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22nd August – Queenstown – Warm & Sunny

We had a walk into Queenstown for lunch.  Leela had a lovely chicken sandwich and I demolished an English Breakfast.  A few cappuccinos later and we were wide awake. 

Took a ride on the Skyline gondola/cable-car up to the top of Bob’s peak.  The views from the top were amazing, looking across Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables.

 

Next, the Luge beckoned!  The Skyline complex has a fantastic Luge course at the top where you can hurtle around the track on small carts.  After seeing an accident on the “extreme” track with some of the Great Britain winter sports team Leela was a little sceptical but ended up enjoying it too.

We booked in early for the restaurant and sat writing some postcards, drinking beer & wine to pass the time.  We were called in first to the restaurant and got shown to “the best seat in the house”.  We had to agree!  We were right in the corner of the restaurant surrounded by the glass windows overlooking the mountains, lake and Queentown.  We spent our meal watching the sun set whilst paragliders and bungie jumpers threw themselves off the mountain…

23rd August – Queenstown to Franz Josef – Cloudy/Rain

We left Queentown’s lovely weather behind and headed north up the west coast towards Franz Josef.  As with almost every part of NZ, the views of the mountains and ski areas were beautiful.

As we neared Franz Josef the weather started to turn for the worse and rain fell.  Our first port of call was the Fox Glacier, driving down a very slippery road with sheer drops either side and cascading waterfalls almost everywhere we looked.  The glacier was huge and an amazing sight.

We finally found our campsite for the night and were treated to another free spa to warm up in!…

24th August – Franz Josef to Greymouth – Heavy Rain

The rain’s really coming down down.  Due to the bad weather the helicopter/hike excursion on the Franz Josef Glacer has been cancelled.  So, we decided to drive up and take a look at the Glacier on our own.  After another journey down a very slippery road towards the glacier car-park we donned our waterproofs and headed out.

After 30 minutes or so we reached the first viewing platform.  From here we could see the glacier in the distance and it didn’t really look that far (famous last words).  A sign told us a return journey to the “terminal point” of the glacier would take around 1 hour 45 mins to walk.  Somehow I managed to convince Leela it’d be fun and set off on a very long, very wet and very windy journey to the glacier.  Crossed over/through a few fast running streams quickly becoming small rivers, climbed over not-small piles of loose rocks and finally made it.  A pretty cool sight (no pun intended!).  Managed to take a few photos and shoot a bit of video whilst trying to keep the rain out of the cameras.

We were totally soaked through so didn’t stay long, but it was worth it.  The walk back to the van seemed to take forever but we were on a mission to get into warm dry clothes again!

Once were were warm and fed we set off on a slow & wet journey up the coast to Greymouth.  Luckily the rain had dried out by the time we reached the campsite so we took a walk down to Monteiths Brewery for a tour and BBQ.  Pulled & drank lots of nice beer and met some nice people…

25th August – Greymouth to Punakiki to Christchurch – Wet (west) & Sunny (east)

We headed north again up the west coast from Greymouth to Punakiki, to view the Pancake Rocks.  Again the rain was pouring down, so we put on our waterproofs and headed out on a 20 minute coastal walk.  The rock formations were fascinating – The ocean waves have washed away parts of the limestone over the years and have left rock formations that look like stacked pancakes.  Due to the weather we didn’t stay out very long and headed back to the van to get dry again.

After lunch we headed off over a very wet, windy & foggy Arthurs Pass.  There were waterfalls cascading down the mountains all around us due to the rain.  Around half way through the pass, the sky turned blue and the sun came out for the rest of our journey to Christchurch.

Once again we were treated to a free spa by the campsite which we followed up with a walk to the local take-away.  We ate Sweet & Sour Chicken and Chicken Tikka Massala and washed it down with a nice bottle of wine we picked up from the Drylands Vineyard a couple of weeks ago.

26th August – Christchurch – Sunny

Spent the morning cleaning the van and packing our suitcases as it was our last day in New Zealand .  We ate left-overs from last night’s take-away and then headed over to the Antarctic Centre.  Had a fabulous afternoon, we paid extra for a “behind the scenes” pass and got to meet a couple of the penguins, Pedro and Orlando.

