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It's been an incredible adventure.. and we're now back in our homes (and dealing with jetlag issues...)..

..just a short note to tell you all -- THANK YOU for following us, commenting, and sharing in our experience! We WILL update this website again as soon as our bodies start functioning normally again with lots and lots of videos which we couldn't post while tramping!

Here's one to keep it rolling ;)

Yes, I scream like a girl. :) A seven year old one with a high pitched voice, to be precise!

Oh, and excuse the video's shakiness. With 'stabilisation' mode switched on, Andrew was still shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm. During an earthquake. And a hurricane. On a rollercoaster.

He calmed down later. :)

See ya!

Sail NZ!

I dedicate this post to my dad who introduced me to America's Cup a few years back!

Getting the pass....

America's Cup challenger (mid-nineties)...

Doing 12knots ... in around 12knots of wind...

Taking the helm :) :)

Sailing under Auckland bridge (there was literally nothing left above the mast)

Grinding! (much harder than it seems on TV!)

Sailing back into Auckland bay

A truly unforgettably experience and a great way to spend the last last day in NZ!

Laterz :) 

Last breath!

Hey all!

Hope all your xmas festivities have been great - ours definitely have! Excuse our lack of posts, but every hostel we've been to in the past 3 days either had no internet or simply no memory card reader - and we don't want to bore you without photos, now do we? ;) 

It's been a busy couple of days.. after spending Christmas eve in a hot pool in Rotorua (oh..bliss...) we started our drive up to the Bay of Islands... where we got to in late afternoon on Christmas..passing through a few interesting spots along the way ;)

Hobbiton!! :)

 We finally got to the wonderful bay of islands after a 550km drive... but worth it? You bet...

The next day we were offered the ability to take out a couple of kayaks.. and, well, never being the ones to say no..

We had a gorgeous time exploring an island in the middle of the bay (and getting attacked by seagulls and birds in the process..)

ah yes, we also got slightly (!!!!) sunburnt. 

Again.

Bliss! :)

Anywho, the next day we set off for our final destination ( :( :( )... Auckland, the city of sails! 

Where we are spending our final two days..

We can't believe it's almost over already... *sigh*

But that means we get to see all of you soon! So.. some shopping and lazing about in this magnificent city.. and we're soon off back home!

:) See ya in a bit!!

Wet 'n' Wild Christmas!

Raftinggggg!! What a great experience!  We did a Grade 5 river which consisted of several waterfalls, including a 7m one (the raft itself is only 4m long). Tackling this waterfall gives an adrenaline rush on the lines of bungee and skydiving :) We also body-surfed some rapids and did some other crazy stuff with some awesome instructors. Just in case the images aren't clear I am the one in front and James is behind me!! 

Now off to the Bay of Islands for a long Christmas break :) :) We need it!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!

Andrew and James

 

Skydive Photos

Hey all! I think James is saying something about the skydive as we speak. Here are a few of my photos. It was just an awesomee experience !!!

Jumping out of plane

Falling over Lake Taupo

Flying ..... (love this one)

bits of me keep falling off!

Quite literally too... Well, ok, not bits of me. All of us.. very, very fast?

Let me explain..

Let's start with the Tongariro crossing..

An exhilirating, tiring, exhausting, but incredible experience. Walking in the midst of three active volcanoes (yes, active. Yes, there are warnings on what to do if one decides to erupt. yes, it involves a lot of running.) is amazing.. and the 20km trek involved a hell of a lot of ups and downs (around 1200m difference in altitude I think?) so.. well.. was tough. but the terrain is.. spectacular.. 

We were lucky to have an amazing day weatherwise (the next day turned into a rainy, ugly day - we got the timing brilliant, it seems) - and, well - yet another great side to New Zealand - and our last walk here (my legs will thank me..)

Hanywho...

after that, it was a good sleep, an interesting breakfast and drive up to Taupo and.. 

well.. 

a vertical drop of 15,000 ft from a pink (!!) plane... :)

Skydiving rocks. I simply wish I could do it more often - the feeling is simply INCREDIBLE, and the adrenalin rush is something I will not easily forget. There was only one black spot on my experience, and that's the fact that technology hates me. Seriously. A photographer jumped in front of me and took an excellent video and dozens of shots..

