Week 10

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22/11/10 - Franz Josef Glacier
Up and showered and breakfasted. No rain today, hooray! Using my three maps again we got to the camper van service centre (I'm getting good at this) to sort out our Boot. We were seen immediately and went to look at more DVDs while the guy looked at the car and of course it wasn't broken at all, it turns out you have to lock it with a button and not the key in the obvious key hole in the boot. Wouldn't it have been nice if they told us that in the beginning?

We left our car there and walked to the city. I'd never been on a tram before so we hopped onto the tram at the cathedral and got off at the botanical gardens for a wander around. We saw a giant gum tree in the gardens which I had to hug.

Hopped back on to the tram to complete the circuit of the city centre (much smaller than I thought it would be) and it took us down New Regent street where all the buildings mirrored each other in colour and style. Next we went through a shopping mall on the tram, yes through a building on a tram! What is this world coming to?

On our way back Bobby bought a map of the world to plan his drive around the world with. We set off on our journey across the great alpine road which is a road suggested to us by the guys on the ferry as it takes us from the East coast of New Zealand to the West coast and provides a diverse range of scenery along the way.

We got onto the the Great Alpine Road which started off with lush green flat planes with a mountain range in the distance. As we travelled further the road took us up into the mountains many of which were still snow capped. The road wound us up through the mountains with twists and turns that the Top Gear crew would be likely to test out a new porsche on. Bobby was quite lucky as I was literally speechless.

We passed huge lakes and wide rivers then we came to the peak of the mountains and were surrounded by snow capped tips. We stopped off for a short walk through the forest. As we traveled down the mountain I kept looking behind to the mountainous peaks we had just come through, what a view! It was amazing to come over the mountains and suddenly be surrounded by flat green planes.

Bobby pulled over once we were through the Great Alpine Road and let me drive. After a while of driving along the coast on straight roads I came to another mountain range and had to negotiate very sharp winding roads which was amazing fun! After driving for 3 hours I pulled in at a camper van site at Franz Josef Glacier and we had dinner (at 10pm).

The owners of the camper site told us of a glacier hike leaving at 8:45 am tomorrow but it was too late to book onto now so it'll be an early start in the morning.

Quote of the day from Emi 'I'm living my 'someday' today'.

Quote two from Emi "That's drive then..."


23/11/10 - Fox Glacier
Up early to see we were surrounded by mountains, I do love arriving somewhere at night and waking up to incredible scenery we had no idea existed in the dark.

Found out that the tour up Franz Joseph was fully booked but we could go on at tour at 1pm to the Fox Glacier so we opted for that.

We got ready and went to the kiwi wildlife park in Franz Joseph which wasn't really worth the money but it was good to see some kiwis, no photos allowed though sadly. Kiwis really don't like each other, they were fighting and squealing a lot. Very fast bird.

We went for a walk to get a look of Franz Josef glacier before leaving for the Fox but didn't get the best view on the short walk suggested.

Bobby drove 30 minutes to the Fox glacier and we checked in for our 5 hour tour. I put on an extra pair of wooly socks and was handed a pair of crampons to walk on the ice with.

We arrived at the edge of the glacier and were greeted with a milky white glacial stream flowing out from the grey looking ice.

The tour started by explaining how the three pools we were stood next too were so blue due to the minerals in the water slowing down the colour spectrum passing through the water and as blue is the slowest moving colour it captures it more making the water a majestic blue.

We started walking alongside the glacial steam and came to a rope barrier (clearly there to stop people from stepping away from the safety of the path) when the guide lifted the ropes and said we were going to walk along and up the mountain to get to the glacier. We soon came to a sign saying 'danger do not cross' which filled me with confidence. We carried on and every time we came to the winding river and streams we had to use stepping stones to cross, fairytale time again.

The walk up the mountain was unsteady and hard work as we were having to go slowly to keep the group together. I found it hard on the legs to walk up steps slowly as my muscles had to use control to stay so slow. We reached a point in the mountain called kodak point (named for obvious reasons) the view was amazing and the hard work was worth it to see the glacier from here.

