Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park

the Backseat gang !

River runing through Murchison Mountains.

Murchison Mountains.

Murchison Mountains.

The Bikers !

Murchison Mountains.

Murchison Mountains.

on the Homer tunnel down hill ride !

We biked down to the Sound, and took a boat cruise on the water, the only way to fully see the scenery, really amazing and totally un-photographable, brilliant weather too, considering this is the wettest place in NZ, We had great sunshine !

Me Aniss and Paddy After the 12k downhill !

Mitre Peak - Muilford Sound

Sounds good !

Milford Sound

Carol, Cat and Jenna

On the Milford Sound !

Jp and Paddy...Arch enemies !

Waterfall

written by  tomrendell on February 23, 2007 from Te Anau, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand
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The Start !

Hollyford Valley

we stayed in these huts that were just concrete tents ! we had to carry everything, sleeping bags, gas cookers, food you name it we carried it !!

the best waterfall yet !

Me at the Darran Mountains

Everyone looked the part, apart from Paddy who looked like he was running away from home rather than going hiking for three days !

Amazing view of the Darran Mountains

Lake Mackenzie Hut

got some guy who I passed at this 80 meter waterfall to take my photo !

Reached my hut chilled out !

In the morning it was lashing it down with rain, I just waited around for the others to catch me up who stayed in the previous hut, they were pretty wet, but we set off...loads of mist and humidity but no more rain for now...So hiring that Gore-tex jacket was a waste of time !!

Jenna on the track

Me @ the waterfall

Hollyford Valley

Crossing the waterfall

We reached the hut !!

Spent the night in another hut, with only a 2 hour walk the following morning to finish off !

had a really good laugh in the hut all huddled round the fire ! trying to burn all our rubbish as we had to carry everything out of the route, so our bags were starting to stink !

Clear Skies

Morning glory

Final day greeted us with awesome sunshine from daybreak, although it was still a bit cool until mid-morning !

Bridal Veil Stream

The sun rises over Routeburn Gorge

The Final Morning

The Finishing Post

written by  tomrendell on February 26, 2007 from Te Anau, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand
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The Day before we got frosty with the Ice Glacier, we visited a small place called Hasst, a the town was a right dive, I biked into to town with Paddy and Aniss, cycling over 50 miles to get there....before that we visited the blue pools, an idyllic spot off the beaten track and had a stone skimming contest....

A bridge too far

En route to the Glacier

The we left the town as quick as possible and went to the beach, the weirdest beach ever, so strewn with an unbelievable amount drift wood it looked like some sort of mahogany apocalypse, enough tree trunks and logs to build 20 houses...Paddys bright idea was to take it all back to Ireland and sell it...

Rolled on into the town of Fox, to visit the Glacier, we walked 2 hours through some of the temperate rain forest to get to a spot where the Glacier is assessable, its one of only 2 places on earth where there is a Glacier accessible to the public like this, and the only place it is surrounded by rain forest !

The Fox Glacier

Ice cold !

The Boys... on the rocks !

Flying Kiwi on ice

the dirt you can see on the ice, is Stone and rock that is ground into a fine dust by the ice as it moves slowly but unstoppably through the valley...

Top of the Glacier

saw the Pancake rocks...and did a mountain bike trail with Dagmar...we rode up through a track in the forest to a place called Cave Canyon...one of the most unbelievable sights I've seen this trip...

The canyon was deep down beneath two sides of the valley, and only fills up during a flood, so it was a dry river bed, that had become overgrown with some of the stunning flora and fauna from the surrounding forest. it was cold as it was shaded from the sun, so even on a red hot day we could see our breath in the air..the place was errie and very mysterious..could easily have been used in a film...there was a plaque warning that 10 people drowned here 12 years before from the flood water raging through the caves then into the canyon...so we didn't hang around too long...

written by  tomrendell on March 4, 2007 from Punakaiki, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand
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Appletree bay

Close up

Arrived at a camp site just outside of Abel Tasmen Nt park, ideal place...called Old MacDonald's farm...cycled the 40k into the camp with my biking buddies for the last time...we arrived hot and sweaty and jumped right into the river to cool down !

played volley ball in the evening until the sun went down! Oliver had my in stitches with his usual French laugh and stupid jokes while we were playing !!! the fact that Keith was hit in the face twice by his own team mates made it all the more amusing...

