New Zealand

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Hi there all!
Sorry for the delay in emailing, its been pretty hectic since Andy and I
arrived here in New Zealand (2 weeks ago now, but anyway!!!)
Here's a bit of a lowdown as to what we've been getting up to, read on if
you find this stuff interesting, if not, at least now you know we got there
safely! Also, for those of you with Facebook, we've put some photos up.
Andy's are a little different to mine, so if you're truly keen add him as a
friend (he'd appreciate some more friends...he's not got that many) ;-) ...

So, after a REALLY REALLY long flight (*heathrow, stopped briefly at
singapore, and landed in christchurch, south island) which was almost
diverted to Auckland because of heavy fog over Christchurch, we arrived
safely and were met at tha airport by Rachel and Patsy Norris. (For those of
you who don't know, they are family friends who go waaaay back, met mum and
dad at uni, lived in the UK for 30 years, then recently moved back to their
homeland New Zealand.) Patsy and Mike live in Akaroa, a beautiful little
colonial town on Bank's Peninsula (the sticky out bit under Christchurch).
We satyed with them for a few days and enjoyed Rach's company (I haven't
seen my "sister" in 2.5 years) over the Queen's birthday bank
holiday...which is something we think should happen in the UK!
We went on some beautiful walks around Akaroa, around the harbour, out to
the Heads (where the land meets the open water and the next landmass is
Peru). We also got a spot of sailing in, which was on Mike and Patsy's
beautiful boat Gabriella. Andy tried his hand at fishing for the first time,
and caught....well....a small dogfish. But if you ask him, he's likely to
say it was a 6 foot shark...meanwhile I quite unsuccessfully tried to
navigate the boat.

We fully took advantage of their hot tub, beautiful house and relaxing
lifestyle to get over the jetlag, and then headed onto Christchurch to pick
up our wicked camper. For those who don't know, this is like a van with bed
and small kitchen in the back which is meant to be our transport and home
for the next 5 weeks. Nicely painted in the style of Kill Bill, he got us
safely to Lake Tekapo ready to camp up for the first night. And cook our
dinner in a howling gale and (we think) minus temperatures. Not to mention
the dark. Lets just say we were in bed by 6.30 pm realising that was the
best place to be....and there's not much to do once it's got dark!
We rose early the following day to watch the sunrise over Lake Tekapo and
cook a full english...
Onwards to Tekapo's big sister, Lake Pukaki which is a beautiful bright
milky blue as it is a glaciated lake, where you can ee Mount Cook at the end
of the Lake.
The same day we managed to brave gale force winds and a little blizzard to
see Mount Cook closer, and the Hooker glacier which lies beneath. We also
went on 2 little walks by the Tasman glacier to the Blue Lakes (pretty
unimpressive) and the gacier's lake....which was awesome, complete with
little icebergs!
We spent the next night freezing on our way to Queenstown, and cooked our
breakfast the next day in the snow...
Friday saw our arrival in Queenstown through the Lindis Pass (beautiful
scenery), to stay with Rachel (as she's working down here). This is the
"adventure capital of the world" where the bungy jump was invented.
Queenstown is a beautiful buzzy town surrounded by snowy mountains and right
on the side of Lake Wakatipu. We chilled for a few days in Queenstown, went
on a few walks and up to the top of "Deer Park Heights" which is like a
safari on a hill where you drive round feeding goats, bison, deer, sheep,
stag, llamas, alpacas and yaks...really entertaining when you get out of
your car to be chased by hungry animals wanting feeding. Fantastic panoramic
views from the top of the hill too, over 3 sets of mountains, and the lake.
Monday we were set to leave to go to Milford Sound, got about 20 km into our
journey and our van started to shudder....I mean shudder everytime we went
round a corner, slightly worrying. Once we'd got to the garage in Queenstown
it was clear there was something very wrong. In fact the whole suspension on
the front 2 wheels had conked out, so we were about 5 km from losing both
wheels. Oh dear! We then had to wait for the garage to get the parts needed
from Christchurch, which we found out was not as quick a task as Wicked
Campers had told us. We kept calling the garage everyday to find out what
had happened, and 4 days later the van was ready. Slightly annoying because
we were desperate to get on our way and carry on with our journey, but what
can you do when you're without a mode of transport, in the middle of
nowhere? Thank God we were able to stay with Rach and get a lift into town
with her every morning.
However, we used our time well and managed to get in a few cool activities
(not as adrenalin pumping as a bungy jump, but still fun!). We went up on
the gondola on Monday afternoon in Queenstown and got the luge down, which
is like a little cart that you drive down the slope, great fun and fab views
over the town. On Tuesday we went paragliding, which was pretty awesome.
Very scary running off a sheer cliff with someone strapped to your back,
then suddenly you're up in the air. Again, absolutely amazing views over the
city and a really cool sensation of flying, completely weightless over the
city. We then landed in the school playground, literallly skimming over
little kiddies heads as we came into land.
Wednesday we went on a river safari up the Dart river (a tributary of the
Lake in Q'town). We boarded a jet boat which propels you along the 4 inch
deep river at incredible speed and then turns rapidly 360 degrees. Pretty
awesome! If we weren't so cold...it was minus 6 that day with a wind chill
of minus 20 when we were powering along in the boat checking out the
glaciated landscape. Very cold!!!
After all that excitement we decided to go skiing on Coronet Peak on
Thursday; the ski field about 20 mins from Rach's house. Having only been
for 2 days in Sweden I was relying on Andy to teach me the basics, and he
proved to be a good teacher, not laughing too hard when I fell off the
chairlift and the guy had to stop it and make everyone wait while I got
back up. But seriously, I got the hang of it by the end of the day, even
though I was still on the easy run.
We finally got our van back on Friday after a huge tantrum down the phone to
Wicked Campers (from me of course), it just happened to be ready when we
turned up at the garage.

