Waitomo Caves

Thurdsday 29th Feb 2009

The Waitomo caves are situated on the West coast of New Zealands north island just below Hamilton and about a 3hr drive from Auckland. The company there runs caving trips for visitors and they get you all suited and booted so you can tackle the caves, see the glow worms and jump off underground waterfalls.

I got there at 13:00 and was due to go on a cave trip at 14:00 but decided against it when i realised it was $200, I'm not a tight arse but I just thought this was a bit much for what they were offering, (much like many of NZ's attractions) so i left the caves and headed for my sisters in Auckland arriving there around 18:00.

My time in New Plymouth

Sunday 22nd febuary



I Arrived in Picton around 5pm and found a campsite to stay at the owners wanted $36 pn I said to the guy no way and laughed then he started chatting to me in this totally gay voice so i thought Il chat him up a bit see if he can get me into the campsite for any cheaper, I was telling him the usual stuff like where id been where i was going and then all of a sudden he said look you cans stay for $18, I thought bonus it worked then i thought oh shit I hope he ain't put me somewhere near where he stays..... but then a woman walked in and she turned out to be his wife so there was no way that i was going to get chatted up or pulled or anything by some guy thank god for that.
The next morning i got myself sorted with some food and just relaxed until my ferry was due.
After the crossing i hit the road and headed for Waitara near New Plymouth to stay with a friend of the family, Tony McCourt and his wife.I arrived at Tonys on the Tuesday morning. The 2 days i spent there we went out in the fishing boat and i caught my first fish, i managed to catch 3 Snapper and a fish that was about the size of a Salmon but can’t remember its name, We also had 4 or 5 dolphins decide to come and play with the boat as we were cruising along so that was a good experience. At the end of the day the fish got prepared for dinner and that night we all went out in New Plymouth to the Billy Conolly show that was on, it was a good night although Tony’s wife who is from Siberia was struggling to tell what he was saying and the only words she did seem to pick up on were CU*N* and FU*K so i don’t think she really enjoyed it.
The next day we went to Dawson’s Falls but on the way stopped off at an event New Plymouth holds every year called Americarna, its an event where American car lovers can bring there cars along and show them off to all who come along. After seeing some amazing classics we headed off to the water fall and looked about the Taranaki District before heading for home and eating the fish we had all caught the day before. I was dissapointed i neveer got the chance to climb Mt Taranaki which i had planned to do and i never got any shots either due to the low cloud on the summit.

I left Tony’s about 10:30 on the Thursday to make my way to the Waiatomo caves then onto Auckland. I had a really good time here and look forward to visiting them again in the future.

Some random photos of my trip

This is a selection of my favourite photos from my NZ trip

The West coast has to be one of the highlights of my trip even though i done it super quick and it rained torrential the whole time i was there.

I cant really describe how nice it is so IL put a couple of photos on and let you see for yourselves.

Its now Sunday 22nd Feb and I'm waiting for my ferry to the north Island which is tomorrow at

Heli Biking and my last 2 days in Queenstown

Wednesday 18th

I got up at 6:15 so that i could get over to Wanaka (1hr drive) for my Heli Biking, the chopper departed at 09:00 and i was meeting Dan (the Guide and owner of Freeridenz) in Wanaka then heading out to the heliport to catch the chopper. On arrival we sorted out the bikes and gear then Dan and his mate headed of with the bikes so they could be underslung to the start point of the Riding then the chopper would come back for Myself and 2 others that were biking that day.
The Chopper took us up to about 6000ft and the descent would take 2-3 hours. The weather was great ad the views at the top were unreal, the track consisted of Dual single track 4x4 tracks and some grass areas all was good ad the morning went well. After the riding we were all treated to a pub lunch and a beer which went down a treat after the ride.
Dan invited me to go riding with his mates at one of the NZ National DH tracks at a place called Snowpark, i was well up for that in the mean time e had some things to do so he took me to some of his local trails in Wanaka and i played about there for a while until he was sorted. He rang me and i meet him at his house and also met an Irish lad called Rob from Dublin. We headed out to Snow park and rode the track for about 2-3 hours, the course was amazing tight steep long and technical everything you need in a DH track. At the end of the night i stayed at Dan's and Rob went back to his pad.

