It was an auspicious time to visit Sydney, a year before the Olympics construction at the site was on-going, Olympic fever gripped the city like nothing before. We also visted during the week of Mardi Gras but alas never saw any part of that.

Cliché though it must be, a visit to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are a must. Both are truly spectacular pieces of architecture. The Bridgewalk where visitors donned special clothing and walked up to midway point of the top of the bridge was one of the most popular attractions, one which we passed on though. Visited both Bondi and Manly beaches, ate at the fish market, took the monorail round the CBD and Darling Harbour, walked around the shops at The Rock, went up to the top of Centrepoint. All very touristy behaviour. Hee.

Sydney Harbour Bridge by day. Wow.

At sunset. Double wow.

Drove out to the Blue Mountains and to a wildlife park to see the koalas and the kangaroos. Neat. To Hunter Valley to visit the vineyards. Bought a couple of bottles of verdelho and sampled their cabernets and shiraz.

Flight was at 7pm, but it was almost an hour before we took off. Seats were 2-3-2 and we had the 2 seats at the second row of our section, next to the emergency exit. Nowadays nothing is sacred on the internet, I already found out as soon as I knew we were 19A and 19B that we had emergency exit seats.

Legroom was comparable to business class. Now I realise comfort on a plane is proportional to legroom. food and stuff were good, but no personal screen, had to watch the film on the big screen.

***

Arrived Auckland at 11.30am local time. Had to claim luggage, go to the domestic terminal via a slow courtesy bus and check-in again. I was getting anxious because there wasn't a lot of time. What struck us was the number of Asians in Auckland, well at least at the airport, we called them the ethnic majority. Honestly, they were everywhere, I was afraid we'd arrived at another Vancouver.

Flight to Dunedin was via Wellington, so more time wasted with the stopover. Got very tired at the end and it was a relief to finally land. Dunedin airport was tiny and very provincial. Our car was a Nissan Pulsar, NZ$524 for 10 days rental. The guy didn't have change for 530 so there was a bit of faffing around, he kept asking if we had change and we kept saying no. Dude, we just got off the plane and only have large notes. Last time I drove was in April, so it took me a few minutes to get used to driving again. Luckily not many cars, and slow speed.

Didn't see much of Dunedin town itself, we drove straight to the Otago Peninsula where our hotel was. First shock to the system was the narrow road, next to coast with no barriers between the car and the water. The Portabello motel was fantastic, the pictures on their website didn't do it justice. It was spotlessly clean, big, with kitchen, balcony. Everything looked new. Lovely.

Took a shower and napped for 10 mins on the armchair. Almost 7pm when we headed out for dinner. Hey! it was like London! Still light out. Actually it didn't get dark till past 9pm, which was another pleasant surprise.

Drove a little round the city, found parking space easily. Decided on Japanese food at this casual place called Minami -- grilled fish, fresh oysters, one sashimi bento each. NZ$40 approx.

Drove to Woolworth's after dinner, bought essentials -- breakfast, water, drinks, bread, peanut butter, snacks and stuff like that. Took some pics on the way back to hotel of the sunset by the bay. Very nice.

***

Breakfast at "home" -- a full breakfast of sausages, eggs, grilled tomato and toast. The plan today was to see the wildlife of the Otago Peninsula, which is one of NZ's biggest eco-tourism centres. Drove out to the tip of the peninsula to find the Royal Albatross Centre. VERY windy, so windy all we could hear was the wind. Decided not to go on the 90 minute tour of the albatross centre - we weren't 100% enthusiastic about albatrosses. Took a short walk down to the cliffs, even more windy.

Drove about 5 mins to Penguin Place, and there we did take part in the tour (2.15pm, 1.5 hours) to see yellow eyed penguins. It's a conservation project that provides sanctuary for penguin pairs to raise their chicks in a safe environment. Apparently this year there are 21 pairs. Altogether just about 4,000 yellow eyed penguins are left in the world, concentrated in NZ and South Australia, so it's vital to give them the opportunity to breed. We walked with the guide in the reserve, there were seals there too, lazing about. Even one that was surfing in the water! We also saw some seagull chicks. The penguin chicks were brown and almost the same size as the adults. We walked along trenches and tunnels that had viewing gaps at ground level so we were invisible to the animals. Managed to get close to a few penguins, it was fantastic and well worth the trip.

