Christchurch and home

We're home.

Figured I should post what we've been doing since Queenstown, though, so here goes.

The bus trip to Christchurch was quite good, as we happened to have a lot of people on our bus that we'd travelled with earlier in the holiday. It was great to catch up with everyone and get all the stories of what they'd been up to since we'd last seen them.

The hostel we stayed in at Christchurch was pretty good, and fairly central. The only trouble was, we had six days there, and there was very little to do in Christchurch. Actually, that's probably not true, but there was very little that we wanted to do while we were there. Being the last few days of our holiday, we were very keen on the "relax and enjoy" aspect of being away from home! As such we spent most of the time sleeping (how I relax) and shopping (how Naomi relaxes), with the odd meal and cinema visit thrown in for good measure.

It did mean though, that by the end of our stay we were beginning to get a little bored and were in some ways quite happy to be heading home.

Our flights back to the UK were fine - we were very glad we chose to have a 12-hour stop-over in the airport terminal's hotel in Singapore to break the journey up, mind you. Saved us from massive jetlag when we got home!

Home is much the same as its always been - we've spent a few days going to bed early and waking up early as our bodies adjust to the new timezone. Got back on Monday night and were straight in at work on Tuesday morning, which has actually been good as its helped us adjust better to being back!

Overall, we've had a fantastic holiday. It was made all the better by all the people we met on our journeys, so we really should say a massive thank you to Noosha, Simon, Charlotte & Lucy, Magdalena, Barbara, Sabrina, Ellie & the Canadians, Dave, Anne & Patric, Sandra and everyone else that we got to know on our time away. Also a massive thank you to our Kiwi Experience drivers - Andy, LJ and Bods. These guys really do go out of their way to help you enjoy your travels with them, and that raised the holiday above the level it would have been if we had organised our travels ourselves.

We've had an amazing time, and I suspect we may go back to New Zealand at some point in the future, but for now its just good to be home.

Queenstown - Skydive attempt number 3...

So, on Friday, I threw myself out of a plane!

I FINALLY managed to do my Skydive, and it was worth every second of waiting for it! I happened to be booked onto the same dive time as Anne and Patric, two of the group that were travelling with us on the Kiwi Experience bus, so the three of us went up together as a group.

The plane was tiny - with the three of us, three professional skydivers and three cameramen, we were crammed like sardines into the back of the plane. I was completely relaxed the whole way up, and even when I saw Patric and then Anne disappear out of the plane I didn't seem to have any feeling of nervousness.

Then it was my turn...

My tandem skydive partner, Peter, was strapped to my back, and my cameraman (whose name I never did get) stepped out of the plane and hung on to a bar on the outside, while Peter positioned us on the edge of the doorway. Of course this meant that he was sat on the edge while I dangled with nothing below me and only Peter keeping me safe from a 12000 foot fall.

Then Peter moved forward and we started a 12000 foot fall!

I'm not (entirely) ashamed to admit that I screamed like a girl for the first five or six seconds (Norris, you would have been proud!), but that quickly turned into a more manly "Woo-hoo" when I remembered there was a video camera pointed at me! The freefall lasted about 45 seconds, of which I spent about 40 seconds trying hard to catch my breath, and almost completely forgot to do any poses in mid-air for the photos the cameraman was taking. I'm ashamed to say I did close my eyes briefly, but then realised how stupid that was and opened one eye so I could see what was happening. The other eye very quickly followed!

Once we got to a certain point (I have no idea how far we fell in freefall), Peter opened the parachute and we seemed to shoot upwards, although this was only the drag slowing us down and the fact that the cameraman fell away rapidly. After that we spent the next few minutes floating down and taking in the scenery. Peter pulled off a few tight mid-air turns for a bit of a thrill (cue another, very short, girlie scream from me!), and eventually brought us in for a very graceful (for me!) landing.

The whole experience was just amazing, and I'm certain now that I would definitely do it again, as I would know more of what to expect and probably enjoy it even more than I did.

I spent the next two days with a huge grin on my face!

The following day, while not as exciting, was still really good. I went on a Lord of the Rings tour around the Queenstown area. (Naomi decided that one LotR tour (in Wellington) while on honeymoon was quite enough, so didn't come with me). Our guide Trisha was a lot of fun and showed us some really fantastic areas. She also had quite a few replica props from the films, which we got to play with (take a look at my photo site to see some of these). The group that I was with were really good, especially the nutty Katrina from Germany who got photos of herself in some locations which Trisha told us noone else had thought to get photos in before! (We enjoyed watching her pretend to be a dwarf with three wargs trapped on top of her, particularly!) There was a couple from England, Ian and (I want to say Sheila, but I'm really sorry, I forgot your name!), another girl from Germany (whose name I have also forgotten - I'm so bad!), and Lin from Thailand. It was a fun group and we had some great times recreating different scenes from the films.

