The End of New Zealand!

Oh my god! I haven't written in about 6 weeks!! So I am going to have to pick out a few key moments I think to save this being EPIC!

So we are still in New Zealand (pretend) and have been to Dunedin. This town on the East Coast was a little disappointing after the beauty and 'small-townness' of the West. Although a high point is our hostel room, which is decorated like your nan's spare room - frilly and with some kind of woodland fairy themed wallpaper!

We spent a lot of time doing nothing in Dunedin - one day we drove to a castle to decide the entry fee was too pricey, followed by a drive to see penguins - which weren't going to be ashore for another 7 hours, followed by a drive to a small village (which was supposed to be artsy) but was mainly a bit run down and closing up for the day! We did get to go to a brewery, where our tour guide seemed to be a tad racist. My favourite quote being "you Japanese should learn to speak English". We did get to pour our own beer - oh wait I used to work in a pub so that isn't that interesting! And we went to some Chinese gardens, built by real Chinese people don't you know.

Next we head to Christchurch - stopping at some 'famous' boulders on the way. You might have heard of them? The Moeraki Boulders. They are round because of the way the tide works. Here's how I felt about that.

In Christchurch we do lots of lovely things including visiting the rose garden at the Botanical Gardens, visiting the Cathedral and shopping in the cute crafts markets on the square and at the arts centre for Christmas pressies. We also tried to sell our camping gear and got offered a total of $8 at a second-hand store. Erm no thanks, I'd rather give it to charity! Christchurch is still suffering from aftershocks of the earthquake but we didn't particularly feel anything but the major damage caused can still be seen outside the city with some buildings completely fallen and a few roads closed for maintenance. 

Oh and we had a pre-birthday celebration for Duncan which involved lots of alcohol, pizza, cake and Blue Steel.... here is Duncan's 'blowing out a candle blue steel'

Good-o. So off we then head to Akaroa. Akaroa is just south of Christchurch and is the first and possibly only French settlement in New Zealand. The area still maintains a vague French feel to attract us lovely tourist types. It is actually a very pretty area with lots of lovely shops to meander around. At this point we were supposed to be kayaking with dolphins but my nanna died so I didn't really feel up for it. We did enjoy this beautiful view of Akaroa from our campsite though :)

We now do a crazy drive up to Marlborough wine region (stopping to see some seals on the way). We have to drive there and then back to Christchurch as this is where we will leave our car before transferring a campervan for free to Auckland to catch our flight. Anyways, so we drive for hours to get to Marlborough where we camp just under a railway line, that transports cargo, at night. Ace. The next day we do a tour of the wineries. The prices are coming in at about $120 for a guided afternoon tour and us being Northern I decide to drive it and use the saved money to buy wine instead! By the time we have finished sampling all the wines in the second winery, my 'only taste 2 wines per winery' limit having gone out of the window due to the most delicious Pinot Gris and Dessert Wine ever! oops. Time for some lunch then... we finish our self-guided wine tour a few hours later, luckily with me actually sober again and a few nice wines to keep us company over the coming days. 

Back on the ridiculously long drive to Christchurch, swap car (bye bye car) for camper (hello luxury) and drive BACK up through Marlborough to Picton (and some freedom camping - at last) before getting the ferry back to the North Island and another full-day drive to Waitomo.

Driving the Camper! - it is HUGE

We are at Waitomo, which is where everyone comes to see the glowworm caves. It is also Duncan's birthday! All together now... Happy Birthday to yooouuu...

We choose to go in a dry boat into the caves to see the glowworms and choose to go with the company that David Attenborough goes with when he films his documentary's - Spellbound! And man are we spellbound, sorry. Our tour guide is really great - funny and informative about rocks and glowworms without being ridiculously geeky! We firstly go to see the glowworms cave. It takes a while for the eyes to adjust to the dark so we take turns introducing ourselves with a funny fact. I can only think of 'Hi I am Annabell and I can quack like a duck'. Great. So in we go to the cave where we get to learn about the mucus and killing nature of the glowworms but once you get in the boat and the lights are off the cave is so beautiful with the little buggers you forget how gross they are! Everyone suddenly becomes quiet and is just in awe of the pretty lights and reflection on the water. (I accidentally turn my head lamp on half way through and may have ruined the moment - oops).

Duncan getting ready to go caving (we are working on his smile with teeth pose)

Going caving!

The only picture we got where you can sort of see glowworms - these are the dangling mucus the worms use to catch the bugs in the cave.

We then move onto a dry cave which has lots of examples of stalagmites, stalactites and erosion, plus a dead bird that is now extinct (probably cause they kept falling into caves) and also the cathedral cavern which is awesome for singing in - so we all sing happy birthday to Duncan and I accidentally forget to hit record on the camera. duh. 

It's been a great day and when we get back to the campsite we have even more good news. The tickets I had requested to the 'Christmas Carols in the Caves' concert had become available! These tickets are apparently harder to get than tickets to see Michael Jackson. Luckily we have a cancellation and down to the Waitomo-proper caves we go for a beautiful evening. My favourite song had to be A New Zealand Chrsitmas which I think went a bit like 

...something something snow

well that's ok if you're an eskimo

but we don't freeze 

buying Christmas tree's

and we wish you a New Zealand Christmas'!

The night finished just perfect with a candlelit Silent Night. Perfect.

We now only have a day and night left in New Zealand which will be spent at the airport - if I can ever find the place anyway! haha.

BYE BYE NEW ZEALAND!

I leave you with pictures of Duncan and me in bed (apparently sex sells and man are we sexy.....)