That Wanaka Tree

After a long relaxing stay in Franz Josef, it was time to get back on our trusty green bus and thankfully with a new driver and a few friendly faces that we’d met on the north island. Today’s destination is Wanaka but it’s so much more about the journey! One of the most beautiful scenic drives EVER. You really see it all in this small section of the journey, the ocean, rainforest, mountains, lakes and luckily we had a beautiful day for it so everything was sparkling blue, white and green. We made several photo stops, each one more beautiful than the last.

In the morning we had an hour stop at lake Matheson, and while Guy our driver insisted we only had time for the short walk, we all decided that we could walk super fast and fit in the longer walk. It was unexpectedly tiring but the views of fox glacier and the mountains in the reflective lake were so worth it!

Can you even tell which way is the right way up?!

We also made a quick pit stop at the famous Thunder Creek waterfall, famous simply for the obligatory photo that everyone gets of themselves ‘drinking’ the fall. Then with the scenery getting even better the closer we got to Wanaka and staring out the window, chin to the floor, we finally made a stop to take some pictures of lake Wanaka and lake Hawea. Both incredibly beautiful (someone buy me a thesaurus, I’m running out of words!!) and the photos don’t even do it justice no matter how many I took!

Far too many chins on my version of this photo so it got deleted straight away!!

New Zealand traffic

Lake Hawea

Eventually we arrived at our hostel in Wanaka early afternoon. We’d originally hoped to stay an extra night here so we could rent some bikes and really explore but the bus timetable didn’t really allow and we are running out of days. That being the case, we were straight out once dropping our bags and headed through the small town to the lake and to ‘That Wanaka Tree’. Yes, that is the trees name, so called as it has to be one of the most photographed trees in the world, I swear it appears on my Instagram feed most days. After trying to get the best angle possible and realising that it had more leaves than I thought it would, it was back to the town for a beer. It’s such a cute town and set amongst such beautiful scenery. It’s overshadowed by its neighbour Queenstown which is such a shame! Although hypocritically, we had an early night to prepare for our five nights in Queenstown.

It was impossible picking just one photo, so you get three!

Feeling the chill in Franz Josef

After Abel Tasman we had a couple of flat days where we didn’t do huge amounts apart from sit on a bus and stop for the occasional photo. We stop in fairly random towns for the night and find yourself drinking just for something to do! One of these nights is pretty famous on the Kiwi Experience as we stop in the middle of nowhere and every night is a fancy dress party! With bungee jumps and canyon swings for prizes we took this very seriously and went to town on our outfits! (Spoiler alert: we didn’t win and I still feel cheated)

As close as I was getting to jumping in to a glacier cold lake full of eels

More seals!

Wish I could vaguely remember what this walk was called!

Pancake Rocks

After a couple days we arrived in the place we’d been really looking forward to Franz Josef! Most people only allow two nights here, but fed up of the bus we decided to mix it up and stay four. For our first full day we were extremely happy to wake up to the sun as we were off to hike on the glacier and it’s known to be cancelled for just the smallest amount of wind or rain. $360 later and fashioning some warm gear and boots we were off for a five minute helicopter ride on to the glacier. It was my first helicopter experience and to say I don’t like flying, I highly enjoyed it, with some great views of the rainforest and the glacier! Once on the ice, our guide Nathan lead us on a three hour hike through the glacier including many tight tunnels and caves, carving the way with his axe. Once we’d finished and I’d taken an average of one and a half pictures a minute, it was back down on the helicopter. I can’t even begin to explain how amazing this day was. It’s incredibly surreal walking on the glacier and is the most incredibly beautiful sight! Probably the best day of our trip so far and worth every penny! We also felt incredibly lucky that the trip went ahead as the afternoon trips were all cancelled and for the next couple days.

Ice queens

You wouldn’t want to accidentally step in this puddle!

How can you not fancy a man with an axe?!

 

After a big lunch and a nap, we headed to the glacier hot pools that were included in our price for a relax and a girly gossip in 40 degree pools.

