Dunedin - Lake Tekapo + Photos!

I was dusting the sand off! - Abel Tasman

Rapids on the walk to Lake Marion

Billy in the Cadbury van

Kea

Milford Sound

Abel Tasman

Billy enjoys a Velvet Burger

Lake Gunn

Lake Marion

Billy in his bug hat whilst we were Kiwi Spotting

Us at Franz Josef Glacier

Panning for gold in Ross

One of the blowholes at Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki

Weka (he kept moving!)

Billy hitching a lift with the Kayaks

One of the islands we stopped on whilst Kayaking in Abel Tasman

Hiding Blue Penguin!

Billy getting wet at the Moreaki Boulders (I cant spell!)

One of the views from Billy Brown's

Billy Brown x 2

The Beach near Billy Brown's

Yellow Eyed Penguin

Billy enjoys a crisp breakfast at the car boot sale

Albatross!

Good Evening,

We've had a really nice couple of days staying at Billy Brown's (yes, really!) backpackers just outside of Dunedin and this afternoon we travelled to Lake Tekapo.

We spent Saturday exploring Dunedin. This involved a trip to Cadbury's World which was very exciting, though as it was the weekend the production line was closed which was sad. Billy was a total suck-up to the tour leader throughout, so we ended up with plenty of free samples to take away and left feeling altogether sick. For lunch we went to 'Velvet Burger' in the Octagon after Dad told me he'd had his best ever burger in the Octagon 30 years ago - We're not sure if its the same one but it was tasty anyway! In the afternoon we ventured out along the Otago Peninsula and took an Albatross tour in rather inclement weather - though we saw quite a few which was exciting.

On Sunday we planned to get up at 6.15 to head out to a car boot sale to get rid of our camping gear. However Billy managed to set the alarm badly, meaning we raced out at 6.45 waking most of our hostel in the process (though that was only 4 of them!) and enjoyed a cereal bar and BBQ crisp breakfast on the way. We arrived at the car boot expecting it to be busy but finding we were the only ones there. Thankfully a few others arrived later, but it was hardly the giant car boot we'd expected from at home! We managed to sell most of our gear for the equivalent of 40quid, not as much as we'd hoped but at least its all gone!

In the afternoon we headed to the 'Big Get Together' at Otago Museum for free candyfloss, yummy Mexican food, chemistry displays and some very cute snow dogs. We ended up spending 2 hours working on a mask to enter a competition to win an Xbox. Sadly our masterpiece on the theme of 'We love NZ' complete with the scenery of New Zealand and several pipe cleaner birds was unvictorious, but at least we won't turn into gaming addicts. We went back to the lovely Billy Brown's hostel feeling slightly deflated only to be beaten by two Germans at scrabble - though they were pretty fluent! At the last minute we decided to head down to the beach to try to see yellow eyed penguins in the drizzle. We managed to spot 2 waddling up the beach and Billy also got attacked by a cloud of flies which was equally entertaining.

This morning we said goodbye to Anja, Uta and the other Billy Brown and headed up to the Moreaki Boulders (think that's how its spelt!) which were very cool. We continued to Lake Tekapo where we are now, picking up a nice Dutch hitchhiker on the way who was thankfully very good at directions! Tomorrow is our penultimate day in NZ and we plan to head to Christchurch with a rather full car, as Billy seems to have gained us yet another passenger!

