Overview

Hong Kong was a bit of a shock to the system after 11 weeks in New Zealand.  The city is pretty crazy, very densely populated and extremely polluted.  The smog destroys all views of the skyline and surrounding mountains, which is a shame.  The people weren't particularly friendly in our experience and we were both getting annoyed with people trying to flog us made to measure suits and shirts on the streets of the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Kowloon (where we were staying).  The contrast between rich and poor is extreme.  At one end of the scale there is a vast range of exclusive designer stores in a number of huge shopping centres; at the other end, there is a number of local street markets where you can pick up gifts, nick-nacks and other goods for next to nothing. 

This might all sound fairly negative (probably exasperated by the jet-lag we're both suffering from) but we did still enjoy our three days there.  We visited Victoria Peak to see the smoggy skyline, we saw the nightly sound and light show in which Hong Kong's buildings come to life with lights and lasers synchronised to music and commentary, we did lots of shopping, we ate LOTS of dim sum, we saw the biggest statue of a sitting buddha in the world and we enjoyed the facilities of 2 posh hotels.  Not bad for a flying visit.

Well, that brings our travels to an end and wraps up this blog of our experiences.  We've had lots and lots of fun these past three months and are sad that it's all over.  However, we are very much looking forward to the Christmas period and catching up with family and friends.  Oh, and next year we have our wedding to plan and another London marathon to train for which should keep us pretty busy!

Thanks for reading.  Until next time...  Tom & Elle  x

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Well, we're back in Auckland and our trip is drawing to a close.  We're sad to be leaving New Zealand but excited to be heading to Hong Kong for a few days.  To end our trip with a bang (a splash really...) we decided to go canyoning again.  This time we headed over to Piha beach and the nearby canyon and Kitekite river.  We abseiled down 4 big waterfalls, squeezed through small holes in the rock, crawled, scrambled and swam through the river, and leaped into deep rock pools from great heights.  So much fun!  It's a shame the UK is not known for it's canyons, otherwise we'd love to do this again and again.

Our last night out was on the Waterfront at Viaduct Harbour.  We went to the Mecca restaurant and ate copious amounts of food and drank enough wine to keep the Marlborough vinyards in business for a month.  'Sweet as!' (as they would say here)...

Our final excursion was to Kelly Tarlton's Antartic and Underwater world where we saw a real mix of sharks, sting rays, big fish, little fish, penguins, the list goes on...  Although not as inspiring as diving with them in the wild, the centre was really interesting and provided some great underwater views that could not normally be seen.

Now we wait to head to the airport.  Next stop Hong Kong.  See you all soon...  Tom & Elle x

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We've found the place we would most like to live in New Zealand (not that we will be leaving the UK any time soon).  The Bay of Islands is in the winterless North and is a beautiful spot.  The sun was out and it was hot for the majority of the two weeks we were there and we've picked up a tan to prove it.  We stayed in Paihia, which, although a little touristy, is a small, quiet and pretty village right on the water.  Our hostel had views of the Bay and out to some of the 150 islands beyond.  A perfect place to unwind after all of our travelling and put our feet up.

We took a tour to visit Cape Reinga - the northernmost tip - and the 90 mile beach - a beach that is (strangely) 64 miles in length which is also a state highway!  On the way we visited a Kauri forest.  The NZ Kauri trees are the second largest in the world and were just huge!  The ones we saw were apparently tiddlers in comparison to others that stand and yet more that have since been cut or have fallen down.  From Cape Reinga we could see the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet.  The two masses of water differing in colours and clashing in front of us.  A pretty awesome sight that must be even more impressive when the seas are rough.  We then tried our hand at body-boarding down sand dunes that must have been about 30 metres high.  Great fun!  By the second attempt we had mastered it enough to avoid getting a mouthful of sand when flipping over at the bottom.  Our bus then cruised along the beach giving us some great views and photo opportunities.

