New Zealand - Update

Hello and 'Kia Ora' (welcome in Maori NZ talk as opposed to the juice drink) to Life with the Waltowns !

OK a little late in bringing you all an update on our trip but we've been even busier than we thought we would and iCafe's aren't that available.

We started the Honeymoon in Hong Kong on Thursday 8th December and spent a very enjoyable couple of days seeing the sights of the city and of course indulging in Hong Kong's top cultural attraction - shopping! In the evening we saw an amazing seasonal display of light & sound over the harbour. A number of the cities leading corporations supported an impressive laser show from the many skyscrapers, see pic below.







And of course we sampled some authentic cantonese cuisine before leaving the city and heading for NZ.

On December 11th we arrived in Auckland for DAY 1 of our NZ Tour, without major jet lag affects and had a wander around. To be honest we weren't overly impressed with Auckland - not the prettiest of cities but everyone was very friendly and helpful. The main attraction here is the 'Sky Tower' - shown below - and once we'd seen it and been up it well, we kind of felt we'd ticked the box and done Auckland! However the Thai restaurant was excellent and makes Auckland worth visiting!







DAY 2 - like all good plans we had the whole honeymoon planned out ahead of us but in true 'Ford' fashion we changed Day 2 straight away! So instead of a long trek North around a forest to see a waterfall (yes there'll be lots more to see anyway) we kept it a little more local and visited the surrounding countryside around Auckland. We headed to Whangarei for its forest walks and waterfalls (see they're all over the place!) and to a local Thermal Spa resort as it had taken much longer to pick up the Motor Home than planned.







Day 3 - off road driving skills in a Motor Home! Well it's not one of the road's listed in the Rental agreement that says we can't go along it...............still once in the middle of an unmade forest fire trail at the top of a mountain when the dirt bike rider gave us an impressive thumbs up for having got a Motor Home higher & further into the forest than he'd ever seen before I did think maybe, just maybe, we'd missed a turn!! Day 3 involved an extremely scenic drive from Auckland around the Coromandel Peninsula to Waiwera and up over the main forest and mountain area on a largely unsealed road - would have been great for mountain biking - think we routed out all the squeaks and rattles from the van though in the hairpins and near 45 degree slopes - I've never ever had to come down a hill in 1st gear before !!! It was sooooo steep. I didn't mention it at the time as I didn't think it quite the right moment, given Lisa's state of nervousness anyway since she was the suffering passenger but I'm not sure if she was scared but I was bricking myself - bugger the blase full insurance attitude that this was a rental by that point - I was more concerned with getting back to civilisation in one piece! But it was great fun :-) When we eventually got to the campsite we had a lovely outlook from our site right on to the beach looking out to sea and some small islands and coves.



Day 4 - started early, as in fact they all have - very strange, it's supposed to be a holiday! - with a 'tramp' (NZ for walk) to Cathedral Cove, see below. A lovely little inlet along the coast line about 45 minutes walk from our camp - mostly uphill I think, there and strangely back as well. In fact everywhere seems to always be uphill and just a short 2.5 hour walk away!!





On our way then we headed to Waitomo and their famous Glow Worm caves. Even more famous in NZ now since they burnt down the day before! The caves themselves didn;t burn down but the visitor centre above was burnt to the ground - they like building with a wood a lot over here. It has some disadvantages though. Luckily for us we had decided to book a action packed trip, called Black Abyss - the ultimate caving adventure apparently! It included abseiling, tubing, waterfall climbing and general caving all for our trip to see the Glow Worms and so were unaffected by the loss of the visitor centre - unlike the couches of tourists turning up expecting a quite drift in boats in the large caves of Glow Worms under the centre.

What made us choose to abseil and go caving is still a mystery to me as its not something I would ever ever want to take up as a 'sport' or 'hobby' but it was an amazing trip and much better than expected - what added an extra dimension to it was that it was not an 'insulated' trip with gangplanks, walkways or lights to guide you through the cave system - this was totally raw with loose rocks, freezing water, steep rock climbs and tights holes to squeeze through and a very real sense that a missed footing could spoil your holiday!






Day 5 - another early morning (still it beats the traffic - well it would if we were in the UK, but it's hardly busy over here!) and we headed to Rotorua in the heart of the Geothermal Region of the North Island where there are numerous active thermal areas - a polite way of saying mini volcano's and steaming sulphur and mud pools.

On arrival we visited the Blue & Green lakes - so called because, well it's fairly obvious but one is Blue and yup you guessed it one is Green! They get their distinct colours from subterranean mineral activity (apparently) as opposed to a food dye to ensure tourists keep visiting! Still they wouldn't have lakes without a bit of rain and boy can it rain down here - why does everyone make fun of the English for the weather ??? Still it is warm rain when it rains which is nice ;-).....btw how's the weather in the UK ?

