Day 21 - Auckland

Special Guest Blogger, Joshua Sakovits

Today is our second full day with the Padrutts and it is also Sunday so we accompanied them to their local church, Harbourside Church.  

The church service was very good, and it was all the more special as the pastor and his family were from Adelaide and were also from the same church that we all attended. The pastor and his wife were very welcoming and recognised Mazz but unfortunately not Paul. It was a service very much like the ones in Adelaide. 

The service finished a bit before lunch so we stopped at the supermarket, which was very much like Centro Colonnades at Marion except much much smaller. We stopped at Countdown, and bought some supplies for lunch and dinner. Once back at home we all sat down and made our own sandwiches with the home-made bread that Judy had so kindly made the night before, which was brilliant by the way. 

Not long after lunch we were treated to another Haka by Michael which was truly frightening which I believe was the point. We then played a large game of hide and seek with everyone involved, even the adults. We would have played it outside as well but it was raining. Paul and Andi went our for a walk and came back just in time for dinner. Surprising when there was work to be done. Dinner was a sweet potato pie with tuna and salad which surpassed all expectations.

 After dinner we didn’t do much save playing another game similar to  hide and seek except you had to try and reach a point that the seeker was guarding. There was some arguments over whether or nit the aussie rules or kiwi rules should be played so we ended up with a combination of the rules. We didn’t do much else but slowly drifted off to bed as it became later and later until the adults were reminiscing over old ski days that they had spent together while Josh (the Elder) wrote up the blog yet again.

Day 20 - Auckland

Special Edition: Blog by Josh

Today was the first of four full days with the Padrutts. I'm sure that it is not nearly long enough for Daniel or Michael! Today would be our day to get our bearings in Auckland which is the largest city in New Zealand containing 1.4 million people but however is not the capital city, which is Wellington. We were honoured by Andy and Judy as they put together a most excellent breakfast that was far different to any other breakfast we had had while we have been in New Zealand. We had a wide selection of cereals and spreads for toast.

After our marvellous breakfast we prepared ourselves and packed lunch for our day out on the town. The girls plus DJ and Michael were in our car while Andy, Paul and both of the Joshuas were in Andy's car, we also had walkie-talkies so we could communicate between the cars. We set off on a small drive to the suburb of Davenport, which is an expensive area near the beach where British people like to retire to. In Davenport we climbed another hill named Mount Victoria, which is one of the seven hills of Auckland. Once at the top we had a very nice view of Auckland, it is very spread out, much like Adelaide but it is over a series of bays and and peninsulas which are connected together by a series of bridges, with the largest sharing a name with the city. At Mount Victoria there were pieces of cardboard boxes which were used to slide down the steep sides of the hill. We had fun, sliding down there and everyone but Judy and Andy joined in, Paul got a fair decent grass stain on his elbow after stacking on the slide.

Once we finished up at Mount Victoria, DJ, Josh (Elder &Younger) Michael and Paul walked down to a park beside the beach while the others were lazy and drove to the park and met us there. Once we found each other we continued to walk along the beach up until a ferry terminal, where we decided to go for a drive to a nicer beach known as Mission Bay. Here we had a picnic on the park next to the beach. It was quite interesting to see so many people in bathers or “togs” as the Kiwis called them, attempting to get a tan in weather that is less than 20ºC when we have temperatures more than double in Adelaide alone! Joshua (the Elder) found it quite cute. We each had cucumber, cheese or cream cheese on our sandwiches, except Daniel who had to be picky and had a plain piece of bread.

After we finished our picnic and went for a walk further down the park until we came to a playground, where the children, save Josh (the Elder), played while the adults, and Josh had coffee, well he had a mocha as he isn’t fond of normal coffee. Once we had finished our beverages and the children had finished playing, we drove around Auckland which finally led to us climbing one of the larger of the hills of Auckland, by the name of Mount Eden. Here we had a view that surpassed the one from Mount Victoria, and Mount Eden was special because it had a crater in the middle of the hill, which led to the idea that it was a dormant volcano but alas there was no sliding down into the crater. We walked around the crater once with 360º all round.

After coming back down from the hill we drove around the actual city of Auckland and saw someone jumping off the Auckland Tower, which for some reason, Kiwis like doing. We also had a drive through some development houses akin to those in Mawson Lakes but all the houses were the same, the only difference was the brick colour which was absolutely bizarre. We arrived home, and everything was very chilled, time seemed to slow down as Judy and Mazz prepared dinner, Michael attempted to fly his helicopter, Lara chased Daniel around poking each other, Josh (the Younger) was messing around n his Ipod and playing on the piano, Josh (the Elder) read on his e-reader and wrote a letter to his grandparents and Andy and Paul were gardening. Dinner was  prepared and we sat down to a wonderful barbecue. After dinner we were treated to a traditional Maori Haka performed by Michael and Josh (the Younger) but was postponed to a later time as Josh was embarrassed to do it, and Michael couldn’t do it by himself.

