NZ - touring around till Xmas

We arrived in NZ on Dec 6th after flying over the great scenery around Auckland. The adults were very excited about arriving back in NZ after 27 years for Ian and Sheena after 20+ years. We met Ians niece, Emma (who had recently been working with horses in NZ for a few months) and Eve, Ians NZ cousin, in the airport as Eve had kindly brought Emma to the airport to travel with us. We had not seen Emma since July and Eve since 2002 so we had a nice breakfast catching up after an overnight flight. We then jumped into our Toyota Previa (as we were 6 people!) and drove north over Harbour Bridge for the 4 hours to Bay of Islands. We thought it was better to do the drive straight away after the flight and it was. We started on the tour that the Inglis family had helped us design. We arrived in Russell after a ferry trip across and to the hotel lodge recommended well by the Inlgis family. It was in an excellent very central location, with good rooms and we did not move more that 100yds away from the hotel on land for the 5 days we were there! The coffee shop, Ice cream place, lunch café, Thai and seafood restaurants and the small supermarket were all in that radius – and the lodge looked out over the harbour of Russell and the pier with all its activities.

We indulged in relaxing and enjoying the fabulously warm weather for the time of year and used the local activities extensively. We went dolphin watching and swimming with them; caught an 8kg Snapper as well as a range of 4/5 kg ones which we cooked on our BBQ – absolutely delicious (only hours old fresh fish will do now!); went on a tour of the Bay of Islands at breakneck speed on the superfast Excitor and through the hole in the rock at the top of the bay of islands; saw Jesus birds walking/flitting across the water; saw hundreds of gannets diving into the water from great heights to catch fish in front of us and saw stingrays on the beach. And Emma took Megan horse riding in Paihia where Megan rode into the sea on her horse. We all, and especially the kids, enjoyed having Emma travelling with us adding a huge level of fun.

We decided to use our newly gained diving certificates and go diving on the way back to Auckland as we had heard that the diving in Poor Knights islands was great and one of the best places in the world to dive. So we booked a dive/snorkelling boat trip from Tutukaka, on the East coast just north of Whangerei, and sailed out to the islands which look like a Poor Knight (dead) lying down – hence the name from Captain Cook. On the way we saw a huge sail fish, dolphins, penguins and a shark.  Sheena and Ian dived whilst the kids snorkelled and saw a range of fish and some huge giant stingrays. We saw a large scorpion fish – a relation of the stone fish which we did not touch! The diving was not as good as it was billed to be with not brilliant visibility and lots of kelp everywhere. The kids did well on their snorkelling and Megan looked very cute in her wetsuit and saw some fish. Then we toured around the Poor Knights islands, which are a mini Galapagos with amazing wildlife being cultivated on the islands (like the native kiwi which is very limited in numbers) but we could not land at all as it is a protected reserve. We also saw huge shoals of fish including blue Maumau which ate krill on the surface in teams and then flocks of seagulls picked up the left overs – an incredible site to see right next to the boat.

We then stayed in a B&B (unusually a late booked B&B!) with a lovely Dutch couple with a gnome garden in a nice B&B. We visited Whangarei waterfall and saw the local school kids swinging from a rope into the river above the falls! And then we went for dinner in Whangarei near the marina. Whangarei is the home in NZ of big and expensive boat building. I recently met a guy who had picked up his latest boat in NZ and sailed through the South Pacific islands on his way to the Caribbean – sadly going through th South pacific before we were there – but certainly a trip we would love to do one day in the future!!

The next day we drove back the shortish distance to Auckland having really enjoyed the Bay of Islands trip. Neither Sheena nor Ian had visited the are on their previous trips and so it was good to have finally got there – although as ever we would have liked to have gone to 90 mile beach and farther north to the northern most tip of NZ – again another one for the future! 

We caught a domestic flight to Queenstown in the South island and picked up our best car of the trip so far – a Mitsubishi Delica. When Ian drove up to pick up the family everyone burst into laughter as it looks so odd – although the Europcar lady sold it a hummer look-a-like – it was nothing like it !! But it was the last 6 or 7-seater rental car in the South Island so we had no other choice – and we all decided to blame – sorry I mean thank - Emma for coming with us for this beautiful car to travel around in for 10 days! It even came with a hard disk full of Japanese and Indian sounding music with songs that seemed to be based on British nursery rhymes!

We drove up to our recommended place to stay (thanks again to the Inglis family) and were met by very friendly hosts of the newly converted Lakeside apartments right on Lake Wanaka with stunning views of the lake and surrounding mountains. We had a range of activities in Wanaka and Queenstown over the 5 days we were there and actually should have split the stay between the 2 venues but the Wanaka place we stayed was superb and excellent value.

