Some of you may have noticed the distinct lack of posts from me lately, well I have an excuse reason for this. I went off traveling in November with my adopted big sister Emma who, like me, has caught the travel bug big time. I posted about this what seems like ages ago now all the way back in January.
In the end we did go with the tour I mentioned with Oz Exposure – The South Island Adventure. We were looking at doing a tour of both islands of New Zealand with Oz Exposure but I was not able to take the 25 days off work to do this, so we decided to do the 10 day South Island Adventure and do our own “mini tour” of the North Islamd. We loved the idea of this as we’d mix the feeling of group “organised” travel with doing our own thing.
Anyway i thought I’d blog about a few highlights of the tour in case any of you were thinking of visiting this absolutely stunning country.
Bay of Island Paihia – The Rock overnight Cruise
A huge highlight for myself and Emma was this overnight cruise around the Bay of Islands. Our group had already been traveling together prior to meeting us and had all spoken very highly of the cruise, so we made sure to include this on the North Island part of our tour.
The Rock is a small, intimate boat which leaves Paihia at 5pm and returns at 3pm the following day. The crew were amongst the friendliest guys we met in New Zealand. They were all very laid back yet professional and often came over and struck up a conversation. This alone was a highlight for me and it made me very proud as most (if not all) of them were British guys working in New Zealand.
We did a range of activities including fishing, scuba-diving, night kayaking, shooting and hiking. I struggled with the scuba-diving a little as it was my first time and the water was freezing! We had dinner on the boat too which was a nice BBQ, unfortunately no one caught any fish big enough to put on which was a shame.
I’d highly recommend going on the Rock if you have time in the Bay of Island, its great value for money as well.
Gourmet Platter – Sea Kayaking at Abel Tasman outside Nelson
This was Emma’s highlight of the whole trip and it was a close second for me to Queenstown. We booked with a company called MSK on their Gourmet Platter day. This involved a guided morning sea kayak around the coastline of the Abel Tasman National Park, it was a little choppy but certainly not bad enough to stop the enjoyment. The scenery around the coastline is stunning and its hard to remember you’re supposed to be kayaking sometimes as you are taking in the views!
We went to a beautiful beach where we stopped for lunch provided by our guide, we were then picking up by a water taxi which turned out to be a cool speedboat, and taken further up the coastline to start our two hour hike back along the coastline. Once again the scenery along the hike was amazing and we were lucky enough to have great weather.
Queenstown – Activity Capital of New Zealand
I was really looking forward to Queenstown before our trip and even more so when Our Trek leader told us that she knew of at least 500 activities to do there. I’d set my heart on doing my first skydive here and along with three other guys from our group, booked with Nzone. This was a fantastic experience and it was made even better by the guys at Nzone who were fun and professional, they gave you an immediate sense of confidence that you were in safe hands. The feeling of freefalling is a weird one to describe and it was a major adrenaline rush, I felt very tired afterwards with the comedown!
The following day I did a Canyon Swing which can only be described as a bungee jump but more extreme! The idea is that you are tied at your back rather than your feet so you can jump off anyway you want. I chose to run and jump off the canyon which was the approximate height of the Statue of Liberty and allowed for about a 6 second freefall. I was actually a lot more nervous about this jump than my skydive as I was in control of my jump. Once again it was a great adrenaline rush but a bit different to the skydive as its over a lot quicker.
Some Tips and Advice
Accommodation – Our accommodation was pre-booked for the first part of our tour which Oz Exposure and aside from two night cruises, we stopped in hostels which were shared single sex dorms. Many people get the wrong impression when you tell then you stopped in a hostel – in reality the hostels in New Zealand are very well looked after and great value for money. When we left our group, Emma and I booked our own hostels and were paying about £20 a night each for a twin room. It is quite basic but in my opinion these are the best way to go if you are on a bit of a budget.
Hostel Bookers – Not just New Zealand but these guys let you book hostels just about anywhere in the world.
New Zealand YHA – Youth Hostel Accommodation with hostels in just about every area of New Zealand
Accents on the Park – Probably the nicest “hostel” I’ve ever stopped in, very friendly and better than most hotels and guesthouses I’ve stopped at in the UK!
Getting Around
For the second part of our trip we hired a car from Christchurch and dropped it off in Auckland where we were flying home from. We got a great deal as we asked for a “relocation” hire. This cost about £17 a day including insurance, the car wasn’t amazing but it drove well and didn’t break down! We hired from Omega.
Tags: msk, new zealand, nzone, oz exposure, queenstown, the rock cruise
May 26th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Hi Paddy, I know what you mean when you say you were looking forward to doing some of the Queenstown activities. When I was in Queenstown, with a friend of mine, in November 2005, I did a tandem paraglide, something I’d never done in my life before – a scary experience but it was great fun. The only thing was, I had bad motion sickness. All I could think of was “God, I hope I don’t throw up over the instructor”! The beautiful scenery of the Remarkables, in Queenstown distracted me and after about 20 minutes of an exciting paraglide, we landed on our tummies, back to earth again.
I went back to New Zealand in September and October last year, 2009, on my own this time and had the best holiday ever. I loved the country and would dearly love to go back there, maybe even live there, if I ever have the opportunity. I loved Wellington, for so many different reasons but the country as a whole is great and I totally fell in love with the place, the people, the scenery, everything.