After dinner it was starting to get late so Josh (the Younger) put on Rise of the Guardians which had been graciously gifted to them by friends from Australia and watched it with the other children. The parents decided to chat over some wine before playing some much waited for games of Dog, a board game similar to trouble but played with cards and can cause heated discussions as they have experienced before with one of the players loudly exclaiming something he probably shouldn’t have but who shall remain nameless. While Josh was left to write the blog as his parents who normally do were busy having fun.

Day 19 - Rotorua to Auckland

Special Edition: Blog by Josh

Today is the day Daniel has been waiting for the whole trip (and perhaps the last four years!). We are leaving Rotorua and heading to Auckland, the home of the Padrutt Family whose house, in Adelaide we now reside in. We had a decent drive to Auckland and after packing lunches and letting Josh pack the car, we headed off around ten in the morning which made for a lazy morning.

The drive went fairly quickly, especially because we ate lunch in the car and we only stopped a few times for Squirrel, our affectionate nickname for Daniel to stretch his legs and once for Mazz who saw a shop where she could continue her search for a throw rug. Once we arrived in Auckland, DJ started to get excited as we saw signs for the Padrutts suburb, Browns Bays. When we turned onto their street, Daniel started to get teary. We parked just outside their house and started the long walk down their drive way.

Once Daniel saw Michael he ran and gave him a big hug. It took a moment for Michael to recognise Daniel as he looked similar to one his friends from school from a distance. We all said our hellos and settled into their house. It was good to see them again since they hadn't seen each other for a really long time, it was also really kind of them to house us in their really big house. We had soon made our sleeping arrangements, not long after arriving there: Paul and Mazz were in a flat out the front while Daniel slept in Michael's room and Josh slept in Lara's bedroom, the youngest child’s.

After we had chilled for a while we went for a walk down to the beach where the suburb gets its name from. The path to the beach involved going up and down many times. All the kids came prepared to go swimming, even Josh* did but he didn't end up going in the water. The parents and Josh (the Elder) waited for the kids next to a playground which the kids eventually played on because it was really too cold to go swimming at the beach.

On the way home we decided to stop for an ice-cream, For dinner we were treated to spaghetti bolognese with salad, which was brilliant, compliments to the chef. After dinner, the kids, all filed off to bed at their bedtimes, with Daniel following Michael. The adults and Josh (the Elder) stayed up until late talking, and catching up as it had been four long years since they had seen each other, leaving no time for them to do the blog and keeping their readers in suspense until the next day when they would get their eldest child to write their blog for them.

*The Padrutts also have a son named Josh who shall henceforth and forever more be known as Josh the Younger as he is a few years younger while Josh Sakovits will be Josh the Elder, so that you, the readers of this blog may be able to better distinguish between them.

Day 18 - Rotorua Day 2

Today is our second full day in Rotorua. - This is the most we have spent anywhere on our trip so far. First stop of the day was the Agroventures, an adventure park which was located on a farm just outside Rotorua. As we arrived, we were greeted by ostriches and long horned cows in the paddock next door, and ducks and chickens wandering loose in the car park. Agroventures is a working farm, and if you choose you can see sheep shearing, cow milking, egg laying etc, etc, but we were not here for the farm, we were here for the adventures.

The park offers a wide range of adventure activities, including bungee jumping, jet boating, schweebing (a bicycle powered monorail), The swoop (a giant 40m high freefall swing) and the freefall, a large turbine that allows you to stay suspended in the air similar to free falling (if you are good enough). We bought a family pass which included eight “tokens”. This means that we all got to participate in 2 activities each (not including the bungee, as this cost four tokens).

Paul was first up and decided to give the “freefall” a try. After putting on a flying suit (a special pair of overall with additional material under the arms and between the legs), and donning a pair of goggles, it was time to go outside onto the turbine. The turbine was turned on and Paul soared into the air. It was hard to stay in the air stream, but fortunately there was a person holding Paul's feet and keeping him pointed in the right direction.

Next up Josh and Daniel decided to try the Schweebing. Each of them climbed into a a small carriage suspended from a monorail. There is a pair of pedals inside each carriage, and the idea is to race each other around the track. Poor Daniel struggled to reach the pedals, but just managed. After three laps, Josh had pulled clear, but Daniel was not too far behind.

