New Zealand

I’m back!
New Zealand Part I:
Work.

Pips and I arrived in NZ on the 6th July and went pretty much straight to work. We managed to get a job working for a London mate of mine at his newly refurbished (sorry still in the process of) motel/backpackers. It’s located underneath Mt. Ruapehu in the small town of Ohakune - called Mountain View Motel and Backpackers. The town being famous for its carrots and yeah, that’s about it! They have this massive carrot as their town symbol as you drive in. Tchhh..Ja…..
The plan was to work there for the winter then help out for the summer fixing the place up. As it turned out, things with Pips and I came to an end half way through this and she went back to London. I decided to stay on for the rest of the winter then cut my NZ experience short and leave after a friends wedding in South Africa (Mid Oct).

Quick one on that: It was my mate Greig Wibbs’ wedding in Plett, marrying Annabel Cunningham. Awesome wedding! I had a pretty crap flight out but spending the two weeks with all the lads again, hitting the surf, the ice cold beers of SA and well the wedding itself, was all worth it. Unfortunately, as I do, I broke the LCD on my camera just before I left S. America and never got to replacing it in time - so no pics, sorry! All stored in my head that trip. Fantastic time though. Cheers all!

Back to NZ. - I got back end of Oct and spent the first night with Cliff and his lovely wife Sera in Auckland. Thanks for the great hospitality guys.

Then what was to be known as the Whirlwind Trip begun: Done in my smooth and swift BEAST of a car, Nissan Bluebird 2.0D! Oh yeah!

The 'BEAST'!

New Zealand Part II:
Play.
Auckland to Waiouru to pick my Scouser mate Mark up - met him on the Dragoman trip in S. America. A couple of high-5’s later and we head off to Ohakune for the night. Den and Lorelle were still there (the motel owners) so gave us a room for the night, for free. Rock on! Thanks guys!
Next day - the famous Tongariro Crossing. A 18.5km hike over the Tongariro range, getting to see Mt. Doom (from Lord of the Rings), the Emerald Lakes - awesome pea green lakes just below the crater, and a couple of other crater lakes. Some great views, and we were very lucky to have clear skies. My whole winter season there did not give me a day like that. Big result! We did that in just under 7hrs, and v glad to take our shoes off afterwards!

Next day was spent driving, in the rain, all day. Joy! We headed south a while then west round Mt. Taranaki - hardly saw it, crisis! Then up to the Waitomo caves. Lots of caves and glow-worms and eels. And black-water rafting, oh yeah!
Mark and I sign up for a 3hr cave walk/swim thing which turned out to be pretty cool. Lots of crawling through small holes, swimming through dark eel ridden water, yay, and some cool views of cave tops full of glow-worms. Defo worth doing…

Onwards and upwards back to Auckland. We spent the next two nights there, with a full day jet-skiing - compliments of Cliff, cheers mate! His company gave them 5 of the latest jet-ski’s to ‘test out’ for the weekend so we went bombing round Auckland harbour and out to the islands. Such good fun, incredible how powerful these things were. What a rush! Mark had other ‘lady business’ - nice one mate, so was awol all day.

We headed down again from there to the Coromandel. Stopping briefly in at Thames, Coromandel town before stopping in Whitianga for a couple of days. The plan was to relax for a bit, maybe take some kayaks out for a spin, but NO. It rained for the whole two days. Crisis! Did make it over to ‘Hot water’ beach and Cathedral cove though, and got some sunny periods in for a couple of pics.

Moving on and eastwards through Whakatane, Gisborne and stopping off in Napier for the night. Art Deco town deluxe! Some very cool buildings and bars. We were shattered from driving though so tried for an early one in our all female dorm. Didn’t happen! Women = noise! :-D
The big one, from Napier to Paihia - 12hrs of driving! Stopped in at Taupo, Roto-vegas, Hamilton, and Auckland on the way. Got there, checked into our v cool backpackers - the Mousetrap - and crashed hard!

Spent 3 days there, such a cool town. One day was spent over in Russell on rented mountain bikes, then drinking all night. Next was recovering all morning then a 10hr round trip up to Cape Reinga and back.

Last was on a sail boat round the Bay of islands, getting some very cool sailing in, some nice beaches and a cool bunch of tourists to share it with. And of course, a few too many drinks that night! I made some cool friends there and was sad to say cheers to them, and Mark, who was leaving the whirlwind tour and going his own way. The BEAST and I headed back to Auckland for a couple of night before I flew off to Sydney baby yeah!

A big thanks to Cliff and Sera for putting us up in Auckland, Den and Lorelle in Ohakune, the BEAST for getting us round that north island, everyone at the Mousetrap - you know who you are! Good times :-D

Next up…..AUSTRALIA!!