Travel in New Zealand

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Crikey, it has been quite a week. Prior to last Saturday, we had been spending quite a lot of time working (arrghh!), sitting drinking cups of tea and reading about possible adventures. Last Saturday it all started up again.
We have been trying to come up with a suitable UK analogy for our adoptive New Zealand city. It is difficult, because our stay has been quite functional; it is after all the biggest economy in New Zealand and the best place to get a job. It is so tempting to rubbish it, (as everyone in the South Island likes to) and describe it as being like Derby, but with more urban sprawl and a bigger giant phallic symbol (the Sky Tower is the tallest man made structure in the southern hemisphere, about half an inch taller than the Sydney AMP Tower and about 200% bigger than anything else in the Auckland sky line; also worthy of note was the fact that on breast cancer awareness day they lit it up pink, making the analogy even more valid!!) but it has looked after us, we have met some great people and has one of the most beautiful coast lines I have ever seen (the run down to Mission Bay has got me into regular jogging again.)
Anyway, time moved on we left our jobs and accidently booked our flight on the wrong day (doh!!!). It was very much a happy accident however, as it meant that we got to go to Mount Ruapehu in the centre of the North Island and go snowboarding. This gave us the opportunity to find out how much Marion (our lovely white car) does not like hills and to drive through the winding roads of the Waikato, or The Shire as it is now known to most movie goers.
One negative of the trip to the ski fields was the utter panic when it came to packing. Still think we have got too much stuff, but we made it to Christchurch and we were on our way.
So far it has all been about mountains. We first headed in land to Mount Hutt to try and catch the end of the ski season there, but found that there was little going and ended up heading onwards. We have visited both Lake Tekapo and the Mount Cook national park. I am not even going to try and describe theses places; the pictures do a far better job. The view of Mount Cook across Lake Pukaki is just amazing. You drive round the corner and it is just there…
We have now got sore feet from a lot of walking and are heading back towards the coast, along the fossil trail. More news soon

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Comments

[Brendon]

Good on ya mate!
Well done guys, keep up the sightseeing in my adoptive country and enjoy "Middle Earth". It is truly the most scenic country in the world.