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Published: February 26th 2006
Well, myself and Darren arrived in New Zealand on 10th January and we LOVE it. Such an amazing country and so much to see and do. We fit quite a good bit in, in just a month. We spent a few days in Christchurch and done all the sightseeing etc around there. Went on the gondolla and got amazing views of the surrouding mountain area and the city. Had a few nights out (an Irish pub called Micky Finns caught our attention ...great spot). We picked up our camper in Christchurch also. Grand machine. A bit smaller than the last but suits us fine. Its a spaceship camper and its name is "Venus"!!
We headed then to Akaroa which is a wee French town along the west coast. We went via The Summit Road, which is a twisting winding up and down rollercoaster of a road right through the mountains. Great fun and a tad scary as there were shear drops beside ya...no railings. Akaroa was a lovely spot and it kept its french street names and all the original buildings. Cute wee spot. From there we headed towards Methven as we wanted to visit one of the Lord of
The Rings scenes "Edoras".The real name of the mountain is Mt Sunday and its just basically like a mound at the bottom of other mountains. I think its only about 100m high. We drove down this long dirt road and parked up outside the private land which surrounds it. We walked through rocky fields and crossed a couple of knee high icy streams and got as far as the last stream before the mountain...and turned back. The last stream was 3 times the width of any of the others, progressivley deeper and I swear it felt like ice. We went about 3rd of the way in but our legs just got numb and the waters were too fast flowing. We aint big enough fans of LOTR to risk hypothermia. It was a great adventure though. Methven was a strange place. A ghost town really as it is a ski town so in summer it is so so quiet. Mm, some strange people too. Well I'll just put it like this....when we were in the local I was approached by a couple of locals who wanted me to take part in jelly wrestling!! So we left soon after that!! We also
went to Rakai gorge while we were in Methven. Really beautiful too.
We then made our way towards Lake Tekapo. This amazing turqoise coloured lake. Mind you all of the lakes and rivers in this area are the same kind of colour. Really something to see with the mountains behind it and in the far distance you could see some snow covered mountain tops. And its summer here! On our way to this lake we came across a dirt road to some Clay cliffs so we dicided to go have a look. We walked around and through them and it was such a sight. Darren reckoned the faces of the cliffs looked like crying ghosts or The Scream mask and ya know, they did. Very eerey but fun climbing through them.
We went to Peel Forest and went for a walk though the forest there. Lovely green area and very peaceful. We found The Acland Waterfall there and we had a bit of an adventure getting to it but it was well worth it. It is a 14m high waterfall and we could have stayed there all day. Surrounded by the forest and the gushing waterfall...so calming. We
went to Wanaka (another lake area) very pretty and went to a puzzleing World. Went into this huge maze and into these optical illusion rooms. The Aimes room was pretty cool...the concept was used in The Lord of The Rings to create small and giant forms.Much fun. We then went to Queenstown for a couple of days. Really liked this city. Went on the Skyline where we had a return trip on the gondolla and luge rides. Excellent fun and great views from there over the surrounding lake and city. We went to the "Minus 5 degree" bar one night. Its an ice bar. Everything is made from ice. The walls, seats, bar and even the glasses. The only thing they serve is vodka drinks as vodka doesnt freeze. They gave us coats and gloves to go in and we were only allowed to stay in for half hour as too cold. It was something like - 7.4 degrees. Great fun. We also found a great Irish bar called "Pog Mahones". Lovely wee spot, went there a few times. Nice music with a blazing open fire. Lovely! We went on a Jet boat trip down the Kawaura river and a
bit of the Shotover river. Brilliant. 360 degrees turns and everything..
Then next stop was Dunedin where we took the Taeiri Gorge Railway trip. A 4 hour return trip through the Taeiri Gorge where we wouldnt get to see otherwise as not accessable by road. Scenery was amazing and a very informative trip. Also in Dunedin we went to The Cadbury Chocolate factory, much to Darren's delight. Very interesting and the smell of chocolate was heavan. Got loads of free bars too.
