Trip report New Zealand with stopover in Sydney

Andiline · 12-25-2008

Since I have too much time at hand these days and I have bought a new scanner that can scan in the negatives from my analog pics I thought I'd write a report of a trip that I made in march 2003. Dreaming of going back one day....

I had accumulated enough Star Alliance miles to go to the other side of the world back then and decided to get the most out of it. So New Zealand it was. I was away for a month. The flight to Christchurch on the NZ-South Island was via Singapore and Sydney and it took me 36 hours to arrive there. Time difference was exactly 12 hours. I think I arrived around noon and went to my motel immediately with a taxi. The whole trip had been pre-booked via an agency in New Zealand who had organized not only my accomodations but also all transport. I travelled with regular busses but in the smaller towns those busses bring you to your accomodation or get you there in the morning. Therefore travelling in New Zealand is rather easy.

Andiline · 12-25-2008

I put my stuff in my hotel room and went out to meet a german that I had known via internet. She had arrived one day ahead of me and so we sat there in a restaurant, surrounded by germans (jeeez, didn't fly 36 hours for THAT

) and were wondering why on earth we both flew to the other side of the world to travel alone. Never saw her again after that day. Since she had seen a little bit of Christchurch she showed me around. Here are a few impressions of the first 1.5 days in Christchurch which is the biggest city of the New Zealand southern island.

Funny that in the cityhall there was a Starbuck already 6 years ago...

The tram (I think a couple of them are now on the historic line in San Francisco):

Not sure what this scultpure was. It was close to the university I think and that day there was a fleemarket.

The botanical garden of Christchurch was beautiful...

Impressing... I don't remember how old this tree was but it was VERY old.

When I left the botanical garden I saw this couple that was getting married close to a fountain within the botanical garden. Guess the dresses were polynesian style

Another church in Christchurch...

And then my first encounter with Maori-culture. The eyes of this totem pole were in blue. The blue comes from the Paua shell which is a very nice, big, blue shell that - as far as I know - exists only in New Zealand.

Andiline · 12-26-2008

I had only two full days in Christchurch which was planned mostly to let me get used to the 12 hours time difference. Christchurch does not really have that many attractions to fill out weeks... so I took the bus on my second day and went to Lyttleton, a small village that has a funicular to take you up on a hill. It was a nice day with good weather so I could see far away. Spent a couple of hours up there just enjoying the view. I know the quality of the pics is not like digital pics but I am still pretty happy with the general quality of the scans (thought it would be worse).

This is Christchurch.

Christchurch is close to the Pacific ocean.

And these small fjords were what I saw when I looked to the other side of the hill:

Back in Christchurch.

The university (looks very british...)

And this is the fountain where the polynesian wedding took place.

**Shammy** · 12-26-2008

Ack, soooo incredibly beautiful!

I want to get to NZ, I hope I can handle the kind of flight it will take to get me there though!

But I must go one day. My father was killed on a motorcycle there and I really want to visit the memorial they erected on Mt. Hercules in his honor.

Not to mention, I also want to see what attracted him to this place - he went several times per year and stayed for a month at a time. I can SEE why from your photos actually, but I'd like to see it in person.

Jacko · 12-26-2008

Very picturesque! And the colors came out very nicely, Andrea!

Shammy, what an interesting journey that will be to the place where your father visited so often and then passed away!

**Shammy** · 12-26-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacko

Shammy, what an interesting journey that will be to the place where your father visited so often and then passed away!

Don't I know it! It's on my bucket list Jack so I'll get there eventually!

Andiline · 12-26-2008

Shammy, you haven't even started to see the beauty of New Zealand yet.

Christchurch is relatively boring compared to the breathtaking views of other areas. Since I was on both islands I have pics from both. And there are so different landscapes there... I don't know if I'll ever go back but I'd like to.

Eileencc · 12-26-2008

Beautiful photos as always Andrea! I wish I had seen and done a tenth of the things you've done in life! Thanks as always for taking us along on your adventure!

Jacko · 12-26-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eileencc

Beautiful photos as always Andrea! I wish I had seen and done a tenth of the things you've done in life! Thanks as always for taking us along on your adventure!

It's still early!

Andiline · 12-26-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacko

It's still early!

Yepp, more to come (e.g. Bonaire next year in November)...

