Pahia

After the flight to Auckland we set off north for a three hour drive to Northland, and our second quest to find dolphins and whales...After leaving the Auckland area things certainly starting getting very sparse, but the scenary is as you expect lots of rolling hills and loads of greenery...

We were hoping for better weather in the North, not that we have bad weather but unfortunatly things were very choppy the first day really glad we didn't got dolphin watching that day...

We went to Russell by the fast ferry ( 5 mins ) to see where NZ really kicked off, this was the hell whole of the paciffic were the whaling industry started and was once the captial of NZ. It just goes to show how things can change cause now it is a tiny little village.

The next day we went dolphin watching and a tour around the bay of islands, saw the hole in the rock ( bit of a non event if you ask me ), unfortunatly no dolphins...but we did sight a blue penguin, and some NZ seals.

We did manage to do a walk in a thick woods and the kids managed to find a silver fern...

Wellington

View from the Picton ferry and the seal we saw at Picton

























We had a very twisted drive to the ferry port at Picton, boy would I not want to do that run in the summer with all the camper vans etc...Picton is a very small port, but is the main crossing point between North and South Island. Whilst having a coffee at a sea front cafe we were told about a lepard seal that had decided to do a spot of sun bathing...These seals generally live in the ant artic but was obviously up on vacation. They can be extremly aggressive and move pretty quick so couldn't get too close...


We only had half aday in Wellington perhaps wished we had more really, we spent most of our time in the new museum, the Te Papa museum. This museum is remarkably free and contains a vast array of exhibits charting New Zealand history from geology, plants , technology and life style. We only touched the surface of the vast array of exhibits, I think we managed to look at 2 of the 6 floors, and didn't even get on to the Lord of the Rings exhibition.

Next day we fly to Auckland to start our journey to Northland the North part of North Island

Nelson

We left the dolphins that afternoon and headed north to Nelson to see my friend John AKA "Farmer John" now...We arrived in Nelson early evening, and it certainly seemed a reasonable town, offering a bit more than a single street which most NZ towns seem to be. John gave us a guided tour of the Nelson town hi lights during the morning, and during the afternoon we went to see the the new plot of land he has bought to build his house on. Verena his wife was busy planting a variety of fruit bushes and trees, and even in these early stages the site looks truely amazing...

The next day we checked out Nelson's market which unlike the typical british market had stalls that sold differenet items and mainly local crafts/produce. Ju managed to find some local stiff drink made with honey and lemon...We then went rock climbing on a set of indoor walls, Joseph has been longing to go rock climbing for real for a long time now, and was raring to go...After a quick safety briefing his was off and took to it like a duck to water and before long was at the top of the first couple of walls...Ems took a more stedier approach not too sure if it was for her...

However the afternoon was more what Ems was looking for with some horse ridding, we made it clear we were complete novices but my did they take us up some steep hills...Im sure health and safety in the uk would have had a fit..but for us it was great...

Kaikoura

Leaving Christchurch we headed to Kaikoura on our quest to find dolphins and perhaps Orcas. We arrived in the dark so it was difficult to tell how beautiful it was, but my what a sight when we woke early the next morning...

We had an early boat trip out to sea, and it was a fantastic clear day and luckly for me the sea was pretty well calm...There is no guarnatee of seeing dolphins but the firm try very hard sending up spotter planes to find the pods. The last few days prior to our visit they had failed to find dolphins, so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best, and my were we in for a treat. We saw a pod of 400 dolphins, truley awesome sight something the camera can't really capture. They had never seen such a large pod. The dolphins kept us entertained for a good hour jumping out of the water and swimming ahead of the boat, the water was so clear we could see the dolphins swimming under the water.

And ok, even with a calm sea I kept myself at the back of the boat trying very hard not to fill a bucket or two...

Gateway to the Ant Artic

So we didn't get enough cold weather naturally so we headed off to the Ant Artic centre in Christchurch which is used as a terminal by the US and other contries to take people to the ant artic.

The ant artic centre had a snow room which went down to -24 degrees, but we braved it even Ju did....although she did hang out in the igloo while the storm hit...

We went on a all terian vehicle which did inclines of 40 degrees doughnuts, and various over exteme activities like jumping gaps over 1.9 metres..

After that we set off to Kaikora for dolphin watching...

Christchurch

Ju wasn't too pleased when she saw the plane, but we all got to Christchurch safe and sound..As for a city it is probably the closest to England we have seen to date. It has a reasonable number of shops, and has buildings made of stone that look older that 20 years. The bottanic gardens were extremly impressive, right bang in the heart of the city. We were expecting it to be pretty cold this far south but in fact it was reasonably warm ( on the Ju scale down to 2 layers )....The sun was out, and the sky was blue. This has been pretty much the state of things for the entire trip, whilst it hasn't be that warm we have had clear skys and it only rained one night.

