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Published: August 24th 2010
Christchurch
23rd August 2010
So today we got up bright and early, (at 4.30am)and Dee and Andrew dropped us to the airport and we said our goodbyes and thank yous and headed on our merry way. The flight was good, the 3hours were mostly spent sleeping, oh I woke for bacon rubber omelettes and slices of potatoes (random). So we arrived in Christchurch and got the shuttle bus to our hostel base. First impression of Christchurch is it is cold and crispy, quite refreshing! Its a nice, pleasant small town, it has a big cathedral in the square and thats pretty much it, ha! Our hostel is nice, room is a 4bedded dorm, really small you couldn’t turn around with your backpack on, but its clean and tidy and location is excellent! So we didn’t do much today, had some lunch strolled around the city. Oh and then had a cheap dinner in a Japanese place, my advise is when eating Japanese stick with the expensive type, of course I ate the dinner just couldn’t be sure what exactly it was?!We got a great deal on a car, its called relocating, we have to bring it back to Auckland for the company so they just charged us $5 a day plus $13 a day to rent it, we were super lucky!! So thats all for now, audrey xoxox (traveller girl, thats for you gossip girl fans!)
24th August 2010
Had an ok sleep last night takes a bit getting used to stayin in dorms with other people and again there was no bar across the side of the top bunk, what is with that? I was afraid of my life I was gona fall over the side, I glued myself to the wall! Today we sorted out our itinerary and it looks fun! New Zealand is action packed, there are activities that I would presume are to dangerous to exist, but they do here! We booked accommodation in different places for the next week and different tours and 3days skiing, we are so excited about that!! People think we’re mad when we say we’ve had 10lessons (in Ireland we did those lessons in kilternan and loved it) but never skied on real snow!We also had a stroll around today, we attempted to go to a sience alive fun thing, then realised when we got there it was a kids playground place, it was in the lonely planet, false advertisement! So we quickly back tracked our steps. But we did find a big super market, so we got all our essentials, bread, butter, cereal, cheese, fruit, plastic knife and forks and plates, ha! That goes into a cooler bag and comes to hostels to provides us with lunch and maybe breakfast or emergency snacks! We also made a lovely pasta and fancey roasted garlic and tomatoe sauce, you wouldnt get fancey stuff like that in a gordon ramsey restaurnt! Afterwards we end up goin to the cinema tonight, saw the killers, there was nothing else on, it was crap! but we are in new zealand, which made it great!! So we are up early, we're gettin our rented car (who knows what it could be, oh the excitment!) and the adventure begins! hold on cause it could get exciting....or boaring cause there is lots of driving, but ill try make this mostly exciting for you! Thats all from me, ste is just on the bottom bunk reading his book, he's like a wiz kid with his directions, I better let him rest! night night, audrey xxx
Lake Tekapo
25th August 2010
We got up bright and early to our room mates alarm clock, cause I never put my phone clock forward! We rushed around, packed up our stuff and hit the road in our new Nissan sunny!! My private sat nav called ste tuned into our new Zealand location and we were on our way. It took us 3hours to get from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo, (that includes a 20minute stop were we made cheese and ham sambos out of our food supply-yummo!). Me and Ste shared the driving and I quickly learned how to drive an automatic, ok I know there’s not much learning in it, but its an achievement all the same, considering in Sydney I insisted the car we bought was a manual car. As soon as we hit the country side I was just amazed the entire time. The only way I can describe it is like Ireland but on steroids. The roads were small and windy like at home, but here the bends were huge and hilly. There was every shade of green surrounding us, but the hills and mountains here were so tall and big you couldn’t see the top of them because the clouds covered them. We saw a billion farm animals but they had alpacas instead of goats and instead of cows I saw...well I dont know what they are called but they looked like cows with long brown shaggy hair?! And there was so many sheep (there are 4.3 million people in new Zealand and 40 million sheep!). Then all of a sudden behind these green mountains white appeared from both sides and infront of us, they were huge mountains covered in snow, I couldn’t tell the difference between cloud and the top of the snowy mountain, it was amazing!!! We kept driving and reached a turquoise colour lake just at the front of these snowy mountains, then we realised we were in lake Tekapo (lake tekapo is the biggest lake in New Zealand, its the size of Singapore island). We are staying in the lake front backpackers lodge just for tonight then moving on tomorrow. Its $26 per night in a 4bedded dorm, but looks like we have the room to ourselves, jackpot!! It is a gorgeous hostel, goes perfectly with the view out the front window. The beds are comfy, sheets are so soft, kitchen is clean, bathrooms are lovely and clean and smell nice which makes a difference, TV area is really nice too (we just watched runaway jury - good film). I would give this hostel 10/10 and a huge recommendation!
