I'M IN NEW ZEALAND!

Yes here I am in the land of Kiwis, Lord of the Rings and Rugby Union. Since I lasted blogged I took a quick one-night stop in a very rainy Sydney - where I stayed in a humungous 28 bed dorm, met my Glaswegians and ate pizza... then it was off to the airport! Had a minor panic attack when I couldn't see my flight anywhere - then realised it was listed under Buenos Aires. Damn you Aerolineas Argentinas! Excitement levels were high - the thought of actually having someone waiting in arrivals, after 10 flights of not having anyone to greet me, meant I was pretty much bouncing off the walls of the plane. But the fates had other ideas about that one... arrived early, got rushed through immigration and biodiversity (tent and boots inspected and approved - yay!), and went through the magical arrivals door before Mum and Neil had got there! Ended up sneaking up behind Mum and making her cry... in a good way of course! It was really great to see them and got all choked up. Straight on the road in our big white and blue campervan and had a good old catch up.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE CAMPERVAN SETS OUT...

Woke up the next morning to breakfast on the shores of Lake Taupo. Beautiful little spot that was a just a free rest area that pop up all over NZ. Mum and Neil were feeding the five thousand... birds of NZ, but I'll come back to that. We pushed south with a brief but magical walk to 'Mordor' in Tongario Nat. Park. Really surreal and dramatic landscape. Got all geeky about seeing 'Mount Doom' and messing about being hobbits. Great stuff. That night we stayed at a weird campsite in Mangaweka under huge white cliffs and a blue river. Sounds nice but it was abit spooky to be honest... mainly because it looked like it had been abandoned. Continued down to Wellington to get the ferry to South Island. It was mad windy out on deck, but as you get close into Picton the 'sounds' are well beautiful so we endured the gale to stand outside and take in the views. Oh and I had a LOVELY pie.

SOUTH ISLAND ADVENTURES...

We had decided, after much debate, that the distances were just too great to get all the way down to Milford Sound. It's not really the distance that is the problem in NZ - as it is quite a small country really - it's that the roads are so twisty, steep and windy that it takes so long to drive most places. Basically, its rarely flat! So instead of driving for days and days we went to the Abel Tasman Nat. Park on the northern coast. This decision paid off, as it was gorgeous. Golden sandy bays, stunning waterfalls, forested walks etc etc. We also had fabulous luck with the weather; blue skies and light breezes. Although I have found NZ throughly freezing after 3 months in Asia and Aus. Neil even went swimming in the sea... which I attempted and then hastily changed my mind because my feet and hands went numb in 30 seconds. I'll wait til I'm back in Australia thanks! Saw a seal, and a 'penguin' which turned out not to be... then a real penguin - dead :( sad times. So I am still waiting to spot some of Pingu's cousins. After two nights we ran out of water, electricity and food... time to move on.

Onwards south and a quick night stop in Murchison - the land that time forgot. A ghost-town in the middle of nowhere. Spoke to some locals who want to 'cut the cord' to North Island. There's always a north-south divide! Over more crazy roads and mountain passes, through more amazing scenery, to the west coast. A note about the scenery - every corner you turn in NZ looks like a postcard. Mountains! Sea! Valleys! Lakes! You get spoilt quite quickly. It's like an addiction, you get your first fix and its breathtaking... and then the next time you want that little bit more, always chasing that spectacular next view. Honestly - there aren't enough cliches in the book of cliches to describe it. ANYWAY... back to the west coast and a place called Punakaiki (Maori words = impossible to pronounce, but I'm getting there). This is where the 'pancake rocks' are. Big rocks that look like piles of pancakes! mmm pancaaakes... They are pretty awesome. We stayed at a nice but busy campsite right on the beach. I liked this beach. It had flecks of gold in the sand (yes, real gold!) and interesting grey sand that my feet sunk into. And even a few waves! I miss proper east coast waves. After this we headed inland to cross Arthur's pass - the mountain road through that would bring us back east to Christchurch. Now the views through there were every addicts dream... We camped in a free site in the middle of a huge glacial river bed - which looked for all the world like a desert, but on closer inspection had crystal-clear streams and pools of blue water hidden in it. The view was pretty much 360 degrees of mountains and forests. Sipped a yummy NZ beer on the steps of the camper and felt very pleased with myself. Here we also saw the famous 'Kea' bird. It is the only alpine parrot in the world - so my mother told me, several times. A note on bird-watching... NZ has some of the best in the world apparently, because of the lack of predators. So my companions were in their element - whipping out the binoculars at every occasion, and constantly giving away our precious grub to the things... My very own travelling 'Bird Nerds', as they call them here. Hahaha! We also saw the evil-looking Weka. Not a fan. Oh and about a million seagulls, and some oyster catchers that tried to kill me. Great.

BACK TO CIVILISATION...

After all our wild adventures I was ready to get back to a city... or at least some form of populated place. Not sure mum was, or ever will be, but that was the plan. We drove through NZ's answer to Sheffield - to much excitement and photo taking. Think the UK might have the better deal on that one... And arrived at Christchurch. It's a really attractive small city and I really like it here. Wandered round and had a superb cold cider in the sunshine whilst listening to a live band, and then a curry! Bliss! Back to the van and my last night in my little room over the cabin. I miss that room, having my own space - small as it was - was a luxury for a week. Saying bye to my tearful Mum in the morning was really tough. I got the bus into the city and felt pretty low to be honest. It's always hard starting out on your own again. The weather is still immaculate so I'm planning on a beach day before I head south to Queenstown and more adventures. I've bought a bus pass and will be moving pretty fast to cover all the things I want to see in two weeks. I'll update you with all the gory details in a week or two.

And Finally...FAST NZ FACT - New Zealand has 4.2 million people. 40 million sheep. Thats lots.

Bye for now, take it easy!

Ellie