NZ : Glacier Highway. Man, that shit is glacial.

We stopped on our way down to Franz Josef to say a quick farewell to the Greymouth boys and to marvel at the setting concrete on the driveway we had helped with the day before.

The road South led us along Glacier highway, where we were able to marvel at the vast expanse of mountain range on all sides.



We rolled in to Franz Josef village early evening and set up at Chateaux Franz, deciding last minute that we were going to do a 17km hike the next day. We made full use of the hot tub on offer and got ourselves set up with some hearty food for the evening. Pete, a loose family tie of Jan's came round for the evening to share dinner and watch a scary movie, he was in the process of training to be a glacier guide and lived nearby. Pete kindly offered us a room for the following night which was very well received post-walk.

Starting out early on the Saturday morning we tried, and failed, at our first hitchhiking attempt to get to the Alex Knob trailhead, grizzling at all of the cars passing us by. We reached the track 2km later.
We started the track with a little bit of apprehension, we'd been warned a couple of times that "this track is only for experienced trampers," but as per usual we laughed in the face of danger.

The trail was rocky and there were often fallen trees to negotiate. Tree roots as high as our waists meant hauling ourselves up and over unelegantly. The route zigzaged steeply up to Rata Lookout, our first view of the glacier. It was then a more gentle grade to Christmas Lookout where we had fantastic views and more photo ops than you could shake a stick at. Once we reached the upper bush edge, the track continued steeply through mountain daisies to the Alex Knob summit where we stopped for a frosty lunch and gawked at the sign telling us that we were at 1,303m (higher than Mt Snowden.)

The views from here were astonishing and confirmed that there was no need to pay through the nose for a scenic flight, as helicopters were flying past, parallel to the height that we'd just climbed. The whole track was estimated to take 8 hours and we made it back down in 5 hours 50mins with time to spare for coffee and Doughnut-Saturday at the European Bakery. Yum!

That evening we headed to Pete's house to stay with him and two other glacier guides, Will and John. When we arrived we found the boys swinging over a ditch from a length of rope supported between two spindly looking trees. It was a delight staying out in the cottage in the woods where we were able to have hot showers, wash our clothes and even had dinner cooked for us, eaten in front of a roaring log fire.

We'll mention little of the disappointing next day - Copland Track FAIL.

Mother Nature -1 
Jan & Sooz - 0

Severe weather warning foiled our plans to do a big tramp up to Welcome Hut on the Copland trail.
Against better judgment we started only to find creeks with burst banks and an impassable flooded track. A swift U-turn saw us faced with a ferocious river which had risen around 1ft since we had crossed it less than an hour beforehand, resulting in a 2 hour diversion to the nearest swing bridge. Arriving back at the car saw us savaged by sandflies, cold, wet, miserable and eating our emotions.

Following this mammoth disappointment we sulked over to Fox's glacier village to climb in to bed and read books whilst the weather raged outside. After dinner and a film we retreated to bed for an early night before our full day glacier hiking.

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.

NZ : Greymouth - Travel Wankers Dinner.

"From air to table in less than 10 hours'

 - Susie Cox

Travel Wankers Dinner


INGREDIENTS :

- 2 silly girls
- 3 hunters willing to humour them
- 1 sitting duck
- 2 MASSIVE F OFF GUNS!


RECIPE  SERVES 3


Step 1 : Become fixated with the idea of wanting to shoot and eat an animal (in essence become slightly Ferral)

Step 2 : Be on the look out for a man in a flannel shirt. When you spot him, accost him, and his friends. Play 21 questions regarding hunting until the guys give in and offer to take the morning off work for a hunt (exchange an afternoon of manual labour to sweeten the deal.)

Step 3 : Drive in to the middle of the woods with 3 strange men and two very big shotguns (avoid telling parents until the end of the recipe.)

Step 4 : Hike through native bush and private land, mushroom spotting and trying to be very quiet until you reach the duck hole.

Step 5 : Allow men to SHOOT! Whilst we stand back and video the whole thing.

Step 6 : Collect your prize. WARNING : Do not wade out in to cold river to retrieve. Lets keep this recipe safe people!

Step 7 : In order to ensure safety allow women to only shoot shotgun at inanimate target such as a dustbin lid.

