Day 117 March 6th 2007, Uphill Waterfalls - Milford Sound to Queenstown, 291km

Waking early, no alarm clock required with all the shouting from the crew and lights being turned on, we found ourselves heading out to the Tasman Sea. After 2 minutes on deck no shower required. After a glimpse of the sea we headed back into the sound and it became instantly apparent why 'Danger Ben" had been wishing for rain, the steep mountain sides bordering the fjord were streaming with hundreds of waterfalls and spectacularly in places being blown upwards by the strong winds.

After a cooked breakfast, very useful in shaking off the cobwebs from last nights drinking, we arrived back in Milford. We were due to fly back to Queenstown but because of the weather we had to get the bus back. With all the new waterfalls and rivers that had appeared overnight on route provided great compensation.

Highlights: The amazing waterfalls in the Milford Sound

Day 116 March 5th 2007, Buses, Trains, Boats - Queenstown to Milford Sound, 291km

We wanted to spend a few days walking the Milford Sound Track but with so much to see we opted for a coach ride (to save us the 5 hour drive from Queenstown) and an overnight tour of the Sound by boat. We boarded what must have been the strangest bus I have ever seen and set off early from Queenstown, the bus designed to allow optimum viewing of the surrounding landscape also featured the Worlds most optimistic driver Ben. Before long we were all well aware of the impending threats from mudslides, landslides, avalanches and tree slides all in good humor though.Shortly after leaving Queenstown we arrived at a place called Kingston where we caught the Kingston flyer for a short 30 minute ride.

About halfway to Milford Sound we had to wait 15mins for our turn through the one way Mountain Tunnel (susceptible to flooding - thanks Ben) Busy doing their best to dismantle the other cars in the queue were a flock of Kea Parrots, apparently one of the most intelligent animals / birds on the planet ranking up there with the chimps and dolphins.

They set about stripping rubber and bending car ariels much to everyones amusement.

Arriving at our boat early evening we opted to take a Kayak trip round one of the bays with Ben the Bus driver, luckily no earthquakes or tidal waves to be seen. The weather is pretty good so I can't quite work out why Ben keeps delighting in the prospect that its going to start raining soon.

Also on our boat was an 18-35 coach tour so as you can imagine it turned into quite a party with people jumping overboard, I must be getting old as it used to be my party trip, jumping off a boat after a few beers.

Highlights: The scenery of the Milford Sound

Day 115 March 4th 2007, Travelling South -Greymouth to Queenstown, 598km

We spent much of today driving South along the West coast of the South island stopping for a look at the Franz Joseph Glacier on route before continuing onto Queenstown.

Franz Joseph Glacier

Passing Knights Point lookout the drive was pretty easy going with the only hold up being the millions of camper vans everywhere.

The view at Knights Point

If you think the A303 is tough on a bank holiday Friday

We stopped on route to look at the Bungee Jump just outside the town on the Kawarau Bridge, it didn't look too bad so im sure I will be having a go before we leave, especially with my Brother Paul declaring me a chicken after not jumping off the sky tower in Auckland.

Queenstown surrounded on one side by mountains and Lake Wakatipu on the other, has a great ski town feel to it with plenty of lively bars down by Steamers Wharf where we got in a couple of drinks before an early night.

Highlights: A very long but nice drive

Day 114 March 3rd 2007, The Silver Fern - Kaiteriteri to Greymouth, 292km

After yesterday's Kayaking we were keen to see some more of the park and took a boat tour to the North of the park along the coast before being dropped off for short hike, the walk started in Bark Bay and the trail lead us through to Torrent Bay. This has to be one of the most stunning costal walks I have ever been on. We managed to spend some time sunbathing before being picked up by the water taxi which took us back to Kaiteriteri.

One of the views on route from Bark Bay to Torrent Bay

A view over Torrent Bay

The native bush lining the walk gave me the opportunity to get some photos of one of New Zealands trademarks, the silver fern. There are two types of fern here, the green and the silver, both look the same from above as shown below.

Now if you take a leaf from the silver fern and turn it over it reveals where its name came from, the Moari's used to use them for marking out trails in the woods after dark. Below the real thing is the Silver Fern Flag.