...which for me, and me only, didn't come out. The video did, but the shots didn't. Ah well! Andrew's uploading his shots now - someone do a quick photoshop and paste my face on him? Should be a similar experience of gravity at its best ;)

Still. Someone start skydiving in Malta please? I need my fix!!!!

Off for an interesting adventure this morning.. we'll post more updates later! ;)

We'll see you soon.. and.. Happy Christmas to all of you! (our families, friends, work colleagues - all of you, you know who you are!! :) ) 

Kaikoura Day 2 and Wellington

Hi all! Received lots of msgs on the lines that we should change our site name to weareREALLYlostsomewhereinnewzealand.blogspot.com. So a biggggg sorrrrry for the late post. The good news is that we will be up to date from now on, the bad news is that, well, we're not 'really' lost here!

Kaikoura day 2

So Kaikoura day 2 was as eventful as it was bizarre. For a start we had to wake up at 6am to catch a 6:45am boat to go whale spotting. Unfortunately the whales thought it was a bit too cold to surface (or were just being plain lazy) and preferred to let us sit through the stomach-churning, face-colouring process of just the worst sail of my life whilst enjoying this macabre scene from below. According to James there were a good 2% on the boat enjoying people-getting sick spotting, however I was too busy being sick myself to be entertained with such sightings.(edit James: I surfaced briefly from my sick bag to notice that.. but very, very briefly!!) I content myself that I was the subject of attention for some brief moments today! But this is nature, and whilst we were all annoyed that whales didn't decide to rise a few 100m to surface and instead cost the company thousands in refunds (ten points for the whale!), we can't wait till the next opportunity to go out and see these truly splendid creatures.

From then on the day was just great and relaxed. We had the opportunity to taste this marvellous bbqed crayfish with mussels and prawn patty on the side. Delicious. On the way up from Kaikoura we stopped and encountered a seal colony with the baby seals and all. We then had a long drive up to Picton for the ferry to Wellington. A splendid drive complemented with an easy transition across the straits.

Wellington


Ahhh civilization. A house, family, pet cats etc.! Forgot what it's all about. And a truly lovely welcome. Meeting up with family in New Zealand and catching up in a land so far away from home was the best way to end the day! We all talked late into the night and just collapsed in time for an early rise where we were toured around the whole of Wellington which is an absolutely stunnnning place to live in! Lovely beaches, scenerey, thousands of inlets and a buzzing city centre. We had a lunch by the coast (see pic) and spent the rest of the day just talking and driving more around Wellington. Of note was the national museum 'Te Papa' which, unlike many other museums, was very interesting and interactive (similar in style to London museums but solely on NZ). I'm sure James' highlight of the day were the LOTR Weta studios! (Edit James: hooooly yes. Loved the whole day, but the WETA cave was gorgeous! Tiny and cool! Geek ahoy!)

At night we had dinner with the whole family and I got to meet my second cousin! (always nice meeting great new family members). Again, the dinner and chatting went on late into the night so I had no time to write a post until after crashing ... i.e. now :) A wicked two days and a big THANK YOU to Auntie Edwige and Uncle Pete! (edit James: BIG BIG MASSIVE ONE from me too!!! Thanks so much! And I love Morse :) )

Today or tomorrow we head off into the wild again. The much anticipated Tongariro crossing (Mount Doom) (edit James : cue LoTR soundtrack please!) awaits us and loads to come after that too!! :) :)

Cheers
Andrew

Kaikoura Day 1

Hi all - a very short post today. After yesterday we drove all the way down south to Kaikoura in what seemed like a never ending drive through (you've heard it all along now!) just amazing scenery. Kaikoura is a pretty seaside village on the likes of Whitby and Scarbarough in the east coast of the UK with the difference that it has a backdrop of snowcapped mountains - not a usual sight for a coastal village! It is buzzing with marine wildlife including sealions, dolphins and (as we discovered in our swimming attempt) jellyfish! The two pics below give an idea of where we are right now :) Tomorrow we will carry on exploring the place a bit more before heading up to the North Island for a hint of city life which we both would like to see after so long out in the wild!

alive and.. hobbling

We survived it!

Haha it's been an amazing 3 days.. very tough hike, must be said - lots of uphills, downhills, and a 50km trek is nothing to be sneezed at, especially when carrying around 18kg each on our backs. It's impressive how clean and natural they keep these places - you have to carry in all your food and carry out all your rubbish - there's no shops, nothing - just huts for people to sleep in (if you manage to get a bed, which we didn't) or grass for the tents at set places (which we did). It's been a crazy three days, and though we are absolutely shattered and can't wait for bed.. WORTH IT! :) Here goes..

