USA

Once again we are gazing back through time to update the blog - we are getting pretty close to the end of the trip now, and have resolved to make sure we don't end up writing the last two months of blogs from London =)

Right now we are in Cancun, Mexico, enjoying pretty nice weather as we wind down before the trip back to freezing cold England. But in terms of our blogging progress, we are just about to leave Auckland, over a month ago...

The flight was almost a repeat of the fiasco that ended up with the longest day ever without sleep in Melbourne, so this time we took the pharmaceutical route and took sleeping tablets after we'd finished our first round of in-flight movies. This turned out to work quite well, we both got enough sleep to get by, and before we knew it we'd arrived at LAX. It was still some crazy hour in the morning in US time, and with the sleeping pill lag to contend with as well we weren't exactly on top form as we staggered off the plane.

Everything was going well until we'd spent the best part of an hour waiting at the baggage reclaim; slowly but surely the torrent of luggage slowed to a trickle, and the other passengers had pretty much all gone... but no sign of either our bags. Things went from bad to worse when we asked the Quantas people in the terminal - the idiot that had checked us in in Auckland hadn't given us our baggage tags so we had nothing that they could check in their system to find out what had happened. (Note to anyone going on a plane with checked in baggage - never leave the check in desk without bag tags!)

Arrrggg... we spent another hour queueing and filling in lost baggage claim forms and were dispatched off to our hostel with the promise Quantas would phone each day with a status update. Neither of us were holding our breath.

We had booked to stay in a hostel right on Venice Beach, and it turned out to be a good little place ("Venice Beach Cotel - its like a hotel, but cheaper!", gah!) situated right on Venice Beach prominade.



Fortunately we only had to wait for a couple of hours before they found a room we could take - thank god their customer service was better than Melbourne or we'd have been waiting until the afternoon again. Its a really nice area to stroll around, even in the early hours of the morning! We crashed out and slept for the rest of the day, not really knowing what was going on.

The next day we woke up and took stock of our situation; neither of us had anything else to wear, no toiletries at all, and only one airline toothbrush between us. After harassing Quantas baggage service by phone - who as expected seemed quite oblivious to our missing bags despite it only being 24 hours on - it became clear we'd need to buy some stuff to get by.

(In hindsight we should have should have done so much more before we left the airport - once we'd got some internet we did loads of research on what kind of compensation they will give you if you kick up a fuss. Its well worth googling for this information if you are embarking on a lot of flights this year - knowing your rights in advance makes things a hell of a lot easier than trying to chase it all down after the event!)

Alex took charge (not just because we needed to shop, she'd been to LA before) and we took a stroll down to Santa Monica. The famous pier was a little bleak and closed down as it was the middle of winter, but the walk was great. From there we headed in land to hit the shops along the 3rd Street Promenade. A hundred or so dollars later we had enough bits to get by with.

The next few days passed by in a bit of a haze as we couldn't really plan anything until we had news about the bags. On the third day we managed to get through to the guy that had helped us at the airport, and thank christ he actually knew what he was doing - we gave him a much more detailed description of the bags and within an hour they'd been able to track them down in some random section of Auckland airport.

Our best guess as to what happened was that the guy who checked us in was a) annoyed with us or b) just plain stupid, and had 'forgotten' to put the baggage routing tags on the bags (and therefore had no bag tag receipts to give us.) So the bags just got left around the check-in area before hitting the on-hand (airport talk for lost property?) bags pile in the airport. Anyway, all interesting stuff to know in hindsight, but the best thing was the bags would be flown overnight and would be back with us the next day.

We did more walking for the rest of that day, and explored the canals that give Venice Beach its name:



There were some amazing little houses around there, it looked like a great place to live. People were starting to put up their Xmas lights and decorations, so we had a great day out.

That next day we planned out the rest of our time in the US, ready to book everything the second the bags arrived - obviously still paranoid that Quantas would some how mess that up too. We'd not really explored LA at all yet, so it was about time jumped on the bus and headed over to Hollywood.

We'd picked a pretty special day for it - within about an hour of leaving the heavens opened and it rained solidly for the rest of the day. Hollywood in the rain, without an umbrella, is not a great place to be. We couldn't even see the sign in the hills it was so grim, so we headed inside and went to see the Christmas Carol 3D film instead.

