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We arrived in
Christchurch on a Saturday afternoon and were completely blown away by how
busy the place was! We stood in Cathedral Square, the centre of
Christchurch and could just about count the people around us with one
hand, well maybe four hands, but still, come on, this is the largest city
in the south island!
It is a great place
though, but terribly English, 1950s England that is. Very laid back and
relaxed, we didn't venture out for a night until Sunday and boy was that a
mistake! The first three pubs we went to only open on Wednesdays through
to Saturdays!
We did find a pub,
although I was loathed to drink there as Graham Henry's mugshot was
emblazoned on a huge poster on the wall holding a bottle of the local
brew. After sampling the local ales we tried to find somewhere to eat and
low and behold ended up in a.... Curry House! Angela is to blame for
this, not me, she was the one who really fancied a curry, I of course
objected for a whole nano-second! A great curry was washed down with
"Strong" Kingfisher, which is much more alcoholic, 7.2%, than the
Kingfisher we get in England!
Due to our rugby
requirements we decided to head to the North Island and travel round there
first, ending up in Wellington for the beginning of February for the IRB
World Sevens and then back in Christchurch in March.
Our journey up to
Picton, where you catch the ferry to North Island, took us to Kaikoura.
Here we went Whale, Dolphin, Albatross and Seal searching, firstly by
private plane, then by boat.
Our initial intention
was just to go and suss out who we were going to go with when we returned
in a month or so, but after spotting seals and then dolphins from the road
we decided it might be better to "do" Kaikoura now. We saw four Giant
Sperm Whales from the air, as well as a pod of over two hundred Dusky
Dolphins. By boat we saw a further three Giant Sperm Whales as well as
getting much closer to the Dolphins as they played around the boat. We
also watched Giant Albatrosses and saw the New Zealand Fur Seals.
We decided not to go
for a tour that said you can "swim" with the Dolphins as it wasn't what we
would call swimming with them. More a case of jump in the water, watch
them swim past you, get back on the boat, race ahead of them and repeat
several times in the hope that eventually they swim close to you. After
our experiences elsewhere in the world we decided to pass.
On the way up to
Picton we drove through Cloudy Bay, for the wine buffs amongst you it will
be a familiar name as it is one of the sort after wines in the UK.
The ferry over to
North Island was amazing, the views are breathtaking as you navigate
through all the tiny islands, not surprisingly they claim to have one of
the most scenic journeys of any ferry in the world and we would not
disagree.
We drove from
Wellington up to a place called Wanganui. All we really did in Wanganui
was, well, quite frankly drink, eat and sleep! Angela was as drunk as I
have seen her in many years and I was challenged to drink twelve pints of
"Tui" to claim a free t-shirt. Yes, I did manage and in just under four
hours! It had to be pretty weak beer mind you, as I really wasn't that bad
in comparison to Angela who was on red wine! We then staggered across to
a garage opposite the hotel that sold pies, Angela persuaded me not to buy
all of them, we took them back to the hotel, consumed them and fell
asleep!
That was Wanganui!
Oh, we also had a McDonalds breakfast the following morning before we
left!
From Wanganui we
headed towards New Plymouth and the Taranaki National Park. Our first
full day we decided to go out on Happy Chaddy Charters. Chaddy is a
living legend, an ex-boxer of some repute, ranked fourth in the world in
his weight division at one stage, and a sailor for many a year. We had a
scream listening to his tales of the area, we went out to see Dicky
Barrett's Hill, the Sugar Loaves, New Zealand Fur Seals and to do a spot
of fishing! We went out in an old Bridlington life-boat, launched from
the life-boat shed whilst we were onboard, accompanied by Chaddy's dog,
who was the keenest fisher-dog of them all! Watching this little dog
fishing was hilarious and boy did he get excited when he hooked a fish!
We caught loads of
Crayfish and plenty of Pacific Salmon which Chaddy kindly let us take one
of each back to our cabin for dinner. He gutted the fish for us
thankfully, but we had a good old scrap with the crayfish when we got
back, especially when he tried to fling himself out of the kitchen sink!
However, we cooked him, following Chaddy's specific instructions and
pan-fried the Pacific Salmon following his daughter's recommended recipe
and quickly devoured them both!
The following day we
went to Egmont National Park to see the snow-capped, cloud covered,
Taranaki Mountain and to see the various sights, such as Dawsons Falls and
the Enchanted Trek. We made our way back along the Surfing Highway to New
Plymouth, noticing that we only very occasionally could see the sea from
the road and that the beaches were always three kilometres from the
highway!
