New Zealand!

Well... I have only had access to the internet twice in New Zealand before now! Madness I know! Anyway here is an account of what has happened to me in The Land of the Long White Cloud...

Day 89

Mission = buy NZ guidebook (which has been our bible ever since, best $20 we have spent I reckon!), find NZ sim card and buy some food... all accomplished :-)

Day 90

Off on our tour of the far north today, first stop Paihia, which is nice, we walk along the beach finding broken paua shells and taking pictures of the gorgeous Bay of Islands before an evening barbecue.

Day 91

Our tour takes us to Cape Reigna today, on a bus designed for sand driving so our trip along 90 mile beach goes smoothly (which is actually 63 miles long; settlers named it 90m beach because it took 3 days to walk, and they usually averaged 30miles a day... when someone actually bothered to measure it however...!). The beach is pretty, with a sand dune background n all... we see some white breasted terns (the bus has fun chasing them) and some wild horses too! The normally choppy(!) Tasman sea is surprisingly calm today though, so much so that our bus driver spends more time looking with surprise at the sea than at the beach he's driving along! I would have preferred exciting waves, which just does to show the unusual is not necessarily more exciting than the usual!

Everyone apart from me and an older couple then goes sandboarding down the dunes... I am covered with stupid infected bites from Cape Tribulation, and I feel that filling them with sand probably wouldn't be the best idea! It looks really fun though, and I take loads of pictures of everyone, including a hilarious one of one guy crashing :-)

Cape Reigna itself, when we get there, is very pretty: a coastal walk to a white lighthouse with distance signposts to lads of places (London, Sydney, New York etc etc) There is also a good view of the tree where maori spirits leave aeoteroa (land of the long white cloud) for Hawaiiki (their home land).

On the way back we stop at 'The Ancient Kauri Kingdom' A shop which sells all manner of things made from Kauri trees buried in swamps over 45,000 years (which is as far back as carbon dating can go before it starts estimating in millions of years!) ago. We saw Kauri trees on the way up, on a pretty forest walk, and although they were undeniably the biggest trees I have ever seen, they didn't quite live up to my expectations, which were of trees “as big as a bus sat on its behind” (this is what the bus driver said...!). The fossilised ones were at least that big though – in the middle of the shop on huge trunk holds an entire spiral staircase, leading to the second floor! Magnificent!

Our last stop is for 'the best fish and chips in the world', which is ok, but falls short of it's reputation quite magnificently!

Day 92

We have until 3pm to explore Paihia, so we walk to nearby Waitaga, where the treaty of Waitanga (obviously) was signed. This is hailed as 'the founding document of New Zealand'. You can visit where it was signed and as well as learning about it you can look at the original treaty house, a subsequently made Maori meeting house (complete with impressive carvings representing all of the 'iwi' tribes, in NZ) and see the biggest war canoe in the world!

This huge 'Waka' cannot be safely paddled with anything less than 76 paddlers, and on its maiden voyage had 88 paddlers and 55 passengers! It is made from 3(!) huge Kauri trees, and the stump of the largest of these has been moved there so you can marvel at it – its HUGE, over three metres across!

After our little expedition into NZ history we head back, and board our bus back to Auckland.

Day 93

We pick up our spaceship 'padme' today, and were off!

In reality it takes a lot longer to pick up and stock up on food than planned, and we only get to see castle rock form a distance and reach cathedral cove at nightfall. It is however a lovely drive along the pacific highway, winding around mountains by the slightly choppy sea.

Day 94

Our first job is to un, and then re pack the van. We then head down to cathedral cove, to marvel at the awesome arch which splits the little picturesque beach in two, and take lots of photos of the odd rock formations out to sea (the 'cathedral's pillars).

Next stop is Hot Water Beach, where we search for the hot water for ages... lots of pools had been dug in the sand but no matter where we wiggled our toes all we found was chilly sea water. Then we saw a group of people looking very excited in the surf... had they found hot water? YES. To get to the hot water you had to be directly in front of, or within a metre from the edge of the rocks in the middle of the beach, and the best area was just in front of them in the sea. I wiggled my toes into the sand doubtfully at first, went down too far and scalded them! You had to be careful as the waves coming in would lull you into a false sense of security; you would dig your toes in, and then as the waves retrested the hot water would well up and get you!