The first day Ian, Sheena and the boys,  did the Siberian experience from Matarora (an hours drive through stunning scenery). This involved being flown by Wayne the pilot in a very small 6 seater plane further up the snowy valley than we already were, having taken off from a grass (quite nicely mown!) airstrip in a field. The flight was pretty bumpy and we flew for half an hour or so into the correct Siberian valley and landed – this time in a field with an orange marker! We all jumped out relieved to have made it – only to be told that we had only had 2 sets of waders and that we would need to cross a very wide and fast moving river (much rain recently!) to the other side – carrying Sam and Toby on our backs with our rucksacks, phones and cameras! Luckily we both made it across without a major fall but only a few slips. We waved goodbye to Wayne the pilot, watched whilst he took off without us and enjoying the peace and quiet of being 4 hours away from any civilisation – but not knowing where the hell we were. Our brief was to cross over the river turn left and deliver a newspaper to the ranger in the hut at the top of the valley – which was an awesome and lonely place – looking to the end of the valley with only huge snowy mountains and dark stormy clouds facing you. After doing our delivery job we were told to walk back down the valley for 3 hours or so keeping the river on our right until we get to 2 dead trees and at around 3pm a jet boat would meet us and take us back to Matarora – our start point. And off we set in the wilderness, with fast changing weather from rain, snow and sun within the walk – and through plains, over mountain tracks and around a mountain. One of the 2 most amazing things were the solitude of just us in this amazing wilderness trying to find our way out to civilisation (with no guide!) and the amazing waterfalls that just came out of the forest at any point being fed by the melting snow above. At one point we could see 10 waterfalls and rivers running down the mountain – many of them merging into huge waterfalls lower down. Anyway we had a great hike through great scenery and really enjoyed ourselves – despite Sams trainer breaking early on and he had to walk with his heel up for most of the way – but very impressively no whingeing (we are not Whingeing Poms!!) . We found the 2 dead trees easily enough surprisingly and waited to be met by out jet boat! At that point we saw Biggles driving up in his jet boat. I say Biggles because he really looked like the name and should have been ultra-English and a fighter pilot. He was a great character and drove us excitingly and at a breakneck speed, with great panache and style back to base as only Biggles could – over 45 minutes. All very exciting and fun. So all in all a great experience and one that we would highly recommend to others.

Shotover Jet boat ride – no Meggie as the water was too high – it was even more exciting than Biggles as we drove so so close to major rocks at each side of the river – and great 360’s – very fast and near the edge – the driver again was very cool – and he got paid to drive it!! Then lunch in Queenstown and then I&S went white water rafting whilst Emma and the kids went up the gondola in Queenstown and did the Luge ride and saw Birdworld including the Kiwi and Possum.

The drive to rafting on the Shotover river was more scary than the rafting for Ian as it was huge vertical drops on a winding, steep, crumbling road with an open drop where the road was so narrow that the wheels had to be on the edge to get down and round the corners – there was a young driver – luckily he was very good but absolutely terrifying – luckily we had a very funny guide chatting to us all the way to the rafting with gags like “no-one has ever died on this road – they all have died down there – over the edge at the bottom of the valley!” All very helpful! Then we actually got briefed and went rafting in a mostly British group with one very annoying German – we had Daniel as our guide with one years experience – we were all warned that a few have not made it down so go carefully. We really enjoyed the shotover raft – all the rapids were fun to go down although we got a few wrong and ended up hitting rocks on the way down. All until the last rapid which was called the “Mother-in-law rapid” and it happened to be very, very unfriendly and scary (unlike mine!) All the rafts were tied up before the rapid as the water was very full as it was deemed to be quite dangerous to go down this rapid. So the guides got into position with the safety ropes and safety canoes and the watchers on the cliff got their video cameras out! When the safety arrangements were in place the first raft went down – only 3 came out at the beginning of the rapid so the next one went – 4 came out of that – and then it was our turn – we were told to paddle hard and then hold on. We went straight into the first rapid wave, falling into it vertically and then bounced straight backwards – everyone fell out immediately except 3 on the left including Ian. Amazingly through luck we kept the raft upright and got through to a round of applause from the audience. Unfortunately all those that fell out went down the rapid from beginning to end underwater! And saved by the canoes, ropes and other rafts.  Everyone was very shaken up and scared by the experience – Sheena was very shaken as well but pleased to have made it – and convinced that we should not have been allowed to go down the rapid in these conditions. The next raft completely flipped and everyone came out including the guide so after that they sent the rafts down the rapid the easier way and no-one else went down it that day!! Surprisingly our DVD of the rafting trip did not work when we received it  and subsequent attempts to get a copy have failed – is it suspicious or not?

We had a few drinks and dinner in Queenstown – great, lively and buzzing place (Perry we did not find it too scuzzy!) and everywhere we went we were served by British people travelling and working in NZ !

