Advertisement
Published: January 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Yes I know... its been a very long time since I have updated you all, but I do have a good excuse- whilst in China all the computers had a really brilliant feature- if you typed any more that a few sentences at a time they would translate everything that you typed into chinese for you!!! But anyway I'm in Singapore now so here goes with the last couple of months for you....
It was very strange when I first arrived in New Zealand I think that it was almost more of a culture shock going from South America to there than it had been arriving in South America to begin with. I think that it was because I had become so used to everything being so unorganised and chaotic that I didn't really know what to do with myself at first- when I first arrived in the airport I was so impressed that they had signposts telling you which way to the bus stop- it was just so organised and easy!
I spent about 3 action packed weeks travelling around the south Island where I did everything from Abseiling to Zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant
bubble!) I started in Christchurch where I met up with a lad that I had meet earlier on in my travels in Rio which was good as its nice to see a familiar face every now and then. From here I went north to Kiakora where there are lots of seal colonies, whales and dolphins, unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the whales/dolphins as the weather was so bad whilst I was there that all the trips were cancelled, I did however visit a few of the seal colonies which was really good as you could get up really close to them- they would even go and sleep under the bushes in the car park so you had to be quite careful where you walked! I met a local guy showed me a really cool place where there was a waterfall and a pool where the baby seals go to play- it was really fun watching them doing all sorts of acrobatics!
When I was in Nelson on the North coast I saw some advertising for SkyDiving and myself and 2 English girls that I was with decided that we might give make some enquiries about it,
the next we knew we were all kitted up and waiting for the plane which was probably a good thing as if it hadn't all happened so fast it probably would have given me time to think and talk myself out of it. We actually dived 13,000ft over Able Tasmen national park which was amazing- the most terrifying part of it was when you are in the plane and you are about to jump they move you over to the door of the plane and because you are attached to the front of the instructor he is sat on the edge and you are just dangling, feeling a little sick and starting to wonder what on earth you are doing! But despite my protests and insisting that I really didn't want to do it anymore off we went, the first initial freefall lasted about 50 seconds and all I can really remember about it was that it was really noisy but once they open the parachute it suddenly goes really quiet and amazingly peaceful, floating down admiring the fantastic views was just wonderful and I really enjoyed it.
Travelling back down the West coat of the south Island I
saw some amazing scenery as the coast line here is just stunning (very Jurassic Park-esque!) I also went Ice trekking/caving on Franz Josef Glacier which was brilliant. The trekking was good but the best bit was exploring the ice caves as they were an amazing colour, with every one being different to the last. There were a few tight spots where we literally had to crawl through the tiniest of gaps, but fortunately the ice was pretty slippery so a good shove from the person behind normally did the trick!
Lake Wanaka was a lovely little lakeside town which was probably my favourite place in New Zealand as it has such a lovely mellow atmosphere and had amazing views around the lake and some great water sports (and the best cinema ever- tiny little place with beat up old sofas and even an old beetle to sit in whilst you watched the film and they timed the intermission with when the homemade cookies were due out the oven!!!) After a few adrenalin filled weeks in the south I was back in Christchurch and decided that I needed a rest so I went to Castle Hill which was once named
the spiritual centre of the universe by the Dali Lama and spent some time wandering about waiting for my spiritual enlightenment!
I was quite surprised by how different the North Island is to the South, not just in the weather but also the scenery, landscape and the culture as there is a much stronger Maori culture in the north particularly in Rotorura (which also has a lot of natural hot springs but unfortunately smells a lot like rotten eggs because it is so sulphurous!) I had to do a bit of a whistle -stop tour of the North as I started to run out of time but I really enjoyed Lake Tekapo which has one of the biggest observatories in the southern hemisphere because due to the surrounding landscape it has some of the clearest skies in the world which are perfect of stargazing- it was quite strange seeing all the constellations that I am used to seeing being upside down it really made me realise that I actually was on the other side of the world!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0472s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Wendy
non-member comment
Envy
WOW amazing, I just wish I had the nerve when I was younger. (I did a day trip to London once) Keep those photos coming. Lots of love Wendy