New goings on

Hello, so continuing our goings on in Rotorua, we did our caneoing on Blue Lake. Blue lake was stunning, not a ripple in the water and it definitely lived up to its name, its was very blue.

Chris in the canoe at Blue Lake

We then followed this by doing some lugeing. This is a down hill concrete slope in little go karts. I was a bit apprehensive as Chris is way more of a dare devil than I am, but it actually turned out to be really fun. Chris also did this ride called the Sky Swing. There was no way I was getting on it. It hoisted you up in the air like a swing and then dropped you to 150km/hr in 2 seconds, he is a looney!

Laura lugeing

Chris on the sky swing

Next we drove to Whakatane, we wanted to do diving but it was all booked up so we stayed the night and then moved on.

Sunset at Ohope beach, Whakatane

We drove through Gisborne to Napier. Napier and Hastings are close together and are really nice towns and are known for their vineyards. We walked up a big hill called Te Mata, named after a Mauri legend. It was really windy and I did most of it in bare feet as I stupidly wore flip flops! Naturally we did some wine tasting, the first was at the oldest winery in New Zealand called Mission winery and the second was just down the road at Church Road Winery. Of course, we bought a couple of bottles which were really good. Next we went to the best part of the day, the Silky Road Chocolate factory, yummy! We went to the cafe and I had an extreme hot chocolate – pure melted chocolate! They had a great quote which I think is so true “Men can live without chocolate alone, but women can’t”.

Chris at the top of Te Mata

Laura at Mission winery

Driving Maxi with paddington bear

The following day we drove to Wellington, ready to catch the ferry to Picton in the south island. The ferry was really bumpy and I was worried about our beautiful Maxi in the car hold. Picton was a lovely place, really quaint with a gorgeous views of the mountains.

Picton with our ferry in the background

That day we drove to Westport, which is a fairly long drive but we stopped off a couple of times along the way. We stayed at a place called Carters beach. In the morning we got up really early and went to watch the local seal colony. I was a bit pessimistic about this, thinking there wouldn’t be any there. But there were loads with babies as well, it was awesome and we stayed to watch them for quite a while. We then went for a walk and some breakfast at Cape Foulwind followed by an hours drive to Punakaiki to do a 3 hours horse trek. This time my horse was a male called Appy and Chris’ quote before we began was, “I hope I don’t get that horse” and it turned out to be mine! He was a little ratty at times. Chris’ horse was as good as gold, he was called Barney. The trek took us through rivers, the bush and on the beach. My horse decided to canter off with me when he saw another horse, but it’s all gravy and I survived to tell the tale!

On the beach with Appy and Barney

Next we went to the famous pancake rocks 30 seconds up the road. There was a huge blow hole which worked well as the sea was really rough and the pancake rocks were awesome, they are basically rocks that look like they are made up of layers of thinner rocks.

The pancake rocks with a rainbow

We continued our travels to Greymouth which was dull (pardon the pun) and then stayed the night at Hokitika which is a sweet little place on the beach and the campsite we stayed at was lovely, they had a mini-farm with alpacas, horses, pigs, goats etc. They also a spa and Chris and I couldn’t resist! At night we went to glow worm dell which is pretty self explanatory. Wait until the sun goes down and go and watch the green fluorescent lights given by the glow worms, is cool, looks like stars.

Cooking in the van

The following morning we got up early and went to Hokitika gorge. The water here was amazing, it was so blue, it was a turquoise colour. It had some lovely views and a little walk, but we didn’t stay too long as there were a lot of flies.

Chris at Hokitika gorge

We then drove to the Franz Josef glacier region. We went out for a roast dinner as I had been pestering Chris for one all day. Chris said that this area really reminded him of a skiing resort. The next morning we went for a walk up to the glacier, we weren’t allowed on it, to do that you have to pay a lot of money, but we got a good view and the walk up to it was nice. We then drove to the Fox glacier, which was very similar just a shorter walk. The scenery of them both was spectacular and the clouds lifted for when we were at the foot of the glacier so we got quite a good view in the end considering it wasn’t a clear day.

Franz Josef glacier

We then drove to Haast. This is a pretty dull place and we stayed at Haast beach area. We thought this would be a good opportunity to watch the sunset as it is supposed to be good on the west coast. However, this was a bad move as the walk there was awful, about 30 minutes through a muddy pooey field in flip flops which caused us to have a few gin and tonics when we got back.