Started drizzling a bit in the late afternoon. Drove back out to Dunedin and had kebabs. NZ$6 each, plus a diet coke. The kebabs were different from London ones, the meat was a little tougher but the cook put hummus with it and it made the whole thing very tasty.

At the outer edges of Dunedin was Baldwin street, holder of the world record for steepest street. And it was steep, by the time we walked up the top we were exhausted.

Bought our dinner at Woolworths -- lamb shoulder steak, monkfish, carrot soup, steamed puddings. Cooked ourselves. The monkfish was so fresh we set aside a little for sashimi. niiiiice.

One thing about NZ in December, it gets dark late. So we were having dinner at 8 and it seemed early.

***

First on the agenda this morning was fill up the car. It was cold, windy and wet at the BP, grrrr. Pleasant drive though, we were heading towards Alexandra, via the "fruit route." There were lots of fruit farms near Alexandra and we bought a large pack of cherries at $12. The cherry orchards were shrouded by nets, to protect them from birds and insects apparently.

By the time we got to Central Otago the weather had changed so much, from wet and windy to positively hot. Scenery changed too, we drove alongside the Clutha River and stopped at the Cromwell Lookout to take some huge photos.

Alexandra is supposed to be a largish town in the region, but the main street was still pretty tiny. We had a late lunch of mini quiche and bacon & egg pie (more like a quiche than pie IMO). Visited the tourist information centre and got tons of brochures. Armed with our newly acquired 'Central Otago Wine Map' we headed towards Cromwell to the vineyards. This is the southermost winemaking region in the world (NZ holds a lot of 'southermost' records) and the climate of hot summers and cool winters suit the grapes very much.

The vineyard we visited at Cromwell wasn't impressive so we decided to move on, and ended up at Bannockburn. Almost by chance we hit Olssens, which is the last one along the road it is on. We tasted the available wines, had a brilliant chat with the lady there and bought a couple of bottles of pinot noir and some verjuice, which is sour like vinegar and used in dressings and baking. 2 bottles of ice wine too, total $165, pretty good. There were some sculptures on the grounds, more photo opportunity.

Here's a photo at Cromwell Lookout and one of the sculptures at Olssens. Kinda similiar?

Then it was onward again to Queenstown. The view on the way was stunning. Rock formations, driving along the river, sheep, deer, lovely. Passed by the place where bungy jumps were invented but it was closed. Still tourists there taking pictures of the bridge.

Queenstown was very touristy, we thought it was like Davos. And yes, it felt like a downmarket version of any alpine resort. Very commercial, lots of outdoor shops and backpackers hostels. We had dinner at a posh restaurant called the Tatler - john dory on risotto cake & asparagus and rack of lamb with potato dauphinois & ratatouille. Half a dozen oysters to start and a beer. $90 total.

Still light out so we walked around the town. Bought cheese, eggs, ribena and stuff at a small supermarket. Tried to decide on what to do tomorrow. Saw a few internet places, about $3-5 an hour. VERY tempted. sigh. Here's a photo of sunset at the lake. NO FILTERS, NOT PHOTOSHOPPED.

We stayed at the Colonial Village motel. It could not be compared with the Portabello at all, it's one of those places where you try to touch very little of the furniture and fittings. nothing particularly wrong, just not 100% comfortable.

***

Major panic this morning -- my camera memory card decided to stop working, so I spent a very frustrating early morning in freaked out mode. We tried it on the PB and it was the card, not the camera. Still not good. The day when we were driving to supposedly the most beautiful scenery in NZ and my camera conks out.

Ooops, I'm getting ahead of myself. We got up at 6am and were out by 6.45am, drove through the fog and got to Te Anau in very good time, about 2 hours. Found an electrical shop and bought a new memory card. $220, yikes, but no choice.

Milford Sound was famous for its spectacular fjords and scenery. We took the 11.25am from Mitre boats and it was the best decision today -- a small boat, few passengers and NO TOUR GROUPS! Gotta see it to believe it, but the entire Milford Sound was teeming with tours. Luckily we were early, and they all took the other bigger boats.

