The Adventures of TinTin ... Concluded
Well we've sold our van!
We arrived in Auckland and deiceded that the simplest way to sell TinTin would be through the Backpackers Car Market. So we payed our 65dollars and parked up at 9:30am to sit out the first of our three alloted days. By 10:30 we had sold TinTin. By 12 we had managed to squeeze him out for a test drive and by 4:00 we had the results of a painfully stressful mechanical test. Fortunately the only things highlighted were a leaking water pump and a few minor things that we had already told the new owners about.
Now in NZ you have something called a legal check which most people have done before purchasing a new car. This shows up any unpaid debts, speed fines, parking tickets etc on the car. It also shows the mileage (or should that be kilometerage) at the time of each WOF (MOT equivalent). The guy who we bought TinTin from told us that the clock had been wound back a little ... fair enough. It turns out that it had been wound back a whopping 130,000 kms the day before we bought it. We think thats a lot more than "a little". The big hairy beast.
So we are now TinTin free and back to the backpakers routine. Our rucksacks seem to have gained a lot more wait and lost some space ... hmmm.
Here are a few piccy's of TinTin ...


Its new years eve tonight. Itis going to be weired to think that we will be celebrating a whole 13hours ahead of the UK. We are going to celebrate with some fun Swedes.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !!!

Merry Christmas !!!
Merry Christmas !!!
Merry Christmas !!!
We hope you have all had a very jolly Christmas and are enjoying the festivities through to the new year.
We've had a very different Christmas this year.We spent Christmas at the beach in Whitianga, wearing shorts and T-shirts!
Santa managed to find his way to TinTin and managed to get the stockings into the van without waking us, pretty amazing as TinTins door is rather noisy!
In the run up to Christmas we had been playing a game called 'guess whats in the Christmas stocking'. This entailed asking 3 questions to which we had to answer yes or no. Nat really didn't want to find out what the presents were so asked suitably vague questions like "is it bigger than the moon?" Nat realised that there was something fishy afoot after she was shooed away from a phone call but all was revealed in her stocking. We had decided to cook something as far from traditional as possible and had chosen a Thai meal, but Jonny had secretly booked us into a swanky restaurant as a Christmas surprise from his Mum and Dad. What a lovely surprise - Thank you Mum and Dad! We ate a delicious four course meal which was very arty. Nat even had a pansie on her turkey!


We went to a small Church in the morning and were invited to tea by a lovely lady called Ann. If you're reading this Ann, thanks again for your lovely hospitality. We spent the evening watching the Queen's speech and chatting to Ann and her family. They had a stunning house with the beach at the bottom of their garden. Oh and the traditional New Zealand Pavlova was very scrummy. Yum yum. We hope to get the recipe soon so we can cook another dish for you when we get home. Their neighbours had a house lit up like a Christmas tree. Even the garage was decked out with signing reindeers and santas ...


Boxing day morning we took a boat trip out to see the Cathederal Coves and some of the bays of the pennisular. This was fab. Speeding over the water in a little inflatable was fun and wet. The scenery, in typical New Zealand style was stunning. Nat was in her element looking at the geological features including lots of evidence of past volcanic eruptions. We'll bore you with the photos when we're home!

We're now in Coromandel having taken a tortuous road through the mountains. TinTin really struggled but did us proud! We only annoyed about 10 Kiwi cars behind us - oooops. We're hoping that these bendy roads are something of the past and that the run to Auckland is a bit smoother now.


Anyhow we are gutted that we are going to miss Tony and Caroline here in Coromandel but we could do with selling the van pronto.

Did we do it?
In a word ...........No... (put on your best Zumerset accent)
Unfortunately it was raining and was due to for the next few days so the skydives were all on hold. One of us was glad, one of us was sad ... I'll let you guess which!
So we headed on in the rain to Rotorua.
We enjoyed the experience of the Maori cultural show and the geysers in Rotorua but were not so impressed with the smell. The whole town smells of sulphur, just like rotten eggs.


Down at Wai-o-tapu the mineral pools and hot springs were pretty amazing. The colours of the different minerals that are brought up from the ground are really vivid and quite different from anything we had seen before. Its a little like what you might expect of walking on the moon with all the craters.

We felt a little cheated by the main geyser as it was manually activated by half a kilo of washing powder. Apparently the story goes that the prisoners chopping trees in the area used to wash their clothes in the hot springs and the soap would activate the geysers shooting the clothes sky high. It was very interesting and informative but not as "natural" as we had expected.