Hope everything is good at home,

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxx

Abel Tasman - Hokitika - The Glaciers - Queenstown - Milford Sound - Dunedin

Hello!
As you can guess from the title of this blog we've been on the move quite a bit recently!
On Sunday we enjoyed a day's Kayaking around the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park. After an hour of instruction on paddling, capsizing (i was very worried, Billy wanted to practice in the water.) etc we were let loose to make our way along the coast and around the few closest islands. Although the paddling was tiring we had a really nice day: stopping at several amazing beaches and spotting seals and a blue penguin hiding under a rock.
We camped in an especially scenic free campsite next to two main roads, and the next morning continued down to Punakaiki and the famous pancake rocks. After much pushing and shoving we managed to make room to pick up a loan hitch-hiker we were feeling sorry for - though there wasn't room for the poor girl to breathe! The Punakaiki rocks and blowholes were suitably spectacular and we continued down towards Greymouth rather worried we'd run out of fuel on the way. The '90km to next fuel' shortly before Punakaiki had done little to calm our fuel related worries, but thankfully we made it.
We camped in the lovely 'Shining Star' campsite just south of Greymouth in Hokitika. The campsite was just across from an amazing Gloworm Dell which was very exciting indeed. In the morning we went panning for gold in Ross - but gave in after 2 hours and rather more than 2 arguments about what was and wasn't gold. Despite our earlier enthusiasm when we saw the large nuggets that had been found on sale for $200 dollars we ended up with one small lump of fools gold and decided a career in gold wasn't for us. We'd planned to stop in the afternoon at the Glaciers and then continue, but got waylaid by a notice advertising the chance to spot Kiwi in the wild, so ended up spending the night near Franz Josef. We walked up to the glacier viewpoint at Franz Josef and then headed back to the campsite for a wonderful super-noodle tea (the first time of the trip I am pleased to announce) before heading up to the coast wearing most of our kit bag and most of the bottle of insect repellent. Armed with red torches, radios, fetching bug hats and a large radio receiver we headed out into the bush with our enthusiastic guide Ian, and our even more enthusiastic co-guide Billy (Ian soon regretted this decision). We were split into groups and each given an area to listen in. After about an hour of intent listening with only a Possum spotted one of the Kiwi without a tracker wandered onto the track ahead of my group. Ian radioed Billy and his group ever more frantically until they eventually rocked up about 4 minutes later. (Billy hadn't heard.) Thankfully the Kiwi had stuck around and we got to see her really close (less than 1m away) which was very exciting.
In the morning we got up early and walked up to the Fox glacier before the crowds. Billy was determined to make it back in under the hour advised and after an exhausting frog-march we managed it in half an hour - Billy at least was chuffed. We headed south stopping at a few pretty waterfalls (Thunder Creek Falls and Fantail Falls) and the beautiful Lake Wanaka on the way to Queenstown. We were keen to avoid the myriad of temptations to splurge in Queenstown so after a quick look around headed on further, ending up at a lovely campsite in Mossburn, where we found we were the only guests - Bonus!
On Thursday we headed up to Fiordland, and 'enjoyed' the walk up to the amazing Lake Marion (It was good exercise at least). Once again Billy attempted to beat the suggested duration, though I refused to run back down so we missed the last lake cruise of the day. We camped at the nearby Lake Gunn which was very pretty and enjoyed a night around the campfire with some nice people we met there.
This morning we headed out on the 9.15 cruise around the sounds, which lived up to their reputation as a great place to visit. Billy enjoyed the free muffins too! We then headed over to Dunedin where we've set up camp for the night and hope to explore tomorrow. Cadburys' world is on my agenda and I think we may also be taking a trip to the worlds only mainland albatross colony (at least I'll have the thought of chocolate to keep me going).
See you all soon,
Lots of love,
Rosie and Billy
xxx

Picton- Blenhem- Kaikoura- Nelson- Abel Tasman!

Hello bloggers,
The last few days have been rather eventful. We stayed at a free campsite which was supposedly near Picton but turned out miles away from anywhere on our first night in the South Island. The composting toilets were fun, as was the constant rain! I (Billy) went for a dip in the morning to wake up, but as usual Rosie found it too cold.
We spent the next day getting bored in Blenheim as the two tiny dents in the car door were being fixed and toured the op shops (Kiwi for charity shops). Once it was fixed we went to a much nicer campsite that was a youth hostel as well. I managed to seriously burn my sausages in the kitchen and smoke out the whole building (it was lucky that the fire alarms didn't go off). We met some nice English people and played an intense game of Balderdash and Cranium, somehow I managed too lose at everything.
The next day we travelled down to Kaikoura to go on a seal walk but managed to find a colony right next to the highway. This required an emergency stop, but was well worth it as we could get really close and they had lots of cute pups. We decided that the famous whale watching trips were a bit beyond our budget, but had a really nice walk along the peninsula walkway around the clifftops and past seal, red billed gull and tern colonies.
That night we stayed in another free campsite which was beautiful with a wonderful walk along the beach. However, at 3 o'clock the next morning a group of possibly drunk (St Patricks Day!) males turned up and erected 3 tents in the loudest manner possible, we were not amused! To make matters worse they were up again at 6.30 and roared off with their guns on quad bikes!
We took the scenic route back up to Nelson, where we stayed with a friend of Jo's (Rosies aunt), which was lovely, especially due to the lack of obnoxious hunters. We ended up playing with their daughter for a couple of hours and trying out their rope swing. This morning we wandered around the town and went to the market where we were tempted by the delicious food. After an equally nice lunch back at the house we set off for Abel Tasman. Tomorrow we're hiring a kayak and are staying at Old Mcdonalds farm tonight (I am not looking forward to the song being stuck in my head all night!).
Hope England win the 6 nations!
Lots of love,
Billy and Rosie
xxx

Photos!