All in all, definitely worth the money. (Oh, and Trisha, you can buy the elf ears in the toy store in Queenstown!).

Today we went up on the Gondolas and went Luging, which was also very good fun. On the way back down we found an indoor 18-hole crazy golf course, so we had a quick round on that (I won!), before dinner, and now we're on our way back to the hostel. Hoping to watch the final Lord of the Rings film tonight, if we have time and the tv room is free, as we've watched the other two at different YHAs on our way down the south island, so really want to complete the set while we're here!

Tomorrow we get the bus up to Christchurch, so might try and post again from there before we head home. The end is in sight.... *sob*

Wanaka - Skydive Strike 2

The fates are conspiring against me, of this I'm now certain.

When we left Franz Josef, our driver Bods passed around the signup sheet for doing a skydive in Wanaka. He told us that, with the weather as it was, there was almost no chance to do it that day, but there was a very slim chance that we could do it the following morning before leaving Wanaka, so three of us put our names on the sheet and crossed our fingers.

As we drove south, the weather steadily improved until, when we stopped for lunch, the clouds were few and far between, and the sun was shining down. As we drove to Wanaka, Bods informed us that he'd spoken with the Skydive people, and they were ready to take us when we arrived in Wanaka at 4pm. So we got off the bus when we arrived (at around 3.45pm) and hung around outside the hostel to be picked up.

At 3.55pm it started raining.

*sigh*

We were told that there was no way for us to do it then, but possibly the next morning if the weather picked up.

I awoke the next morning to torrential rain.

*sigh*

So Franz Josef - strike 1. Wanaka - strike 2. However, on writing this, I sit in Queenstown with a skydive booked for tomorrow afternoon (Friday). We are forecast for torrential rain on Saturday (when I'm supposed to be doing another Lord of the Rings tour - although not subjecting Naomi to it this time!), but I have no idea of the weather for tomorrow.
(I've just looked on the NZ Met Office site, and it looks like it'll be dry but with thickening clouds, and that might be enough for it not to happen, so keep your fingers crossed for me!)

Assuming it all goes to plan, I should be jumping some time between 1.30 and 3.30pm local time (that's around 12.30 - 2.30am UK time).

Anyway, onto other things.

We arrived in Queenstown yesterday, stopping on the way at the original Bungy site where quite a number of people on our bus proceeded to tie elastic to their ankles and throw themselves head-first (usually) off a bridge. Skydiving is one thing, but I don't think I am all that fussed about doing a Bungy. Have to say, though, watching them all do it made it seem like an awful lot of fun...
(Don't worry guys, I haven't forgotten about the videos I took of you all! I'll have them up on the video section of my site when I get home! No promises about the quality of the video, but I've done my best!)

Queenstown itself is quite nice, although smaller than I expected. As one of the guys on the bus commented, it does heavily resemble a ski resort. There seem to be loads of activities to do here, and I suspect the town relies very heavily on the tourist trade to keep its economy going.

We're staying at the Lakefront YHA, and I have to say that its probably one of the better YHAs we've stayed in. All of the YHAs have been good, and we've been very happy on the whole. Wellington has been the best one so far (although lacking a tv in the room, which some had). Queenstown probably rates as number 2, other than the size of the room (we have a double, and the room is only slightly bigger than the double bed in it!).

We spent today being lazy - its our first lie-in since Wellington, so we made the most of it! We wandered around town (Naomi was very good and didn't even do much shopping!).

We kept bumping into people we had met on other Kiwi buses (buses other than the one we had arrived in Queenstown on). Its really great to catch up with people and find out what they've been up to, especially as (in at least one case) we hadn't seen them since we left Taupo in the North Island around two weeks ago (I think - I've kinda lost track of time, I must admit!).

Anyway, the next couple of days are going to be pretty interesting for me, and very relaxing for Naomi (other than worrying about me killing myself in the Skydive!), so I'll probably post again before we leave for Christchurch on Monday morning.

Wellington - Franz Josef

So, last time we posted, we were still in Wellington. A lot has happened since then!

We left Wellington on the Interislander ferry to Picton on the south island. There we met our new bus, and our driver Bods. After a stop-off in The Village Winery near the Marlborough Sounds for a free wine-tasting, we arrived in Nelson. Bumping into our friend Simon (who we had journeyed down through the North Island with), we proceeded to spend the evening educating some of his other friends in Lord of the Rings by watching The Fellowship of the Ring (and annoying other hostel guests who couldn't get to watch Grey's Anatomy and Coronation Street!).

Next morning we headed to Westport. We had an hour or so at the Nelson Lakes National Park, where we went for a walk through the bush and along the edge of Lake Rotoiti. We then drove through Buller Gorge, where some people stopped to do a jet boat ride before arriving in Westport. (I'd already done the fast boat Excitor up in Bay of Islands, so we didn't bother!).
We had a bit of excitement that night when the YHA owner caught some kids breaking into the hostel to steal beer from the fridge! A few of us stayed with her until the police arrived and escorted the offenders off the premises.

