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Published: August 14th 2009
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auckland skytower, straight down! Having said to good bye to South America (boo hoo), we made our way to Auckland, New Zealand. We decided a while back that we'd like to experience campervaning around NZ for a bit even though it was a tad over our budget. So we picked up a van at the airport which we were able to upgrade to a mini winnebago styley vehicle, awesome!!
Our first night in Auckland we stayed with Neil's old friend, Mark and his wife, Ida (from his days in Bordeaux). They cooked us up a corker of a meal, lamb shank with all the trimmings and home made brownies and ice cream for dessert, yum. We also kipped in their gaff which was soooo nice.
Thereafter, we headed to Rotorua, the land of sulphur, hotsprings and geezers. Everywhere we looked there was steam rising from the earth and bubbling mud. We visited Te Paui where we watched a Maori show and saw the Haka being performed. We also went on a guided tour explaining the Maori culture and where it originated from. Apparently the Maoris do not come from New Zealand, rather it is thought they come from Polynesia.
Next stop was
Tongoria National Park, Lord of the Rings territory. We saw "Mount Doom" from the ski slopes of Mt Raupehu, which was incredibly beautiful. Whilst on the slopes we met an older couple from NZ, the guy headed up orthepaedics in NZ, rather well to do. They kindly led us around the slopes all day and also recommended we climb to the top of one particular slope (which was not open due to icey conditions) in order to see a rather spectacular view (which indeed it was). We all began the climb up on sheet ice no less. The climb up wasn't too bad and Neil and I managed it fairly easily, however, I wasn't so sure how we were to descend. We waited at the top for the other couple to reach us and tell us how to get down. It soon transpired that they had aborted their attempt to reach the top and had begun to descend!!!! Therefore, Neil and I began our treacherous descent down a vertical fecking ice rink, personally I was close to tears. After complaining quite a lot, Neil simply said, "just get down and stop moaning", hmmm, couldn't argue with that! Needless to say
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rotorua maori museum and our camper van! we got down eventually to my great relief!
We later tootled on to Wellington, the capital. Nice city, not much more to say really. We went to cinema, saw Bruno and Hangover - Neil is currently planning Jim's stag do in the same vain!
Next we got the ferry to Picton and parked up outside a school, only to be woken by the headmaster at 7.30am telling us to move our vehicle as the school buses were on their way, oops! Think he got a shock when I rolled down the window looking like a wild woman from the woods!
After walking a bit of the Queen Charlotte Sound track we headed to Kaikora. Absolutely beautiful place. We went swimming with a pod of 300 wild Dusky dolphins, one of the best experiences of my life, so so so fantastic I really can't put it into words. In the distance was a sperm whale, a few hump back whales and there were also seals swimming around. It's definitely one of our top 5 travelling highlights. We then did an 8 mile walk around the peninsula and came across a seal colony. If you weren't careful you could
easily trip over the seals, there were so many lying around.
From Christchurch we drove 7 hours to Queenstown, New Zealand's premier party town. We organised a day's skiing at Cardrona peak, the snow was awesome, loads of powder.
The next day we took a ride up the gondola to take in the views of QT. We also had a go on a ride called The Luge, a kind of little go-carty things, good fun. We then had a "Fergburger", apparently the best tasting burger in the sourthern hemisphere. It was pretty spectacular to say the least. After that feast I was fit for bed but determined to soak up a bit of the notorious QT nightlife, I poured a few vodka redbulls down my neck and managed to stay out to 2am, not bad going and v good fun!
The following morning we were woken up by reception telling us to get a move on as we'd failed to check out in time, oops. Once we managed to get organised we headed on to Wanaka, a small scale, more chilled out version of Queenstown. Here we went on a 2 hour hike, but typically it pissed
down on us and any view was spoilt by clouds, boo! Still nice to get a bit of fresh and stretch the old legs.
After Wanaka we hit the road (yet again...) for the Franz Joseph glacier on the wet and wild west coast. This had been built up as a must do, and while it was a great spectacle, the tour we did was basically a one hour walk in crampons stretched out into an expensive 8 hour excursion mainly consisting of waiting around in the pissing rain while captain clueless, our glacier guide, attempted to find a new route in the ice so we could actually go somewhere! Anyway, it wasn't a bad day, after a hot shower we settled down to watch the Lord of the Rings II and had another peek at some of the sights we'd now viewed first hand.
Our final south island stop was the return to Christchurch to drop off the rental car and have a few Saturday afternoon bevvies. We then jumped on the plane up to Auckland and had one more night with Neil's mate, Mark and Ida, before jetting off to Oz to meet up with the
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the Haka parentals!!!
Overall impressions of NZ : absolutely stunning place, but just doesn't hold the excitement of South America when it comes to travelling around. Exchange rate was poor, the weather was worse.... and the place is just too perfect!! Bring on more dirty, sleazy cities - we love em!!!
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Bumfluff
non-member comment
NZ
I was glad to read that you recommend Kaikora cos I'm planning a trip there for me and Sim next spring, if SJH gives me the time off that is. I've been reading all your blogs with interest by the way, sitting at your old desk looking out at the doom and gloom that is Manchester! You've not missed anything here this summer believe me. I def need you to give me some lessons on packing light cos in most pictures you always seem to be wearing different clothes. Don't know how you do it! Are you going to be back by end of Oct or still travelling? If so, where? S x