To The South Island...

So here we are, a few days away from finishing up in the north island in Wellington.  Chad is done his job on Friday and we head to the south island for 8 weeks or so via the interislander ferry early on the 1st.  We start things off in Abel Tasman National park where we will be kayaking for 2 days in the sea and then hiking for a day.  The whole next 3 weeks or so will be packed, lots planned, including hiking a glacier, hiking milford sound and then heading to Queenstown.
Wellington was a great experience, but we are excited to get back on the road.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

We wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
We miss you all and hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season!

This picture was taken outside the only house we found with Christmas lights. It is actually a promotion run by Cadbury chocolates. The night we were there so were a few hundred others to check out the display.

Wellington Pics

Wellington Harbour - On a typical morning with dense fog over the hills, it usually clears my midday.

 

Te Kopahou Marine Reserve - Hike along the coast about 5 minutes outside Wellington. We went with a British traveller we met at Ashley's work.

Te Kopahou Marine Reserve

Te Kopahou Marine Reserve - Lava rocks

Makara Peak - Mountain bike park

Notice the sign post and how far we are away from Canada!

Makara Peak 

"Honeycomb" - New Zealand's Parliamentary Buildings

Approaching the holidays

Only 12 days until Christmas and it is going to be a very different holiday season over here. We are not sure what our plans are yet but it will likely involve a beach and hopefully some sun. We are busy planning the next part of our trip throughout the south island. It seems so close and we are getting really excited! Over the next few weeks we are going to try take some more pictures to capture some of the everyday sights we have experienced while living in Wellington. They will be posted before we leave....

One Month

It's been one month since we left Toronto airport and although it has gone by quickly, we feel like we have already done so much! The north island has been incredible but with the holidays approaching we are getting excited about heading to the south island on January 1st. Chad is really busy at the clinic and my work with the temp agency is picking up. I am surprised at how much I miss being a physio and look forward to finding my next job in the field. The work with the temp agency has allowed us to see many different venues in Wellington and meet quite a few other travellers. We spent this past weekend completing a hike with another backpacker from England. The hike was beautiful along the south coast of the north island. We have never experienced winds so strong, Chad spent most of the hike laughing at me as I almost blew over! We have really enjoyed being in Wellington, it is such a beautiful city, but only just over three more weeks until th head out travelling again!

Wellington part 2

We are settling into our new apartment in Wellington. We finally were able to post some pics today and there are some more under this post. The internet is based on mbs here like the good old days so it takes forever and is expensive to post unless you can find some free internet at cafes and what not. Chad is enjoying his job and Ashley is finding some random temp work at functions etc but its hard because Wellington is such a central place for backpackers to stop and find jobs before hitting the south island. Speaking of the south island, our ferry ride is booked and we are heading there January 1st and hoping to continue to live in our campervan for about 1-2 months before settling down and finding work again before Australia.
Here is some random info about living in Kiwi land...
- Everyone says "heaps" for everything...it was heaps of fun and there is heaps to do
- It is much like Canada and the US with New Zealand being Canada and Australia being the US..or so we are told
- Kiwis are actually the bird and they are almost extinct so we haven't seen any yet!
- Everything is really really expensive...two beers at a bar will run you about $20
- You cannot turn left on a red light even though you drive in the left lane..it just doesn't make sense!
- There really are sheep everywhere just outside the cities!!
- It's beatiful here! Either you are on the coast or in rolling green covered volcanoes spotted with sheep.
That's all for now....Enjoy the pics!

Huka Falls - Outside Taupo

Freyberg Beach - Downtown Wellington

We "Freedom Camped" here for 5 days!

Highway lookout

Once outside the cities almost everywhere looks like this!

View of downtown Wellington

Feilding

Random small town to spend a day in...



Wellington

We have arrived in Wellington and are getting ready to start the first round of work. Chad starts his job tomorrow and I am checking into some job leads. We have finalized where we are living...in residence on the university campus!:) Since it is summer they are renting the apartment styles rooms really cheap. Hahah back to rez! Otherwise things are great. We will be arranging pics and posting now that we are a little more settled. Not much new since we jumped out of  a plane.....15,000 feet and just over 60s free fall over Lake Taupo. It was incredible!!!
Be in touch agian soon, miss everyone!

Taupo

We are currently in Taupo. We did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing yesturday, a 19.1 km hike that includes seeing emerald coloured lakes and volcanoes. It was incredible and after mountain biking for the first time the day before in Rotarua, we are quite sore today! We were hoping to sky dive today but are unsure because of the weather but hoping it might clear up. We have figured out where we can camp for free so that has cut down some costs. We will likely be leaving tomorrow and heading fown to Wellington to hopefully find an apartment before work starts. Otherwise we are doing great and loving the experience!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Rotorua - Hell's gate Sulphur Pools

 

Rotorua - Sulphur pools at night

Tongariro Crossing

Emerald lakes - 1/2 walk done!

View of South Crater

After skydiving!!!

 

Raglan

We are in a little surf village called Raglan. We took our first surf lesson yesturday and are renting boards again today. We are both standing up and loving it! The plan is to stay here another night and then head down to Rotarua on our way to Wellington. We have started to really get used to living at campsites in our van. They are all really nice with kitchen facilities and even family rooms. Have met some really great people, most of them doing the same as us! We were at Goat Island two days ago and did some snorkelling. Right after we got our of the water, 3 orca whales swam right by!!

Goat Island Marine Reserve

 

Muriwai Beach - Gannet Birds Migration

Muriwai Beach - 50 km of black sand!

 

Leaving Auckland...

Hey!

We are just about to leave Auckland for a 2 week long road trip to reach Wellington in time for Chad to start his job on the 25th. We are just about to finalize the purchase of our new home away from home, a 1993 Nissan coverted van with a authentic kiwi bird painted on the side. We are excited to leave Auckland and hit the open road and cover the north island in the next weeks. Auckland was fun but we did a lot of errands and used most of yesturday to find the car. We did do a coast to coast walk and saw the Auckland Museum which were both incredible!

That's all for now!

Our "home away from home"

Arrived Safely in New Zealand

We have arrived safely in New Zealand!
We have checked in our first hostel and will be checking out Auckland for the next few days before driving across the north island into Wellington.
Thanks to everyone for all the support and messages for us during our last few weeks and well wishes for our trip! We will continue to keep in touch and hope to have some pics sometime soon.

 

Welcome to our blog!
We will try to post as much as possible to keep everyone up to date on our adventures. We are flying out November 8th and look forward to what's coming up!