Lins and Rich’s Travel Blog

Having left Fiji at 10pm on Wednesday the 9th July, we quickly crossed the international date line and found ourselves arriving in L.A. 8 hours earlier at 1.20pm on Wednesday 9th July.  This did have some advantages - the fact that I only had to stay awake for a few hours until I could respectably go to bed - but it did mean one ridiculously long day.

So, here we are on Hollywood Boulevard, walking along the paths of the rich and famous.  No stars spotted as yet though.  We had a quick wander yesterday afternoon and have been back today to take some rather uninspiring touristy photos of feet and hand prints.  We have considered watching a film but it’s been my turn to have a cold and, coupled with the jet lag and the poor selection of movies, we’ve decided to give it a miss until we return - at which point Batman will be out - can’t wait!

Now for a slightly lengthier update on Fiji.  We had been advised by many to get off the mainland as quickly as possible but, as we arrived late in the evening, we thought it would be wise to give ourselves a day there to do some planning for our week on the beautiful islands, so on day one we jumped on the bus to Nadi town and were pleasantly surprised by what we saw of the biggest island, Viti Levu.  I guess if you had come to Fiji expecting paradise, the mainland is not the place to find it, but this place certainly has bags of character and was a little like a wealthier India.  In town, we did a bit of shopping as we had used a variety of methods to dispose of our cold-weather gear when we left New Zealand and needed to stock back up on the flip-flops, sarongs etc.  While perusing the main street, we got accosted by the local shop owners of one craft store, had to sit through a Kava welcoming ceremony (this is Fiji’s traditional drink and is a mild narcotic but basically it just makes you feel tired and your tongue go numb), got given a ‘gift’ of a necklace each and were then asked to make a ‘donation’ for the gift!!!  Well, I guess that’s one sure-fire way of selling something.

The next morning we had to take the Yasawa Flyer boat to Manta Ray island.   We had decided to start with the most northerly island we were visiting and then to make our way down so the boat journey took about 3 hours.  We were welcomed onto Manta Ray, as with all the islands, by a welcoming song and were directed to our bure - this basically means traditional house and, in this case, it was a lovely cabin among the trees consisting of a bedroom and balcony.  The afternoon was whiled away chilling out on the beach, reading and snorkelling though, sadly, there was no sign of the manta rays.

After dinner that night we found ourselves drinking with Dave the dive instructor who kindly put many of our drinks ‘on his tab’, Grace - a girl who was doing her open water course, her parents and one other guy called Andre.  They were all great company and we spent the majority of our time with these guys on the island and only after Andre had left did we find out from the dive instructor that we’d been drinking and eating with the owner of North Face - it just goes to show money doesn’t affect everybody - Andre was staying in the dorm!The next morning we decided it was time for me to attempt diving again as my sinuses had shown significant signs of improvement.  After a slow descent, just to make sure I could equalise, we swam around the site ‘Fantastic’ which had some impressive fan corals but sadly few fish.  We spoke to the instructor afterwards and he said this was very common for Fiji as it is hugely over-fished  and the fishermen sell everything they catch, even for scrap for as little as a dollar a kilo.  This is such a shame as, when snorkelling, it was clear that there could be such a wonderful variety of fish here if only they were more abundant. We did a second dive on the day we were leaving the island and dived a site called ‘The garden of Eden’.  This one was more spectacular and had a very wide variety of corals.

We then made our way South to our second island in the Yasawa group: Wayalailai.   We had booked a beachside cottage so were somewhat disappointed when we got shown to the old converted schoolhouse which was about as far away from the beach as it was possible to be on this resort!   It was particularly annoying as one couple, Ollie and Amy, had asked for an upgrade as they had booked a dorm and wanted a double and were given a beachside cottage just ahead of us checking in.  However, our day perked up when Amy came up from her beachside cottage wanting to see the double rooms as her cottage was, quote “horrific”.  Apparently she got used to it but the darkness of the bathroom was all a bit much for her!

We were going to hit the sack straight after dinner as we had planned to get up for the sunrise walk, however, the local villagers who run the resort were providing entertainment for the evening and we were treated to a number of songs and dances, including a fire dance, and then we joined in with a dance that was meant to bring sunshine.  It failed.

The next morning we were awoken at 4.30 ready for our walk and, armed with torches, we climbed for about 1 1/4 hours in the dark to the top of the hill to watch the sun rise.  Unfortunately, the sunrise itself was not that spectacular because the rain clouds were fast approaching but the walk was still a good adventure.  We got back just in time for breakfast and the rain, the latter of which continued all day getting heavier and heavier.

The following day was much brighter and we were able to spend the day on the beach again.  There were some good corals and fish around when I went snorkelling too.  At the end of the day, we were once again picked up by the boat and headed to our final island, Bounty.

Bounty Island is the home to celebrity love island and we could vaguely recognise the poolside, and there was a demolished hut a bit further around the island that we think probably served as the love shack, but other than that and some photos of the celebs on the wall, you wouldn’t really notice.  The first night was hilarious as 7 of us sat down to dinner, ordered and waited.  Eventually 7 meals turned up, only 2 of which were actually what had been ordered.  We tried again and all ended up with a completely different dish once again.  Most of us just accepted what we’d been given at that point but Ollie took his back a 2nd time and when the 3rd dish arrived it was still wrong.  In fact, 5 of us ended up having the same dinner in the end!

The next day we took a walk around the island, which took a grand total of 20 minutes, and soon enough it was time to head back to the mainland after 5 days of beaches, cocktails, snorkelling and diving.

We were welcomed back to Mama’s Tropic of Capricorn by the incredible 69 year old Mama who runs one very tight ship and treats everyone like they’re one of the family and just chilled out there for a couple of days, waiting to fly to L.A.  - oh yeah, and trying to find accommodation in L.A. which was not as easy as you might think - after a week of trying we finally booked in to the Saharan Motor Hotel on Sunset Boulevard only to find they didn’t have a reservation for us when we got here!  Fortunately they still had rooms so I’m about to head back there for a bit of trashy T.V. and to coax my voice into coming back to me soon as I’ve been without it for 2 days - and you all know how infuriating that is for me!!!!

Hi everyone, just a mega quick update as the internet here in Fiji is dial up and its rapidly sapping my will to live.

Just come back from five nights on the Yaswas and Mananuca islands off the west coast of the Fiji mainland. Its an amazing place with postcard beachs and crystal clear waters.

