Tramping

I am off tramping and will possibly not be blogging for over a week as I will be camping up the side of a mountain somewhere. Happy 2009!

Christchurch and Christmas

The botanic gardens

Pip on Christmas Day

The river Avon

In honour of the women who fought for the vote - 3 cheers!

Christchurch buildings




Christchurch - the garden city, more English than an English town. How very true! Christchurch is a lovely, pedestrianised, tree lined, park abundant town on a river - the river Avon no less! There is a very friendly, clean and fresh air about the place and it is a delight to walk around the city, along the river, around the botanic gardens and in the museums. I was a little apprehensive as to what it would be like over Christmas but arriving on Christmas eve if this is as busy as the place gets then it is fabulous - who says Christmas is stressful? Cannot think of anything better than to spend two weeks in a campervan to avoid the build up to Christmas and then spend Christmas itself in a beautiful town, staying in a nice hotel, taking in a few bars on Christmas eve followed by carols at the cathedral - yes, after a few drinks in the bars i was the best carol singer in the cathedral! Chrsitmas day itself was spent watching films on my large flat screen tv in my room, followed by a walk around town and the botanic gardens, where it felt more like a Sunday than Christmas day as there were a lot of people walking around and a few things were still open - including KFC - and then Christmas cake and a few drinks with the other people in the hotel. Boxing day and the sun was blazing, all the shops were back open and it was as if Christmas had never been. Perfect!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - love Pip xx

And back to Auckland

Where does the time go? How can two weeks fly by so so quickly? It feels like yesterday when I was picking up the yellow submarine and now I have to hand her back and no doubt send her out on another joint. Two weeks is just not long enough to do the north island let alone the whole of New Zealand. I went at a very relaxed pace and thoroughly enjoyed everywhere that I went to but I did not get any further south than Taupo so I missed the volcanic national park, though I did catch a glimpse of its snow capped peak whilst in Taupo, and I didn't get to Gimborne or Napier or the capital Wellington. Never mind, perhaps I will come back, or perhaps I will not want to leave the south island once i get there. Off up the skytower to see Auckalnd - it is a lovely sunny day.

Back to Nature

Sparkling sun
Picnic spot

Other beach users

Crashing
Serene

Peaceful

Ahhhhhhhh! Back to the coast! This time the central east coast and up, back and around towards Auckland. Absolutely nothing to rant about here. The scenery is idyllic and peaceful or rugged and fierce depending on where you are. I will never tire of watching the sun sparkle off the sea and when you add in crashing waves and remote spots I think I could just retire here (and now! - oh no, I cannot afford to retire here, not now anyway). There are more towns around this bit of the coast and they are a little bigger than in Northland, and the road skirts the sea a lot closer so it makes for more spectacular driving, but on the downside to this there are not as many remote and isolated spots where you can be the only person on a beach for what seems like miles.

Some of you may be wondering about the diving around here - as I have been. I have spoken to a few dive centres and came very close to going for a dive in the Bay Islands in Northland but the water is currently only 16c and with the offer of a 7mm wetsuit, all hired gear, quite a lengthy boat ride and the image of a manta ray hovering above me still with me I decided not to go. What a whimp! :-)

Heated Earth

The trees get covered in a green algae - yes it is brown in colour
Spurting


Fish pond at the bottom of the garden

Steaming fields

So you want to sell your house, but instead of advertising ' fish pond at the bottom of the garden' you can advertise ' boiling mud pools at bottom of the garden'. Possibly adding in 'steaming holes in the garden' and 'central heating not required'. This is the area inland in central north island - the thermal area. But instead of making the area a national park, i.e. Yellowstone, the Kiwi's build towns and make use of this 'free' resource. At what cost I am not sure, i do not think I would like to live in an area that is so close to the earths core it is seeking an escape or where my child may just happen to fall into a boiling mud pool, or where the smell of sulphur is ever present. But hey, I am a tourist and it makes for a very picteresque if not a little risky area. The thermal area is quite extensive from the Lakes ot Taupo to the Lakes of Rotorua and beyond and in between these two towns there are 'thermal towns', volcanic areas', 'natural hot springs', thermal wonderlands' lots of areas all plying for your NZ$ to go and see the earth at its thinist - not at all like Yellowstone where one national park fee of US$25 will get a car load of people into the park for 7 days. As from my previous post things here are quite expensive and for almost each of the varying 'experiences' there is a cost of about $28 per person - quite steep if you are a family and you want to see a geyser and to swim in a hot pool! Oh dear! Am I ranting? Anyway.......

