Week 9 New Zealand

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16/11/10 - New Zealand
We over slept by 30 minutes. Zoe took us to the airport and was probably late for work. I bought some last minute souvenirs at the airport and we settled down to wait for our flight which was delayed a short while.

We arrived in NEW ZEALAND! The airport had the longest and most strict customs I have ever passed though, it took an hour to get through the queue. They were checking peoples shoes for mud but managed to miss mine which were caked in mud from the Blue Mountains, phew!

We got a shuttle bus to pick up our camper van before they closed. I was so excited when our camper pulled up and we were shown around it. We packed up the car and drove off only to find a brake light wasn't working so had to take it back in case we got pulled by the police. Someone was still in the office so helped us out and we swapped cars.

We took our new car to McDonalds for our last unhealthy meal of our trip. Bobby and I have put on weight since we came on this trip so we are using the next 25 days to try and slim down. We went shopping and found that our boot doesn't lock, great! We headed off to find somewhere to park for the night.

We travelled south and stopped at a place called Huntly and pulled into a camp site just as the owners were leaving at 9pm. The site had everything we needed including a kitchen.

We started to set up the camper for the night and I ended up giggling a lot as Bobby tried to put up the awning which was very unhelpful of me. We started to watch a DVD that we borrowed from the car rental site and soon nodded off.

Quote of the day from Emi 'stop it, I'm gonna pee my pants!'


17/11/10 - Waitomo
The camper van was a bit chilly in the night but we woke up boiling hot as we hadn't closed the curtains in the boot and the sun was blazing down on us. We got up and I was amazed at the stunning view that greeted me, we were parked next to a huge lake, wow!

I noticed how the birds singing made it feel like waking up back home, I even saw some sparrows (I think). Feels like a perfect British summers day.

We took our time to get organised and had breakfast. We headed on to Waitomo and arrived just in time to book ourselves onto the 3 o'clock Spellbound tour of the glow worm caves.

Our tour guide, Ross, was very enthusiastic about the caves and his job. As we were driving to the caves he pulled over so we could take some pictures of the view. It really feels like home here with the lush green hills (well Wales anyway). In the distance we could see two mountains one of which they used as Mount Doom in Lord of The Rings, that will take some closed inspection later in the trip.

It was a very hot day and we walked down to the first cave and collected hard hats. We walked into the entrance of the cave and after a a few metres the guide told us to switch our lights off and the ceiling seemed to come alive! As our eyes adjusted to the dark more and more glow worms were appearing and they looked like stars dotted in the night sky.

We walked further into the cave and came to an inflatable boat which we all climbed into, the tour guide climbed in the back and pulled the boat along a wire to take us further into the cave. Ross asked us to turn our head torches off and as we did so the cave roof was lit up yet again with hundreds of thousands of glow worms, as our eyes adjusted to the night millions of glow worms appeared. We stopped along the way to take pictures but mine only showed around 10 glow worms so it didn't capture the true extent of the beauty we were greeted with.

We finished the tour in this cave and had a cup of tea and biscuits outside. We climbed back on the bus and were driven to our second cave site, this cave didn't have any glow worms but it was a beautiful cave with fascinating lime stone formations and stalactites and stalagmites throughout. One part of the cave had what is known as the cathedral due to the acoustics and at Christmas time they have a choir to sing carols.

We walked deeper into the cave and saw the bones of a flightless Moa bird that were 20,000 years old. As we had walked into the cave the guide had been turning lights on so we could see where we were going and for affect, then switching them off again, well on our way back our Bobby was leading and kept walking ahead in the pitch black as the tour guide was behind us, at one point the guide turned on the light just as Bobby walked into a hand rail and I laughed so much that everyone started laughing with me.

We got back to the office and the company offered to send us some professional pictures of the caves as they were able to capture a more impressive sight of the glow worms, they did this for free which surprised us as we were so used to tourist attractions in Australia trying to milk us for every cent we had.

We booked into a hostel/camp site just down the road ready for BLACK WATER RAFTING in the morning, boom yeah!


18/11/10 - Waitomo
I got up early and got ready for black water rafting today, I tried to get Bobby to get out of bed which he didn't, instead he asked why I was up so early and it turned out I set my alarm and hour earlier than I needed, typical.

