Blogs from South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1171

We left the lovely hostel in Christchurch for a 3 hour drive north to Kaikoura, the drive itself was pleasant, it was a Sunday morning and apart from the odd freight truck the roads were quiet. We got to the hostel around noon and settled it, it's a real small affair, about 7 rooms I've found, really nice though, amazing views over the sea and a lovely garden with a hammock that I've already claimed as my own, loads of fruit growing too so we'll save some pennies by pinching that...... We went out for a wander through the small town and got us some supplies, we were going whale watching at 3pm so wanteed to do a 'reckie' to find the departure point, we found it no problem and took a look inside. It had ... read more

Dear lovlies, So this is what I get for being lazy and not putting in entries as often as I should. There's too much to talk about! Just the highlights, please... After I left warm, humid Sydney (which is a beautiful city and I intend to spend a few more days there when I come back)I landed in Christchurch, the capital of New Zealand's South Island, around midnight. Unfortunately, I found a nasty surprise waiting for me at the small airport. Dozens of sleeping bodies scattered on the floor of the lounge area. Sleeping bags, backpacks, shoeless feet all over the place. It turns out ROD STEWART was in town so all the hotels and hostels were booked. My god! I spent the night in a tiny space between the bathrooms and payphones, feeling all ... read more

It's another 5 + hour drive today and I woke up with a furry tongue and a wee buzz in my head, cold shower sorts me out and we're on the road at 10am. The road to Christchurch is ace for driving, straight after straight and you can see for miles so overtaking is easy, the scenery isn't up to much just flat lands, dessert like or burnt grass. It gets real hot out here, Alexandra ,a close by town, has been recording 37 since we've been here, it's a bit inland from Dunedin though. We drive through some familiar places on the way, Clyde, St Andrews, Prestwick, Hampden, Mosgeil and stop for lunch in Timaru. I get myslef in some trouble with the law for the first time on our trip, for daring to reverse ... read more

We arrived in Dunedin around 3pm, we must have floored it as it's supposed to be a 7 hour journey. No one we have met has come to or has any plans to go to Dunedin. It's a pretty big city and as far as I can tell it's famous for rugby and beer. The 'Otago Highlanders' play here at the infamous 'House of Pain' which is meant to be brutal on match days. The Speights brewery here is the oldest in the land, and as I've become quite partial to a pint of Speights during our trip here I suggested to Fiona that we go to a brewery tour later, she agrees tentatively! We found our hostel fairly easily, actually by mistake. It's fair to say it has seen many better days and could do ... read more

Another long drive, another 8 hours and it was pissing down even more than yesterday. We arrived in Queenstown around 4pm and it was stunning, the place is beautiful, surrounded by mountains and pine tree covered hills, it's picture postcard material, the town itself is a wee bit over comercialized and plays it's adrenalin hardcore tag a bit heavy, this is where the bugy was born and these days you can pretty much jump of anything with the help of a wee bit elastic, we'll leave that to the English and wander through town. We check into our lodge, kind of like a holiday park thing, and we're sharing a 3 bedroom house with a young English couple and a German family, mum, dad and a son that looks about 23, very bizarre, things seem to ... read more