The South Island, First Stop Queesnstown, Home of The Bungy.......

High expectations are hard to fulfill, and even harder to surpass, yet Denise and I started our South Island trip with the highest expectations, hoping to have good weather, good experiences, and a lot of fun. Every Kiwi we talked to told us that the South Island was the 'real' New Zealand, but we had to see for ourselves.

As it turned out, the South Island of New Zealand not only surpassed our expectations, it bestowed upon us a new perspective of natural beauty and a thirst for adventure. This part of the world is sincerely amazing!

We started our trip in Queenstown, a touristy town in the far south of the South Island. Queenstown resides on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, a thin but deep lake carved out by glaciers thousands of years ago. The view below is of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu from atop a near by peak. We took a gondola ride to get up to the peak.

That day we spend in downtown Queenstown, popping in and out of the boutique shops and touristy places. And yes, we had a few brews at the local brewpub. At the end of the day, we set up camp with our sweet ass camper van a few minutes north of Queenstown.

The next day was an eventful one. We came into Queenstown knowing that it was home of the first bungy jump ever, and also home to the highest bungy jump in the world. I suppose the old saying 'when in Rome' came to mind when we considered putting our trust in rubber bands. But, we don't like to do things half way, so it was time to see if we had the stones to take the plunge. It seemed pretty simple..... just jump right?

It became a bit more complicated once the butterflies took effect. I chose the Nevis Bungi jump, the highest in the world at 440 feet. Now in order to get this high up, the AJ Hackett Bungy Company decided to suspend this little aluminum pod thingy between two mountains over a river to jump out of. Check it out to the right of me.

Both Denise and I went out to the little platform via a little gondola, but it would only be me who was to jump. Once in the little jump pod, there was no turning back. I guess I have to jump......

"3".......don't look down....."2"......don't forget to breath......."1".......oh shit......."BUNGY".......scream like a little girl....... Down I went 440 feat with about 6 seconds of free fall. Awesome.....!
That was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I didn't think I was an adrenalin junky, but that was something I would definitely do again.

Now it was Denise's turn. She decided to go for the classic jump off the Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first ever bungy jump. Don't let the picture fool you, Denise was eager to get close to the edge.........hmmmm......well, maybe she needed a little help to the edge.

Yet fear would not get the best of Denise today my friends, and she took the plunge 134 feet to the river below.
Two bounces later, we were able to declare ourselves fearless bungy jumpers. All in a days work I say, lets celebrate with a beer! Mind you, that was only the second day of our trip.......

The Pinnacles

Some friends of ours invited Denise and I to do an overnight hiking journey to the pinnacles in the Coromandel Peninsula, about 2 hours east of Auckland.

Thom and Lorain, at the top of the stairs convinced us to go on the hike, but the sell was not a particularly hard one. All four read about the amazing trail, and of us were eager to get started on the trip. The hike to the summit was a full days hike, about 5 hours in all. This particular area of the Coromandel was home to a thick forest of Kauri trees. After a extensive logging campaign in the early 19th century, the Kauri are now hard to find, and remains of the logging business remains in the form of dead Kauri stumps and abandoned logs.

The trail itself was the original mule trail used by the loggers to bring supplies in and out of the forest. The trail was well groomed and in most places rock was laid down to create a steady surface to tramp upon.

Above is the view of the summit from beneath.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation has a knack for making you comfortable out in the wilderness. The trail to the summit was made relatively easy with steps constructed for a sure footing.

Closer to the summit, the trial became more difficult, but was made easy with a series of bars and ladders scale.

The views from the top were awesome.

We had a 360 view over the Coromandel Peninsula, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Denise and I both stood at the peak and safely clung to the edge of the Pinnacle.

The next morning, i decided to wake up early, and climb up to the summit and observe the sunrise from the higher vantage point. Although it was a bit cold, the view was spectacular.

The sun was fiery that morning my friends

This hike was one of my favorites here in New Zealand, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It took some effort to hike out of the wilderness, but at least it was down hill this time. I snapped this photo of on the way out.

Cool eh?

Kaituna River Plung

The water swirls in a counter clockwise fashion , the Southern Cross blazes the sky at night, Orion stand on his head at the pit of night, and the air reeks of sulfur? What does that matter when I am in Rotorua and there is a 21 foot waterfall that I can raft over.

The Kaituna River squeezes its way through a small channel surrounded by Rotorua jungle laden with palm trees and indigenous NZ ferns. It swirls and it flows gently as if were hiding a secret.

I joined a tour group in Rotarua, two Swedes, a Korean who could not swim, an Irishman, myself, and our Kiwi river rat guide. What a crew! The first major secret of the Kaituna revealed itself in the form of a 8 foot waterfall. Certainly one of the under cards to the main event. Eight feet, should anyone get concerned?

