A day at the beach

With our beach wear on and the sun out (in DECEMBER!), we were ready for a day touring the white beaches of the Coromandel.

First stop - the bizarre Hot Water Beach, where with a spade you could dig a pool of hot (in some places scalding!) water and bathe in the warm water.

Hobbiton

The realm of hobbits was hidden from sight, down in its own mini valley of the rolling hills of Matamata.

The view up to Bag End and the kidnapped oak tree (13th Dec 2013)

Smelly Wonderland

Leaving the volcanoes behind us we moved on to see more of the geological phenomena of this region.

Our visit to the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland certainly was a 18 sq km wonderland...

Starting our visit with Lady Knox Geyser who at 10.15am relieved herself at a height of around 20m lasting a good 20 minutes and was still going as we moved on.

Lady Knox Gesyer at full pelt (12th Dec 2013)

Photo of the week (w/c 9th Dec)

   Kinloch sunset over Lake Taupo (12th Nov 2013)

Mount Doom

Waking up at 5.45am, we were up and ready to take on one of the Great NZ day walks - The Tongariro Crossing.

Unforget-a-bull

Lighting up our 4 hour journey from Wellington to Tongariro we stumbled upon the village of 'Bull' and their clever tourist stopping trick - living out its name right across the place...

Windy Wellington

Sad to leave the South Island we had become so fond of, we got on the early ferry from Picton to Wellington and enjoyed the ride from the top deck through Queen Charlotte Sound.

As we reached the Cook Strait and headed into open water the wind picked up and got stronger. Prevailing winds accelerate through the strait giving Wellington 173 days a year of wind over 60kph and it felt we'd arrived on one of those days!

Wellington's windy sign (9th Nov 2013)

Photo of the week (w/c 2nd December)

   Our last view of South Island 

   It was saying goodbye to us with this stunning rainbow across Queen Charlotte Sound.

Notes of a wine trail

We couldn't visit Malborough without tasting their infamous "Sauv Blanc" and the idea of drinking my favourite wine all day in the sunshine was too good to miss!

Hiring a couple of bikes was certainly the best way to travel down the vine-lined roads, and the cars in the region seemed to be well practiced at avoiding the weaving wine trail cyclists towards the end of the tasting day!

Cycling around Cloudy Bay Vineyard (6th November 2013)

Abel Tasman Part 2: springs, swans and sandbanks

Our next day at Abel Tasman took us further north to the Pu Pu Springs, which have some of the clearest freshwater in the world. With a horizontal visibility of 63m you could see the beautiful blue colouring around the spring and the fish and plants as if it were a clean fish tank.

The Pu Pu Springs (4th Dec 2013)

Abel Tasman Part 1: sun, sea and (golden) sand

Having stopped to cook dinner on the Alpine Fault (which according to the tracking wall built by geologists hasn't moved so we knew we were safe!) and gathered a few more sandfly bites in the Nelson Lakes National Park at our DOC camp, we headed onwards and upwards to our next 'wow' spot - Abel Tasman National Park.

The Alpine Fault which runs the length of South Island (1st Dec 2013)

Deck the car with boughs of tinsel!

A little r and r

After 12 days on the road we headed back to Christchurch with a second warm welcome from Chris and Helen.

We gave our camper-car a spring clean and clothes a wash and enjoyed good company, great food and a real treat...a bed!

The top 10 road hazards of NZ

1. Sheep sleeping on the road at night

2. Kiwi and penguin crossings

3. Train tracks running through roundabouts and sharing bridges with cars

Fox or fiction

Fox: There are only three glaciers in the world in temperate rainforest and Fox is one of them.

Fiction: Franz Joseph was created by a girl who's tears froze to form the glacier after her lover fell to his death from one of the peaks according to Maori legend.

Fox Guiding the company that took us on the ice (27th Nov 2013)

Fox: The neve (snow accumulation area) of Fox is bigger than Christchurch!

Fiction: The Fox Glacier is actually minty fresh and the guides calve out Fox's Glacier Mints for walkers to savour on their walk.

Going for gold

Our trip through the lakeside towns of Queenstown and on to Wanaka took us on a small detour to the quaint village of Arrowtown. An old gold mining settlement that had kept hold of its charm.

 The post office in Arrowtown (25th Nov 2013)

The wooden stores and pharmacy felt like we'd walked into a Western movie, with gold at the heart of its attraction both when the first settlers arrived as well as today.

Photo of the week (w/c 25th Nov 2013)

   The Pancake Rocks at Punakaki (28th Nov 2013)

Piopiotahi aka Milford Sound (Fjord!)

After a full days driving continuing on the Southern Scenic Route, with a stop off to try and make our millions on Gemstone Beach (sadly we found we were more likely to win the lottery than find any gems!), we arrived to Milford Sound in the glorious sunshine with a welcome from the swarms of sandflies!

Milford Sound isn't actually a 'sound' but a Fjord, calved out by glaciers (the early British explorers obviously didn't know their geography and it certainly didn't resemble Milford Haven, after which it was named). The alternative creation story according to Maori legend was that the Fjordlands were cut out by Tu-te-raki-whanoa and his magical adaze Te Hamo. He started in the far south where he created a rough coastline, but by the time he reached Milford Sound he had perfected his technique and calved an awe-inspiring fjord. Whichever theory you believe, it is certainly stunning! As Rudyard Kipling put it "the eighth wonder of the world".

Milford Sound in the sun! (23rd Nov 2013)

A walk on the wild side

The next step on our road trip brought us to the wild wonders of the Otago Peninsula (just by Dunedin) and The Catlins National Park.

It seems luck was on our side as we simply stumbled across plenty of wildlife as we hit the Otago headland...albatrosses circling above our heads and fur seals lazily bathing in the sunshine on the rocks by our feet. We even spotted a couple of dolphins gently swimming around the bay.

Albatross flying over The Otago Peninsula headland (20th Nov 2013)

Small as an ant

Everything with NZ's landscape is BIG and none more so than the central mountain and lakes region.

As we drove the beautiful wild lupin lined roads we found ourselves turning a corner and getting that 'wow' moment as Lake Tekapo came into view. Its bright turquoise colour (created by the suspended glacial rock flour in the water) was like we'd switched on the super vivid setting of our camera.

Lake Tekapo and the wild lupins (13th Nov 2013)

Photo of the week (18/11/13)

    Mount Cook with the Mt Cook lilies (buttercups)

Who needs a campervan anyway!

We picked up our new home for the next 30 days on Monday.

Having looked at all the options available we managed to get a deal on a Toyota people carrier which so far (2 days in) is really starting to feel like home!

If you want to save a few bucks - we've been completely sold on our homemade decked out camper-car!

Hi Rob!

    Chris spends his time reminiscing of his trip 5 years ago!

Rue de Jolie

Who'd have thought we'd end up feeling even closer to home from the opposite side of the world upon invitation from my cousins Chris and Helen to visit their holiday home in Akaroa.

As soon as we hit the ridge of one of the two old calderas that have formed the Banks Peninsula just south of Christchurch, it felt like we we're heading off for a holiday within our holiday... and it appeared we had arrived in France!

French 'artiste' sculpture, Akaroa (15th November 2013)

The after shock

I travelled to Christchurch 5 years ago as part of my trip with Rob around the world so I was keen to see the effects of the two earthquakes in Sept 2010 and Feb 2011. From what I remembered it was a bustling city with many similarities to Oxford/Cambridge (the city is named after Christ collage) and had a fabulous botanical garden and river where you could go punting. 

Christchurch Botanical Gardens (14th November 2013)

However what we discovered quite shocked us.

Photo of the week (w/c 11th November)

On the top of the caldera on the Banks Peninsula with the view to Akaroa and the Pacific Ocean. Photo taken by Helen PJ on 17th November 2013

And we're off...

50 things to do before...we get back!

Whilst getting ready to turn on my out of office this week after almost two years of working on 50 things to do before you're 11 3/4, my wonderful colleagues have set me a challenge of completing this Bucket list of 50 things to do whilst on our travels...

Will let you know how we get on!

To pack or not to pack? That is the question

Its all in the name

Having spent the last few months planning our 6 month trip using mostly other peoples travel blogs to get the ‘insider’ knowledge on visas, transport and how long to spend in each country, its clear that writing a travel blog is definitely top on the list when joining the backpacker club!

Type into google "how to name a travel blog” and you’ll end up with a blog (no surprise there!) that lists the top 100 travel blogs for some inspiration… here’s what we found:

The obvious:

Go backpacking, Travels of Adam, Two go round the world, Heather on her travels

The memorable: 
One Ticket Phil, Travelvice, Migrationology, Travellogged, Leave your daily hell

The ones you’re not sure you want to read:

Travel Rants Blog, Delicious Baby, A pair of panties, Spot Cool Stuff

And the downright weird: Hole in the donut, Cheese web, Bacon is magic, Beers and Beans (Hmm there seems to be a theme going on here!)

So having gone through the full list of top blogs we decided we needed a name that is:

1. Easy to remember and available as a URL – so all our lovely friends and family have no excuse to say we haven’t kept in touch
2. Makes you at least want to click and take a look – otherwise we’ll just end up be writing posts for each other
3. Doesn't involve random items of food!

And when you still can’t come up with anything that works…then just ask your lovely creative friends who work in advertising to do it for you…

...And Ta-Dah you get www.beachesandbackpacks.co.uk

Welcome to our travel blog mash up of memories, stories, photos, top tips, inspiration for things to do…oh and I’m sure there will be plenty of what not to do too!

We hope you enjoy!

Jules and Chris x