A Foggy Welcome to the South Island!

Having got an overnight ferry from Wellington to Picton, we started driving down the West Coast to Franz Josef in the glacier country.

The west coast drive is supposed to be filled with dramatic views of the coastline with beautiful rock formations and crashing waves ... but unfortunately most of our view was obscured by thick fog!!  We still managed to glimpses of stunning scenery at certain points on our drive.

Punakaiki, aka Pankake Rocks is seen on the left.  This is home to the dramatic scenery of the limestone country of Paparoua National Park.

These formations seen are limestone, and began forming 30 million years ago when lime-rich fragments of dead marine creatures were depostited on the sea bed and became overlaid with soft mud and clay.  This sead bed was raised above sea level by earthquakes and this formed the dramatic coastline we see today

Tongariro National Park

This is where Mordor was filmed!!! And it is home to Mount Ngauruhoe which is Mount Doom!

This is the oldest National Park in NZ and is acknowledged as a mixed world heritage cultural and natural site.  The three active volcanoes are found in the centre of the park and can be seen in the picture on the left.

Mount Ruapehu in the centre is one of the world's most active volcanoes, and is the largest most active volcano in NZ.
Alex aka Ankit attempted the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in full snow gear as seen on the left.  Marty, Melman and I drove part of the Volcanic Touring Loop starting from Turangi.

A 1 hour walk in the snow from Whakapapa village, led us to the Taranaki falls, seen on the right.  Tumbling 20 metres over the edge of a large lava flow which erupted from Ruapehu 15,000 years ago, the falls plunge into a boulder ridged pool. This pool was half iced over - it was stunning!

Look who fell out of the sky?!?!

Taupo

Geothermal activity at Craters of the Moon

We learnt a lot about geothermal activity at Taupo and Rotorua.  This is common in New Zealand because it lies on the edge of two colliding tectonic plates.  Large pools of magma, heat underground water to extremely high temperatures.  When this water rises rapidly through cracks and faults, its boils produces steam and results in steam vents, hot springs, mud pools and geysers.

Craters of the Moon, near Huka falls in Taupo, is a perfect example of this.  This area is still very active and expanding.

Waio-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

At the Waio-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, we saw similar wonders.  This is also an active geothermal area, which has many hot springs noted for their colourful appearance, as well as boiling mud pools.

Huka Falls

Huka Falls are situated near Taupo, on the Waikato River that drains the lake Taupo.  The volume of water flowing through approaches 220000 litres per second!!

Fishing lines of the Glowworms

Waitomo caves are a cave system thought to be over 2 million years old.  The main caves are the Waitomo glowworm caves, Ruakuri cave and Aranui cave.  There are fantastic stalactite and stalagmite displays in the limestone.  As well as this, there is a fantastic presence of glowworms, providing light in the darkness.  Below you can see a photo of the glow-worms and their fishing lines - which are used to catch food for the glow worms!

Takapuno and Devonport

Leaving our mark at Muriwai

Muriwai beach is situated on the West Coast of Auckland.  We visited this enchanting coastline, on our way out from Auckland, afterwards heading down South.

This beach is famous for its black sand.  This is due to the iron content derived from the volcanoes in the surrounding area.  The sand is eroded igneous material from volcanic areas.  Longshore drift, causes this black mineral sand to be carried up the west coast from Mount Taranaki.

The magical Muriwai beach

The beach is also known for surfing, fishing and sailing.  It also houses the region's only gannet colony.

As you can see from this picture, the place was magical - the black sand added a mystical quality to the scenery, and this combined with mist surrounding the distant scenery, made us feel we were looking out onto an enchanted land.

It was truly bewitching seeing the landscape and watching the sun set over this enchanting beach,

Narrow Neck Beach at Devonport

Earlier in the day, we visited a more traditional beach - Narrow Neck Beach - in one of Auckland's suburbs.    This was actually a location we hadn't intended on visiting, but stumbled upon on our drive to Takapuno.  It was deserted!

Beautiful clear water, golden sand ... and not a person in site!  Definitely worth a visit ... and there's a lovely cafe there too :)

The disappearing Cannon at North Head

At Devonport, we visited North Head - which has a disappearing gun, used in a war against the Russia, and also underground dungeons.

