We arrived in Franz Josef this afternoon and booked ourselves onto the hike for the following morning. We woke up the next day ready for our eight-hour glacier hike. Got all 
suited and booted and were on our way to the glacier. Matheus (our guide) led the way, and what a pretty thing he was to look at for eight hours. We got our crampons on and climbed on up. Despite being on a glacier it was surprisingly warm up there! And the most spectacular views: New Zealand has got to be one of the places with the most diverse weather conditions in the world; you move from beaches, to glaciers, to volcanoes. And the place isn't that big! Incredible. The walk was great, climbing up the glacier, manouvering round crevasses- it was fantastic! We stopped for a spot of lunch and set ourselves on the ice. A word of warning: sit on your bag otherwise it can get a bit too chilly! Was an amazing day and I would love to do it all over again!
suited and booted and were on our way to the glacier. Matheus (our guide) led the way, and what a pretty thing he was to look at for eight hours. We got our crampons on and climbed on up. Despite being on a glacier it was surprisingly warm up there! And the most spectacular views: New Zealand has got to be one of the places with the most diverse weather conditions in the world; you move from beaches, to glaciers, to volcanoes. And the place isn't that big! Incredible. The walk was great, climbing up the glacier, manouvering round crevasses- it was fantastic! We stopped for a spot of lunch and set ourselves on the ice. A word of warning: sit on your bag otherwise it can get a bit too chilly! Was an amazing day and I would love to do it all over again! Tuesday 2nd February 2010:
Stray bus to Wanaka. Beautiful Lake Wanaka, this place just gets prettier and prettier! Very relaxed part of New Zealand; we w
ent on a walk to the Rippon vineyard and took in the most stunning views. It's a really popular place for weddings which is pretty handy! A couple of days relaxing in Wanaka, nice to be off the bus for a day or so- gets pretty tedious moving around so much! And then on to Queenstown! Notorious for being a party town, Queenstown certainly lives up to its expectations. It is also a stunning place with a great bustling vibe and lots to do! We stayed a good few days here, met a great group of people off the bus and enjoyed their company for a few days! We all chilled out by the riverside in the evenings and then headed out into town! What a brilliant routine. Oh and don't forget, enjoying the sunshine in the daytime! We were very lucky to get such good weather, as the people on the previous buses had nothing but rain when they were there! Really enjoyed Queenstown.
ent on a walk to the Rippon vineyard and took in the most stunning views. It's a really popular place for weddings which is pretty handy! A couple of days relaxing in Wanaka, nice to be off the bus for a day or so- gets pretty tedious moving around so much! And then on to Queenstown! Notorious for being a party town, Queenstown certainly lives up to its expectations. It is also a stunning place with a great bustling vibe and lots to do! We stayed a good few days here, met a great group of people off the bus and enjoyed their company for a few days! We all chilled out by the riverside in the evenings and then headed out into town! What a brilliant routine. Oh and don't forget, enjoying the sunshine in the daytime! We were very lucky to get such good weather, as the people on the previous buses had nothing but rain when they were there! Really enjoyed Queenstown.Tuesday 9th February 2010:
Making our way up to Wellington. Not a fan of all these bus journeys, but has to be done. A rather pleasant three hour ferry ride over to the north island; Isobel and I fell alseep on the deck. Not too bad at all! We spent the next day having a look round Wellington. Nice city. We visited the Te Papa museum, was great to see all the Maori history which has a bigger influence on the North Island than on the South. Will be nice to see more of the Maori culture when we go to the cutural show at Makhetu.
The next journey was a twelve-hour bus ride up to Auckland. Oh what a day. And to make things just a bit worse, Auckland was such a let-down, no atmosphere at all. Our dorm room was also situated above the hostel bar which played music until about 7am when we had to get up! So not a great deal of sleep and so we were a couple of grumpy ladies on the next bus. Do not stay at Nomads Fat Camel in Auckland.
Saturday 13th February:
We hopped bac
k onto the Stray bus this morning and found ourselves back on Metro's bus! (Metro is our favourite Stray driver) So that was a great surprise! Next stop: Hahei. We spent the afternoon kayaking to Cathedral Cove: beautiful. And great fun! Good work-out for the old biceps too! Haha was a really good way to spend the afternoon, perfect weather for it. We made our way back to camp and had a big BBQ with the group on the bus. Great turnover rate on these buses, constantly meeting a new group of people- it's great! And the food was yummy.
k onto the Stray bus this morning and found ourselves back on Metro's bus! (Metro is our favourite Stray driver) So that was a great surprise! Next stop: Hahei. We spent the afternoon kayaking to Cathedral Cove: beautiful. And great fun! Good work-out for the old biceps too! Haha was a really good way to spend the afternoon, perfect weather for it. We made our way back to camp and had a big BBQ with the group on the bus. Great turnover rate on these buses, constantly meeting a new group of people- it's great! And the food was yummy.Monday 15th February 2010:
Raglan Backpackers. Raglan is the surf place in New Zealand, well one of them. So Isobel and I were excited to get back into the surfing! We moved to Raglan Backpackers, the most laid-back hostel you will ever come across. I even asked if I could work there, but they had no more vacancies for the summer season. Gutted, would have been amazing working there a few hours a day and surfing for the rest of the afternoon! Oh well, you can't have it all. Isobel and I managed to bag ourselves a double bed each, no idea how. This is not the sort of thing one expects when travelling, so when it happens, it is amazing! We ended up extending our stay in Raglan, making the most of the surfing every day! And I am beginning to see a slight improvement in my 'technique.' Ha ha well it is bloody good fun anyway! I did spend a good portion of my time getting pounded by waves though! The people we met at the Backpackers were great, really friendly bunch. All far too laid-back for their own good, but a good laugh! We felt so at home in this place, can't believe I can't stay!
Saturday 20th February 2010:
Goodbye Raglan :(
And so the next stop is Waitomo. The place with all the caves. We did a caving trip called 'Tumu Tumu Toobing' which was a little caving adventure and black water rafting. I was expecting it to be really claustrophobic down in the caves, but only the intial climb down was a bit tight! The water down in the caves was absolutely freezing- very thankful for the thick wetsuits at this point. It was really good fun though. We turned our lights off and looked up to see glow worms covering the roof of the cave- beautiful! Absolutely love the glow worms.
That evening we landed in Makhetu for our cultural stop. The cultural show was a family-run performance and we all got involved in the dances and songs. I was really impressed. The lads in the group learned the Hakka and the ladies were taught the Poi. We had a good laugh learning the dances, nice to get everyone involved! An interesting sleeping arrangement that evening, with all thirty of us sleeping in a big hall on mattresses. Hmm. Was actually not too bad really. Won't be doing it every night though!
We were woken up at 7am the next morning to the sound of ABBA. That's right, I will not be staying here much longer. Ha.
No comments:
Post a Comment