Waitupo offers a geyser, the Lady Knox and a thermal area with extensive steam pots, mud pools, fumuroles. lakes, rivers and waterfalls, all layed out in three varying length circular walks. The geyer is 'maniulated' to go off on a regular basis - daily at 10:15 - by having a soap like substance dropped down its hole to break the water tension between a cooler hot pool and a lower boiling pool thus making them mix and spurt out of the earth. The geyser flies to about 30m for a short while and then continues to spurt for almost an hour so quite spectacular. However, what are we doing by manipulating the event - the geyser would go off naturally on its own, possibly once every three days, but obvioulsy, far less pradictably. The 3 circular walks were very interesting and the sulphur waterfall was quite pretty - very yellow. If I had not been to Yellowstone then this would have been an amazing experience, as it is, I have been to Yellowstone, and it is far superior in many many ways. Perhaps too much travel is not such a good thing, perhaps our expectations just grow and grow and we are ever more difficult to please.

Waitomo Caves

Caves
If you double click and open this one you can see the glow worm fishing lines

No photos of the glow worms - sorry, you'll have to take my word for it to how amazing they were.

Inland for a little while, and although the weather has been kind, with only a sprinkling of rain and that always in the evenings, today it has decided to throw it down - in buckets! Not a bad day to go underground! I have to say that I am finding things quite expensive out here - compared to not spending anything for the last month +, and compared to Ecuador - and visiting some caves is no exception - NZ$78 for 2 caves (current exchange rate GBP2.75 and US$1.47). But as I am here and as David Attenborough chose to visit these caves I thought what the hell. I have to say that the caves are nothing too spectacular, with the whole process becoming a little too sterile with the concrete walk ways and lighting - okay, so I like things a little more natural and yes I would prefer things that the masses find inaccessible. What was amazing was the glow worms - hundreds of these little creatures living down in the dark with their blue light luminating walls and ceiling of the caves. This was best appreciated at the end of the visit when you get into a boat, and sail out of the cave in complete silence and darkness and just stare straight up and the cave ceiling is like the night sky - amazing.

You know when you are in New Zealand when.....

Standing atop a bluff with almost 360 degree views of the sea you pass comment to the person standing next to you:
"what a most magnificent view"
and the reply:
"yeah, it's a bute init"

Back to the coast

No rush
Some of the coastline

The ocean just draws me to it and so far I like the central west coast better than both coasts in Northland. The road follows the coast more dramatically, there are wider bays and higher cliffs, and the beaches seem to be a little more frequented than in Northland - not that this is always a good thing but as I am on m own I'm not so keen on strolling places all alone. There are plenty of surfers along the beaches and everywhere is pretty well set up with toilets, changing rooms and bbqs. Following the coast south the tarmac soon gave way to dirt and the sign said bendy roads for the next 28kms - I wasn't sure if it was the way I wanted to go but the road looked interesting so I followed it. The road skirted in nad out along the coast the whole 28kms and you could see the sea the whole way with dramatic up up ups and bendy down down downs, not too many places to pull over and take photos but a fantastic drive. Once I was away from the coast but still onthe dirt track I came to a hault behind a man on his motorbike with 3 dogs herding about 200 sheep along the road. He pulled over and asked if I was in a rush - I am not sure what he was going to do with the sheep had i said yes, but as it was I just sat back and watched the dogs at work - though I think the sheep knew where they were going and the roads were built up either side so forwards was pretty much the only way to go.

Central

The luxuries of camping
What a view

Some of the campsites were really busy - not!

No sooner are you talking with the sheep and cows when they change to houses and garages and fast food joints and your quiet one lane country road turns into a hurtling 3 lane motorway - almost in the blink of an eye. To go from North to central you have no other choice than to go via Auckland as Auckland is located in the bottle neck between the two and all traffice is filtered this way. But again, no sooner has the view of the Skytower zoomed past in the distance when the houses start to fade away and the 3 lanes turn to 2 and back to a one lane country road - it took slightly longer than when going north but not quite like driving the M1 out of London! The yellow submarine is easy to drive with good visibility and not too bad fuel consumption and it is certainly a talking point - people keep taking photographs of it (not me) and kids wave as I go by - how quaint. I have seen a few other decorated campers on the road and I thing I like mine the best so far, I am certainly glad I am not driving the one with 3 naked ladies onthe side of it - what would people think!!!!????