This time Mazz and Daniel chose to go on the Jet Boat, which was a fast three loops around a water course. It didn’t look that fast when you watched but sitting in the boat was a huge rush. At the end of the course the driver does a 360!

Mazz was still trying to decide what to use her next token on and finally decided to choose the Swoop! While she waited in line, Paul and Josh had their turn on the Jet boat. Mazz's turn on the Swoop finally arrived, but she was too chicken to go by herself, so one of the Maori guys working there went on with her. When they were pulled up to the 40m height, the guy with Mazz pulled the chord on the count of three and they began plummeting towards the ground. The first few seconds are the scariest part during the free fall and drop but then you go into the swing which was not so scary. Mazz was happy she decided to do the swoop as is probably the closes thing she will get to bungy jumping.

All out of tokens, we headed back to the car, and made our way to our next stop, the “Hobbition” movie set.

The Hobbit village of “Hobbiton” is located on a sheep farm just outside of Matamata, about an hours drive away from Rotorua. When the original “Lord of the Rings” movies were filmed, the village of “Hobbition” was made out of plywood and styrofoam, all cunningly painted to look real. At the end of filming, the village was scheduled to be dismantled and returned to the original condition, but due to a storm the demolition work was delayed for a week. Suddenly the farmer had LOTR fans turning up on his doorstep wanting to know about the movie and where it was filmed. When the Hobbit movie was filmed, the Director needed to return to the farm (and to the village of “Hobbiton”) to film new scenes, so this time the farmer negotiated that the film set be made permanent, and he be allowed to conduct tours. - Looks like he was a pretty smart guy.

The movie set cannot be seen from the road as it is set about 2kms into the sheep farm, so we bought our tickets and boarded a tour bus and set off on a tour of the movie set. They must be pretty popular, as a tour (consisting of about 25 people) commences every 10 minutes.  The village looks exactly like you expect it to look, which is not surprising as it is exactly where the movie was made. They must employ a huge team of gardeners, as there are flowers and vegetable growing in all of the gardens, and it looks as if the Hobbits could return at any time! There are actually 44 Hobbit holes in the village, that we wandered around, including Bag End (Bilbo and Frodo's house). It was interesting to note that some of the Hobbit houses are made at 100% scale (to make a human actor look hobbit sized), and others are made at 60% to make a human actor appear much larger than a Hobbit. (Those clever movie people!).

Last stop was the Green Dragon Tavern, where there was time to sample some genuine Shire Ale, Cider or Ginger beer! After that, it was back onto the bus, a short stop at the Hobbiton souvenir shop and then time to make our way back to Rotorua for Dinner

Day 17 - Rotorua

Happy New Year. Woke up on the first day of the new year and pulled back the curtains to see what the day would be like. There was blue sky showing through the scattered clouds, so it looked like it was going to be a good day. Mazz then opened the sliding door and stepped outside to see how warm it was. - Phew!, the overpowering smell of Rotorua came wafting into the room, a sulphorous, rotten egg kind of smell. The smell is pretty overpowering at first, but after a while you get used to it and hardly notice it any more.

After breakfast, first stop of the day was "Wai-O-Tapu"(Wai-O-Tapu means "Sacred Waters") , a geothermal scenic reserve that is full of collapsed craters, geysers and boiling mud pools. We arrived just in time to see the Lady Knox geyser errupt. When coldwater mixes with with superheated steam caused by volcanic activity, it causes the geyser to errupt in a spectacular water and steam explosion. Normally this would happen every 2-3 days, but at 10:15 everyday the park triggers an erruption of the geyser. The Lady Knox geyser erruption lasted for about 2 minutes and reached a height of apout 8 meters. After the geyser, we then followed the walking track through the park, a trail of about 3km that took about an hour an a half. Along the way we saw plenty of bubbling mud pools, and steaming lakes of mutiple colours.

 Some of the minerals in the earth react with the hot water and steam to form colours. Last stop was a large Mud pool which was located outside of the park. The mud pool was about 30 metres in Diameter, and full of bubbles, steam and small eruption all accompanied by the same "interesting" sulphurous smell!.

After Wai-O-Tapu we headed back into Rotorua and made our way to a Redwood forest, just outside of town. There are many walking tracks through the forest, ranging from 30 minutes to 8 hours. We decided to take one of the shorter trails and headed off. The trees are Californian Redwoods, and were planted in 1901. They can grow to a height over 100m. The wood is not especially good however, as the trees grow so quickly that they wood is soft. The walk was especially interesting because the forest canopy is quite high, and even the ferns are high, having to reach up to get any light. Down on the forest floor however, it is quite open and easy to walk though.

