New Zealand. Wellington continued

On our way out of the beautiful Kaikoura we went past another seal colony, but this time there were actually loads of seals and they were close! Seal selfie time!!

We took the ferry from Picton on the South Island to Wellington the the north island in some much better conditions! It was completely calm and we even saw loads and loads of dusky dolphins. I am now completely blarsay about dolphin sightings now, if I'm now in the water with them, it's nothing! I had two nights I. Wellington and I was determined to recover from my cold so drinking was off the cards! I partied last time I was in Wellington so I've not missed out. 

After arriving late on my first night I went to the late opening of the Te Papa museum. It's the national museum and it was amazing. I had previously only been thee for the free wifi and great coffee so needed the cultural visit :) it was really interesting. It had a lot on the native wildlife and also on earthquake and volcanoes and how NZ was formed to the land it is today. They also had a lot of exhibits on the Maori culture and how things changed when the Europeans came and interdicted new species and cut down their trees. It was really good. And as it was late opened it was really quiet and it felt like I was the only one there. I though I should take a photo of the kiwi species as I have seen one, but couldn't photograph it. They are such a weird bird!

They have an underwater wildlife part where I recaptured my nightmares!

Argh!!!! They also had a giant squid I display which was gross and scary. 

On my second day I got up early and went on a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide Cornish Bob was really nice and very informative. It's not got quite the same history as Melbourne or Sydney, but it was still really interesting. Showed me that I really do like the city and definitly a very liveable city. It's the capital but it has only 200,000 people in! Took a few photos in my decision not to take pictures of things that look like they could be in the UK rule!

Civic square with the town halls and libraries:

Bridge to the sea, with sculptures depicting what the first Polynesian settlers would have seen and the pyramid showing the north and south islands with greenstone on the top of the south pyramid. 

Parliament, the nice old one and the horrible new "bee hive" one. 

It was Bob's last tour and his wife and son came up and took photos and a video. So sweet :) 

After the tour I got my nose pierced! Ha! I'd been thinking about it for a while and knew I'd have to go somewhere good to get it done. I did some googling on the ferry and found a nice piercing shop in Wellington so I took myself there! They were really nice and sterile! I chose a claw set CZ. The guy who did it was really nice and told me I might get some tears of joy as it is near my sinuses, and I did but he mopped them up bless him. I love it. Would maybe go for a smaller stud when it's healed, but enjoying no one knowing about it yet! But it's better than a tattoo so my mum can't complain! 

After this I went up Wellington's cable car up to the top of a hill and to the botanic gardens. The cable car was very short but sweet!

I walked back into the city thought the beautiful botanic gardens. 

After a long day of walking I decided to do more and walk along to Oriental Bay which is where the rich have their houses and a great view out into the bay. The houses are fantastic and so is the view. The council brought in sand from the South Island to make a little beach for then! But the sun set was georgeous from there. 

New Zealand. Kaikoura day 2

Last night I was having a FOMO moment (haha) about whale watching. I thought this night be my only opportunity to do this and see sperm whales, so I booked a trip for today. My trip wasn't until midday so I had the morning free. I had a lie in! Yay! Well until 9am but it was so nice to not have the feeling that I had to be up for something. 

I was having night panics about dolphins last night! And thinking about how they had gotten their scars!! What was in the water with me?!!!

But in the morning I got up slowly and then went to the beach. I'd not been to it yet so it was nice. The beach itself was not the nicest as it was very pebbly and dark but I found an ok part where the pebbles were small. I could see the birds (shags maybe) sunning themselves and holding their wings out to dry. It was cool but I kept missing them on my camera! It was Asliye's birthday today so I wrote her a birthday message in the pebbles with a cool backdrop and sent it to her. 

I then went to the whale watching place and got on the catermaran! It was a much bigger boat than yesterday with really nice seats. Thankfully the seas were almost flat, but the weather was very cloudy. It was explained how this the ibly place in the world where you can see sperm whales so close to land. The reason being is that the Ocean shelf is very close to the shore here and the right mixture of warm and cold water currents provides the perfect conditions for a lot of  sea life which can support the whole food chain. We were told how the orca was at the top of the food chain, made me very scared about my swim yesterday! On the way out to the whale's hunting ground we saw a couple of blue sharks and lots of fur seals floating on their backs with their flippers in the air. So funny. The sharks, not so funny! They were probably only about a metre long and I had never heard of them before. 

We came to a spot where the whales had been seen earlier in the day and we looked out for them and the crew listened under the water. One was spotted up a head and we raced over to it. He dived just before we reached it unfortunately. We headed off in the hunt for another and we saw one surface!! It was so cool! The boat sided up to him so we could all get a good view. It looked really small as we were ibly seeing such a small part of it. It was amazing to watching it blow out of its blowhole. As the dag was so grey and the whale was grey the photos are not so impressive. 