Our cruise had only about 20 people, plenty of space to move about and take pictures. As much tea and coffee as we could drink on the boat. Weather started off not so good, cloudy and rainy, scenes weren't exciting. The boat went full speed out to the tip of the fjord and it was a fun bumpy-ish ride. On the way back the sun came out again and we spotted some seals sunning themselves on a rock.

Then we saw dolphins. many many many, and they played around with the boat. The captain turned the boat around in a giant circle and they surfed along the wash, it was brilliant. Also trying to spot penguins but no luck. It was a great cruise though. Here's the Stirling falls, next to the Elephant, see the trunk?

Driving 4 hrs to Milford means another 4 hours back to Queenstown. Stopped at Te Anau for an hour on the way back, stretched our legs and had a frozen yogurt. Bought venison pie at the ice cream place, chatted for a llittle while with the owners. The drive back was long too, but I got up to 110kph on the open roads and we were back at our hotel by 8pm.

Did laundry, popped over to KFC to buy some chicken wings, then had the wings and pie for dinner. I washed it all down with some Speights beer we bought at the Woolworths in Dunedin, seemed so long ago.

***

Woke up at 9-ish, had breakfast of beans on toast, taking it easy after yesterday. By the time we headed out it was almost 11am. Drove via Cardona to Wanaka, about 1 hr away. There are 2 possible routes to Wanaka, one via this Cardona road which is shorter but more windy, the other is via the main highway.

We both wish we'd known more about Wanaka, cos it would have suited us better to stay there rather than in Queenstown. Had a quick lunch of mutton pie, steak pie and diet coke - $9.20. Enquired at one shop about fishing, but it was full. Asked at another place and we were in luck.

This boat held max 3 passengers so with 2 of us and the captain it was perfect. Did a type of fishing called trolling, where we cast the line with colourful lures and moved the boat along very slowly. Had 3 lines - two were handheld, and another downrigger fixed to the side of the boat which was weighted and went down further. First hour went by and nothing. Then James, the captain, changed the lure on one of our rods and quickly we reeled in a salmon. It was about 1.5 foot long and perhaps 1-1.5kg. We were really excited! Decided to keep it. Soon we got a second one.

The downrigger got another salmon, but we put it back, thinking 2 was enough. We then stopped for tea and coffee and I was still eating my trail snack when I got a pull on my line. Reeled in slowly, it didn't feel like a salmon. The salmon fought and pulled, this one felt looser and didn't fight -- it was a large brown trout. I decided to put it back, cos we had 2 salmons already and we couldn't possibly eat them all.

Two more salmons followed quickly, we put them back in the lake too. So all in all 5 salmons and 1 brown trout -- wow, in only 2.5 hours, impressive. Would have liked to have snagged a rainbow trout too, but they were much rarer in that lake.

We agreed it was a way way better experience than the jetboats, rafting or other activities. Such a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. We bought some salad and oven bake bags for the salmon, and a utility knife at a homeware store. All prepared. heehee.

Drove back to the hotel to prepare dinner. Some of it went as sashimi and the rest were poached inside one of the bags, in the microwave. Yummy. And free too! well, free with the $285 + $18 licence that was the fishing trip.

After dinner we drove out to town and visited a bar called minus 5°. It was a bar constructed entirely out of ice, $25 entrance including one vodka cocktail. They provided us with warm jackets and gloves. Our drinks were served in ice glasses and we sat on seats made from blocks of ice.

It was so much fun, we took lots of pictures of the ice sculptures and the drinks. A lot of them didn't turn out that good cos of the reflection. Actually the temp was -7.8°C, but I wasn't that cold, taking my gloves off was fine.

Great trip so far. We're enjoying ourselves.

***

Driving day. We started early at 9.45am. I was glad to be out of the motel, not very impressed with this place. First place to visit was the petrol station, we took a longer way to a mobil that was the cheapest in the area. Sometimes every little helps.

Drove to Arrowtown, it was HOT! The sun was out in full force. Arrowtown was a small mining town, still with original architecture. We almost bee-lined to the sweet shop, very much like the ones in British seaside resorts. The lady there (from Ireland) said the sweets were actually imported from the UK. We bought cola bottles and flying saucers and some of their home made fudge.

