If you didn’t recognise the quote in the title then get off my blog 😉 Only joking, you can stay if you’ve at least WATCHED Lord of the Rings.
So if you still haven’t guessed today’s blog post is going to be about the beauuutiful country of New Zealand – home of LOTR – because I just booked my trip there today!
As I’ve already mentioned, New Zealand will be the last leg of my journey and from there I will be flying home (sob) in mid June. I plan on spending about a month here and will be travelling around both North and South Islands.
Originally I was going to go with a company called Stray and do the ‘Short Moe’ tour because a) its cheap b) you get to visit both islands and c) its a smaller tour group. When I saw this tour I think it was around £400 but today when I looked it had gone up a fair bit in price and I had just had an email from STA about an offer they were doing on a tour with Kiwi Experience called the ‘Sheepdog’ tour which was verrrry similar and is half price (£309) until midnight tonight. SO I booked the sheepdog tour instead!
So with the sheepdog tour you can hop on and off whenever/wherever you like and you can use the pass for up to 12 months (obviously I won’t need to do this but its a big bonus if you’re staying for longer). It starts off in Auckland on the north Island and ends in Christchurch on the south island.
The first main stop is Hot Water Beach – which is rated one of the top ten beaches in the world by Lonely Planet – where you can go surfing etc. Then we travel on to Waitomo where you can visit the limestone caves to see glow-worms and other crazy shizz. From there its on to Rotorua – the Maori culture capital of NZ – where you can go luging or zorbing and then in the evening experience a traditional Maori feast and watch the traditional Maori song and dance. Next its on to the adventure capital of the north island – Taupo! Here you can go bungee jumping, skydiving, jet boating etc and you can also visit the geothermal reserve of Te Puia (with NZ’s largest geyser) and see a real live Kiwi bird. A chance to visit Huka Falls and cross the Tongariro Crossing is also on the cards! After a few days in Taupo we will be moving on to River Valley to visit the Tongariro National Park and to spend the afternoon white water rafting or horse riding. From here its on to Wellington – the capital of culture – and then on to the south island!
The first stop on the south island will be kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park and from there its on to the Highway 6 to Lake Mahinapua for an evening of partyyying in the ‘Poo Pub’ (yes its actually called that)! Providing you’re not too hungover and don’t need to spend an extra day in bed the next stop will be the Franz Josef Glacier Village where its recommended to spend at least 2 days. Here you can hike on the Franz Josef Glacier or, if you’re a bit of a wuss, you can take a helicopter up and do the ‘heli-hike’. The next morning is an early start to visit Lake Matheson before heading into Mount Aspiring National Park and arriving at the beautiful Wanaka.
From Wanaka its the final part of the journey which means travelling down to Queenstown (adventure capital!) where you can jump from the world’s first commercial bungy site – the Kawarau Bridge. Then its another night of partying and a day trip to NZ’s most beautiful spot – Milford Sound. Then its through LOTR territory (be prepared for lots of photos) – The Lindis Pass – and on to Christchurch where the tour ends.
Of course as I said, you can hop off anywhere you like and stay for extra nights or you can skip the ‘extra days’ they suggest and catch an earlier coach – its all up to you! 🙂 I will most definitely be stopping off for a bit longer in Rotorua to go visit the famous Shire ! Other than this bit I’ll most likely stick to the tour seeing as they seem to take us pretty much everywhere.
I have to say, before booking this tour NZ was the part of my trip I was least looking forward to but now I’m crazy excited … its such a beautiful country with beautiful traditions … I’m really looking forward to experiencing it all! And of course I can’t resist a bungy jump or 4 😉 (my mum will cry if she reads this because she thinks that If I do a bungy jump my retinas will detach and I’ll go blind – sorry for putting this in here mother but its too funny not to) 😀
If you’re still here and haven’t died from boredom/exhaustion yet then pat yourself on the back.
Now go watch Lord of the Rings! 😉
x
‘Not all those who wander are lost’ – JRR Tolkein (I may have already used this quote I don’t know but its too appropriate not to be used again)
Biddle goes backpacking! 