It was a great film and everything - the amazing 3D scenes of Dickensian London made us feel pretty home-sick - but the real highlight happened before the film started. Just as the adverts finished and the film was about to start, the whole screen shot upwards to reveal a load of perma-grinning singers and dancers, complete with Mickey and Minnie mouse. We'd managed to completely miss the fact we'd booked ourselves into some crazy kids Christmas show - even after being given strange jangly wrist bands on the way into the cinema.

Oh well, a few extremely twee Christmas songs later - and after being covered in fake fairly liquid 'snow' - the film finally started!

So LA was a bit of a write-off really, mostly down to the missing bags, and partly due to how impossible it is to get anywhere without spending four hours a day on buses. The different areas are so spread out its a bit disappointing how hard it is to see everything.

Amazingly the bags did show up on time the next day, so we booked up some greyhound tickets and a hostel, and the headed north to San Fransico the day after.

The guide book told us the city was way smaller than LA, and could be walked around in a day. So we set off from our wonderful hostel in downtown to the Golden Gate Park, thinking we could walk back around the coast in a day...



This is before we realised it was about a 15 mile roundtrip - it turned out our map had a section that wasn't to scale (I mean who does that... mean trick to play on tourists) and after about five hours of walking we were still nowhere near getting back! It was a beautiful city to stroll around though, so we loved it despite being knackered after we got a tram home.

We spent the next few days exploring the cheap things to see, like Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Alex was keen to try the Clam Chowder :



Not really my cup of tea, but Alex loved it... she is definitely winning the game of how many local dishes you can try going around the world. (I'd just snuck off to the BK around the corner before we took that photo :p)

The weather was a bit grim, but we managed to make it up and down the zigzags of Lombard Street without sliding down. That evening we took in a quintessentially San Fran show called Beach Blanket Babylon - Alex had found this online and it looked like a good laugh. Its a really long running satirical musical revue, which is constantly reinvented to poke fun at whatever is in the news at the time. This was hilarious, despite the fact we didn't get some of the more quirky American jokes - and well worth a visit if you are in San Fran.

On the way back home that night it was my turn to sample some classic American fare - I was a bit peckish on the walk home so we grabbed a Philly Cheese Steak from a diner and holy cow is that the best food ever invented?! I'm sure my heart stopped for a few moments as my internal organs fought the waves of lard sweeping through me, but it was worth it for the cheesy-meaty-bready tastiness of it all. Happy days =)

We'd had a string of relatively cheap days in the US so far, so it was about time we slapped down the greebacks and did some tours - first up was Alcatraz. We'd followed some good advice and booked ahead of time to do the night tour - allegedly the best tour in the San Fran area. We'd fluked a perfect day for it to; it was very clear and sunny, so by late afternoon the city was bathed in an amazing orange glow as we set sail across the bay.



This is the view from the island away from the city:



This was one of our favourite tours of the trip, its just so well organised and the audio tour around the prison itself was great. Because we'd done the night trip there weren't that many people around, and we manage to use our London commuter elbowing skills to get the front of the queue to get into the prison, so it was eerily empty as we explored around it.



When we made it back outside the sun had just about set behind the Golden Gate Bridge, and the views were breathtaking :



It was a great trip out, full marks. We walked home from the pier through Union Square (our hostel was just around the corner) and couldn't resist getting caught up in the Christmas spirit with just a week to go until the big day :



The next day we went to see the long awaited Avatar film - in IMAX 3D no less - in the morning. Its undeniably a brilliant film, we both really enjoyed it. As it was the first day of release we had to go during the morning to get a seat, so it was really disorienting coming outside into the sunshine and walking around afterwards!

We'd shelled out the big bucks for our next trip - a full day tour out into the Yosemite National Park :



We'd got lucky on the weather yet again and enjoyed an amazing day out in the crisp mountain air. The tour was a bit of a rush but they managed to pack in loads of the main sites through the park. We've already forgotten the names of everything but this one might be a big rock called El Capitan seen across the valley.



The waterfalls were all running a bit low on water, you can just about make out one of them in the background past the crazy tree :



We got to do a few hours of exploring after lunch, so we did a bit of scrambling to get up close to one of the bigger falls near the visitors centre :



And another one for good luck...



Another amazing trip - it was quite a long bus journey to get out there, but well worth it. The clear day and all the snow made it unmissable.

As we were getting closer to Christmas - and our 'holiday' in the Bellagio - we started winding down again after the big tours. The next day we thought it'd be nice to talk a stroll over the Golden Gate Bridge, but sadly the amazingly unpredictable weather thought better of it.



