Blogs from Oceania - page 6571

היום הגענו לללא ספק לאחד המקומות היפים והמיוחדים בניו זילנד - קרחון פוקס (פוקס גלזייר). מדובר בקרחון באורך כמה קילומטרים טובים שיושב לו ככה בניחותא על איזה הר באצע שומקום. בדרך לקרחון עוד עברנו באיזו עיירונת בשם רוס, שיש בה מכרות זהב פעילים. רצינו לגנוב להם קצת, אבל לא הצלחנו... ובנוגע לקרחון עצמו: יצאנו לקרחון עם מדריך נחמד שדאג לצייד אותנו בנעליים "מיוחדות", בדוקרנים להליכה על השלג ובבגדים חסיני גשם, כי גשם לא הפסיק לרדת מהרגע שהגענו לעיירה.. בכל אופן, הסיור עצמו היה ללא ספק אחד השווים. פשוט קשה לתאר את ההרגשה של ללכת על הר שהוא בעצם גוש אחד עצום של קרח. רק חבל שבמשך 4 שעות של סיור נכנסו לנעליים ה"מיוחדות" שלנו מ--ל--א מים ושהבגדים שנתנו לנו בכלל לא היו חסיני גשם כי חזרנו מהסיור ר-ט-ו-ב-י-ם!!, אבל מאושרים!! (: .. זהו.. מחר ממשיכים לוואנקה, ... read more

14th Decemeber 2006 to 8th January 2007 I have no idea what I did. It's now more than three weeks after they put me away and I still haven't got a clue. I suppose it's something that only the Kiwi authorities know. Maybe they found out about the illegal but innocently obtained "Residents" visa. Maybe it was the tongue in cheek warnings in the blog about the impending Sheep revoloution touching a nerve. Maybe it was my "I'm not that fussed about The Lord of The Rings" attitude that upset them. Or maybe they simlpy came to the conclusion that, after three months, I had outstayed my welcome. Whatever the reason, I spent a week locked up in Christchurch because of it! My surroundings during this spell were spartan to say the least. The high concrete ... read more

Just returned to Jeanne and Andy's Grey Lynn home from a great Christmas day gathering of 29 people...mostly 'Boaties', some of whom meet up only at Christmas each year. We sailed from Auckland on Christmas eve and anchored for the night in Rocky Bay, Waiheke, before going ashore Christmas morning. Jeanne and Andy took a large side of smoked salmon and I cooked a huge side of grouper in a fresh dill sauce, as our contribution to the 'Christmas feast' which unfolded on this huge table....on a lovely out side terrace....overlooking Rocky Bay.This was a neighbours beautiful home and lovely gardens, to which all flocked for the occassion! There was a gaggle of great, well behaved, fun-loving kids, who enjoyed the large hammock and the day as much as any of us.People from UK, Germany, locals ... read more

Hi all, After we'd been to the libary yesterday and before we had tea, we went to the outside swimming pool, even though Nats auntie said it was only 24'c and this would keep people at home with it being so cool!!! She was right, the pool was practically empty, but we had a nice swim anyway, we are from the north and so we were able to withstand these extreme conditions!! We've been looking at all our books and got some leaflets today so we think we are going to start work somewhere (when weve found something) in a few weeks then get some money together and spend it by going up to Broome and Darwin (i think) via Ningaloo bay (looks very pretty and good for our new found skill- snorkling) then go down ... read more

We’ve just spent the day in Queenstown. We’re pretty tired from all of the driving that we’ve done since our arrival in New Zealand, so we wanted to make it a low-key stop. We arrived yesterday after our wonderful day in Milford Sound. As I mentioned in that blog, it is a five-hour drive from Milford Sound to Queenstown. We broke up this drive by eating dinner in Te Anau, but we were still pretty tired when we arrived in Queenstown. We walked around the town briefly and went to bed fairly early. The next day we took the Skyline Gondola up to Bob’s Peak, a steep mountain that begins about three blocks from downtown. The peak is fairly high, and because it is so close, it is a breathtaking vantage point of the town and ... read more