Coromandel and Auckland

We've been all over the Coromandel, back to Auckland and now on to the East Coast.  I was going to get all caught up on my blog in Auckland but instead of writing up and posting I spent quality time with Elaine and Shane.  Sorry! Also with my McDonalds internet I'm limited on how much I can upload so it might take a few posts to catch with with photos!

Feb 7 – Coromandel Peninsula Beach Day

Since we stayed at a Holiday Park we took advantage of the facilities and made eggs for breakfast, a much needed change from oatmeal. After breakfast we did our usual clean up and take down then hit the road. We were headed up to the top of the Coromandel Peninsula. Man was it a crazy road! The first section was paved and very twisty turny. There were some sections with the sign “Wash out” which meant that part of the road had collapsed near the edge and the narrow two lane road was now 1.5 lanes. Fortunately we didn't meet anyone in these section even though there were a number of people coming the other way. After a certain point the road turned to gravel and combined with hairpin turns and blind corners were also hills. The road here was barely wide enough for two cars and in some sections was only one car wide. We made it safely to Port Jackson which is a little bit south of the tip. There was quite a large DOC site there which also had electric BBQ's and fire pits, the toilets were some of the less nice pit toilets we've been at. It was a beautiful sunny day so Beau tried out our new snorkel gear and I read on the beach. There wasn't too much to see sea life wise in the bay but I think Beau enjoyed himself anyways. It was actually quite windy out so I got a few sandy wind gust but it kept me from getting too hot. I didn't actually go in the water. We were feeling sleepy so we had a little nap before dinner. For dinner we used the electric BBQ to cook on meaning we actually stuck our pots on the hot surface which worked quite well. There was a large group of Germans who arrived but a smallish bus, which I can't image driving on those roads, and their guide was preparing a lovely spread of grilled vegetables which would have been nice to get in on. Once done dinner we headed back to our site and noticed a pile of driftwood sitting at an empty site. We confiscated the wood and had a lovely fire which helped keep the night chill off.

View to the left from our campsite at Port Jackson

View to the right from our campsite at Port Jackson

Feb 8 – Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

It was another beautiful day this morning. We took advantage of the electric BBQ and fried some eggs for breakfast and made toast on it. We are headed over to the east side of the peninsula today to check out Hot Water beach and Cathedral Cove. We had to go back down the crazy road we were on yesterday to reach the highway over to Whitianga. We passed back through Coromandel Town and stopped into the Coromandel Smoking Company to buy some smoked muscles. We bought garlic, habanero and original. We drove along HWY 25 and made some scenic picture stops. At one of the stops you could see either side of the peninsula. Once we reached Whitianga we needed to pick up some groceries, we only found a little convenience store type grocer so they had very limited selection. We did pick up some crackers to have with our muscle which we ate on a waterfront bench. The muscles were delicious especially the garlic ones. We were a little disappointed in the habanero ones, they weren't spicy. On our way out of town we found a proper grocery store and picked up some better things for dinner that night. We then went to Hot Water beach. There is a natural hot spring that flows under the sand into the ocean here and at low tide you can dig yourself your own little hot pool. The place was packed! We did get lucky and some people were leaving their pool when we arrived so we snagged their spot. There is only a small area that actually has hot water coming down it so you have to have dug in the right spot. You can also dig where the water is too hot. The place would have been more enjoyable if there weren't so many people, it was a bit of a tourist trap but at least it was free. We hung out in our hot pool for a little bit then went for a swim to try to wash all the sand off of us. As you can imagine there was sand in all kinds of uncomfortable places. We ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich then headed to Cathedral Cove. This is a popular beach with some really cool rock formations including a big tunnel through the rocks to a beach on the other side. It's also a marine reserve. It was a little late in the day for snorkeling so we plan to come back and check out the sea life next week. We drove to a DOC site called Broken Hills in the center of the Coromandel Peninsula, it was an old gold mining area. After getting set up we made a decent dinner of chick pea spaghetti. The camp warden came over to check our registration and also told us about a cool little night walk. He was taking some people later on and invited us to join in. A little while later we set off for the walk with the warden and nine other people. When we reached the entrance to the walk there was a tour bus parked on the side of the road. Apparently this walk is cool enough to warrant tours. We hiked up the tail and saw tons of glow worms in the rocks. We hopped across a little river and were shown an old miners jails. People that had stolen gold were placed in this tiny cell. As kind of a gag though there was a skeleton laid out on the bench, it had sneakers and glasses on. We were also shown a prospectors mine. It dead ended but was pretty cool, we did some some very hideous bugs called weta. Beau aptly described them as a cockroach with spider legs. YUCK! After the mine we headed back to the campsite, we might have gone on a further hike but the path was choked with the tour bus people.

The coastal road we had to follow

Hot Water Beach

Cathedral Cove

Feb 9 – Back to Auckland

It had been pretty chilly last night so there was condensation all over the tent, inside and out. While we had our coffee and oatmeal we got the tent dried out and packed up. We headed towards Auckland and on our way stopped off at McDonalds to check our e-mail. We had confirmation that Elaine or Shane would be home today and had a McFlurry while we were there. That was a huge disappointment! It was more like a sundae with crappy toppings. I guess they don't have to try as hard when there is no DQ to compete with! We got into Auckland around lunch time and were able to park in Elaine and Shane's parkade as their roomies where away for the weekend. We had lunch with Elaine and Shane and caught up a little then Elaine headed off to work. I got some laundry going before we headed out for a walk to Mt Eden. There was a spectacular 360 deg view of Auckland from the top of the dormant volcano. After our little walk we headed down to the CountDown to pick up beer. Beau and I have been craving a nice cold beer. We haven't been able to chill anything so if we get alcohol it tends to be red wine since it can be served at ambient temperature. Back at the house Shane got started on making us pizza for dinner. Elaine got home and we were severed some delicious thai chicken pizza. We spent the evening catching up on Australia and our travels around the north island.

