The longest journey....done!!
After our torturous 2 day trip from Rio (the 27 hour wait at Buenos Aires airport was particularly painful), we arrived in Auckland to the news that Man Utd had lost the Champions League final. Off to a bad start!! But we were soon up again when we got hold of our campervan that will be our travel companion for the next 4 weeks.
Now, we haven’t driven at all since we left England almost 5 months ago, but we were soon back in the swing of things as we drove to our old school friend, Louise’s, house in Auckland. She had left her key under a plant pot for us and we let ourselves in and had the most amazing shower. Suffice to say after 2 days on planes and in airports we weren’t smelling too fresh!!
For the past few months we had been considering our reasons for travelling and the new start to life that we are making after Dad’s accident, so we decided to do something extreme to symbolise this time in our lives. So we got tattoos!!
We had chosen some Maori style designs that reflected our thoughts and headed to the studio to get them done. OUCH!!! After almost 3 hours of self-induced pain, we left the place with our new body art. And here they are...
Can you spot the warrior?
"It looks bigger than it is Mum!!"
Gemma’s is a turtle, which symbolises the importance of family and the gecko above represents a connection with the Gods. Elliott’s is a manta ray which is a symbol of protection. Inside it there is the face of a warrior and the tail is his axe. The idea is that his Dad is still protecting him from above! In both, there are various other Maori symbols that represent wealth and abundance, change and new beginnings and a bond with a special person. We love them!!
Let’s hit the road!!
After a few days of checking out Auckland, we headed south in the camper to a town called New Plymouth. The driving was great fun and it was fantastic having the freedom to roam wherever we wanted after months of being restricted to bus timetables and taxi fares.
But we did learn a valuable lesson during this first day. If the fuel tank is getting low and you pass an expensive petrol station, suck it up and pay, as there’s probably not another one for miles!! We were extremely lucky to find a fuel station after driving for about half an hour with the warning light on, along a road in the pitch black, with rain pissing down and no mobile phone reception!!! Lesson duly noted!!
Back behind the wheel!!
We travelled to New Plymouth solely for its backdrop of Mt Taranaki. According to pictures it is a snow capped volcano. Our view was just a sheet of cloud though, which was massively disappointing. But with no time to waste, we had to head on to Wellington.
Wellington – our home from home
Here we met up with another old school friend, James, who took us to the pub. It was again great to catch up with another old boy and even better that on our return to Wellington in a few weeks time he agreed to cook us a nice roast dinner (well, get his girlfriend to anyway!!).
Truner and his missus, with Ells on the raz!!
We didn’t stay long in Wellington as our ferry ride over the Cook Strait to the South Island was at lunch time the next day. The 3 hour journey was not the greatest. It started off with huge seas and a lady on the tannoy saying “We are experiencing less than favourable conditions, so if you feel sick, please head to the back of the boat where it is less violent...”.
Well, that’s where we were sat. It was eventually overrun with people looking pretty grim and some not even making it to the bathrooms to show everyone what they had had for breakfast!! But we were fine and just slept most of the way. We arrived in the dark and didn’t want to miss the scenery so stayed the night in Picton.
The beautiful Marlborough Sound from the ferry
The stunning West Coast
We started the South Island off with the Queen Charlotte Drive, a scenic drive along the Marlborough Sound. Thank God we didn’t do this the night before, the views were fantastic!! We drove this incredible route all day and arrived in Greymouth having seen the sun go down along the way.
A whole lotta love!!
We had booked ourselves in to do some jade carving the next day. We arrived early and met Steve, an old Samoan guy who has been carving jewellery for almost 2 decades. He was (and needed to be) a great teacher!! We really enjoyed the day and came home with some amazing necklaces.
Ells getting creative
It's not a nail filer, Gem!!
Ells' tribute to Nige (a present for his Mum!!)
Gem's creation (but who's it for?)
We felt that we had missed some of the views in our previous evening’s driving so headed back up the coast to see the Punakaiki pancake rocks – a cool geological feature where sediment has layered on top of each other over millennia and created these crazy looking rocks.
Gem actually thought we were getting pancakes!!
Glacier Country
We then continued on to Franz Josef, where the scenery moved from classic English countryside to snow-capped mountains and alpine forest. We booked onto a full day glacier hike and were picked up early the next day for our trek.
We know glaciers are made of ice, but even with full base layers, beaucoup T-shirts and a huge jacket, it was still bloody freezing. We hiked up to the glacier with our crazy guide Turtle (so called as he’s a bit slow) and just had some fun really. We climbed up staircases of ice that had been carved out by the guides and crawled through tunnels and crevasses that were ridiculously tight. It was a fantastic trip and with some awesome views of the glacier and the surrounding valley, we would highly recommend it.
Ells squeezing through a crevasse at FJ
"How did Ells get through here!!"
Onwards and upwards!!
Our next destination is the adrenaline packed towns of Wanaka and Queenstown (and although it’s downwards, not upwards, you’ll see what we mean in the next blog!!). But before all that, we stopped off at Lake Matheson en route to the Southern Alps. We took the 1 hour trek around the lake and copped some stunning views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman in the lake’s reflection. However, it was a bit fresh so we upped the pace and got back on the road sharpish!!
Lake Matheson was so still, the reflections were amazingly clear
We will blog again soon telling you of our exploits in Wanaka and Queenstown. We think it will be an interesting read!!
Love Ells and Gem xx
Sounds like your having an amazing time guys! Beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteMiss you both, all my love Erin xxxxxxx