A few new pics

Hey, for those of you not on Facebook I am going to attempt to load a few more pics on this site.  Here goes...

Lake Rotoiti

Lake Tekapo

Mt Cook & the Tasman Glacier

Hike in Ohiwa (where we were engaged)

Rakoia Gorge

What a lot of the country looks like

Lake Hawea

08/24/11-08/27/11 Lake Hawea & Wanaka / Mt Cook / Kaikoura

Hi everyone!  Sorry it's been so long for an update, but we've been having too much fun to get online!  After seeing the Franz Josef Glacier (which was amazing) we headed south and made it to Lake Hawea.  We got a great camp site right on the lake and had a great evening BBQ and looking at the stars.  I thought I had seen the brightest stars in Sequoia but it doesn't hold a candle to here.  I've never seen so many stars in my life, its amazing.  Wish the camera could capture it but it doesn't come close.

After leaving lake Hawea we headed toward Mt Cook.  The drive was beautiful through snow covered mountains.  The snow looked like plastic, so crazy.  Mt Cook was breathtaking.  It's the highest peak in the country and it's covered with tons of glaciers.  The lake below it, Lake Pukaki, is a crazy turquoise milky blue color, which is caused from the glaciers crushing rock on the mountain and turning it to silt that flows into the lake.  We planned to stay at a DOC site right at the base of Mt Cook but when we got up there it was covered in snow and ice.  After getting the van stuck once already we decided to stay at the Holiday Park campground down the road a bit. 

Looking at the map you would think the Milford sound is a short drive from Mt Cook, and I wish that was the case.  Fiordland and the Milford sound were on the top of my list of must see's but we just don't have enough time to make it that far south.  From Mt Cook it's about a 10 hour drive, one way, to Fiordland.  Unfortunatly we have to catch the Ferry back to the North Island on Sunday then make it all the way to Auckland by Wednesday morning so Fiordland is going to have to wait till next trip (our honeymoon maybe?).  Since Wilderness said they would refund us for the one day we lost due to the Van breaking down, we decided to extend the campervan one more day instead of the refund and cancelled our Hotel for our last night.  This will give us some extra time to make it to Auckland from Wellington so we won't be so rushed. 

So after leaving Mt Cook we made a big drive North up the East Coast (Pacific Ocean side) and made it to Kaikoura.  It is a really pretty beach town and reminded me a lot of Malibu with huge cliffs right next to the coast.  From Kaikoura we intended to go to Nelson as I've heard how beautiful it is, but when we got there the tide was out...WAY out...and you couldn't even see the ocean.  So we kept going about another 1/2 hour north and camped in Mapua in the Ruby Bay.  That is where we are now!  It's so gorgeous here and we got a camp spot right on the beach.  We were so tempted to stay another night but it's cutting it a little too tight for time.  We actually went out to eat dinner last night since I didn't feel like cooking and found this great Brewery called Golden Bear.  The owner is from Santa Monica and not only is the beer Fantastic but they had MEXICAN food as well.  We've been going through Mexican food withdraw since we have been here.  I actually paid $12 for a can of refried beans and a package of tortillas at the grocery store the other day...that's how bad it is!  The food at the Golden Bear was pretty decent though!  After getting nice and toasty there, some locals invited us back to there place to go in the spa with them.  Good times!

Ok that's all for now.  I'll try to post a few pics on here and Facebook.  Cheers!

08/20/11-08/22/11 Picton / Punakaiki / Franz Josef Glacier

Hello everyone!  Having a blast in NZ!  It's so damn gorgeous here we might never come home.  Wish we had more time, there is so many beautiful places to see and 3 weeks isn't nearly enough.  Ok so after we made it to the South Island on Saturday we camped a few miles away from the Ferry landing in Picton.  We left early Sunday morning and made it all the way across the Island to the West coast and camped right on the beach of the Tasman Sea in a little town called Punakaiki, just south of Westport.  It was really beautiful but got very COLD as soon as the sun went down.

Sunday we walked across the longest suspension bridge in NZ over the Buller River.  It was soooo damn cool.  We also found an amazing campground on Lake Rotoiti in the town of Saint Arnaud, but we didn't stay overnight because we needed to get farther south.  We did take pics though, and hope to stay the night on the way back up.

