New Zealand - South Island

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Rolling off the car ferry into Picton, the port at the top end of the South Island, is like driving into a slightly different world. The fjord like scenery of Malborough Sound gives a slightly mystical introduction to a land of lakes, mountains and waterfalls - where sheep are many and people are few. No wonder that this has become one of the "must sees" on the international backpacker trail... A real frontier land wilderness.

There are towns and villages scattered about, but they tend to be sleepy affairs with some of the regular facilities, a couple of bars, a cinema showing slightly out of date Hollywood films, and caravan parks and camp sites from the same era. The towns are really reminiscent of Britain of the 50s or 60s - politeness from strangers, slow service in bars and restaurants, and those small nuances of British life that you dont get in Australia or the States - fish and chips, the odd turn of phrase, cadbury's chocolate, and pubs that serve pints in jug glasses, along with terrible food.

We started our quick whirlwind 2 week tour of the South Island with the Abel Tasman national park. With Ben's car, and his tent in the back, we were camping light and mobile, and trying to cover as much ground as possible. The Abel Tasman is situated in the warmer North of the South Island, and has lush greenforests decending down fjord like ravines to golden sand beaches that front onto the clear, cool green water of the Tasman bay. Really scenic stuff. We had a great day of sea kayaking along the coast, through caves, arches, and visiting the famous Split Apple Rock.
The charming little beach resorts here, with their fish & chip shops, and old fashioned bucket & spade feel, made me want to stay longer, but with time as short as ever, we headed off the next day through the Tasman mountains down to the West Coast.

The West Coast is wet. Very wet. The warm air gets blown over from Australia, and suddenly hits the Southern Alps - the highest mountains in NZ that are only 20 miles from the coast. This means the coastal region is covered in a tropical rainforest type flora, and a steady supply of drizzle and cloud against the backdrop of the grey ocean. The long lonely drive down the coast, stopping only at some mildly curious 'pancake rocks' brought us to the comatose town of Hokitiki - the presense of 2 story buildings told us that we were in a major metropolis by South Island standards.
After 20 minutes of looking around the Jade shops, our sightseeing was done, and after another night in a "Hiddy Hi" type campsite, we were off again, heading South.
Driving through the dismal weather, we missed out on the apparently glorious views of Mount Cook, and the other Southern Alp peaks, but once we crossed the amazing Gates of Haast rapids, and over the mountain pass, we found ourselves in backcountry NZ - this is where the wilderness really starts. The central backbone of the country is basically a huge mountain range dotted with lakes, rivers, waterfalls and bleak valleys. As we drove through the empty roads, with only sheep for company, we tried to pinpoint scenes from LotR - but there were too many dramatic views to count.

After a brief lunch stop in the amusingly named Wanaka - a lovely little ski town, we headed over another mountain pass and down to lake Wakatipu, and the city of Queenstown.
Now I was fully expecting to dislike Queenstown - any place that proclaims itself as the 'adventure capital of the world' is setting itself up for a fall, but the amazing scenery around it, along with the buzzing cafe and restaurant scene worked it's charms on me - that, and the fact that the New Zealand Rugby 7s championships were being played at the ground opposite our campsite!
The whole place has been developed in 20 years from a small skiing town that did a few summer activities (a base for climbing, trekking, and jetboating) into a world famous resort complete with bus loads of Japanese tourists, 5* hotels and a Louis Vitton shop. Instrumental in this rise has been the AJ Hackett Bungy operation. This is where it all started, and there are now 4 jumps available of various heights all around town.

There is now quite literally nothing you cannot do in Queenstown - if mankind has invented someway of travelling through 3 dimensions, in any given medium (air, ground, water) proppelled by some kind of 3'rd party (jet engine, gravity, giant elasticated band) - Queenstown will be able to provide it - along with a t-shirt, and an action photo folder or video for you to keep. But although there is a huge commercial feel to all of this, the collective adrenaline rushes and excitement of all the visitors manages to make it seem a real genuine adventure and party town. So when the boffins at NASA finally crack the secret of time travel, you'll be sure to someday be able to do it in Queenstown - where it will no doubt be named "The Awesome Time Vortex", and for an extra 200 dollars, you'll be able to buy photos of yourself directing procedings at the Battle of Waterloo, get a commemorative t-shirt, AND a voucher entitling you to 50 dollars off a bungy jump, if you do it on the same afternoon.

As for our Queenstown experience, after a days activities were postponed due to the rain, I decided to kill the afternoon by doing my first ever bungy jump, and followed it up the next day with a skydive, and a ride in a jetboat. Of these, the first 2 in particular were terrifying, but hugely exhilarating, and I was absolutely buzzing for hours afterwards..

As fun as Queenstown was, we had to get a move on, and the non stop advertising for all the activities was getting too much for my head and my wallet. The hyperbole around NZ's activities and attractions knows no bounds.. the word "Awesome" is used far too frequently- and I even saw a huge poster in a hostel that proclaimed the merits of "AWESOME GLOWWORMS!!!!!" - now I am sure these said worms are an interesting spectacle of nature, but unless they are bungy jumping, exteme skiing, skateboarding glowworms with crazy haricuts and tribal tattoos, I dont think you could call them "awesome".

Anyway, we headed on down south, to the Fjordlands National Park. There really is nothing here apart from the great outdoors, a lot of rain, and a whole lot of sandflies. We stayed in the pleasant town of Te Anau, and from there explored the stunning coastal fjords of Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound (the later made famous by it's appearing in, yes, you guessed it.. LotR!). It was in Te Anau that we found a stunningly good little restaurant and pub - a real cosy feel, live music, great food, and probably the best place we've been out to in NZ. This was a watering hole for the cast of the LotR when they were filming in the area, (the shakespearean actor who played the dwarf went down a storm at the wednesday night poetry night, apparently) so I did see some strange Tolkein trekkies wandering around muttering to each other in Elfish, and asking to eat the same venison steak as Aragon had done...

From this remote corner of South West NZ, we then headed back inland, back past Queenstown, and up into the central highlands. We simply didnt have time to explore the South East, and Dunedin - The weather here was clearer, and it gave us amazing views of the mountains, amongst a foreground of wild flowers - all very nice. Being in the real backcountry, we stayed in couple of tiny little towns where the vending machine outside the (closed) petrol station constitutes a major nightspot. But there was always a bar in these places.. frequented by hardened looking farmers with check shirts - they did cold beer and hot food, and that was good enough for me..
On our way through these badlands, we diverted 40 miles or so, and spent a few hours trekking around the base of magnificent Mount Cook, the highest mountain in the country - then continued our drive to the very green and English city of Christchurch, where there was an international busker festival on, and from where I write this..

Tomorrow I drive up the coast, gratefully return our car to my friend Ben, and then fly to sunny Australia!!

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