Taupo 14th - 15th Jan 2006
Having spent a few nights relaxing in Christchurch and Wellington, we then moved on to Taupo where Gen and Denise jumped out of a perfectly good plane with instructors and a parachute strapped to their backs. I felt no need to attempt such a thing, but the girls assured me that is was one of the best things they'd ever done. The smiles on their faces were permanently affixed for the rest of the day (and some of the following day too). Here they are, just after coming back from their skydive... don't just they look sooo happy?
Dunedin to Twizel 10th Jan 2006
The morning after we saw the penguins, we had a look around Dunedin and found some really cool second hand book-shops. Then in the afternoon, we drove up the East Coast via the Moeraki Boulders.
http://home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/oamaru/7MoerakiBoulders.html They're smaller than we though they would be, so we were a bit disappointed at first. But they grew on us eventually, and we came to love them....
We then made our way inland to Twizel, near Mt Cook. The drive there was pretty interesting as there are a number of Dams along the way, like this one...
Our accommodation in Twizel was really pretty. It was out in the middle of a farm, and we stayed in a sleep out separate to the main house (the middle-of-the-night trip to the toilet was... an adventure). We had a lovely clear view of Mt Cook from the hostel, but the following morning, when we were planning to get a bit closer to the mountain, it wasn't there! Well, we were assured it was, but we just couldn't see it because it was all misty there.... curses. Determined, we took a spin to Mt Cook village anyway, and saw lots and lots of mist there. But we did get some nice views of Lake Pukaki along the way.
Dunedin 9th Jan 2006
The day after we tried to see Milford Sound, it was bright and clear... typical. So after hanging out at the hostel for a while, we headed for Dunedin to see the penguins. We stayed in the Stafford Gables YHA there, see (
http://www.yha.org.nz/hostels-ind.asp?id=66). It's a very nice old building that used to be a hospital (I think) and it's
haunted. I learned later on from a friend of mine that used to work for the YHA that our room was
particularly huanted... but I was blissfully unaware of any ghostly activities. Denise did feel a little uneasy doing her laundry in what used to be the morgue at one o'clock in the morning, but that might have been indigestion from the late dinner we had....
Milford Sound 8th Jan 2006
Wanaka to Queenstown 7th Jan 2006
The next stop on our tour was Queenstown, and for a change, I got to have some company in the car 'cos I kidnapped Genny for the trip... yeay! Along the way, we stopped to watch some mad people throw themselves off a bridge with a bit of knicker elastic tied to their feet.
Once we had checked into our hostel, we took a trip up on the gondola to see the views over the lakes from Bob's Peak.
Denise and Genny were braver than me and they went further up on a chair-lift. Meanwhile I took the steps... and the camera.
In this picture, I'm wearing a lovely hoodie that belongs to Denise. I liked it so much, that Denise very very very kindly went to Dunnes when she got back and bought an identical one for me and sent it off in the post to NZ. But sadly, it never got here.... some thieving so-and-so is running around in my lovely hoodie, listening to the CDs that Dee made for me.... the world isn't fair!
Happy St Patrick's Day!
Well, I was supposed to be going to see U2 tonight, but to make up for having to come to work instead, I've decorated my desk with the 'Paddy's Day Paraphernalia' that my sister Clair was kind enough to send over to me, all the way from the Emerald Isle. The girl beside me is Jenny Blessington and she comes from Limerick
So Happy St Patrick's Day to you all. Don't over do the wetting (or in some cases; drowning) of the shamrock :)
Fox Glacier to Wanaka 4th - 6th Jan 2006
Before leaving Fox Glacier, I had to bring Genny and Denise to Gillespie's beach to watch the sunset as I had done when I was on the West Coast with Owen and Eunice back in September. Because of being upside down, the sunset had moved further
south over the summer, which only occured to me when I noticed the position of the sun in comparison to the pictures I had taken the last time I was there.
The following day, we headed to Wanaka and there was plenty of spots along the way where I just had to stop the car and take pictures.
Once we checked into our hostel in Wanaka, Denise and I headed for puzzling world, a tremendously fun museum of optical illusions and conundrums.
There's even a fun maze there which took me
ages to figure out. In this picture I'm happily smiling for the camera 'cos I've just found one of the towers... but Denise assured me that she spotted me a few times with "a big thick confused head on ya"
The next day, we took part in one of the most fun activities of the holiday in Cordrona Valley, a few miles south of Wanaka. For the first time for any of us, we went horse-riding. They gave us the most docile horses, so they were suitable for complete beginners like us. My horse was called Smoke, Gen's was Frosty and Denise's was called Chocco.
Close to the horse-trekking centre, the is a fence covered in bras.... I'm not kidding. Apparently, somewhere in the North Island, there is a 'shoe fence' where passers-by feel somehow compelled to remove their footwear and attach it to a fence for some reason. Anyway, a man in Cordrona was inspired by this and decided to establish a fence where women (and sometime men, I suppose... but probably mostly women) feel compelled to remove their bras and leave them there. You might think that this was a crazy idea and that very few women (or, of course, men) would go along with this... but you'd be wrong.....
Another interesting discovery we made about Wanaka was that it is New Zealand's ice-cream capital (or at least we decided that it was). Lots and lots of yummy ice-cream flavours to choose from, so we had to give them all a go... in the interest of research, of course.
U2 postponed until November
All together now..... "awwwww...."
Ah well, I'll just have to take a wee trip across the Tasman from Australia when U2 return to Auckland in November.
Not so beautiful Paddy's day
:(
As many of you will have already heard, U2 have postponed their NZ and Aussie gigs. We're all a wee bit disappointed 'cos even if we do get to go to the gig, it won't be on St Patrick's day... unless... unless... we MOVED St Patrick's Day!! Just like when the Foot and Mouth thing was going on! Yeay! I fell all better now ;)
In Taupo we found a wonderful 24-hour cafe, which we thought was just amaaaaazing. It'd never work in Ireland, they'd just be inundated with drunken idiots at 3am looking for 'schhliken burrrghhhers' and the like. 
