Blogs from Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

At 4:35am on the 4thof September 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale occurred 40km west of Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand (and second largest city in the country). As the earthquake hit in the early hours of the morning while most people were in bed, no fatalities occurred – and it seemed the people of Christchurch had dodged a bullet. Fast forward six months to the 22nd of February 2011, when at 12:51pm a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck just 10 kilometres south-east of Christchurch (and a mere 2 kilometres west of the city's port at Lyttelton). With many of the city's buildings already damaged from the earlier earthquake, the destruction this time around was much greater. But worse still was the fact that the earthquake occurred during ... read more

Have you ever felt like you were on top of the world (literally) or at the last point on earth? Well today that is exactly how I felt! Today was the first time the sun had come out for about 2 weeks so I decided to scrap the plans to go to the cinema and take a road trip to see the Bays. The route I had planned took around 5hours to drive which included going to and from Christchurch. My first stop was Little River. This was a small beautiful village hidden between the mountains with amazing views of Lake Ellesmere! I just had to stop off and take a few photos! The next stop was Little Akaloa, this is a secluded bay with not a soul or car in sight. It was crystal clear ... read more

Hi everyone, were in New Zealand, South Island. Flew into Christchurch yesterday, got our rental car. Mmmmmmm, we booked an older model, cos either I'm like 'Driving Miss Daisey' or Stu is 'Crazy white van man', so the cheerful rental guy said this was a step up from Stu's van, he was right, a 2003 Nissan saloon, automatic. Rental man said he wouldn't bother counting the scratches and dents already on there. I thought smart guy, because there will be more when we bring this old clobber back !!! I haven't driven auto for about 35 years, but Stu said, it was no problem and he would drive. Off we go, first we went the wrong way, turned back, bit of a hairy ride first of all, we couldn't work out who to Give way to. ... read more

Wow where to start.. First off, if anyone of you reading this should ever get the chance of doing a multiple days walk you should absolutely go for it. The Heaphy Track was the most memorable experience of my New Zealand trip so far. Secondly, always have a tent with you if you're travelling in your own car, it makes you so much more independent. And at last, if you ever get to meet two kiwi girls and you're able to go out clubbing with them, don't hesitate, go for it and prepare for good times. This to start off, but let me tell you more about the Heaphy track. We didn't have the start we wished, unfortunately the flight to our planned start got called off due to bad weather. But after a couple of ... read more

This morning we sailed into the harbor of Akaroa. This is a sheltered bay on the opposite side of a volcanic range from the port of Littleton and the town of Christchurch. It was a little cool on deck this morning as we walked on the deck going to breakfast. Our tour was scheduled to meet in the theater at 8:10, so we only had time for the buffet. Unfortunately, Janet wasn’t feeling well and she decided to stay on the ship today instead of going for the excursion. But David went to the theater and got checked in. This tour didn’t actually get called to the tender until about 8:45. He boarded the little orange lifeboat and rode about 20 minutes to the pier in Akaroa. The bus was not completely full, and David was ... read more