Wellington to Rotorua

I like Wellington. I do prefer smaller towns over big cities but I really like Wellington. I don't know exactly why but somehow it made a good impression on me. It is a very clean, neat city, with downtown that wraps around the harbour. Something like Victoria. They have a nice wide walkway that follows the shoreline of the downtown. We did visit their National Museum "Te Papa", old St. Paul Church, took cable car to the top of the hill and walked back down through Botanical Gardens. It has that feeling of a city of art and culture. Love it! Next time I will spent way more time here - so many things to see and do - galleries, theatres, museums, coffee shops :).


I have only couple picture of Wellington. Phillip usually has my phone, so check Martins blog for more professional pictures :)

Breakfast on top of Mount Victoria with a view - Wellington downtown. That is exactly what I like about campervan, you can stop anywhere and make your own coffee on the spot. Yahoo!

On the road to Turangi - back to dry land.

Phillips tanning session :), he doesn't know I took the picture. Good thing he is not reading my blog.

Waiotapu Thermal Park (on the way to Rotorua). Too bad we can't send you also the smell. Horrible. Sometimes it was hard to breathe.

Champagne Pool - 65m in diameter, 62m deep and the temperature is 74C, not bad huh? And the smell!

My favourite - mud pool - so funny to watch the hot mud spit and splatter. This pool is apparently the largest in the country.

Lake Rotorua - staying in the Holiday park close to the lake. We could go and dug up our own hot spa. First one Phillip dug up was too hot (boiling hot), so he tried closer to the lake.

And this is it. Nice and warm, perfect temperature but black and smelly, almost oily. After standing in there for few minutes we decided to sit in the cleaner pools in the camp.

The North Island is definitely different compare to the South. It's more populated and way more traffic on the road. Martin has to pull over more frequently to let the cars go by. It is very beautiful but it doesn't have the same serene feeling you get on the South part. We still have 6 more days to explore. Can't wait.

Last day on the South Island

Well, this is our last night on the South Island. We have spent 11 days here, drove over 2500 kms, seen absolutely gorgeous scenery and of course, thousands of sheep. Yes, it is very much like BC and Banff/Jasper but different. North part of the Island has sandy beaches with turquoise water and the temperature of the water is actually acceptable for swimming. Overall, life has a slower pace. Even in the bigger cities like Christchurch, Dunedin or Nelson, people seemed not to be in such a hurry. You notice more young people walking and actually talking to their friends without having cell phones in their hands. People are sitting and visiting with each other, drinking coffee, without keeping conversation with three other people on their phones. I like it. I like it a lot.
I am quite curious if the North Island will be different.

I will not get into details about the countryside, Martin did described it nicely in his post and i am sure he will tell you more again tonight. The one thing I like is to be back by the ocean. Yesterday we had a wonderful day in Abel Tasman National Park. Took Aqua taxi in the morning, got off in one of the bays (Anchorage) and then walked back to the camp - 12.4 kms. Martin took some great pictures, so dont forget to check his blog. I didn't have my phone with me so no pictures. Tonight we are staying at a little campervan park in Picton and I have to say, even though all of them were really good, this one is one of my favourite.

Tomorrow we are crossing on the ferry to the North Island, and we'll say goodbye to the South. I wish I could spend more time here. It is really beautiful.

So far new things I learned in NZ:
- to use the word motorhome, not R.V.
- ask for toilets, not washrooms
- walk on left side of the sidewalk
- wifi - no point paying for it, usually worse than dial up :)
- all yogurt is 98% fat free, meaning its made from skim milk (so far we haven't find any other)

So, this is it for today. Check Martins blog for more. I will post my comments again soon.

Kitchen/Dining Room/TV room

Showers

Dunedin and Queenstown

Dunedin is a older city and even though its one of the bigger cities on the South Island, it doesn't feel rushed or too busy. Martin bought some data package for iPad, so hopefully that will improve the possibility of uploading some pictures for you. For Martins awesome pictures you have to wait but for now you can at least see what we are up to.

