New Zealand

Wow, so we are now in Argentina having spent three weeks in New Zealand and a couple of days in Santiago, Chile. Clearly we’ve been having way too much fun to write! Highlights of New Zealand are many and include, a fab walk in Abel Tasman National Park, a fun night with friends Jj and Marcus in their amazing house near Nelson, each Saturday involved a trip to the local farmers market to pick up supplies and then a rugby game in the evening, not sure how Ed managed it be we ‘coincidently’ ended up in a town with a match each weekend, amazing!

Ed super happy to be at yet another rugby match

The best experience for me for the whole time in NZ had to be the Franz Josef glacier. Ed had been before but was keen to show me how amazing it was. So Wedding gift number 10 (huge thank you to Mike and Sarah) saw us take a scenic helicopter ride up to the glacier –most amazing scenery and I managed to ride shotgun next to the pilot both times. Then we had 2/3 hours hiking on the ice, we got some spikes which simply strapped to the bottom of your boots and away we went, it took a while to get used to the ice, you have to really stomp to get good grip on the ice but once we’d mastered the aggressive cowboyesque march we were on our way. The guide took ten of us on a walk about and we climbed down into a cave and climbed along a canyon. The blues were so incredible I have never seen anything like it. Very excited now to see Perito Moreno in Argentina to compare, I have a new found respect for ice and mountains, not least because I managed to fall into a well! As we were climbing through the ice canyon I managed to put a foot slightly wrong and fell into about 3 feet of ice water, bloody chilly!! Oh well, all fun!

Not the best outfit choice but with only one pair of trousers, things are limited!

Moments before the big fall and one very very wet leg.

Ed climbing deep into the cave.

Driving around New Zealand is spectacular, the scenery is so grand so extreme and beautiful. We likened it to Wales but it’s like Wales on drugs, all beautiful rolling hills or snow topped mountains and lakes an aqua blue I have never seen before.

Some of the nicest scenery was around Queenstown and we had an awesome time on the river there thanks to Neil and wedding gift no.11. Jet boating. We were lucky enough to be on the “Most exciting Jet boat ride in the World”. Fantastic, an exhilarating 30 minutes going at a ridiculous speed in a canyon, we got soaked but it was exhilarating and to be honest we’d had a lovely meal out the night before (with the obligatory vino to accompany it) and so it was a good hangover cure!

Wedding gift number 12 – massive thank you to the Chapmans and the Amos - was a rainy and misty trip to Milford Sound. The day previous it had been clear blue skies but we caught it on a wet and grey day but it all adds to the atmosphere and the waterfalls were in their element.

Gorgeous Milford Sound

Ed manages to 'find himself' in a coffee table book in Auckland!

Another big highlight was our first proper wine tour, we’ve done a couple in Oz and NZ already but this one we took a proper organised mini bus and visited 6 winerys (I think it was six it all got a bit hazy towards the end!) So a ‘iachi da’ to Sion and Ellie (wedding gift 13-not unlucky for us) for the glorious pinot noir, chardonnay, Sav blanc, merlot, Riesling (NZ risesling rocks btw) and a German sounding wine beginning with G that tastes like Turkish delight-an acquired taste.

Ed’s highlight would probably be an evening tour we took to see penguins, courtesy of Paul and Katie and gift no.14. A fun evening where we visited blue and yellow crested penguin colonies, it was fun to watch them waddle to shore to their homes and fight some rabbits on the way, ok there wasn’t much fighting going on but still.

A penguin but not the ones we saw on the tour!

All in all New Zealand passed by in gorgeous scenery, fantastic wine, beautiful weather (on the whole), rugby games, local markets, pit stops at waterfalls, lunch and picnics on beaches, in woods and by lakes it was perfect and probably our favourite time away so far. We were utterly relaxed and enjoyed every second of it. The last two days were a blissful relax on the Coromandel Peninsular which I cannot recommend enough. It was bliss, desolate beaches, islands that have a very similar look to Thailand, beautiful weather, really nice people and it was the most perfect way to end our trip to New Zealand.