New Zealand

---

Hi everyone!

We hope you are all well? So our time in New Zealand didn't get off to the best start. We arrived at Melbourne Airport 20 hours prior to our flight in order to save a few dollars on accommodation. Spending a night in the airport wasn't a big deal as we'd done it before on various occasions on our travels, however finding out at 3am that STA Travel had booked our flight for the wrong date was far from ideal. Unfortunately we were unable to contact STA at it was 'out of office hours'- this meant we had to fork out 400 squid for 2 brand spanking new tickets. We are still in the process of trying to claim back the money, but as you can imagine we were less than impressed.

With that aside though, we've had a fantastic time in NZ, starting in Auckland where we spent a couple of days relaxing and even managed to get jeni a new pair of trousers to replace the brown ones spotted in every Oz photo (Jeni's Sister will be particularly pleased in light of her abusive facebook messages!) Having traded in our Wicked van for a brighter, more comfortable and most importantly warmer van from a company called 'Spaceship' which was certainly out of this world compared to the Artic Donkey, we were using this time to get used to the change from Manual to Automatic. As we were returning to Auckland at the end of the month, our first proper stop would be Rotorua.

It was at this point that we started to notice that New Zealand had a lot in common with England, campared to Oz that shared more similarities to America- and was particularly highlighted by the fact it managed to rain for 3 straight days. Luckily on our last day in Rotorua the sky cleared enough for us to throw ourselves into a few 'must do' activities. These included Zorbing, which involves being strapped into an inflatable globe and chucked down a hill- probably a similar sensation to going through a cycle in a washing machine; it is fair to say we both had a ball. We also took a Gondala ride to the top of a mountain offering impressive views of the town and lake below, and of course then we luged down- as you can see from the photos Jeni in particular had a blast!

We were soon on our way to Taupo, situated on a vast lake the size of Singapore apparently. The town is known as one of the best spots on the North Island for extreme sports such as Bungy jumping, jet boating and Hiking- we however settled for a game of Mini Golf. We we wern't mini golfing, we spent our time taking in some of the breathtaking countryside and having picnics by the lake.

Our next stop, Napier is famous thoroughout the world for it's Art Deco buildings and as a result we decided to spend a couple of days theer to fully soak up the atmosphere. We were lucky enough to have a beach a few minutes from our campsite which we explored before heading into the town centre. The town itself was full of arts and craft shops, art galleries and bakeries selling our new favourite treat- pies! It walso had its fair share of gardens, parks and viewpoints looking out to sea, and we spent a really pleasant afternoon there. The next day we decided to visit the enarby town of Hastings and the spectacular Te Matu point. We then returned to the campite around mid afternoon at a loss as to what to do next, so after some debating we decided get merry- mainly as we felt our livers had been neglected of late and therefore deserved a treat.

We were soon on our way to the nation's capital Wellington. Un surprisingly the weather had taken another turn for the worse and was torential. Luckily we only planned to spend one night there before getting an early ferry to the South Island, as the hostel we picked was truly like something out of the shining and seemed to be filled with only drunks and retirees. The ferry over was only 3 hours and before we knew it we had arrived in Picton. We decided to spend 2 nights in the Marlborough Sounds area and managed to find a campite that not only offered a 2 nights for the price of 1 deal, but also provided us with hot muffins on arrival. The surrounding area was also particularly beautiful and we thought it seemed similar to the Lake District back home, with its mix of lush valleys, mountains and waterways.

Although it had just been hit by an earthquake, we decided to visit Christchurch as we heard it was still open for business. We really liked teh city as it was compact with a friendly vibe and lots of interesting buildings; it also didn't seem too badly effected by the quake from what we saw. However, it was the journey there which really blew us a way and reminded us of the Great Ocean Road in Australia, with the added advantage of having a seal colony within spitting distance. After Christchurch we headed to Geraldine, a small town known for it's snowey peaks abd jaw dropping scenery shown in Lord of the Rings.

