Advertisement
Published: November 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Hi everybody,
Sorry its been a while, bet you've all been waiting with baited breath for our next installment - not!
Well, things in New Zealand have certainly been different to South America, what with it being part of the developing world and all that. No longer is there a need to carry a constant supply of toilet roll with you as remarkably you actually get it provided for you in bars, restaurants and public services out here...! But unfortunately the down part is that everything is much more expensive (cheapish compared to England). But having got used to the high life in SA, whilst spending practically nothing at all, we have found the money has been slipping through our fingers in this part of the world. But that might have something to do with the amount of wineries we have been visting and also the amount of petrol miles we have been doing. But its been great so far.
We got back to Auckland today, having finished our tour of the north island, and in the last week have done 2500km (Rich would like me to convert this into miles for you, but quite frankly I can't
Waitangi - Bay of Islands
Cafe in grounds of Treaty house, where the treaty was signed between Maoris and English in 1840. be arsed!)
So what have we done....
Well in our first week or so we stayed in Auckland. Being put up and very generously looked after by my relatives here and also Rich's - very handy having two sets, as I think we have managed to avoid outstaying our welcome at either one. Well that's what they say anyway...!
We were shown all the sights on our first weekend by my aunt and uncle which was fantastic as it meant we really got to know our way around and also avoid spending too much time getting lost on our own and missing out places that we wouldn't have thought to go to. Lots of photos to follow.
We then had a night out on the town with my cousin Tim, who had just finished his exams and managed to visit a considerable number of the towns finest drinking establishments. The evening was unfortunately stopped short, when we trotted along to Tim's local uni bar, where we were all ID'd, but unfortunately despite my being 27 and carrying a photocopy of my passport we were not allowed in to this most refined establishment as they couldn't accept
my passport as it was a photocopy! Mind you that would have actually required the bouncer to be able to read, which he looked as though that might have been asking a bit too much! Quite a compliment I thought as you only had to be 18 to get in. No need for me to go on 10 years younger then!
We also spent a night with Alan and Judy, Rich's Mum's cousin who cooked us a fantastic roast (first and only since leaving England and a serious treat!). And they even topped it off with apple crumble and homemade chessecake for pudding, you can imagine we were both very happy!
And we also had a meal out on mass with both sides of the family, which was really good fun and ended up with Rich and I somehow getting pretty wasted! That may have had something to do with continuing the evening with James and Laura (Alan and Judy's son and his wife) afterwards. We somehow ended up in a cocktail bar down at the Viaduct with a friend of Jame's called Elvis.... many amusing anitcdotes and way too many cocktails drunk.....!
After Auckland, we went
Feeding time for the turtle
Kelly Talton's underwater world - Auckland north (and were very kindly lent a car for the purposes by Lil and Harley) and spent a couple of days in the Bay of Islands on the east coast which was stunning, though slightly rainy. We also made it to the west coast to the bottom of 90 mile beach, which is you've guessed it 90 miles long. We did start to walk, but wisely turned back after about 10 mins. (No we didn't actually intend to walk the whole lenght, but if we had we would have got to Cape Reigna which is the very northern tip of NZ which had we had time, would have been pretty cool to see). Having got there in the car!
We then headed south and did a lot of driving. But we did make it round the whole of the East Cape, which is true Maori country and rural NZ which was interesting to see, Pacific ocean on one side and mountains and pine forests on the other. That was a seriously long drive and took us nearly 12 hours, though it would have been shorter had we not got caught up in a 300 hectare forest fire and had
Stingray
Kelly Talton's underwater world - Auckland to sit in traffic for an hour or so. Don't worry Mum's we weren't in any serious danger. It was pretty crazy though as there were water trucks and helicopters everywhere dumping water on the trees and as far as the eye could see the whole forest was just veiled in smoke. Rich did get a bit panicky at one point and I though he might start writing his Last Will and Testament, but I think that's just the English cautious blood in him. We were of course absolutely fine and there was nothing to worry about. I am sure the cops would have been turning the vehicles around had they thought we were in any serious danger.
We then got to Napier, Hawkes Bay, wine country and as you can imagine, decided not to move on for a couple of days. There we spent two glorious days doing nothing but our own personalise wine tour. Visting winerys and enjoying free tastings, interspersed with the odd stop at a cheese shop or deli's for more free tastings and stocking up on little delights for dinner that evening, and obviously a good bottle of vino to wash it all down
Penguines
Kelly Talton's underwater world - Auckland with (what a wonderful country this is!)
We then had to wrench ourselves away and headed up to Lake Taupo, (which wasn't so bad as we took a good supply of wine and nice food with us). The Lake was beautiful and we then decided to chill there for the last two days rather than try and fit anything else in, and even treated ourselves to a self contained cabin with kitchen, tv and shower and toilet, a blessed relief after a couple of nights in the tent. Not that the tent was that bad but we do like our creature comforts and quite frankly are just a bit lazy.
All in all, its been really cool and we have been loving New Zealand so far. The north island has been fantastic and its been great to see our familys and be looked after for a while, but we also can't wait to pick up our campervan on friday and start exploring the south island. There are just so many more winerys to visit!
Well enough chat for now, hope you are all well and missing us loads as we are missing all you guys.
Oh,
Cousin Tim
In Ice bar - minus 5 degrees - Auckland one last thing, CONGRATULATIONS GILES & ANNA- really really really wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Di and Ben, also gutted we missed out on that one looking forward to seeing some photos!
Loads of love to everyone
Love Rach and Rich xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.196s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 66; dbt: 0.1613s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kate G
non-member comment
Hi Rach n Rich, glad to see you are keeping up the wine tradition!! Hope everything's cool, sounds like an exhausting series of trips you managed to fit in. Di and Ben's party was cool, though you were both much missed - and as for Rosie, she's so quiet I know she misses you too! We're all very jealous really though, saw Iguassu falls on TV last night and thought wow, you guys have actually been there! Lots o love, K xxx