After the opening act, we meandered down the river winding through the most beautiful jungle of Rotorua. We only stopped for a few moments to insult the Irishman and to scare the Korean girl. By the way, that is me with the paddle high in the air. The second of the Kaituna's surprises was taken in stride. A slight 11 foot fall throwing us into a calm lagoon. Paddle hard, paddle hard......

As I look back on things, I see my experience on the Kaituna as a reflection of the power of water, and never question that power. We settled into a nice ride down the river after the last rapid. Our river guide, witty and blunt, gave us the hint that the Kaituna was about to give up her secret soon by asking the Korean if she thought that the life jacket was secure enough. What was to come was only heard about by my new friends in the raft, and foreshadowed by our guide. The Kaituna River gave up it's secret in the form of a 21 foot waterfall that squeezed its way through a narrow patch in the canyon. Twenty one feet, and here we go..... Time lapse....

Notice the anxious look on my face.....

And than I start swallowing water....

Than I disappear....

Than everyone disappears.....

We, or at least I gasp for breath......

We survived.....

What an adventure......!

Waitangi and Rotorua

I may be a couple of months behind in our blog, but hopefully with the next few entries, I can get you up to speed on our adventures.


So where was I..... Oh yeah, we didn't leave Pahia without visiting Waitangi, where a treaty was signed by the indigenous Maori people and the English to create a cohesive society together. Every year new Zealand has a Waitangi Day to celebrate the Treaty. Also every year, they take this Maori waka (canoe) out in the bay for a spin. This particular waka could carry 140 people, and with all paddles stroking could get up to about 30 mph on the water. How cool is that, they can pull a water skier with that sort of speed.
The waka is kept at Waitangi all year round under a shelter adorned with carvings like the one below.

The waka is made out of the indigenous giant kauri trees. Kauri trees are the giant trees of New Zealand, and once dominated the forests. In the early 1900's, the trees were logged heavily because of the wood that could be harvested from the giant logs. Unfortunately, the resource was decimated by over logging, and only a few small kauri forests still exist.
Tana Mahuta, the kauri tree above is the largest in existence today. It is 14 feet in Diameter, and I can't remember how tall it is. The largest ever recorded was 17 feet in diameter, but was cut by the logging industry. Absolutely huge trees, but still does not compare with the Redwoods of California.

While Don and Barb were still in town, we decided to take them down to Rotorua, which is about 3 hours south of Auckland. It is known for the thermal springs, and as the hub for Maori culture in New Zealand. While in Rotorua, we took part in a Maori cultural event that explained how the Maori lived 200 years ago.

The event was extremely well put on and taught us heaps about the culture and tradition. At the beginning of the event, traditionally dressed Maori men arrive in a waka.
Further along in the event, the tribe went through traditional songs and greetings to new friends or enemies. They preformed a stunning and intimidating Haka which is a traditional greeting by the Maori to visitors. It was a sight to see! Later in the evening all of the visitors were treated to a traditional hangi, which is a Maori term for barbecue meat and veggies buried in the ground. Further travel from Rotorua on the next day brought us through some strange towns and giant Kiwi bird sculptures. One small little town was dotted with giant Kiwi's. One was panted in the national flag colors and another with rainbow colors.

Anyway, our trip that day lead us to Waitomo Caves. The sculpture above was at the entrance of Waitomo Caves. The cave itself is tourist friendly, with a staircase that leads down to a grand cathedral opening deep in the mountain. In this portion of the cave during Christmas, the town symphony will set up and play a concert for the locals. Apparently the acoustics are amazing.

The great part about the Waitomo tour is the end. In order to exit the cave, you must take a boat through a passage cut out by a river that flows beneath the main portion of the cave. As you are guided through the black water, above your head are glow worms. Glow worms are larvae of a type of fly that inhabit the caves, and are only found in New Zealand. The larvae hang from the cave ceiling and extend a slimy tentacle down to catch any sort of bug that it can feed off of. While feeding, the larvae emit a blue glow. The cave had thousands of glow worms on the ceiling and looked like a constellation of stars in the blackness. The fly that results from the larvae only has a life of about 2 weeks or so, so there is not much use for them in the end. Most of the adult flies get caught in the larvae tentacles and are consumed. And thus is the circle of life for this strange creature. I would post a picture, however, we were not allowed to snap any photos.

We had a blast, and saw some awesome NZ only sights. The last picture above, I just thought was pretty cool.....

Christmas in the NZ

Was Christmas in New Zealand strange? Yes, but the good type of strange I suppose. Despite Christmas Day, the weather was spectacular and daylight lasted until around 10:00PM. But it wasn't just the weather that made it a bit surreal and abnormal, it seamed all of the Kiwis were a bit off as well. Perhaps it might have been the fact that there was no eggnog anywhere in site. Anyway, it didn't really seam like the holiday season, but we got on with it anyway. We did get a few scary indications that Christmas was around the corner such as this 50 foot Santa Clause erected on Queen Street down town Auckland. The scary part is that he mechanically winks and wags his finger at you as you walk down the street looking more like a perverted and deranged Santa than Jolly Old Saint Nick.