View of DT Auckland with the crater

Northland and Coramandel

We have been staying at basic campsites and using McDonald's internet to update our websites and check our e-mails.  You'll have to forgive us for the lack of continual updates.  We also are trying to charge all our electronics using a car charger.  It's amusing we were able to be more connected than in Asia.  I'll try to add pictures to this post at a later date, the internet is too slow to do it currently.

Feb 1 – Forest Giants

After dreams of kiwis danced in our heads we woke up to a fairly nice morning. We headed on out of our Trounson forest park and on to Waipoua Forest. This forest boasts the largest two kauri trees in New Zealand. We stopped at a look out but didn't really know what we were looking at besides a lot of trees. We continued on to the visitors center to find out where we should be going. After consulting their forest map we set off again. Our next stop was to see an area of young kauri trees. The younger trees were tall but quite skinny. I guess they fill out as they get older. Our next stop had several different trees to see. The first was called the Four Sisters and was actually 4 separate trees who's bases had fused together. The next stop of the walk was Te Matua Ngahere, the Father of the Forest. He is the second largest kauri tree in New Zealand but is also the widest with a 16.41m girth. He also has a volume of 208.1m3, a total height of 29.9m and a trunk height of 10.21m. He's huge!! On this walk we could have also seen the 7^th largest kauri but after seeing the Father of the Forest we didn't think it would measure up. A short drive later we stopped to see Tane Mahuta, the Lord/God of the Forest and the largest kauri. He has a volume of 244.5m3, a total height of 51.5m, a trunk height of 17.7m and a girth of 13.8m. He was gigantic. I wish the pictures could properly capture how immense these trees are. Unfortunately due to the delicate and shallow nature of the kauri roots you aren't allowed too close to the trees. We continued our drive and stopped for lunch at a picnic spot outside of the tiny town of Omapere. Slightly further on was Hokianga Harbour and there were some spectacular views from the top of the cliffs overlooking the harbour and town. Shortly after we continued driving we stopped to pick up a German girl hitch hiking. She was headed to the Far North too. We were taking the scenic drive and took a small car ferry across the Hokianga river at Rawene, We continued north for awhile and dropped our passenger off at a hostel in Henderson Bay. We checked out the beach there and had a little walk along it. This is a silica sand beach and if you shuffle your feet through the sand it squeaks! We made it to the DOC site just slightly south of Cape Reinga. We set up, had dinner and a nice walk along the beach. Beau had stuck up conversation with our neighbors who were Kiwi-Americans. They had been skin diving and caught some abalone. Unfortunately they had run out of gas to cook with but we lent them our stove and we got to try some of there sea food. It was soooo good, like a seafood steak. Yum!!! We talked with them for awhile and they got Beau into the hunter-gatherer mind set so we'll see how that goes in the future! It was a lovely clear night with a very bright half moon.

Te Matua Ngahere, Father of the Forest

Tane Mahuta, the Lord/God of the Forest

Henderson Bay

Feb 2 – Cape Reinga

The day started off beautiful with sunny clear skies. We had breakfast and hit the road to see Cape Reinga while the weather held. Cape Reinga is most North-West point of New Zealand, just a little bit east is the most north point. It is also a spiritual point for the Maori people as they believed all souls had to pass through Cape Reinga to reach their spiritual home land. Here is also where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. Apparently on rough days the waves can reach 10m high, but our day was very calm. The views were breath taking with bright blue sky, puffy white clouds and turquoise waters. After taking tons of photos we hit the road and went to check out some sand dunes. We went to see the Te Paki Giant Sand dunes. They were huge definitely not expecting to see desert like sand dunes in New Zealand. Looking in one direction all you could see was sky and sand but turn around and there were green forests. You could rent boogie boards to slide down the hills but after our not so cool experience of sand tobogganing in Vietnam we decided against it. We walked along the dunes for a bit in a small stream. Beau was hoping to reach the sea but it was actually quite far away from where we were. So we headed back to the car. We drove to a 90 Mile Beach access and actually drove onto the beach. We took advantage of our little beach site and had lunch. We drove back into Kaitaia to pick up some groceries and borrow some internet. We also bought two camp chairs from the Warehouse since we had nothing to sit on last night. We head out to the Karikari peninsula to a DOC site there. The cicadas were super loud but our spot ended up being relatively shelter and quiet in comparison to most. We enjoyed a mug of wine with our steak stirfry.

