Category Archives: Daily Lime

Nelson: Skywire Experience

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One of the main reasons we came to Nelson is to do the Skywire Experience at the Cable Bay Adventure Park.  But how did we get here?

The Interislander ferry took us from Wellington to Picton, but it was really late – like 9 hours late!  So, we unfortunately, did not get to see much of Picton as we arrived at 10pm, checked into the Aldan Lodge, and left the next morning at 0730 for Nelson.  We had a short 2hr drive through more rolling, green mountainsides covered in gorgeous trees.  There were low flying clouds that added a certain air of mystery,  We rolled through Marlborough which is one of New Zealand’s famous winemaking locations.

We eagerly head straight to the Cable Bay Adventure Park.  In addition to the skywire experience, they also have mountain bike excursions, paintball, petting farm, ATVs, and more.  It is a true adventure park.  But we are here for the Skywire experience.  

Skywire Experience

This is one of the world’s longest Flying Fox experiences and is an incredibly unique one.  It is similar to ziplining, but yet totally unique.  Up to 4 people sit in a 500lb stainless steel contraption that zips us 1000 meters above the pristine native forest.  Our top speed was 85kilometers going forward and backward.

Each person has a triple harness that is padlocked.  Yep, padlocked so you cannot possibly accidentally undo your belts.  We are given protective eye glasses and sent on our merry way zipping down the cable.

It was truly exhilarating and loads of fun!  I actually preferred the backwards portion because the wind wasn’t smacking me in my face, but overall it was spectacular.  Can you see us in the distance?

Nelson Classic Car Museum

We had a bit of time before lunch so we stopped in to the Classic Car Museum in Nelson.

This private collection was super impressive with cars ranging from the early 1900’s to 2021! I really liked the old cars.  And all of the cars were in pristine condition!

So stylish and sophisticated.

And some a little odd – check out the little BMW (top right corner)!

Commercial vehicles back in the day.

Classic Jaguars!

They even had a DeLorean (like Matt’s) and a GTO Fastback (like Wayne’s)

We ended the day at McCashin’s “Stoke” brewery for lunch.

  • Hotel Picton: Aldan Lodge
  • Hotel Nelson: Beachcomber
  • Kilometers Traveled:  151kilometers
  • Travel Time: 2 hrs
  • Kilometers Walked: 6.9km

Events from this blog occurred toward the end of February.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.   Did you see our blog post on the capital of New Zealand?

The Capital of Wellington

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We leave Waitomo and drive 6 hours to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside with rolling green hillsides full of cows, sheep, goats, horses, and even alpacas!

First, a quick stop at our hotel, The Trinity Hotel, to drop off the car and our bags.  This is a large hotel just off the wharf.  We had one room with double and single beds which did not leave much room for our bags.  They did have a small refrigerator and a nice bathroom.  In addition, they had a beautiful rooftop deck which served drinks.

We explore for a few hours down by the wharf. The parliament building is affectionately called “The Bee Hive” which is no surprise when you look at the building (top right photo).  We did not have time to do the tour, but we did enjoy walking around the grounds.

We find the famous 385lb stainless fern globe estimated cost of $210,000NZD!  It truly is beautiful and fills the civic square sky perfectly. Not sure what is up with the ugly hand sculpture, but it made it into the photo anyway.

We find the college district with lots of bars and eateries and end up meeting one of Matt’s friends.  Matt and Chris worked together at Pluck and had not seen each other in 10 years.  We met him in this super funky little back ally bar called Gildings Free Dive.  It is covered in Star War’s paraphernalia!

Wellington has their very own locks of love wall where couples hang a padlock to signify their love.

Wellington Museum

The Wellington Museum is located down by the wharf and is FREE!  Sweet. The museum is in a beautiful, old building and consists of 4 floors.  It is a short snippet of history including models of old ships, old television studios, and more.  A little something for everyone.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Dozens of people told us to visit the Te Papa museum and it did not disappoint!  A massive museum that could have easily taken a full day to explore, but we only had a few hours.

One of the main reasons we came to this museum was to see a new gallery called Gallipoli The Scale of Our War.  This exhibit is told through the eyes of 8 ordinary New Zealanders and it is heart wrenching and moving.

The Gallipoli exhibit was very impressive with displays that were more than 2.5x human size!  The museum joined forces with Weta workshop to create the sculptures that are incredibly life like with pores in their skin and hair on their hands, legs, arms, and faces.

Look up close to the lower right photo to see the amazing details of these sculptures.

