Our first CD didn’t work, but the very nice people @ Kaitiaki who do the very fun whitewater rafting tours in Rotorua sent us another CD.
Our top 10s
We’re waiting for some tv shows to download for the 10hr plane ride (groan), so we thought we’d indulge ourselves in some self-centered reflection on our top 10 things we’ve done.
They’re not in order.
Deb’s list:
—-
Day spa in Hawaii
North shore lounging
Beach umbrella and lounge day at waikiki
White water rafting in Rotorua
Waikele shopping/factory outlet
Moana Surfrider hotel stay
Queenstown night on the town
Pearl harbour
Jetboat in Queenstown
Hot springs/spa at Franz Josef
Glen’s list:
—-
Milford Sound flight
Motorbike trip around Oahu
White water rafting in Rotorua
North Shore beaches
Jetboat ride in Queenstown
Spa day in Waikiki
Snowboarding in Queenstown
Driving around Oahu (even if the car did suck)
Natural hot springs in Rotorua
Walking around Waikiki until midnight most nights since shops don’t close until 11pm, not to mention the sidewalk entertainment (singing, artwork, breakdancing, fortune telling etc) and a truckload of people enjoying their holidays
Needless to say, the trip has been just incredible. To have 20 things between us and have to leave out the following (plus others we’ve forgotten) remind us what a cool trip we’ve had:
Zorbing
Blackwater rafting
Monteith’s brewery
franz Josef glacial walk
Lounging by the pacific ocean
Germaine’s luau
Photography stuff
Talking with locals / randoms
…
So if you’ve read all our posts, thanks! I know they’ve been badly written for the most part so thanks for putting up with it.
I also realize that they’re very self centered, but this has always been mainly for our benefit.
We’ll sort through our thousands of photos when we get back and put up some of the better ones.
As the locals say, mahalo and aloha!
Bye bye NZ
We said goodbye to our great touring party, Laura, Ben, Liam and Kaz and got up too bloody early to get the hideous 6am flight from Christchurch to Sydney.
Thursday was fairly uneventful really. Just the drive from greymouth to christchurch. We did a bit of shopping and so-on in the city once we arrived and had a very pleasant final meal together on “the strip”.
Since we had a 12hr layover in Sydney, we hired a car and went to visit old friends which was a very nice way to spend a Friday.
We’re now just waiting to board our 10hr flight. We’re stuffed and hoping like hell we can sleep ok on the plane.
Neither of us can wait to get there now!
More photos
I’ve put up some more of our photos – again, they’re all of them and not edited in any way, so apologies for the huge number.
The ones in the links below are:
First part of our trip: Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch – very much “happy snaps” from my pocket camera:
http://picasaweb.google.com/glenr01/NewZealand2009AucklandRotoruaChristchurch
Just a few from our drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef via Fox Glaciar:
http://picasaweb.google.com/glenr01/QueenstownToFranzJosef
Glaciar walk + Monteith’s
Wednesday was a bit of a boy’s day – sorry ladies.
Ben, Liam and myself geared up at the glaciar touring company and headed off on the bus up to the base of the Franz Josef glaciar. We were given boots, socks, a jacket and crampons – the spikey things that clip onto your boots for walking on ice.
The walk from the carpark to the glaciar was about 2.5kms or so across mixed rubble. From there, it was a fairly sharp climb up the glaciar, albeit it felt and looked more like a coal mound. Once we got to the point where we’d actually step onto fresh ice, we put our crampons on and started the climb.
Since we boys are so agile and fit (ahem), we went into group 1 which was for the fitter people in the 60-strong group. We held our own, traversing the huge glaciar pretty much without issue. The only tough bit came when we had to climb through an ice cave where my enormous backpack (not helped by my expanded waistline on the trip) had a bit of issue squeezing through. Got very wet cold in that bit! But all was well.
We walked on the ice for 1-2 hours all up, seeing some very pretty “blue” ice, sinkholes that were 80m deep, very tight walkways between 5m+ high walls of ice… Great views as well as we ended up quite high.
Was definitely worth doing. The girls had a great time having a look around the town, doing some souvenir shopping and so-on.
From there, we drove a few hours up to Greymouth – a 10,000 person strong town which was, well, grey. Our main purpose was to break up the driving, but we ended up in some very unassuming accommodation which was really quite nice. We got dropped off at Monteith Brewery, becoming better known in Australia as a smaller-type brewery (the Summer Ale was excellent). We went on a tour, which was pretty lame really and ended up in the brewery’s pub area where we got to sample the 6 or so different beers they produce.
We also got to have a pour which was a bit of fun. Unfortunately we still haven’t convinced the girls that beer is the way to go, but it was a bit of fun.
Today we’re driving across from Greymouth to Christchurch – 4 or so hours. I’m currently having breakfast at Arthur’s Pass which is a snow-covered town up in the mountains. About 2.5hrs to go we estimate. We’re all a bit sick of the driving by now – especially since it’s so twisty & slow and the scenery, whilst very pretty, is a bit of the same ol’, same ol’ after a while.
We’ve only just heard about the earthquake – we didn’t feel it unfortunately. Possibly a bit too far north for that.
Hopefully I’ll get a bit of time tonight to put up some photos.