Step 8: Leave duck to ripen in garage during the afternoon whilst heading off to learn how to lay a driveway and play around with a Digger.

Step 9 : Follow instruction given by 'The Boss' on how to de-head, de-wing, de-foot and de-gut a duck. Essential tools : Axe and chopping block for maximum efficiency, sharp knife also advised.    

Step 10 : Once carcass is prepared place in oven bag in casserole dish to maintain precious juices and allow to cook for around an hour.

Step 11 : Prepare accompaniments, we suggest :
- Savoy cabbage and leeks
- Mashed potato and kumara
- Steamed Broccoli.
- Gravy made using the duck fat.

STEP 12 : Enjoy with new friends!   

This blog comes with many thanks to Alan (The Boss), Jimmy and Stepi who showed us that Greymouth is worth more than just Pancake rocks.

We politely declined an offer to stay at the Boss's house, not wanting to impose more than we already had and ended up staying at Global Village Back Packers. This was an incredible hostel with all the warmth and hospitality you would expect from home. Kindly staff such as Simon, who was a real gem, ensured our own room away from the noisy hitchhikers we'd picked up along the way.

Our first hunting trip was a blinding success.

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.


 

NZ : Abel Tasman Coastal Walk.

So... we survived the Abel Tasman, just about.

Day 1:

We began the walk on a Sunday, this was not to be 'the day of rest.'

This was our longest day walking a mammoth 26km (16 1/4 miles) from our car to our first stop over destination of Bark Bay hut. We were walking for the first time with our packs on our backs, feeling more like pack-mules than enthusiastic hikers. An extra 10kg can make all the difference to your stamina.

The weather was in our favour and the scenery was gorgeous. We passed golden beaches, rocky outcrops and unmodified estuaries.  At 22,500 hectares Abel Tasman is New Zealands smallest but most beautiful natural park.We tramped through dense jungle which was welcome respite from the glaring sun.

Our half way mark for the day was Anchorage Bay, another hut site closed for the season. It was lunchtime when we reached this point and our first opportunity to play with the gas stove, heating up soup and coffee amidsts swarms of nippy sandflies. This was where we were first introduced to the formidable sandfly after hearing so much about them from passing travellers. We are still debating which are worse mosquitoes or sandflies.

The undulating track was sandy gravel golden sandy and slippery in places from the damp forest.
The route contained many foot bridges over lovely little burbling streams and waterfalls, howeveer by the end of day one we were vowing that if we see another footbridge, "we'll HUFF and we'll PUFF and we'll... I dunno, walk over it." We were sick of them.

Approximately 20km in to the track Susie's feet started to develop small blisters which weren't, as yet, comprimising her ability to walk. We kept up moral by fiercly hunting out and photographing a variety of mushrooms and chanting louding 'PEAK PHYSICAL FITNESS!'

"When I say PEAK, you say PHYSICAL...PEAK" 
"PHYSICAL"
"PEAK"
"PHYSICAL"

We arrived at Bark Bay Hut just before sunset, in time to scope out our abode before we were left in the pitch darkness of night without any electricity or fire. We managed to cook our Watties packeted dinner by torchlight and sat around the table feeling very sorry for ourselves with our aching bodies. There were a few other walkers in the hut from around the world all doing different routes.

We hit the sack early ready for a more mellow walk the next day.

Day 2: In the morning we cooked up a hearty porridge for breakfast and splashed our grimy faces with cold water and all the other bits got a seeing to with a moist towelette. We were delicate that day.

This was to be our first tidal crossing to contend with along the trail and timing was of utmost importance, setting off off at 8:20am toward Awaroa Hut around 13km away. Walking the track we were able to see an array of wildlife and hear the calls of many different birds. One of our favourites in particular were the friendly and curious Fantail. As the little birds darted and weaved down the track infront of us we were able to take in the beautiful sceneray around us. Our arrival time at the Hut was 13:00, by which time Susie's feet were raw with open blisters, her little toes had been completely degloved.

This afternoon was ours to do with as we pleased. We napped, read books, watched the sun go down and were greatful to a fellow tramper who was able to get the castiron fire place roaring with wood from the woodshed. We lay infront of the fire warming our sore and tired limbs and generally just enjoying the wildreness at its best. Our dinnner that evening consisted of nuts and raisins for entree, 2 sachets of cheesy pasta, each sachet apparently enough for 4 servings... this made hardly a bowl full each. STARVING!

