New Zealand

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So we flew from Melbourne with heavy hearts, both very sad to be leaving Australia behind, but at the same time very excited to see what New Zealand had in store for us!!

The first thing to hit us on arrival was the cold! The place was flippin freezing! And the rain, it was that really miserable gray rain that you just knew was down for hours! First impressions mean a lot and ours were not good!! The following day the sun had come out (but it was still freezing...we thought it was supposed to be summer??) and we boarded the Tranzalpine train to Greymouth, one of the worlds most reknowned beautiful train journeys! And it was really breathtaking; we were already starting to see the beauty people spoke about when they spoke of NZ.

Greymouth was a fairly sleepy little place, but it was home to Monteiths brewery, so needless to say we took the tour!! It was exactly the way Sarah imagines Guinness brewery to be (and Guinness is nothing like what she imagines!) and the brewers actually add the ingredients by hand and stir it in!!! Just like Gerry Halpin does- right Gerry??!! Despite us getting very sick of the beer very quickly we had a great evening pulling our own drinks etc!

Next stop was Franz Josef, home to the Franz Josef glacier, the towns main attraction! We probably should have mentioned at this stage that money is incredibly tight and we were really having to limit what we do, so unfortunately neither of us could afford to actually climb the glacier, so we had to be content with just going to have a look!!

Then we were onto Queenstown, the adventure capital of NZ and also the place where the nightlife is hopping!! We were traveling around with a company called Magic bus, and our driver on the day to Queenstown had an original idea to help break the boredom of the long bus journey by having a Bus Bowling competition. Basically everyone on the bus put in $2 and then we all got two shots to try knock down the six pins (or coke bottles)! The winner takes all the money! And you'll never guess who won- Dave!!! Woo woo $68 dollars richer and the drinks were on him!!

On arrival in QT we decided to part with some of our mula and went out on a jet boat that does 360 spins and powers up and down the Shotover
Canyon! It was good fun, and some if the spins were scarily close to the canyon walls!! We also had a couple of fun nights out in the World Bar- which was not a PATCH on the one in Sydney, but the teapots still served their purpose!! And of course we sampled the infamous Fergburger! Yum!!!

After QT we were on to a place called Dunedin, where Sarah managed to get bitten alive by a mozzie or a fly of some sort, she was bitten 28 times! Not fun!!! After Dunedin we headed to Lake Tekapo and we indulged in the outdoor thermal hotpools, which were three pools each heated to a different temperature- 34, 36 and 40 degrees overlooking the lake. It was heaven!

Then we headed back to Christchurch for one night and then onto Kaikoura for one more night which was our last stop on the south island. At this stage we really were running quite low on money having parted with quite a bit for our nights out in QT, and we had a few activities planned for the north island and wanted to make sure we had enough for them, so we didn't get up to much in either place. The attractions were all things we had done already anyway; visiting a seal coloney and going whale watching, both things we had seen in Australia.

The following day we boarded the ferry bound for Wellington, the capital of NZ. Wellington was the first place in NZ that we both really really liked and we were more then happy to spend three nights there, it gave us plenty of time to have a night out, shop for Paddys day costumes and even take in a bit of culture at Te Papa, the museum of NZ, which even for two culture retards such as ourselves was good fun!!

From Wellington we headed to Napier, NZs art deco capital, a city that was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and when it was being rebuilt they totally adapted the art deco culture of the time for their buildings...the highlight for us...getting Chinese food! It's really not hugely popular over here and any that we've had has been terrible so we were delighted to find a yummy Chinese place! Happy days...art deco Napier- done!!

After Napier we were onto a town called Taupo where we had planned to do our bungy jump, we arrived on a beautiful morning so we decided to do it that day while the weather was good, so off we set! In the whole run up to it Sarah had been in two minds about whether or not to do it, but on the day she finally decided to take the plunge. It was sonerve wrecking having to queue up behind others and watch them jump, but before long it was our turn. Dave went first and he went off backwards and loved every second of it- he even got dunked into the lake below. Then it was Sarahs turn and she totally bottled it! Dave could even hear the terrified babbling out of Sarah from the canyon below! Eventually she had to get a 'helping hand' from the bungy master who gave her a bit of a push and sent her on her way!! It was brilliant fun!!!!

Our next stop was Rotorua where we had a few things planned- first was to celebrate Paddys day in style and that we did!! We had a great day getting all dressed up in our customized costumes and hitting the two Irish bars in town! One was particularly good and we were up dancing and singing with each other and this little kiwi kid who was adorable!! It even lashed for the whole day so it felt just like home (although we did hear a nasty rumour that it was a beautiful day in Dublin...what's that all about!!)! Unfortunately though, the rain didn't stop even the next day so some of the activities we had planned had to be put on hold while we waited to see if the weather picked up over the following couple of days!! Luckily the weather did get better but then Dave came down with the flu, and even by the time he was feeling better we were just so over New Zealand that we didn't end up doing anything anyway!!

It's definitly fair to say that New Zealand was not our favourite part of our trip! We've enjoyed it to an extent but it's really just been a stop-gap between Oz and Fiji! It's a really beautiful country and we are both so happy to have seen it, but I don't think either of us will be rushing back!!! So now we're off to Fiji and to say we're excited is a huge understatement!! Woop woop, here comes the sunshine and beaches!!!

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