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Published: March 30th 2005
Lake Hawea
One of many, many photos.OK, lots to update here so will try and be brief - highlights only!
Left Wellington with a hangover so the 3 hour ferry ride across to the south island wasn't great for me actually. Didn't see much of Nelson as I was sleeping but according to other people on my bus it was very nice.
We passed through a town called Greymouth which has been hit a couple of days before by a hurricane - it was all over the news but actaully there was very little damage to be seen. The roof of a local blacksmiths had been completely ripped off but the buildings around it were totally untouched. Bet he was pleased. In fact, it turns out that despite the fuss that was being made in the media only one person was hurt and she was a tourist anyway. Apparently she'd opened the door to investigate after it had grown 'eerily calm' and the caravan she was in was thrown 20ft down the road. Some people deserve everything they get.
Anyway, the main reason for stopping in Greymouth was for everybody to buy costumes for that evening's fancy dress party. The Kiwi bus stops for
an evening in the middle of nowhere at a place called the Poo Pub run by a toothless old man called Les, and everyone has to dress up. Our theme was 'Create Your Own Superhero', which could have been worse, so I went as Super Star Girl, predominantly because a packet of star stickers cost me $1.50 and went a long way. Wore my towel as a cape just to finish the effect. I think Rach B's theme was a P party and she went as a photographer (she just had to buy a silly hat and take her camera and voila!). Just along from the Poo Pub is a little road that has loads of gloworms hiding along its banks so took a stroll down there after the party. They were still brilliant, although this time there weren't so many of them.
Headed south the next day to the glacier town of Franz Josef. The south of the south island has been shaped by glaciers and most of the numerous lakes and mountain ranges hereabouts are a direct result and reminder of them. The glacier at Franz Josef is one of the more visited in the country and
A gloworm!
This picture took ages to take - and there were a lot more of them but only one came out. Still, am very proud of it. they run many hikes up there every day. Despite there being a specific section in the briefing session warning anyone with vertigo not to go, I signed up for the 6 hour hike the next day. It was pretty amazing. The worst part of the whole thing was climbing up the rockface to get to the front of the glacier, but once we on the actual ice - no worries. Walking on ice is not slippery at all - we had some heavy duty spikes on the bottom of our boots which took some getting used to but made you feel nice and secure.
Walking on the glacier was fantastic - we got to go through ice tunnels and squeeze through narrow crevices and also had to climb down ice walls sideways doing something called the 'Franz Shuffle' - for aerobics enthusiasts out there, that's basically like doing the grapevine down a vertical surface. We were going to walk across a 'V' shaped overhang until our guide put her foot right through the floor and decided maybe it wasn't a great idea. In fact, I was surprised how much the glacier creaks and falls apart when you're on it.
A bridge across a glacial chasm
Upon closer inspection, a door spread across a ladder. There are rockfalls and landslides the whole time htat you can hear going on. As we were approaching the glaicier in the first place there was a heart-stopping cracking sound and a massive chunk of ice broke off the front of the glacier and was washed away down the river. Lumps of ice weighing more than your average family car were bobbing merrily along as if they were polystyrene. The guide we were with said that although the glacier is moving and shifting all the time, they only get a fall like that once every 5-6 years and we were lucky to have seen it. I seriously thought the whole thing would be cancelled but Kiwis are not that easily deterred.
Couldn't really walk the next day but as we spent most of the day in the bus it didn't really matter. We visited some pancake rocks and a few blowholes (straw-like openings in the rocks which spout water like a whale when the tide hits them right) which I spent a good half an hour in front of waiting to see them in action. Predictibly, as soon as I gave up and turned away I heard a gushing
sound and the awed gasps of the rewarded faithful who had not been so fickle. I don't care.
Now, the North Island had some lovely scenery going on, there's no denying that. But, I think, it pales into mediocrity when you hit the south island. Some of the views you see here are stunning. Absolutely amazing sights that up until now I could have been persuaded were patented by the postcard industry. But they actually exist - and I saw some b-e-a-u-tiful examples on the way down to Wanaka. Lake Hawea is a mirror lake and the day we drove past it was perfectly clear. I now have about 38 pictures of basically the same view because I couldn't stop taking them. It was like some sort of compulsive need. Lake Wanaka itself was just as impressive and the sunset over the mountains was one you see in the movies. No photos of that though, sorry - I left my camera in my room. Wanaka town is very cute - situated on the edge of its eponymous lake it's your basic small town; very laid-back and friendly where everyone literally knows your name.
And so, on to Queenstown.
We visited Puzzling World on the way through which has to mentioned for its sheer genius. There are a selection of illusion rooms that you can visit - one that is set at a 15 degree slope so that everything that is, in reality, level looks sloped and water flows uphill etc. There's also an Ames room that is built so that when you view it empty it looks completely normal but when people are in it they go form being tiny to gigantic in a few strides. Puzzlingworld also has an amazinf maze but we didn't get time for it that day. Was so disappointed that Rachael and I went back there a few days later when we had a car and spent a good hour and a bit getting thoroughly lost. I think we were both surprised how infuriating it actully was - I mean, mazes are meant for kids, right? How can it be so difficult? But, after finding ourselves once again in the blue corner (which went round and round and round in circles until the magical portal opened which allowed us to find a passage that thankfully went somewhere, anywhere else), we were sorely tempted
After the front fell off...
The glacier minus about 200 tonnes to use the emergency exits. You will all be pleased to note that out dignity remains intact and we eventually made it out on our own!
Queenstown is similar, although not quite as beautiful as, Wanaka. It sits on Lake Wakitipu which stretches as far as Glenorchy and the mountain range (called The Remarkables - not, sadly and as much as I want them to be, The Incredibles) that surround can be breath-taking when the sun hits them right and I imagine when there is snow on them they will be even better. It's a major tourist town on account of the skiing season - the population can quadruple in winter - and apparently they have some of the best slopes outsid Europe.
QT is the bungy jumping capital of New Zealand and I think, the world. There's definitely something about it being the first place to do it comercially anyway. You can jump off platforms from 43, 47 and a mind-numbing 139 metres. You can also do something called a canyon swing which is a 60m drop and then a 200m swing across, well, a canyon. Rach and I have done none of these things. Entirely through
The glacier floating down the river
Each of the blocks of ice weighs about 1 ton. choice and out of a healthy respect for life. Skydiving is one thing but I think we both feel that's as far as we want to take it.
Last time I wrote I said that we were going to get a flat and a job here. We're not doing that any more. Queenstown is fun in an adrenaline-and-alcohol kind of way. But, despite its poularity, it's still essentially just a small town and that's pretty much all there is to do here. That's great for about a week, well - maybe a bit longer than a week - but any longer and it really starts to become old. Plus, everything is really expensive here so we decided it wasn't for us - a bit too much like Marlow for our liking! We hired a car and went for a road trip to the very south of the island, places like Invercargill and Dunedin for those of you with any NZ geography - and we've just come back this afternoon from a fantastic hike across to Milford Sound - both things that one or other of us will update about soon - and tomorrow we are heading up to Christchurch
to try our luck there. It's a city so there should be a much wider variety of things to keep us occupied and greater opportunity for jobs as well.
That's it for now. You'll probably be pleased to hear that the weather has taken a cold turn here and it's been pouring with rain for the last few days - we got VERY wet on our little walk. I think Autumn is officially here.
Rach x x x
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