As we bedded down for the night, with only the light from the flickering flames we were both dubious as to how Susie's feet were going to hold up the following day with yet another tidal crossing and 13kms to tackle.

Day 3: The ambition for our third day was to reach the final hut Wharwharangi, and the end of the Abel Tasman track. We had a long wait that morning until we could embark on this portion of the trip due to the tidal crossing, we were practically stranded by the sea in our hut until the estuary had cleared. The local Park Ranger visited and warned us that no matter how low the tide, the icy cold water of the crossing would be up to our knees at the very least. Stripping down to our pants and donning big waterproof Ponchos we danced around psyching ourselves up for the challenge. The water was freezing and the sand banks were treacherous with the remnants of thousands of crushed shells. Shivering and complaining we made it across and quickly washed off our feet and dressed, by this time Susie's blisters were full of sand and very tender, we talked long and hard about the possibility of her not finishing the hike and finally after much deliberation she decided to concede. We had a final sandfly-full farewell lunch of tuna sandwiches and held back tears, parting ways as Jan headed Northwards and Susie awaited the AquaTaxi to head back to the car.

Susie was faced with 1.5m swells on the journey back to shore and was feeling a little bit squiffy as she chatted away to two guys from New Zealand who had just completed the Heaphy track and also had the blisters to prove it. Justin the skipper was enlisted to play a prank on Jan, arriving the next day exclaiming ' Hi Jan, so good to see you, the last time I saw you, you had blonde hair, how was university in Bristol and how's Diesel the dog.' Sooz went back to 'The Barn' hostel and had a sad pasta dinner. While waiting for jan to arrive back the next day she sat in a Kaiteriteri cafe eating a huge blueberry muffin the size of her head and read a book by the fire with a coffee.

Jan carried on the last 7.5km of the track alone, realising how much more scary the dark junglescape was when on your own and going a little crazy. She walked up to Seperation Point and saw a lovely seal basking near the lighthouse before pushing on, upwards and upwards and upwards until reaching the next hut. This was an old Homestead and supposedly haunted. A warm fire, a single candle and a chess set were enough to keep conversation going between the 4 strangers who stayed in the accomodation that night. Jan, being easily spooked, had a rubbish nights sleep and somewhere around 4am enlisted one of the more manly walkers to investigate spooky noises in the kitchen.

Day 4: The morning was damp and clear, there was a rainbow in the sky with its finishing point at Totatarui, the final point of the walk. Jan powered on, bedraggled, sweating and totally knackered she finally arrived at the AquaTaxi point. It was done, the walk was over and Jan watched the passing shoreline amazed at how far they had both come in such a short time.


Torrential rain welcomed the next part of our journey as we headed down the West Coast toward Greymouth.

Peace and Love,

Susie and Jan.

NZ : Ferry to the South Island and beyond.

The crossing for the ferry was an early one and saw us up before the crack of dawn to get down to the Inter-island Crossing for a 07:15 check in and 08:15 departure. The air was cold and for the first time in a long time, we were able to see our breath on this cold and clear day. The sun was peaking from behind the breaker as swans and ducks were visable in the harbour. We boarded the ferry in our car and headed straight up to the cafe for a good view and ideal location to plan our south island trip.

It was here we finally realised the error of our ways and recognised the enormity of the south Island. With only 3 weeks left, we trawled through the maps and recieved help from a local friendly truck driver who had obviously taken pity on us and our overwhelming collection of scrawled papers and leaflets. Whilst he tried his best to inform us of the great things to see and do, we tried our darndest not to chunder in his face. The first 20minutes of the journey was choppy to say the least and we weren't sporting sea legs of any kind, we were literally green at the gills. As the sea settled and the rocking eased, we satisfied out tummies and shared a full english breakfast that was really rather yummy. Shortly after this, we were delighted to see a pod of dolpins jumping out of the water alongside the front of the boat in their hundereds. No need to pay for dolphin watching when this spectacular sight was free for all to see.