After watching the penguins being fed I went and took a ride on the Hagglund all-terrain vehicle.  The Hagglund took me round a course with huge steep hills, some with crevasses in, around steep banked corners and finally over a 7 meter hill in plunged into a 3 meter deep pool.  We slowly floated across the pool with the vehicle using its tracks as paddles.  Managed to catch it on video too, I’ll see if I can get it on Youtube at some point.

After the ride we went into the Antarctic Storm Room where they simulate the conditions found at the Antarctic.  We put on the overcoats, gloves and shoes provided as the room was currently at –8C.  The room was filled with snow, had an igloo and an ice-slide.  After a few minutes they started a simulation of a wind storm, taking the temperature of the room right down to –34C.  It took a while after that for us to warm up again…

27th August – Christchurch to Singapore – Sunny

Final day, starting with an early 6:50am wake up call.  A quick clean of the motorhome and we set off at 7:40am to drop it off back at KEA.

Trying to get through customs, a jar or Kiwi jam that Leela bought for her dad was confiscated for being a liquid(!) 30ml over the limit!  Leela ended up buying an alternative present in the airport instead.

12:30pm NZ, 1:23am UK time: We’re on our flight to Singapore.  I’ve started on the beer already to try to help me sleep later.  We’ve finally finished the last batch of thank-you cards and all thats left to do now is fly home.

2:30am NZ, 3:30pm UK time: In Singapore waiting for our connecting flight to Heathrow.  5 hours down, 1 to go.  We’re just about still awake!

28th August – London Heathrow – Clear

We have now been travelling for 34 hours.  We both managed to get a few hours sleep on the plane, until a child behind Leela turned the spotlight on and started kicking her seat.

Passport control was quite a bit more thorough on our way back in.  Had photos taken this time, also had to remove shoes, belts, jackets, phones etc and walk through the scanner area whilst holding jeans up.  Fun.

In the V bar now, drinking hot chocolate, waiting for our last flight to Newcastle…

15th August – Kaikoura to Timaru – Cloudy

We spent the night camping in a lovely campsite by a snow-capped mountain.  The staff gave us a free visit to the spa as a Honeymoon gift – It cleared both our colds!

We spent the morning sight-seeing in Kaikoura bay and browsing the tourist shops before setting off on an exhausting 4 hour drive to Timaru.  The weather heading into Timaru was really gloomy – Not a great sign.  On top of this, the campsite seemed to be in the middle of a really built up area on the edge of a housing estate – A first!

Once we’d settled for the night I got an emergency call from work which I dealt with whilst Leela finished off more of the Thank-you cards.

16th August – Timaru to Dunedin – Dry with Sunny Spells

Today we set off for Dunedin with a stop off at the Moereki Boulders, large unusual rocks that have slowly been uncovered on the beach by the erosion of the Pacific Ocean.

We arrived at our Dunedin campsite late in the afternoon, and dropped in on an old school friend, Paul Charters, who is now living there with his wife & kids.  Enjoyed catching up, it’s been years since we last met.

17th August – Dunedin to Te Anau – Sunny + Foggy at altitude

We got up nice and early for a change today to visit the Dunedin Peninsula, unfortunately some very thick fog decided to join us.  Visited Larnach Castle, a very nice interesting building if a little strange (it’s not exactly a “real” castle).

We stayed for brunch before heading off for Te Anau.  The drive might have been 3 hours, but through the most amazing countryside with panoramic views of snow-capped mountains.  We passed through Clinton the “3 horse town” (we saw none!) and on to Gore down the Presidential Highway .

At Te Anau we camped by a gorgeous lake, surrounded by more snow-capped mountains.  We’re very excited about tomorrow’s trip, setting off for Milford Sound.  The local’s have told us the recent avalanche has finally been cleared and the roads are open once again.  Hopefully we won’t have to use our snow chains!