With not much else to do in the gloom, we hit the town that night and headed up to the bar in the Marriott Hotel for a cheeky beer or two. The mist had cleared a little and the views from the 39th floor bar were great.



(For some reason I couldn't stop thinking we were in scene from Star Wars, is it like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi?)

We hit a few more bars and had a grand old time, but on the way back we broke the cardinal rule of 'never go shopping after drinking', and ended up going a little bit silly in the corner shop...



Ah well, it was Christmas after all =)

We'd come to the end of a great week in San Fransico, so it was time to head back the way we'd come and head to Las Vegas via a one night stop back in LA. Christmas in Vegas deserves its own post, so we'll leave it here - until next time...

The rest of New Zealand

Our last update was from the Franz Joseph glacier on the south island. We'd decided to split our 20 ish days in NZ evenly between the islands, so we only had a couple more days left in the south before we had to give back the car and head to the north. The final destination on the plan was Nelson, a largish city on the north coast. It was another fairly epic drive to get up there, but things quickly picked up when we found out the hostel we'd booked gave everyone free chocolate cake and ice cream each night! Awesome :)

To be honest it doesn't matter at all if the hostel is a complete dump when they give you free cake, but this place was brilliant - it was run by a couple that had spent ages travelling themselves so really knew how to keep the backpackers happy. We really wanted to do some wine tasting (ie drinking) at some point in New Zealand, and Nelson was the perfect place for it; we signed up for a tour and headed out the following day.



The tour was great, we visited four different vineyards and tried so much wine it got to the point where we actually had to use the spittoon by the afternoon :p The lady that ran it was a really eccentric ex-school teacher, and the whole thing felt like a crazy school trip but with lots of wine involved. All good fun - we definitely learned a bit more about wine, but it did take us quite a few days of beer drinking before either of us could face ordering a wine again ha!

So that was it for the south island, as the next day we were up bright and early to drive to Picton to get the ferry. In classic style we'd not bothered checking times or booking, so it was a total fluke that there was a ferry just about to leave the minute we arrived. A little bit of running around the ferry terminal later and we were on the boat, heading north to NZ's capital city, Wellington.

Our fantastic luck with the unpredictable New Zealand weather finally ran out, and as we pulled into the docks in Wellington the outlook was pretty grey and miserable. It stayed rainy for three days running, so we really didn't see much of Wellington. Possibly the most exciting thing that happened is that we stumbled on the enlightening of the city Christmas tree, complete with Sally Army band and carol singing, to get us into the Xmas mood a bit!



With the rain showing no signs of abating, we rented another car and headed north back out into national park territory.

The first stop on the north island tour was Tongariro National Park, a real life volcano and home of one of the best one-day hikes (they call them 'tramps') in the country. After a lot of persuading from Alex I'd agreed to embark on this 21km long by 1km high mission of a walk as it did sound pretty amazing... even if I did think I had a very high chance of collapsing in a heap at some point along the track.

The hostels in the area were set up for sending people out onto the track via buses that ran from the town to the start in the morning, and then they'd pick you up at the other end 6 gruelling hours later. So we dragged ourselves out of bed to get onto the bus at 7:30 am, completely weighed down with snacks and water as if we were heading out to the north face of Everest. The weather report was a little ropey, but we'd seen the clouds clear up nicely the day before so we were quite optimistic... famous last words...



It was pretty easy going to start with, just a gentle slope up some really nice terrain, and the sun was making the right noises about breaking through the clouds.



The easy going start quickly turned into the start of the uphill slog. It was around this time we overheard some people saying that the volcano area had been used - yep, you guessed it - in Lord of the Rings for some of the Mount Doom bits. So there were quite a few people joking about climbing up Mount Doom, and one group in particular were taking it so seriously ('Listen guys, its now or never to turn back, as once we climb this bit there's no coming back...') we started to feel a bit nervous. We could see on our handout from the hostel that the profile of the walk was pretty much straight up from there, with a really long downhill at the end, so we got our heads down and started up the side of the mountain.

