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Published: August 7th 2007
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Road Trip Diary Continued ...
3rd Took the long ferry trip from Wellington to Picton, and drove straight on to Picton for the much anticipated sibling reunion. David's sister and two friends, Dru and Sarah, had been completing a whistle-stop tour of New Zealand to co-incide with ours. We slept in the van in the carpark of their posh hotel (pikey, we know) in Blenheim. Also were treated to a delicious lamb rump dinner at a local restaurant!
4th Made the very long drive to Hokitika on the west coast, stopping off at the Nelson lakes for walks and photos.
5th The girls went jade shopping in the morning. In the afternoon we drove to Franz Josef Glacier for more snaps. We spent the night here, bagging ourselves the spare double room in Laura's villa. Bonus!
6th Went to Wanaka - not too far but very rainy all the way there. Shit day - headache, David had a toastie and Louise had a snack from the van. Wanaka is beautiful, but we wish it would stop raining. Louise was tired from the drive so we had sausage and mash and a very early night.
7th Sunshine today, hooray! Morning in town and afternoon at Puzzling World (Got lost in the maze for time). Went to a cinema that was like a large living room, but with a car that you sit in too (presumably so you can pretend you're at a drive in). They also do home-made cookies intermission. Saw a Kiwi film called 'Black Sheep'. It's a comedy horror type affair, except it's neither funny nor scary; terrible. The best bit was the homemade local adverts at the start!
8th We were so upset at parting with Laura, we decided to jump out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet. This was the most mental and intense experience you can possibly imagine. Then we drove to Queenstown - stopping off at Arrowtown en route - Staying in a hostel carpark for a very reasonable fee. This is always good because we can make friends and use their facilities. Today was very cold.
9th Today we rode the gondola for fantanstic views over the town and went on the Luge. This is like a go-kart on a track - easy and fun. We had 5 gos.
10th Woke up late and had a
relaxed morning. We are so warm in the van with our trendy thermals! Bravely attempted the 'Fly-By-Wire'. You get winched up to a great height, strapped inside a custom-built rocket (with your head facing directly downwards). Then you pull the accelerator and all of a sudden you go screaming through the valley on a giant wire up above. It goes about 150kph and is actually not as scary as you might think. You control the steering and stuff. That eveing, we had a memorable night out (including a lip-smacking curry) with two new friends - Nick and Matt.
11th Got up very late. Watched Blackburn v Totenham (1-1), drove to Invercargill and met Duncan and Monique, a very friendly couple who helped us out and bought us drinks. Thundered on towards Dunedin.
12th Dunedin - Went swimming and stayed the night in the in a quiet lane. Cooked with our crap stove. not a bad meal though - Beef stroganoff with broccoli.
13th Did a wildlfe tour which included close-up sightings of rare Yellow-Eyed Penguins and Sea-Lions. Plus, further-away glimpses of Seals and Albatross. It was excellent! Glad we bought our windproof jackets.
14th Set off
for Pancake Rocks. Stopped to look at the perfectly spherical boulders at Moeraki. Stopped for lunch at Oamaru and looked round the shops. Arrived in Christchurch too late to do anything good. Watched a film.
15th Left Christchurch after a coffee in a cafe where all the seats were toilets (there was loo paper for napkins!). Drove through Kaikoura. We didn't do any of the famous whale-watching or swimming-with-dolphin tours, but we did sample the local delicacy - Crayfish. Mmm. Continued almost all the way to Nelson and parked in a picnic area for the night.
16th Made our way past Nelson to the 'Golden bay' area. Spent the day, and night, in a very small town called Takaka. A very charming place with countless galleries and local craft retailers. Excellent food, and nice 'green' people.
17th Headed to Nelson for a night. Stopped various times for shopping and photographs (as usual). Stayed at the Nelson Paradiso Backpacker Hostel (described by the lonely planet as 'Club Med for the impoversihed'). Got invited out to a punk concert (six bands). Good fun, but a little bit screamy, even for David. Set our alarm for an early start to
make the morning ferry back to North Island. That's all for South Island!
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Drusilla
non-member comment
Hello!
Hi, just found your blog. Good to see you both on our quickie tour of South Island. Glad you didn't injure yourself after jumping out of the plane - where are the piccies? Looking forward to hearing (and seeing) what you'll be up to next.