In the afternoon we were treated to a very bumpy ride in a 4WD tour up Mount Tarawera - without the Motor Home this time! We were lucky as we were the only ones on the tour so had a very helpful and friendly personal guide who took us down into one of the nine craters on the currently dormant volcano which was formed in 1886 when it last erupted.



PS - Day 5 - had my first local NZ beer - off the antibiotics now :-) and another excellent Thai meal as a birthday treat in the town of Rotorua which has active thermal spots all through it and in the local park and golf course with strange geysers and steam vents to every horizon you look.

Day 6 - Waimangu Volcanic Valley was one of the highlights today with a leisurely walk down through the valley past numerous different thermal activities - the world's youngest active thermal area, formed by the 1886 eruption. It has some impressive activity and sights..........






After walking in the valley we returned to Rotorua and went for a play around on the Skyline Luge which has 3 different man made tracks spiraling down the hill accessed by chairlift and gondola's. The different tracks are more difficult or easy depending on your outlook - do you want to stay on the track and in your buggy or not ?

To round off the day we went to Hell's Gate Thermal reserve - another trek around some thermal activity including mud pools and and a mud volcano - but this one finished with a special hot mud spa !



No it didn't smell. Yes it felt very weird - not just the mud but the whole gayness of a mud face pack thing (that's Dave's view btw) and Yes your skin does really feel very good afterwards. Mind you anyone's skin would feel good after a cold shower and as many hot showers as you need to get all that mud off - of course your skin feels good to be clean !!! ;-)


Day 7 - drove down to Taupo via some more thermal reserves - Wai-O-Tapu & Orakei Korako in readiness for a day's tramp on the Tongariro Crossing. The thermal reserves were very good - all are different as the geology of the land and different minerals make them different to see and different in their type of activity.





On arriving in Taupo at the visitor centre we discovered that the Tongariro Crossing was cancelled for the following day and no guarantee for the day after that either due to poor visibility and weather conditions. Although at first we were somewhat disappointed and trying to figure out how to change our plans and ensure we could get to do some of the walk we realised it wasn't going to happen and brought forward our other plans so we could spend more time in both Napier and Wellington (the capital of NZ).

Day 8 - headed out early to Napier via Huka Falls & a fantastic jet boat ride on the Aratiatia Rapids !





Dried off.

Hit the road !

Arrived in Napier and took a step back in time to the Art Deco age of the 1930's to 40's............







Having ticked the box in Napier we made another change of plan and headed on to Wellington for the night to save making the trip the following morning and so give us more time to soak up the capital city on Monday.

Day 9 - Wellington, Monday December 19th. Lovely city ! Much better than Auckland. Much more cosmopolitan, lots of museums, street art, revitalised quays on the waterfront, lots of shops, great bars and cafe's and vast Botanical Gardens above the city accessed via a Hong Kong style cable car.






Day 10 - Well the day we're so far writing this all down. Had the most torrential downpours of rain overnight - made the van sound like a drum! Currently sat on a fairly smoothish ferry somewhere in between the North and South Islands. Our destination today is Nelson in the Abel Tasman region, a couple of hours from Picton where we are due to dock in another 1.5 hours.

Hoping to go on the SkyWire - the worlds longest sky fox adventure, 150m above the forest.





So our comments so far on North Island - you can't beat the scenery or ever tire of it - it's just stunning yet constantly changing over every mountain and around every corner. A very green and lush land with tropical and very Jurassic Park like prehistoric forests interspersed with real Middle Earth rolling countryside images. A very changeable landscape with a changeable climate - always warm yet often very hot and sometimes fairly wet too ! The geothermal regions are incredible - hard to beat in terms of fascination, colour, smell and their awe inspiring aura. City wise - Wellington is the place to be. Auckland is too backpackerish and too student like, where as although Wellington also caters for all the backpackers and has a university too it seems to be much more in the 21st century and not appear as tired and worn as Auckland. It's almost as if Auckland revels in the backpacker and grunge image. Or maybe we just wandered through the wrong areas and are snobs !! ;-)

So onto the South Island...................

The Skywire was amazing - a thrilling and very scenic ride!! The rest of the afternoon was spent mooching around Nelson and buying some wet weather gear to serve us well (no doubt!) for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately we seem to have bought the wet weather with us from the North Island!!

Day 11 - At last some glorious sunshine (must be because of our shopping yesterday afternoon so money well spent!) - enough to warrant plenty of factor 30 to keep us from burning on our morning sea kayak adventure in Cable Bay. When we set out in our double kayak following our very experienced guide the ocean had only a small swell ... but after a couple of hours exploring the coastline & local wildlife we turned back just in time as the weather broke - wind picked up & the water got quite choppy ... enough for us to try our hand at kayak surfing back onto the shoreline!! Cool!!