Whilst painful on occasion the experience was magnificent! It's very strange to feel the contrast between cold sea water around your ankles, and scalding spring water at your toes! Sweet As!

Our stop for the night is at Karangahake, an old mining town with a pretty gorge to walk along. It's not all that impressive, but makes for quite a pleasant end to the day.

Day 95

Wake up with the sun and leave the carpark where we stayed asap – it didn't seem like a very nice place to be! We mission on to Rotorua, which smells like.... roses!? We end up doing a circuit of the whole lake, stopping for lunch at the neighbouring lake Rotoiti. Our home for the night is the shore of lake Okareka, reached in late afternoon. Its a lovely little spot, and very close to Wai-O-Tapu so we can visit the thermal wonderland there tomorrow morning.

Day 96

The first thing we get to see at Wai-O-Tapu is the Lady Knox geyser, which is artificially induced every morning (by bio friendly soap) at 10.15am. It's pretty cool – shooting up to heights of around 10 metres, and we get a nice chat about what geysers are from the Waiotapu man (as well as some awesome photos!)

We then wander around looking at all manner of unbelievable thermal features, coloured pools, steaming craters, misty bright orange lakes.... all with names like 'the devils ink pots' , 'the artists palette', 'bridal falls', frying pan flat', 'the devils bath', birds nest crater' etc etc.
It is (as most amazing experiences seem to be) difficult to describe, but it was very very very cool, and afterwards we didn't feel any need to visit white island to satiate our desire for volcanic activity!

There was one very memorable moment when, walking along a bright blue lake with orange sides and pink mist rising off it, we were getting gusts of cold air one second, and warm mist the next... the contrast reminded me of hot water beach, and the sensations was perhaps even stranger!

After we had had our fill of wonders we left, and then saw a sign to mud pools. We stopped for a few minutes and were again entranced by the bubbling mud, which would occasionally hiccup loudly signifying a large blob of mud flying up to splash back down again! Geothermic mud pools were the only thing missing at Waiotapu thermal wonderland, but we got to see them anyway :-D!

The rest of the day is spent reaching lake Taupo, via the magnificent Huka falls, where 400 tonnes of water pours over a 10foot drop every second! The sound was earcrashing, and the sight fantastic! We didn't stop for long, but it was, without any kind of doubt, definitely worth seeing!

Day 97

Our plan is to do the tongariro alpine crossing today (a day hike) but its rainy rainy misty misty and we don't fancy it. Before we know it we're halfway to wellington! Bored of driving we stop at a supermarket, and whilst contemplating whether it's necessary to buy water (free water is hard to come by, its our biggest problem! Apart from showers that is...!) we meet an old hippy who shows us to a lorry park where we can fill all of our containers for free. He also tells us of a lovely place to stay when we get to Wellington, and as he advices we spend the night at Halswell point, a lay-by with a lighthouse which has a lovely view of all of Wellington lit up at night!

(he had a lovely old truck, something which is quite common here, everywhere we go there are old buses and trucks done up for travelling, it seems NZ is far friendlier to travellers than the UK! Some of the vehicles are really nicely done too, its quite cool to see.)

Day 98

Te Papa today, Wellingtons museum of New Zealand. The bottom floor is all about natural history which is intersting, but the pickled colossal squid creeps me out a bit, and I feel I could have got the same out of a visit to the national history museum in london!

The upper floors however have a history of the immigrants to NZ (maori, pakeha and samoan) which is really quite interesting, and there is a truly beautiful display of jade tikis.

Day 99

We are booked on the 8am ferry to Picton ($215!) so its an early start, but we get to charge stuff up on the ferry which is useful, and we get to Picton with plenty of time to continue our journey that day.

The drive is a little nerve racking at first as were low on petrol (we didn't fill up at Picton as it was expensive at the ferry terminal, and we didn't realise that Picton is a pretty much nonexistant place with nowhere else to fill up!). The worst bit is when an angry lorry is on our tail, lights on full and hooting his horn, but we survive, and with a full tank we head on down to Kaikoura, dolphin, seal and whale capital of NZ!