In those five days we have visited manta ray island however our luck ran out and we didnt see manta rays but still managed a couple of nice dives (nice corals, all the fish have been caught though) and to put on a stone due to the nice food and Fiji bitter and cocktails. Waylali where we saw a fire dance and learnt a weather dance and got up at 4.30 in the morning to walk to the summit top to see the sunrise. Bounty island which was the home of celebraty love island. Yes we have sat in the same place that such megastars as Calumn Best and Rebbeca Loos have sat.

In a nutshell fiji is a super friendly place full of smiling locals (the happiest locals I have ever met) and its been a lovely 28 degrees so managed to thaw out after new zeland. Its not somwhere I could stay long term but its certanly well worth visiting

 Tommorrow we fly out to LA for the final country in our tour and in three and a bit weeks its back to reality. There I will write a proper blog about fiji and upload some photos. Untill then everyone say bula (means hi/life/happy) and see you all soon

Hello again. Its hammering down with rain and six degrees outside in Christchurch so what better time to update the blog. Currently in sunny Christchurch untill Monday morning when we fly out to Nadi, Fiji for hopefully a sunnier climate than New Zealand.

The past couple of days have been spent in Kaikoura which was fantastic and a fitting end to a great trip around NZ. Its an amazing country and while I do not feel I can live here (its just too quite) its a great place to visit and would love to tour again some time in the summer so I can do the tramping we missed out on and see the amazing mountains and lakes in a diffrent state.

Currently in Christchurch which is a nice place but just like any other city really. Firmly belive after nearly a year of travelling that cities are not very diffrent and its the smaller places that make a country (there are obvious expections to this but in general) We spent a day exploring Christchurch and more so the surround area. Catching a bus out to the Gondala we took a trip up to the top of the banks peninsula and overlooked one of the first harbours in the South Island. Really nice scenery but you get a bit desesitized when you compare it to milford sounds and the remarkables!

After another bus journey into the centre we looked around a cool little art exhibtion space/ studio where students exhibited works. They ranged from the bizzare to the amazing and we spent a few hours viewing the works. What really blew me away was the work in a small studio by 16 to 18 year olds. The standard was amazing and the work that went into it was incredible.

Next day it was off to Kaikoura, the final tour stop of New Zealand. Kaikoura is special as it  next to a massive underwater valley. From the shore to 1km off shore the depth drops from 18m to 2500m and as such the area is home to a massive amount of wildlife. It is estimated that the area has around 200 sperm whales in transit around the area as well as a massive bird population and a huge fur seal colony. It is also apprently home to the giant squid however as there has only been one ever filmed this is all based on what the whales have been eating.

 Arriving in the afternoon we checked into a great little backpackers and on their advice walked to a seal collony. It was amazing, there were hundreds of seals laying on rocks resting. They ranged from huge bull seals with a chip on their shoulder, grunting and fighting and snoring! To the little baby seals that were heart breakingly cute. How any nation could beat any of these to death is beyond me, they were hillarious with their antics and watched you with huge eyes as you wandered past.

After a walk out to a point and a wander back along the cliffs we headed to the lookout which was on top of  a sealed slurry tank. Nice but the views over the end of the southern alps were stunning.

Next morning we headed to the whale watch station and were loaded into a bus and transfered to the boat. Onboard were luxury seats and a guide who started running through a biography of the sperm whales (called so as a couple of sailors got the totally wrong impression during a disection of a whale after it was caught). These majestic beasts hunt the canyon near the shore.

Due to the cold tempretures only the males are in the area as the females are smaller and have less bluber. They frequent warmer waters near fiji. The larger males have 40cm of blubber and can easily survive. They average 1000m on a dive and can hold their breath for an hour easily however one whale was recorded as going to 2500m and holding its breath for 2hrs 19m which is amazing. After about 15 minutes on the water a passanger gave a shout and we saw a whale surface about 600 m from the boat.

Usually Lins and I are jinxed on these sort of trips and we couldnt belive our luck. We headed over , always staying a reasonable distance and approaching from the side (whales can not see in front, only behind and to the side). Once we got on deck we realised how big an adult sperm whale is. The whale (called tonko) was 18m long and weighed 50 tonnes. It was massive, the same size as the boat we were sat on. They usual surface for 5 to 10 minutes before they go hunting again but this whale stayed on the surface ignorning us completly. The guide guessed that it had seen fish at a shallow depth and was watching them, anticipating an easy lunch. It was a truely a humbling site to watch such a massive creature hang on the waters surface, spraying water from its blowhole. After a few more minutes it gave a massive stretch and with suprising grace upended itself, the tail rose out of the water and it slipped below the surface. 

The information we were given was amazing. The ship had seen this year orcas and amazingly the blue whale which makes the sperm whale look tiny. The largest blue whale seen was 33m long and 200 tonnes.

The sperm whale is a carnivorous hunter while the blue whale and the humpback (also seen in the area alot) eat krill. Sperm whales as mentioned above eat mainly squid and large fish but strange things have been found in there stomach. A intact 5m shark, a 44 gallon drum of oil and quite worryingly a few humans. They are feriocious hunters and the scars on them show there battles with the giant squid.

Once every few weeks orcas are seen but we were not lucky enough to see them (killer whales). These are the largest of the dolphin family. 

In total we saw three whales (one twice) and the experience was amazing. While searching for more whales we came across a research vessle which comes out reqularly to study the dive patterns and the feeding of the whales and its good to see the whale watch boats helping that out by giving quordinates.

The guide on the boat also talked about the hunting of whales and especially the Japanese. They now hunt 1000 whales a year under the pretence of scientific research. As shown in the bay you do not need to blow the poor things to pieces to study them. Its unfortunate that the japanese influence apparently bullies and bribes up to 30 countries with no sea border into supporting this. This year they even tried to hunt 10 critically endangered humbacks on this premise but dropped it due to massive publice outcry. This was allowed by a treaty that stated that Antartica was a whale haven and no hunting could be carried out their EXPECT for scientific research.  The sea shepherd, an australian vessle managed to stop the fleet for 5 weeks this year and meant that the quota was not filled. Fair play to them!

As well as whales we were lucky enough to see albatross and petrels (not on a stick  - monty python fans will get this!). We even saw the largest sea bird the, gibson wandering albertross which has a wingspan of over 2.6m.

