From Franz Joseph we spent a few nights more in South Island, namely in Greymouth (nothing there) Nelson (a great Saturday market, filled with buskers, hippies, food and merino sheep's clothing) and Picton (extremely picturesque, but very quiet, their 4000 strong population swells to 14,000 in Summer).
We took the Inter Islander Ferry across to Wellington, and as there were so few decent camp sites for us to stay we decided to spend a few nights at the Base Backpackers right in the center of town.
Wellington is a very cool city, and extremely windy! We were just around the corner from Courtenay Place, a road lined with bars, cafes and shops, and found ourselves eating out there for two nights, taking advantage of some great food deals. Our first evening was spent in the enjoyable confines of the bar in the basement of the hostel, having a few drinks and playing some pool - relatively relaxed and chilled. The day after, we met up with one of Matt's long lost relatives David (2nd cousin's dog's mother's owner or something) and had a nice lunch in the Mac's Brewery. He was a wealth of knowledge on where to go and what to do, and helped us plan the last week of our NZ tour. He also bought us lunch, which went down even better, so David, have one for us!
After he left to go back to the office, Matt and I took a stroll through the free Te Papa Museum, which, I must say, was great. You've probably noticed through the blog that I'm not one for lingering over a discovered bit of chamber pot from the 18th Century, but the exhibits here are superb. You can take a look at the Colossal Squid, preserved in formaldehyde sporting eyeballs the size of footballs (that's English football you phillistines) and learn a bunch of Maori things, promptly forgetting them again after (while I was there I found out what all the bits of a marae were called but can't remember now. The marae itself is a meeting house for the village). A highlite was the 10 minute film, which starred various New Zealanders, both Maori and other, explaining their life for the likes of us ignorant British tourists.
We left Wellington and had a long day driving to Taupo (pronounced, for no discernible reason, tao-paw) stopping off on the way at one of David's suggestions, a wildlife centre which had a Kiwi house. Unfortunately, said Kiwi House had only one male kiwi who was rather upset because his kiwi konkubines had been taken away for some reason or other. I felt sorry for him. Matt went and did one of his walks in Taupo, I ended up playing a bit of one on none basketball in the campsite's court. I still managed to lose.
Through the very friendly staff there however, we organised a Maori cultural experience thingummy at Rotorua, called Tamaki Maori Village. It was for the next evening, and he also sorted out our site for the night. Enroute we stopped off at a Thermal Plateau kind of thing, interesting and colourful but smelly smelly smelly.
And on to Rotorua: what a cool place. While waiting for our bus to come collect us for our Maori dooberry, who should rock up but K and Jit who we met in Franz Joseph. We were on our way out, but organised to meet up the day after for fun and games. We were taken away for the evening by a great Maori woman called Aroha, and spent the evening learning Maori games, Maori weapons (those things are deadly I tell you, very scary) and watching a concert. Well I say concert. The only instruments were an accoustic guitar and some percussion, and the songs, while lyrically were in Maori, sounded like early 90s boy band covers. However the extremely impressive poi and sticks they were throwing about, WHILE singing, distracted me enough from the singing to enjoy it a lot. Add on the haka and an amazing hangi meal (where everything is cooked on heated volcanic rocks in the ground for 8-10 hours) and it was a superb evening.
We spent most of the next day with K and Jit. We watched them zorb down a hill (basically a big bouncy ball filled with water, you climb in and get pushed down. Fun to do, but even more hilarious to watch) followed by a ride on the sky gondola and 3 rides on the luge. That was great fun, and each of us managed to get the little sleds up onto two wheels rather than four, and clear air on one of the sharper drops. K and Jit went off to do their Maori concert and meal that night, and Matt and I met up with a couple we'd met while travelling through Vietnam, Luke and Beckie (Mum you'll remember them cos you helped sort out their tickets!). They'd been staying with Luke's cousin who lives in NZ, and the 5 of us went out for a meal and some drinks, a really enjoyable evening and great to catch up with them again. It finished as it started, with me losing at pool and Luke and Matt winning. Nice and symmetrical, but hopefully we'll see them on the other side of the world at some point.
