Land of the Long White Cloud (4)

 

28th February

Today we travelled to  Greymouth – aptly named as the sky was a little overcast and did nothing for the view.

We took a taxi from the Camp site at around 4.00pm  to visit the shops and go on a brewery tour at around 6.00pm. It was Saturday afternoon so as you would expect all (yes all) of the shops were closed. Luckily we found an establishment selling our other beer of choice, Speights Gold Medal Ale and that passed an hour away until we went off to the brewery for the main event. The tour of the brewery was interesting if a little brief but the tasting session made up for it – 7 beers are brewed by Monteith’s and we had the chance to sample them all. As Carol is not a great lover of beer I had more of some samples than others and with the 2 additional “pour your owns” I was feeling quite pi$$ed by the time we left. Then it was back to the pub we visited earlier for something to eat (and drink) and to round the day off. It rained heavily overnight although this had cleared by the morning

1st March

Woke up to rain this morning. It had stated overnight and on the journey down to Franz Joseph Glacier the weather was quite poor. When we arrived at the site we saw a film about the glacier and then decided to use the facilities on site cook us up a mighty good chilli, which as I write this is looking across the table from me in the Kitchen/dining area. The plant is to visit the Fox glacier tomorrow as the weather is due to clear and do a valley walk. Then on Tuesday we are hoping to do the helihike that we booked at 09.30 with a plan to get some miles under our belt enroute to Wanaka.

 

2nd March

Well we did the Fox glacier walk and the weather was good for us. The walk itself was great and we had a very experienced and knowledgeable guide (Rodger) who took us (on foot) up to the glacier through the rain forest where we fitted “cramp ons”  that allowed us to go onto the ice. It was an invigorating 4 hour walk that left us somewhat weary at the end of it. The Glacier is surprisingly “dirty” with rocks, debris and even some sand from the Australian desert. The hot spells over the past few years in Australia is one of the reasons why the glacier has actually increased in size, although it is believed that over the next few years it will probably contract a little. These changes are quite normal, but it was mentioned that the rate at which the glacier is changing size has accelerated as a consequence of global warming.

By the end of the day the weather had picked up nicely and the forecast had confirmed that Tuesday was going to be a good day for the heli-hike.

3rd March

Today the weather was great. The sun shone and the temperature was comfortably in the 20’s. Carol had enjoyed the walk on the Fox the day before but didn’t fancy the helicopter ascent to the Franz Joseph. The trip was short, around 10 mins but we started the hike at around 900 metres and this was a good start after yesterdays trip!!

We spent around 2.5 hours on the ice before being picked up and returned to base and it was truly amazing. The ice flow was really impressive and our guide a young, fit and quite scary lead us over mini cravasse’s and through ice caves and across frozen ice lakes. Needless to say the camera was working overtime and I have already gotten through 2 x 16 GByte cards and 1 x 4 GByte card.

Met Carol on my return ate some lunch and started off for Wanaka, which was quite a distance for late start but none the less we made it. The trip down was quite incredible with regard to the scenery that we saw. stopped and photographed. The Haast pass in particular was amazing and by now we have taken to keeping my camera in the cab with us so that we can more easily stop and nip out to take the odd photo. We reached Wanaka tired but content at around 6.30 pm, booked into the site promptly left to take the camper down to the lake and watched the local sailing club pottering around whilst drinking beer and eating a burger at the pub on the lakeside. Sailing was boring though – in all of the time I watched them no one capsized at all – NZ girlies!!

We decided that despite its alcoholic charms tomorrow we were bound for Queenstown. 

4th March

Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of NZ and it’s worthy of the title. In addition to being a lively vibrant place it’s the home for many of the extreme sports such as jet boating, rafting “bungying” and sky diving. Not keen on any of those we settled for the cable car, steam boat trip on the lake and a very nice Pizza at a waterfront bar.  The weather was hot again today and I keep getting bitten despite using copious amounts of bug spray. It must be true that bugs are attracted to sweet things…

5th March

Today albeit a little belatedly we arrived at Dunedin – mainly due to the photographic interludes I mentioned previously. This “city” is the 3rd largest in NZ but is considerably smaller than Wellington and Auckland. The weather was fine on the journey down and as I write this at around 7.00pm it is starting to get a little cooler. We only had a few hours to explore this place today but we are here for a couple of nights so there is plenty of time tomorrow.  it was founded by the Scotish people and Dunedin is the ancient name for Edinburgh.  We took the opportunity to stock up on food and beer and I think it will be Lasagne tonight for tea.

Land of the Long White Cloud (2)

Friday 20th February

Today finds us in Tauranga (actually at the Papamoa beach) which is around 88km from Rotorua. Yesterday was a long drive around 320 km but the roads albeit very picturesque were a little twisty and this slowed us down somewhat. It was a bit like travelling from Weston to Cornwall but using all of the B roads. Traffic was light though and this helped with the journey. We stopped at a few places along the way and took some “arty” beach photos and took in the fabulous views. It really is like every every beauty spot you have ever seen but on steroids.

The Camper Van is a 4 birth and is fine for 2 people but you would have to be very good friends to accommodate 4  people – especially adults. It has fridge, cooker, microwave etc but the sites are so well appointed that we hardly need to use these at all. The problem is that the sites are not well signposted – in fact not at all, so finding them with my navigation skills it makes it doubly difficult.

