A Fast Moving Glacier

After leaving Nelson, we drove on to Lake Rotoiti, perhaps the most beautiful and peaceful place we have been so far.

It amazes me how such a lovely location – a huge blue lake, surrounded by mountains and greenery – can be so quiet. There were a dozen cars there, a few people swimming, a couple of boats skimming across the water and a few ducks terrorising the visitors for food. The atmosphere and air was so fresh and clear.

That evening we drove through – again – endlessly gorgeous views. Our car is of course not the quickest, added to which we wanted to take in the views. But we knew we were driving slowly when a huge logger truck overtook us.

Strangely, the town where a long river meets the sea was really ugly. Greymouth lives up to its name, one of the least inspiring river towns I can remember. It was, well... grey. The hostel was a funny place too – 60 NZ dollars (28 GBP/30 Euros) bought us what looked like a converted horsebox sitting outside, with a bed and a fridge and nothing more. As the wind came up unexpectedly, the whole thing shook and we wondered if we would still be in the same location the following morning.

Yesterday we drove onto Franz Josef, a town at the base of a glacier which was named after the Austrian Emperor after some Austrian dignitaries had visited it in the late 19th century. In case you don't know... a glacier is old, unmelted snow which gets bigger and bigger each time snow falls again. The pressure of each fall compacts it down and, like water, this pressure causes it to move. But it travels 100,000 times slower than a river.

Franz Josef glacier's edge has moved an incredible amount over the years and still can advance or retreat by around 5 metres per day. We stood at Peter's Pond and took some pictures of it in the distance, knowing that 10 years before that spot was covered in ice. Although it has advanced over the last few years too, seeing the massive reduction of ice in the valley gives a very real of the effect of global warming.

The walk up to the Glacier was very hard – rocky, steep and lots of loose rocks. We'd been told “don't worry about the sign telling you to go to stop unless you're experienced” but after an hour we saw two people coming the opposite direction. “Was it worth it?” Nicki asked. They looked at each other, shrugged and said things like “wasn't as good as we expected... very slippery... still a long way to go...”. That was enough for us – we turned around and sped back to the lookout spot for long-distance pics.

On the way to FJ, we picked up a hitch-hiking Canadian girl called Jamie. She had a huge amount of stuff but she said this had been no problem as she had never had to wait more than a few minutes for rides, mostly with locals. We found it amazing that this young girl was so comfortable to hitch-hike, something we would both hesitate to do back at home., But it seems in tune with this country – the atmosphere is of sharing, taking care of the environment and it's difficult to imagine that any harm would come to her here.

That evening, the sky turned into an amazing sunset and Nicki caught the beauty of it on her new camera.

Half Marathon walking in Abel Tasman

The ferry to the South Island is around 3 hours and it's clear on arrival that the climate and scenery are very different to the North. Apparenty it's been raining all “summer” (the Kiwi summer is the opposite to a European, straddling Christmas) and the clouds are heavy when we get there. We drove 2 hours through endless lush greenery in landscape now made familiar by the Lord of the Rings films, made in this area.

We walked through vineyards around Nelson (meeting Kenny the huge black pig on the way), which apparently is one of the main wine regions in the country. We were susprised to hear that most of the vineyards have been going only since the early 90's, and although the climate is warm enough to produce great wines, it was not a focus of attention at all in the past.

Yesterday we did a marathon walk at the Abel Tasman National Park. It runs along the coast so the standard thing is to take a boat as far North as you like, walk back to another point and take a boat back. Unfortunately we got our timings and location wrong, bought a ticket for a boat in 45 minutes which we had to catch 20 mins drive away and 3 km walk away. After parking the car, we ran the 3 km up and down the tracks in the forest to Coquille bay, in boots and carrying daypacks,hoping to catch the boat. Somehow we managed to get there in time, but we knew we then had a 20km walk ahead of us.

The boat took us past beautiful bays of golden sand and, as always, few people. In England, this whole area would have been swamped! The combination of sea, sand, greenery and mountainous countryside is unique, I don't remember seeing it anywhere else.

As we stepped off the boat at Bark Bay, we knew it was going to be a hard “tramp” (the Kiwis call trekking Tramping) and headed off at a fast pace. The pathways in the park followed the coastline and the tropical greenery was constantly enveloping. It made me remeber the walks we did when I was growing up and my grandparents were living in Devon, as strangely much of the countryside has seemed similar to that area of England. It is more tropical here, but as we have traveled around, it has made me try to remember to appreciate the English countryside more when I get back to Europe.

