From: Ann Sweeney 7th May 2003
Hi Everyone,
Hope you are all well and happy, apologies for only emailing you all now after 3 weeks in New Zealand but its just been all go, travelling from place to place and taking part in so many activities! I’ve been so tired – so thats my excuse up front!!!,
Well, I have to say, New Zealand is so like Ireland, the scenery is absolutely beautiful throughout the North and South Islands, the mountains and the lakes and waterfalls are all stunning. We started off in Auckland in the North Island where we hired a car and drove further up North to the Bay of Islands. We were very good to ourselves as we booked into a hotel for the night – really nice, overlooking the bays, really nice!
The following day, we went to a place called Rotorua. This place absolutely stank of sulphur – exactly like rotten eggs which I couldn’t get used to!!! Here we watched the local people (maoris) perform a little maori concert, really enjoyed it, especially when they did the hacka!!! From here we went to Taupo. This is the main place where you go to do your skydive and needless to say I couldn’t wait to do it!! It was touch and go because of the rain and cloud cover but the weather picked up, thankfully. The skydive was brilliant and I wasn’t one bit nervous. That is, until I was sitting at the edge of the plane. For a second you think – ‘oh my god, what am I doing?’ but you are pushed out of the plane straight away. Your heart skips a beat, but then the worst is over. The view you have over Lake Taupo is amazing and its so worth it all, its a must to do!!,
From here we went to Tuarangi, where we did, (wait for it!) the Tuarangi Crossing! A 16k hike over an active volcano! What I mean by active is you can still see the hot steam coming from the ground and it was still so hot to touch it was amazing. We walked for 7 hours, so we were pretty stiff the following day!!!
From here we went to Wellington. I really liked it here. It’s a great place for going out!!, From Wellington we took a 3 hour ferry over to the South Island. We then went to Nelson where we did a 4 hour walk through Abel Tasman National Park, again very scenic!!!
From here we went to Greymouth where we decided to go horse riding through the bush and rivers. It was great fun, especially when your horse doesn’t like to be at the back of the group, sticks up his head and goes onto auto pilot to get to the front!!
From here we went to Franz Joseph, really enjoyed it here. This is where you can climb the glacier or you could get a helicopter up to the top. Never having been in a helicopter I decided to do it!! It was brillant, got the best views, the glacier was lovely, but very hard to climb in places!!
From here we went to Makararora, a really small place all of 83 people, here we jet boated down the river going fairly fast and doing some 360 degrees turns great fun!!!
From here we arrive in Queenstown. I think my favourite place of all. The scenery was by far the best, beautiful lakes, snow capped mountains, beautiful trees. I would have loved to have gone skiing but they don’t have snow until June. Queenstown was freezing cold and it actually snowed over the mountains while we there, making it even prettier!! We did a full day trip to Milford Sound, a cruise around a glacier, very scenic,
From Queenstown to my very last stop, Churstchurch. It’s a very nice place – especially Cathedral Square. Here I’m just relaxing. At this stage you feel like you’ve done enough. There is just so much to do and see in New Zealand. Now I think I need a holiday in Fiji!!, so tomorrow I fly out of New Zealand to Fiji for 6 days. I’m looking forward to it. Then it’s on to San Fran for 6 days. I can’t believe its so near the end of my travels. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it all.
So now I must go and pack my bag for tomorrow. I’m wrecked and I’m up at 6am to catch my flight.
Well guys, I hope all is well and I shall be seeing you all real soon!!,
all the best,
Ann