The end of New Zealand!

Wow, the past month has gone so fast! On our final day in Rotorua, Ashling and I visited Te Puia which is an old Maori village with a museum and lots of geothermal activity! It smelt pretty bad!! There is a huge geyser there which we were able to see erupt, and there is steam rising off of the rocks everywhere. Seriously the smell was unbearable at some points, it smelt extremely sulphuric, a bit toxic smelling! We were also lucky enough to see a Kiwi bird, they are really strange looking animals. They have no wings and just hobble around pecking at the ground, we were not allowed to take any photos, you will have to have a look on google for a picture. Our next stop was Auckland where we have spent the last few days.Unfortunately we didn't go up further north to the bay of islands, that will have to wait for another time! Auckland has been really great, have been able to relax here and properly take in the city. On the day we arrived, there happened to be a huge RNZAF ship docked in the harbour so we climbed aboard and had a look around. The next day we set out on a walk to Mount Eden which is the highest point in Auckland, a dormant volcano. It was a really nice walk up to the top with great views of the city. We then spent the afternoon in the Auckland museum learning a bit more about the Maori culture (although we are pretty well educated by now!) and found out a bit more about the NZ involvement in WW2. Then yesterday morning I woke to Ashling singing happy birthday with a big chocolate cake and candles. She spoilt me and I got lots of exciting presents like my All Blacks rugby top and a spiderman kite! After breakfast in bed we eventually got up and went for a swim in the olympic pool and both swam a mile before relaxing in the jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the park flying my kite, which worked surprisingly well. In the evening I went out for a meal in a small pub with Ashling and Liam before meeting up with our Kiwi Experience friends for a night out. It was George's birthday too that day so we had a great night eventually getting to bed at about 4am. After a lie in this morning we went for a long walk around the city, up to the bridge and went to the cinema. Another birthday on the kiwi bus today so a big group of us went out for dinner and had another great night. Most of us are leaving within the next couple of days which has worked out well, we will be flying to Santiago in Chile tomorrow evening, arriving tomorrow morning! Will have to work out how to avoid jet lag somehow! Our hostel is booked in Santiago and I will be brushing up my basic Spanish on the flight with my mp3's! Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

Rotorua

Sorry its been a while again, have been up to quite a lot recently. After Kaikoura, we drove for a short while up to Picton where we caught the ferry to the North island. It was a 3 1/2 hour ride, we just relaxed in the TV room until we arrived in Wellington, NZ's capital. It made a nice change being back in a big city, have been used to arriving in small townships with hardly and people! On the way up to our room we bumped into some of our friends from the bus so we arranged to all go out that night. We spent 3 nights in Wellington and spent most of the time walking around the city, going for runs, learning a bit more about Maori culture and we also went to the theatre twice. The first play we saw was amazing, it was about Maori's fighting in the first world war in Italy. There were only 3 men in the show, but they all took on lots of different roles, dressing up as women, pretending to be pigs and all different nationalities. It was predomenantly in English but there was also a lot of Italian and Maori in it which made for a lot of comedy. The second play we saw was a mini opera for children, with children in the cast. We went to see it as it is exactly the kind of thing Ashling wants to work in, so it was good to see what NZ offers. It was all about imigrants in NZ and children learning to accept that nobody is native to NZ. We also arrived in Wellington in time for a big dragon boat festival, where teams raced in the harbour, was a great atmosphere with market stalls and the sun was out which is also a plus!

After Wellington we drove for quite a few hours to Taupo. We were signed up to do the Tongoriro crossing (which is one of the top ten walks in the world) and takes 8 hours to complete but when we got ready to leave at 6:00am, it was cancelled due to really strong winds and the likelihood of snow. Went back to bed until lunch time instead and it turned out to be a really clear, sunny day. We went for a wander and found the natural hot spring where there are small rock pools with boiling water to soak in. It was great fun, made up for missing the walk! The lake in Taupo is the biggest in Australasia, you can fit the whole of Singapore inside it, and it is actually a huge volcano with an erruption overdue by 50 years! The Maori believe that lake taupo is the heart of the fish (which is the north island), that was caught by the Maori god Maui, who caught his fish in the canoe (the canoe being the south island).