We met a young guy from England, Mike, who had just graduated a few months ago. “The recession has killed most graduate jobs” he told us, “so I thought I'd do a bit of travelling and work out what I want to do with my life”. The temptation to give him all sorts of advice from being 20 years further down the line was huge. But when I was his age, I didn't listen to much advice from people like me no, so I kept quiet and we wished him luck. We've met a few travellers with his approach – you ask them “how long are you away?” and their answer is often “until the money runs out”.

The walk was amazingly beautiful. How do you describe continuously lovely greenery and coastline? And we marvelled at the pathways that are carefully maintained by the National Park.

After around 20 km, our feet started to hurt, but we pressed on and enjoyed the whole walk. That morning we had read about a journalist who is walking across the Canterbury Plains for 360km, and after the first day of 30km, his feet were shredded with blisters. Our boots have held up much better than that as Nicki hasn't had a single blister for the whole trip and mine have been few. Nevertheless, after covering 24km in total, we were glad to air our feet (luckily for Nicki, my boots came off outside – they smelled bad...)

Parasailing at Lake Taupo

Taupo is an adrenalin junkie's dream, with all kinds of activities. We decided to skip all the Bungy Jumping and Sky Diving for now and make a gentle start with Para-sailing.

We were taken out by two very cool guys operating the boat, blaring The White Stripes and Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix from the boat speakers. We went along with a New Zealander mother and daughter, and two sisters from Oxford whose family had moved here two years ago. It was interesting to hear from them about their experiences here.

The New Zealand mother said that certainly there was an element of taking the beauty of their home-country for granted. However, she and her husband had decided “right, let's hire a camper and get away for two weeks” and headed out into the countryside. It seemed typical of the Kiwi attitude, they seem very go-ahead people and if there is an opportunity to get to the water, up in the air or falling down from it, they take it.

“Friendliness and time for you, nothing is too much bother” was the main thing the Oxford girls said about the New Zealand people. They had been here two years and got a shock on a recent visit home – “people were so rude!” they said. They loved the countryside and the locals, but the biggest things they missed from home were “shops and friends – I miss my friends so much!”.

We've talked about the utopia of living here, because it really is a paradise. But the girls' experience highlights the paradox. One reason this is a fantastic place to live is the remoteness and the small number of people here. But that remoteness makes it impossible to keep contact with your established life back home. Unless there was ever a strong reason to start again and leave everything behind (which neither of us have now), we can't imagine living here, largely because of the disconnection with family and friends. Nicki can visualise coming back here at a later stage of life to travel for 6 months because she's absolutely captivated by the scenery, the people and the relaxed atmosphere. For me, I find the same – but there is a lack of “edge” to give it contrast and put things into different lights. I think I would get complacent living here and miss the darker side of life.

The para-sailing itself was just great. They attach us side-by-side in harnesses to the parachute at the back of the boat, speed up and gradually feed a line out as you lift into the air. Rising up, suddenly everything is calm and quieter, as the sound of the boat and the waves drifts off below you. The view across the lake was fantastic and we got a great view of the coast where we'd both been running the day before (and seen around 20 black swans.) It was a lovely thing to do together.

After coming down, we drove south through the countryside and passed by the Ruapehu mountain, which we'd seen so clearly from a distance while up in the sky at Taupo. Looking at the snow-capped mountain close up was beautiful.

The evening finished with a hostel stay just north of Wellington in a lovely little place that reminded us both of our grandmother's homes. The coastline looked just like Devon and Cornwall in the South West of England - weird to feel so familiar, so far away from home.

Dolphins and Lakes in NZ

Before we came to New Zealand, anybody who ever went there gave absolutely rave comments on the country, and we can easily see why. It is the the place we love most so far on this trip.

It baffles us how the country has managed to create such a comfortable and high quality life and not be overwhelmed with people. Paihia in the Bay of Islands is a tourist centre, yet the front and beach are beautiful. There are no skyscrapers, just nicely designed and built motels. It seems New Zealanders are very self-sufficient when it comes to eating on holiday and there are lots of self-contained unit-type accommodation, including kitchenettes with all materials for cooking. As a result, restaurants are quite limited and don't dominate the bay area at all. Simple things like free parking are a surprise for us both.

What really surprises us is that it is peak holiday season here. New Zealand children are on holiday so we expected it to be busy. I think the concept of “busy” is just different here – we've felt completely relaxed, never hurried and not at all crowded.

The beauty of the scenery was extended into the island area when we went on a dolphin-viewing trip. The water is a lovely blue, and we quickly came upon a small family of dolphins (they had promised free return tickets if we didn't spy any at all.) The guide explained that over 50% of these clever mammals who are taken into captivity die within 4-6 weeks. The reason, apparently, is that swimming in a limited area gives no stimulation for their sizeable brains and results in them losing the will to live – heartbreaking.

Afterwards, we headed around various islands. We realised the special thing about the coastline and the islands is the combination of green grass and trees and absolutely blue water. We expect that kind of water colour in the Mediterranean, together with a more rough and arid coastline. To see lush greenery in direct contrast with such a water colour is a real treat.

Onward to “The Hole In The Rock”. We had picked up a New Zealand book in Auckland and after opening it on a random page. Nicki had pointed to a gorgeous place and said “I want to go there”. This was indeed the eroded space through a rock-island which we were now heading through.

The people we have met from New Zealand all seem incredibly nice. We are sure this is not the case for all 4 million people, but it is incredible that people smile, they will happily talk to you as soon as you start a random conversation, and in general people seem very content. I was running along a footpath yesterday and a guy happily said “g'd morning – bit too bloody fit for me, mate!” (if only he knew the real truth...)

We drove to Taupo on Friday, a 500km drive through the North Island, giving us views of endless beautiful countryside. Our car is funny. We hired for the cheapest price possible and we have nicknamed it Dumpy, as it struggles up hills but gets us there finally. We are in the hands of our navigation system which we nicknamed Libby (short for “Liberty” - because we felt she gives us freedom to enjoy the ride.) Every now and again she gets it wrong, but generally it works well and we can always shut her off if she gets too directive...

Lake Taupo is 600km square and the crater of a huge, extinct volcano – apparently there is documentary evidence that one of the eruptions in the 181AD was seen worldwide, as it was double the size of the eruption of Vesuvius. The town itself was remote until the early 20th century and now is a backpacker town with so much going on. You can walk, para-sail, bungy jump, skydive, and even Zorb – a great big inflatable ball which you strap yourself inside and get rolled down a hill while you try to hold your lunch down.

Our hostel is excellent and has all facilities (which now for us means good shower and bathroom, comfortable bed, laundry facilities and a kitchen.) However, it was hilarious as the bar across the road had an open air stage and the band started just as we settled down for bed, around 10pm. It went on til 3am – it was incredibly LOUD! We could almost not hear each other talk in our own room. Nicki resorted to ear-plugs at around 1:30am, which miraculously worked. The worst part was that the band was really good, playing great song after great song, but we were just too tired to go and join the party. We brace ourselves for tonight's onslaught. My age is getting to me...

The walk we did today was just fantastic. We saw another stunning river with the cleanest water, plus countryside all the way that mixes familiar trees with the palm-type trees that remind of the tropical nature of the climate. We also saw a lot of locals swimming in the Thermal streams that ran into the river – we felt the water and it was really hot, even hotter than I would ever run a bath! All the people we saw were cycling, swimming, bungy jumping – it's becoming so clear that the standard life here in New Zealand is outside and active.

At the end of it, an amazing rush of water burst through a narrow area in the rock, the Huka Falls. All along, new met friendly people and saw gorgeous countryside, which it seems is going to be how it is for the rest of our time in New Zealand.

A New Paradise Found - Pahia, Bay of Islands, NZ

In the last two days we've had a crash course in the incredible beauty of New Zealand. Firstly a walk in the countryside, followed by a cruise around the islands.

We are staying in Pahia, in the Bay of Islands, and yesterday set out for a walk along the Waitangi river to the Haruru falls. As we set out, we saw a sign explaining that the Kiwi is a bird that lived for a 1,000 years here without predators. They have no defence mechanisms or tools to fight when attacked and as such are easy to be eaten or killed by dogs - "so keep dogs on a lead". It seems to me incredibly appropriate that the symbol of New Zealand is so incredibly peaceful and unspoiled, like the people and the countryside.

We walked in the forest, surrounded by familiar and new sounds - for me, cicadas grating away is the sound of holiday (usually heard in Greece), and this was added to by the "popping" of the crickets. They use their wings to make 2-3 pops at a time in a rhythm and it was almost like being surrounded by lots of mini fireworks.