We passed by the Shotover jetski station and stopped for a couple of pictures. [ETA 5 Jan: The Shotover Jet operation was shut down before Christmas, and again at New Year's, because of technical problems and fire. I'm doubly glad we didn't go.] More adventure watching at the AJ Hackett bungy jump place at Kawaroua bridge. Seemed fun, but not for us.

Finally got under way with the real journey, heading towards the glaciers. We took turns driving, changing over more often than usual, and taking more stops. Perhaps that helped so we weren't as tired. It was an extremely hot day, we were burning up through the glass in the car. I tried to keep my arms in the shade but not much luck.

Stopped at Lake Hawea for quick photos. BEAUTIFUL.

Eventually lunch was at almost 3pm at Haast Township. We had fish and chips. Ah, township, what an interesting definition, there was a supermarket, a café, a pub and several motels, that was the sum total of the township.

Another 140km or so of roads, and that was when the unsettled weather started. It could be bright sunshine, and the all of a sudden we'd hit a rain patch. Eventually we reached Franz Josef township early evening. Heh, township. It was another one main street settlement.

Our hotel was the Alpine Glacier, one of those where you parked your car directly outside your unit door. Quality wise, it was in between Portabello and Colonial village. Large room, clean and new fittings. No cooking facilities though, not even a microwave or electric frying pan.

At the advice of the very friendly and helpful owner lady, we booked our heli-hike for tomorrow and investigated the restaurants. Ended up at a place called The Landing, we had lasagna and shepherd's pie. Originally we wanted venison hotpot but they'd sold out.

Afterwards I investigated the converted bus that was the local internet access place. It was cool.

***

Our helihike was at noon, so we gathered with our group at the check-in point late morning, paid our $640 (eeeep!!!) and got changed into boots and waterproof jackets. The guide told us to just take our cameras and water, no need for anything else. It wasn't that cold up there anyway. I only had a polo shirt and a t-shirt underneath the jacket.

Waited about 20 minutes for the helicoptors to arrive. The ride was short but beautiful, the hike itself was 2 hours and ... what can I say? Amazing. Breath-taking, Trip of a lifetime. The crevices were deep, but we were with an easy group of 12 people so nothing too challenging. Crampons on the boots helped, and we got our ice-legs soonish. The caves and the water flows and general sights were so great. Probably better told with pictures.

It was hard to comprehend exactly how large the cracks were. What seemed like just small gaps could be the size of a person. There were also ice caves hidden away that we could crawl into. Where there was ice, the surface was slippery, and blue ice even more so.

Every so often we'd turn back and look up at the glacier. It was a sight.

Chopper trip down I managed to get the front seat and took some more pics. At the valley station we got a little brochure and a "certificate" that we "did" the Franz Josef Glacier. There was also a bunch of information about how glaciers form and how come there's a glacier at this latitude. The main reason is the lack of any landmasses that stop the rainclouds that blow into the western side of South Island. It takes 5 years for climatic changes to take effect, so if it doesn't snow enough one year, 5 years later the tip of the glacier will retreat.

Back to our room for shower and a late lunch of toast and pate, yum. After a short nap we drove out to Fox Glacier and another 6km to Lake Matheson. 1.5 hour walk around the lake, more exercise and walking for the day. Good scenery but the main attraction was the mirror lake reflection of Mount Cook. Which was behind clouds mostly but still nice photo opportunities.

Dinner back at The Landing, our food took a long time to arrive, it was just a chicken/brie/cranberry sauce pizza and lamb salad, apparently something went wrong with the pizza. I was kinda annoyed and they refunded us $20. Not expected but good gesture.

***

Long drive to Christchurch, on the map about 5 hrs. We stopped at lunch at Hokitika, a largish (for NZ) town that was quite touristy. It was full of jade and craft shops and a whole bunch of coaches that stopped and disgorged tourists. Kinda forgotten it was sunday but we were reminded by the sign at a restaurant that advertised sunday roast. We had a large plate of roast lamb each - $13.95 gave us a small mountain of roast lamb, roast potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, cauliflower cheese and peas all in a big heap on the plate. niiiice. That place was self service and boasted "the largest teapot collection in nz", so we had to try their tea. I had a very strong English breakfast and mm had peppermint, both from tea leaves. Altogether an excellent sunday roast lunch.

