The whole of New Zealand in one blog

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Hello everyone

Sorry but we've gone through New Zealand at such a pace that we've have had only time for this one and only blog where we will try to cram everything we've done into one blog. (Big Gasp!)

Auckland to Rotarua

Right, so we arrived in Auckland which is Rubbish and promptly left on the tour bus Magic. Unfortunately on our first morning our alarm failed to go off due to us forgetting to adjust it to New Zealand time. Luckily Cathy realised with 15 minutes to spare and we ran to the bus and just caught it. We then travelled down to Waitomo where we took a nice walk and then onto Rotarua (famous for it's Hot springs and steam vents). We spent the night there and looked around the local park with steam vents, very cool!

Rotarua to Taupo

On the way there saw some bubbling mud and a geyser! We then spent two wet and rainy days in Taupo doing nothing due to the rain!!! Bit boring but we did walk around the lake in our Raincoats which i know will please both Mummy Woolf and Stamp. We tried to do some amazing scenic crossing called the Tongariro Crossing, got up at 5 in the morning and it was cancelled!!!!

Taupo to Wellington

Weather finally gets better and we arrive in Wellington, really nice harbour city. Just chilled and went for some walks. Checked out the national museum and the earthquake simulator.

Tranz Coastal Train

Got the boat over to Picton and took the train down to Christchurch. Due to the weather scenery wasn't that great but we met some Crusader supporters who felt it their duty to involve us in some drinking games. Results were a bit messy but fun!

TranzAlpine Train + Greymouth

Bit better weather and some scenery although the viewing carriage was more like a Cattle shed! Arrived at Greymouth, a small town in the middle of nowhere covered in perpetual fog. Went on a Monteith's brewery tour (for 20 dollars) and got 30 minutes free drinking time. Got quite merry and headed out to the local pub. Cathy was told she danced beautifully by some old guy dressed as a pirate who then gave her a bracelet. (I'll have to keep an eye on her!)

Greymouth to Franz Josef

Went hiking up Franz Josef which is a Glacier, good views but a bit cold. Chilled in the hostel and drank free soup. Very exciting stuff!!

Franz Josef to Queenstown

Queenstown is by far the highlight of the trip, absolutely breathtaking. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We spent three nights here and spent the time mostly walking up mountains and also hads a ride on the luge. Basically a downhill go kart on top of a big moutain.

Queenstown to Dunedin

Dunedin sucks! Don't visit here. We went on a Cadbury's tour (i couldn't hold Cathy back) and we got lots of free chocolate so it wasn't all bad.

Dunedin to Lake Tekapo

This is a very small place with a lake. Spectacular scenery but a little cold and boring. Ended up playing scrabble with a group of bus people, really living it up!

On to Christchruch

And now we're here. Got three nights to explore this city before we jet off to south america. The scenery in this country has been absolutely amazing and we're going to attempt now to download a load of photos!!

Cathy:

Hi Guys,

I dont think Guy has bigged up New Zealand with half as much credit as it deserves so I'm going to stick my oar in. New Zealand is totally amamzing, we had no idea it was going to be so beautiful when we booked it. In Queenstown we did a 1784 metre hike up a mountain called Ben Lomond. We had fantastic weather and the views were fantastic. At one point we were even higher up than a helicopter & we walked through the clouds). In the book it said the walk was meant to take between 6 and 8 hours so we were pretty impressed that it only took us 5 hours and 40 minutes- go us!!!!!!!!

The people on our bus have been really lovely and we have ended up travelling with a few of them for most of the journey. We have had a few days bad weather but since Taupo we've had a fair few sunny days.



Anyway hope all's well with everyone

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Photos

Ben Lomond
Here's the 1748 metre mountain we decided to climb