Wednesday, Dec. 18th
Piton to Kaikoura
We took the opportunity this morning to repack our car, by this time of going in and out with all our gear, the place got to be a crazy mess. Checked out of the Holiday Park and headed downtown. Got breakfast panini's and tea at the Sea Breeze Cafe.
Our drive out of town we decided to take the scenic route out and around the edge of the peninsula before starting south. This road ended up being much longer then we planned, unexpectedly gravel, and no facilities of any kind along the route. We came very close to running out of gas and were getting very nervous about it.
Finally, once we reached the main highway, we came to a town big enough to have a gas station. We took this opportunity to also stop at a grocery store to load up on food and necessities.
Once we rolled into the wonderful town of Kaikoura and checked into the Top 10 Holiday Park, we headed downtown to the ocean. We took a stroll on on the Peninsula Walk and had a picnic lunch. And later we walked the downtown street, got ice cream cones, then walked on the beach for a bit.
We had dinner at the campground which we made in the kitchen, then spent the rest of our downtime that evening in the lounge watching a movie and using the computer. The rain started to come down and we didn't want to have to be out in it if we didn't have to.
*Really cool discovery... all the campground around New Zealand (which are pretty much all like KOA campgrounds her in the US) have public kitchens, with stoves, fridges, and sometimes a full set of kitchen utensils assailable for use. This really made making "homemade" food easier to accomplish.
*Found out the the power converter that we bought was a really bad one and didn't work for more then 10 minutes with the laptop.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
New Zealand Day 4
Tuesday, Dec. 17th
Tongariro to Picton
We had an early start. Packed up our campsite, ate breakfast, and headed out of the park for Wellington.
On our drive south we stopped in Whanganui because there was a really cool playground/park that we had to investigate. New Zealand seriously has the BEST playgrounds in the world! The tree house was pretty stinking neat!
The highway finally rejoined with HWY 1 and it took us to Wellington.
We had several hours down time before we had to catch our ferry to the South Island. So we walked around the city center, got lunch at this place called Burrito King (we were curious about what Kiwi's though Mexican food tasted like). Then we went for a ride on the Trolley up to the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Took a walk around the gardens for a while, then caught the trolley back down the hill.
The ferry ride we had signed up for over 6 months before our trip (with our car rental) was supposed to be at 2:30pm, but here is when the problem happened. When we got to the check in for the boat they told us that our ride was supposed to be at 9:30am earlier that morning.... We were very unhappy and frustrated with this news. We were never informed that the time had changed on us. They never sent us a time change or confirmation for any time other then the 2:30 time we set up. One would think that if they had to change the time or give us a different time, that they would have given us a later ferry, not moved the time up on us by 5 hours. People plan these trips so far in advance and with such little wiggle room with time that they should think about this. Even when we picked up the car in the first place, they should have checked with us to make sure we saw what times they had us down for. (We spent many hours of our trip fuming about it, talking it out and talking on the phone with the rental agency). What it came down to was that we had to pay for a whole other set of tickets on top of the two rides we had already paid for. They wouldn't pay us back and weren't a bit reasonable with us.
Finally, after paying for the extra tickets we shouldn't have had to pay for and an extra 5 hour wait in Wellington we weren't planning on (which we spent walking around the Te Papa museum), we hopped on the car ferry down to Picton.
Arriving super late (after midnight), we found the camp ground (Picton Top 10 Hiliday Park) and checked into our cabin.
I can't even remember what we ended up doing for dinner that night, as we had just dealt with a ton of craziness with the ferry time change.
Tongariro to Picton
We had an early start. Packed up our campsite, ate breakfast, and headed out of the park for Wellington.
On our drive south we stopped in Whanganui because there was a really cool playground/park that we had to investigate. New Zealand seriously has the BEST playgrounds in the world! The tree house was pretty stinking neat!
The highway finally rejoined with HWY 1 and it took us to Wellington.
We had several hours down time before we had to catch our ferry to the South Island. So we walked around the city center, got lunch at this place called Burrito King (we were curious about what Kiwi's though Mexican food tasted like). Then we went for a ride on the Trolley up to the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Took a walk around the gardens for a while, then caught the trolley back down the hill.
The ferry ride we had signed up for over 6 months before our trip (with our car rental) was supposed to be at 2:30pm, but here is when the problem happened. When we got to the check in for the boat they told us that our ride was supposed to be at 9:30am earlier that morning.... We were very unhappy and frustrated with this news. We were never informed that the time had changed on us. They never sent us a time change or confirmation for any time other then the 2:30 time we set up. One would think that if they had to change the time or give us a different time, that they would have given us a later ferry, not moved the time up on us by 5 hours. People plan these trips so far in advance and with such little wiggle room with time that they should think about this. Even when we picked up the car in the first place, they should have checked with us to make sure we saw what times they had us down for. (We spent many hours of our trip fuming about it, talking it out and talking on the phone with the rental agency). What it came down to was that we had to pay for a whole other set of tickets on top of the two rides we had already paid for. They wouldn't pay us back and weren't a bit reasonable with us.