Day 1

Tiring but suprisingly 'short' walk - only around 14 km. Our bags were too heavy, and we realised we would be carrying them at the same weight (bar some tiny amount of grams gone in food) for the next 2 days.. never a nice thought. Still, we didn't take a single milligram of unneeded stuff, and we used every single thing we took with us - camp, sleeping bags - it all adds up and becomes rather impressive! We put up tent at around 2PM and just lazed and played cards...until the rain started and we continued inside. Always cool to be in your tent and be visited by a small family of ducks :) Andrew was hungry and wanted to roast them.. but we did not have any oranges for a lovely dish. So they lived to see another day.

Day 2

Waking up feeling cold is never too great - crazy how hot the days were (I'm slightly sunburnt I think) and how cold the nights were. Having to walk another long uphill/downhill walk doesn't make it too much better. Increasing that walk by around 1.5 hours because we woke up late and had to take the long route because of the tide.. *sigh*. Let's say that after these three days, my t-shirt fits me better than my previous photos. (it's not having such a hard time after all!! ;) )Oh, and falling into a stream along the way was NOT funny. Still....















It kinda paid off....


Day 3

Ah yes, the final day.. today. Of course, we had to have a big adventure. Let me put you in the picture - we wanted to get to a certain spot 3 hours away as fast as possible to try make it before the tide comes in to make it to the water taxi.. so we were happy we managed to find another shortcut (because the tide was out) which would shave ten minutes off our walk...

Yet when we saw a stream of water separating us from the bit of the track we wanted to access, we realised we had a dilemma, which we both decided to deal with slightly differently... While Dru was busy attempting to wade across and not get TOO wet, I was busy being attacked by an angry thorny bush, and kinda losing. After around half an hour both lost in two different worlds within around 500m of each other, we both turned around to find the other one missing, and decided to trudge along the first path we saw. Luckily, and happily, we met somewhere along the way, one looking like a wet duckling and the other one with a look which would make a hedgehog blush. My legs will NOT thank me for a couple of weeks to come. Anyway.. we STILL managed to make the tide (just another short stream involved, no falling into it this time).. and made it.. 4.5 hours early.. to our target. A 2 hour water taxi ride, a couple of seals and penguins, a damn good pizza, and a good beer later.. and now this post and off to bed!










It's been brilliant :) Wish you were here!

We're off to Kaikoura tomorrow.. hopefully do a spot of whale/seal/dolphin spotting..then off to Wellington.. North Island, here we come! :)

Good night!

Going off the radar...

Hey all :)

First off - thanks for following us! It's so great for us to know you're enjoying reading this and seeing our photos - we love your comments, keep them coming! By the way, we know some of the photos are clickable and some are not - we're as mystified as you are as to why, we don't know! Hanywho..

Today was just a very long drive once again, and we're now in a small village near to the start of the Abel Tasman walk, which we start tomorrow. It looks like it will be an interesting walk, and we're all geared up with tent and everything, and really looking forward to it! So please bear with us for the coming three days as we will be off the radar for a while.. we will post once again when we are back in the hostel.. that should be Thursday evening! (morning for you I think).

No photos today, simply because we didn't take any for the first time since we've been here - the scenes are impressive as always, but sheeeeeesh. I already have 1000 photos and around 100 videos.. haha! :)

Much love and peaches to you all!! :)

Franz Josef

Today was chilled out (apart from the glacier walk in torrential rain ... more on that soon)(edit James : chilled out. *snigger* sorry, that was a pun!). We slept in and I woke early to make some arrangements for the upcoming Abel Tasman trek which we will do camping (not using the huts)(edit James: this guy is seriously planned. thanks dru :) ). If the weather is good it will be a good track. Tides play a big factor here and taking into consideration tide times when planning a trek is a new challenge! Nonetheless we came up with something which I hope will make sense :) Unfortunately we will have very limited connection in the next few days because of the camping trip.