Moving on, the drive to Christchurch took us through Arthur's Pass, quite a steep climb, especially in our car that had no uphill ability. There were few cars on the road. The road eventually levelled out and by the time we were 50km from Christchurch the road was almost ramrod straight. It was also extremely hot outside so the effect was that I could see the heat from the road, and oncoming vehicles were hard to spot. Driving in remote areas like this I always turn the headlights on full, even in bright sunshine, it makes me so much more visible to other cars. I was thinking that we probably saw more roadkill than cars at some point.

Christchurch was a city alright. It was the first time we stopped at a traffic light for a week! There were more cars than we'd encountered the entire week. Trams! Taxis! Buses!

Our motel was the Milano motorlodge. Very nice again, large room, this time with very soft carpet. Nice colour coordination, everything was yellow and blue but very pleasing. The landlady was also extremely friendly and helpful, we're lucking out again.

Took a drive out to city centre. everything was closed, it was worse than the UK. Walked round a bit, to the cathedral, the pedestrianised zones and took some pictures of the trams. Dinner at this place called Six missing chairs that was supposed to be award winning. Service was home-styled and the cooking pretty decent, but I'm not so sure about "award winning." mm had venison and I had lamb shanks. We were reading brochures we picked up from the hotel and discovered this was a byo restaurant, so I ran down to the car and took one of the bottles of pinot noir we bought in Bannockburn. Corkage was $5 per bottle.

After dinner we drove up the road to a 24 hr supermarket, bought some silverside and hummus for picnic lunch tomorrow. So tempted to buy more but we were flying the day after, so we had to restrain ourselves.

I was amazed at the familiar names. There was a Hereford street one block from Worcester, another street up was Gloucester, followed by Armagh and Chester. There was Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Liverpool, Salisbury, Aberdeen, St Albans and the whole region was called Canterbury. Christchurch itself was located on the River Avon. It was like going home.

***

6am wake up, 7am leaving time. It was overcast and foggy. We were really early, got there at 9.30-9.45am, checked in and were told that our '10.30am' sailing meant watching a video at 11am, then boarding. We walked around the village and stopped for peppermint tea and chocolate milkshake.

A short coach ride to the boat, it was a fast speedboat that held around 60 people and was full. We couldn't walk around like other cruises, sat at our seats till the guide found a whale, then we all trundled up to the roof.

The crew consisted of a guide and a couple of spotters. The guide gave funny but clichéd comments. But it didn't matter, we spotted a whale very quickly. The boat got into a perfect position just behind the whale for about 5 mins, then the crew could tell it was diving and over the PA system the guide even told us when to click our shutters.

Saw 5 whales in all, got close to 4. I tried out the fast shutter speed and got some very cool pics for one dive. And to cap it all, we had a fabulous movie.

Then the guide got us to all scramble back to our seats and the pilot moved the boat quickly inland to shallower waters and caught up with a pod of dolphins, it was the most dolphins I've seen at once. It was wonderful.

There must have been around 30 of them. Some of them were even doing jumps and flips. The best advice from the guide, they usually did 3 or 4 flips, so focus on them and they would probably repeat. And I caught one!

And finally, just watch them swim about, there's something so peaceful about it.

Lunch was at a pub called Strawberry Tree, we had fish and chips and a fisherman's basket meal. Service was very slow, there was only the one guy serving and cooking and he was cooking everything from frozen. Food wasn't value for money either, the fisherman's basket was a few deep fried fish nuggets, one mussel fried, and probably 3-4 potatoes worth of wedges.

As if the day wasn't eventful enough, we went to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, it was open till 10pm and we sneaked in before they closed part of one section. Nice stuff -- deers, birds, farm animals and KIWI!!! Plus other interesting animals. It was worth the trip.

Raining when we left, wanted to find a Chinese takeaway but the one we found was closed. 9.45pm and a takeaway is closed. wtf. Ended up at Mcdonalds where we got the deli sandwiches, kinda sad, but it was what we felt like.

Pretty much all packed now. Bye to South Island.

