Category: New Zealand trip (2008-09)

The highlight of the North Island is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – a 17-19km (depending on who you ask) trek across the volcanic Mount Tongariro (and optionally Mount Ngauruhoe for the experienced masochist). A group of us from the Kiwi tour undertook the crossing. We were picked up from our hostel in Taupo at 5:30…

Waitomo is a tiny village in the west whose principal attraction is black water rafting, and it’s a good one. Before we were hurled down into the dark abyss, however, we were treated to the spectacle of rabbit shearing. The rabbits were presumably bred to obtain high quality fibres. Unfortunately for them, their fur traps…

En route from Whitianga to Rotorua we stopped over for a walk around an old gold mining railway track. This involved gingerly making our way through dark tunnels with only my dingy torch between about ten people. Some of our number took a wrong turn before the tunnels and almost missed the bus. Rotorua is…

The first “real” day of the Kiwi Experience tour took us east to Mercury Bay, for sea kayaking and to experience the springs at Hot Water Beach. The latter are unfortunately only available at low tide, and so were skipped. Sea kayaking is a lot of fun, and the location was idyllic. Those on the…

How not to do it. Getting onto the Kiwi Experience bus was straightforward, and our driver guide had the right sort of mix of humour and information that makes the trip interesting. All the organisation (apart from the initial booking) is done en route, via clipboards that are passed around the bus. The driver guide…

I experienced Auckland over the course of three mornings, three evenings and miscellanous parts of the daytime. Nobody actually seems to like it terribly much. My impression is that the city is considered a necessary evil. The CBD is generally adequately endowed with eateries. On my first night, Hong Yul introduced me to a collection…

Dave has arrived in Auckland. Actually I arrived yesterday, but I didn’t bother taking any photos. I did meet up for dinner with Hong Yul, who I’d met at two ASWEC conferences, and we discussed life, the universe and everything. So today, having successfully negotiated a booking with Kiwi Experience for tomorrow (you buy the…