Watching him dive for the next hunt was great. Some great tail action!!

The hunt continued for the next one and we were lucky enough to spot a second whale. This time I remembered to do a selfie!!

Great day!! So funny how the photos look like a totally different place to yesterday's turquoise ones! 

After this I took a look in the shops and bought some souvenirs. Insight mum a tea towel, I'm all for useful gifts and some paua shells. I think I like my found one best though :)

New Zealand. Kaikoura day 1

So we set off from the bumpy roads of Christchurch bright and early and made our way to Kaikoura. No stops today other than the standard bakery stop. We had to get to Kaikoura in time for us to do our activities! Kaikoura means something about eating crayfish but is also one of the only places you can swim with dolphins and watch whales. I chose to swim with dolphins as had even keen to do this since feeling that I missed out in the Bay of Islands. 

So we got to the centre and got kitted up in wetsuits and with flippers and snorkel. We were told that the weather conditions were slight to moderate and to expect if to be a  bit rocky. We got onto our boats and about 100m in it was clear that it was more than a bit rocky! It was so rough! The captain made an announcement that we could turn back and let anyone off who thought that they would not be ok, but no one wanted to so we headed off. We all headed to the bak of the boat! This was the type of bumpiness that I had been expecting on the ferry crossing! It took about 20 minutes to locate the pod of dolphins and then we could get in! I got in and was instantly freaked out that I was in the open Ocean and there was going to be big animal swimming around me. I was almost hyperventilating in my snorkel. I was petrified and felt very alone in the water. There was no one close to me. You were supposed to make noise in the water to attract the dolphins attention and make them interested in you and want to play near you. The only noise I could make was the of panic and hyperventilation! I saw one dolphin swim under me and it was cool but also really scary! We had to get back into the boat as the pod had moved on which was a challenge in itself, I felt like one of the fur seals I had seen trying to get onto the rock amongst massive swells! We were allowed to go in with the dolphins 5 tines and I went in all 5 times. My fear was still there but I did manage to calm myself down more. The second time we went in I saw so many dolphins and I'm sure I heard them clicking!!!! There was about 250 in the pod and it was amazing and scary to see them swimming towards you riding the waves and then swimming underneath you! So scary but amazing also. The water was so choppy that there was a lot if people being sick. A lot of people stated out of the water hugging buckets, but I felt a lot better being in the sea. The wetsuit balaclava did not help me feel less sick as it was horrible having touching my neck. After the 5th swim I was looking forwards to getting it off and undoing my wetsuit. 

After the final swim we saw some albatrosses but I could not care less as I was feeling so sick! I had hardly eaten today and I was glad as I chucked up in a bucket. After that I was fine and managed to take some photos. They were a bit rubbish so hoping to find some on Facebook of my friends who also did it!

New Zealand. Tekapo

Today we made our way north out of Queenstown up to Tekapo. This is another lake side town. Unfortunately cyclone Lucy ended our glorious sunny days and brough cloud our way. She is hitting the north island but hopefully I can avoid the worst of her. 

Our drive was another beautiful drive and took us to the highest point in the South Island.  If only the clouds weren't so low we could have seen the mountain range and see Mount Cook. Not a good day for climbing that today! 

We passed Lake Pukaki and it was such I vibrant turquoise even on a cloudy day. We didn't stop for a photo shoot! We just set off for Tekapo. We arrive and went to see the most photographed church in NZ. Not very impressive, but the view was pretty good! 

After arriving at out hostel we made a hike up Mount John which was just outside. More hiking with my bad knee, but we were in the middle of nowhere and this was all really to do. It took about and hour to get up but it was worth it. The lake looked so blue from up there, very different to how it looked from the ground. 

Just after getting to the bottom, the rain started and hasn't stopped. Tekapo is supposed to be the best place to see the stars as they have special dark areas. Sadly no stars tonight, just cloud. 

New Zealand. Christchurch

We awake to find a sunny Tekapo! Yay! So nice to eat breakfast outside with such great views. 

Bit of a change to yesterday and looked good for a sunny day in Christchurch. My expectations of Christchurch were pretty low due to all the accounts of it having nothing there due to the earthquakes in 2010/11. And they were right. The city is so weird. I've never been anywhere like it and also hope never to again as it felt like a war zone. There were building after building of cordoned off shops, flats and houses which were either falling down or must have been structurally unsound. There was also a lot of car parks in the centre on demolished land. Very strange. But it seemed like the locals or council were very keen to make the best if the situation. I liked how the fencing had been decorate to look less utilitarian and there was so much art work on all the buildings. In some ways it looked really beautiful. 