Its time for a quick side note - at this point we'd be remiss if we didn't mention a slightly wacky NZ form of sustainance - Scroggin. We were baffled by this phrase at the start of the NZ journey, we'd seen a couple things mentioning it but had no clue what it meant. But it turned out to be their word for trail mix, or whatever we call that in England. Like a high-carb snack for when you are walking. Anyway, having found out there was a special word for it - and having found huge scroggin dispensers in the nearby supermarket - we were completely loaded with the stuff. By the time we'd hit the hilly bits we were so wired on peanuts, dried fruit and chocolate covered raisins we were zooming passed everyone else. Maybe not such a good idea right at the start of the walk, but hey, it was tasty...!

Anyway, back to the mission in hand - it was all going so well until we were about halfway up - then either we broke through the clouds, or the clouds came down to break us...



.. and it all went a little bit sideways from there :



You could barely see 15 metres, and sadly this walk is all about the views of things that are more than 15 metres away. Aparently there was an active volcano crater, several brightly coloured volcanic lakes, and all sorts of Lord of the Rings-style scenes of barren landscapes out there somewhere.

Right at the top we crossed the freezing level and started to a few scattered snowy/icey bits, and that also transformed the cloudy mist from an annoyance into a face-freezing blizzard. We were not best pleased at this stage =)



And not to be outdone...



From the top there were a few pretty steep bits to slide down, followed by three hours of gradual downhill slog. We were pretty happy to break back through the freezing level, then through the cloud level, and by the end it was pretty warm and dry again. But after 21 cold and wet kilometres both of us were pretty fed up with it - and I was totally knackered - so we were very glad to ge the bus home for a nice hot shower. Looking back on this we are really glad we did it, but its such a shame about the weather as it could have been an amazing trip. (Advice to anyone heading this way - leave a spare day in your plans so that if needs be you can wait to do the crossing... the bus service we had were really cool as if by the time they'd driven you all the way to the start and the weather was still rubbish, they'd take you back and give you tickets for the next day instead.)

The next morning was pretty horrific, both of us (ok well me especially) were crying out in pain with every step. The rest of the people in our hostel were also in varying states of brokenness which made us feel a bit better. But with limited time to cram everything in, it was straight back on the road (thank god for automatic cars!) heading for Waitomo - home of the famous black water rafting.

The drive was fairly straight forwards, and the hostels were all bluring into one by this point... but thats not really why you make the trip over to Waitomo. The whole area is littered with caves, and the main underground river runs for miles. They've made various attractions - caving, walking, more glow worm spotting for the more mild-mannered travellers - but the main event for most people is the black water (underground) rafting. This is a tamer version of white water rafting, but you do it underground in narrow tunnels sat on car inner tubes... sounds great eh? :)

We booked in a combined day of crazy activities - first you abseil down 20 metres or so into the cave, then you go walking up the underground river and do some caving. Then you stop in a huge underground cavern and do some glowworm spotting, followed by the rafting. Once you've gone far enough down river, you grab the tubes and hike back upstream before climbing the wall of the cave you abseiled down to get out again. A pretty average day by New Zealand standards then.

There were some nice easy walks around the place to do to try and stretch our achy legs, and caves were everywhere :



Our crazy mission started at 10am the next day, and started pretty mundanely with a bus ride followed by changing into the gear. We ended up with all sorts of crazy stuff - a full wetsuit as the water is freezing and we'd be getting pretty wet, a crazy pair of cloth trousers (to stop the eels from biting?!), a climbing harness with caving rack for the abseil and climb, a hard hat with a torch so we could see in the cave, and finally a pair of lovely white wellies. There were 6 people in the group, plus the guide, and we all looked like total loons walking around in all the gear.

So first up was the abseil, and thanks to our rock climbing antics in Thailand this was pretty straight forwards. (Unforunately we don't have any photos of us in action as it was the classic rip off of having to pay for a CD of mostly blurred photos the guide had taken afterwards. But that wont stop us from ripping off photos from google though eh...) This is a picture of the cave entrance from the bottom, the abseil happens on the far left, and the climb back up by the ropes on the right.



We hadn't quite realised how cold it was going to be down there, and the water level was pretty high thanks to the recent rain. Our wellies were pretty much continually full as you had to walk in the river for quite a lot of the way. After everyone made it down we grabbed our inner tubes and headed up stream. There were some little bits of caving to do - both Alex and I aren't partically fond of small enclosed spaces, especially after the Cu Chi Tunnels trip in Vietnam - so we chickened out of the harder bits. The trek up stream to see the glowworm cave was well worth it; after lying down on a sandy bank we all turned out our lights. Straight away you could see glow worms all over the roof, but after five minutes of acclimatisation you could see millions of the buggers - absolutely amazing.