Following the Redwoods, we headed back into town to a park famous for its thermal activity. In the park there were about 20 small pools, all fenced off and all bubbling and steaming away. There was a sign informing everyone to not touch the touch the water as it is 100 deg C, so we thought we had better leave them alone. Next stop we went back into town and wandered amongst the shops, but being New Years day most of the shops were closed, so we decided to head back to the Motel

Day 16 - Wellington to Rotorua

Today we head to Rotorua. We have really enjoyed staying in City Life Motel. Having a TV in the main bedroom and 2 separate bathrooms has given us all a little extra space, as it can get a bit crowded when we are all together in a small area. A casual start to our morning, getting packed and having breaky. We were on the road by 9:30am with our longest drive ahead of us. We were looking forward to a nice straight road and a motorway-get quicker to our destination than we have on the South Island. We were wrong! No 3 lane highway, but instead a single lane road with slow lanes for overtaking and you can only drive 100km here. There were so many towns along the way and we had to slow down to 50km in every single one of them. Mazz was very surprised to see in a small town a whole heap of seconds shops and a DFO! She managed to hold herself back and let Paul continue to drive. The drive wasn't as spectacular as the South Island but it definitely looks like the land where Hobbits would live- beautiful green rolling hills. We stopped in a town called Taihape which was pretty much a one street town but had a Subway, McDonalds and a KFC. We haven't had much luck with bakeries here- they don't know what a real cinnamon donut is. We did find one in a bakery and they called it a round donut! Aren't donuts round???? Once we all chose what to have for lunch we continued on our journey. 

The landscape began to change after awhile as we were heading on the Volcanic Loop Highway. In the distance we could see Mt Ruapehu, which is an active volcano and is the North Island's major ski fields. Mt Ruapehu is the largest active volcano in New Zealand. It has three major peaks: Tahurangi (2797m), Te Heuheu (2755m) and Paretetaitonga (2751m). The deep active crater is between these peaks and fills with a lake between major eruptions. The last time is erupted was in 2007. And of course some scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed on the slopes- Mount Doom (Mt Ruapehu) is in Mordo! We were very surprised to still see snow on top of the volcano. Very spectacular! 

We then drove passed Lake Taupo. It is a huge lake which has a perimeter of aprrox 193km. It is a very busy place and can attract over 1.2 billion visitors over the Christmas and New Years period. 

We finally arrived into Rotorua after a 5 hour journey. Our hotel is on the outskirts of the town and is ok- it has all it needs. There is a New Years Eve party in town near Lake Rotorua called GLO party. We decide not to join the rest of the crowd and just have a yummy steak and salad for dinner. It can get quiet tiring driving for hours, so its an early night for us and cross fingers we will get nice weather while we are here, although the forecast is for rain in the afternoon.
 

Day 15 - Wellington, Mt Victoria and Weta

Woke up this morning to another nice day. First stop after breakfast was the Weta Cave – The workshop / museum / souvenir shop that is owned by Weta workshop. Weta workshop is a costume, special effect, annimation and movie prop company that are based in Wellington and have worked on all of the Lord of the rings and Hobbit movies, as well as District nine, Narnia, Avatar, King Kong and other movies and TV shows. Outside the Weta cave they have sculptures of the three trolls (William, Tom and Bert) from the Hobbit, and inside they have some of the props from the movies, including scuptures of Gollum, Lurtz (The large Uruk-hai that shoots Boromir with an arrow) and Gandalf. They also have various weapons, armour and costumes from all of the movies that they have been involved with. After wandering around the shop for about an hour, we decided to book ourselves into the Weta Workshop tour – A tour of part of the workshop where the work is actually done, and an explanation of how they make their props. The tour was pretty popular and was booked out until 3:00pm, so we bought our tickets and headed back into Wellington to pass the 4 hrs until it was time for our tour.

The National Museum of New Zealand is located in Wellington and is called Te Papap Tongawara. Its a pretty good museum (voted one of the top 50 museums in the world!), so we spend a couple of hours wandering around the museum. They have a lot of interesting interactive displays and exhibits, as well as some special collections and special exhibits. The highlights of our museum trip were the “World of Wearable Art (WOW) collection, - Various costumes that have been designed as art as well as fashion, and also the the exhibit on “Awesome Forces”, an explanation of earthquakes, eruptions and other natural forces that occur.

After the Museum, we headed into Mt Victoria nation park – A park that overlooks Wellington. Apart from having some spectacular views of Wellington, Mt Victoria national park is also the location where some of the scenes of Lord of the Rings were filmed, especially a scene at the start of “The Fellowship of the Ring', where the Hobbits are on their way to Bree, and hide from one of the Black riders under a tree. It took a while to find, but armed with our location guide book and a GPS app that Mazz downloaded, we eventually found the spot. The large tree is not there, as that was a Movie prop created especially for the scene, but otherwise the location was very recognizable, and our “halflings” were able to “Get off the road”, and take shelter.

