Thermal Taupo, eggtastic Rotorua and a mediocre birthday...

So at last we had made it to the centre of the North Island and it's geothermal and scientifically important centre. First up was Taupo, sat on a huge lake of the same name, the remnants of the worlds biggest volcanic eruption of the past 5,000 years. Unfortunately our luck with the weather well and truly broke here; it was awful, like a wet weekend in Runcorn. You see you can be in the most faraway, exotically sounding place in the world but unless the sun is shining and the thermometer is up, the people look miserable and everything is tinted in that off shade of grey you see most days in places like Leeds. Even so, Taupo, much like Rotorua to the north, is jam-packed full of geothermal activity and we intended to make the most of it. First up was the Craters of the Moon, a unique place that stretched for a mile or so with piping hot steam filtering out of the ground and violently boiling mud dotted around the area. It really was like being on a different planet, just one that smelt like an egg factory. Due to the incessant rain we skipped most of Taupo but did stumble upon a wicked little cafe where the owner had spent years turning the large outside space into a kind of Gaudi-esque tiled, mosaic living room. We took pictures so you can see them above.

So on we went. After a wet night in Rotorua where the van decided to leak over our heads we headed over to waka-tipu, a giant thermal wonderland complete with the famous Lady Knox geyser which, after being told by a stern official is pronounced Gii-ser rather than the often used gee-ser. It explodes everyday at 10.15, not of its own accord but by a guy pouring soap crystals down its spout! The place was staggering though, I could not do it justice by explaining other than letting you look at the photos above.

The next day we decided to get acquainted with traditional Maori culture so visited a place called by a much much longer name but shortened thankfully to waka. This village is still populated by several Maori families and lies completely on the geothermal faultline that produces so much activity. All around the village was boiling hot pools, steam and at the head of the village, two huge geysers. We started the morning by witnessing a traditional Maori dance that involved the famous Haka. I guess most people have heard of this war dance as NZ's all blacks perform it before every game, whether Maori or not. But when witnessed up close and in a traditional Maori setting it made the hairs on your neck stand up on edge. They even had an audience participation part where they looked around for a volunteer (please don't pick us, please don't pick us) and opted for Bill from Ohio to perform the Maori greeting of pressing noses together. Our guide that day was brilliant, he showed us everything from the way the village is run through a network of chiefs and tribal councils to how the village all use the geothermal pit in the middle of the village to do all of their cooking (a whole chicken steamed to perfection in ten minutes!).

So there we go, another famous part of the world ticked off and memories secure! The next day was my birthday which promised so much but unfortunately delivered so little, unless you count a lot of toilet stops. Essentially my attempt at making eggs benedict in the camper wasn't the greatest idea, nor was it a good idea to do a 9km run up mostly steep hills the day before, silly boy! Whichever it was that made me feel bad I spent most of my day on a library toilet. We then drove north to Mount Mangunui where, brilliantly, we spent the night drinking champagne in a holiday park full of empty caravans. Not exactly the birthday dreams are made of but memorable nonetheless... Anyway, just over a week now until we move on to Fiji. I think it is safe to say we are definitely starting to get excited about beaches again! Hope everyone is well and you have all put the finishing touches to your 'what we are going to do when shell and Tom return' itineraries. Much love xx

Marlborough wine tasting, windy Welly & the Art Deco streets of Napier....

Five weeks we had now been on the south island and I think we were both ready to move on, over the Cook Strait to the North Island. Before that though we had one last thing we needed to do, wine tasting!

We had been looking forward to this for a very long time, not least due to shells fascination (I want to say addiction- just not in the AA sense) with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

We booked ourselves into a great little backpackers that let us park our campervan so we could still sleep in it which made it much cheaper. The guys that ran it, a lovely old couple, were like a long lost aunty and uncle. They called us by our first names and told us to be careful as we sped off on our bicycles in search of our first wineries.

There are over thirty wineries in the area so unfortunately we could only visit a handful of them but as we were later to find out, that would be more than enough.

So we left in the morning after one of the coldest nights I can remember and off into the vines, sliding effortlessly along perfectly flat roads until we reached our first cellar door, Cloudy Bay. The place was simply immaculate, decked out in mock Mediterranean paraphernalia. To be fair, they were all stunning so it would be a bit boring to explain them all to you but let's just say this, we had a staggering day, literally.