Leaving Haast we travelled to Lake Wanaka. This drive is supposed to be New Zealands best one day drive and it was. The scenery was stunning and the best so far. We stopped at some blue pools and many scenic lookouts. Lake Wanaka area itself is beautiful. I absolutely loved it here and Chris did too. We went to a place called Puzzling World, with illusion rooms and a two storey maze, we watched the sunset twice (we chased it behind the mountains) and we went to Paradiso cinema which is awesome. The cinema is quite retro with all different sofas as the seats and a morris minor inside which you can sit on. They have an interval and do the best home made cookies.

The drive to Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka

Puzzling world

Paradiso cinema

More goings on to come, plus Queenstown!

New land, New Zealand

Kia ora tatou and welcome to the start of our travels in New Zealand.

Well our first day in New Zealand wasn’t really anything exciting, just got the plane into Auckland and stayed at the Ventura Inn. The following day we picked up our campervan. We got kitted out with a DVD player (always important), chairs and table plus the campervan itself.

Picking up Maxine Wellington

It’s quite big until you compare it to some of the whoppers that are out there! First we drove a short distance and met up with Chris’ family friend. They took us to their local village and showed us around the harbour.

With Terry in St Heliers

Next we moved on and eventually ended up in Hahei. This was a beautiful place, a very small village, but we got a camper site around 30foot from the ocean. It had spectacular views and was great to watch the sun set outside. We then went inside and made ourselves pouched eggs on toast. We have a microwave and two gas hobs but no oven.  The camping novelty is still there but not sure how long it will last. 

On the beach in Hahei

 That evening we went outside to go to the loos and immediately noticed the stars.  Never seen anything like it.  The clarity was outstanding.  While we were gazing upwards we got talking to our neighbour John and his wife, we were invited to their (much larger) campervan for some wine and ended up chatting to them until late at night.

Next day and we cleared up and headed to another look-out over the beach where we had porridge outside on our put-up tables and chairs.  As we’ve never really been camping before this was all very new and exciting to us.  We moved on to some more coves in the area, parked up and began the 45-minute walk to Cathedral Cove, stopping at Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay along the way.  These were all stunning and secluded beaches and snorkling at Cathedral Cove was a must.  It wasn’t great snorkling for fish but the water was so inviting. 

We then moved onto Hot Water Beach, which wasn’t very hot because we hit it at the wrong time.  Next stop was a longer drive to Rotorua.  Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity.  By the time we reached it that night it was dark so we headed to a campsite and got some nice sleep with our new electric blanket – yes it is f*****g freezing at night.

Today we were up earlyish and first stop was Hells Gate.  A hot spot (honest no pun…) of geothermal activity.  We had a good walk around, taking in all the various pools of mud, boiling water and lovely sulphide smells.  The highlight of this was the foot dip and hot mud which persuaded us to go for a mud bath spar sesh.  mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! 

Muddy faced Chris at Hell's Gate

Enjoying a mud bath

After a quick lunch from our portakitchen it was time for Laura to be beaming – horse riding!! 

Lunch by Lake Rotorua

I was pretty uneasy about it, kinda.  But needn’t have worried.  The stables were in the middle of the green hills and were very well kept.  I got a brown male horse called The Man and Laura a white mare called Holly.  Laura’s horse was interested mainly by food (sounds like Meg) but mine was top, he set his own pace and would not be rushed but didn’t through me off.  Our trek lasted for an hour. 

Holly and The Man

We then went for a bit of a drive and checked out some things to do tomorrow before heading to our new campsite by Blue Lake. We sat out for an evening of reading and baileys hot chocs. Canoeing and luging await in the morning.

Pics are playing up on this comp, we’ll try again shortly.

Haere ra from us both.

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Queensland adventures

Hello! So we have actually just arrived at our accommodation in New Zealand (Yes, we have finally reached country number 2), but first I just want to update you all on our Queensland goings on.

Our last post was a little brief. Basically we were on a four day diving course. The first two days we spent at a dive centre where we were either in a class room watching DVDs on diving and then taking tests or we were in the pool doing closed water diving lessons. On the day of the last post we had been out to The Great Barrier Reef and done our first two open water dives (both supervised) at Plate Top on the Norman Reef. It was so cool, we went to a depth of around 10.5m and we saw heaps of fish – nemos, butterfly fish, angel fish and a giant clam. In the afternoon the boat moved location slightly. We were still at Norman Reef, but at a location called Troppos. Both Chris and I went out and did some snorkling for about an hour. When we first jumped off the boat we looked down and we were straight in the middle of the ocean where we couldn’t see the bottom. After a short swim away from the boat the reef appeared. It was actually really shallow at this location, only around 1-2m so it was perfect for snorkling. There were lots of fish, all different colours, shapes and sizes. It was fantastic. I had to stop a couple of times to let schools of mini fish pass by, it was like waiting at traffic light T-junction. I really wished we had a camera that day as we would have got great pictures.