Pretty cool - plus the views of the harbours and islands of the gulf were stunning.  The only downside was it was pretty windy up top!!!!

More soon xxx

BIG NEWS - Reunited with Alex in New Zealand!!!!!!!

After a LONG, gruelling flight ... via Dubai and Melbourne - the Madagascar crew find themselves in the beautiful country of New Zealand!!!

As a lover of nature, wildlife ... but most importantly, volcanoes - Gloria is super excited!!!  Marty and Melman are not only excited to skydive and bungy etc etc, but for the group to be reunited with Alex the Lion, who has been in America all this time!!

Look who fell out of the sky?!

It's Alex!!! Flying like a bird with Kim over the beautiful Lake Wanaka :)

So, what have we been up to in New Zealand so far??

Albert Park ... we saw some girls climb in, swim
and drink the water as a dare for their 21st Birthday!!

I'll cover Auckland in today's blog update.  Auckland was very cosmopoliton... quite like the UK but as it's much newer, has more modern less traditional buildings.  We walked all over town, sat by the harbour, visited Albert Park and went up the SkyTower.  

 We even managed to watch a show at the Civic Theatre - The Illusionists.  The theatre itself was beautiful, with Indian inspired motifs in all the public foyers including seated Buddhas, twisted columns and domed ceilings.

View from the Sky Tower in the evening...
looking over the central CBD of Auckland

The show featured 7 internationally renowned magicians performing a mix of unbelievable optical illusions including acts of levitation, mind-reading and death defying escapes.

We also explored the area around Auckland - going to Mount Eden and also taking a ferry to the beautiful volcanic island of Rangitoto.

In a lava cave

Rangitoto is the youngest of the islands from the Hauraki Gulf and emerged from the sea around 700 years ago in a series of volcanic explosions.  It is visible from the mainland and looks particularly impressive from the skytower.  Rangitoto's name has been translated to mean the day the blood of Tamatekapua was shed, relating to a major Maori battle at Islington Bay about 1350. 

The island is uninhabited, and has an element of tranquillity.  There is solid cooled lava all over the island, and lava caves which hikers are able to explore.  

A geographers paradise!  Who knows when this beautiful dormant volcano will erupt again ... maybe next time we visit, the land will look different...

Jumping for joy

We also visited Mount Eden - which is the highest volcano in the Auckland region.  It has erupted several times, with the last occasion 15,000 years ago.  

As you can see, the view of Auckland CBD was great - despite the rain clouds!  Mount Eden is known as Maungawhau in Maori, the English name honours the first Earl of Auckland George Eden.   The huge crater is 50m deep!!!!

Mount Eden crater

Mumbai Madness

We were lucky enough to spend a few days in Mumbai with Gloria's family.

Marty, Melman and Gloria flew with JetKonnect from Delhi to Mumbai, but also had to take a bus in between to get to the right terminal!  It was scorching hot!  We met so many curious people in the airport who asked about our onesies, and why on earth we were wearing them!  A few brave little girls came to have photos taken with us, and asked us lots of questions - was great to see such young inquiring minds at work.

 At the Mumbai airport bag collection, we met an attendant who came up to us and gave Melman a hug!!  At first got confused and thought he knew us from somewhere ... but actually he was just super impressed at our costumes!!!!!  We spent quite a while talking to him, and he was friendly and promised to spread the word re Plan-UK.  Lets hope he does!

In Mumbai, we spent lots of time with Gloria's family whilst also eating LOTS of amazing food, visited sites all over Mumbai and relaxed a lot.

We visited Elephanta caves in South Mumbai, via ferry.  The island probably houses more monkeys than residents!  The monkeys are so used to visitors bringing food, that they know how to steal food and open cartons etc etc.  We saw monkeys opening bottles and drinking from them - like humans! ... eating Kulfi ice cream, and creeping up on unsuspecting picnickers.  It was so funny to watch!!

We also visited India gate, Dhobi Ghat, Victoria Terminus, Crawford Market, Hanging Gardens, Colaba Market - to name just a few!

The few days we got to spend in Mumbai, were fantastic.  Seeing family, relaxing and sightseeing - the perfect recipe for a good break!