We saw loads of cool stuff on the North Island, check out these photos and you can see it too, but the photos won't do it justice, you'll have to get on a plane and fly halfway around the world for that. Or try heading to the Highlands in scotland, we've been reminded of them alot while we've been here. {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/nz-ni-scenery/}
We've done loads on the North Island. I was impressed with the range of things there was to do. We even got Sharon's mum & Bernard zorbing! {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/nz-ni-activities/}
A brief write up of the last few weeks on the North Island when Joy (Sharon's mum) and Bernard joined us, and our first few days on the South Island. After the Bay of Islands we headed south, went zorbing, saw lots of cool scenery and hundreds of little lambs. We were then joined by Sharon's mum and Bernard and on their first night had a meal in the rotating restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower (the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere). We got fantastic views and could even see our cool little van with her boats on the roof. They've stayed on the roof; the weather's been pretty awful so far.
Since then we have travelled the length of the North Island, revisiting the zorbing, a farm, going blackwater rafting (tubing through under ground rivers) with glow worms. We've seen Angora rabbits on racks being shorn. We've seen volcanoes and buried villages and the Te Papa museum.
After a long and rough ferry ride to the south Island we headed to Kaikora and went on a dolphin swimming experience. Except the dolphins were hiding & we didn't get to see many and stayed dry. Yesterday we drove across the awesome Arthur's Pass and we're now on the west coast, trying to work out whether to Quad bike, go Eco-rafting or just wander up a glacier.
We've got a local phone number: +642102579206 if anyone wants to call us on it.
Internet is scarce and slow, but we'll keep trying to upload photos and blogs when we can.
We've been travelling North from Auckland to the Northlands on the North Island. Even so, this is probably the furthest South I've been. We've been quite busy, but the most exciting day was the Bay of Islands day trip we did where we got to see lots of dolphins. (main text contains photos… 
We arrived on lateish on Monday night at a campsite at the base of Haruru Falls (looks good to paddle with more water) and looked through the leaflets looking at boat rides around the Bay of Islands. 8:30am the next morning we were on one after finding out that the YHA membership gives us a good discount off the full day trip with Kings (the locally owned of the two operators). When we left Piahia the day we gray, but the water was quite calm so our skipper informed us it should be a good day, and it was. Within an hour we'd found a pod of 50 or so dolphins, we couldn't swim with them because they had young dolphins (quite common up here), but they were amazingly playful, jumping out and flipping over and just having fun.
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We followed them for ages just watching them frolick in the water; they looked to be having a whale of a time! NZ has the stricter laws than anywhere else regulating the contact commerical trips have with dolphins, and as a result of that they've got one of the few increasing dolphin populations in the world. When we had to leave them we headed off through the Hole in the Rock, which exactly what the name suggests, a huge natural arch way the boat can (just about) fit through. We also went into a huge cave with water dripping from the roof and shoals of swimming fishies in the sheltered water.
At lunch time (when we need to leave the dolphins alone too) we were dropped off on a beautiful island with a lovely sandy beach. We had snorkel gear, but it being spring here the water hasn't had chance to warm up yet and was a shock after Fiji. One woman saw a few rays, but she'd been living in the arctic for a while so could't feel the cold. The rest of just just sat on the beach and did what one does on a beach: relaxed. After lunch we found the pod of dolphins again and although they were less playful this time, they still surfed the bow wave of the boat quite nicely.
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They still had young with them so we couldn't free swim with them, but the skipper lowered a huge cargo net into the water and allowed us to jump on to that and do a spot of 'boom netting'. The meant we had to hold on to the net while the boat raced along side the dolphins. It was a strange sensation, one guy said he felt like they were fishing for sharks, using us as bait. Unfortunately the dolphins were too fast for the boat and we didn't get to see them too close. We're going to head to Kaikora and go on a dolphin swimming trip there.
We've done lots of other cool stuff too, like seeing the place where the Mauri's declared their independance in 1835 and then changed their mind in 1840 and joined Britain, just when they were about to be invaded by a mad French man. It's a great place New Zealand, and we're hoping to get some paddling in soon. Kim's doing great, and it's great to have a home down here, but it's still quite strange seeing places advertising “Spring Sale, starts October 1st” and such like. But it must be spring; the fields are filled with lambs.
Our priority when we arrived in Auckland was to find a van and we've accomplished our mission. We found Kim in the Backpackers Car Market, she's a Toyota Townace in a rather unflattering shade of bronze. However she's looking beautiful now with the addition of a folding bed and very pretty purple curtains! We've left the city and are en route to the Bay of Islands, hopefully we will get some kayaking in soon before we meet up with my (Sharon's) mum.
Kia Ora, not just a drink of squash, it's hello in Maori. We've arrived in the land of the long white cloud. Our current priority is to find a New Zealand Macy and we may have found one – it's so much easier here than in the States. There's a backpacker car market where people like us in 3 months time go and park a car they want to sell, and then other people, like us now, go and look at a car they want to buy. We've booked a mechanical check on one tomorrow. So we'll know tomorrow afternoon if the one we like is a 'lemon' or not.
Photos from our tour of Viti Levu about the bright green FeeJee Experience bus. {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/feejee-exp/}
Photos of our trip into the Yasawa islands {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/yasawas/}
Our week long tour of the some of the smaller islands in Fiji took us to picture perfect tropical islands, where we ejoyed 'Fiji time'.