Our next stop was
Hamilton, just about half way between New Plymouth and Auckland. On the
way we went to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and have to say they were
amazing. These are naturally formed limestone caves with huge caverns,
stalactites, stalagmites, an underground river and literally thousands of
these little Glowworms everywhere. They have two main "rooms" called the
Organ Loft and the Cathedral. They are sixteen metres apart vertically,
the Organ Loft being dry and the Cathedral having a river running through
it. The "Cathedral" is the highlight of the tour as you are pulled along
in a boat, in almost total silence (children permitting), as you look up
you see what seems like a pitch black sky filled with thousands of tiny
little stars. Our guide said that the caves were one of the safest places
to be in an earthquake. He had been in there about fourteen years ago
when one occurred and he didn't know anything about it until he emerged an
hour later!
We drove from
Hamilton to Auckland, through stunning landscapes where The Last Samurai
and Lord of the Rings were both filmed.
We also went and
walked around parts of The Maori Queens House and Estate, in Ngaruawahia.
This really felt like you were somewhere very special and of historic
importance. It was once the capital of the Maori Kingdom of the Waikato
tribes. The present queen, who has reigned since 1966, is the sixth, and
first female ruler, of the Waikato tribes. This was the Maori equivalent
to the British Buckingham Palace.
We were allowed to
walk into the grounds and have a look at places like the Ceremonial Square
and Meeting House. We were told that strictly no photos, or filming, were
allowed as this was deemed such a sacred place for Maori culture. We were
allowed to take a photo of the outside and from the opposite banks of the
River Waikato where you could see the two longboats they had on the shore.
In Auckland, the City
of Sails, we again had dinner in a Skytower, this one being the tallest in
the southern hemisphere at 328 metres high. After riding up 220 metres in
the glass-floored elevator, we, well I, stood on the glass floor in the
observation deck looking down at the street below! Next we went up to the
Skydeck which is another ten floors higher before we returned to the
restaurant just above the observation deck to have a fantastic dinner
whilst we watched the sunset.
The following day we
went on a Harbour Cruise around various points of interest, including
seeing the Hilton Hotel's suspended swimming pool, Birkenhead, Davenport
and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
From Auckland we made
our way up to Paihia, stopping at Kerikeri briefly, where we went to the
Chocolate Factory that made chocolates to rival those we tried during
October in Ushuaia, Argentina. The Macadamia "Bark" in white chocolate
was definitely our favourite, but there was something for just about
everyone in there! Angela suggested we buy the chocolate covered fruits
as that would be the healthy option!
We then spent a
couple of nights in Paihia in the Bay of Islands where we again went out
on a boat in search of marine life and to explore the islands. We managed
to find a couple of huge, gorgeous, Bottle-nosed Dolphins on our way to
the Hole in the Rock, which surprisingly was a hole in the rock! However
when we sailed through it, we all gave the hole and the Polynesian
Princess, a rock formation on the same island that brings luck to all who
sail through the hole, the respect they were due!
Our first night in
Paihia we were just about to have dinner when we were shaken by the
loudest air-raid siren you might ever have heard! We genuinely wondered
if there was a Tsunami, the Japanese were invading, or a volcano was about
to erupt! Later we found out that it is the siren to call in the
volunteer Fire brigade. One morning it went off before we were awake and
we just about had to peel ourselves off the ceiling!
Did you know that for
an island to be classed as an island it has to have sustainable
vegetation, otherwise it is just a rock? The Bay of Islands has 144
islands.
We also went to
Waitangi, where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840
by forty-three Maori chiefs, although over 500 chiefs signed it in total.
The Treaty was an agreement between two peoples to live and work together
in one nation, the Maori and the Pakeha.
We visited the Treaty
House, "Te Whare Runanga" which is a Maori Meeting House and finally
walked down to the beach and saw "Ngatokimatawhaorua." This is a
thirty-five metre long Maori Waka (Canoe) which needs a minimum of
seventy-six paddlers to handle it safely on the water!
From Paihia we started our journey back south,
stopping for a night in Auckland again so we could visit Auckland Zoo.
This was a pretty impressive zoo in so far as the space in the enclosures
for the animals. We saw their three week old zebra and very young
giraffe, as well as a gorgeous Sumatran tiger. Unfortunately for Angela
they didn't have a petting zoo, however that did save us a fortune! |