The aim of this web page is to be a photo diary of our travels around New Zealand. We will attempt to update this at regular intervals, internet access permitting.
Back Home again, we spent a couple of days in Auckland before handing our campervan back on the 1 March.
Sad to say goodbye to our home for the last 2 months. We then flew back home via Hong Kong where we stayed
one day. We stayed in a nice hotel attached to the airport and went to a theme park in Hong Kong called Ocean
Park. We picked up our connecting flight on the 2 March and landed back in London on the 3rd. These are the
last few pictures and the end of this page.
Best Wishes,
Woodrow, Cherry, Susan and Sargon
We have arrived back in Auckland Today after having travelled from Orere Point. This is where we started
our trip nearly 2 months ago, we have just 4 more days until we start to fly back to England. We spent a while at
Papamoa beach just relaxing which was nice after travelling so much. Yes, thats me on the
jumping pillow. However a couple of days ago we hit the road again.
One the way back to Auckland we stopped at Matamata, or Hobbiton!, the place where they filmed all the
hobbit village scenes for the Lord of The Rings films. The only set still remaining in New Zealand,
although it was only by chance as the contract they signed with the farmer who owned the land said that
the area would be returned to how it was found. However the contractor who was bulldozing the hobbit
houses was stopped by the weather and said he would be back in a few weeks. In the mean time the farmer
who owned the land realised that people wanted to see the set and asked permission from the film company
to keep them. It was given providing he did not restore them to how they were in the films. So we went
on the tour.
After that we headed north, we stayed at a beach camp at Orere Point yesterday. From having been on country roads for so long we suddenly hit a motorway this morning and even a small traffic jam as we passed Auckland city centre. We are now at a camp site in Takapuna near an internet café hence the upload.
Best wishes Woodrow, Cherry, Susan and Sargon
We have been camping at Papamoa on the beach for a few days. No updates for a while due to lack of internet
access but here goes on the last couple of weeks. After Mount Cook we headed to Christchurch where we
stayed a few days. We went on the tram in town and up the cable car up to the near by mountain. After
Christchurch we headed north along the east coast. On the way up we saw some seals really close up.
We stayed at Kaikoura and Blenheim on the way up, and took the ferry back to the north island on the Friday
13. Despite the ominous date the trip was smooth. This time we got to see Wellington in the sun shine and
went on the cable cars and drove to the top of Mt Victoria. However this was not to last as a large storm
came in the next day. We just managed to move north to Hastings before the roads were closed. There has
been a lot of flooding in the region around Wellington, and on the news it said it was one of the worst
since records began.
After Hastings we moved to Napier where we went on a tour of a fruit farm where we picked some nice
nectarines and apples. 17 Feb continued north to Gisborne and then on to Te Kaka, on the way up we
went past the place where ‘Whale Rider’ was based. We stopped at an old pier on the way. At Whakatane
we took an airplane ride out to White Island, the most active New Zealand volcano. We could see the
sulphuric crater lake clearly and the volcano was quite when we flew over but on the way back the wind
picked up and it took ages to get back fighting the headwind. Yesterday we went on a jet boat ride up a
river gorge near Lake Matahina and saw a kiwi fruit orchard. However this years fruit are not ripe yet
so no tasting.
We are camped in at the foot hills of Mt Cook and we have had a busy 10 days since last update. We have
been through the most spectacular part of the New Zealand so far. We saw several Glaciers, big mountains
and lots and lots of waterfalls. We walked up to the Franz Joseph and went to the top of the Fox Glacier by
helicopter.
We landed in the snow at the top. We spent a couple of days in Queenstown, the birth place of
the bungee jump. No we didn’t jump, however we did go on a jet boat through the canyon and up to the top of
the mountain in a cable car. We also went on a Lord of the Rings Safari to look at some of the places used
to shoot scenes for the films.
After Queenstown we went up to Milford Sound one of the fiords on the east coast, where the average annual
rainfall is 7000mm of which we reckon we saw a good part.
The drive up there though was amazing, through
narrow valleys and tunnel through the mountains on the only road into the sound. After that we then stayed
at TeAnau near the lake at a really nice camp site.
There we saw some a glow worm cave where we went
through on a boat. After that we travelled round the bottom of the south Island via Invercargill the most
southerly town in the world. Back up the west coast we saw the Yellow eyed penguins and Albatrosses in
Dunedin. On the way up to Mt cook we saw the Moeraki boulders and had a look at a Hydroelectric station which is used here to generate
most of NZ electricity. Good to see so much energy coming from clean, renewable sources.
