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Archive for April, 2009

As we had missed dolphin swimming in the Bay of Islands due to the weather we decided to head to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter so that mum could snorkel in the tropical fish tanks.

The first area you get to is the Antarctic zone with its colony of over 90 penguins.  You can see their snow fields and swim tank which gives great views of the King and Gentoo Penguins playing and feeding.

We left the penguins for now to explore the a replica of Scott’s Antarctic expedition hut.  I then got a bit artistic and managed to draw a cartoon penguin (in competition with all the kids!)

We then headed to the stingray tank to watch the feeding.  The stingrays swam around the keeper as he gave a great talk on how stingrays had a bad press at the moment.  He talked all about the barb of the stingray and how they use it for defence.  Phoebe is the largest stingray weighing over 200kg and has a wingspan of 2 metres!

We then had more time for the penguins and boarded a snowcat which gave us a fantastic fish eye view of the birds as they swim underwater.  The environment is set up so the penguins experience night and day, Antarctic wind, ocean currents and four seasons. After viewing the underwater section the snowcat rounded the corner to give an overview of the white wilderness and the penguins playing with each other.

After seeing the penguins (5 times in total throughout the day!) we headed off to the underwater world which saw sharks and hundreds of fish swim all around us.

The final stop of the day was to allow mum to snorkel with the fish as we watched below through the acrylic tunnel.  After kitting up in a wetsuit mum took the plunge surrounded by extremely large fish, stingrays and eels to swim up and down the fish tank.

More images are available in the gallery HERE

With good weather we decided to head to Piha on the west coast to go for a walk in the ranges.  It would also give mum a chance to see the canyon I worked in as a canyoning instructor.  After a short drive we arrived at Piha and viewed the town from the hill above before heading into the ranges.

The short 40minute walk took us up to the kitekite falls which I regularly abseiled down as part of my job!

We then headed back to Auckland to get ready for a trip up the Sky Tower to the Orbit Restaurant.

Before the meal we got to go up to the observation deck to view the city just as the sun was setting.  We had perfect weather that evening and could clearly see for miles in every direction.

Just as the sun started to set we headed up the tower to the Orbit revolving restaurant.  We were treated to an extremely good meal as night time arrived over the city.  Obviously all the food was good, but the chocolate pudding was by far the best!

More images available in the gallery HERE

We headed up the coast to Pakiri today to have a 1hour horse ride along the beach.

After kitting up with helmets we were each paired up with a suitable horse before heading off through some woodland towards the beach.

After about 10minutes of getting used to the horses we emerged onto the beach and spent 30minutes walking up the coast through the sand and the surf.

We then headed inland through the sand dunes and deep sand drifts which made staying on the horse and getting it to go in the right direction interesting!  At the end of our trip we walked through a deep stream and back to the stables.

After we regained the use of our legs and thighs we drove south a little to watch sunset at Goat island.

More images available in the gallery HERE

After a rest day in Auckland from the first 11 days of mum’s New Zealand travels we headed south on a day trip to the Waitomo Caves.  We booked in on the spellbound cave tour which would take use deep underground into two caves recently filmed by Sir David Attenborough.

The tour would last over 3 hours and with a group size of just 5 people, it gave us a great opportunity to explore the caves and see the glow worms.

The first cave, in the Mangawhitikau gorge, was full of glowworms.  As we walked through the first half of the cave we could see thousands of them with their sticky feeding strands.  Halfway through we boarded a raft and floated down the stream with our lights off.  This allowed us to fully appreciate how many glowworms were in the cave!

After a short rest back out in the open we headed off to our second cave “The Cave of the Spirit”.  This was a well lit cave which showed us all the local cave formations.

After a drive back to Auckland we headed out to a local Thai restaurant for the evening.

More images available in the gallery HERE

After a short rest in Auckland we planned to head up north to the Bay of Islands and to swim with dolphins…..Unfortunately the weather had other plans and we found ourselves faced with severe rain and wind from a local tropical storm.

Although we couldn’t get out to sea we still spend some time exploring the Bay of Islands while basing ourselves at KeriKeri.