We came off of the mountain and put on our crampons (spikes to walk on the ice with that are attached to our boots) and proceeded to walk onto the glacier. The previous tour guides had made an ice staircase for us to walk up and our guide used his ice pick to carve out steps that had ready started to disappear. It was explained to us that parts of the glacier are moving between 4-5 metres a day and if they did not repeatedly cut the steps into the ice then the next day they would have disappeared.

As we climbed up the glacier and looked around i felt like i was on another world! There were huge crevasses in the 150 metre thick ice which if fallen into would be likely to swallow a person up. The melt water from the ice creates moulins in the ice which are basically holes in the ice created by the warmer water running over them and down through the ice to create the icy river at the glaciers terminal edge (ooo get me and my technical jargon).

We stopped serval times on our way up the glacier to have a look around and take pictures, the guide pointed out several large boulders lower in the valley where the glacier had picked them up and left them there as it retreated, some of these boulders were the size of my house, amazing the awesome power that glaciers have!

There were pools of icy melt water on the surface of the glacier and yes, I had to stick my hand in and yes, it was very very cold.

We picked a fantastic day for the glacier climb as the area had a very high rainfall which they have to measure not in mm or cm or inches but in metres. They get around 15 metres of rain a year on average.

Our guide asked us if we wanted to carry on when we reached the stopping point of our tour which we all did and he ended up taking us as high as the full day tour so we got our monies worth and more. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to find anywhere to enter the glacier but that's what happens with nature, unpredictable.

We headed back down the ice and onto the bus back. At the office we booked ourselves onto a helicopter flight over Mount Cook for the morning (I'm really living it up here).

Drove back to Franz Josef for the night and visited the hot pools to warm up and ended up staying from 8:30 till 10pm. There were 3 pools ranging in temperature from 36 degrees (feeling just warm) to 40 degrees (just bearable but bloody hot). It was very cold getting out of each pool into the next but rewarding as I sank into the hot water. We were both very chilled out after relaxing in the hot water.

Quote of the day from Emi 'I don't tan I turn a darker shade of pale'.


24/11/10 - Frankton
Woke up to the fresh mountain air with a smile on my face as it's helicopter day! We got ready and drove down to Fox Glacier again with only a couple of minutes to spare. We signed in and hopped on the bus to drive to the helipad.

The Helicopter looked tiny and I wasn't sure how they would fit 6 of us inside with the pilot, but they did. The ride wasn't as noisy as I had expected it to be. We had the best seats on the flight as we were both sat in the front with the pilot so we had a panoramic view the entire time.

Beautiful day today with no clouds in the sky. As we took off I was surprised at the speeds we reached so quickly and the angle we were flying at looked like we would fly into the ground.

We had an amazing view of the Fox Glacier and were able to see the very top caldron like area which pushes down on the glacier forcing it to move forwards. The exhilarating feeling of the flight is one that I just can't describe.

The pilot banked left and we were flying directly towards Mount Cook and could see Lake Pukaki behind the mountain... WOW! We Landed on a small area of snow covered ice and the views were incredible! Mount Cook looks quite small from up here. Standing on the snow we snapped lots of pictures and just absorbed the magnitude of the moment.

This was an outstanding experience that I've wanted to do for a long time and although it was expensive I would do it again in a heartbeat. We came back to earth and enjoyed a coffee and cake while we talked about our morning.

It was my turn to drive and we went for an hours walk around Lake Matheson (6km away) which is a lake that will reflect Mount Cook in its waters on a clear day... Today it reflected clouds.

We set off on our journey to Queenstown and passed over several streams of such vibrant blues they don't look as though they could possibly be natural, stunning.

It was nice to see that New Zealand name their creeks too but they seem to have more interesting names than Australia. Some of the creeks we passed today include: Venture Creek, Windbag Creek, Random Creek, Dizzy, Dismal, Dancing and Cemetery Creek.

Bobby had a snooze while I was driving and I pulled over at Knights Point lookout to get a glimpse of the view out to sea.

Passed the monstrous sized lakes of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. I seemed to be driving for a long time to pass Lake Wanaka which looked more like an ocean than a lake and it had a beautiful back drop of the Southern Alps mountain range. Just as we passed the first lake we turned a corner to be faced with the mirror like Lake Hawea which reflected the hills behind it perfectly.