18th August – Te Anau to Milford Sound – Sunny

Took a walk into town to book tomorrow’s kayaking excursion and to find some lunch.  Found a nice small bakery and has some tasty Cheese & Ham Toasties.  Before setting off for Milford Sound we stopped off at Te Anau lake which was beautiful.  Took a few photos of us with the mountains and lake in the background.

Finally we set off on our journey to Milford Sound, which went much better than we’d anticipated.  Much of the road was fairly straight through flat terrain with excellent views of the mountains all around.  Our first stop was at Mirror Lake, which as the name suggests is a small sheltered lake which reflects the mountains around like a mirror.

Quite a bit further up the road we finally hit the twisty mountain roads and the “Avalanche Zones”, where we found the remains of last week’s avalanche banked up at the sides of the road.  In the middle of these zones were small areas where vehicles are allowed to stop.  Found loads of tourists making snowmen and taking photos of helicopters – So we just had to join in

We finally arrived at our Milford Sound chalet at 4pm for our first night of 3!

19th August – Milford Sound – Glorious sunshine

Early start today to move our van next to our chalet.  We’re in a beautiful location below a mountain with waterfalls running down into a river flowing past us.

After breakfast we went kayaking with Jason from Rosco’s Kayaks.  We changed into our stripy thermals (very attractive), a thick polo neck jumper, a yellow waterproof, a life jacket and finally a rubber “skirt” (attaches to the kayak to keep water out).  We then proceeded to get eaten by Sand Flies whilst Jason took us through the dos and don’ts of kayaking.

With the sun beating down on us, we headed out onto the Sound – Leela at the front paddling and me at the back paddling and steering.  Out on the Sound we saw lots of seals, waterfalls, native ducks and Mitre Peak which stands over 1 mile high.  We had lunch sat in the middle of the sound, with everyone in the group holding each others kayaks together.  It was now time to head back to land, another 6km of paddling.  This last 6km was extremely hard and our arms were very tired, the thought of a cosy chalet and a nice meal to return home to kept us going.  The total round trip came to approx 14km.

20th August – Milford Sound – Cloudy

Woke up after a really nice sleep in a wonderful soft cosy bed.  The chalet is great – nice and warm, wonderful views, has under-floor heating, a big bath and a huge TV!  Much better than your average camp-site by far!

We took another trip out onto the Sound – This time for a much more relaxing cruise.  The boat went out much further than we did in the kayaks.  In fact, it seemed to get where we turned around in the kayaks in minutes compared to the hours it took to row.

Along the route the boat made a few stops to show us some rare Blue Penguins, seal colonies, and a waterfall he drove the boat under, filling a tray of glasses with fresh clean water to drink.  On the way back we stopped off at a small underwater observatory which gave us a look at some of the underwater wildlife in the area.

Once the sun went down we made a trip out to the glowworm walk trail in the pitch black darkness.  Unfortunately along the way we were blinded by lights from a passing van and walked straight past them.  Eventually our eyes got used to the darkness again, we found our way back on the trail and found the glowworms back near the start of the trail!  Doh

21st August – Milford Sound to Queenstown – Sunny

Our last morning in Milford Sound.  We set off after breakfast at around 11am and stopped for a 20 min walk to a waterfall.  The trail was through a lovely tropical forest.

We travelled at a leisurely pace through the avalanche zones and straight on towards Te Anau, stopping occasionally to take more photos along the way.

The drive to Queenstown was gorgeous, through the mountain ranges and overlooking a very picturesque lake/bay.  Again, a fantastic photo session as the sun set.

Queenstown and the campsite itself was heaving, it turned out that afternoon was the opening of the Winter Games.  After a walk around town we headed back to the campsite for an early night as we were both totally wiped out by the journey.

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8th August – Waitomo, New Zealand – Sunny

Woke early this morning to go and book our Cave Tubing activity with the Black Water Rafting Company.  Shortly afterwards we were introduced to our guide and shown to our wet suits.  Damn those things are damp & cold first thing in the morning!

As we were making our way down towards the cave entrance, we were given the chance to practice a backwards jump onto our tubes from height into the river outside.  The river water was freezing cold, but it gave the wet suits enough water to start warming up on our trek down to the cave.

