We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

21st July 2006

Now we all know that Geordies are a friendly bunch and Kiwi’s are hospitable….so if you put the two together what do you get?…..simple…. Sheila (Tom’s cousin) and Raymond!

We have been staying with Sheila and Raymond (in their beautiful home) during our stay in Wellington and have been made to feel very welcome. They are two of the friendliest and kindest people you could ever meet (and on top of all that Sheila is a fantastic cook…but more of that later!).

Sheila and Raymond live in Days Bay which is a fantastic little bay directly facing Wellington from where you can catch a 30 minute ferry across to the capital. The view from their lounge looks over the bay and stretches as far as Wellington.

On our first full day in Wellington Sheila and Raymond were our personal tour guides…taking us to vantage points on both sides of the bay to take in the scenery. In Wellington we headed up Mount Victoria which gives a 360 degree view of the surrounding area.

From there we travelled around the penninsula and back to the city. After a picnic lunch in the botanical gardens we took a cable car down into the main shopping district. We saw the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere and saw the ‘beehive’. The beehive is used to house the administration of the NZ parliament.

From the beehive Sheila took us in to the parliament building to watch the house in session…unbelievable….no chance of this at home (unless formally invited of course). We had to pass through security needless to say but apart from the normal metallic scanners we walked straight in. We both thoroughly enjoyed watching the opposition put questions to the PM – Helen Clarke. It is exactly as you see on the television at home …..grown men and women shouting insults and sarcastic remarks across the house…….a little theatrical but nevertheless truly funny to watch.

We then left Sheila and Raymond to visit the Te Papa museum which is NZ’s national museum. Entry is free and all the exhibits involve some degree of interactive learning. Now you will recall that in an earlier blog we said we were not really museum people but nevertheless we managed to spend best part of 4 hours in the museum….in which time we have developed a better understanding of the country we are visiting.

Also in the museum are a couple of temporary exhibitions which you can pay to visit. At the moment The Lord of The Rings exhibition is being housed in Te Papa so having watched the movies but not visited any of the touristic sights in NZ we went along. The exhibition was very good and allowed us to see the costumes and props and the models used in the filming ….there was also a number of short clips explaining how certain scenes were filmed and certain effects achieved….. we can only imagine it is a true anoraks dream (Burnsy? – unfortunately no photos can be taken so we’ll bring you the ticket stub home!)

Unfortunately the weather whilst we have been in Wellington has not been great with constant rain (our fault for visiting mid-winter) but we have not let it dampen our spirits!

Now earlier I mentioned Sheila is a fantastic cook. Since arriving at their home Sheila has cooked us two roast dinners with all the trimmings and after each meal we have had two desserts…..and each morning we have had a fried breakfast….no wonder we stayed on an extra night!

Chris is currently munching his way through the dozen home-made muffins and dozen coconut cakes we have in van to keep us going over the next few days (with a little help from me of course!). We are now heading over to the south island, first stop Kaikora, north of Christchurch and some whale watching!

18th July 2006

After the excitement of our skydive, we celebrated in the evening with a few beers at Taupo’s Irish bar. The following day, sporting our first hangovers since England bombed out of the World cup, we lazed around, and visited a place called the ‘Honey Hive’ in afternoon, a museum about bees, I’m struggling to think of anything else to say about this place, but probably a good venue to kill a few hours when hungover (i.e. free!).

The following day we left Taupo, and headed south, towards the Tongariro National Park. This place has several active volcanoes, and is a world heritage site, although its more recent claim to fame, was as the setting of ‘Mordor’ and ‘Mount Doom’ in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Our plan on arrival was to undertake a day long walk on the Tongariro crossing, famous over here as the best one day walk in New Zealand, passing close to the craters of 3 seperate Volcanoes.

Before arriving at the national park however, we stopped off for some more free sight seeing at the National Trout Centre (apparantley the trout capital of the world), yes, we spent the afternoon looking at fish! Unfortunatley our budget doesn’t allow us to go skydiving everyday, so these freebies are a must for passing some time! At the trout centre we saw loads of Rainbow trout, from various angles, from various viewpoints. The ‘highlight’ of the afternoon though, was wathcing the fly fishermen on the river as we strolled through the bush. We came across one guy reeling in a decent rainbow trout as we stood on the bank, as he landed the fish, we watched, not really knowing wether or not his next move would be to release the fish back into the stream, how naive! He simply freed the fish from the hook, and snapped its head right off, nice!

When we got to the National park, we quickly realised that the Tongariro crossing was out of the question, as we were told that the route was under several feet of snow, and could only be undertaken by people with ‘alpine’ experience, and also with a local guide. We instead found a more sedate walk (still 20k’s mind!) for the next day, and found somewhere to park up for the night. The following day we set out early on our trek (or ‘tramp’ as it is known over here), the conditions were ok, a little windy. Once we got going though, it proved to be worthwhile, with amazing views of the snowcapped volcanoes, and numerous ski areas within the park. Unlike Frodo and Sam, we were not able to conquer the slopes of mount doom though, turning back at the very base of the mountain due to the ridiculous winds.

Leaving the National Park in the afternoon we continued our journey south towards Wellington (and ultimately the South Island) stopping over for a couple of nights at the city of Napier, in Hawkes Bay. Napier has become a tourist attration after it was raised to the ground by an Earthquake in the early 1930s. The city was then completely re-built in the style of the day, art deco. This makes for some fantastic buildings, of various colours which are worth a look, in my humble artistic critic opion, the place reminded me much of the Spanish city in Whiltey Bay (the architecture, not the rides!).

We left Napier on Tuesday morning, the 18th of July, and took state highway 1 down to the capital city Wellington, where we planned to meet up with some Geordie Kiwis, Tom’s cousin Sheila and Raymond!

13th July 2006

The clue here is in the title!

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9th July 2006 Well where did we leave you all last....think it was just before England got knocked out of the world cup! Hangovers in tow ... [Continue reading this entry]

1st July 2006 We arrived in Auckland 3 days ago on the 28th June, having left Santiago on the 26th. Our flight was only ... [Continue reading this entry]