After getting back to shore we headed to try the local delicacy, crayfish. There is a bbq near the beach where they are cooked for cheap and we treated ourselves to a crayfish fritter and some scallops (delicious) before the drive back to Christchurch.

Well thats it from New Zealand. The next blog entry will be from Fiji where hopfully I can get to dive with some huge sharks if my nerve holds out! Five weeks today we will be back, its gone to quick!!

Hi everybody, in the words of Doctor Nick. Currently sat in Christchurch after a change of plans trying to sort out America which as with everything linked to that country is complicated.

We were due to visit Mount cook national park over the last couple of days as I really fancied walking up the hooker valley to the terminal lake of the glacier. Unfortunately the weather has turned and the snow that was so lacking in Queenstown has arrived and the inland roads are dangerous. As the avergae highway in New Zealand is about the standard of the Southam to Harbury road complete with vertical drops and blind bends driving in the mountains is not considered wise when its pelting it down with snow. AS such we decided to instead drive straight to Christchurch from Dunadin.

So what have we been up to I hear you ask, no blog for ages again. Well if your sitting comfortably then I will begin! As we left off we were in Invercargil (read hole). The main claim of this city (i say city, Leamington is bigger) is it is the worlds most southerly city. Thats about it really, nothing there and nothing to see.

After finally checking into the backpackers we set of the next morning for the Catlins national park along the southern scenic route. Or so we thought. following the large sign out of Invercargil we set off and 50km later came across a town that we shouldnt have. Turns out that we missed a sign the size of a large stamp that shows the correct way to the southern scenic route and the catlins. I really do not like invercargil, my advice to anyone planning to visit it is save your time and money and skip it!

Finally an hour and a half and much back tracking we were on the southern scenic (now known as the ss from here on as im already fed up of typing it!) and heading in the right direction.

One thing that was good was the leaflet we got that showed comprehensively where to stop along the way so with this in hand we headed off along the coastal road off the ss.

The first stop was Waipapa point which was the site of the second worst maritime disaster in New Zealand history. The SS Tararua struck a reef and lots of people lost their lives. Now its unsurprisingly the home of a big lighthouse and the chance to see sea lions. Walking to the beach past the impressive and looking at the sea much needed Lighthouse, Lins commented that there were no sealions. I walked round the corner and replied “what, apart from that massive one sleeping in the middle of the beach!”. Sealions are huge things, like a seal on steroids with a bad temper they are amazing to see. The one unelegantly snoozing in the middle of the beach must have been over 200kg They have a huge thick coat and can spend days at sea. We stopped for a while and watched from a safe distance before making our way off. To see the photos click on the link to the side.

Next stop was Slope point, this is the most southerly part of the New Zealand mainland (stewart island being more southerly) and involved a short hike to one of those sites that are pretty uninspiring. An intresting observation was that bluff (nr invercargil) is the stopping off point to get to the south pole. However a sign stated that it is only 300km closer than that point is to the equator. Not that close at all. After watching the huge waves smash into the coast and taking the tourist shots we set off again via a quick picnic stop to Curio Bay which is amazing.

Curio Bay is reached by traveling down 15km of unsealed road that has left our Nissan a nice shade of brown. The bay itself is home to the worlds most extensive fossilized forest. Looking at the rocks it seems driftwood is caught in them but you quickly realise that the wood is part of the rock itself. To see 160 million year old wood makes you realise how little time humans have been around. The bay itself was amazing in itself without relying on the prehistoric relics. Crashing waves, huge beds of seaweed and bright green moss. We spent an hour walking around exploring and watching the various sea birds.

A quick drive later up some very steep slopes found us above the bay with stunning views. Lins was not very confident about the big drops to the surge and rocks below. I didmt help by puting the car in drive for a laugh, looking behind me as if to reverse and then shooting forward! I thought it was very funny, I wont repeat what she said!

Rolling down the hill brought us to Porpoise bay which is the home of the hector dolphin. A rare dolphin that is regarded as the smallest of the species. Unfortunately they were not playing ball and other than great views we saw nothing. After initially planning on spending a day in the Catlins we decided that it was not enough and drove to Owaka(the home of the cannoe).

We have noticed that New Zealand towns have to have a slogan to go with the place. Very funny driving into a town of 7 people and 3 million sheep and reading the sign that says “where dreams are realised” Now I dont know who dreams about being on there own with hundreds of sheep but im in no rush to meet them!

Arriving in Surrat bay we stayed in a great little backpacker with a roaring fire and a comfy settee and collapsed down for a meal and some rest. Surrat bay is another place known for its sealions so next morning I fot up early to look for them but alas they were all either hiding or out at sea.

The day was then spent driving between the various sites and walking. We saw a number of great waterfalls and walked through an area where ancient maoris had camped while hunting Moa (a now extinct bird the size of an Emu and a distant relative of the little kiwi). The scenery in the Catlins is amazing, rolling hills, rocky cliffs and some raging seas. The other amazing thing about the area is its relativly unvisited so its wildlife is abundant.

As evening approached we had been tipped off by the owners that roaring bay and nugget point were the areas to head to view the worlds rarest penguin, the vertically challenged yellow eyed penguin. After a walk to nugget point lighthouse to view the most impressive coastline yet and fur seals far below us playing in rock pools we returned to roaring bay and followed the track to a purpose built hide. A view over the bay showed a view of the amazing little yellow eyes. Despite being rare and only 6000 of them know to exist they are certainly not quiet. They make hell of a racket, so much so the maori word for them means noise! Despite the noise they are shy things and are easily scared so the hide allows you to view them without disturbing them. In the hide is also information about these fascinating birds, despite there minute stature they regularly travel 20km off shore to hunt for fish and squid and have been tracked as far out as 40km. Watching them come up the beach was brilliant and it was great to see such a rare creature in its natural habitat. The main problems for these little guys is loss of habitat to cattle and the introduced predators to which they make a nice snack. (insert own penguin biscuit related joke here!)

After another night at Surret Bay and the closest to seeing another sealion being making one out bouncing towards the sea in the distance we set of to Dunadin and the end of the SS. The east coast of New Zealand has a large Scottish feel to it and Dunadin is the same with lots of place name taken from above the border. Again with very little to see we spent the time catching up on chores before the big drive to Christchurch. It was here that i relalised that my fishhook pendant that I made in Hokitkka was not with me. Truely gutted as I was so impressed by my handiwork and was hoping to keep it as a reminder of my travels. Suppose the phrase Cest la vie is most appropriate.

