Wasn't quiet sure what to make of Hawaii at first, arrived at our hostel after travelling all day wrecked tired, slept for 12 hrs straight that nite. Staying in a hostel across the road from Waikiki Beach, very basic but location couldn't be better! Woke next day and just headed straight to the beach, and probably slept for another few hours ;) Palm trees...check...sun...check....nice restaurants...check....surfing....nope! Waves were non-existant being honest,seen more down Garryvoe ;) We only stayed around Waikiki and they were saying that the North Shore was the place to go to get the big waves. Couldn't believe the amount of people around the place, crawling with Americans, Canadians, Japanese and Chinese. My first time being in the states,but christ are some of them big people! Only trip we did was to go see Pearl Harbour, a free trip organised by the hostel which was grand. Waikii Beach was a bit too much like the Costa Del Sol for me (Americans replacing the Irish), but few days lying down on beach was grand sure.
Got into San Fran. last nite, and being going a bit mad on a shopping trip all day,just back in hotel now, hotel is some change from staying in hostels and tents I can tell ya. With all shopping we've done, we're going to have to buy a suitcase as well for definate, backpacks are already stuffed. Tomorrow going doing the Alcatraz trip and only a few days here till its time to pack bags and fly back to Cork, where have the last 4 months gone?
Mite be the last post i'd say,so I guess I'll see ye all soon folks,
Kevin
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Bay of Islands, Auckland
Bit disappointed with Bay of Islands, took one of the boat trips out around them, but was expecting more from area, high-light of boat trip was seeing loads of dolphins, this time bottle-nose type. Stayed in a couple of dodgy camp-sites too, a lot of gang staying there were living full-time in tents in camp-site. Tent next to us had about 6 inches of grass growing up around the sides of the tent!
In Auckland now, and after getting rid of the rental car, guy in office where we dropped it off was from Youghal, a small world! Walked upto Mt Eden yesterday, which gives a good view of city, good example of a crater there, and amazing to see little hills scattered around city, showing the volcanic makeup of the city. Not much else to report, doing some shopping and mite take a trip up sky-tower today. Long day tomorrow as we're flying to Hawaii via Sydney.
Later,
Kevin
In Auckland now, and after getting rid of the rental car, guy in office where we dropped it off was from Youghal, a small world! Walked upto Mt Eden yesterday, which gives a good view of city, good example of a crater there, and amazing to see little hills scattered around city, showing the volcanic makeup of the city. Not much else to report, doing some shopping and mite take a trip up sky-tower today. Long day tomorrow as we're flying to Hawaii via Sydney.
Later,
Kevin
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Taupo to Rotorua, Waitomo Caves, Corrimondal Pennisula
This is turning into a weekly update! Didn't think much of Taupo, only excitement was going to a pre-season Super 14 rugby match between the Chiefs and Hurricanes, pretty good, a good few of past/present all-blacks playing (those that aren't playing in Europe).
Rotorua was good enough for a few days, stayed about 10mins out of town itself so as to avoid the rotten egg smell that u can't escape in the centre! Holiday Park was overlooking a really nice blue lake, surrounded by forrest, real postcard stuff. A good trip was a visit to Polynesian Spa, like the one in Hanmer SPrings in the South Island, made up of different temperature naturally heated thermal pools, upto 42degrees (didn't stay in that one for long!). Something a bit touristy, but was good fun was going to a Maoiri village and having a "hangi" cooked meal, maori story-telling, song and dance, think I enjoyed the grub more to be honest, been ages since we had a roast dinner! Went zorbing (rolling down some hill in a 10ft plastic ball!), which was a bit disappointing , though for one that the hill would be longer and steeper, Sinead and myself got into the one "zorb-ball" and then we were set off down the hill, over in about 30secs, mite be a handy business to set up when I get back home, rolling plastic balls down hills somewhere in Ladysbridge ;)
From Rotorua, we drove onto Waitomo, or cave-country as its known, went on a black water rafting trip here, basically going into the caves with a wet-suit and a rubber ring, and jumping off waterfalls, floating down rivers and looking at glow worms for a few hours, good crack though in fairness!