I'm writing this sat on a beach on a small mountainous island connected to a neighbouring island by a sandbar only exposed at low tide. It was across this sandbar that the resort staff walked at midnight last night to the next village, where they have a TV that was showing the all important rugby world cup. We didn't see the match since we were already asleep in our woven walled, thatched roof 'Bure' (traditional house) under a mosquito net after a hard day of sitting in hammocks doing nothing.
We're on the island of Waya, our 6th day and 5th beautiful island on our tour of the Yasawa group. The Yasawas are a group of islands towards the Western edge of Fiji, they're only a small part of the 333 islands that make up Fiji, but it's here that most tourists seem to spend their time. Transport between the islands and Viti Levu (the main island with Suva, the capital, and Nadi, the airport) is aboard the Yasawa Flyer, a large yellow catamaran with a purple starfish and 'Awesome Adventures' painted on the side. Awesome Adventures run package trips and sell multi-use passes allowing you to create your own itinerary and hop at will among the islands, which is what we're doing. As the Flyer passes each island a host of smaller boats come out to meet it, pick up supplies and ferry passengers to and from the resorts. Most of the resorts are owned and run by the villages on the islands which is a great boost for the economy of villages that would probably struggle otherwise, but it does mean that the standards vary considerably between resorts. The one common theme between all the resorts we stayed at, even more than the 'Fiji time' concept and the friendly staff, has been the hammocks.
Placed in the shade of coconut palms and often suspended above a white sand beach, the large double hammocks are great – I've finished four books in the last few days as a result of sitting in one. It's been idyllic – lying there listening to the lapping waves and singing birds, rocking gently in the breeze. 'Fiji time' is a concept where you take your time about everything, where you relax rather than rush – I'm sure in a less laid-back country this would be labelled 'faff', but here it's embraced. Everything seems relaxed here, quite a contrast to the 'mainland' as Viti Levu is called, with the exception of the rugby it seems completely cut off from the rest of the world. The current political turmoil resulting form the latest in a string of military coups in Fiji is largely irrelevant outside of the capital and has apparently not affected life on the the islands very much.
Our first stop in the Yasawas was Coral View resort, where we went for a walk up the mountain, following a sunset trail. We decided not to wait and watch the sunset, since the path was steep, not very well defined and we didn't want to get lost in the jungle. The views from the top were still stunning. That evening we had a great buffet meal and were treated to a local dance by the staff, which was followed by the Haka (the Kiwi war dance) and the very similar Fijian counterpart.
I slept very lightly that night, due to the heat, but it did mean that I got to see an awesome sun rise through the dorm window that over-lookied the beach. Once the sun has fully woken itself, and us, up we had a continental breakfast and went snorkeling. The reef wasn't great and we had to share a mask, but we still saw lots of fish. After snorkeling we showered to try and wash the salt off, but since these small islands generally use well water from sources below sea level, the shower was slightly salty too. Slightly cleaner, we jumped back on the boat and then caught another small boat to Gold Coast, our next resort. We were initially booked in there for two nights, but after the staff ignored us and we didn't sleep well, we quickly changed that and headed off to Long Beach as soon as we'd visited the Blue Lagoon.
Long Beach was great and we stayed here two nights. Afternoon tea was run by a lady in the village who baked fresh cakes daily, she had some crazy kids and a equally crazy dog. The dog followed everyone, it walked with us when we walked the length of the long beach and also followed us to church. We were planning on a village visit, but the whole of Fiji has taken to Christianity very well, so everything stops on Sunday and we weren't allowed to go to the village. We were allowed to sit in on their church service (complete with four christenings). It was very similar to a normal church service at home, except it was in Fijian and we couldn't understand it. The singing was great and we were taken around the school after. Despite the fact that the Fijians used their native tongue in church and their daily life, the schooling is in English. It was also interesting to note that the school, along with lots of others, is helped by EU funding.
As we were waiting to leave Long Beach, the weather turned. When we arrived on the islands we tried to hide form the sun but now the tables had turned and the sun was hiding from us.
(Written in the morning of the 24th Sept.)
While I was writing the first part of this update, a local woman was massaging Sharon's back and we were sitting in the shade of coconut palm trees, but soon after that it started raining and continued raining on and off until nightfall, when it started raining on and on.
(Written in the evening of the 24th Sept.)
The next morning, with clear skies, we headed out on a boat ride for some reef snorkeling, this was the highlight of the Yasawas trip. One of the first things we saw after jumping in was a white tipped reef shark – these small sharks are safe to swim with an were fed by the guides. The best fish find came on a deep coral wall we swam along side, there were huge shoals of fish: zebra patterned, bright blue and yellow, large and small, all swimming along happily amongst the sharks and large coral.
We've now arrived back on the mainland and are planning the next few days travel, trying to fend of 'help' from the guys running the hostel who are all independently trying to sell us the tours that make them personally the most commission. We're spending tonight (our 4 year, 5 month anniversary) in some posh accommodation and then we're off to see the rest of the island.
(Written in the evening of the 25th Sept.)
We've now arrived in Fiji, and it's very hot. It was mid twenties (C) this morning when we landed, and that was before sunrise. This afternoon there was a storm and it rained lots, but it stayed hot. We're off island hopping for a week from tomorrow morning and the islands being small tropical ones it'll be beautiful, but we won't be able to tell you about it because they've not got phones or internet. So don't worry if you don't hear from us, we'll just be on a beach somewhere away from technology.