Next stop is Rotorua, which is known by the locals as Rotten-Rua due to the smell! It has a constant smell of sulpher due to the geothermic activity, there is steam rising out of any crack in the ground and a big geyser which we hope to visit tomorrow. From Rototua, we did a day trip to Waitomo, home of the glow-worm caves (actually maggots, but doesnt sound as attractive to toursits!). Here we did black water rafting which is the best activity ever! It involves all sorts of challenges beginging with a 37 metre abseil into complete darkness, squeezing through a tiny gap in the rock. We were all dressed in wet suits, with gum boots and a helmet with a light on it to help us through the caves. When we all reached the bottom, we clambered over some rocks and followed a path round to a steep drop where one by one we were attached to a zipline and pushed into darkness, as they switched off all of our lights. It was quite scary because we were never told what was coming next so it was all a complete suprise. On the zipwire there were glowworms covering the ceiling of the cave. After a quick tea break (sitting in a cave drinking tea and eating flapjacks was quite strange!) we were given a tire inner tube and told to jump off, with a 4metre drop into water (which was 9 degrees!!). It felt like a huge drop and you were meant to land in your ring, but i didnt quite do that and lost my ring, had to swim over to find it. We then entered the main cave for glow worms and were told more about what they are and how they work. The next part of the journey involved walking, wading and swimming in the water over obstacles and through tiny holes we had to crawl through on our bellies. We saw quite a few eels in the water as we went. Our exit wasnt too easy either. We had to climb up two waterfalls, with the water gushing down in our faces. It was such an amazing experience, and we did it in a group with lots of people off our bus, it was really great fun. Back in Rotorua today I did more luging, 14 of us raced down on much longer and faster tracks than the one in Queenstown. Then this evening we visited a sacred Maori village. They were all dressed in traditional clothing, and greeted us as they would have greeted visitors to their village with the chief giving an offering to our leader (we elected Cez who had to stand still without laughing or cyring as they tried to intimidate them by running around with spears, screaming, making their eyes bulge and screaming in his face). We then enjoyed a performance of singing and dancing including the Haka before we sat down to a meal cooked by the traditional technique of burying the food underground and covering it in hot stones (called a hangi). It was a great evening, everybody had a great time and we learnt a lot more about the culture.

Back in Kaikoura

We are now back in Kaikoura, on our way up to Picton for the ferry to the North island tomorrow. Since Franz Josef, we spent a night in a small town called Wanaka. The region is famous for its mirror lakes, we stopped off at one called Lake Matheson and did an hour bushwalk. Quite a few people sky-dived here, the views from 15,000ft must have been amazing. In Wanaka, Ashling and I went for a hike up Mount Iron which turned out to be more challenging than we thought, we were a bit out of breath at the top, wish us luck for the Inca trail in a couple of months!! Wanaka is also home to a cosy little cinema full of sofas and homemade cookies served during the interval. Before driving to Queenstown, we stopped off at puzzle world, there were lots of illusion rooms that confuse your brain. One of them imitates the effect from Lord of the Rings that makes you look small/big at different ends of the room. In Queenstown, we took it a bit easier for a few days, despite it being the adventure capital of New Zealand! On one of our days we took a cruise through the fiordlands of Milford Sound including a trip to an underwater observatory. Another highlight of anyones visit to Queenstown is having a ferg burger. You can see how big the burger is, mine was the biggest you could get with 1/2lb of beef, 2 fried eggs, 8 rashers of bacon and so much salad/sauce! We had a couple more (of the smaller ones) during our stay. On our last day in town we walked up the mountain (another challeneging trek!) to reach the downhill luge track. There was a short ski-lift ride to the top of the track and then 5 of us raced down a few times. We made a really good group of friends over the past couple of weeks, now everybody has seperated as we take different routes to the north island, although we are bound to bump into some of them again. Looking forward to what the north island has to offer. Oh and I finally uploaded a photo of one of the spiders from Cape Trib in Australia!

The Highlanders vs The Cheifs

Hello. Its 1am, just got in from a rugby game in Invercargill. A bus load of us travelled south for a couple of hours all dressed up in Highlander (the local team) capes and foam swords! There were about 8 all black's players on the field, it was a good game, but our team lost! Up early tomorrow for Milford Sound which is a cruise through the fjordlands, its one of the must see sights in New Zealand, just hoping the weather stays clear!

Kiwi Experience

Sorry its been a while, on the West coast of New Zealand and there's not much in the way of reliable Internet access! After our brief stay in Christchurch we jumped on the Kiwi Experience bus bright and early in the morning. It was all a bit confusing, and nobody really knew how it all worked but our driver assured us all it would fall into place! We made friends very quickly on the bus as we were made to walk about and meet people as we travelled north to Kaikoura (might have spelt that wrong). On the way we stopped off at a seal colony and were able to get very close to huge seals, I got a little bit too close and he barked at me a bit and started to shuffle towards me, don't worry I moved just as fast away from him! We relaxed that afternoon in the hostel watching Lord of the Rings (they have copies of it at every hostel here, its their best form of advertising the scenery really!) and Gladiator.

The next morning we were up early (again) and were soon on a boat as we had booked ourselves to swim with dolphins! It was incredible. They are completely wild but were so keen to interact with us. We were in and out of the water a lot as the dolphin pod was moving, we had to follow it, but there were between 600-900 dolphins in the area of water we were snorkeling in. As soon as jumped in (it was freezing water by the way, but were given full wet suits) there were dolphins everywhere. I put my head down in the water and they were rushing past and then I would lift my head out and there would be fins surrounding us all. They were keen to play with us, we had to sing and make noises in the water to attract them. We could also engage with them by swimming in fast circles around them, and they would copy for 4 or 5 rotations. I even saw a pair mating, the guide wanted extra money for that! I was an incredible experience, we are all so glad we decided to do it and it was perfectly sunny weather which was a big bonus. That afternoon we explored the town, and headed to another hostel where Mel and Sara had just arrived. We won't see them again for a few more weeks as their tour takes them straight to the North island.

Another early start on the bus took us to Nelson, where the centre point of New Zealand lies. Here we meet up again with the friends we made on the first bus and have stuck with them since. After a brisk walk up a small mountain we reached the centre point which is marked out with a large plaque and statue. It was a bit miserable that day so the view wasn't too great. We had booked on a trip to Abel Tasmin national park the next morning but due to the bad weather the water taxi to get us their wasn't running, so we got straight back to bed for another few hours sleep! That evening we all went out to a local bar. Cez (one of the guys off our bus) and I got challenged to a pool game by a couple of locals, I'm afraid to say we lost so a victory for New Zealand over England.

Our next stop was at Lake Mahinapua Hotel, a small pub/hostel run by the oldest publican in New Zealand, a guy named Les who is 84 years old! He laid on a huge meal for us of steak and potatoes, went down very well. I should add that by now we were joined by another Kiwi bus so in total there are 100 of us travelling down the West coast. Its been great as it means we can properly get to know each other and we have settled into a group of about 10 or so who we spend most of our time with. That night we had a big party in the pub with a fancy dress theme, everybody had to dress up as something beginning with P (not sure where the idea came from, think it has something to do with the hostel being nicknamed the "Poo Pub"). We were given 30mins earlier in the afternoon in a big shop that sells everything to get our costumes together. I bought a black swimming cap, some yellow card and a ball of string and was soon transformed into a penguin. Ashling went as a pregnant teenager, Liam got help making his costume from a girl off the bus called Karen and they both went as postage stamps. There were also pandas, parrots, Pinocchio, pensioners, plants and plumbers. It was a really great night, also Cez's birthday so there was a big sing song and cake at the end of the night.