We tried in vain to swim with dolphins.  Our Day in The Bay trip was great fun and we spotted a pod of around 50 dolphins that played around the boat for 30 minutes and performed some spectacular jumps and flips that were a nightmare to try and take pictures of!  Unfortunately the pod included some youngsters that precluded us from getting in the water with them.  Never mind - this gives us another reason to come back.  The rest of the day was spent soaking up the sun on one of the islands and being dragged through the water in a large boom net(!)  We must have swallowed enough salt water to float a boat but it was good fun.

During the next week we went scuba diving.  Tom completed his PADI Open Water diving course and Elle completed a refresher course.  We dived a total of 6 sites in the Bay and up near the Cavalli Islands where we explored the Rainbow Warrier - the original Greenpeace ship that was sabotaged in NZ waters by the French back in the '80s.  It was very eery exploring the ship which was laid to rest near the Cavalli Islands about 20 years ago.  Since that time it has turned into an artificial reef so there was loads of aquatic life to see.  During the dives we saw a stingray, loads of fish (big and small), crayfish, a moray eel, the list goes on...  We've both caught the scuba diving bug and will definitely be continuing back home and around the world on future trips.  The freedom of exploring underwater is hard to describe and is just something else

Next stop Auckland again and then homeward bound via Hong Kong.  Tom & Elle  x

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We've made it to Auckland!  Phew!  Time to put our feet up and relax for the last 3 weeks of our holiday.  We spent nearly a week in NZ's largest city, including a weekend in luxury at a posh hotel to celebrate my 29th birthday.  It was nice to have a break from backpacking to enjoy a huge comfy bedroom and meals out every night.  We ate at the Skytower's Orbit restaurant and soaked up some amazing views and our fair share of wine.

One weekend was enough relaxing for us.  The next few days we spent hiking around some of Aucklands suburbs and islands off the coast.  We walked to the summit of Mt Victoria, Devonport, and Rangitoto Island, both extinct volcanoes.  Despite some nasty weather catching up with us, the rain didn't completely spoil the views of the city skyline and harbour.  The scenery on Rangitoto was really interesting as it's the newest of Auckland's 48 volcanoes - lots of pummice, volcanic rock and lava caves.

Auckland's harbour bridge is a dominant part of the harbour scenery.  We decided to walk under and over it on an organised trip.  The bridge climb was deceptively high and pretty nerve wracking in places, but the challenge was a good one and the views from the top were great.  We also saw someone bungy jump from the pod underneath the bridge.  Looked lots of fun but it was less than 1/3 the height of the Nevis jump, so we decided once was enough (for now)...

Canyoning.  What exactly is canyoning?  Well, it involves starting at the top of a canyon and climbing, jumping, scrambling, abseiling, sliding and doing whatever it takes to get down stream to the bottom.  Awesome!  We tried canyoning at the Blue Canyon near Auckland and had an excellent time.  Highlights included:  forward flipping off high jumps into rock pools, sliding backwards head-first down a waterfall and abseiling down bigger waterfalls.  Classic outdoors Kiwi-style fun.  If we have time we will be doing this again!

That's it for this visit to Auckland.  We'll be back for a couple of days in 2 weeks.  Next up - the Bay of Islands to learn to dive and relax on the beach for a fortnight...   Tom & Elle  x

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A must do activity for anyone visiting the North Island is a trip into the Waitomo Caves.  We chose to do the longest trip possible with lots of variety - the Lost World Epic 7-hour trip - run by Waitomo Adventures.  Wetsuits, hard hats and specially designed gum boots had to be worn.  Once geared up, our journey into the Lost World began with a 100m abseil into the cave entrance.  The difference in temparatures meant we were lowering ourselves into a misty crevace, decorated with shrubs, moss and other greenery that truly made it feel like we were entering a lost world (I guess that's how the name came about).  After a relaxed 30 minute descent we perched in the cave entrance, by the river that runs through it, and tucked into our picnic lunch.   A large eel poked his head out of the river, so we obliged and fed it some ham from our sandwiches and petted it. (We subsequently tried to forget that lots of eels live in this river, as we spent a lot of time in it up to our necks...)

