Royalty Arrives in Sydney - Happy New Year

So here we have the first official photo in Australia so given that we no longer have Mitsi in tow we can now return to calling ourselves by our normal names (that's Lee and Henry should you have forgotten (Paddy and Max)).
The flight from Christchurch was smooth and we arrived to beautiful skies over Sydney. We have had to get used to so many people rather than sheep!
Amazingly we bumped into Gail and Jim on the way! You will be surprised to know that it was pre planned!
This photo gives you the evidence of where we are!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!
We were lucky to be on a boat called the Bella Vista as part of the illuminated parade in the harbour. In Sydney you get two lots of fireworks so the first go off at 21:00 then the second at midnight! You can imagine 400 revellers on the boat all trying to get to the bar at once! However, we gave it a good go and of course befriended the waiting staff (Germans and Brazilians) and we were kept topped up all night! Met some great people on board also.
Off into Sydney now to have some breakfast and get rid of these hangovers!!!!!!!

Bye Bye New Zealand - Christchurch

Our last evening in New Zealand was in Christchurch. Glenn and Rob were travelling from Dunedin for the stock car racing and Jules and Terry were catching up their friends Liam and Tammy. It was a great evening - with Lee and I being sensible and leaving at 2 am whilst the rest of the group go onto the vodka bar and then the 70's bar. The photo below shows the morning after!
The parting shot - on a sunny day at New Brighton Pier in Christchurch.
We fly onto Sydney and the third part of our holiday!
We are both sad to be leaving NZ as we have had the most amazing time and met the most brilliant people! We bade farewell to Mitsi who did us proud in our 4600 kilometres we did in her!
So thank you to all of you to helped to make our time so special, we really have special memories of our time in NZ - we'll be back!!!!

Bluff, Dunedin & Taieri Gorge Railway

We made it to Bluff which is at the southern most point of New Zealand and especially the south island. As you can see in this photo, London is nearly 19,000 kilometres away - how mad is that? Effectively this is the furthest that we are away from home during our world tour.
It was great to catch up with Glenn in Dunedin and it really doesn't seem over a year since he returned to NZ. The Taieri Gorge railway was a good daytrip at least it saved both Lee and I from driving! The whole railway line was completed by hand as no explosives could be used due to the rocks. Again, probably not a trip for those with a fear of heights! On this particular day the train ended up in a town called Middlemarch. I don't need to say much about the town being a sheepshearing / logging place and we met the locals in the pub talking about who they married in the town. Children of the corn country.... frightening!
Enough said... Lee sat on Arthur's knob on the way back! I stood instead!
Baldwin Street, Dunedin claims to be the steepest street in the world. The gradient on some parts is less than 1:3! Glenn and Lee decided to sprint the last part - I was sensible and took a leisurely pace!
The Moeraki Boulders north of Dunedin.

Boxing Day - Milford Sound in Fiordland

Given that we had had the mega session on the 23rd - we postponed our trip to Milford sound until Boxing Day! We love Mitsi but the thought of a 12 hour day of driving was far too much! So we left Queenstown to snow falls on the tops of the mountains so at least we can say that we saw snow for Christmas! The drive to Milford Sound is only 300 kilometres but due to the stunning scenery you tend to stop and look at the amazing mountains, glaciers and waterfalls. Milford Sound is the only fiord that is accessible by road in New Zealand. We took the two hour boat trip into the Fjord which was truly spectacular! Given distances we decided to stay overnight in Te Anau as we are making our way down to Dunedin to see our kiwi buddy Glenn!

Christmas Day - Kiwi Style

Happy Christmas everyone! We continued our festivities in Queenstown and given that we had a quiet Christmas Eve (following a mega session the night before!) we were up, had breakfasted and were out by 10:30! We took the gondola up the mountain and had a little bit of fun on the kid's luge (well there were more adults than kids on it!)



We were most kindly invited by Shia and Richie to spend Christmas afternoon with them. We met Richie at his pub in Queenstown called Tardis that has a very late licence. So late in fact that Lee and I arrived back in Mitsi around 8am and had to leave the campsite at 10:30! (I still have the hangover today!) Still had to be done! As you can see from the photo, yes, we were sat outside (for a while anyway) and drank copious amounts of wine with a cheeseboard. We also had a kiwi tradition of eating whitebait fritters.