Thor Henning · 12-27-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andiline

Yepp, more to come (e.g. Bonaire next year in November)...

Wow Andrea! Great pictures as usual! And you sure travel a lot. Your work gives you posibilities I don't have. Bonaire looks lovely! Is it expencive to go there?

I found this video about Bonaire:

Andiline · 12-28-2008

Thor, the trip to Bonaire will be with my dive-club and will cost me about 2,000 Euro for two weeks (plus diving). Just found out that one dive site there is called 'Andrea'. Guess I gotta dive there...

So, to continue with New Zealand. Have been looking for one set of negatives all day yesterday and still haven't found it. So I had to rely on prints that I scanned in last year.

After the first two days in Christchurch I had planned an overnight trip to 'whale town' Kaikoura which is north of Christchurch. I am a whale person and Kaikoura is famous for it's whale watching.

When we arrived in Kaikourra the van dropped me off at the airport because that afternoon I was going whale watching by plane. It was a small 4-seater with the pilot, the co-pilot and myself in the back. When we were ready for take-off an emergency call came in that a diver was missing so instead of whale watching I participated in a rescue operation. It was interesting to see how this worked. From the plane we tried to find the missing guy and it was to hard to see anything down. But when we saw something and I heard the pilot talk about it via micro I could see small boats going immediately to the spot we had seen from above. The coordination was good but not good enough. The 25 year old diver from Christchurch was never found (I asked the next day).

Not sure how long we participated in the rescue operation but at a certain point we gave up and I finally came to see my whale.

We circled around it some and after he dove down we flew back to the airport. Nice landscape...

The van came back to the airport to get me and then they dumped me at a house, gave me the keys and there I was - alone in New Zealand, alone in a house and although the house was not too bad I didn't like that. This is the balcony from which I had a nice view (if only the weather would have been better).

I had booked a hotel and what did I get? But since I didn't know who to complain to I let my stuff in the house and tried to explore Kaikoura and find out where to go to the next morning for the whale watching by boat. Found these sculptures close to the beach.

The beach (black)

And the main street of Kaikoura...

I don't remember what I did in the evening. Maybe watch telly. The next morning I had to get up early since I had booked an early whale watching tour by boat. Have you ever ordered a taxi to an address that you didn't know? Fortunately Kaikoura is not a big city so the driver found me in the end... so I made it to the check-in. It is at the train station where the famous cross-island transscenic train leaves as well.

Whale watching in Kaikoura is being run by Maoris and it is the most organized tour I've ever done. And the one I liked less of all. It was like 'go inside, sit down, whale in sight, everybody get up and outside, watch whale, go back inside, sit down - repeat'. Here is one whale:

On the way back to the port we circled these rocks and saw some more wildlife:

For the afternoon I had booked a 'swim with dolphins' tour but since I had a strong cold I decided not to go into the water. This tour was much more interesting than the whale watching tour and it was one of the highlights of my New Zealand trip. Swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura is not what you know from Mexico. Here it is swimming with wild dolphins and if you want to play with them you have to get their attention. Taking pics was difficult as they are so fast that I have a lot of pics with just water....

Caught this one jumping though.

It was very impressing to see those hundreds and hundreds of dolphins swim and jump around the boats. Just the sheer number of them was impressing. The closest pic for that is this one (and it shows only a very limited number of them). In reality there were more of them. Must have been 300-400....

After that dolphin tour we went to get my stuff at the house and then it was back to Christchurch for the night.

Andiline · 01-02-2009

Been busy scanning all those pics but finished this morning so now here is the next installment....

From Christchurch I took the bus to go to Queenstown which is the 'Outdoor'-center of the island where you can do all kinds of crazy stuff. They invented bungee jumping there. But that was not why I went there. I would have never had imagined though that the cross-island journey would be one of the best days I've had on the trip.

The trip started eventless, lots of sheep everywhere. Made a potty break somewhere and had something to eat. Then I think it must have been shortly after lunch that the landscape started to change. The drivers of the public busses are partly tour guides so they explain you everything as well. In the morning the driver had asked if someone would be interested to fly on Mount Cook with a helicopter in the afternoon. Since it was a bright, clear day I took the spur of the moment decision to fly up on the glacier. One of the best decisions I could have made....