The next day, as most of our friends boarded the bus, we were happy for another couple days to rest and explore. Franz Josef is a tiny town but it’s so cute! Despite rain on our second full day, we headed for one of the many free walks in the area. We took a very hilly track that lead us to a very blue river. Being the adventurers we are, we decided that rather than walk back the way we’d came as the walk dictated, we thought we could find a shortcut across the river to the main road. Not the most sensible idea as we found ourselves clambering across loose rocks next to the fast flowing river. Eventually we found our way to the main road! At this point (and our stupid decisions continuing) we decided instead of going 1km back to town to catch a shuttle bus to the glacier, we would walk the 4km instead. I was beyond cold it was causing me pain and Steph had ripped a hole in her leggings and was bleeding from chafing. It was the longest 4km and no fun at all, I was close to tears! When we finally arrived at the car park and the start point of several walking tracks, we realised that we didn’t have the energy to do anymore walking, making the last 4km of pain completely pointless! We did an easy 15 minute walk to a lake before giving in and deciding to get the 3pm shuttle back to town. 3:15 came and still no bus, and no signal to be able to call it. The rain was really pouring by this point and there was nowhere to shelter. Five minutes after giving up on the bus and starting the 5km walk to the hostel, we realised We couldn’t go on anymore and we’d have to hitchhike. There’s only one road in this place so all the cars that drove past us soaked in the rain were just mean! Finally a French couple pulled up in their camper van and gave us a lift to town. Hallelujah!! Never been so thrilled.

Day three and the rain was still going strong so rather than venture out again, we had a chilled one in the hostel, went for a lovely lunch, did some laundry and went for a cinema day! We came out of the cinema to witness an amazing sunset behind the snowy mountains, a lovely way to end our stay in Franz Josef!

Goodnight Franz Josef

From the Country to the city: River Valley to Wellington

Back on the bus again for the next destination! After the disappointment of a rainy day in Taupo meaning not getting to do any scenic walks, we had a chance to stop this morning at the Tongariro National Park. The drive through the park was stunning with lush green hills and snowy mountains. We walked a two hour loop of Taranaki falls, with some stunning scenery and a real taste of how beautiful the landscape is in this country. It’s crazy in spring to be walking in green fields with snowy mountains behind! The weather was starting to be a bit kinder and at least waited until the last 15 minutes to start falling on us.

After a fairly long windy drive, we arrived to the middle of nowhere, also known as River Valley. It was a true New Zealand countryside image with fields full of sheep for miles, no phone signal and a cute homely house to stay in. When there’s not much else to do in the middle of nowhere, you drink! We had a delicious home cooked roast dinner (with Yorkshire puds!) and several bottles of red wine before the drinking games started and I escaped before it ended badly. We’ve stayed in a lot of dorm rooms in our time, but nothing like this. It’s a 32 bed dorm and is basically just two really long bunk beds so you’re all lying next to each other like a giant sleepover but with strangers! Bizarre but a surprisingly good sleep! In the morning people went off the do rafting which we would have loved, but we need to say no sometimes to keep to budget! While waiting for the other to finish rafting, Steph and I took a few walks round the area. One of these even involves pulling yourself on a trolley along a river and for me involved tumbling down a hill getting pretty covered in mud.

Welcome to our home away from home

Still not a scratch on mums

The only working phone in the village

Pulling ourselves along the river

Had to stop for a selfie

I’ve seen a lot of dodgy bridges in this country but this was next level!

View the top before taking a tumble

Sheep showing us the route back to the bus

After a very rural night in the beautiful countryside, it’s finally time for a bit of city as we jump on the bus heading to the capital, Wellington. Wellington is another destination we decided to stay two nights so we can get one full day to explore the capital. We arrived late so had a free dodgy dinner at our hostel then headed to a great bar for a bottle of wine and a doughnut (doughnuts seem very popular in Wellington!)
After a bit of excitement with a power cut in the hostel at 11pm, we scrambled to bed in the dark and slept ready for a busy day. With cereal in our bellys for fuel, we headed to the Te Papa museum. Everyone we’ve spoken to has raved about this museum as one of the best in the world. It’s absolutely huge and after three hours it was fair to say we were museumed out! It is a great museum and very interactive, with our favourite section being the exhibition on the war featuring giant, incredibly realistic models of soldiers and lots of interactive displays teaching us all about a part of the war we’d never heard of before. It was about the war in Gallipoli in WW1 between the Anzacs and the Turks which claimed many lives.
Once our brains were filled with new knowledge we headed for a stroll by the harbour and back into the city to Cuba street. We’d heard Cuba street was THE place to be full of cute cafes. I was picturing something along the lines of a Melbourne lane way, which this definitely isn’t. There didn’t seem a huge wealth of places to eat either although I had a great chicken and Brie burger at one of the more affordable cafes. After we’d recuperated and rested our feet we headed back to the city to buy a new camera as mine had finally broken and went for a trip on the cable car up for a view of the city. We then strolled through the botanic gardens (pretty nice but not the best I’ve seen) back to the city for a final bit of sightseeing, a drink by the harbour before heading back to the hostel to warm up. The capital is nicknamed Windy Welly for a reason, and we were feeling very tired and windswept after a long day on our feet!