Volcanoes in the sea
Still on the theme of eruptions we headed along the fault-line to Whakatane where we took a trip to the active volcanoe island known as White Island. The journey out on the boat took a couple of gut wrenching hours. The skipper even wondered whether the trip should have gone ahead in the first place. Nat and I were one of the very few who weren't sick! It was certainly a baptism of fire for Nat who's not particularly fond of boats!
On the island we donned gas masks to help prevent irritaion of the throat from all the sulphur fumes. The guides took us on a tour of the island showing us lots of interesting volcanic evidence. It was then that he told us that the volcanoe is made of compacted ash, is extremely pourous and very fragile. If you stomp your feet you can hear and feel the vibrations go through the ground. Apparently the landscpe changes frequently and the guides are always noticing new changes. There was a factory which had been wipped out by a landslide. Also there was scarely a lake which was around 50-60 degC and extremely acidic (around PH 1 !!!).



On our journey we also expereinced a new and tasty phenomena of the New Zealand cookie .... mmmmmm so tasty ... and when they say choc chip they mean choc chip or more like choc chunk!!!! How exciting!
Oh and the trip back was a lot smoother because we had the wind behind us. It was still a little unnerving to look out the window and see the sky, then the sea, then the horizon, then the sea then the sky ........... ooooooooh!

North Island Rambles
From people we met in the south island we thought that there wouldn't be much to do or see in the north island. However when we look back at what we've done in a week we are really surprised. Or maybe that should be what we could have done if it were not for the rain!

During our first few days we came up with a rough plan of action as we drove through some beautiful wine growing country.
Wellington, the capital, has some beautiful gardens which we wandered through and a very interesting museum. It wasn't until we had left that we realised we had missed the 'Premier' of the King Kong film here. Its another reminder of how out of touch we are with the news. Most of the time we barely know what day of the week it is!

Crossing 'Desert Road' it was clear there was going to be no 'Tongariro Crossing'. This is supposed to be the best 'one day walk' in NZ however there is little point doing it when you are walking in cloud all day and dont get to see any of the scenery. So our plans changed again and we opted for some rock climbing. After a few hours on the climbing wall we were both shattered and Nat had overcome some of her nerves of being at heights! So that night rather than hang around waiting for the weather to change we headed to Taupo to do a Skydive ... more soon.

South Island Reflections
We take the ferry today to the North Island. If you haven't visited already, then here are our top reasons why you should come ....

1. Scenery is awesome! Dramatic mountains. Rocky shorelines. Beautiful views. Think Lord-of-the-rings and that doesn't truly do it justice.
2. Dolphins, whales, pengiuns, seals, albatross and loads of really interesting wildlife. Its cool because the wildlife isn't afraid of humans and is actually quite inquisitive so will come quite close.
3. Really friendly people. The pace of life is relaxed. No worries! People value the environment and enjoy outdoor living.
4. Being British we've got to talk about the weather. Its similar weather to the UK so its not really a shock to the system. Although for us it was, coming from Australia! We had to purchase long sleeve tops and jackets!
5. You've got the Sea, mountains and hills, lakes, rivers and forests all together. An easy drive to skiing, surfing, mountain-biking, walking, kayaking! How exciting.
6. Rocky road cake slice. Tim Tams - like Penguins but nicer. Huge Muffins. Pavlova. Lots of sweet sticky goey not-very-healthy things to eat. Cake. Cake. Cake!
7. Parking is cheap as chips - free or less than 20p an hour. Cheltenham council take note!

One reason not to come to NZ. We got very excited when we discoverd almost a full jar of Marmite in the "free" section of the campsite fridge. Fantastic we thought. Woo woo woo and all that!
NZ Marmite - love it or hate it. Hmm Hate it!!! No wonder it was discarded in the free section!!! Thats not marmite. Crazy thing is Nat spread it quite thick as she was missing the taste so much.

Here's a few pic's taken around Picton and from the ferry .

Wow! and Do'h!!
We feel so encouraged by the comments that we've just found. There was a slight snag in that we didn't realise they were there! We've taken off the comment moderator thingy now so comments should go straight on.
Sorry to all you folks who repeated their message several times hoping to see their message appear.
Thank you so much for all your comments. Well done clever clogs, we are very impressed, Nullus Anxietus means 'no worries'. Its a bit of an auzzie/new zealand phrase. We've even picked it up along with 'aye' and ' sweet as'. It kind of fits the whole travelling experience, especially when you drive a van named Tin Tin.
Keep the comments coming - its really nice to hear from you all!

