We have arrived back in Auckland, which means only one thing.. we are leaving the country tomorrow and arriving back at Heathrow sometime in the next 48 hours WOOHOO. Not that we really want to leave but we're so excited to see everyone and the no money situation kindof sucks really.
So since Rachel last posted we have been travelling around the North Island, we've only had 2 bus drivers on this island, one of which we had for over a week and he was absolutely amazing; "Sandra" as we named him as he kept changing his name everyday to keep us on our toes, which really confused a lot of dim people on our bus, bless.
We've visited quite a few film locations now on our travels, quite a few from Lord of the Rings of course and also a place called Cathedral cove which is a beach that they used to film a scene in Narnia's Prince Caspian.
Both of us absolutely loved this little placed called 'Waitomo' which has loads of really cool caves both above and below ground. We decided this was the only activety we would limit our budget to as this has been the thing I really wanted to do in NZ before we left home. We had to go for the cheaper option to enter the caves which was a 2 hour walk (we could have gone black water rafting but that was waaaayyy out of the budget!) But the walk was absolutely amazing! You go really deep under ground, I felt a bit like i was in the Mines of Moria but Rachel had no clue what I meant so I am forcing her to watch LOTR when we get home. You get to see glow worms and there are so many stalagmites and 'tites, Rach put it well: "It's like an absolutely amazing Wookey Hole without the tacky witch!"
Probably the most bizzarre place we have visited is a place called Rotorua which absolutely reeks of egg and has steam coming up through the ground. It's a really big hotspot for underground thermal activity, we visited a place called Te Puia where a lovely Maori took us round bubbling mud pools and geysers and taught us about Maori culture.
Oh and now we can safely say we have sailed on top of a volcanoe. No I'm not confused in the slightest here we actually have. Lake Taupo has a giant volcanoe under it and we have sailed on top of it to go and see Maori carvings and basically get absolutely soaked! It is an active volcanoe by the way and if it blew to it's full potential it would wipe out all of humanity... I almost had a heart attack this morning waking up in Taupo and looking out of the hostel window to see what looked like the lake covered in smoke. Have no fear it was only the creepy low cloud that seems to skulk around the country but I was almost considering flying out of Taupo there and then. What a loser!
We had a lovely relaxing time in a place called River Valley which literally is right smack bang in the middle of a valley. We went in the sauna that the y have there which was so nice but the public outdoor shower experience in the freezing night afterwards was not so good!
We've also been to the capital but literally only to sleep there. Oh and visit the new world supermarket to but broccolli yay!
I can't remember if we'd already been or we're just going when Rach last posted but we've also been to Paihia in the bay of islands which was very pretty but not an awful lot to do there unless you empty the contents of your wallet.
So now we're in Auckland for the 3rd time, it's not that nice here and even the rest of New Zealand agrees that it's not that great.
Flying home tomorrow and I don't think it's even sunk in, but not looking forward to the very long plane journey but WE'RE COMING HOME!
sweet as.
Friday 9 April 2010
Thursday 1 April 2010
New Zealand
So we arrived in Christchurch around 10 days ago, which is apparently supossed to be 'more english than england' because of the architecture but we really didnt feel like we were at home at all so whoever said that quote was wrong! The weather here is very different to Australia - you could tell we were newcomers on our first bus when we turned up in shorts and flip flops and everyone else was in jeans and hoodies. We started the very next day on our Kiwi Experience buses. Because of our very short amount of time we're booked onto a new bus everday apart from one, so we knew before we came here that NZ would involve lots of travelling around. The landscape here really is amazing, every time you turn a corner it looks totally different to the last. Theres hills and mountains everwhere covered by everything from huge pine trees to massive dusty rocks. The colour of the rivers and lakes are actually unbelievable - the best way to describe it is that its so blue that it looks grey. We've found that we've wanted to take photos of everything we pass, and the photos so far dont do it justice. The whole land seems to be deserted and 'towns' are literally made up of one street with a couple of hostels a few shops and a handful of houses - nobody lives here i swear! Theres basically one road running through the whole of the south island (where we started our trip) so you cant go wrong if you're driving! We've filled our time with plenty of forest walks and wanders around the small towns we've been staying in, as well as visiting the coolest cinema in Wanaka where everyone sits on random sofas and armchairs and they have an interval in the middle so you can get hot food!!