We drive to the edge of the Kaikoura peninsula to find a seal colony, and are immediately rewarded with a seal about 15m from the car park, lolling around on some rocks! Further exploration reveals 4 more, one is 30metres to the right, around the cliff and is curled up and cute like a sleeping puppy (although far far larger, seals are bigger than I thought!), one is a young one – not quite a baby as it had real fur, but still absolutely adorable on the beach, and the final 2 are right next to the first one we spotted, just behind the rocks a bit! Also the tide is right out, so we can walk to the edge of the rocky outcrop to get quite a good photo of the colony – there are hundreds of seals just out to sea, relaxing on the rocks!

Its a fantastic sight, but after a while dusk creeps up and we have to find somewhere to stay for the night as this carpark has the dreaded no campervan signs!

Day 100!

We go back to the seal colony in the morning (it's too good to miss!) and see a load more seals. One is so camouflaged that I nearly stand on it! (not quite, but I was only a couple of metres away and I didn't notice it 'til I saw someone taking photos of it!). Then after our fill of seals we are on our way again. I am a little sad that I didn't see any whales or dolphins – we decided not to go on a whale watch cruise because of money and time limitations, but dolphins are quite a common sight from the shore, however we need ot be on our way so I swallow my disappointment.

Then, a few km down the road we see some people pointing out to sea – there's a pod of dolphins in the distance! We only see their fins, no jumping or playing, and they are quite far out, but I'm very pleased all the same!

The afternoon sees us into Arthurs pass, and beautiful moutain scenery. We stop by a fantastic lake to see the sun set, eat our dinner, and feel very pleased with ourselves for being in such a magnificent place!

Day 101

It's not too long a drive before we are at Hokitika, the greenstone capital, so we spend the afternoon browsing jade galleries to choose our pieces. I buy mark a fish hook necklace (good luck and safe passage over sea) and in return he buys me an unbroken circle (which means what I cant remember). Apparently it is good luck to give away your first piece of 'pounamu'! We also buy a very very tasty ice cream from a cute little fudge shop before we leave again.

Day 102

The glaciers today! We reach Franz Josef quite early, and investigate the info centre, which also has a historic mountain shelter hut (the 'defiance hut'), an interesting little thing! It is raining too much for us to attempt any of the walks, but it is very impressive seeing the blue glacier imposing itself over the horizon!

Day 103

It's pouring down with rain again in the morning so we visit the towns shops to look at waterproof trousers, we decide $60 is far too much, and decide to brave the walks, only to discover the one to the glacier face is closed (and the others would be pointless being as Franz Josef is covered in mist today). It's a sad moment, but we cheer ourselves up by driving to Fox, checking in to a campsite and having our first hot shower of our trip (as well as tidying up the van and doing a lot of laundry!).

Day 104

Today we hike the Fox glacier! We check in and then get thoroughly kitted up in warm and waterproof gear (and full crampons – the rain has made it slippery up there).

Our hike begins with a rainforest walk, which is more like a never ending staircase! 'steppy' is how id describe it! After around a thousand steps I am thoroughly worn out and have to stop, the guide n front carries on and I slip back through the group, and then when the rear guide catches up everyone stops for a break! This is the halfway point and a planned 'rest' – I don't feel so bad anymore!

Eventually we get to the ice, and after a while 'practising' on the precut steps for the half day walkers we are off on our own, following our guides wherever they may take us! Its pretty chilly up on the ice, but so breathtakingly beautiful that I hardly notice the time passing! All too soon its time for lunch, although the boffy bag (a kind of empty tent/sheet which you sit inside to keep warm) is welcome!

Our exploration takes us down the glacier, to look at crevasses and treacherous 'moulins', deep holes where the water has found a weak spot in the ice and is trickling down through it to the river which expels itself from the front of the glacier. The are fatal if you fall down, but fascinating to look into, very dangerous! We then walk upwards, towards the 'seracs', which are the opposite of crevasses, formed as the glacier falls down the steep mountain side, like how water breaks up as it goes over a waterfall.