It took me 4 hours to drive from the Fox Glacier to Wanaka town by which time I was getting tired so we pulled over for a coffee only to find the first place to stop at was Puzzling World which had an optical illusion room and a maze, yippee.

We started on the optical illusion room which had lots of holographic images. Next was the little and large room where of you stood in one corner you looked tiny and the other made you look giant which is how they pulled off a lot of scenes in Lord of The Rings, we spent a while in here. Next we went into a wonky room which was so steep it was difficult to walk in. There was a chair lift that felt like it was taking up a slope but the illusion was that there was no motor lifting the chair but it was gravity letting it fall, weird.

The maze was next which was made up of wooden fences and was the hardest maze that I've been to. We had to find four coloured towers and then the exit. The area that the maze was set in wasn't huge but there were enough twists, turns and dead ends to make nearly 5 km of walk ways. We managed to complete the maze in around an hour by which time I was shattered and pleased to see the exit. Great fun though.

Carried on to Frankton which is just outside of Queenstown and as we came over a hill we were greeted with a spectacular view down into the valley before us. We were both taken aback and pulled over for a better view. Photos will never do justice to the awesome scene before us, my eyes were greedily drinking in the beauty that surrounded us for a long time, we are very lucky people.

The drive down into the valley was on the windiest road I have ever been on. The road kept double backing on itself turning 180 degrees, I'm sure I've seen this road on Top Gear but in France. Bobby had fun driving this!

Booked into our camp site by Lake Wakatipu and went shopping for dinner. On the way back we turned a sharp corner and the shopping toppled over followed swiftly by the strong smell of red wine. We pulled over to find that the bottle of red wine we just bought for dinner had broken and emptied itself over the floor of the camper van, that'll smell nice for a while. We had dinner and we were both ready for bed after a long exciting day.


25/11/10 - Queenstown
We had a lazy morning and after lunch Bobby said he had a surprise for me. We got in the car and I had no idea where we were going. He stopped the car around the corner of our camp site pulling into... the golf course :s I've never been on a driving range before so I knew Bobby would get his monies worth of entertainment from me. He bought a big bucket of balls which we shared. I actually managed to hit the ball which I was very proud of but my swing would make any golfer cringe. We had a giggle and Bobby filmed my appalling attempts at golf, they will be buried.

We had booked hang gliding for today and headed to Queenstown for the pick up point. We were told to call the company 30 minutes before for a weather check which we did so just as it started raining. The trip was cancelled and we are now booked on for tomorrow. Oh, they have the yellow pages over here 😊

Bobby got his hair cut and no longer looked like a beach bum. Off for a coffee while Bobby tried to convince me to go canyoning with him which involves abseiling, zip lining, sliding and swimming in a canyon and down waterfalls, it sounds amazing but I'm running short on funds. Still... very tempting!

I like Queenstown it's not too big and has a welcoming warm feel to it, but it does seem that every other shop is an outdoor adventure shop including bungy jumping and White water river rafting.

We had a wander round the shops and headed back for dinner and a DVD. Very chilled out day and night, just what the doctor ordered.


26/11/10 - Milford Sound
Up, ready and off for our hang gliding adventure. We met up with the bus in Queenstown and picked up more pilots along the drive up to Coronet Point where we were taking off from. We seemed to be diving up and up for a very long time which didn't help my nerves greatly. When we finally reached the top (next to the ski lift) I was helped to put my harness on.

My pilot set up the hang glider and obviously didn't pick up on my nerves as he told me to go and watch Bobby take off. They seemed to be waiting a long time for the right winds and suddenly they were running over the side of the cliff!

I had a practice run with my pilot of how to run off the cliff with him which wasn't really filling me with confidence. We were ready and i got strapped into the glider. We were stood for a long time waiting for the winds and had to move to the other side of the cliff before he was happy.

Suddenly the pilot said we were ready and counted down from 3 for me to run, i managed a few steps before my legs were too short to touch the ground and we were off in the sky.

I had spectacular views down into the valley and it was difficult at times to gage how high we were. I was surprised when we hit thermal pockets and cold areas and experienced a minor bit of turbulence which didn't feel so minor flying under a large kite.