After Waitomo spent last couple of days driving up and around the Corrimondal Pennisula, well worth trip, purely for scenery and walks and that. Travelled today through Auckland and up to Whangerei in Northland, where we're going taking in Bay of Islands for a couple of days.
Nearly time to leave New Zealand unfortunately, flying on 15th to Hawaii, we'll try and enjoy it sure ;)
Kevin
Rotorua was good enough for a few days, stayed about 10mins out of town itself so as to avoid the rotten egg smell that u can't escape in the centre! Holiday Park was overlooking a really nice blue lake, surrounded by forrest, real postcard stuff. A good trip was a visit to Polynesian Spa, like the one in Hanmer SPrings in the South Island, made up of different temperature naturally heated thermal pools, upto 42degrees (didn't stay in that one for long!). Something a bit touristy, but was good fun was going to a Maoiri village and having a "hangi" cooked meal, maori story-telling, song and dance, think I enjoyed the grub more to be honest, been ages since we had a roast dinner! Went zorbing (rolling down some hill in a 10ft plastic ball!), which was a bit disappointing , though for one that the hill would be longer and steeper, Sinead and myself got into the one "zorb-ball" and then we were set off down the hill, over in about 30secs, mite be a handy business to set up when I get back home, rolling plastic balls down hills somewhere in Ladysbridge ;)
From Rotorua, we drove onto Waitomo, or cave-country as its known, went on a black water rafting trip here, basically going into the caves with a wet-suit and a rubber ring, and jumping off waterfalls, floating down rivers and looking at glow worms for a few hours, good crack though in fairness!
After Waitomo spent last couple of days driving up and around the Corrimondal Pennisula, well worth trip, purely for scenery and walks and that. Travelled today through Auckland and up to Whangerei in Northland, where we're going taking in Bay of Islands for a couple of days.
Nearly time to leave New Zealand unfortunately, flying on 15th to Hawaii, we'll try and enjoy it sure ;)
Kevin
Friday, February 1, 2008
Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Ohakune, Taupo.
Again, been a while since last update, in North Island since 28th, and today up in Taupo for a few nites.
Abel Tasman National Park was our last stop on South Island, and the long trip up to it was really worth it. stayed 3 nites there, one of the days we spent sea-kayaking all day, Sinead and myself in the one kayak, it had its own rudder and all, which I was controlling from small foot-pedals in back, was really cool, only us and another girl with our guide, so the small group meant we could go exploring more stuff around park. Tricky to get navigation right at first, I thought one of us might throw the other overboard!
Along with the sea-kayaking, the park is famous for its walks. You can get an aqua-taxi as there called, to one of the bays, walk for as long as u want to another bay and get another aqua taxi back to where u started. We did a 4hr walk which was enough for us, some gang were walking with full backpacks on, tents, cooking equipment and stuff, as there are huts along track that u can stay overnite in, f**k that I said! Spent day after recovering from kayaking and walking, before heading to Piction to get the ferry, not much to Picton, had a game of mini-golf, good fish n' chips there though.
Ferry across to Wellington was real dodgy, and felt sea-sick for most of it, glad to get onto dry land at end, some shock to get into a bigger city agian though, driving on motorways, whereas it was country roads the day before! Not too impressed with wellington though, nice enough around docklands area, went to the National Museum as it was free, and did the other touristy thing that is the cable car ride up to the Botanic gardens and walking back down to city again.
From Wellington, we drove to Ohakune, around a 4hr drive, glad to get out of city to be honest. Ohakune is on outskirts of the Tongariro National Park, which has a couple of active volcanoes in it. A famous walking track in New Zealand is the Tongariro Crossing, which is around 7hrs(18.5km), walking upto and around craters of Mt Tongariro. Weather was good for last few days so I walked the track on Thursday. Its not a loop track so you have to get a bus to drive you to the start and pick you up at end. Only prob day I did it was a lot of cloud early in the morning, which didn't really lift. Was tough going, especially the two climbing parts that lead up to the Red Crater, made good time going up though so had time to climb to the top of Mt Tongariro itself, about 1950m. Visibility was really bad though when I got up there, cloud comes in and out so fast, on way back down I lost the track, until I saw a couple of walkers a couple metres below me! Walk was really good though, though long and was wrecked at end!
