QLD - Brisbane: The Return

Our first week back here was fairly quiet - catching up on blogging time and loaning books from the library to prepare for our trip to Asia.


Also, good to catch up with John & Sasha. They are now living in Ipswich, about 30 mins outside of Brisbane - they have just bought a Queenslander style bungalow, which is a made from wood and raised on stilts, giving a space under the house for storing the BBQ and DIY tools. It has raised decking going from front, round the side, and nice decking out the back good for BBQs. Due to water shortages they can only water the garden on certain days, so are looking to buy a water tank, but there is something like a six month waiting list to get one installed.





A highlight of the week was the visit to the XXXX brewery in town, courtesy of John and Sasha's birthday present for Marc. We got told some interesting facts about beer and got a bonus 4 free beers at the end (though Evelyn traded one of her beers in for a coke;) We got a "free" glass as a souvenir. John picked us up after, and did a BBQ with Dave and Mel in the evening.




Next evening we went to watch Lawson (John's nephew) race his motorbike in a local competition. It is quite a challenge for these 7-8 year olds to race around - it isn't the racing, but when they fall off, the bikes are too heavy for the kids to lift and they need help to get back up again. We hoped Lawson wouldn't fall off, but in his last race, he was 3rd and wanted to get passed the slowcoach in front. They both took off a jump at the same time, and both landed in the same spot and knocked each other over. Luckily both were OK and just a bit shaken.


Sunday was Janelle's birthday (met her on a Croatia holiday), so we joined her for barefoot bowls. Bowls is generally regarded as an old fuddy-duddy sport, but the Aussies have the ability to turn anything around by the simple addition of cheap beer. It was a fun time, though we had to watch out for the bull ants. Evelyn found they packed quite a bite, and she felt like her toe had broken. Marc thought such a little thing couldn't hurt, but for the 2nd time this trip he misjudged these foreign nasties and was also hobbling around soon enough.






In the evening we went up to Mount Coo-tha for some twilight views of the city

NZ - Coromandel Peninsular

This was our last day in New Zealand, so we wanted to make the most of it, so headed to Coromandel Peninsular where they had a hot water beach – typically it was raining, but not enough to deter us ;)

First, we went for an energetic 2 hour walk along the cliffs to see Cathedral Cove and the various rock formations.

You can only go to Hot Water Beach at certain times – 2 hours either side of low tide. At this time, the natural hot springs filter through to the beach surface and you can hire a spade, dig a hole, which then fills with warm water you can sit in. We were worried we might not be able to find the right spot where the hot springs were, but as it turned out, the problem was finding the space not location. The beach was pretty crowded, as the hot water springs are only 50 meters wide so everyone was crammed in.

We looked at which people looked the warmest, and then started digging. You have to be quite particular about where you dig, as one spot can be cool water but 50cm to the right can be scalding. Lazily, we thought we’d take one of the pre-dug empty holes, but it soon became clear why these were empty as they were cold. We then dug our own baby hole where we could find a space, and got a bit warmer. Our timing was good, and luckily people in a giant pre-dug hole were leaving and offered us their place. No sooner had we jumped in, then about 3 other couples jumped in and one women was hogging the warmest spot – it was a bit hot for her though and she turned lobster pink ;) It wasn’t long after that we too began to simmer – in the main stream it was really hot.

We could hear the occasional yelp - as the tide was coming in big waves were breaking down the barriers to the front line of holes, so people were getting cold ocean water in their holes ;)

After being here for a fair while, we too had turned lobster pink and a bit wrinkly. To cool down Marc charged into the ocean, crashing into waves, but whilst the sea was cold it didn’t have much effect. We then went with Evelyn’s cooling tactic and brought Ice Creams – much more sensible ;)

Anthea’s parents kindly offered for us to stay the night as they lived close to the airport, and we had a crazy 7.15am flight. So we headed back to the city where lasagne and crumble were waiting. We packed up another 20kg box to send home – how we managed to accumulate so much stuff on our travels is beyond us! Thankfully Anthea posted the box off for us the post office wasn’t open at 8pm ;)

4.30am wake up! Argh, shouldn’t have done so much hiking round the cliffs yesterday! We had what felt like a luxury flight back to Auz, as we were supplied breakfast – something our last few flights lacked.

Big thanks to Andrea, Mike, Dave (& families) for homing, feeding & watering us ;)

A real shame to leave New Zealand as we would have liked to see more of this beautiful country. We will be back again one day…

NZ - Auckland

We were busy getting lost in Auckland, trying to find the drop off point and meet Anthea & Mike. When we called Anthea to get directions, spookily enough we had just over taken her on the highway.

When we got to the depot, it was closed, and we had had to drop the keys in this flimsy postbox. We thought anyone could access the post box, the keys had the car reg on, and the car was parked next to the post box. We dropped the keys in, and as an experiment, tried to break the keys out again, but gladly couldn’t. Besides, this is New Zealand and not Liverpool ;)

We went back to Mike and Anthea’s place – They live on a deer farm. You get some great views, with deer walking in front the sun setting over the sea.

As we were here for 5 days, which wasn’t long enough to do everything, such as Bay of Islands, as this was too far to drive. Still, we made the most of our time here. Anthea kindly lent us her car, as she had a work car and Mike was going away for a few days fishing and hunting in Queenstown.

The next day was spent in Auckland city, wandering around all the tourist shops (all run by Chinese) looking for souvenirs. We came across Nandos and had lunch, and tried the New Zealand dandelion & burdock drink. We had a wander around the docks, and watch people do controlled free-fall from the Auckland Tower.

Afterwards we went for a drive and stopped of at a cute little suburb, Ponsonby, and decided to have a walk around. We stopped in at another touristy shop before having a drink at one of the up-class pubs – surprisingly enough the football happened to be on.

As we were invited round to Mike’s parents house for dinner and to stay the evening we made a move. Mike’s mum is from London and she made us a lovely dinner, we drank wine and reminisced about life. As we dinned upstairs we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing view over Mission Bay.

Anthea invited us to join her as she was meeting friends for a DVD night. This turned out to be a real fun evening, with a few drinks and catching up We almost felt at home, doing something normal and taking our minds off the fact that we were travelling.

Next day Anthea showed us one of the craft markets to continue our search for souvenirs. As always anything we brought ended up being for us rather than family ;) Some real nice stuff, which would look far better in our cupboards than families ;)

Athena then went off to do her own thing and we headed back to Mission Beach for the Antarctic aquarium. This had a penguin enclosure and shark tunnel (not together), something we’d wanted to see for ages. After, we found Starbucks, and had our usual Chai tea lattes on the beach.

Anthea played guide again the next day, and took us for a tour around the peninsula. We went for a walk along the black sand beach with the dogs, and took a trip up to the old lighthouse. Then headed down to Graham beach for a little swim with the dogs. You could see Auckland city from across the bay.

The afternoons entertainment was quad biking – Anthea and Mike have one on their farm for checking on the deer paddocks, so we went out for a spin. Marc went zooming off into the distance, under clear instruction to take the gate on the right. In all the excitement he went for the open gate on the left, and startled a few deer and made Anthea chase after him. Oh Dear!

We went on somewhere away from the deer, and had good fun zooming about. Anthea, showing her skill, went up to the top of the hill, which involved going over a sandbank. This looked easy and as Marc couldn’t be out done by a girl & being all macho, decided to go full steam ahead. As Marc was having his fun, Anthea & Evelyn sat on the side of the bank chatting. After a while the girls realised they couldn’t hear the engine of the quad and Anthea reckoned that Marc got stuck. The girls chuckling to themselves decided to wait and see how long it would be before Marc’s head popped over the bank to ask for help – and no sooner had the girls decided this, Marc popped his head over the mound looking rather sheepishly :)

When Evelyn & Anthea finally reached the quad, they packed out laughing at the sight of the quad being wedged between sand and a fence, with poop splattered all over Marc & said quad…

It took some muscle – from the girls not Marc ;) to get it unwedged and Marc almost rolling the quad, was saved by Anthea yet again. Throughout Marc kept a brave face, laughed it off and continued his adventures (minding the big cow splodges :)

NZ - Nasty Little Hobbitses

With too much purity for our bodies too handle, we had Macy D’s for lunch. We made it to Matamata just in time for the last tour of Hobbition. The 2 hour tour was $50 and took us to the farm where the Lord of the Rings was filmed. The site was scouted out by helicopter and chosen because it is the only place in New Zealand which had the Hobbiton features as described in the book – the lake, rolling hills and much needed party tree - and no obvious sign of human life e.g. buildings, power lines, roads, etc. Try finding somewhere without power or telephone cables – its not as easy as you think.

The tour itself took us around where the crew stayed. The army was called in to build roads due to weight needed for filming trucks. When the owner of the farm was originally approached and asked about filming on his land, he though the scout was having a laugh as he had never heard of LOTR (Lord of the Rings), and besides there was an important rugby game on so told the guy to come back tomorrow. Lucky for the farmer, they did…



After filming the site was being knocked down, but luckily for us, the demolition had to be paused due to bad weather. When the crew called to finish the work, the farmer asked New Line if he could keep the set and now its being used as a tourist attraction. With the imminent filming of the Hobbit, New Line are probably grateful as well ;)



You need a bit of imagination and to be a real fan of LOTR to appreciate the set. The guides consider themselves as real film buffs and are often tested by die-hard fans on LOTR trivia.



When wandering around, and dancing under the party tree, you have to watch out for cow and sheep poop. Upon leaving, the guide had to radio to the farm to tell them another cow had fallen in the ditch.

And so the adventure continues…

NZ - Hells Gate

As we had limited time available before our flight back to Australia we made a move the next morning for our 2nd part of our “tourist package” HELLS GATE! This was a bit more of the same - steaming rocks, bubbling mud and smelly sulphur pools. We heard that the sulphur pools were good for the skin, so despite the eggy smell, we both washed our hands in the sulphur pool – skin didn’t become instantly baby soft, so not sure it was worth the smell ;)



On our way back, there was a wood shop and the carpenter showed us how to do some traditional NZ carvings. Marc chiseled out a silver fern and Evelyn did the heart-leaf. More haste less speed being the key. Marc’s was so good, the carpenter offered to buy it for his shop, but some things MasterCard cant buy ;)

Our main reason for coming here was the mud bath. We opted for a private soak, where we could throw mud at each other in peace ;) This was basically a bamboo enclosure with a muddy bath, where the bottom of the bath was pure mud. We were only allowed 20 minutes in here, due to the properties of the mud.



By the time the attendant knocked on our door to tell us that it was shower time we were covered head to toe in mud, with Marc doing an “Arnie Predator” pose. Marc enjoyed spraying Evelyn down with the freezing cold water hose. Although Evelyn had a trick up her sleeve - as shortly before she got out the “tub” she managed to water down the mud that had set, however she had piled the mud onto Marc and when he had to have his shower it took twice as long ;)



There were two more warm sulphur pools – we lasted no more than 5 minutes in the last pool as the smell began to make us nauseous. We then decided it was about time to get out so we showered and changed, picked up some face masks for our mums on our way out and set off on our long journey to Matamata aka Hobbiton.

NZ - Road to Rotarua

Next morning barely able to walk it was Evelyn’s turn to do some driving.

We stopped off at the Huka Falls - there are some serious rapids here - the river is the largest in NZ and they use the water to create energy providing about 25% of the North Islands electricity! The river starts wide, then shoots down this very narrow waterway picking up loads of speed and power, before it opens into a wider river again, before it becomes a man made lake controlled by a dam. The dam gates open every 2 hours (next opening at 12) for ½ an hour. We wanted to see the full sha-bang, as we were sure it was a sight not to be missed.






With some time to kill, we took a little walk along the river and then headed to the Craters of the Moon. Here you get to walk around the mud pools and see the geysers steaming – and it is supposed to look like the surface of the moon - but in the end we decided that the $5pp charge was really just paying money to smell sulphur – yuk!





We made the trip back to the Dam gates and just about made it to see the water gushing out and how incredibly quick the river below fills up with the water from the dam. This tricking stream became raging rapids within 5 minutes.




Above: Before
Below: After



We then made a stop off at the Glass Blowing Company, a woodwork shop (which was seriously overpriced) and the Honey Hive, here we bought a bottle of White Chocolate liquor and then due to all the excitement Evelyn got a little confused with the road markings and as she made the right turn onto the main road she ended up driving on the wrong side of the double yellow line - which in NZ is actually the markings for the middle of the road – unlike the yellow lines in the UK which are on the outside of the lane, added to Ev’s confusion was the slip roads on either side, the indicator blinking away, wind screen wipers going full speed, Ev putting the car in the wrong gear & Marc informing Evelyn about all the above mentioned in a loud and helpful manor ;( Lucky enough Ev managed to get back in control of things before the lorry came round the corner, and didn’t do much talking for the next 50km.

Next stop was Rotarua were we booked a Maori Cultural Experience and the Te Paiu Geyer Tour, along with this we got free entry to Hell’s Gate – this is where you can book mud baths - for an extra fee...

With some time to spare we booked into the Cosy Cottage Caravan Site and got a room there – we’ve resigned to the fact that we can’t really do any camping in NZ as it’s just too cold at night and we’re not sure our bodies can take anymore battering ;) A bonus at this place is that they have some hot water springs located by the lake and they feed it through to some tubs so we managed to have a little spa before heading off to Te Paiu.

At Te Paiu we managed to learn a little more about the Maori life and their meeting places. They also went into detail about the Haka dance that the men & women do. Another interesting thing was that when they were looking to find a symbol for their rugby team it, they decided against the Kiwi bird as they are very scarce and only come out at night – they needed a stronger symbol with a more stronger meaning, this is when they then decided to go with the silver fern that you find in NZ.

The story goes like this: When the warriors go to war they always manage to travel safely at night, without there enemies knowing where they go as they don’t carry light with them, the way they do this is by they leader turning a silver fern over and the silver reflects light and when the last warrior goes past the fern they turn it over again and no one knows that they’ve been there.


The longest Maori word

We also saw a big geyser here and more smelly sulphur holes & mud pools.





At 6pm we got our shuttle to the Mitai Village for our Maori Cultural Experience, here we had a closer look at the Moari way of life and had a Hangi (feast) prepared for us. The way they prepare this hangi is by digging a hole in the ground and putting heated river stones inside and laying the meat on top of the rocks, they then cover the feast with animal skins to keep the heat in and cook it all day.

Whilst inside the dining area we had one of the Maori guys introduce himself and say that we need a leader for our group, he asked where everyone was from and from this he gave us a name – “the army of 20 nations”?? After much debate we ended up having an English guy come forward to be our Chief – “Chief Dan from England” He was only about 25!


While the feast was being prepared they took us to their spiritual lake. We were led through a wooded area and every now and then there was a sound from the trees and when you looked around there was an angry Maori warrior staring back at you.

We lined up along the river and the Maori warriors arrived in their 4 month old Haka canoe made from a 300 year old tree, this was really amazing as while they paddled up the stream they were singing a warrior song and you could feel the tension in the air.



They then led us to the small replica village were they put on a show for us and Chief Dan had to introduce himself and his army of 20 nations to the Maori Chief (who was much scarier than our Chief :) This was a really moving night and we all learnt quite a bit about their culture and also discovered that poi’s are originally from the Maori’s as the women developed them to strengthen the men’s wrists as most of their weapons are small and heavy.





We then had our feast, which was fantastic, after dinner we went on a walk, which took us back by the sacred lake that they call Fairy Springs, the reason why they call it this is because there are so many glow worms which they believe are fairy people.

NZ - Taupo

When we arrived back at the YHA we tried to book the spa – to soak our aching muscles - but unfortunately it was booked solid. So we changed clothes and off we went for the 1-hour drive to Taupo before we ceased up.

En route we stopped off along the road to take our final few snaps of “Mount Doom”, typically the sun was now out and almost no clouds in the sky.


The backside of the mountain...

On arrival in Taupo we booked into the Tiki Lodge that was advertised as having an outside spa. We’d heard great things about a lodge with a wonderful natural spring spa, but when we checked in, we discovered the spa wasn’t working and this wasn’t the place we were looking for.

So, in need of some relaxation, we then decided to hunt down the local hot springs. We finally found the place Sprokett & Heather had recommended, and just seeing this place got us excited and slightly more relaxed. We got changed in record time and then sat in the pool for about 2 hours, admiring the palm trees enclosing the area ;)



It was a much-needed dip in 45-degree natural spring water. Around the edge of the pool were ledges to sit on, with water jets shooting out for massaging. There were also mini-waterfalls that we could sit under and have the water cascade over our heads. The best bit was a platform attached to the side of the pool, submersed in water; we could lie back on our elbows so that the water just covered our bodies so we didn’t get cold. From the bottom of the platform there were water jets, giving great massages :D Heaven!!



With our skin getting all wrinkly and our stomachs growling at us we decided to get dinner. We asked a local for the nearest Chinese takeaway and ended up getting completely lost, and almost missed the sunset over the lake…

We then headed into the town centre and found a Chinese close to our hostel – this was enough food to feed a small army (and we didn’t even go large)! The “normal” size in the UK is only a third of the size of these babies. This was dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner again ;)

Whilst we ate our feast on the balcony of the hostel, we remembered hearing about a comet in the sky (though when we asked at the Lake Tekapo observatory they said there were no comets due in the next 15 years or so!!) and we soon saw it – this was quite an amazing sight, though it was beginning to fade and with the city glow it wasn’t as bright and clear as we’d expected or hoped. We’d wished we’d remembered last night when outside the town by the mountain. Still, we got a good view whilst standing in the street in our PJs ;)

NZ - Tongoriro

The drive from Wellington to Tongoriro was pretty uneventful, with us stopping for lunch in the only big town on the route, North Palmerson. This was a cute little town, but the one-way system was a bit annoying and there was not much parking. We finally managed to find a free spot, and ended up wandering around the shops for a bit, before heading to Starbucks for lunch. Disappointingly, they were out of Strawberry frappes, and the Mango just wasn’t the same ;(

So on to Tongoriro - aka - Mount Doom from the Rings. Dave, Sprokett and Heather all highly recommended this trip. It’s a full day tramp (Kiwi term for hike) covering 17kms and reaching a height of 1900m, where you can climb up Mt Doom. This section is part of a 4-day tramp, which covers the whole national park. We’re only crazy enough to do 1 day, not insane enough to do all 4 ;)

The drive up to Tongoriro is impressive. When you catch first sight of the huge peak cars pull over to admire its size. It isn’t part of any mountain range, and everywhere else around is flat. There is just this huge snow-capped mountain. It truly is Mount Doom!



We drove through a quiet little town with not much going on and were told that there weren’t any shops in the direction we were going so decided it best to do some food shopping for our hike ahead. We then arrived at the National Park Village and booked into the YHA. They had the basics here, internet, kitchen, and a climbing wall :D They also had a spa, but it was fully booked when we arrived…

Finally we took the plunge and booked the next day to get the bus to the Crossing track. This costs $25pp and all they do is take you to the start of the track and pick you up at the end… so all in all an expensive taxi. They told us that there was no guarantee that we would be able to do the 8hr / 17km walk – if the winds are too high, or it is too wet then it isn’t safe enough, but today was a beautiful calm, sunny day with amazing views of the mountain.



But the next morning we were in for a real surprise. We were up in time for a 7:15 departure, and we’ve never seen fog like it. It was so thick that visibility was no more than 20 meters. We couldn’t see the road, let alone that beautiful mountain we admired yesterday, and were about to walk up today.

Still, this weather wasn’t bad enough to cancel the trip, and the bus dropped us off at the 1st hut at 7:45. Here, at the base of the mountain, it was still foggy, wet, and now also very windy. We all ummed and ahhed and finally found the way to go. We could have done with a nice warm hut and cup of tea to contemplate our next move, as many British explorers before us may have done.



We are on a very tight schedule, as we have to be at the rendez vouz point by 15:00 or otherwise wait for the 5pm one – which would be too late for us as we still needed to get to our next destination & book a bed for the night :( and if we didn’t make the 5pm bus they weren’t going to wait for us! So we have 7hrs to walk 17km, including a climb of 1900m, stop for lunch and snacks, and figure out where we are going in this weather. We were told that once we head out, there is no turning back as there will be no more traffic at this spot after 9am. From this spot it’s about a 5km walk to the “main” road. We were also told that if anyone gets hurt we need to let as many people know as possible so that the chances of help reaching them would be better – great!



So, whilst many faffed with clothing, map reading etc, we got our socks on our hands-these makeshift gloves saved us – the wind chill was terrible and we had as little skin exposed as possible – the hands and ears are always worst effected. Dressed in our most waterproof trousers, double socks on feet, t-shirts, jumpers, and North-face jackets with hoods up tight - we set off over the heath land…



To start the path was fairly well marked, and was a muddy, gravel track. Either side was a semi-rocky terrain with heather and heath grass, from what we could tell. The crowd from the bus was fairly grouped at this stage, and we could play follow the leader, assuming the guy in front knew where he was going. There were posts, every 10 meters or so, which had luminous yellow reflectors on so we could follow those as well, if we could see that far!!

I guess the first stint of walking was about an hour, and that just flew by. Mostly because we were concentrating so hard on following the path, not losing our way, avoiding puddles, and keeping warm. Despite the lack of any view this was still exciting and an adventure. In fact, the thick cloud and drizzle created a mysterious and ghostly effect, adding a kind of tension to the experience.

We stopped off to see Soda Springs, which was just really a waterfall; with the heavy mist blowing past you could barely see it at times, and was not really worth the small detour. It didn’t help with the muddy puddles and stink of sulphur!

We continued on, and the terrain was gradually beginning to change – it was gradually becoming rockier. We then came upon the first leg of the climb – a steep scramble over rocks up the side of the mountain. Every now and again the cloud cleared and we could see the top where people were waving and whooping. It didn’t look far – 400m maybe, but that was annoyingly deceptive, as it was sooo steep.



It took at least 30mins to get to the top, and then there was a little downward climb where it flattened out. There was no vegetation here – it was just flat, dusty and stoney here, with a little path trodden down by the many people who do this hike. The mist cleared briefly at times, and this is were we discovered that we were in fact walking across the South Crater and we could see how far the crater went on for! It was times like this when the sock-gloves became a bit of a joke as when the mist cleared you had to fumble around and get your camera out, but by the time you did this the mist took over again!



When we made it to the side of the Red Crater (once again, merely guess work with our location as we couldn’t see very far) we realised how difficult things had become. This was one of the most dangerous parts of the journey, as the walk was up a steep, narrow ridge. There was little protection from the wind, which had picked up to what we reckon was 60kph. You could barely walk such was the struggle, and if you weren’t careful you would get blown over… Ev lost her footing at times and had to cling onto and shelter by the occasional rock. There were some really old people (yes, even older than Marc ;) doing this and you had to wonder how were they managing to walk, let alone climb in these conditions!

On this climb, we didn’t catch much of the scenery due to the fog, and because we were concentrating on not being blown off the cliff. What we did see though reminded us of the films - desolate, barren landscape where nothing lives and only gravel, stones and boulders exist. On a good day, you would get some amazing views from up here – our highest point at 1900mts - but unfortunately not today…


Peekaboo...

We had to slip and slide back down the other side – the ground was a black sand/gravel, and it was impossible to get any grip or footings. Each footstep just sunk 6 inches into the ground and slid down through the gravel. This made life a bit easier for us though, as we didn’t have to use as much energy ;)



Next, we came to the Emerald Lakes and Crater Lakes. We could just about see them, and as we continued on we glimpsed back on the way we had just come, and through the clouds of mist we realised just how far we’d walked so far.

Another stop at the Blue Lake, this we got to see a little better – probably due to the size of it. We also started to smell the sulphur in the air from all the surrounding lakes; this was not very pleasant and we moved on from here pretty quickly ;)



The clouds now started to clear and we could see out into the distance. Unfortunately by this time all the Lord of the Rings - Mount Doom scenery was all behind us and even though the sights ahead were still beautiful it wasn’t the rough, rocky terrain we came here to see but at least it was a little sunnier and this cheered us up a lot.



