A few days ago a friend of my Mom's came over for lunch. We talked about our world trip, and he gave us some tips on Australia, New Zealand and Fiji (which we are not going to).
New Zealand: He said New Zealand was one of the best places he'd gone. The people were friendly and it was absolutely safe.
Australia: Same as New Zealand, Australia has very friendly people. My Mom and Dad were thinking of renting a car for the month we're there, but he said it would actually cost less to buy one, then sell it. If we need to buy just go to a nearby airport and there'll be a lot of hitch-hikers selling their cars. Of course this isn't necessarily true, but oh well.
He said, when we asked, that we weren't going to be eating kangaroo. Mom explained it like someone shooting a rabbit on Bowen Island then cooking it at a local restaurant. Some eat it, some don't.
He did say, though, that we would be seeing a lot of sheep on our menus. Once we were onto the sheep subject, he started telling us about the sheep farms. The shepherd would just point in different directions and different sheep dogs would run off, herding the sheep toward the barn. Then you would go in and learn how to sheer them (shave their fluff off and make wool). We would visit a sheep farm, but our family allergies would act up like crazy, and there are plenty of other things to do.
Fiji: My Mom had a bad feeling about Fiji from the start. Birch really wanted to go, but Mom refused, and we decided to go to Australia and NZ instead. When our friend described Fiji the first time he went,he said it was beautiful. But the second time he traveled there, apparently it was horrible. There were thieves everywhere and at night there would be bars on all the store windows. Don't get me wrong, Fiji is a beautiful place and has most likely changed since he visited there. But just to be safe, it's good we avoided it.
I researched a lot on New Zealand, 'cause that's where we're going first. I picked three special places and presented them in front of my family. They are also the only ones I like from the North Island (we're not going to the South Island).
First there is The Ninety Mile Beach. A golden beach going along the cape, but the cheap thing is it's only sixty-four miles. But that is still a long, long beach. "Sixty-four miles of rich white sand and blue twinkling sea." That still sounds good, doesn't it?
Second there is The Whanganui River Journey, a two day canoe trip through the wilderness of New Zealand. I've never been good at canoeing, so now's the time to get better at it. At the end of the journey there are really great campsites, called the DOC (Department Of Conservation). We'll have a watery time (and this time we won't get a tippy canoe, RIGHT DAD?).
Last of all is the Tangariro Crossing, a one day hike through three volcanoes. There are turquoise lakes at the bases of the volcanoes, and man, we're talking TURQUOISE. It's where Mount Doom was filmed in Lord Of The Rings, but trust me, they make it look way, way uglier in the movie. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to go swimming in the lakes, and I guess it should be obvious, but it's also tempting.
We land in Auckland and rent a car. Driving around the cape to The Ninety Mile Beach, then circling back to Auckland and down to the centre of the North Island. From there we'll go to the Whanganui River Journey, Tangariro Crossing and Birch has insisted on Zorbing (if you don't know what it is, search zorb) which is luckily in the area. At the end of our New Zealand extravaganza, we back-track to Auckland and fly out from there.
RSS Feed