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Published: September 8th 2006
Greetings from New Zealand
Well, we nearly didn't make it this far. No, we didn't get drunk in Sydney and miss our Air NZ flight - we just had the bumpiest, windiest, yuckiest flight ever to get here. The pilot warned we'd have slight turbulence on the 3 hr flight down from Sydney, what he failed to mention was that I would have to shut my eyes and sit very still as we were coming in to land in Christchurch!
Apparantley, the air can get a bit bumpy as you fly over NZ's southern alps into Christchurch. A bit bumpy? I felt like a ping pong ball in a tumble dryer. Ok, so I'm being a bit dramatic - we didn't spill drinks and no-one screamed (they did gasp a bit though) but when you look out of one window and all you can see is sky, then look the other side and all you can see is land, well, then that's quite unsettling. We didn't so much as 'touch down' on the tarmac, it was more like whumping into the tarmac at far too high a speed. This was followed by the pilot doing a series of hand-brake turns down the runway, in an effort to get the plane pointing the right way! Great, our pilot wouldn't look out of place driving a banger around Mile Cross of an evening! Damn boy racer. Still, we were alive, and the mountains looked spectacular enough.
We weren't picking up our campervan straight away, we had booked 2 nights in Christchurch first of all, so we could have a good look at the place. Ju & I went up the cable car (strangely called a Gondola in NZ. Why? Looks nothing like a flippin Gondola, they go on water while a fat Italian sings 'Just one cornetto....' to you) for spectacular views over Lytellton Harbour. We liked the view so much, we jumped on a dolphin-spotting cruise down in Lytellton, which gave us superb views over the bay & out into the Pacific. Saw a few rare dolphins, but it was really cool just to be allowed onto the top deck in the lovely sunshine! Who said New Zealand was cold!!!? Not too many weirdo characters, just an American dad with his Korean wife and their SEVEN children in tow!! Still, they kept themselves occupied throughout the trip without any screaming abdab fits or anything.
Ju & I kept up the tradition of fab eating (weightloss is but a distant memory) by going to the Loaded Hog - you can tell by the name that this was no salad bar. You will have to see the photo's, the plate of ribs I ordered was ridiculously huuuge - people turned around to look at them as they were brought over!! I struggled (yeh,right) to finish them all, and Ju told me his chicken burger went down a treat too. So we knew we weren't going to starve in NZ.
The next morning, we arrived at the campervan place bright, early & enthusiastic. We knew we were going to need to listen carefully to all the 'what goes where' spiel that we were going to get from them. Blimey, there was so much to take in! You plug this in here, this opens that, oh and never touch that when that thingy is on, etc etc. GCSE Science was easier. The clerk at the desk sympathetically asked if I'd like to drive. Fat chance, we'd be dead within an hour. The only time I've ever taken to the road (legally, that is) I nearly drove straight off a cliff in Greece on a hired moped, Ju wisely hasn't let me near anything scarier than a Quad bike since. Although i might take Sian up on her driving lessons offer when I get home.....she must be mad.
The scary part was when the clerk (who was all of 12 years old) showed us how to put snow chains on our back wheels, if needed. Yikes!! Apparantley you strap a couple of fat-boy chains over your tyres when it snows, and hey presto, you don't skid off to your death at the bottom of some ice slathered valley. The not-so-fab news was that they capped your speed at 15kms an hour, once the chains were fitted. Ju decided there and then that if we came across snow, we would turn around and not visit the snowy area, rather than sweat & struggle to cover our wheels with these torture devices.
So, finally, off we set in our campervan. Pikeys! I was quite impressed - we had a toilet, shower, microwave, cooker, fridge, grill - everything apart from a telly! I must stress we had a definite no number 2 rule for the toilet! The cab seats heat up everytime we get in and the back comfy seats flop down into a spacious double bed, with minimal work required. Quilts & pillows were supplied and all the windows had fetching green curtains to ensure privacy. After some initial parking screaming fits ('NO! THERE'S A CAR BEHIND YOU!!!GOD! GO AROUND AGAIN!!) in the Christchurch supermarket, off we set. We had a fridge full of food (and beer) and an open road ahead of us. Freedom from tour guides was ours.
First stop was Lake Tekapo, 241kms to the south, to a holiday park (flash caravan site) for our first night's sleep. The Lake was something else, crystal clear & sparkling blue water, set against yet more mountains as a back drop. We had hot showers & managed to rustle up a stir-fry for tea, before crashing out exhausted to sleep. And Ju had only bumped his head twice.
After a comfy & warm night's sleep, we set off for Mt Cook, NZ's tallest mountain and I thought, the setting for Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings. Oops, no, that's actually a different mountain in the North Island. Ah well. It was an awesome sight, you can drive almost upto the base & we parked at the only hotel for miles, the Hermitage. We had been warned not to stop here for so much as a coffee, as it was hugely expensive, but we managed to get 2 hot drinks & 2 chocolate bars (purely for the energy of course) for $10NZ - about 3 quid. Result. We rewarded ourselves with a hike up the Glencoe Track - a mighty 30mins walk up the sheer bloody face of a lesser mountain, with views into the valley. My lungs nearly burst! i'm sure it was the cold air, but I couldn't speak when i finally crawled to the top - there was Ju not a breath out of him, snapping away and taking pictures! I need to get fit at home...
After Mt Cook, we set off for Wanaka, a bit of a dude-snowboard resort further south. It had yet another spectacular setting, a huge lake backed again by more mountains. I rustled up another quick tea before we went to join the dude-snowboard-yank crowd for a few beers, purely to help us sleep of course. There wasn't much to the place, apart from delicious fresh air and views, so the nest day, it was off again, to eat up more kilometres en-route to Te-Anau, which was to be our base for visiting the mighty Milford Sound.