Smiles for the camera

Peninsula walkway - Kaikora

Cricket!

Kaikora

Seal colony

Robin hoods bay

Spot the Albatross!

Wellington

Billy in Rivendell

Billy making a splash in Rivendell

Rivendell river

Wellington Beach

Chiefs Vs Hurricanes

No sightings as yet.

Brewery tour.

Tui ad.

The Tui girl new recruit

Fountain in Napier

Our best Kiwi shot - Napier aquarium

Napier

Will update with a more wordy account of our antics asap!

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxxx

Napier - Wellington - Picton!

We spent Friday afternoon in the Aquarium in Napier which was interesting - they had 2 kiwis on display behind soundproofed glass so you could see them behaving naturally, and a sort of conveyor belt through an underwater tunnel.. much fun! We said goodbye to Francie, who had been very lovely to us and given us some of tasty cakes for the journey, and headed down towards Palmerston North. We stayed in yet another town I can't pronounce the name of and in the morning took a tour of the Tui brewery located in the town. I enjoyed the tour and Billy claims to have, though I'm not sure he can remember much of it after the 4 'free' pints he sampled on an empty stomach!

We arrived in Wellington slightly worse for wear and checked into the giant 320 bed YHA hostel there - luxury! In the evening we went to watch Chiefs vs Hurricanes at the Westpac Stadium which was exciting. We each chose a team to support - thankfully mine, the Hurricanes, one - though Billy maintains it was a close match! On Sunday we explored Wellington, spending most of the day in the huge Te Papa museum before Billy talked me into going to the cinema to see Rango (starring Johnny Depp!), which was surprisingly good. Monday was spent driving around searching for sets from 'The Lord of the Rings'. We ended up in Rivendell where Billy enjoyed a freezing swim in the River, much to the amusement of the other, more sensible, tourists.

Today we woke up early and headed back into Wellington from our campsite in a nearby town to catch the ferry across to south island. This morning we took the Wellington cable car up to the botanic gardens which were very pretty. Billy took the opportunity to embarrass me, as ever, and enjoyed the children's playground - making loud 'weeeeeeeeee' noises down both slides and attempting to swing as high as possible on the swings, (Rosie enjopyed it too). When I eventually dragged him away from the glaring mothers we took the cable car back down, enjoying the great views of Wellington, and took our very scenic ferry ride over to Picton, where we are now.

Hope things are good at home,
Will upload photos asap,
Lots of love,
Rosie and Billy
xxx

Photos and Rotorua - Napier

The only time Billy went off the green. One of mine went into a pond.

The Amazing McDonalds plane - the future of air travel

Huka Falls

Billy with the only kiwi we were allowed to take photos of!

Maori meeting house in Rotorua

Church in Rotorua

Pukheko (Billy claims this is the correct spelling)

View at the top of the lookout near Thames

Hot Water Beach

New Chums Beach

Our Wonderful Car!

The caravan we ended up in!

Our first camping meal - I promise he won't starve!

We left Rotorua on Wednesday following a warmer night in the thermally heated campsite - though Billy assures me it was just placebo effect. We went back to see the Kiwi's at Rainbow Springs on Tuesday night which was very cool - the kiwi were less than a meter away from us with no glass/cage in between. We made it to Taupo without too many navigation related arguments and found a wonderful free campsite - though the toilets were definitely a no-go area. We ended up in McDonalds as they had a plane parked outside where you could eat which Billy found very exciting indeed. We visited a natural hot spring and took in the AC baths which were also rather nice. In the afternoon we met up with Henry, Oli and Justin and handed over the rather large atlas I've been carrying round for them for the past month. I still don't know why they need a road atlas of Europe!! Billy then enjoyed his second burger of the day (with peanut butter!) at their must see location of Taupo - 'Burgerfuel'. We went back to their hostel for beers, chocolate and a rather jumpy copy of 'The Twin Towers' before returning to the campsite.
In the morning Billy enjoyed the rope swing into the river beside the campsite - the water was thermally heated which was a pleasant surprise. After a McDonalds breakfast (I was forced!) we met up with Henry et al. and had a wander around town. We left for Napier in the afternoon, enjoying a scenic drive and some wonderful road works. We managed to find Francies house without a proper map or instructions which was a small miracle, and enjoyed a rather more comfy night than we're used to. This morning we've been exploring Napier and Billy enjoyed his first ever round of crazy golf (which he took far too seriously and beat me by a considerable margin!).

Hope everything's good at home,

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxx