On the road again!

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Hey Guys, us again, I know what you are thinking; you dont hear a peep out of us for weeks and then you get 2 blogs in a matter of days! Well we like to keep you on your toes, that and the sun has taken his hat off in Fiji today so there is plenty of time and free internet at our tropical resort for blogging.

I hope you are all well and are as excited as us about seeing you all in just under a weeks time! Ahhhhh, I cant believe we have nearly completed our mamouth journey and soon we will back to life, back to reality!

So, the last blog was all about are amazing time in Oz, now we are going to tell you about our amazing time in our ummm...'campervan' in New Zealand.

I think we should have realised as we started our descent into Christchurch that for the next 3 weeks we would have our cameras permenantly stuck to our faces; flying over Mount Cook (the highest mountain in NZ), the Southern Aples and the patch work of green fields was certainly one of the most spectacular landings we have seen so far, and definatly a sign of vistas to come.

We arrived at the little independant rental place to pick up our 'campervan', we walked straight past the estate car parked on the drive way and went to enquire about our booked Camper. "Its just outside" the guy said and took us out to the white Nissan estate car! Well its a good job we have been friends for a long time is all we could both say, as he showed us the matress in the back!

So we had our wheels, we had our map and we had 3 weeks to get back to Christchurch for our flight out, so we hit the road.

We clocked up nearly 3,400 km's over the 3 weeks.

We visited loads of places on our road trip, almost a new place every day so instead of a giant boring list here are the highlights of the South Island, New Zealand:

We learnt quite early on, that every camp ground we stopped at for the night, would question our need for a powered site, 'why do you need power in a car?' and every time we had to explain that our estate car was actually a very small campervan, with a fridge, lights and even a DVD player. This was always met with laughter and amazement; I dont know whether it was coincedence or intentional but they always put us next to the biggest Winabago on the site!

On the way from Christchurch to Oamaru (our first stop), we stopped in a little place called Akaroa. We had been told it was worth a visit to its resident artist at her house, 'The Giants House'. We climbed the mosaic stairs into this strange wonderland garden full of sculptures. As with almost all artists she was slightly on the ecentric side to say the least; we arrived in the rain and she came swooshing out of this incredible house wearing red leggings,with her bright blue and purple hair blowing in the wind. We paid our entry fee and were free to explore her surreal exihbition. It was a real spectical, full of made-up creatures and huge mosaic creations.

Lake Tekapo, was our first real taste of the amazing New Zealand scenery up close, with its turquoise water and overwhelming mountian back drop. We sat and ate our little pic-nic on the banks of the lake before going to see the tiny church which sits alone amongst the enormity of its surroundings. It also hogs the best view of Mount Cook from its altar window, and no photos are allowed from inside the church. We dipped our toes in the freezing alpine waters, while the camera got a real work out!

Another little stop off along the way to Oamaru was the Moeraki Boulders, a geoligical marvel, born out of the side of the sand dunes on the East coast. These huge completely spherical boulders are a result of millions of years of pressure and weight from the layers of earth above them. They lay scattered along the coast amongst volcanic, and very slipery (I fell on my bum) black plains of rock; really stunning to see against the flat golden beaches.


We visited the Steepest Road in the World, during our time in the University City of Dunedin. We took loads of different pictures from about a billion angles trying to show you how steep it really was, yet the pictures dont seem to show it, but it was really steep, so you'll just have to believe us, our aching buttocks and thighs told us so the next day.

Whilst driving around the South Island we often stopped at different conservation sites to stay overnight, instead of paying proper Camping ground prices. This obvioulsy meant that we didn't get to use proper camping ground facilities, but it was worth it to camp in the forest, or next to a massive stunning lake surrounded by tree covered mountains, even though we had to pee in bushes. We were also doing our bit to help sustain the area's as there were honesty boxes to pay for our nights sleep.
We were glad to have got the brownie camping badges all those years ago, as those skills came in handy. We often had to create some kind of make shift wind break, whilst fighting off the sandflies who tried to bite you whilst you tended the stove. But it really was worth it, as the places we stayed at were stunning.

From one of the Conservation sites, Lake Gunn, we decided to do a trek up to Key Summit, a nice 3 hour walk up a mountain with the most amazing views when you finally reached the top. We ate our pack up sandwiches up at the top of key summit, looking down on proper lord of the rings territory, feeling rather chuffed with ourselves, it was worth the sweat in the heat.

We visited an area called Milford Sound, where we took a boat trip in the waters amongst the mountains, it reminded us of our time in Halong Bay over Christmas, only this time there was no karaoke on board. It was a great boat trip, we saw sealions dotted in amongst the rocks, and a 15,000 year old water fall. The Captain, Commentator person on board, challenged everyone to step outside the boat just as we approached this massive waterfall, 3 times higher than Niagra Falls! Not to be outdone by a Kiwi, we stood out the front of the boat and got pounded by the water, it was an absolutely deafening sound, but amazing and wet. At Milford Sound it rains 90% of the year, so we were very lucky when the sun decided to shine.


