United Blogs

March 2004 - Posts

• Kaikoura

  Well this was it, the day we had been looking forward to all holiday - swimming with the dolphins. The weather was glorious, lovely sunshine and nice and warm. We headed down into town for our 8:30 meeting at the Dolphin Encounter shop. After getting Read More... Posted Monday, March 29, 2004 1:08 AM by james | 4 Comments

• Punakaiki

  Although the location of the Beach Camp motor park was pretty good, we heard the crashing of the waves against the Pancake Rocks (more below) all night, the facilities weren't particularly salubrious and I got bitten 5 or 6 times by sandflies whilst having Read More... Posted Monday, March 29, 2004 1:07 AM by james | 1 Comments

• Franz Josef Glacier

  We woke up in good time to make the check in time for our glacier hike but unfortunately we didn't realise that it was daylight saving overnight and this made us an hour early. How frustrating - missed an extra hour in bed which would have been nice. Read More... Posted Tuesday, March 23, 2004 12:39 AM by james | 4 Comments

• Wanaka

  After the paddling at Milford Sound we jumped back in the van and drove on to Wanaka. In fact to move on from Milford Sound we effectively had to trace our route back about 300km because there is only one way out - back the way you came. We made it into Read More... Posted Monday, March 22, 2004 8:22 PM by james | 0 Comments

• Milford Sound

  After the Shotover Canyon jet boat ride we carried on towards Milford Sound. More beautiful scenery on the trip up around Lake Wakatipu. We stopped for lunch at the Kingfton Flyer Cafe which is at the station for the historic Kingston Flyer steam train. Read More... Posted Monday, March 22, 2004 7:39 PM by james | 3 Comments

• Shotover Canyon

  After leaving Queenstown we headed for Te Anau via the Shotover Canyon. A stop at Shotover provided us with some serious thrills in the shape of the Shotover Jet . This is a boat with two 300hp Buick engines that has a New Zealand designed jet propulsion Read More... Posted Saturday, March 20, 2004 2:21 PM by james | 5 Comments

• Queenstown Part 3

  Today we have been hanging around Queenstown, which has been very pleasant. Had a nice meal in a bar overlooking the lake and then booked some thrill rides for the next few days. Tomorrow we are going on a jet boat trip up the Shotover Canyon and then Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:11 PM by james | 2 Comments

• Queenstown Part 2

  After reaching Queenstown we made our way to another site just past a place called Glenorchy. The road from Queesntown to Glenorchy yielded some of the most amazing views I have ever seen - it was a really nice ride. When we got to Glenorchy however, Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:10 PM by james | 0 Comments

• Queenstown Part 1

  We are now in Queenstown after travelling about 700km down from Christchurch yesterday. I must admit that our first day in NZ was not a particularly happy one as Qantas managed to lose my bag on the short hop from the North Island to the South Island. Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:09 PM by james | 1 Comments

• Holiday stage 1 complete

  Okay so the reason that I haven't posted anything for a while is that we have been preparing for our large holiday. We both managed to get five weeks off work (yippee!) and we headed round the world. Stage 1 (skiing in Vail, Colorado) is now complete. Read More... Posted Monday, March 15, 2004 1:56 PM by james | 0 Comments