New Zealand Trip August 2005

My New Zealand Holiday started with a bang with a big Friday night with the indoor cricket boys wind-up and then an engagement party on Waiheke Island on the Saturday night. The tour started when me bro Mitch, his girlfriend Kristie and my cousin Steele landed in Auckland on Sunday the 31st of August at 7.20am. From there we went into the city to explore the Viaduct, Sky Tower and Mount Eden before heading off to Tauranga to spend the night with Pam and Graeme. A huge feed and plenty of beers we were in bed for the night. The next morning we cruised through Tauranga's sites including a decent walk around and then up Mount Maunganui before heading to Rotorua for the afternoon and evening. Once we arrived at Rotorua we headed straight for the Gondola, Luge rides and the Sky Swing. A great afternoon. The next day we headed to a thermal park on the out skirts of Rotorua, before on the road to Huka falls and Lake Taupo. We got an awesome ride at the Huka falls on the Huka Jet Over Boat, which twisted and turned down the river narrowly missing branches etc and doing 360's in the boat, before arriving at the base of the falls, really unbelievable. From there we drove to Palmerston North which traveled down Desert Road past Mt Ruapheau, The first look at snow capped mountains - of which we saw plenty in the south Island. From Palmerston North we traveled to Wellington to book the ferry ride and explore Wellington's City Centre. Once on the ferry we traveled across the Cook Stait and into picton to pick up the camper van, from there traveled to Blenheim for the night. From Blenheim we traveled down the west coast of the South Island, which included a stop over at Pancake rocks and Greymouth before stopping at a lake outside Franz Josef. A 10 minute drive into Franz Josef before we embarked on probably the best part of the holiday and that was a helicopter flight over the glaciers and landing on the mountains to play in the snow - The first experience of 300mm deep Snow Powder. After landing we walked to the base of the Franz Josef Glacier for a different look at it. After some lunch we trucked onto Hastings and through to Haast Pass and onto Wanaka. This drive was awesome, from rainforest to snow capped alpine region. Saturday we heaved the camper van to the top of Cardrona Ski field, where we snowboarded for a while before steele breaking his elbow and requiring our snowboarding lesson to be cut cancelled as we rushed him to Queenstown medical centre. Queenstown was probably the best place that we visited throughout New Zealand. Sunday we went for another Jet over ride before heading up the Gondolas in Queenstown and riding some more luges - Great Fun, we finished the day off with a tandem paraglide down to the bottom of the mountain - awesome. Monday we went canyon swinging which was AWESOME, I thought it was that good I did it three times. In the Afternoon we drove up to Coronet Ski field and proceeded to have our snow boarding lesson we missed and a great afternoon in the snow, that night we drove to Cromwell. From there a trip onto Dunedin, passing through quickly as it was raining, our first rain of the trip, onto some round boulders lying on the beach and then finishing at Oamaru to watch the fairy penguins come ashore into a man made habitat. The next day we trudged onto Christchurch to go up another Gondola before visiting the Antartica World and visiting a mate of mine. The final day in the camper van we drove to Picton, not visiting much but tidying the camper van and getting ready for another ferry trip. Arriving in Wellington Thursday night we bedded down and got lost the next morning in Lower Hutt before getting on the road and arriving in Waitomo for the crews last night on holidays. Saturday morning we toured the Glow Worms cave before our last driving of the holidays and that was to drop the crew off at the airport. An Awesome holiday overall, great weather, great food, great people, great activities, great countryside. . . . This was a very summarised version of our holiday. . . . . But it was a great two weeks in New Zealand.