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
Sunday, January 20, 2008
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
Friday, January 4, 2008
and onto ChristChurch
Change of country/scenery and weather since last post. In new zealand now, and a little bit cooler and even was raining this morning. A good bit cooler in evenings so went out and bought a jumper today.
Not much to Christchurch, nice enough around cathedral square, lots of shops, lots of all-black jerseys! Went to the Antartica Museum out by the airport which was worthwhile, saw some little blue penguins as well.
Tomorrow we're picking up a rental car and going driving out to Akaroa on Banks Peninsula (~1hr from ChristChurch). Hope to either do some sea-kayaking there or else a cruise around harbour is meant to be good. Planning to do a bit of camping as well in new zealand so got ourselves some camping gear as well today, should help save money for the sky-diving we're planning to do in Queenstown, not sure about the bungee jump yet!?!
Kevin
P.S. Congrats to Finn and Louise on their engagement! I wonder who will be next, thats two in last few weeks ;)
Not much to Christchurch, nice enough around cathedral square, lots of shops, lots of all-black jerseys! Went to the Antartica Museum out by the airport which was worthwhile, saw some little blue penguins as well.
Tomorrow we're picking up a rental car and going driving out to Akaroa on Banks Peninsula (~1hr from ChristChurch). Hope to either do some sea-kayaking there or else a cruise around harbour is meant to be good. Planning to do a bit of camping as well in new zealand so got ourselves some camping gear as well today, should help save money for the sky-diving we're planning to do in Queenstown, not sure about the bungee jump yet!?!
Kevin
P.S. Congrats to Finn and Louise on their engagement! I wonder who will be next, thats two in last few weeks ;)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Sydney - Happy New Year
Been busy around Sydney since last time, took a boat trip around harbour, went up the sky tower, took a city sight-seeing tour and had a good few nites out as well. One of better nites was when we went to opera house to see the Royal Philharmonic orchestra play, was something different, but really enjoyed it! Met up with an irish couple we had met back on the Kakadu trip in Darwin the other nite, really good, ended up in PJ O Brien's, what was funny though was that they were selling Tayto's and chipsticks behind the bar!
New Years Eve was a bit different this year. About 11am, we set off with our picnic for the park so as to get a good seat and view of the harbour bridge for the fireworks. Ended up queuing for an hour and a half just to get into the park itself. Park was going to take a max. of 22,000 people, so like us, people came early to get in. Was like being at a concert somewhere, no BYO drink allowed, only allowed to be bought from bars inside, and there was the usual choice of chip-vans inside. Hours flew by, and didn't seem like that long day, only bad thing was the heat, has been roasting in Sydney the last few days, christmas day was the worst weather being very overcast.
At 9pm, there was a mini-version of the fireworks, before the big thing at 12. Was really worth the wait, only thing I thought was they mite have gone on a bit longer, I think they went on for about 12mins or so! Taking it easy now today, mite head out to the Olympic Park tomorrow and see the Telstra stadium. Not much time to rest though as we're heading to ChristChurch on the 3rd!
Happy New Year,
Kevin
New Years Eve was a bit different this year. About 11am, we set off with our picnic for the park so as to get a good seat and view of the harbour bridge for the fireworks. Ended up queuing for an hour and a half just to get into the park itself. Park was going to take a max. of 22,000 people, so like us, people came early to get in. Was like being at a concert somewhere, no BYO drink allowed, only allowed to be bought from bars inside, and there was the usual choice of chip-vans inside. Hours flew by, and didn't seem like that long day, only bad thing was the heat, has been roasting in Sydney the last few days, christmas day was the worst weather being very overcast.
At 9pm, there was a mini-version of the fireworks, before the big thing at 12. Was really worth the wait, only thing I thought was they mite have gone on a bit longer, I think they went on for about 12mins or so! Taking it easy now today, mite head out to the Olympic Park tomorrow and see the Telstra stadium. Not much time to rest though as we're heading to ChristChurch on the 3rd!
Happy New Year,
Kevin
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