Blogs from New Zealand, Oceania - page 2397

Here we are on the Central Plateau having climbed the heights by bus. We've looked around and seen the geothermal effects on the landscape and now off to Opotiki by bus again. Next stop is the East Cape. Weather cooler and cloudy today.... read more

Ok, so the location of this entry is actually a lie. I’m no longer in the South Island, or even New Zealand. I’m actually back home, watching the snow fall and thinking of waxing my skis. But in any case, I WAS on the South Island-most definitely! And it was fantastic. So, if anyone still reads this, here is the story of my last two weeks in New Zealand. (broken into several pages to make it easier to read) It was raining as I flew out of Auckland, but 2 hours later the clouds were gone, allowing for a spectacular view of the mountains as the plane landed in Queenstown. The good weather remained for my entire visit, even on the notoriously wet West Coast. (So, for those of you who are wondering, I do have ... read more

November 25 to December 14 Most of our time in the south was spent hiking on several trails. In the first month of my travels I spent some time climbing in Railey, Thailand, where I met Marcus. He invited us for a weekend in Kaikoura, north of ChCh for some fishing, BBQ and drinking with his mates. It might of been a typical night for them but it took me a few days to recover. So in a 24 hour period I managed a few firsts. We started off at 9am in poor weather and swarmy seas looking for our tasty crays(lobster) in a catch that should have netted us dozens we ended up with 3. Our captain, the most watery eyed chap you would ever see said it was the worst haul in two months. ... read more

Arrived in the bustling adrenaline capital of New Zealand and booked into the Discovery Lodge Hostel. This was another purpose built brand new facility much like Base with 8 bunkbeds to a room and ensuite Shower facilities. After dinner and a quick browse around town, we joined the Stray gang in the Altitude Bar under the hostel and took good advantage of the two for one offers on wine and Export Gold. Met up with some of the guys from the previous bus who were still in Queenstown, Mat,Glen,Rob,Sally to name a few, and carried on to the World Bar, a little club up the road. Partied late into the night/morning so it was a good thing that the Quad Bike trip we'd booked wasn't until the following afternoon! This was such good fun and though ... read more

Queenstown 20 years ago is nothing like the Queenstown of today. We remembered a small village with a few streets, the lake, and the streamship Earnslaw. Now, it's a booming tourist town hawking every extreme sport option that you can imagine. As one of our guide books stated, "You can always hear a scream in the air in Queenstown". You have your choice of tandem skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding, wire jetting, 4 different types of bungy jumping, canyoning, canyon swinging, jet boating, white water rafting, white water surfing, and the list goes on and on. There are innumerable ways to spend your money (all options are very expensive) and possibly die in the process. Yesterday, we saw a video advertising downhill biking on a snowy ski slope!! Everyone on the video was falling down within a ... read more