Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 31

Luke O’Donnell Sponsored by the Hokitika Club. Luke is a photo-journalist with the Greymouth Evening Star and works out of Hokitika. He has a BA(Hons) in political science and history from the University of Canterbury (2001) and a Diploma in Journalism from the Aoraki Polytechnic (2003). Luke will be interested in everything and will be reporting back! He will naturally keen to see newspaper operations in Missouri whether they be the big city metropolitans or the local ‘rags’.... read more

I heard about this great hostel from a couple at Kinloch lodge so I booked two nights here before I left. I wanted to visit Punakiki because it has a rugged coastline and the famous "Blow Holes" where the pounding surf surges through vertical holes in the sandstone and blows up into the sky. Quite dramatic. Anyway I arrived yesterday to a rainforest retreat surrounded by native forest and 8 minutes from an incredible beach. I'm staying in a small A-frame that has windows on the ceiling that look up into the forest and the sky. I can see the stars at night. I have to walk a small trail into my oasis through forest and past other well hidden retreats. My place doesn't have electricity so last night I lit 10 small candles and read ... read more

While still in her work uniform, Mindy jumped into the back of the Honda for a relaxed trip to Queenstown. However, as soon as we hit 100 kph, the super “air-conditioning” system (aka: windows down) kicked in, making the back seat an icebox. After a brief stop for dinner, we rotated seats and headed south on our high-speed tiki tour of the South Island. After all, Brian Gonci was only in New Zealand for a short stay. Night had fallen by the time we arrived at Lake Tekapo, a highland lake in the heart of the South Island. Fittingly, the name Tekapo is derived from Maori words Taka (sleeping mat) and Po (night). The night sky was unforgettable as we gazed up from our tent site in the pines. While admiring the Southern Cross and Milky ... read more

Today was a very long drive to Fox Glacier village down the west coast. The weather was mixed with patches of rain storms but the scenery was still superb and the single lane roads (which New Zealander's call highways) are the best driving roads in the world! Useless for getting anywhere quick, but entertaining for the driver, if not passengers :-) We stopped in Westport for lunch and finally 8 hours later we arrived at Franz Josef glacier which we drove upto to take photos then drove the short journey to Fox Glacier and stayed in Ivory Tower backpackers. Proving that the world is small we bumped into a Slovakien couple who were in our dorm in Fiji, and we all went to see the Glowworms which hang in the trees near the hostel and, well, ... read more

Kate, Jo, Jordan and I decided to go from Christchurch to Grey Mouth on the west coast this weekend, innocent enough. We had to be in downtown Christchurch (a 45min bus ride) by 7am. Adventure number one: we get out there to wait for the bus and realize its Saturday and the busses don’t start running till 730! Um crap. So we just ended up calling a taxi and getting down there just fine, a little more money but it happens. So this bus was ridiculous, see picture. I thought for sure it would never make it, somehow it did. So the road from the east coast to the west coast was absolutely spectacular. You pass over the main fault line, thus passing through the highest elevation in New Zealand. Passed by the mountain they ... read more