Anyway, apologies for not adding photos to the blog but time is limited as were trying to sort further travels. Its now 5 weeks and 2 days till we arrive back in Blighlty. Scary

So, I’ve been in Invercargill, the world’s most southerly city, all afternoon and I haven’t managed to check in to a hostel as the one we went to at 12.30 had a sign saying ‘be back at 2′, then we went back at 1.40, hopeful but not expectant and we were right not be, then again at 2.30 to find a sign saying ‘be back at 5′.  We went to another hostel to find that the owners would be back at 4, and we saw the sign saying what beds they had available:  all of them.  Not wanting to stay in an otherwise empty hostel, we parked back up outside the first hostel and have now come to the internet to kill the time until we can check in.  Why didn’t we go to see the sights?  Well, ‘cos there aren’t any!  Moan over.  On to amazing things.

On Wednesday morning, in the continued absence of snow, we opted for the alternative sporting activity in Queenstown and took a couple of mountain bikes for a ride around the lake.  We spent a couple of hours following the track around one side of the lake with views over to the other side of The Remarkables mountain range - and they have truly been aptly named.  They are absolutely stunning (I’m also now running out of adjectives to describe the wonderful sights here).

We then followed the line of the Southern Alps further along by road to the township of Te Anau.  This is situated on the second largest lake in New Zealand (after Lake Taupo) and is a handy base for travelling to Milford Sounds, which we did the following day.

The 120km drive from Te Anau to Milford Sounds (that should really be called Milford Fiord as a sound is apparently created by land erosion and a fiord is carved by a glacier) is without a shadow of a doubt the most amazing drive I have done in living memory.  Every  few metres there is a new photo worth taking and we had to limit ourself quite considerably in the number of stops we made as we had to get to Milford within a couple of hours to catch a cruise around the fiord.   We did, however, stop to retrieve our breath a few times, including at Mirror Lakes, which clearly reflect the mountains behind them, and to take a few mountain shots.

The road isn’t the safest in the world, as the receptionist pointed out when I called to try to book a later cruise and she recommended we come earlier as there would be less people on the road to help us later in the event of something going wrong.  We did see one accident on our way, though I think it can only really have been caused by someone driving badly.  We did, however, have to negotiate some fairly treacherous corners and the Homer Tunnel; a 1200m long, dark hole that was  drilled through the mountain to create jobs during the Depression in the 1930s and which wasn’t completed until 1953 to create access to the fiord.

We arrived at the Fiord and managed to get half price cruise tickets as Rich remembered that our car had a sticker in that mentioned a 2 for 1 deal with the rental company and all we had to do was show our car keyring - $65 well saved!

The cruise itself was not as impressive as the drive, though we didn’t have the blazing sunshine to light up the cliffs either side, nor sufficient rain to create the cascading waterfalls that appear in downpours; it was just pretty grey and misty so the views were somewhat obscured.  Nonetheless, when you saw other boats up against the cliffs to give a sense of perspective, it became clear that we were a very tiny vessel in amongst very large natural objects of beauty.  All in all, a spectacular day.

It’s nearly five so we’re off to try for fourth time lucky!

Good news - we got up on Monday morning to glorious sunshine and clear skies and headed back to the glacier guides centre to be told that things were looking good to fly today. the 5 of us jumped into the minibus and were dropped back at the helipad. This time, not only did we get into the helicopter but we managed to take off too! For those of you who know how I feel about flying, this may come as a bit of a shock, but helicopter rides may just be my new favourite thing. The take off is so smooth; you are literally transported from the ground to high in the air in a matter of seconds and there is none of that feeling that the rear wheels won’t get off the ground!

I simply cannot describe the incredible sights we were witnessing, but I guess I should try. As we glided effortlessly through the air, we cruised over the glacier, surrounded by towering mountains and had views of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook (the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, climbed by the likes of Sir Edmund Hilary). It was simply overwhelming to be surrounded by such immense natural beauty. I couldn’t stop smiling. Well, I did stop for a few seconds when I realised the door I was sat right next to had been accidentally knocked open by our guide, but even that didn’t faze me for long as I was just totally absorbed once again by the view. The pilot headed straight for a mountain face to give a us a fantastic view of a waterfall that tumbles hundreds of metres into what is a lake when topped up, and what is otherwise a massive black hole. He swung the chopper round, pulling it sharply down and round to the left and we too headed towards the black hole. Then he evened off the height and brought us in to land on the blue ice high up on the Fox Glacier.

I was the first to be guided out of the helicopter and had to be held onto tightly by the guide as this was like trying to ice skate without the aid of the blade! One wrong move and I’d have been flat on my face, or arse, depending on which way I fell. Fortunately (at this stage at least) I managed to stay upright and grabbed the instructor’s bag which served as my support while he got everybody else out. Once we were all in position, the helicopter cruised off and we were left, alone, on the gorgeous glacier. We couldn’t believe our luck that we had this beauty to ourselves.

Next step, before taking any steps, was to get the crampons attached to our boots. Not being the most practical person in the world, I listened carefully to the instructions about how to put them on, took my pair from the guide, managed to pull one apart, then put it back together incorrectly. I decided it would be best just to wait for the guide to do it for me! We then stomped around a little on the ice to get used to the best way to walk and to practise going up and down bumps.

Once we were all confident with our crampons, the guide began to lead us up the glacier where we explored crevasses, moulins, water pools, frozen water (yes, the glacier is all frozen water, but this is water that has fallen as rain etc. and is not part of the glacier) and crawled through a couple of ice caves. The Fox Glacier moves much more quickly than most glaciers and also retreats and advances more quickly - the guide said that when he came back for the start of the season after 12 months away, the glacier had advanced about 150 metres. The guide was extremely informative and very safety conscious - there are a lot of large holes to fall down up there and many would lead to a certain death. But there’s not a lot he can do about generally slips and slides on the ice apart from providing a mat to sit on when you fall hard and slam your knees into a block of solid ice, jarring your back and sending excrutiating pain into both knees so you can’t support your weight with your legs for a few minutes. Still, no permanent damage done - I just have a couple of very bruised and battered looking knees and the usual sore back!

