Addrenalin, sounds and islands

Just a quck update on my activities over the last few days. Queenstown started with an afternoon of fhotography, followed by a day of jetboating, mountain biking and white water rafting. To relax I spent my last day in Queenstown flying by wire, before hading for the splendors of Milford and Doubtfull sounds. I'm curently at the southenmost point of my tour, the sleepy little Stuart island.

Wanaka and Queenstown

I know, its been a couple of days - blame the slow and expensive net connection in Wanaka. Queenstown is a little bit faster, but best of all FREE, so I'm finaly able to get the backlog of pictures onto Flickr. Speaking of which, if you look to the right and down a bit you should spot a slide show of my shots - just click on the image to get a larger view.

Going on at the moment are some shots taken on a flight over Mt Aspiring (LotR fans may recognize it from the start of the two towers) on a beautiful clear day. Other adventures in Wanaka included some shooting (targets and clay pigeons), a visit to the chaotic toy and transport museum (8 aircraft, 400 cars and about 10,000 toys crammed into three sheds), getting lost in the puzzle world maze (the exit was the hardest thing to find), a visit to some more LotR locations and a windy sailing trip on the lake (no photos, too busy holding onto the tiller).

Just getting some airtime

Since the last post the weather at Franz Joseph didn't improve enough to catch a helicopter up to the ice, so I had to walk up instead. Fox Glacier (mints) just down the road had better weather, so I was able to catch a ride on a chopper to about half way up, despite the cloud blanketing the top of the valley (see photos in the usual place some time in the future).

It was then on to Wanaka for another flight, but this one was cramped, and the food was terrible, so I got out early.

At around 15,000 feet it was a bit of a jump, but I did survive (and I've got the DVD and T-shirt to prove it). I got my revenge on flying things today by shooting some inocent plastic disks with a shotgun.

Quadbiking in glacier country

It's been too wet today to get a helecopter ride up the Glacier, so I tried something else instead.

Pulling pints in Greymouth

worldtour_3396.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, but I've had a fairly busy few days. South Island started in cloud and rain, which was a pity since the ferry route into Picton was spectacular. It was then straight on to sunny Nelson for a bit more wine tasting and a long walk along the coast in the Able Tasman National Park. Next stop was a rainy Greymouth for a quick overnight stop and brewery tour. I'm curently in Franz Joseph waiting for the weather to clear enough to get a helicopter ride up to the glacier for some ice hiking.

Photos on Flickr are also up to date, so go take a look.

So long North Island (for now)

Just a quick update from Wellington, my last stop in the north of New Zealand before I hit the ferry tomorrow morning for the south. From the Bay of Islands its been a slog south, interrupted by a brief bit of cave rafting and gyser watching (its amazing what a bit of soap powder can do) back to Wellington.

Next stop will be Napier, where I'll be looking for a fast wi-fi connection so that I can upload some more pics.

Northland

worldtour_2973.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

Just a quick update on the last few days.
I headed north out of Auckland to the Bay of Islands, just in time to catch the deliberate sinking of the ex-NZ Navy frigate Canterbury (its being turned into an artificial reef and dive site) in front of a small crowd of boats. It was then time to head further north via 90 mile beach (which is actually 60 miles long to Cape Reinga, which is the most northerly accessible point in New Zealand.

After a brief stay in Aukland I'm back in Rotarua, having tried out Cave tubing.