North Island as planned as it's going to be...

North Island plans are a bit looser than South Island, with a few bits still to be confirmed. That said we have an itinerary that will give the journey some shape, as well as building in some great things to do and tying up with some people who we haven't seen for a long time!

As per the 'South Island' post, we arrive back in Wellington and link up with my Auntie Heather. It looks hopeful that we will be going to Kapiti Island with Heather & Denis while we're in Wellington; Kapiti is a wildlife haven with all predators having been eliminated and has the world's largest population of little spotted kiwi (adolescent NZ'ers?).

From Wellington we head North a little way via Cape Egmont and to the Whanganui river. It's here that we'll be canoeing one day and jet boating the next, gaining very different perspectives of the river I am sure. Then it's across to Lake Taupo and the thermal wonderland and glow worm caves of Rotorua, camping by the beach in Papamoa and meeting up with an ex-student and subsequently colleague David Croft. He admits to owing me several beers so that's a "must do"!

From there we make our way North in a nomadic sort of way to Cape Reinga and Karatia at the most Northern tip of the Island before heading South again down to the Bay of Islands where the plan is to meet up with my Uncle David. After a few days there we'll head back towards Auckland where we will say farewell to the camper van and book into some rather nice accommodation at Quay West for four nights before ending our New Zealand tour.

The Earthquake

As followers of this Blog will know, we have plans in place to visit South Island and spend some time in Christchurch; it's also where we are planning to catch the trans-alpine railway from, and where we're due to collect our camper van..... I'm sure that you'll also know that Christchurch has recently been at the centre of a significant earthquake (7.1) and subsequent after shocks (up to 5.4). Reports on the web via news sites and forums give a varied picture, and it is apparent that some areas are severely damaged, others are unscathed. Clearly for anybody losing their home, their possessions or the building that contained their business it was disasterous; it is incredibly fortunate that nobody got killed.

We have been in touch with the companies with whom we have contacts and ALL of them were back up and running within 24 hours and the hotel we're booked in to has not been touched at all. We have been assured that all should be fine, though clearly Christchurch is going to have a few sights that are a bit different than we were expecting!

The plan for South Island is in place.....

Since we last posted we have done some serious work including looking at routes, identifying some 'must dos', and actually commiting to some of the itinerary. It's a careful balance of commitment against freedon - hopefully we've got the balance right.

In the previous post we talked about getting to Christchurch and doing the transalpine rail ride - well that's all booked now, and we've booked the campervan too.... for 43 days with the drop off in Auckland.

Our South Island 24 day tour route sees us leaving Christchurch after four night in the Charlotte Jane hotel and takes us via Mt Cook, Lake Pukaki, Dunedin and Invercargill to Bluff, with a ferry ride to Stewart Island to get as far south as we can (for fellow brits be reminded that going South in NZ means it's getting colder!). Then we have a few days to get to Te Anau where we are booked in on an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound to celebrate Heather's birthday... Then on to Milford Sound and a few days in Queenstown (booked the Gondala ride to an elevated lunch on day 1 and the renowned TSS Earnslaw vintage steamship cruise to dinner at the Colonel's Homestead at Walters Peak on day 2; then we chill....).

After Queenstown we have a few days 'drifting' before we pick up bikes to do a couple of days on the Otago Rail Trail, basing ourselves at Ranfurly but getting transported so that we can do the best bits. After that we pick up the beautiful West coast and head North, taking in the glaciers, Hanmer Springs, Lake Rotoroa and working our way back to the ferry.

We then plan to have a few days in Wellington (Hello Auntie Heather!!) before we embark on our tour of North Island..... we've started to look at that, including a jet boat ride and some canoeing on the Whanganui river (any of the NZ family fancy joining us?) and a pencilled in meeting up with an ex-student and colleague of mine who emigrated a while back.

Next installment will follow once we firm up North Island a bit more.... we're hoping to hear back from my Uncle David and cousin Scott about getting together as they are in the northern part of North Island.....

July and there's (a) little progress....

In May I said we needed to get on with organising the itinerary beyond the flights.... well now we're in mid-July weve actually made a start. Auntie Heather (she's going to love me calling her that!) in NZ has been very helpful, and of course the web's a great resource....

We now have firmed up the first stage of our time in NZ; five days in Wellington with Heather (x2!) and Denis, then the inter-island Ferry to Picton before catching the train to Christchurch. We felt compelled to book into the Charlotte Jane hotel for a few nights in Christchurch (CJ is our grand-daughter) and from there we're looking at taking the trans-alpine train journey to Greymouth and back. We'll probably also pick up the motorhome after our stay in Christchurch..... you can probably tell, we have a fair bit more organising to do! The gaps between updates now needs to shrink.... departure date is not far away.

With four and a half months to go we have sorted all the flights for our BIG holiday to New Zealand. Overnights are booked and the train from Auckland to Wellington. Beyond that we have little sorted..... must get on to it soon.