Fox Glacier

After the warmth of Abel Tasman we were bracing ourselves for freezing cold here. (Forgot to mention Ro invested in a fancy new camera on the way here!, he's been playing with his new toy ever since!) Luckily the area off the glacier isn't too bad and so our layers were uncalled for! There was a lot of cloud over the glacier so on our first day the trip we had booked was cancelled so instead we headed to the base of the glacier, but this is still pretty spectacular.

Next morning we got usp early (5am!) as some kind americans offered us a lift to Lake Matheson for the sun rise. On a clear day you can see the reflection of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook in its waters. Unfortunately it was a bit too cloudy to see these or much of the sun rise but sure it was worth a go!

We popped in to the glacier tour office at 11 expecting our heli-hike to be cancelled (again!) but luckily enough we got the go ahead as the dark clouds were clearing. The helicopter flight up to the glacier was brilliant. We were only in the air for about 8 minutes but the pilots zigzagging meant we got to see some amazing views. His perfect landing on the ice was fantastic!

We then hiked around the glacier (the crampons on our boots gave us fantastic grip) finding ice caves and getting soaked crawling through them (Orla was the brave first one in!). After about 80 minutes or so heavy mist and dark clouds started heading towards the glacier so we had to make a quick exit back to base. The helicopter trip back was great fun with a few stomach lurching air jumps on the return. Well worth the wait.

Abel Tasman National Park

After much hymming and hawing we decided to do a one day kayak, stay overnight in the park on a boat and do a walk the following day, this turned out to be great.

The kayaking was great fun, even if we did discover that Orlas direction giving isnt top notch (according to Orla though Ro's steering isnt to hot either!!!), only crashed into one rock!!!! Had a great picnic on a fabulous beach and walked up to a wonderful viewpoint. We kayaked for about 4 hours from Marahau to Anchorage.

We stayed on board the Aquapackers boat in Anchorage where we had a delicious BBQ and lots to drink (even a midnight speedboat trip to the glowworm caves!).

Next morning we headed off towards our destination of Onetauthi (we dont know how to spell this!) which was a lovely 17km walk with amazing views of the beaches, bays and clear waters of Abel Tasman. We were really lucky that the sun was shining and this trip was definately worth it.

Nelson

After the a very pleasant boat Journey from Wellington - Pickton (we even got to watch the Bourne Ultimatium in the cinema) we hopped on a bus to Nelson. Not knowing to much about the place we were very pleasantly surprised with how nice the town and views are aswell as staying in a fantastic room in a wonderful hostel "The Bug" (the communal areas are even open all night, a rare treat in NZ). We have also been really lucky with the weather, it has been pretty much glorious sunshine since the moment we stepped on the south island.

Nelson is one of the wine regions of NZ and after seeing all the drunkards returning from toast Martinborough in Wellington, we were tempted into some wine tasting. We did a day trip where we visited 5 vineyards, but to be honest 4 of them were pretty average, but one (Stafford Lane) was absolutely brillant with very enthusatic staff and tasty wine, olive oils and chutneys its a pity we couldn't have spent the day there or at least bought a few crates to bring with us.

The main attraction for the Nelson area is Abel Tasman national park so after enjoying Nelson for a couple of days we headed there.

Wellington

We arrived at 8pm on Sunday and left at 8am on Monday, so not much to say except we stayed in a kip (Roweena's Lodge) and had nice Hell's Pizza.

We're not going to miss you Wellington. Apologies for the lack of photos, but alas we didn't come across a kodak moment!!

Tongariro National Park

After the exhileration of the skydive we headed to Tongariro national park. Ronan celebrated not dying during the previous 72 hours by opening his 2002 gold medal winning Tempranillo purchased in Mendoza.

We stayed in a wondefull place called Discovery lodge (with really great owners, they even lent Orla their child to play with for a few hours each day!!) as this was the closest place to the start of the Tongariro crossing, which is supposedly the best one day walk in New Zealand. Unfortunately the weather was crap for the next day so we put off the walk, but luckily for us we had a 51" TV and a good DVD collection to choose from, we'd highly recommend "The Worlds Fastest Indian", "The Cinderalla Man" & "Life is beautiful".

Anyway the weather forecast was really accurate so we were delighted to wake up to beautiful clear skies. The Tongaririo Crossing is a 17k walk that passes across "Mount Doom'' (from Lord of the Rings) and 2 lakes. I have to say that we weren't massively impressed with the walk as we expected more from the best one day walk in New Zealand and poor Orla got awful blisters on her heels from her hiking boots, which also detracted.

PS: Thanks to our chauffeurs Philip and Helen for all the lifts and company on the walk.