The landscape turned into this and from there it got better and better:

Next stop was at Lake Tekapo and unfortunately the sun was on the wrong side so the pics don't do the colour of the lake any justice. It was a milky turqois

This chapel is famous but I don't remember why.

And close to the chapel there is the small statue of the sheepdog.

When we continued our way we arrived at Lake Pukaki where I really regretted that I was in a bus and couldn't stop for taking pics. But at least the colour of the lake looks a little bit like it really was. Imagine the pics if I'd have been able to get out of the bus....

In the distance we could already see the snow covered Mount Cook.

Down at the heli-port there was no snow.

When we were boarding our heli the pilot said 'One of you has to sit in front with me.' I guess I was inside on that seat faster than he could bat his eyelashes...

It was my first and only heli-flight so far but I loved it. Lake Pukaki from up there:

We landed on one of the glaciers close to Mount Cook and walked around in the snow a little bit and of course took pics....

More views... Mount Cook

And a valley down...

Not sure if anything interesting happened on the way from Mount Cook to Queenstown afterwards but I don't think so. The pics are only a small impression of how beautiful the landscape was. And I was VERY, VERY lucky to see this on such a splendid day....

Thor Henning · 01-02-2009

Wow!

These pictures are fantastic:

Andiline · 01-02-2009

Thanks Thor. I am still sad that I couldn't get off the bus at Lake Pukaki when it really looked turqoise and the mountains were mirrored in it. It was an asbolute fantastic landscape.

Since I'd been on the bus all day I had planned one day off in Queenstown (I think but it's possible that I went on an excursion the next day - doesn't matter

). Queenstown has nothing special. I remember that I went around town a little bit but didn't take any pictures. Around lunchtime I took the elevator up a hill from where I had a beautiful view over Lake Wanaka.

The mountains you see on this pic have been used as one of the landscapes in 'Lord of the Rings'. I bought a book in New Zealand with all the info on which locations the films have been shot.

More lake...

You could bungee-jump there (although the original place is on a river close to Queenstown). I remember that one very intelligent guy wanted to take pics of himself jumping and when he was down he lost his camera. I mean... don't you SECURE your camera with a handstrap when you do something like that?

I spent several hours up on the hill because I liked the view over the lake and just sat there to enjoy. In the evening I watched the sunset on the mountains on lake Wanaka.

Next installment is going to be more interesting again...

12-25-2008	#1 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	Trip report New Zealand with stopover in Sydney Since I have too much time at hand these days and I have bought a new scanner that can scan in the negatives from my analog pics I thought I'd write a report of a trip that I made in march 2003. Dreaming of going back one day.... I had accumulated enough Star Alliance miles to go to the other side of the world back then and decided to get the most out of it. So New Zealand it was. I was away for a month. The flight to Christchurch on the NZ-South Island was via Singapore and Sydney and it took me 36 hours to arrive there. Time difference was exactly 12 hours. I think I arrived around noon and went to my motel immediately with a taxi. The whole trip had been pre-booked via an agency in New Zealand who had organized not only my accomodations but also all transport. I travelled with regular busses but in the smaller towns those busses bring you to your accomodation or get you there in the morning. Therefore travelling in New Zealand is rather easy. Last edited by Andiline; 12-25-2008 at 04:54 PM..

