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Published: January 10th 2010
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Well, Well, Well... here we are, sitting in a campsite in Coromandel Peninsular in the north of the north Island of NZ. The sun is setting as we conjure the words to compose our final blog. We are day 363 of our 365 day trip and needless to say, we have a lot of mixed emotions about coming home; very excited to be seeing our friends and family soon; anxious that we wont fit back into the thrawls of society; worried that we wont be able to settle back down to the standard "9-5" way of life. Anyway, enough of our anxieties..... I should tell you how our last month in New Zealand has been...!
We flew from Sydney (which seems like much longer than 1 month ago) into Auckland where our shiny white camper van, Mazda Bongo, awaited us. She is merely a transit van converted into a camper van with carperted ceiling and floor, a bed that folds to a bench in the daytimes, two gas hobs and a drop down table that doubles as a cupboard. Despite her struggles up some of the South Islands steep hills and hair pins, she has done us proud and taken
us in a figure of 8 shape to the south island and back.
We had hoped to fit in some good hiking whilst in New Zealand, so where better to start than the famous 19KM day hike, The Tongariro Crossing. A planned 5.30am wake up, turned into a mad dash to the bus to take us to the start of the trail. The following 19km and 6 hours flew by as we took in the volcanic landscape which ranged from brilliant blue lakes, to steaming active craters and brilliant views of the steep volcanoes around us. Definately one of the most rewarding hikes you can cover in one day.
No time to linger though, as our strict schedule took us to Wellington the next day, and the fun Te Papa museum to learn about Maori culture and get shaken around in a fake earthquake. Wellington was a quaint city, with it's residents perched on the hills overlooking the various waterways and estuaries. Our ferry took us and our Bongo from Wellington to Picton, the tip of south island NZ. We were greeted in the south island by stunning Fjordland as we docked into Picton and hit the tarmac
once more.
Our figure of 8 shape in the south island began in Abel Tasman National Park, known for its turquoise seas, white sandy beaches and cliffside walkway. The "great walk" along the coast of Abel Tasman is 3 days in it's entirity, but due to our lack of time, we walked just10 km of it and then had to turn around back to walk the same 10km back to where the Bongo was parked. All the same it was a very scenic walk and the beaches lived up to their reputation for sure.
Next stop, Murchison, an old gold mining town in the hils surrounded with beautiful pine forests, followed by Westport where we took a clifftop walk to a seal colony. Just as smelly as the Galapagos sealions, although not quite as populous.
We spent Christmas time in Reefton. Thankfully the campsite had a camp kitchen we could use, but we still had only 1 sauce pan and 1 frying pan, so christmas lunch was fried and boiled only, yet very tasty indeed!! Between the two of us, we managed to consume a 4- person Christmas pud and a whole cartoon of custard for desert,
so we had to wait a while for that to go down before embarking on some frisbee in the late afternoon sunshine. Needless to say, it was rather odd celebrating Christmas in the sunshine knowing all you lot were freezing back in blighty.
We headed East from Reefton along the Lewis Pass, for a stop at the Hanmer Hot Springs on boxing day, and then drove down towards Christchurch to await the arrival of Matt's mom and stepdad. So before we knew it we were in convoy, the Bongo AND Bongo's big brother, the Britz. The next 10 days we scuttled across the country on a whistle-stop tour of the South Island and North Island, ecompassing loads of different scenery along the way. You wouldnt imagine how quickly the scenery can change from Arid Hills to Alpine Peaks to Tropical Rainforest!
There were Cute Blue Penguins in Oamaru, Scenic Mountains and Lakes in Wanaka, Glaicers in Fox and Franz Joseph, Rainforest along the South West Coast, Rain (lots of) on Arthurs Pass, followed minutes later by blue skies and 360 degree panoramas as we headed East towards Kaikoura where our Sperm Whales awaited us. Kaikoura is definately in
our top 3 of NZ. It was one of those places that the guide book doenst play up, so we didn't expect too much from the place itself, but when we saw the rocky bay, azure blue sea and 2,500m mountains only a stones throw away from the coastline we were seriously impressed. To top it all off we embarked on a boat trip (one of the roughest we have encountered- 1/2 of the passengers were making use of the sick bags) to see the awesome Sperm whale in their natural habitat. Marine life is rife in Kaikoura due to the fact only a hundred metres or so out to sea there is a huge drop of over a thousand metres hence there is a mix of warm and cold currents attracting the plancton which attracts the small fish, which then attract the bigger fish and so on...... Cameras at the ready, we managed to catch the photograph we all came for, of the sperm whale's tail upturned in the air just as he goes back down into the ocean. We were so impressed by the professionalism of the boat company and how well they managed with all the sickies,
but more so by the fact they managed to locate two seperate sperm whales AND around a hundred Dusky Dolphins, the most acrobatic of the dolphin family.
Another ferry trip back over the Cook Straight to the north island and we decided to really get into the thermal/ volcanic wonder that is one of the north islands main draw cards. We paid a visit to the snow capped Mt Rapehu (most recently erupted in 1995!!!!) and then to the rotorua valley to witness bubbling mud pools, geysers and craters filled with all sorts of eggy smelling, luminous acidic fluids that would kill a human in seconds..all very interesting stuff, certainly not something we are ever likely to witness on our old, well established islands back home. Another not to be missed attraction to north island is Waitomo Caves, where we embarked on a 5 hour caving experience. Clothed in wellies, wetsuits, hard hats and torches we began with a 30 metre abseil into a cave. This was followed by some miandering through the caves with water at times up to our chest, eels never too far away (urghhhh!), floating on our rubber rings with the flow of the river
Christmas day morning
A walk around the old mines in the Reefton Forest and stopping off to try out squeezing and crawling through some of the tightest holes and tubes you wouldn't believe would be possible!! The trip was finished off with a 27 metre rock climb out back into the daylight, what a welcomed sight that was!
It was aurevoir to mom n' Kel after that as we made headway to the Coromandel peninsular, where a horse trek in the hills and a dish of Coromandel's Smoked Mussels later and here we are...!
So thats all folks... as we contemplate on what a fantastic, life changing year we have had, (and how we have managed not to kill each other after spending 363 continuous days together), we have also realised how much we have missed you all and are excited to be coming home in a few days. However we are certain to make the most of our last few days in the warm weather and long days of NZ's Summer before returning to the Big Chill known as Home.
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david
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LAND OF THE RINGS!
how did you manage with all the crowds! tee hee! it all looks spectacular. how many miles did you drive in the van? xxxxx