Christmas in the sun!

Kiwi's enjoying the snow!

After getting back to Carols we had great fun helping her out in the nursery, helping around the house or just even lying out in the sun. I even went and helped one of Carols friends shear some alpacas.
We also had some great times in Auckland going to see a naming ceremony for a big ferry at Auckland harbour and also visiting Devonport where they had a snow dome (just polystyrene not real snow) in the middle of this sunny field with coastal views. Really weird to be thinking that they were covered in the real stuff at home!

Beachy Christmas tree

We had some torrential rain whilst being up at Auckland and at Carol and Franks Bach in Mungawhai Heads. Which is good because it looked as if it was going to be a drought filled summer. But we did get some scorching days too. Really quite bazaar thinking that its Christmas when your walking round in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt.

Kay's awesome 12day advent calenders.

We spent Christmas up at the Bach and we had an awesome time despite having to keep pinching yourself to remind yourself that it was December and Christmas. Beth, Carol and I went through a very creative stage and made a beachy Christmas tree from a piece of drift wood and some shells etc. We also had a bit of a hitch up on Christmas day when Carol walked into the ranch slider and had to go to hospital (very new Bach, very clean windows!) She was fine just quite shaken up. But it didn't stop us having lots of fun and laughs that weekend.

Us and the cousins, Christmas day at the beach.

ZO

On the first day with Zo our camper we drove right up to Wellington. Stopping of in Kiakoura again to have lunch and say goodbye to the seals. And this time as we drove up the coast we saw some dolphins! I looked out to see and said "those are some really big fish jumping" and then Beth took her eyes of the road long enough to say "there dolphins, you idiot!" Was quite exciting seeing as we had hyped ourselves up for seeing dolphins last time we went to Kiakoura and were severely disappointed.

Then we stopped at Picton to have a thick shake and wait for our ferry (cookies and cream, not a nice thick shake flavour!). After we listen to this guy in a fluorescent jacket talk about didymo (or something like that?) we boarded the ferry. Great watching the sun go down over the cook straight. We then drove through wellington and got lost trying to find, Penny Menzies brothers' house, but found it in the end. Josef and Helen where really kind to us and let us stay the night on there driveway. We stayed up late talking about traveling and hearing lots of great stories.

We had breakfast with them the next morning then headed into Wellington to see Te Papa and have a walk around the capital. After lunch we headed north going through Parmeston North and heading up to New Plymouth we decided it would be to late to get to New Plymouth and dark so we couldn't see the beautiful drive, so we turned of at Strangford after having a Chinese takeaway, and headed up the forgotten highway. Such an amazing drive, we didn't meet a single car on the whole way and we could just stop and turn of the engine and there was complete silence. We spent that night in a DOC camp sight on the Wanganui river. I had a bit of a dip in the morning but it was so cold I didn't stay in long.

Then we kept heading North and stayed the next night at Wiakaretu. Took Addison for a ride in the camper which was hilarious. Her and Mattias had great fun climbing round in the back. That evening we went and watched the schools Christmas performance and there leavers show.

The Next day we headed for Auckland and met Carol at the place where we dropped of the camper.

Back to Christchurch

After Kiakoura we went back to Christchurch. Lina and Ingus picked us up from the bus and we went back with them and our German friends in the lodge at Living Springs. We stayed there fore about two weeks, we had such an amazing time helping out in the camp and cleaning up the lodge.

One night we went and had a BBQ with Jo and family great to see them all again and Carolyn too.

We also did lots of things for the lead up fr Christmas like decorating a Christmas tree with lots of random things we found in the lodge like playing cards, cutlery and a screwdriver etc. One evening we went down to a beech in the Lyttelton inlet and swam, really crazy to just be swimming in board shorts and not be feeling cold. We also had a Christmas party just before Beth and I left which was awesome fun with lots of great food and dancing.

We left early the morning after the party and went into Christchurch to pick up our camper van which we then had four days to drive up to Auckland.

Rocks that look like whales

From Nelson we caught our bus down to Kiakoura. We stayed in a backpackers called 'the lazy shag' and they tried to charge us or using the duvets,can you believe, but we convinced him out of that pretty quick! We stayed in Kiakoura for about five days, doing some amazing coastal walks and getting up real close and personal with some seals. Kiakoura is the dolphin and whale watching capital, really yet we saw none. We were wondering whether we should just take some pictures of some rocks out at see and just say they were whales because they were very convincing rocks.

Beth also had a crazy bump into someone she went to school with in the fish 'n' chip shop of all places.