Although taking a leap of faith from a mountain top was scary as hell it was still an amazing feeling to be flying in the air, it was surprising how sturdy and safe the glider felt.

I got to steer a bit and accidentally turned us round but was saved by the pilot taking control again. As we approached the landing area he decided to do some scary manoeuvres which involved us raising right into the sky and fall rapidly to the ground. I think I managed to clean the wax out of his ears with my screaming, the DVD will be interesting. We had a safe slow landing but I did feel wobbly afterwards.

We had perfect weather today and I was glad we had to cancel yesterday. I would definitely do it again.

Back for a coffee and Bobby started explaining how he would love to set up a hang gliding company here. We had lunch and prepared for the next leg of our journey but found we had a flat tyre. Luckily there was a garage here that work with our camper van company so it didn't take long to get us back on the road.

I drove for 2 hours from Queenstown to Te Anau and we passed Lake Te Anau which was just as big as Lake Wanaka (so many great lakes in this area). During this time I was trying to figure out how to save enough money for the next part of my travels.

We swapped seats and Bobby drove to Milford Sound. We passed lots of lakes that acted like mirrors reflecting the mountain range in their bright blue waters.

Drove through a huge black tunnel which was so dark and long it freaked us both out a bit, it just didn't feel safe. On the other side of the tunnel we came out into a mist and had mountains to our sides with multiple waterfalls running down their faces looking like fingernail marks in the rock.

We stopped at The Chasm and walked to see an almighty gorge that had been carved out by the powerful river flowing through it, creating a thunderous raw as it did so. It was mind boggling go think of the power of water carving out such a big scar on the earth.

We reached the Milford Sound Lodge and managed to grab the last camp site and book onto a boat trip for the morning. After dinner we watched s DVD and relaxed for the night.

Quote of the day from Emi 'my elbow doesn't bend that way'.


27/11/10 - Dunedin
Attack of the sandflies! Last night there seemed to be thousands of sandflies hanging around our car with their faces pressed up against the glass looking at us like a kid in a cake shop. The females are the only ones that bite as they need blood to be able to reproduce. They do sting a lot for their tiny size. They seemed to be out in force again this morning and we had to run for showers.

Off to our cruise but it was so foggy we asked to go later which they agreed to. We came back two hours later and it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect.

Boarded the smallest of the boats in the harbour with only around 6 other couples, it was very relaxed with no pushing for the best spot. We met a couple from Brighton who have been travelling for around 10 months.

The cruise was very peaceful and the Milford Sounds were fantastic with spectacular mountains rising steep out of the water. The Milford sound was created thousands of years ago by a glacier slicing through the land during the last ice age.

Fur seals were lazing on a rock and started to fight each other. I spent some time trying to figure out they make it up so high on the steep rocks. The captain steered the boat under a waterfall and Bobby stood outside with the couple we met and got soaked, I was giggling from the warmth of the inside.

The trip was mostly tranquil and I enjoyed it but I think we were able to enjoy more of the Milford sound from the impressive drive up to the harbour, fantastic.

My turn to drive and I took us to Te Anau for lunch. I had to pass through the big black tunnel to get out of Milford sound, but I was lucky as the traffic lights were on and there were plenty of cars to light the tunnel ahead of me. Milford Sound is truly beautiful and we passed many rivers with stoney beds and large boulders in.

Bobby took over driving in Te Anau and after a cohple of hours we nearly ran out of petrol, after driving on fumes for a few miles and holding our breath up each hill we finally arrived at Mossburn and were able to fill up. It had been very quiet and tense in the car till then.

Dunedin was our next stop and we pulled into a nice camp site and chucked in 2 loads of washing and cooked some grub up. We met 3 nice couples while we were cooking who were from Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. Behind our camper van we had a private stream trickling along.

Quote of the day from Emi 'don't look at me with your eyes closed'.


28/11/10 - Omarama
Breakfast and ready and off to the city centre. We had come to Dunedin to visit cadbury's world for Bobby but a couple in our camp site advised us we wouldn't be able to go into the factory as it was a weekend and we would be better off spending our money on chocolate, we didn't but were very tempted. Had a wonder round and walked to the train station which is a beautifully designed building.