The boat docked and we drove on to the I Site in Picton for information on the route to Nelson. Fortunately, a slight detour would take us to a highway teeming with Cellar Door Wineries for Jan to indugled her tastebuds in some of the finest Sauvignon Blancs she has ever tasted. We discovered more about wine from a variety of characters on the way in the beautiful surroundings of Marlborough Sounds. If ever in doubt all you need to say regarding wine is, 'Hmm, thats got a great nose on it.' and 'Look at the legs on that.' This will apparently get you by no problem. We also encountered artisan chocolatiers and fudge makers and simply couldnt resist Creme Brulee and Tiramisu to take on the road.

We arrived in Nelson and met our host for the next 2 evenings, Steve. A tattoo sporting, Harley Davidson driving, film buff who was a real gem and let us take over his lazy boy chairs and enjoy his film collection on the 2 rainy days we spent in Nelson. After the full throttle, adventure exteme few weeks, we decided it was time to take a break from the crazy shinanigans and attend to some 'office' business. This saw us frantically blogging and uploading weeks worth of photos. We had become so slack in blogging whilst in Fiji but were welcoming of the 2 relaxing and slow paced days to catch up on ourselves. Especially catching up on some much loved and incredibly infrequent trash TV under the guise of 'conserving energy' for our mammoth walk ahead.

Earlier that day we had been productive enough to book our 35mile, 3/4 day Abel Tasman Coastal Walk in the DOC site and spend far too long in the local shop searching for food that would be easy to cook over a teeny tiny stove, in our teeny tiny pot. We needed to stash up on 'happy food', as Jan calls it, so when we are tired, cold, wet and sleeping in a hut, we have something to put a smile back on our face..... We'll let you know how we get on (if we survive)!!!

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.

NZ : Wellington - The Lost Days.

From Taupo we planned to head to Napier and Hawks Bay for a couple of relaxing days by the sea. This plan, as with many, quickly changed as we arrived and realised that there was little to do in this small Art Deco town. Napier was destroyed in the 1931 earthquake and all buildings had to be rebuilt. This left Napier stuck in the 30's era with quaint streets and vintage looking structures. We stopped here briefly for a bite to eat at Ujazi, a delightful cafe with delicious food before deciding to pop to the craft shop down the road to make jewelery and apease our creative side.

Wellington was approximately 200km away so we made the choice to power through and reach the capital before the day was over. The long drive saw us playing 21 questions and the less entertaining I-spy. We had a slightly hairy incident in which the Sat Nav took us to a non existant petrol station, and running on fumes alone meant we had to door knock in the small village for help. The kind man who answered the door, generouly offered us a hand with directions and topped us up with enough gas to get us to the nearest station. Thanks Mike!

We arrived at the Cambridge Hotel Backpackers in Wellington around 21:00, just enough time for a quick drink before bed and to accost the receptionist for 'must sees' whilst in the capital. With a full itinerary in the pipeline, we retired to bed for much needed rest and recouperation.






The first morning saw us rambling around Cuba Street, Wellingtons notoriously alternative hub full of coffee houses, vintage stores and book shops galore. We were in our eliment and spents hours bouncing from rail to rail oogling all the treasures we couldn't afford. With much resistance, we left empty handed, except for our tickets to see the renowned stand up comedian, Steve Hughes. We had a true Lord of the Rings experience in the afternoon as we made our way to east Wellington to visit the ever popular Weta Caves.

The Weta Cave is Weta's mini-museum, theaterette and shop located on the corner of the actual workshop where props and production take place for major motion pictures such as Avatar, LOTR, King Kong and Tin Tin, but to name a few. Here we had the pleasure of talking to Mark, who was a fountain of knowledge and shared stories of his time of the set of LOTR as a Orc and Hobbit. We took this oportunity to pose with numerous fiberglass figures, such as Trolls, Gollum, and a huge Uruk-hai before quickly dashing to the airport for a glimpse of the 2,645-pound, 9.8 foot-high, 43-foot-long sculpture of Gollum created in 3 days and nights to celebrate Peter Jackson's newest film, The Hobbit.

Before making our way to the San Francisco Bath House, we did our best to make ourselves look presentable for our first evening out in some time. Unfortunately, a malfuctioning hairdryer incident left Susie with a singed hair style, far from desirable. Steve Huges' black comedy suited our British sense of humour perfectly and we belly laughed our way through the evening. This conspiracy theorist/cynic touched upon some of the worlds hot topical debates and was almost uncomfortably politcally incorrect at times, but we loved it. So much so, we have taken some choice phrases away with us, the funniest being his views on popular music videos, 'Oh great here's a dickhead dancing on T.V and some sluts have appeared....I'm offended, call the police.' This was in reference to not being able to quantify being offended in a court of law. 'Well... your being offended... offends me!'. The man was a genius. See link below for snippet of this hilarious comedian.

