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Published: October 20th 2007
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Sunday October 14 - New Zealand
The flight to Auckland passed quickly and smoothly, with the exception of a few bumps in the middle. It was a 12 hour flight, through the night and we managed to sleep for the most part - so it passed pretty quickly.
We left at 9pm on the 12th and passed through the international date line, so we didn’t have a 13th of October, we skipped straight to the 14th. We landed at Auckland, grabbed our bags and made our way to the domestic terminal for the one hour flight to Wellington.
The flight was smooth, but the landing awesome! We landed in blue skies and sunshine, but 40mph gusting crosswinds. Wellington airport is on reclaimed land at the head of a bay with mountains all round, channelling the wind. We were on a 737 but we were buffeted around like we were in a light aircraft, blown sideways and rising then suddenly dropping from the sky leaving our stomachs behind before being jolted upward and sideways again. It was all very exciting. The girl next to me was from Wellington and said that you have never travelled until you have experienced
a Wellington landing, apparently what we were experiencing was completely normal. Those pilots are ‘Top Gun’ - the best of the best.
The runway is short with water either end and the decent is steep. We stopped at what looked like about 20 yards from the end of the runway!
Grace, Jim and Coz were waiting at the airport for us and whisked us off to the surf club for a superb breakfast. The surf club has a huge window overlooking the bay, and you can watch the planes bounce in for a landing over the water.
First impressions of New Zealand are excellent. Big blue skies, friendly people and everywhere is so green and lush with hills all around. We went to Grace & Jim’s house up in the hills and chilled out for the day.
We went into Wellington on Monday for a look around. We had a look around the Maori museum and watched some Maoris’ performing traditional song and dance, including a Hakka! Very cool.
Lunch was in a micro-brewery on the harbour side, you could see the brewery behind glass walls from the restaurant. Em went off for a haircut
and Coz and I sent the afternoon drinking and playing pool.
We left for the ferry to the south island on Tuesday morning. Wellington to Picton is a 3 hour crossing and we were on an old English cross-channel ferry, the Pride of Cherbourg. The water was relatively calm as we crossed the Cook Straight, but the swell made the ferry pitch a fair bit. After half an hour I turned green and rushed to the toilet to evacuate both ends - I definitely don’t have sea-legs. I spent the rest of the trip huddled up on deck in the fresh air, looking forward to solid ground! As we left the Cook Straight, we headed into the sounds - these are like the Fjords in Norway, but the mountains are not as high. We weaved through the deep turquoise sound with lush green hills surrounding us as we headed toward Picton port. It was very picturesque.
We drove through vineyards, with snow capped mountain backdrops and stopped at a small town called Havelock for lunch. From there we went on to Polaris for a walk through indigenous forests and over a suspension bridge over a deep, clear river.
We carried on to Nelson from there and stopped to overnight at a motel on the marina.
Nelson is a beautiful place town. It has a lovely marina, a beautiful big bay with clear water and golden sand and a backdrop of mountains all around. We both feel very at home in New Zealand so far and can see ourselves coming back here for an extended stay sometime. Maybe once we have our Australian passports.
On Wednesday we left Nelson and headed for Motueaka, where Grace and Jim used to have their Strawberry farm. Again, the place is very beautiful. The air quality here is fantastic and the place is so lush, the blue skies are a deep clear blue and the mountains and fields are brilliant bright green.
From Motueaka we headed over Takaka Hill, driving up from sea level to 1000 meters over a switchback road, before heading back down the other side into the Golden Bay area and onto toward Farewell Spit, a thin strip of land that marks the North-West most tip of the South Island. We drove down a dirt road and left the car before walking through rolling green hills, forests
and sand dunes to a deserted beach - only accessible by foot. It was rugged and windswept, crashing waves and a howling wind blowing white sand up the beach. There was a lone sea-lion playing in the rough waves of the foreshore. It was a special place.
It was a long drive back over Takaka Hill an on to Marahau where we were over-nighting in the Abel Tasman National Park. Again, another spectacularly beautiful place.
On Thursday the weather turned. We intended to do same walking through the national park and then take a water taxi back, but instead we made our way back to Nelson - via Mapua, which used to be the main port before the port at Nelson was developed. The old port area was small with lots of little boutique cafes around, again - a wonderfully serene place.
We headed back to Nelson and explored the town. It’s a small town, but big enough to occupy you for a while. Nelson is definitely somewhere we could see ourselves settling for a bit.
Friday was a nice lazy day, leaving Nelson and heading back to Picton for the evening ferry back to Wellington.
Picton is another small town with only one main street and a lovely park. The bay and marina are pretty with nice yachts and sea kayakers paddling in and out to go exploring the sounds. We watched as a sea plane came low over the high street and landed in the bay.
We arrived back in Wellington late on Friday night. This weekend will be spent looking around Wellington again and then probably a lazy Sunday, before heading off to Melbourne on Monday. It’s sad to stop travelling, but at the same time exciting to think abut laying down some roots in Australia and staying still for a while!
New Zealand, to sum it up, is very ‘homely’. You instantly feel relaxed here, almost like you belong. The people are friendly, the scenery breathtaking and the pace laid back. The mountains are beautiful but not imposing, none are over 4000 meters, and most where we were would have been 1500 - 2000 meters, but they stretch all around in the distance, creating a safe, protected feeling. It would be great to come back here with enough time to explore on a mountain bike.
It will be hard
to leave New Zealand.
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