After a quick change we headed South to Greymouth. It is as wonderful a place as its name suggests, this would have to be the first place we have come to in New Zealand that I would describe as an absolute dump. Arriving after a long drive at 7:30PM we found the town which is a reasonable size to be completly deserted. After quickly pitching the tent I raced off to find some food only to find that the late opening chippie was closing. I manged to catch the owner who offered to quickly cook us up a copule of portions of Fish n Chips and I took the opportunity to enquire as to why this place is so quiet. The reason, there is a liquor ban in place after much trouble caused by drunkness in the town, so on a Friday night everyone just stays home by the look of things. The Fish n Chips though were great, the first I think we have had since leaving the UK

Highlights: The Stunning Abel Tasman National Park

Day 113 March 2nd 2007, Forget Tahiti - Richmond to Kaiteriteri, 50km

After a short drive we arrived in Kaiteriteri on the edge of the Abel Tasman Natainal Park. Abel Tasman was the first person to discover New Zealand in 1642, however after many of his crew slaughtered by the Mauri's the Dutch explorer thought better of it and never made a landing, leaving it for James Cook to discover in 1769.

The beach at Kaiteriteri is stunning but the campsite next to it was completely full with some of the million or so mobile homes that seem to be touring round and blocking up all the roads. I know in the past I have often been a critic of how much stuff Shelley brings camping but at this site I saw it all. One campervan had an orning next to it housing a fridge freezer, I wish I had taken a picture.

The Beach on Fishermans Island

So after quickly pitching our tent at a nearby campsite we headed back to the beach for some kayaking, forget Tahiti the bays and beaches here are stunning. One of the highlights of the kayak was to see whats know as split apple rock, after an hour of paddling we still hadn't found it and stopped off for lunch at what we later found out to be Fisherman Island.

Shelley with our Kayak on Fishermans Island

It would appear that a slight navigational error had caused us to miss split apple rock and continue kayaking for 2 nautical miles oops. On our way back and just round the corner from Kaiteriteri we found split apple rock. Whilst rounding a headland I made the joke "imagine if its just round here" to which it was, Shelley didn't follow through with her threat to hit me with her paddle square in the face if it was.

Split Apple Rock

Given that we were both pretty tired and I had only just missed out on a broken nose I left out the "I told you so" when it was confirmed by a Kiwi that the Sparrows we see everywhere were introduced by the British, an idea I put forward at the start of the trip but was told not to be soooo stupid.

Highlights: The beautiful bays and beaches of Abel Tasman National Park

Day 112 March 1st 2007, More Hills - Queen Charlotte Track, Picton to Richmond

One things for sure when you have to climb a hill there is always a view from the top, in New Zealand is usually a good one. I had to myself this constantly during the first hour of our ride today as we climbed or should I say pushed our bikes 600m. Thew view was stunning and after the climb it was pretty plain sailing for the rest of the 20km or so to Anakiwa where we caught a water taxi back to Picton.

The new sport of bike pushing wasn't proving popular

One of the views

With still a lot to see and not much time to explore the South Island we headed straight off towards Abel Tasman National park, getting as far as Richmond before tiredness set in and pitched up camp. One other thing is also for sure they can't have much rain here, the ground is rock hard, the standard issue tent pegs that came with the tent not standing up to the job.

Highlights: The views of the Marlborough Sound

Day 111 February 28th 2007, Aching Legs - Queen Charlotte Track, Picton

The Queen Charlotte Track along the Queen Charlotte sound, part of the Marlborough Sounds is one of the great walks of New Zealand so we decided to Mountain bike it. Until the 1st of March only 2/3 of the track are open to bikes much to the disappointment of a couple of walkers we passed who must have been members of the anti bike league. The total track is 71km but as we didn't want to wait until tomorrow to start riding we caught a water taxi to Punga Cove and set off from there, about 24km to Portage where we stayed the night.

When the guy in the bike shop asked us how much mountain biking we had done our description of bike rides around Richmond Park didn't seem to arise any concern. He was getting his $100 and he did show us the profile of the trail so when we had to walk the first hour up hill and then hold on for dear life on the downhills we checked the map. The recommendation was that this most of the trail should only be attempted by advanced bikers uh oh. I probably would have paid more attention to the profile on the map if it had not been for one of the guidebooks describing the track as flat, what!!

On route a Weka nearly sent us flying as it darted across the path, it came back to make sure we weren'ty giving away any food.

About 4 hours later we arrived in Portage with legs full of lactic acid, a few beers later all this was forgotten until I tried to stand up, ooooh sore. The views though were pretty amazing so well worth it, only another 20km to go tomorrow.

