New-Zealand

29th May 2010 A morning of packing was followed by an afternoon movie and general hanging around in Starbucks. Although we were able to leave our big bags at the hotel, we still had to carry our hand luggage with us and had decided a few days ago that it would just be best to be in one place for a while. The cinema seemed like a good option :). However, we had underestimated how busy it would be and failed to get tickets for anything besides the Prince of Persia, which was predictable but good. ...

30th & 31st December 2009 Yesterday we spent the day travelling, first from our lovely spot at Halfmoon Cottage back to Christchurch where we enjoyed our final Kiwi meal of fish and chips (what else!), then onto the airport to catch the plane to Sydney. We arrived at the Hilton on George Street in Sydney, arguably the best hotel we’ve stayed in so far with its modern room, comfy bed and great view over George Street. After checking in, the priority was to do a bit of a recce in preparation for the New Years Eve fireworks tomorrow so we wandered down to Circular Quay and around the Opera House where preparations for private parties and public areas were in full swing. ...

29th December 2009 Our last full day in New Zealand today, and the weather has improved again. After breakfast we made our over to Akaroa for a final mooch around, and it was a bit quieter than it had been yesterday afternoon, although the beach was still quite busy - hardly surprising given how nice the weather was. We also found an interesting sculpture of a painter with an invisible canvas. ...

27th December 2009 Since the last few days have been truly lazy ones, this morning we decided to get some air into our lungs and go for a walk in the Hinewai Park. This is a local conservation area, most of which is on private land and is privately managed. Unfortunately, after some heavy rain in the night, the cloud this morning was very low and put paid to any ideas we may of had about climbing mountains for views of the peninsula. Instead, we took the steep (and very wet) path down into the valley for a look at some of the waterfalls. ...

26th December 2009 After last night’s feast it was a late breakfast this morning. Then we headed out to Akaroa where with it being Saturday all the shops were open for business. We took a drive down to north head, where the entrance to Akaroa is flanked by sheer cliffs, including a rock with a hole into it. We sat for a while at the top of the hill watching the dolphin cruise boats down below. ...

24th December 2009 A lazy breakfast was followed by a pleasant morning wandering around the small township of Akaroa. Set on the Banks Peninsula, which is the result of violent erruptions by three volcanoes millions of years ago, it was originally the caldera of an ancient volcano which filled with sea water as the oceans rose to make it the pretty little harbour it is today. ...

23rd December 2009 On to the very last leg of our New Zealand adventure today, a week-long stay at a small place about an hour and a half from Christchurch called Akaroa. This is where we’ll be enjoying the festive period doing not much apart from reading, a bit of walking and generally relaxing before the madness of Sydney over New Year. We stopped off to do our ‘Christmas shop’ in Christchurch, which although busier than normal was in no way as bad as the insanity of Tescos a few days before Christmas. ...

22nd December 2009 Tonight we’ve been invited to Sarah and Hayden’s house in Christchurch for a BBQ and to stay the night. Since we’ve got to do a big shop for over Christmas and had run out of stuff for breakfast yesterday, this morning we treated ourselves to a full cooked breakfast at the Powerhouse Cafe - bloody gorgeous. To walk off the aforementioned gluttony we headed up to Conical Hill, where a gently sloping path winds back and forth up the hill to a viewpoint at the top. The views from here were amazing, you really see how flat the plains are surrounded by mountains on all sides with the little town of Hamner nestled directly in front of you. ...

19th & 20th December 2009 Yesterday morning we spent a pleasant hour walking around Nelson market with its colourful mixture of stalls selling everything from paintings to clothes, knives to food. We bought some fresh vegetables for our tea and some cakes for lunch. Then we headed south to our next destination at Nelson Lakes. We had found a very small hostel with only 6 beds set on a farm near the Nelson Lakes National Park. We took the scenic route from Nelson and drove through acres and acres of tall pine trees which were obviously being grown for logging. ...

21st December 2009 A glorious cloudless sky meant that this morning we could sit on the sun terrace and enjoy our breakfast. Afterwards we packed up our gear and set off for Hanmer Springs. The road from the hostel took us down through a small town called Murchisson then snakes through Buller Gorge. We stopped off at the Buller Gorge Swingbridge which is NZ’s longest swing bridge at 110 metres long. ...