Finally, after paying for the extra tickets we shouldn't have had to pay for and an extra 5 hour wait in Wellington we weren't planning on (which we spent walking around the Te Papa museum), we hopped on the car ferry down to Picton.
Arriving super late (after midnight), we found the camp ground (Picton Top 10 Hiliday Park) and checked into our cabin.
I can't even remember what we ended up doing for dinner that night, as we had just dealt with a ton of craziness with the ferry time change.
New Zealand Day 3
Monday, Dec. 16th
Tongariro Alpine Crossing
After waking up, eat a camping meal type breakfast, and packing our bags, we headed up the trail to the campground. Finding a spot was easy, we had pretty much every site to pick from. There was a communal cabin with bunk rooms and a kitchen area (prep counters, gas burners, a sink, and tables with benches). There was also a bathroom and we didn't expect to have there either. Kind of a neat place.
Packed peace meal lunch for the trail and headed up the mountain. This hike or "track" is called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Its is considered to be the world's best day hike because of the ever changing terrain of desert, mountain peaks, geothermal activity, lakes, and the alpine forest.
Funny story, with all the research we did for our trip, we couldn't find a form of transportation that could take us from the end of the trail back to the beginning. It would be a two hike if we did the whole thing going out and back. So our plan then, was to go the the lakes on the far side of the peak and then turn around. Once we got up to the top though, we met a man who was actually from California and had at one time lived in Scott's Valley (one town over from where Jaime grew up). He told us about a shuttle service he was going to catch to get back to the trail head and said we would probably be able to join the ride. If not, he so kindly to offer to come back to give us a ride. So, with that in mind we went ahead and hiked the whole track and were fortunate to fins space on the shuttle and the right amount of cash to pay for our ride. God worked that one out for us!
We were so pooped when we got back to our campsite. Ate a dehydrated meal for dinner, which was surprisingly really tasty. Then we had an early bed time.
*Interesting thing we discovered; how far south New Zealand is, the sun didn't seem to go away till really late. It was light out till 10:30, which kind of threw off our sleep schedule, despite the time change and being ahead a day from Cali.
Tongariro Alpine Crossing
After waking up, eat a camping meal type breakfast, and packing our bags, we headed up the trail to the campground. Finding a spot was easy, we had pretty much every site to pick from. There was a communal cabin with bunk rooms and a kitchen area (prep counters, gas burners, a sink, and tables with benches). There was also a bathroom and we didn't expect to have there either. Kind of a neat place.
Packed peace meal lunch for the trail and headed up the mountain. This hike or "track" is called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Its is considered to be the world's best day hike because of the ever changing terrain of desert, mountain peaks, geothermal activity, lakes, and the alpine forest.
Funny story, with all the research we did for our trip, we couldn't find a form of transportation that could take us from the end of the trail back to the beginning. It would be a two hike if we did the whole thing going out and back. So our plan then, was to go the the lakes on the far side of the peak and then turn around. Once we got up to the top though, we met a man who was actually from California and had at one time lived in Scott's Valley (one town over from where Jaime grew up). He told us about a shuttle service he was going to catch to get back to the trail head and said we would probably be able to join the ride. If not, he so kindly to offer to come back to give us a ride. So, with that in mind we went ahead and hiked the whole track and were fortunate to fins space on the shuttle and the right amount of cash to pay for our ride. God worked that one out for us!
We were so pooped when we got back to our campsite. Ate a dehydrated meal for dinner, which was surprisingly really tasty. Then we had an early bed time.
*Interesting thing we discovered; how far south New Zealand is, the sun didn't seem to go away till really late. It was light out till 10:30, which kind of threw off our sleep schedule, despite the time change and being ahead a day from Cali.
New Zealand Day 2
Sunday, Dec. 15th
Auckland to Tongariro
We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, then checked out.
We headed into the city. Our first stop was at the Mt. Eden Crater. This is a small crater in the middle of the city that they have turned into a park. We got a great 360 degree view of Auckland. A pretty big city.
Next we went to the center of down town and took a walk on the main street. We went to Starbucks and purchased our favorite "City Mugs", both a souvenir for us, and Christmas gifts for a few people.
We visited the Elim City church and met a few nice people. Some were impressed that we had just got there the night before, from another country, on vacation and chose to go to church. That's our style though. We didn't want to have to miss church for the whole month while we were gone.
