Greetings from New Zealand!
We arrived in Auckland on June 3rd late at night and hopped on an airport transfer to our hostel. Our mission for the next day was to look for an old junker car to drive around the country with. However, when we were on the plane we saw an ad for a company that said they rented campervans for only $15 a day! So we called the rental place and they said they could rent us one for that price! To make sure this was the right option for us we headed out into town to look for the backpackers car market...a place where backpackers buy and sell their campervans. There were quite a few desperate people who were flying home soon that were looking to sell so we had a good look around but nothing really caught our eye. After checking notice boards in a few hostels for ads we decided that it was cheapest and best to rent the one for $15...as if anything happened we would not be liable to pay for it through a campervan company. After this was all sorted we made plans to meet up with a friend from th flat I lived in back in England who had recently moved to Auckland. The next day we headed out to a sports store we had heard about to see if we could find some second hand ski and snowboarding equipment for when we got to Queenstown. I ended up buying everything I needed for super cheap! The next morning we were to pick up our camper so we headed out to the rental place with all if our gear. When we got there they told us we had received a free upgrade! Instead of a small camper like the one we had before, we got one with an inside kitchen and table that turns down to a bed!!!
We headed out of town and drove down to waitomo stopping in a few towns on the way. We went into the small village area where the Waitomo caves are and planned a trip for the next morning to see the caves before finding a camp site for the night. Good thing we have a heater cause it gets really cold at night! Anyway the next morning was dreary but we were up nice and early to get to our cave tour. They guide took us to the cave in a small van then we geared up in wetsuits, rain boots, helmets with lights on them and a thin pair of pants!
IT was freezing as we walked to the cave but we didnt think about it much as our first caving task was to abseil (slide down a rope) 27 meters into the cave! Doesnt sound high but it is when you are hanging from a rope! Jason went first and I followed. When we got to the bottom we waited for the others to come down. There was a river leading from one cavemouth to another and we all grabbed tubes and walked knee deep in water into the first cave. When we got a good distance in the guide told us to turn off our lights and it was pitch black but then all of a sudden hundreds of gloworms started to appear on the roof of the cave. It was amazing and very beautiful! The guide told us a bit about them and then we walked further into the cave until it ended and continued under water. In the process of walking we were challenged to squeeze through tiny openings and holes within the cave which was a bit un-nerving to say the least. When we were done in this part of the cave we put our tubes in the river we had walked in through and headed back out to the opening 'lazy river' style!!!
It was fun! Then we headed into the second cave on the tubes and this one had even more gloworms on the ceiling. It was neat because you just sat there in the tube floating on the river in the dark and above looked like hundred of stars only they were insects.We got off our tubes and saw a few eels in the water of the cave. Then we walked into the cave quite a long way squeezing in and out of passages and watching the glowormson the ceiling. When we were finally done in the cave...should mention the water was freezing and we were soaked...we had to rock climb back out of the cave up the 27 meters!! I managed to do it quite easily despite the fact that I went first. It was a great experience and I was very relieved to have a hot shower when we got back to the camp. When all was said and done we headed back to the camper and began our trip down the east coast. We wanted to get as far as possible to Wellington where we were to take the ferry to the south island the next day. We ended up in a nice camp in a small city. The nexy day we woke up early and went straight to Wellington. It was a gorgeous day and we caught the ferry in good time, The views were amazing and we saw our first glimpses of snow on the mountain tops. When we got off on the South Island after the three hour ferry ride, we headed straight to Kaikoura for the night...a town known for its wildlife off the coast. We found a place to stay before heading to town for a short walk before bed. This morning we woke up to realize that when we drove to Kaikora in the dark we drove through loads of gorgeous mountains all around us! The view was beautiful. We headed into town where we knew there was supposed to be a seal colony on the shore. When we got there we found tons of them lying on the rocks! They were beautiful.
We even got close enough for one to sit up a bare its teeth at us! lol! We went to two look out points in the town where we took tons of pictures before heading out of town to Christchurch. It was a nice drive and when we got to the city we had lunch, and got more groceries before heading out to where we are now...a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. We have a book with free campgrounds around the country and we tried to find one today, only to realize it was in the middle of nowhere in a national park, no one was there and it was very creepy! So now we are in a nice campground with wireless internet! Tomorrow we will check out Mt cook before heading to Queenstown Wednesday where we will settle!
Jason added loads of pictures to his site so check it out:
http://journals.worldnomads.com/jasonspillar/
Hope all is well! I must say NZ is a lot more beautiful in terms of landscape then Australia! It is beautiful!
Miss you all, keep reading!
Jenn
xoxo
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