Advertisement
Published: October 3rd 2006
Sofitel Resort, Fiji
This is the hotel we stayed at in Fiji -- it was beautiful!Hello everyone -- sorry to take so long to get a blog entry out. We are trying to get used to this crazy touring schedule -- up very early nearly every morning for the day's activities. Griff was thinking he would get to sleep in, but no such luck! Too much to do and see!
We spent a couple of relaxing days in Fiji. It was much like Hawaii in terms of climate, food and activities. Most all of the tourists there are Australians or New Zealanders -- turns out both countries are having school holidays right now. Kind of like our spring break in the States -- only here it's known as end of term holiday.
We arrived in New Zealand a few days ago and started on the North Island in Auckland. There we got a taste of a large coastal city with a population of 1.3 million -- roughly one fourth of the residents of New Zealand. We went to the top of the Sky Tower -- the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 meters (1,050 feet) -- and had lunch in the tower's revolving restaurant. What a view. After a couple of days in Auckland,
View of Auckland
Notice the Sky Tower in the background. we left for Rotorua and stopped at the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves on the way. Fascinating. We visited a Maori Cultural Center in Rotorua and experienced a traditional Maori meal and show of song and dance that night. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They settled here 1000 years ago -- 600 years before the Europeans (from the UK) arrived and "took over."
Yesterday we flew to Queenstown on the South Island and we will be here for another day or so before heading on to Franz Josef and Christchurch. The South Island is very different in terrain from the North Island as it is glacial in its formation and Queenstown is stunningly beautiful. It reminds us of Colorado because there are beautiful snow capped mountains but the big difference is the huge glacial lake that sits in the middle of town. Today Ted and Jill visited a couple of local wineries on a tour. Wonderful pinot noirs which are Jill's favorite, and fast becoming Ted's favorite! Tomorrow Ted and Griffin plan to ride the "luge" (similar to an alpine slide) and go paragliding off the mountain. The weather here on the South Island is also much
Bad Boys
This town is ours! like Colorado in early spring -- warm and cold at unpredictable intervals. It's hard to remember that the further south you go, the colder it is -- everything is backwards here!
The Kiwis here in New Zealand are so friendly and it helps to start our journey in a country that speaks English. Kiwis are what the New Zealanders call themselves -- after their national bird, the flightless kiwi. So far, we are having a fabulous time and look forward to heading to Australia in a few days time. Cheers!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 17; qc: 72; dbt: 0.0815s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