We arrived at Rap, Raft 'n' Rock at 7:45 am and met up with our tour guide, Simon, and the other 4 people on our trip. We hopped on to the bus and headed to a hut to put on wetsuits, leggings, jacket, gum boots and a harness. With all our gear on we drove to our cave.

Outside the cave entrance were several ropes attached to the fence to practice abseiling on, we had a couple of goes of attaching ourselves to the ropes and walking down the hill and stopping ourselves with our hands. I was a bit concerned at the very brief briefing we had before we headed to the cave.

I was picked on to go first down the 27 metre vertical chasm. To say I was nervous was a bit of an understatement. I was attached to the safety line and Simon told me to sit down and as I did so I swung out over the bloody big hole in the ground. I slowly lowered myself and after a few feet and feeling I had control I started to enjoy the abseil. I landed in the water, unclipped myself and walked to the waiting point for the others. The water was freezing but after a few minutes my feet had either gotten used to it or had gone numb.

I watched Bobby come down and being the cowboy that he is he focussed more on how fast he was going than where he was going and ended up catching the rock that I had used to walk down, he wasn't injured but I had a giggle.

When we were all down we removed our harnesses and walked along the cave in the water. The water was very clear but only having the light on our helmets it was difficult to see all the drops and rises in the water, we would go from ankle deep water to waist height in a few steps.

Simon took us out of the water and into the rock where he led us down a small hole, I was last and lost everyone as there were two ways to go and both looked like dead ends. Simon was taking photos the whole time and wouldn't tell me which way to go, the cheeky blighter.

Simon decided that after my display in the previous hole that I had volunteered myself to show the group just how small a hole we could fit through. I was not amused. I had thought i was claustrophobic back home and when asked about potholing I had categorically said no, so squeezing myself through a tiny hole wasn't my idea of heaven.

I looked into the supposed hole and it was so small I couldn't see how any of us would manage. I went in arms first and had to wiggle through on my belly, it was a very tight fit and I couldn't bend my arms or my legs. When I finally came to the end I had to turn over and reach up and grab the rocks above my head to pull myself up and drop down, the rock was so slippery I found it hard to hold on and Simon helped me as I fell out of the hole. The boys found it a bit of a squeeze to get through as well. I couldn't believe I didn't freak out in such a small space, in fact I loved it.

We carried on down the cave and sat down and Simon told us to turn our head lights off. We did and found we were in a glow worm cave. We sat for a while and more glow worms appeared, beautiful.

We walked back the way we had come and we picked up an inflatable tyre each and Simon told us to sit in them and paddle down the river. I kept turning the wrong way, surprise surprise. We turned our lights off and were floating in the pitch black. The glow worms covered the ceiling, there was a sudden and very very loud bang in the cave (yes, I did scream) it was Simon who had made the noise and he explained after a while that glow worms react to noise and it makes them glow brighter, he wasn't wrong they looked spectacular. It felt as if I was floating along in a fairytale

After a while we got out of our tyres and climbed up some rocks, it's amazing how the gum boots (which look like wellies) don't slip over the wet rocks. We passed through another small hole in the rock but this was one we could stand up in, I walked through sideways fairly easily but Bobby had to do the Superman pose to get through. The next tight space were two holes next to each other and Bobby went through one and me in the other. This was a very tight fit and I had to lift one leg up behind me and use the other to push along the sides of the rock on the bottom. I was physically very tired after this hole as it was very hard work. We had a break and Simon had bought some hot orange for us to drink and we had some chocolate (Cadbury's oh yeah!).

Back in the tyres to head up the stream and we were paddling a lot to get there. Simon told us to hop out of our tyres and we all did to find that he got us out in water so deep we couldn't stand, he found it highly amusing then helped us back in.

The final activity of this morning is a 27 metre rock climb up next to where we had abseiled down. Simon made it look easy, as did Bobby. I climbed the first part easily then the wall became very vertical and hand holds were difficult to find. A bit of searching and chancing it and I managed to get up the rock. What an amazing day!

We headed back to the huts where we had gotten geared up and had showers. Off to the office to look at our pictures which made us all giggle. We had a cup of soup while we looked at the photos.

I've had the best day and it was a 5 hour tour which just flew by. Simon was a great laugh and a bit cheeky and seemed to enjoy picking on me.

We went off to prepare our lunch and talk about the fantastic time we had and that the trip far exceeded our expectations.