Dunedin - Otago Peninsula. A place where you can see royal albatrosses and penguins. We were lucky to see albatrosses flying around and what a big bird. The wingspan must be at least 3m. Beautiful birds. We didn't see the colony because it would cost us $100 and unfortunately we didn't see penguins either because that would be another $100. Well, we might be lucky still and see them for free in Kaikoura.
Otherwise the Peninsula is a gorgeous place. Totally awesome. And, I finally got some pictures of my sheep. We stopped on the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the bay and on the slopes were thousands of sheep. All you could hear was birds and sheep. No traffic, no city hum, just quiet. I have a video but you have to wait for that one.

The countryside between Dunedin and Queenstown is very dry. We don't know if it is like that because of the exceptionally dry summer or if it is always like that. It's like driving through Kamloops.

Queenstown - what a different city compare to Dunedin or even Christchurch. Just imagine Banff Village on the shore of Okanagan Lake, and with all the tourists and attractions (helicopter rides, jet boat rides, gondolas, bungy jumping, paragliding and more). Very nice place to walk around and enjoy beautiful scenery of the lake Wakatipu and the mountains - The Remarcables. We did join other tourist on one of the attractions that Queenstown offers - gondola and luge. You take the gondola up the mountain and from there you take another short lift to luge track. Wow, fun, fun, fun! At first we thought that it will be little slow but you can make the luge to go quite fast. At times I thought I will flip over. Even though group racing is not permitted, guess what we did. Phillip won three times, Martin one time and I won once. Poor Michael was too light to make it go faster then ours. But we all had lots of fun. Beautiful views from the lookout platform and we were even lucky to see a crazy guy bungy jumping - while sitting on his bike, crazy huh? I had hard time to even watch him. Never ever this will happen to me!!

After talking to visitor center girl (she was from Edmonton, Canada) and learning that the west coast is a lot like Jasper and Banff, we've decided to make our way to the east side and get to Malborough and Nelson region as fast as possible. We have only four days left on the South and the North part is the place with beautiful beaches. Planning to have a driving day tomorrow and go as far as possible.

We've managed to get as far as Lake Tekapo that evening. When we were here couple days ago we had a bad weather but this time we had sun and Martin was able to get some great pictures of the Church. We even saw Mt.Cook at Lake Pukaki.

That night was are first freedom camping - away from the town by the lake Alexandra.

Another great day. And of course we saw lots of sheep, sheep, and more sheep.

Moeraki Boulders

We stayed in another Holiday Park close to Moeraki Boulders. This time they offered free wifi - yahoo. The happiness lasted only for few minutes because their wifi is worse than a dial up in Canada. Yes, you can check your emails, maybe Facebook, but try to do our blog and download pictures. Impossible!! And this is not the only place. If you go to coffee shops with free wifi - same thing. I am ok with that but I think we have to limit how many pictures we can upload and how often.

Moeraki Boulders - huge round boulders spread out on the beach. Very unusual, and very popular. Unfortunately, weather was not cooperating with us and we had to do this stop a'la Chinese tourist style - click, click, click and move on :)) Our next planned stop is Dunedin.

You know how in Canada you have to be careful when you driving not to hit a deer, or moose or bear? Well, here the only thing you can hit is either possum, hedgehog or a bird. I saw a t-shirt that said: Possum - the natural NZ soft speed bump. And it's true, you see a lot of dead possums or hedgehogs on the road. And we already hit two big birds. At least they don't do any damage on your vehicle. Actually the only deer we see are on the deer farms.

Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki

It's raining. Everybody in South NZ are cheering, and I am trying to be happy for them too ;). After long dry period they were wishing for rain. Well, nothing we can do about it.
Our next stop - Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. As soon we left Geraldine the countryside changed. No more flat countrysidebut nice rolling hills. But everything dry - yellow. And LOTS of sheep. Sheep sheep sheep. Hard to describe the countryside - at times I felt like we are back home in Czech, other times like on the way to Kamloops or Vernon. Except with lots of sheep :).