After 2 hours climbing the ice, we began our descent back to the helipad and stood aside to watch as 5 helicopter loads of locals on a ‘get to know what’s in your backyard’ trip and a couple of other tourist groups were delivered to the ice. We were grateful none of them had got out of bed any earlier as we had been lucky enough not see another soul on the ice until this moment.

With the crampons removed, we were ushered back in to the helicopter for our journey back to town. I beamed from ear to ear all over again for another 5 minutes as we watched the glacier terminate and become a river. This definitely rates as my favourite activity of my travels and is genuine one of the most incredible, amazing, wonderful things I have ever done. Wow!

After we’d got over how incredible our morning had been, we set off for Queenstown. The drive is spectacular as you follow the highway along the line of the Southern Alps. The views over Lake Wanaka were particularly impressive; that was, until the cloud came in, which it did extremely quickly. The sun fell too and we could just make out the form of the mountains in the distance and see the cloud way below us, laying like a rug of snow forming a floor in between the mountains as we approached Queenstown via the ’scenic route’ from the town of Wanaka. We began to descend on the winding road into town down one of the mountains and drove straight into the cloud. It was so thick we could barely see more than 3 metres ahead of us as we negotiated the hairpin bends. Scary.

Bad news - we got to Queenstown and, as suspected, there is no snow on the mountains and no sign of it appearing any time soon. The ski resorts are closed until at least the 23rd when they hope some snow may fall or the temperature may drop enough for them to use their snow machine to create snow. For now though, skiing’s off. We set about changing our plans and reduced our 4 night stay in Queenstown to 2 nights. We had been advised we could get a reasonable refund on the skiing package so we decided it would be best to just spend a couple of days here to see what the town has to offer other than extreme sports (there are bungy jumps and white water rafting trips, canyon swings and paragliding etc. all around town).

Then we went to our dorm room and were greeted with an absolute tip - the room itself is fine, but the people living in it are messy to the extreme. We panicked! Rich wanted to change rooms which wasn’t possible, so he wanted to change hostels instead. I had reservations about changing as we’d lose a lot of money, but I did also have some reservations about what sort of people we’d be sharing with - we were envisaging 18 year old kiwi experience pissheads. Then, as we were going up to collect our bags, we met some of our roommates. They seemed sound and showed they were also considerate as they had some booze and a couple of mates with them and offered to go and drink it elsewhere. Clearly we’d judged too harshly and decided to stay. Seconds later, the rest of our roommates arrived and they seemed equally lovely. We all sat up talking until one in the morning!!!

This morning, we’ve had a whole heap of silly fun. After sorting out the skiing refund, we took a gondola (cable car) ride up the mountain, admired the stunning views over the lake and then did a couple of luge rides at the top. I haven’t been on a luge since I was a kid and mum had to stop her tabogan and catch me as I went flying over the top of her near the edge of the mountain as I couldn’t work out how to stop my tabogan. That had put me off a bit! I took the first run very cautiously but got a bit of confidence for the second run. Rich just went flying round the track both times.

Then we played what I believe may be the best mini-golf course in the world. Seriously, this indoor course has 18 themed holes with obstacles that include your ball riding on a mini chair-lift on the ski hole, setting off a wood chopping machine on the timber plant hole, and setting off a sweets machine that gives out lollies on the 18th. Great fun!

As the skiing is most definitely off, we are going to head on South tomorrow and explore Fiordland over the next couple of days before making our way to Invercargill, the most southerly city in the world, and then heading back up the East coast to spot whales and rare penguin species. Hey, we can ski Europe!

Luckily, for Saturday, we had planned the perfect gloomy day activity; sitting in a warm workshop, surrounded by various electric tools, we both carved our own jade necklaces.  Yes, that’s Rich too.  I had spent some time on Friday night designing my own Mania - this is a Maori symbol that traditionally has the head of a bird, the body of a human and the tail of a fish to represent the importance of the connection between the sky, the earth, the sea and all the creatures living in/on them.  The symbol is beleived to be worn by one who has supernatural powers and protects the wearer from evil.  I’m not sure about the powers bit, but I liked the idea of the earthly connections - it appeals to my limited spiritual beliefs - so I took this idea and added in my own identity. 

I took the design with me into the workshop on Saturday morning and got to work quite quickly.  In the meantime, Rich selected a very manly fish hook design; this is said to represent strength and determination and is to protect the wearer from harm at sea.  We both then chose our slabs of jade - I went for quite a light piece whereas Rich asked for something as dark as possible so Steve, our tutor, pulled out a piece of virtually black jade from his own collection for Rich to use.  Rich managed to complete his work of art after about 6 hours after much grinding, cutting, drilling, smoothing and polishing.  Mine took a couple of hours longer due to the complexity of the design.  Though we do say so ourselves, the final articles are both pretty impressive, particularly as it’s the first time I’ve managed to complete anything like this - at school I used to give up in CDT and Textiles becuase I just couldn’t make anything that didn’t break or that looked anything like it was meant, so I’m particularly proud that I not only designed this but that I worked patiently (yes, that is me being patient) at it for over 8 hours and it looked like I’d meant it to!  Rich is much more practical but still, he’s wearing a very professional looking fish hook.

Now, the problem is, the rest of our planned activities require particular weather for us to be able to participate, and Mother Nature isn’t playing ball!  We were meant to do our heli-hike today; this invovled taking a helicopter flight up Fox Glacier to a point that can’t otherwise be reached, hiking on it armed with cramp-ons etc. for a couple of hours, then flying back down.  Unfortunately, this morning, we woke to cloud, rain, fog, greyness and any other potential hazard you could think of for a helicopter.  Things did start to clear a bit as midday and our scheduled flight time approached but, unfotunately, after getting geared up and driven to the helipad, the trip had to be cancelled due to too much cloud cover.  Apparently tomorrow is supposed to be fine weather-wise so we’ve rebooked for the morning - fingers crossed.

If things don’t work out tomorrow morning however, we can’t stay around becuase we have to drive down to Queenstown as we have booked 3 days skiing there.  I’ve just checked the snow report for the slopes around the area and there is none - skiing may also be off!  To top it all off, I’m fairly sure we decided we wouldn’t be skiing when buying our insurance as we didn’t plan to be anywhere near ski slopes during the ski season so I don’t think we can even get any money back if we can’t ski!

So, I just need to say Happy Father’s Day and Happy Birthday to my dad as my phone is being rather tempremental and I’m not sure I’ll get to speak to him - the weather’s probably knocked the line out or something!!!!