Thursday 19th

The next day Rob ad i had arranged to head to Coronet peak just outside Quenstown to do some DH riding and Dan with his mates would meet us later. Coronet peak has a chair lift and is open from 11:00 - 19:30 there are 3 courses a 2 intermediate and a real good DH track.
The DH track was a bit cut up after they had held one of the NZ South Island Nationals there the weekend before but it was still good. I tried to jump the canyon or gully jump and had made it but i think i was going to fast and landed way down the bottom of the steep chute and was promptly ejected from my bike as it bottomed out i got up and could not believe i had walked away with only a couple of scratches and a bruised leg, the rest of the day went well i only done the jump once more and just left it the rest of the day as it kind of messed up my head a little.
Dan and his mates turned up and we just stayed till the end of the night on the track then we all said our goodbyes and i headed back to my campsite hoping to see them again in the future.

That night i headed round to Aerons house and had a few beers with him, Eric, and Karen, and just relaxed til about 2am then i headed to bed. I went round to Aerons house in the morning as it was pissing with rain and said goodbye to Karen and Eric and made my way to NZ's West coast.

Queenstown

Well i have spent the last week in Queenstown with a couple of trips to Wanaka and i have had the best time of my trip so far i have been on the drink with 4 Germans who were staying at the same campsite and we went to a drum and bass night and it got a bit messy as we never got back in till 6am but its all good. The the next night we all had a barbe and got pissed again before they all left for the fjords.

I met up with a lad called Aeron who is a friend of a friend. I went round to his Gaff after he invited me which is just 2min from the centre in Queenstown and had a few beers with Aeron, Eric(HisCanadian flat mate) and a girl called Karen who is his best mate from home and was over visiting all of who are sound people.

After a few drinks we headed into the centre of town for a good sesh. We were all drinking the local beers and ended up staying on a beer called Ragglers for most of the night as this was one of the best, it was a real good night and i ended up staying at Aerons place as we had a few more Bevvy's when we all got back to the flat. The next day Aeron had to go to work so I went to Wanaka with Aerons mate Karen i wanted to check out the Heli Biking over there so hung over we both headed out to Wanaka. I loved Wanaka the place is so chilled out its situated right on Wanaka lake and its an awesome place, we wet into the main centre to get some food and chill out then we headed to the lake front and just sat about getting burned of the schorching sun.

I got myself sorted with a Helli bike ride and was well looking forward to the next day. In the late afternoon we headed back to Queenstown with a quick stop in Cardrona to look at NZ's oldest hotel.

Mt Cook trip

New Bit Added

I arrived in Mt cook about 18:00 on friday the 13th,I stopped at a two lakes on the way Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki to grab some quick photos. The weather was rubbish with low cloud and drizzle but the drive over was stil good as the mountains were always in view and the lakes en-route are the brightest blue lakes i've ever seen.




That night i had a look about then found a nice camp area to make home for the next couple of days. After sorting out the camper i headed for a quick walk around the area but with the weather being bad there was not much to see i took a few snaps and kept my fingers crossed that the weather would change for the better the next morning. I went into the Mt Cook Edmund Hillary museum and that was well cool seeing all the old cars, planes sledges and general equiptment they had to use back then, I also got to watch my first 3D movie a movie about how the Mt Cook area was born and flights over the mountain, ice climbing from a 1st erson perspective plus a few other things in the Mt Cook Cinema it was a great movie and spacey as hell it felt like you could actualy grab stuff i was tripping. I never thought 3D movies would be that good but this was amazing. After that i headed to bed. When i woke up the weather was much the same so i decided to go for a walk along the Hokker Valley and see the glacier. The walk along was about a 8 mile return and was easy not many hills but still a good walk.










After my walk the Marco and Andre turned up so we decided to go climbing along the valley for a bit then in the morning we would climb up the muller hut route. That night we just had food and drank beer.

Saturday 14/02/2009
Woke up about 9 and had some brekfast the lads got up a bit later and then we planned the walk half way to the muller hut which is at approx: 1700m we walked to 1318m from approx: 600m. As we were getting ready to go the van next to us started moving back and forth making a squeaking noise, this van was about the size of a rascal van a tiny thing and im sure you can imagine what was going on inside... Then all of a suden the back door opened on its own and everyone in the carpark was laughing there heads off at this couple. The couple just closed the van door and carried on about there business .
The weather had been great all day so i managed to get alot of pictures of Mt cook and the surrounding area. Later that day i said goodbye to the lads for the final time and set a course for Queenstown, this would be my last place before heading up the West coast of both islands and back to Auckland.

