Blogs from New Zealand, Oceania - page 2316

To date, miserable weather has prevented us from doing our intended exploits in Taupo. 100kmph winds and snow at 1200m has meant that our planned hike across the Tongariro Crossing (between two large volcanic peaks) has been cancelled for the past three days. Also failed to skydive (bad weather - not incompetence) on Tuesday, so we opted for a leisurely 16km trip from Taupo to Huka Falls taking in the Craters of the Moon. Huka Falls is NZ's largest volume waterfall with 270m3 squeezing through a 15m gap every second. All very technical - it's a lot anyway... True to current form, it poured with rain on our trip out. Seems the weather predictions have been back to front so far (good weather on south island and wet and windy in the north island). Let's hope ... read more

Have been sampling lots of random activities since I left the Stray bus (maybe those teenagers were a sensible influence after all!). First I went to glaciers and played in big spiky shoes at crawling round and walking on ice. Got a helicopter up there which was also very cool. In Wanaka I've just been going mental and did mountain biking round the lake (soooo beautiful) - the tourists were all pointing at me like I was some some of local mentalist. Then did a bit od walking. Then learnt how to rock climb. This was amazing. I wore my spiderman watch especially and was trying very hard to be as good as spiderman himself, but I think it was more a job of hanging on for dear life. Especially on this massive boulder we had ... read more

Sat. 4th. Mar. Our last bus journey in New Zealand is a short one to Picton. This time round we have a nice ensuite room at The Sequoia Lodge. Just time to off-load our bags from the pick-up and head down to the harbour for a trip on The Mail Boat. This is a catamoran that delivers groceries, mail, etc. to the outlying homesteads within Queen Charlotte Sound. The trip lasts about 4 hours and, in our case, made about 6 deliveries. The best bit, besides the scenery, was watching the people come down to the jetty for their mail, mostly accompanied by a dog, who was then given a treat by our captain. When we docked back at Picton, Jim was practically siezed up with the cold. Bali can't come quick enough to warm us ... read more

Another great plan of Kathryn's....that went wrong! Recruiting fellow drunken traveller Ian, to get up early in the morning to "Go and see the seals...what an adventure!" didn't quite go to plan. Knocking on his door at the early hours...forcing coffee and toast down his neck and getting all excited about our adventure I was suddenly brought back down to earth to hear that "they've got pups at the mo and no-one is allowed near them!" So much for my adventure. Anyhoo....Ian humoured me and agreed to a bit of sight seeing around Wellington.... ...first we took the Cable Car up to the Botanical Gardens. Hmmm....views were nice but I think the hangover clouded our judgement slightly. Ended up entertaining ourselves in the kids playground and then lying on the grass wishing we hadn't got out ... read more

Hi Lovelies!! Well, things are going well in New Zealand. We're back on the road and taking it SLOW!! After Benji's boots came in the mail, we left the glaciers and headed south. Unfortunately, we didn't get too far, as Foxy Roxy decided she just simply didn't want to drive any further.... So there we were, broke down on the side of the road.... It seemed flat enough, so we slept there and decided to deal in the morning. A New (or I should say re-furbished) alternator in Haast, and we were back on the road. Drivin' like a jewel :-) We headed to Lake Hawea, a very small town on a spectacular lake. We slept with a view of stunning mountains surrounding a crystal clear lake- yum! In the morning we headed to Wanaka, a ... read more