Lighthouses, Beaches and trees

Fancy driving on this - 90mile beach
The lighthouse

Say farewell

Amazing dunes

The, almost, most northerly tip of New Zealand is Cape Reinga, and although quite a way to drive to it, has a lovely lighthouse warning off any boats that may be travelling either the Tasman sea or the Pacific. This is also where the Maori believe the souls of their dead move to the next world, and based on the view it would be quite a journey. As is the journey to get to the north tip. Although surrounded by coast the road goes straight up the middle of the land and you barely get a single view of the ocean, which kind of makes when you do see it all the more rewarding. If you were not in a hire car your drive back from the point could be along the beach - 90 mile beach, which is in fact 60 miles long - but due to the beach being relatively narrow and you having to do the drive 2 hours pre or post tide hire companies do not insure you to take the trip - surprising huh! You can visit the beach but I am sure I couldn't see for 60 miles, but it was a very long way and those waves sure do crash in so I wouldn't want to mess up those tide times, hire car or no. The west coast of Northland is just as scenic as the east and takes in cliffs and dunes and beaches and into a forest where the Kauri tree grows. The Kauri tree is the largest tree in NZ and I am not sure how it compares to the giant sequoias in the states but they sure are big - large white trunk with a girth of...........lots!

Northland

Working hard!
So me and the yellow submarine have been hitting the road! From Auckland I headed north, to what sounded like peace, tranquility, beaches, cliffs, few people and few cars. Well, this is New Zealand. Leaving Auckland on a 3 lane motorway, it took about 5 minutes for it to turn to a 2 lane highway and then another 5 minutes to be a normal road, leaving people, habitation, and other cars behind. And turn off this main road and you could drive for miles without seeing another soul - though if you drive for too many miles the road turns to dirt track and you fall into the ocean. The roads do not skirt the ocean as closely as I would have liked but it doesn't take much to turn off a road and head down to a secluded bay, a rocky out crop or a surf beach where, whatever time of day or day of the week there always seems to be someone surfing. The scenery is very 'British' - think Peak district, meets Lake district, meets Scotland meets Cornwall - and if you are not from the UK then it is just very green and hilly. Unlike the UK however there really are not many people around, in a stretch from Auckland, north to 150 -200 miles there is only one city, that is more like a big town and then just small towns or villages and farms. Not so many sheep up here but they are around, along with cattle and vineyards and crops. It is strawberry season so I am eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is also avocado season but I'm not fond of those so they can stay on the tree. I am travelling with a bottle of New Zealand Merlot and when I am comfortably settled in my campsite for the night I sit and look at the scenery and sample a glass of the NZ nectar.

The Yellow Submarine

The yellow submarine
The hippie mobile

The computer is not letting me post photos at the moment, but you must come back at a later date and see a picture of my yellow submarine! It is my campervan, my hippie mobile, my home for the next two weeks. I knew the campers were going to be painted in elaborate fashion but I didn't think I could get one quite so hippie - on one side there is a big yellow submarine and on the other there are the Beatles, sergeant pepper and a big blue genie. I haven't seen any others on the road yet so I am not sure how mine compares but I think it may be marginally better than the other one in the garage, which was covered in winnie the pooh characters - just a little too cute maybe! I will let you know if I get stared at a lot while travelling around - now me and my yellow submarine are going to hit the road jack, hope we don't need any help and I say goodbye and you say hello (okay, so I can't remember too many Beatles tracks at this time but that is no bad thing!). Tutty bye!

Auckland contd.

The meter ran out during my last post! So, back to Auckland, although there really isn't much to say, it is a city and as far as cities go, not all that impressive. The harbour front is a little 'claustrophobic' with just a hint of run downness (is so a word!) and a little grimey. I am, of cause, comparing it all to Sydney so it doesn't really stand much of a chance, and I am still a little tired and out of whack so it really does not stand a chance at all. Auckland does have a good museum, set atop a hill over looking down town and the harbour - which I am sure is lovely but the rain and fog is blocking the view - which has lots of Maori stuff in it and is a great way to spend a few hours out of the rain. I'm sure Auckland has a little more to offer than I am giving it justice for but that's it for me for now, it has served a need and now I am ready to hit the road and see the real New Zealand.