I think I'll stop there as I've gone on far too long, and you're probably
really bored by now!

Hope all is well in England,

Lots of love to everyone, and miss you all muchly!!!
XXX

Howdy folks! Hope you're all well and survived the awful weather in the UK?
Sounded pretty horrid from what I heard.
All's well with us in NZ, we're absolutely loving things and don't want to
come home! Can't believe we're almost half way through either.
Anyway, this is what we've been up to since we left the glaciers.

We had a very long day of driving pretty much half way up the South Island
last Thursday, from the middle, right up to the northern tip of the island.
On our way we stopped at Punakaiki where the pancake rocks can be found;
awesome rocky outcrops caused by compression of sediment and dead sea
animals forming really cool blocks of rock which look just like pancakes.
Today was the first day it rained, which was great as we just got on with
the driving, all the way up the west coast to Motueka and then over some
hills to the beach at Pohara. We saw some lovely double rainbows on our way
too!
On Friday we went for a nice morning walk on the beach and drove as far up
to the north as possible (not as easy as we thought as the road stops just
before "Farewell Spit" starts, which is the pointy out bit at the top of the
island.) We ambles back to Motueka, via the Pupu springs which hold the
world's clearest water apparently. Really quite amazing, as you can see
right through the pools where the water comes up. We took a little detour to
"Harwood's Hole" which is the largest cave in Australasia. Not sure we saw
it though as the walk seemed to bring us out onto a VERY unstable sheer
cliff. Still a cracker of a view and a nice forest walk!
We spent the night in Motueka and went to the lovely little cinema in the
quaint town, had the entire place to ourselves as we relaxed in front row
sofas, munching our sweets!
The next day was raining which was typical as we were to go on a boat trip
to the Abel Tasman National Park, a beautiful park right on the northern
coastline of the south island. We still managed the boat trip, despite the
weather. The waters weren't so crystalline greenand the sky wasn't exactly
blue, but we still saw little seals and gorgeous beaches! Oh, and another
double rainbow!
Sunday we woke ready to go to Marlborough Sounds for the day on our way to
Picton to catch the ferry up to the north island. And struck again by the
cirse of Wicked Campers. Oh yes, we had a flat tyre! Really annoying
especially as it was sunday and nothings open! After getting the AA out and
going to the tyre place we were told 3 of the tyres Wicked had given us were
completely scrubbed and weren't that safe to drive on (as the canvas was
showing through!) so we got them to pay for 2 new ones (and replace the
punctured one). First thing monday morning and we were rushing to catch our
ferry!
Oh and how I wish we'd missed it! The crossing was one of the worst the
captain had sailed; 8 metre swells and the front of the boat was being
thrown all over the place. Sick everywhere and generally a messy experience!
We spent 2 nights in Wellington; a really lively cosmopolitan city where we
went to the national museum (one of the best museum's I've been to) and up
Mount Victoria for an amazing view over the city. We managed to get a few
bars in as well, sampling the nightlife of course :-)
From Wellington we went to New Plymouth near Mt Taranaki (looks like Mount
Fuji, and was used in the Last Samurai) which was absolutely amazing, a huge
volcano in the middle of a flat plain. We didn't attempt the walk up the
volcano but caught the views in some beautiful lights. We then headed over
to Taupo through the Tongariro National Park (Mount Doom from Lord of the
Rings) on a beautiful desolate road which brought us into very smelly
thermal Taupo. The lake looked beautiful in the evening sun, especially with
the Tongariro range as a backdrop. We stayed in a lovely caravan park with
its own thermal pool. The next day we swapped smelly Taupo for smellier
Rotorua via the amazing craters of the moon. This area is a geothermal
hotspot with craters and steam pouring out of the ground every few
meters...unbelievable!
We got on our way to Hell's gate, a geothermal spa resort in Rotorua, which
holds the largest hot water waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere, just like
a shower at 40 degrees. We also saw mud volcanoes, bubbling pools (of over
120 degrees celsius), and of course, lots of sulpherous pools and rocks. We
took advantage of the spa and had a lovely mud bath (very messy), freezing
cold shower(to cleanse our pores!), sulphur hot bath, and then a lovely
mauri massage. Just perfect to set us on our way to the north of the
Coromandel Peninsula in a place called Hahei. And then the rain set in. Lots
of it!
This pretty much limited our view of the "crystalline waters and white sandy
beaches" but it was beautiful all the same! From here we drove to Auckland
for a stopover and to see Oceans13!!! Before we headed up to the Bay of
Islands, a small town called Paihia. (It rained all the way!)
We woke the next day to glorious sunshine as the storms seemed to have
passed, and took advantage of this to go on a boat trip to see dolphins and
the "Hole in the rock"; a pretty impressive landform on the coastline. We
saw loads of little bottlenose dolphins showing off by the boat, and a blue
penguin, the smallest in the world (about the size of a small
seagull....very cute!).
Another dodgy boat trip, but again managed to avoid the vomit (unlike many
other passengers).

We then headed down to the Kauri forests which hold absolutely enormous
trees, 55m tall and 6 m diameter (not girth!!!). Really have to be seen to
be believed!

Back in Auckland now, savouring the city lifesyle and the amazing volcanos
punctuating the cityscape. dropping the van off tomorrow (finally!!!) and
heading to the Cook Islands the day after tomorrow, for some much needed R
and R after a PACKED trip so far!

We've absolutely loved New Zealand, and have seen some unbelievable things.
We're going to miss it terribly, but have some great photos (Andy a little
more than me!!!)

Love to you all, stay in touch with all your news, and sorry again for
rambling.

Congratulations, you reached the end!!!
xxx
Andy and Alice
xxx

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