After a while, we came to a Mangrove swamp. Nicki and I have known the word "Mangrove" most of our lives but admitted to each other we had absolutely no idea what it meant. The trees have little mini-mango-like fruits and they grow in streams of water that are tidal. The roots take hold at low tide and grow under the water, also giving a base for various other plants.

Gradually, the path became even more tropical and an amazing number of varied trees and plants came into view. It really gave the feeling of being in a tropical area, even though the climate is in theory very similar to England. Certainly the palm-like trees give the flavour of the tropics.

I enjoyed walking through to the unspectacular waterfalls, just a few metres high. I have followed Nicki through walks in Maine, to Macchu Picchu, up a volcano on Easter Island and now in New Zealand. She always leads and I follow, taking up the position I always took when I went cycling with my brother as a kid.

After a while of talking about the scenery, we both fall into a period of quiet contemplation. My head fills with ideas and plans for my new company. My book is evolving nicely as I am working on a piece every 2 days, but I got the very good advice that I need a range of products. So I am working on a brand which could apply to a series of Travel Books, and maybe lots of other things too. The walk in the natural noise and beauty of the forest and mangroves became the ideal place to come up with some new ideas. Who knows, maybe I will look back on this walk as the place where my future working life was formed?

We regularly come across people who have moved here from England, and clearly it's a major subject. Strangely, many New Zealanders go for long travels or live in UK for long periods of time. But almost always they come back. A friend of Nicki's is from New Zealand and she asked him if he will ever go back. His answer was "wait until you see it and you'll know the answer to that question..." Looking back on it, I have met a lot of Aussies and Kiwis living in other countries, but without exception, they were in their 20's or 30's.

The wish to see the world is strong but the lure of their own beautiful country is stronger. We are beginning to learn why.

First Impressions, New Zealand

(The pic on the left is the Sky Tower in Auckland)

We landed in New Zealand after losing a day. It was the weirdest feeling to take off at 10am on Saturday morning, fly for 5 hours and arrive at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure I will ever get my head round that.

Starting in Auckland, we have one month in New Zealand, and we were welcomed with friendly attitude even from the bus driver. For 7 weeks, we have been grappling with communication in Spanish and a bit of French, so when the helpful driver explained where we needed to get off and even modified his route to reduce our walk to the hostel, we were absolutely amazed. Air New Zealand advertise themselves as “Service – its a Kiwi thing” and so far that seems to be true.

Walking round Auckland gives you an odd feeling of familiarity as brands and shops are often similar to those in UK and America. It reminds me of USA because of the “block” layout of straight streets at right angles to each other. It's a small city with amazingly peaceful streets and limited traffic – then again, we are here in peak holiday time for New Zealanders. It is odd to think of Christmas and January as “Summer”, but to the people here, it's time to enjoy their beautiful countryside and get out of the city.

There are just 4 million people in the country and 1.2 million of those live in or around Auckland, and Diversity here is just a way of life. The people are from all parts of the world, with many Asians and Indians among the faces we have seen around the city. Its history is one of co-operation with Americans and Europeans initially, and later Asians, and the country is home to over 100 nationalities.

Hwever, these days the country is very careful about immigration. Nicki met an Australian who spends every second month here on a tourist visa and has been for years. He is 74 and has a girlfriend here (there's hope for us all yet...) but can't get a visa. “What have I got to offer? I am too old” he said.

Our drive was to get out of the city and start to see some of the countryside. New Zealand is made up of 2 Islands, North and South, and distances are not huge like Australia. It's 500km/300 miles from Auckland to Wellington and end to end, the country is like two times England+Scotland put together, and because it is quite narrow, there is a huge amount of coastline. The volcanic origins of the islands mean that mountains dominate the skyline and the coastline is fascinating, with many deltas and 100's of islands.

Trying to make a plan to see the place is tricky. We have been suggested maybe 50 places to see via The Lonely Planet book, maps and notes in the hostel we stayed, recommendations from friends who have visited or people we have met. Obviously it's impossible to do and see everything so we have made a rough plan to spend one third of our time on the North Island, two thirds on the South. Yesterday we took our hire car and headed North to the Bay of Islands.

As we drove, our first impressions were – what amazing, stunning countryside, almost impossibly beautiful. Green coast, gorgeoussandy beaches and dramatic coastline. We're staying in a self-contained cabin in Paihia, in the Bay of Islands and getting ready for a day of walking in the countryside.

The cost of a Tahitian Paradise

We leave Tahiti after discovering it truly is a paradise, and that paradise comes at a price.