After we arrived we went for a walk, to the right we found the church of good shepard, its a tiny old church on a hill, holds only 50people, but the view out the window behind the alter and all around the church is breath taken. It surrounded by lake Tekapo and the snowy surrounding mountains as a back drop. People get married there every day and I totally see why!! We then walk back towards the hostel and passed it and found the hot pools and spa. This is exactly what it says, They have 3 large pools, one at 37degrees, another at 39degrees and the next one at 41degrees, oh my god! It is so cold I cant feel my nose and theres steam rising from the pools, but your actually suppose to get it. I couldn’t believe it!! So first we went ice skating on a huge rink there was maybe 5 other people on it, ste showed off one of his many hiddin talents! If he was Canadian he’d make a great hockey player!! Then we took a dip in the hot pools. At first it kinda felt like when you were small and played in the snow then your mam would take you in and straight into a hot bath, I thought my toes were about to fall off! But then it was soooooo nice, then we got into the hotter one, and then even hotter one, then I had to go back to the less hot one cause I was starting to get dizzy with the heat haha! But it was just an amazing feeling, relaxing in my bikini in the pool, watching the steam rise and the snowy mountains infront of me, amazing! So after that busy day we headed back to the hostel and made omelettes which turned into scrambled eggs, potatoes and beans, yummy! I had such a great day and also learned I need to buy a hat and gloves, thank got for the scarf I made, it hasn’t been of me yet!!! Night night for now, we up early and on the road again to Queenstown, love always, Audrey xxxx
Queenstown
26th August 2010
This morning I woke up and dragged myself out of the super soft sheets, and had a great power shower (its such a rare thing in the backpackers world). We then hit the road and headed towards queenstown. We passed some amazing scenery but most of the time it was windy roads around, up and under big mountains, and it lashed rain alot of the time, so it was a long 3 and half hours. We’re stayin in the black sheep backpackers lodge, the place is very nice and warm, rooms are spacious, we’re in a 6bedded dorm, its $28 per night. The only thing thats bothering me is there is only one shower in the girls toilet and it has a white curtain!! I dont know about you but for me there is a little word lacking, thats “privacy”! I’ll have to run in and out in the middle of the night when no one will be using the toilet! So when we got here we had a stroll around, the town is busy and buzzing with backpackers and pubs, kinda a hippy vibe of it. Its also filled with shops which is bad news for me, cause I have a problem and have a terrible urge to shop for me and every other person I know who might like it. So ste quickly used divisional techniques and directed me away from the shops, instead I got a hot chocolate cookie from “cookie time” shop, yum! We were pretty tired and it also rained and was super cold so we relaxed by the fire back in the hostel and played scrabble, and had a beer. Later that evening we had an amazing dinner in an irish pub called “pog mahone”, oh it was gorgeous and just hit the spot! Queenstown is the adventure capital believe it or not, it has every type of activity you can think of, hand gliding, bungy jump, jetboats, abseiling, every extreme sport possible, and what did me and ste do, play scrabble haha!! Some times you just wana chill out. We’re up at 6am to go on a tour to milford sounds in the morning so ill let you know how that goes. Night night, love always Audrey xxx
27th August