The trek through the cave itself was pretty cool with a couple of backwards jumps off waterfalls on the way.  Half way through the system we were instructed to turn off our head lamps – All of a sudden the roof of the cave lit up with thousands of tiny bright specks of blue/green light from the glowworms.

An amazing day out!

9th August – “Hobbiton”/Matamata, New Zealand – Sunny

Set off this morning later than we intended but luckily we arrived just in time to take the Hobbiton Movie Set tour.  Was pretty cool to be able to walk around and touch the stuff that was in the LOTR movies.  Our tour guide way very enthusiastic and a proper LOTR geek!

After walking around the Party Tree and looking over the lake we walked up to and explored the hobbit holes and Bag End – Lots of photo opportunities!

After a nice lunch in the farm cafe we drove down towards Lake Taupo, our next stop for the night.

10th August – Wai-o-tapu, New Zealand – Cloudy

We had yet another rushed journey this morning to get to Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland in time for the Geyser eruption.  Yet again, we made it with just minutes to spare.  The eruption was pretty cool, something we’ve never seen before except on TV.  The only downside was the horrid sulphur smell when the steam cloud passed over you.

After the eruption, we made our way back down the hill to the main Thermal Park and spent a few hours walking around lots of strange thermal pools/craters.

After we finally escaped the eggy smell of the sulphur clouds, we made our way to Tongariro National Park to camp in a site below “Mount Doom”.

The site wasn’t quite what we were expecting so decided to only stay the one night.  We spent the evening in the cafe with beer, wine, chips, lemon meringue and chocolate fondant.  Leela managed to blitz her way through another 20 thank-you cards for our guests – Must have been a sugar rush

11th August – Tongariro National Park, New Zealand – Cold & Cloudy

This morning we went to check out information on booking a flight over and around the mountains.  The pilot was very vague about the conditions and appeared to still give us hope about a decent flight.

Once up in the air things turned out different – We only managed a short 20 minute flight around the park near one of the mountains due to the bad weather.  Leela also discovered she doesn’t travel well in small light aircraft that get bumped about a bit by bad weather

After the flight we headed off towards Wellington, a 5 hour drive with stunning views of Mount Rhapehu en route.

12th August – Wellington – Cloudy

Spent the morning sorting out the motorhome and getting things organised properly.  In the afternoon we took a bus into Wellington City Centre.  Had a look around the shops but couldn’t find anything that took our fancy then walked down towards the Embassy Theatre where Return of the King had its world premiere.

Found a fantastic restaurant called Zibibbo where I had a gorgeous duck and gnocchi with spinach and mushroom meal.  This was followed by an impressive Tapas dessert with 2 raspberry sorbet cones, chocolate & mandarin mousse, mango crème in an egg, cinnamon donuts, vanilla ice cream and finally a coffee crème brule.

13th August – Wellington – Sunny

We spent the morning at the Weta Cave, home of the LOTR and Narnia (amongst tons of others) special effects.

Watched a 20 minute behind-the-scenes film of what they’ve done for various films, then explored the mini-museum of weapons, armour, models and clothing used in the LOTR films.

Spent a good few hours on the ferry from Wellington, through the Cook Straights and finally onto the South Island!  The journey was pretty uneventful – We spent the majority of it freezing outside on the front deck hoping in vain to see some dolphins or whales.  However, the views of the hills and mountains on the way into the Picton terminal were fantastic.

Drove down to Blenheim to stop for the night – The weather was pretty miserable during the journey.  Once there we had a great meal in Roccos Restaurant and found a fantastic local wine – “Drylands Sauvignon Blanc 07”.  We’ll definitely have to visit the winery tomorrow and pick up some more!

14th August – North East/Kiakoura Coast, New Zealand – Sunny

Had an amazing day today.  We left Blenheim early and headed up the coast – Leela drove the motorhome for the first time too!  Our first stop was only 6km up the road at the Drylands winery, the vineyard that produced last nights bottle of wine.  We spent about an hour there, sampling the different wines and came away with a few bottles for the trip.

