Geology in the North Island

After Fox Glacier, we had a couple of days steady drive to Picton for the ferry crossing to the North Island. Stopped off in a few places along the way including Pancake Rocks (rocks that look like pancakes) and a seal colony. We expected to see 3 seals at most, but there were over 100 and even some pups playing with each other on the rocks!

We didn't hang about in Wellington, looked nice, but you had to pay to park, so we went straight north towards Tongariro National Park. We were hoping to do a day trek across the volcanoes - including Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings! Unfortunately the weather wasn't great on the peaks - snowy, cloudy and cold, so we couldn't go. Instead we went on a couple of really nice shorter walks in the volcanic valleys, around lava flows and rock falls. Speaking of falls... I did, and ripped my trousers - dangerous things these volcanoes.

I'm slowly turning Kate into a bit of a geologist, and after glaciers and volcanoes we moved onto the geothermal areas of Taupo and Rotorua. These places are weird! You see steam coming out of the ground all over the place and pools of bubbling mud! Our campsite in Rotorua was geothermally heated and had a hot spa and steam oven. We tried cooking our mussels in the steam oven, but it took too long, so had to do them on the hob! (a kilo of huge green mussels -for a quid!). Wasn't all geeky though - we spent a day racing luges down the hill and terrifying ourselves on the Sky Swing (bungee swing on a hill over Rotorua)! We even saw some Kiwi birds in the wildlife park. (oh - Kiwi fruit, 20p a kilo - who knew they came from New Zealand?)

Our last couple of days in the van were spent cruising around the Coromandel Peninsula. Wonderful coastline with big green hills and windy roads. We visited Hot Water Beach and tried to dig our own hot pool - didn't quite work, as we missed the tide... but if you buried your feet in the sand under the water, you could feel the hot spring water! Pretty cool!

We were both a bit sad to return the campervan, we had a great time and is strange to have had the same accommodation for so long! Auckland has been cool - we've seen more volcanoes and climbed the biggest. Also saw a Maori Cultural Show at the museum, where they did the Haka. Another box ticked for NZ.

We're off to the Cook Islands this afternoon, and we'll arrive yesterday... this dateline thing is very confusing.

Kiwi Campervanning

I thought I had better write this blog to prove to John that I am, in fact, still alive and well! That is despite all the crazy things Paul has been getting me into in New Zealand.

New Zealand is really beautiful, but also really cold! It's Autumn here and all the trees are golden and red, which is nice. It's pretty chilly in our camper van, though. We have a little electric heater, two quilts and a box of beer to keep us warm, though. It's really nice having the freedom to go where we want when we want. It's also great not to be in dorms for a while, too. Not so nice when I'm desperate for the toilet at 4am, though!

We started off in Christchurch, which is very pretty annd reminded us a lot of home - little old churches, cathedrals and Olde Worlde trams. From there we headed to Lake Tekapo, where you could see millions of stars at night. We even saw a shooting star! The views over the lake of the mountains were also stunning, and also very sheep filled!

Next stop was Oamaru, because I really wanted to see penguins. We saw Yellow-eyed and Small Blue penguins coming in from the sea to roost. Penguins have such big pink feet! They are very cute and really noisy! We saw a really lazy fur seal, too, who pretty much flopped on the beach and waited for the tide to come get him. Must have been a male - couldn't be bothered to walk to the sea!

Queenstown was good fun. We watched bungee jumpers, which was more than close enough for me. Paul said he would have done it if it wasn't so expensive!! We really wanted to go canyoning or white water rafting, but it's not the right season for them, so we ended up going river surfing! This involves riding through white water rapids on a body board! It seemed like a great idea until we got up that morning and it was freezing! We had ridiculously thick wetsuits, though, so stayed pretty warm although the water was 9 degrees. It was great fun, although neither of us can really say we surfed! It was more like clinging on and hoping for the best! As part of the package, we were taken to a hot pool place after, which was much more luxurious and meant we could both feel our toes again by the time we got back to the van!

After Queenstown we went to Wanaka and did a beautiful walk up a big hill/small mountain (?), which had great views of Lake Wanaka and more snow capped mountains. I don't think I could ever get tired of views like that, which is good, because they are everywhere we go!