I think our favourites were Allan Scott and Giesen but we learnt so much that day from all of the wineries that simply drinking a glass of wine will never be the same again. For instance, the location of the wineries is paramount to the taste that you want to acquire. Riverside vineries will acquire a fuller-bodied wine due to the clay content of the soil whereas Coastal wineries will be cleaner with a slight metallic taste due to the mineral deposits found next to the coast. And so on and so forth...we learnt so much and spoke to so many different people that if you'd asked us at that point to drop our respective careers and head into winemaking, we'd have chewed your arm off.

The day after, feeling pretty awful after drinking wine for ten hours straight we headed around the glorious Marlborough Sounds, a maze of unspeakably beautiful little coves and beaches which, in the glorious sunshine, looked more than perfect. It would be the perfect antidote to what we had coming the next day, the famously rough Cook Strait crossing from South to North islands.

It was awful. No matter where we sat or stood on the boat it really didn't matter, the huge ferry rocked violently from side to side. To be fair, the first hour of the journey was just beautiful as we wound our way around the serene Queen Charlotte Sound, part of the incredible Marlborough Sounds.

After three hours we finally arrived on the North Island and into NZ's famously windy capital, Wellington. Thankfully for us it wasn't too windy but instead was bloody freezing! It was sunny and clear but so cold, like one of those crisp winter days we sometimes get back home. Anyway, we stayed in Welly for a couple of nights as it was a cool little city. It had a really interesting waterfront where the huge national museum, Te Papa sat and also a few microbreweries serving really delicious beer. Welly itself had some wicked little places to eat including tonnes of little Asain noodle houses where we ate really cheaply (for NZ) on roti chennai (that amazing Malaysian concept we ate every morning in Kuala Lumpur), spicy Hokkien noodles and spring rolls.

It was almost like a much smaller version of Manhatten in a way. The whole city, despite it's small size, just seemed to have a really nice feel about it. A really interesting place full of weird architecture, strange people and awesome food. Not a bad place to spend a couple of cold days in.

Anyway, from there we faced a five hour drive, cross country to the east coast through what can only be described as a part of the world that has absolutely nothing to offer. If we thought, as we do in the UK, that we are the only country in the world to suffer from a shite culture of fast food joints and aggressive looking youngsters in stupid looking cars then, if this area has anything to go by, we would be gladly mistaken. New Zealand is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but just like Australia you can't help but feel that when you leave the main cities and drive through the small towns, you are looking at people who still collect gollywogs.

For the next few days we spent our time in Hastings and Napier, two pretty towns sat along Hawkes Bay, a huge sweeping bay that resembles, to me anyway, a big bite of an apple.

We stayed a night in Hastings, but only to pay a visit to it's local farmers market, one of NZ's most famous. It was, as markets go, up there with the best of them. We bought some amazing bread and stocked up on fresh veg and tried a plethora of foods such as black pudding, sausage, houmous, Turkish bread, all locally produced in the region. You see, the greatest thing about these markets is that the people who attend them seem to take them more seriously. This in turn helps the Market to shed the novelty factor and in doing so brings down the prices. Which is the reason these markets should operate in the first place, to bring fresh and interesting produce to the general public, at affordable prices.

Up next was Napier, a town obliterated in the 30s by an earthquake and rebuilt in the art deco style of the day. amazingly, due to superb planning and conservation, every single building still remains to make the biggest concentration of art deco buildings in the world. It's fantastic to be around, it almost makes you want to walk around with a swagger and a tommy gun.

Hawkes bay is also a hugely successful wine producing area and Napier, being it's centre, provided us with yet more opportunity to divulge! It was here where we got the opportunity to do an interactive wine tasting. We had to pick from White or red, we chose White, and got ushered into a room that resembled a small theatre. In front of us was six White wines which, when the film started to play, all became apparent. We were essentially flown around six different wine producers who told us all about their wines whilst we drank. Amazing! Next up, was a tour around the aroma room. Essentially, every different kind of aroma you could acquire from a wine. From citrus to stone fruits, toast to leather. They even had soil and horse to represent which smell you would associate with an off wine. It really was fantastic stuff.

We spent two days in sunny Napier, taking in the town and planning our last month and a half on the road. It's a fair old distance to most places in NZ but if you ever get the chance, go to Napier, you will not be disappointed.

As for us, we are both really well. Looking forward to our last couple of weeks here and exploring the geothermal wonderlands!

Hope some of you are still reading on, we'll be doing tests when we return...