Hi all, my turn to do the blog entry so expect more bad engish and jokes. Can not belive how the time is flying by and its now less than 50 days untill we arrive back to the uk.

Anyway, last entry ended with us sitting in an internet cafe in Taupo which is a great place. I love the fact that the lake was made by one of the biggest volcanic explosions ever recoreded and even though it looks tranquil the whole are is a time bomb. Suffering from a cold (man flu) we had a quiet night watching the new indiana jones movie and finding the prices really cheap went back the next night, Lins watched sex and the city and as I would rather boil my head than watch that whining crap for two and a half hours I saw Ironman (fantastic the perfect antidote to that moaning twig!)

During the day we decided to take it easy and save a bit of money (its going like water at the moment) and walked 8k round trip to the Huka falls which is a huge gushing rapid then seven metre drop which granted does not sound impressive but the force that it comes out is amazing and turns the whole river into a torrent of marbled water for the next 50m. I personally wanted to go to prawn world, which is the worlds only geothermal prawn farm but strangly Lins didnt share my enthusiasm so it was skips. I left her with this question “who can say they have ever visited a prawn farm let alone a geothermal one?” She was not convinced!

Next day we left Taupo and set of on the long journey down to Wellington via the start of the Tongariro northern pass. This walk is made famous by Lord of the Rings and the scenery you walk past is the setting for Mordor however with man flu still firmly kicking my arse and the fact that it was closed due to bad weather it was not to be. Gutted that we didnt get to do the walk as its supposed to be amazing, volcanic cones and coloured lakes. Seeing the pictures its no suprise it was chosen as by the film makers. As a runners up prize we walked to the ridge in front of the mountains for a view of them in there snowy glory (photos will follow but at the moment in the middle of knowhere and its to much to ask for decent internet!). After this I decided to scare Lins and our nissan sunny by driving into the ski town at the base of the mountains up a very windy, very steep road. The cloud obscured most of the view but when it lifted was well worth it.

After a short picinic stop, firmly planted in the car we set off again for Wellington on a pretty but uneventful journey. The highlight of which was going on a swing. I have forgotten how much fun it is an have not been on one in years, I highly recommend it!

On arrival in Wellington it took a while to work out the parking system. Its really cheap and only costs $5 a day to park on the street in certain permit bays but you are not allowed in resident only bays. They decided to have a laugh by placing one of each sign on each bay so you have not got a clue which is which!

Next day we set off on a days whirlwind tour of Wellington which is ironic as its known as the windy city. First stop was the cable car and the botanical gardens. Why its called a cable car is beyond me as its seemed a tram but still it was really nice view over the city. We wandered around for a while, the garden was really nice and had some intresting sculptures but nothing to keep our attention for longer than half an hour so back to the city again and to a great musueam called Te Papa museam. It was impossible to see it all in  day as the place was huge so we focused on one floor which told the story of migrants and had a great movie that was set in a mock up junk shop that came to life as the movie progressed. We then visited the earthquake simulator which was frankly a bit lame but it does highlight how dangerous it is to live in New Zealand, everything seems to want to boil you, crush you or shake you to bits. Do not know what it is about this part of the world but its dangorous!

After a few hours we headed off to Mount Victoria for the sunset, now there are two ways up this mountain and we took the bus, on the way up we passed numorous people cycling and running up it which made me feel more than a little unfit (fittness is at a record low). I even took sheps advice and signed up for a ten k for when I get back. Force myself to do something about it!

The views across the city from mount Victoria are stunning and I must have taken 80 photos in the half and hour we were up there. Wellington is a real mix of mountain and sea and is a really active place. Definatly my favorite city in New Zealand so far. After another chilled out night we boarded the ferry for picton along with an Argentinian guy we met called Esteban. (second hitch hicker of the trip, the first was a dutch guy with mad eyes!)

While I was working in Oz, Kiwi (who suprise suprise is from New Zealand) advised me to get the slow ferry as its alot more scenic. As part of the rental we managed to swing a free ferry trip and as luck would have it, it was the slow trip. After two hours we slipped into Malbrough sounds and got great views of the fjords  and mountains as we approached Picton.

From Picton we took the short hop (well short on the map  - 150k when you realise you have to go round alot of hills and mountains) to Nelson and a backpackers that looked like the Amityville horror house and was complete with paintings of small spooky children and thirties movie stars. By contrast the bathrooms were an explosion of colour and had the best showers yet on the trip. Really nice feel to the hostel and we spent the night chatting to two drunk australians. One of whom was great on the guitar and could really sing. Was like being sat in a private gig.

Nelson is the stopping off point for Abel Tasmin and is frankly a weird place. While quite picturesque with the typical mountain backdrop, its full of very strange people. Im sure most of the town is related in some way! Now I think when shep was here it was summer as I remember the photos of him Kayaking in the sun and stories of floating backpacker hostels.

Winter is a diffrent story with alot being shut and whats open expensive so we instead took the land option instead of paddling around the bays. Booking a water taxi, we were taken  round various bays to a secluded beach via a collony of fur seals. (really cute, how anyone can club them to death is beyond me)  After drop off, you  then follow another famous new zealand trek (or tramp as they call it here).  The full tramp is three days in total so we completed one section and it was great. Changing from gorgeous untouched beachs and crystal clear seas to rugged hilly paths was one of the best treks I have done so far and the weather held out. In total we covered 13km and had a nice picnic overlooking a huge bay with prestine sand. Not a bad life

Today has been mainly driving as we are heading down towards the fox glacier for a days ice hike and then on the Queens town for skiing. On the way we did stop at the great pancake rocks. Formed thousands of years ago they are made from thin layers compressed as scientists still can not work out how they were formed. The weather was attrocious but they were one of my favorite parts of New Zealand so far, with huge crashing waves and spray filled blowholes I think this is one place worth getting soaked for as it made it all the more spectacular.

We are now currently in a nice little backpackers in Hokitika where Lins wants to try jade caving and is currently planning her design. Were off to a place called bonz and stonz (see what they did with the NZ there!) where you get guidance in cutting and making your own design in either jade, cow bone or paua (shell). Kind of like a blue peter job. Having seen some of the efforts today it looks really professional so should be good fun and hopefully productive.

Hope all is good, from the look of the amount of emails I get daily everyone I know is into gambling, euro 2008  and computers. Enjoy the warm weather, still freezing here, getting colder and its started to rain. Cest la vie!