After Mt Victoria, we headed back to Weta Cave for our tour. There were about 20 people on the tour, and they described how props start of as a piece of 2D art, are then modelled in CAD in 3D, and are then made into 3D objects. Final step is painting to make the object life like. We also heard how much of the art is now created using photoshop. The Weta Workshop also employs a full time “armour manufacturer”, who makes all the weapons and armour for the movies. He is genuine craftsman, and some of his work is on display in the royal armoury in Leeds, England. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos in the Weta Workshop, as many of the items that were being worked on have not been released yet, and they don't want any “spoilers” to get out, like the minature model we saw being created for a remake of the “Thunderbird series”! After the workshop tour it was back to the Weta cave for Daniel and Josh to buy a souvenir or two.

On the way back to the Hotel we drove by “Stone st studios', where a lot of the studio scenes were filmed for the Hobbit and LOTR. The studio appeared pretty quite and not much was happening inside, but the large green screen at the back of the building could be seen from the outside the building.

Day 14 - Nelson to Wellington

Woke up this morning feeling a little stiff and sore after our kayaking excursion yesterday. If we were to go kayaking a few more days we would all develop abs of steel!. Checked out of our accommodation in Nelson and began the drive to Picton, where the Inter-Island ferry departs for Wellington. The drive was fairly slow as we had to cross a mountain range - left turn, right turn, left turn right turn, the drive was very windy, both up and down the mountain – In NZ they probably only call this a hill, but in Australia, I think its high enough to be called a mountain!. The view was spectacular, especially as we were getting closer to Picton. Picton is located beside Queen Charlotte Sound, a large fjord? Surrounded by mountains that slide into the water.

We reached Picton at around 12:00pm, about 90 minutes before the ferry left. We returned the car to the Avis rental desk, picked up our boarding passes and checked our luggage in. Still having an hour to go before boarding, we ventured outside into the drizzle and walked into town, browsing in a few souvenir shops before walking into the bakery to grab a baguette for lunch. We made our way back to the terminal and ate our lunch, and soon enough it was time for boarding.

The ferry was very large, with multiple decks cafes and seating areas. We found some seats towards the rear of the ferry where we could see the back of the boat (with all the campervans parked on the deck) and could also see all around – Well, we could if the drizzle would clear! The strait between the South Island and the North Island is called Cook straight, and the crossing took just over three hours. The sea was relatively calm, however the drizzle and low cloud continued the whole trip, which was a pity as the crossing would have been very picturesque, as the route passes through the Sounds and around the Islands.

We arrived in Wellington around 5:00pm, collected our luggage and picked up our rental car – a RAV4 again, but this time a blue one. We drove to our hotel, checked in and after driving around town for 20 minutes eventually found the hotel car park. There are a lot of one way streets in Wellington, so as soon as you miss your turn, you are suddenly a long way from where you need to be, and not sure how to get back. We made ourselves comfortable in the Hotel, and then headed into town to find some dinner.

Day 13 - Golden Bay (Tata Beach)

A very early start today- 6:00am.  We headed to the west coast towards the Abel Tasman National Park which was a 2 hour drive even though it was only 115kms away. The road was very windy and up in the mountains.  Mazz wasn't coping very well as the drop of the mountain was on her side. The views were great but  wasn't keen on taking any photos. We got to Golden Bay and then headed to a small beach called Tata Beach. Today we are going on a guided tour on kayaks with Golden Bay Kayaks. Because it was a tour for families, there were 3 families that also joined the tour- Germans, Swiss and British. The two guides Pip and we can't remember her name, were great guides. We were all giving a safety briefing and a quick demo of how to kayak. Paul and Daniel were together and Josh and I were together. Once we were all ready we headed down the coast where we kayaked to two islands- Ngawhiti Island and Motu Island. Here we saw different species of birds and we even saw a seal frolicking in the water. The water here is so blue and clear. We kayaked between majestic rock walls and even got to go up close to some small caves. In one of the bays there were a whole heap of buoys that were used to grow mussels on. We kayaked to the beach for a short rest and explore and then kayaked back to a more sheltered beach. Here we had morning tea of tea,coffee, hot chocolate and muffins. We had a lot of interesting conversations getting to know the different families and hearing stories of their travels. The weather was great for kayaking as it was slightly overcast and about 22degrees. After a rest for about half an hour we headed back the way we came to return to Tata Beach. Pip decided we all needed to have a race back to the beach- rule 1 you must do a 360degree turn, rule 2 first to the beach and run and grab the New Zealand flag was the champion, rule 3 no bumping and rule 4 go as fast as you can. Any guess who won? Yes it was team Aussie A- Mazz and Josh! We all had a really great time and it wasn't too expensive for New Zealand prices! Another 2 hour drive back to Nelson which wasn't as bad because we were on the inside lane. We arrived back to Nelson, had showers and relaxed for the rest of the night. Good job you can get Aussie tv over here-we've been watching the Boxing Day Test! Go Aussies!

