Blogs from Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 157

A dark day (yesterday) marred the normally punctual nature of the transportation network of the British Commonwealth. A new ferry boat in just its 2nd day of service was more than 3 hours behind schedule in leaving Wellington due to a number of factors including: poorly orchestrated loading/unloading of commercial and passenger vehicles and miscalculations of tide/ballast. Side note: the ferry was enormous, over 22,000 tons I believe. This is close to 3x the size of the other ferries they'd been running over the same route. It was an international event really: Kiwi TV stations reported on the happenings at both ends of the ferry run. The ship was built by Danes, and had previously operated in France. Still, one anonymous passenger (certainly a NZ native) placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the ferry ... read more

I have been shopping around for cars down here.... I have noticed that the cars are cheaper here than in Wellington. At first I was very interested in a 1984 Bedford CF Camper, but it didnt work out. It was only 4,400 but I couldn't fit into the drivers seat. Nikki and Brian, an Irish couple, are trying to sell their 85 Toyota Master Surf Van. I am very interested and I will have it checked out tomorrow by a mechanic and hopefully buy it. They are asking 2,200. The van runs well and is very spacious, and has a great sunroof. I'm very excited. Tomorrow the van might be in my name!!!... read more

After this great weekend in Dunedin I drove up north to Christchurch on Monday afternoon. The highway is not as beautiful as the inland scenic road I used when I went from Christchurch to Mt. Cook when I just arrived, but one can still enjoy the mountain scenery from a bit further away, and when the sun went down I thought it was probably my last ever sunset in NZ. It’s true what people say - never say never, but the world is big and there are so many places to visit and I have a feeling that this was my last visit here. The night in Christchurch I spent with another ‘Chiburim” family. This was a special one - Erez stayed with them before we started travelling together, and they kept in touch ever since. ... read more

Howdy Folks We arrived in Auckland about a month ago now and had a very productive first day - we bought JON!!! Our car who is nearly as old as Ben for 260 quid! hes a bit of a beast likes to ring and sing at you randomly when cold, enjoying the tunes or when you speed!! kinda handy!! The following week was spent travelling down the north island through Rotorua, Taupo, Napier and Wellington. In Rotorua we stayed at a thermally heated campsite where the ground was warmed by geothermal activity, so no need for sleeping bags! It also caused a large mud pool to bubble throughout the night next to our tent, plus the campsite had natural mineral pools to chill out in which was very fab!! We went to Napier hoping to see ... read more

Well, the time has finally come for us to write our last blog from New Zealand and prepare to head to Australia. This time tomorrow we'll be in the air, winging our way to pastures new. We're excited about moving on, but sad about leaving NZ. First, I'll bring you up to date with the last week. After our snowboarding extravaganza we left Queenstown to go back to Dunedin for the Lions vs Otago game. In Dunedin we took in the Speights Brewery and the Cadbury factory, sampling plenty of beer and chocolate respectively. We joined the thousands of other rugby fans in the Octagon bars drinking before and after the game, and enjoyed the atmosphere at Carisbrooke stadium. The game itself wasn't great, but there were some choice moments from other supporters. One was on ... read more