New Zealand
We first spotted New Zealand 50 years ago watching a cinema travelogue and decided to put it on our bucket list. Then about 15 years ago we decided that we had to go whilst we were still able to cope with the distances involved in getting there. We found a "New Zealand by train" package and sorted out flights. It turned out there was little difference in cost between UK-NZ and return or doing the full circumnavigation so the latter it was. Our route was London - Hong Kong then 3 nights to get rid of jetlag. Then Hong Kong - Sydney for 3 nights because it would be crazy not to! The homeward journey was New Zealand - Fiji - San Francisco - London. The trip of a lifetime and it should be on your bucket list. Christchurch was our NZ start point . A delightful town full of flowers and with a nice tram system to get around on. Sadly since we were there it has suffered two tragedies with first a devastating earthquake wrecking much of the centre and then the Australian nutcase attacking worshippers in mosques but you should NOT be put off by those events, they are not the norm. Our journey took us southwards past many horseracing breeding farms and vineyards, down the east coast where we saw basking seals and the 65 million year old spherical Moeraki Boulders just there on the beach. Then on to Dunedin which is known as the Edinburgh of New Zealand and is the major city of the south. Unfortunately this doesn`t mean that there is a decent hotel there though!. We were booked into the Leviathon which I would kindly describe as a backpackers hostel stinking of "smoking products various" and with a total lack of interest in customer service. Fourteen years on their reviews tell me that nothing has changed. Avoid like the plague - check my photo so that you don`t fall into the trap. However, moving on. Dunedin is the home of an amazing railway station, the main booking hall of which has a Minton tile mosaic floor containing just short of three quarters of a million pieces which has to be seen. Indeed the outside is pretty smart as well. It`s also the jumping off point for the Taieri gorge train which provided us with many views and photo opportunities. And then on by coach (no railway on this bit) to Fijordland and the stunning Milford Sound described by Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world. We caught a tourist boat to travel along the fijord gazing at seals and waterfalls. One interesting thing that you meet from time to time in New Zealand are `shared` bridges over rivers where the bridge is only one vehicle wide and is shared not only by road users but also rail tracks/trains. The back onto a train. This time the Kingston Flyer - a steam train - before arriving in Queenstown a mecca for outdoor (and dangerous) activities like bungy jumping, skydiving, river rafting, jetboats and even skiing in the winter months. We bravely went up on the cablecar to see the luge track and bungy nutters. Hey - who needs a detatched retina! And then whilst sitting in an outdoor cafe we were serenaded by a guy playing a digeridoo. Amongst our pictures you may recognise the site of one of the big battles in Lord Of The Rings - all of the locations for the film were recorded in NZ of course.
Moving on (again by coach as this section no longer has any railways) we headed for the northwest coast of South Island and the Southern Alps with their snowy peaks, Mount Cook, glaciers and temperate parrots (the Kea). But first a stop at the Haast River for a jetboat experience which was excellent and allowed us to travel along the junction between two adjacent techtonic plates which give rise not only to the mountains close by, but also to the volcanic activity on North Island where we are now headed. We stopped overnight along this coast and outside our hotel were full sized models of a couple Moa - extinct huge flightless birds - bigger than any living species today. When the polynesians arrived in New Zealand there were estimated to be around 58 thousand alive but being flightless they were hunted easily and sadly vanished within a couple of hundred years. Check their size compared to me in the gallery below. We arrived on the west coast at Haast which sits right on the meeting point between the Australian and New Zealand/Pacific tectonic plates - the cause of the massive earthquake that caused so much damage in Christchurch and also gives rise to the Southern Alps. We took a jetboat ride along the plate junction on the Haast River - again check out the gallery which will give you a bit of a feel, but it was bumpy at speed. This part of the country is known as Eglington Valley. The largest town - Greymouth has barely 30 thousand residents and it is a long narrow strip between the southern Alps and the sea stretching for 600 km north to south. We stopped for lunch at Hokitika slightly south of Greymouth and found an amazing beach covered with aged driftwood and lumps of jade that had washed down out of the nearby mountains. You can see me crouched down near a pile of aged driftwood in the gallery. And yes we did bring some jade home. Moving up the west coast we arrived at Mount Cook (Aoraki ) National Park with it`s permanent snowfields and glaciers. Oh and the temperate parrot - the Kea which we were very pleased to take pictures of scavenging for food. Also the South Island Robin a very close relative of the black robin. These have a white chest and dark grey plumage. New Zealand has many unique bird species including the flightless Weka, spectacularly colourful Takahe, the Morepork Owl and the Tui. The Kiwi is predominately a creature of the night and we only saw a captive one The whole area is alpine in nature. Turning inland our next destination was Blenheim and the Cook Strait port of Picton where we boarded a ferry for the crossing to North Island. There is a very interesting story about the symbol of the inter-island ferry service. It concerns dolphin so if you have a minute Google: "Pelorus Jack" for a story I first read about as a child both as a stand alone story of nature and also he was mentioned by Arthur Ransome in his book "Peter Duck".