Day 12- Greymouth to Nelson

Today we had a little sleepin until 8:30 am. Once packed and ready to go we drove along the famous "Coast Road" to Punakaiki and the Paparoa National Park. It is one of the most beautiful in the country and follows part of the ancient Greenstone Trails, used by Maori for centuries in search of the stone Pounamu, better known as jade. The "Coast Road" is ranked by Lonely Planet as "one of the best scenic coastal journeys in the world" After only a 45 minute drive we stopped at Punakaiki where you can see Pancake Rocks. The Pancake Rocks are limestone formations that began forming a long time ago where rich fragments of dead marine creatures were deposited on the seabed, then overlaid by weaker layers of soft mud and clay. The seabed was raised above sea level by earthquakes to form the cliffs and coastline. The sea, wind and rain have since etched out the soft layers to form the unusual rock formation that makes them look like pancake stacks. When the conditions are right, the ocean swells into the caverns beneath the rocks and huge water spouts blast through the blowholes. Unfortunately it wasn't high tide so we didn't get to see the blowholes. 

A wander around in the touristy shops and then another 2 hour drive ahead of us. The scenery isn't as spectacular in this area, but the roads were very windy. We have now named New Zealand as "The Land of One Lane Bridges". We made it to our destination at about 3:15pm We are staying in a medium sized town called Nelson. This is the furthest north we have been. 

Nelson is the oldest city in southern New Zealand. Nelson was named in honour of Horatio Nelson who defeated both the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar. In fact many of the roads and public areas around the city are named after people and ships associated with the battle. The.  people in Nelson are referred to as Nelsonians. 

We had and early dinner in our motel, which is right near the airport and the golf course. An early night tonite as we have to be up early (6:30am) for a road trip to Golden Bay which is near the Abel 

Tasman National Park for a kayak tour. Sorry for not adding photos. We don't have free internet in our motel room so Mazz is using the iPad connected to her iPhone to type this up. We will try to add photos some other time. 

Day 11- Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier, Greymouth

Ok so we are tired of early starts but today we have a great and exciting day planned. At 7:45am we left our little chalet in Franz Josef and headed back to Fox Glacier Village. We had a ½ day Fox Trot hiking tour booked for 8:35am to go out on to the Fox Glacier. Once booked in we had to put socks on and proper hiking boots. We had just a short bus ride to the glacier car park, Our guide Danni lead us on a walk beside the river bed to the glacier terminus. From here we walked uphill for around 30 minutes to access the edge of the ice. We all grabbed a hiking stick, except for Daniel cause he's too short for one. We hiked a short distance passed a rock fall area and then to a flat area. At this point we fitted our shoes with crampons specially designed for walking on ice. We then followed Danni up the ice steps. Occasionally she had to cut the steps away with her big axe. The route took us onto the ice amongst crevasses and ice ridges and lead us onto the middle of the glacier for spectacular views of the ice and lower glacier. Fox Glacier was named in 1872 after a visit by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir William Fox.

We spent at least one hour on the ice. Danni was with us for the duration of the trip in case of any rock falls or breaks in the ice. We enjoyed listening to fascinating details of the natural history of the landscape. The top of the glacier is moving 6meters a day and it was only 100meters thick where we walking. The ice we were walking on was 60 years old. The glacier is 13km long and at the top its 600meters thick. The experts say that the glacier will be completely gone in 100 years. We were very fortunate to hike (The Kiwi's call hiking “tramping”) on the glacier with magnificent weather.

After we got back to Fox Glacier Village we had some lunch at the cafe and then had another drive in front of us. Today we are staying in a town called Greymouth. The drive was again very spectacular with snow capped mountains, fast running rivers and views of the Tasman Sea. We made a quick stop at a town called Hokitika where you can buy jewellery out of green stone. It was very pricey so we got back into the car and headed to our accommodation in Greymouth. We are all very exhausted from our hike on the Glacier.