After leaving here we headed fuether along the South coast in through "The Catlins". A beautiful part of NZ. At "Roarding Bay" we stopped off to see if we could spot some yellow eye penguins. Darren saw a couple but unfortunately Jo Jo didnt make any out. From there we went further up that same road to "Nugget Point" where we walked along a track around the cliffs up to a lighthouse. Great views and we got to see (& hear) fur seals. We went to Jack's Bay where we went for a hike through some sheep poo fields to "Jack's Blowhole" - basically a hole formed by the roof of a cave falling in. After
that we went to see the "Purakaunui Falls". These are three tiered waterfalls which are the most photographed in NZ. They are very beautiful. Further along we came to the access track for the "Marai Falls" & "Horseshoe Falls". Out of all the waterfalls we have seen we though that the "Marai Falls" were the most picturesque. Next on our list of things to see was "The Cathedral Caves". But on our way to this we stopped at some lookouts, the most impressive being the panoramic views of "Florence Hill Lookout" looking over Tautuka Bay. We went on the hike through to the caves. Quite steep but a lot of fun. The caves were very impressive. We could only visit at low tide so thankfully we made it in time. Next along this route was "McLean Falls". These are probably the most impressive falls we have seen. Very beautiful. At the end of this route was the city of Invercatgill. Its a very quiet city, well ya wouldnt really call it that we think. There was no life about whatsoever when we got there and it was a Saturday night.
Next route to take was to make our way
to Manapouri so as we could go to the Doubtful Sound. So the route we chose is the Scenic Route. This took us to see some really beautiful lakes. I mean they are proper lakes and absolutley gorgeous. On route we came accross "Monkey Island" just a paddle walk from the beach to the island. The island had some wooden steps built up to the platform. We went up and saw some really great views of "Teulaewae Bay". We saw some really beautiful lakes along the way also. Huge and surrounded by forests and mountains. "Lake Houroko" and "Lake Monowai". The first thing that we noticed though when we arrived at the first lake was the sand flies. They are the most annoying pests and they were to be on the rest of the way up the west side of the coast. But heay, for beautiful scenery like this, you can live with that.
The Doubtful Sound was amazing. We took a 2 days trip on it. To get to it the only way is to do a tour. The tour takes you accross "Lake Manapouri" to the only road that leads onto the fiord. The road is about
2 or 3 miles long and it is the most expensive stretch of road that was ever made in NZ. Great road. With waterfalls coming down along side it. The cruise itself was really excellent. We went all the way out to the Tasman Sea. A stormy sea but we were lucky enough...it wasnt too bad. There is about 20 feet of fresh water on the top of the fiord and up to about 1,000 feet salt water underneath that in places. We met some great people and the crew had me take part in a practical joke on another member of crew. It was very funny and we ended up having a laugh with all of them also. The scenery surrounding us on the fiord was truly something else. Something to live in our memories for the rest of our lives. The cruise in itself was great with great food and everything and the cabins were lovely. You also got to go kayaking and on a tin boat in the evening when the ship had anchored. The guide that took us out was excellent and full of information. When we looked back at the ship from the tin boat,
it just looked like a tiny spec against the huge mass surrounding it. Walking around the deck at night was amazing. So peaceful and calm. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. The next day was equally as enjoyable. Although this area is the third wettest part of the world, we were so lucky and didnt see a drop of rain. Unreal. Same as the "Milford Sound" which we went to a couple of days later...it was a gorgeous day. Such blue skies. This fiord was about a third the size of Doubtful but still lovely. The cruise we took on this was a short one. About 2 hours. Really enjoyable. The "Mitre Peak" was the main feature on this which was the most imposing part of the fiord. The captain of the ship tried to soak us by going under a waterfall twice. We had to run for cover. It was very funny.
The road which we travelled to at night to the Milford Sound was pretty scarey though. It was covered in mist and fog and we had to go through the "Homer Tunnel" which went right through a huge mountain. The valleys were just plunging
around us but it was fantastic when we saw it the next day driving back through it.
We went to Te Anau where we went on a tip to the "Glow-worm Caves". Very interesting and pretty. The force of water is unbeleivable the way it eats away at the limestone rock. The cathedral area was the most impressive. The darkness and silence of the caves was amazing and when we went deeper into the caves the whole caves lit up like the night sky with the glow-worms. It looked as if there was thousands of stars.
We came accross some "Blue Pools" between Queenstown and the glaciers. The walk to the pools took us over a rope bridge which was pretty scarey to some natural ice pools. I paddled and nearly froze my toes off. The colour of these pools fits the name and were so unbeleivably clear. Check out the photo.
