Goodbye NZ!

Our last weekend in New Zealand was packed with great day trips and birthday celebrations. My dad, Rob and I took a short ferry trip to Rangitoto, a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf.

Rangitoto appeared out of the sea after a series of erutions about 600 years ago. It must have been a shock for the Mauri people living on adjoining Motutapu island! The lower slopes are still bare lava rock, so our picnic spot was quite uncomfortable!

 

The view from the summit was amazing - you can see right across to the city and, on the other side, as far as the Coromandel Peninsular. There are some lava caves at the top of the island, which were formed by a crust of lava cooling and the hot lava inside flowing out to leave a hollow.

Another day, another island... for my birthday day out we all went to beautiful Waiheke, yet another little gem just a short hop from Auckland.

We visited Mudbrick, a fantastically located restaurant with amazing gardens and spectacular views across to Rangitoto.

 

It was lovely to spend my birthday with Mum and Dad. Last year we celebrated with our adopted family and friends in Panama and, as enjoyable as that was, I did miss having them around.

 

We also had one last catch up/ goodbye/ birthday celebration with our Auckland friends. Coffee with Kandace on my birthday and a night out with (below) Mark, Jen and Mark's brother, Phil, in Ponsonby. We were very sad to leave them all but all promised to stay in touch and hope to meet up again somewhere in the world!

Then the really tough farewells. We flew out from Auckland at 1am on 10th November so, late on my birthday, after a delicious meal, we all left for the airport. It was very hard to leave Mum and Dad behind, knowing I wouldn't see them again for another year, so there were lots of tears. On the other hand, they've created a great life for themselves in New Zealand, with a much more relaxed pace, lots of nice friends and more fantastic places to visit.

The journey back was quite enjoyable. It was very long (10hrs to Singapore, where we had a shower to refresh ourselves for the second leg, then 14hrs back to London) but we had amazing views some of the way, like this one over the mountains of Afghanistan.

As you would expect for mid November, the weather was very miserable when we landed at Heathrow. The palette of turquoise, blue and green of our last few days in NZ was gone and in its place was... well, grey, really!

We've now been back for about 2 weeks and are settling back into UK life. I've been getting some days of supply teaching work while Rob gets on with the serious business of job searching. It looks like we'll be based somewhere down south and we'll certainly be in the UK for a good while now, but don't worry, we won't stop exploring our amazing planet just yet!

Rachel x

Tiki's Tours

We had some great adventures in our camper van, which we named Tiki. We loved the freedom that it gave us and the "off the beaten track" spots that we could visit on our own four wheels.

We camped in some great places with Tiki...

Sunny mornings and mountain views in Wanaka

and right on the beach in sleepy Gore Bay. The only problem was, at first, we found it almost impossible to do any "freedom camping", so were having to go to proper camp sites every night. Here's Rob with one of the dreaded "No Camping" signs that were so common around Marlborough and Nelson.

Fortunately, as we moved on, we found more and more beautiful spots to stop at the side of the road, like this one over-looking Arrowtown and Queenstown,

and high up on the Otago Peninsular with all the bays and headlands spread out beneath us.

Heavy rain meant that this camping spot near Blenheim was dangerously close to the river and we had to make a dash for higher ground in the middle of the night!

This was a great spot in stunning Fiordland where, the following day, we woke to snow on the roof.

After exploring the South Island together for over a month, we were sad to say goodbye to Tiki and take her back to Christchurch. We took one final photo of the three of us.

Rachel x

Penguins!

We've been really lucky in the last week or so and seen three different types of penguins! Unfortunately they're very shy creatures so photos had to be taken from a long way away and, in one case, not at all! Apologies for poor quality of pictures.

First was the Fiordland crested penguin in Milford Sound. This little guy has a great hair cut and seemed to be enjoying hopping about on the rocks.

 

While visiting the gorgeous Otago Peninsula near Dunedin, we spent an hour or so camped out in a hide on Sandfly Bay (mercifully free of them that evening!) near a yellow eyed penguin colony. This one was slowly clambering his way up the steep cliff back to his nest just above the beach. His little legs meant that after a just few quick waddles he had to stop for a break.

We loved Sandfly Bay, it had a very special atmosphere, with huge sealions lounging around on the beach and lots of birds enjoying the peace and quiet. On our way back across the sand, we spotted another penguin leaving the water and on its way back to its nest.

Our last penguin spotting event was a trip to Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony on the East Coast. This is home to little blue penguins who, weighing only 1kg and measuring around 30cm in height, are the smallest and rarest penguins in the world. Seeing them was a really special experience; we arrived just as the sun was setting and took our places on the special penguin viewing platform. As it got darker, the guide pointed out "rafts" of around 50 little blue penguins drifting across the water towards the beach. After a few failed attempts to escape the fierce surf, they all flopped onto the rocks, scrambled up the cliff and ran to their nests. We even saw some chicks coming out to meet their parents! Altogether 189 penguins came ashore that night (there was an official count for monitoring purposes) and we felt really priveleged to see such unique birds in their natural environment. OBPC is a really good organisation and does everything it can to limit human interference with the colony, which explains why the only photo we have is of me with a giant limestone penguin!

Rachel x

Milford Sound

Milford Sound must be the number one talked about spot in New Zealand. Even before we arrived in the country we'd been told this was a "must-see" place and we'd seen posters advertising it as far north as Auckland. So it's very surprising that, despite all this hype, Milford Sound is still one of the most impressive places I've ever been.