This morning we headed south and made it to the Franz Josef Glacier (town).  We haven't actually seen the Glacier yet since it's really cloudy, but tonight we are taking a night hike (only about 30 min) to see glow-worms!!!  Tomorrow morning we are doing a 2 hour hike to the base of the Franz Josef Glacier, then another hour hike to the base of the Fox Glacier.  Then headed to Mt. Cook...yippie!

*pics* Ok, I've been trying to load pics on this stupid blog for the last hour and a half and it errored out.  I'm going to try and post an album on Facebook so be on the lookout there.

08/17/11 – 08/19/11 Lake Titikaka & Napier / Hastings / Woodville / Picton Ferry

We’ll start this blog off with the phrase “If we didn’t have bad luck, we wouldn’t have any” Since our last update we left our beautiful campsite at Ohiwa heading towards Napier.  This drive should have been about 4- 5 hours total, however the drive was so beautiful we had to stop to take pictures and also made a picnic lunch and stopped at this beautiful rest stop in this Gorge alongside a stream with an old wooden bridge going over it.  It reminded me a lot of Sequoia or Yosemite.  It started getting late so we changed plans to drive all the way to Napier and found a rustic campsite on Lake “Titikaka”.  The real name is Lake Tutira but I’ve renamed it Titikaka due to the muddy campsites and toxic algae plum in the lake.

There was one other campervan parked to camp, which made us feel better.  We didn’t want to intrude on their space, so we passed them and kept going looking for our own spot.  After realizing there was really nowhere else to park, I attempted to flip a bitch, which resulted in getting stuck in the mud.  The other campers, Johnny & Keri from Ireland, came over to help, but it was getting dark as well as spurting rain and we didn’t make any progress.  We decided to camp there, no other choice really, and try again in the morning.  After utilizing the mulch pile of wood chips from the farm next door and digging the tires out for 3 hours we were FREE!  Good thing too because we had no cell reception so not sure what we would have done.  We treated Johnny & Keri (who by the way have been together about 8 years and just got engaged as well) to a home cooked bfast of eggs, bacon & sausage in our van to say thanks.

After leaving Lake Titikaki we made a plan to drive all the way down towards Wellington so we could camp close and hop on the Ferry the next morning to the South Island.  Well fate had other plans, and after about a 2-hour drive we ended up in Napier with a busted clutch on the campervan.  We called up our friends at Wilderness and they were very apologetic and put plans in motion to get it fixed and us off on our way ASAP.  AA (triple A in the states) came and picked us and the van up on a flat bed, and brought us to a European mechanic shop the next town over in Hastings.  After a quick assessment the clutch needed to be replaced which required a part to be ordered and an over night stay in Hastings.  Wilderness is being very understanding with the problem and is refunding us the cost of 1 day for the van and compensating us for the hotel. 

It’s now Friday Aug 19^th and at around 12:30pm and the Van won’t be ready till 3.  We had a nice eggs benni breakfast and a few cups of great coffee and are going to catch a movie in town while we wait for the van.  Unfortunately (for me) the only movie playing in our time frame is Cowboys and Aliens…bleh! [Christian – Yipee!] Our hope is to really make it down towards Wellington tonight, even if we have to drive all night, and then catch the Ferry tomorrow morning for the South Island!  Unfortunately this only leaves us about 8 days to see the South, but we will make due and I’m still hopeful we will see Mt Cook & the Milford Sound, which were on the top of my list for this trip.

08/20/11 **** Update*** We made it to Wellington this morning and we are literally on the Ferry NOW to the South Island.  We stayed in a parking lot last night in a small town called Woodville, paid $10 to "camp" and have access to the toilet & dump station.  We got up at the asscrack of dawn around 6:30 and got on the road about 8.  Due to a road closure we had to take the long way down, passed a bunch of filming sites for LOTR including Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, Rohan River & Orthanc Garden / Orc Tree.  AWESOME!  Wish we could have gotten some pics, but a lot of it was off the highway and unmarked on the road.  Also passed by Rivendale too!

08/15/11-08/17/11 – Rotorua (Rotor-Rooter) & Bay of Plenty (Ahiwa)

A lot has happened in the last 2 days.  We picked up our campervan on Sunday and after signing contracts and an in depth tour of the van & “how to’s” we didn’t get on the road till about 2:30 pm.  After an hour-long grocery run, we were off towards Rotorua.  It gets dark here at 5:30 so we had a hard time finding a camping spot in the dark.  We pulled into 2 that were just parking lots and smelled like rotten eggs due to the thermal springs in the area.  The spot we finally found was kinda like a RV / Trailer park…but would have to due for the night.  Woke up in the morning to bitter cold and snow, which we were told was very uncommon in the area.  After checking out the news we found out that we were about to see the worst “polar blast” in NZ in over 50 years.

