New Zealand
Our final destination was New Zealand and we left Sydney on November 24th to fly to Auckland. It is a beautiful country with a very changing climate. We soon learned that you can have almost every season in one day.
We started out on the north island, where we drove to Bay of Island. It was a bit too cool, but a wery nice place, deserving more time than what we had. Next stop was Rotorua, where there is a lot of vulcanic activities. We went to see the vulcanic areas, geysers and hot thermal springs. We enjoyed a couple of nice and sunny days.
We visited the glow worm caves on our way down to Wellington.
Tuesday morning on the 30st of November, we took the ferry across to Picton on the south island, and fortunately, the sun was out and the entry to Picton through all the small islands is magnificent. We picked up our new rental car and headed on to Christchurch. Here we had the best weather, we could actually go to the beach, and the boys proved to be real vikings, as they went in the water!
From Christchurch, we drove through Arthurs Pass in the mountains, to get to the west coast. We experienced minor problems with the car - the battery was not made mor driving in the mountains, and we had to ask the local ranger to jump start the car in the middle of the pass.
The west coast is probably the most spectacular place, beautiful mountains and lakes and on a sunny day, nothing can beat the scenery.
We arrived at Fox glacier on a rainy day, undecided about whether we wanted to walk on the glacier. However, we did decide to go, which was very fortunate, as it turned out to be the best experience. Equipped with spike shoes and 4 layers of clothes, we climped the gletcher. Weather was a mix between rain and sun, so we kept taking the layers on and off. But it was a great trip, definetly recommendable.
From Fox, we continued on to Queenstown, which is a paradise for everyone loving an adrenalin kick. This is where you can do bungy, skydive, river rafting - you name it! However, we spent a couple of relaxing days, as traveling with kids prevents you from those activities (fortunately :-) We did visit the most peculiar bar, though, called minus 5. Eerything is made out of ice and they serve you vodka drinks (juice for the kids though) We were dressed as eskimoes, kids thought is was a lot of fun.
Going back to Christchurch, we stopped by the highest mountain in New Zealand, Mount Cook, which, unfortunately, did not appear that day due to rain and snow. It was snowing heavily as we passed the mountains.
Back in Christchurch, with one rainy day and one beautiful day, we concluded our visit by taking the tram around the city, they boys enjoyed a game of chess in the city centre and Monday evening, we returned to Sydney, where we are now enjoying the warm weather and preparing for our return trip!
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