After our last post we went back out to the reef at Plate Top at Norman Reef and did our third and fourth supervised open water dives and we are now certified divers thanks to Deep Sea Divers Den. This again was great, a little more scary as the water was choppy and there was a current. We went deeper to around 17.5m, so the ear popping was going a little mental! We saw a sea cucumber, more parrot fish and nemos. We were then certified by lunch time. The boat moved to a different location still on the Norman Reef but a place called Turtle Bay. Before you get excited, unfortunately, no we did not see a turtle much to my disappointment. At this location, we got a briefing from the boat supervisor and since we were certified Chris and I headed out by ourselves into the deep blue. We had an underwater camera with us which we had hired so we were going snap happy! The best part was when I spotted a white tip reef shark (around 1.5m long) and I couldn’t catch Chris to point to it. Eventually, he saw it and started swimming after it! It was very cool and not threatening, this time at least! We had around 23 minutes bottom time (under the surface of the water) and got to around 10m.  When we surfaced it was chucking it down, as we headed back towards the boat Chris got caught in a Blue Bottle jellyfish and as a result got stung across his face and arms, painful!!  Apparently they hadn’t encountered a Blue Bottle for quite a while, just unlucky.  A few mugs of white vineger later and the pain started to subside.

Even considering that encounter it’s safe to say we have now got the diving bug. We are booked in to a dive location for 5 days in Thailand and are hoping to do more diving in New Zealand, Hawaii and the west coast of America. We met a guy on the flight from Cairns to Brisbane who used to work as a diver and went to depths of around 2500 feet and could hold his breath and free dive for 6.5 minutes! He was telling us all about his experiences in the navy placing sonar blocks on the ocean floors, it was so interesting. He told us lots of great places to go diving so have got a few tips!

As you just heard, we flew to Brisbane on Wednesday and stayed just for the day. We stayed at a place called the Kookabura Inn which was lovely, especially compared to our horrible accommodation in Cairns. The lady had 2 dogs so Chris was in his element. They were called Chopper and Diesel. Diesel was a long-haired German Shepard which is the dog Chris wants so he loved to spend time with him. Brisbane is a lovely little city, it is around the size of Melbourne. We had a lovely sunny day so it probably helps, but I really really liked it. There was a harbour, some nice old buildings, a botanic gardens and a man-made beach and lagoon next to the river which sounds wierd, but looked great. We just explored for the day and had an early night as we had to fly to New Zealand this morning. We are now just staying in a hotel (more of an inn) near the airport so not seen anything of Auckland yet. We pick our campervan up tomorrow and are meeting up with one of Chris’ dad’s friends and family. Apparently the lady use to teach Chris at Oaklands.

We are both really excited about this next leg of the trip. I’m just hoping the concentration of bugs will decrease now (famous last words!)

We will add pics later x

The quest to find Nemo

G’day,

Well we have started our dive course. We havn’t got a lot of time so this is going to be short and sweet. The previous two days we have been training at a dive centre doing class room lessons and swimming pool dive practice. Today, however, was the best day. We went out to the Great Barrier Reef!! We did two dives in the Norman reef and then moved to another location to do about an hours worth of snorkling. Check out the pics below, more info later.

Chris about to giant stride entry for first ever dive!

 

Laura ready to giant stride for the first time to find Nemo!

 

Diving with Nemo

Found Nemo, yey!

Cya!

Tropical Queens

Well we’ve arrived in Cairns, located on the tropical north east coast of Queensland. Weather here isn’t too great at the mo, cloudy with showers, bloody humid though, 80%, highs 29, lows 24 – hurray for AC. Diving course starts tomorrow. We’ll be in the classroom/pool for two days before going onto the great barrier reef for our two days of certification dives – hopefully the weather will be better for them!

We arrived into Cairns midday and haven’t done much so far apart from explore and have some lunch on the Espanade. Initial impressions of Cairns – relaxed & quiet place (though that could have something to do with it being Good Friday), nice enough but could do with a beach. Where the beach should be there is a grassy wetlands which host a variety of odd fish/amphibians/crabs.
We’re currently chilling in our hostel – defo not our fave so far, bugs, wash your own bedding when you leave & a rusty old ceiling fan just to start. But it does offer free wifi so taking the chance to give a “live action feed” from the iPhone and thanks to Queensland not doing daylight saving, and to Britain finishing DS, the time diff is now only 9 hours.

Laura would like to add that she is not fussy where we move to away from this hostel, The Hilton or The Shangri La, whichever! – as you can see Laura is settling into the backpackers lifestyle well.

Will update again once we’ve done some diving!