But all of that was a bit of a sideshow, as finally we'd trekked far enough up stream to hit the inner tubes. With our lights off we cruised down stream, and then sped up through some really fast bits too. This was really increadible fun - and just a tiny bit scary at the same time - we were so far underground, with all that rock around and the fast flowing river, it was all pretty exciting stuff.

The trek back upstream was a killer however - lugging the tubes back through the faster bits was a real mission. We were all quite relieved to make it back to the starting cave, but then we had to face the 20 metre climb to get out! The wall was very simple compared to the stuff we'd done in Ko Phi Phi, but its still pretty hard work climbing on wet rock in wellington boots. Everyone made it up, and for the second time that week we were knackered and desparately in need of a hot shower.

The relentless pace of drive-sightsee-drive was starting to take its toll by this stage, but we only had one more destination on the north island before we reached Auckland - possibly the worlds smelliest city, Rotorua.

Built around an area of huge geothermal activity, the entire place stinks of eggy sulphur joy, all day and all night. You can't escape the smell, it follows you everywhere and tries to overwhelm you when you least expect it. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking something has gone seriously wrong with your digestive system, but then you remember where you were and go back to sleep against.

Ok enough about the smell... against all odds Rotorua is a major tourist destination, with lots of thermal spa style pampering options, and some quite famous geysers and mud pools to take a look at. After our knackering few days, first stop was clearly going to be the spa :



Now I'll be honest and admit that sitting in a boiling hot pool of stinking water isn't one of my top ten ways to unwind, but Alex really enjoyed it. The views across the (stinking, sulphurous) lake were pretty good though.

The next day we were up early to visit the impressively titled "Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland". It was a bit of strange one as the place was open all day, but everyone going there rushes in at 10:30 on the dot, as this is when they 'induce' their main attraction, the Lady Knox geyser.



Its all very impressive but with quite a bit of smoke and mirrors - the chap pops by and drops 300 grams of soap powder into the top of it to make it go. Otherwise it erupts on its own every couple of days, but by the sound of things they've been rudely awaking it every day now for the last eighty years or so.

After a few minute of watching it go, the assembled masses pile back to the main park to walk around the remarkable assortment of craters, cauldrons and other crazy geothermal sites.



Having been a little baffled by Rotorua's appeal so far, we were really taken aback by amazing sights in Wai-O-Tapu. Its completely unique in terms of things we've seen so far on the trip, the colours (yeah, smells too) and bizarre formations caused by the geothermal activity have to been seen to be believed. They have built a really nice walking path through the different parts, and the whole experience was really great.



It took a few hours to walk around the full site, which left us with a few hours to kill in the afternoon, so we headed up in another gondala (the twin to the one in Queenstown it turns out) to take in the views over the town and the lake.



Being identical in every way to the one in Queenstown, there was also a luge track, so we couldn't resist hurtling down the side of the hill a few times... great fun and great views at the same time, all great fun.

That was it for Rotorua, and pretty much it for New Zealand. The next day we did the final leg of the drive, dropping the car off in Auckland and settling in for a quiet 24-hour flying visit. We took in most of the city but didn't really get up to much, I think we'd been put off doing anything by everyone saying it was a bit rubbish! To be honest we were totally shattered by this point and enjoyed a bit of a rest for a day.

So another country down, and only two more to go - we headed off to Auckland airport the next day a little reluctant to leave New Zealand, but also quite content that we'd packed in so many amazing days as we travelled across the islands. It was a great balance of scenery, chilled out people, great drives and lots of adventure - we can't recommend it enough.

So next stop America... our flight took us from Auckland to Los Angeles direct, and managed to land before it took off, thanks to the wonderful magic of crossing the international date line. It was the start of a strange few days that's for sure, but that story will have to wait for our next update =)

New Zealand - south island

So eight countries down, three more to go, and next up is New Zealand. We had a pretty painless flight from Sydney into Christchurch - and managed to get into town and checked in to the hostel without any of the drama we had in Melbourne. So we definitely got off on the right foot in New Zealand, and so far its just getting better and better. Most of the gripes we had in Oz are much less prevalent in NZ, and the scenery is simply world class.

Our plan was to follow in several of our friend's footsteps and rent a campervan; however after a bit of research into costs and a chat with the reception staff in our hostel we were persuaded to rent a car instead. It turns out you have to pay to stay in campsites anyway as its illegal to 'freedom camp' so if you're happy to be a bit less hardcore and like your home comforts such as a full length bed, your best option is probably a car and sleeping in a hostel.

