Blergh-Carvings-Blergh

Woke up to discover that the snow from the previous night had settled in a nice little icing sugar dusting. Amy had kept her little bit of wood from when we cleared the car in Kaikoura and fortunately the snow hadn't frozen, so it didn't take too long to clear the car.

Ah, the ever-trusty Ead.

Setting off, we finally got a glimpse of Mount Ngauruhoe, otherwise known as Mount Doom. Look.

Impressed. We also got a brief look at Mount Ruapehu and I managed to grab some pics of Mount Tongariro. Woohoo!

And then the sun came out and we got some amazing views of Lake Taupo, which is absolutely massive.

Turns out it was pretty windy and the kayaking trip we'd booked the day before was cancelled. Instead we booked onto a trip on the lovely little boat Ernest Kemp and headed off for a wander to kill some time until then.

Stopped in at the Taupo Museum where it became all the more apparent that Taupo is actually pronounced Toe-paw. Which is odd, but hey. The museum was just big enough to fill the hour we had to spare and had an awesome exhibit of Maori history.

Then we headed for the marina and boarded the boat. Warnings from the skipper regarding the conditions on the lake - basically, it's really rough and his little helper had got seasick on the trip in the morning. Which was worrying.

Setting off, it became apparent just how bad it was. Claire, bless her, got seriously seasick and the skipper sent his helper to leave some "just in case" bags in the cabin. We're talking swells of at least a couple of metres. Amy spent most of the trip grinning manically while I caught myself clinging to the table without realising. Claire just buried her head in her arms so she didn't have to look at anything. My brain went on a mad trip trying to work out why I thought a shallow drafted boat was a bad move in such big waves...


Anyways, we got to the carvings eventually. They're amazing - something like 10m high and carved by a group of local artists in the 70s. Have some pics:

Claire managed to look up just long enough to go "mm, carvings" and then retreated back into her arms. Good job I had strict instructions to take lots of photos.

Heading back towards Taupo wasn't so bad because we were running with the waves. We passed another boat we'd considered going on, a sailing yacht called Barbary. Glad we didn't go with it - looked like they were having an even bumpier trip than us.

Got some awesome views of the Tongariro National Park and its beautiful mountains. The pics aren't so good, but trust me - it was amazing.

After we'd got off the boat and the skipper had checked that Claire was OK (bless him), we headed off up the road to Huka Falls which are apparently the most visited attraction in New Zealand. The place was indeed full of tourists, but the Falls were pretty cool. Behold, stupid photos.

We also got some photos from a lookout at the top of the hill heading out of Taupo.

And then we went to the hostel. Where there was a dog. Called Jess. She was cute.

"The weather stabbed me in the face"

We had considered driving to see Mount Taranaki today, but it was wet and cloudy when we got out of the hostel so we decided against it. Instead we headed into Wanganui to see about booking a kayaking session for when we got to Taupo.

That done, we headed off for Tongariro National Park.

Also known as Mordor.

It rained. A lot. There were also a lot of sheep and a random dog which wandered across the road. The view along the road was pretty good though.

Having dumped the bags at the hostel we decided to brave the weather and head into the national park itself. I should probably point out at this point that there's a whole bunch of Lord of the Rings filming locations in Tongariro National Park, including Mordor. And Mount Doom. Oh yeah.

So anyway, we parked at Whakapapa village and headed off on a walk to Taranaki Falls. Still raining heavily, so we couldn't see any of the mountains.

Fortunately, the sun came out briefly when we actually reached the Falls and we grabbed some silly photos.

Here is the photo of Amy trying to bite Claire's finger off.

Heading back towards the village, we thought we'd have the muffins we'd brought along with us. And of course moments later it started raining ice. In Amy's words, Mother Nature had acquired a knife. It was painful. Seriously painful. Frozen faces, frozen fingers, frozen legs.

We stumped back to the car, making a brief detour to the visitor centre where me and Claire dripped all over the floor. Nice hot showers waited at the hostel and then we spent the evening avoiding the school group which were the only other people in the hostel. We decided we needed some music so I nipped outside to get the speakers from the car.

I had thought it was raining. It wasn't. It was snowing. Ack.

Tomorrow, to Taupo.

