Travels with Gina – the North Island…..
We arrived in Auckland on March 18th and our first mission was to go and collect our transportation and accommodation for the next few weeks, ‘Gina’ our VW campervan. Angela had found a company that hired out VWs which was good for us as we would be a group of five travelling together and there were enough seats – (they would give us a tent as well so didn’t all have to sleep in the van!) However the VW Company were also based in the middle of nowhere (not Auckland as we thought) requiring me and Angela to make an amusing journey of a walk, ferry, walk, taxi and then a further 800m walk down a winding country lane.
When we arrived at our destination (a house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by VWs in
various states of disrepair) there was no-one in although there was a set of keys in the front door. After about 10mins of calling ‘yoo hoo’, ‘helloooo?’ and deciding whether or not we should just let ourselves in, we attracted the attention of a lady who apparently lived in what looked like the garage. She kindly went to find the VW man who appeared from the other side of a hill with spanner in hand, oil on forehead greeting us with ‘G’day…. guess what we’re working on?’ Um – hopefully not our van we thought ‘still got a bit of work to do on the van – the beds only arrived yesterday so should just be another 45 mins’ He asked us to make ourselves at home in his back garden and help ourselves to tea and drinks.
An hour and half later we still saw no sign of the VW man or our van so we went to investigate. We found them both along with as team of mechanics (all under the age of 18) working away on an orange VW combi that didn’t look remotely ready for a road trip the length of NZ.
After a bit of umming and erring we agreed to take a different vehicle for now and they would deliver the VW to our campsite in Cambridge that night as we had to pick up the David, Ray and Jane and get to Cambridge. We were told we could take the Bongo only problem being that the suspension needed changing, so we had to wait while he sent ‘Logan’ one of his apprentices out to the nearest Bongo garage. So as we sat there in the middle of nowhere watching 13 year olds change suspension on a vehicle Angela was about to drive, and looking at our VW van (which we had now christened ‘Gina’) covered in tools, screws and bolts we wondered what the hell we had let ourselves in for!
A mere four hours after arriving to pick up our van we finally escaped the mad VW farm in a different van and headed to Auckland to pick up David, Ray and Jane and make our way to Cambridge. That night, as promised Logan brought us Gina, only in the darkness of a supermarket car park change over our laptop was accidently left in the bongo that was now headed to the other side of the country! Next morning after our first sleep in Gina me, David and Angela headed out to retrieve the laptop from the other side of the country and practice 12 point turns and pushing Gina down country lanes… it was all fun and luckily the laptop was rescued and we never had to repeat those manoeuvres in the van again! We got back to Cambridge in time to find a pair of charity shop shoes for me and David and then get back to the campsite to get changed for the wedding. Busy day!
The wedding was of a friend we used to work with at Atkins – Nathan and his lovely fiancée and now wife Helen. It was probably one of the nicest weddings we had been too and the venue and weather were gorgeous and Nathan and Helen were very generous in the unlimited wine, beer, entertainment and food they provided for their guests. It seems that maybe David and Ray may have had more of the unlimited wine than anyone else though and us brits were named and shamed for nicking wine glasses and bottles of wine and drinking them whilst being drunken disorderlies on the guest bus back to Cambridge… sorry again Nathan and Helen!
The following day we awoke to sore heads and a desperate need for a full English breakfast before we went over to the Day After wedding BBQ. Full English accomplished we went to Nathan’s parents beautiful house near Cambridge to top ourselves up with excellent steaks and more red wine. We were also given a guided tour of Nathan’s parents’ dairy farm and got to milk some cows.. until they all started pooing on us!
We stayed over at Nathan’s parents for two nights and in this time we said sad goodbyes to Ray and Jane who were heading back to Australia and hello’s to our new travel buddies Angela’s friends Hannah and Jenna who were joining us on a road trip of New Zealand in Gina. We were given a tour of the local area by Nathan and taken to Waitomo Caves where we did some black water rafting which was fun but very cold as my wetsuit kept opening. It was cool though when we got to float along on our tubes in pitch black with only glow worms lighting up the caves.
The first stop on our road trip with Gina was to Rotorua where we visited the smelly but fascinating (for geography graduates anyway) geothermal park complete with hot pools and rock formations caused by geothermal activity. That night we attended a Maori Hangi and concert performed at our Maori village which gave an insight into traditional Maori culture, songs and dances followed by a feast of a meal cooked in an underground oven (Hangi).
After leaving Rotorua we set off on a mammoth journey in Gina to Wellington where we would catch the ferry to the South Island. Our journey took us past Taupo and the Desert Road and (what we think is) Mount Doom. The weather was pretty bad, either raining or very windy which can be a problem with no power steering on the desert road! We stayed overnight at Himitangi beach – possibly the windiest place in the world and travelled down to Wellington stopping for a very nice and very generous lunch at Jenna’s mom’s lovely friend’s house on the way where we also excitingly got some freshly picked lemons (easily pleased!).
The South Island……..
At Wellington we caught an early morning ferry to Picton on the south island. We were fortunate enough to get a sunny day as the views from the ferry as it enters Marlborough Sounds are beautiful and we stood out on the top deck catching some long awaited sunshine. We arrived in Picton and drove the short distance to our campsite in nearby Blenheim where we were getting picked up to do a cycle tour of the Marlborough region wineries. We were equipped with bikes, helmets, wine bottle carriers, water and a map of the area and off we went to sample a few wines. We soon discovered cycling gets slightly more difficult/more fun as you taste more wine! We sampled some nice sauvignon blancs which is the variety that the area is famous for and stopped at the not shabby Highfield estate for a full glass of wine each and a cheeseboard…….very nice. We visited four wineries and made some good purchases (again) and struggled on back to the cycle tour shop. We made it back in time though unlike the couple who arrived late a bit worse for wear and embarrassed claiming they were late because they missed the turn off for the road!
The following day me and Angela fulfilled our geeky train fix by taking the Coastliner from
Picton to Blenheim (Hannah came too but she probably wouldn’t appreciate being called a train geek!). The journey was only 30 mins but was worth it for the stunning views from the windowless viewing carriage of the mountains and coast. We spent the afternoon taking a walk around Picton and along the Sound, stopping at a small beach for lunch. We got the best weather we had had in New Zealand so far and we finished off with ice cream and cold beers.
After getting fully refreshed at Blenheim with wine and good food we set off for the second mammoth journey to the Glaciers on the west coast of the south island. The scenery and views en-route were stunning mountains, lakes and rivers and as we reached the west coast we got views of temperate rainforests along the coast. The journey was made all the more interesting when the speedometer decided to stop working in the van and a quick call to our helpful friendly VW man informed us not to worry about it and just go as fast as the car in front! We stopped for lunch at a deserted beach and then visited the very cool pancake rocks with weird rock formations and blowholes.
We arrived into Franz Josef and unfortunately I still had that uni work to finish so motel it was for me and David which was probably for the best considering the size of the plots at the campsite where Gina and the girls were staying. Franz Josef town was cool with a mix of alpine scenery and rainforest. We took a half day hike on the Franz Josef Glacier and it was probably our favourite activity that we did in New Zealand. The ice up close was really blue and it was fun (though sometimes a bit claustrophobic) squeezing through the crevasses. We followed our hike with a dip in the hot pools and then the other rewarded themselves for good days exercise with shots while I finished my assignment (why would anyone study and travel at the same time?!).
The next day we set off for Queenstown another stunning journey so good that at one point we stopped every ten minutes just to get out and get a better look. We broke the journey up by having lunch in Haas which is perhaps the strangest place ever and feels like the end of the world. We also stopped at Wanaka puzzling world which was fun especially the maze which me, David and Jenna managed to solve in a record time (sorry Hannah and Angela!). There are some other cool things like holograms and weird rooms that made you look very tall or very short (um.. the photos probably explain this a bit better).
Queenstown has a gorgeous setting on the shore of a lake and surrounded by mountain ranges.
We camped in the centre of town and did some pottering around town, went up the cable cars, took part in the kiwi pub crawl and watched Angela, Hannah and Jenna paraglide off the top of a mountain. The town is so nice that we contemplated staying there for a few weeks as we were looking to settle somewhere so that I could revise for my exams which I was taking in Auckland in May. However our laptop’s monitor decided to die and the only place that we could get it fixed in the whole of the south of the south island was Dunedin. So we travelled our final journey with Gina, Angela, Hannah and Jenna to Dunedin, Edinburgh of the South. The city does feel very Scottish with streets named after those in Edinburgh, cold weather and even a slight Scottish dialect. For our last activity together we took a trip out on the Taieri Canyon railway which departs from Dunedin rail station (another geeky train fix!) having another lovely sunny day with yet more beautiful scenery.
……..and so our journey with Gina and our travel buddies came to an end and after a goodbye dinner we said our farewells and watched them depart travelling (who knows how fast!) up to sunny Christchurch.
Life after Gina……….
We ended up staying in Dunedin for two weeks so that we could get the laptop fixed and do lots of revision and work in the very quaint 1970’s style local library and get used to not living in a van. We found a B&B where the owner Simon gave us cheap rates, a monitor for our laptop, yummy breakfasts and use of the spa suite only downside was it was at the top of a very steep hill – I mean almost vertical! After two weeks in Dunedin we started to feel very cold as it was now getting on for winter (and knackered climbing the hill everyday) and we realised we needed to head north for some sun (it confusing in the southern hemisphere!). We found out that our laptop was not repairable ,in NZ anyway, and had to go and buy ourselves a new one so we are now carrying around two laptops.
We travelled over to Te Anau and Milford Sound for a few days to do some hiking and sightseeing and then headed up to Christchurch which reminded us a lot of Cambridge. We then travelled on the Tranzalpine train cross country to the west coast from which we travelled to Nelson. Our stay in Nelson was at the most impressive hostel in the world. It was basically like staying in your mate’s mansion. Each room was done out like a five star hotel room complete with four poster beds and chandeliers. There were only a few people staying there and everyone had their own luxury room to themselves. The lounge and kitchen were both kitted out in designer ranges and everyone just sat around drinking wine…..Crazy luxury backpacking!
Anyway we sadly had to leave the luxury of the Golden Lodge and head for Wellington where we had a cheap apartment with free internet (a rarity in NZ) booked for two weeks so that we could have our final revision and work session before my exams and leaving for Fiji. It was nice to have our own apartment and we took walks around the city of which the best attraction is the giant colossal squid at the Te Papa Museum – I love it!
Our last week finally arrived and time for the dreaded exams – we made our way to Auckland where we stayed with Nathan and Helen at their new home for the week. Again, it was great being in a real home and spending time with Nathan and Helen and also being able to catch up on Lost Series 6! The exams went well (I think) and we celebrated my last one with a trip up the skytower and much wine at a bar in the city centre.
The following day we said yet more sad farewells to our friends as we made our way to the airport and waved bye to New Zealand -the country where we had spent the last two months and have got so used to it feels like home – thanks for having us NZ!