After yet another pie, we thought it was time to make our way to Lake Taekepo, or 'Take a Poo' as we called it because we are immature at the best of times. When we arrived we litterally had to pick our jaws up off the ground as the views over the lake were sensational. The snowcapped mountains reflected in the lake's water almost seemed surreal and definately rates as one of the most amazing sights we've seen on our travels. We spent the afternoon wandering around the lake's edge admiring the scenery, and chomping down pies. Again. Queenstown was up next, which is the centre for all things extreme. It was on the way here that Richard took the opportunity to participate in some Jet Boating, which involves shooting through narrow gorges missing rocks by millimetres in a super charged boat. It was great fun and not even a torrential down pour could dampen his spirits- even though each raindrop felt like a slap in the face at that speed.

Soon we were in Queenstown itself, where we enjoyed strolling along yet another lake front and the lively, atmospheric town centre. In order to save a bit of wonga, we deciced to stay in an out of town conservation campsite which in fact turned out to be a swamp with a hole for a toilet; but atleast the swamp was pretty- the same cannot be said for the hole. Having weighed up whether to go to Fox Glacier or Franz Joseph next, we chose Fox, this was mainly because we had another 2 4 1 deal at the campsite. Getting there involved yet another great drive- this time passing through Mount Aspiring National Park, although Jeni felt Mount Perspiring would be more fitting due to the amount of waterfalls flowing from it (mainly because she is a geek at best!) Obviously our main objective whilst in Fox Glacier was to visit the Glacier itself. It was amazing to see this river if ivce up close, and is was still extremely impressive despite the fact it had retreated many miles over the years. It was a close toss up whether to do the 12 hr hike to the top or the 1 hr loop at the base. Purely due to weather conditions we chose the latter- we can assure you it had nothing to do with our fitness levels). We were also advised to check out Lake Matherson close by, which apparantly offered amazing reflections of Mount Cook in the water. Unfortunately due to mist we were unable to see it but enjoyed the early morning walk none the less. Whilst in the area we also decided to visit Franz Joseph. The Glacier was equal to Fox's, but the surrounding valley wasn't quite as dramatic.

We were looking forward to visiting Nelson next as is said to be the sunniest place in the country; naturally however when we were there it never stopped raining. Overall it was a nice enough place, but had not an awful lot to do, so we quickly hopped on the ferry back up to the north island. Our next port of call was New Plymouth, but as it was a long drive we decided to stop off at another conservation site for the night along the way. The next morning after a few days of rain, the sun finally shone long enough for us to venture out of our van and into town to explore a bit. We strolled around for an hour or two and the when in search of hostel; the one we found was grand. It was situatiated just just outside the town centre itself, but in the perfect place to explore Mount Egmont National Park. The hostel was lovely and had bags of character, with a log fire, ornements scattered all over and a family dog to boot.It was here infact that Jeni discovered and Richard Re- discovered the best game in the world- Pass the pig, which entertained us for hours. As we were so close, it would have been criminal not to visit Mount Egmont itself, so we headed out after lunch and managed to reach the summit by noon (of the car park that is). In fact we were shocked to hear that 60 people had died over the years having attempted the climb, so with that in mind we stuck to an alternative nature trail.

The next daywe were off to our penultimate destination, the laid back beach town of Raglan; comonly known as surfer's paradise. The first thing we noticed was the black sandy beach next to our campsite which gave particularly nice views at sunset. Apart from a few pleasant strolls we didn't do an awful lot there, as we felt it'd be good preparation for Fiji! Finally we were back in Auckland, where we allowed enough time to explore the city, which felt like a mix of Brisbane and Sydney. We also took a day trip over to Takapuna, enjoying some time on the beach, and paid a visit to the spaceship depot to get some battery challenges on our car fixed.

We've had a super dooper time in New Zealand and our travels are soon coming to an end, but for the final installment of our blog, we are now heading for Fiji...


Lots of love to all xx

The next day we were

---