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Published: June 22nd 2008
Wellington view
First time I'd seen a rainbow like this for years!Well New Zealand certainly exceeded my expectations! I wasn't sure what to expect as a few people had mentioned how amazing the place was but its the kind of country you have to visit to appreciate why. I hope the pictures I took do the place justice! As with the Oz blog I've done just one covering all the places I visited. Enjoy the piccies there are 105 of them to keep you occupied during those dull moments at work!
Wellington - Windy and rainy Welly that´s how I'll remember this place. Its actually a really nice city with a harbour, mountainside, great RB's, brilliant museums but the weather was awful it rained everyday I was there and during the All Blacks v Ireland rugby game the temperature suddenly dropped 8 degrees and I got soaked even though I was undercover! Anyway despite all this and having a miserable cold when I got there I enjoyed the City and stayed in a great hostel ( YHA Wellington City). The cable car ride up to the mountain is good and the views across the harbour were amazing. Saturday night out on the town reminded me of Southend for some reason!!
Cook straight ferry
Never got to go on it - maybe next time! I spent 6 nights to start with in WW while I had an awful cold and was trying to decide where to go and how long to spend in NZ. I also came back here to watch the Ireland game at the tin cake which was a good match.
Christchurch - Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on July 31, 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand. NZ´s Garden city and home to the Crusaders Super 14 side and has a heavy English influence (as opposed to Dunedin which has a Scots influence). I came here mainly to watch the Super 14 final and also catch up with a friend I´d met in Cairns who was in the area. I also used it as a base to travel the South Island before flying back to WW for the rugby. I stayed at Cokers Backpackers on Manchester street which was full of character and quite central. On the Friday in the central square they had a red and black day in appreciation of the Crusaders coach Robbie Deans who was leaving the club to coach the Wallabies. I managed to get a picture taken with
the Super 14 trophy which was on display!! A couple of places I can recommend in CC; Holy Grail Pub, Honey Pot restuarant, Exceslior Pub, the
Gondala trip, Canterbury Museum, the Christchurch Art gallery and Ali´s Kebab shop. After 4 days here I hopped onto the Trans Scenic Express train which is a fantastic train journey through the central mountains to Greymouth on the West coast. You arrive at around 1.00pm and you can either stay in Greymouth or catch a connecting Intercity coach service to Franz Joseph which is what I did as I only had 5 more days in the South Island.
Franz Joseph Glacier - Is a must to visit the Glacier. Quote from Wiki..... the glacier is currently 12 km long and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20 sqm large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé. Due to strong snowfall it is one of the few glaciers in New Zealand which is still growing as of 2007, while others, mostly on the
eastern side of the Southern Alps, have been shrinking heavily, a process attributed to global warming. I was lucky enough to see the Glacier from the land and the air and it was a sight! Apparantly the whole of Auckland City would fit into the basin of the Glacier!!! FJ village is a small place and there´s not much there. I stayed for 2 nights and then continued to use my Inter City flexi pass to head down to Lake Wanaka for 1 night.
Lake Wanka - Pretty little town with huge lake which I walked around for a few hours. The place was freezing at night and just went for a pizza and a Montheith´s before having an early night. The best thing was the journey from FJ to LW the scenary was spectacular ( see piccies)
Lake Tekepo - another huge lake, stayed at the YHA overlooking the lake and was very lucky to get on a flight over Mount Cookster and the Glaciers it was top apart from the turbulance flying around Mount Cookster!!! At night a bus load of us went up to the Mt John Observatory high above the breathtaking landscape of Lake
Tekapo - where Earth meets Sky. The stars that you could see were incredible; The Milky Way (our Galaxy of which you can only see the whole ribbon from the southern hem, the Southern Cross and all the constellations such as Tauras, Scorpio and Aries were upside down!. We looked through a massive telescope and saw (1) Saturn and we could see the rings!! (2) Tarantula Nebula where loads of stars are being born (3) Large Magellanic cloud which is another Galaxy next to ours the Milky Way that's got over a Billion stars in. We also learnt about Lights Years which is the term they use for the distance of other stars. For example the nearest known star (other than the Sun), Proxima Centauri, is about 4.22 light-years away that means it takes 4.22 years for the light to travel to us so we are looking at a star that is 4.22 years old. The Magellanic cloud is 160,000.00 LR's away so that means we could be looking at stars that existed 160,000 years ago but may not exist anymore. Fascinating stuff eh ? any questions just ask!!
Napier - After getting the bus back to CC, flying
to WW the next day for the Rugby and spending a few days there I headed up to Napier to see an old friend of my Dad´s who migrated to NZ 40 years ago. That was fun and stayed there for 2 nights checking out the local Art Deco and the other sights.
Lake Taupo - another lake !! where there is amazing trout fishing and sky diving but I only had time to visit the Maori museum , walk around the lake and visit the local supermarket (twice).
Rotoruara - Quote from Wikki......The name Rotorua comes from Māori, the full name being Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe; roto means lake and rua two - Rotorua thus meaning 'Second lake'. Kahumatamomoe was the uncle of the Māori chief Ihenga, the ancestral explorer of the Te Arawa. It was the second major lake the chief discovered, and he dedicated it to his uncle. It is the largest of a multitude found to the north-east of the city, all connected with the Rotorua Caldera and nearby Mount Tarawera. The name can also mean the equally appropriate 'crater lake'. The town smelt of rotten eggs due to the thermal activity and the sulpher. Despite
Super 14
That's me holding the Super 14 cup this it was one of the most enjoyable places in NZ. During the day we went to the Wai-o-Tapu an amazing area of thermal activity colourful lakes and also the Polynesian SPA which is loads of hot outdoor pools. At night we went to a Maori cultural evening where we had hangi and learnt about the Maori customs and traditions which basically involves a lot of aggressive dancing! I was nominated as Chief for the 40 of that were there from different countries ( tribes) which involved approaching the Chief on behave of the tribes accepting a peace offering and him doing a really aggressive dance to greet us and make sure we pose no threat. In was quite an experience and a few days before I´d read in the newspaper that a Maori soldier in Afghanistan had done the same to Goerge Bushes´s wife!!!
Auckland - After Rotorura it was time to head for Auckland to see England get torn to pieces in the mid field against a far superior All blacks squad and catch my flight to South America ( there wasn´t much else to do there)
Hope you´ve enjoyed the blog and bye for now...
Christchurch
The main square on Red and Black day keep well.
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