Christchurch

My last 2 days thursday 12th and friday 13th in Christchurch were wet ones so no biking got done as they don't let you on the tracks when it rains as it wrecks them so i met up with the marco and andre on the thursday and we just hung out around town. We ended up going to the local leisure centre and going for a swim, jacuzzi, sauna etc and that passed the afternoon, That night they left for Mt cook via Lake Tekapo were they would stay till friday morning. I stayed in Christchurch for one more night hoping to get 1 last days biking in before i left but i woke on te friday morning to the sound of rain smashing of the tin roof of my camper van..Not to worry though as i had a plan B and it was to go to the Antarctic centre and take a look around. I payed $48 to get in which i tried to haggle down cause i thought that was a bit of a rip off but it was either pay it or piss off so i payed it. Once in i thought the place seemed pretty cool i reached the penguin enclosure at feeding time so i was buzzing to see what a penguin was like ( for no real reason i was just wondering how big they were as i had been told they are as big as 5ft) when i saw the penguins they were about 1ft high i was well gutted and they fedding bit was crap so that was a waste of time. I headed of to the storm room, every 30min for about 4min storm conditions are re-created in this room and if your brave enough you can go in and feel what its like to be in a wind and snow storm at -18 this place was ace i had good fun in there everyone else took off when it started getting to cold. After that there was just a few boards up around the place and some musem bits but for $48 i wont do that again. When i came out it was still raining so i decided to head to Mt cook.

Photo Links

This link will take you to all my photos...Enjoy

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mtbdownhiller?feat=email

The first 6 albums are NZ there will be more to follow

Mincing about Christchurch

Just a quickeeeeee!! Went biking the other day and went climbing yesterday, had real good fun at the biking but it was way to hot, i think 35.C... 

Yesterday i went climbing and was there from 10:30  till 19:30 then with the lads it was class we then headed to the pub for burgers and beer later on we all camped up on the mountain...

Today its been raining so im not allowed to ride my bike, the trailbuilders here close the tracks in the wet to stop them getting busted up.....

Off to Mt Cook tomorrow, looking forward to that..

Christchurch and the crazy kraut!!

Been here 2 days now and i love the place it has a really good atmosphere. The mountain bike tracks here are real good lots of different variety down hill tracks from smooth flowing to massive rock drops N gardens.. But i would say that the walk up is a bastard and it takes it out you with the heat and all. 

I'm off Climbing tomorrow with Marco and Andre who i met tonight in town at this really cool Irish bar for a few jars. The weather has been scorching all day so it was nice to have a chilled Speits straight from the pump while siting on the street, they also had an Irish band playing tunes outside so that was good.

Tried calling home again but no one answers??? I take the hint!!

I watched Lord of the rings last night as there was nothing else to do, il be watching the other 2 on the flight home i think.. 

Well my plans for the rest of the week are too oh hold i forgot to tell you!!!

Yesterday when i was chilling in my camper this drunk German guy who was in the next motorhome along from me with his wife came over and stuck his head through the door and started speaking German, i was like look pal i ain't got a clue what your saying I'm English!! anyways he didt care and he just kept on talking, so, i just nodded and smiled. He left, then 2min later came back with leaflets and stuff.. I closed the door after that and headed to bed. In the morning i was cooking my breakfast and who pops his head in..Mr Germany talking all kraut again something about his breakfast so again i nodded and he left. Then he came back again and gave me tins of mackerel and tuna... I deciphered he was flying home in the afternoon and was giving me all his old stuff..... I thought that was nice of him and when he left i carried on with my breakfast. So you would think that was it Ohhh noo!!! he called me over to his camper his wife said helo and he gave me his e-mail and phone number... What a weirdo lol that was the end of it i packed up and made for the hills on the bike.....

Wellington to Picton and onto Kaikoura JUST!!

I got the ferry across from the north to the south Island today at 13:00 i almost never made it though because when i had booked my ferry i never realised but i had booked Picton(south Island) to Wellington(North Island) it only became apparent while i was talking to a Canadian girl and she said that she was getting the afternoon ferry at 13:00 and i said to her no it leaves at 14:00 so one of us was wrong i went and checked my booking and then i realised i had made a mistake. Anyways i phoned the ferry company and they sorted it out for me and i was put on the afternoon ferry leaving at 13:00 to Picton.

The Ferry ride across was good it took about 3hrs and the weather on the north and south was scorching.

I drove down the number 1 highway on the east coast heading for Christchurch its absolutely amazing and beautiful already i can tell I'm going to love the South Island the scenery is amazing. On the way down i passed a seal sanctuary, i have never seen so many seals ever so i took a few photos and drove the rest of the way to Kaikoura where il stay for the night. I'm parked up right on the beach so you can imagine what its like, its dark now so il put some pictures on when i get up in the morning.