All for now folks,
Kevin
Abel Tasman National Park was our last stop on South Island, and the long trip up to it was really worth it. stayed 3 nites there, one of the days we spent sea-kayaking all day, Sinead and myself in the one kayak, it had its own rudder and all, which I was controlling from small foot-pedals in back, was really cool, only us and another girl with our guide, so the small group meant we could go exploring more stuff around park. Tricky to get navigation right at first, I thought one of us might throw the other overboard!
Along with the sea-kayaking, the park is famous for its walks. You can get an aqua-taxi as there called, to one of the bays, walk for as long as u want to another bay and get another aqua taxi back to where u started. We did a 4hr walk which was enough for us, some gang were walking with full backpacks on, tents, cooking equipment and stuff, as there are huts along track that u can stay overnite in, f**k that I said! Spent day after recovering from kayaking and walking, before heading to Piction to get the ferry, not much to Picton, had a game of mini-golf, good fish n' chips there though.
Ferry across to Wellington was real dodgy, and felt sea-sick for most of it, glad to get onto dry land at end, some shock to get into a bigger city agian though, driving on motorways, whereas it was country roads the day before! Not too impressed with wellington though, nice enough around docklands area, went to the National Museum as it was free, and did the other touristy thing that is the cable car ride up to the Botanic gardens and walking back down to city again.
From Wellington, we drove to Ohakune, around a 4hr drive, glad to get out of city to be honest. Ohakune is on outskirts of the Tongariro National Park, which has a couple of active volcanoes in it. A famous walking track in New Zealand is the Tongariro Crossing, which is around 7hrs(18.5km), walking upto and around craters of Mt Tongariro. Weather was good for last few days so I walked the track on Thursday. Its not a loop track so you have to get a bus to drive you to the start and pick you up at end. Only prob day I did it was a lot of cloud early in the morning, which didn't really lift. Was tough going, especially the two climbing parts that lead up to the Red Crater, made good time going up though so had time to climb to the top of Mt Tongariro itself, about 1950m. Visibility was really bad though when I got up there, cloud comes in and out so fast, on way back down I lost the track, until I saw a couple of walkers a couple metres below me! Walk was really good though, though long and was wrecked at end!
All for now folks,
Kevin
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Milford Sound, Franz Josef Glaicer, Greymouth, Hanmer Springs, Kaikoura
Ok, it really has been a while since last post. The drive down to Milford Sound was really worthwhile, tour of the Sound was really good, and one of the best trips we've had while away, after we drove back upto Queenstown for another nite. There was a rugby sevens competition on which was pretty good, goota see teams from both Islands, Auckland won it out I think in end (4th year in a row!)
From Queenstown, we stopped in Wanaka for one nite, went to this puzzle world place which has a big two-level outdoor maze, took us a while to get around it though. From there we went upto Glacier country and booked on a tour on the Franz Josef Glaicer. We took the 1/2 day trip, which was bout 4.5hrs in total and 2hrs hiking on the glaicer itself, to be honest it was enough for us, tired enough after just a half day of it (crampons were class though). In afternoon we drove down to the other glaicer, the Fox glaicer, to be honest I was more impressed by this one, mainly as you could get more of an idea of how it has moved though the valley over the last 200 years.
After glaciers,we travelled upto Greymouth, mainly to have some rest for a while so we booked into a hostel for two nites. Not a whole lot happening in this place, really old style buildings, best part was bakery around corner of hostel, which gave left-overs to hostel every-day at 4, loads of pies, and cream cakes.hostel had a free pool table as well, so made use of that!