Highlights: Paying to push a mountain bike up a hill

Day 110 February 27th 2006, The South Island - Wellington to Picton


As the map shows Picton is North of Wellington so you have to travel North to get to the South Island. By Ferry this takes about 3 hours and you are treated to the beautiful scenery of the Marlborough Sound. Its through the Marlborough Sound where we plan to Mountain bike over the next couple of days.

A view from the Ferry as we approached Picton

Although camping in New Zealand is unbelievably easy and cheap the call of a solid roof and your own bathroom gets through eventually and we checked into the Yacht Club in Picton.

A view of Picton

Picton itself is a cool little town, not much here but a really nice atmosphere. Only problem everything shuts so damn early here, you can't even get a takeaway after 10PM. I reckon there must be something really good on NZ TV in the evenings.

Highlights: Arriving in the South Island

Day 109 February 26th 2007, Wellington Boots - Taupo to Wellington, 380km


Another long day driving brought us to the very bottom of the North Island and to Wellington New Zealands capital. I have to admit until about a week ago I thought it was Auckland. When I was at school in Geography we were too busy learning why people lived by rivers so much so I live by one back home (the only benefit I can see being more money for the insurance company with inflated premiums)So I'm blaming my education for my stupidity.

In my defence though Auckland was once the capital before Wellington in 1865. Thinking about it that means we have been to all 3 of New Zealands capitals past and present, Russel, Auckland and now Wellington. So why did they move the capital south, to stop the South Island with all its gold mines going off and forming their own country.

We found a great little campsite by the beach just outside the city in the Hutt Valley, no sign of Jabba. After a long run on the beach we headed into town finding a great bar by the harbor, after a few local brews I was soon putting the World to rights again.

Highlights: Beers in Wellington

Day 108 February 25th 2007, Mud Packs - Rotorua to Taupo, 82km

There were two reasons why we wanted to come to New Zealand during our travels, the first to experience the amazing scenery and secondly to get in some adrenaline fueled sports. So after a day at the Maori village built on top of an area of what i would describe as high thermal activity, we headed off for some Zorbing.

A very hot pool where they cooked corn on the cob in less than 20 secs

First a little about the "Thermal area", one of the first things as a kid I associated with NZ is the bumbling mud at Rotorua, here is it this time on the web vs my Grandparents cine film 23 years ago, high five for technology.

The main attraction is the large geysers of which there are five, the one below is called the Prince of Wales as when it blows it looks like the feathers of the Prince of Wales crest.

In addition to the super fast corn on the cob cooking the Maoris also use thermal vents for cooking all their other food. There are two distinct advantages the first is the cooking time and secondly its free, however as with all modern appliances these cookers sometimes go wrong

On our way out of Rotorua I tried my hand at Zorbing, the idea being that you run down the hill in the large Hamster ball, catch they chuck a load of water in making it very slippery. The result I managed to stand up for about 5 secs.

It was great fun but I would give it a 0 in terms of its adrenaline factor. Leaving Rororua we headed South to Taupo where not content with the tame Zorbing caught the last ride of the day on the Huka Jet. This was also amazing fun.

The Jet boats with no propeller get within inches of the shore skimming across water only 10cm deep in places, the jets also allow the boats to be spun 360. The boats twin jets throw out 800 litres of water per second, I bet there are no fish left on the river. For more on jet boat technology click here. Check out Shelleys hair in the picture below during one of the spins, back row on the left.

The hair before the ride, due to the density of my hair at the moment it didn't move at all during the ride.

Highlights: The bubbling mud and the Huka Jet

Day 107 February 24th 2007, Backsides on Fire - Waitomo to Rotorua, 341km

In Waitimo there are over 1,000 cave systems, formed when the tectonic plates pushed the limestone seabed upwards millions of years ago. Since then water has slowly tricked through the rock creating the caves. Out of approx 1,000 caves 300 have been mapped out and 23 are in commercial use, leaving some of the local farmers with small gold mines on their land. Everything ranging from walking tours to whats know as Black Water Rafting (white water rafting in the dark). The other attraction of the caves are their inhabitants, Glow Worms.

Now the term Glow Worm is a pretty marketing name, the worms are in fact maggots (fly larvae) of the Fungus Gnat which due to a lack of a backside burn their waste which creates the glow.