 

We enjoyed Kiakoura but because it was coming to the end of our trip we didn't want to pay for the swimming with dolphins and whale flights just because money was looking a bit short. But we had some great walks and you can get so close to the seals it crazy.

Sunny Nelson

We found this sweet deal of a backpackers in Nelson for $20 a night we got free noodles when signing in, free breakfast and soup (if your quick enough), There was a swimming pool, free WiFi and only a short distants from Nelsons city Centre. That Sunday we went to Nelson City Church, where we had an awesome service and a really spirit filled worship lead by the youth. We were invited back to the churches bring and share lunch where we met loads of cool families as well as Penny and Stefan Menzies an awesome couple that we go on really well with and who were really inviting and friendly. After the lunch Penny and her daughter took us round Nelson showing us all the best places to go.

The plan for the next few day was to hitch up to Farewell Spit, Stefan was going half way so gave us a lift which was awesome, Then we got a ride from a really friendly German couple, who took us to Takaka. Beth had booked this backpackers, that sounded really awesome, 'great retreat' 'beech access in the golden bay' it had this really weird name that we couldn't pronounce as well. We got there to find it was like a Buddhist retreat with some really un-talkative WOF's and no one else. We thought "that's cool we will just spend our time on the beech' the beech was really rocky with no place to swim or to lie on the sand. We both felt "God what are we doing here". Until this American guy called Lee rocks up, we get talking to him and he asks us if we want to go to the local pub for a drink so with nothing better to do we accept.

The pub was called 'the muscle inn' an awesome pub, they made there own range of beers which tasted really great. They also happened to have a salsa night on that night which was awesome. We had a go a salsa and met some guys from Israel and laughed ourselves silly trying to join in with all the locals.

The next day Lee was driving all the way to Farwell Spit and asked us to come along so we did. Walked along the spit for a bit then went to Wharariki beech which had the most golden sand i have ever seen it was huge and went on forever and we were the only ones there.Crazy.

Lee then took us back to Takaka, we were planning to go to Abel Tasman next but we had only taken a small pack with us and we were both getting short of clean clothes and tired so decide to head back to Nelson. We hitched for ages without getting a ride, one guys stopped and helpfully told us we should look for accommodation in Takaka because it was getting to late in the day for hitchhiking. So as we got out our BBH book to look for accommodation Beth prayed "please God give us a ride all the way to Nelson" guess what, the next car took us all the way t Nelson, call it coincidence if you want, but we were gobsmacked by a miracle! The women that picked us up was the only female tractor sales women in New Zealand so we were quite thankful for our dad's boring lectures on tractors because it all came in handy on that hour or so journey.

We had great fun the next couple of days hanging out in Nelson, by the pool at the backpacker catching the rays and just chilling.

West Coast!

From Wanaka we headed up the rainy, rainy west coast stopping for a night a Franz Josef. Where we lazily hitched a ride to the glacier and hitched a ride back. Both very excited for our first hitch hiking experience. The Glacier was cool but I think from going there we realised ice just isn't our thing, I'm sure it is very interesting for you geologists or maybe it was just the rain but we got bored quite quickly walking in front of the glacier. Imagine if we had payed for a hike! We we're more impressed by the waterfall next to the glacier!

After we left Franz Josef we kept heading up and stopped at Punakiki for half an hour or so to see the pancake rocks an blow holes, which are definitely worth a look at if your going passed. We reached Nelson that Saturday evening.

"Home of inappropriately placed benches"

Our next stop was Wanaka where we stayed for three days at a backpackers about 10mins walk form the main town and lake front. Wanaka is a cool little town still very suburban although there is some tourism there but mainly for the winter in the snowboarding season. The lake was great and we did some great walks around it but it was nothing like lake Tekapo and wherever we would walk we would stop and sit down to a bench to find it facing the opposite way from the view or there was a big bush infront, crazy but hilariuos.

We did go to the Paradismo Cinema during my stay which is one of my best kiwi experiences so far. It was basically made by a guy that sayed "we need a cinema in this town" so he made one. You go in and sit down or lie on old sofas, airiplane seats, bean bags or even an old car. Then one of the staff shuts the door and yells "is everyone warm enough cause I can change the air con if you want?" (only in New Zealand) Then after everyone dicsusses the heat she runs to the back and starts the film, Which watched RED which is a good film but tripled in standards because of the confort of feeling like your at home in your lounge. In the middle of the film there is an intervle where we get to go and buy freshly made cookies and ice cream, so good. So much fun and would recomend Padismo Cinema to anyone whois going through Wanaka.