Last days as Kiwis... sniff..

Day 12 Queenstown. Started the day with a morning of 4 wheeled excitement at the off road farm on 250cc quads. After a a fun and mucky morning we just had time for quick lunch and then on to an hour of jet boating around the Lake and up the Shotover River, driven by highly skilled but mad drivers.

Zara seems TERRIFIED on the 350bhp Jet boat!!!!

I think that Kirstys gun is better: Zara: 3clays out of 20

Niall: 6 clays out of 20

Getting ready for the terrific Australian sun, we found cheap sunglasses in Christchurch( well we could of found more expensive...)

Kia ora Auckland!!

My mum's very good friend Chantal gave us a very warm welcome to Auckland after a quiet but tiring 13 hour flight, it was great to see a familiar face over here on the other side of the world, Chantal, thank you again for your welcome! Our exploration of the area of Auckland was condensed but very efficient, after a couple of hours kip, our Kiwi Perrosienne guide took us just outside the city, thru a dodgy, bendy, gravel road down the mountain to reach a black sanded beach just before a glass of red wine on the top of Mt MacDonald where we had a great first view of New Zealand's breathtaking scenary. The rest of the day just went flying between visiting all the beautifull spots Chantal had for us and trying to cope with the jet lag.

Our second day was a bit of a rush at the beginning, we collected our huge volkswagen campervan just outside the airport around 8 o'clock, and went shopping to fill up the fridge, it took us a while to get everything sorted, but finally got moving towards the Coramandel Peninsula in the early afternoon. The scenary of New Zealand definately deserves it's reputation, the views are stunning! Our first night in the campervan was nice and comfortable, we slept in a carpark beside a nice little lake on the coast in a place called "Whaihi".

Day 3 and we made our way to Rotorua, where we were welcome by the wonderful smell of the sulphur (Smells like rotten eggs). Its because the area is a on a thin part of the earths crust making it a thermal wonderland with a smell to match!! We visited the Maori park Te Puia where we saw one of the largest natural geysers and boiling mudpools. We went for a horse trek into the forest and then to the Polynesian Spa with natural hot waters.

Day 4 We headed down there the thermal area to a park called Wia O tapu. It was a park with all sorts of thermal wonders, mud pools, craters, different coloured pools ( all to do with what gases where coming up through the ground), an amazing place, it was like being on a different planet. After that we went down to Taupo and had our dinner looking over the lake and then made the drive down to Waitomo ready for our next adventure.

Day 5, and we went for a half day black water rafting in the Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms ( which in the dark caves look like the stars in the night sky). After an hour looking around the local museum we spent about 45mins just trying to get into the wetsuits then into the caves. It was brilliant, but wet and cold!!!

A long drive down to Wellington with just a fuel stop and a couple of breaks although we did find an interesting car and the lovely Raukawa Falls

Day 6 and we woke up in Wellington. We did a bit of window shopping, a trip to the museum, and a drive around including up to the Victoria Lookout for some fantastic views of the city. Then to bed early for the early rise for the ferry. Good bye to a fantastic week in the North Island.

Day 7 up bright and early for the 3 hr ferry crossing to the South Island with the beautiful entrance through the Marlborough Sounds.

When we got off the boat we drove down from Picton to Blenheim and then Nelson, through wine making country to the small town of Motueka where we arrived just in time to fill up the cupboards and fridge, have dinner and park up for the night.

Day 8 and we headed around the coast to Taikerikeri and Motueka where we spent a wonderful afternoon treking on two horses (Joe and Mac) with our guide Brian. We went on to the beach through the sea and on to a couple of picturesque little bays.

Day 9 and the sun was still shining so we headed of for and full day around the Abel Tasman National Park. We started with a 3 hour sea kayaking followed by a water taxi to the seal colony and then we were dropped of at Tonga Bay where we did a 1 hour walk through the bush to Bark bay where we were collected again and sailed back to Kaiteriteri on the water taxi. - the most beautiful scenery!! Then we had a long drive to Westport on the West coast to camp up for the night.