Today at 3pm we were off to Franz Josef glacier for a 4hr hike. The walk was great...in heavy rain and involved crossing streams nearly knee deep. We climbed around 300m and passed in between ice walls about 2 storeys high and got some sightings of very interesting ice formation. The guide also gave interesting facts about the glacier...how, for instance, it progresses up to 2m per day and even 10m per day at a point. It also retreated about 4km in a few decades. Some pics below :) 

Tomorrow big drive to Abel Tasman (c. 500km!!). More info in coming days :) Cya!

Pics from the last 3 days!

 

All in a day's work...

This day has been one to remember, for a variety of different reasons! It's been one hell of a long day (and as I speak, Andrew should be right next to me uploading some photos for your benefit.. we're trying to make the best of the (as usual) very limited internet!) and.. well.. here goes the story..

We started off happily waking up at the most beautiful place on earth, Milford Sound, and had a bit of breakfast.. and that was where we started realising things might be a bit.. adventurous, when I burnt half my lip off with bloody hot water (it's ok now, was more surprising than anything else - not one of my brightest moments!), and, well, things started to happen! The weather for the first part of the drive was horrible, we were both grumpy and tired, and we had a long drive ahead. The funny thing is, even if all the things which happened today would normally put us in a bad mood..not this country! We're proud to say we still made a hell of a day of it and are still sunny and smiling (though very tired!). So what happened today? Well here's a shortlist - we lost a hubcap, have a new fresh crack on the windscreen (ah we're insured specifically for both, so no worries there), I lost my towel and shower stuff (grrr), we bought some cd's for the long drive but the stereo in the car didn't work, we decided to buy a radio converter for my mp3 player but the shop closed 10 minutes before we arrived, we tried to do a skydive to cheer up (yes, we're crazy), but the weather was terrible, we misplaced a million different objects a million different times, my phone went crazy and we had no reception anyway, andrew's phone decided to bungy into a puddle, we lost the fuel tank's cover.. woo it keeps getting longer!
At the end of the drive we decided to write a list of it to tell you guys. But we then realised we also lost both our pens.

:)

Still!!! we ended up in an EXCELLENT little hostel in Franz Josef (we had lunch in Queenstown... 700 - 800 km driving in a day!) and are still in an awesome (yet tired) mood.. and andrew should have the pics in a few minutes! :)

Much love and yells to you all!!

Milford Sound

I have just returned from the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life! We took the usual Milford Sound cruise which is the quickest way to see this amazing part of Fjordland in the South Island. The weather was horrible....45knot winds and constant showers. However it fitted in just so well in the scenery. It is part of the character of Milford Sounds which sees an astonishing 6m of rain every year! After going out to the Tasman Sea we turned 180 degrees and took our time taking in the splendour we had ahead of us. The wind calmed down on the way in and we were lucky enough to have some good sightings of wild sea lions and cute little penguins hopping around. The cruise was as serene as it was beautiful. I definitely want to come here and see this place again one day.

Once again there is no way in which I can upload photos of the sort but I surely will later on. The drive here was also beyond believe (Thanks J for the nice driving in the steep winding roads!) where we took loads of photos. Now heading off to see some waterfalls and then heading off to the one and only local pub because it's talk of the 'town' that there is going to be a live band here (for once!) today :). Talking about waterfalls...all this town is powered by the tumbling water.
After the band we will have an early night before a busy and looonnng drive (c. 800km) tomorrow!

On to Milford

Hello all! I think James pretty much said what there is to be said. No pics to upload which is a pity. The Mount Luxmore walk we did yesterday was very good. We took a boat to Bora bay and climbed up around 1000m. Had a mix of beaches, forests, mountains and fjords all rolled into one! Wish I could upload some pics but I'll edit this post later with more visual material. When we came back we missed the boat by about 30 mins so we had to walk all around Lake Te Anau (another 3hours) but luckily half way back we met a Germany guy who had parked closer who gave us a lift the last hour and a half. I felt very tired when we came back, maybe cos we had to cook and do laundry after that long walk! But this morning all is good as new except for some burnt patches on face and neck :)

Today we're planning on driving up to Milford and do some stuff on the way. Actully we may go up to Milford to do a sightseeing cruise and do some small excursions on the way down instead. No intensive activities today which is good! We will both give our camera a run for its money today and rightly so. I saw some pics of Milford and it looks absolutely stunning. Moreover the day is nice and blue and sunny. So that's it for now. More pics later on!