Ju managed to test out the shops in Christchurch and stumbled upon a designer teddy bear shop and couldn't leave with out buying the Joseph and Emily bear....unlike their real life counterparts shipping is free....

Lake Taupo

Finally left stinky city and headed for Lake Taupo, another thermal resort. But on the way we just had to do one more stinky thermal park. At the thermal wonder park we saw a Gieser errupt at 10:15 exactly...ok it was induced by man, rumour has it early prisoners disovered that when they washed in the warm pool it errupted, due to the soap they were using, so for the last 80 years they have been using soap to reduce the surface tension and make Lady Knox to errupt at exactly 10:15... We then did a tour of the thermal park seeing some amazing sites with pools of varying chemical compounds, one which was a bright green colour...


After leaving the thermal park we headed south west to Lake Taupo, and phew when we got there no stink...We decided to get the most out of another thermal bath we should do some exercise...so we hired some bikes and set off through a forest to Hukka falls....Unfortunatly the path was not that great and little man came off his bike when his wheels locked up on some gravel...So it turned into more of a walk in places...oh well...Anyway coming home we decided to take a new route which meant some steep hills but we eventually made it back home, and for a reward we went to the thermal bath for a good soak....and my was it great. It was outside but the water in the pool was 40 degrees so as long as you were below the water line it was really nice. There was also a couple of nice features, like a warm water fall and warm jets...

For dinner we stumpled upon the prize winner pizza resteraunt in NZ, and third in the world. The pizza's were cooked in proper wooden ovens, and the owner took a load of trouble cooking the pizza's, no Dommino's conveyer here....the pizza's were constantly coming in and out of the oven as he checked the pizza's to see when they were cooked to perfection. The guy had a sense of humour to when it came to naming the pizza's, like Run Bamby Run ( guess the meat topping on that one )...He also managed to make a pizza just for the British Rugby supporters called Barmy Army which had Chips, Roast Meat, Veg and Gravy...

Next day we went to Hamilton, on enroute went to the Volcanic centre. The Volcanic centre had various demonstrations on how earthquakes effective New Zealand, and it doesn't look like much of NZ escapes the effect of eathquakes....I guess the landscape we have seen to date bears that out, there is hardly any part that is really flat...


Arrived in Halilton and stayed in an Airport Motel, was ok but the food in the resteraunt was simply out of this world. The Airport is so tiny its unreal and this little Motel has a great chef working for it, and cause of the 3:1 ratio of NZ dollars to pounds eating out is a complete bargin...

Tomorrow getting the plane Christ Church..

Rotoroa

Arrived in Rotora and my what a smell the Sulphur certainly hits ya...We went to a thermal village and saw them cooking food inside the thermal steam...And my it tasted very good...or perhaps we were just really hungry.....But it was pretty good seeing a real village inside a thermal area, where the ground in places was very warm, and a new whole could appear at any time...


Next day we went to the volcanic valley at that was fantastic it was like stepping back in time to the jurassic period....The walk went through various forests and saw various hot pools.... Pictures from Emily and Joseph's camera...

The house we are staying in is just be the lake, and Joseph had me up at 08:00 canoing on the lake....Ems had a go but wasn't that taken with it...

Whilst it is the winter here it is very clear and crisp and for the most quiet warm, well Ju wouln't go that far, but she has certainly taken off a layer or two by mid day...

The final night we went to a Mauri tribal dinner and concert and it was awesome...Got to understand alot about customers, and best of all for little man the weapons that they use and how they use them... Dinner was cooked traditional way over steam, including steam pudding for desert...

Kids fell asleep but we managed to wake them up to see the glow worms in the forest.


We are now heading off to Taupo another lake side resort, which hopefully doesn't smell...

GPS and the Airport

Well we decided to spend the extra few bucks and have GPS...and as you may have read on previous post eventually we had one that worked....Awesome...well almost...it had a neat feature to take you to the nearest ATM Gas station even Wal mart....

The only thing is it doesn't know if its a safe place, and it took us right into the middle of East LA.....Hmmm made me feel a little bit uncomfortable...but we made it...and eventually got to the airport and our flight to NZ...

We got great seats this time which is cool...and we all slept really well and woke up nice and refreshed in NZ

Universal Studios

Got up early this morning and headed out to IHOP, ( International House of Pancakes ). Joseph was very keen to try true American pancakes...as he does love pancakes for breakfast. Sure enough it did not dissapoint, he had tripple chocolate pancakes and tried nearly all of the syrups...