I went to the shopping area which was created out of brightly painted shipping containers. It was fantastic. They had shops and banks and cafés all in these containers. It looked really cool!

I went to visit the Cathederal which was very iconic in the news when the big quake happened. It looked just like it did on the news except that the steeple had been taken down fully. It looked so sad. Just like a lot of the place. 

I then walked to the replacement Cathederal. I'd heard about the cardboard Cathederal so was looking forwards to seeing it. It was not so impressive. Not the cardboard box creation I was expecting. More of a plastic covered cardboard tubing tent. 

Walking the streets of Christchurch felt very weird. It was just a massive construction site and felt like you were walking up streets in a run down bit of town in which you'd avoid as it would be a bit dodgy. But the whole place was like this! 

I took a walk to the botanic gardens in Hagly park (4th largest park in the world did you know, the kiwis love their stats). The park was in an area of town less affected by the quake and it had a lot of the heritage style buildings similar to the ones I really liked in Australia. But the place is so quiet! It was St Patricks and you'd hardly know it. Not a pub anywhere to be seen! 

New Zealand. Queenstown day 2

Best start to a morning, a lie in! This is my first day in Queenstown that I didn't need to get up and get on a bus or get up for an activity! Bliss! But I couldn't stay in bed too long so probably got up at about 9. I spent the morning relaxing and then bumped into so people I had been travelling with and they were going to climb one of the big hills overlooking Quenstown to bungy. They have gondolas going up the hill, but walking is better. It was about an hour climb and very steep! The view from half way up was cool. 

We finally made and the views were great overlooking the whole of Queenstown. 

I took the gondola down as I though my twisted knee would prefer me to and it definitly is happy I did! After the climb up we decided that we deserved a Fergburger. So the fergburger is a Queenstown institution. It just a burger shop, but they serve great flavour combos and the burgers are huge! It takes about 20 minutes to get your burger but it was definitly worth the wait. I had a Tropical Swine. It was a beef burger with pineapple, red onions, aioli, and bacon. AMAZING!! Burger and a beer on the beach made for a great afternoon. 

I came back to the beach later to see the sun set. It was beautiful. I didn't stay too long as I was exhausted. Two day hangover kicking in!

New Zealand. Milford Sound

We left Invercargil super early in order to make the long drive to Milford Sound. The best part about getting up this early was to have the opportunity to see the sun rise over the gorgeous scenery. 

We met up with the Kiwi bus wn route and rejoined them. I am so glad I did the Deep South but also happy to be back in the big bus! 

We stopped off in Te Anau for a break and it was another gorgeous lakeside town, just like Wanaka or a quiet Queenstown. 

After Te Anau we joined the Milford highway which was voted by the National Geographic as one of the top ten drives in the world, and I completely agree. It was stunning scenery everywhere you looked. The area is in the Fjordland National Park and is so unspoilt by humans. The road was often tunneled by trees which is my favourite type of road! There were massive mountains and large open flat area. 

We made several stops along the road. One of which was at Mirror Lakes. These are obviously what they say they are. The mirror effect is caused by the stagnating water in them. Nice! But beautiful!

Next we stopped at a another picturesque spot where we could fill up our water bottles with the fresh mountain water. It was chilled tasty water!

It rain on average 2 out of 3 days in the fjord lands so we were so lucky to have a glorious cloudless day! It had rained the day before so there were still a few waterfalls around. It was all glacial madein the last ice age and you can see the enormous u shaped basins where the glaciers once were. The mountains are so shear and imposing. A very impressive landscape. 

We made our assent up a large mountain and then went through a very long tunnel to get to the other side before making the long descent down and down to the Sound. A sound is a channel carved our by water to the sea, which is not what Milford Sound is. This was carved out by a glacier so is a fjord. 

We got on our boat and started out cruise. Everywhere you looked it was beautiful. The shear fjord edges and the turquoise waters with glacial basins and waterfalls dotted around. I took so many pictures! We sailed out to the Tasman Sea and then turned around. 

We then made the long journey to Queenstown. Highlight was definitly stopping in Te Anau again and going to Miles Better Pies and having the best pie of my life! NZ always likes to claim that they invented the pie, clearly wrong, but pies are probably their national dish and this one was hands down the best pie ever. I had a lamb and mint one and it was fantastic. So much meat and absolutely delicious! 

As most of the people I've been traveling with were leaving on the bus the next day we had to have a night out to celebrate the ending of travelling together. Another night stating out on the beach, then getting moved on my the police and then going dancing. Great night, saw the table if doom that I fell off the last time and it brought back bad memories!