Next day woke up and snow had fallen on the mountain tops around Lake Wanaka – amazing in summer to have snow on these mountains which were not that high. All part of the climate change happening in NZ. Our Milford Sound trip was cancelled today due to bad weather on the west coast and we were meant to be flying so we pulled forward the bungy jump (original one at Kawerau bridge where you can get dunked in the river) that I had booked for Emma, Sam and Toby by a day so we could do that that afternoon.

All very nervous about the bungy jump especially as it was brought forward – Ian had read the conditions small print and had worked Toby would probably not be heavy enough at the weigh in – so I told Toby he may not be able to do it in the morning as needed to be 10 and 35kg and was surprised that he was genuinely upset that he could not do it – so we set on a plan to put on loads of heavy clothes on – at the initial weigh-in he was 31kg and the manager shook his head – we added Sams large and heavy sweatshirt  and up to 33kg and another shake of the head. Toby was then advised to drink a litre of water to get the extra weight and at a weigh-in of 34.95kg finally we got a nod and Toby was in on the bungy jump!!

They all walked over to get tied up and do their thing! Sam went first – he was very confident and not scared!! Toby went next and did well – he was one of the youngest to ever do it so deserves an extra pat on the back – even though some of the photos seem as though he is a little scared! So then Emma had to go cos her 10 & 12 yr old cousins had gone despite being very in two minds – but she went and did it as well and Emma got dunked in the river up to her waist – which was very funny. All up very well done by all three of them – very brave and well deserved t-shirts with I jumped the Kawerau Bridge bungy – 43m or in Emmas case 44m! Sheena and ian then wished they should have done it as well!!

Then shopping in Queenstown and walk around beautiful downtown next to lake. The next day we were told no Milford Sound again in the morning so we went to Puzzling World in Wanaka (which the Inglis family had told us was great fun) and they were right………there were big/little rooms, rooms that leant one way but balls rolled the other way and a great maze - which to get around was quite hard – unless you cheated!

We then got a message that M Sound was on that afternoon and we had to hot foot it to Wanaka airport asap as the weather was probably ok to go. So we flew for an hour and a half over Lord of the Rings country and stunning snowy mountains with Paul the pilot who had been doing this flight in a 6-seater plane for 28 yrs – he was very confident – we were all quite scared – flying over a high range of snowy mountains and very high lakes squeezing the plane just below the dark snowy/rainy clouds and just above the mountains – it was only just Ok to go. It made the journeys views amazing – really amazing – but the with snow coming in the front window and quite a few bumps we were all pretty scared cos we could not see where to land!!

We arrived at Milford Sound from the coast as the final entry point inland was too stormy a route so we had to go around. It was a beautiful sound although not a crystal clear day it was not as beautiful as it could have been – it was one of those sights which we had built up so much in our minds and was not as impressive when we got there. We had time to land and walk around for a bit which was good and then we tried to fly home through the 3 shorter routes back but we were blocked by storms/clouds each time and there was no way between the mountains and the clouds! So we flew the long way round again down the suuny coast line, another bumpy ride and great views over the amazing lord of The Rings country and snowy mountains – still stunning the second time!!

We asked Paul about the climate change he has seen since he has been flying and he said the weather patterns had definitely changed with snow in winter for example and also when the bad weather or good weather hits it comes harder and faster than it used to – so when a snow storm there really is no way to go anywhere. Paul also said that some of the glaciers were actually not receding but increasing which was the first time we had ever heard that. There is certainly a plentiful supply of water in NZ!

We then drove to a lakeside restaurant that Ian had found only to be rejected by all the others in a vote! So we drove back and found Missys restaurant in Wanaka right next to our apartment – where the food was awesome and had a great final dinner in Wanaka/Queenstown before driving up the West Coast the next day.

The west coast was again amazing scenery – ferns/trees, rainforest style although in a temperate climate but like this because it is so close to the South Pole – when the weather comes in direct from the South it is very cold! After 4 hours in our delicious Delica we arrived at Fox Glacier village and found our lodge. We went for a walk around Lake Mathieson which at one end on a clear and still day (which we had) has a mirror image in the water of both Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. We walked all around the lake and then had a great dinner in an all glass restaurant overlooking the 2 mountain tops, which as we ate dinner, became cloudless and in the sun which happens very infrequently!!!