The afternoon lead us on a drive down the scenic east coastline to Kaikoura, our final destination for Day 11.

Day 12 - after our earliest start so far we made it to Dolphin Encounters for 5.30am and our first adventure of the day. And what an adventure - swimming in the Pacific Ocean with wild Dusky Dolphins - a pod of 250 or so, including new born calves! At there most playful in the morning we provided their entertainment for the day by mimicking Dolphin behaviour ourselves (including Dolphin sound effects through our snorkels) in order to encourage them to investigate us and play!








Then followed an equally fantastic encounter with wild sperm whales. This time as an audience from a high-speed catamaran jet boat (so warm & dry!). We got to see three whales plus some more Dusky Dolphins & wild fur seals (very smelly!).






The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out at Hanmer Springs Thermal Spa, a combination of relaxing thermal pools, mineral pools & sulphur spa's (very smelly but very good for the skin apparently!).

Day 13 - looks like the rain is back again - although the weather is having difficulty making its mind up either way. So after a rather wet drive to Christchurch this morning we've arrived at our holiday park for the night and so far have quickly visited the city centre and spent some time at the city's art gallery. We had hoped to visit the Botanical Gardens but as the weather isn't that great not sure if we'll make it this time round as we will be back in Christchurch at the end of the trip. Will be donning our new wet weather gear (although it is just grey and cool at the moment and not wet) to venture back into the city centre soon to post this Blog at long last as we found a Wi-Fi cafe this morning. Then probably do some more city highlights and come back for a spa at the resort before an early night ahead of Day 14's earliest start of the trip for either Hot Air ballooning (pick up 4:30!!! - need to call ahead @ 4am to confirm they are flying!??!) or a trip across The Southern Alps from west to east coast via the scenic Arthur's Pass - guess we'll get sunrise either way!

OK so that didn't happen - too chilled at the camp site with beer !

Day 14 - got up 3:45am !! Rang the Balloon company up at 4am and got the go ahead for a Balloon ride over Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains. Picked up at the camp site at 4:30am but the wind was too much for a city centre lift off and we headed out of the city to an alternative site. Unfortunately the weather although appearing much better than yesterday was too windy for the Balloons, approx 35 knots @ 2500 ft (in Kiwi speak this is apparently termed 'it's hoofing it up there') which is on their limit and they were concerned that if it picked up more the landings could be an issue - better safe than sorry so we turned around and headed back to the campsite and the motor home for breakfast! With luck we'll be able to try again in January if the weather holds and we can transfer our booking OK to when we are back in Christchurch before leaving NZ.

This meant we set off on the rest of the days plans driving over Arthur's Pass from the East to West coast across the Southern Alps. Was a lovely drive with great scenery and lots of stops to keep us active and awake looking at views and waterfalls and yet more scenery! Once we got to the West coast we have visited Punakakai, the home of the 'Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes' - no not anything to do with drugs, but an area on the coast where the wind and sea erosion has taken layers from the rock due to the way it was originally formed to leave very layered rocks that are quite different to normal rocks. Haven't downloaded the pics yet so can't share them yet.

We are spending the night, Christmas Eve, in a lovely small Beach side park with direct access to the long beach at Hokitika. It's an amazing beach as this must be the Drift Wood capital of the world - there is so much driftwood all down the beach you can't believe it - and when we say drift wood we include full blown tress in that description. They get so much here they have an annual competition in February making Beach Art out of the stuff which attracts hundreds of visitors apparently - well it is a quiet country on the whole you know! The site is also opposite a Glow Worm Dell some 3 minutes away which we will pop over to later this evening after some food to help wash the beer and Malibu down with! - assuming we stay awake of course!!

Tomorrow on Christmas Day, since it has been boiling hot today :-) (once on the west coast) we are heading for some snow and ice - after a well earned lie in and will be heading for the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers in readiness for our Helihike on the ice on Boxing Day - see we couldn't give up the cold and snow that easily!

Anyway AT LAST we have checked into a campsite with WiFi !!! Woo Hoo - so we can share our story so far. Although ALL of the sites have been immaculate we've stayed in so far and almost all have had some form of interenet access, via kiosks, but this is the first with WiFi.

So now we can wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that you enjoy tomorrows festivities and that you have a great New Year (we'll be in the adventure capital of NZ, Queenstown - and hope to be able to post again around then).

Hope everyone is well and hope you have a great Christmas. We'll think about you all at home from our spot on the beach tomorrow, Christmas Day ! ;-)

Lisa & Dave