One day we headed for the town of Wanaka, a stunning lake side Town which is also a ski resort when the weather allows it. You cannot visit this stunning town without visiting....yes you guessed it, Puzzle World!
We had a fun day out walking through the crazy illusion rooms, seemingly leaning almost horizontally, shrinking in corners of funny shaped and sized rooms and wandering around the maze.
The sign outside the maze gave us several different options to chose from, which colour tower in the maze to head for first etc, we chose what we thought was an easy little puzzle task, wander around for about half an hour's worth of mazing, they lied! Two and a half hours later, we had actually gone slightly mental in the maze, all the fences looked the same! so we decided to cheat and bust our way out. We would reccomend puzzle World as a stop on you way through Wanaka, but only if you have the patience of a Saint, and a few spare days when your not expected anywhere else.

Our next stop was the amazing Fox Glacier (like the mint, only really big). We donned our hiking boots and joined a trek tour up through the rainforest, round the side of the mountain then clambered onto the glacier. It was stunning, the views were amazing, and it was so bizarre to be standing on solid ice. Colours were amazing, with bright ice blues and almost blinding white snow it was like nothing we have ever experienced before.
We were supposed to have around half an hour walking about on the ice, taking pictures and trying not to slip, but our guide was very enthusiastic and completely lost track of time, luckily for us we had a good hour up there. We didn't even slip, not with those crampons strapped to our big old heavy boots. We climbed down a moulin using a make shift rope banister, which is a big hole in the ice. Its weird to be completely surrounded by ice, and we were lucky to have climbed down it, as the ice surface changes so frequently the guides never know what they are going to come across with every hike.
This we would highly recommend to New Zealand Visitors, even more than Puzzle World.


On our way to a town called Greymouth, we stopped off at an Old Goldrush Shanty Town. Its a tourist attraction where an old mining town is completely recreated. We wandered around ye olde streets, ate ye olde ice cream, and even went on ye olde train. We got to do some gold panning too, but as we are still staying in dormitory accommodation you can guess we didn't find our fortune. Though we did find some gold, we think, at least the old man told us it was gold, and he bottled it up for us and sent us away to spend our find. It was a really nice little stop on our journey, though we chose not to part with the extra cash and get ye olde pictures taken in costume.


On our way back around to Christchurch we took a slight detour from our original mapped out plan and headed to Tasman National Park. Taking a speedboat up to some beaches, we went for a stunning hike through the forested mountains. We also kayaked around the waters of the marine National Park. We were given a quick lesson in kayaking, and then we paddled out to sea on our own and visited the famous Split Apple Rock. We also paddled around to see some Islands and Elvis Rock, where a rock viewed from a distance looks just like the man himself. We had a good few hours out on the water, more than we have ever kayaked before, and it was well worth it, our scenery was great and we even dared to take the camera out with us and didnt lose it overboard.

After kayaking so hard, we felt we deserved some wine, which was easily provided on our next stop in the Marlborough region, New Zealands wine growing area. We booked up our tour and waited eagerly to be collecetd by our minibus driver outside our campsite, who turned out to be a lovely man named George. George was great, and he was previously law enforcement and an ambulance driver, which were quite handy in his new line of work also, after a full days wine tour he needed to be prepared.
We visited four different vineyards and learnt all about the wine making process, but mainly we just drank the wine samples presented to us. You would think that the tiny dribble you sample wont effect you much, but after a tiny dribble of 12 different types of wine in four different vineyards, you do start to feel a wee bit woozy. It was a great day trip out and our favourite vineyard 'Forest Estate', happens to supply Adnams in Southwold (Suffolk for those of you who dont know) so we can still stock up even when we get home!

Our last stop was the magnificent whale watching town of Kaikoura, Kaikoura means 'to eat Cray fish' in Maori. Therefore cray fish was in abundance at this place, and we happily gobbled some up at a little roadside stop we made on our way to the Town. We booked a whale watching tour, and were promised 80% of our money back if there was no free Willy action. Luckily for us, we saw just about everything you could hope to see on a tour. We spotted 2 sperm whales and even saw them breach out of the water, we saw a huge pod of dolphins, who followed the boat and did loads of tricks and spins in the air for us. We also saw loads of sealions and bird wildlife too, we got to see everything in a matter of hours and were so impressed with our tour that there merchandise in the little souvenir shop even won us over. (Be prepared to collect us at the airport with our 'we heart whales' t-shirts on ;-).

So there you have our highlights, three weeks of being on the road, very close in our "camper van", amazing views at every turn we took. Mountains, forests, lakes, Cities the Countryside, beaches, rainforest, glaciers and sheep! New Zealand really does have a bit of everything, it was an amazing place with so many stunning backdrops for our photos, we loved every day there.

We hope you have enjoyed this latest update. We only have two days left in Lovely Fiji now, then we'll be heading back to the UK. We will let you all know when we're back for catch up drinks! (you can buy).

Hope you're all well,
See you very soon!

Lots of Love, from the soon to be home travelling animals x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

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Comments

[badger cantrell]

well done
Hi Girls,the blogs seem to get better,absolutely amazing,the views are really terrific(cant spell the other word) ha ha. New Zealand certainly is a really beautiful country,and you both have seen so much,so well done to you both,we are all looking forward to seeing you again,but be prepared for the not so nice weather here,Ugg Boots will be waiting for you at the airport, have a safe trip and enjoy the rest of the time in Fiji, lots of love to you both,Badger and Tassie xxxxx