Advertisement
Mountain Parrots
at Mount Bruce, a sanctuary and breeeding program for New Zealands endangered birds.We left the orchard on 26/04/06. Given that we had to return to Hastings hospital in only a couple of weeks time and that I couldn't do much of what we really wanted to do in the South Island, we set of with the aim of making sure we did the rest of the North Island thoroughly.
Our plan was to stay in Wellington for about a week, we drove down to Wellington via Mount Bruce Wildlife centre. The centre is managed by DOC with the aim of preserving and increasing the populations of endangered birds in NZ. The enclosures were large and all the birds there are involved in breeding programmes. We also got to see the wild Kia feeding. Kia are mountain parrots and they are fed at 3pm each day. This is done so they can monitor the wild population and also so they can introduce the captive bred birds back into the wild more easily. Having been in decline the mount bruce wild kia population is now greatly increased and thriving.
We arrived in Wellington in the early evening and were both pretty exhausted so we just had a quick wander about to get our
The Bee Hive
New Zealands equivilent of the Houses of Parliment bearings and a quick bite to eat and headed in for an early night.
As we were in Wellington a week I won't bore you with everything we did but here are some of the key things.
We hit Wellington with some serious sightseeing and did a walk listed in the Lonely Planet as the Red Carpet walk. The walk is supposedly the walk that the cast of the Lord of the Rings did on their way to the premier of the film. It took in all the main sights of the centre including the Parlimentary building. The Parlimentary building is affectionatley known as the Bee Hive. It made both Andy and I think of the "egg box" we once had in Sheffield which was demolished for being an architectural monstrosity. The Wellingtonians seem to embrace it as a bit of architectural history unlike Sheffield. We also went up the Cable car which isnt a cable car as I know it, it is more of a fenicular railway, from the top there are good views of the city which is also the home to the botanical gardens and an observatory which had a fairly good planitarium show.
Meeting up with Richard
You may remeber this guy from previous blogs, he's the nutter that hand fed the croc, here we meet in a much more civilised environment having a coffee at the world famous Chocolate Fish Cafe. Over the rest of the week we visited the Te Papa Museum which is the national museum of NZ good displays on Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Maori Culture and the colourful modern Maire also exhibition on the Wanganui Iwi and their history. The Te Papa Museum was also hosting a Lord of the rings exhibition which was excellent. It focused on the costumes and props for the characters and sets and how these were made. It also went through how they filmed complex scenes with people combined with sets that were built in small scale. Since Sue broke her arm she has been a bit of a geek as regards the Lord of the Rings, reading all three books and watching the film, and I got a running commentry of what was different in the book.
We met up with a friend called Richard whome we met in Bolivia and lives in Wellington. He took us out on a few outings including a few drinks in the evening around the more Bohemian cafes of Cuba Street and Courtney Avenue, a drive upto Mount Victoria lookout and around coast with a stop for coffee and cake at the Chocolate Fish Cafe,
Club Egg Chasing at it's best
Hurricanes v's Cheifs an all New Zealand game in what is probably best described as the southern hemisphere equivelent the Champions League. which was apparently a favourite hang out of the cast of the Lord of the rings.
The Chiefs and Hurricanes were playing at the Westpac stadium. We couldnt come to NZ and not watch a top level game of Rugby, so we went to watch it with Jamie and Lynn whom we were with on the orchard.
Before leaving Wellington we went and did the red rocks coastal walkway. The coastline is very rugged and rocky around Wellington and at this point the rocks are red - hence the name. The colouration comes from the Iron Ore which is in the volcanic rock. This area is also home to a colony of batchelor seals. There were only a few about on the day we were there and they are pretty smelly, so I glad there werent more! All packed and ready we met Richard for lunch and to say goodbye and then headed off on our drive upto Wanganui
Went a walk around town and up the Durie Hill Elevator and memorial tower. Went a drive up the river road which was made famous in the film the River Queen. Nice hostel Tamara Lodge
Drove up
the surf highway to New Plymouth, beautiful but no surf. Stayed at the eco lodge inn which was recommended to us. The place is beautiful and completely self sufficient for electricity and water. It had beautiful views of mount Taranaki out of the window.
Went on Happy Chaddys Charters - was a pretty poor tour, in which we went to see some more seals, collect Chaddy's empty cray fish pots and dangle a line in the water in a attempt to catch some fish, we didn't.
With a bit of spare time in hand we went to the Da Vinci Machines exhibition was small but pretty good.
The next day went a walk in Egmont National Park around Mount Taranaki. We had planned to do the summit walk if I could manage it with my cast on but when we awoke the mountain was covered in snow so thought better of it, as the owner of the hostel told us about hius friend who got stuck up there last week and had to spend the night up there till rescued. The views were beautiful, other than the big oil refinery at New Plymouth!
