DiverG
Reached My 2nd Goal!
Hello folks, it's been a long time since I've posted a message so I thought I would post a NDR trip report of my dream vacation.
This past February, I took a dream vacation to New Zealand. This is a trip I had been considering for several years, and I'm glad I finally did it. The only regret is I didn't dive the Poor Knight Islands, but since I figured at the most I would do is one or two dives during this whole trip it wasn't worth the hassle of lugging around my dive gear. Plus it would give me an excuse to go back.
Getting to New Zealand was a long ordeal. It basically took about 19 hours total time from the time I left Houston till I arrived in Auckland. The flight from LAX to Auckland is about a 12 hour flight. I arrived in auckland on February 15 which was the day before the start of the Americas's Cup finals. I made my way to the Amex Viaduct Harbor where all the official Americas Cup activities were being held. While touring the area I decided that i wanted to watch the race from a spectator boat, but I was having problems finding an affordable ride. On Saturday the day of the race, the bug started hitting me hard, and the price I was willing to spend to see the race from the water edge higher and higher. Unfortunately, at the time I couldn't find a nice boat for less then $400NZ, and that was just to much out of my budget. I did find an open semi rigid ride for about $90. This would include catching the pre start of the race and the 1st two legs of the race. The race days was a beautiful windy day with the winds probably greater then 20 knots.The seas were choppy due to the winds and an estimated 2,500 spectator boats. Yes I said 2,500 spectator boats. As it turns out I was very fortunate in not finding the nicer ride as Team New Zealand met with disaster in the first race. Team NZ'z boat was taking on water from the start of the race, and it was estimated that she took on 2-4 tons of water into the cockpit. Needless to say the additonal weight created to much stress on the gear, and some of it snapped. After about twenty minutes of racing Team NZ called the race and was towed back to the harbor to a rousing show of support from the home crowd.
Day two of the America's Cup finals went much better, but the end result was Team New Zealand lost again. I broke down and purchased a ticket for a much bigger dryer boat this time. The weather conditions for the second race was sunny, and light winds. Sea conditions smooth with an estimated 1,500 spectator boats on the water. As we would find out in the weeks to come the winds both light and heavy would wreck havaoc on the scheduling. Due to the light winds the race was delayed about 3 hours before it started. this was a pretty good race with Team New Zealand leading The Swiss team on the final leg, but they were not able to maintain it and went down 2-0 to the Swiss team.
These were the only two races I was able to see live, but the winds were very unpredictable. It took twoo weeks to get in five races. At one time there was a seven day delay between race 3 and Race 4. In race four disaster struck Team NZ again with the snapping of the main mast. At this point it was a givin that the Swiss team was going to win the best five out of nine series 5-0, and they did. It was a bitter defeat for the home team especially since the Swiss team raided the best New Zealand people after the 2000 America's Cup. It was a great event though and I'm glad I was able to view a few of the races live. A dream that I've had for at least a decade.
I spent three days in Auckland, and then moved on up North to visit a friend that I had met online. I stayed at a backpackers which was kinda of nice. the owmers were very nice and they always had activities available. I was able to hook up with a gentleman and go Marlin fishing all day long for about $30NZ which I think was somewhere around $17 US.
After spending a few more days in the Northland of New Zealand I made my way down to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. There is a great time to be had in all of New Zealand, but especially in the south. New Zealand is known for it adventurism. They invented the bungee jump, and they got alot of other fun thinfs to numerous to mention here. One of the activities I did is called jet boating. These are boats with jet drive engines that can operate in as little as 3 inches of water at over 40mph. The operator of the boat takes you on a whirl wind ride aiming for boulders, tree stumps etc only to swerve out of the way at the last second. they alos do 360 degree turns where it's like you going full blast ahead they put on the brakes and turn it . It was a blast. This is a sport were the operators are liscenced by the government.
Another activity was was able to enjoy was swimming with the New Zealand Hector Dolphins. These were wild animals, and the only interaction with the animals was watching them swim by us. The water was around the low to mid sixties in temperature and we were wearing 5 mil wetsuits.
I've got a link to some pictures I took while in New Zealnd.
http://groups.msn.com/OpenMindedinNewZealand/divergsnzpictures.msnw
In closing, New Zealand is a very beautiful country. The people are extremely friendly, and willing to help out as needed. Hope you enjoyed my little report.