Lake Tekapo and Church of Good Shepherd - very famous tourist attraction in New Zealand. The Church is very nice but I was kind of disappointed. It is located very close to the highway and you can almost stay in the car, drive by and take a picture. I know, that's how usually big attractions. But no complaints, still felt really special to see it for real.
We were lucky to see nice panorama of the lake from the lookout just before the rain started. Because of the weather we continued toward Lake Pukaki.
Lake Pukaki - you can see beautiful lake with Mt.Cook in the back but unfortunately the rain got worse. After talking with visitor info lady and finding out that the weather will stay like like that for next couple of days we continued. Oh well, I really looked forward to see both lakes. Maybe next time.

We made it all the way to the east coast - town called Oamaru and camped in Moeraki Holiday Park.

I have to say that I really enjoy having the boys with us. We have lots of fun and it is nice to spend time together. It's also quite interesting to get their opinion on things we see.

Following pictures are not the greatest for quality because I took them while we were driving. Roads are narrower than in Canada and usually no shoulder to pull over. Especially with our home on wheels. I I thought you might enjoy them anyway.

On the road. Boys are just awesome.

"Right" side driving no problem for this guy

Lake Tekapo

Lake Pukaki

Christchurch to Geraldine

Our first sleep in Christchurch "Top 10 Holiday Park" - great place. Not only because it was only few kilometres from the place where we picked up our motor home but also close to grocery store. At first I thought that Holiday Park was just a name but its the same thing as what we call campground/RV sites. These parks include free showers, kitchen facilities, laundry and some of them have swimming pools (indoor, outdoor) etc. This one in Christchurch was really great.

After 10 hour sleep I was ready for our adventure to begin. After breakfast we were off to locate i-site center (pronounced "sintr" - meaning visitor center). Finding one in downtown was not as easy as we thought, and even GPS had few troubles. We realized that the city has not yet recovered since the last big earthquake. Lots of construction everywhere, roads closed and broken, building demolished and sites being prepared for new buildings. Old churches closed and in the process of restoration. The Cathedral is still being restored and it looks its going to take a while. We have managed to visit a museum, walk through Botanical gardens, drive through the University of Canterbury and take few photos from the lookout. Even though we haven't spent too much time in the city, I had a very nice feelings about it. It is old city, but you can see lot of new projects on the way. What was really interesting is the vegetation - you will find huge chestnut trees, oak trees and palm trees (at least they look like palm trees). The Botanical Garden was really awesome.

The countryside is very flat around Christchurch - farmland and lots of sheep and cows. Crossed few big rivers that were either totally dry or very little water. They told us that its been a exceptionally dry summer and that they are really needing the rain. Our day ended in Geraldine at Grumpy's Holiday Park. Wow, farm in the middle of nowhere. Very quiet and lots of moths. A lot, believe me. But no mosquitoes :)).

Driving on "right" side - Martin is really awesome, no problems at all. Good thing that I am not behind the wheel - First roundabout and I would be going the wrong way :)

Our home on wheels for 22 days

Facilities in Holiday Park

Showers

Laundry

Kitchen

Breakfast

Downtown Christchurch - city mall - all stores are done from containers - looking really good. You can imagine Martins excitement. Martin has a better picture but I can't use it at this moment.

No comment :)

Botanical Gardens - flower season is gone, but the trees was awesome

Botanical Gardens

Lookout

Had to add this one - they don't store eggs in the fridge, interesting huh? I remember this from Czech.

The Beginning

Well, you might be surprise to see my own blog. To tell you the truth, I am surprised myself. At first I thought that there is no point to write a blog if Martin is already letting you know what is happening here in NZ but then I kind of wanted to write down my feelings about this trip. So instead of only keeping a diary just for myself I've decided to write this down in form of a blog and share it with my family and closest friends. I am sure that at times you might think we're on different trip, if you compare my notes with Martin's, but at the end it might even be more interesting.

As I said before, I will be sharing this only with my family and friends, I hope you will be forgiving and overlook all spelling and grammar mistakes. Otherwise, it will really make me frustrated and I will not be able to write anything. Thank you all in advance for understanding and hope you will enjoy my notes about our trip.

I will try to enter my "reflections" as much as possible. It took me longer to set this up (actually my dear husband did it) - hard to get really good wifi reception, so I am already two days late.

Well my friends, that is all for now.