New Zealand- a whirlwind adventure

It’s June 22^nd and we arrive in New Zealand to the shocking cold. Thankfully for the next few days we don’t have to worry about accommodation, a great introduction to the country! Tonight we stay with our friends Anna and Robin who we met in Korea and then on to Christchurch to stay with another friend.

Anna and Robin and baby Belle, along with Anna’s sister Sarah, live in a suburb skirting the city, along with Phineas the cute dog. So in an already crowed house they were kind enough to make room for us and our luggage! We arrived shivering at their door just before 8pm and spent the next few hours chatting the night away- not whispering as Belle isn’t disturbed that easily! It was a year and a half since we saw them last and already we were looking forward to spending our last few days in NZ together.

But now it’s the next morning and we have a flight to catch to Christchurch with Air Pacific which we picked up for about $20 each- bargain! We had a quick peak around the city, stopped at a food court and had some amazing Indian food costing not much more than in India and tasting better with the peace of mind that we probably wouldn’t get diarrhoea!

We touched down in Christchurch around 4pm and made our way to Fidelma and Andrew’s place. Fidelma is a great friend of my sister Demelza and even thought I haven’t seen her in years and she’d never met Malachy she offered us her spare room. When I rang her in the morning she told us we’d probably arrive before she got home from work and the key was under the *______, oh and to talk to the dog before entering as she doesn’t like strangers. Molly is her name. After locating the key we heard a loud bang on the other side of the door. We looked at each other thinking the same thing, Oh my God is that the dog? Another trash against the door and we cheerily call out ‘hello Molly’- never show fear. Another loud bang…Molly, hi Molly lessening in confidence with every thump.

Did Fidelma mention how big the dog was?

No

I’m not opening it.

Neither am I!

Both thinking about the little café we passed down the road, but before we could mention it the door opened to our horror, but thankfully it was Andrew holding the gigantic Molly back by the collar. Introductions were made all around, for we hadn’t met Andrew before either, but he didn’t take as much coaxing as Molly. We were deep in conversation when Fidelma arrived, with Molly at my feet who I’d easily won over with a neck massage- just like Malachy after a row! She was so lovely and clean and warm, Molly that is, although Fildelma was equally so, adding a big Irish welcome and we all became instant friends. They cooked us a lovely meal and once again over a bottle of wine the evening ended too quickly. Myself and Mal spend the next day exploring the lovely Christchurch. It’s a big city but we didn’t see many people, maybe the cold kept them in doors? We visited the museum (the first of many in NZ), the incredible art gallery, cathedral, all the sites along with a shopping centre to buy some thermals and a jacket. We stayed one more night with Fidelma and Andrew, unfortunately as we were in such a homely environment we forgot to take even one picture, but we’ll rectify that over a few ‘bears’ when we meet again for Christmas.

Our bus tour to Queenstown took nearly nine hour, but it was amazing, passing stunning mountain scenery en-route. We sat right up in the front seats having a panoramic view accompanied by a wonderful commentary from the driver; he pointed out sites where some of the battle scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed, along with some local gossip from the filming.

We stopped at the stunning Lake Taipo mid-journey acquiring double views of the mountains through the mirror lake, beautiful. It was dark when we arrived in Queenstown but we weren’t worried as we’d booked a four star hotel to stay at for the next three nights on an amazing last minute deal- cheaper than a hostel! Our Rydges Hotel was located right on the lake giving us stunning views in the morning. We couldn’t believe our luck. We braved the cold and did the ‘Fern Hill Walking Loop’ into the mountains behind the hotel, it wasn’t the easiest and didn’t take us long to heat up over the next few hours! The winter festival opened in the town that night. Along with a nice fireworks display there was some bands on a stage in the square and lots of food stalls, although it wrapped up early- probably due to the freezing cold.

We braved the cold once again at 6.50am the next morning for our bus and boat tour to Milford Sound. Our bus had a glass roof so we wouldn’t miss any of the stunning scenery and the driver was a lovely man full of stories about his homeland. We learned the whole history of NZ, stopped at lots of beautiful sites and refilled our water bottles at a fresh water stream with the ‘elixir of life’, after having drank that water odds are in our favour for a long and healthy life. Which was just as well as we were to pass through a rough tunnel next and NZ was due an earth quake! We spotted some colourful Kea on two of our little stops.

We arrived at Milford sound for our ferry trip at 1pm. Our Captain was equally chatty and informative explaining the geographical location and formation of the Fjord which is not actually a sound. Amazingly for us we saw some dolphins leaping and swimming alongside the ferry for a time, some seals on the rocks and a waterfall which is higher than the Niagara Falls, but dwarfed in the landscape. There is nothing between Milford Sound and Antarctica. We lunched on board and retuned an hour and forty minutes later to our bus for the trip home.

We didn’t have time for skiing, but really we weren’t brave enough for the cold (a few days ago we were in Fiji).

