The Lost World Adventure

Hey all. Not long left now till we're off to Chile, but we've still got quite a bit left to fit in.We're looking forward to some warm tropical weather as we head up to the Northland. Today was the big day - we ventured into The Lost World! We were both surprisingly cool about the whole thing until stepping onto the platform where you started the abseil! We had to sit out on this bar while the guide strapped us up which was as scary as the 100m abseil I thought! There was only 3 of us doing it this morn plus the guide. It was far more hardcore than I had expected cos they downplay it as being peaceful in the leaflets! I was doing okay on the descent for like the first 10-15mins, thinking it couldn't be much further but then he anounced we're about halfway and I was like, what?! The further down you decended, the harder it was to control so I started finding it harder to slow down and stopping was near impossible...eek. I had anticipated a fairly easy caving experience too as it had a rambo rating of 6/10 but maybe 6/10 for hardcore cavers! There was no squeezing (thank goodness) but a lot of thought had to go into negotiating the rocks and a lot of trust had to go into the grip on your wellies! Thank you John & Fiona for the rock climbing practice - it really helped in a hairy situation! We were mainly in huge caverns climbing over and under big rocks. Its crazy there's this whole huge world beneath us. Halfway through the trip we took a snack break with our lights off to admire the gloworms. They were all over the cavern so it was like the night sky but underground...!?! Finally we had to climb up a 30m ladder! It was one at a time so Chris had to hang back in the dark on his own while I took ages to get up the ladder! 4 hours later we finally returned! Man, I'm shaking just typing about this - as much as I enjoyed it, there were a few s*** your pants scary moments. You can't take your camera down so I've attached a couple of cheesy ones we got on a CD. On our way to a spa now (can't wait) then hopefully a bit of beach before the flight on tuesday.

Another rainy few days meant we didn't get much done in Dunedin or on the drive back to Queenstown, but I did get my Cinema kick and went to see the new Star Trek film. This is Chris by the way! It was nice to have an evening activity for a change. We booked into another hotel for Queenstown, and it ended up being a really nice place with a great view of the mountains. The shower and flat bed was well needed, and we ended up cooking for ourselves in the room. Then yesterday we went down and finally got our campervan!! As you can see we fell in love with it straight away. It is simply amazing. It feels like a whole new holiday. The west coast is summer warm so far and has a more tropical terrain. Found a really nice beach and watched the sunset yesterday. Lit a campfire with a german guy Frediel we met at the campsite last night and seeing both the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers today. We're heading north now to try and get a ferry on tuesday. We'll prob next be in touch in Wellington.

C

Milford Road and Milford Sound

Just made it to Dunedin today on the east coast of the South Island after a few fun but cold nights over in the southern alps. The Milford Sound Cruise was very beautiful and the Milford Road was a spectacle itself. Milford Sound is a remote fiord 75 miles down a dead end road. There's nothing there except the cruise terminal so you have to make sure you've got the fuel you need for the round trip and it reaches 1000m so its compulsory you hire snow chains. It was a good adventure. We took a couple of days out so we could fit the cruise in and do a walk as there's loads of great walks in the area. Milford gets 600m of rainfall every year (!) so there's literally thousands of waterfalls everywhere you look- bizarre but really cool. Here's some pics of the trip and us at Key Summit at the end of our walk.

On another note. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KERRY, MICHAEL & CORINNE! Hope our texts and emails have come through!

Living the life of Ricky....

We haven't managed to catch a non-windy night for the last 5 nights, so we've been sleeping in the car! Surprisingly its been alright as we've loaded the PSP up with movies, its pretty cosy and if you park the car on the right angle up a slope its comfy...! But we were really looking forward to our hotel room when we got to Queenstown. Its the activity capital here so its full of young adrenanline junkie travellers and posh hotels. We've caught pretty bad weather (again) so most trips are off but we're booked to go on a chilled cruise of Millford Sound on tuesday as hopefully thats when the weather picks up again. Its a really scenic fiord a little further north from here and according to the guides its the number one thing to see in New Zealand. Always a bargain queen...we managed to get a 2 for 1 deal - yay!

We were up at Mount Cook National Park a few days back. The drive in and out was really beautiful but we were looking forward to doing a full day tramping upto the hooker lake and glacier, but again, the weather let us down and even if we had attempted it in the wind and rain the visibility was pretty low. The weather is so changeable here and as we made our way south down to Queenstown we came into bright sunshine. I'd totally tagged New Zealand as a really green and snowy bigger version of Scotland, but this area we came across reminded me more of Namibia with sandy grass flats and tundra.