One of the Glow Worms had a very nice smile

We took a 2 hour caving tour though one of the tunnels, at times you could walk without head torches and rely on the light from the Glow Worms. The roof of the cave looked like a brilliant nights sky. Our guide probably bored from crawling through caves everyday sought every opportunity to play practical jokes on us and make us craw through the tightest spaces in the tunnel imaginable. At one point I really wished I had gone for the salad option more often in the past.

Whilst in the caves we visited the local spa

After emerging from the caves we headed South to Rotorua where we were greeted with the smell of sulphur, generated by the thermal springs the area is famous for

Highlights: All those little crap burning maggots

Day 106 February 22nd 2007, The Journey South - Waipoua Forest to Waitomo, 439km

Today showed us just how big New Zealand is as it took us the best part of the day to drive South past Auckland and onto Waitomo. We arrived just in time to pitch up our tent and go for an evening run in the nearby hills

We have now been on the road for almost 4 months and I haven't had a haircut yet. Shelley thinks that people are giving me strange looks when talking to me so it could be time for a visit to the barbers. I'm quite happy with the mulet so I say let the public decide please vote on the poll to the right, all comments on possible haircuts welcome

Highlights: Beautiful scenery as we drove South

Day 105 February 22nd 2007, Giant Trees - Russell to Waipoua Forest, 114km

We had lunch in style today on one of Hakianga Harbors beaches, on the West Coast of the North Island. BBQ steak, a little tricky as the tide was coming in and I had to rescue our little disposable BBQ a few times.

Shelley hugging one of the smaller Kauri Trees

Continuing our journey we arrived in Waipoua Forest a large Kauri Forest home to some of the Worlds oldest and largest trees. Finding an almost abandoned campsite we quickly pitched our tent before heading off to meet some Maoris who were going to take us on a twilight tour of the forest.

Matua Ngahere

This was a truly magical experience, the trees astonishing in their size. We first visited Te Matua Ngahere the widest Kauri tree and the second largest in existence. Size is measured by the amount of timber the tree could produce. The Trees Maori name means Father of the Forest, one of the Maoria's called Dan sang a greeting as we approached the tree, a sign of respect for the tree. Te Matua Ngahere is estimated to be 2000 years old and was one of the talking trees represented in Lord of the Rings.

Tane Mahuta (not my own picture as it was dark when we met this guy)

As the light faded away we approached Tane Mahuta its name meaning Lord of the Forest, again Dan chanted a greeting and we sat in darkness and silence at the base of the tree looking up through its brances as the clear night sky started to light up with stars. Our other guide Bim then said a Maori prayer.

Highlights: Tane Mahuta

Day 104 February 21st 2007, Whales and Dolphins - Bay of Islands - Russell

Apart from some very nice Islands the bay is also home to quite a bit of marine life including several species of Whale and Dolphin. So joining a large tour ship we headed off round the various islands, after a short while coming across 3 Bottlenose Dolphins. After swimming with some wild Common Dolphins in the Azores I couldn't believe how big these guys were, well over 2m in length.

Being on a large boat I didn't fancy our chances of being able to swim with them but myself and Shelley were the only ones to actually see them under the water, more of a swim past than a swimming with dolphins experience. After stopping for lunch on one of the Islands we came across a Bryde Whale on our way back to Russell. These are the only non migratory species of Whale. We were lucky enough to catch him feeding and were able to watch him circling the shoal of fish it was feeding on for about 20 mins. It was difficult to say how large the Whale was but these guys can grow to almost 15m in length and weigh between 12 and 20 tonnes

Highlights: Seeing the Bryde Whale

Day 103 February 20th 2007, The Original Capital - Auckland to Russell, 241km

On the advice of Chris who I think is my second Cousin we headed North from Auckland towards a place called Russell in the Bay of Islands. After catching the ferry from Opua to Okiato we settled into our first campsite since Chile, luxury in comparison and just a few hundred meters from a very nice beach. In Chile we were lucky to get running water let alone hot showers, here 50 cents buys you a 5 mins hot shower.

Aside from its outstanding natural beauty Russell has an interesting past.

The Maori settlement of Kororareka
Hell hole of the Pacific when the Whaling fleets of the World called
First Capital of New Zealand
Today its the Sword Fishing Capital of the World and a friendly tourist town

One of the hotels in the town holds the oldest liquor license in New Zealand and the town also boats the oldest church in New Zealand, what does that say?

The ferry from Opua

Some of the very nice houses in Opua

The beach near our campsite

Highlights: Our luxury campsite and the beauty of the Bay of Islands