The Kiwi Experience bus and crewSo I have been a bit slack these past few weeks whilst travelling in New Zealand. To be honest its been pretty nonstop. For my leg around NZ I have been travelling on the Kiwi Experience bus which is a hop on hop off service and also hooks us up with hostels and activities so has been really useful and stress free! So here is a little update of all that I have been upto lately!
The North Island
I started my Kiwi adventure in Auckland. Here I stayed with a
friend and explored all the city had to offer, the harbour is pretty stunning
night and day. I also took a trip up the famous sky tower where you have
spectacular 360 degree views of the city from 220m up. I managed to find a
pocket in the otherwise rainy day to enjoy these. From here I hopped on my
first bus upto the bay of islands and
cape reinga. This is the furthest northern part of NZ and beautiful with
idyllic islands, waterfalls, mangoves and beaches. At Cape Reinga we also
enjoyed some sand boarding on the dunes and a drive up 90mile beach! Next stop Hot water beach,
we had a rainy walk to cathedral cove and then in the evening we headed out in
a thunderstorm to dig a pit in the sand which fills with amazing hot water, a
very surreal experience. The area of Waitomo
is a very small but pretty one and is famous for its many miles of winding
underground caves. Here we took full advantage of our setting with a blackwater
rafting trip (more like tubing), this involved walking down into the caves and
floating around on inner tubes occasionally hopping off waterfalls and admiring
the caverns and glow worms that live there. No trip to NZ would be complete
without a bit of Maori history and culture and a fair amount of geothermal
activity thrown in too, Rotorua provides
all these things as well as the best caramel slice I’ve ever had! We spent the
evening at the Tanaki village experiencing Maori life and enjoying a full
buffet and musical performance. It was an amazingly educational evening and
great fun too. The next day we visited te puia to see the famous geysers and
also a living kiwi. Our next stop was Taupo, set next to a huge lake that is actually
the gigantic caldera of a volcano, and surrounded by mountains. I thought this
a suitable setting for a skydive and so off I went upto 15,000ft strapped to a
stranger and threw myself out of a pink plane! The feeling is hard to describe
but awesome will have to do and the adrenaline rush was fantastic! The views
were spectacular and it was a beautiful sunny and clear day! In contrast the
walk the next day to the natural hot pools was very relaxing. So onwards to River Valley,
literally in the middle of nowhere but one of the nicest accomodations of the
trip with a large fire and sofas, and surrounded by rivers and grassy hills. The
main activity here was an evening of fun and games and a bar all to ourselves
and therefore everyone had a brilliant night including our driver Lauren! Our
final stop on the North Island is the capital, aptly named `Windy Wellington`.
A nice city to be in and home to the national museum Te Papa which amongst
other things houses a pickled giant squid of 4m! The waterfront and shopping is
also worth a walk. I also walked up Mt.Victoria a steep but short walk and with
rewarding views of the city and harbour.
Skydiving Taupo
River Valley
A plesant ferry ride takes you from Wellington over to
Picton on the South Island and passes through the stunning Marlborough sounds
along the way. We hit this journey in the morning and the clouds settled around
the hills of the sounds proved both beautiful and eerie.
