Franz Joseph and other assorted Glaciers

After quite a lengthly, but pretty drive (for which I was asleep for the last bit), we made it to the glaciers. These are mostly famous for people dying at them, so we were sure to heed the warning signs and stay on the trails. But not so for many of the other tourists. Loads of people ignored the numerous signs warning of impending death and walked to get a closer look at the ice.

It certainly wasn't as cold as we expected, and the thermals, gloves and hat seemed a little overkill. I always thought ice =cold. In town was some signs for more thermal pools, so given we were tired and had not much else to do we thought we would check them out. They were awesome - a little smaller than Hanmer Springs, but beautiful at night set amongst a forrest of ferns. And there were hardly any people, we wallowed and floated our way through 36, 38 and 40 degree baths. Not having a bath for about 5 years made this heaven. And we retired with fantastically soft skin and very well relaxed.

Ahhhh, hot springs

One good thing about there being lots of volcanic activity is that there are lots of hot springs around. We'd not done the ones at Rotorua mostly due to time and smell. But Hamner had been on the cards for a while and would break up the drive between the wine areas a Franz Josef.


Hanmer Springs was our first rainy stop and it rained continually. A bikie convention had coincided with a mountain bike race (7 hours). but the town was very cute with lots of homemade things made with wool and a fantastic pub/restaurant with a cosy fire. We ate 2 of our 2 meals there and were very happy with the wine and the seafood.

The springs were awesome given the plumeting temperature and rain that had set in. It was unbelieveably busy, so a private room made up for the crowds of kids and families. We then braved the cold outside and smelly sulphur pools to warm up.

Little did we know that more (and far superior pools) were to come.

Canberra V Wellington

I had high hopes for Wellington after hearing about the fabulous food and arty crowd. Although its small population was a bit of a worry, but for a town about the size of canberra it is about 400 times livlier.

Loads of bars and non-public servanty people, an awesome museum (yes, museum) and pretty cool local designers made up for the hideous hostel we'd booked ourselves into (Base Wellington is now known as the nosiest hostel in the world).

Wellington is also the gateway to the ferry to the south island - so after a bleary early morning after no sleep we boarded the ferry over to Picton and wine country.

We'd decided to stay in Renwick rather than Blenheim due to its proximity to the wineries, but it was a very, very small town with not a whole lot going on, but the hostel was lovely. The wines were also lovely, although dominated by Pinot Gris and not the expected Sav Blanc.

From here I'd wanted to head off to Hanmer Springs for some pampering. It was a surprisingly busy town with about 400 bikies and a mountain bike race going on, so we were lucky to get accommodation.

Finally in NZ

After a surprisingly short plane ride, I'm now in a country where the people speak funny and the money is different. I'm used to having to travel for at least 8 hours for that.

Two days in Auckland saw more weather than Melbourne and an awesome night at La Clique (if you haven't seen the German in the bath, you haven't lived). It seems a bit like a town where everything happens out in the burbs - I felt like my whole time in the CBD was a bit like being on George St in Sydney. The accents are still amusing me though.

A mamoth drive saw us off to the Hot Beach where warm water comes out of the beach and you can wallow in the sandy warmth. We also stopped off at Cathedral Cove which was spectacular and well worth the walk down.

After that we headed on more windy roads off to Rotorua, where the smell cannot be described..well yes it can, and you know what it smells like. It was rather strange to see steam pouring out of the ground and somewhat unsafe. We did some wandering on the first night to look for a beverage and didn't see a soul - we were right in the centre of town and it was like the invasion of the body snatchers. We then happened upon an Irish pub which was full of Irish people - rather strange again.

My travel buddy dragged me off for some sledging down the rapids. If you're wondering about sledging, its kinda like body boarding on some rough water. http://www.kaitiaki.co.nz/ I wasn't entirely prepared for what was to come, but it was (mostly) fun and rather tiring. After the 10 minute walk to the beginning of the rapids in full gear with a 10 kilo board I was ready to call it a day. But an hour of flying uncontrollably down rapids and almost dying on more than one occasion was to follow. My fear of eels (during mating season mistaking my wetsuit covered leg for a mate) and either drowning or getting stuck in a whirlpool kept me alert and alarmed for much of the hour. I now have a rather spectacular collection of bruises which I didn't notice getting at the time.

We left Rotorua and headed for Napier a city which is all Art Deco due to a devastating earthquake. It was a rather cool place to wander around, and we even joined the toddlers for a look around the National Acquarium which also had kiwi's and glowworms - it was rather fun.

Next stop is the bottom of the South Island Wellington. I've heard of its gastronomic delights and am very much looking forward to dinner and a savignon blanc.