New Zealand 10th January 2007- 16th February 2007
Our five weeks in New Zealand has really flown by. We could have easily spent three months here and haven't really had any chill-out time. We have seen some lovely places, though, and don't think we've missed much out.
The Kiwis seem more friendly than the Aussies and the Maoris are fully integrated into the society, unlike the Aborigines in Oz.
We really liked the South Island with it's mountains, lakes, fjords and remote landscape. The North Island is more volcanic, although it is still very hilly. It was warmer in the North Island but probably cloudier than the South Island.
The wild flowers at this time of year are fantastic, with lupins, verbascums, foxgroves and poppies in the South Island. Both islands are covered with agapanthus and crocosmia, and the North Island has lots of tropical plants, especially in Northland where there are aloes, agaves, echiums, gingers and fully grown date palms. The other native plants like phormiums, pampas grass and tree ferns are everywhere-the tree ferns are beautiful and also very tall!
Our car was smaller than the one in Oz but it did the job and we enjoyed having a fridge and power cable this time. We did have one incident where the rear view mirror fell off and only a couple of hours later we managed to reverse into a boulder! Luckily we had paid $180 to reduce our excess to nil, otherwise it would have cost us $850! We also managed to get a $40 parking fine within our last half hour of having the car. It was whilst we were unloading the gear into our hostel! Suprisingly we've done almost the same amount of miles in New Zealand as we did in Oz - about 5000km.
We are now looking forward to a few budget busting days in Tahiti before Easter Island and South America. We will miss being able to eat our "normal" foods and it will be especially tough with Lent starting 20th february! (Helen gives up sweets and chocolate).
As it is not too long until we get back now :-( if anyone out there knows of any cushty jobs in North Somerset going, please email us or put comments on the blog. We will also be on the lookout for any good offers on broadband internet at the moment.
The Kiwis seem more friendly than the Aussies and the Maoris are fully integrated into the society, unlike the Aborigines in Oz.
We really liked the South Island with it's mountains, lakes, fjords and remote landscape. The North Island is more volcanic, although it is still very hilly. It was warmer in the North Island but probably cloudier than the South Island.
The wild flowers at this time of year are fantastic, with lupins, verbascums, foxgroves and poppies in the South Island. Both islands are covered with agapanthus and crocosmia, and the North Island has lots of tropical plants, especially in Northland where there are aloes, agaves, echiums, gingers and fully grown date palms. The other native plants like phormiums, pampas grass and tree ferns are everywhere-the tree ferns are beautiful and also very tall!
Our car was smaller than the one in Oz but it did the job and we enjoyed having a fridge and power cable this time. We did have one incident where the rear view mirror fell off and only a couple of hours later we managed to reverse into a boulder! Luckily we had paid $180 to reduce our excess to nil, otherwise it would have cost us $850! We also managed to get a $40 parking fine within our last half hour of having the car. It was whilst we were unloading the gear into our hostel! Suprisingly we've done almost the same amount of miles in New Zealand as we did in Oz - about 5000km.
We are now looking forward to a few budget busting days in Tahiti before Easter Island and South America. We will miss being able to eat our "normal" foods and it will be especially tough with Lent starting 20th february! (Helen gives up sweets and chocolate).
As it is not too long until we get back now :-( if anyone out there knows of any cushty jobs in North Somerset going, please email us or put comments on the blog. We will also be on the lookout for any good offers on broadband internet at the moment.
posted by Steve & Helen @ 6:23 AM
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