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Published: March 12th 2007
We travelled down the East Coast to Dunedin which is the South Islands 2nd city after Christchurch. Dunedin is Celctic for Edinburgh. The city has a statue of Robert Burns in the centre, echoing its foundation by Scottish settlers. We found Dunedin to be a really nice city with several good shopping streets which are also full of cafes and bars. We managed to stumble across a great little pub where we could have a lamb roast dinner and coffe for a couple of quid each - it was really tasty too! We left Dunedin later that afternoon and went on the look out for a campsite. Kerry had done reasonably well so far with her map reading but lets just say it was at this point that everything went a little pear shaped. What should have been a 5 minute journey turned into an hours ride around the Otago Peninsula. Thankfully the scenery was stunning and the roads so windy that we felt slightly nauseas! The Lonely Planet book mislead us on one part as we tried to go down a road which could only really be done in a 4x4. We noticed a farmer following us so we slowed
YOMOFO
We saw this number plate in Queenstown and could not resist!down and let him pass. We thought we would stop to see how he got on in his car first so we watched him go to the bottom of the very bumpy track, turn around and starter approaching us again. He pulled up alongside us and told us that this was a road where criminals hung out and warned us that he would make a log of our number plate. It was quite obvious we were tourists though in our car and Kerry holding up the Lonely Planet book! We decided to turn the car around and go a different way which eventually took us to our camper site. We had a stroll along the beach in the evening and bought fish n chips!
We left Dunedin the following day and headed further south to Invercargill. Invercargill is the southernmost town of the south island and in a word a 'hole'. We only stopped at a McCafe for a coffee and decided to carry on up to Te Anau. On the way to Te Anau it started to rain and lets just say that it didnt stop for at least 24 hours! Our initial plan was to take a
long drive up to Milford Sound but when we reached Te Anau we decided the weather was too poor and we would not get very good photo's so we just decided to go to a park. Stu cooked us pasta in the camp kitchen. It is far too much like hard work to cook out of our car so we probably wont even bother unless we are desperate. The parks in NZ are so much busier than the camping grounds in Oz. There were at least a dozen people in the kitchen/tv room but with it chundering it down outside it was quite cosy. We tried to park as close to the amenities as we could that night but it was raining so much that the camping grounds turned into a swamp. Getting out the car in the middle of the night for a pee is such a pain when its freezing cold and you step outside to put your flip flops on and its full of ice water. You then take a step forward and you sink into a foot of mud. Lets just say after 3 months of camping we think we will be ready for backpackers hostels
in Fiji!
The following morning was even worse! The rain had not let up all night but now the cloud had come so low that we could not even see the huge mountain behind the lake. Today was not a good day to go to Milford Sound! Unfortunately this was one place we wanted to go to but could not. We have only given ourselves 2 weeks to do the South island and so could not hang around for a couple of days for the weather to brighten up. From Te Anau we travelled up to Queenstown. This is definitely one COOL PLACE and most definitely our favourite town so far in NZ!
Queenstown is NZ's outdoor adventure capital. It is set amongst the 'Remarkables' and 'Eyre Mountains' which form an amazing backdrop. In winter there is apparently great skiing here but there are many other activities to get involved within the summertime. One thing we noticed about Queenstown is how laid back everybody is. There are some great cafe's and bars here with log fires a glow at night time. It didn't stop raining though until late afternoon so we spent the afternoon at the pub and
then in our car watching the Patriot. In the evening we went out for a drink at a great little pub. We had also booked ourselves in for Jet boating which Stu had been excited about since we left England. Our booking was for 10.45am the following day but on arrival we managed to get an earlier slot.
The Shotover Jet promises to be 'an adrenaline rush you will never forget' - that is certainly true! The jet boat or 'Shotover Jet' is constructed of heavy gauge marine aluminium. Power is provided by twin V6 buick engines running on unleaded 96 high octane fuel. The twin Hamilton jet units thrust 800 litres of water a second. All this allows these jets to spin 360 degrees whilst flying through the Shotover Canyon, sometimes in as little as 4 inches of water. The driver, Nick was really good but drove somewhat close to the crags and boulders that we would like. We both got the front seats (again). We did get somewhat soaked though and the water was freezing. We were told that this ride was closed the previous day due to the river being so high that it came over
the jetty. We were also told that the river would be really rough due to all the rain they had had - this was also true! The ride lasted about 25 minutes but it was long enough. It was definitely worth the money and we were so glad we had done it that it gave us so much of an adrenaline rush that we went and booked another (completely different) trip (more about that later).
We decided to leave Queenstown and drive up to Wanaka. This town is also fantastic! A mini version of Queenstown set around the lake of Wanaka. The scenery is stunning (sorry to go on but neither of us have ever seen scenery like it), with Mt Aspring, Treble Cone, Cardirona, Harris Mountains and Pisa Range ski areas surrounding it. We spent the afternoon looking around the town. The weather had turned hot again (its freaky weather here) and we booked ourselves on the Franz Josef Glacier walk. Not ones to do things by half we are going to try to tackle the 8 hour trek! - the longest and hardest one they had on offer. They supply you with all the gear such as
hat, gloves, socks, climbing boots, waterproofs and pick axes and we just have to bring the food and drink. We were really excited about this one if not a little nervous!
