Friday 16 March 2018

New Zealand- Again surprisingly like the UK!

Christchurch- Construction City

We made it to christchurch... But our bags didn't. This was due to our connecting flight being late but they did come the next day.

Christchurch was cold. Like Scotland when it's cold. It was 6am and we were freezing so we found a nice coffee shop for breakfast. Then had a wander to another coffee shop and so on until things started to open. Eventually we went to the Art Gallery, which mostly had modern art and then went the the fantastic museum at the edge of the botanical gardens and near our hostel.

Christchurch had an earthquake a few years ago that flattened most of the city. You can see when wandering around how Christchurch used to look. There are a few really lovely wooden houses left and a few preserved streets. There are tram lines everywhere and big open spaces, but.... there is a massive amount of construction and most of it is creating new modern buildings which is taking away from the old town feel. Its not the prettiest city anymore unfortunately and at the moment most of it is under construction-understandably. I felt very sorry for Christchurch as after the earthquake it clearly isn't what is used to be, but there are a lot of interesting things within the city. For instance the locals have made shops and cafes out of big containers and there is a lot of street art which I think is much nicer then the Melbourne street art. There is also a lot of little things like bollards being made out of pigs etc to try to make the city a bit more unique.













It's also quite cheap coming from the UK as you can pretty much half every price and it makes shopping a lot more fun 😀.

The next day we went to the botanical gardens which were very pretty and had a beautiful river called the River Avon running though it which felt very like a little english village.













We then watched an army band play some music and they were really good, then visited a night market for some food.

The next day we went on a trip to Akora. This is a lovely french village down south and the scenery was fantastic. We went on a nature cruise here and saw Hector dolphins (which are the world's smallest dolphin), baby fur seals and a penguin! It was a great cruise and the scenery was stunning.

















I loved Akora and liked Christchurch and I think when the construction is finished it will be great again, but there is not much to do at the moment unless you use the city as a base to explore Canterbury province.

Queenstown- AMAZING

We arrived in Queenstown in the most scenic flight ever, we flew through mountains! It was beautiful. The actual town is also really beautiful and if you like adventure then this is the place. Although it was pouring in rain, We went to our hostel-haka lodge and had to share a room this time with two other people- Matt and Garrett from Canada and USA. They were great and we went out on a night out with them to some of the bars in Queenstown.

The next day Stacey decided to do a skydive so I cam along for the ride. We were due to be there for 7am but when we arrived they had cancelled due to the wind. So we came back at 9am. We went on the bus to the remarkables and when we got there and suited up etc they cancelled it again! So we had to come back to Queenstown. We wandered around looking at the little souvenir shops:
















and went up the gondola which had the most spectacular views,:
















We then went for hot chocolate in Mrs Ferg cafe which was one of the best hot chocolates I had and we sat drinking them at the stone beach by the lake. The lake was beautiful in between the hills.





























The next day was Milford sound and we had booked a tour. We had a four hour bus journey through some beautiful scenery, some of which features in Lord of the Rings, and made friends with two guys from England, Dan and John. They were a great laugh and we went on the cruise together. The Milford sound was amazing. There were dolphins and fur seals as well.

















































Then it was time to go back to Queenstown and we went out with the the two guys to this bar called cowboys which was basically an all american bar complete with buckaroo!

Queenstown was amazing and even though I didn't do the adventure things I still really enjoyed it. It reminded me of the scenery of Scotland.


Wellington- Party Central

We landed in Wellington in the afternoon and by the time we made our way to the hostel it was quite late so we opted for the cinema near us (which was only £5). The main town centre is host to lots of bars and restaurants mainly selling pizza and burgers. It was full of people partying on a wednesday night. No one had said it was party central but it felt a lot like a street in Magaluf!

The next day we went to the harbour and had breakfast. It felt a lot like being on the docks and they had used containers as shops which was interesting. We then went to the Te Papa Museum and it was fantastic. we spent most of the day there. It was all about New Zealand, it was a great museum and free!

Then we went to the Museum of Wellington to learn all about Wellington. It was housed in a lovely old building. After, we wandered the streets looking at the shops. Then went for dinner.

The next day we went to the cable car and on to Zealandia which is a conservation area housing loads of birdlife. We were able to spot most of the birds on the list. It was a beautiful area on the outskirts of Wellington with a river and there were shags, parrots and different robins etc. There is also the kiwi but it only comes out at night. My camera broke taking a picture of a bird!
















We then were given a lift back to the botanic gardens and wandered through them. They were quite hilly and it didn't feel like we were in the middle of the city.

We walked to the houses of parliament building and to the Beehive (called that cause it looks like a honeycomb apparently)














Then strolled along the waterfront and had dinner. We were then approached by two guys who offered us a drink and we sat with them chatting at the waterfront. They were interesting guys but a bit drunk 😊.

The final day was spent at the art gallery which was awful. Full of modern art that made no sense. Then I bought a new camera (thanks for the birthday present mum) and we went for dessert at a cafe. We walked up cuba street which was a bit of an eclectic street with some interesting cafes and normal shops. We then sat at the man made beach looking at the harbour which was very pretty.












We were also given a gym pass so went tot the gym in an attempt to be healthy!













I'm not sure I liked Wellington as a city. I loved the museum and Zealandia but I thought the city itself wasn't very pretty. The centre was a lot like being in a party town (which is great if your 18) but not when you are trying to find things to do. I think the surrounds of Wellington would be really pretty though.

Auckland- Hobbiton

There was a transport strike when we arrived at Auckland so it took us 3 hours to get to our Air B&B in Auckland. When we did we were greeted by an interesting lady. She was older and very bossy and quite particular about everything. We thought it was hilarious. She had a lovely wee dog too who kept trying to escape and succeeded! We arrived quite late so just went to dinner and then came back but the next day we went to pick up our car for the Bay of Islands.

We drove 4 hours to the Bay of islands and the scenery was lovely. The actual wee villages next to the Bay of Islands were lovely too and we took a ferry across to Russells and had fish and chips.














The Bay was beautiful with massive Islands in the distance, it almost felt like I was back in Halong Bay.













We also had the car for the next day so we went to Hobbiton! It was a two hour tour and this was great if you like the Hobbit as it was the film set and a village with lots of hobbit houses and really detailed scenery with Gardens and the houses etc.















We then had to give the car up so the next day we went into Auckland. It's really expensive to do things in Auckland like museums etc. if your not a local as international people are charged $25 each time so we walked to the docks and had coffee at the harbour.














There is a boat race coming up so it was full of boats. We then walked to the Domain Gardens and the Winter Gardens. There are a lot of parks in Auckland. We also did the Albert Park too. Then went to the dessert shop Miann which was recommended to me by my New zealand friend Penni. After, we wandered round the shops before going home for dinner. Then the dog escaped and we spent the next hour looking for it!

On our last day it poured in rain so we went to another park and got soaked but saw loads of birdlife then it was time to get the plane for our overnight flight.













I loved the scenery in New Zealand but not really the cities, there wasn't anything special about them. If coming I would recommend avoiding the cities and going round the villages and natural beauty etc as this is the best thing about New zealand!

1 comment:

  1. wow Jenna you certainly did a lot of amazing trips in NZ once again brilliant descriptions and photos!!!!

    ReplyDelete