Blogs from Oceania - page 6509

With 'why does it always rain on me?' running firmly through my mind, I tried to ignore the pounding rain upon arrival at Rarotonga at 4am, telling myself it will have cleared up by the morning. My spirits were lifted when I entered the arrivals hall (well small room which also served as immigration, departures, duty free shopping and anything else you'd need at an airport!) and was greeted by a man singing tradtional island music and playing a ukelele - at 4am!!!! Loa Angeles could certainly learn some lessons here! I'd had a bit of a nightmare organising some accommodation as everywhere was really busy, but had managed to get a bed in the Tiare Village, which promised to be a clean, friendly, hostel environment, only a short walk from the beach - ideal! Unfortunately, ... read more

This was a shameless hut bagging trip really, - plus a chance to see the Cascade saddle route from below. Yep, glad we didn't do that sucker in the wind and rain. Climbing up to Liverpool Hut gave us a sense of what it would be like. My arms were just as sore as my legs from scrambling. Had a look around French Ridge Hut too. Saw a couple of glaciers peeling off and thundering to the valley below. Cool. ... read more

Well this morning we set off for the town of Franz Josef driving down the west coast of the South Island. The good thing about the Magic bus is that instead of just getting to from A to B it does stops of interest along the way that also brake up the drive. Our first stop was morning coffee in a little town with a few great coffee shops; the one we went in had the hugest tea pot collection- I even spotted the famous Count down tea pot that loosing contestants are given when they leave which made me smile. We then went on to a little town called Ross which is famous for gold panning. You pay 5 dollars to have a go your self but when Liz and Sarah had a go ... read more

We had a fantastic welcome to New Zealand from the O'Neill family, our friends from England who emigrated to New Zealand a few years ago. Kim and her youngest son Harry picked us up from Wellington airport and took us straight to Chocolate Fish, a beach cafe which is a Wellington institution, for hot chocolate...and chocolate fish, overlooking the sea. Joanna then proceeded to get sunburnt in about half an hour - an early reminder that there are gaps in the ozone layer around here! That night we had a proper 'down under' barbeque at Kim and Joe's house, where we were staying, giving us a chance to catch up with their three children living at home (Harry, Jack and Emily) and the rest of the family, namely their dog Boris and cat Zorro! We were ... read more

From Dunedin we started to make a bit of a marathon journey to reach the north island in two days. Naturally the first stop for the bus was the steepest bloomin street in the world - agh, we couldnt believe the bus took us there, all that walking for nothing! Anyway, onwards and outwards back into the beautiful scenery NZ has to offer. The bus journeys in the south island constantly provided us with amazing views, we never bored of them because at times they were simply awe-inspiring, varying from Hobbiton rolling hills, flat farming land with large deer farms to treacherous snow capped peaks covered in glaciers and expansive lakes that reflect the colour of the sky. The bus ride to Lake Matheson was no different and there we stopped for a photo opportunity to ... read more