Goodbye Australia, Hello New Zealand!
Hello Everyone,
Before I start let me just say that since we have arrived in NZ we have found that internet has been harder to come by and especially wifi. Thus, posts/photos may not be as often as OZ/Asia and phone calls will be even rarer. Sorry, not our fault.
So, where were we. When we last wrote to you we were just about to go scuba diving on the Barrier Reef. Some of you may have seen the photos already but it was awesome fun. We both felt that the marine life that we experience at Koh Phi Phi, Thailand, was more impressive but the coral at the Barrier Reef certainly trumps that of Thailand, it was just so much more colourful and vibrant. We had a really good day that involved much food. One of Katie’s highlights was feeding the Bat fish by hand.
We spent the next couple of days just chilling out in Cairns and then flew down to Sydney in order to catch our connecting flight to NZ. While we were there we spent another fantastic evening with Ramesh and also caught up with Chris’s friend Marty from America who took us to this amazing spot in one of the Sydney suburbs where you could see over lots of the Harbour and the city. We watched the sun set and it was beautiful.
The following day we flew into Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch is certainly the most english of the towns that we have been to so far. While we were there I managed to speak to a distant cousin Joan, someone who I have not seen since I was 4 months old (although I don’t remember this meeting). We also picked up our new Wicked van, Flipper. She is very similar to Goonah but has dolphins painted on her side. We are hoping that she will bring us good luck when we are searching for her brothers and sisters!
From here we went to Akaroa, in the hope of going on a boat trip to see the rare Hector dolphins. Unfortunately, when we got there the weather out at sea was too bad so we couldn’t go out even though it was really nice on land, although a bit windy. The drive there made it worth while though. There were beautiful views over mountains, hills and lakes.
From there we drove across to Mt Cook. The scenery in this area was absolutely breath taking. We stopped at Lake Tekapo which is an amazing terquoise blue. That afternoon we went on a boat trip on the Glacial lake. On this trip you got to touch, hold and even taste 300+ years old glacial ice. The guide was really good and that made the trip especially interesting. We also visited the Sir Edmund Hillary museum which is there. This was again very interesting. This time we refrained from climbing the mountain which has claimed the lives of 139 people, looked awfully cold and snowy and is smaller than Mt Kinabalu. That evening we went and watched the sunset over Mt. Cook at kea point.
The next morning we did the hooker valley walk which had stunning view of the mountains and another glacier.
From there we then drove down to dunedin where we currently are. This drive was again beautiful. When we arrived we were told that you could see penguins here and that the best time to see them was at dusk. So we drove straight to the peninsular. There was a beautiful sunset and we saw 8 seals, which was great, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to see any penguins.
Today we start our drive down and along the Southern Scenic Road where hopefully we will be able to see wild penguins.
So far we really love NZ. It is absolutely beautiful and although it is MUCH colder than Australia, the weather is holding out for us so far! About 20c everyday.
Hope everyone is well,
Speak soon
Chris and Katie
xxx