Birthday Fun

Thanks to all for the lovely birthday messages! Chris filled the day with surprises and we had an amazing time. His whale watching trip was super early in the morning at 7.15am and was a real success. They managed to get close up to 3 sperm whales and saw a lot of albatross, which was something he was really hoping to see. Then we drove out to Hamner Springs, a gorgeous mountain village, where we turned up at 'Hamner Horses'. We did a scenic trek up the mountains which was pretty steep at times and I started to learn how to trot, so I'm making slow progress towards my dreams of a horseback holiday one day! Then after the trek we spent the rest of the day (and most of the night) at the famous Hamner Springs Thermal Spa. We managed to get a return pass upgrade with a voucher we found, so we popped out for a lush pub meal then went back until late that night. It was sooo nice and really beautiful with the snow capped mountains all around.

Some Pics from NZ

Battling in the cold here in New Zealand. Our tent almost blew away on saturday night, so we had to pack up and sleep in the car at 2am. Its actually 10-14 degrees when the suns out which isn't bad at all but we just had a few blustery days which felt baltic. After a well needed recharge at a plush hotel in Wellington we took the ferry over to the south island. It was really choppy yesterday. It gets dark here at 5.30 and our ferry was at 6.30 so there was no horizon to focus on and so I finally sucombed and was seasick...! Hee. Well, it didn't feel funny at the time... There are many Thermal Springs around and about especially in the the north island. That's Chris there in the mist. Many of the lakes and rivers that are safe to have a dip in are commercialised now, but our lonely planet book told us of one of a few places you can just just go for free. It felt bizarre cos it was a dismal cold day - we drove far out to this forest, walked down this narrow forest path, then stripped off and had a dip in this river that was hotter than bath water!
The marine life here is amazing. There are many seal colonies scattered around the coast. We're considering a swimming with seals and dolphins trip. They're a bit scary on land but they are really friendly in the sea...apparently.


This is our hire car at Kaikoura! Chris is off on a whale watching trip tomo from here so we're staying here tonight. I'm saving my pennies to do a 300ft abseil into the Waitomo Caves back up north - check out the pic i found of it below - those dots are people! We've been doing hikes (they call it 'tramping' here) during the days. Got caught in the snow the other day but it was actually quite fun. Oh yeah... its my birthday tomorrow too! Chris has got something special planned.

New Zealand

Its end of Autumn here in New Zealand and its pretty cold! Worlds apart from Thailand...! We spent our first night in the tent on Wednesday and I ended up crying! At one point I had a vest, fleece, fleece liner, sleeping bag, blanket and ski jacket on top and I was still shivering...! I thought I might be ill or something. We've nailed it now: we bought a duvet and zipped our sleeping bags together - body heat! Slept like babies last night. Thank goodness for expedia too as you can get wicked cheap hotel deals, so I'm focused on our Mercure Spa Hotel in Wellington on Sunday!

Weather's been hit and miss. It was really sunny and hot yesterday but today its miserable and chucking it. We're in and around Rotorua on the North Island at the mo and everything smells of sulphur because of the Geysers! Pooey.

North Sydney

Moved on upto North Sydney and satying with Pat and Beki at Dee Why Beach. Here we all are at Palm Beach aka Summer Bay from Home and Away! Alf's surf shop sits on the beach here and there's loads of familliar spots about. Memories... This is just 10 mins up the coast from the flat and there are beaches like this every couple of miles or so. Have to admit, it would be an amazing place to live. Pat and Beki lent us their car for the day on friday so Chris and I had a good tour around the area and apparently drove to the areas where Nicole Kidman and all the stars live. There are amazing, millions of pounds properties lodged on cliffs everywhere. We visited Ku-Ring-Gai National Park today. Its only 20 mins from Dee Why and is a beautiful place for a hardcore hike or bike ride. However, we saw it the easy way and took the motor! I've attached some pics below.

Sydney City Break

After checking into a very miserable, cold Sydney hostel room our first night we were both a little apprehensive as to what to expect from this week. But having found a nice cosy busy central hostel and having a good walk around we're now pretty impressed with Syndey so far. Very clean, pretty, great to walk around and not too busy which is quite refreshing. Also, the wildlife is cool - we've seen wild parrots in the park, pelicans and exotic birds just hang out everywhere.Visited all the big sights - Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and the Aquarium was amazing. Had a nice night out with Rivka (Chris' old school friend) and Pat and Beki have now offered that we stay with them for the rest of our time here which is sweet. They're over in North Sydney.