Kia Ora! Hello from Rotorua. We arrived here today after spending 3 nights in rainy Taupo. I don’t think it actually stopped raining once in the whole time we were there and it’s looking the same way here too! The rain, along with our cramped, damp little ‘tree house’ room in the hostel in Taupo made it difficult to get motivated, get the rain jackets on and get out and see the sites! Well, fair play to us, we made the effort and ventured out to check out the local area. Unfortunately the famous Tongariro crossing was inacessible due to weather conditions – seems to be a recurring theme at this stage. Maybe winter isn’t the best time to be visiting New Zealand!?
Anyway, we headed out to ‘Orakei Korako’, a geothermal area with hot pools, geysers, mud pools and a very cool cave. It was a really amazing place.

photo credit: wellington264

The following day, we ventured out on a boat cruise on Lake Taupo to see the Maori carvings. The carvings were pretty impressive and we stared at them in wonder and amazement until the skipper told us that they dated from 1970!!! 1970!? talk about inventing a money spinner tourist attraction! They could at least pretend they are ancient. Anyway, it got us out and about for the day, albeit in the cold and rain!

photo credit: whistler1984

We went to see the beautiful Huka falls this morning before leaving for Rotorua. So, we’ve spent the rest of the day roaming about the shops. Rotorua looks like a cool town. We’ve already found the Irish bar, which is a good start

photo credit: nim

Hi there. Just chilling out in Wellington at the moment, capital city of New Zealand. We left Franz Josef Glacier on Saturday and landed in Nelson after stopping on the way to have a look at the lovely pancake rocks in Punakaiki. We decided to hit the town in Nelson when we landed, so made our way around some of the pubs. It’s a small city and quiet enough. Had a good night and as a result, spent the next day sleeping off 2 many beers! So, we didn’t get to see what Nelson has to offer (if anything!?).

photo credit: Simon Schaumann

Moved on up to Picton, a nice little town, where we had some lunch before boarding the Interislander ferry and crossing over to the North island.
So that brings us to Wellington, a lively bustling city. We’ve spent our time here walking around, visited the Te Papa museum (national museum with lots of Maori heritage stuff). We got the cable car up to the Botanic gardens today and then hit the shops for some retail therapy – Orla lost the run of herself! We were out and about last night for a ‘few quiet ones’ (no such thing!). So, we move on to Taupo tommorrow. Our last long (ish) bus journey! Hurray! I never want to see a bus again after this trip!

Hello from Queenstown! It’s a fab little town surrounded by snow capped mountains. It’s got lots of bars (with cosy fires), cafes and restaurants and sells itself as the adventure capital of the world. Also home to the worst hostel in the world – Pinewood Lodge. It smells really bad and is freezing. The whole place just needs to be levelled. So, we have been spending as much time as possible away from the smelly hostel.

photo credit: Adamina

Yesterday, we rented the most horrendous snow gear (think binman/burglar outfits) and we headed off to the slopes of Coronet Peak for some skiing. Had a fantastic time. I was a bit of a ‘menace on the slopes’, as Orla put it, for the first few hours. Fell over on the pully lift thing and the girl had to stop the lift while I recovered and tried to stand up again – very difficult cause I was in tears laughing! After eventually getting upright again, I skiied right back into the pully lift, nearly taking out an innocent child. Again, lift had to be stopped, hysterical laughter, before Orla dragged me away from the danger zone before I caused more havoc. After that though I improved no end, with the help of 2 lessons and even mastered the ‘magic carpet’ onto the green slope. It was so much fun. I’m converted now – skiing holidays here I come!

photo credit: Ted Percival

Today, Orla persuaded me to go on the ’shotover jet’ – a thrill jetboat ride along the shotover river. I very nearly chickened out, but plucked up all my courage and got on the boat. I was so glad I did it – It was fantastic! Speeding our way along the river, closely missing rocks. So much fun!

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos

So, we’ve another day here. Heading on the gondola tommorrow (cable car up side of very steep mountain). We’re having a buffet dinner at the top, followed by a New Zealand Haka show, so looking forward to that.

Greetings from Christchurch, New Zealand. We landed in cold and wintry Christchurch on Thursday night. We explored the city on Friday and did some ice skating and headed out to check out the bars on Friday night. Ending up having a great night, bopping until the early hours in Sullivans Irish bar. Needless to say, we suffered today, but still managed to drag ourselves out of the bed and get a bus to the beautiful little seaside town of Akaroa, East of Christchurch, where the French settled. It is such a pretty town.

photo credit: robynejay

We headed out onto the harbour for some dolphin watching. There weren’t many around, but we still saw a few jumping out of the water. So, it’s another early start tommorrow. We are heading down to Queenstown to hit the slopes for a few days. Let’s hope I can get the hang of this skiing thing!