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My four weeks around New Zealand starts in Auckland and a visit to the Skytower with views from 328m. Auckland is New Zealand's largest city with a population of one million people - it should be noted that the entire population for NZ is around 4 million - less than that for London alone! There’s a lot of space! The following day we travel to Hahei where the highlight was taking a scenic coastal walk followed by a trip to Hot Water Beach where we dug holes in the sand which filled with - you guessed it - hot water, and spent the afternoon sitting around in the thermal pools - all thanks to local volcanic activity - though every now and then a wave would catch us off guard, cooling us down just a bit with freezing cold sea water meaning another hole would have to be dug. On to Rotorua where we spend the evening in the company of Maori watching them perform traditional dance and the Haka (watch the NZ rugby team prematch performance) followed by a 'hangi' meal cooked over hot coals. Our journey continued to a small village in Tongariro National Park, “our base for explorations
of the surrounding region”. There would have been some exploration, especially a trek of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing involving “Mount Doom” from Lord of the Rings if the weather hadn’t been so bad - lots and lots of snow - it’s suppose to be spring! Apparently NZ is having the worst spring in decades - typical!
Moving on to better weather we move on to Napier where the main town area is made up of art deco style buildings due to an earthquake that totalled it in 1931 and thus all buildings were rebuilt in that era. During our stay we also had an arduous day cycling around the various vineyards trying out the local wine plus a stop at the local cidery and chocolate factory - this travelling business is tough going at times.
Wellington was our next stop, dubbed as “Windy Wellington” and a trip on the cable car for scenic views with a walk down through the botanical gardens. We then took the morning ferry from Wellington Harbour to Picton across the Cook Strait and on to Marlborough Sounds, renowned for its beautiful inlets and coves and our gateway to the South Island. It was time to
relax for a night staying in the beautiful Portage Lodge with stunning views and a great big double bed and a room to myself - ace! This was followed by a journey along the coast to the seaside town of Kaikoura where we took the opportunity to swim with dolphins which was a great experience seeing them in their own environment. We were told beforehand not to touch them - I don’t know why cos they were so fast we had no chance of even getting that close! I was then suppose to hop on another boat to go whale watching but after throwing up on the way back to shore I thought I’d better give it a miss.
Now half way through the tour we visit Christchurch - dubbed as the most English city in NZ - probably why it‘s my fave NZ city. Settlers from Canterbury in 1850 took it upon themselves to design the city into a model of class-structured England down-under. With gothic architecture, steepled Anglican Cathedral and Avon River complete with punts makes me think of a combination of Canterbury and Oxford. We then head to Mount Cook via the Canterbury plains, one of the
driest and flattest areas of the country where the landscape is a patchwork of farmland, crops, dairy farms and grazing sheep. The spectacular Aoraki or Mt Cook stands at 3754m (Aoraki means 'Cloud Piercer' to the Maori). The weather once again took a turn for the worse but a walk around lakes, streams and glaciers was still possible though somewhat chilly. Fortunately the weather cleared on the day of departure and we were finally able to see the notorious Mount Cook. Better weather followed, once again, as we headed to Queenstown which was fortunate as I’d booked a sunrise ballooning trip which was absolutely great with stunning scenery of mountains, rivers and countryside which was followed by a champagne breakfast. Also whilst here a few of us did a tour of Lord of the Rings country on horse back - another chance to see the stunning scenery. A night out meant visiting minus 5 - a bar made of ice including the glasses and a pub serving cocktails in teapots!
Moving on….described as the 'Eighth Wonder of the World' by Rudyard Kipling, Milford Sound is a spectacular part of New Zealand's fiordland. I would like to say that I agree
with this, however, bad weather in the form of low cloud and rain hindered the view somewhat. Bad weather, regardless, it was not enough to hinder us from going kayaking around the sound even though we had to wear thermals! Our guide for the day some how managed to perform the Haka balancing on the end of our canoes - how he didn’t fall in is still a mystery and a sight I’ll never forget. We also visited the nearby glow-worm caves across Lake Te Anau - apparently you can travel through the entire cave system - it only takes 3 days so we thought we'd give it a miss this time and explore the local rain forest instead! In Wanaka, another lakeside town we visit the most bizarre cinema I’ve seen. The quirky theatre is a local landmark where sofas have replaced the more conventional seating and there‘s even a small car that you can sit in to watch the movie - in this case “In Bruges”. We then head to Franz Josef on the West Coast where due to bad weather again our helicopter trip to the Glacier was cancelled. Fortunately Fox Glacier was ok and thus we
took a heli-hike there instead where we don appropriate footwear and take a walk on the ice, climbing through ice holes and taking in yet more stunning scenery. Whilst in Franz a couple of us had a go at ice climbing at the indoor ice climbing centre which was great - though think I would need just a wee bit more practice before trying out the real thing! Moving on back to Christchurch we stay over night in a local West Country pub in a small town in the middle of nowhere. The rooms were the most basic experienced but the corridors were worse - decorated with some very strange, scary dolls, which personally looked like they were out of some creepy horror movie - you know the one where the dolls come alive and attack any human-being in sight - not a great thought when you‘re off to the loo in the middle of the night! My tour of NZ finishes back in Christchurch and a chance to visit the art markets before setting off to the sunnier climes of Australia.
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