Blogs from Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Friday 13th December, 2013. Mount Cook National Park - Day 2 & Lake Tekapo, McKenzie County, South Island, NZ D woke up quite early and, after opening the curtains, declared that the weather seemed to be a bit better today. He took a photo of Mt Cook from the window. After breakfast we loaded up the car and then drove to the Mount Cook campsite car park where there were a couple of walks that we wanted to do. The first one was called the Kea Point Walk. Like the Tasman Glacier View walk it was described as easy. This time, it was a little more accurate. This walk was well trodden, and only slightly undulating. It concentrated on the flora and fauna of the area and took you to a lookout point that looked over ... read more

I had been a tough start to 2013. My brother has a heart condition and a gastro bug took out his heart. He was choppered by the emergency helicopter to Waikato Hospital, before being flown to Auckland Hospital. It was a close to 99% he wouldn't survive. The surgeon outlined the options to us. An emergency surgery in the morning, which has a near 100% chance of killing him, or we wait until he passes. We pressed forth with the operation, hoping for a miracle. Our family drove up to Auckland in the middle of the night from Ohakune, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Tauranga. Some forked out nearly a $1000 to fly up to be with us. It was a long day, with little news. Lets say, the muffin break cafe in the hospital did a roaring ... read more

In somewhat of a sulk (due to our cancelled Milford Sound trip) we boarded the 8am bus bound for Lake Tekapo: a supposedly beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. Entombed by the snowy caps of Queenstown we were informed by the driver that the terrible cold front was very restricted to the Qtown area only and that the rest of the country was experiencing rather more spring-like weather. He could not have been more accurate. Smothered in fleeces, hoodies, vests and t-shirts, Kayleigh and I soon found ourselves stripping off layers about 15 minutes out of Queenstown. The sun was booming, and our spirits were lifting. After a scenic 4 hour bus we arrived at Tekapo to see unquestionably the 'blue-est' lake with beautiful snow capped mountains all around. We were told by the driver that the ... read more

Well, so much has happened since we started that it's difficult to keep it all in perspective. After dropping of our excess and unwanted items (too much baggage again!) at our friends place we set out south from Christchurch to Akaroa. Having read so much about this place we were still thrilled by the spectacular scenery on the way up the mountains and down the other side into the large volcanic waterway with Akaroa and other little villages perched on it's waterfront. Akaroa is a pretty little scenic town which had been settled by the French in 1840 and still is supposed to have descendents from that time living there. They were a tad slow in taking "possession" as trhe Brits beat them to it! The town earns it's tourist reputation from it's "French flavour" which ... read more

Med over 120 besøg på vores sidste blog opslag, føler vi os efterhånden et pres for at levere gode nyheder fra downunder J I dag, var turens første ”rigtige dag” i New Zealand, og vi lagde hårdt ud fra start. Klokken 04.00 ringede vækkeuret, og selvom det er tidligt var det ikke noget problem at komme op, da vi dels stadigvæk er på dansk tid, samt glædede os meget til det der skulle ske… Med bus blev vi kørt 35 km væk fra Christchurch, og med vores skipper Nigel og co-pilot Jeff, var vi klar til noget vi havde set frem til længe. At opleve solen stå op fra en luftballon. En del af oplevelsen var, udover selve flyveturen, også det at hjælpe med at folde den store luftballon ud, som når det er fyldt med ... read more