Kaikoura - Auckland pt2

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Tuesday 16th November

We set off from Kaikoura bay and head northwards towards Picton and its going to be another short journey with just the two stops. One for morning tea and a later stop to visit the freshwater Seals of Ohau.
During the winter hundreds of seal pups travel up the Ohau Stream to the waterfall. They interact socially with each other while their mothers are feeding at sea, sometimes there can be up to 100 seals at one time here, its early in the season but we hope too see at least a couple of young seals up the waterfall.

We walked up the Ohau pathway for about 200 metres and arrived at the waterfall and we couldn’t believe our eyes when we got there. Literally yards away from us was not only a beautiful waterfall but five or six seal pups swimming and playing in the water. Occasionally they would come onto the shallow edge of the water to have a look at us and they are so cute. They are within touching distance and its cool as bits to watch them diving around playing in the water and showing off to the camera’s.

We stood for around fifteen minutes just staring at them wondering what they were going to do next as they were starting too corkscrew through the water and leap out the water with a large splash before flipping onto their backs. Once most people had left we took our time to walk back and as we approached our last footbridge we were treated to a one man (seal) show in one of the lower down pools.
This seal was frolicking about in a little pool the size of a bathtub, swimming upside down and then bouncing out onto the rocks for a sniff of us inches away. He looked lost as he tried to work out where his mates were at the waterfall and couldn’t get past a large rock in the way and although we were tempted to put him on the right path we let him be and got to the bus a wee bit upset we couldn’t help him. What a pair of softies we are!!!

Its another hours drive to Picton and then it was time to say good bye to the South Island. What an excellent place it turned out to be and we wished we were staying longer but we hope to be back someday.

We went to the cinema on the ferry and watched a movie to pass the time and it wasn’t long before we were back in New Zealand’s capital city Wellington. We have a two nights stop here and theres been a mix up with our reservation as im sleeping in a total different room from Jill. Good old YHA! No worries its only for two nights. We met up with our drinking buddies form Ireland and headed out to an Irish bar for a couple of beers before calling it a night around 9ish as we are in dire need of a long sleep without the worry of getting up for a bus.

Wednesday 17th November

I got up late feeling great and looked for Jill whom I found down in the kitchen fixing some breakfast. The weather is pretty poor today so we decided to watch all three lord of the rings movies so we could glimpse at all the scenes from the Hobbiton Village. The whole film was filmed in NZ and we see lots of recognisable scenery and backdrops which we have visited which made us glee like little kids in a sweetie shop!

The Tv room in the YHA here is amazing as they have a 60 inch HD projector and the films are free to rent. Two couch potatoes coming up!
At 11am we sat down and at around 9pm we had completed the mammoth 3 parts of the film. It was worth every second as we’ve always wanted to watch all three in a row and we have the added bonus of saying to each other 'been there' seen that'.
I did manage to make a finger buffet halfway through and also I made Kedgiree for dinner with our leftover fish from Kiakoura so we didn’t quite starve while glued to the Tv.
Tired and emotional after the we headed firstly to the 3rd floor to drop off Bilbo Baggins Barclay and then Gollum Grant got off on the 6th floor. Night Night!

Thursday 18th November

Having Lord of the rings dreams was inevitable during the night and to put the icing on the cake I woke up with a couple of Orc’s snoring away and left the room at around 7am to meet Jill at the bus stop.

Our new bus driver was Stuart Mcarthur, no surprises there when he tells us he's half scottish on his dad's side. He takes us up through the national park towards Lake Taupo.
We pass by Mount doom and kept a lookout for hobbits. This time we view the eastern side of it and its nice and sunny so we get some great photos of the volcanos and surrounding scenery.
We stop in a place called Bulls for lunch and all the shops here have names like Collectabulls, drive thru-a-bull, Beaut-a-bull, Socialabull etc. Statues of cows and paintings of cows are everywhere, even the police station has 3 cows dressed up in police uniform outside!!! A very weird and wonderful place!!
We head into Lake Taupo and I pick up my jogging bottoms I had left there 3 weeks ago! ‘Sweet as!’

Just before we arrive in Rotorua we stop off at the Hukka Falls where we did the jetboat 2 weeks ago but this time we are up behind the waterfall and on the walks around it which is brilliant as we can see the Falls from the other side. Its mind blowing the amount of water gushing through here and at a such a high speed too as it cuts through the rock and spews out into the river below. Theres an added bonus as we see a jetboat coming upstream and doing the same things we sat through and it was magic to see it from a different perspective. The sheer noise of rushing water gives you goosebumps and you cant help but wonder where all the water comes from. I know it comes from the lake Taupo and the sign here says the falls could fill up four full sized Olympic swimming pools in less than a minute!!! The water cut channel before the falls looks deathly and its super fast flowing currents are fierce as you look down from the bridge.

We arrive in Rotorua and check into the YHA again and use vouchers to upgrade our room to a private double. Not much to do here as its our second visit but nevertheless we have a wander around and grab some dinner and setlle down for the night.

Friday 19th November

Leaving Rotorua and heading for Auckland now and its a straight drive there for us to arrive at around lunchtime which is great as we get the bags sorted out and washing done for our three day trip up to the Bay of Islands. Pretty boring day to be honest and we've starting to plan our trip in Australia as we will there this time next week and we havent even started booking digs or trips yet.
We've an early bus up to Paihia at the Bay of Islands and we are well looking forward to it as we've heard a lot of good things about it.

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Comments

[jake]

haha excellent to hear you enjoyed it!!! i enjoyed reading the blog and twas quite amusing to see your thoughts on Bulls, as i live in the next town over :) originally from waitakere ranges in west auckland though did you get a chance to visit?

[Ang]

Another fantastic trip & interesting reading! Glad both well. Look forward to next update. Love to you both xx