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.