Advertisement
Published: January 6th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Right so after around 3 months on the north island we took the ferry across to the south island from Wellington to Picton on the 4th November. When we got to Picton we headed down to Christchurch to meet up with Dave and Goddings (friends from England) at the airport. On the way down we stayed over night at a holiday park so we could spend a day watching the American election and getting some much needed washing done!!!
On the 6th we set off on a short trip down to Christchurch from the holiday park, this 30 minute drive ended up taking around 3 hours due to one of the tyres on the fargo blowing out, its pretty safe to say me and Barbs weren’t to hot at changing the tyre. Fortunately we managed to flag down some guy who helped us out and got us on our way to meet the boys at the airport on time! It was awesome seeing Davey and Goddings and our first night was spent having a few beers at Base backpackers and then heading out to a couple of bars in Christchurch!
The next morning we set off in convoy down
to mount cook in the Fargo, with Mac and Goddings in there spaceship which they hired for their trip which was called R2D2. The plan of the trip was to pretty much to do the same route we took when we were last in New Zealand a year and a half ago, ending up in Blenheim to catch up with friends who helped us out so much last time we were their. On the way down to Mount cook we stopped of at a couple of the lakes, first was a stop at Rakaia gorge, then lake Tekapo where we got out and did a little pebble skimming, then lake Pakaki where we set up camp. It was a pretty cool place to camp looking over the lake with mount Cook and all the other mountains in the background, not a bad place to wake up in the morning. We got to mount cook national park early the next morning and did a short walk to the Tasman Galcier which had pretty spectacular views, then we were back on the road with very little petrol heading to Queenstown. After around 60km with no sight of a petrol station the van
literally had no diesel in it, and after the the engine cutting out for the second time we were extremely relieved to get to Twizel and fill up.
We got to Queenstown on a Saturday night, went to a holiday park and headed out for our first savage night out. The Sunday after was a typical Sunday eating greasy food, watching some footie in a pub and just generally nursing a hangover. That night we stayed at another lookout point just outside Queenstown and got all cosy with all four of us squeezing into the back of the spaceship and watching happy gilmore. The next morning we took a gondola up to Bobs Peak which looked over Queenstown and lake Wakatipu, the views at the top were just beautiful! We did a short luge ride down Bobs Peak aswell and spent the rest of the day just hanging around and waiting for Murphski (a freind we met on our last trip) to finish work. When we met up with her we headed to her house, had a few beers and a bbq and headed out into town with her and her boyfriend, Gary. They seemed to know everyone in
town which was good for us as it meant we got free entry in everywhere and lots of cheap drinks. One of the bars we went to was called minus 5, where everything inside is made of ice including all the glasses, tables, chairs etc. This place is usually 28 dollars to get in, we didn't pay anything and had lots of very cheap cocktails! Me and Barbs also managed to get a free shot thrown in for revealing a certain part of our anatomy to the bar staff (doesn't that make you proud mother!).
The next morning we were once again struggling a little but were back on the road and headed to Wanaka where we just laid around in the sun for a day. From their we headed up the west coast and stopped off at the two glaciers, Fox and Franz Joseph, took a few happy snaps and carried on driving heading towards Abel Tasman national park. We ended up getting to the national park the next day, Thursday i think, and went on a walk on the coast track at Abel Tasman. The walk was pretty steep, and safe to say Goddings and Mac struggled
a little, i suppose their not trained, experienced hikers like myself and Barbs, ha! The views of the coast were just spectacular, and im sure we’ll probably head back up there at some point before leaving New Zealand in May. That evening we stayed at Motueka and the top ten holiday park their for a much needed shower and re-charging all our camera’s, phones etc.
We then headed towards Picton stopping off briefly in Nelson, and going to Cable Bay where we went on another little walk looking out again at the most wonderful scenery on offer. We got to PictonMarlbrough sounds region via the Queen Charlotte drive on the Saturday and went on a boat trip out on the Queen Charlotte Sounds which was pretty cool. That night we headed out in Picton thinking it would be quite busy being a Saturday and all, but to our surprise it was dead and we ended up at some birthday party at a proper locals pub, which was an experience.
We got to Blenheim on the Sunday and caught up with Martin and Heather at the Blenheim Palms motel where they put us up for a couple of nights
which was luxury for us after living out a camper-van for nearly 4 months, cheers guys. On the Monday we went back to the crash sight and left some flowers spending around 30 minutes just sitting at the little memorial left for Birdy. That night we met up with Hamish (our victim support guy and friend) and took him out for Pizza at a restaurant called black creek, the food was awesome. On the Tuesday we had lunch at Dicky’s house (the lady me and Dave stayed with after the accident, 2007) which was really nice and then went on a little wine tasting trip around all the wineries. On the Wednesday, Dave and Goddings last full day in kiwiland we met up with a couple of journalists from the local paper and Dave handed over the money raised from the ladies game of football at Birdies memorial football tournament to victim support, well done people!!!! After that was done we were invited by Martin and Heather to stay a night at a holiday home in the Malbrough Sounds (kenepura sounds i think) which they had rented for a few days as Matins brother and family were visiting. This place
was just amazing with the back garden literally being a whole bay, it was just beautiful. We spent all day kayaking and playing footie and cricket in the garden. That night us, Martin and Simon (Martins brother) had a bit of a session with the black sambuca, apple schnapps and gran marnier all coming out.
On the Thursday we headed back down to Blenheim, said goodbye to Dave and Goddings who were heading home, sorted out work on the vine yards for a company called Thornhlls and I managed to get a cricket net in that evening for a team called the Celtic’s which Hamish took me to. Since then ive played a few games for them making a good impression straight away with a first ball duck on debut! Heather again let me and Sam stay at the motel for pretty much free and let us use the hot tub, she even managed to find us a house to rent for a few weeks before christmas, safe to say were getting looked after! We moved in to our new house on the Friday and started work on the Vine yards and earning some much needed cash on the
Saturday. In the space of 3 days we’d managed to get somewhere to live, work and we even sold the camper-van which was a little emotional, that van was beauty!
After around four weeks of work on the vineyards and literally living for the weekend we are heading off to Australia for Christmas, and new year!! Laters people!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 48; dbt: 0.027s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb