Setting sail

After a night's stay with cousins Justin and Jenny in Auckland we headed up north to The Bay of Islands.

We stayed in Russell (the old capital of NZ), which was one of the first European settlements and back then known as "the hell hole of NZ". Nowadays its a quiet sailing town where all the inhabitants knew each other and the only bars were the local fishing, yacht or sailing clubs.

Our campsite owner knew just the best way to experience the area and after a quick phone call we were booked onto The Phantom - 50ft yacht with Rick and Robin for a full day sailing.

Chris heading up The Phantom (Xth Dec 2013)

Auckland's Top 10!

1. You can't visit Auckland without seeing the iconic Sky Tower (but to be fair it's hard to miss it!)

Photo of the week (w/c 16th December)

"Scary faces!" (17th December 2013)

Is it really the fault of the English?

Having almost reached the end of our NZ tour and read/heard much along the way regarding the Maori and European settlers, we headed to the home of the Waitangi Treaty itself to see if we could put the disagreements to bed.

Copy of the signed Waitangi agreement (17th December 2013)

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.