Drove up the
Forgotten World Highway upto National Park, I think it is more the forgotton highway highway, part of this highway is unmade and just gravel. The road winds through rural areas and then wooded gorges and valleys, as with most of New Zealand the views were fantastic.
We arrived at National Park, and were told the weather forecsast for the next day was good so we decided to do the Tongariro Crossing listed as the best one day walk in NZ before the weather changed for the worst again. The weather was excellent as reported and a good walk, taking in volcanoes, mineral lakes mountain ranges and views over Lake Taupo, we finished the walk with about 2 hours earlier than we were told it would take, so rather than hang around for the bus we hitched back with two English guys who were touring round in a dodgy looking van smoking some even dodgier substanses, that evenin we did as all good English folk do after a long walk, wewent to pub and had a few drinks.
As we had seen pretty much all we wanted to see in the North Island and we were just spending money
hanging around until I had my cast removed we decided to return to the orchard for a few days. When we arrived at the orchard all but Maca and Jan had left the caravan site and they were leaving the next morning to return to the Czech Republic. Maca and Jan were very excited to be going home to see their families after 6 months on the orchard.
Andy did a little bit of Juice picking but we mainly spent the time catching up with the friends we had made whilst at the Orchard. We went to the Sandford Arms in Onga Onga to see Paddy the Landlord, had dinner with AJ and Noreen and also went to stay with Fish, Kiri and Jordin (Fish and Kiri daughter)for a few days and also caught up with Steve, Daniel and Sandra. When we left Fish and Kiri's place, apprently Jordin didn't relise we were leaving for good that day and got all teary eyede then said 'well they were boring anyway' but she still wants us to go back and visit againfor a few days.
Packed and ready to move on we went to Hastings Hospital had Cast Removed.
I had an x-ray taken and the bone has healed well and it looks normal. However it looked skinny and long with no muscle with all the skin peeling off and reminded me of when i saw Juanita the Ice Princess mummy in Peru! After 6 weeks in a cast I have pretty restricted movement I cannot touch my little finger and thumb and I cannot turn my hand palm facing upwards. Despite this the doctors where very pleases with the way it had healed and they said that with the right exercises and care they dont see any reason why it shouldnt be back to normal in 3 months time.
After leaving the hospital we drove straight to Waitomo and by the time we had got there I had shed half of my skin all over the car it was horrible.
Waitomo is famous for its vast network of underground limestone caves and waterways and also for glow worms. It is also a centre for extreme sports involving caving, rafting and abseiling.
We found a quiet little hostel with was more like a cottage with only Andy, myself and a swiss guy staying. So we had
Wanganui River
Apprentley The River Queen was film here! dinner, set a fire in the stove and settled in the lounge to watch a DVD.
Andy went on Rap, Raft & Rock trip into the caves. I went on the Glowworm cave tour for wooses while andy went on the activity tour. The glow worms look really nice in the dark, thousands of little twinkling lights. However when you look at them with a torch they are horrible and you dread anything dripping on your head after you have seen them in full light. The worm produces long sticky strands which hang down from the ceiling of the cave aroung the worm. It uses these to catch insects, they look pretty horrible!
With just under a week left until we leave NZ we headed upto Steve & Lynns in Auckland for some home comforts and time to sort all our stuff out before we left the country. We spent the week sorting out our tex claim forms and rationalising all of the stuff we had accumulated over the past 4 months. It was good to catch up with Steve and Lynn again and their hospitality made us feel at home. Before we left we went out with
them for a Thank you for having us Japanese meal. The meal was one of these Tepanyaki thinbgs where they chef cooks the food infront of you and it is kind of theatre cooking. It was excellent.
Having left Hastings immediately after the removal of my cast I needed to get a physio apointment to find out what I needed to do for full recovery of my wrost. I am quite impressed with the NZ National Health service. I have received excellent medical care all the way since I first broke my wrist right upto the point where I went to North Shore Hospital in Auckalnd with a referal from Hastings and they fitted me in for a physio appointment the next morning. When would that happen in the UK. The only problems I had was with initially getting things sorted out with ACC.
The morning of the 23rd May came along and Lynn dropped us off bright and early at Auckland airport. We have enjoyed NZ but it has been slightly tainted by my accident and that we didnt see the country at its full potential. We are both ready for a taste of a different culture
and looking forward to Asia.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.113s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 70; dbt: 0.0775s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Catharine and Mamdooh
non-member comment
Good Luck for your travels in Asia!
Hello Suzanne and Andy Thanks for another fascinating travel blog and wonderful pictures, you don't get that sort of scenery here! We are looking forward to hearing about wherever you may be in the next few months. Hope it will be enjoyable and interesting. Take care! Good wishes Catharine and Mamdooh