In a tourist souvenir shop Bobby asked the shop assistant what the fern leaf was for which is associated with New Zealand. The silver fern is named so because if a traveller was lost or injured they could pick the fern and turn it upside-down as the bottom is a reflective silver and would attract attention.

I really liked Dunedin, it is a friendly homely place with lots to see and do. Everything is based around the Octagon in the town centre.

We headed off to Baldwin street which is the steepest street in the world with a gradient of around 1 in 2:86 which translates into 'bloody steep'! We walked up the hill and jogged the last part, I actually found coming down the hill more of a struggle as I felt I was going to fall forward. I got a certificate to say I tackled the worlds steepest street and survived, I wouldn't have fancied driving up it.

Visited an Albatross colony next and could see some flying and nesting on a hill but there were a lot of sea gulls around. The albatrosses were impressively huge. We didn't explore them any closer as we had to pay $30 to walk along the path.

Next stop was Lanarch castle which had stunning views on the drive up but again we had to pay an extortionate amount of money just to enter the gardens let alone the castle so we just enjoyed the views of the bay on the way back down again.

It's a shame that we didn't visit 3 out of the 4 places we had planned to today due to charges but we did enjoy the steepest street.

My turn to drive to and we headed to Oamaru where my Moraki boulders were. The boulders are circular and huge and on the beach in a small area. It was mind boggling to think how they were formed so round and why they were on such a small area of the beach. One boulder had been cracked open and was crystallised on the inside.

Stopped for dinner at the local park and cooked up a curry with a few funny looks from passersby. After dinner we messed around on the playground for a while.

I let Bobby drive after this and we headed towards Twizel but decided to stop at Omarama at a site by Lake Ruataniwha which was a pristine blue lake. The lakes in this area are all a turquoise blue created so by local glaciers which grind rock into a fine dust known as rock flour which flows into the lakes to create this unique colour.

After dark there seemed to be an outbreak of thousands of beetles which came into the kitchen and bathrooms as they followed the lights. They seemed to fly, then land and then die. The floor was covered with them before long. We put the awning up in the dark tonight.


29/11/10 - Geraldine
Got locked into our campsite as we were an hour late for checking out but the owner was really nice and just let us out without charging for an extra night.

I had a paddle in the lake as we left and then we headed to Lake Pukaki which had the most beautiful view of Mount Cook reflected in it's waters.

Our next stop was Lake Tekapo where we embarked on a 3 hour hike to the summer of Mount John. The first part of the walk was hard work and of took a few minutes for my body to realise it was exercising. It was a very very hot day today which made traipsing uphill that much harder.

Around half way up I had lost Bobby as he was trailing behind and decided to way for him. He didn't show up after a couple of minutes so I walked back to where he should have been, he wasn't there. I walked on to hear him screaming my name and I started to run down the hill thinking he had fallen, he stopped shouting and I couldn't see him so I turned and ran back up the hill to have him meet me saying he took a short cut and was calling me to tell me. The little sod! My heart was in my mouth when I thought he was injured, I felt like injuring him to make myself feel better but thought better of it.

We reached the summit of Mount John at a whopping 1043 metres and could see for miles. Lake Tekapo was stretched out below us and looked very tranquil and inviting. We stopped for a drink at the observatory cafe up here and it was so windy that the cream from Bobby's ice coffee blew off and landed all over me. I got cleaned up and we carried on our way.

The remaining 2 hours of our walk were much easier than the treck up the mountain and ended up with a walk along the shore of the lake. I took my boots off and walked along the lake side in the refreshing water. Bobby tried to teach me to skim rocks but the best I got was 3 bounces and a lot of sploshes.

Continued on to Geraldine which is a large village where we ate out and had a binge day at a local restaurant


30/11/10 - Christchurch
Finally managed to get up and ready in time to check out for once. We popped into the medieval mosaic centre in Geraldine where a man had spent years recreating the battle of hastings tapestry out of tiny metal squares. It was impressive to see the quality of the mosaic but what was more impressive is the fact he has managed to hide mathematical puzzles within the tapestry. He showed us some of the puzzles he had created which went straight over my head but which Bobby seemed to solve quite easily. One of the puzzles included the binary code which I have now been educated in.

