New Zealand - Day 10
So we've been here for just over a week and having loads of fun... so far we've walked a fair bit, snowboarded, skied, bathed in thermal pools and gone swimming/snorkeling with seals.
So since I last wrote, we spent 1 more day in Christchurch before heading to the mountains to get some late season snowboarding in. sinéad gave up on the snowboarding after the first day and found she was much better on skis! The last day we were up the mountains, the weather closed in and it snowed like crazy... was amazing and slightly scary trying to get down the mountain on a 30 seater bus (think the worst irish dirt road covered in snow with a 30 degree incline). fun!
Yesterday saw us drop Oisín's 4x4 back to Christchurch and pick up our rental car. We drove up to Hanmer Springs and tried out the thermal springs - they were wonderful. pools of 38-41 degree pools filled with various minerals (we didn't particularly like the smell of the sulphur pools).
Today, we drove up to Kaikoura and booked into a brand new hostel called 'The Lazy Shag'. It's a nice place to stay with ensuite rooms and good facilties... great kitchen and helpful staff. They got us a great deal on the seal swimming which we did this afternoon. The seal swimming was great fun - started off from the beach and swam out to a rocky island where the seals were sunbathing... they weren't very inclined to check us out in the water but we still got some great views of them up close. really worth doing.
Tomorrow sees us head further north towards picton and nelson (not sure how far we'll get). Hoping to go sea kayaking near the Abel Tasman National Park in the next few days.
Things we've noticed so far:
- Kiwis eat very early in the evening. good luck trying to get dinner after 8.30pm
- The weather can change within a few minutes (from sunshine to snow storms to wind)
- The wind influences the weather big time here (nothwesterlys bring warm weather; southwesterlys tend to bring much colder days)
- So far the vegetarian options have been mostly egg based served with fries - they like they meat and fish here!
- Kiwis are real friendly
- Food is very cheap but soup is dear!!
- it's a 340ms hop to dublin from new zealand (for a internet packet; about 24hrs for a human!)
So since I last wrote, we spent 1 more day in Christchurch before heading to the mountains to get some late season snowboarding in. sinéad gave up on the snowboarding after the first day and found she was much better on skis! The last day we were up the mountains, the weather closed in and it snowed like crazy... was amazing and slightly scary trying to get down the mountain on a 30 seater bus (think the worst irish dirt road covered in snow with a 30 degree incline). fun!
Yesterday saw us drop Oisín's 4x4 back to Christchurch and pick up our rental car. We drove up to Hanmer Springs and tried out the thermal springs - they were wonderful. pools of 38-41 degree pools filled with various minerals (we didn't particularly like the smell of the sulphur pools).
Today, we drove up to Kaikoura and booked into a brand new hostel called 'The Lazy Shag'. It's a nice place to stay with ensuite rooms and good facilties... great kitchen and helpful staff. They got us a great deal on the seal swimming which we did this afternoon. The seal swimming was great fun - started off from the beach and swam out to a rocky island where the seals were sunbathing... they weren't very inclined to check us out in the water but we still got some great views of them up close. really worth doing.
Tomorrow sees us head further north towards picton and nelson (not sure how far we'll get). Hoping to go sea kayaking near the Abel Tasman National Park in the next few days.
Things we've noticed so far:
- Kiwis eat very early in the evening. good luck trying to get dinner after 8.30pm
- The weather can change within a few minutes (from sunshine to snow storms to wind)
- The wind influences the weather big time here (nothwesterlys bring warm weather; southwesterlys tend to bring much colder days)
- So far the vegetarian options have been mostly egg based served with fries - they like they meat and fish here!
- Kiwis are real friendly
- Food is very cheap but soup is dear!!
- it's a 340ms hop to dublin from new zealand (for a internet packet; about 24hrs for a human!)
Comments
Love to you both
mumxxxx