Day 10 - Merry Christmas from Franz Josef Glacier

December 25th - Christmas Day.
Daniel was the first person up this morning.  He pulled back the curtains hoping that we might have a White Christmas, but alas not today.  It was overcast, and there was a light drizzle in the air but no snow.  It has snowed in New Zealand on Christmas day before, in fact snow can fall on any day of the year in the Southern Alps (They are closer to the Antarctic than Australia is).

We had more time for breakfast this morning, so for Christmas breakfast we had pancakes before opening a very Christmas presents that had found their way to New Zealand and were sitting under our miniature Christmas tree.  Christmas had a very different feeling this year as there was no extend family to share Christmas with.  It was nice to be lazy howevery, and the boys had plenty of time to play with their presents instead of rushing around.  Daniel received an ipad mini for Christmas, Josh received an ebook reader, Mazz received some candles and Paul received some shortbread.  Not a bad effort 4000kms from home!.

Afterwards we watched some Doctor Who episodes on TV (It appears there was a Christmas day Dr Who marathon running), after which we headed into town for a walk up to the Franz Josef Glacier.  The walk was about 2.0km from the car park to the base of Franz Josef Glacier.  Along the way be passed though a stretch of rain forrest, then walked along the bed of the glacier valley, passed waterfalls and walked alongside a riverstream that ran along the bed of the valley.

We returned home afterwards for some Christmas pudding and custard followed by a screening of "The Hobbit" - extended edition, another one of the boys Christmas presents.

Day 9 - Queenstown to Franz Josef Glacier

Today we leave Queenstown to go to Franz Josef Glazier. In hind-site it would have been nice to stay in Queenstown for Christmas but Mazz wanted to be somewhere different and special for Christmas.

We had a little sleep-in (8am!) and then packed the car and headed North towards Wanaka. The GPS took us a short cut through the area where the winter ski fields are. The roads were a bit windy and of course it rained and rained and rained, so the views were not spectacular at all, but it did create waterfalls along the side of the ride. We stopped in Wanaka for a last food shop, just in case there wasn't a supermarket in Fanz Josef Glacier. The shops (there not that big) were crazy.....last minute Christmas shopping! Wanaka is like a miniature Queenstown but because of the continuous rain, we couldn't enjoy the views.

Driving in these areas when it rains can cause some major problems for the roads, with land slides and rock falls. We weren't sure if the road through the Haast Pass would even be open. We came to some road works and had to stop. We wound down the window to see what the lady had to say and she told us we could go but to not stop and go as fast as we could. We guessed that the road wasn't too safe and saw lots of rocks and water over the road. Also along this road, there are a lot of bridges buy they are only one way. You have to see if the sign gives you right of way or the cars on the other side have right of way. You would think if they make the bridges they would make them a doubled lane bridge, but not here! There were again a lot of waterfalls cascading down the sides of the mountains, some of them even flowing onto the road. The whole way the rain was just continuous heavy rain. If it rained like that in Adelaide, the roads would be flooded.

It took us 5 hours to drive 350kms. We arrived at our accommodation for the next 2 days- Glacier Cottages. There are only 3 cottages and they are on the owners property. They breed American Miniature Horses/ponies. They use them for showing, Pony Club and pleasure riding. One of he ponies is a very playful foal. Just the size for a Hobbit!

We don’t have a lot planned for the rest of the day (Christmas Eve), just chilling and watching TV. Depending on the weather tomorrow, we may go for a walk to the base of the Franz Josef Glacier. It really doesn't feel like Christmas here at all.

We wish everybody a safe and Merry Christmas and we hope you all have a great Year in 2014. To Marilyn's Family- who ever gets the grandpas jocks- sucked-in cause we know we wont be getting them.

Day 8 - Queenstown, Lothlorien and Isenguard

We woke up early this morning as we had an early start.  We had arranged for our tour guide to collect us from reception at 8:00am as we were off on another scenic Lord of the Rings location tour.  The area around Queenstown is spectacular and is one of the major areas used for filming LOTR. - Many different scenes from the movie were filmed in the area, and we had the opportunity to view them up close.

The day was clear, although it was a little cool in the shade.  First stop was 12 Mile delta.  This is where Sam sees the "Oliphants", and also where he catches a brace of "coneys".  The area was also used for the area where Faramir and the rangers are patrolling.  After this we followed the lake around further past the old historic town of Glenorchy and into a national park.  The national park includes a swamp area which was used for scenes from the "Dead Marshes" and also a forest area which was used for the entrance of Lothlorien, and also for Amon Hen - The orc chase scenes where Boromir get shot by an arrow from the Uruk-hai.  