The man had created a cd which included all the puzzles as well as a detailed history into the tapestry where you could click on anything in the mosaic, from a knight to a pin badge, and it would give you information about it. This really was a life long piece of work.

Apparently the last quarter of the tapestry has been missing for a long time so to finish off his one the man had his daughter design what she thought the last quarter would look like which appeared seamless with the rest.

Bobby bought the cd to try and crack the codes, good luck to him I say.

Off on our travels again and this time to Peel Forest for 2 walks. Our first walk was just 30 minutes to see a big tree measuring 9 metres across. I seem to have developed a tree hugging fetish as I have to hug each big tree I come to.

Our next walk was (meant to be) 1 hour and 30 minutes to see Emily falls. We walked for a while and came to a stream with no path onwards. We turned around to head back and look for a turning we had missed but found nothing. We bumped into another couple who said we need to go back to the stream and follow it down to a marker which points to the path.

We found our way and walked across the stream and eventually found Emily falls which was pretty but Bobby didn't think it had been worth all hard work walking up and down the steep hills to get there (but then he was wearing flip flops).

Bobby carried on driving to Christchurch and I fell asleep for a while. We arrived in the city and headed to 'The Jailhouse' which was a prison that has been converted into a hostel. Checked in for the night ready to have a good nights sleep in a real bed again.

We were shown to our cell by the guy at reception who used a big key to unlock our cell (very prison warden like).

Our cell is tiny and we had a look down the hall in cell number 20 which is still in the original state from when it was a functioning prison. It's like a smaller version of porridge here. The guards spy holes in the doors have been replaced with small round mirrors but they have kept the original (and very heavy) doors. There was also a very depressing isolation cell which sadly, I couldn't lock Bobby in.

We walked to the city centre and had a coffee and I bought myself a kiwi photo holder souvenir.

Bobby and I have decided to spend tomorrow apart as we haven't been separated for 2 and a half months solid, I'm gonna get so lost! Amazing how we haven't argued or got fed up with each other after spending 24 hours a day together for all this time. Still, a bit of me time is in order.

Chilled out back in the jail for the night. Every noise I made seemed to echo through the main hall. The staff locked the prison up at 10pm so I finished my hot chocolate and headed off to bed.


1/12/10 - Hanmer Springs
Bobby and I walked to town together and had breakfast before going our separate ways for the day. He decided to be very helpful and gave me a detailed map of the city which was in Chinese, thanks Bobby.

I had a look around the Market and shops and treated myself to shoes and a dress as it's been 3 months since I've worn heels and dressed up. It only cost £55 for the whole outfit, bargain.

I didn't get lost and managed to make the meet up point with time to spare. Bobby has an idea to create a world wide scavenger hunt and has started in Christchurch so I got to hear about all the statues he's been looking at, it's amazing what we walk past.

We went our separate ways again and I seemed to walk to the ends of the city doing nothing but wandering round, awesome. It was strange to hear Christmas songs and see decorations in the shops and to be surrounded by summer dresses and outfits for the sun.

We met again at 3:30pm at the botanical gardens and walked back to the car. Off on our travels to Hamner Springs to visit the hot pools there.

Checked into our new camp site and after dinner we went to the pools. There were 9 hot pools here and 3 sulphur pools all ranging from 33 degrees to 41, ouch.

The sulphur pools really did stink and I didn't stay in them for long but the other pools were like giant bath tubs, it's the first time I've shared a bath with 6 other people but hey, I'm friendly.

Back at the camp site there was and outbreak of Sandflies and Mosquitoes which seemed to stalk us even when we closed the car up and killed a lot of them. I could hear a mosquito for ages but couldn't see it, I woke up in the morning to it biting my cheek, it didn't live long after that.

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Comments

[jackie pugh]

amazing time
Hi Em I am so jealous,it sounds like you are having an amazing time! I know my time spent in Oz was fabulous and I didn't do half what you and Bobby are doing.We must get together some time and share experiences because you really have to see it to believe it! do you agree?Keep enjoying it and making the most of everything. jx