We also ran into this ragged fellow at a home brewing guild meeting. I had debated whether or not he could be the genuine article or part of the "Santa's Revenge" conspiracy to get us all drunk that evening (notice the beer font just in front of him).


Thankfully, Don and Barb came out to visit us over the holidays to help get us into the Christmas spirit. It was awesome to see family and have them over the holidays. They got into town just before Christmas. The plan was to spend Christmas in Auckland, and then head out on the open road to explore the Norths Island.

This is a picture of Don and Barb at Cape Reinga, the Northern most tip of New Zealand. On the first part of our travels, we set up home base near Paihia. Paihia is at the mouth of the beautiful Bay of Islands.

From this tiny port, you could take charters and tour boats to go fishing, swim with dolphins, and see all the sites from the water. We jumped on a tour boat that took us out to the Whole in the Rock, a famous island in the middle of the Bay of Island that has a cavernous hole through a portion of soft rock which has weathered away over time.

The photo above shows the island as we approached. There is a sailboat just in front of the tunnel to give you some scale. As we got closer, we found out our tour boat skipper intended on driving directly through the hole to the other side....and so we did....!


On the way back from the Whole in the Rock, we jumped off the boat at Russel which is a town directly across the bay from Paihia. Russell was once known for its reputation of being home to escaped prisoners, scoundrels, prostitutes, brothels, and too many ale houses to count. It was once known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific" by many back in the day. Luckily, times have changed, and Russell has turned into a quaint community. Small batches, cafes, and quiet beaches are now the attraction.


The next day we had arranged to take a tour bus to drive us up to Cape Reinga as I had mentioned before, and down Ninety Mile Beach. Literally, we took the bus along the whole length of the beach.


Of course, the beach is not really 90 miles long, it is more like 55 or so, and no one really knows how it got the name as it is today. Anyway, the beach itself during low tide is considered a legal highway, and is used by many tourist to drive up and down the coast. You just have to be aware of the quick sand spots that may swallow up you vehicle.


During our beach drive down Ninety Mile, we stopped off at a range of enormous sand dunes. Each person on the tour bus took a turn sliding down the dunes face first on a boogy board. It was good fun!

The bus tour was great, but a long day. Twelve hours in total. If it wasn't for our bus drivers strange and humorous stories, and frequent stops to little touristy places along the way, we might have gone crazy...

Anyway, we made it back to Paihia to rest up and tackle the next day of adventure...

Fishing and Wine tasting

We reluctantly left the Golden Bay area to see what was on the east coast of the South Island. We would have stayed even longer in the beautiful Golden Bay area, but we still had much more to explore. We took a course heading east over the mountains and past the Queen Charlotte Sound down the east coast to Kaikoura. We had heard it was beautiful in this area and was great for fishing. Below is the hostel where we stayed.
The area was nice, but small, and there was one drawback.....the fog. Kaikoura might have been the most beautiful place in New Zealand, but we would've never known. The fog covered every square inch of the peninsula town and it never lifted the two days we were there. Anyway, we got over the fact that we wouldn't get a glimpse of the towering mountains that are the backdrop for the Kaikoura Peninsula, and got on with our adventures.

We booked a charter to take us out fishing 4 or 5 kilometers off the coast. Above is the dilapidated vessel we chartered. Hmmm..... I am glad to say that the vessel did actually float, and we got on with our deadliest catch episode...

It turns out that we were the only ones that showed up for the charter that day, and we were glad at first that we would have personal attention from the skipper and deck hands. All was well right? Well, the three hour tour was more like a fishing trip for the skipper and the deck hands than for Denise and I. The giant seagull below had more to say to us than our hosts....

The good news is that we did catch some Sea Perch, Blue Cod, and a New Zealand Lobster, or cray fish as they call it here. The skipper was nice enough to give us some of our fresh catch of the day to take with us. We had a wonderful feast that evening, but the day was not the greatest in the NZ.


That was Kaikoura in a nut shell. Been there, done that, and don't need to go back.... Now on to wine country! We back tracked north, up the east coast to Blenheim where the sun was shining, and the wine was pouring. Apparently about 20 years ago, someone decided that this area had the perfect soil and climate for growing grapes. Over that twenty or so years, 48 different vineyard sprouted up. Conveniently, all of them are packed into an area that is assessable by bicycle if you are so inclined to try all 48.
Anyway, Blenheim was a nice quaint town, and most of the wine was delicious. We were unable to taste all 48, but put in a good effort. By the end of the day, I was shattered, and ready for bed....
The next day would be our trip back to Auckland and back to the grind. But first we relaxed on the back deck of the hostel we stayed at in Blenheim and watched the sun go down....