The best bit so far was yesterday when we went for a day's guided walk on the Fox Glacier (of the mint fame!). We had to wear crampons, which was great, because it meant I had no chance of falling over! The glacier was stunning, with ice caves, tunnels and crevasses. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. It was like another world. I was really sad to leave. We rounded off the day by going to see some glow worms in the local woods, which was also magical (if a bit dark and scary!)

We have a few more days in the south before heading to the North Island. We're really looking forward to the volcanoes!

Sharks and Surfers in Sydney

Much less smelly now! Found our way to a much nicer hostel and spent two nights as the only people in a six bed dorm. Our company for the other night was a crazy, drunk american girl and her unfortunate friends - she decided she was leaving at 2am, which kept us amused in our bunk beds!

Where to start with Sydney? It's a great city! We started off in Darling Harbour at the Aquarium - really cool, with underwater paths through the seals and sharks, and a huge coral reef. Even saw a platypus - I didn't think they were real! The harbour itself was really nice, with cool bars and restaurant. Too expensive for us though, so we headed back to the hostel bar for happy hour.

We spent the next day taking photos of the Opera House! Took far too many, but you can't help yourself. We got great views of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the Botanical Gardens, home to hundreds of fruit bats and almost as many joggers (running up and down stairs over and over again... crazy!). Had a look inside the foyer and, just for a laugh, asked how much tickets were to the evening's ballet. We were lucky on two counts: we could afford a ticket and there was no dress code! It was my first (Kate's second) ballet, and we both really enjoyed it. It wasn't a traditional show, but a tribute to the guy who choreographed West Side Story. Interesting and funny - really great.

On our last day in Australia we walked from Coogee to Bondi Beach, the cliffs and bays along the coastline were beautiful. Bondi was oddly familiar, felt very much like a British seaside town - except for the weather, although it wasn't that warm - the surfers were all in wetsuits. We sunbathed a bit, and Kate had a bit of a paddle in the Pacific (that's paddle, not piddle - I hope!).

We arrived in New Zealand yesterday, and are staying in Christchurch on the South Island. It's already very different to Australia: autumn here is cold, and the leaves are falling. The red and gold trees look really pretty. It's even more like being at home here - cathedrals, oak trees and mallards. We're picking up the campervan in the morning, and then we hit the road! Woo hoo!

Western Australia

We've just spent a week in Western Australia, which has been very different to all our time in Asia. It came as a bit of a shock! Especially as we spent most of it with Kate's family, who looked after us amazingly well, even feeding us oysters and champagne - we're not used to such luxury!

The morning after we arrived we were taken out waterskiing. Kate was great at it and managed to stand up for ages, but I didn't. Think it's harder when you're tall... I did much better at the doughnuts and only fell off once. Kate didn't fall off at all - of course.

After a couple of days exploring Perth with Kate's Uncle Ian, we hired a car and headed south to Margaret River, the big wine growing area. We went on a great 'Bushtucker' wine tour, which involved Kate getting a little tipsy and me eating a wichity grub (delicious - tastes like peanut butter, looked horrible). While down in the south west, we also went to a beautiful cave and to the forests of giant karri and tingle trees. There was a really cool, but very wobbly, tree top walk. Next stop was Albany and the incredible coastline with natural blowholes and bridges.

We did well spotting Australian wildlife: kangaroos, emus, possums, kookaburras, and we cheated a little by seeing koalas, wombats and dingos at Cahuna Wildlife Park back in Perth. The place was a little run down, but the kangaroos and wallabys were very tame, so you could hand feed them which was fun.

While in Perth, we also managed to get to Scarborough and Cottesloe beaches to watch the surfers and eat fish and chips (different over here, they use snapper - yum!).

Our last couple of days in the west were spent on Rottnest Island. It's a beautiful place, with great beaches and bays. The weather was wonderful so were able to snorkel. It was a bit chilly, but there were loads of fish. While I was scuba diving, Kate saw a dolphin - I'm not jealous though, the underwater caverns were cool! Loads more wildlife here too: ospreys, oystercatchers, snakes, lizards, quokkas (they're not rats, they're not kangaroos!) and a huge sting ray.

We were really sad to leave Ian and Jenny yesterday as we had such a great time with them. Was even worse when we arrived at our accomodation in Sydney at midnight last night. We've already checked out, and are off to find somewhere a little less smelly!