We found an amazing deal with Ace Rental Cars through the online rental car broker Car Del Mar for a whooping price of $24 US a day. This amazing deal gave us a Category A (CCAR) Supersaver 1999-2003 185,000kms+ car. These are supposedly a Toyota Corolla Hatch or similar, but in the car hire world every car is a similar to a Toyota Corolla. The all caps “ATTENTION” should frighten most people but we ignored the warning attached to it…
The longest drive we did was the 11 hours from Franz Josef to just north of Te Anau. The drive had incredible views of the snow capped mountains, stunning blue creeks and bright colorful wild flowers. Our adventure consisted of two vehicles, awesome pistachio camper van, Hugo owned by Nickie our mate we met in Australia, and our beloved ancient Ace Rental car, Bluebird. I bounced between the two throughout our journey. It was a delight to have hours of girl chats…
I’d like to start out saying, I have a high appreciation for motorcyclist but today that opinion was challenged. We started our normal day driving with sunny blue skies and fantastic scenery when we faced one of the scariest situations in our driving history. I was distracted looking down at my phone when I hear Mike comment, “What the f***! As I look up I see a motorcyclist headed directly toward us in our lane, on the left side. Immediately…
On the drive from Greymouth to Franz Josef we were on the hunt to find the perfect jade pendent which brought us to Hokitika. My perfect piece is a brilliant green circularly carved flower jade piece found at Hokitika Craft Gallary. To our delight the artist of the piece, Jayme Anderson was working the studio that day. I learned flower jade gets its name from the yellow rind that shoots through the outer edges of the stone. The stone rarity and…
Today we made the drive 2.5hrs from Richmond to Greymouth. Half the drive hugging the coast and the other half following beautiful rivers. We found a cute place to stay called Noah’s Ark backpackers. Our themed room ‘Cow’s. Decorated to fit it’s name with 6 nicknack cow figures on the mantel, cow patterns sheets and lamp shade. It was a clean and comfortable with a great kitchen for morning bacon and eggs.
The entrance to Abel Tasmen National is 11km drive down an unsealed road. The trail is half on a flat pebble path that increases in challenge with climbs over boulders to get to Harwood Hole. There we found an amazing view down the 176m shaft. On our way back, we detoured to Gorge Creek Viewpoint which also has an incredible view. To get to the top, there are jagged boulders with 6-12 inch gaps you need to walk on. Mike…
Our trusty Ace Rental car complete the North Island today and began the South Island journey on the 3.5hrs Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. The views in the Queen Charlotte Sound were incredible with the bright green to the stunning blue water and sunny blue skies. Next we drive from Picton to Richmond on the windy roads that hug the turquoise coastline. We stayed at The Pear Orchard that we found through AirBnB. The couple were lovely hosts. Timo, originally…
Today after years of reading and months of preparation we are leaving. The plan kicked into action in mid-June when Steph quit her job and focused all her time and energy into reducing the clutter in the house so it would be ready for sale. We also sold off the majority of stuff we own and have reduced our possessions down to a dozen or so rubbermaid style bins. We were already pretty much current on the majority of immunizations…