New Zealands South Island Dec10-16

Hey everyone its Trev here. Thought I would give this blog thing a try as Candice forgot to tell you guys about how we got to experience an EarthQuake. Yeah I know right?

 It was about 7am on Dec 8 in Napier and Candice and I were still sleeping. I had awoke to our light fixture rattling a little. We were a few rooms down from the fitness room so I thought that maybe it was the vibration from someone on the treadmill. I closed my eyes for a moment then felt the bed start to rock back and forth. I sat up realizing that we were in the middle of a 5.8 EarthQuake. Candice had woke up as well and we both just sat there rocking back and forth in bed in aww wondering what to do. after about 20 seconds it stopped. Candice and I looked at each other and we desided to go run out in the parking lot incase the roof was about to fall in. We looked out side and saw that there was no one moving around or no panic from any of the the other guests, no one seemed to care. So we ended up just going back to bed.                                                       THE END.

Early on the 10th we had to get up to get on the Interislander Ferry to the South Island. The ferry was massive as it could hold 1600 ppl and 600 cars. The ride to the South Island was sonthing out of a post card. The coast lines were full of mountains and thick jungle. 3 hours later we arrived in a small town called Picton. This is where we caught the Kiwi Rail and made our way to Christchurch. The train took us down the East coast stopping at little towns around the way. Candice and I spent 1 night in Christchurch then made our way to Queenstown for 2 nights.

Big ass ferry that took us from the North to the South Island

Views from the ferry of Cook Strait

Candice's first big boat ride. Wellington City to the left

Getting on the train in Picton. Choo Choo

I am sooo happy to be on the train :)

This is one of the beautiful views from the train. Only problem is that there is a dead whale in this photo :(

Queenstown was great, just like Banff but better. The weather was nice and the views were a beauty. The town was bacically just a giant gift shop and a bunch of resturants and bars. (same as Banff) In the winter there is skiing near by. If anyone makes it to Queenstown make sure to try Ferg Burger. WOW is all I have to say. On the 3rd day we set off for Hanmer Springs. It is about and 8hr drive through the middle of the island so to break up the drive we stopped in Greymouth for a night. We only stayed the night in Greymouth so didnt see very much. The coast line views were amazing however.

Views driving to Queenstown. Looks like home

Still driving to Queenstown. The landscape changes soo much

Oh yeah ! FERG BURGER

I have never had a burger this big in my life. Thanks Ferg Burger

View of the warf in Queenstown

The drive through to Hanmer Sprins was very senic. There were waterfalls, rivers and blue pools every half hour or so, so it made our drive a little longer as we stopped often.

Waterfall on the drive to Greymouth

I climed a waterfall on the drive to Greymouth

Candice at the Blue Ponds. Crystal clear water

View of Blue Pond from above

Dont see this everyday. We didnt see a penguin though.

 Hanmer Springs were nice and relaxing. We spent the bettet part of our day at the springs, enjoying the twelve open-air thermal pools and three sulphur pools. At one point we could hear bag pipes coming from the main road so Candice went out to see what was going on. It turns out that they were having their Santa Parade down the main street. Candice had a smile from ear to ear when she saw Santa riding by. That evening we went for a walk around the town, had a nice dinner and went to a christmas carol concert in town.

Sitting in the Hot Springs at Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs

The Santa Parade outside of the springs

Santa Parade

The next day we had to get back to Christchurch to return our rental car. Once the car was returned we walked to the city to see the sights. As we got closer to the downtown area we noticed that there were a bunch of the streets closed off. It turns out that they city is still shut down due to the 2010 and 2011 quakes that hit the city. One of the malls that had been badly affected had reopened as a bunch of shipping containers with shops in them. Its nice to see that people are adjusting but sad to see the main part of the city still closed and the damaged businesses around.

Map of Christchurch City. The red is the part that is closed off due to the earth quakes

Christchurch Art Museum. Heavily damaged in the quakes

The new shopping center

The next morning we got up to catch our flight to Brisbane Australia to visit the rest of the Lister Family. This is where we plan on getting jobs and finding a place to stay for the next little while..

Our way down the east coast (Dec 2-10)

On the 2nd we left Auckland for the Coromandel Peninsula where we stayed for 2 nights. We visited the tiny town of Tairua to see Trevor's grandparents old home up on the hill, the beach where he played as a child during his visits and the small downtown street where he would pickup his daily kiwi burger.

