The North Island (and a bit of the South)

We're back on the South Island now, which must mean that we're halfway through our stay in New Zealand. Which is definitely a shame, as it feels like we've missed huge chunks of the North Island despite being there for 3 weeks.

After we crossed the Straits, we headed up to Wanganui (or is it Whanganui?) to spend some time round the river. We drove up the Wanganui River Road, 90 kms of gravel road, stopping along the way to take a jetboat ride up the river a short way. It was so peaceful that we decided to come back on the way back down the Island so that we could take the jetboat again but jump out at the top and paddle a canoe back down. We didn't, though. Just ran out of time.

From there it was further north to see huge Kauri trees, even more Kauri trees, really enormous Kauri trees, and finally a few more Kauri trees. Had enough of them for now. We also stopped at Waitomo to go caving and see the glow worms. Dead good, that was, except for the bit where the guides madfe us turn our torches off and feel our way along the wall of the cave for a bit. I think everyone must have fallen over at least twice, but we were all wearing very thick, padded wetsuits for just that eventuality.

Then north again, to the Bay of Islands and the Poor Knights Coast. I was hoping to do some diving there, as the Poor Knights Islands have been described as one of the top 10 dive-sites in the world by no less than Jacques Cousteau. The slight problem was the weather, with a 6-metre swell coming in on the day I was hoping to dive, and all the operators cancelling their trips until it calmed down again. We had to move on before the weather cleared up. The same thing happened at Papamoa, so I've done precisely no diving yet. There's still time, though.

After wandering round the Coromandel Peninsula for a couple of days, we headed for Rotoroa to have a look at bubbling mud, geysers and waterfalls. And to throw ourselves down half of the waterfalls while clinging onto a floating plastic sledge.Wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped, as I just couldn't control my direction as much as I wanted to, and spent most of the trip fighting to turn my sledge towards the right bit of the current. Triny didn't enjoy it either, after capsizing during the first rapids. We would probably have enjoyed rafting more than sledging, but I didn't think I would be able to persuade my knee to be as flexible as it would have needed to be when crouching down in the raft would have been necessary.

After Rotoroa we had to start driving south again on our way back to Wellington and the ferry. We spent a couple of days in Wellington so that we could go to the Te Papa museum, which was worth the visit. It also gave us the chance to book a hotel for a couple of days of luxury after three weeks in a van.

We made the ferry crossing and came back to Kaikoura to have another shot at a whale-watching trip. The weather this morning was bright and sunny, and we saw a sperm whale, a load of dolphins and a seal colony. Brilliant, though we were both fighting the sea-sickness that came from the rather choppy sea. The "traditional remedy" that we had bought from the tour company was about as effective as a chocolate teapot.

So, from here, we'll head back over the top of the South Island to the Abel Tasman park to hopefully do some kayakking. After that, it's south towards Milford Sound. And then lots of other stuff, but we haven't got that far yet, so God knows what it'll be.

Incidentally, there are some more pictures to look at. You can see them here, but here's a couple of teasers:






Right. I'm off. Though Triny will probably be along in a minute to write about everything I forgot to mention.

Kiwi photos

Just a quick post to prove that we're actually in New Zealand and not lounging around in, say, Skegness or somewhere. The rest of the photos are here.

North Island Pt. 1

Well, we’ve spent a week and a half travelling around the North Island, and I have to say that I’ve loved every minute of it. Sure, everyone stares at the van, but we’re used to it now. Besides, good old Ginge is doing a grand job of get us from A to B, C, D and E.

After a very sedate start in quiet Christchurch we were relieved to find more people and goings-on on our way. We’re looking forward to seeing the north and east sides of the North Island over the next week and South Island thereafter, given what we’ve seen already and what we’ve heard and read, it will blow us away. We enjoyed a private jet boat ride on the Wanganui River Road (only because no-one else was there) which was so beautiful and quiet, apart from the 360 degree spins. Pat suggested we do the Tongariro Crossing and I was so glad he did. It was a hard 18k slog and we were exhausted at the end, but it was out of this world to see the volcano-scape and sources of inspiration for the Lord of the Rings films. I couldn’t help coming up with ‘My precious’ and ‘Oh Frodo’ lines walking through parts of it! Looking for something relaxing the following day we took a cruise on the Barbary on Lake Tuapo. That was great and Pat had a chance to steer, despite the whitterings of an annoying drunk Aussie couple. And the other day we went to see the famous Waitomo cave glow worms, doing a spot of abseiling, caving, climbing and blackwater rafting in the process. That was great fun and absolutely freezing some 65m below the surface. You’ll see the pics soon – we look absolute fools in what we’re wearing…..and doing.

A link

Sorry, forgot to add this link to my last post.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7166411.stm

It's only one photo, and it wasn't exactly news, but I was still very smug about it.

Who says we can't do subtle?

I know we haven't posted much on here for a week or two, but we've been doing quite a lot: relaxing at Caireen and Darryl's house, getting photos published on the BBC News website (quite proud of that one), going to beaches, even more relaxing, talking to people about work, and lots of more stuff that I can't remember right now.

But now we've left Australia. We flew into Christchurch in New Zealand a couple of days ago, and yesterday we picked up a campervan that will be our home for the next 6 weeks. Well, I say "campervan", I think "mobile attention magnet" would be a better description:






I feel I should point out that we didn't choose the van we got ("Ginger" as it's known at the rental firm's depot). All the vans that Escape Rentals do are painted up in weird designs, and while you can give them your preferred three choices when you book, they can only give you what they have in the garage at the time. We wouldn't normally have gone for something so loud, but the layout inside was better than any of the other small "white van" companies that we've seen, and this one was also a good 20 quid a day cheaper than most other firms.

Just arriving at our first campsite in Kaikoura led to at least 4 people coming to talk to us, and people are still walking past it with very raised eyebrows. Wonder whether we'll be sick of it in a couple of weeks time?

Another load of photos

Time for another batch of photos, so here you go. This time from Sydney. As usual, you can see the rest of them here.