The crossing took about 3 1/2 hours and then we landed in Wellington on North Island. Although it has a smaller population that Auckland further north it is the capital and much more relaxed and laid back than Auckland`s business economy. Plenty of things to see and do and also a wide range of eating places and coffee shops make for a pleasant capital experience. We hit the National museum right on the waterfront but there are also art galleries and theatres and a cablecar up to look down on the city. This half of New Zealand doesn`t have the cold temperate snows or fijords that we had enjoyed up to now but is more Mediterranean and geothermal in aspect with fantastic beaches, particularly as you reach the very top. Also there`s a very different wildlife spectrum - a bit like comparing Norway with Spain. After a night in Wellington we headed by train up the middle of the island to Lake Taupo and in particular the narrow Waikato river which drains the lake via the amazing Huka waterfall where the river narrows from 100 metres down to only about 15 meters across. The noise and sheer power have to be experienced. The photo captures this pretty well. Then on to the big one (for tourists) - Rotorua with one of the most active geothermal fields in the world. Of course our hotel had an indoor swimming pool (too smelly for outdoors with all the sulphurous fumes) and this was heated by geothermal energy. A short distance from the centre of Rotorua is the Pohutu geyser which can erupt as many as 20 times in a day up to 100 feet high. It`s indescribable and a bit like you have arrived at the gates of hell with the stench, steam, mudpool bubbling, geysers, sulphur deposits. Quite amazing and a unique experience. In the evening the hotel put on a Maori culture evening with dancing and stories about their arrival on the islands from Hawaiki about 1,000 years ago from their starting point in Polynesia. Their name for New Zealand is the Land of the Great White Cloud - Aotearoa - in their own tongue. The Maori are now a minority of some 15% of the population with about 70% being of European descent and about 10% from Asia but Maori is still an essential part of the country`s national identity. You only have to see their rugby team performing the Haka to appreciate that.
And so on from Rotorua towards Hamilton and ultimately Auckland but first on the way we reached an area known as Waitomo (the name derived from the Maori words for water - wai and hole - tomo) which contains underground rivers, caves and sinkholes for a remarkable and unique experience. We boarded a boat and set off along an underground river into a cave system and after our eyes adjusted to the darkness we realised the reason we were in there - glow worms!!! Thousands of them like stars on a dark night. Something that stays with you for the rest of your life. Then on through Hamilton and to our final destination the largest town in New Zealand - Auckland through Manuka (from which the honey gets it`s name). Where our guide gave us a quite bus tour of the main sights before dropping us off at the hotel. At least the hotel for MOST of the tour group. All except us and two elderly Australian ladies who also booked well in advance and were in a much lower quality hotel - the sort of place that rents rooms by the hour and has sticky carpet! And as far as the guide was concerned he`d got his tips already so was not interested in actually taking us beyond the newly built hotel the rest were staying - apparently it was our fault that we`d booked early and no concern of his - even though it had started to rain and the Assie ladies were in their 80s! Left a bad taste in our mouths at the end of a very good holiday. However the whole trip was magical I we would commend New Zealand without reservation.
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