Wild adventures in New Zealand

In 2022 we decided to visit New Zealand, after having to change our plans for visiting due to Covid. The initial plan had been to visit New Zealand and travel around in a motorhome, when we came to look at it again the cheaper option was to fly drive rather than motorhome. Unbeknown to me, Madeleine was also plotting with Jade our Travel Counsellor to get married in Fiji. I knew Fiji was on the itinerary, but not the getting married bit! Although I had proposed several years ago. Unfortunately, when we had been planning to go to New Zealand it closed its border, so we ended up getting married in Mauritius. More about that in another blog. So, 7th February 2023 we flew from Heathrow via America, Jade had explained flights were cheaper going via the US after prices had gone up £1000 per person. So, we went via Newark and San Francisco. When we landed in Auckland, we were delivered to our hotel and the receptionist asked if we had come to see Ed Sheeran. Madeleine and I looked at each other and said ‘No!’ We didn’t know he was there. It didn’t stop us booking tickets for the Saturday night, when in Rome…Auckland actually, but you get my meaning! Ed was brilliant, a great start to our 6-week trip. Unfortunately, we were not aware that Tropical Storm Gabrielle had been forming. By the Tuesday, it was advised to stay indoors. It didn’t stop us going up the Sky Tower the day before it was due, which happened to be Valentines Day, and we certainly felt the effects as the tower was rocking in the wind. Once Gabrielle had moved off, we were scheduled to travel North, going to Cape Reinga the Northern most point of NZ. When I phoned the hotel, the lady told us not to bother, the infrastructure was damaged, and she couldn’t put us up! Now if I’d arranged this myself, I would be panicking but I hadn’t so I sent an email to Jade explaining what had happened. She replied ‘leave it with me’ within 24 hours we had a new schedule and the hotel we were meant to vacate kept the room for us. The following day we picked up our car and set off for our new destination, Rotorua. Rotorua is based on geothermal activity. The smell of sulphur is quite strong in the air. But because of were we where we were able to ‘bomb burst’ to other locations, such as The Bay of Plenty for Madeleine to swim with Dolphins, Waitomo to see Glow Worms in the caves. I think that was one of many highlights, abseiling into the caves 100 metres down also providing us with one of favourite pictures, us dangling off the ropes several metres up. As we headed South, we stopped at various places, Madeleine had found reference to ‘The Forgotten Highway’ which led to a diversion of our planned route. Finding a dead wild pig up on a road sign, with no explanation gave me Deliverance vibes (if you have never seen it, worth a watch). Also coming across signs for ‘The Republic of Whangamomona’ a village that decided several years ago to become a republic as a protest at redrawing of district boundaries. It’s a village you imagine from the colonial days with a pub/hotel and a shop along with houses. If we had time, I would love to have stayed and enjoyed the hospitality. We stayed in Wellington 2 nights before catching the ferry to the South Island. Considering it’s the capital it’s a quiet city, we walked around enjoying the Botanical Gardens and the sights and sounds of the city. I was amazed when we came across the train station for the city, it was so clean and quiet. We then took the ferry across the straits to South Island. The Southern Island is an adventurer’s paradise, the things we did while on South Island I never planned to do: • We parachuted from 16,000ft over Abel Tasman • I luged down several tracks, before… • We para-scended off a mountain in Queenstown • We flew in a helicopter to a glacier at Franz Josef While waiting for our parachute jump, I noticed 2 quotes on the wall of the centre. I found them quite profound, Zig Ziglar has always been able to turn a phrase for motivation as did Doctor David Guy Powers ‘Each day is a new life. Seize it. Live it’ I took a picture of them both. We also took a train to view the scenery across the Southern Alps, unfortunately the weather wasn’t brilliant but the experience of travelling on the train was. The scenery of South Island rivals the Norwegian fjords. Every turn in the road found us saying ‘Wow!’ The scenery is stunning, all the better for seeing Milford Sound on a boat tour of the area. Seeing flora and fauna in its natural habitat, some of the plant life is other worldly. I saw fungus that looked like it was off an alien planet and Kiwi’s the indigenous bird. The six weeks past too quickly and I still think without the cyclone we still didn’t see everything; the country has so much to offer. I would like to go back to see the areas we missed, Coromandel Peninsula and coastline and towns of Gisborne and Napier. I can highly recommend a visit, it may be a once in a lifetime trip, but the Kiwi’s certainly know how to live life from one adrenaline fuel adventure to the next, but you could say that about any holiday, can’t you?