We left Wanaka about 11am. We had read about a crazy little place 'fun for both children and adults' called Puzzling World'. It was only a couple of quid to get in so we thought we should try it out. The Puzzling World complex has lots of illusional treats which include a series of holographic photos, the Hall of Following Faces and a balance testing tilted room which was quite scary. There was also a room which you could walk into which took a 2 minute delayed video of you (see for yourself and download it!). There are basically two doors to it, both of different sizes which made it look like one person was tiny and the other person a giant and when you walked from one side of the room to the other you both started to alter in height! There was also a 3-dimensional 'Great Maze' where you have to navigate 1.5km of passages to the towers at each corner and then get back to
the exit. We wandered what all the fuss was about it taking an average of 1hr 30 minutes as we found the 4 corners really easily - getting out was the problem! So we cheated and went out the exit - we didnt have all day :-)
It took us about 3.5 hours to reach the Franz Joseph Glacier. It was the best car journey we had ever had! The scenery was just jaw dropping. You really would be getting out your car every 5 minutes to take pictures if you had the time! All we can say is WOW! We stayed at a great camp park just through the village and had a relatively early night due to us having to be up early the next day! We made ourselves a BIG packup to take with us and we were so looking forward to the next days events - we just hoped that the weather would hold out!
Our guide was called Dale - but was more affectionately known as 'Donkey' - (we didnt ask - but if you saw his teeth you would see why). He carried a huge pick axe to cut out steps for
us all to walk on - they have to cut new steps 3 - 4 times a day as the glacier is still moving up to 30cms per day at the lower front edge and up to 5 metres per day out the top! They also very rarely go the same way through the glacier as the paths can change overnight! We had all been given 'ice talonz' - a type of crampon - spikes that you lash to the bottom of your boots to allow you to grip the ice and stay upright. So we all headed up the glacier and took in all the amazingly beautiful ice formations - just see the pics! We stopped for our pack up at about 2ish at the top of the 'dirty flow' - the remains of when a huge lake in the glacier burst through its front wall, spilling rock and debris all down the side of the glacier leaving a 'dirty' trail that can be seen for miles!
Our descent was much quicker than the climb up and we were making good progress when we spotted an ice hole that had filled with melted ice water - there was
always going to be on plonker who wanted to show off - thankfully, Stu didnt go for a dip, it was down to a fool from another group to undergo an ultra shrivel swim. Shame he had another hour to go eh? We eventually reached the bottom, absolutely shattered as the sun had been out all day long but on the glacier you didnt feel the heat as the icy breeze kept you cool! We jumped (or rather slumped) onto the bus and got a nice little drinky-poo to keep us company in the campsite spa! We rented out our own spa room for about 3 quid for an hour! BARGAIN! But it was a bit too toasty for comfort and we ended up getting out after 40 minutes because we started to look like a cross between a prune and a beetroot! (A Prutroot or a Beetune??) We settled down in our van after an excellent day and slept for England - straight out like a light until 9am the next morning! COOL!
The next day was yet another mission day. We thought about going up the West coast as we could stop the night there, but changed
our minds when we heard about a cool little place across the south island called Hanmer Springs - a mere 492km drive away. Stu switched his brain to rally driver mode - lets just say even Subaru's couldnt keep up, the roads were fast and flowing, with the usual great scenery. Not that Stu really paid any attention to it. But he keeps on saying he would love to do a biking tour here - no where like it on the planet! Anyway, after burning some serious rubber, we arrived in Hanmer Springs at about 3pm and we checked in to our campsite and went for a walk down the road and had a round of mini golf - yep - guess what...we drew! Typical. We then decided to go to the main attraction here, the “Hanmer Springs Thermal Reserve” where people have been soaking themselves for over 100 years (no, they are not still in there). The natural hot springs mix with freshwater to produce pools of varying temperatures from a 25m freshwater pool at 26 degrees to a trio of sulphur spa's at 41 degrees - (yes, they do smell a bit like funky eggy trumps) with a
load of other rock landscaped pools with different mineral compounds to promote 'well being'. We spent all afternoon going from pool to pool then had a sunset dinner there (so cheap and so very tasty). Afterwards we popped back into the nice hot pools, just as the stars came out - perfect. The only problem we had was that chucking out time is 9pm so we went back to our locker and found that it had locked itself and would not let us in (it was an electronic one where you have to use a pin code - ours had just lapsed by a couple of minutes and locked permanently - doh). We had to get one of the staff to come and unlock it whilst looking a tad sheepish...we got back to our campsite to find another couple of Spaceships near us (ahhh) and snuggled down for another night in our oh-so spacious cabin!
Next day - another mission! We had thought of spending the day and night in a nice little place called Kaikoura - 190km north of Christchurch - this place is famed for its amazing diversity of sea life - we even saw loads of
dolphins from the road! We stopped for lunch but were not taken by the place so we decided to do another crazy dash North to Nelson - a further 250kms away. We arrived safe and sound after another mega drive (not not a games system) but the weather which had been amazing for the last 3 or 4 days suddenly took a turn for the worse as we approached Nelson (a nice town with extensive shopping, bars, cafes etc) so we decided to catch up on the blog!
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Gem
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Hi
Hi Guys, I am glad to see that you are still having a good time. I'm impressed by the 'Typical view' pictures They beat the typical view of Aspley that I can see out of my office window right now (although, if witnessing criminal activity and afternoon pub fights is your kind of thing it can be entertaining!). I’m still hanging onto the bub despite experiencing the odd random contraction. Only have about 6 weeks to go I’ll keep ya posted! See ya soon. Gem x