We set off on our travels south and stopped when we ran out of road at Marokopa beach which surprised us with black sands. We walked to the sea and I took a flip flop off to feel the sand, that was a mistake, the sand nearly burnt my foot. We got back in the car and found the road we had missed just round the corner and carried on our way.

We had decided to take the scenic and Coastal roads south and it was stunningly beautiful, well we are in hobbit country after all. The hills were vast, numerous and lushly green.

We were just out side of a town called Awakino where we saw a sign for 'The Three Sister'. I had barely finished saying 'I wonder what that is' before Bobby had turned on to the road. The three sisters are three caves in the cliffs which are only accessible at low tide which luckily it was when we arrived. We walked onto the black sandy beach and stopped at the caves along the way. There were some rounded boulders in the sand and I tried to climb one which took me around 5 minutes and lots of attempts to get up, Bobby enjoyed taking some embarrassing pictures of me trying to get up.

We carried on the Coastal road and just before New Plymouth we turned off to carry on the highway south. All along this road we could see the snow covered mountain Mount Egmont. It was beautiful and enormous, really odd feeling to be driving around and suddenly a mountain pops up out of now where.

We came to a small town called Stratford and stayed here the night. I really liked this camp site as it felt like old caravan holidays when I was a kid. We went on a search for the mountain to get a picture which didn't have bug guts in it from the windscreen of the car.

Quote of the day from Bobby 'oi, OI!'


19/11/10 - Wellington
It was nice to be able to have a lay in this morning and wake up in our own time. Bobby made us omelettes and we set off on our way to Wellington.

We stopped at the city of Wanganui and walked around the winter gardens and the lake. There were a lot of ducklings, signets and other chicks in the lake, spring time is here. We stopped for lunch at a picnic area, I'm loving this lifestyle of doing what we want and when we feel like it, it's also nice not having to pack my back pack every couple of days.

We got into Wellington city and got lost very soon afterwards. Before we knew it we had passed through the city centre and into a residential area, well at least we got a close up of the sea.

After suddenly developing my map reading skills we took a few correct turns and found the cheap hostel/camp site that we wanted to stop at for the night. We certainly got what we paid for here but it was just a 10 minute walk to city centre.

We walked to the city centre as we both wanted to watch the new Harry potter movie. We were an hour early so went for a coffee. I liked Wellington even though it's not the prettiest of places, it is a city I felt comfortable in which is unusual for me. Well where else can you walk along the streets and get handed six free samples of chocolate.

Quote of the day from Bobby 'it's like Christmas in a cup'.


20/11/10 - Picton
Up and ready to find the ferry port (not managed on first attempt of course) only to find the next ferry wasn't for another 6 hours. We decided to be cheeky and park up in the camp site again and walk to the city for a cup of chai tea (Christmas in a cup).

We sorted ourselves some lunch at the hostel and set off for the Ferry. The journey was going to take 3 hours so I decided it would be a good idea to start planning out route and activities we want to do in New Zealand as our time is very limited. I planned where I wanted to go but came a bit unstuck on the best way to do it. Bobby took my map and before I knew it he was sat on a table with two fellas asking them the best way to go about our trip. The guys were local to the South Island and after talking to them we had added in a scenic road trip through the island and a tour of the very Southern coast of the Island.

We got off the ferry with the aim to get to Kaikoura for the night so we could stay go to the camper can rental place first thing in the morning to sort the boot out. I fell asleep at around 11pm and Bobby drove till midnight. We stopped at a roadside campsite for the night.

21/11/10 - Christchurch
Woke up next to sea with a 'wow'. It was a cloudy and windy day with a slight chill in the air, feels like a typical British summers day.

We were up early and headed off before the reception of the camp site opened so we were cheeky and escaped without paying but also without a shower :s

It was my turn to drive and I was a bit nervous as I hadn't driven an automatic before. Bobby gave me a few pointers and we were in Kaikoura in no time.

As i was driving i was looking out for the camper van place and suddenly i was faced with a police car flashing his lights and coming towards me in my lane. I panicked a bit and stopped where I was, the policeman got out of his car and explained to us that he was blocking the road for a few minutes for the local fire stations 75th parade. My heart calmed down and we watched the parade.

We stopped at the tourist information centre to find that our camper van don't have an office here but they do work with the local petrol station.