12-28-2008	#12 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	Thor, the trip to Bonaire will be with my dive-club and will cost me about 2,000 Euro for two weeks (plus diving). Just found out that one dive site there is called 'Andrea'. Guess I gotta dive there... So, to continue with New Zealand. Have been looking for one set of negatives all day yesterday and still haven't found it. So I had to rely on prints that I scanned in last year. After the first two days in Christchurch I had planned an overnight trip to 'whale town' Kaikoura which is north of Christchurch. I am a whale person and Kaikoura is famous for it's whale watching. When we arrived in Kaikourra the van dropped me off at the airport because that afternoon I was going whale watching by plane. It was a small 4-seater with the pilot, the co-pilot and myself in the back. When we were ready for take-off an emergency call came in that a diver was missing so instead of whale watching I participated in a rescue operation. It was interesting to see how this worked. From the plane we tried to find the missing guy and it was to hard to see anything down. But when we saw something and I heard the pilot talk about it via micro I could see small boats going immediately to the spot we had seen from above. The coordination was good but not good enough. The 25 year old diver from Christchurch was never found (I asked the next day). Not sure how long we participated in the rescue operation but at a certain point we gave up and I finally came to see my whale. We circled around it some and after he dove down we flew back to the airport. Nice landscape... The van came back to the airport to get me and then they dumped me at a house, gave me the keys and there I was - alone in New Zealand, alone in a house and although the house was not too bad I didn't like that. This is the balcony from which I had a nice view (if only the weather would have been better). I had booked a hotel and what did I get? But since I didn't know who to complain to I let my stuff in the house and tried to explore Kaikoura and find out where to go to the next morning for the whale watching by boat. Found these sculptures close to the beach. The beach (black) And the main street of Kaikoura... I don't remember what I did in the evening. Maybe watch telly. The next morning I had to get up early since I had booked an early whale watching tour by boat. Have you ever ordered a taxi to an address that you didn't know? Fortunately Kaikoura is not a big city so the driver found me in the end... so I made it to the check-in. It is at the train station where the famous cross-island transscenic train leaves as well. Whale watching in Kaikoura is being run by Maoris and it is the most organized tour I've ever done. And the one I liked less of all. It was like 'go inside, sit down, whale in sight, everybody get up and outside, watch whale, go back inside, sit down - repeat'. Here is one whale: On the way back to the port we circled these rocks and saw some more wildlife: For the afternoon I had booked a 'swim with dolphins' tour but since I had a strong cold I decided not to go into the water. This tour was much more interesting than the whale watching tour and it was one of the highlights of my New Zealand trip. Swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura is not what you know from Mexico. Here it is swimming with wild dolphins and if you want to play with them you have to get their attention. Taking pics was difficult as they are so fast that I have a lot of pics with just water.... Caught this one jumping though. It was very impressing to see those hundreds and hundreds of dolphins swim and jump around the boats. Just the sheer number of them was impressing. The closest pic for that is this one (and it shows only a very limited number of them). In reality there were more of them. Must have been 300-400.... After that dolphin tour we went to get my stuff at the house and then it was back to Christchurch for the night. __________________ Life is better in flip flops! Underwater pics Pics from my trips/trip reports

12-25-2008	#2 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	I put my stuff in my hotel room and went out to meet a german that I had known via internet. She had arrived one day ahead of me and so we sat there in a restaurant, surrounded by germans (jeeez, didn't fly 36 hours for THAT ) and were wondering why on earth we both flew to the other side of the world to travel alone. Never saw her again after that day. Since she had seen a little bit of Christchurch she showed me around. Here are a few impressions of the first 1.5 days in Christchurch which is the biggest city of the New Zealand southern island. Funny that in the cityhall there was a Starbuck already 6 years ago... The tram (I think a couple of them are now on the historic line in San Francisco): Not sure what this scultpure was. It was close to the university I think and that day there was a fleemarket. The botanical garden of Christchurch was beautiful... Impressing... I don't remember how old this tree was but it was VERY old. When I left the botanical garden I saw this couple that was getting married close to a fountain within the botanical garden. Guess the dresses were polynesian style Another church in Christchurch... And then my first encounter with Maori-culture. The eyes of this totem pole were in blue. The blue comes from the Paua shell which is a very nice, big, blue shell that - as far as I know - exists only in New Zealand.

12-26-2008	#3 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	I had only two full days in Christchurch which was planned mostly to let me get used to the 12 hours time difference. Christchurch does not really have that many attractions to fill out weeks... so I took the bus on my second day and went to Lyttleton, a small village that has a funicular to take you up on a hill. It was a nice day with good weather so I could see far away. Spent a couple of hours up there just enjoying the view. I know the quality of the pics is not like digital pics but I am still pretty happy with the general quality of the scans (thought it would be worse). This is Christchurch. Christchurch is close to the Pacific ocean. And these small fjords were what I saw when I looked to the other side of the hill: Back in Christchurch. The university (looks very british...) And this is the fountain where the polynesian wedding took place.

