Places to Go Part II

The South Island is going to be a challenge - it's pretty long, with incredible amounts to see.

Heading up into Abel Tasman, the road winds around the mountains, with brilliant views (not immediately obvious in this shot!) at every turn.






Then after that, we're heading down to Kaikoura, to get in some cetacean watching - mate Mike reports swimming with dolphins there to be one of the best experiences of his life. The mountain backdrop visible in this picture looks pretty astonishing. I guess if we're going to see more than hedges and fences we're going to have to stop and walk around a bit!

From there it's down towards Christchurch, and then along towards Lake Clearwater - we're hoping to catch up with some friends there.

And then it's down towards Queenstown, and very likely a trip to Milford Sound. Hopefully it will rain for that - supposed to be very cool with the water falling off the cliffs!

That's probably our southernmost point - we'll be heading back up to get the ferry, taking another pass around the west coast of N Island before handing the camper back and flying home!

Places To Go Part I

That title isn't strictly correct - it should be "Places we ARE going, and places we think we might go", but that isn't very snappy. Anyway, just thought I'd jot down a few ideas we're looking at, and then we can all have a larf when it doesn't work out even close.

The plan is to stay at Daniel's house for the first couple of days, and that's in Auckland. Amazingly, Google Maps has Streetview for just about everywhere in NZ, probably because it's got so few streets, but it lets us have a view of his place in case we get really lost. And that may include, just because we can, a trip to Rocky's Superette. Mmm, nice. Maybe a Lotto ticket! Everyone seems to have a 4X4 or ute kind of thing, for which there is doubtless some strange colonial name...

After that, it'll be time to pick up the camper which is going to be The Home for 21 days. Eek! Hopefully we'll still be talking at the end of that - we're unlikely to run out of topics, since neither of us can remember what we said more than two days prior! It's pretty well equipped, even has a shower and critically, a loo... but I expect we'll be on campsites with showers and stuff.

But enough of the fluff, where are we going to go that's proper 'oliday??

Coromandel looked interesting, Andrew suggested it from his mega-tour a year or two ago. There's lots to see there, but he described it as being even further back in time than the rest of NZ! So we're expecting pretty relaxed... Just looking at the Streetview pic below, taken from the peninsula to the west of Coromandel itself, this looks pretty typical for a NZ-scape. Hope we don't get bored with kind of thing! Hehe.

The plan after Coromandel is to head towards rels, around Matamata. This could be a bit complicated, because they have a farm, currently run by one of the daughters together with her husband, and a house somewhere else, where Neville and Gaye live now they've retired. The shot from around Matamata is of a farm just out of town, who knows if it's representative? I recall Neville telling me about the cliff he used to chuck the dead cows off when he visited us in the 60s, no cliff in evidence here!

After that, it's off to Lake Taupo, via Rotorua or maybe the less touristy Waimangu. This is a Big Lake, with lots to do, including, further down, the active volcanoes of Tongariro and the Tongariro Crossing. Honestly, just looking at all this stuff is getting me into a state of excitement.

From Tongariro etc. we're looking to head down towards the bottom left hand corner of the N Island, around Mount Taranaki. Wowser. Caitie lives around there, not sure where exactly yet, but we're planning to get to see her. She also has windsurfing equipment, and the possibility of waves, so could be an interesting day or so :-). Guess we'd better get the address...

And from Taranaki the plan is to head to the ferry at Wellington... We've got a ticket, with a booked (hopefully!) time, but apparently it's easy to change. Especially if you got held up getting off the beach because the waves were just too good to leave! And that takes us to...

Picton!! This place looks like a village! You can just see the ferry over the back there. We plan to hang around the north of the island including Abel Tasman National Park, with Nelson as the Big Town in the neighbourhood. I think that'll do for now...

Only Three Weeks To Go...

OK, it's 16 Jan, and there are only three weeks before we're on our way!

Why NZ? Well, when we discussed going somewhere really really different, and compared our personal lists, NZ was absolutely top of both of our lists. So, a no-brainer really.

Why now? It's not going to get any easier doing this stuff, and there's nobody at home to worry about (apart from The Pig, who can sleep in front of one of Bex's radiators as well as anyone's)... time to go!

Plans - well, a curious mixture of planned and unplanned. We looked at renting a car, and staying in hotels or baches (kinda B&B but not in someone's house), but that meant booking ahead. That's difficult if you don't really know exactly where you want to go yet, and Feb is still fairly busy. So we're rented a camper - yay!! Love campers! Which means we can stay pretty much where we like when we like, and have lunch anywhere. And there's room for a surfboard...

But when we look at the month, and the size of NZ, and wanting to go to both N & S Islands, and the people we'd like to meet up with, and the places to see... A plan is definitely necessary! So we have actually ended up with a fairly detailed plan, at least in respect of days and timings. Which is fairer on the potential visitees, at least the human ones. The flora and fauna will of course be waiting patiently for us to arrive, whenever that is.