Us at the Light House at Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga Lighthouse

The Dunes at Te Paki

90 Mile Beach

Feb 3 – Happy Birthday to Me

I started my 25^th birthday with an icy cold shower. Okay it wasn't that bad, it was nice to feel clean. Our plan was to go wine tasting today. We hit the road and found a winery right off the get go. Our first winery of the day was Karikari Estates where we shared a tasting platter of 5 wines. This is the north-most winery in New Zealand. The way they did it was a little unfortunate though because they had us sit down outside and brought us out our platter with a laminated wine info sheet. The view was spectacular but we missed being able to talk with the wine server. Their wines were good though but we didn't buy any. We continued on to our next stop which was an area called Kerikeri, it has most of the wineries in Northland. Our next winery was called Fat Pig Vineyards. It had decent wines but the proprietor was lacking some in the personality department. Personally, I would have thought the woman would be happy to tell us about her winery and how it started, but it was like pulling teeth. Their grapes were grown on the property but the wine was made in Kerikeri, nothing more than that. We did get to try our first port which was very nice. Our next winery, Marsden Estate Winery, was very different than the last two. It was more upscale but they had unlimited free tastings and very nice wine. The girl helping us was quite helpful but a little busy with helping a new girl in the restaurant. If we had had wine storage and more money I would have bought wine from them. Our last winery, Cottle Hill, was very good all around. The proprietor was an American who sailed over to NZ in '92 and opened his own winery. He was very helpful with his wines and also talked to us about things to see in NZ and catching yours own seafood. We did buy a bottle of Chamboucin which I think was one of the first times we tried this variety but it was delicious. He also gave us a tip for some nice Fish and Chips for lunch. We stopped for the Fish 'n' Chips in Paihai and ate them on a bench by the ocean. Once into the town center we had a little wander around. They had a little craft market going on in the town square but there wasn't too much of interest. We also checked out a dive shop and were very disheartened to learn it was $229 for two dives. A little out of our budget right now, I think we'll save it for Australia. We were trying to decided whether to head over to the town of Russell but it wasn't all that nice out so we decided against it. We headed down to the Whananaki DOC site which was actually about 30km from the main road but was a lovely seaside setting. My birthday dinner was a poor mans chilli but turned out okay, especially with our nice wine to accompany it.

Feb 4 – Whangarei and Waipu Caves

After another slightly dissatisfying breakfast of oatmeal and coffee we got talking with our neighbours. They were a middle aged couple from near Tauranga and gave us some more tips on where to go in the area. We headed out from the DOC site and went down the road a little further to check out a pretty nice surf beach. We watched some surfers fight with the waves to get out to sea and catch a few waves. We headed back to the highway and down to Whangarei. We wandered around the town some a checked out some shops for a Kiwi charm for my birthday. We also looked at the town basin and bought a delicious curry wrap from a street vendor. We picked up groceries, gas and propane so it was an expensive day. A little ways down from Whangarei was the town of Waipu which had some glow worm caves we had been told to check out. They were incredible! And free! We had to wade through some streams and duck under rocks. It was like looking at the stars except under ground. There were so many of them that it was light enough to see each other without our flashlights. It was amazing and free :) There was a DOC site right off the highway that we pulled into after the caves. It was super windy but we were able to find a good spot with some shelter. We also used the tent as a wind block for the camp stove. We cooked up some yummy pork meat balls with garlic chilli sauce and pasta. Our location didn't actually turn out to be perfect since we were setup next to a group of teenagers. They weren't too loud but they did leave a mess of garbage to blow around and for the birds to eat. Idiots.

Feb 5 – On to Coromandel Penninsula

As we were finishing eating our breakfast it started to rain some, not wanting to pack up a wet tent we scrambled to get the tent down and out of the rain. Of course as soon as we had heaved the last of the pieces into the back seat the rain stopped. It did allow us to finish our coffee before we properly packed up the tent up sans rain. We drove down to Goat Island Marine Reserve which is supposed to have really good snorkeling. The place was packed but it is a Sunday. It was also windy and cool. Beau looked into renting us some fins and wet suits but was told the visibility was very poor today. The glass bottom boat trips were also cancelled for the day. It was suggested to us to return when the winds were not blowing from the north or north-east. We continued down the road and made a short detour when we saw a winery sign. We went down to Helios Winery that was run by an older gentleman. We talked with him for some time about his wine making operation and about the micro light aircraft he had. We got back on the road but hung a Louie when we saw another winery sign. This one was quite expensive to do a tasting but had a Fill Your Own Bottle deal going on for $10 so we filled the one bottle we had in the car. We stopped into one last winery that was directly off the highway and shared a lovely tasting from a very flamboyant guy. We also got a chance to taste their port as well which was very nice. We were about ready for lunch so we followed some signs down to a regional park and had tomato soup and crackers for lunch. We drove onwards down past Auckland and went to check out Hunua Falls. The falls were pretty nice but again the place was packed with people since it is a long weekend. We had a brief walk and took a few pictures. Next stop was the city of Thames for the night or rather a DOC site just out of town. We found the DOC site and set up at a camp site right next to a “BBQ” or as we call it a fire pit. We had our first camp fire in all of NZ and it was lovely. It kept us nice and warm although there were a few moments of rain to keep us on our toes.

Hunua Falls

Feb 6 – Super Bowl Monday

As we all know Beau is an avid football fan so watching the Super Bowl was kind of a big deal. We headed into Thames and found a bar that would be showing the game. We had a little time before kick off so we hit up a McD's for some free wifi then went into the Warehouse and bought ourselves some snorkeling fins. They are nice and short so packable and still helpful when snorkeling. We were running late for the game now and missed kickoff but we settled into the bar with a beer and some wedges. Beau was happy with the outcome of the game, if his team couldn't win then the team that beat them had to. Afterwards we went to the Pak 'n' Save for a few groceries and then drove to Coromandel Town. This was a VERY twisty narrow drove. I definitely took it slow. We arrived in the town and were looking into Holiday Parks. It was a painful $18/person but they had full facilities, showers were 50cents. We got set up and had our first hot shower since leaving Auckland! It was glorious. We also had a full kitchen to cook in, power for the computer and watched some of Avatar. We didn't get to finish the movie though as the room got closed down on us. We hunkered down in our tent for a good nights sleep, it was a little chilly out.