Auckland

It bloody rains in New Zealand! And not just rain, that lovely fine all day drizzle just like in the UK - so this is why all the Brits like NZ, it reminds them of home so much :-) And not just rain but very changeable weather. The day I arrived it must have been in the mid 20s (celsius) which was just great as when your flight lands at 6am and you cannot check into your hotel until 2pm what are you meant to do - go and sleep in the park, obvioulsy! The following day was dry but the temperature had dropped a little and then a day of drizzle. Great for catching up on all those little issues that you need to do even when you are travelling - paperwork, checking bank statements, unblocking credit cards (doh!) and watching 007.

New Zealand

Just when you are fully relaxed, refreshed and pampered you have to get on an aeroplane, or make that 3, and fly long haul across the globe, and over the interntaional date line, and screw up your whole body clock. I am not sure what day of the week it is or what time of the day it is but I am in New Zealand - I can tell as everyone talks funny :-)

Relaxing in Style

Not quite backpacking!
Relaxation

Time for a little relaxation and to treat myself to a few days of luxury - well, I got a free diving trip so I can afford to spend my two week budget in one :-) And what better way to have relaxation and luxury than booking oneself into an all inclusive beach resort, along a stretch of the coast between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Not my usual choice of holiday but when all I want to do is sleep and read I cannot think of anything better than not having to think about anything - other than can I get suntan lotion on my back and which book shall I read next. I was booked into the RIU Santa Fe for 5 nights and it was just what the doctor ordered - a great location with beach and pools, lots of space, a nice room, a sea view and plenty of restaurants and bars to entertain. I am also not one for sitting at a bar in an evening and talking to strangers but in such a safe environment it seemed a very natural thing to do and I met some very intersting and fun people. I am fully relaxed and refreshed and believe even my bruises have now faded to nothing.

Oh yes, I was working!

When I wasn't on my last dive dive dive trip I did manage to do some work - and some! A typical day was long and one that has you constantly on the go, always on your feet and always having to be happy and smiley to serve the guests, with the only reprieve a dive in the afternoon where you could shut out everything and at times be the only person in the ocean as you took your dive between the guests taking theirs. Although the work is hard and continuous the crew are a great bunch of people and you could have a lot of fun throughout the day. Some guests are fun and some not so much, which could make a big difference between having a fantastic trip and having a trip where you just wanted to stay out of all the guests way and not talk to any one of them - which is near on impossible. Am I a natural server? Hell no! Did I manage to do it? Sure! I have learnt a lot about how to deal with people and observed a great number of ways of how other people interact and how people go about trying to get what they want for themselves - and am amazed at how some people just aren't continuously being punched on the nose :-)

Diving

Yes I have been working very hard, yes I have been exhausted, battered and bruised, yes I was on my feet all day for a month and yes I have had to 'serve' other people but I have also been diving and as that is my passion and far more interesting to write about I will cover that first. Great white sharks, sea lions, giant mantas, dolphin, hammerheads, silkies, white tips, silver tips, galapagos sharks, octopus, eels, tuna, kelp, nudibranchs :-) , wrecks, pinnacles, walls, an abundance of fish that unfortunetly I cannot name and diving solo, knowing that I am the only person in the ocean for miles around - all pretty amazing stuff. The great whites was not something that previously I was particularly interested in - I love to dive, not to be put in a cage. But wow! You are still in their environment and everything is still on their terms so it still feels like you are watching nature as it happens rather than nature being made to perform for human enjoyment. But what a natural performance! Such large, majestic animals that come oh so close to the cages which means oh so close to you. You can stand on the back deck of the boat and see the sharks swim by, you can sit eating your lunch and see a great white swim past the window, you get the whole Jaws fin out of the water experience and if you are very lucky you get to see a great white shark breach. Guadalupe is also an area for whale sightings and although not diving with them it is always great to see the tell tale sign of a blow of water and then the undulating body of a shark swim by and the splash of a tail as the whales continue on their way. Dolphins were seen on numerous occasions playing off the bow of the boat or out feeding around the boat and on one occasion the divers in my group got giving a personal performace of four dolphin under the water. The setting was almost like a circus ring - a circluar sandy bottom surrounded by rock and coral and the dolphon would just keep swimming into the 'ring'. There they would lie on their side or their back or their belly and just stop, ensure everyone could see what they were doing and then swim off and play with each other and then back to the ring to perform again. Ever wanted to see a school of hammerhead in the 'blue' of the ocean - no visual reference of wall or reef, just a drift in the ocean with nothing but sun beems breaking the surface and creating spectacular light shows below? No? Why ever not? It is quite an eerie feeling to just drift with the current and then all of a sudden start to see one, no two, no ten, no, how many, hammerhead sharks swim underneath you, a few rather curious, breaking rank and circling the divers and then just contining along their way. I have no idea how many hammerheads where around but the sightings went on for a very long time. And how about swimming with manta rays - manta rays that seem to crave attention and not just one manta ray but four all together and ot just on one dive but to have them waiting for you on your second your third and your fourth dive. Manta rays that approach you and that will stop above you so that they can have their tummy stroked. Oh my! How utterly spectacular. Did I have fun - you bet ya!

