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It has been a while since we last wrote, but we have finally found some time to catch our breath and to get in touch with everyone.
The last time we wrote was back in Rotorua before seeing the geysers and thermal pools. The Lady Knox geyser was really spectacular, as were the bubbling mud pools and multi-coloured deposits left in the thermal pools. We took lots of photos (whilst braving the strong sulphur smell!) which have come out quite well, as it was a sunny day. Unfortunately, the night before we had planned to camp in the Youth Hostel grounds, but it rained so hard whilst we were in the bar (wine-tasting!) that when we went to the tent to go to bed, we found that it was swimming in a puddle of water. It was 11 p.m. so we decided to dismantle the tent and sleep in our car, as it was still raining. Our cheapest night’s accommodation yet! It certainly sobered us up.
After visiting Taupo (a real action place), we drove to Napier. This is a pretty art-deco place which hasn’t been changed a great deal. We decided to give camping another go, although the rain had been coming in heavy bursts, so we stayed in a small village called Havelock North. The camp-site was hysterical! Imagine Benny Hill running around a 70’s type camp-site and you’ve pictured this place. We were fairly pleased to pack up and go the next morning, especially as we missed the rain by minutes.
We felt that it was time to make our way down to Wellington, as we had a ferry booked. Wellington was certainly more interesting than Auckland with a nicer centre and views, but it is just another city and it was still raining. We did briefly visit the national museum there, called Te Papa, which is equivalent to the Millennium Dome but free and permanent. Unfortunately the visit was brief, as every man and his child had had the same idea of avoiding the rain. By this point we were eager to get on the ferry to Picton in the South Island. We hadn’t understood why the ferry had been so pricey, but we soon realised that it was just like going across the Channel. The journey took three hours - it was nice to let someone else do the driving for a change!
The South Island is very pretty and there is more to see and do here. We are definitely enjoying this island more than the north. We stayed at Nelson the first night, and had a fantastic seafood meal over-looking the bay whilst drinking the local wine. We stayed the night at a local holiday park in a basic cabin, as it was just as cheap as camping and slightly more comfortable. We then moved on to the Nelson Lakes the next morning, which were stunning. One of the largest lakes had also flooded its camp-site, which made us feel less cursed! As the rain started we drove for a couple of hours to Westport on the west coast, stopping to walk over NZ’s longest swing-bridge over the Buller Gorge. To look down at the gushing river below whilst halfway across certainly made your stomach turn!
Westport is a large coal town which is also home to a seal colony. The seals were enjoying themselves sun-baking and fighting - it is mating season. When returning to our car, we saw a Weka which is often mistaken for a Kiwi, eating the remains of roadkill from the parked cars. Charming! We decided to drive down the coast (spectacular coastal views) to Hokitika and spend the night camping in a small, fantastic 4* camp-site next to the roaring sea. (The camp-site also had new log cabins for the richer traveller.) We sat on a rock groyne watching the sun set, whilst laughing hysterically…..the tide was coming in and we were getting wet/stranded! In the morning we visited the town and saw the elusive (and nocturnal) Kiwi. They are much bigger than we had imagined and very quick.
Our next trek was to the Franz Joseph glacier. On the way we kept ourselves amused by reading out the funnier creek names, for example; ‘Big Deep Creek’, ‘Roaring Swine Creek’, ‘Gout Creek” and ‘Nuggety Creek’. You can see that the journey was fairly tedious, although very picturesque. When we arrived we went and booked ourselves onto a next full day trip up the glacier and into a hostel for two nights in anticipation of aches. We were right to do so!
The glacier was brilliant! We were extremely lucky that we had had so much rain as it had made the ice more blue in colour, and even more so that it wasn’t raining the day we went up, which apparently is unusual. We walked six hours through ice caves and down into crevasses. The whole experience was utterly amazing and very tiring. Our guide gave us a fright though, by falling into (fortunately) a small crevasse whilst cutting a path for us in the ice. Things could have been very different.
We went to Lake Matheson the next day (for a walk-ouch!), where if it is not raining you get a very good view of Mount Cook - it was raining, but the lake was glorious.
We are now in Wanaka, a typical alpine ski resort surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains and over-looking Lake Wanaka. Obviously as it is the summer months people are here to walk and sail. We camped last night in the Youth Hostels’ garden, as it has been nothing but glorious sunshine since we arrived! Long may it continue.
Hope everyone is well and is beginning to wind down ready for the Christmas break. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and shall be thinking of you enjoying your feasts with your loved ones. We shall probably be having a drink on the beach!

Kia Ora (Hi in Maori, not an advertisement for a squash!)

Rain. Green. (SWISH). Rain. Green. (SWISH). Rain. Green. (SWISH). Rain. Green. (SWISH). Rain. Green. (SWISH). Rain. Green. (SWISH). Rain. Green. (SWISH). This has been the view from our car windscreen for the past seven days! Home from home as they say.
We arrived last Wednesday and stayed three nights in Auckland, which was like any other large city, so we used the time to sort out a car (Toyota Corolla) for the rest of our stay. It was amazingly only 12 pounds per day. (The petrol is about a third of the price in the UK, so travelling around in a car is a reasonably cheap and flexible way to travel).
After we left Auckland we visited the beach where “The Piano” (and Zena: The Warrior Princess?!) were filmed, called Karekare. The beach was pretty much deserted except for the surfers, probably due to the large storm clouds looming.
We then headed up to the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland, where the rain really kicked in. The journey up there seemed to be by way of a roller-coaster, going up and down coastal roads. The mountains, which are many, all had a rain cloud sitting on the top. We managed to pitch our newly-bought 2-man tent (a summer one that came with a warning ‘not to trust the waterproofness in heavy rain’), in a lovely camping ground, between the rain torrents. We were fortunate to have had a tent, as every hostel in the area had been booked out for the night. That night it poured down. The rivers rose two metres in one hour, and two/three of the only roads up to this region were flooded. We didn’t know this last piece of vital information, when we left in the morning, and spent four hours trying to pass down these two roads - to no avail! We did, however, enjoy wading in the road-pool, although the water was freezing.
We also visited a glow-worm cave in the area, which was pretty amazing. There were hundreds of them all on the limestone ceilings and when the lanterns were dimmed the ceilings would light up with their glowing bottoms! Quite unusual.
We then drove 5 hours south past Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula where the rain abated temporarily. This is a stunning area. We also had a lovely hostel to dry our damp things in. We had our first New Zealand meals of oysters and rack of lamb……for only ten pounds each!!
The next day we drove on to Tauranga, by way of a waterworks park. This is where you see amusing things powered by water. It was great fun. Tauranga was a nice town (possibly enhanced by the fact it wasn’t raining!)with a very friendly hostel owner. We decided that we should follow the crowds and go and see ‘Harry Potter’ at the cinema, which we both really enjoyed.
Today we have had an easy day, as we only had to drive 1hr30 to get to Rotorua, which is where we are typing from now. This town is famous for its thermal activity! So tonight we are camping, hopefully without the rain, and tomorrow we are off to see the geysers, etc.