Arriving at Papeete airport is an experience in itself, with a Polynesian band playing local songs and flowers being handed out, giving the whole place a lovely scent. Incredibly warm too, as we arrived at midnight and it was still 28 degrees, and during the days it was 30-35 degrees and humid.

Our hotel was the 4-star Meridien – a bit different to our hostel experiences in Peru and Argentina... It is a beautiful set up with big air-conditioned rooms, our first proper bath since we left home, plants and trees everywhere, direct access to a lovely beach, and a unique sandy swimming pool.

The downside was the prices. We were totally shocked to find that breakfast was 27 Euros/24GBP – if we both had it, it would have been half the cost of the room! Internet was equally crazy – 9 Euros for one hour, 60 Euros for 72 hours. As we had not been able to upload pics and blogs for a while, I gritted my teeth and paid it.

We headed to the supermarket, a great big Carrefour nearby. Further shocks awaited as the cheapest bottle of wine was around 10 Euros, as was a 6-pack of local beer. Without relaising, we paid 5 Euros per kilo for apples. We considered buying Champagne for New Year's eve and gave up when we found the cheapest was around 45 Euros... But we stocked up with breakfast cereal, bread, cheese and fruit and managed to avoid breaking the bank over the few days. New Year's Eve fizz was replaced in with a shaken up can of beer!

We spent our time mainly by the pool and in the sea, enjoying a break from sight-seeing for these days. Probably there was more to do, but prices certainly encouraged us to make use of what was free – a fantastic environment, beautiful sea to swim in plus free goggles for snorkelling and free use of kayaks to explore the bay. The goggles gave us the chance to see the coral life that was just beneath the surface, unknown to us. While here we both finished fantastic books – The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold and Train to Trieste by... – recommended reading for anybody.

On New Year's Day, the hotel arranged a cocktail and we made the best of some free champagne. We got talking to the Hotel Manager, Dominic, who had been here in Tahiti for 10 years. We asked him how the local people managed to live, considering the high prices of everything. He said “people have a different lifestyle. They live from day to day and don't accumulate so much materially. The South Pacific Islands are rich with fruit – if you need to eat, pick a mango or something else hanging from a tree.”

He also explained about the nature of friendship here on Tahiti, highly affected by the distance from everywhere (22 hours flight from France and England, 11 hours from Los Angeles, 6 hours from New Zealand). “The distances are so huge, so if a foreigner comes here to stay for some years, when he leaves it is almost certain that he will never come again. You get very close with people in a short time – the island is small so you meet people 2-3 times per week instead of in Europe maybe 2-3 times per month. But when you leave, that's it, almost certainly you will not meet again. When that happens for the locals a few times, they become a little cautious with the next foreigner – do I want to invest myself in a new but temporary friendship? It can make things hard for foreigners here. But if you stay for a longer time, the connection is very strong.”

Nicki asked him if he would be here forever. He waved his hand in the direction of the sea, a beautiful sunset developing in the distance, and said with a smile “what do you think?” We saw his point.

One beautiful little incident happened while we were here, a wedding on the beach. A small area was sectioned off with branches and leaves from the Palm Trees and traditionally dressed dancers gathered. A small boat brought the bride and groom ashore from one of the sea-huts and in the early evening heat, the heavily dressed couple were treated to a band (the same one from the airport, we noticed – it's a small world in Tahiti...) and traditional polynesian dance. They looked a bit confused when asked to dance, the groom gamely shaking it in his dark suit with 4 brightly attired Tahitian girls and the bride laughing with nervous embarrassment as 4 hunky men gyrated enticingly around her.

It was a lovely moment, but we also felt a little sad for them – it sounds a lovely thing to do to get married on a beach in Tahiti, but the reality is the group of unknown people gathering around and snapping you with the tack-tack sound of an ping pong match played by non-romantics in the background. The cost of going all that way meant that they had no more than half a dozen friends at the ceremony. Somehow it seemed a bit empty.

Language has been interesting, as French is the local lingo. Despite both of us having a good background in French, the last 6 weeks of concentrating on learning Spanish had us mixing up French and Spanish in the same sentence. As we head to New Zealand, we are both conscious that this is the first time we will have been in a native English-speaking country for 7 weeks. We'll miss the challenge but probably welcome the ease of communication.

And so we move on to the next leg of the trip, back to Hostel world in Auckland for a couple of nights and to some more travel experiences in 2010.