From Greymouth, across to Hamner Springs for one nite, attraction here is the naturally heated thermal pools, about 16 of them and all different temperatures. Was a cold enough day when we visited so was really relaxing to sit in the pools, on average about 35C, hottest one was a sulphur pool at 40C which was too hot for one,a nd also stank!
E-mailing now from Kaikoura on East Coast of South Island, couple of hrs north of Christchurch, so we're zig-zagging across the South Island! Really nice coastal town. Lots of marine life here, went on a cliff-top walk for a couple of hrs other day, passing a seal colony and a big seagull colony. Weather has been really good here, apart from the wind, and has made seas very rough. Were hoping to go on a whale watching tour yesterday but was cancelled, hopefully today it'll go ahead, sea looks a bit calmer today.
So yeah, 1 more nite here, then upto Nelson for a nite and then Abel Tasman Park for ~ 3 nites. Our south island adventures are coming to an end, can't believe how fast the time is going!?!
Kevin
From Queenstown, we stopped in Wanaka for one nite, went to this puzzle world place which has a big two-level outdoor maze, took us a while to get around it though. From there we went upto Glacier country and booked on a tour on the Franz Josef Glaicer. We took the 1/2 day trip, which was bout 4.5hrs in total and 2hrs hiking on the glaicer itself, to be honest it was enough for us, tired enough after just a half day of it (crampons were class though). In afternoon we drove down to the other glaicer, the Fox glaicer, to be honest I was more impressed by this one, mainly as you could get more of an idea of how it has moved though the valley over the last 200 years.
After glaciers,we travelled upto Greymouth, mainly to have some rest for a while so we booked into a hostel for two nites. Not a whole lot happening in this place, really old style buildings, best part was bakery around corner of hostel, which gave left-overs to hostel every-day at 4, loads of pies, and cream cakes.hostel had a free pool table as well, so made use of that!
From Greymouth, across to Hamner Springs for one nite, attraction here is the naturally heated thermal pools, about 16 of them and all different temperatures. Was a cold enough day when we visited so was really relaxing to sit in the pools, on average about 35C, hottest one was a sulphur pool at 40C which was too hot for one,a nd also stank!
E-mailing now from Kaikoura on East Coast of South Island, couple of hrs north of Christchurch, so we're zig-zagging across the South Island! Really nice coastal town. Lots of marine life here, went on a cliff-top walk for a couple of hrs other day, passing a seal colony and a big seagull colony. Weather has been really good here, apart from the wind, and has made seas very rough. Were hoping to go on a whale watching tour yesterday but was cancelled, hopefully today it'll go ahead, sea looks a bit calmer today.
So yeah, 1 more nite here, then upto Nelson for a nite and then Abel Tasman Park for ~ 3 nites. Our south island adventures are coming to an end, can't believe how fast the time is going!?!
Kevin
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Queenstown
Queenstown is class and glad we've stayed here for a good few nites. There is so much to do here you could spend a fortune! Weather has been really good since we've arrived as well, in mid-twenty's during day. At nite though it gets pretty cold, heard on radio that it was 5 degrees, which is cold when ure in a tent like, though ok its not quite as bad as it is at home, but its meant to be summer here!
The hot air balloon trip was really good, an early start at 5am, so as to be up before sunrise. We were about an hour in the air in total, and went upto height of 6,500ft, really cool views of Queenstown area, lakes, mountains and glaciers in distance. After landing we had a champagne breakfast(whatever ure used to ya know!), this after helping out with packing up balloon itself. Went up on gondola in afternoon and did a few laps on luge track which was pretty good.
This morn though we did the sky-dive and I don't think anything else could top it off, I can't tell ya how good it was (Finn and KC know!). Instructors were really good and nerves were gone, even when I was sitting at 12,000ft with door open in the plane, I was dying to jump out. I thought I'd have my eyes closed for first bit, but glad I kept them open, jumping out and rolling seeing the plane above you in the distance was unreal. The freefall itself was def the best bit. Wish now that I had gone with getting the skydive recorded as would like to look back on it. All I can say that when we landed I wanted to go on the next plane up and do it allover again!