We drove to Auckland today, ready to say goodbye to NZ. We've had a great time with our campervan (strangely enough more comfy than the bed at Base in Wellington) and can honestly say there's nowhere I've been that manages to combine addrenaline with beautiful scenery in such a seamless way.
We took the Inter Islander Ferry across to Wellington, and as there were so few decent camp sites for us to stay we decided to spend a few nights at the Base Backpackers right in the center of town.
Wellington is a very cool city, and extremely windy! We were just around the corner from Courtenay Place, a road lined with bars, cafes and shops, and found ourselves eating out there for two nights, taking advantage of some great food deals. Our first evening was spent in the enjoyable confines of the bar in the basement of the hostel, having a few drinks and playing some pool - relatively relaxed and chilled. The day after, we met up with one of Matt's long lost relatives David (2nd cousin's dog's mother's owner or something) and had a nice lunch in the Mac's Brewery. He was a wealth of knowledge on where to go and what to do, and helped us plan the last week of our NZ tour. He also bought us lunch, which went down even better, so David, have one for us!
After he left to go back to the office, Matt and I took a stroll through the free Te Papa Museum, which, I must say, was great. You've probably noticed through the blog that I'm not one for lingering over a discovered bit of chamber pot from the 18th Century, but the exhibits here are superb. You can take a look at the Colossal Squid, preserved in formaldehyde sporting eyeballs the size of footballs (that's English football you phillistines) and learn a bunch of Maori things, promptly forgetting them again after (while I was there I found out what all the bits of a marae were called but can't remember now. The marae itself is a meeting house for the village). A highlite was the 10 minute film, which starred various New Zealanders, both Maori and other, explaining their life for the likes of us ignorant British tourists.
We left Wellington and had a long day driving to Taupo (pronounced, for no discernible reason, tao-paw) stopping off on the way at one of David's suggestions, a wildlife centre which had a Kiwi house. Unfortunately, said Kiwi House had only one male kiwi who was rather upset because his kiwi konkubines had been taken away for some reason or other. I felt sorry for him. Matt went and did one of his walks in Taupo, I ended up playing a bit of one on none basketball in the campsite's court. I still managed to lose.
Through the very friendly staff there however, we organised a Maori cultural experience thingummy at Rotorua, called Tamaki Maori Village. It was for the next evening, and he also sorted out our site for the night. Enroute we stopped off at a Thermal Plateau kind of thing, interesting and colourful but smelly smelly smelly.
And on to Rotorua: what a cool place. While waiting for our bus to come collect us for our Maori dooberry, who should rock up but K and Jit who we met in Franz Joseph. We were on our way out, but organised to meet up the day after for fun and games. We were taken away for the evening by a great Maori woman called Aroha, and spent the evening learning Maori games, Maori weapons (those things are deadly I tell you, very scary) and watching a concert. Well I say concert. The only instruments were an accoustic guitar and some percussion, and the songs, while lyrically were in Maori, sounded like early 90s boy band covers. However the extremely impressive poi and sticks they were throwing about, WHILE singing, distracted me enough from the singing to enjoy it a lot. Add on the haka and an amazing hangi meal (where everything is cooked on heated volcanic rocks in the ground for 8-10 hours) and it was a superb evening.
We spent most of the next day with K and Jit. We watched them zorb down a hill (basically a big bouncy ball filled with water, you climb in and get pushed down. Fun to do, but even more hilarious to watch) followed by a ride on the sky gondola and 3 rides on the luge. That was great fun, and each of us managed to get the little sleds up onto two wheels rather than four, and clear air on one of the sharper drops. K and Jit went off to do their Maori concert and meal that night, and Matt and I met up with a couple we'd met while travelling through Vietnam, Luke and Beckie (Mum you'll remember them cos you helped sort out their tickets!). They'd been staying with Luke's cousin who lives in NZ, and the 5 of us went out for a meal and some drinks, a really enjoyable evening and great to catch up with them again. It finished as it started, with me losing at pool and Luke and Matt winning. Nice and symmetrical, but hopefully we'll see them on the other side of the world at some point.
We drove to Auckland today, ready to say goodbye to NZ. We've had a great time with our campervan (strangely enough more comfy than the bed at Base in Wellington) and can honestly say there's nowhere I've been that manages to combine addrenaline with beautiful scenery in such a seamless way.
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