We wake-up in the morning, tired and aching from the day before but are excited and ready for another action packed day. Today we are climbing a huge ice glacier up a mountain.
So we arrive in Queenstown – New Zealand the adrenalin junkie’s paradise. The whole place is picture perfect, an awesomely cool town with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains. I don’t know why but the whole town reminded me of something from a Tony Hawk game, it just had some sort of cool Americana skater town vibe.
We arrive in Wanaka buying our Easter Eggs on the way I got a Crunchy, Adam got a cream egg. Anyway we arrive and are all set and excited for skiing – except there is one tiny little problem! There’s no snow : (
So during our many swaps of the campervans we decide to stay at this random farm just outside of Christchurch to wash all of our stuff – just in case!
So around the time that I was in Christchurch is around the time that I first discovered that bed bugs are real!
I had always thought that they were some sort of mythical creature like unicorns or dragons and that the saying “night, night don’t let the bed bugs bite” was kind of like the warnings of the Boogy man i.e. fictional. They are not and oh boy, do the bed bugs bite!
After 3 fabulous days in Kaikoura we decided against all advice to go to Christchurch; it can’t be that bad right? Oh it was, it was shocking. On entering the city we found we could go no further than the outskirts as the centre was closed off.
Even the outskirts were affected I saw a church turned to rubble the sides fallen off people’s houses, all their possession’s destroyed. The most shocking thing that I saw was the side of someone’s house had fallen off and you could see a fully furnished nursery. The cot was full of rubble.
It was sobering to think what must have happened here. At home we never really think about the effects of a disaster because it is always so far away, seeing it makes me wonder if I could actually ever cope with such a tragedy!
We have no plans and no clue - about what where doing and where we are going on the south island; so to get a tip off from a guy about heading to Kaikoura - this was a God send, otherwise we would have missed this little gem!
We travelled to Wellington over two days stopping at some place with a black sand volcanic beach that was covered in sticks it was Magic!
We got to Wellington for Adams birthday. We spent the day at Wellington Zoo which is a shockingly good zoo considering its size. They had new born chimps they were adorable, they also had the most ridiculous sign posts I have ever seen in my life, “Don’t feed the monkey, the monkey will die” accompanied by pictures.
We arrive and are told to change into our wet suits as we are going Black Water Rafting in the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. So after a massive struggle to get into my suit and getting on my children’s wellies I am ready to enter the cave.
There is a ladder in a field that leads into a tiny hole in the ground, I struggled to fit into it, and goodness knows how the fat German lady managed. I scale down the ladder and am the first in the cave. It’s dark and wet and completely awesome.
We arrive in Rotorua and the first thing that hits you is the stench. The whole town stinks of eggs this is due to all the volcanic activity and sulphuric acid in the atmosphere. The smell however, can be excused in Rotorua because it’s awesome.
After a long drive back down past Auckland we arrive in Mata Mata, more famously known as Hobbiton. We arrive late at night and have not yet become hardy travellers; so chicken out about parking up on the side of the street. We end up in the grottiest campsite ever. About 20mins outside of town.
After my freezing cold wash in the morning alongside a cockroach we dressed and left for a day trip at the Hobbinton set.
So we pick up the campervan – our new home for the next 4 weeks. Within 30 minuets the cupboards were broken because we are a pair of geniuses. So we set of on our trip we decide to head north to The Bay Of Islands because it sounds incredible, it was average!
I board the plane and shed some tears as I say goodbye to my friends and family as I won’t be seeing them for an entire year and set off on the trip of a lifetime. Our First port of call New Zealand, after a 29 hour trip with stop offs in both Bangkok and then in Sydney. As you can imagine me and Adam were left feeling a bit disorientated with the time. Jet lag isn’t the word!
my name is Claire, I am no professional writer and this is my very first blog, however I’ve not had too much to write about before now!
I have spent much of my life living in the worst town in the UK (literally it has won the tittle repeatedly), I have travelled to various countries around the world in my time such as Italy, Germany, Egypt and a surreal day in Haiti but none can compare to the trip I embarked upon on the 28th of March 2011.
After much convincing I finally persuaded my long-term boyfriend Adam to give in and come traveling around the world. On the way we experienced an amazing camping trip, glaciers, earthquake aftermath, hostel life, light bulb sales, one hell of a bus ride, farming, living in the lap of luxury, some weird stuff with animals, some tasty kangaroo, some not so tasty snake, a ping pong show, some world wonders, an elephant ride and much much more!
Sound like an interesting trip then keep reading first stop New Zealand!
my name is Claire, I am no professional writer and this is my very first blog, however I’ve not had too much to write about before now!