Toward the end they have a beautiful poppy display that allows the visitor to leave a remembrance of a loved one.

Te Taiiao Nature Exhibit

The next exhibit is a nature exhibit and the effects on the land.  They had more replicas of the giant Moa bird and lots of kiwis.

They also had the largest squid in the world – which was really kind of creepy.

On another floor they had the history of Maori culture with a large waka (canoe), community center, and a cow made of corn beef cans.

Wellington is known for having lots of earthquakes.  One of the cool features installed in most of the buildings is the earth quake proof system they have installed.  So, we venture down below the Te Papa museum to check out their Quake Braker.

It truly is a magnificent museum.  My photos and brief description don’t do it justice, but I just couldn’t capture all of the amazingness of this place.

At the end of the day we drove onto the Interislander Ferry which took us across the Cook’s Straight to the South Island.

  • Hotel:   Trinity Hotel
  • Kilometers Traveled:  525km
  • Travel Time: 6hrs10min
  • Kilometers Walked: 6.4km

Events from this blog occurred during the end of February 2023.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Don’t miss our last blog post when we abseil 100m into the earth to visit The Lost World.

The Lost World

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We are super excited and a little anxious to explore The Lost World!  The Woodlyn Park Lodge is right next door to Waitomo Adventures so it is a short drive to start our day.

We meet our guide who has over 2,500 abseils (rappels) under his belt.  He used to manage the business so we were in really in good hands.  It is just the four of us: Matt, Wayne, me, and Scott our guide.

We drive 20 minutes to the location where we get geared up and dressed.  After a short 101, we head to the “testing” area.  They provide everything: helmets with lights, jumpsuits, and wellies (boots).  

They have a little area that they call “the testing center” which gives us an opportunity to test all of our gear while getting comfortable clipping in and out of the lines.  After the short diversion, we head to the platform where we will abseil 100 meters into the center of the earth – aptly called The Lost World.

Abseiling

The first thing you have to do is lean over the gap between the platform and the steel pipe.  I just kept repeating to myself “don’t look down, don’t look down.”  Yes we are tied in three ways to Sunday, but it still doesn’t stop your heart from jumping in your throat!

All 4 of us are clipped together.  So, if one person starts to fall they will be stopped by the other 3 people.  We each have our own abseil line and 3 connecting lines or safety points.

One by one we remove our feet from the platform and hang hundreds of feet above the cavern.

What am I thinking?  This is nutso.  Yes, I have a smile on my face, but trust me when I say I was a wee bit terrified!

To go down, you lift the line up.  For the men it was rather easy as their weight pulled them down.  But for me, I had to actively work at lowering myself and to keep up with the men.  

The boys were having a blast, releasing their hands, leaning back and just dangling. Where I had the vulcan death grip on both boys.

As we start to descend you feel the gravity of the distance below you.  But the beauty in the area takes your breath away and you can truly see why they call this the Lost World.

We make several stops along the way down to ensure we take in all of the splendor that the Lost World has to offer.

A Walk on the Wild Side

We finally make it to the bottom and my heart beat returns to normal.  We crawl over boulders, through the river, over rocks, and under huge limestone formations.  The sun tries to sneak in through the crevices giving us fun photo opportunities.

We continue climbing deep into the recess of the Lost World using our headlamps to light the way.

The Glowworms

We come to a massive cave where we pop a squat and turn off our lights.  And what do we see but a bazillion glowworms!  This time we actually get to see the glowworm up close (top right photo) and its beautiful silk threads (bottom right corner).  If you look closely you will see the glow of the blue tails, but it is hard to get us, in the dark and the glowworms.

Departing the Lost World

Now, comes the fun part (not), climbing back out of the Lost World.  We begin by scampering over rocks, boulders, and more large limestone formations, slowly heading high and higher.  

Then we come to an enormous ladder that reaches 100m into the sky.  You can’t even see the top part of it. It is wet, muddy, and hard to hold on to.  We are clipped in at three safety points and begin the climb one at a time.  Holy hell that was hard on my arms!

But we all make it out and have an additional 20-minute uphill hike to the launching area.  What a spectacular and remarkable adventure.  If you are ever in Waitomo, I highly recommend The Lost World tour with the Waitomo Adventures team!

  • Hotel: Trinity Hotel
  • Kilometers Traveled: 0 
  • Time Traveled: 0 
  • Kilometers Walked:  5.5km (couldn’t bring phone on Lost World)

Events from this blog occurred at the end of February.  Our blogs posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Be sure to read the first part of our trip in Waitomo in our last blog post.