Leaving Auckland for the second time, we headed to the Coromandel Peninsular to do a day’s sight-seeing en-route to Waitomo.  Well, I say en-route; it is, in fact, quite a major detour, however, our sense of distance has altered somewhat since being in Oz and we now adopt quite a different attitude to the idea of going an extra couple of hundred kilometres to see something of interest.  After a morning in the car, we reached hot water beach where you can use your spade to dig a couple of feet into the sand at one particular point on the beach and you will be rewarded with your own pool of hot water to bathe in.  Or, alternatively, you can borrow someone else’s hole if you don’t have time / a spade to dig your own! 

Next, we headed a little further around the coast to the starting point of the walk to Cathedral Cove.  The walk took about 1/2 hour and was constantly fluctuating in many senses - the sun was shining, then it was raining, then sunny again; the path took as down then up then down again.  We arrived at the cove itself, which we think was named because of the hole that goes right through the land over the beach, forming an enormous arch, and spent about 20 minutes there before we had to rush off back over the hills to the car so that we could get to Waitomo before the hostel reception closed.

4 hours later we arrived at Juno Backpackers Hostel in Waitomo.  The hostel was really homely and, shortly after dinner, I got into my pyjamas, bought my duvet into the lounge and sat and watched films with the others at the hostel.  It felt just like sitting in your own front room!  We had booked the ‘Rap, Raft, Rock’ experience for the next day as we’d been told it was a great way to see the glowworm caves in Waitomo and I had thought it sounded really exciting.  Until I saw the pictures.  And spoken to people who’d done something similar that day.  Then I was scared. 

Overnight I decided I may not be rapping, rafting and rocking after all so dragged Rich out of bed early in the morning to go to the office of the company we were going with to get some reassurance from them.  Once they’d convinced me I wouldn’t be spending 3 hours in a confined space with the cave roof just above my head and the cave walls inches from my  body, I felt much better and was really excited about the afternoon.

We went back to the office at 1.45 and met the two New Yorkers, Martina and Kim, that would also be in our group that afternoon.  They are just in New Zealand for a holiday for a couple of weeks and were great fun.  We all piled into the van and were driven onto an off-road track to a couple of large lock-ups.  There, we were kitted out with wetsuits, gumboots, ridiculous hobbit-like trousers, helmets, gloves and harnesses.  We were then dirven further down the track to the cave’s entrance. 

Well, I say cave’s entrance.  I mean 27 metre sheer drop into the mouth of the cave.  We abseiled down into the cave one at a time and then grabbed our tubes and started our walk into the cave.  On the way upstream we were shown the eels and other wildlife living in the water running through the cave.  Then we were told we were going for a walk in the dark.  The torches were switched off and the glowworms began to glow.  After the eyes had had a little while to adjust, the roof of the cave looked like the starry sky at night, though we could still see nothing else.  We were instructed to take in what we could see and then the instructor made a noise that rang through the cave and made us all jump out of our skins.  He created the “boom” by throwing the tube flat onto the water.  The result was incredible; the glowworms respond to this by glowing more brightly, and those worms that weren’t already glowing, begin to glow, therefore the visibility in the cave increases immensely.  We went form being able to barely see our own hands in front of our faces, to being able to see the person 3 people ahead of us - vaguely!

The black-water rafting was nowhere near as extreme as it sounds.  The water level was really low and, most of the time, we were pretty much having to push ourselves along on the tubes! 

Then began the scary the bit - I had been told the the small holes would be optional, but of course the guide encouraged me to go through them, even though I technically could have walked around them.  So I squeezed myself through some gaps that I didn’t feel comfortable with, but I guess I got some satisfaction from knowing I’d managed them without having a nervous breakdown!

Then came the long wade back upstream to the mouth of the cave.  Martina and I were both completely knackered and our thighs felt thoroughly toned by the time we got back to the start, whereas Rich had managed to follow the tracks of the guide and had found all the shallow bits to save his legs. 

When we got back, it was completely dark and the 20m rock climb to get out of the cave was still ahead of us.  The guide obviously went up first and made it look easy, then he fed the safety rope down to us and we made our way up, one by one.  I went second and while Kim shouted encouragement from the top and Martina and Rich shouted from the bottom, I whizzed up the easy first few metres, then came to a complete stop when I got to a vertical section and couldn’t work out where to put my feet next.  I knew I had to keep going upwards, there was nobody there to tell me which way to go, and I just didn’t seem to have legs long enough to reach the footholds I could see!  It was a challenge.  Still, it only took aroun 5 minutes and I was pretty chuffed once I go to the top.  Rich came up last and managed to come up so quickly that we thought the instructor was feeding the rope back down to him, then we realised he was actually reeling it in as Rich was moving up the rock face - impressive!  And so ended our expedition into caving - and we loved it!

The following day, we drove down to Rotorua, giving a lift to a guy from Holland who was hitching his way around the North Island and who had stayed in our room the night before and asked if we were going that way.

We dropped him off at the edge of town and then booked ourselves in to the Funky Green Voyager Backpackers, a great hostel in the town centre.  We then went to Rainbow Springs to experience the kiwi encounter.  This is a guided tour around the centre where they are breeding kiwis to try to increase their numbers in the wild.  The kiwis that are hatched here and released back into the wild once they way 1-1.2kg (too big for stoats to eat them) have around a 60-70% chance of survival as opposed to the 5% chance they have when the hatch in the wild - pretty impressive.  We had an excellent guide who informed us about the lives of kiwis and the work of the centre and we got to see a few kiwis who will not be released as they have been sick or are being used for breeding.

The evening was taken up with a sociable game of poker with a group of Germans and some other Brits at the hostel.  There was a great crowd and a great vibe at this hostel.

The next morning we went to Hell’s Gate.  My mum has just informed me I’ve been here before too and there are photos to prove it, but I don’t remember it…and I’m fairly certain I didn’t get to have a mud bath treatment last time I was there.  We took a walk around the park, which is made up of bubbling mud pools, hot water (and I mean dangerously hot) pools and steaming, sulphurous lakes, and then we had a mud bath spa treatment.  This involved climbing into a hot pool of muddy water, smothering oursleves in the mud, relaxing there for 20 minutes, taking a cold shower (not a pleasant experience), and then relaxing in 2 hot water pools.  After our final hot shower to get ourselves clean and to rid our skins of the smell of sulphur, we both felt thoroughly chilled out and had very smooth skin.