After a couple of days in Christchurch milling around and enjoying our last bit of time in a city for a while, we took off in the budget mobile (a snazzy '98 Nissan Pulsar automatic) to Oamaru, the next town of interest down the south coast. We were put onto a scenic route by the chap who rented us our car and we were soon driving through the most stunning landscapes we'd seen on the trip so far - needless to say what should have been a short drive ended up taking a fair while longer with all the picture stops:



We'd decided to be a bit cocky and leave booking our accommodation until we arrived like the good old days in Asia, however this quickly backfired as it turned out Oamaru's only annual event was occuring that weekend - some big Victorian fete, typical! After a bit of searching we luckily managed to find a lovely little hostel a little way out of town but right by the coast and with a really homley feel with a proper fire place and everything.

After settling in, our first mission was to go a see the penguins that inhabit the coast surrounding the town. Our guidebook gave us the info to buy tickets to watch them from a grand stand set up near the town, but the owner of our hostel put us onto a free viewing point a little further out in the sticks. Naturally, being stingy backpackers we took his advice and set off for the free spot, glad we'd managed to save a few bucks. We made the journey about 15 minutes further up the coast to a lighthouse where a penguin fanatic couple had set up a viewing platform and a penguin hospital. Straight away we saw seals and sealions bathing in the sun and it was pretty amazing to see all these creatures in their natural habitat completely unaware of our presence a few hundred meters away. As we were there for the penguins we decided to test our patience waiting for them to arrive...a good hour or so later one lone yellow eyed penguin decided to waddle to shore.



It wasn't exactly the hordes we'd been told to expect but hey, at least one had shown up so we could justify heading back for some dinner and a beer!

The next day we thought we may as well go and see the event happening in town, as it seemed to be a pretty big deal with all the accomadation in town completely booked. Turns out the Kiwis get really into it with locals and tourists alike in crazy Victorian fancy dress strolling around watching events like penny farthing racing etc in the historic section of the town, it was all a bit surreal:



After a stroll around and a cake and tea at one of the 'Victorian' tea shops we set off to our next destination - the Moeraki boulders, a natural phenomenon of rows of spherical rocks that had mysteriously appeared on the sand.



Although quite strange, the boulders didnt provide much entertainment so we were soon back on our roadtrip heading further south to Dunedin.

After another three hour drive through the blissful NZ countryside we arrived in the second biggest town in the South Island, Dunedin. It turned out that they had a Cadbury chocolate factory in town, so naturally this was the first thing we signed up for that afternoon. NZ is the first country we've come to that has proper chocolate, ie not fake Cadburys that they have in Australia with so many chemicals to stop it melting in the heat that it no longer tastes like chocolate, so we took full advantage and gorged ourselves silly on all the free samples :)

After that, we felt we ought to do something a little more cultural so we went and had a look at some of the old buildings like the train station thats supposed to be the second most photographed thing in the Southern Hemisphere (or so we were told at Cadbury world but we've never seen it before....who cares they were giving us chocolate.) It did seem like a bit of a bold claim though - a train station second only to the Sydney opera house.

By this point we were beginning to realise that most places in NZ are quite small and you really dont need longer than one or two days to see all the attractions, it really is all about the scenery so once again we headed off, this time west to Queenstown.

Yet again, the drive didnt dissapoint and before we knew it we were in Queenstown - NZ is definitely the first place where we've complained that the journeys have been too short! After checking into our hostel we headed straight for the cable car to get a good view of this amazing town:



We couldn't resist a go on the luge they had to take you part way down the mountain which was good fun. Not quite as good as the one we went on at the Great Wall as you still had to walk 99% of the way back down (a track that turned out to be a right old leg killer) but a start at least.



There were so many adventurous activities organised around Queenstown - its famous for its bungee jumps (its where they "invented" it), but you can pretty much do anything crazy there. The budget wasn't quite ready for us to go mad, so we sorted through everything and decided that jetboating would be the trip of choice. We headed off the next day, choosing a tour that took us along their famous Skipper Canyon - a really crazy dirt track used in the gold rush that is so risky to drive the rental companies wont insure the tourists to drive it =) On the way they stopped off for some more magnificent view points :



The tour we signed up for took us out to the Skipper's Canyon section of the Shotover river. We didn't really know what to expect from the boats, but it didn't take much hanging around on the river bank before we got a taste of what we'd let ourselves in for :



The jet boats were amazing fun - they work a bit like jetskis by sucking up water underneath the boat then shooting it out of the back, making them crazy fast and really manoeuvrable. Their trademark trick is a 360 degree Hamilton spin (named after the first jet boat, nothing to do with Grand Prix), something the driver pulled out quite a few times to give us a bit of a soaking and a good laugh.



