Had a manic 9 days trying to fit in everything we wanted to see before giving the van back today. We went on on a coach trip to Milford Sound from Queenstown which was really cool as we got to see a pengiun and seals on a boat cruise on the fjord. Stopped off on the way at Te Anau bird park and Lou got attacked by a nasty NZ bird! Quite glad we didnt attempt the drive to Milford ourselves cos the roadfs were really dodgy and there had been avalanches during the week before we went!
Lou sailed on an Americas Cup racing yacht in Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu and had to help getting the sails up and down, had a go at helming and managed not to crash the yacht! Did get a bit hairy a few times trying to turn it before we hit the harbour wall!
We had 3 days to get from Queenstown to Picton where we caught the ferry back to the North Island on Tues eve. Stopped off at Dunedin and Christchurch. The highlight of our trip back up the coast had to be seeing wild penguins and a big seal colony. Wicked! We also visited the International Antartic Centre in Christchurch, where they recreate a blizzard with a wind chill factor of -18. Bit chilly!
Stayed with Lous rellies on Tues night near Wellington and then had a really long drive to Hamilton where we had a nice evening out with Paula John who used to work for BHAPS and has emigrated to NZ to work as a para.
Yesterday (Thurs) we decided it would be a good idea to go black water rafting and looking at glow worms at the Waitomo Caves. The brochure made it look quite tame but we were starting to get a bit concerned when we had the safety brief and had to put a load of equipment on. We ended up walking through caves with quite fast running water in them and then had to sit in a rubber tube and get carried along with the current. We were told we would be floating along but it was more like a rollercoaster trying to stay upright and not crash into the cave walls! Both ended up swimming for our lives and trying not drown! Also had to jump backwards off a waterfall in the dark. We had some very annoying high maintenance American women in our group who whinged the whole time and we nicknamed them the desperate housewives! The glow worms were amazing and we got to gently float along the caves in pitch darkness. A welcome relief from the rapids! We both decided that we were glad we did the trip but prob wouldn't do it again! Chav said it was worse than sky diving!!!!!!!!!
We are now back in Auckland and took Johnny the campervan back to the depot this morning. Got a few days to chill out and and prepare for our 11 hour flight to LA on Sunday eve. Not going to be pleasant as we cross the international date line and arrive in LA before we leave Auckland time wise! Going to be messed up with jet lag for a few days!