***

Our flight was at 10am. Quick drive to the rental car office, they took us to the terminal by van. The terminal was larger than the one at Dunedin, the domestic and international terminals were next to each other and connected. We checked in, got our boarding passes and went over to the international section, where it was quieter, and shared a pot of tea.

No metal detector check, just walked to the tarmac, up the steps and we were on the plane. Flight was longer than I expected, probably cos it was a small plane (one of those with propellers). We were served cookies and tea and eventually we touched down at Rotorua.

Another regional airport, the rental car lady was there with a noticeboard waiting for us. She took us back to town and left us our car -- a 2.2 Camry, much bigger than the Pulsar.

Our motel was the Coachman Inn, along the main hotel street. Room 8 again, same as Christchurch. Room was okay, large kitchen with 2 hobs (yay!) and a spa tub. The furniture and decorations were little old though.

Drove out to town to have kebab, not as good as Dunedin. Then to the information centre and around the lake. North island was definitely more populated and there were a lot of cars and people and much much more built up. On the way around the lake we stopped off at the agrodome and looked at the zorb. I wanted to try, even before coming here, ever since I saw it on TAR; just watched other people today though.

A short drive away to the Mamaku Blue blueberry farm, tried the blueberry wine and liqueur and the juice. Ended up buying some liqueur and the juice as well as some jam and chocolate as presents.

The lake drive was okay, a letdown compared with south island scenery. we stopped a little way for photos, then went to the Blue and Green lakes. Honestly, disappointments.

Still light out, went to Woolworths and bought mussels and lamb chops for dinner. The mussels were the best, so sweet and fresh. We opened the second of our pinot noir, very nice.

***

Leisurely start today, our main aim was to head for Taupo. On the way we stopped at the Waimanga geothermal area and after a short debate decided to pay the $28 each entry to the reserve. Wow, so worth it. The walk was quite long, but well marked and explained. There were 3 stop-off points and a bus took people back to the entrance, so they didn't need to walk back.

The frying pan lake, cathedral rock, and inferno crater lake were awesome. We took the harder Mount Haszard hiking trail between bus-stop 1 and 2, quite steep and harder than we were used to. Then it began to rain. Then it poured. Eeep. We were so glad we had our waterproof jackets cos we hardly felt the rain. We missed the bus at bus stop 2 so we walked the extra 15 mins to bus stop 3. nice. We were very very happy, even though we were damp and hungry.

Short drive in the rain to the prawn farm. Too late for any activities, we had a late lunch of 1 kg large prawns. Quite nice, but not as prawn tasting as they could be. These had pinchers too, the first time I've seen them.

Just about enough time for the honey place before everything closed. It was still raining hard. Bought honeycombs and tried the hokey pokey ice cream - yums. A favourite.

Bback at Rotorua we went to Countdown to buy more mussels and venison. Happy that we had another nice dinner.

***

Today's target was Waitomo caves. It was supposed to be 200+ km but the drive was extremely boring. Nothing to see, windy roads, narrow and winding, rain one minute, sun another.

The cave more than made up for it. The glow worms were astounding. They're just larvae and they make thin strips of gunk that hang down from the ceiling of the cave to attract food. There were thousands of them in the dark, we were in the boat and there was silence and darkness, the glow worms were bright enough to give light. It was romantic.

We were very lucky, there was a fire last wed that destroyed the entire ticket office and shop and it had only reopened again this week. Luckily none of the smoke ended up in the caves. No wonder they were so disorganised. The river level was rising and any higher they'd have to close. And if CO₂ levels got high they close the caves too. We were very lucky.

[ETA: 30 December 2005, some despicable people vandalised the caves, spraying graffiti on the caves and limestone formations, forcing it to close again. So awful.]

On the way out, we stopped at a home farm and bought an ostrich egg. Empty, since we couldn't have eaten the entire egg -- equivalent to 24 normal eggs. We did buy a small ziploc bag worth of frozen ostrich egg that was about a quarter (ie 6 hen eggs). The lady very kindly gave us some herbs from her garden too.

We were very hungry, and by the time we had lunch it was 3.45pm. We headed towards Te Kuiti, the nearest town. After investigating several cafés we decided on the Chinese takeaway. My god -- the mountain of fried rice and the fried noodles without noodles, in-teresting.