Apparently the leaves were not "Golden" enough for Peter Jackson (The movie director), so he had a whole heap of leaves collected and sent to the local primary school, who paintd them gold!.  The forest was definitely spectacular, with moss covered trees and branches, and the sunlight filtering through the leaves.  The only thing missing was a couple of Elves casually wandering through! After Lothlorien, we headed onto some private farm land in an area called 'Paradise Valley".  This is the location where Isenguard was filmed.  With mountains surrounding the area and the forrest to the side, it was easy to picture where the tower of Isenguard would have been located.  

The area used for Isenguard has also been used for the scenes from Narnia, and also for the X-men origins- Wolverine movie.  Most recently is was also used in the second movie as the location for Beorn House.  This bought us to the end of the tour, so we headed back to Queestown with a couple of more stops to take photos of the spectacular scenery.

The finding of the Ring

Gollum claims the ring

We headed back to the apartment and consulted the LOTR guide book.  Across the other side of Queenstown, in an area called "Arrowtown", there were a couple of other locations where scenes from LOTR were filmed.  These were "Bruinen Ford", where Arwen and the injured Frodo escape from the black riders, and "Gladden Fields", where Deagol finds the ring, and is killed by Smeagol/Gollum.  So, with guide book in hand, Josh, Paul and Daniel headed off to see what we could find.  (Mazz stayed at home as she had seen enough LOTR for the day)

Gollum dissapears

Although Peter Jackson did a fair job with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we thought we could have done it better, so being inspired by all the film locations we had seen earlier in the day, we took it upon ourselves to "recreate" a few scenes from the film.  I'm sure you'll agree they are an improvement on the original.

After our film making efforts, we returned back to the appartment, picked up Mazz and headed into town.  There was one more thing that we still needed to do before we left Queenstown, and that was to ride the Gondola up to the top of Ben Lomond, and then have a turn (or three!) on the luge, a "go kart" that runs down the hill in a special track.  Daniel was especially happy, as this was the one thing that he was looking forward to doing in Queenstown.  After another Gondola ride back to the base of the mountain we grabbed some dinner in Queenstown and then headed back to our apartment.

Day 7 - Te Anau to Queenstown

Left Te Anau at about 9:30 this morning.  It was not a very early start as the drive today is only a couple of hours to Queenstown.  The drive was very leisurely, and  very spectacular, with mountains and lakes everywhere you look.  Queenstown is a resort town famous for skiiing in the winter and bungy jumping, jet boating, white water rafting, paragliding and a whole heap of other adventure sports in the
summer. We arrived in town at about 12:00pm, so we thought we go into town and have some lunch and a look around before checking into our accommodation.

We entered the information bureau, and saw advertising material all over the place for every activity possible!.  There sure is a lot of stuff happening in Queenstown, and we couldn't decided what we wanted to do.  Josh was not keen on Bungy Jumping, and Daniel wasn't all that interested in a canyon swing.  Eventually we decided on a Gondola trip up the moutain followed by a couple of luge rides down, and a trip on the Jet boat.  Even the Jet boat decision was a difficult, as there are about 5 different options to choose from.  We grabbed a handful of different brochures and headed out, deciding that we would do some research over lunch, and then book something for tomorrow.  

After a quick bite to eat (and a milkshake from Starbucks), we decided to see if our accommodation was ready.  Lucky for us they had another apartment that was already available, so we were allowed to check in early.  We walked inside and were very impressed with our accommodation.  The apartment is situated on the lake and has views across the lake to the mountains across the other side, which were lightly dusted with snow.  Its also a very comfortable apartment, with all the comforts of home.  Mazz says she is very impressed and would be happy to spend the rest of the holiday here gazing out at the view across the lake.

After making ourselves at home (code for spreading our junk everywhere!), we reviewed the tourist brochures and decided that the KJet was the jetboat ride for us.  The appartment is about 1km out of town and the day was clear and sunny, so we decided to walk into town and make a booking for the KJet.  The walk was also spectacular, beside the lake, through a park and across a river.  By chance we came across the main pier where the KJet leaves from, and the day was so clear, that we decided to ride the KJet today, rather than wait till tomorrow, as who know what the weather would be tomorrow.

After a short wait of 30 mins, we donned raincoats and life jackets and climbed onboard the big yellow jet boat along with approx 12 other people.  The jet boat ride was exhilarating and exciting, and lasted approx 1 hour and covered 64 kms.  It included 360 degree spins, swerving turns near the river bank and weaving in and out of trees and submerged branches.  We arrived back at the dock very wet, a little wind burnt and with crazy hair styles, but with big smiles on our faces.

After making our way back to the apartment, Paul and Daniel enjoyed the 30 degree heated swimming pool while Mazz and Josh went shopping to get some items for dinner.  Mazz says she will have to check the earthquake statistics, but if everything is clear she may have found her new favourite holiday destination.