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=29555


We had a stroke of luck the next day on our way to Zealandia as we met a traveller leaving the country who gave us some gas and cooking stuff he was looking to get rid of. Score!

Zealandia is an eco-sancutary on the outskirts of Wellington, here we used our GrabOne discounted tickets to see some of New Zealand's rarest birds, reptiles and insects living wild in their natural environment, including hihi, tuatara, saddleback, kākā and tui. We met a spritely character called Judith, a lady in her late 70's who was travelling New Zealand and staying in the YHA hostel. She was so inspiring, she had an eviable zest for life and did not let age or frailty ( 2 knee replacements) stop her from doing anything and everything that she wanted to. After our Zealandia tour we sat in the Botanical Rose Garde and had lunch with this lovely woman, enthralled by her tales of travel and teaching. We both felt a warm glow as we parted from Judith to head down in to Wellington centre.

We wandered about the town and started our preparations for the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk, one of New Zealands Great walks, at the Department of Conservation centre where we picked up maps nd tidal crossing times (whic were very important to know unless you wanted to swim these parts of the walks.)  As we learned more about this walk we realised that it was going to mean multiple days of walking and staying in huts with the most basic of facilities just running water and drop toilets, no heating, electricity or cooking facilities. It was too late to back out, our egos had latched on to the idea and were not letting go, we had sealed our fate.

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.


 

NZ : Mt Doom!

On the way to Taupo the two of us and our hitch-hiker Kevin stopped off at an awesome little spot called Butchers Pool (less scary than it sounds.) A natural thermal pool in the middle of nowhere in a farmers field. We couldn't resist jumping out of the car and in road trip style getting on our swimmers and jumping in for a bathe in the bubbling, sulphurous waters. It was really gorgeous and the misty rain added to the experience.

Our journey continued as we headed toward Huka Falls in search of the illusive 'Hot and Cold River' that we had heard so much about and for a short 2 hour tramp to see the popular falls. The Huka Falls were impressive to say the least, approximately 220,000 litres of water per second gushing over the 35ft cliff. After finding a fallen tree the child in us couldn't resist trapezing cautiously along its length much to the disgust of the passing tourguide and the amazement of the children she led. Nothing like being a bad example.

 

By the end of our walk we were ready for a refreshing dip in the hot and cold spring where the cold water of the river meets the hot flow of the volcanic spring. We bathed under warm waterfalls beneath a small walking bridge, barely daring to poke our toes out in to the icy cold flowing river adjoining the pool. We managed a stealthy change of clothes before bidding farewell to Kevin and set off to meet our next couchsurfers, Nathan, Sam and Rob.

These guys were what we had been searching for from the couchsurfing experience.
With an instant rapport we whiled away the evening laughing, dancing up a storm in the living room and being far too easily convinced to sky dive the following day. Fortunately, being agreeable suits us as Taupo SkyDive was to be the most EPIC skydive we have done to date. Sam was the pilot and Rob and Nathan were part of the SkyDive team which very kindly entitled us to staff discount!
These guys were a blast and not many people in just 24 hours could convince us to jump out of a plane.... again!

 

 

After more adrenaline junkie fixes we had a short jaunt over to Extreme Backpackers in preparation for the infamous Tongariro Alpine Crossing a.k.a. MOUNT DOOM.
The walk was 19.2km with a 2,700ft incline, this was going to be some challenge and our biggest walk yet.

Our bags were packed with goodies to give us strength, the camera was charged and we had our waterproofs at the ready as we embarked early Sunday morning. Nothing could prepare us for the staggering sights that lay ahead. As we walked we were able to pinpoint the geographic locations of The Lord of the Rings battle scenes and the final resting place of the Ring. On our descent we passed the gorgeous Emerald and Blue Lakes. Due to recent volcanic activity (the track had been open little over a week to the public as a recent eruption caused the path to be unsafe) there was a thick, acidic sulphurous smell in the air and nearby plumes of smoke could be seen seeping from the mountain range.