The next morning we (leaving Megan with our niece Emma) went off to meet our guide Jared for the Fox Glacier walk and get our briefing. Thinking it would be an easy stroll and a little walk on the ice we were all pretty relaxed. But in the briefing it became clear it was a little more serious than that although ice climbing thankfully was not part of our trip! We were provided with all the gear - climbing boots, crampons and warm weather gear! We were told there was a 1000 step vertical climb with a narrow ledge of around 100m with a vertical drop of 100m on one side and a cliff with a chain to hold onto on the other! Anyone who wanted to bail out now raise their hand – Ians stayed down surprisingly! And off we set. We arrived to see half of a 13km glacier above us, which came down below the tree line which is highly unusual for a Glacier. The Fox Glacier key facts are as follows:

* Fastest moving glacier in the world - 8 times faster than the av glacier.
* 260m above sea level at the bottom of the glacier.
* Currently it moves at up to 1m per day and it takes 90 years to go from top to bottom.
* It's 13 km long and you can see 6.5km from the bottom
* The glacier moves cos of the water underneath - in summer it moves quicker than the winter as more snow melts to create the water in summer.
* Overall currently the glacier is increasing in size but normally glaciers are retreating all over the world - there are 3126 glaciers in NZ.

The climb was pretty tough but Jared our guide thought it was very pedestrian as he was normally out with the heli mountain group but due due a damaged hand whilst free climbing on ice, he had drawn the short straw with a bunch of tourists – which was lucky for us as he was incredibly knowledgeable! His views on climate change that he has seen is based on mainly pivotal movements of the earth round the sun changing the heat to different parts of the globe – that has made most of the climate change impact – with humans only being responsible for a small proportion of it. Humans cannot stop climate change – it is happening – we can only slow it down a bit – and probably a very little bit at that – a very interesting conversation. Also this glacier is expanding not contracting like most other glaciers in the world as the hole in ozone layer over the south pole, NZ and Australia is bigger than anywhere else and so more dramatic weather patterns are developing here – the ozone layer damage being created by Nuclear testing over the south pole – even the French were still doing it in the 1990,s apparently!

The climb was tough, 2 Singaporeans went home half way up due to exhaustion and we proceeded past the 100m vertial drop with Ian holding on tight and the boys breezing along (as ever!) and finally we reached the base of the glacier – WOW! We strapped on our crampons and went off in line up the steps carved out of the ice up into the middle of the glacier which was about 1 km wide. A glacier is defined as ice that is constantly moving – by only 1 metre a day and we saw lots of water flowing through it and down the glacier. It was cold unsurprisingly but very slippery with the water. A unique experience made better by Jared the guide who was extremely interesting and we learnt a lot.

The next day we continued our drive up the West Coast to Punakaiki rocks – also known as the pancake rocks – made of limestone and layered over many years by the sea and weather – very impressive and definitely worth a visit. Then we continued on to Westport where we walked on a great beach and saw a huge seal colony on the rocks nearby. We found a goldmine unused and showing people round where Dan gave the boys some real old gold dust – His great grandfather had started the mine – all very interesting how they got 4.8m ounzes (£1.5bn in todays money) of gold out of the mine over 50 years at the turn on the 19^th Century! We unusually had no B&B booked for the next 2 nights so we drove inland after Westport and headed for lake Rotoiti – the South islands lake by the same name as the lake we were due to spend Xmas in the North Island and found a great little hotel with Great food in St Arnaud. The next morning we got a water taxi to the end of the lake and then walked along the shore checking the stoat traps to see if any had been caught – trying to save the Kiwi birds in the area. It was a lovely walk but the lake I am afraid was not up to the standard of the lake in the North! We then drove to Picton and found another gem of a B&B right on the bay in Queen Charlotte sound – only about 150 bends over a mountain from Picton! An ex-hairdresser (won an award for his hairdressing book in NZ and Australia on how to run a hairdressing business successfully!) and his family of 8 in total hosted us brilliantly and we had a great time in a fab location with their house right on the beach. We caught the ferry to Wellington. The next morning and enjoyed the fantastic views of the crossing. We left Picton in sun and wind and arrived to a huge storm in Wellington. We were staying on the waterfront at Welling ton and while the girls went shopping the following morning the boys went to Te Papa – the NZ exhibition in Wellington which was absolutely superb. First we learnt about the stones of NZ and where they have come from and then we learnt about Gondwanaland and Laurasia – the 2 super continents in the South and North of the globe respectively – from about 200 million years ago. We learnt about volcanoes and the earths core and about an underwater mountain 2km down way off Auckland and how it erupts regularly spewing out battery acid. It really was an interesting and interactive museum – well worth a visit. We also went up the cable car – which is not so interesting but not a bad view!!

Then we flew to Rotorua where we were met by Dad and Ruth at the airport – great to see them since Canada after nearly 5 months ! We then drove off to the lake to see Ians sister and family – Emma being reunited with her parents and brother for the first time in a few months. All very family in a house by the beautiful Lake Rotoiti that was next door to Ians cousins bach. A great location and then we realised it was nearly Xmas and we had to get our skates on and get ready for it – time for shopping for a tree, and all the Xmas decorations to turn the NZ house into a Xmas fit for the UK………..