Beaches, Pancakes, Breweries and a Stag party!

Praying for gold!
During the stag party we got a little hungry and had to 'drive thru' the drive thru to get some McD Burgers!
Truman Track
Pancake rocks
Cape Foulwind coastline
Leaving Nelson we headed down the coast and stopped off on a few small 'tramps' along the way. The first stop was Cape Foulwind which was an incredible beach with crashing waves and seals with their pups romping on the rocks below. Next stop was Truman Track, more crashing waves and incredible views after a 15 minute tramp down hill and finally the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes with Hokey Pokey ice cream! Here they had even bigger crashing waves and amazing rock views. The rocks themselves looked like actual stacked pancakes and were huge. It was simply amazing and again the views were incredible!

That night my Turkish/German friend, Semra, and I went off to the Monteith's Brewery Tour in Greymouth. Not that I am a big beer fan but there isn't much else to do in this town and I've been on a few wine tours but never a beer tour. Very interesting and we got to do some taste testing at the end and found a Shandy flavoured one I didn't mind too much! We ended off at the Royal Hotel for a buffet dinner and then some how got involved with the gang at 'Ellie May's' Stag party. Danced and partied into the wee hours of the night so Greymouth ended up not being quite so boring as everyone else had told us!

Up early the next morning after a couple of hours sleep and stopped into Ross Goldfields where there has been major gold discoveries and tried my luck. Sadly I only found about a dozen flakes and a couple of tiny pieces of jade.

South Island - Nelson / Abel Tasman National Park

Paddle paddle paddle
Setting out for our kayaking day on the Abel Tasman

Got up early and was relieved to not have fallen out of the top bunk in my dorm so it's a good day so far! Headed to the south island via a ferry. This was the 'gourmet' of ferries, it was an incredible ship with a bar, movie theatres and lounger chairs which I enjoyed using as we passed the most beautiful scenery.
Once on the south island our Magic Bus picked us up and we stopped off at a winery to do some wine tasting. Not sure about this place, good wine but they said only 3 countries they couldn't ship to and one being Canada. When I asked why the lady told me apparently there is a drinking problem in Canada and our government won't allow personal shipping of alcohol into the country unless you have a signed note from a DA stating that you are of sound mind and body! I think maybe she drinks too much wine herself to make up that story!
Spent a few nights in Nelson and went out to the Abel Tasman National Park for a day of kayaking. Chilly weather but with spray skirts and jackets we were plenty warm and had a great day of kayaking, seal watching, a beach picnic and some beach combing.

Trains and Cable Cars

Civic center, looks like the ball is unsuspended but there are wires
New Zealand's Silver Fern, it was huge about 6 feet across
Roses in the Botanical Garden
View from the train ride as we are leaving the National Park
Cable car that I took up to the Botanical Gardens
The train bridge looking back.
Some of my new friends I made on a street in Wellington
Street corner in Wellington
Sadly leaving the National Park I decided to try the train ride from there to Wellington. It was like a "Magic" train compared to Thailand's sleeper trains. Clean, comfortable and lots of room to move around. You could go from car to car and there was an outdoor viewing platform that I spent alot of time on making new friends, waving at people in the towns and on the highways as we passed them and taking amazing shots of the scenery and animals as we blew past it. It was an amazing journey I am so happy I took. It took 5 1/2 hours to get to Wellington with a few stops in small towns but the time just flew by.

Wellington is a beautiful city that is compared to San Francisco and I can see why. It's very trendy and has lots of funky things to see including the Te Papa Museum which is 6 floors of history, culture, world science, stories of immigrants and the land and lots of interactive things to do. It also had a special exhibition showing a giant squid that was caught by a fishing boat about a year ago. It's one of the largest known ones ever seen.
I also took the Cable Car, which is very small in camparison with San Francisco's, but fun none the less up to the Botanical Gardens where they still had an amazing section of various Rose Bushes growing then walked thru the city past the Parliament Buildings which were made in the shape of a Beehive and thru the civic centre.

Going Tramping

View from close to the bottom of the trail
My tramping buddies- Mia and Gina, sisters from America. We all suffered together right til the bitter end!
On the edge, one of them.
Rugged terrain
Beautiful site, almost as nice as our Rockies
I found snow!

Red crater, amazing color

The Emerald Lakes, a group of 3 water filled explosion craters

You can see the trail coming down the mountain on the right that we followed down and we were only part way down when I took this picture!

I had to walk through some snow! It was so exciting after missing winter in Canada, I even made a snowball and threw it!


It's called 'Hiking' in Canada, 'Trekking' in Asia and 'Tramping' in NZ! I learnt this as I started a hike on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in the National Park. A guy casually asked me if I had done much tramping in NZ and he looked so serious I took a wild guess and said you mean hiking right?!

I spent a couple of days in the most peaceful National Park I have ever been to, it's probably like Banff was a hundred years ago, it was beautiful. After talking to many people I decided to do some tramping. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is considered one of NZs top hikes. It's 19.4 kms long over spectacular volcanic terrain and the highest point is 1886m. We started our tramp about 8am with some clouds but then it cleared to a beautiful sunny day which started melting their bit of snow they had gotten 2 nights earlier. We hiked up and down and around past craters, cliff sides, sulphur lakes and over rocky terrain and even down some soft volcanic dirt. Had picnics on rocks by the lakes and overlooking amazing valleys and got lots of great photos! It was the most amazing time! Until the last 3 kms.....hiking in rental boots to boot!

This was the longest and steepest hike I had ever done and the last 3 kms just about killed me, in fact I got past the pain and started to feel nothing at one time! We also had moments of unstoppable laughter at literally nothing but it sure took the thoughts off of our wobbly legs. I was never so thankful to see the end of a trail about 4pm, and collapsed once I got in the bus only to have to get off in 30 minutes and feel like I got put into some 100 year old persons body! I could hardly get off the bus let alone walk and was so embarassed but then looked at everyone else and they were all hobbling along the same!
None the less, 3 days later and still feeling the pain I can say it was totally worth it to see what we saw, go where we went and to say I conquered the Crossing! YAY!!

Culture, Thrills and Explosions

Waioapu Thermal Park

Amazing scenery and colors

Ditto

Friends Lisa and Tim and our crazy driver Mark who is a Irish Maori man who drove us to the show. On our way back to town he was singing songs and when we got to the roundabout he sped the bus round and round and round singing "Here we Go Round the Mulberry Bush" till we were exhausted from laughing.

Saw this and then went on the Giant Swing below....(sorry I can't sort these pictures in order! aarrgh!)

Maori woman in costume telling us stories of her culture.

Lady Knox Geyser.

Geothermal pools at Rotorua, leaves a sulphur smell all over the town called Rotorua.

Scary warrior at the Maori show, I was supposed to me sticking out my tongue but I forgot....

Adrenaline thrill time- Me on the Giant Swing outside of Taupo. Too fun! But I screamed alot and scared the next girl from trying it. Sorry Michelle!

Shearing the Angora Rabbits

Now I'm heading south on the north island. I am on the 'Magic Bus' tour and it's much more magical than the buses in Asia and not so scary either!

It's great as they stop along the way at points of interest like Mount Eden just outside of Auckland for an amazing view of Auckland and also the volcanic craters around the city. They have cattle in this viewing area to 'mow' the lawn. Apparently it's easier to keep cattle here as the sheep are easily stolen especially close to Easter time.
Next stop was to the Rabbit Shearing show, poor bunnies! But if left unshaved apparently they would die from heat exhaustion.

Then off to Waitomo Caves where inside are thousand of tiny glowworms that sparkle like stars. We sat in a boat in complete darkness and it was amazing just like looking up at the stars only way more lights.

That night I was off with my Magic Bus friends to a Maori show that taught us their culture and how they came to NZ. They showed us how they cooked our dinner underground, a traditional ceremony, tattooed faces, dances and songs. Very worthwhile, interesting and fun night!

On the way to Taupo we stopped off a Lady Knox Geyser that blows every day about 10:15am, they actually put a substance in it to help it along..... a tourist site for sure but it was free for us and very cool to watch. Then went through the Waiotapu Thermal Park and saw about 20 different craters.

Then it was time for some action at a place called Rock N Ropes. I chose to do the Giant Swing and with a harness climbed up a few hundred feet up a pole and jumped off sort of like Tarzan swinging on ropes thru the jungle only I didn't sound like him at all!

Road Trip to Bay Of Islands- Paihia

Our crazy Tuk Tuk driver we found in Auckland. Gave us the ride of our lives up a steep street, thru mad traffic and down sidewalks dodging people! Much like the asian ones!

Leaving Paihia

Kylie and waterfall in Paihia

Hole in the Rock

Cute little red shed on Otehei Bay Island

Wandering down Paihia beach looking for seashells

Scary Warrior girls

Lunch stop at Otehei Bay and more seashell hunting

Dolphins right in front of us!

Nice hair! Very windy day!

Off in a little rental car, a Nissan Sunny, about 3 1/2 hours north of Auckland. Sounds easy but they drive on the 'wrong' side of the road here with the steering wheel on the 'wrong' side and the signal light clicker on the 'wrong' side too! I nicked a couple of little things but the car didn't look any different and the tires stayed inflated so it was all good except that poor Kylie is probably still having nightmarish flashbacks, sorry again hun!! If it's any consolation my ears are still ringing from your screams..... I don't know how many times I would wipe the windows when I really wanted to turn!

We did make it safe and sound and found a cute little place called Cantabay Lodge to stay in which was only a couple of blocks from the beach.

We went on another boat tour of the Bay of Islands and helped deliver mail/supplies to a couple of the islands, come across a pod of dolphins and got to watch them follow us for miles and miles and then suddenly a tiny little penguin shot in front of us too! Got to see the famous Hole in The Rock island that was originally named Piercy Island by Captain Cook. Unfortunately we didn't get to go thru the hole as the waters were so rough and choppy it would have been like driving on shear ice.
Stopped at the end for a drink at the Duke of Marlborough Inn in Russell, across the bay from Paihia. This pub was the first liscensed pub in NZ and Russell used to be the capital of NZ.

Observations in Auckland- I was told that there are 1.5 million people in Auckland and that they have no proper transit system as far as trains etc. So the traffic in this city is actually even worse than Calgary! Very slow, very congested and very busy. You have to own a car in this city most families have 2 or 3. The cars here are different styles and brands, like the Nissan 'Sunny' and another GM product called Holden equilvanlent to Ford I beleive.

New Zealand- A Whole New World!

Brandi was a little scared of the Plexiglas floor but she got braver.


Kylie was right in/on there and being normal.....haha

Auckland skyline from the boat

A welcome sign I was in the process of making at the Mercury Pub next to our hostel. They arrived a little too early but it was mostly done. Thanks to Suzie and Ray for their help!

View of the harbour with a volcano in the background, from the Sky Tower

Looking way down!

Happy to be here and on a beach even if it's cold!

I am frickin' freezin' in New Zealand! Any one think I should become a poet?! :)

Well the days aren't too bad sometimes but the nights sure get cold, but I'm still wearing sandals so far.

Arrived in Auckland and a few hours later Kylie and Brandi did as well. I was so excited to see Kylie and hear more of her stories as I haven't seen her for 6 months!
Stayed at BK Hostel and got us a cozy 'little' room. We spent a couple of days catching up and checking out the city and a little shopping. We also took a boat on the Harbour Tour to see the city and all of it's volcano's that are supposedly all dormant now. The last one went off 600 years ago and Auckland is still considered to be an active area. I was glad we were leaving the next day. We also went up the Sky Tower and got some fun shots! Took Kylie to her first Comedy Club show, they love to pick on the Aussies!