Much love. Tommo and shell xxxx

Whale watching, beer tasting and mussel chomping in Marlborough and Nelson...

It all feels a little strange really. We've been in NZ now for a month and we've had, believe it or not, only one day which was slightly wet- even then it was only a shower. Not bad for a wet country in the midst of Autumn! Everyday has just been beautiful, cold nights for sure but clear skies every day. Easy to get used to! With that in mind we parted Christchurch for a second time but this time heading north towards the wine regions and all that Sauvignon Blanc! First up was a small town a few kilometres inland from the Coastal highway, Hanmer Springs. As the Easter holidays had now finished and all of NZ were seemingly tucked up in their homes, the town was eerily quiet. Anyway, the next day we did what came out here for and paid our entrance money to spend the day in a series of geothermal hot pools. There were around twenty pools in total ranging from everyday jacuzzis to large, open hotpools, all between 35-40 degrees celcius. Apart from being stared at for the entire time by a strange lifeguard and sharing the pools with what seemed like New Zealand's entire nursing home population we had an awesome time, we came out like shrivelled prunes!

From the beauty of Hanmer Springs we drove onwards towards the coast past, amazingly, Sheffield, Rotherham and Chesterfield (really) and towards Kaikoura, a place most famous for it's abundance of wildlife, especially its whale population. It seems, according to our guide the next morning, that from the beach the sea depth is only around 80 metres and then all of a sudden, around a kilometre from the beach, drops almost 800 metres due to a huge continental shelf. Ocean currents then push nutrients that would otherwise lay at the bottom of the sea up from depths of nearly a kilometre to the relative shallow waters above. This creates a perfect feeding ground for large deep ocean marine life to feed so close to the shore. Although we've nearly run out of money we knew that whale watching would be one of those things, whatever the cost, that we just had to do. It was expensive but then the three hours we spent on the boat were some of the most memorable we have spent..anywhere. After getting to the freezing wharf just before sunrise we waited for the boat to pick us up and take us out to sea. As we stood there the sea and sky in front of us turned a kaleidoscope of different colours as the sun slowly but surely climbed its way over the sea's horizon. Reds, oranges and deep purples slowly appeared and the bright sun on our faces told us that we would soon stop shivering. Momentous news. Soon enough we were on the boat with a crew made up of genial Maori's, all explaining what we would be doing over the next few hours. After about ten minutes we caught our first glimpse of native wildlife as we sailed passed a pod of maybe a hundred dolphins, all vying to gain our attention. The guys only gave us five minutes to get acquainted with these beautiful animals before we were off again, in search of bigger mammals, a great sign of things to come.

After searching for maybe an hour (by a guy sticking a specially made piece of sound equipment to pick up whale communication in the water) we saw our first sight of this most impressive of animals, a giant, twenty-five metre Sperm Whale. We stood there on the top deck just staring. What a sight. It's in moments like these, on a boat in the Pacific, looking at one of the worlds biggest animals, that you understand exactly why you are here. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of gentle lolling we were informed by the captain that our whale had, well, fallen to sleep. We did return an hour or so later but by this point the whale was in an even deeper sleep, so much so that he was now vertical in the water with his scar strewn head bobbing gently out of the water. Different to what we expected but fantastic to see. On the way back, as if we had not already seen enough, we were lucky enough to see a huge albatross, a seal, many more dolphins and a shark. Such a great morning. One of the best.

In the afternoon, after our early morning exploits we found the nearest coffee shop and refuelled for a circumnavigation around the Kaikoura Peninsula, one of NZ's great walks. It didn't disappoint. We walked around the coastline for three hours in a large loop finishing 11 kilometres later back at the campervan. The walk took us past some of the old whaling grounds where we stood slack jawed after learning of the old whaling techniques at the turn of the last century. At least we finally got to know where, "there she blows!!" came from. From Kaikoura we headed north and into wine country. We had entered Marlborough district. One of the places we had both sat dreaming about on our sofa before we set off last September. Unfortunately, as the weather looked a bit dodgy for the next few days we decided to leave the wine-tasting-by-bicycle for a few days until something a bit calmer was forecast. So on we went, past Blenhiem and onwards towards Nelson, NZ's oldest town. On the way, due it's popularity and the fact that is just sounded so godamn tasty, we stopped in Havelock for some of NZ's famous Green Lipped Mussels. Moules Marinere this definitely wasn't. These buggers were monsters! If you can imagine the size of a normal mussel, you got it? Well these were five times bigger than what you've got in your head right now. The pot had 15 of these in and we struggled. Although they were delicious.

