What happened next then……

#newzealand #travel #adventure

So what happened after the TransNZ Race I hear you cry…..well a good deal of chilling out to be honest. We arrived back in Christchurch and spent a few fantastic days with our friends from the UK (who are now living here in NZ) and actually relaxed. As funny as it may sound, so far we have been busy either sightseeing or doing some sort of activity every day and there has been very little in the way of sitting around and simply relaxing. It felt like it was high time that we should slow the pace right down, relax and more importantly, really take time to appreciate the last few weeks here.

We were both exhausted from the race week, bloke had clearly ridden his socks off and looked dead on his feet and I, despite really enjoying the experience of volunteering, felt pretty shattered myself. So much work goes on behind the scenes of these races and the volunteers are often up and out before the racers in the mornings, getting stuff ready for the day ahead, and likewise back after the racers, organising and preparing things for the following day. It is a vast operation and with 40 odd volunteers, so much happens. The media squids spend their evenings doing their social media stuff and sorting through their photos, film edits etc, as riders are desperate to see evidence of what had happened that day. The mechanics work late into the night getting bikes fixed and ready for the next day. My job on the food station required several shopping trips to re-stock supplies (if we’d run out of TimTams my life wouldn’t have been worth living 😬), picking up crates and crates of sandwiches and rolls every morning, feeding 160 hungry riders is no laughing matter, they eat a lot! and making sure every vessel we had was filled with drinking water daily (we had to set up the feed station in remote locations and running out of water was not an option). Every night there was a team meeting where marshalls, medics and drivers were assigned their positions for the following day and course details were ironed out. Pretty much all the “vollies” rode daily too, as marshalls, medics and media squids all had to ride to their spots on the course, as they were not accessible any other way. A week of racing is proper work for all those involved.

So we went on to take our relaxing very seriously too. After a few days in Christchurch, we headed north to Kaikoura. The first day we were there it was Blokes birthday, we spent the morning whale watching and had a cruisy afternoon with a nice dinner out. Kaikoura is known for its sea life, it has its own canyon system and as a result of this, it is a haven for Sperm whales, Dusky dolphins and new Zealand fur seals (aka Sealions :bloke), as well as a plethora of other species. Year round, on a daily basis, you are pretty much guaranteed to see something and there are tour companies offering you a chance to get out there on the water and spot some. We spent three days here and in that time we went out on two boat trips, the first as I have already mentioned was whale watching and we were lucky enough to see not one, not two, but five sperm whales! What an incredible sight. They come to the surface about every hour for five to ten minutes at a time and watching them dive back down again is something very special indeed. Sadly, that was the day my new camera decided to stop working, I couldn’t have been more annoyed. So this was the best I could do with my iPhone.

Starting to dive

A beautiful sight, watching that tail

And off he goes again.

The following day we once again blessed with an amazing experience, we went swimming with Dolphins(!!!!!! :bloke). I had my reservations about this as I’m not great with fish (yes, I’m aware they are not fish, but hear me out), I really don’t like being in the sea with the thought of anything swimming around me, I watched Jaws when I was waaaaay too young, I was plagued with that music throughout my childhood (thanks dad😛) and even the shadows under a Paddle board, kayak or pedalo (holidays in Spain as a child) terrify me. I even have an entirely irrational fear of sharks in a swimming pool – so you can see how the prospect of being thrown in the sea with nothing but a wetsuit, a pair of flippers and a snorkel for cover might make me a tad nervous (to be fair, when the water is deep enough to allow sperm whales to drive for 45mins, who knows what could be underneath you… :Bloke). Despite this, I was determined to do it, it was here or never. These Dolphins are in their natural environment, they are not forced to come to us, they interact with us on their own terms, we are not allowed to touch them and they stay with us for as long as they like before they move on. We were given our kit and a safety briefing and then taken to find a pod, before being told to glide gently off the back of the boat and swim. So with some trepidation (actually, I was shitting myself (technical term :bloke)). I peeled myself from the boat and tried to concentrate on breathing and trying to stay close to Bloke, not an easy task with approximately twenty people all dressed in the same outfit wearing masks and a snorkel! We were told to sing or make as much noise as we could to encourage the dolphins to come and see what we’re doing, as they are really inquisitive. It worked, and when the first Dolphins swam by me I nearly had a panic attack but they are so beautiful that after a couple of minutes the jaws music finally left my head and I relaxed just enough to enjoy it. For thirty-five amazing minutes they stayed with us, swimming in and out and round and round us all, they got so close you thought they were going to hit you, but not once did they touch us, they just seemed to want to play and if you held eye contact and spun round, not the easiest thing to do in flippers, they would circle you. It was an amazing experience and I’m so pleased I did it. Fighting those fears is so often worth it and in this case, it truly was and what a way to end our time on the South Island.