After lunch, the caving began.  The first 30 minutes involved rock hopping into the cave, squeezing through a couple of tight spots to get through.  We then began following the river up stream, walking, crawling, swimming and at points pulling ourselves through the water against its flow.  To get our adreneling going, we turned out our lights and jumped one by one through a small black hole into a pool of water below.  We climbed up waterfalls, traversed rock edges and jumped from high ledges into more deep pools.  We were treated to a galaxy of glow worms in some of the huge caverns we travelled through and saw oyster fossils and whale bones embedded into the limestone walls.  After 4-5 hours underground we made it out and went back to base for a well desrved bbq.  Loads of fun!  The guides were great throughout.

Next stop Auckland then the Bay of Islands...    Tom & Elle x

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Taupo and Rotorua are smack bang in the middle of one of the world's most active geothermal regions.  In fact, when the wind is right you can smell rotten eggs (i.e. sulphur) from throughout Rotorua.  Great news for tourists as this means volcanoes, hot springs, boiling mud, sulphur pools and numerous thermal areas offering a vast palette of colours and lots of other-worldly sights.  We spent a good few days touring the best of them, visiting Craters of The Moon and Wai-o-tapu Geothermal Wonderland, plus a couple of relaxing hot springs. (We've now figured out how to post photos, so we've stuck in a couple of snaps).

With the sun now starting to get hotter with Summer round the corner, we wanted to get wet.  What better way than white water rafting.  We spent a day rafting down the Tongariro river - a beautifully clear mountain river starting on Mt Tongariro - covering around 60 rapids in all.  Great fun - we're definitely going to do this again if we can.  And yes we got very wet.

As we enter the last month of our travels we realise we haven't yet got up close and personal with NZ's most famous export.  Yep - sheep.  To fix the situation we paid a visit to Rotorua's world famous sheep show.  The show was actually very entertaining and is probably the first time I've ever seen 19 sheep line up and three sheep dogs jump from sheep to sheep on their backs.  Oh, and it's definitely the first time that Elle has milked a cow (on stage, in front of a large audience). 

To wrap up the week, with the sun still blazing, we spent today on the beach soaking up some rays and browning up our pasty white bodies.  Unfortunately the surf was definitely not up dude, so we had to postpone surfing lessons to another week...  Until next time...   Tom and Elle  x

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The day after the Tongariro Crossing, we drove to the nearby Lake Taupo - the skydiving capital of New Zealand (and the world apparently).  The weather was glorious so I decided what better way to enjoy the scenic views than whilst hurtling at over 200 km/p/h towards the ground.  Brilliant.  After suiting up and meeting my 'Jump Master' - the guy strapped behind me who would kindly be operating the chute - and the 'Camera Guy' - funnily enough, the guy with a camera strapped to his helmet who would kindly be filming the whole experience - I was loaded up into a small shell of a plane with my fellow jumpers.  The trip up was surprisingly quick and before I knew it I was dangling out of the door staring past my feet and 15,000ft down to the Lake and town below.  At this point I was told to smile at the camera.  I managed more of a wide-eyed look of pain and anguish.  Then we dropped.  After the first second of stomach turning aaaaaaaggghhhhh, my senses kicked back to life and I absolutely loved the feeling of freefall.  The camera guy dropped into view and he grabbed my arm and spun us round.  He then dropped below us and turned onto his back so he was facing us.  This guy was about 2 foot below me as we were hurtling towards the ground and my Jump Master and he were grabbing each other and spinning us round some more.  Unbelievable!  66 seconds later our chute opened and the brakes applied.  I was allowed to steer us back home, doing some tight spirals as we dropped downwards.  He took over the controls and landed us softly and safely.  Awesome!

The whole experience was fantastic and the rush is just impossible to describe.  For those that ever have the opportunity to do this - DO IT!  You will not regret it.  (If in Taupo, I went with Taupo Tandem Skydiving, who were really great - professional and providing fantastic film and photos).

Tom

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