On leaving Westport we went for a walk along Cape Foulwind, which led us to a seal colony. The seals were out in force, and were trying to teach their pups to swim, which was great to watch. The pups kept chasing each other over the rocks and into the water! Naomi reliably informs me that the seals were rather smelly, but my insensitive nose never noticed!
The walk along to the colony reminded us a lot of the walk we took with Jill and Brad when they came to visit, down in Stonehaven along to the castle on the coast. Walking along small trails right on the edge of the cliffs, the scenery was so similar to our Scottish east coast that we might have forgotten we weren't at home if it hadn't been for the glorious sunshine and searing heat!

Our next stop that day was to Punakaiki - the Pancake Rocks. These are limestone formations which, for reasons which have not yet been determined by The Scientists, form in layers that look like stacks of pancakes, hence the name. The formations seem very similar to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland (but neither of us having been there, we can't say for certain!). We had chips and gravy for lunch at the cafe there, which was WELL FINE!

We were supposed to take the bus from there to Greymouth, but about 20 minutes outside of the town, we had a slight....incident. And older driver ahead of us decided to turn off the road really slowly. The van behind her couldn't break in time and had to swerve to the other side of the road to avoid her. Our driver slammed on his breaks (which didn't seem to work very well) and had nowhere to go except to try and squeeze in between the two. This resulted in some scratched paintwork on our bus and on the van, but the corner of our bus also created a large, bus-shaped dent in the back of the older driver's car, and caused her entire back windscreen to shatter.
Noone was hurt, although the car driver was a little shaken, but it did mean we spent an hour or so on the side of the road while the police investigated and a new bus was sent to pick us up. We spent the time enjoying the sun and watching the four police cars, ambulance and fire engine all getting on with their work. The girls were particularly taken with one younger, attractive fireman, and I think he was beginning to think he was a celebrity, the number of photos that our group took of (and with) him!
A bus arrived and deposited us in Greymouth, where we spent the next couple of hours until a replacement bus could come and take us on to Lake Mahinapua, where we were to spend the night at Poo Pub (otherwise known as the Mahinapua Hotel). Our hosts and the driver cooked us a massive barbecue of steak, venison, pasta and veg, and we then had a fancy dress party, with all the guys having to dress as women, while the women could dress however the wanted (a few of the girls took the opportunity to all dress up as our driver Bods!).
The night was a lot of fun - Naomi and I took a walk down to the beach and also to the lake before dinner, and enjoyed the mixture of massive long sandy beaches and lakeside scenery, all against the snow-capped backdrop of Mount Cook.
The only complaint was the slimy walls in our room, which gathered much condensation over the course of the night. (This was the only place on our trip in which we were in a dorm).

Leaving Lake Mahinapua behind, we headed for the Bushman's Centre, where Naomi had breakfast while I took photos of their pet Pig and Possums. From there we proceeded to Franz Josef, where we planned to hike up the glacier and do a skydive. Our plans were turned on their head a little by the weather. While it was fine and sunny when we arrived at 1pm, by the 6pm skydive time, the clouds had closed in and the jump was postponed.
We arrived at the glacier centre at 8.45am on Monday morning, and were taken by helicopter up onto the Franz Josef Glacier, where we then started what should have been a two-hour hike. After about 40 minutes, though, the clouds came down so heavily that our guides couldn't see far enough down the glacier for it to be safe, so we had to head back to the "helipad" (an area on the ice marked with some stones to show the pilot where to land) and we were flown back to the Franz Josef township. It was still well worth the money we paid for the trip, even just for the helicopter rides alone!

Since we got back, the weather has followed us down off the glacier, and as we sit in a nice red bus, refurbished as an internet centre, the rain is pouring down all around us. Chances of my getting skydive now are somewhere between slim and none (and slim just left the building...or the bus!). I'm going to look into the possibility of doing one further south in Wanaka or Queenstown, as those are our next stops, but perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

This time....

One Ring to Rule Them All...

Wellington is a windy place. Not just the people (although the food we've been eating has been making us fart quite a lot), but its a real wind-trap - reminds me of Gallowgate back home!

We spent yesterday catching up on rest and chores (such as laundry). We were even lazy for food - we got a pizza from Dominos rather than cooking or going out for dinner!

Today, however, we went on the Lord of the Rings Tour around Wellington. We were picked up by our driver Nathan at around 9am and spent the day visiting various locations around the Wellington area where Lord of the Rings was filmed. We started on Victoria Hill, seeing where certain forest scenes from "Fellowship of the Ring" were shot, and got the opportunity to recreate that famous scene where Frodo becomes aware of the Ring Wraiths chasing him (take a look at my photo site for the results!).