It was another place with a Lord of the Rings claim to fame (we were beginning to spot a pattern emerging...) - the chap claimed they filmed the section where Arwen raises the river to block the dark riders there, and then proceeded to blast around there at high speed a couple of times. It could well have been the place, it looked similar to the picture, but to be honest most of the turns in the river looked the same so who knows!

That was it for our whistle stop trip to Queenstown, we loved it and its definitely somewhere we'd like to go back to with a bit more cash in the pockets. Because of the way the roads were laid out in the south, it turned out we'd need to come back through Queenstown on the way north, so we'd see the place again in a couple of days time anyway. Next stop was the Fiordland national park, which is the largest in the country.

We thought the scenary on the way up to Queenstown was amazing, but the trip to Milford Sound blew everything else away... it is by far the most dramatic drive either of us have ever done.



So many amazing photos to choose from, it was a small wonder we stayed on the road there was so much to look at.



It was quite a long drive all the way from Queenstown, and Milford Sound is a tiny little place at the end of the park, so we booked a little cabin (/shed) at a campsite in Te Anau so we didn't have to drive all the way back to QT that day. After dropping off our stuff there we headed into the park and hit a few easy trails recommended in the guide book. Now I'm not really much of a walker - definitely not compared to Alex "If theres a mountain here I'm gonna climb it" Bentley - but the views from these tracks were so beautiful it was definitely worth it... see I'm actually happy after going on a walk!



The view just around the corner from there was a contender for best picture of the trip so far :



And that was just some lake we stopped at on the way to the main event. After another hours worth of driving we made it to the end of the road at Milford Sound. The guide book had prepared us for the slight disappointment of there not really being anything there - the journey was more amazing than the destination, but yet again the scenery was well worth the effort.



Even though we'd been driving all day, we still had lovely sunshine the whole way back to Te Anau as it doesn't get dark until around 9pm here - its just perfect when the sun is out!



Thats about enough of the pictures of the scenery for a moment, because when we arrived back in Queenstown the rains came down and it wasn't quite so pretty. We consoled ourselves with an amazing gourmet pizza in one of the restaurants in town (probably better than Fire and Stone is was that tasty.)



The next day we were due to head north up to glacier land so had an early night in preparation for a 7 hour mission of a drive.

Its been at least one paragraph without a picture of a view, so not to worry here is another one. The sun was out for the drive and the great views were back.



You could stop every 5 minutes pretty much, and just pull over and take in the views if you wanted. It would take you a flipping long time to get anywhere though, so we had to get our heads down and stop taking photos for the rest of the journey...

The driving was starting to get a little much as we hit the winding roads up towards the Fox glacier. This was the first stop for a walk before heading onwards into Franz Joseph where we were staying that night. There was a bigger glacier in Franz Joseph so we wont post any of Fox; it was very cloudy so both glaciers look pretty much the same. There wasn't much to do in the town of Franz Joseph, but the hostel pointed us towards a nighttime walk where we could go glow-worm spotting. Any excuse to get the head torch out I reckon is worth it, so off we went into the darkness.



It was a bit of a let down to be honest, we saw quite a few glowing specks but you'd be hard pressed to call them worms. The walk in the dark was fun, we kept bumping into other people walking down the track in total darkness.

The next day we headed out to the main attraction of the town, the glacier. In hindsight we should have paid the big bucks to go on the guided tour, as they only let the pro guides take you onto the glacier itself. We opted for the zero cost walking around option, but we got pretty close to the front of the ice flow :



They have very scary signs telling you not to walk up and touch it, so thats about as close as we dared to go! When we are millionaires this is another place to come back to - they fancy trips involve flying on a helicopter, landing on the glacier and climbing into the ice caves... sounds amazing!

Thats about if for this update - its been a few days in the making and by now we've made it to Wellington on the north island. We've got another 10 days of adventures here, before he head of to the USA, so fingers crossed we'll have some blogging time later this week. Bye for now...