Blogs from New Zealand, Oceania - page 2319

The two hobbits had a rather fruitless attempt on reaching Mount Doom this time. Sauron sent all the bad weather he could provoke, the clouds, the rain, and the wind had us turn back at the famous Tongariro Crossing. We felt a little bit 'doomed' and we were happy to get back to dry area afterwards...... read more

March 6- I arrived at 6am after the 13 hour flight, feeling good. My muscle relaxant worked and the neck pillow was crucial to my 6 hours of sleep! I drove to downtown New Zealand. The airport is nice, and customs was suprisingly efficient, cordial, intuitive and easy. First was the passport stamper, the then drug sinffing beagle and friendly kiwi handlers, and then the agricultural inspections. I felt a bit like I was going through a museum to different exhibits with friendly curators, explaining to me what I was seeing. I got my rental car keys, bought postcards and a driving atlas and some water. I brushed my teeth and 2 others were cleaning up as well. I wasn't in any hurry to start driving on the wrong side of the road at 630am, stiff ... read more

Hello everyone, another little update for you! NZ is absolutely awesome- love it! landed in christchurch a couple of weeks ago and worked out it would be cheaper to hire a car than it would be for 3 of us to each buy a bus pass- the result was a 13 seater minbus affectionately named "van diesel" which we pimped by taking out the back seats and laying some foam down for a bed! haven't slept in a hostel since! anyway, christchurch was nothing special- quite nice, very english- having a pint on the side of the River Avon for example! After stocking up on goodness for the van i.e. a cool box for beer and 3 fishing chairs, we cruised on down to Mt Cook. Quality lakes on the way- the water is stupidly blue, ... read more

Well here I am in a ( free!)internet terminal in Auckland- well not exactly free.... I had to buy a 200 pound travel pass to get the free access but thats a minor detail! Jet lag improving today after my absolute disaster yesterday- a quick afternoon 'nap' turned into a marathon sleep session when I awoke at 10.30pm to find the whole world had gone dark around me....all very disorientating, then of course I spent the whole night wondering what to do with myself!! Anyhow, not moving on from Auckland too fast as Ive got to hang around till Tues to have my allergy testing done- hence Im just chilling and already trying to save money as I overdid the retail therapy when I first arrived ( new trek trousers/ sandals/phonecards etc). Ive even moved from ... read more

In the center of North Island is New Zealands biggest lake, Lake Taupo. It is fed by Waikato River, a beautiful river with clear turquise water. A few kilometers after the rivers outlet out of Lake Taupo the river flows into a gorge and tumbles down Huka Falls. A free campsite right on the river bank gave us a good opportunity to explore the place. Just a little bit further north we could enjoy a hoot stream. A small river flows over thermal ground in a forrest creek and is heated to about 40 degree. Several steaming pools hidden in the forrest invite for a bath. At the weekend it's popular with the locals, in the daytime families visit and in the night the local youth sets up BBQ and beer right next to a pool. ... read more