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Published: June 10th 2006
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Zoe hanging off the edge of a plane Hey people. Just in Melbourne at the moment been looking for jobs! Zoe is working at Kraft as a PA to the executives. Im still looking and the world cup has just started! Coincidence I think not!
Really enjoyed the South of New Zealand, everyone said it is better then the north and there right! Its just like you would think New Zealand looks like beautiful mountains and glaciers by the end you just get a bit blase and its just like "oh there’s another amazing mountain".
Went to the Abel Tasmin national park this was beautiful, stayed at Kaiteriteri, lovely little beach town, ending up going on a two person kayak, or Divorce-Makers as they should be called! Ended up going out two sea a bit two much and then couldn’t find the split apple rock that we were looking for, Had to turn back as we were running out of time and then it turned out we had passed it but just hadn’t seen it! Anyway that was fun!
Drove on to Pu Pu Springs from here, The springs were these beautiful clear waters which you could snorkel through. Unfortunately there was some disease going around that infected the
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Oh my god...what is happening... I think we are falling out of the plane!! Oh thats meant to happen is it? Hmmm dont think I really understood the idea of this sky diving malarky. water so couldn’t do it nevermind!
Went on to Murchison from here and did some white water rafting, was loads of fun I nearly went in first but manage to drag myself in and Zoe fell in a couple of times and then at the end nearly all our group fell in! Our guide said we were he worst group he ever had (Another career path that I won’t be pursuing!)
Moved further down the West Coast and stopped of to sea these pancakes rock that look like pancakes surprisingly! Pretty cool and there was blow holes that were formed by the water so worth a look!
Moved down the coast a fair bit, as there wasn’t really much between here and the Glaciers! There was a town called Greymouth but was as dull as its name!
Did make a slight detour here though and went in land on to the Arthur’s Pass which was an absolutely stunning road winding between the Southern Alps. Stayed at Arthur’s Pass Village for the night and did a nice walk to the Devils Punchbowl Falls, which was a huge waterfall that in the mountains.
From here we went straight to the Fanz-Josef Glacier,
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How cool is this....you can actually see the shape of the earth! Pretty special huh!! Had a look at it but you couldn’t go to close as it wasn’t very stable and just wasn’t as impressive as the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina!
Went on to the Fox Glacier which was better as you could get up close to it and there’s was a walk near the glacier that gave you views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasmin into Lake Matheson that was Beautiful and Tranquil!
Moved our way further down the coast through Haast that had beautiful walks and on to Wanaka! Ended up meeting two Scousers Paul and Katie who Lived right near Zoe’s on Rose Lane(Small world again),nice to meet other people as getting on each others nerves just being us two!
Got drunk that night and then got woken up by "Roy from the Council" so had to move the van at 7 in the morning.
Felt pretty rough all day so decided to go to Puzzle world and do the Giant maze and all the visual illusions. Not the best thing on a hangover but remained composed throughout!
Went to the best cinema in the world that night, which had sofas and you could get alcohol! If you could have
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This is Rich having just jumped (ok he was pushed really) smoked I would’ve been in heaven! Met a guy who was in the area doing a massive blockbuster film called BC1000 look out for it!
Moved on to Queenstown, which is the place, you go for all the adrenaline sports. I did handglinding, which was amazing! I think Im going to get into it when I get home! Didn’t do a bungy jump as seemed like a lot of money for 1 minute thrill!
We had a bit of an altercation with a metal pole in the campsite so had to take the van to the garage as the right wheel arch was mangled a bit, only cost 50 dollars so not bad!
Queenstown was beautiful with views of the remarkables! Just loads of annoying young backpackers again! Went out to watch the FA Cup final was on at 2 in the morning so was good night! Liverpool are just lucky gits!
Moved on from here as we had been waiting around to watch the game and went on to Te Anau which is the gateway to Fiordland. Booked a Tour with Paul and Katie and drove up to the Milford Sound, the drive was amazing with beautiful mountains, valleys,
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Dont you just LURVE our red jumpsuits! hehehe. lakes and waterfalls! We saw a lake that had a perfect reflection of the mountains in it!
The cruise was breathtaking passing along amazing waterfalls with rainbows in them, sheer cliffs an amazing experience that no words can describe!
We were running out of time now and had to get up to Christchurch to drop off the van in a few days so we just bombed it up the island and managed to get to Kaikoura to do some whale watching! Managed to see 3 Sperm whales which was amazing! was a rough day and a few people didn’t really have sea legs and spent most of the trip praying to the porcelain god!
Went to Christchurch from here and dropped off the van and then met up with Zoe’s mums Godfather Tudor and his wife Shirley, just got showed around Christchurch by them nice city, very English and very flat in comparison with the rest of New Zealand!
So now here we are in Melbourne going to stay here for a few months and save up some money and then probably get a camper again and head up the coast for some nice weather as its just winter here!
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He is loving it!!! I didnt manage to look quite so cool (mainly cos I was s**t scared) but maybe next time eh!!! not that cold but wouldn’t mind working on the old tan!
Hope everyone’s okay
Speak soon
Rich and Zoë
P.S Sorry its been a while with the blog but just kept on putting it off!Think we'll leave the blog for a while as oim sure people dont want to hear about how work was!will be in contact with people by email instead!
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Lesley Birk
non-member comment
What beautiful photo's
Dear Zoe and Rich, so glad you've made it to Oz and already Zoe has work! Our son David went to New Zealand a few years back and also bought back awesome photo"s. One of these days..... You should try and get up to Queensland as its always warm there and you can work on the tan but never in Melbourne where you have 4 seasons in one day! Anyway, keep in touch and all the best, Love Lesley and George