So today when the rain stops we are off to Rotorua where we will probably stay 2 nights. The plan is to reach Wellington by Wednesday PM where we take a ferry first thing on Thursday across to South Island (Picton). There starts the tour of the South Island. Its becoming apparent that to see everything that you want to and at a more leisurely pace, you probably need the amount of time we have allowed for the holiday just for each island – but hey ho that’s life and we make the best of it. 

21st February

So I write this part of the blog whilst sitting outside the camper van and enjoying the remainder of the evening. Today has been a relatively short trip down through Rotorua to Lake Taupo. This morning we visited a (partially) buried village that had been the victim of an Volcano eruption as recent as 1876. The site itself was ok but the guided tour was very good indeed. Before that however we took a look at a waterfall and watched some brave souls white water rafting down the river – rather them than me.

We then went on to Roturua and took a look at the thermal springs whilst dodging the odd shower of rain before reaching Taupo. Found the site, and then went for a walk before tea. The beer of choice on this holiday is Monteith’s Golden Lager and very nice it is too. The bottles are a little small at 330ml but I can cope with that. Not quite as many photos as I thought that I would take but they are mounting up nicely.  Weather is hot again and although it is punctuated by the odd shower of rain it’s not a problem.

22nd February

Today we arrived at Napier at around 10.30 am after an 80km drive from Taupo. Napier was destroyed in the early 1930’s by a huge earthquake that basically reclaimed a large portion of land. That was the good bit – the bad bit part was that it also totalled the town and virtually all buildings were lost. The cost of rebuilding was significant but as the great depression had already hit there was a lot of spare labour available and it was decided to construct the town in Art Deco style as it was cheap to construct and very fashionable at the time. Each year on the anniversary of the event the residents organise a fortnight of events with the highlight of them being the weekend vintage car rally and jazz weekend. We arrived on Sunday which was the last day – and what a superb day it was!! Lot’s of locals (and not so local) in period costume and some super cars (NZ has the highest number of vintage cars per capita). The weather was great and there was an air display steam traction engines and music until around 6.00 pm. During the afternoon we went for a guided walking tour of the town – with a peek into some of the buildings that you don’t usually get used to seeing. A few beers helped the proceedings along nicely. After a long day out we walked the 2-3 km back to the Camper van for an early night, ready for the long drive to Wellington the next day.

23rd February

Today we drove 320 km down to Wellington which will be our base for the next 2 days before catching the ferry to Picton on Thursday – and leaving North Island. It was a good trip and the roads were quite fast with the exception of a stretch right at the end of the journey where we traversed a mountain range.

However it does mean that I have no more driving for the next few days and that's good as so far I have driven a little over 1200 km since we arrived at Auckland – some of it on some quite demanding roads. I didn’t really realise just how big NZ was, it seems (and is) quite small compared with Australia. Typically it is a little too far from the UK to make an easy comparison.

I’ll finish the blog here and start a new one with our activities in Wellington and South Island

Land of the Long White Cloud

 

 

Friday 13th – Tuesday 17th February

Well we got here and as I write this I am sitting in front of the Camper Van anticipating my impending evening meal. Its the 17th February and unseasonably warm, even for Auckland where this is our last night

The holiday started with delays on the M4 travelling down to our hotel where we spent the night prior to our Saturday departure. The flight was a long one (or two to be more accurate) 12.5 hours to Singapore and a further 9.5 hours to Auckland. The LHR to Singapore flight was delayed by around 45 mins – not much on a flight that long but it did mean that we had to run to catch the connection at Singapore.

After a day seeing some of the sites in Auckalnd we collected the Camper Van at around 4.00pm. Strange isn’t it how the vehicle seems much bigger than the photographs. After a slight problem with the central locking we got way and found reaching the first camp site a little challenging as the site was not marked at all. Needless to say we were rather tired when we got to the site we had slept for about 8 hours over the last 2 days  and the time difference made us a little tried and miserable.

So off to bed at around 9.00pm and awoke around 3.00 am this morning. Sorted out all of the clothes and stowed the suitcases and prepared for the day. What a difference a day makes – more to the point a nights sleep. We really enjoyed today. This morning we went for a sail on an Americas Cup boat the Team NZ’s 1997 boat. This was fantastic and even Carol enjoyed it. After a break of an hour or two we went Dolphin and Whale watching and saw two types of Dolphin during our 4.5 hour trip. To finish the day out we stopped at the lovely town of Devonport and sipped a beer (For Carol read wine) whilst watching the boats in the harbour. Tomorrow we are off, travelling north to Russell and heading for the bay of Islands.

18th February

Actually no, we decided that we would cut short our trip north and stay at Whangarei for an extra day. It’s a great little town and there seems to be some interesting activities so it’s likely that we will stay here for 2 nights and then move back down the island to Rotorua.

The weather today has been really hot and a little humid which apparently is characteristic for this part of the country. Both Carol and I have been catching up on some well earned rest and seem to be sleeping a lot at the moment!! The beer is good and (according to Carol) the wine is fabulous especially pinot noir that Carol is drinking at the moment as we eat our tea. So tomorrow its going to be taking a look at a Kiwi or two, climbing a hill for the view of the bay and visiting the local quarry that has been converted to a craft shop and gardens.