Day 10 - its raining, such a contrast to yesterdays brilliant weather, but no big deal, we drove all day down to the Fox Glacier, and parked up ready to do our half day hike the next day.

Day 11- The sun was shinning again for our half day hike to the Glacier. It was about 30 min hike up through bush to the glacier and about 1.5hr on the Glacier. The Glacier is 13km long and about 350m deep and is advancing at about 1 meter per day, amazing stuff!! After a bite of lunch we hit the road and headed to Wanaka. It was the most beautiful drive down the West Coast. We had a Thai dinner when we arrived in the town, camped up and then the next day headed for the adrenaline capital, Queenstown.

San Francisco!!!

Nous voila arrives a la premiere etape du voyage, on a eu un super vol entre Londres et San Francisco, 10h et 20mn quand meme, j'avais jamais pris un long courrier, c'est genial, selection de films a volonte, musique a volonte et nourriture idem, il manquait juste quelques heures de sommeil! Apres avoir recupere nos baggages on a donc pris la navette pour le centre ville (downtown) ou on avait reserve 3 nuits a l' auberge, direct au lit et 14h de sommeil plus tard, on est parti pour la decouverte des environs. En tous cas on peut dire qu' on a bien choisi notre week end, y avait un grand show aerien et la meteo est super.
Pour commencer la journee ( 7h du mat qd mm!!) on a loue une sorte de quad a 3 roues de 50cc avec un system GPS pour se retrouver dans les rues, super rigolade!!!

Now for the English:

Our flight from London to San Fransisco was great but long (10hrs 20 mins). We grabbed a taxi to the center of the city to the Downtown Youth Hostel were we stayed for the 3 nights. When we arrived we decided to have a quick nap, but didn't waken up until the next morning (14hrs sleeping) We headed out to discover San Francisco and realised that we had chosen a great weekend as it was Fleet Week. This meant that there was lots of events on, held by the US Navy, and we watched a few aeroplane acrobatic shows, on the bay - they were fab!! We also went for a GPS guided tour in a yellow mean machine (see photos below) It was scary on the roads but great fun.

Apres un ptit plat de nouilles thailandaises ( delicieux et vraiment pas cher), direction Fisherman's Wharf (promenade des anglais pleine de touristes) on a passe l' apres midi a flaner, a regarder les acrobaties aeriennes et a faire du shopping, super premiere journee!! Il est 20h, il est temps d' aller chercher un ptit resto sympa dans chinatown.

After Thai Noodles (yum yum) for lunch we explored Fishermans Wharf, watched the aeroplanes and did a bit of window shopping. A great first day ended with a lovely sweet and sour in Chinatown.

Le bay bridge une belle americaine...

The Bay Bridge and a car!!

A typical San Fran Street, we were so lucky with the weather its was fantastic.

On day two we had some lunch in Wasington Square in Little Italy and then caught the bus down to Pier 33 and caught the boat to Alcatraz for a great audio tour of the prison.

After a look around the island we headed back to the main land and took a look around the wax musem and then took an open top double decker tour bus of the city. Then we had our dinner in a 50's style American Diner. And unbelievably we were in bed and sleeping for 10pm.

Day 3 came so quickly were catching our plane for NZ. Today was the world famous Golden Gate Bridge!!! We caught one of the cable cars down to the Fishermans Wharf area where we rented 2 bikes and headed off to 'Bike the Bridge'!!

We cycled through Mason Fort Park and along the Marina and then up over the bridge for stunning views of San Francisco and back again, leaving us only enough time for a bite of lunch and to make our way back to the Hostel to leave for the airport.

Mason Fort Park The Golden Gate Bridge





Some advise in the middle of the bridge, for those there for a more morbid reason than admiring the view!!!

Time goes so fast we can't believe that our time in San Francisco has already come and gone, but we both were more than impressed by San Fran and had a fantastic time - Here we come New Zealand!!!