Taranaki to Auckland then North

We've rented a car for the month of January and started on our exploration of the North Island.  We are checking out Northland then the Coromandel before hanging out with Elaine and Shane in Auckland for a few days.  Our trip has been great so far, WE SAW A KIWI IN THE WILD!!

Jan 28 – Taranaki Drive

Gabrielle and Dan had an early flight this morning but were kind enough to offer us a ride to the car rental place. We are transferring a car to Auckland meaning we have a free rental for 2 days. Getting a was both good and bad, good because we had a free ride, bad because we had to wait around for about an hour for the rent place to open. It was also a Saturday so the little cafe nearby didn't open till 9 either. So we just sat on the stoop till they opened at 8am. Our transfer car is a Subaru Legacy which is an all wheel drive station wagon and apparently takes premium gas. This might be a little expensive for gas, especially since regular is $2.11/L. We headed out of Wellington stopping into a couple of hardware stores to check out camp stoves. We didn't find the one we were looking for so we continued on our way. On our way out of town we picked up a french couple hitchhiking. They were trying to get to Tongariro so we took them as far as Whanganui. In this town we went to the the hardware store and bought a camp stove then went to the Countdown to pick up groceries. While there our cashier was telling us all about the tower they had in town. So we drove to check it out, it also boasts one of only two underground elevators in the world. It was a nice but windy view from the top of the tower. After our tower excursion we continued on our way along the coast around Mt Taranaki. Unfortunately the mountain had a big cloud sitting on the top of it so the view wasn't quite what it could have been. We finally stopped at a holiday park for dinner and camping. These places are a little expensive but have full kitchen facilities. The place was pretty much deserted too. We made dinner and enjoyed a mug of wine before heading to bed. It is our first night in the tent.

War Memorial Tower

Whanganui Town

Jan 29 – Taranaki to Auckland

There is nothing like starting your with a brewery tasting. Shortly after we had gotten back on the road this morning there was a sign for Mike's organic brewery so obviously we had to stop. The grounds were nice and we headed into an older building for our tastings. They had hosted a wedding the night before and were still in the process of cleaning up. It would have been a very cool wedding venue with a rustic country feel. Beau and I split on a tasting, only $5, and we got to try 6 different 4 ounce tastings. We tried a strawberry blonde, an ale, a lager, a pilser, a coffee porter and a whisky porter. I'm not sure how to describe a porter but the whisky actually quite good and the coffee one was a little too burnt coffee tasting. We continued on our drive make a stop at a black sand beach. It had to be the softest, finest sand I've ever felt. We stopped for gas later on and it hurt to fill the car, it takes premium and was $2.18/L. OUCH! We drove onto Hamilton where we stopped to exchange an inverter we had bought for the car to charge our electronics. Then it was on to Auckland. We arrived in Auckland around dinner time and Elaine and Shane had some left over food they fed us although we were prepared to cook for ourselves. We spent the evening talking, and discussing our plans.

Beau on the Black Sand Beach

Pretty cool drift wood!

Jan 30 – Auckland

Elaine and Shane were headed to Australia today to meet back up with Mom and Dad. Beau was very sweet and drove them even though they had to be there at 5:30am. After dropping them off he had about an hour to kill before he returned the car, then took the bus back to the apartment. While he was doing all this I commandeered Elaine's bed since the air-mattress was mighty uncomfortable. When Beau got back we looked into some more rental cars and possibly buying a car. We weren't sure we would end up with the car we had booked online the night before as their system seemed a little dodgy. We ended up finding another car to rent and booked it. We called the online company to cancel the car but it's a 100% cancellation fee. I had a small panic moment but we uncancelled our car and will hopefully be picking up a little 2 door hatch back tomorrow for $22/day. We are for now keeping the other booking since they don't have our card info. With that relatively sorted we decided to go down to the waterfront. I was a little turned around coming out of Elaine's and we set off walking perpendicular to the water, ooops. We corrected ourselves and meandered on down. Today is a public holiday so there were all kinds of things going on in town. We saw dragon boat races, buskers (it was the World Buskers Festival), all kinds of sail boats and there was also a seafood festival which cost too much to get in to. We enjoyed our walk along the waterfront. We needed to pick up a few things to make dinner so we started hunting up a grocery store. Elaine had told me where to go but I couldn't remember her directions. During our hunt we were sidetracked by a big group of people gathered around a busker who was about the perform. He apparently used to work for Cirque de Soleil. He did a few balancing, strength acts at first, balancing on one hand, balancing on two hands then touching his toes to the top of his head. His big act though was balancing on one hand on a 15ft pole with 4 guys from the audience working to keep this pole steady then spinning in a circle. It was pretty cool and very dangerous. I would guess he makes quite a bit of money doings this as there was quite the crowd gathered around. After all the excitement we found the grocery store then hiked back to Elaine's. It's very up hill! After dinner we started organizing our stuff and where we were going. We also had a great chat with Elaine's roommate Katherine and she gave us some tips on where to go in NZ.