After that we visited the Chocolate Fish Cafe where all the stars went for coffee while they were filming in New Zealand. (its about 5 doors down from Peter Jackson's own home!). They do rather good ginger bread cake, let me tell you!

After driving past the various (rather low-key) studios that they have around here, we then went on to visit the locations where they shot Helms Deep, Minas Tirith, Rivendell and several others. Again, we got to recreate certain famous shots, such as the publicity photos of Orlando Bloom as Legolas, and the scene where Gandalf and Saruman walk through the gardens of Isengarde, discussing the One Ring (again, take a look at the photo site!).

The whole tour took an entire day, and was made all the better by our driver and guide Nathan, who was actually cast as an Elf in the Helms Deep scenes, so was able to tell us a lot about what went on in the filming of the trilogy. He was an excellent guide, and I would well recommend doing the trip to anyone who came to Wellington!

Tomorrow, we leave North Island, and we head across the water to South Island and the second leg of our journey...

Scaling Mount Doom (Honeymoon Days 12-...oh, who cares!)

It seems like an age since we last posted anything, although its only been about a week. Its been a busy week though. I hope I can remember all we've done since Whitianga!

After leaving there we moved on to Rotorua, although not before passing through Hobbiton, otherwise known as Matamata. (check our photo site if you don't believe me!). Rotorua has one major characteristic that you notice immediately upon entering the town - it stinks of rotten eggs! Actually, this is the sulphur and what-have-you that is produced by the geysers in the national park there, as Rotorua is part of the heavily volcanic area of New Zealand. In the evening we were taken to a small Mauri village where they give tourists an idea of the Mauri culture. It was a fantastic evening, with demonstrations of Mauri cooking, a show of Mauri music and dancing, and then a fantastic roast dinner. We were driven out there by our Mauri driver for the evening, Merv, who along with the drivers of the other four buses, really made us all feel at home and part of the tribe. This even included us singing songs from our own countries on the bus ride back to the hostel. We were let down by some of the Canadians on our bus, who couldn't think of anything Canadian to sing, but we gave a performance of "The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen" with great gusto (which, for anyone who has heard me sing, is loud if not tuneful!). Merv then led us in a rendition of "She'll be coming round the mountain", and it quickly transpired that the other buses must have been singing the same song, as two other buses joined us in making a wagon train circling a roundabout for the remainder of the song!

The following morning we took a walk around Te Puia, an area near Rotorua famous for its geysers and boiling mud pools. This is the main source of the egg smell! That made for a very pleasant journey on the bus afterwards down to Waitomo.

Waitomo is particularly known for its black water rafting - basically white water rafting but through pitch-black caves. Naomi gave this a go the next morning, riding the river through the caves on a tyre! I was slightly less adventurous, taking a walk through the limestone caves (the same ones Naomi was rafting through!). I felt justified in this, as I had gone quad biking when we had arrived in Waitomo, which was brilliant fun. We were taking the quads up various hills and narrow tracks, and got some spectacular views of the whole area.

After Naomi recovered from the rafting, we journeyed south to Taupo, where we would spend an extra day (hey, our driver LJ deserved a day off after being "Awesome" the whole way down from Auckland!). While Naomi spent the day resting and recovering from all the travelling, I went for a "short walk" up Mount Doom! This was an 8-hour hike up Mount Ngauruhoe (the volcano used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films) and its neighbour Mount Tongariro. It was an absolutely amazing day, with spectacular scenery. Myself and three of the others on our bus, Magdelena, John and Anna) got so far up before bumping into Barbara, a 77-year-old from Elgin (who was also on our bus). We stayed with her most of the journey, and were amazed at just how much she accomplished (not only that day, but over her whole journey, having sky-dived, gone hang-gliding, black-water rafting, white-water rafting, and was preparing to do a bungee jump when she got to Queenstown!). The hike was, she told us, definitely the most challenging thing she had done, just because the walk was really quite difficult in places. John and Anna had to go on ahead (they were doing a skydive that afternoon and need to get back), so Magdelena and I opted to stay with Barbara and help her with those (very few) bits that she struggled with, so we would all get back for the 4.30 final bus. Which we managed.

I was really pleased with how well we all did that day - it was such an amazing experience, and I'm just glad I was able to do it.

On Sunday we drove down to River Valley, a secluded little spot with a fantastic hostel, completely isolated from everything else. We spent our time here just chilling out and relaxing, although a few people (Barbara included) went horse riding early the next morning. Its an idyllic little spot, right on the edge of the river, and made for a nice break from all the more activity-based places.

Finally yesterday we arrived in Wellington where we had to say farewell to LJ and most of our bus-mates. We've really enjoyed the journey down from Auckland, but a lot of people are continuing down to the South Island tomorrow, while we are going to spend a few days in Wellington recharging our batteries.