Taupo

We came to Taupo to do some skydiving and skydive is what we did. We went with the intention to do a 12,000 feet dive and not to buy and photos or dvd (silly waste of money!!!) but our willpower is clearly nada as we left having done an exhilerating jump from 15,000 armed with the dvd, photos and even a t-shirt (suckers!!!). It was brilliant!

Rotorua

The first thing that hits you as you enter this city (more like a town but anyway!) is the strong, strong, strong, smell of egg!!! Mmmm...nice!!! First morning there we met up with some friends and went wandering through the park which is full of natural pools of bubbling water and mud - this was great to see!! Apparently they just explode every so often destroying whatever gets in their way (houses, schools, cars etc.!) madness!!



Anyway after this we drove out to a fantastic place called "Kerosene Creek" where we all went swimming in a roasting hot river with a fantastic heated waterfall, brilliant and best of all FREE (not so much free stuff in New Zealand)!






Next day we headed out to visit a Mauri Village which is built around mud pools and a huge geyser. This was great and gave us a brilliant insight into how the people actually live nowadays i.e. they even have a webpage, cars, microwaves etc. but still stick to ancient ways of cooking their food etc. After watching a geyser erupt we headed to taste some hangi, which is cooked in a hole in the gound for a few hours, basically this was like a roast dinner (Mmm!) with gravy and stuffing and the works, fantastic! We even had time to join in a cultural performance of the "Hokey Pokey" in Mauri!!!




Next stop was Zorbing (for those of you that don't know what this is, its basically running down a hill in a big hamster ball with a bit of warm water inside it!). Three of us did this together and it was brilliant, but definately over too soon (only about 7 seconds!).








Next day four of us headed to do a Grade 5 White Water Raft. This was seriously good fun, and seriously nerve wracking! We even managed to capsize during our descent down a 7 meter waterfall...luckily we all survived and even enjoyed the experience once we saw the photos!! Ronan is dying to do this again somewhere else as he has decided its the adventure sport for him.

Waitomo

The reason we headed to Waitomo was for their caves, other than that there really is nothing there, when we say nothing we really mean it, apart from the tourist office there was not even a small shop to be seen. We dropped our bags to our hostel and organised the "labyrinth" Black Water Rafting. Black Water Rafting is where you walk and "tube" (place your bum on top of the inside of a car tyre) inside a cave full of glowworms. It was a little scary jumping backwards off a 2.5 meter drop holding a tyre to your bum!!! but otherwise nothing too amazing. Orla was impressed with the glow worms (which looked lovely) until the guide explained that the bit that glowed was really the glowworm poo!!! (nice!!!).

The Northland (area north of Auckland)

First stop on our roadtrip were the world famous " Hundertwasser toilets" in Kawakawa which really were worth stopping for (especially in comparison to Bolivian toilets!!!). We also stopped in a Kauri museum which was expensive considering the boredom factor!!

The weather was pretty rubbish so we dropped our bags into out hostel and then immersed ourselves in some local culture with some NZ fish 'n' chips and a few beers...mmm!!! Next day we headed to the most northerly point in NZ called Cape Reinga which was great apart from the fact that there was alot of mist so visibility was poor. Now we have to get to Bluff (the most southerly point of NZ) before we leave!Next day the weather hadnt improved so we spent the day wandering Kerikeri which had more to offer than we thought and we visited Marsden winery which had some great tasters.

After putting it off for 3 days we got up to shining sun and headed off on a catamaran to sail the Bay of Islands. The sailing was really cool and fast and we had a little time to kayak after a yummy bbq! On the way back to Paihia we even spotted some Orca Whales and dolphins albeit from a distance.

Next day we headed back towards Auckland and stopped in a Kauri forest on our way, the trees really are mahussive!!! Thanks Heather for a great trip and we look forward to our guided tour of Bluff!!

Auckland

After 2 days in the air (left on 31st Oct, landed on 2nd Nov), we arrived in NZ, have to say after loads of comfortable buses in South America it felt very squashed on the plane, but at least there was no turbulance. It feels alot like home with all the greenery and the rain!!

Auckland is quiet a nice city, but there a bit too obsessed with their sky tower. Day one we did a 16k walk around the city called "coast to coast" which was a good way to see the old volcanic craters and get our bearings around the city. Other than that we were a bit jet lagged so mostly had early nights. On the news front, Orla invested in a much needed pair of jeans as her old favourites were literaly falling apart, she no longer gets dirty looks walking into shops (even the poor kids in SA thought she was as poor as them with holes in her clothes!!).

Allegedly NZ has 39m sheep it wasnt very practical to take a photo of all of them so here the first of many weve seen so far!!!

A Kiwi we met in Ecuador (Heather), generously offered to bring us on a roadtrip to the Northland, so off we went for a few days without buses.