The Land of the Long White Cloud (& a lot of blinking hills!)

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands
February 18th 2013

Published: February 25th 2013

Kia Ora! Friends & Family So we left Australia after 11 glorious months. Sydney was fantastic, a great place to spend the festive season plus it had a climate which I prefer to the ffffreezing UK. Equally it was great to spend almost 4 weeks there and not spend a cent on accommodation! New Zealand has been another place we'd long wished to visit and for F it was a hope to enjoy some cooler... Read Full Entry

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A loo with a view!

The home of bungee

The Hackett bridge. We did consider doing it, but it didn't seem scary enough (or cheap enough - $180 for 7 seconds of fun). This is where Stephen Fry of all people tried bungee, check out the YouTube clip

The Fox Glacier

Mount Cook & Mount Tasman

The tallest peaks in the Southern Alps

Swimming with views of Mt Cook in the background

It was great to rock up to a DOC campsite and get great views like this (even better when we freedom camped). We'd go for a dip before having dinner (our favourite sausage stew!). There wouldn't be too many people around, although there were pesky sandflies!

A good year for the grape?

Marlborough. What can you say? Probably the best white wine in the world. We certainly tasted quite a bit on the tour that F insisted we went on!!

Mud, Mud, glorious mud

New Zealand is a mighty active area for volcanos. Near Rotorua there are huge areas where mist just rises from the ground. It stinks (the sulphour) but it offers some great views. Pretty cool to see something different.

Pohutu Geyser

The largest geyser in New Zealand (and i think the southern hemisphere).

Wkakarewarewa - Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day is New Zealand's National Day. Celebrated in early February to mark the occasion when Maori chiefs signed an agreement with the Queen back in 1840. Here we went to a 'living' Maori settlement (not just for tourists) to experience some of their culture. I'll try and upload the videos of facebook.

The Tongaririo Alpine Crossing

Consider the best one day walk in NZ and one of the best in the world. Some 20kms (curtailed by recent eruptions), you get to cross the volcanic landscape. Frod and Sam also took a path around here when they crossed Middle-Earth!

The Green lakes - Tongariro

Beautiful - but knackering to get to (and back).

Paihia - Bay of Islands

Leaping dolphins as we explored the bay.

The Hole in the Rock

Our only contact in NZ was F's friends' sister, who just happens to run a motel in Paihia (though we did pop into see the folks of another friend we made in Oz). Barbara (centre) allwed us to stay for a few days in return for painting her house (hope she likes it!). Her Mum, who we know, was also visiting at the time, which was great. So we had a little Basildon reunion some 18000kms away!

Waitangi Treaty Grounds - This is how they welcome visitors!

The 'birthplace' of modern New Zealand. The cultural performance here includes partaking in this traditional greeting ceremony. Essentially the men from a tribe would front up to any newcomers and if they responded aggressively a fight would take place. Thankfully we all kept the peace, though F did chuckle a bit as they bounced around

This is for you Maureen!! lol

I just had to get my shirt off for this pose (control yourselves ladies). Maoris love to make eccentric eye movements and tongue sticky outs (I think this is to do with telling a story). Great fun though, and really friendly.

Hard at work

It hasn't all been about relaxation and having fun. We've done a bit of (hard) graft too. It is great though to have a project and focus to our travels. Plus we get to have conversations with other people! The views from Barbara's house were stunning. We certainly are going to miss the great views and open spaces over here!

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The Land of the Long White Cloud (& a lot of blinking hills!)

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