Anchorage bay

The swim around the island

Went out in the morning with Paddy and Birgeet !and got a water Taxi up to Bark bay, the most amazing beach I've seen on my travels, we dived right into the water on landing at the beach !

then started our 6 hour walk back to the camp...stopping a couple of times for a swim to cool off !

all got wet feet crossing the "low tide" short cut, Paddy got blisters soon after & carried on in bare feet...I mean who goes on a six hour walk with no socks...

Bark Bay - Paradise at last !

Diving around - Bark Bay

Got back to camp and went for a meal and drinks for the last time as a group !

The following morning we drove up to Picton where several of the gang got of the bus and went their separate ways...we'd had 4 quality weeks the best bits of my trip so far, shame to break it all up, but all good things have to come to an end!

Have been offered a job on the next tour though, as one of the guides, which I've accepted should be a great way of earning a few dollars...and beats sitting in an Office temping...

I've had to sacrifice something else in Australia for that and have had to let someone down big-time...but the lure of a job was to great when Im pretty much skint after over 4 months without working...& its not every day you get offered a job without applying for it, so I couldn't walk awayfrom this opportunity! plus its a pretty cool job touring NZ hiking, camping, swimming in the sea etc...and the occasional sky dive for free wont go a miss...

written by  tomrendell on March 5, 2007 from Port Motueka, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand
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Rolled on into Paraparaumu, the lonely Planet made it sounds like an idyllic location and the flyer made the beach sounds awesome...
I thought a few days R&R by the beach would do the trick , before I started work...

The beach was awful, grey sand, full of drift wood, and the sea looked less than inviting, suddenly 2 days here seemed too long...

until I met these 3 girls from England ! Liz, Lisa and Naomi who I got on really well with and had some beers and played cards with that night, had a good time,

saw them in the morning at breakfast, and as it was tipping with rain of biblical proportions, I thought a crap town is bad enough, a crap town in the rain is even worse !

So they offered my a lift into Wellington, jumped at the chance, and rolled onto Welly with them, even though it was grim there there's heaps more to do...

Wellington

Welly with the girls, went to the Museum, sat drinking tea while the rained poured down, but had a good laugh with the girls, went to the movies, went swimming with them, great crap weather mates !

Had a good time for a couple of days, cheered me up before worked started !!

The next day work started for the first time in 4 months !

Started by picking up the guys and driving onward and upwards through the North Island towards Auckland and then North towards the Bay of Islands and Pahia !

Had a brake down to cope with, but my first few days of work were going just fine!!

written by  tomrendell on March 14, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand
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First few days were getting better, had had a few freebies too a ride on a jet Boat, a Maori concert ,the morning sand boarding...this jobs a doddle...

A flash of work and loads of freebies...fair enough the hours are long, Sunrise till well after sunset, but I'm loving it !

Spent a day or so heading down from the Bay of islands to get to Taupo, went via Coromandal and Cathedral cove, got to see them again this time drenched in amazing early morning sunshine !

Swam out to a rock just off the shoreline at hot water beach and collected a few mussels, sparked a trend as this group of girls spotted me, 5 minutes later they were, then 5 minutes after that everyone on the beach was gathering them, we cooked them in the evening, really fresh had them the next night too ! new fave food !

spent the next day at my one of my favourite spots, the kick ass beach Whiratoa, the amazing place where there was no one on the beach, I just ran down from the board walk...pulled of my t-shirt, and just jumped right into the sea, instantly deep enough to swim in, and clear enough to see with your eyes open...a true slice of paradise ! looking back as I float on my back all I can see are rolling green hills, and amazing cliffs covered in temperate rain forest...and a Golden beach with no one apart from the advancing members of our bus party !

Whiratoa

Does it get any better than this ?

Spent the afternoon Skydiving ! the ultimate perk...any future job must live up to this...this time I did 15,000 ft and it was even better than before as I could take it in from the second I left the plane, and had a longer free fall ! awsome !!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2nd time around

Dolphins - Kaikoura

Through onto the South island, the job is still going really well, spent some time in Kaikoura and went Dolphin spotting, ment getting up at 4.20 am...

but got to see over 150 Dusky Dolphins all playing in the water just off the shore, many jumping doing all sorts of back flips etc...

really cool to see them, in full flow at top speed !

Dusky Dolphons

Kaikoura - 'Dolphin Friendly'

...and Hannah...there is no back seat gang this time, they aviod that part of the bus, must be sacred ground now...I'm up at front with JP now...

written by  tomrendell on March 22, 2007 from Taupo, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand
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