Bula!

Day 22 Christchurch (NZ) to Nadi (Fiji)

We decided to treat ourselves to a resort holiday on the way home from NZ to Melbourne. This was K's third trip to Fiji and M's first. 

It was an easy flight to Nadi, just a few hours, and we stayed in a hotel on a beach not far from the airport for an overnight stay before departing for the resort the next day.

Day 23 Nadi to Tokoriki

We had booked a boat trip from Port Denaru to Tokoriki Island where we were to spend four nights. We were taken by bus to the port, then boarded the boat for the two hour boat ride. On arrival we were checked into our small pool villa. Then we set about taking advantage of the all inclusive plan we'd booked by having lunch, then drinks, then drinks, then dinner, then drinks.

Day 24-26 Tokoriki

Not much to report really, the island is small and there are only two resorts, ours and the other one. 

K spent her days using the villa's small plunge pool, while M tried to keep active, exploring the resort, sneaking into the other resort to have a look, and walking up and across the island to the deserted beach on the other side.

We tried to take advantage of our all inclusive plan by having three meals a day, but for people like us who aren't really big eaters or drinkers it's not a realistic goal.

One evening we booked a table at a Fijian feast with singing and dancing, only to have a really big guy seated right between us and the dancers. Not to worry though, these sorts of things are never that interesting anyway, are they?

Day 27 Tokoriki to Nadi

Checkout day, so we packed our luggage and made our way to reception.

We were "treated" to a bunch of staff singing a few farewell songs, I find this sort of thing really cheesy and I'm sure the staff do too, but it's always surprising how into it some of the guests are (that's Americans for you I guess!).

It was back to the same hotel that we'd stayed at for our last night in Fiji, where K decided to recover from doing nothing for the last four days by swimming in a much bigger and nicer pool at a hotel that was a quarter of the price of the resort we'd been staying at.

Day 28 Nadi to Melbourne 

 

Not much to say really, we went to the airport, flew home in an aeroplane, collected our luggage, and caught an Uber home. The End.

Garden city

Day 21 Christchurch 

With the sun out we spent the day exploring the pretty Christchurch CBD, which has been rejuvenated and modernised after suffering from the effects of an earthquake back in 2011.  Melbourne's Southbank could take some tips from Christchurch's attractive riverside.

We visited the Quake Museum where we learnt more about the earthquake. Whilst we were aware of the earthquake when it happened, we had missed a lot of the news about it as on the day of the earthquake we had arrived in South Africa for the commencement of an eight month trip through Africa and Europe.

That afternoon M did more exploring of the Christchurch area, following the river out of the CBD and eventually ending up at the Mona Vale Garden Park.

That's a steep ask

Day 20 Dunedin to Christchurch

Our three week NZ holiday is coming to a close as we start our final day of driving. Before leaving Dunedin we visited "the steepest street in the world", Baldwin Street. It's a narrow suburban street that halfway along steepens dramatically. Even on a Sunday morning there were many tourists doing ridiculous poses, presumably for their Instagram or Facebook, such as lying on the road. We felt sorry for the residents of the street not only having to negotiate steep driveways but also having to dodge idiotic sightseers. We kept to the footpath and didn't take our car up the street, because we are perfectly behaved tourists and possibly the most respectful and least obtrusive tourists in the entire world (in our humble opinion).

The drive from Dunedin to Christchurch was quite boring compared to previous days, as the landscape between Dunedin and Christchurch is nearly all cultivated farmland, the impressive scenery of earlier in our trip was now behind us. One thing worth mentioning though is that New Zealand's pine hedges are impressive, they are so high, long, well maintained and everywhere, with farm after farm bordered by meticulously trimmed trees framing their paddocks. 

Windy windy windy

Day 19 Invercargill to Dunedin

We travelled the southern scenic route through the Caitlins, regularly feeling as if we were going to be blown off the road in the very strong winds. We drove to Slope Point, the southernmost point of the South Island, to complete an epic traversal of the country from Cape Reinga in the North.

Then it was on to Curio Bay and the sarcastically named Niagara Falls for lunch, someone with  a wry sense of humour had named this trickle after its North American counterpart.

Dunedin is hilly university town based around an octagonal centre (called The Octagon), and on arrival we discovered it was graduation day for many students, as the place was awash with students in their black gowns along with their families celebrating the end of their hard work.

Surely you must be bluffing

Day 18 Queenstown to Invercargill

We decided we might have been a bit quick to judge the main town area on the water at Queenstown so we drove back there for a coffee before we continued our drive south. We parked at the opposite end of the bay to where we'd stopped a couple of days ago, before finding a place right on the water for our morning coffee starter. It was quite pleasant though we did have to contend with floating ash descending upon us from the steam boat that was about to depart. 

We watched tourists being taken out in what looked like enclosed jet skis that can go under water. They are called Hydra attack semi submersible shark ride that dive down and then leap up from the water at high speeds.