16th December 2009 In a fit of what can only be described as pure madness we decided to borrow some bikes from the hostel we’re staying at and explore Nelson sans voiture for the day. The hostel is about a 20 minute walk from Nelson city centre, so they have plenty of bikes which you can borrow for no extra charge. We’re staying at a hostel called the Bug which does indeed have its own VW Beetle in lime green. So much better than the last place with a great homely atmosphere, well equipped kitchen and comfortable, proper sized beds :). ...

15th December 2009 We left Blenheim this morning without even having a taste of wine apart from the bottle of Australian red that we had last night - probably not the done thing, but we’ve never been sticklers for tradition :). The rows of vines morphed into rolling countryside once more which finally met the sea in Picton. It was another lovely day so we parked up and went for a walk across the harbour, climbing up to get wonderful views looking back to the ferry terminal and further out across the sounds before we came to a small bay where crystal clear waters lapped the shore. We were walking for about an hour and a half which gave us a great opportunity to see more of Picton, which actually seems like a nice place, rather than leaving New Zealand with the impression that it was a cold, dreary place with a ferry terminal, which is what we thought when we first came in on the ferry about 4 weeks ago. ...

14th December 2009 About three weeks ago, we booked another hire car for the rest of our time in New Zealand. We booked through a company we found on the internet and were a little unsure about whether it would actually come through as the emails and phone calls were a little relaxed, but I guess that’s just the laid-backness of the country because at 8.30 prompt this morning they picked us up as arranged. We had originally booked another Starlett, but they had given us a slightly bigger car at the same rate (just need to think of a name for this one now). ...

13th December 2009 One of my second cousins lives in Christchurch, so today we had arranged to meet up with her and her boyfriend Hayden for a spot of lunch. We were experiencing another dry day, so after they picked us up, we headed out towards Banks’ Peninsula. There we stopped at a place called Sign of the Kiwi at Port Hills, from here we had a stunning views across Christchurch to the Southern Alps in the distance. We took a short path around the hillside and enjoyed the views over Lyttleton Harbour in the other direction. ...

10th & 11th December 2009 The campervan is due back in Christchurch on Friday, but since we’ve kind of finished with the whole camping thing, we’ve booked into a hotel for Thursday night as a bit of a treat. Thursday therefore is spent heading north on New Zealand’s version of the M1 - a one lane highway all the way up the east coast punctuated with ‘blink and you miss it’ towns. ...

9th December 2009 When we first decided to come to New Zealand we thought a campervan would be the ideal way to tour the place and see loads of things. However, due to the cost of hiring at this time of year (peak) and availability issues, instead of a van for the entire 5 weeks on the south island, we ended up with one for just two and a half weeks. How lucky we were…. ...

7th December 2009 After the relative and glorious wilderness of the Catlins we were looking forward to getting back to civilisation in the shape of the South Island’s second largest city, Dunedin. On our arrival mid-morning we discovered a delightful, compact town centre shaped as a octagon with some wonderfully preserved old buildings. We didn’t really know where to start so we headed for the city’s I-Site where we were able to book a one hour historical walking tour of the city. This seemed like the best and quickest way for us to get our bearings, while learning about the grand old sites surrounding us. ...

8th December 2009 The weather closed in again this morning, so we spent it drinking hot drinks and reading in the van at the campsite. Not very exciting, but a pleasant enough morning. This afternoon we caught the bus into town. I always find it very interesting to take buses in cities, since they never take the direct route into the centre, but go around the houses, so you get to see a little bit more of suburbia. For the first time in New Zealand, we saw rows of terraced houses - probably due to the Scottish influence and we also went past the huge University of Otago, New Zealand’s oldest university. ...

6th December 2009 We are currently exploring the Catlins, supposedly a wonderful place for independent wildlife-watching. After our penguin experience last night, we were hoping for more encounters today, and we certainly weren’t disappointed. First thing this morning we decided to go up to the headland overlooking both Porpoise and Curio Bays to enjoy our breakfast, rather than sit in the campsite. While we were up there, I looked out of the doorway to the van, out to sea and saw a flipper, then a tail. There was a whale, right there out in the bay, a fair way off shore, but close enough that you could see what it was! Wow, just amazing to see one completely in the wild and completely by chance. ...

4th December 2009 Another good nights sleep after all the exhilaration and fresh air of yesterday and our luck with the weather seems to be changing, since despite our fears to the contrary, today has been another sunny, cloudless day, albeit with a cooling breeze. One of the things we learnt yesterday on our tour was that before man arrived in New Zealand, the only mammal it possessed was a bat, hence the high number of flightless birds in the country. It seems like the majority of NZ’s native species are endangered or under serious threat all due to introduced species like the rat, dog, possom and stoat. ...