That afternoon we went to see Janice and Peter, friends of my mum and dad, who I haven’t seen since I stayed with them in Rotorua when I came out here 20 years ago.  Unsurprisingly, their first comment was that it was like being in a room with my mum 30 years ago!  They had kindly agreed to receive our post as the bloody banks keep introducing new security measures and we needed new cashcards as a result.  We had a great afternoon catching up with them and telling tales of our travels but we soon had to head off as we had booked a Maori cultural experience for the evening.

The Mitai cultural experience was a great evening out.  We got to see our dinner being cooked in the traditional ‘hangi’, see Maoris in traditional dress paddle a traditional canoe, watch a performance of various Maori dances, songs and skills, learn a bit of the haka, and eat far too much excellent food - they’d even cooked stuffing to go with the chicken for the benefit of the British tourists!

On our final day in Rotorua, I got to fulfil another long-time ambition; I got together with a group of others in the hostel and we went white-wter rafting on the grade 5 Kaituna river.  It was amazing.  So much fun.  We even managed to stay upright when going over the 7m waterfall.  There was one drawback though - the water is absolutely freezing at this time of year and we only had sleeveless wetsuits and a fleece on - apparently it’s hard to paddle with a full-sleeve wetsuit.  I pointed out it’s also hard to paddle with numb arms and hands!

After one final game of poker last night, we left the hostel this morning and have now arrived in Taupo.  We came via Wai-O-Tapu, a large park full of more sulphurous water, immense craters and bubbling mud pools.  I’m fairly sure I do remember this one from last time I was here, but mum will probably tell me now I didn’t go there before!  The piece de la resistance at this park was the Lady Knox geyser.  This geyser spits water 20m up into the air; naturally this occurs every 24-72 hours, but the park owners give it a helping hand to do so at 10.15 every morning by putting soap into it - some prisoners discovered this effect when they were held here as part of an open prison about 100 years ago and came here to wash their clothes.

We were hoping to do the Tangariro Crossing from Taupo but it seems as though this is unlikely to be possible as the weather conditions have to be really good as the crossing can be dangerous and the hostel owner told us when we arrived today that it unlikely to be open before Monday at the earliest.  On top of this, Rich has a cold and it is a very physically demanding walk and should only be attempted when you’re fully fit.  So I think we’re just going to hire some mountain bikes for the day tomorrow and head out to the Huka falls.  The other option is a sky dive but I think we’ve decided money and common sense won’t allow it!

Hi everyone, well its been a while since we did a blog entry again. Lots of travelling has been done so I am going to split the blog entry into two otherwise it will take forever to read!

Carrying on from the last blog entry we had a week ago today we picked up our car  for a five week tour of the north and south islands. We arrived at Jucy car rentals at ten oclock and picked up a …..wait for it. Nissan Sunny, yes you heard right. And just in case anyone is in any doubt, its a heap! We had opted for a slightly bigger engine as we knew New Zealand would be hilly but the countered this by giving us an automatic. Now whenever we go up hills it trys to constantly change up and down gear and we just get slower and slower. Very funny but very frustrating.

Our first destination was the Bay of Islands which is north of Auckland. After picking up some food we headed off with the plan of calling into Goat Island marine park on the way. Finally we got a glimpse of the scenery that New Zealand is famous for, rolling green hills, huge drops and winding hilly roads. It made for a really pleasent drive.

Coming up to lunch we pulled into a small beach a little way from Goat Island and had a picnic lunch while taking in the view. Massivly diffrent to Australia, its nice that everything looks so health if not a little cold.

Goat island was about a twenty minute drive away and is a stunning place. It takes its name from the idea that the island could have housed goats for shipwreck victims to eat. The idea was well and good but when they put goats on the island they simply swam to shore and scarpered!!

As Lins still cant dive and its a marine reserve we thought it may be a bit lost on us but after clamebering over some rocks and walking along an outcrop we came to a deep crystal clear channel which was full of large snapper and blue maw maws. We spent about fifteen mintues sat watching them patrol for food before heading back to the car.

Now the car park was overrun with ducks as they are obviously fed by tourists so as I went to reverse a duck stood behind the car. I sent Lins out to move it, she decided to use verbal persuasion to get it to move. Of course the duck gave her a confused look and loads more flocked over. Picture the scene, ducks everywhere with lins running around trying to steer them away and telling them off.  Genius!

After a detour down a dirt track which was shown as a main road (!) we arrived in the Bay of Islands as it turned dark. After dinner we spent a few hours talking to some english girls from exter before passing out for the evening.

Next day we walked to the look out over the bay as we had arrived in the bay at night and took in the views. Captin Cook named the bay after the 144 islands situated around. In another amazing feat of naming he said “I shall name this the bay of islands due to the large amount of the”. Trained monkey and typewriter spring to mind.

After the lookout, I had booked on a fishing trip into the bay. Having not fished since I has about eighteen i was really looking forward to it, especailly as everyone at work in Oz was fishing mad. Heading out on a glassy sea we reached our spot, i dropped the sinker over the side and five minutes later i was dragging up a very angry looking snapper of about 3lb. Easy this fishing lark I thought and dinner was set for the evening. In total I caught six snapper but four were thrown back as they were too small. One small lad who was fishing with his dad managed to land an 18lb one. At one point I thought it would drag him in!

Back at the hostel Lins made a nice pasta in sauce and I pan fried the snapper in  a little butter and it was amazing. If you ever get the chance to try it do as its one of the tastiest fish I have eatten. Feeling very hunter gatherer I sat and watched the rugby with a very full stomach!

Next day was up early for a tour around the bay on a bright yellow boat called the Dolphin explorer. We wove in and out of the islands and saw some amazing houses and privately owened islands with picture perfect beach fronts but alas no dolphins. They had decided to take the day off. We were given a free crusie next time were there though. Apparently someone took them up on the offer twelve years later.

After the cruise it was back to Auckland to meet up with Mags for the final time. We have met here numorous times since India but alas this is the last so we (Me and mags) commiserated with a beer or seven. Not good when you have to be up early in the morning!

 Well dinner is calling and the computer is rubbish so I will leave it there for now. Were currently in Rotorua and the tempreture is dropping every day. Next updated will feature sinking pools of bubbling mud, maori hakas and little glowworms and hopefully some photos.