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Published: March 29th 2008
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Puzzling World
One pill makes you 10 feet tall Hello everyone and welcome to our final Blog from NZ.
Our last 2 weeks have been a bit different to what's gone before but first we'll start back at the beginning.
After Fox Glacier we headed south to Wanaka and then on to Queenstown. Great mountain scenery, lakes, rivers, forests etc. Panoramic views and vistas around every corner. Very spectacular. If we stopped to take a photo every time we saw a great view we'd probably be averaging 20 KM's a day, so the memory cards in our brains have had to do most of the storage.
One place at which we stopped which we feel merits particular mention was 'Puzzling World' near Wanaka. This attraction contains 6 optical illusion rooms (see photos), puzzles and holograms and a huge outdoor maze that took us an hour and a half to escape from. After previous physical exertions,this kind of low impact activity was harder on the brain!! This would be a great rainy day activity but surprisingly for us, it didn't rain. At $10 this was great value and would recommend to anyone passing that way.
Queenstown is known as the adrenalin capital of NZ where you can
Puzzling World
See the mighty Bear do just about any mad cap activity such as sky-dive, bungee, water-rafting etc. As we'd already done all these activities, our choice was White Water River Surfing.
White water surfing is just like white water rafting, without the raft. Each individual just has a body board on which to navigate the rapids. Our river was the Kawarau Gorge which contains Grade IV rapids (Niagara Falls is Grade VI).
Tina was less than enthusiastic at the prospect of 3 hours of being battered by raging rapids and afterwards described it as "Sheer bloddy terror on water - give me sky-diving any day".
There were some moments of calm and it was pleasant floating along between the Pillars of The Kings (LOTR) but once the rapids caught us it was a battle to stay above water, or to dive through the waves, to prevent our boards being flipped or being bashed against rocks as eddies and whirlpools tried to pull usunder. It WAS fun , honest.
(side note from Tina - NO IT WAS NOT!)
After Queenstown we headed further south through Fjordland Country to Milford Sound. Here we took a 3 hour cruise around the Sound and
White Water River Surfing
Or is this just my normal evening wear ? were lucky to see Seals and Bottlenosed dolphins. The Captain of the boat also treated us to a soaking under one of the many waterfalls that crash down the sheer canyon walls. How we laughed as the wind howled around us and how the rest of the boat laughed us at as well! The cruise also included a visit to Milford Deep which is an observatory 10 metres below the water's surface where it is possible to view the marine wildlife. Milford Sound is definitely a very beautiful, unspoilt and picturesque place.
After Milford Sound we had to rush south to Invercargill on the south coast, via Bluff. Bluff and Cape Reinga (See earlier blog '1 season in 4 days') is NZ's equivalent of Lands End and John o' Groats so we had to get a photo to prove we'd travelled the whole length of NZ from Top to Toe.
Our rush to get to Invercargill was in order to start a weeks 'Wwoofing' on a sheep farm !!
Wwoof'ing stands for; Willing Workers On Organic Farms.
Basically you go and stay on a farm and help out for 3-4 hours a day in exchange for food
Milford Sound
The eighth natural wonder of the world and accommodation and the chance to experience work that you probably wouldn't do in your normal day to day life. A web-site, Help-Exchange, lists all the hosts and enables you to contact them and ask if they need any one to stay and help. As no money changes hands, Wwoofing is open to any age and doesn't require a working visa.
We both felt that Wwoofing would give us an insight to life in NZ that we wouldn't get from just lying on beaches and visiting the normal tourist spots, and thus it proved.
Our sheep farm, Glenroy Farm, is owned by Jo and Darrin and covers 1,100 acres with about 5,500 sheep and 150 cattle as well as several horses, sheepdogs, cats and Kimberley (8) and Ken (15) the two children. We were immediately welcomed into the family and given our own 3 bedroom house about 1/2 mile from the farm and a quad bike (ATV) each for travelling to and from work and for rounding up the animals.
Our first day's work consisted of rounding up sheep and cattle and helping to drench them (Oral application of vitamins and worming tablets). We also helped with
Smiley Dolphin
"So long and thanks for all the fish" Rouseing; clearing the wool for the sheep shearers (Cockies) and sorting out the good wool from the daggy stuff! At the end we both got a chance to shear a sheep, Tina's was the better of the two, her having previous experience of shaving my head.
Over the next few days we did more rounding up of sheep, cutting down trees, filling ditches, Thistle cutting (Driving around a paddock in ever decreasing circles with two 10 foot blades attached to the back of a flat- bed truck) and using a Digger to dig drainage ditches. Also hellping with 'Crotching' the ewes (You can work that one out for yourselves!)
All exhausting work but very enjoyable and great to be working outdoors, zooming over rolling pastures rounding up sheep with the help (or not) of the shhepdogs, Dart, Fred, Mick and Queenie who seemed to have decided that as junior members of the 'pack' we should do most of the work!.
We also learnt a lot from Jo and Darrin and had great admiration for how they continue to do such hard work for currently little return. Global forces and the global economic downturn means that sheep aren't
Call My Bluff
As far south as we've ever been worth much and it looks inevitable that most sheep farms in NZ will be turning to Dairy in the future to feed the ever growing Chinese market for dairy products.
We were sad to leave Darrin and Jo but we had another week's work lined up on a horse breeding farm just outside Christchurch. This meant a quick dash up the North Island via Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo, both of which, again, were breath-taking.
The last week has been spent helping out with 9 horses and 2 foals. Mucking out, grooming and general wrangling duties as well as planting tree lines and varnishing wooden posts. Our 2 hosts, Jo and Jerry have looked after us very well and kept us well fed, which is important when doing so much physical work. We are also able to once again enjoy the comforts of our own self contained flat and most mod-cons.
We have lined up some work in Australia later in the year on a Platypus and orphaned wildlife sanctuary, which should be different !
We have been on some day trips out, notably Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, just south of Christchurch. This is a
Monday morning rush hour
On the way to work on the company car (Our house in background) very quaint French harbour town. Apparently The South Island was very close to becoming a French Colony before the British Navy hurriedly stepped in and signed a few treaties with local Maori to prevent this happening
Our final stop is Christchurch where we are staying in a comfortable hotel. It's nearly time to say goodbye to Garfield the van after 81 nights and over 8,500 Km's.
NZ has been wonderful. We've done and seen just about everything we set out to plus a few more along the way. The people have been very friendly and welcoming and are rightly proud of their country and we will take away some great memories.
Next for us is a flight to Sydney on 31st March where we have to start planning our trip around the whole of the country. First thing will be to buy a car and get it kitted out for the long journey ahead. Hopefully the next time you recieve a blog, we'll be well on our way.
Take care all, until next time
D&T
P.S. Sorry that this will arrive on a Monday morning for most of you again. We don't plan it like
that, it's just easier to use the internet at weekends - Honest !!
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Robin
non-member comment
No body surfing please
Puzzling world looks absolutely fantastic though. How can a place like Wanaka pop 253 probably, have something we just don't have. Must make up for the lack of Friday quizzes.