One more nite in Queenstown tonite and driving to Milford Sound tomorrow morning.
Kevin
The hot air balloon trip was really good, an early start at 5am, so as to be up before sunrise. We were about an hour in the air in total, and went upto height of 6,500ft, really cool views of Queenstown area, lakes, mountains and glaciers in distance. After landing we had a champagne breakfast(whatever ure used to ya know!), this after helping out with packing up balloon itself. Went up on gondola in afternoon and did a few laps on luge track which was pretty good.
This morn though we did the sky-dive and I don't think anything else could top it off, I can't tell ya how good it was (Finn and KC know!). Instructors were really good and nerves were gone, even when I was sitting at 12,000ft with door open in the plane, I was dying to jump out. I thought I'd have my eyes closed for first bit, but glad I kept them open, jumping out and rolling seeing the plane above you in the distance was unreal. The freefall itself was def the best bit. Wish now that I had gone with getting the skydive recorded as would like to look back on it. All I can say that when we landed I wanted to go on the next plane up and do it allover again!
One more nite in Queenstown tonite and driving to Milford Sound tomorrow morning.
Kevin
Monday, January 7, 2008
ChristChurch->Akarora->Mt Hutt->Methven->Lake Tekapo->Mt Cook -> Queenstown
Akarora on the Banks Pensinula (~1hr east of ChristChruch) was the first stop after leaving ChristChurch. Now driving in a rental car (nissan bluebird!), after our bad experiences on buses in Australia. New Zealand is full of camp-sites and real easy to show up at any of them to get a tent-site, view from one we were staying in Akarora was class overlooking the lake. Facilities are same as that in most hostels as well. In Akarora took a cruise in harbour, where we saw seals, the odd penguin(white tipped), and lots of Hector Dolphins. Dolphins were class as they were playing with each other around boat.
After Akarora, plan was to drive to Lake Tekapo stopping in Mt Hutt and Methven on route. Only problem was the weather, Mt Hutt was completely covered in cloud, essentially it and Methven are ski towns and isn't much too them during summer. Drove on to our camp-site in Lake Tekapo for night which was much nicer than Akarora. Nicer in that there was less tourists and the lake had this brillian blue (turquoise?) colour to it. All was well, till in middle of ite the heavens opened and the wind picked up as well, just as well we tied down the tent proper anyway!
Yesterday, we drove from Lake Tekapo to Queenstown. Plan was to stay around Mt Cook for nite, but weather outlook was poor, so upped sticks and drove onto Queenstown(handy thing about having car I suppose!) Drive from Mt Cook to Queenstown was really nice surrounded by mountains either-side of road! Camping again in Queenstown for our stay, grand like only ~100m from centre itself.
Booked a hot-air balloon trip for Wed morn, which will be something different, and yep the sky-dive is booked. So far Sinead has put her name down as well, oh god the nerves are at me already!
Kevin
After Akarora, plan was to drive to Lake Tekapo stopping in Mt Hutt and Methven on route. Only problem was the weather, Mt Hutt was completely covered in cloud, essentially it and Methven are ski towns and isn't much too them during summer. Drove on to our camp-site in Lake Tekapo for night which was much nicer than Akarora. Nicer in that there was less tourists and the lake had this brillian blue (turquoise?) colour to it. All was well, till in middle of ite the heavens opened and the wind picked up as well, just as well we tied down the tent proper anyway!
Yesterday, we drove from Lake Tekapo to Queenstown. Plan was to stay around Mt Cook for nite, but weather outlook was poor, so upped sticks and drove onto Queenstown(handy thing about having car I suppose!) Drive from Mt Cook to Queenstown was really nice surrounded by mountains either-side of road! Camping again in Queenstown for our stay, grand like only ~100m from centre itself.
Booked a hot-air balloon trip for Wed morn, which will be something different, and yep the sky-dive is booked. So far Sinead has put her name down as well, oh god the nerves are at me already!
Kevin
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