View from Paku Hill in Tairua

Beach near Trevors grandfathers home in Tirua

We also visited Hot Water Beach that day at low tide and rented a small shovel. We initally started digging near the outside of a group of other people sitting in hot water holes. The hole we were digging was cold but we thought if we dug far enough down the cold hole would fill with hot water. While Trevor dug I took a short wander around to try and find a better spot and came across water coming up in the sand. I burned my feet a bit not realizing the water would be the 64 degrees celcius it was. We ended up digging a hole at the bottom of the beach where the hot spring water would mix with the cold ocean water to make the perfect temperature hole.

Hiking trails short drive from Hot Water Beach

Hot Water Beach

We moved on to Whakatane, Gisborne and Napier for the following couple of nights. It was alot of driving as we took the long scenic coast road the long way around and unfortunatley we didnt have the time to see all that each town had to offer.

Kiwi 360 - Trevors heads poking out the top right

Kiwi vines at Kiwi 360

Views from the drive

Rock slide that people would body board down

Trevor underneath the waterfall

Our last 2 nights on the North Island were spent in Wellington. There we got in a short but lovely visit with Trevor's Aunt & Uncle, Bill and Ngaire. We also got to see Trevor's dads childhood home and elementary school.

View of downtown Wellington from across the bay

Downtown Wellington

We watched a xmas concert in downtown Wellington

Santa flew by to waive hello during the xmas carol concert

One more look at Auckland (Nov 17-Dec 2)

On our way back to Auckland we stopped in Murawai Beach which is the local black sand beaches. It was extremely windy that day but we were able to find a spot near the sand dunes that was nice. The dark sands were too hot to walk barefoot on for more than a moment on. After sitting in the sun for an hour or so watching the giant waves we took the short hike up the hill to view the Gannet Colony. There were 1000’s of huge birds perched on the rock ledges below sitting with their chicks.

Murawai Beach

One of several crowded rocks

Star fish Trevor found in pool in the rock

Sinker Trevor found in the shallows... by stepping on it and putting a couple of holes in his feet!

 On our way back to Auckland we also took a drove through the town of Whenuapai were Trevors grandpa and grandma had lived at one time. Trevor was hoping to jog is memory a bit there but it didn’t happen and he is not certain if he had been to their house in this town before or not.

We stayed that evening in Auckland and spent the evening going through old photos of Trevor’s last trip to NZ and old photos of Rex and his brothers. The following day we did very little... I know I know… we are only here once and we should be out experiencing it. But we (especially me) needed a break from the constant driving around etc. Ron did take us for a short drive to view the different homes that he had lived in with his parents and brothers as teens in Auckland which was pretty neat as well. We made a Canadian style dinner for Ron, Louise and the boys. We made… Beef Dip! J They don’t have beef dip here!!! The boys sooo loved it but kept calling the au jus “Jew” hahaha. Pretty sure they are going to ask Louise to make it for dinner.

Ron and Trevor at the Rugby Club

Ron and Trevor looking through old photos

Photo from Jerri, Rex, Trevor & Ryan's last family visit to NZ

The next two days we spent downtown Auckland. On Thursday, we returned our rental car and was dropped off on the top of Queenstreet, which is a trendy street full of all kinds of shops that heads down to the water. Once we reached the water we walked along the Viaduct Canal which was a beautiful area full of sail boats and surrounded by little restaurants.

On Friday, we hoped on the free shark shuttle to Kelly Tarlton’s – which is a really great aquarium that also happens to have penguins. The aquarium has a long tunnel with a moving track through it so that you can stand on the track and look up at all the different types of sharks, fish and manta rays in the aquarium above you. One shark was swimming alongside us giving us the eye; I think he was hungry! Unfortunately we were too late too late to take the shark shuttle back into downtown Auckland so we decided to walk the 6+ km’s along the bays back. It was beautiful but extremely windy!! That evening we stopped at a couple of local restaurants for a bite and a drink. Our last stop that evening was at Movenpick - The Art of Swiss Icecream . Yummm! But boy did I overeat that evening… 

Shark Shuttle

Shark Tunnel

Neat fish we saw in one of the aqauriums

The dessert I got at Movenpick

Xmas decorations are finally going up around Auckland

Ron, Louise & their youngest son Maddy

Trev and I with Victor during a break in his cricket game

Ben playing cricket (Ron & Louise's oldest son)