The story starts here...

Kia Ora. Welcome to the story of the Balancing Walcheros world tour 2011. Use the Blog Archive (to the right) for the full story. A full set of photos is available on Flickr.

The full itinerary

Booked through Discover the World. Flights Air New Zealand. Self-drive car rental Hertz.

Auckland - stayed at the Sky City hotel; dinner at the Sky Tower buffet; wilderness experience trip (Bush & Beach tours); Sky City casino; Auckland harbour.

Whakatane – stayed at the White Island Rendezvous ; day trip to White Island volcanic island.

Rotorua – stayed at the Amora Lake Resort ; Kiwi Encounter at Rainbow Springs; geothermal features at the Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley at TePuia.

Wellington – stayed at the Novotel; dinner at Dockside.

Picton – stayed at the Mercure; drive down through the Marlborough vineyards ; Spy Valley winery; The Store eatery at Kekerengu .

Kakoura – stayed at Hapuku Lodge; whale watching with Whale Watch; Maori experience with Maori Tours. 

Methven – stayed at the Methven Motel; scheduled to do a hot air ballooning breakfast with Aoraki Balloon Safaris but this didn’t happen due to high winds.

Oamaru – stayed at the Highfield Mews Motel; yellow-eyed penguin viewing, Bushy Beach Road.

Queenstown – stayed at the Copthorne Resort; Dart River jet boating and wilderness safari; dined at the Queenstown Skyline; scheduled to fly to Milford Sound with Real Journeys but this didn’t happen due to high winds.

Franz Josef – stayed at the Puna Grove motel; dined at the Alice may Bar and Restaurant; glacier valley walk, Franz Josef Glacier Guides ; helicopter flight onto the glacier, Franz Josef Glacier Guides.

Punakaiki – stayed and dined at Punakaiki Resort; walked to Pancake Rocks.

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Nelson – stayed at the Kershaw House Boutique B&B; dined at the Three Rooms; Lunch at Waimea Winery. 

Would we go back?

Absolutely. The arrangements made by Discover the World were perfect and made everything so simple, and the Air New Zealand flights made such a long journey a comfortable experience. Combined with the enthusiasm of so many kiwi folk, their culture and their stunning beaches, mountains, moors, whales and penguins and nature, we’d love to go back.

Bloody jet-lag

"Sorry Murray, dropped off there, bloody jet-lag. What day is it? Yesterday?" “No Prime Minister,” it’s today.” Brian, NZ Prime Minister - Flight of the Conchords.   

As previously mentioned, we didn’t suffer any noticeable jet lag on the way out. However, we were still prepared, if only from watching Flight of the Conchords for it. On arrival at Los Angeles the time warp hit us. We wanted to send texts to friends and family back in London but, having flown east “backwards” in time over the international date line, could we work out what day and time it was in London? No.

It therefore came as no surprise when we got home that it took us another week to get back to UK time! But it was worth it.

Around the world in fifty hours

Two facts – (a) NZ is effectively diagonally opposite the UK, so the journey time is roughly the same whether flying east or west. (b) Air New Zealand is the only carrier who currently circumnavigates the world. So we couldn’t miss the opportunity to continue flying east, returning home via LA having flown right around the world.

Our journey started at Nelson airport, a small local airport that feels like a throw-back to the fifties or sixties with young boys standing with their fathers on the observation deck - all that was missing were the tweed jackets, ties and pipes. The flight, in a fifty seater twin-engined turbo-prop plane was a pleasant contrast to the usual jet airliner.

We then had a five hour wait at Auckland airport, so we took the opportunity to buy ourselves access to the Air New Zealand Koru lounge – lounge access isn’t included in premium economy fares. For the price of a couple of drinks and a sandwich, we were able to relax, enjoy wi-fi, a hot buffet meal and an extensive choice of premium NZ wines and drinks. By the time we boarded our flight at 10.45pm, we informed the cabin staff that we didn’t wish to eat and were ready to go straight to sleep.

Flights via LA are on Air New Zealand’s 777-300 planes, featuring their Spaceseats, effectively leather armchairs with copious amounts of space – and, as ever, attended to by very friendly staff. On arrival back at Heathrow our bags were already off the carousel waiting for us at priority collection.

All in all, a pleasurable experience for twenty five hours in the air with a one hour refuelling break.

What’s 100% Pure minus 1080?

NZ takes pride in its nature and scenery, marketing itself as “100% Pure”. However, there’s one number that doesn’t appear in its marketing - 1080.

Until the arrival of the Maoris in the 1300s, ground mammals were unknown in NZ, hence the abundance of flightless birds. The arrival of the Maoris and, more importantly, the European (and Euro-Australian) settlers and the animals they introduced, saw an explosion in the number of ground pests affecting NZ wildlife.

Back in the late 1950s government departments introduced the use of 1080, a water-soluble and biodegradable sodium fluoroacetate-based pesticide. NZ uses some eighty per cent of the world's supply. Controversially, the poison is spread from planes and helicopters in what opponents consider to be blanket usage, affecting wildlife other than pests and entering water courses.

This is a tricky one. Clearly it’s a very effective way of tackling the major environmental disaster of ground-based pests killing off native NZ wildlife, especially the national symbol the kiwi. But what are the side-effects and what other wildlife also suffers? The debate and controversy will doubtless continue for years to come.

Stand aside David Attenborough and Brian Cox

We arrived in Franz Josef late afternoon after a very wet and cloudy drive from Queenstown. However, the next morning started beautiful as we began our walk along the glacier valley with a tour guide. While this brought back memories of school geography field trips, the scenery and information were of another order – it certainly beat trudging around damp Dorset beaches. After returning to the UK, we were comparing photos of the trip with someone who’d visited NZ and Franz Josef fifteen years ago - as glaciers are “living”, changing shape and form, we were all shocked to see how much the glacier had receded in that time.

All the time we were on the walk there was a background clatter of helicopters flying up the valley to land on the glacier. Disappointed that we’d missed out on our hot air balloon trip and the flight to Milford Sound, when we returned to the tour building, we checked for availability to take a flight. Stand aside Brian Cox and David Attenborough, it was our turn to see nature from the air. This was our first time in a helicopter and we were both surprised at how smooth it was. In the morning from the ground, the glacial terminus had looked very dirty as a result of rock breaking up and discolouring the snow and ice, but landing on pristine snow was such a contrast.

It was only that evening, as I was reviewing my photos on our laptop that I noticed some “marks” on the glacier. Blowing the photo up, I realised the marks were actually people making their way across the crevasses – it suddenly dawned on me the sheer scale and size of the glacier. Telling Sue, she commented that the pilot had remarked about people down on the glacier looking like ants, something I’d obviously missed at the time.