Take it easy everyone

P.S i have done a spell check mam, ha ha

Wellington

I got to Wellington on Wedensday the drive down from Napier was long and boring not much to see just barron hills a bit like the moors. It took about 4hrs with a break at Palmerston North, then finally Wellington.I booked in at a youth hostel just on the outskirts of the city centre called Rowena it has off the street parking a big chill out tv lounge, patio, kitchen Internet and much more for $13pn if you have your van or $21 for a room, I get to use all the facilities and took the cheaper option of just sleeping in my van.

Thursday
I headed out on the bike for the day doing a few laps up at makara peak the trails are good but i came off (again) pushing to hard and i think i have broke my other finger on the same hand as the cut one so i need to rest it for a day and see how it goes..

I met 2 lads from Switzerland Marco and Andre who are out here for the climbing in the south Island but travelled up north for a bit and are just staying here for 2 nights before they go back to the south. After a few beers we headed out on the drink as the kiwis are celebrating Whytangi day (the day the signed some treaty with the English) and the city is busy as hell there were live bands on everywhere and almost everyone is dressed up in crazy costumes its class. We were out till about 1am then got some food and headed back to the hostel, they are both sound lads and speak good English which got worse after a few beers, i just had to nod sometimes and smile or laugh when they did, as it got harder to understand them the more they drank HA HA.

Friday
Woke up feeling rough so i got the coffee on the go had a shower after that i met up with the lads and we headed into the city for a Burger 'n' beer at the sports bar. The world 7s rugby tournament is on at the minute in Wellington and all the games are live on tv so we chilled there watching the games and all the people go by in fancy dress, then we headed up the street and just wondered about. The lads are away to catch there ferry to the south island at 18:30 so they had to go, I'm gonna meet up with them in Christchurch and they said they would take me climbing so that will be a good laugh a couple of tinnys and a big stone to climb. I'm heading out on the bike tomorrow first thing then getting the ferry across to the South Island which reminds me i better get it booked... Cya and take it easy everyone.

Wellington is built right by the coast and this is the place where you get the ferry from North to South Islands. The City is quite big but its easy to get about there are plenty of trams buses but to be honest everything is within walking distance.


The place to Mountain bike is up on the makara peak, its about 15min outside the city centre, the riding is quite good with an easy 40min ride to the top and the descents last a couple of min.
There are about 9 tracks in total and about 4 of them are steep and technical. The trails are tight single track with some sheer drops if you come off. The trails are the normal dry terrain but a few of them go under plantation and become rocky and slippy in parts so its refreshing to hit some new terrain even though it was only for a few hundred feet.

Photos

Il update the blogs with photos soon i just aint got round to sorting them..Stay Tuned

Napier and the Eskdale forrest

Was in Napier the last couple of days the place is the Art deco capital after it was destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1950 i think its a cool place on the east coast right next to the beach. I camped at the Top 10 Campsite again and met a guy called stephan from South Africa, he worked in the gold mines and was sound as!! we got bevveyed up and just talked shit like you do when your drunk.
The weather was sound i went up to the Eskdale forest mountain bike tracks and had a blast there.. The tracks are well good and its an easy ride up the road to get to the top.
The Dh tracks are steep and fast technical with some big jumps road gaps and drop offs it's a bit like Ae forest mixed with Hamsterley.

I had a couple off crashes and sliced my left fuck you finger cause i thought it would be alright if i never had my gloves on what a prick iam..Im leaving tomorrow for Wellington and that should be good as the MTB tracks there are supposed to be technical and tight.

Camp "hills have eyes"or "Wolf Creek"

I headed from Rotorua to Napier passing Taupo today, Taupo is beautiful and i wish i could of spent some time there but im on a tight schedule.

Anyways i just wanted to let you all know about this campsite i pulled into.

I pulled off the main road to get to this campsite in the outback i went down a dirt track for about 1km and entered this place that was like something of the hills have eye's or Wolf Creek. There was old 1950s caravans and buses with fat vest wearing peado looking guys in them and dogs running about, i went into the office and some bird came out and she said $12 there are power sites along there but you can go round the back and stay by the river.. I took a quick drive around had some old guy just standing in the middle of the land smiling so i thought fuck this and done a runner, i reckon i would of got murdered like...Im going back tomorrow though to get some pictures of the place just to show you how back to the future and creepy it is, i hope i make it out alive...hahaha