We're currently in auckland (the north island) but getting here was a whole other story. We had a 8 hour kiwi experience bus ride from Queenstown up to Christchurch (where the flight left from) then the same evening we had to catch the flight to Auckland (after 6 hours waiting at the smallest airport ever). We arrived in Auckland at around midnight and grabbed a shuttle bus to our hostel, we got there at 1am, found that 1) the girl on the bunk below becky had took it upon herself to use not only her own pillow but becky's as well - nice - then just handed it to her and expected her to use it. And 2) my bed had obviously been slept in (no pillow case and the covers were scrunched up as if someone had just woken up). 3) My hair mousse had exploded all over my stuff during the flight. So at 2am becky went downstairs to complain, while the man basically got funny with her as if it wasnt his problem (we were both VERY tired and just wanted sleep) and i went into the loos and had to wash everything in my bag because it stunk of mousse - nice. We eventually got to bed at around 2:30am (i used my towel as a duvet) and had to then get up at 5:45am to get our 7am bus. We werent in the best of moods. But apart from that minor glitch everything here has been fine! Lots of bus journeys but also lots of free activities which we're very grateful for at this skint stage in time - we're living on the bare minimum of expenses coming out of our purses!
We're currently in auckland (the north island) but getting here was a whole other story. We had a 8 hour kiwi experience bus ride from Queenstown up to Christchurch (where the flight left from) then the same evening we had to catch the flight to Auckland (after 6 hours waiting at the smallest airport ever). We arrived in Auckland at around midnight and grabbed a shuttle bus to our hostel, we got there at 1am, found that 1) the girl on the bunk below becky had took it upon herself to use not only her own pillow but becky's as well - nice - then just handed it to her and expected her to use it. And 2) my bed had obviously been slept in (no pillow case and the covers were scrunched up as if someone had just woken up). 3) My hair mousse had exploded all over my stuff during the flight. So at 2am becky went downstairs to complain, while the man basically got funny with her as if it wasnt his problem (we were both VERY tired and just wanted sleep) and i went into the loos and had to wash everything in my bag because it stunk of mousse - nice. We eventually got to bed at around 2:30am (i used my towel as a duvet) and had to then get up at 5:45am to get our 7am bus. We werent in the best of moods. But apart from that minor glitch everything here has been fine! Lots of bus journeys but also lots of free activities which we're very grateful for at this skint stage in time - we're living on the bare minimum of expenses coming out of our purses!
Last week of Australia!
(Sorry this is a pretty late entry)
The final week of Australia was the BEST! (This is rach by the way)
We went to a place called Byron Bay which would be best described as an old hippy town which was really nice. We ventured into our inner hippy and had aura photos done and eveything. We also went to see Alice in wonderland at the cinema there which was amazing!!!
Then came my favourite day of our entire trip i reckon - Surf camp!! We both stood up, which was pretty amazing, i thoguht that i wanted to do well so badly that id fall flat on my face every time and fail majorly (although i got smacked ibn the head by my board twice - painful) but it was the most fun. So yeah i fulfilled something that ive always wanted to do and to do it on a privately owned beach is a pretty good way to do it i think. Then came Sydney, my favourite place that we've visited, it was just the most amazing place. We spent our first evening walking along sydney harbour bridge as the sun set (how very romantic) and the views of the harbour were stunning (we agreed that this is one of our favourite days of the whole trip). We then wandered down to the opera house once it was dark which looked incredible with the lit up skyline surrounding it. On our final day we visited the infamous Bondi beach for our last day in Australia! We did a 2 hour coastal walk along the sea and saw some amazing looking beaches on the way. Most of the beaches around the area were full of surfers, we have the surfing bug and were extremely jealous of them. Long story short we definately want to surf again, asap.
And so was the end of Australia... I want to go back for sure, especially Sydney!
The final week of Australia was the BEST! (This is rach by the way)
We went to a place called Byron Bay which would be best described as an old hippy town which was really nice. We ventured into our inner hippy and had aura photos done and eveything. We also went to see Alice in wonderland at the cinema there which was amazing!!!
Then came my favourite day of our entire trip i reckon - Surf camp!! We both stood up, which was pretty amazing, i thoguht that i wanted to do well so badly that id fall flat on my face every time and fail majorly (although i got smacked ibn the head by my board twice - painful) but it was the most fun. So yeah i fulfilled something that ive always wanted to do and to do it on a privately owned beach is a pretty good way to do it i think. Then came Sydney, my favourite place that we've visited, it was just the most amazing place. We spent our first evening walking along sydney harbour bridge as the sun set (how very romantic) and the views of the harbour were stunning (we agreed that this is one of our favourite days of the whole trip). We then wandered down to the opera house once it was dark which looked incredible with the lit up skyline surrounding it. On our final day we visited the infamous Bondi beach for our last day in Australia! We did a 2 hour coastal walk along the sea and saw some amazing looking beaches on the way. Most of the beaches around the area were full of surfers, we have the surfing bug and were extremely jealous of them. Long story short we definately want to surf again, asap.
And so was the end of Australia... I want to go back for sure, especially Sydney!
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