I pulled into the station and the guy there was very helpful and called a company for us. After a fee phone calls and a lot of hassle we decided to wait till tomorrow to fix the car as we were heading to Christchurch anyway and it would avoid paying $140 dollar call out charge for the AA as we weren't sure if we would be able to claim it back.

We went for a three hour scenic walk suggested by the tourist information centre. We collected a map and started the walk along the beach. We came to a fresh water channel which we had to negotiate crossing which we thought was a bit odd to have in a walk. The sea looked a heavenly shade of blue and contrasted beautifully against the black sand. We had been walking for about an hour now to find that we had started the walk in the wrong direction and were walking the coast of New Zealand.

In order to get back an easier way than walking on the soft sand we decided to cut across the beach to the road, but as we climbed up the beach we were faced with having to climb a barbed wire fence, a train track and another barbed wore fence which I didn't really fancy. We carried on walking (the wrong way) and came to the edge of the fence and a pond. Passing the pond and onto the dirt tram. We had to keep walking the wrong way to get onto the road, we soon found that the 'pond' was actually a sewerage treatment facility, nice :s

We got back to the car and drove to the seal colony that we were meant to walk to. There were just a couple of large fur seals lazing on the rocks. We had lunch here (pumpkin soup, mmmm) and as we were eating our soup out of a mug one of the seals was playing in the water and every time I got my camera out it would disappear, cheeky thing.

I carried on driving but about half way to Christchurch my eyes were starting to feel heavy so i pulled over and let Bobby take control again. We arrived in Christchurch at around 6pm and my new map reading skills served us very well especially as I was having to use 3 different maps as they didn't have all the road names on them. The motel/camp site we had chosen to stay in was very creepy but it was cheap. We had dinner and had to run to the car after as it started chucking it down. We watched Saving Private Ryan in the car. We were parked so far from the toilets that we didn't want to go in the rain so there was a lot of leg crossing tonight.

Quote of the day from Emi 'I just tried to change gears with the bottle of water'.


22/11/10 - Franz Josef Glacier
Up and showered and breakfasted. No rain today, hooray! Using my three maps again we got to the camper van service centre (I'm getting good at this) to sort out our Boot. We were seen immediately and went to look at more DVDs while the guy looked at the car and of course it wasn't broken at all, it turns out you have to lock it with a button and not the key in the obvious key hole in the boot. Wouldn't it have been nice if they told us that in the beginning?

We left our car there and walked to the city. I'd never been on a tram before so we hopped onto the tram at the cathedral and got off at the botanical gardens for a wander around. We saw a giant gum tree in the gardens which I had to hug.

Hopped back on to the tram to complete the circuit of the city centre (much smaller than I thought it would be) and it took us down New Regent street where all the buildings mirrored each other in colour and style. Next we went through a shopping mall on the tram, yes through a building on a tram! What is this world coming to?

On our way back Bobby bought a map of the world to plan his drive around the world with. We set off on our journey across the great alpine road which is a road suggested to us by the guys on the ferry as it takes us from the East coast of New Zealand to the West coast and provides a diverse range of scenery along the way.

We got onto the the Great Alpine Road which started off with lush green flat planes with a mountain range in the distance. As we travelled further the road took us up into the mountains many of which were still snow capped. The road wound us up through the mountains with twists and turns that the Top Gear crew would be likely to test out a new porsche on. Bobby was quite lucky as I was literally speechless.

We passed huge lakes and wide rivers then we came to the peak of the mountains and were surrounded by snow capped tips. We stopped off for a short walk through the forest. As we travelled down the mountain I kept looking behind to the mountainous peaks we had just come through, what a view! It was amazing to come over the mountains and suddenly be surrounded by flat green planes.

Bobby pulled over once we were through the Great Alpine Road and let me drive. After a while of driving along the coast on straight roads I came to another mountain range and had to negotiate very sharp winding roads which was amazing fun! After driving for 3 hours I pulled in at a camper van site at Franz Josef Glacier and we had dinner (at 10pm).

The owners of the camper site told us of a glacier hike leaving at 8:45 am tomorrow but it was too late to book onto now so it'll be an early start in the morning.

Quote of the day from Emi 'I'm living my 'someday' today'.

Quote two from Emi "That's drive then..."

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