The Glaciers, oh the glaciers. They were wonderful. The first one was "Fox Glacier" which we took a hike to the face of it. The shear size was an impressive sight and we were very naughty as we clumbered accross the safety rope and passed
the danger signs to have a closer look....we even touched it. Very exciting..and dangerous as it is very unstable and prone to crumbling but it was well worth the risk. That night we stayed at "Lake Matheson" as we wanted to get up and watch the sun rise over it. Glad to say we got our lazy buts out of bed and walked around it to see the sun rise. Brilliant sight seeing Mt Cook and Mt Tasman in the background, and reflected in the lake as it is a mirror lake.
We decided that the best way to fully appreciate the glacier region and Mt Cook was to take an overflight tour. Luckily for us, we got upgraded for free to an overflight plus a landing on one of the glaciers. We were THRILLED!! Couldn't beleive our luck. The trip was awesome. We got to land on Fox glacier which was 6,290 feet above sea level. What a fantastic feeling to stand on top of a glacier and see such great views. Something which we will never forget. The rest of the flight was spent at about 10,000 flying around the summit of Mt Cook. Needless to say,
this trip got a fair few photos.
We visited "Hammer Springs" where we went to the thermal pools. There was loads of different pools of different temperatures and minerals. We found that the hottest one we could feel comfortavble in was 36 degrees. We had a good time and great fun on the slides. Nice and relaxing.
We visited Nelson breifly and went out for the night. There was a good crowd but really no atmosphere. The next morning we got a rude awakening at 4.30am by a rowing couple outside trhe camper. Pretty serious. Police called. We decided to move on to Picton and try and catch a ferry to the North Island.
The North Island was quite different compared to the South. For starters Wellington was an actual city. It is the capital of NZ. Very busy but from what we saw it seemed nice. We visited "Lyall Bay" where "Skull Island" in King Kong was made. Doesnt look anything like it now as no set but hey, worth a visit. Stayed one night and made our way towards Taupo. Taupo was very nice and we stayed here for a few days just to chill
out. We went for a hike through the "Spa Park" to the "Huka Falls". Enjoyable walk and the falls were very powerful and create whitewater rapids. We visited "The Crater of the Moon" which is a geothermal site with loads of steaming craters and bubbling mud pools. Smelt like rotten eggs but was interesting all the same. We also went horse trekking here. Great fun and we even cantered a bit. Was all delighted with myself. Definately getting horse riding lessons when we get back to Eire.
Another smelly area that we visited was the city of Rotorua. Yuck! It's a geothermal area and steam bellowing out of the ground all over the shop. You kind of get used to it but every now and then you get an almighty whiff to knock ya down. Here we visited the "Polynesian Spa" for a couple of hours. Although it is quite smelly, after a while the relaxation kicks in and you dont find it. It was lovely and the pools looked out over the lake. Ahhhh...
The last destination in our NZ itinerary was Auckland. We wanted to stay here for a few days. Its a lovely city. We
visited "Mission Bay" which is lovely and very busy. Also while out that direction we went up to a clifftop lookout. We noticed a small patch of beach which looked very quiet. We went on the walkway to it called "Lady's Walk" and to poor Darren's horror, it turned out to be a nudest beach. It was very funny to see his reaction cos all he noticed was the fat old men. I think he wanted to go back when I said I saw a woman there as well!!! We went to a cool little Irish bar called "The Dog's Bollox". Nice spot. There was a band playing called "The Celtic Flyers" and they were excellent. They were Irish and played traditional music along with modern hits by David Gray etc.
Headed to a theme park called "Rainbow's End". Had great fun. Two big kids again. Went on roller coasters, power surge, go-karts and of course the dodgems...where I busted Darren heaps. Much MUCH fun!! 😊
We went to Mount Eden where we got some great views of the city. It is Aucklands highest volcano. And cos the weather was so beautiful and clear and hot we got
some lovely photos.
On our last full day we left our good old companion "Venus" back after spending 28 days and driving 5,400km. Crazy stuff!!
As you can probably guess from this entry, we LOVED NZ! Its a fantastic country and we will definately be back again in the future. We'd like to go back in their winter to see the contrast. I suppose the South Island was our favourite as it is the more scenic and as a native New Zelander said "The North Country is the beach island while the south island has all the scenery". We would highly recommend a visit to NZ for anybody. Well worth every penny.
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joyce
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o my god guys,you seem to be having an amazing time. if i wasnt saving like mad for the house i'd join you in a second. who knows,mite get pat talked into havin our honeymoon in new zealand!the photograghs you put up look amazing and cant wait to see more when your home. luv ya and miss you both loads.njoy the rest of your travels