Super cool sail boat in Auckland Harbour

The acrobatic busker

Jan 31 – Northland

This morning we picked up our rental car without much trouble. The guy was a little late picking us up from Elaine's but no biggie. We had reserved a little 2 door hatch back but they didn't have any so they gave us a 4 door hatch back, it probably rents for $30/day instead of $22 but we got it for the agreed price. We nipped back to Elaine's, grabbed our stuff and hit the road (we also sent the other rental company an e-mail cancelling our booking for that day, they don't have our card info so too bad for them). Our exit from Auckland wasn't too smooth, we couldn't figure out how to get back on the high way at first. But eventually we figured it out. After lunch we switched driving so I got my first experience on the other side of the road. I did okay although I turned on the windshield wipers several times instead of signalling, and signalled the wrong way once too. It's also a little different to keep yourself centered in the road, you tend hug the left side which is okay if there is a shoulder but in most cases there isn't. We arrived in Dargaville without incident and picked up some groceries. The price of vege's was ridiculous but we got a premixed vege pack on sale. After leaving the kumara (sweet potato) capitol we head to our DOC campsite in Trounson Kauri Park. We had forgotten to get change to pay for our camp site but got very lucky that a camp warden had just arrived on site and he gave us change. We set up the tent and then went for a walk through the scenic reserve. The reserve is very strict about keeping contaminates out and provide boot washing stations. This is to preserve the Kauri trees which used to be found all over the North Island but now only pockets of forest are still alive. This is one of the best opportunities to see a kiwi in the wild, crossing my fingers! After our walk we played crib and made dinner. After eating we were looking over the maps getting a feel for where we were going tomorrow when a woman came to let us know she was selling some local produce from her car. We walked over to check it out and the woman commented on my Tiger Beer t-shirt. We got to talking, she was from Vietnam and we told her all about our travels. We bought some avocado , cucumber and zucchini from her for $3.50 but as we were leaving she handed us a bag of beans and said they were on her because she liked us! Funny to think we got some free beans all because I'm wearing my Tiger Beer shirt.

We got lucky with the kiwis!! On our night walk we saw two of them digging for grubs in the ground. We didn't know if we'd hear them or know they were near by but we heard something moving in the underbrush and our handy red lights showed us the kiwis. The red light is necessary to not blind the kiwis with your flashlights and it doesn't scare them away. We were able to watch them searching for food in their natural habitat. One of them did get a little annoyed at our presents and made some strange high pitched cawing noise. I had no idea what a kiwi would sound like but I didn't expect the noise it did make. We also saw a few glow worms which look like twinkling stars in the forest. I have to say that seeing kiwis in their natural environment is one of the highlights of this trip!

Wellington

I know I'm behind on my blog but for some reason its harder to keep up here.  I'll up date you on more recent events and try to post the rest of our South Island travels soon!

Jan 24 – Christchurch to Wellington

We took the morning to explore the little town of Akaroa. It's a cute town on the water. We didn't have too long since we had to drive the Christchurch to catch our flights. Once back in the Christchurch area we realized we were in the same area as where Beau and I house sat. We had come full circle and had lunch at the pub that we went to the day everyone arrived. After returning the camper we were shuttled to the airport and got checked in. Elaine and Shane's flight wasn't for several hours after ours. We said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad, who we won't be seeing for awhile and our see you soons to Elaine and Shane who we will. The flight was probably one of the shortest I've ever been on. We arrived in Wellington and had about an hour to kill before we got picked up by Dan and Gabrielle. We had arranged to stay with them through a program called Help Exchange. They hosted us in exchange for us  helping out with some work. In this case Gabrielle runs a charity program called CanBead which teaches cancer patients to make jewelry. We were to help her put together some of the beading kits. She also is an avid jewelry maker and makes her own glass beads. As you can imagine I was pretty excited to learn about bead making. After they picked us up we grabbed some groceries, we were alternating cooking nights. We had dinner and then Gabrielle showed me her bead room while Dan and Beau commiserated over being partnered to bead addicts.

Jan 25 – Wellington and Te Papa

It was nice to sleep in a full sized bed again! We slept well but not too late. Yesterday when we picked up groceries we forgot to get breakfast food so we ate a banana and hopped a bus down town. We walked along the Wellington water front which is an odd mix of shipping, sports and restaurants. We discovered a little take away restaurant that Gabrielle had told us about and had coffee and wild venison burgers for brunch! After eating we continued our walk along the water front and went in NZ national museum Te Papa. We wandered the second floor which was about the earth and animals as well as went outside to the museum gardens.  Then we went upstairs to the third floor which was about the animals of NZ including extinct ones too.   After museuming out for the day we walked over the Cuba Street which is a pedestrian only road. There were some interesting people about including two guys juggling. We got another coffee and muffin to snack on. We then went into a sports store and bought our selves some really cheap snorkels. We head back on the bus so we were back in time to start dinner. It's our turn to cook, we made curry. We then got to work on some HelpExing duties, I put together some bead kits and Beau tried to make up a new instruction sheet which didn't go very well since Windows kept thwarting him!

The national museum Te Papa

Jan 26 – Back to Te Papa

We had a pretty late start to the day even though I had set an alarm, we slept through it. After breakfast we took the bus down town. We started off doing some recon work at the Warehouse for camping things. We then went back to Te Papa and explored the 4^th floor which had New Zealand history. There was information on the Maori, the native people of NZ, and the European settlers as well as present day immigrants. We got foot sore a lot faster today than yesterday and we ready to call it quits fairly early. On our walk to our bus we stopped into a few outdoor stores to check out more camping gear. We were pretty hungry at this point and split a small sub. We caught our bus back towards Dan and Gabrielle's but got off the bus at the mall to check out their nearby warehouse and pick up a couple of bits and pieces from the grocery store. When we arrived back at the house sushi dinner preparations were in full swing and we had yummy sushi for dinner, although it was missing the fish and seafood since Dan is allergic. We also got lucky with some chocolate lava cake for dessert. After all the delicious food Gabrielle said she'd show me how to make glass beads!! It was super cool. You use a blow torch and melt glass rods then carefully wrap the molten glass around a metal rod. It was awesome and there are all sorts of neat techniques to make unique patterns. I want a blow torch now!