Basement Cat

We began our day in Wellington with a wander along the bay which was windy to put it mildly. The news later told us it had been gusting at 100kmh during the day which would explain why sometimes we couldn't actually walk.

Bags were dumped in the car and then we headed for Te Papa Tongarewa, which is the national museum of New Zealand. We'd expected just to spend the morning there but it was so big and so awesome we actually spent the whole day wandering round it.

There was an amazing section about Maori history and culture, including some awesome musical instruments and the history of the haka used by the All Blacks. There was also a bit about more recent migrants to New Zealand. Included in a video in this section was a clip about someone from Laceby and then some bits of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, including Ernie Beckett's fish and chips. Think I got some funny looks from the school group behind us when I started giggling about that. Go all the way to New Zealand and find pictures of home. According to the video, fish and chips was introduced to NZ by people from Grimsby. Not sure how true that is, but it made us smile.

We didn't finish at the museum till late in the afternoon. Headed over to Weta Workshop meaning to have epic geekery about Lord of the Rings but couldn't find anywhere to park. This was horribly disappointing, but given everything else we managed to do, it's not so bad.

Weta bypassed, we headed out of Wellington, stopping briefly at a little suburb called Whitby on the way (see this post for reason). We only stopped for a couple of minutes because it was stupidly windy and more than a bit cold and wet.

The drive up to Wanganui was uneventful. Dark, wet, windy, but uneventful. Nice comfy hostel at the end of it though. Hurray. There was also a cat called Candy who attached itself to people and tried to sneak into the bedroom when you weren't looking. We decided it was Basement Cat. Just got to find Ceiling Cat now.

"It was fine till I fell out the boat"

Motueka hasn't got a lot going for it, but the hostel was nice. We started off with a drive to Kaiteriteri, 20 minutes up the road. The sat-nav, we have discovered, really can't pronounce Maori place names. It is hilarious.

We claimed part of the beach at Kaiteriteri for New Grimsby, complete with flag. We're that cool.

We were actually in Kaiteriteri for kayaking. The last time I went kayaking, which was getting on for 15 years ago, I rammed myself repeatedly back onto the beach and had to be towed off by the instructor. We hoped this was going to be better.

Sophie, our guide, was brilliant. Amy ended up in the kayak with her while Claire and I went in the other. Which was fine until we discovered that the steering pedals weren't quite in the right place and we couldn't really turn properly. Claire also couldn't see past my head so my yelling "there's a rock, TURN!" wasn't helpful.

Anyways, it turned into Amy and the guide paddling serenely along and me and Claire paddling along in a desperate zig-zag behind them. And then the wind started to get up. Paddle harder!

A couple of hours later, having managed to paddle as far as Split Apple Rock as planned, we headed back to the beach. Everyone had acquired aches and pains of some description - blisters on thumbs comes to mind. Landing was fine, managed to paddle onto the beach. And then I stood up to get out of the boat. And a bloody big wave hit the back of the boat. Boat wobbled, I lost my balance and then I was on my arse in the sea. Sodden. Just next to that little boat ramp there:

As I'd got up, Claire in the back had started to take off her spray skirt, so of course when the wave came, she also got soaked. So there's the two of us, soaked and cold and Amy standing on the beach having hysterics. We sent her to get the car while we squelched to the nearest loos. Ugh. Other than that, kayaking was great.

Back in nice dry clothes, we raided the tiny shop for hot chocolate and headed off on the afternoon drive to Picton.

Stopped off at Pelorus Bridge on the way back. Sadly, there were no dwarves, hobbits or lovely lake-men. There was however this sign, which made us giggle.

Then we took a minor detour and went down the Queen Charlotte Drive from Havelock into Picton along the edge of the Marlborough Sounds. Such a beautiful drive, although Claire did have to take over the driving at one point because sitting in the back round all the twists and turns was making her ill.

The ferry was uneventful save for Claire's expected seasickness.

Wellington was windy. Very very windy. Lugging bags back from the car in that was not fun. Also, the hostel was very much an old Travelodge type place that'd been converted. Which meant an en suite bathroom. YAY!

"Bitch slapped by nature"

Bahaha, back so soon. Actually Zoe this time.