Waitangi day here today which is the day New Zealand was created with the signing of the treaty with the Maori. Still causes a few issues today and saw a politician splattered with mud on the news. Still most Kiwi’s just having a day off and enjoying themselves.
We are at the foothills in the Franz Josef Glacier village in the south island. It’s been a while since
we updated the site again due to the lack of internet access to upload files. We spent a couple of days
in Rotorua near the mud pools and geysers.
The whole place smelled of sulphur but the locals seemed to be
immune to it. Saw some big hot pools at Hells Gate which were full of boiling water and sulphur and saw
some spectacular coloured pools at Waiotapu. Apart from all the thermal activity, we also had a Maori
Huka greeting and songs and went inside the Maori meeting house, which was good fun.
After Rotorua we headed south down the centre of the island, past lake Taupo. We drove up to a volcano
called Mt Ruapehu but it was shrouded in cloud sow we could only see about 50 feet when we got to the top.
Still the picture on the postcard we saw later looked great. Stayed at Wanganui on the west coast that
night and then headed for Wellington where we were due to catch the ferry to the south island.
We arrived in Wellington at the same time as this year’s biggest storm there. So decided to do some
indoor stuff and ended up spending the whole day at the Te Papa national museum which was a delight,
they had lots of interactive exhibits and lots of science history as well as a dinosaur exhibition.
Jan 22 caught the ferry to the south island.
When we arrived in Picton it was glorious sunshine.
Such contrast in both the weather and scenery from day
to day. We took the winding road round Queen Charlotte sound towards Nelson which was stunning. Then
visited some original settler’s village in Nelson. Went across a swinging bridge on the rugged Buller
River Gorge and zipped back on a rope slide. Today we visited an old Gold mining shanty town and did
some gold panning. We all managed to find some gold and we had fun panning for it, however our haul is
not going to make us rich.
Its been a while since we updated the page as it's been difficult getting internet access.
The camp sites have not had much internet access and we have been on the move constantly so not had time
to go into any towns and use internet café’s. So a quick summary of the last 10 days:
We have moved around the north tip of New Zealand and then back down the east coast. We drove some quad
bikes on 90 miles beach. Then visited the light house at the northern most point of New Zealand. It was
20 km on gravel road or as they say here in a casual way ‘unsealed’, which is hard work in that, you get
shook all around while living in fear of falling down one of the sharp corners as you move up and down
the steep hills. We then came back down the east coast past the bay of Islands. Stopped at Whaitangi
where the treaty of NewZealand was signed and took a boat trip onto the pacific where we saw some dolphins
which was great. Visted some caves where they had glow worms and saw a Kiwi bird in a special dark enclosure.
The weather has generally been very good, except for a few cloudy days it’s been mostly blue skies and
very warm even when it’s cloudy its been warm. No aircon on the Motorhome so back to basics and driving
with all the windows open to keep cool on the road. Most of the time stayed at camp sites on the beaches
on the way back down. Passed through Auckland a couple of days ago and then headed to the Coromandel
peninsula. Stayed a day in Coromandel town where we went up a mountain in a miniature railway and went
to an interesting water park where they had built all sorts of things driven by the water pressure of the
stream. Today we headed for Rotorua which is where we are camped tonight.
Here we go again, set off on New Years eve and flew via Hong Kong to Auckland. We crossed into 2004 somewhere
over Russia near Moscow. Arived in Auckland on the 2nd and stayed in a Hotel on the north shore for a few days. The
weather was realy good, clear blue skys and 34 degrees, which acording to the taxi driver was unusual. Did some tourist things in Auckland, including going on 'Ocean Raft' a realy fast speed boat. Like the ones used by the coast guard.
We picked up our Motorhome on the 5th January. First night we stayed
by a beach on the west coast near a small village called Piha. The place was full of surfers as the waves
were pushed up into the bay making them ideal for surfing aparently. 
Camp site was very informal, not like the ones in America. Yesterday we drove up Helensville and stayed at a camp site near a hot spring pool,
spent some time in the pool but the water was very hot so you had to get out every 10 minutes to cool down
a bit. The weather turned last night and today we have rain most of the day, although its still very hot so
a bit humid and people still walking round in shorts and t-shirts. We travelled to Dargaville today, stopped
at a museum that showed all sorts of Kauri, a hugh native tree that has mostly been cut down, stuff.
Love Woodrow, Cherry, Susan and Sargon.