Jan 27 – Parliament and Botanical Gardens

We awoke to some hideous weather this morning it was rainy and windy. We decided to wait out the weather in hopes it would change. Beau worked on his website while I made a necklace. Low and behold it got nice and sunny. We took advantage of the change in weather and headed into town to the Parliament buildings and the Botanical Gardens. We arrived at Parliament shortly after one of it's many free tours had departed so we decided to head to the botanical gardens first and hoped to catch one of the tours later on. We wandered through the gardens and while they were nice, we thought Christchurch's were much better although Wellington did have a lovely tropical green house. In the green house there was a tropical pond with guppies, platties and swordtails. We had enough time to get back to Parliament before the 4pm tour departed. We got a tour of the three main buildings, two of which had undergone severe reconstruction over the years due to some major fires. They also had to redo the foundations to be able to with stand earthquakes as Wellington straddles a fault line. Our tour was informative and relatively interesting, I now know more about the NZ parliament buildings than I do about the Canadian ones! We headed back to the house and during one of our bus changes we ran into Gabrielle on her way home from work and so got picked up by Dan. For dinner we made a really good baked bean burrito dish. The rest of the evening I made some pendants out of the beads I had made and talked beads with Gabrielle. Then we had the unhappy job of getting packed up again.

Looking down on the Wellington harbour from the gardens

Queenstown and the Routeburn

Jan 15 – Wanaka to Queens town

After packing up at the campsite we headed into the town of Wanaka. There was a little craft fair/market in the park which was a little underwhelming. We wandered around town and walked by a nice restaurant which we decided on for lunch. After lunch we had a twisty drive to Queenstown. Before arriving in Queenstown we stopped into little Arrowtown. The town itself was quite pretty and quaint. The guys found a bar to watch the football game in and us girls had a wander of the shops and bought ourselves a goody from the bakery. Once in Queenstown we made a grocery run and then found a camp site. The campsite was interesting, it had reused shipping containers for the kitchen and bathrooms.

The view from Wanaka

Jan 16 – Queenstown

Back home it's football Sunday so Beau hunted out a place to watch his Packers game. Mom, Dad and I went off to find some sleeping bags and other bits and pieces for the Routeburn. Afterwards Dad joined Beau to watch the game and Mom and I headed for some lunch and internet. After lunch and internet we all met back up together and walked along the board walk. We got some really nice fresh made ice cream. We later drove to a Department of Conservation (DOC) camp site right near the start of the Routeburn. It was a lovely spot right on a river but the sandflies were brutal. We got quite a few bites that night.

Outside Queenstown

Jan 17 – Routeburn

The weather gods were with us still this morning and we woke to a gorgeous day. We were setting off on our 3 day hike and took this as a good omen. We got started on the trek around 10am. The first portion had some ups and downs but was all in the cover of the trees, Red Beech were the most common. The forest had a very BC, red woods forest feel to it. We saw a few birds but NZ doesn't have any indigenous animals so the forest was relatively quiet. We stopped for lunch in an area called the Routeburn Flats. We parked it on a log in the grass and enjoyed our sandwiches in the sun. This part of the hike was 6.5km and was relatively flat. The next section took us up to the Routeburn Falls Hut where we were staying the night and it was straight up for 2.3km. We arrived at the hut around 3:30pm and started the process of finding some bunks and getting checked in. To our dismay there were no sleeping platforms which we had been counting on since Beau and I had planned on sharing a sleeping bag as had Mom and Dad. We also had trouble finding bunks together since people had not checked in properly but we got it sorted in the end. After getting our bunks we (excluding Mom) went for a walk up to a nearby lake and to see a really nice look out. It was a two hour round trip but very worth it. We stuck our feet in the freezing cold lake and got an awesome group shot from the top of the view point. Once back down at the hut we had dinner and played some cards. Everyone in the bunk house was going to bed around 9:30pm so we figured we should too even though it was still light out. Beau and Dad doubled up on sleep sheets and slept in there clothes, assuring us they would be warm enough.

Our lunch stop

The Routeburn Falls

View of the valley where we came from

Jan 18 – Routeburn Falls to Mackenzie Lake

We awoke to another beautiful day. We had tea and oatmeal for breakfast. After packing up we got on our way around 9am. Mom and Dad headed back down to the Routeburn Shelter and we were headed to Mackenzie Lake. Mom and Dad were taking the RV around to the other side to pick us up. This part of the hike was completely out of the tree line and very exposed to the elements. Fortunately it wasn't too windy and the sun kept us warm. It was a pretty steep hike to the Harris Saddle which is the highest point on the main Routeburn track at 1255m. It also is where the park changes from Mt Aspiring National Park to Fiordland National Park. At this point we took a side track up to Conical Hill. This was a very difficult straight uphill track but the views from the top were spectacular. It took us around 1.5hr round trip. Back at Harris Saddle we stopped for lunch and sat outside in the sunshine to enjoy our cheese and crackers. We continued on our way and were rewarded with some breath taking views of the mountains across the valley. The path stayed relatively flat but hugged the mountain side. It was a little intimidating to look down into the valley. Mackenzie Lake and hut finally came into view but we had quite a ways down to go. The track switched back a forth down until we re-entered the trees. The forest on this side of the mountains was completely different. Everything was covered with moss and there were trees growing on top of rocks. It looked like a fairy forest. We made it to the hut around 3:30-4pm. We got checked in and then headed down to Lake Mackenzie to soak up some of the sunshine. Beau, Elaine and Shane went for a swim in the freezing cold lake. After they got dry and warm we made a surprisingly delicious dinner of Indian rice, red Thai tuna, and Mexican chilli beans. Most people went to bed around 9:30 but we stayed up playing Euker a little longer.

A lake along our hike

On top of Conical Hill

Beau hiking

The fairy forest

The mountains seen from Lake Mackenzie

Glaciers

Jan 13 – Franz Josef to Fox Glacier

It was raining again this morning. Apparently the west coast is known for it's rain. The windows in the RV don't have an weather seal left so they drip. We drove from Franz Josef to Fox Glacier which is only about 30km. We stopped at Lake Matheson which is supposed to have beautiful views of the mountain reflected in the lake... when it's not raining. We walked a little ways along the path with hopes we might see something but we mostly just got wet. We went into the little town of Fox and had lunch at a pub. After lunch we checked out the campsites in town, both were grossly overpriced. Feeling a little disgusted Dad wanted to go up to see the Glacier. We drove up to the parking lot and it was a torrential down pour. We couldn't see the glacier. Dad got out to “check a map” and got pretty wet in the process. We then headed back into town and checked in to one of the camp sites. Later that evening Beau and I hoped to get some coffee and dessert but everything was closing at 9pm. I guess that's what happens in little towns. One placed stayed open to serve us coffee and Mom and Dad joined us with ab beer. Dad and Beau did take advantage of the pool table.

Jan 14 – Fox Glacier to Wanaka

The rain had let up this morning so we were able to take the short walk out to the Fox Glacier view point. It was a nice view. There was a short walk that lead across the river on to the chalet walk. Elaine, Shane and Beau started on that hike while the rest of us went to drive the RV around. Unfortunately we couldn't make the drive, there was a road sign and height barrier that only allowed vehicles under 3.2m up the road and our RV was 3.3m. We didn't want to risk it! We headed back and walked to meet back up with the rest of the team. Mom and I decided not to do the chalet walk which turned out for the best since there were several rivers to jump across. The other 4 had to remove their shoes to cross some of the streams and throw them across. Elaine throws like me and missed her mark with her shoe and had to run down the river to retrieve it. They did get some lovely photos. After they returned to the camper we drove to Wanaka. We took a gravely back road and found a really nice motor camp. It had a great view of Wanaka Lake. We borrowed a bbq and had burgers for dinner. It was quite chilly tonight!

Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier

Lake Wanaka

Camper Van Travels!

I know it feels like I've been neglecting my blog but the problem has been finding free internet. None of the campsites have it free! It sucks but we've found a nice pub in Queenstown for lunch with free Wifi. I'm a little disgusted that we could get free wifi all over Asia and here they care $5 for an hour. Pfft not paying that thank you very much! Ahh well who would have thought we'd be less connected in a Western country.

The camper van has been going pretty well. We've been a little cooped up lately because the weather has been brutal. It's been rainy and cold. I'm a little upset thats I've had pants and polar fleece on. There was even snow in the mountains one day! We are going on a massive three day hike tomorrow so cross your fingers we have good weather :S

 

Jan 4 – The Beach

Today, after a very leisurely start to the day, we hoped on the bus and headed to an area called Sumner to go to the beach. It was lovely and sunny out but unfortunately windy as well. There are some houses built on cliffs above the beach but you can see where the cliff has fallen away due to the earthquakes and actually taken part of a house with it. We also saw some of the concrete pads overhanging the cliff too. At the bottom of the these cliffs there were big shipping containers, I think to hold back any falling rock and debris. We walked along the beach, the sand was very hot but the wind kept things quite cool. The water was pretty cold too. People were sun bathing and swimming despite the wind. I think our blood has thinned because it did not seem warm enough to go swimming. We had a nice walk along the beach and on the promenade. There was a beach side restaurant and Beau's and my eyes almost fell out of our heads at the prices and they weren't necessarily out of line. We just are used to $1 beer and $2 meals. We had a coffee and a mixed appy plate. After digesting we saw a sign with some walking trails near by so we headed off in that direction but the trail was fenced off most likely due to earthquake damage. We headed back into town and stopped in at a store called The Warehouse, it's like Zellers. We did some recon on soft sided coolers and portable BBQs for when Mom and Dad come down. The rest of our evening progressed the same as most nights with dinner, walking the dogs and watching whatever movie is on TV, tonight was the Green Mile.

At the Sumner Beach

Jan 6 – Hiking in Christchurch

Beau has been bugging me to go hiking so we finally figured out how to get to the mountains. The day started off not so nice but once the afternoon rolled around the skis cleared. We took the bus down to the Halswell Quarry to start our hike. We hiked the Quarry and then turned east towards the mountains and the ocean. We hiked through some sheep farms and cow pastures while also hiking upwards. It was quite a ways but we finally made it to the coast. It was beautiful and windy. There were clouds forming as they came up over the mountains and us. It was really cool. We hiked along the mountains towards where we were catching the bus. We hiked for a total of 4.5hrs and had about 1.5hrs transit time. It was really enjoyable but we've been so lazy lately that I felt out of shape.

The view from the top of our hike over a bay

Jan 8 – Mom and Dad Arrive

Today Mom, Dad, Elaine and Shane arrive this afternoon. Beau and I spent the morning organizing ourselves. Cleaning and getting things organized to get packed up. Everyone arrived around 1pm and were starving. They hadn't had a chance to eat anything between their flight and picking up the RV. We went out for lunch at a pub around the corner from the house. We then went grocery shopping and

picked up some things for camping. The rest of the day consisted of getting the camper organized. Beau and I made dinner and we watched some of Die Hard 3.

Jan 9 – Drive to Abel Tasmin

After a hearty breakfast we finished cleaning and packing we were ready to go. We left the house around 10am, we had been aiming for 9. We headed north through Christchurch towards the north coast. It was a very pretty albeit windy drive. Two of the seats in the camper face backwards so are condusive to car sickness. I had no problems with all those windy bus rides in Asia but this one made me a little green around the gills. We stopped in Kaikoura for lunch and to check out a supposed seal colony there. There weren't too many seals but we saw a few and the view was super nice. We continued on our way with more twists and turns. We stopped in a town called Havelock and had some amazing steamed green lipped muscle from the Muscle Pot. It was really good. We ended up in Marahau. We arrived at our campsite and just had some salad for a late dinner. The campsite had a nice location near the beach but was very full.

A seal in Kaikoura

Family Photo

Jan 10 – Kayaking in Tasman Bay

Today we are going kayaking in Tasman Bay. We were up pretty early and had cereal for breakfast. We were supposed to be at the kayaking place for 8:30 but as usual we were running late. We had tried to contact the company the day before but for some reason the call wasn't going through. They had started the safety demonstration without us but fortunately we have all kayaked before although never with skirts. We had to demonstrate that we knew how to recover from a capsized kayak. We got through the safety course and were fortunately on schedule. We loaded the kayaks onto a trailer and hopped in a van to be taken the short distance to the beach. We got out in the kayaks and had a little more instructions from the guide and then we were on our way. We kayaked along the coast and then headed towards Stuart Island. We were hoping to see some seals, penguins or other marine lift. We didn't see much around this island but it was pretty none the less. We went around the island and north towards Adele Island. We pulled up on a little bit of sand and eat our sandwiches standing. It was high tide so there wasn't any beach to speak of. It was also quite windy. We got back on the water and went around the top of Adele Island. We saw some seals and seal pups! They were very cute but we still didn't see any penguins. We headed back towards the mainland and took a little break on a beach there. We then followed the coastline back towards our kayak pick up spot. The pick up point was tricky since the tide goes out very far so essentially the area is a big sandbar. We ran ground and had to pull the kayak in part of the way. We kayaked for about 5hrs and were very sore in the shoulders by the end of it. We got the kayaks back and got showered and warm. Then we tackled the task of trying to cook dinner on our little BBQ. The charcoal briquettes were slow to get going and never really got going well. Dinner cooked up okay with the help of the microwave. Beau made marshmallows over the tail end of the coals. We enjoyed some nice coffee and Baileys before bed.

Elaine and Shane in their Kayak

Mom and Dad in their Kayak

Kayaking in Tasman Bay

Jan 11 – Drive to Greymouth and wine tasting

It looked like it would be a lovely day when we woke up this morning. We had breakfast then left the camp ground. We stopped to buy a few groceries and got some directions for wine tasting. We went to three very nice wineries. The first was Neudorf Vineyards which was a very nice old looking wooden building. They had some lovely grounds and tasty wines. Our next stop was Kahurangi Estate, they had a lovely Merlot which is actually made from grapes from the North Island. Apparently merlot grapes don't grow well down here. Our last winery Woollaston Estates, it was a very snazzy winery. There was a little art gallery and some interesting sculptures outside. They too had some very nice wines and we splurged and bought a more expensive Pinot Noir. We finished with wine tasting and headed towards Greymouth. It was a relatively uninteresting drive. The scenery was nice enough and fortunately it was too twisty turny. We arrived in Greymouth and found a motor park to stay at. Beau and I made skewers for dinner and mashed potatoes. Our motor park was right by the beach so we had a little walk along there before jumping in the hot tub. It was nice on our sore kayaking muscles. It had started to rain when we went to bed. Some very loud thunder woke us up in the middle of the night too.

Jan 12 – Franz Josef Glacier

The rain didn't stop from last night, it was pouring when we woke up. We had breakfast then packed up again to hit the road. We had to do a big grocery shop again, 6 people go through food very quickly. After groceries we were headed towards the Franz Josef Glacier. We arrived at the glacier and had some lunch in the RV. Then we set off to do the glacier walk. It was pretty nice out at this time, but we made sure to pack sweaters and rain coats. As we walked towards the glacier, the view was quite nice but there were some clouds closing in on the top. Pretty soon the glacier was obscured and it was pouring rain. We got soaked. Mom headed back to the RV but the rest of us ducked under the rope and continued closer to the glacier for a better view, we were also hopeful the rain would let up. It did stop a bit and we were able to get some good pictures although the clouds never fully lifted from the top of the glacier. We headed back to the RV and were almost dried out when it started to pour again. We were only 5 minutes from the RV but we were absolutely drenched. Once back in the RV we got into some drier clothes and struggled to find space to hang all of our wet things up. We headed into the Franz Josef Village and checked into a motor camp. It was Elaine and Shane's turn to cook and Beau and mine to do dishes. After dinner and dishes we went out to a pub for a little bit to us the internet. The internet was free but the drinks were kind of expensive. It had stopped raining for a little while but it started up again when we went to bed.

The Franz Josef Glacier

Elaine!

The top of the glacier