odysseyone

We started our married life with a short stint living in the land of the rising sun and fittingly, finished up our travels for this year with a great Japanese meal in the land of the long white cloud. Inhaling the aromas of a bowl of miso soup on our last night in Christchurch brought back a year's worth of memories... but enough mulling the past. We're pretty excited about the draft plan we've made so far for next year's travels. New Zealand was our testing ground to see if we still have what it takes after the chaos of life in Japan and I'm pleased to say we contracted the travel bug again after just a short trip to NZ. We loved NZ and as with all trips, it wasn't long enough. I love that there is a country which is geographically very different to Australia that is so close to travel to and doesn't require the usual visa dramas. Thanks founding fathers for giving us the option of making NZ another Australian state if they want- Kiwis we are happy to have you and your beautiful land but I get the feeling you're quite happy saying your vowels incorrectly for the time being.

So here is my free publicity for NZ Tourism... We kicked off our South Island driving trip with the wedding in Tekapo. Thanks guys for choosing such a stunning location to get hitched. It was our initial introduction to the breathtaking lakes in NZ, the only downfall being you can look and not touch only- the water is way too cold! While the pre-wedding plans were in their final throws, we escaped the chill with a dip in the Tekapo hot pools. I'm going to put it out there and say they are the best in the South Island despite the promotions for Hanmer Springs, which we thought was overrated and had too many kids peeing in the pools! NZ is wet, there's just no avoiding it. It put out our plans multiple times but we had stellar weather when it counted. The wedding weather was perfect and we had clear days at Mount Cook and Milford Sound. Most of the family and friends were wrapping up their holidays as we were starting ours and came back with reports of horrid weather, so we feel really blessed to have a few perfect days. It's difficult to choose just a few NZ favourites. Hiking to the terminal face of the glaciers in the Mt Cook National Park and gazing at the peak uninterrupted for hours on end, wrapping up the day with free hot drinks (we are budget travellers!) on the balcony of the Hermitage Hotel was a real highlight. But so was seeing Fox and Franz Josef glaciers (if you can ignore the crowds), wandering through pristine rainforest and overdosing on the cleanest air on earth, the countless waterfalls along the Haast Pass, alpine walks, a multi-day walk in balmy weather in the Marlborough Sounds, the ruggedness of the West Coast, isolated beaches and meandering around

Christchurch's period buildings and enjoying the city's culinary delights was a great way to wrap it all up. This year I enjoyed travelling in December and missing the consumerism craziness leading up to Christmas, coming home just a few days before the big day. We didn't miss out on celebrating the true meaning of Christmas though, doing it in style at the nationwide tele-broadcast of Christmas carols at the Christchurch Cathedral. We joined hundreds of others mesmerised by a full men's and boys choir, who entertained us with ancient Christmas carols, hitting notes the rest of us could only dream of in a cathedral with fantastic acoustics.

There were only a few negatives during our trip, the largest being our difficulty getting used to the fast changing weather in the South Island. At home, we can pretty much plan our day around the weather forecast, which usually hangs around for the entire day or even a week. But over there we would make a plan, only for it to change on us a few hours later, then again a few hours after that and so on. We also had a lot of trouble adjusting to the evening daylight, which ruined my plan for early nights and early mornings during the trip. We felt like children being fed early at dinnertime, eating with sunlight similar to about 3pm during summer at the coast. The latest we had twilight was about 10.45 pm and the few nights I forced myself to go to bed earlier and draw the curtains, it was a real trip. The only other problem we had was not of the weather kind, but involved our rental car and a tow truck. We stayed a night at a hostel without a car park but we were assured we could park in the public carpark next door until 8am, when the Saturday markets started. So imagine Justin's shock when he went out early to move the car and found someone had already done it for him! Where our car once stood there was now a fresh produce stall. Market organisers had taken it upon themselves to tow our car to a prime market parking position. We have no idea who paid the towing cost, as the rental company didn't mention it when we dropped the car back. As with all our trips, it was our fellow travellers that brought the most frustrations but also the most laughs. One such encounter was outside a conservation office. A Chinese traveller was strutting his stuff in front of us and then stopped dead in his tracks and pulled a karate move on a small tree in the garden, spraying us with water. He didn't realise we were standing right behind him until he turned around to see us trying to suppress the desire to roll on the footpath laughing. If you've never been to NZ, don't wait until you've seen the rest of the world, which was my plan. Get yourself a waterproof jacket, a warm jumper and hop on over the ditch- you'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier. Check out some NZ images in the image gallery section.