We are teased by our guides on the way up by the promise of something that will be, because of the rain washing the glacier clean blue again, either 'awesome, or gone'... it turns out what they are looking for is mostly gone; all that remains of the small ice cave is a kind of half tunnel (which is in fact fantastically beautiful). However next to it the rain has opened up the entrance to another old moulin, and an absolutely wonderful ice cave/tunnel is what remains. This is, according to the guides, the best they have seen all year, and we are very very pleased with ourselves for having seen it! Apparently even if you take a helicopter up to the higher glacier ice caves such as this are rare, and they truly are stupendous. The ice itself seems to glow inside it with an ethereal blue light, and the twists and turns, glistening with droplets of water are wonderful!

We also get to see the endangered Kea, the only truly alpine parrot. It paraded around nicely for us, posing against the impressive background very nicely – apparently they are somewhat of a pest on the glaciers, nicking peoples lunches, ripping unattended bags and so forth, but I think he was lovely!

Day 105

Today we go through Haast pass, lots of magnificent waterfalls and misty mountains, and then, as we reach the other side of the mountains, the weather stops being moody and wet (according to the guides we experienced 140mm of rainfall in the three days we were by the glaciers!) and becomes dry and sunny! All of a sudden I can see the likeness to middle earth, and its all stunning!

It is a pretty much straight run through to Queenstown, where we stock up on food again, and search for somewhere we are allowed to stay!

Day 106

Civilisation! We spend the day shopping and internetting in the town centre, I pick up a scarf, a cute little torch (very bright), some dry bags, a rucksack ($5, how could I refuse!?), a mini tripod (again $5, reduced from $40!) and some Tiki statuettes. This all comes to around $70, which I don't really have, but I think this has satisfied my need for souvenirs (and warm clothing) as I have picked up some other small things on my way around too.

Mark spends an absolute fortune, on what i'm not quite sure, but he seems pretty happy with his purchases, although he hasn't really bought any souvenirs yet... A lot of his money was spent on a white water rafting trip though, for tomorrow morning – he's very excited!

Day 107

Mark is off on his little adventure so I spend the morning all alone, on the banks of a beautiful lake, overlooking a majestic mountain – it's not a bad life really! I catch up on reading LOTR, now I'm fully in film country, and generally chill out!

Mark comes back looking very pleased with himself, although he says it wasn't as white watery as he would have liked – still he keeps on coming out with interesting facts from the trip, and altogether I think it was a success. He almost wasn't allowed on though, without my guidance he forgot the receipt which proves he paid 15% yesterday, and he was $10 short of the full amount (and I had already driven off!) Luckily the receptionist took pity on him and all he had to do was promise to drop the receipt off later, which we dutifully did!

The afternoon is spent driving back around to Te Anau (teh-Ahn-ow) where we stay for the night before heading to Milford Sound!

Day 108

Looking for somewhere to get water we run into another spaceship today, they had come from milford sound and their advice was to stay at the milford lodge, as you get $20 off a milford cruise, which covers the price of staying there (and you get water and showers etc!) It is good advice so we take it!

The milford road itself is beautiful, hedged by mountains which get bigger all the time, with their snowy caps swimming in and out of the clouds above. From all of the mountains come hundreds of little waterfalls, the most spectacular being the falls of 'falls creek', a roaring monster which envelopes the road in mist! The sides of the roads are coated with lush green moss, and near to falls creek it is beautiful, dripping with water and all spiky and green.

Also, just before Homers (scary craggy) tunnel there is a huge ice fall, which has been moulded by the water into a fantastic ice cave/tunnel, with a waterfall rushing down behind it. It's odd to see, as everywhere else is green, and whilst we are waiting for the lights to go green so we can go through the one lane tunnel we thoroughly explore it. It is massive, and a picture of mark on the top of the arch puts the whole thing into perspective the way words can't (obviously this is no use to you right now, but i'l show you when I get back!).

We also see another Kea. We stopped at a lookout point (although the mountain it was looking out on was too mist shrouded to see) and up it hops, probably looking for trouble, but being very cute! We had a good five minutes of it posing, and then we decided we should probably stop looking at the parrot and get on our way!

We get to Milford lodge quite early, so cook ourself a tasty lunch and then settle down to charge up all our appliances etc – we are currently sat in a nice cosy lounge on sofas, and shortly i'm going to have a real actual hot shower! And maybe I will have one tomorrow morning too!!!

Love and miss you all, not long 'til I'm home now!