We spotted the “lunch hut” which was the ½ way point, checked our watches and discovered that we were making good time. The only down side was that even though we could see how close we were to the hut, it was still a really long way down a zig-zag path :(

And so it was that round 12.30 we managed to sit down and rest ourselves whilst having a quick snack, and get some more energy for the rest of the tramp ahead.

Back on the path again we came across another sulphur outlet and you just had to hold your breath and hope that it would go away soon, this reminded Evelyn of the stink bombs the kids at school used in order to disrupt the classes – and they were just as smelly ;)



This side of the mountain was much nicer - protected from the elements experienced on the other side - which meant flowers, shrubs and grass were growing, with only the odd boulder to hide behind. An altogether more pleasant tramp ;)



We were now 5 ½ hours into the hike and suddenly it became a muddy rainforest walk, it was also now getting a little warmer thankfully. After sloshing about in the mud, walking through the rainforest, we came to a river with many small waterfalls, which was just lovely and we knew we were getting close to the end of the hike.



And so it was that around 2.45, some 7hrs later, we caught the bus back to the backpackers…

NZ - Wellington

So, our journey through the South Island comes to an end. Having seen so much, but nowhere near enough, we vowed to come back again one day. For now though, we jump on the ferry at Picton, leaving behind the hire car and headed over to Wellington, the capital of NZ.



After the 3 hour ride, we landed in Wellington, amid confusion as we didn’t have a map!! We didn’t know where we were going, or how far we were from the city. We looked for a taxi or bus, and got ushered onto a coach heading for the train station. We didn’t want a train but got told to go here anyway as taxis and buses would be cheaper. From the train station Evelyn quickly got a cab sorted and decided that we would pay extra to catch a taxi rather than get lost on the bus system… or as Marc had suggested – walk!! Evelyn still remembers the nightmare journey we had in Perth and with all the luggage we had, Marc couldn't blame her really.

We checked into our hostel- The Wildlife House, which was a decent place. It has the slowest lifts in the world, and the trip to the 4th floor for the kitchen always took forever. The kitchen itself was ok, though a bit dirty as no-one did their washing up. The fridges were also a bit smelly. There was free internet here, though there were only a few machines working so we had to wait over 30mins to get a machine. Still, the rooms were ok, and we were right in the centre of the city.

City seems a strange way to describe Wellington as it doesn’t have that city feel to it. It seems small, quiet, and there isn’t really too much here. The main street is full of bars and restaurants, and looks a lively place to go out. At the western end, there is the cinema where Lord Of The Rings premiered, and they still show Return of the King every Sunday. It’s then a 10 minute walk to the hill-side train going up to the botanical gardens. In between there are shops and Little Cuba, but nothing of real note.



One of the highlights of Wellington is the Te Papa museum, so we went in to have a look. We spent a couple of hours in here, admiring the artefacts and memorabilia, and picking up a few facts about the Maori and NZ history. We stopped for lunch here, which was quite nice.

Next, we headed up to the botanical gardens, more because it was mentioned in the LP book, rather than because we really wanted to. When we got to the top, there were some pretty nice views, but we were quite tired from the previous night so weren’t feeling too energetic.

We forced ourselves to have a short walk whilst up here, to look at the observatory and the shadow clock (stand in the centre and your shadow tells the time). On our way back to the hostel we thought about going to the cinema, but as our timing was a bit off there was nothing on. It being a Saturday night, the bars were beginning to get lively, but we headed back for a quiet night in.



Next morning we decided that Wellington didn’t hold much interest for us as sightseers, and its probably a better place to come if you are working and want to sample Kiwi life – work and play. And as we are on a tight schedule, and would prefer to see things rather than sit in a café/bar, we arranged to pick up the car a day early and head north.

Saying that, we couldn’t leave without going up to Mt Victoria lookout. As usual we made the 5 minute journey in 15 (our usual trademark of taking the dodgy back roads). When we got to the top, there were some pretty good views out over the city. There were also some enterprising young lads selling fresh lemonade and “Russian” fudge, so we decided to buy some fudge for our drive ahead and support the kids ;)