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Published: September 6th 2010
Hello all, so last blog left you having been at Nelson watching movies. Added the map again, done a total of 5750 km in the van in the six weeks touring NZ.
Drove to Picton, about 2 hours drive, checked into Top 10 park. Collette's flowery van was already there but she had gone for a walk along Charlotte sounds. Met up with her when she got back and had bangers and mash! Again.
Next morning we drove to the ferry port and caught the ferry back to Welly, weather not as nice as last crossing, and then drove 2 hours in our two van convoy to Wanganui. Just a stop over really on the way to the last few things to do, namely Waitiomo caves and Tongariro crossing.
However the Crossing is weather dependant as they close the crossing if bad, so had to keep ringing to decide which way to drive next.
Turned out the crossing was closed so we headed to New Plymouth first and stayed here couple of nights, visited the museum and walked some of the coastal walk and saw a bendy wind wand thing!
Again
View down into cave
Picture provided by Rap, Raft "n" Rockdue to Tongariro closed we headed to Waitimo caves next, famous for the adventure activities you can do there and the glow worms. The worms are actually maggots, that live on the cave ceiling attracting their food by glowing and dangling sticky threads to capture the flies and then suck em like spiders do! Eventually the maggots / worms turn into flies.
There were various trip alternatives in the caves from different tour operators, you could go climbing, tubing, abseiling or just caving. We chose one that did all of them!
We got picked up in the morning and taken to the tour office, signed our waivers and then driven to the changing rooms and entrance by Stacey our guide, turned out we were the only two on the tour.
We changed into our wet suits, wellies and harnesses and then set off to the entrance. The entrance was basically a 27m deep chasm in the ground which we abseiled down one at a time, amazing!
Once at the bottom we walked along the underground river, then finding your wellies / gumboots had holes in em! Obviously to let the water out
too! We stopped in different places looking at various limestone formations, also stopping and turning our headlamps off to see the gloworms, the ceiling looks like the sky at night full of stars, amazing!
Stacey would also stop every now and then and get us to climb through holes and tunnels! He brought a camera with him to take pictures of us, also added to the blog some others they gave us on a disc.
We managed to do all the holes except one!
We then walked back passed the entrance and picked up a couple of tubes which we then rode down the underground river, in the dark, amazing! Not really any rapids as such but fast at some points and did fall off a couple of times.
Then off the tubes and some more walking, crawling and climbing and Stacey gave us some chocolate and warm orange, some went into our wellies to warm up tootsies!
The final part was to climb back out again which not easy in wellies / gumboots, with safety rope of course! As you can see from the pickies the 27m climb was pretty steep!
It was an amazing tour to do and lasted around 4 hours in total.
Tongariro was expecting more bad weather fronts so still closed, so next destination Auckland, will have to come back another time to do the hike!
Next morning Collette left early heading to Auckland, I did the same but later in the day and stopped off in Hamilton and went to the zoo! It was raining of course, but all the same quite a nice zoo!
Arrived in Auckland and met up with Collette at campsite.
We went to go sightseeing on the Friday but Collette had to go to hospital with a kidney problem! But all ok now!
So I had a haircut, internet and wandered around Auckland then bus back to camp site. Quite a nice city but seemed very quiet!
Saturday Emma rang me in the morning to say there had been a 7.0 earthquake near Christchurch! Everyone ok at their place, think 2 people were hurt quite bad overall though. You probably also saw in the news that a light aircraft had exploded on take off, nine people dead at Fox Glacier.
Collette
was better so we headed in to the city centre on the bus, had some brekky and then headed to the Sky Tower, the highest (328m) building in the Southern Hemisphere, housing a casino, hotel, comms and viewing areas. We ended up drinking cocktails before twelve in the 182m high cafe!
Watched some people do the sky jump and sky walk around the tower, nutters! Strange when you looked down at the roads they were almost empty and it was a Saturday.
We also caught the ferry over to Devonport to see Mount Victoria, an old volcano which also had on old fort built into it. Auckland has 48 volcanoes, most just look like hills except for the youngest one out in the harbour, Rangitoto.
On Sunday we headed to the MOTAT transport museum, with flight and 4D simulators, tram rides, planes etc then back to the campsite to sort / clean our vans before heading out for a roast dinner in a local restaurant. We met a couple from Netherlands and they came to dinner with us, we all drunk too much vino!
Collette has booked herself a nice hotel for
the last night and flies to Cairns on Tuesday morning.
New Zealand has been an enjoyable, but sometimes quiet and lonely, six weeks. Shame the weather not a bit better but it is winter / spring.
Oh well Fiji tomorrow and my birthday on the Friday, looking forward to sun and sand! These few weeks been the first time since away that i have been a little homesick, not sure if as NZ similar to home, or cos been over 6 months away or because been in a van and not hostels?
Not sure if to island hop around Fiji or chill for the two weeks in a resort before backpacking in Oz, so gonna wait until i get there and see what deals i can get at airport
Larf
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Dee
non-member comment
Causing a stir in NZ
Hiya I see that you have had quite an impact on NZ and literally made the earth move lol! Glad that you did the Waitimo caves and tubing trip. This is one of my best memories of NZ after the sky dive. You look about as flattering as I did in that outfit (will dig out a photo and send to give you a laugh!). Have a safe flight to Fiji and hope you make some good mates to spend your b'day with. Have fun Dee:)