Our next stop (yesterday morning) was at a small national park that has impressive blow holes and rocks that look like stacks of pancakes. It was a really nice cliff-face walk, great weather. The kiwi experience drivers never drive for more than a couple of hours before we stop off and see something whether it be a bush walk or a museum or seals, it is nice to be looked after and know we aren't missing anything out. The views are also really stunning from the buses, makes a change from driving in Australia where there was nothing to see! We arrived at our next hostel called Rainforest retreat in Franz Josef and were put in a really nice log cabin. That afternoon Ashling and I went for a walk up to an old mining tunnel where you can find glow worms. It was a 40 minute uphill walk, snaking up a mountain and then we reached the tunnel. It was pitch black and very small with ankle-deep ice cold water flowing through it. So we took our shoes and socks off and started the long walk through the tunnel armed with my phone for light! There were quite a lot of glow worms in the roof of the tunnel but it didn't seem like there was an end in sight so after about 15 mins, and when we bumped into more people we decided our feet had taken enough punishment and headed back out. When we returned to the hostel it was straight into the outdoor jacuzzi to warm up again! After dinner we tried to get back into our room and realised we were locked out, the door handle had broken! A guy behind the bar took us inside for a free drink while he went at the door with a screwdriver and hammer. We got in an hour later with a kind of working door and no lock!

And now on to today! Franz Josef is a tiny township with only two roads each about 50 metres long, but it is famous for its glacial activity. We booked ourselves up for the half day hike. We were told to wear about 3/4 layers and shorts and then they provided us with waterproof trousers, jacket, wool socks, boots, crampons, woolly hat and gloves. It has been raining today too so we were not sure what to expect when we got on the ice! A fairly challenging hike through the bush, up streams and across a small river took us to the face of the glacier. It is an incredible site to see a huge block of ice in the valley, in some places it is moving up to 10 metres a day. We all strapped on our crampons and started the uphill climb onto the ice. The guides have carved rough steps out of the ice and provided rope handrails in places but with the strong winds and hail we were getting it wasn't the easiest of walks! It was very hard to capture the scale of what we were climbing in the photos as we were walking around in the ice through small channels. It was great fun, but freezing cold. At one point it was so wet and windy we had to stand still and just dig our feet in until it passed. Was glad to get into warm clothes when we got off the ice, even with all those layers and waterproof clothes on, everything got really wet.

We are going to relax tonight, next stop is Westport tomorrow, not sure what we are doing there yet, will find out on the bus!

Im in New Zealand!

Our trip to the zoo was great fun, I could hardly leave australia without seeing a kangaroo (although i have eaten it twice) and a koala! After the zoo we had a bbq with a friend from uni and had a great evening chatting away about all sorts. On our last day we relaxed and did some shopping and then spent the night in the airport, I slept suprisingly well although I had practice when I first arrived in Australia. The past 3 weeks have flown by, its amazing to think how much we have crammed in, I am enjoying it so much. The other photo I have uploaded is from Byron Bay, its the view from the lighthouse after our uphill cycle!

Now we are in New Zealand! Flew here yesterday morning, it only took 3 hours and we have spent the past two days in Christchurch. Its a very tiny city with a cathedral at the centre with our hostel a stones throw away from everything. Today we had a quick look around the art gallery, went for a punt on the river avon (it really did feel like we were in cambridge) and then spent the afternoon sitting on a tree branch that extended out over the river. Also got my hair cut for just over 3pounds, doesnt look too bad considering! Really like what I have seen of this country so far, tomorrow we get on our bus up to the next town which is famous for whale/dolphin watching, not sure what we will get up to yet. Will upload more photos when I have more time.