The drive down to Milford takes you past enormous snowy mountains, through an unnervingly narrow rock tunnel and past huge piles of snow marked with "Do not stop: avalanche zone" signs! I had to congratulate Rob for getting us and the camper van safely through that experience.



There was no way we were driving all that way and not get out onto the water so, braving the foul weather (Fiordland National Park gets an average of 7 metres of rain per year so it wasn't surprising we got wet!), we took a cruise on the sound.



We were very fortunate because, almost as soon as we stepped onto the boat, the cloud began to lift, the rain eased and the sheer cliffs and hanging valleys emerged from the mist. For the first time that day, the very tip of Mitre Peak revealed itself. At 1692 metres above sea level, it is one of the tallest mountains in the world to rise directly out of the sea, and is an amazing sight.



Because there had been so much rain that day, the rocks were running with hundreds of temporary waterfalls, that would be gone in just a matter of hours. The permanent ones, like this one, were all the more impressive, too, because of the extra water. In a strange way, we were glad to have the rain and the mist gave the whole place a wonderful atmosphere.




We were also really pleased that we had taken the last cruise of the day because, instead of hundreds of visitors off the tour buses, there were only 6 other people on the boat and they mostly stayed downstairs in the rain. A boat to ourselves in the middle of Milford Sound? It doesn't get much better than that.

Rachel x

Southern Lakes District

As well as jumping off mountains around Wanaka, we've also enjoyed the views from the ground. The scenery around Wanaka, Arrowtown and Queenstown has to be some of the best in New Zealand.

The lakes are surrounded by incredible snow-capped mountains, as you can see in this photo of Lake Wanaka. We really liked the town, too; it has a stunning location right next to the lake and lots of lovely cafes to relax in. We were a lucky with the weather and cloud-free blue skies and sunshine made it even more appealing.

 

Driving through the mountains is wonderful and we have to stop to admire the view every few kilometres. We loved this look out point so much that we spent the night there. Sitting in the van eating our dinner we doubted if any expensive restaurant in the world could deliver such an impressive view.

Arrowtown was a busy spot during the 1860s gold rush and, unusually for NZ, still retains many of its original buildings. The Chinese Settlement is a fascinating place, with restored huts and information about the tough lives of the Chinese who followed the rush. Arrowtown's a sweet little place now, with boutiques, chocolate shops and gourmet restaurants; I'm not sure if the gold prospectors would recognise it!

 

Queenstown is known as the centre for all things adventurous and we felt we couldn't leave without at least witnessing something extreme, so we went down to the Kawarau Bridge to watch some bungy jumping. I think that having your body flung around like that looks pretty unpleasant, to be honest, but this young girl was totally fearless and didn't even hesitate before throwing herself off the bridge.

While we were in the Southern Lakes District, we met up with my mum and dad and their friends Polly and David, who are also visiting from the UK. Polly and David had a lovely cruise on this old steam boat, The TSS Earnslaw, which took them out onto Lake Wakatipu.

Rob and I managed to convince my dad that paragliding is great fun, so he had a go from the top of the Skyline Gondola. Anyone who knows him will not be surprised to hear that he absolutely loved it! 

Rachel x

Glacier Country

We had a brilliant couple of days in Franz Josef and Fox, two tiny isolated villages famous for their enormous glaciers. We took the easy option at Franz Josef and just walked up to a viewing point where you get a decent view of the glacier. It's a really impressive sight and even more amazing when you realise you can really only see a small section of the ice.

That afternoon we experienced the full force of the West Coast weather with hours and hours of heavy rain so we escaped to the lovely Glacier Hot Pools. Unlike lots of similar places we visited in Central America, the water here isn't naturally heated, but it is real glacial water, so that was a first. It's also a lot swankier than any others we've been to and surrounded by rainforest so has a really nice atmosphere.

The next day the sun came out and we had perfect weather to get out onto the ice! This time we went to Fox Glacier, just down the road.

You're not allowed to go on the glacier without a guide unless you're experienced alpine mountaineers, (which we're definitely not!), so here's out guide, Cole. He looks the part, don't you think?!

 There was quite a hike to get onto the ice, including 700 steps and some risky sections where there are frequent rock falls. We stopped at a fresh water spring for a refreshing drink.

 

Once we got onto the glacier we were given an alpenstock (a big stick with a spike on the end) and crampons. We fitted these over the very retro boots that they had lent us and were told to tuck our trousers into our socks so we didn't catch them on the crampons. I felt like an old fashioned mountaineer along the lines of Kiwi hero Sir Edmund Hillary and felt ready to tackle the glacier!

 

The ice was a lot more grey than I had expected but it was still incredibly beautiful how it has formed into all sorts of peaks and cravasses. Where you can see into the glacier, it's a vivid blue colour.

This is my favourite photo because Cole let me pose with his ice axe!

On average, the Fox Glacier flows at over 1 metre a day and can get up to a speed of 5m a day, which is about 10 times faster than the European Alpine glaciers.



I really loved the whole experience and it's definitely one of the best things we've done so far.

Amazingly, after several hours hiking on and around the glacier, we found enough energy to almost run to the end of Lake Matheson. It has a very reflective surface and is famous for its evening views of Mount Tasman and, the highest peak in NZ, Mount Cook. We managed to get there just in time before the sun went down and got this lovely shot.

Rachel x