The afternoon sadly came to an end but probably just as well for Lee given that we had many renditions of Little Britain's Vicky Pollard and Marjorie Doors from Fat Fighters. I don't really need to go into any more detail here!

Thanks very much for a fantastic day!!

Queenstown for Christmas - Shotover jet boat and visit to the pub!!!

More water activites, the first and most famous in NZ - the shotover jet boat.
It must be said that this was pretty good at the 360 degree turns and the speed it went down the craggy canyon.
The Ice Bar - Minus 5 in Queenstown with some fellow travellers we keep bumping into - Sam and Adam from the Midlands.

The bar we left at 745am!!!!!

The Big Four - Franz Joseph, Mts Cook & Tasman and Fox Glacier

After completing the heli-hiking we (Lee) decided that it would be good to get in the helicopter again and do the "Big Daddy" Tour which flew us over Franz Josef Glacier again, right over the neve (the ice / snow lake) to:
Mount Tasman on the left and Mount Cook on the right.

The summit of Mount Cook or Aoraki at 3754m.
The Summit of Mount Tasman.
The snow landing on the neve of Fox Glacier below Mount Tasman. AWESOME and SWEET!!!!!! And that's just me and H!!!

Heli Hiking at Franz Joseph Glacier

The most amazing afternoon we probably have had to date! We made our way down the west coast of the south island to the glacier area and stopped at Franz Joseph. We took a helicopter and then had a walk on and in the glacier. It's the most amazing sight you could ever imagine. The warm air blows over the Tasman Sea from Australia and hits the Southern Alps and dumps snow on the peaks and effectively the glaciers are there! It's the only sight in the world that has glaciers in such a temparate climate (anyway enough of the geography lesson there!). The photos don't do justice to the actual views themselves.
This glacier moves 3 metres per day!

Here we are inside a glacial cave

Henry - aka Scott of the Antarctic (well it's the next place south of here!)

Very cold and wet crack (in the ice!)

Dragon's Cave - Black Water Rafting

So there must be some human fascination with going down big deep holes (in the ground that is!). So the next part of our adventure was black water rafting into the dragon's cave in Greymouth. This actual cave is within a military area so we had to look out for men with machine guns! Still an afternoon's adventure ensued by going down and getting in tight between the cracks! The blackwater rafting part is actually quite fun and developed by the kiwis. They take the inner tube of a lorry tyre and you plonk your arse inside and float along looking at glow worms! It's quite good fun. Needless to say that this adventure took a whole afternoon.
Henry coming up for air after going down a plunge pool!



No more to say about black rings in caves!
Lee's obviously enjoying his latest fetish wear! The lamp is adorned to find his way through the cracks - sorry meant to say the caves!

Shanty Town - Wild West of New Zealand

Well, we have to do something cultural every now again rather than adrenaline rushing the whole time! So we ventured into the far out west and visited Shanty Town - New Zealand's equivalent of a wild west town. It was actually pretty good and not as touristy as you'd expect - then again this place isn't Disney!!!
Lee will have no teeth left by the time we get to Oz. Still he should take heed, the dentistry implements in the hospital in Shanty Town would put you off sugar for life!
Well - at least this time it's not handcuffs to the bed post!

Lee had decided to become a train driver - although all that steam has put him off the career change

Whale Watching by Helicopter - Kaikora

A little bit off our itinery, but we were recommended to visit Kaikora on the Pacific coast of the South Island. We took the Alpine Pacific road from Hanmer and spent two hours up and down hills and mountains with Mitsy struggling at times - but we made it.
There was boat tour available at 3 o'clock but Lee suggested that with all the families and tourists we should consider going out whale watching in a helicopter. It's actually that he's frightened of boats (that makes sense that's he's OK throwing himself out of a perfectly good plane? Mad!) Anyway I hate helicopters, but as you know my placid self gave in and agreed (of course at double the price!). So this photo here is of a false grimmace from me sat in the copter!
Wasn't too bad - only 1200 feet abover sea level!

The following pictures don't really give you the full picture of how big these Sperm Whales really are. The boat can hold about 100 people. We were very lucky as the whales in the bay are all single males and do not mingle together. So seeing two at once together is an amazing site. The disappeared and reappeared about 5 minutes later further out to sea!
Safe and sound back on terra firma! Really enjoyed the experience - we missed the Southern Right Whales when we were in South Africa - now we can say we've seen whales in New Zealand! A day to remember!

Off to Christchurch now......