The uphill part of the walk was tough and often there was loose ground which meant 2 steps forward and 1 step back. The winds were up and howled around us near the Red Crator, the peak of the walk, we felt as if we might almost be blown off of the side of the mountain. With a wide and steady stance we made our way down the rocky descent.

 We decided toward the end of the walk that we wanted to compelte it in under 6 hours (the guidebook suggests that the walk take 7-8hours) and this was where we decided 'fuck it, lets run!!' The last 2km was spent with intermittant sprints and light jogs, red faced and puffing Jan was first to reach the hidden end of the track with moments to spare, turning back to shout 'SUSIE RUUUUNNNNN.'
We made it to the end in the nick of time 5h59mins.
PAH-PLOW!
Thumbs Up!

With wearing eyes and aching legs we treated ourselves to a night in the living room of our cosy hostel with a take-away and, of course, NZ Xfactor.

With every new experience we are guilty of calling it 'the best experience ever' but this really was phenomenal and won't be forgotten.

Peace and love,

Jan and Sooz

NZ : Roto-Vegas.

We headed to Rotorua from Waitomo struggling to stay awake after our caving and arrived early evening at Crank Backpackers. A big hostel with an art cinema and climbing wall downstairs and all the facilities a backpacker could hope for : a sizable kitchen, gym and good bathroom facilities (although the unisex bathrooms were a little unsettling at first!)

We were so tired on our first night but pulled it together and hit the streets in search of food, we were recommended a little Turkish restaurant where the staff were friendly and the food was just what we needed, wholesome and full of flavour. They even took a photograph of us for their facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/susie.cox.1481#!/SKTCR?fref=ts

Susie was fading fast and headed for bed, while Jan stayed up with a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a cinema all to herself to watch the film 'Barbara.'

The next day was an early start as we set out to Redwood Village to catch some views of the Geysers for free. We accidentally stumbled on to an internet site about geocaching walks which led us on a mission to find the 'Yellow Walk' Geocach. Those who don't know about Geocaching are referred to as 'Muggles' so we had to be stealthy when we found the prize!

At one of the geyser lookouts Susie struck gold when finding the hidden Geocach and we eagerly opened it to find it full of stuffed toys, we took one small teddy bear in exchange for a Fiji shell and 2 fijian dollars and left a message in the enclosed notebook. Celebrations all round for our first success!

In the afternoon we headed to the Blue and Green lkakes where we made tuna sandwiches in the boot of our car and watched the crazy man in a wet suit searching for gold in the water. It was absolutely stunning here. We picked up some postcards earlier in the day from the Redwood Visitors centre and sat at 'The End of the Road' cafe overlooking yet another a lake and sipping on coffees.

 

 

Despite our all-action day we did not stop there... oh no, we then had a 2 hour session rock climbing.
Susie was climbing for the first time since a bad experience at age 14 which had left her scarred, however, she overcame her fears and was quite the natural at climbing. We learned to belay one another the New Zealand way and were soon racing up the wall, our particular favourite was the 4 walled chimney.

After all of this activity we felt deserved of a dip in the local Sulphur pools at the Polynesian Spa, there were a variety of acidic and alkaline pools to soften the skin and rejuvenate the muscles. The pools ranged from 39C  to a toasty 43 C and some had lanolin in the water to enhance the softening effects.

The day was about to end on the perfect high as we followed Ruth's advice for the best burgers in the country : BURGERFUEL!! An all 'healthy', non GM option to fast food and damn it was good.
We had 1/3 pounder burgers with lashings of aioli, jalapenos, cheese, cheese and more cheese with Motobites on the side (sweet potato and pumpkin morsels of heaven.)

By this time it was ten o clock and we had, had a relentless 14 hour day which can induce narcolepsy and that it did as we hit the bed and were asleep in seconds.

Big adventures were planned for the next day as we adopted ourselves a hitchhiker, German Kevin who was also on the road to Taupo.

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.

NZ : Cave Rave

Suddenly we found ourselves making up for lost time from our unanticipated stops as we spent the whole day driving down from KeriKeri to Piha beach on the West Coast of Auckland. We arrived at Piha just in time for the sunset and walked to the top of Lion Head Rock to catch the fading rays and beautiful sunset over the sea.