We drove out of Queenstown and on to Invercargill, but rather than check in to our hotel immediately we continued further south to Bluff. K checked out the Great White Shark cage diving experience, hoping to go out the next day but was told that tomorrow's trip had been cancelled as the weather was going to turn nasty in about 12 hours.

Blue sky day

Day 17 Queenstown 

We checked in to our flight on time, and found we were flying with a family of four in an 8 seater plane. The plane was designed so that everyone had a window seat and the windows were large enough to allow a great view. The pilot warned us that there were strong winds in places so we were going to experience a bumpy ride.

It took an hour to reach Mt Cook village, flying over Franz Joseph, Fox and Tasman glaciers on the way. There was still snow in many areas which made the flight extremely picturesque. Flying through the valley and descending rapidly to the airport was bumpy and rough but the pilot skilfully guided the plane for a smooth landing.

The family were transferring to a helicopter to go glacier hiking, as we have done this in a few other countries we had decided to give that part a skip, instead we were driven to Mt Cook village and dropped off at the hotel / cafe building. The view and closeness of Mt Cook combined with a beautiful day and clear blue sky meant a pleasant three hour wait for the return flight. 

M went for a hike on one of the trails to Kea Point, while K enjoyed the scenery from the balcony. The pilots told us that we weren't unlucky with the weather in Franz Josef, and in fact not being able to fly is pretty standard, and having weather being good enough to fly is the exception.

The return flight to Queenstown over Lake Pukaki was as beautiful as the outward flight. From the air you could see the strikingly different shades of blue as rivers with turquoise glacier flour slowly blended in with blue water. It was a lovely day with perfect weather and a wonderful way to start winding down our New Zealand trip.

Will we fly?

Day 16 Te Anau to Queenstown 

Our poor planning meant that we were now back tracking to go to Queenstown, we really don't know why we didn't just stop there before going on to Te Anau. 

As we had missed out on the scenic flight at Franz Joseph we had a look online to see if we could find one out of Queenstown that took in Mt Cook, but as we should have known everything was booked out for the following day. However we put our names down to join a waiting list with no expectations. 

Later in the afternoon while driving we received a call saying that they could take us on a light plane the following morning at 8am which we accepted.

We arrived into Queenstown at lunchtime but were surprised to find the waterfront area was very touristy, not what we expected after what we'd seen elsewhere in NZ.

As it turns out the place we'd booked to stay in was out of the tourist centre but practically across the road from the airport we'd leave from the next day, so we think we planned that part of it pretty well at least!    

A sound idea

Day 15 Milford Sound (Te Anau)

On the road early as we had booked a cruise on Milford Sound for 11.45am. We were slightly concerned that after our visit to Scandinavia that we would be all fjorded out and were now heading off to cruise another one. The road from Te Anau was very picturesque as are so many routes in New Zealand.

We had chosen a small boat that promised to only fill to half capacity so there would be plenty of space on board. The captain tried to keep everyone entertained with commentary that included very lame dad jokes, but it was still much better than any pre-recorded commentary.

The scenery might not be as pretty as Norway but it was more rugged and natural looking (to us anyway). Interestingly Captain Cook had charted and sailed three times around the South Island but never found Milford as its narrow entrance at an angle makes it appear from a distance as just a bay, it requires closer inspection to discover that it is a fjord. We managed to see sea lions and penguins, but there was no visible fish life. We sailed as far out as the edge of the Tasman Sea before turning around and heading back.

On the drive back as we waited to go through the Homer tunnel we saw a naughty kea landing on cars. Apparently they like to use the cars to sharpen their beaks and enjoy stripping the rubber off the wind screen wipers etc., at least they stayed away from us. On our return to Te Anau we stopped off at a few of the majestic view points that we had rushed past on our way in.

Phone support

Day 14 Wanaka to Te Anau 

Over breakfast we helped a lady travelling on her own with a dog set up her new phone as her previous one had died the day before leaving her with no maps or ability to contact her family. She gave us the great advice of taking insect repellent with us to Milford Sound so that sandflies wouldn't ruin the trip.

We continued the picturesque drive south through Queenstown to make it to Te Anau for lunch another nice NZ town on the edge of a lake.

One thing we've noticed in New Zealand is that drivers are very considerate, it is normal for slow drivers to pull off the road to allow others to pass, and many of the roads reduce to single lane bridges over the many rivers and streams across the country.

Flight cancelled (as expected)

Day 13 Franz Josef to Wanaka

The rain had stopped by the morning and we we were hopeful as we watched the fog and clouds start to lift, we thought we might be in with a chance.

To fill in the time we drove back to the glacier walk and today the view had improved, so we had a good clear view of the glacier which was not too far away.

By the time we arrived back in the village by 12pm we could see the clouds had descended again and it was obvious that we wouldn't be flying, confirmed a few minutes later by the helicopter company.

We left Franz Josef and drove on to Wanaka stopping at Fox glacier village for lunch. On the way the weather improved and we were shocked to see the temperature climb as high as 27, we thought we'd left the warm weather behind.

Wanaka is a ski village on the edge of Wanaka Lake, and was a pretty spot with snow capped mountains in the background, a pretty waterfront, and quite a few nice bars and restaurants. 

M took a walk along the edge of the lake, and found #ThatWanakaTree, along with a bunch of people taking pictures of it, presumably for likes on their Instagram.

Who spilt the food colouring?

Day 12 Hokitika to Franz Josef

We were on the road by 8am, banking on beating the rain that was steadily closing in on the coast. Arriving at Hokitika Gorge by 8.30am we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

In one review K had read, they said "who spilt the food colouring?" which was spot on. The strong aqua turquoise colour of the water is something we'd never seen before, and we learnt that it's created by glacier "flour", a fine silt-like sediment from the grinding of rocks by glaciers.

After a nice forest walk crossing some bridges with great views we made it back to the car to start driving south before the rain hit.

We pulled into the village of Franz Josef at lunchtime in the pouring rain, where we went into the closest place for lunch to find it packed with tourists doing the same thing as us, rain at a glacier village leaves everyone with very limited options for the day.

We had booked a helicopter flight over the Franz Josef glacier, Fox Glacier and Mt. Cook for 12:30pm the next day. It wasn't looking promising but they said the call on whether to cancel wouldn't be made until half an hour before the scheduled flight.

The rain stopped for a while in the afternoon so M decided to walk to the glacier viewpoint. He returned saying he couldn't see much as low level clouds and rain obscured the view. K was pleased she'd decided to stay in front of the heater.

Anyone for pancakes?

Day 11 Nelson to Hokitika

Our hopes that our tyre was fine were dashed as it had gone flat over night so we pumped it up again, knowing that it would at least last the day's driving. Our road trip continued closely following the western coast of the South Island, stopping by Cape Foulwind, then from there to Pancake Rocks, which were quite impressive to see. Apparently scientists still don't know why the rocks have formed in this unusual way.

One thing we have noticed all over New Zealand is the amount of road works, not a day has passed where we haven't been stopped multiple times by road maintenance.

The weather has been surprisingly pleasant but the forecast for the next two days was pretty grim. We debated pushing on to see Hokitika Gorge this evening while the weather was still good but decided instead to get an early start the next day.

As the car tyre was going to be a pain if we didn't do something about it, M swapped it for the unused and fully inflated spare in the boot. It was actually quite surprising that we would pick up a rental car in such a condition. 

Hokitika beach is known for it's driftwood, and there was lots of it around on the dark grey sand. The sunset that evening was also quite a good one, with lots of people trying to get the perfect photo.

Ferry interesting

Day 10 Wellington to Nelson

The ferry over to the South Island was due to leave at 9am but check in closed at 7.45 so we arrived at the terminal at 7.15am. We could have arrived a little later but we prefer to have no stress and time up our sleeve for check ins.

The ferry trip was about three hours and we had treated ourselves to a lounge upgrade with comfy window seats. It was a beautiful day for a trip on the sea with blue sky and very little wind.

We picked up our new rental car and discovered not long after leaving town that we had a flat tyre. Not something we would normally check on a newly picked up rental. We pulled into a servo and pumped it up, crossed our fingers and pushed on to Nelson.

Nelson was a lot larger than we expected. K found a ceramic gallery with a great selection of different artists and proceeded to spend good money on dirt that had been shaped, painted and heated up.

We found a quaint restaurant that hung over the water for a drink while we watched some inspiring ocean swimmers in their groups training in the cold water.

Up Mt VIc

Day 9 Wellington 

An easy day off from road tripping today with a look around Wellington Harbour then a short drive up to the Mount Victoria lookout to get an idea of how the city of Wellington was situated around a number of mountains and harbours.

The majority of car rental companies in NZ don't allow cars to be taken between the North and South islands, the idea is that you drop your car off on one side and pick up (a nice clean) new one on the other side. As we didn't really need our car any more today we decided to return it a day early so we had one less thing to worry about and one less chance of delays before our trip over to Picton the next day. 

Antarctic blast

Day 8 Taupo to Wellington 

A long drive today as we decided to head to Wellington via Whanganui, as K had found a ceramic museum she wanted to check out that had around 4000 pieces by predominantly New Zealand potters. There were some stunningly beautiful pieces of work but as this was a museum they weren't for sale. 

While K did that M wandered around the town and along the Whanganui River (New Zealand's longest navigable waterway) where some old paddle steamers were docked.

It was close to 6pm when we arrived in Wellington, where we knew we had left the warm weather of the last week behind as we endured an Antarctic blast of wind while walking along the waterfront.

More driving than necessary

Day 7 Rotorua to Taupo

We had underestimated how popular Hobbiton was and being low/shoulder season we thought we'd be able to rock up when it suited us. A couple of days ago though we thought we should test this theory, only to find out all places were booked out online. K phoned to see if there was any leeway or standby tickets, and was told we could book an 11am visit on Monday taking a bus from and returning to Matamata. Why we couldn't just drive directly to Hobbiton and pick up the tour there was never made clear, but as this was our only option we hit the road early and backtracked the hour's drive to Matamata to get the bus.

The Hobbiton site was much better than we expected with lots of hobbit homes and interesting facts about the construction and movie making process. A thoroughly delightful, pretty set and definitely worth a visit.

Back to Matamata by bus, then into the car to hightail it south again to try and make it to Orakei Korako Geothermal Park before the last boat of the day left at 4pm. We arrived with a minute to spare and spent the next hour on the trail around the bubbling hot water sulphur, mud pools and geysers waiting to erupt, another nice and worthwhile visit. 

From there it was on to our final destination for the night, Taupo. Rotorua to Taupo by car is usually just an hour or so, but today because of our poor planning we'd had at least three hours on the road!

Getting into hot water

 Day 6 Whitianga to Rotorua

Our first stop for the day was Hot Water Beach, a place where if you dig into the sand in the right spot (hiring a shovel if needed) you can find hot water. We were told we had arrived too early as the tidal conditions meant it wouldn't be possible until around 1pm, in about two hours. However these facts didn't seem to concern some tourists who parted with $10 for their shovel and headed to the beach.

We walked up to a point where a number of people were standing still in the shallows. On asking what they were doing, we were told that you just needed to wriggle your feet in the sand, you'd sink in a bit and find some warmth. Sure enough within a minute our feet had gone from warm to so hot we needed to yank them out before they were scalded!

From there we continued further south along the Peninsula, through the large town of Tauranga and a kiwi fruit growing area before arriving in Rotorua. We visited the Redwood sky walk (with Californian redwoods, not native NZ trees) learning about the timber history and culture in this part of the world.

Windy coastal drive

 Day 5 - Auckland to Whitianga 

After a night in the suburbs of Auckland, we took a winding road trip through Thames and along the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula to finish in the lovely coastal town of Whitianga, a town that seems on the verge of being "discovered" but currently still in delightful limbo, with a nice boat harbour, as well as some decent restaurants.

Welcome to our house

 Day 4 - Paihia to Auckland via Opononi

We had always planned to visit Manea Footprints of Kupe in Opononi, a Maori cultural museum that had some good reviews, but in our usual fashion we only looked into things like ticketing last night over dinner, finding that there were only two visiting times available, 10am and 1pm.

As the tour went for 75 minutes and we had a four hour drive after that to reach Auckland we went for the 10am slot, which meant we needed to be on the road by 8.30, a little earlier than we would have liked.

We arrived in Opononi to discover that we should also have checked the weather forecast for the west coast. We had left a pleasant morning with a forecast of low 20s to arrive in cold, wet and windy weather.

The tour consisted of an informative and entertaining understanding of the Maoris' arrival in New Zealand from across the seas, led by the forefather Kupe. It was a lovely way of educating and keeping the Maori language and stories alive.

The long drive along the west coast was broken up with some stops along the way for some short nature walks to see some big kauri pines, and a lunch stop at Dargaville, a town that seemed frozen in the past. It was a decent size but appeared a little run down, with old buildings and residents to match.

To the top of the top

 Day 3 - Paihia to Cape Reinga (return)

Today we did a six hour round trip to Cape Reinga at the northern tip of the North Island. Along the way we stopped off at some giant sand dunes that reminded us of Namibia, though we chose not to have a go at the sand boarding.

From there we travelled on to the cape, following the well made path the lighthouse, enjoying reading about the Maori history of the area along the way.

This place looks familiar?

 Day 2 - Orewa to Paihia

After a walk along the beach in Orewa followed by a nice coffee, we jumped back into the car and headed north to Paihia on the Bay of Islands. As we had visited the Bay of Islands before we didn't have any plans.

Once we arrived we decided to catch the ferry across the bay to the cute town of Russell. After walking for a while we realised we'd been there before, but as it was a lovely afternoon for a boat trip we felt we had done the right thing anyway.

What a year!

 Day 1 - Melbourne to Auckland

It's been an interesting year without much in the way of trips, so we decided to treat ourselves to a trip across the ditch before Christmas. A short flight of 3.5 hours is quicker than travelling to many places in Oz!

As we'd been to Auckland a few times before we decided to skip a stay in the city this time, collecting a rental car from the airport and heading north to the nice seaside town of Orewa for the night. We were pleasantly surprised to find the weather was warmer than home.