Drove the longer but faster way back via Hamilton. Another visit to countdown to get asparagus, mussels, clams and more venison. Couldn't stay away. I fried the venison rarer today, I think I have the hang of it now.

***

Tried making ostrich omelette for breakfast. Very thick. Didn't scramble properly. Couldn't finish it. Heated up the fried rice again, for the trip.

First, zorb! $45 for one trip down. They didn't have the strapped in version, and most people went for the wet one anyway. So they gave me this yellow clingy outfit to change into, I was glad I had a swimming costume underneath.

A Land Rover ride up the slope with 2 other people. When it was my turn, the guide told me to take a running dive into the zorb that he had already filled with warm water. It was stuffy inside, and of course pretty wet.

I chose the zig-zag course, which was supposed to be more fun -- at least it was longer and more bumpy. The guide tapped the zorb and I pushed it down, it was slippery and rolled around a lot, quite difficult to stay on my feet and I didn't even try. I went "weeeee!" all the way down, it was a little dizzy and I think I ended up going backwards. And it was me in this zorb.

Heh, they didn't call it "spin cycle" for nothing, it did feel like being inside a washing machine during the spin dry cycle. It was fun, although I might not do it again.

After the zorb, we popped by the blueberry farm and bought a carton of juice for the trip. I was hungry, so I got started on the fried rice. What a good idea, to pack some food for the drive.

Long long drive to Auckland, only 236km but a lot of traffic and slow moving vehicles. There was even a traffic jam on the motorway on the way into the city, a big difference from the open roads on South Island. Staying at the Kingsgate hotel, much like a travelodge.

Got checked in then drove out to city centre, looked for parking space. Damn, expensive. Eventually we gave in and parked at the Sky Tower. Luckily we validated the ticket at the souvenir shop (bought a few fluffy sheep) and it saved is $11. The charge for 3 hrs was $18 and we only paid $7.

Walked around the very busy city. Lots of Asians and Koreans. Stopped by Starbucks, for veg pie and berry muffin. It was extremely windy by the time we reached the bay.

Bought sushi and sashimi to eat at the hotel, didn't want anything too heavy. Took the car out again after dinner to drive over the harbour bridge and to look for some ice cream but with no luck.

Back to hotel, it's the end of our trip now. Sad but happily satisfied.

***

We got up around 6am, had breakfast (the only hotel that has breakfast included) and set off at 7.30am-ish. It was a miserable day in Auckland, rain rain rain. The drive to the car return office was free of traffic, and the guy there took us to the terminal in the same car.

Auckland airport was the largest so far, but there was a hellishly long line at check-in. Turned out the baggage handling / conveyor belt system at the airport was down. So we weighed our bags, the check-in lady came out of her booth and attached the tag, and then we had to wheel our bags ourselves (following a trail of uniformed staff) to the side of what seems to be the baggage warehouse. Then a window opened and we shoved our bags in. sheesh, first the eftpos system breaks down for 2 hours on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and then the country's largest airport has a systems failure on Christmas Eve? Not doing well, them Kiwis.

Anyway the flight was full. Day flight, so I only managed to nap occasionally. They fed us well, we had a nice lunch of chicken and cake; tea of ice cream and shortbread; dinner of beef noodles and cheesecake. Food on Air New Zealand has been impressive.

No personal screen, only the large screen at the centre. Had to change headphones a couple of times before finding a pair that worked. Watched most of Bewitched, some of Goal! but wasn't interested in the third film, a little league baseball fatherly film with Billy Bob Thornton.

Most of the time I read Geek Love, which I brought for the trip but hadn't touched at all. It soon captured my interest. It's twisted, yet compelling, and easy to read. It basically appeals to anyone who never wanted to be just a grey, nameless cog in the conveyor belt of life; anyone who wanted / knew / liked it that they're a little bit different. I got to page 306 by the end of the flight.

We took over 2,800 photos during the trip, when sorted and duplicates eliminated we got it down to around 1,600. I've only posted a tiny selection here, I put about 800 on flickr:

Set 1: Dunedin to Queenstown
Set 2: Queenstown to Franz Josef to Christchurch
Set 3: Rotorua to Auckland

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