 

 

While we were mincing about doing cartwheels and jumping on the beach we met a couple of British travellers who had hitchhiked to the beach and offered them a lift back to the main road. At the last minute we had decided to push on with our driving in to the night, aiming to reach a campsite in Waitomo so that we could go on our caving adventure the next day. Wai is the Mauri word for Water, and Tomo is the word for Cave, this is the origin of the town of Waitomo's name.

After a rough and cold night sleep in the back of the car we stumbled with our coffee flasks to the Black Water Rafting Company and signed up for 'The Black Abyss.' This was a five hour cave exploration which involved a 35 meter abseil in to the cave, a zip wire through the darkness and black water tubing under glow worm lit ceilings.

The water in the cave was absolutely freezing and took away your breath as you jumped in to it on rubber tubes. To keep the hypothermia at bay we had regular stops for warm drinks and sugary flapjacks, some of us even poured the drinks in to our wet suits to stay warm. To exit the cave system we had to climb up a treacherous trio of waterfalls and everyone high-fived to be alive at the end of the exhilarating experience.

We had warm showers at the end while we were looking through our photos of the day, munching on bagels and hot soup, we also managed to pick ourselves up another bumper sticker to add to the collection.

Despite being chilled to the bone, we made tracks to gain another night and headed straight for Rotorua (also known as Roto-Vegas).

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.



wiatomo - rotorua

NZ : Welcome to the magazine and wine party

When we arrived in KeriKeri far from the beaten track, we crunched up the gravel path toward one of the most gorgeous houses either of us had ever seen. We were looking frizzy, windswept and pretty shattered from all of our diving but were welcomed with open arms by Vanessa and the family. We had arrived at the Owens in the Bay of Islands for what was supposed to be a quick two day Help x experience, but as we stepped in to this delightful home and were welgiven home made bread and seafood chowder, we both realised that a short stay was not going to be possible at somewhere this lovely.

Vanessa and Richard were kindly letting us stay in Driftwood Bach (NZ term for a holiday cottage) and when we saw the place we could not believe our eyes, a vintage looking cottage with  fully equipped kitchen, washing facilities and a DVD collection that could keep us busy for months, there was definitely a happy-dance performed as soon as we were on our own.

Whilst you're travelling heaven = clean clothes, a place to cook, hot water and clean linen:
As we looked out over the astonishing view of the Bay of Islands and sky full to bursting with twinkling stars we both remarked on how truly blessed we are on this trip that such unexpected and wonderful experiences seem to find us.

We spent the next day working with Vanessa sprucing up the new headmasters abode. We painted a water tank, a shed, lots of fencing and carried more buckets of mulch to the raised beds than we care to remember. It was a hard slog but all worth while when we cooked up a lovely meal of bangers and mash and lay our heads on the feather pillows to watch some movies!

The weather was fine the next day and we made our journey up to the very North of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. It was a pretty big drive but rewarded by the views of the turbulent ocean where the Pacific meets the Tasman Sea creating big foamy, impressive wave formations coming in at angles to one another.

 From this raised point looking out in to the vast ocean beyond you could see the curvature of the horizon. This was to be our first night sleeping in the wagon, we parked up at Spirits Bay, blew up the mattresses, munched on our dinner and were tucked up by 6.45pm, it gets dark early in the middle of nowhere with no electricity.

We spent the evening reading our books and listening to the howling winds and rain that had started up outside. It certainly was a different kind of experience sleeping in the back of the car and as we headed back toward the Owen estate we were pleased to be offered some warmth and a comfy bed for the night.

We simply couldn't resist the delightful family and beautiful surroundings so we ended up spending another 3 days with the Owens. Vanessa had us painting vintage caravans and cutting out appliqué for the decorative cushions, Susie was even able to help Vanessa's daughter Millie to groom her horses. We were invited to join the family for a Sunday roast which was delicious and much appreciated before we headed to the Bach to catch NZ Xfactor taking Molly, their teeny dog with us for some extra company.

I think we fell a little bit in love with the whole family and were sad to say goodbye to them as we departed with our goodies of homemade cupcakes and fig chutney. We were headed back down South hastily trying to make up for lost time and prepared ourselves for the big drive to Piha beach and beyond...

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.