Guess where we are ? Back in Nelson ...We've spent a couple of days up in the Able Tasman National Park and have thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and the activities there. It was a really special and different birthday.
We took a days guided Kayak trip around the coast, taking in the seal colonies and being fed lots of fascinating information about the countryside and history of the area. On the way out we also paused to watch a pod of Dusky Dolphins, numbering around 25, including young calves. It was really awesome to see them breaching the water and splashing back down as they swam around.

Oh .. and the guide had brought some incredible carrot cake and pavlova - yummmmmmy!
Today we walked back through the forest having spent the night on the house boat. The scenery through the forest looking out over some of the bays was gorgeous.


The Adventures of Tin Tin Continued ...
He is behaving himself a lot more and doesn't complain about hills or gears in general! He's had his new gearbox fitted, his carb cleaned and his fan is now spinning.
But ... ... ... He won't go into 5th or reverse! Nats building up her muscles pushing the van around but I'm finding she is much more help with reverse than 5th!
We're taking it all in the laid back travelling fashion - nullus anxietus!
So back in Nelson we've found that about half of Nelson closes early on a Saturday so we have to wait until Monday before the garage reopens. Hopefully they can adjust the gear linkage and get a couple more gears for us!

Guess where we are ? Still in Nelson ...
Tin Tin is currently high in the air up on a car jack. He's had his carb' cleaned and the gearbox is out. The replacement is on its way and should be in and running by tomorrow lunch time.
Meanwhile we sit in a campsite relaxing, twiddling our fingers and waiting for our cronky friend to return. As they say, its character building. Whoever "they" are.

Nullus Anxietus ...
What does this mean to you?
Answers on our blog please ...
;-)

The Adventures of Tin Tin!
Our van has a name. His name is Tin Tin. We thought he needed a name so that we could talk to it in an encouraging way when he is struggling to do things. e.g get up a hill! So here he is ...

I will explain...
Since we have blogged our lovely van has become a bit of an adventure vehicle. NZ is very hilly and Tin tin, we have discovered, doesnt seem to like hills.
On our recent journeys we have been driving through stunning national parks and some mountain ranges. One particular hilly area is the Fiord lands. This is where Tin tin developed the first of his problems! Before I explain about that I will tell you about Milford sounds.

Milford Sounds
This place is beautiful! Snow capped mountains, fast flowing waterfalls, and icy cold sea water. Jon and I decided to see the Milford sound fiords by Kayak. We took an organised trip out on to the water, we donned on very attractive thermals (see the most beautiful photo!) and other kayaking gear and set off in a double Kayak. Jon and I worked very well as a team to manover the Kayak on the water and are thinking about purchasing a double kayak when we get home! We saw up close some lovely wildlife including a small seal only a meter away from us. Although our arms were tired when we returned, we thouroughly enjoyed our journey in this magnificent place.


Back to Tin tin...... As we wound up the mountain sides on our return journey his gear box began to grind. He no longer liked 2nd and 3rd gear, which makes our hill journeys a little tricky. He also likes to pop as we are going down hill. Having been brought up with fairly cronky cars I recognise his noises and decided that on our next stop it was worth getting Tin tin checked out at a local garage. Our next stop was Fox's Glacier.

Fox's Glacier
We decide to climb the fox's glacier on a half day tour. Our guide was really knowledgable and it was really exciting to see in real life what I had studied in a text book at uni. We even got to climb in a crevase.


Whilst we were in town a mechanic advised us that Tin Tin's gear box would need changing, but suggested we keep on going until it stopped going. We have decided to get a second hand gear box from a scrap dealers and get this fitted. We have just arrived in the city of Nelson and this will be the place we get it done. Jon and I are having such a wonderful time in NZ and are not worried by the performance of Tin Tin. Once we get this fixed we are sure that we will be able to sell him on to a new owner.

Pancake Rocks!!
No its not a reference to Lent!
The Pancake Rocks are a pile of layered rocks in the sea off the west coast of the south island. They are a very interesting geological phenomenom but it was absolutely pouring with rain. As the photos prove!