Aotearoa


Advertisement
New Zealand's flag
Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
October 29th 2006
Published: November 3rd 2006
Edit Blog Post

Aotearoa is the Maori name for NZ, most often translated as "Land of the long white cloud"! While it hasnt been as overcast as when the Maori first arrived in NZ, the weather has been very irish! Cloudy with sunny spells, lots of rain (particularly in the west) and quite cool with temps hovering around the low teens during the days. However I think luck has been with us along the way because it only seemed to rain while we travelled and stopped when we got out to do things!

Unfortunately luck wasnt with us in Kaikoura when we visited. It was the day after a storm, so it was far too windy for the whale watch plane to take off and locate any whales or dolphins in the area. So instead we decided to go wildlife watching in Oamaru and the Otago Peninsula. Along the east coast of the south island are many colonies of penguins, sea lions, seals and giant turtle eggs! We only spotted rare yellow eyed pengiuns from a distance because they scare easily but we did get up close to the sea lions
when they were snoozing on the beach! It was really nice to see the animals in their natural habitats rather than behind bars in a zoo. It was also nice to the the many protected areas NZ has put aside for the animals.

Beside the otago peninsula is the university town of Dunedin. It was there were we indulged in a Willy Wonka style chocolate tour of the Dunedin Cadburys Factory. While there were no oompa loompas, there were loads of lovely chocolate smells, chocolate tastings and an incredible 1 ton chocolate waterfall! We also couldnt help oursevles buying loads of chocolate at the discount cadburys chocolate shop!! I was even tempted to buy a chocolate teddy bear from my sisters birthday but thought it would only make her chocolate addiction worse 😊
Aterwards we decided that it would be a good idea to wash the chocolate down with some good NZ beer! So we joined the Speights brewery tour for an hour and learned all about NZ beer, Speights and its brands of beer, but most importantly we got to taste and serve ourselves as much as we liked of the brands we prefered at the end of the tour in the brewery pub! That day was really one of the highlights in NZ!!

From Dunedin we drove across the South Island, from east to west coast. We stopped briefly at Te Anau and then drove up to the beautifuls fiords of Milford Sound. The 22km fiord is impressive with sheer cliffs and snow capped peaks. It was also very wet there but I think it made the waterfalls and streams all the most impressive. I read somewhere that it mostly rains in Milford sound, with it receiving nearly 6m of rain annually! After we took in the views we drove back down the fiord and straight to Queenstown, the adrenaline captial of NZ! We were really surprised when we got there at how small the little lakeside town is. With a population of only 8000 people but a capacity of 15,500 beds, its usually full of tourists looking for an adrenaline rush. Luckily for us snow season was over and summer is not quite here yet so Queenstown was nice and quiet for us to ramble about. We were tempted by all the bungie companies but thought for a number of reasons that we wouldnt do one. One of the main reasons was cost, as we had recently done a skydive, we are hoping to have enough money to last us to the end of our trip! We did though go up the Skyline gondola and had lots of fun on its Luge track and we also visited the very cool minus 5 ice bar!

From Queenstown we had a tiring winding drive through the mountains to Franz Josef Glacier near the southern alps. It was great the following day to get some exercise walking/climbing up the glacier with our great guide. The franz josef glacier guide company were really great. They kitted us out with all the gear, including some comfy boots and clamp-ons It was really an amazing 7 hour hike. The best part though was near the highest point of our trek where we found a blue ice tunnel! While it was cold, wet and a little claustrophobic, it was so much fun! We were really tired after the hike and really slept well that night.

The following day we drove straight across the coast to Christchurch, where we are now. We have 2 more days here until we fly out from Christchurch airport to Sydney! We had such a great time in New Zealand but now we are really looking forward to Australia. We hope everyone reading this is well.


Advertisement



14th November 2006

NZ
NZ sounds and looks great. Big country but not many people.............you never said if you met many sheep? As you travel around I would like to hear your opinion on how you would rate (out of 10) the places you have been; Must see Must do Food Drink Value for money People Places to avoid Might be a bit of work for you but I think a lot of people would be interested Have a great time in OZ!
15th November 2006

Lots of sheep
NZ is like the west of Ireland...lots and lots of sheep...and loads of shops selling their wooly sweaters! Will try and do the must see and do for australia...the places where we have been will have to wait until we get back!

Tot: 0.341s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0465s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb