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Well I was right about struggling to climb Mount Tongariro. It was hard work! What made it harder was that we managed to pick the worst day for weather! The day tramp is one on NZ's great walks as from the top you can usually see both west and east coasts. Also the volcanic mountains are amazing in themselves (I have seen pictures). As far as our experience went we managed to see the ground and about 5 metres ahead the rest was mist and rain- horizontal rain at that due to the extreme wind speed. We met up with some older kiwi couples who reguarly tramped so we were safe in their hands.
The next day (feeling very achy) we actually managed to see the mountains as the weather cleared up and we learnt that we were looking at Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings- cool hah?! An amazing view when the weather is right.
From here we headed south to Wellington, stopping at various places on the way, where we waited for the ferrie to take us to the South Island. Whilst in wellington we went on the historic hill tram and walked the botanic gardens and
also went to the massive museum (basically all touristy things).
As we arrived in Picton on the South Island we could already see the beauty that we were about to experience. The South Island in general in very mountainous with lots of rivers, waterfuls and lush forest.
For the next week or so we put on our tramping boots and and saw alot of the country including the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park, which is a cliff top walk where beach meets forest.
Our next major stop was Kaikoura. Our long awaited whale watching trip had come and we were soo excited. We managed to see 3 sperm whales, many dusky dolphines and albatros on the tour and got to learn loads about them and other local marine life. We also did a walk to the seal colony where NZ fur seals basked in the sun.
Watching the end of the Kaikoura sunrise (we are soo lazy!) we said farewell to the abundant marine life and continued our journey.
Next stop- Christchurch, this was just a brief stop as we will end our trip in NZ there. Whilst there we stayed in an old jail- very cool and they even
David with the seals
NZ fur seals. Kaikoura.had old cells kept the way they had been left with grafitti plastering the walls. From Christchurch we went to the end on the peninsula to go dolphin watching as we had won tickets for the trip at a travel expo in Sydney. Unfortunately when we got there it was shut- gutted... oh well its not like we haven't seen dolphins on this trip!!
Driving back to the west coast we Climbed the fox glacier- fab experience. The pictures say it all...
We have just arrived in Queenstown- will continue another time, having to cut down my commentry as time on the p/c soon adds up on cost and already over budget!!
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Tot: 0.118s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 14; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0298s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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