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Published: July 12th 2007
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Blue Streams
Not too well shown on the picture but all of the streams were blue/ gray because of crushed rock and deoxygenated water from the glaciers Magic Trip
Craig Duffy Having spent the last 7 months 'hard at work' in Australia I decided that it was time for a holiday and so on the 4th July got my independance and flew over to New Zealands South island to the only international airport in Christchurch. It is in the middle-north east and when I landed at around 11 at night it was a bit nippy.
I hadn't planned to stay in the city for very long so the next day I booked myself onto a trip around the island. I booked with a company called 'Magic' that do a constant bus tour in a loop around the island and so you can hop on and off whenever you want.
The next day I got up at 7am and got a courtesy shuttle bus to start the first leg of the trip. I began on a scenic railway journey across the island from Christchurch to a place called Greymouth. The train journey was 4 hours long with occasional stops at platforms in the countryside to get out and check out the views. It was a really spectacular trip and got to see a lot of Lord of the Rings style scenery. One
Arthurs Pass
Picture at one of the stop offs on the train taken by my Italian mate. Still no idea what she was called of the carriages on the train was open air so you could go out and look while the train was moving... however it was absolutely freezing so you couldn't stay out there very long. All the mountains were covered in snow and all the streams were blue as they were fed by glaciers... it was very nice.
When we got across to the end of the railway, I had a hostel booked in a small town called Greymouth. After a bit of a trek trying to find out a way to get across the railway track and then up a hill I eventually turned up at hostel called Noahs Ark. It was the best place I've stayed, exactly like home with the woman wapping a log fire on while we watched TV and all the rooms were animal themed... just realised it doesn't sound like home but anyway, we were in the Sheep room, sheep everywhere!
Apparently Greymouth is the next biggest town on the south island but it is probably up there with the most boring places on earth. I went down the pub with two people who were also going to be on the Magic bus the next
Arm Chair By The Sea
Just off the beach where we broke down for 2 hours. The chair is made of stone and almost provided piles. Mt Cook in the background is the highest in New Zealand day and we had a few cheekys. i was with Dean and Lucy and from the reaction of the locals, I don't think there are many girls in the town... in fact I only saw 2 all night.
Anyway the next day, we were up early again and having the first day of travelling on the bus. We had a bit of a nutter driving the bus, and after half an hour we stopped for breakfast. This turned into a dinner stop as well as the bus broke down for 3 hours! We were in a town that only had jewellery shops so we got to see pretty much every kind of jewel that tourists would buy. It wasn't too bad though as i got to learn about a type of Jade called greenstone that the Maori's (or 'Mouldys' as the kiwis call them) used to make weapons and jewellery out of. It is very expensive and only really found in this region- interesting!
We walked around the town and onto the beach which was cool because you could see the snow covered mountains from there. I got to meet some more people from the bus and we were loving
Scenic Streams
Lovely little streams like this running down from the glaciers crossing the road all the time it when a mental Spanish girl started having a go at the driver and demanding that she get someone from the company to rent a car and drive her to the next town. Anyway it didn't seem too long before we moved on and headed for the place where we would be staying that night. It was a tiny town called Franz Josef, at the bottom of a glacier. We had been meaning to walk up the glacier in the afternoon but it was too late so we just walked to the bottom of it and took some photos. On the bright side it saved $90. On the way we passed through some interesting places that had good stories such as a town with a population of 2 and they were getting married as we went past- probably brother and sister! As well as a gold mining town that had $750 million gold buried under it but couldn't get at it because the residents liked the houses they were living in and wouldn't move even though they were offered 3 times the value of their houses and given shares in the gold mine.
The days drive had been very
Sun On The Lake
Crystal clear lake in the sunlight with an added bonus of having a beast involved in the photo entertaining with the driver almost tipping the coach into a ditch and I mean so close that we had to move to one side of the bus!
At night we all met up down the bar where the driver paid for a pint for everyone as well as buying 10 pizzas as compensation for the breakdown... very nice.
We stayed up drinking til the early hours then got up in the morning to leave for Queenstown. It was icy and not very warm on the bus at first but we didn't mind. We stopped for breakfast at a cafe in the middle of no where we could go for a walk around a lake that you could see the reflection of the mountains in.
After breakfast we headed down further south through the mountains and along the coast. The views were the best that I've seen anywhere and they kept getting better.
We stopped in a town called Wanaka (glad I spelt that right!) that had a huge lake, miles and miles long, carved out by a glacier and apparently the bottom third is still ice.
After this we were only and hour from Queenstown (named because it was fit
Franz Josef Glacier
One of 2 glaciers in the world that are growing. The other is on the other side of the mountain- Fox Glacier for queen Victoria) and we had one more stop. We pulled in at Kawarau Bridge, famous for being the place where the first bungee jump was done. Everyone was asked if they would like to do the jump and I said no because I couldn't afford it but Jill (my American mate) said she wanted to but wouldn't do it on her own. I decided to do it and I'm glad that I did. We the only ones to do a tandem and it was pretty wicked... it felt really safe and wasn't as scary as the swing thing I did in America but was still good.
After all that exitement we drove to Queenstown where we were all booked into different hostels but it didn't matter because we decided to meet up later on.
The next 3 days i had booked in to go skiing because this is the biggest ski resort on the island. I sorted all my gear out and everything is really well organised. On monday I was up early and off up the mountain to see if I could remember how to ski. Not a problem and I was soon carving up the snow and
Lake Matheson
Early morning stroll in the freezing cold but it was worth it. Warmed up by a horrible bacon butty at the nearly cafe. doing backflips and everything. maybe thats a little exaggerated but it was really good fun and although having a few spectacular wipe outs on the first day, the second day I didn't fall once. For two days I went to the biggest hill call Coronet Peak and on the third, headed to another resort called The Remarkables. It was an amazing 3 days and every night I was so tired I was in bed by 10. My eyes and face were ruined every night because I decided masks and scarfs were for puffs and i was aching in every muscle in my body.
I am now in Queenstown for 5 more days before moving on. New Zealand is a brilliant place and I'm really glad I came over.
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