So, today we got a really early shuttle to the train station and took a stupid selfie. Oh yeah.

Took the Tranz Alpine across the mountains from Christchurch as far as Arthur's Pass. This involved going in a carriage that was open to the elements and resulted in what Claire termed getting bitch slapped by nature. Most awesome, plus some great pics. Amy managed to almost lose another cup of tea due to turbulence. It seems the Kiwis do tea better than us, which is entirely unacceptable.

Getting off the train and onto the bus was an adventure in itself, what with all the wind and flying metal sheeting. In the words of Dion, our conductor person: "Oh shit."

It was missing down in Greymouth when we picked up the car.Amy took first shift - a nice pootle up to Punakaiki. Lots of photos. Much pretties. Then we had massive burgers in a cafe. We also saw a weka (Google it). Then Amy managed to stall an automatic. IMPRESSIVE.

The car is called Ed. Say hi.

Also, pun of the day: "Sedimentary, my dear Watson."

A final note: whoever designed rail crossings in NZ has no idea what they're doing. They go across the middle of roundabouts. With no barriers. Or lights. Just a tiny sign that says look for trains. Really?


Tomorrow - to the glaciers! Woo!

"I woke up so early it was 2 days ago"

Kia ora!

Several thousand miles and 30  hours later, we have arrived in New Zealand. There are pics of pretty sunrises but they have to be added later because we are writing this on Amy's kindle. Grr.

Here is the view that greeted us as we flew over the Southern Alps.

Um. Things what happened:

• Lots of films were watched.
• Very little sleep was had.
• Amy lost two cups of tea on herself because of turbulence.
• Zoe missed out on tea twice because she was sleeping.
• Dubai drove us around the airport for about 200 miles and then we had to get straight back on a plane.
• There was a moment of despair in Bangkok when we realised we weren't even halfway there.
• We saw Danni in Christchurch airport (when we finally got there) and it turns out she's one of the kiwi fruit police. Her dog is adorable.

This is us being jetlagged. We call it "stupid selfie of the day".
Things what happened on our day in Christchurch:

• Amy was accidentally rude to a German.
• We went to the re-start mall which is made of shipping containers and had a drink.
• Then we wandered around Christchurch which is a bit of a building site at the moment which is sad.

• We went to the new cathedral but we couldn't take pictures because there was a funeral on so we went to PaknSave instead.
• Then we went back to the cathedral and finally took photos.
• Then we had a tour around the museum with Marissa and Amy rode on a pennyfarthing.
• Zoe sodded off and had Mexican with Danni and Amy and Claire played pool and cards.

It has been fun. More posts will follow.

The title is because of a woman in Christchurch airport who claimed they had to get up really early to get on a 9:15 flight from Sydney to Christchurch which lasted 2 and a half hours. Snark.

-written by Amy. Dictated by Zoe.

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH

I think the title is fairly self-explanatory. :D

We're going to New Zealand today (actually, I have to ring for two weddings first, with Zoe in my ear going 'WE'RE GOING TO MISS THE PLANE!!!!!') and then we're going to Birmingham and the weather will be glorious and the traffic will be shit (Something about 1.2million people flying out of British airports today, or somesuch waffle) and then we'll get on a plane and Zoe will be an insomniac and Claire will (hopefully) survive and it will be long and dark and they won't stop feeding us (If Emirates are anything like Qantas) and then it will be Monday instead of Saturday and we will be in New Zealand and SNOW. Or at least COLD. YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

(Are you noticing a theme here? Zoe's posts are much better put together than mine, I'm just like WRITE ALL THE THINGS!!!!! TELL THE PEOPLE ALL THE THINGS!!!!!)


Zoe's just told me I'm brilliant at blog writing and that when her fingers are tired, I can do it. YAY. Also, she described my blog writing as just BLBLBLFLERGHGHGBLERGH, or something.


Also, I think that the 2 days to go blog should have been a group of things that happened in twos, like the number of times I had to go through my stuff and take stuff out, the number of spare pairs of shoes I have, the number of jumpers I sacrificed to get necessary stuff in my case... The list goes on.

Just popping to the other side of the world (That almost said pooping), brb.

Amy x