After leaving IHOP we headed North up to Universal Studio's....The set tour was pretty awesome, a few bits have been added since we last saw it nearly 10 years ago, like bits of the set for Kong, and the set for Desperate house wives, and the 747 crash scene of War of the Worlds ( not the best one to see before a 13 hour flight ).

Joseph really enjoyed the Jurassic park ride, although the poor little man got a big bruise on his back....even after a load of pancakes he is still skin and bone...but he managed to also brave the new ride the Mummy Returns...which I must say was truly awesome although a little bit too quick....Its a rolercoster ride in the dark, as you hurtle inside a tomb...only to discover a series of tiny insects at the bottom, and blasts of air inside the seat give the impression they are actually inside the car....

The special effects theatres are still fantastic, the set of Back Draft and and the Water World show were out of this world. In the Water World show they even crashed a plane in front of you, and for the life of me I couldn't see any wires...

We left the park around 17:00 and checked into the hotel, literally accross the street...The kids gave the Hotel a big thumbs up as the pool was pretty big and heated...

So last true night in the US, before we head off to NZ tomorrow...Catching the 11:15 NZ flight from LAX...

Disney Land

After a trip from hell on the LA freeway we arrived in Anahiem....and Ju couldn't resist going into Disney land that evening....So we had Dinner in downtown Disney and poor Ems had to suffer Mexican food...

Next morning we were up bright and early and off into the Park for 08:00....and in the first two hour or so it was great we managed to do the Jungle cruise, Indiana Jones ride, the new Pirates of the Caribean ride, Haunted house and Splash mountain..And we were just buzzing...Alot of the rides have been updated since we were here last or are just different to Disney land Paris ( They speak English if nothing else, ghosts just arn't scary in french ).

The new pirates ride has Jonny in various places, and the special effects are even more spectacular.

Joseph has stepped up to the plate and tried to keep up with his big sister in tems of rides...He did thunder mountain, Space mountain and the matterhorn..But Ems just had to go one better and in the new California adventure park she went on a massive corkscrew style roller costa with Ju......


After which she returned back to a delightful little girl and had a character lunch with a variety of disney princesses...

The new California park at first glance looks a little lame, but the behind the scenes stuff is pretty cool.. We went to a few shows like Muppets 3D which was really cool, had the two sad gits in the ash trays doing the same old dry jokes.....

On Thursday night we stayed in the park for a mamath 14 hours so we could see the fireworks and my were they great...They had fireworks that produced a 3D image in space, of cubes and of saturn and its rings......

Friday in the park was a chance to redo some of our favorite rides again, before leaving the park at lunch time for a quieter afternoon by the pool. Joseph has been hooked on the Buzz Light Year ride, were you have your own gun and as you move through the ride in your space ship you have to shoot at aliens and you get your own personal score.....Ems just had to do Splash mountain again, so as to try and get her Dad soaked...


All in all a great few days in Disney extremly hard on the feet but loads of fun, and we would really recommend it....

San Diego

Ok, so we haven't updated this blog as often as we would have liked, mainly cause we have been exahausted at the end of every day or had very bad internet connection...Finally we are having an early night so got time to catch up on what we have been up to...

We left Torrance on Sunday morning and headed south to Laguna Beech a great sea side resort on the California cost...Lots of little shops, selling arti stuff.Great waves Ems and Joseph had a great time chasing waves....

In order to reduce the risk of marriage tension we opted for a GPS option with the car, unfortunatly it was more tempermental than our marriage and whilst heading south down the I5 kept loosing signal...but it did manage to get itself sorted in time for us to navigate San Deigo..Fortunatly next morning I did manage to get it swapped out at the local Avis dealership and we have a fully working version now....phew..

We had just two days in San Deigo and decided to do Sea World and the Zoo.. Its been nearly ten years since Ju and myself visited these attractions, and the Zoo doesn't seemed to have changed that much but Sea World is now very commercialised and has rides as well as marine life.

Joseph was blown away by the Orca show...and we decided to have lunch around the pool with the Orca whilst the trainer filled us in on various items of interest.


Ems and Joseph managed to feed dolphins, stroke sharkes and generally get very wet...Even Ju got a good soaking on the white water raft ride....


Next day we headed off to the Zoo, with no doubt the big attraction was the giant panda.. The Zoo is like no other zoo Ive been too, the enclosures are huge....and the habitat inside and around the enclosure is as close as they can get it to the animals natural surroundings. Ems managed to capture on film two tigers fighting, where by one pushed the other off a short cliff...

Like I said the Zoo seemed very plain and simple, its a Zoo no flash gimicks just plain and simple, but its scale is just awesome...

After along day at the Zoo we headed north to Disney Land....