New Zealand or Bust

[Two on Tour]

Re. Penguins. I have been in NZ 26 years and have never seen a penguin (outside of the Oamaru colony) and I’m currently camping beside a beach in Golden Bay where the locals have installed dozens of nesting boxes for them and there are big signs on the road warning of penguins crossing, but not seen a penguin in all the years I’ve been coming here.
Whale strandings are more common, unfortunately.

We saw a few Blue penguins just along from the pay to view colony at Oamaru as I posted earlier in this thread, but we got talking to a couple from the UK at Curio Bay who were touring in a motorhome that were staying a few nights at the campsite at Curio Bay and they had seen a good number of both Blue and Yellow Eyed penguins coming up the beach to their nestsite the evening before.
We would have liked to have stayed to see them that evening, but unfortunately we had to move on.

 

[funflair]

Sending positive vibes for all your helicopter rides tomorrow

We were meant to be going one afternoon when the weather was similar but the next morning:
View attachment 1018422
It can clear quickly

If the brown shack are the public loos outside the helicopter offices - they decorate them for Christmas...
View attachment 1018420

Thanks Stephen, we were meant to be 9:30 but that wasn’t happening, we got a window at 12:00 and thankfully the pilot had his iPad so knew where he was going,

Got the landing on Fox so we had to pay when we got back

Bright as you like on the glacier,

But still too much cloud hanging over Franz Joseph, all in all a great experience and nice to meet up with Paul and Yvette and hopefully they enjoyed their trip, I think we were both lucky to get the flights in when we did as the clouds soon came back and I think they stopped flying again pretty soon after we got back.

Now just need to sort through “far too many photos,” Jen got a front seat so mine might get dumped

 

[Two on Tour]

A few photos from our abandoned part way through glacier helicopter flight on Monday.

As our Monday flight was cut short, we opted for a rescheduled flight for Wednesday morning at 9am.
Check-in for the flight was 8.30am, which meant an early start as our digs were an hour and a half away.
The clouds and mist did not look promising on the drive in and at check-in we were moved to a 1pm flight ..... maybe.
Knowing that Jen and Martin where due to fly at 9.30, we waited for them to see if they faired any better, but as Martin has said they too were rescheduled.
It was nice to meet up with Jen and Martin and chat over a coffee, but this was curtailed when Yvette's phone rang and we were placed on the next flight. Today's flight was brilliant and we finally got our snow landing that we missed on Monday.

The Tasman glacier is the longest in New Zealand at 14.6 miles long at present (unfortunately it's shrinking due to global warming) and it has small glaciers that feed into it along it's length, like the Kaufmann glacier that can be seen in the photo joining the Tasman glacier on the right.

 

[PaddyM]

There’s a long-standing problem with so-called self-contained campervans and people buying the self-containment stickers online or getting vans/cars certified by unscrupulous companies.
New laws were brought in last year but they’ve already got around these.
The problem is not helped by local councils not policing the freedom (wild) camping sites and so not fining them for flouting the law and s****ing in the bushes. Even if they do issue them with a fine, the scumbags don’t pay.
I once reported an old Toyota Hiace to my council. It was camping in a senior’s club car park for weeks at a time, had piles of rubbish around it, no toilet, no holding tanks, no tax rego, etc. The council told me they couldn’t do anything about it because the owner was “homeless”.
I am appalled by some of the experiences you guys are recounting on here.
PaddyM $400 per night is not a budget motel. I hope you will complain and leave an honest review of your experience.
Re. Penguins. I have been in NZ 26 years and have never seen a penguin (outside of the Oamaru colony) and I’m currently camping beside a beach in Golden Bay where the locals have installed dozens of nesting boxes for them and there are big signs on the road warning of penguins crossing, but not seen a penguin in all the years I’ve been coming here.
Whale strandings are more common, unfortunately.

Re the $400NZ per night was me being sarcastic , it was that price and my comment was my way of expressing my disappointment and yes I’m gonna review and have already complained .

 

[funflair]

And by the time we landed the souvenir photo had been downloaded printed and was offered in a little folder at NZ$ 25, we don't usually fall for that but it was actually a good photo and I liked the colour of our helicopter better than Paul and Yvette's

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[Two on Tour]

You were talking about New Zealand car number plates earlier Martin, we went to the pub for a bite to eat this evening and saw these two.

 

[Two on Tour]

And by the time we landed the souvenir photo had been downloaded printed and was offered in a little folder at NZ$ 25, we don't usually fall for that but it was actually a good photo and I liked the colour of our helicopter better than Paul and Yvette's

We were handed our folder with the photo before we got back into the helicopter while still on the snowfield, so it must have been printed in the helicopter , by the way, you were shafted ...... ours was only NZ$ 20

 

[funflair]

We were handed our folder with the photo before we got back into the helicopter while still on the snowfield, so it must have been printed in the helicopter , by the way, you were shafted ...... ours was only NZ$ 20

And you got a bloody 10% discount on your flight

 

[Two on Tour]

I liked the colour of our helicopter better than Paul and Yvette's

Bet our pilot was prettier than yours though.

 

[PaddyM]

Our lass rubbing a four year olds face in the dirt as she marmalises him on the Queenstown luge , go girlpower

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[PaddyM]

FLT

 

[Two on Tour]

From the ground, the Fox glacier can only be viewed from a distance as the is no road near it that has a clear view, unless you hike in on foot, and as the weather was not ideal, this the best photo I could get of it.