Over in Nelson, the streets were packed with local producers selling they're wears at the biggest farmers Market I had ever seen. It was awesome, school children reciting Maori songs and dances including a spine chilling rendition of the Haka (don't look in their eyes!). We wandered around in a food and drink induced haze, intoxicated by wave after wave of amazing smells. Tantalising of course, but to save money we headed back to the camper for soup, truly heartbreaking! Anyway, Nelson was a cool little town with a funky local population and some awesome looking buildings, apparently NZ's oldest. on our way out of town we visited one of the many micro-breweries in the area to do a beer tasting. We were given six beers in total, the full spectrum of pale ales to heavy stouts and sat there pretending we knew exactly what we were talking about, "mmm very hoppy this one shell"....think we had a clear winner though.

From Nelson we ventured further around the coast to one of NZ's most visited tourist sites, Abel Tasman National Park. Looking more like the Thai islands than a windy south Pacific outpost the colours in this area were out of this world. Although we didn't have the time or money to do the full 60km Coastal trek (you had to pay for water taxis to take you to the start point) we managed to do a three hour trek and get a good feel of the area. The park is made up of desolate, pristine White sand beaches and beautiful little islands. Shame we picked a freezing day to see it all! So there we go, another immensely packed week on limited funds! We've had to make the executive decision to change our flight date back to the UK as we've already mentioned, were nearly out of money! Still, we figure there would be no better place to be skint than Fiji! It will only be a couple of weeks early though-nothing drastic! Anyway, love to you and happy Mayday, Tommo and shello xx

Finding 'big' things in a very Scottish looking New Zealand...

So with our introduction to campervan living going smoothly we left the confines of the beautiful Akaroa and drove on to another small campsite before leaving the area. Turns out this campsite, although we'd pretty much stumbled upon it, was slightly insane. I think we may have said this before about another place but it was like walking into our friend Clarky's head. The campground itself was small but had many bits and pieces coming off it. The stream which cut through it was flanked on both sides by furniture, small sofas, wicker chairs, seats shaped like eggs hanging from trees and even a chaise-long. As we ventured further into the trees we stumbled upon another area of weirdness, a giant mud toboggan. This area also had a wooden stage. We went further. At the top, with fantastic views down the valley were two white single sofa's, comfy chairs to watch a perfect sunset. Awesome. Bit of a strange place but a great find, seems perfectly set up for a small boutiquey festival or the setting for a bad dream.

That night we would start to feel the cold. This being essentially NZ's equivalent of October things are starting to feel very autumnal. Although the days are beautifully sunny in the most part, the nights have been clear but chillingly cold. Still, the bed in the camper is humungous! We just have to sleep in our wooly hats...

So the next morning we were on our way, this time away from the Christchurch area and out into NZ proper. We had planned to stay a night in a place called Methven but after arriving got the feeling that this wasn't really a place worth staying, not unless the rusty hammer museum took your fancy. From there we headed on to an area on the edge of the alps called Peel Forest. Completely deserted and totally devoid of other tourists we paid the DoC (department of conservation) fee and settled in for the night. The next morning we woke early to take on a trek through ancient Podocarp forests, essentially trees that have been untouched since the age of the dinosaurs. We walked though steep forest tracks, mostly in thick mud for about seven kilometres. We even managed to get a hug off of one of the worlds biggest trees, a massively impressive Totara. It was just one of those moments when we just both stood there slack jawed for what was in front of us. It just made you realise, in some little way, how small and insignificant we are when measured up to the size and significance of these remarkable trees, some more than 1000 years old.

From there we travelled through a mix of backward and interesting towns until we reached our next destination, Lake Tekapo. All along the national highway, never bigger than one lane. After pulling off the main highway we were introduced to a lake of the most stunning blue you can think of, much like the rest of NZ's water. Turns out what makes it so blue is actually a type of thick sediment ironically making most of NZ's lakes very unclear, Birmingham has unclear water's but they don't look like that! Anyway dodging past the hoards of Asian tourists we visited the Church of the Good Shepard, a small but amazingly positioned church sat strikingly on the edge of the lake. Also, a few hundred metres away sat a tall bronze statue dedicated towards the collie dog, apparently so instrumental to the success of the area as a major wool producer, from the sheep, not the dog.

Lake Tekapo is also famous for it's clear night sky with it being surrounded by tall mountains and being so far from any largish town. The skies here were astonishing, not quite as clear as when we were in Laos but clear nonetheless. Problem was that it was so cold outside, maybe something approaching freezing, that it made standing outside with your neck tilted a bit of a tough one. Still, at least the old man in the next campervan next to us would fill us with happiness. Or maybe not. Essentially the guy has cancer and his daughter, who he travelled with to this part of the world a few years ago, died of cancer too, so he was basically on some kind of nostalgic trip. Naturally, we felt so sorry for this poor guy but he talked about death in a way that made us both just want to sit in the dark for a very long time. In the end, and I think this is where you have to salute the guy, you just have to see the funny side. Not bad going for 8am.

The next chapter of our journey involved a long trip down a road that seemed to have not a hint of a bend for 80km. Fortunately the views were just out of this world. We had arrived at Mount Cook, Australasia's tallest mountain.

After posting our site fees through the letterbox we parked literally below one of the surrounding glaciers. Waking the next morning was just unbelievable with the sun shining directly on it with a distinct chill still in the air. In fact in the dark it just looked spooky, like a giant, silent White monster. The next morning we took on the three and a half hour trek to its base which happened to be the remnants of a huge glacier. In the lake below were icebergs which had fallen off the adjacent glacier but this being right at the end of the summer meant that the ice had been more than taken over by dirt and debris from the surrounding area which gave the whole scene a bit if a messy look, it still looked amazing. Before driving on we also did a short 40 minute climb over to the Tasman glacier, the Southern hemispheres biggest. Although staggeringly huge and visually arresting we found the same issues here as with Mount Cook, the time of year meant a distinct lack of glowing white.

All in all the area was beautiful, we'd never really seen snow capped mountains before and now we have seen a whole park full of them. To wake up to that will be hard to beat anywhere.

From the middle of the country we took a long drive south eastwards towards a town called Oamaru. On the way we passed even more mountains and huge lakes and our first sighting of NZ's famous winery's. Upon arriving in Oamaru it seemed like we had pulled into a horror movie set. The fog horrifically dense and the locals peered through the mist like League of Gentleman extras, it did not look inviting. Even so, we checked into a site, whacked on some hot food and bedded in for the night. Fortunately the next morning we were greeted with a much more appealing proposition. Oamaru is a great place to spend a day. Within five minutes of parking up a guy whizzed past on a penny farthing, this would set the scene for the next few hours. Essentially, Oamaru contains the highest number of preserved Edwardian and Victorian buildings of anywhere in the southern hemisphere. Harbour street, it's main historic thoroughfare, essentially had not changed one iota since maybe 1887. It was extremely surreal but highly appealing. 150% better than the night before!

From there we headed south towards Dunedin, stopping in briefly to check out the Moeraki boulders, around two dozen perfectly cylindrical boulders that seemed to be placed in patterns half submerged in the sea. After driving for another 20kms or so we also stopped in at Shag Point named appropriately for it's native bird species it still made for a good cheap photo laugh. This stretch of coastline also houses several important colonies of fur seal, it was fantastic to see them up close as well as a very rare species of penguin called the Yellow eye. In fact all of Otago, the state we are now in, houses nearly all of NZ's marine animals, mainly due to it's location further south and being the biggest land mass between here and say, the Antarctic. Unfortunately for shell, the worlds biggest penguin fan, they didn't start waddling in until after dark. Unfortunately we couldn't wait that long, we had a city to visit!

I don't know what we were expecting to find in Dunedin, but whatever it was it certainly isn't there. Grey, depressing and dull. I think we envisioned a small Edinburgh or maybe even a few cobbled streets. I think we were just a bit stupid. It has some fantastic architecture but it really did feel like a place at the edge of the world. We couldn't wait to leave.

So there you go, Dunedin is the gateway to the Otago Peninsula, which is where we currently reside. A beautiful stretch of land that has the feel of an island. It is jam packed full of seals, sea lions, penguins and albatrosses which are all free to explore in the many inlets and secluded beaches. Apparently David Bellamy has called it an environmental marvel and you can't get a bigger recommendation than that.

Tomorrow we head as far south as it is possible to get in NZ and will be the furthest from home we will have ever been and is possible to get. Ironically, it is here, among the rolling hills, the changing colours of the trees and the weather beaten faces that we feel as close to home as we have for seven months.

Happy chocolate egg weekend. All our love and if anyone reads this, we miss you all a lot. Tommo and Shello xxxx