We continued on up the coast road and found hundreds of seals all along the coast.  Leela found a great spot to stop where we spent a few hours walking around them taking plenty of photos.

We then crossed over the main road an took a quick 10 min walk up a small track which eventually led to a waterfall.  In the pool at the bottom we found a couple of baby seals playing around and their mother asleep on a ledge above.  An amazing experience that could have been so easily missed.

Spending the night camping in Kaikoura after a not-so-great chippy tea…

4th August – Singapore

Hi there!

We’ve spent approx 12 hours in the air so far flying from Heathrow to Singapore.  The staff, service & food from Singapore Airlines are great – Pity about our sleeping arrangements.

We spent the majority of the “night” trying to get comfortable and getting occasional small amounts of sleep.  I’ve also discovered I suffer from “Barometric Pressure Headaches” when the plane comes in to land.  Not nice in the slightest!

Our hotel, the “Marina Mandarin”, is lovely.  Our room has a nice view over part of the city across towards the marina.

Whilst Leela took a nap to recover from the flight & jet lag, I spent some time on my laptop browsing through the amazing photos that our wedding guests uploaded to our website.  Thanks to everyone that took the time to upload these, they are great!

5th August – Singapore – Hot, cloudy

Today the weather was very hot but overcast, so we decided to venture out to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens.  After working out the MRT system we enjoyed a scenic (and thankfully air-conditioned!) journey out to Jurong.

The Chinese Garden is amazing, we walked up 7 flights of stairs to get to the top of the Pagoda and were rewarded with fantastic views and a nice cool breeze.

Within the gardens we found what is meant to be the worlds largest collection of turtles at the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum.  We spent an hour or so here, feeding a massive collection of frenzied turtles which seemed desperate to get a bite of cucumber!

In the evening we decided to go visit the Singapore Night Safari.  On our way to the bus stop, we found some people selling tickets to the Night Safari along with a free bus ride.  Once we accepted the offer and took the bus, we realised this wasn’t an “official” operation and was obviously run by someone re-selling bulk-bought tickets.  We did get there though, and in one piece!

The safari itself was strange – You’re basically taken around on a bus trip through a zoo, in the dark.  You can’t really see very much while on the bus and the tour guides sound like they’re reading from a very cheesy script.  It seemed lots of emphasis was put on animals we might consider “normal” such as goats and cattle.  Once we left the bus and decided to go walking around on our own we finally got to see some impressive animals close-up including elephants, leopards and lions.

6th August – Singapore – Hot & Sunny

We slept in today and were woken by massive gun salutes being carried out by the Singapore Military practising for National Day.  After applying lots of sun cream we took a walk to the Singapore Flyer, similar to the London Eye but bigger!

We saw some amazing views across Singapore and the harbour, but the most fascinating view was of the grand prix circuit being prepared for the Formula 1 race the following month.

We spent the afternoon in the Hotel Lobby/Atrium eating lunch (mine was a plate of the smallest burgers I’ve ever seen!) and writing thank-you cards while waiting to leave for the Airport and our flight to New Zealand.

7th August – Auckland, New Zealand – Sunny

We’re in New Zealand at last!  We arrived early this morning, and after a round of Biosecurity checks on Leela’s hiking boots we were finally allowed to enter!  A driver from Kea Campers arrived to pick us up from the Airport and took us 30 mins north of Auckland to their base and our motor home.

Our Kea Motorhome – Home for the next 3 weeks!

We then drove several hours south of Auckland to Waitomo and our first campsite…

After eleven and a half years, on Saturday 1st August 2009, Leela and I got married at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland!

The day started out looking pretty bleak, with heavy downpours over the entire North East.  However as noon arrived, the clouds parted over Chillingham just in time and treated us to a wonderful sunny day.

We had a fantastic day joined by lots of our friends and family and have many wonderful memories to treasure.  Thank you all for helping to make our wedding such a special day.

 

We’ve had so many photos sent to us it’s going to take me a while to sort through them – Needless to say, I’ll post a blog entry once they’re online!