Please don’t let it be a shark

It’s ok, it’s a dolphin, I’m ok

There’s something coming between us A few Common Dolphins, ironically not so common at all, swam past to see what all the fuss was about too

And so it was, with extremely heavy hearts, we made our final crossing back to the North Island. We love the South Island so much and we had such an unforgettable time there, but we had something else to look forward to now. Blokes son decided to come and join us for our last two weeks in New Zealand and we were keen to show him some of what the country had to offer, so after picking him up from the airport in Wellington, we spent the next week travelling up the west coast of the North Island. We wanted to travel through an area we hadn’t explored before and share some firsts with him too and boy was it worth it. We loved the west coast on the South Island but this area, although not on such a grand scale, was just as beautiful. Ragged and rocky, with 100’s of square kilometers of rainforest, it was stunning. We stopped along the way at a few beaches, went bodyboarding and supping, did a few short walks up to waterfalls and even part way up Mount Taranaki, although for that walk the weather was against us and we couldn’t see the top.

An early evening bodyboard session

Now there’s two of them (TweedleFun and TweedleFunner :bloke)

Mount Taranaki was clearly feeling a little camera shy that day.

The nasty weather did however add a certain something special to experience when we stopped at The Three Sisters and Elephant Rock.

Mini-bloke getting a feel for the West coast

Three Sisters in the background and Elephant Rock in the foreground. Can you spot it’s trunk?

Bloke exploring the rock formations

After exploring the near empty West coast, it was time to go inland and hit the tourist trail, as it seemed only fair to take mini-bloke to Hobbiton, after all, you can’t come all the way to New Zealand and not pay homage to The Lord of the Rings. It really is well worth a visit even if, like me, you are not the biggest fan and don’t know about all the minute details of the films, you’ll learn some on your way round and get to enjoy a pie and a pint in The Green Dragon pub afterwards.

Over the next few days we drove through Taupo, stopping long enough for mini-bloke to do a bungy jump, rather him than me that’s for sure (I have to say I was tempted for a few seconds, but fortunately soon got over it :bloke), and to visit Huka Falls.

(This is the outflow of Lake Taupo – a lake as big as the country of Singapore :bloke)

We continued on to our final destination, Rotorua, stopping at Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland on the way. The amount of thermal activity in this area is staggering, the main highway between Taupo and Rotorua is actually called the Thermal Explorer Highway and Bloke and I have visited a few places before, but not Wai-o-tapu. It still amazes me how active these places are and although certain areas are fenced off, you can still get really close. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t happen in the UK.

Yes, it is actually bubbling.

The mauri used to cook in the water and underground here.

Minerals in the water create the colours, some of it is quite toxic!

And so on to Rotorua and the end of our Tiki Tour. We’ve been to “Vegas” (Rotorua is known by locals as RotoVegas or just Vegas because of Fenton Street which is a strip of hotels :bloke) a few times before, twice on this trip alone, so if you’ve been following this blog from the beginning you’ll know by now that I love it here. We spent our last week enjoying all things bike related, including the big finale to our trip, Crankworx, a five day bike festival, based at a few locations around the town. We got to ride our own bikes, introduce mini-bloke to The Redwoods and watch countless pro riders (and actual LEGENDS of the sport :bloke) ride their bikes. We watched some of the marshalls from the Trans NZ Race compete in different disciplines, such as Whip Off, Air DH, Speed and Style, and DH. Sadly we had to miss the last day due to having to drop our beloved Harvey off with my sister and catch our flight to Singapore, but we were lucky enough to watch the massive crowd pleaser that is Slopestyle and that felt like a damn good way to finish (these riders hit MASSIVE jumps and do tricks for points, literally risking life and limb, the most points win. It’s the sort of thing you see on YouTube and can’t believe is real :bloke). It is such an amazing thing watching the pros, these guys and girls have so much talent it’s unreal. It was also so good to catch up with so many of the people we met on the Tranz NZ, riders and volunteers alike, some competing here, some like us, just watching, it made the whole event and our last week so much more special.

I am so going to miss this place 😥

Watching practise on the first day

(The “whip off”. Riders ride right to left over the jump, between the four feather flags and attempt to go highest and perform the best “whip”. It’s not a small jump, it’s faaaaar away. Also despite appearances, the Gondola was actually moving. :Bloke)

We’ve been so very lucky to have been able to do this trip, we’ve met so many great people and caught up with friends old and new along the way. So long New Zealand, you’ve been utterly amazing, we will miss you.