The South Island
In the Abel Tasman national park lies the small town of Kiteriteri surrounded
by temperate rainforest and translucent blue/green sea this is an amazing stop
to just walk around and take in the scenery, which incidently is exactly what
we did! In our next stop of Westport we had a BBQ and bonfire on the beach and
also witnessed an amazing sunset. Here we all appreciated roasted marshmallows
and BBQ-ed cookies, delicious! Just south of Westport is a short coastal walk
that ends at a seal colony and it was great to see the seals in their natural
environment going about their business. Further on still is the pancake rocks,
so called due to the horizontal bedding planes and erosion causing stacks of
what look like pancakes. There are also some querky natural features here such
as the blow hole where the waves get pushed up through cracks and spurt out the
top of the cliff in a whale like fashion. We had a brief overnight stop at Lake Mahinapua,
more notoriously known as the poo pub by backpackers, here we were fed steak
buffet and all dressed up in creative bin bag fancy dress. The place is pretty
isolated so its perfect party territory and much dancing and frivolity later we
eventually called it a night. Past the poo pub the temperature begins to drop
and we soon found ourselves at Franz Josef, home to the famous Franz Josef
Glacier, snowcapped mountains and also surrounded bizarrely by rainforest. This
juxtaposed setting was one of the best we stayed at and our accommodation,
rainforest retreat, was a lovely place full of little cabins and dorms as well
as a lovely bar/restaurant area. Our first day in Franz was pretty cloudy but
we walked the track to the terminal face of the glacier, a pretty impressive
sight and also surrounded by mirror lakes which made for some fantastic
photographic opportunities. The second day was clearer and so we headed off
with the glacier guides for an ice exploration hike. This involved getting
geared up with full winter outfits plus crampons. Owing to a recent shift in
the ice causing a great chasm of a hole to appear we had to be flown up onto
the glacier by helicopter which in itself was an incredible experience and one
I had never really thought I would have. We landed on the ice and were led
through ice caves and crevasses, sometimes so thin we had to squeeze through
sideways, here the ice was beautifully blue and in places 50 years old! We then headed further up into the folds
where there were streams, pools and little waterfalls to navigate. All in all
an incredibly worthwhile, and quite frankly overwhelming day. We had a brief
overnight stop at Wanaka, home to another huge lake and also
puzzling world where we tested our brains with various wooden puzzles. One of
the most anticipated places on our list was Queenstown and it certainly lives
upto the hype! Located on the edge of a
glacial lake, which I was stupid enough to go for a swim in!,and surrounded by
peaks such as double cone and the remarkables it is incredibly scenic. Other
highlights here included the fat badgers 20” pizza, the infamous Fergburger burgers
that are as big as a dinner plate, Patagonia which had some ridiculously good
ice cream, and nightlife of world bar (with its cocktails sold in teapots),
altitude and buffalos. Queenstown also boasts a huge extreme sports scene and
so off we went to the Shotover Canyon Swing. This involves the highest cliff
jump in the world (109m), a 60m free fall and a 200m arc swing. I was crazy
enough to do this twice! First go was backwards off the platform and then
second time dangling out over the canyon in an upside down cruxifix pose before
plummeting head first! Believe me if you will that it was a terrifying yet
highly enjoyable experience and I would recommend anyone to do it! Below
Queestown is the scenic beauty of Milford sound (actually
a fjord) we headed on a day trip here and it was a truly amazing place. Our
cruise took us all the way out to the sea and on the way we saw waterfalls,
700m high cliffs, dolphin, seals and a rainbow even showed up for us too. The
photos Im afraid just don’t do it justice. Time to head back north and up to Christchurch,
this was a bizarre place as still recovering from the earthquake of last year.
The CBD is pretty much all destroyed and inaccessible but the botanic gardens
are still worth a look as well as the container city, which is a new shopping
district created from empty lorry containers. My final stop on the south island
was Kaikoura,
famous for its huge numbers of friendly dolphin, whale and seals. On our way
there we passed views of Mt.Cook and also Lake Tekapo home to the chapel of the
good shepherd. Being an overnight stop we spent most of our time here watching
the rugby but on the morning we left we were able to see seals on the rocky
shore to the right of the bus, and to the left snowcapped mountains!
fergburger queenstown
Qtn swim
Milford sound day trip
Glacial lake and Mt.Cook
fergburger queenstown
Following this it was back north to Auckland again via
Wellington and Taupo. As everyone headed off there separate ways it was sad to
say goodbye to so many new friends that I have shared unforgettable experiences
with over the past month and a bit. The Kiwi Experience is something that I
would certainly recommend to travellers 18-30 as provides an action packed and
full itiniery to suit all tastes. New Zealand itself boasts spectacular and
hugely diverse scenery and is a geographers and adrenaline junkies dream. Sweet
as!
Wellington and Marlborough sounds
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