Tom & Caz go down under

After leaving Paihia in the northland, we travelled to Rotorua - it is one of the places in the world with a lot of volcanic activity going on. The crust of the earth here is the thinnest in the world at 5km.  It was rather weird walking through the park and seeing steaming fumaroles and bubbling mud pits (all of these were just behing our hostel).  We were expecting a really bad rotten egg smell, but it was only particularly noticeable around these areas of activity.  I did try not to think of volcanoes exploding as I went to sleep at night!!  After a long walk around Rotoura we were able to soak our feet in one of the hot pools in the town centre - it was refreshing - perhaps Kingston could consider this outside the Bentalls centre!

It was interesting to see Trafalgar Square on the TV here with people making snowmen.  Whilst we slap on more suncream!!

Hi guys - hope you’re all ok back there in the UK. As I write this I guess you’ll be getting up for work or on your way there!
We’ve had a really busy time since arriving in the North Island and even more so since meeting Ben, Abbey and brother Phillip 6 days ago.
We spent 4 days in Paihia (north of Auckland) with fantastic weather, by the sea. Our trip to 90 mile beach was interesting, stopping en route to look around an ancient Kauri tree forest and digging for Tuatua shellfish on the beach- some folk tried these raw, but I wasn’t too keen. After visitng the most northerly point in New Zealand we then stopped at a fish and chip shop - so we have now tried blue nose fish, green lipped mussels and seen yellow-eyed penguins!
Our day out in the Bay of Islands (144 islands) was great, but a little disappointing as we were unable to swim with the dolphins. We saw lots of frisky and playful bottle-nosed dolphins, but were unable to swim with them as they has babies (some only one day old!). Never mind, we had to suffer lunch on a secluded beach and snorkling instead!. Whilst Ben, Abbey and Phillip tried ‘boom netting’ (where the boat pulls you along in a net) - it looked um…er….interesting - Abbey nearly lost her bikini from the force of water!!
To be continued……….take care everyone!

…we arrived in Abel Tasman National Park.

It really is beautiful here - especially so as the sun is shining.

Yesterday we got a water taxi to one of the picutresque bays and arranged to be picked up 6 hours later in another bay. The walk was meant to take 2 hours, but it took us over 3!! We had to stop every 100yds to admire the views, flora and fauna (and each other !!) - it was a fantastic walk.

Wish you were here to share it with us!!

Somewhere on the bloody south island in NZ Sheila…! Where are you…?!!

Animals abound on this little rock (NZ) which is kinda neat!

They say, when God created New Zealand, He just wanted to show the rest of the world how it should be done..!!  I can’t comment really, because apparently Caz has already told you that…!!  Anyway, Carlsberg don’t do vacations, but if they did, it would probably be here..!! And you’d have the best bloody holiday in the world, with plenty of the ’amber nectar of the gods’ thrown in for free!!  Ozzies may like to disagree with that, and i shall have to defer my judgement until we get to Sydney, in 3 weeks time (Look out Steve+Cathy)! Ciao4now, Tom

On Wednesday we went Whale Watching at Kaikoura.

We saw a couple of sperm whales which was rather amazing. Unfortunately I felt sea sick (the following cruises that day were cancelled because the sea was too rough). So after the cruise I spent an hour on the beach all wrapped up, trying to recover - but got a very red nose. In fact it was so red that Tom said the glow kept him awake that night. But fortunately it didn’t bother him too much as we stayed in sheer luxury that night - in a lodge with tree houses - the sort that offers pre-dinner drinks (or 3). We even had the use of an apple pc and iPOD in our room!!

Driving along the main state highway - route 1 has been interesting. We have to stop to take photos regularly (we even pulled over yesterday and saw seals on the rocks near the road, and was able to get to within 10ft of them to take photos). Another day we have had to stop on this major highway to let sheep cross and then cattle. But the road is never boring - sea on one side and mountains on the other!!

We spent 4 nights at a hostel in Christchurch - we even had a TV, fridge and en-suite facilities as well as a solar powered swimming pool, but unfortunately it’s not been hot enough for a swim. We did some of the tourist-y things like riding the tram, going on the gondola, a quick stop at the art gallery and craft market. It’s a nice city to walk around and is very quiet at night although Tom managed to find some night lie - an Irish pub holding a jamming session - about 20 musicians all playing different instruments - it was really good!

You could spend weeks exploring the near-by Banks peninsular, it has so many beautiful coves and vistas - all created from several volcanic eruptions a long time ago!!

We’ve been amazed at all the beautiful views (in fact someone said “It’s God boasting!”). A 2 hour journey takes us at least 4 hours because we have to keep stopping to admire the scenery (either that, or risk going over the edge of some of the steep and windy roads!) Unfortunately our photos can in no way do justice to the picturesque landscape.”

We visited Fiordland in the South West on Tues - Milford Sound. Mitre Peak is over a mile high and very spectacular.

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It also is a rain forest area and rains 2& 1/2 days out of 3. The clouds were so low on the day we went that we couldn’t see much!! - but we were rewarded with dolphins swimming along side. And the drive there was brilliant - although Tom did get breathalised at 10.30 am ( apparently routine as the only road to Milford has the highest accident rate (guess all the grockles are looking at the scenery!!)

We’re coping with youth hostelling (in fact we’re not the oldest). Tom says he feels 10 years younger (but that might be because it’s currently happy hour here).

Friday we went to the Otago Peninsular (near Dunedin) - a wonderful drive to a Yellow eyed Penguin Colony.

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It was very informative - did you know they only have a 5% divorce rate, but their goings-on are like a soap opera. Some do swap partners and commit domestic violence, and they stop feeding their youngsters otherwise they won’t leave the nest!! The ones we saw were just standing still moulting (it takes 4 weeks and all they can do is drink water - no swimming or eating).