12-26-2008	#4 (permalink)
Shammy Travel Insurance Tester Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: The Joisey Shore Posts: 17,474	Ack, soooo incredibly beautiful! I want to get to NZ, I hope I can handle the kind of flight it will take to get me there though! But I must go one day. My father was killed on a motorcycle there and I really want to visit the memorial they erected on Mt. Hercules in his honor. Not to mention, I also want to see what attracted him to this place - he went several times per year and stayed for a month at a time. I can SEE why from your photos actually, but I'd like to see it in person.

12-26-2008	#5 (permalink)
Jacko añejo Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 30,889	Very picturesque! And the colors came out very nicely, Andrea! Shammy, what an interesting journey that will be to the place where your father visited so often and then passed away!

12-26-2008	#7 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	Shammy, you haven't even started to see the beauty of New Zealand yet. Christchurch is relatively boring compared to the breathtaking views of other areas. Since I was on both islands I have pics from both. And there are so different landscapes there... I don't know if I'll ever go back but I'd like to.

12-26-2008	#8 (permalink)
Eileencc añejo Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of Boston, Mass Posts: 7,354	Beautiful photos as always Andrea! I wish I had seen and done a tenth of the things you've done in life! Thanks as always for taking us along on your adventure!

01-02-2009	#13 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	Been busy scanning all those pics but finished this morning so now here is the next installment.... From Christchurch I took the bus to go to Queenstown which is the 'Outdoor'-center of the island where you can do all kinds of crazy stuff. They invented bungee jumping there. But that was not why I went there. I would have never had imagined though that the cross-island journey would be one of the best days I've had on the trip. The trip started eventless, lots of sheep everywhere. Made a potty break somewhere and had something to eat. Then I think it must have been shortly after lunch that the landscape started to change. The drivers of the public busses are partly tour guides so they explain you everything as well. In the morning the driver had asked if someone would be interested to fly on Mount Cook with a helicopter in the afternoon. Since it was a bright, clear day I took the spur of the moment decision to fly up on the glacier. One of the best decisions I could have made.... The landscape turned into this and from there it got better and better: Next stop was at Lake Tekapo and unfortunately the sun was on the wrong side so the pics don't do the colour of the lake any justice. It was a milky turqois This chapel is famous but I don't remember why. And close to the chapel there is the small statue of the sheepdog. When we continued our way we arrived at Lake Pukaki where I really regretted that I was in a bus and couldn't stop for taking pics. But at least the colour of the lake looks a little bit like it really was. Imagine the pics if I'd have been able to get out of the bus.... In the distance we could already see the snow covered Mount Cook. Down at the heli-port there was no snow. When we were boarding our heli the pilot said 'One of you has to sit in front with me.' I guess I was inside on that seat faster than he could bat his eyelashes... It was my first and only heli-flight so far but I loved it. Lake Pukaki from up there: We landed on one of the glaciers close to Mount Cook and walked around in the snow a little bit and of course took pics.... More views... Mount Cook And a valley down... Not sure if anything interesting happened on the way from Mount Cook to Queenstown afterwards but I don't think so. The pics are only a small impression of how beautiful the landscape was. And I was VERY, VERY lucky to see this on such a splendid day....

01-02-2009	#14 (permalink)
Thor Henning añejo Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Drammen, Norway Posts: 4,131	Wow! These pictures are fantastic:

01-02-2009	#15 (permalink)
Andiline añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Cologne, Germany Posts: 9,870	Thanks Thor. I am still sad that I couldn't get off the bus at Lake Pukaki when it really looked turqoise and the mountains were mirrored in it. It was an asbolute fantastic landscape. Since I'd been on the bus all day I had planned one day off in Queenstown (I think but it's possible that I went on an excursion the next day - doesn't matter ). Queenstown has nothing special. I remember that I went around town a little bit but didn't take any pictures. Around lunchtime I took the elevator up a hill from where I had a beautiful view over Lake Wanaka. The mountains you see on this pic have been used as one of the landscapes in 'Lord of the Rings'. I bought a book in New Zealand with all the info on which locations the films have been shot. More lake... You could bungee-jump there (although the original place is on a river close to Queenstown). I remember that one very intelligent guy wanted to take pics of himself jumping and when he was down he lost his camera. I mean... don't you SECURE your camera with a handstrap when you do something like that? I spent several hours up on the hill because I liked the view over the lake and just sat there to enjoy. In the evening I watched the sunset on the mountains on lake Wanaka. Next installment is going to be more interesting again...

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