We'd managed to book ourselves on a Milford Sound cruise for the next day, but as we were walking into town, the sky turned an alarming shade of black. Now, I hate it when people say 'oooh it's too cold to snow', especially as it doesn't make any sense, but that's the feeling we were getting. And snow meant the road to Milford would surely be closed. Sure enough, we get up at the crack of dawn the next day, ready for 2.5hr drive through what is supposed to be the most scenic drive in the world, we made it to the city limits before the big sign loomed over us - 'ROAD CLOSED - HIGH RISK OF AVALANCHE'. Bugger. No Milford Sound cruise for us then! We were rather philosophical about it all, more so when we got our refund, having saved ourselves $100NZ into the bargain. We turned our little van north and headed for Queenstown. We had gone south enough, and neither of us wanted to risk any snow-chain fitting.
Queenstown is a much bigger place than we'd been to, which meant only one thing. We could go on a bar crawl! With the van safely parked away for the night that is. The campsite was awesome, nestled halfway up a hill, with views over the harbour. First things first, and it was off to get an adrenaline fix. No, not another skydive - this time we went jet boating! Think of a very large jet-ski that seats about 12 and whizzes over the water as opposed to through it, and that's a jet boat ride. Fabulously dressed in black waterproofs, hat & sunglasses, we jumped aboard our shiny red boat, at the depths of the Shotover Canyon. I hadn't realised we were going to be shooting through a canyon, narrowly missing rocks & trees, while our demented driver tried to get us as close in as possible to the canyon walls. WHEEEEEEEEE!!!! We flew through the air/water and were screaming in terror as he spun the boat through various 360 degree turns, while spraying water in our faces! And we paid for this!! Our 30min ride passed all too quickly. It was only after we disembarked that we realised we had been the last ride of the day, the river had risen too high due to some rain and was now too dangerous. Gee thanks!
Next stop on our drive around NZ was the Fox & Franz Josef glaciers, which are always reported in travel mags to be an awesome sight, one that you can't miss and that makes everybody's top ten travel sights type lists. Well, we drove all the way up the West Coast (no snow, thankfully) and pulled in at the Fox Glacier first. No sign of any mints! Ha! Basically, after a short walk, we came to a dirty stretch of ice, sandwiched between two mountains. And that was that! It wasn't particularly sparkly or photogenic, there certainly weren't any polar bears and we both just thought ' whoopee do!' Sorry if anyone else went there and loved it, but we sure didn't see anything much to get excited about! We found our campsite easily enough, the population of this place was titchy to say the least, and settled ourselves at the bar for a few cold ones & some tea. Our tea was the best bit! The bar/restaurant was in a log cabin, with a roaring fire and the food was delicious. All good. Next day, we tried again with the glacier, this time to the bigger, and supposedly better, Franz Josef glacier, up the road. Guess what? More dirty brown ice, Enough said! People, don't rush to see this place!
From there, we drove on up the west coast, and although the scenery was brilliant, the weather was not. After a brief stop for lunch, where I accidentally let about 2 millon sandflies into the van (they all bit Ju at least once each) we decided to change our plans, skip the rest of the Wet West and cut through Arthur's Pass, back to Christchurch. It was a long drive, but the sun came out, and e had another brilliant night out in Christchurch, surely the prettiest place in the South Island. From there we drove North, to Kaikoura, and booked onto a whale watching tour for the next day. As we turned up at the Catamaran to check in, there was actually a whale visible from the beach!! We jumped aboard anyway, and luckily we had two sightings of Tutu, their resident sperm whale. The photo's don't do it justice, but seeing his tale flip up in the air as he dived down again was fantastic! We also stopped in a pod of approx 300 dusky dolphins who decided to do back flips for us, result!
From Kaikoura, we drove to Nelson, yet another pretty little NZ town, before heading to Picton, our last stop in the South Island, where we were to head for Wellington on the North Island..........only ten more days in New Zealand to go!! Not nearly long enough! Much as we like it here, I don't think I would live in NZ permanently - there just aren't enough people. Only 3.9 million inhabitants, compared with 39 million sheep. I kid you not! The air is clean, the scenery out of this world, and the food? Wow, biggest portions I have ever eaten, especially the steak at Lone Star, Nelson.
So Northwards we go. I see Mr Bryson has yet another book out, wonder if Ju will get it for my birthday......?! Well, I need something to read on the beach in Fiji, coz we sure won't be going snorkelling!
That's all for now, take care
Kelly & Ju xx
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Dad .W
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All Wool and Mutton
How on earth can you remember all that information and still find the time to eat massive amounts of food and drink New Zealand dry I ask? What a blog Kelly! it's beyond my imagination to even think of Julian putting on those snow chains but I could definately imagine him tucking into all that lovely food and drinking all that lovely booze. I would imagine the old knuckles got a bit white, both when you were on that damn flight and of course doing that boat trip,however if you want to experience these things you have to suffer the concequences don't you,what a thrill it must have been seeing the whale it must have reminded you of your snorkelling with Julian!! and all those lovely dolphins must have been brilliant. Liked the bit about the number two's ,what did you do, go behind a tree or into a sheep pen!! pity you could not make Milford Sound that would have been awesome i'm sure but never mind perhaps I may make it one day and send the photo back to you, who knows. Well keep up the good work both of you wilst we continue to earn a crust back here in good old "pomm" land, look forward to the pictures when we get them so keep clicking away and stay safe.Dad.W x