on the beach and everything-we thought our mums would be proud! We also went to Nelson lakes which were fab!!! apart from when Beth learnt there was giant eels hibernating in the water and freaked out!
After looking at many old photos of my Nanny when she was little and meeting and hearing about many other rellies we said goodbye and moved on the Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island. While here we did another day walk along the Queen Charlotte track and again mums we made sandwiches and ate them on a bench!
After a long ferry ride-they seemed to be stumped by a bit of fog-we arrived
in Wellington. We had booked the Cambridge Hotel hostel which sounded lovely in the guidebook but was actually awfull. We soon moved to the YHA and booked a triple room-very luxurious for us-but it was for Jo's arrival. Poor Jo had to land in Christchurch, instead of Auckland, due to fog ( have the kiwis never seen fog before???? ) then wait for 10hours for a connecting flight to Wellington...all on her birthday!!!!!!!!!!! We had arranged a surprise breakfast at her Auckland hotel which she never got to!
Needless to say we had to go out and celebrate Jo's arrival and her 27th birthday-she ended up on the floor...usual night for Jo then!!!
The next day with a bit of a sore head we hired a car and our girls on tour journey began! The first task was to drive the automatic Nissan,named Bruce, to the Tongairo national park. Here we caught more freak snow. ( Poor JO-it was pouring in Wellington and now its snowing...and she arrived with a tan from England!).
Next we navigated our way to Taupo where i was supposed to do
a skydive but the clouds were too low!!! Oh well at least i still have both legs!! From Taupo we visited the Haka falls and The Craters Of The Moon-so called when walking around the cracks with steam coming out its resembles the moon...it also smells of egg...which is great with a hangover!
From here we headed towards Rotorua ( the egg smelling volcanoe capital of NZ ). We stopped at Wai-O-Tapu or Thermal Wonderland to see the different cloured waters of smouldering craters. This did feel like you were on another planet!
In Rotorua we went to a traditional Maori concert. A local family dressed in traditional costumes and did the Haka before making food using their tarditional methods ( in a mud pit on very hot rocks! )-was very nice...and beefy men in g-strings also very nice!!
After this we drove to the northwest coast to see another cool mountain. The sun was now out and the beaches very picturesque so all happy. Further along this coast we also walked to Cathedral cove ( a large cove on a secluded beach ) and Hot Water Beach ( this was supposed
Dorm life
Beth couldnt actually stand up because her backpack was too heavy....its all that jewellery she's bought!!! to involve digging a hole and sitting in the hot water next to the sea _ -it was so boiling hot it burnt our feet so decided not to burn our bums too!
Next we were due to do Black Water Rafting at Waitomo Glowworm Caves but it had been raining so heavily there that we couldnt go! We walked thorugh the caves instead and saw glowworms up close and personal-they are really maggots and poo on you!
Before we ended our tour in Auckland we visited more of the coast. Once in Auckland and after we said goodbye to Bruce we went out for my birthday!!!!!!!!! After a gorgeous thai meal and bubbly we ended up in an irish bar called The Bog where the band sang happy birthday to me which was highly embarrassing!! We also got the whole bar wearing plastic staws around their ears and pretending to be Britney. Who says we arnt classy??? ...anyway after nursing my sore head the next day I vowed to now be sensible and act my age...hmmm....
We are
now waiting for our flight to San Francisco so bye bye NZ.
Just a few announcements...............
Happy birth to Owen-sooooo cute. Hope mummy and daddy are getting sleep and cant wait to give you a cuddle.
Happy engagement to Catherine and Chris. Cant wait to visit your new house you grown up people!!!
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Ruthie
non-member comment
Hi
Your photos are still amazing and glad to hear you are still enjoying wine! I've now had half a glass, which went straight to my head! We are enjoying being a family, although Owen is not keen on the heat wave! Was meaning to email you last week to wish you happy birthday, but got tied up with other mummy things! hope you had a fab day and looking forward to seeing you soon.