Where have I been?

Working and diving on the liveaboard dive boat Nautilus Explorer - see link! My travels have taken me from Ensenada on the northern tip of the Mexican Baja on a five day cage diving trip with the great white sharks, at the Island of Guadalupe, on a 10 day combine Guadalupe shark trip and a motor down the Baja coast diving at Rocas Alijos and Benitos islands along the way, bringing me to the southern tip of the Baja and Cabo San Lucas. From Cabo San Lucas I have done a 7 day sea of Cortez trip and two 9 day Socorro trips to dive with the giant manta. My second Soccoro trip was unplanned and I got to travel aboard the Nautilus as a 'volunteer' rather than as a paid crew member which meant I got to dive dive dive!

Land Legs

HELLO! Pip is back on dry land! Not quite got her land legs and a little cut, bruised, achey and tired but all in a good way. My month stretched out a little longer than anticipated when I found out I could get back on the Nautilus as a volunteer and get to do loads more diving - basically a free dive trip so how could I refuse???? I've had a fabulous time and look forward to telling you all about very soon - once I can find better internet connection and I don't spend over twelve hours sleeping :-)

Blogging Holiday

I am about to leave for Mexico and will be out on the ocean for the next four weeks so I will be taking a blogging holiday, along with a holiday from land, television, cars, and holidaying, as I will be working my butt off. It should be a blast! See you all back here real soon. xx

Viva Las Vegas

Bright lights, towering buildings, cars, fountains, lions, people, the eiffel tower, the statue of liberty, casinos, gambling, shows, food,  nowhere other than Las Vegas.  And as the saying goes,

what happens in Vegas.............

Zion National Park

From Utah to Arizona, and back to Utah, losing an hour and gaining it back at the cross of a state line.  After nearly four weeks of rock, geological wonders and nature at its best it is with some trepidation that we head to another national park - can we really still get excited at more rock?  Well, actually, yes!  It is different rock, it is a different colour, it is a different formation, it is in a different place and it has its very own tale to tell.  The Zion national park has a great set up, due to the large number of visitors and the smaller size of the canyon shuttle buses have been put to use to take you in, around and out of the canyon, stopping at many view points, eating areas and trail heads.  It was great to give the car up for a day, take a shuttle bus and spend the day hiking - emerald pools, hanging gardens, a snake, a tarantula, a river and a very narrow canyon - called the narrows!  Utah rocks!

The Grand Daddy of Rock

From Montana to Arizona, and from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, our road trip takes us to the grand daddy of all things rock.  Our visit took us to the north rim of the grand canyon, where the people are fewer, the rim higher and the landscape more lush and covered in trees, bringing with it many deer, condor and kaibab squirrels.  The views are breath taking, the picnic tables very close to the edge and the sunsets serene.  Again, to repeat myself, beautiful and amazing, truly awesome. 

Bryce Canyon

Oh my! Wow!  So now how do I decide whether Bryce Canyon is better than Yellowstone – I don’t – they are both amazing, very different from one another and both awe inspiring.  The drive takes you along the canyon rim, at an average altitude of 8000ft,  and there are many view points where you can stop and view the hundreds of hoodoos and rock fins that descend from the rim and a view that reaches between 90 and 120 miles into the distance.  The colours sparkle and change with the light and you can just sit and stare and marvel at the view.

Beautiful and Amazing!

It was colder than it looks

Petrified wood

Wood hard!

Heavy feet.

Excuse me for repeating myself but the weather here has been fantastic, amazing blue skies, with temperatures running at up to 15f above average.  Until today!  The temperatures are now running at up to 15f below average – go figure!  Luckily today was a driving day, unluckily we summated a road at 9600ft and were in quite heavy snow – okay, I am British so heavy snow could mean a small fluttering, but this was settling fast and the car was starting to skid – cool!  The drive was an up and over so we drove into it and then back out of it – phew!  Here’s hoping the snow does not drop to lower altitudes tomorrow.  Even though it was a driving day we still managed to stop ad look at a petrified forest – more beautiful and amazing sights, if a little muddy.