We had the campground manager look up road conditions for us and found out we were pretty much stuck to the top part of the North Island.  All roads leading South towards Wellington are closed.  There goes our plan to head south straight away!  Auckland got snow on 08/16/11, which hasn’t happened since 1939!  Of course!

Long story short we figured the best thing to due for now is head for the coast and wait out the storm at the beach.  We left Rotorua Monday morning and headed toward the Bay of Plenty.  We arrived at Ohiwa State Park yesterday around noon.  We broke out the BBQ and as soon as we were about to start lunch it starts snowing / hailing!  Literally…on the beach it’s snowing!!!  It didn’t last more than an hour, but again we were told that NEVER happens here.  The campground manager said she’s lived here her whole life and never seen snow in this area.

So we decided to stay another night since we still can’t get to Wellington to ferry to the South Island.  Wednesday our plan is to leave early, check road conditions, and head as far South as possible.  Hopefully by this weekend we will make it down to the South Island, which I should also mention is covered in snow.  The news referred to it as “blanketed” in snow.  Schools are shut down and airports closed.  Hopefully our luck will change soon.

With all this, we are still having a blast.  The heater in the camper is AWESOME, and we are staying very warm through the night.  The spot we are at now is absolutely breathtaking.  We went for a great hike yesterday to the top of the ridge and could see the coast and hillsides for miles.  We also hiked alongside sheep / lambs and cows.  So cool!

There is one other camper here with us and his name is Tony.  He lives out of his camper and travels around wherever he wants.  He’s been at this site for 1 month and plans to stay another month.  He has a great sheep dog named “Cash” after the man!  He invited us over for drinks in his RV and showed us a home video he took of White Island, which is a active Volcanic Island off the coast that we can see smoking  / steaming from our campsite.  To give you an idea about Tony, he has about as much teeth as a Jack-O-Lantern, was wearing jean shorts and no shoes yesterday in the snow, and honest to Christ has no clue what the Internet is!  He’s awesome!

Our Camp. The beach is just over those grass dunes behind us.

On a hike above our camp we tramped through grazing fields for these sheep.

ACTION SHOT!

Oh yeah, Chris also proposed last night, and I said yes!  But I guess most of you sneaky bastards already knew about that!

20110813 - Like we ain't never seen a park before....

The view from our room.

Someone left a spire in the middle of the city and Selina was keen to find it. It makes all those times she found my keys, the remote, my wallet, my car, my dinner, my cell phone, etc, seem so insignificant!

Promenade side street off Queen St.... Imbibed here. Went out to dinner tonight in downtown Auckland at Father Ted's Irish Pub and had a few of the Father's brews. They are not brewed here, but they are brewed locally and as it turns out, these Kiwi's can make a fine drought!

This park we found across the street from the Hotel is part of the Auckland University campus. This is why I brought the good camera! I can't wait to get on the open road and get scientific with this thing. I can only hope the sky clears up soon. Forecasts are not electronics friendly. (Not like that will stop me)

Made it to Auckland

Hi all.  Christian & I survived the 13 hour flight and landed safely in Auckland.  It's 10am here on Saturday morning, the weather was really foggy coming in but has since cleared up.  It's sunny and around 60 degrees now.  We just got checked into our hotel and it's really nice.  We actually have a washing machine, full kitchen w/ dishwasher, and a small balcony with a view of the harbor.  Better than home! I'll try and post pics later tonight while we still have free wifi.  For now, we both really need to catch some z's so we can go out exploring tonight!

We already meet a great couple at the airport bar and talked for 2 hours over some beers.  They're names are Roger & Susan and they were booked on the same flight as us to NZ.  Roger is from Christchurch and they came out for his mom's 80th birthday.  What a small world it is...after a few minutes of chatting with Roger & Susan we found out they live in old Torrance a few blocks from us!  True to the NZ hospitality we have heard about, Roger gave us his mom's phone #, and his sisters phone number and wants us to meet up when we make it down to the South Island!  Were so stoked to have a local willing to show us around a bit!

We'll check back soon!