Blogs from New Zealand, Oceania - page 2437

Greetings from Godzone (God's own country)! Cait and I landed in Auckland yesterday morning. We're at the Fat Camel hostel in downtown. Lots of young backpackers, loud colorful decor and clean, if impersonal. We've already done so much in just two days. The Sky Tower is the tallest point in the Southern Hemisphere at 382 meters (? Not sure about that fact.) We've seen at least half a dozen people jump off it! On Monday, Cameron Dias jumped off! They attach you to cables and you have a controlled fall for about 12 seconds. Parnell Road is filled with cafes, a GREAT chocolate boutique, restaurants and craft stores. Queen Street is the downtown with courtyards of Asian food stands, tall buildings, designer stores and the only apartment buildings we've seen here in Auckland (everyone owns houses). ... read more

After our great day on the glacier, the forecast bad weather arrived so we decided to drive on south towards Wanaka. First stop was a walk to Monro beach where a penguin colony can sometimes be seen. We arrived to a stormy, windswept, empty beach. After admiring the power of the waves crashing on the rocks at the south end of the beach we strolled up to the other end of the beach more for the sake of it rather than in expectation of seeing anything. Much to our surprise we saw one small ?? crested penguin. Great to see, despite the brevity of the encouter as it soon waddled off out of sight. The rain soon started so we drove the 150km to Wanaka taking in a couple of roadside waterfalls en route. The moutain ... read more

I awoke at around 9 to the sound of Adam getting into his bed after doing the early morning 'walk of shame' back from Anita's hotel. Ha HA! He was feeling rough as fook and couldn't remember much from the previous night, but somehow I'd seemed to have escaped the worst of it. The vague plan to see Lady Knox's geyser went straight out of the window as Adam needed some recovery time and the concentrated Sulphur fumes might not have been the best beer-antidote, so I ventured out to see the Government Gardens, some thermal vents and a spot of Crown Green Bowling - how twee! 12 o'clock struck and it was clear the day was a wipeout when my delayed hangover started to kick in. The only solution was to settle down to 'Hulk' ... read more

After the Irish, New Zealanders must be the friendliest people in the world. I was going to add the caveat 'English Speaking' but to be honest they are probably near the top of all nationalities in the being open, chilled and pleasant to newcomers stakes. With that in mind we found the strange South Island policy of denying access to those desperately in need of toilets all across the South Island very bemusing. To keep people awake on New Zealand’s long and often empty roads, a charitable organisation offers free tea and coffee and a roadside chat. I attempted to stop to use the facilities at one of these places and was faced with the by now familiar barrier - "Toilets are for customer use only". This is some kind of dark twisted logic, whereby unsuspecting ... read more

Well hello to ya all out there! Since last we wrote, we have travelled to South Island - up the north coast to Nelson and the Golden Bay, chilled out at Rabbit Island, played with Helena's big kite; which suffered a puncture or two after dragging Helena accross the beach (luckily Mrs Targett was ok and Mr Targett (whoever he is!) was able to repair the kite. Basically the Sun has been out most days, the weather hitting a tasty 20 degrees or so and bringing us both out in a case of smiles and tan lines. We are now at Blenheim (east coast) and plan to head along this for more fun with maybe a bit of surfing (I need the practice!) and lazing around. I will leave Helena to tell you about some of ... read more