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| Author : sue_and_nathan | Diary name : yearaway | ||
| 31 Dec 2001 : Queenstown - New Zealand | |||
| Kiwi Country | |||
| Yet again, we haven't written an installment for absolutely ages and we've received a few complaints. Our only excuses are that we have been on the move quite a bit and also that being on holiday for so long tends to make you a tad lazy!! When we left you last we were just heading down to Sydney and now, a good month later, we're relaxing at Sue's brother Ray's house in Queenstown, New Zealand. As for Sydney, well it had both its good points and its bad for us. It's a good place to just hang-out. There are plenty of green spaces which have signs all around inviting you to 'Walk on the grass' (which amazed us as we are so used to being told to keep off of it!), lots of cinemas, cafes, an IMAX (which we spent a bit of our time in admiring a 3D version of Homer Simpson) and of course, the famous bridge and Opera House. All was going fine in Sydney until we decided to hire an Audi TT and spend a day cruising around the Blue Mountains. An hour or so into our drive the sun started shining so we decided to put the top down. The next thing we knew there was a great smash and the back window was in a thousand pieces. By all accounts, this happened because we'd left something on the back shelf which, on our part, was a genuine mistake. We were treated appallingly by Europcar (don't ever use them!) and after promising us a replacement they decided not to give us another car after all. So, we didn't get to see the Blue Mountains. Later on that evening we sat back in our apartment feeling a little sorry for ourselves, when we stumbled upon the startling fact that it was the 27th November, not the 26th as we had thought. Not only were we flying out early the next morning, but we had missed our climb over Sydney Harbour Bridge AND the celebratory meal we'd booked in a restaurant overlooking the harbour. Man, what a day! The next day we were in a new country and we started feeling a whole lot better almost immediately. After all, if this is all that goes wrong in a whole year, well.... We flew into Auckland and spent our first couple of weeks on North Island where we weren't exactly blessed with the best weather. In fact, one morning in Napier we sat in our motel room and watched a months worth of rain fall in just one hour! We did have some fun though. One day we hired some toboggans and went up to Ninety Mile Beach where we spent hours climbing the sand dunes and tobogganing down. Some of these dunes were amazing high and took yonks to climb and when you looked over the edge it took a bit of guts to jump on and hurtle down! We also spent some time enjoying the vineyards, sitting in bubbling mudpools at Rotorua and Nathan even went zorbing. Zorbing involves getting into a huge inflated ball full of water and rolling down a hill - much like being in a washing machine by all accounts! We were quite pleased when the time came to take the ferry across to South Island, which greeted us with blue skies and sunshine. Just what we needed! So, we booked a three day kayaking trip in Abel Tasman National Park which turned out to be absolutely wonderful. The sun shone on through for the full three days, the skies were so blue and the sea was even warm enough to swim in - just what we needed! At night we stopped when we had done enough paddling and camped on which ever white sandy beach we felt inclined toward. Camping to most people may not sound like too much of a big deal, but to Sue it really was, as she had never done it before, and fortunately she thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the thing that sold it to her was on the second night when she stuck her head out of the tent to see the Milky Way crystal clear above us. It wasn't quite the usual camping as we had someone doing all our cooking for us. Our guide, a very tall guy called Ben, cooked up all sorts of lovely things including falafels for dinner one night and even maple syrup pancakes for brekkie and after insisted that we do yoga on the beach to work them off! The second day was a real highlight as we canoed out to Tonga Island where a big fur seal colony hang out. We weren't quite expecting them to come as close as they did. I mean, one even knocked into the front of the canoe and popped his head right out of the water and looked straight at me as if I was the one getting in the way (which I guess I was, really!) We saw hundreds of seals that day and plenty of very cute little pups, most of which swum around and around totally oblivious of our presence. At the end of the three days we joined our canoes together and sailed back on the breeze to base where we arrived totally grotty, knackered and sun drenched but feeling just so good. Now, like I said before, we're in Queenstown, sitting in the office at Birchwood (Ray's house), enjoying the fantastic views of the mountains directly in front of the house and, once again, taking in a few home comforts. But, we'll tell you a little more about Queenstown in the next installment! | |||