Our second day up north was still wet but we planned to drive to the tip of the North island and visit Cape Reinga.  Along the way we stopped at a Kauri factory to explore some amazing products all made from the local Kauri wood (including a carved stairwell).

Further up the coast, and in terrible conditions we came to Cape Reinga and its lighthouse.  It is at this point where the Pacific and the Tasman seas come together in violent collisions.

With the weather not looking like it would improve we retreated back south to Auckland after our 3rd day in Northland.  Along the way we stopped off at Shakespear regional park to view the giant picture frame as well as having a quick go on the luge tracks! (We even spotted some pink sheep!)

More images available in the gallery HERE

With a few months remaining in New Zealand Mum flew out for 2 weeks exploring the North Island.

Day 1 – Auckland

After an early morning arrival we set about entertaining her to quickly convert to New Zealand time and prevent the jet-lag setting in.  A quick exploration on Mount Eden gave an overview of the city before we walked down through the university and down Queen Street.  After lunch (and ice cream) we headed off to the museum for the remainder of the day.

Day 2 – Auckland to Coromandel Peninsular

The start of day 2 saw us leave Auckland on a trip to the Coromandel.  We made our way up the coast from Thames before reaching Coromandel Town for lunch.  At 2pm we visited the Driving Creek Railway to have a 1hr trip up the mountain to see the amazing views.  We then drove over to the east coast of the Coromandel for the first night in the campervan at Hahi holiday park.

Day 3 – Coromandel to Bay of Plenty

We woke early to walk to Cathredral Cove (famous for the stone arch in the second Narnia film).  The 45minute walk at 7am was good fun and we arrived at the cove to find we had it all to ourselves!  After a quick walk around (and getting our feet wet in the incoming tide!) we headed back up the path.   We then headed off down the east coast to explore the Bay of Plenty.  Lunch was on the beach at Mount Manganui before driving down for a night at Ohope beach holiday park.

Day 4 – Bay of Plenty to Napier

Today was the first slightly wet day on the trip which was good as we had a long distance to drive to Napier.  The scenery changed as we came inland from the east coast and headed down to Gisbourne for our lunch stop.  We then carried on down via Hawkes Bay towards our stop at Napier.

Day 5 – Napier (Wine Tasting)

The morning was spent exploring the Art Deco buildings in the centre of Napier before we set off on our Wine Tasting trip around Napier.  We visited 4 wineries along our travels sampling over 30 different wines!

Day 6 – Napier to Rotorua

Following our wine tasting trip we set off from Napier en route to Rotorua via Taupo.  After viewing Lake Taupo from the coastline we made our way to the Honey store for some free samples and then onto view Huka Falls.

After arriving in Rotorua for lunch, we headed out to Hellsgate.  Here we explored the thermal park before having a mud spa and thermal spa!

Day 7 – Rotorua to Auckland

On our last day of Part 1 we headed to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park to explore the geyser and thermal park before heading back to Auckland.

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More images available in the gallery HERE

15,000ft
60 seconds freefall
over 200km/hr

…..Hell Yeah!

We reached the skydive centre about 12.30pm ready to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft!  After looking at the various pictures and videos we chose the type of jump package we wanted – 15,000ft (The highest jump commercially possible) and with a cameraman to jump with us to record our adventures!

Once the technicalities were decided we suited up in the red jumpsuits and met our jump master.  After the plane had been refuelled we walked over and climbed aboard.

After a 20mintue climb to 15,000ft the jump door was opened and we shuffled ourselves to the edge.  A quick smile for the camera and we were off…

After the drone parachute was released I was free to play around in the air as we fell 10,000ft in 60seconds.  A bit of joking around with the camerman and sightseeing was all that was possible in the short time!

After 60 very quick seconds, the parachute was opened.

After a the canopy had fully opened at approximately 4000ft we were able to view the area in relative calm.  You could clearly see the curvature of the earth as well as both sides of the north island.

Once we were closer to the ground we started to have a lot more fun.  Some sharp turns saw us spin near horizontal to the ground before we levelled out for landing.

More images are in the gallery HERE