DiverG
PS I know there are several people on this board from New Zealand, and I envy you for living in such a beautiful, friendly country.
This past February, I took a dream vacation to New Zealand. This is a trip I had been considering for several years, and I'm glad I finally did it. The only regret is I didn't dive the Poor Knight Islands, but since I figured at the most I would do is one or two dives during this whole trip it wasn't worth the hassle of lugging around my dive gear. Plus it would give me an excuse to go back.
Getting to New Zealand was a long ordeal. It basically took about 19 hours total time from the time I left Houston till I arrived in Auckland. The flight from LAX to Auckland is about a 12 hour flight. I arrived in auckland on February 15 which was the day before the start of the Americas's Cup finals. I made my way to the Amex Viaduct Harbor where all the official Americas Cup activities were being held. While touring the area I decided that i wanted to watch the race from a spectator boat, but I was having problems finding an affordable ride. On Saturday the day of the race, the bug started hitting me hard, and the price I was willing to spend to see the race from the water edge higher and higher. Unfortunately, at the time I couldn't find a nice boat for less then $400NZ, and that was just to much out of my budget. I did find an open semi rigid ride for about $90. This would include catching the pre start of the race and the 1st two legs of the race. The race days was a beautiful windy day with the winds probably greater then 20 knots.The seas were choppy due to the winds and an estimated 2,500 spectator boats. Yes I said 2,500 spectator boats. As it turns out I was very fortunate in not finding the nicer ride as Team New Zealand met with disaster in the first race. Team NZ'z boat was taking on water from the start of the race, and it was estimated that she took on 2-4 tons of water into the cockpit. Needless to say the additonal weight created to much stress on the gear, and some of it snapped. After about twenty minutes of racing Team NZ called the race and was towed back to the harbor to a rousing show of support from the home crowd.
Day two of the America's Cup finals went much better, but the end result was Team New Zealand lost again. I broke down and purchased a ticket for a much bigger dryer boat this time. The weather conditions for the second race was sunny, and light winds. Sea conditions smooth with an estimated 1,500 spectator boats on the water. As we would find out in the weeks to come the winds both light and heavy would wreck havaoc on the scheduling. Due to the light winds the race was delayed about 3 hours before it started. this was a pretty good race with Team New Zealand leading The Swiss team on the final leg, but they were not able to maintain it and went down 2-0 to the Swiss team.
These were the only two races I was able to see live, but the winds were very unpredictable. It took twoo weeks to get in five races. At one time there was a seven day delay between race 3 and Race 4. In race four disaster struck Team NZ again with the snapping of the main mast. At this point it was a givin that the Swiss team was going to win the best five out of nine series 5-0, and they did. It was a bitter defeat for the home team especially since the Swiss team raided the best New Zealand people after the 2000 America's Cup. It was a great event though and I'm glad I was able to view a few of the races live. A dream that I've had for at least a decade.
I spent three days in Auckland, and then moved on up North to visit a friend that I had met online. I stayed at a backpackers which was kinda of nice. the owmers were very nice and they always had activities available. I was able to hook up with a gentleman and go Marlin fishing all day long for about $30NZ which I think was somewhere around $17 US.
After spending a few more days in the Northland of New Zealand I made my way down to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. There is a great time to be had in all of New Zealand, but especially in the south. New Zealand is known for it adventurism. They invented the bungee jump, and they got alot of other fun thinfs to numerous to mention here. One of the activities I did is called jet boating. These are boats with jet drive engines that can operate in as little as 3 inches of water at over 40mph. The operator of the boat takes you on a whirl wind ride aiming for boulders, tree stumps etc only to swerve out of the way at the last second. they alos do 360 degree turns where it's like you going full blast ahead they put on the brakes and turn it . It was a blast. This is a sport were the operators are liscenced by the government.
Another activity was was able to enjoy was swimming with the New Zealand Hector Dolphins. These were wild animals, and the only interaction with the animals was watching them swim by us. The water was around the low to mid sixties in temperature and we were wearing 5 mil wetsuits.
I've got a link to some pictures I took while in New Zealnd.
http://groups.msn.com/OpenMindedinNewZealand/divergsnzpictures.msnw
In closing, New Zealand is a very beautiful country. The people are extremely friendly, and willing to help out as needed. Hope you enjoyed my little report.
DiverG
PS I know there are several people on this board from New Zealand, and I envy you for living in such a beautiful, friendly country.