Such a good doughnut with chocolate and caramel injections

Cable Car to the botanic gardens

View from the top

The Beehive parliamentary building

Talk about sexual equality, in Wellington they have green WOMEN! Girl power

Taupo from above

After a stay at Rotorua learning all about the Maori culture and admiring the Geysers, we were off to Taupo. Today was finally the day that Steph and I jumped out of a plane from 15,000 feet. I think Steph was secretly hoping for bad weather so it was cancelled, but we finally had our first glorious day since arriving in New Zealand! The skydive instructors said it was the best for a month so there was no backing out now. We stepped off the bus after several hours driving and walked straight into our safety briefing, nerves going into overdrive! It all happened so quick, we signed our lives away and next thing you knows you’re being kitted up and put on a plane strapped to a man! The flight was pretty scary in itself and it was so tense it made me just want to jump and get it over with. At about 9,000 feet they gave you an oxygen mask to help you breath! What?!!!! That scared me more than anything! If I need oxygen to help me breath at this height is it really a good idea to jump?! But while I was busy worrying about that, the door opened and we piled out one after the other in pretty quick succession. You don’t have time to look down or panic, which is definitely a good thing!
Everyone normally says that the freefall is the best bit and goes so quickly. Well that was one of the longest minutes of my life, stressing about when the parachute would go up and I could confirm I was alive! It’s a pretty mad feeling to be travelling at 200km/hr and given how unnatural it is, caused my sensitive ears some serious pain. Even as I write this four days later, I can’t hear properly still. My favourite part had to be once the parachute was up and you just slowly glide down looking at the amazing lake Taupo below, I even took a turn at steering before we landed and the whole six minute experience was over! After lots of exciting cheering and chatter we took to the cinema room to watch our videos back. They shoot the footage using a GoPro attached to the guys wrist and for an extortionate $160 it captures some hilarious moments. In all the craziness of the freefall I completely forgot what to do and made some weird motions with my hands! We were in stitches!

We’ve been school sistas, snorkel sistas, scuba sistas… and now we’re SKYDIVE SISTAS!

Out goes Steph!

Can’t you see how excited I am…

Trying so hard to look happy

Someone help me!

Pure relief of being alive

Now this part was incredible

Happy to be on land but ready to do it again! Thanks for keeping me alive Kieran

Once all the excitement was over and to abuse the good weather, we took to the lake with the rest of our new friends on Sail Barbary for wine and pizza whilst enjoying the views and sunset.

Taupo was also the first place we got to stay more than one night so took that to mean we could go out drinking and have a lie in the next day for a change! Originally our second day in Taupo was reserved for a 19km hike of the Tongariro Crossing, but due to high winds and rain it got cancelled. Instead we did a load of nothing, just a well deserved rest and finally a chance to do some laundry!

Doing our best Haka in Rotorua

Next stop on the Kiwi Experience bus is Rotorua, home to the Geysers. Early on we made a stop for another walk, but by the time I’d put my trainers on and went to get off the bus, it was locked! Whoops! Must make sure I put my trainers on early next time! I wasn’t totally heartbroken as it was pouring rain so at least I was nice and dry when they all came back soaked through. After that it was more of the napping whilst driving combo before we arrived at Hobbiton. Much to the shock of many fellow travellers, Steph and I have never seen Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit so had no interest in this activity! Especially for the hefty price of $75. Instead we headed straight into Rotorua, to check in for our evening activity, an overnight stay at the Tamaki Maori village. This is one of the activities we really wanted to do as everyone we know that had already done it raved about it.
We arrived to be greeted by a man and a woman who sang to us before serving us with a delicious afternoon tea. It was then our turn, our elected chief had to thank them for our hospitality and then lead us in our tribe song (we went for We Will Rock You). After that we formed a little choir to learn a Maori song with some moves to perform later in the evening. Not sure how great our pronunciation was! Once our Maori guides were happy that we’d got the song down, they lead us into the forest for some tradition Maori games involving long wooden sticks. Proud to say I won! We were then shown to our luxury version of a traditional house (marae) to settle in and have a few drinks before being lead by our chief to the main entrance for the arrival of all the other 100+ guest and formal greeting in the form of a Haka. Once we’d been accepted by the Maori tribe, they showed us around the grounds telling us about many of their traditions, such as weaving, training, song and dance. By this point we were starting to get really hungry as they lifted the food from the ground where it was being cooked ready for our dinner (Hangi). Whilst dinner was being set in the main dining hall, we were seated in the theatre for several performances of the traditional song. They were all so talented and it was a great show! One thing that surprised me was how soft the Maori language is. You’re used to hearing it when the All Blacks perform their Haka, but taken in another context, it has a really soft, pretty sound. Finally we were seated and ready for the all-you-can eat roast and it was so delicious!! After several portions and desert it was our turn to take the stage in front of the 100+ dinner guests to perform the song and dance we learnt earlier. We made our way through somehow, although can’t say it sounded amazing! After the rest of the evening guests left, the group of us staying overnight took to the hot tubs with a bottle of wine before collapsing in bed.

Taking a photo with the bus so it looks like we went

All the boys doing their best Haka

Do we look scary?

In the morning, after a great sleep in our lovely room, we had a quick continental breakfast before loading back on to the bus to head to Taupo. On the way we managed to stop at Te Puia for a tour of the geothermal park. The science behind this is crazy and so surreal watching water and mud boiling from the ground. We were also lucky enough to see a Geyser explode, while we nibbled on eggs that had been cooked in one of the hot water pools. Before coming to Rotorua everyone warns you of the strong sulphur smell. It wasn’t the most pleasant, but not too overwhelming and didn’t put us off admiring the Geysers for a couple hours.

Next stop Taupo!

*the day after I started to notice red marks all over my body and realised that I’d been badly attacked by bed bugs in the village. Such a shame as it was a perfect night other than that. I let them know so hopefully they’ll be able to sort it. For the meantime I just look very red and spotty and am constantly applying itch relief cream!

What to do when it’s cold and rainy… dig a natural hot tub at Hot Water Beach!

After an incredible year in Australia, the time had come for us to be kicked out of the country and start our long trip home. Putting off the inevitable England return for as long as possible, we’ve planned a two month trip of New Zealand and Fiji.
We finished work on the Friday, said our goodbyes to friends and packed up our lives once again ready to board a flight Sunday morning to Auckland. It was an emotional end! After many recommendations from friends we booked a hop on hop off pass with Kiwi Experience that will take us to see the highlights of both the north and south islands over our five week stay. The bus is a standard hop on hop off bus, with a slight tour bus edge. They book all your accommodation and activities for you so you’re spending a lot of time with the same people, but you are free to do as you please and to whatever timescale. We have five weeks and it’s going to be a slight rush to fit everything in!

After just twelve hours in Auckland, we boarded the big green bus to our first destination, Hot Water Beach where we would spend just one night. Boy it was raining and miserable! After an hour long walk getting completely drenched, we arrived at cathedral cove beach. We were meant to be doing one of the best kayak trips in New Zealand here, but it was cancelled due to the horrendous weather (phew!) the beach was lovely though and very scenic, just a shame it was too foggy to see all the islands that can normally be seen from the coast.

After that it was back to our very nice hostel to warm up, eat dinner and plan the next few days with our driver Lisa. Hot water beach is famous for one reason, at low tide you can go to the beach and dig holes in the sand where the geothermal waters bubble up through the sand creating a natural hot tub. Low tide was half 8 so we all headed to the beach in the dark, cold and rain with spades to dig holes. It’s amazing how it works, the water is boiling hot. Too hot to really enjoy the experience in a relaxing way! After twenty minutes or so we gave in to the cold and headed back to the hostel for some beers in the warmth.

Our new ride

Just imagine on a clear day!

Soaked all the way through

Enjoying my very shallow hot bath on the beach