Oh and one note about bungee and swinging. I had never experienced freefall in my life so this was truly a cool experience. I was petrified before the jumps but when doing them it was just awesome. Jumping from so high is kind of weird and the alarming rate at which the ground approaches you is nerve shattering but other than that it's like flying! Oh and it was I who did the swing upside down - like that you could 'fly upside down' along the valley which is also an amazing feeling :) Laterzzz!!

My legs are made of Jelly.

Hey all.. just a quick post today unfortunately.. and no pics :( sorry, but this hostel has a really bad PC - we look forward to updating this for all of you each day, but sometimes you meet places where you simply can't upload pics! Anyway..

So, quick recap of the last few days..
We arrived in Queenstown Tuesday (Wednesday? no, Tue.. holy crap I have no idea at all what day or time it is..), had a zip around the city and a look around, and booked the activities for the next day.. as you now know, that involved the Nevis Bungy (highest in NZ, 2nd highest in the world) and the Nevis Arc Swing (highest in the world).. no words can explain that feeling. We have the videos to show you, and, bar from a girl's scream coming from my mouth as soon as I jumped, there really is no way to explain the feeling of freefall.. we both loved it ten times more than we expected we would.. and can't wait for the skydive, which should be coming soon!

Anyway, with our adrenalin through the roof, we left for Te Anau yesterday, got to our hostel and collapsed. Since the activities of Tue weren't enough, we decided to go on a walk today.. and did a large section of the Kepler Track. We climbed up to the peak of Mount Luxmore and.. once again, this country simply continues to shake us to our cores - it was too beautiful to describe. We'll try put up some photos in the coming days! We got back to the hostel later and are completely, utterly shattered - in fact Andrew has already gone to sleep - well, we did have a walk of around 27 - 28 km and climbed up 1000m of elevation.. and back down.
But now tomorrow we are off to Milford Sound.. famously known as the most beautiful part of the islands.. and, well, that's a big thing to live up to after all the things we've already seen.. and it's only been a week!

I'm off to sleep too now, as I seem to be finally seeing some sheep.. scurrying across my screen as I fight with drowsiness :)

Big greetz to you all!! :)

While you were sleeping...

X'inhu jigri?

Quite an eventful couple of days!! My posting yesterday was very frustrated (as you may have noticed) (and by the way, Mr. ZM has no special fingers, it took him a full 15 minutes (!!) to upload a single photo (:P) but today.. ah yes.. all systems go!!

So.. from an incredible walk to Mt. Cook...

always surrounded with nothing but stuff from our wildest imaginations...

 then a drive down to Lake Wanaka where we met Lou and camped for the night! (Which was INCREDIBLY windy and cold, but still potloads of fun) (oh and yes, much thanks to Lou for the first decent meal we've had here (because we didn't feel like cooking well before) )(those are Dru and Lou in the pic)

This morning we failed at going skydiving :( due to terrible weather.. but ah well! 

so instead, we got up to some tomfoolery of a special nature...

 

then a short drive down to Queenstown where we have just arrived and are about to start exploring!

Sorry for the fast posts - time runs out very fast when you're uploading photos!! :)

And on to the next part of our trip....

Ok....so James is writing a post on the computer nearby and I have no idea what he is writing (since trying to settle all the internet 'needs' in 10 minutes tends to be quite a rush!)

Yesterday we camped in Lake Wanaka. I was realllly happy to meet my neighbour in Sheffield (yes you read that right!) who happened to be in the S.Island at the same time.




Here is a picture of us sitting in front of the lake! She cooked a really (really!) nice chicken tikka meal which was delicious on a camping stove and we camped together. The idea was to go skydiving together but unfortunately the weather was not on our side so instead we went to a Puzzle place which is a haven for anyone liking puzzles. It took us an hour to get through a 3D maze and even longer to take in all the cool effects (like an off-balancing room where you can see a ball roll UP) and a perspective chamber where you seem to get bigger as you walk down the room. I think James is writing more about that....

After that we drove off to Queenstown. The weather was not great as you can see in the pic with the bad weather but the drive was just impressive. It was too late to go on any nice activities here so instead we took a relaxed afternoon repacking and planning the next few days!

Tonight eating out again with Louise (the Sheffield neighbour) and then off for some drinks. Still not entirely  sure what happens after tomorrow...maybe drive off to Milford Sound or stay another night in Queenstown.

Time is nearly up so I am just going to upload one more photo of the three of us. Enjoy :)