There was still time to adventure a little before we have to start driving, so we went back over to "City Center" to have lunch and walk around a little more. We went to a little pub that had super good food. We also discovered the "REI" of New Zealand, which is called Kathmandu, as well as one other outdoor store that was called Macpac. We also made a big trip to the grocery store, this is how we planned to eat most of our meals for the trip. After we were done in the city, we got in our car and made our way out of town.
We took HWY 1 down to Hamilton, then took a smaller highway down to the West side of Tongariro Natl. Park. We got there super late, had a hard time finding where our campground was supposed to be at. Found out that we turned onto the wrong road in the park and had to turn around in search of where we were supposed to go. Finally found the road which happened to be a gravel road way further out then we expected. Much to our surprise, the campground was further off in the wilderness from the road and we had to hike a mile to get to it. It was already almost 1am at this time, we were really frustrated, and so we pitched our tent in the dirt off the parking lot.
Auckland to Tongariro
We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, then checked out.
We headed into the city. Our first stop was at the Mt. Eden Crater. This is a small crater in the middle of the city that they have turned into a park. We got a great 360 degree view of Auckland. A pretty big city.
Next we went to the center of down town and took a walk on the main street. We went to Starbucks and purchased our favorite "City Mugs", both a souvenir for us, and Christmas gifts for a few people.
We visited the Elim City church and met a few nice people. Some were impressed that we had just got there the night before, from another country, on vacation and chose to go to church. That's our style though. We didn't want to have to miss church for the whole month while we were gone.
There was still time to adventure a little before we have to start driving, so we went back over to "City Center" to have lunch and walk around a little more. We went to a little pub that had super good food. We also discovered the "REI" of New Zealand, which is called Kathmandu, as well as one other outdoor store that was called Macpac. We also made a big trip to the grocery store, this is how we planned to eat most of our meals for the trip. After we were done in the city, we got in our car and made our way out of town.
We took HWY 1 down to Hamilton, then took a smaller highway down to the West side of Tongariro Natl. Park. We got there super late, had a hard time finding where our campground was supposed to be at. Found out that we turned onto the wrong road in the park and had to turn around in search of where we were supposed to go. Finally found the road which happened to be a gravel road way further out then we expected. Much to our surprise, the campground was further off in the wilderness from the road and we had to hike a mile to get to it. It was already almost 1am at this time, we were really frustrated, and so we pitched our tent in the dirt off the parking lot.
New Zealand Day 1
Saturday, Dec. 14th
Air Travel to Auckland
(Essentially this was the 13th to us in the USA)
We flew from LAX airport to Honolulu Intl. Airport. Then continued down to Auckland Intl. Airport.
We arrived at 11pm. rental car shuttle picked us up and took us to get our car. Much to our surprise, the car was a stick shift and I (Jaime) don't know how to drive those. Bummer!
We tried to call the rental car place in the morning, but they informed us that automatic's had to be specially asked for when we set the whole thing up, and that by this time they no longer had anything but stick manuals left. Christmas time means all the Americans have already spoken for them.We were stuck with what we had and that meant that Tim had to do ALL the driving, the whole time :(
NOTE - If any of you plant to go to New Zealand we would defiantly not recommend Apex Rental Service. We actually had a number of issues with them. We have heard that a lot of people have problems with them all the time. I will go into these details as we get to the time they happened.
We stayed our first night at the Auckland Airport Kiwi Hotel. It was really nice. We had our own bathroom, which we weren't expecting. Unfortunatly though, it was really humid and there was no AC, so we had to leave the windows open (which had no screens).
*I have to say, my (Jaime's) first reaction to New Zealand, was how tropical the weather seemed, especially for it being winter.
Air Travel to Auckland
(Essentially this was the 13th to us in the USA)
We flew from LAX airport to Honolulu Intl. Airport. Then continued down to Auckland Intl. Airport.
We arrived at 11pm. rental car shuttle picked us up and took us to get our car. Much to our surprise, the car was a stick shift and I (Jaime) don't know how to drive those. Bummer!
We tried to call the rental car place in the morning, but they informed us that automatic's had to be specially asked for when we set the whole thing up, and that by this time they no longer had anything but stick manuals left. Christmas time means all the Americans have already spoken for them.We were stuck with what we had and that meant that Tim had to do ALL the driving, the whole time :(
NOTE - If any of you plant to go to New Zealand we would defiantly not recommend Apex Rental Service. We actually had a number of issues with them. We have heard that a lot of people have problems with them all the time. I will go into these details as we get to the time they happened.
We stayed our first night at the Auckland Airport Kiwi Hotel. It was really nice. We had our own bathroom, which we weren't expecting. Unfortunatly though, it was really humid and there was no AC, so we had to leave the windows open (which had no screens).
*I have to say, my (Jaime's) first reaction to New Zealand, was how tropical the weather seemed, especially for it being winter.
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