Our next bus, dark and early at 7.30am was to Franz Joseph the home of the Franz Joseph Glacier. We stopped again many times along the way in lovely towns like Wanaka and another Mirror Lake. We had no trouble realising why NZ is called the land of the long white cloud as one remained with us most of the day, intermitted with fog and snow. We arrived in plenty of time to Franz Joseph to walk the 5km to the glacier park and up to the viewing point to get our first glimpse of the colossal ice cube. Pretty impressive, particularly as we read how it once covered the entire valley and could be seem from the local church.

The next day we hiked once more to the glacier had our packed lunches on site and circumnavigated our way back to town via some lovely walkways, spectacular. We stayed at our first hostel in NZ- Châteaux Franz Joseph, and we were impressed. Wow compared to Australia, this was a home! It was warm, we opted for an ensuite room, which was still cheaper than a dorm in OZ, and included delicious all you can eat home made veg soup in the evenings.

After our two days here we had a 9.30am (wow it’s bright!) bus to Nelson. This was a long day on the bus as we stopped a lot in dead end towns and for over an hour in one of them. But we also stopped for half an hour at the famous ‘Pancake Cliffs’ for a sprightly walk along this natural phenomenon, where the horizontal linear rocks have baffled geologists. We arrived after dark into Nelson and booked into the gorgeous Hostel Tasman for two nights. We were actually blown away with the incredible standard. Our room was small but cute. The commune areas were big and comfortable with armchairs everywhere and a fully equipped lovely kitchen. It’s run by people who have travelled and it shows. We highly recommend it. Oh and the best bit, at 8pm every evening there is free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream, and breakfast included.

We availed of the free bikes offered by the hostel the next day and cycled to the centre of NZ (about 500m from the hostel).




After hiking up and down to the ‘centre’ we cycled out the coast road to the WOW museum. This is a very cool museum, two designers had the idea of staging a different type of fashion show where instead of your regular material the models wear ‘wearable art’, there are various categories, with our favourite being the bizarre bra section, with the fun ‘a pair of hooters’- two owl heads. There was also a classic car collection on show which was impressive. We cycled back to town, called into the local museum and spent a relaxing evening sampling the delicious NZ Pinot Noir red wine.

Our next bus was to Picton, where we got a massive ferry through the beautiful picturesque Marlborough sounds to Wellington. We stayed at a dodgy hostel where there were more long term residences then travellers and the conversation in the kitchen ranged from two women talking about when they could see their kids again to a guy asking his girlfriend (who also worked on reception) if she would be going to prison after her day in court for assault. She wouldn’t be, but received a fine and community service, this conversation continued to the dining room and was taken up by the other residents who were having a little birthday party, discussing who had spent the most time in prison which was worse prison vs community service, and progressed on to the best drugs to help you pass the day or night. Charming company, we were glad we were just spending one night. We were enamoured with Wellington, for the first time we actually saw lots of people and they were all out and about. The restaurants were full, the shops displayed kitsch little outfits and it was all very reasonable. The most liveable place we’d seen in NZ. The following day we went to the Wellington museum which we were extremely impressed with until we visited the enormous Te Papa museum. Wow, we simply didn’t have enough time to look at everything and could have spent another day there, however we’d a flight to catch to Auckland so all is not lost.

We were collected at the airport by Anna and Robin which was brilliant and we sang NZ’s praises all the way home. Robin had just received his school holidays and Sarah was babysitting so we headed to Ponsonby, a hip part of town for a cool night out. Cooler still for Anna as her lovely jacket was stolen- on her first real night out since Belle’s birth. Needless to say the two of us were drunk on two glasses of wine- although that didn’t stop us from drinking a few more.




We were in bed before four and Anna was up again at six feeding Belle- ouch. Robin fed our hangovers on French toast as we planned the day or rather afternoon ahead. We toured around the city heading up to One Tree Hill and the Auckland Te Papa museum where we probably spent more time eating and chatting in the restaurant than looking at the displays, although we did manage to get some photos with traditionally dressed Maori. Our delicate heads weren’t able for too much excitement so we retuned to the house for a rest and later lots of pizza. We managed to recover enough to make it back out that night to an Irish bar called ‘The Dogs Bollocks’ where some local bands were playing.




It wasn’t too late when we got home so the next day we drove to town, snacked on sushi and took a ferry across the city, where we were caught in a rain shower and took refuge in a lovely café. We practiced holding and playing with Belle, she’s gorgeous and just looking at her is hours of entertainment! The day ended too quickly, time flies when you’ve so much to say so we ordered in Thai food and had a relaxing night in.

The next day we had lunch in a local restaurant and Anna, Robin and Belle dropped us at the airport as it was time to go to Chile!

We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our whirlwind adventure in NZ and would love to do it all again- except this time in the summer. We didn’t get to explore much of the North Island at all so I think another visit is looming. Such a pity it’s actually in the middle of nowhere!