Today we started nice and fresh, the bus tour collected us at 8.00am. The trip was a day tour to milford sounds (history; Milford sounds is one of the 14 fjords. The area od milford sounds is basically a u shaped valley carved out thousands of years ago by a glacier. In this valley there are huge, massive mountains with waterfalls running down them and snow at the top, the scenery is amazing). So the trip included a 5.5hour bus drive. The first 3hours I slept, but then after that we stopped every now and again at amazing sights and a bit of history. We went with the milford experience and our tour guide was hilarious, which made the trip very enjoyable! After this we had a 2hour boat ride, through the valley, around mountains and under waterfalls (we got very wet, I guess thats what happens when you stand under the observatory deck!). It did rain alot of the day but this just made alot more and bigger waterfalls. Also its a rainforest so it seldom doesn’t rain. We also got a lovely buffet lunch on the boat. So after the boat we were back on the bus for a 5.5 hour trip home, it was actually ok, im reading russel brands autobirography (for some wierd reason its actually very good), we also watched a movie, which made the time go by quick enough. 8.00pm we arrived back to the hostel, we had a good chat with our roomies, two lovely English girls. There doin a similar trip to our new Zealand trip but in the opposite direction, so we exchanged tips, washed ourselves, packed up the bags and were ready to leave in the morning (we’re leaving at 6.00am in the morning to go skiing for 3days, ste is like a 6 year old boy on Christmas eve, he is very excited about it.). Then to finish a great day in Queenstown we wrapped up warm, strolled to the town and experience the famous Furgburger. These are suppose to be the biggest and best burgers in the world! Well it got my stamp of approval, a huge 10/10. It was absolutely gorgeous and washed down nicely with a beer. Now I am ready for bed, night night, love Always Audrey xxx
Wanaka
28th August
I am so tired tonight I am bearly typing. We left Queenstown this morning at 6.30am and took the hour drive to Wanaka. We arrived really early cause we were catching the 8.30am bus to the ski slopes. After a BIG mix up (briefly, the women who we booked the trip with didn’t give us vouchers for our rental gear, clothes, ski’s, day pass, bus transfer etc. So we checked at 7.00am in the hostel incase they had anything for us but they “said” they didn’t. So all day we were trying to guess were we were suppose to be cause we had no itinerary, we had to talk the people into letting us on the bus, ski slopes etc cause we got no tickets when we booked it. Anyway we got back to the hostel at 5.30pm and I asked the guy behind the desk, he didn’t know anything so I rang the ski company and she said all your tickets are waiting for you to collect them behind the desk, I put her on hold and asked the guy and surprise surprise they were just sitting there the whole time waiting). It kind of put a bit of a downer on the day just felt like NOTHING was going in our favour. But on a positive note the sking was AMAZING!!! WE had 2 2hour lessons today, and it was just brilliant, its so much better sking on real snow. We had a great time, and its so exciting that we have 2more days of it, ill bring my camera tomorrow cause the sights are just amazing!!! Anyway Im stayin in base hostel tonight and for the next 2nights, rooms are tiny as usual, such a pity cause base is very clean and you have luxuries like your own bed light and plug, but you can bearly turn around in the room (note to one self, dont book base any more). It looks like there’s 4long termers in the room (its a 6 bedded dorm), cause there stuff is everywhere! Havnt met them yet but they look like big skiing guys and Canadian (funny what you can tell by just looking at someones bag, not in there bag just at there general belongings on there bed). So its a Saturday night, Im am exhausted, but I think we’re gona nip down stairs for a drink before bed. So night night for now, roll on sking tomorrow!!!love always Audrey xxx
29th August 2010
Today was our second day of skiing and it was brilliant! We had our lessons yesterday so we were ready to get as much skiing as possible in today. Of course ste was great at skiing, (like all other sports, he picks it up so quick), and so he wanted me to go on the steepest and fastest slopes but im a big chicken, I had to do one slope a hundred time before id move onto the next, haha!! But ste went of and did the huge slopes every now and again, I thought it was best to let him get it out of his system then he would have more patience for me going at a snail pace. But I did get better, and discovered I can actually ski, I found a sport that im not disasters at! I was been extra cautious at the start incase I fell but the snow was so fresh and powdery you dont hurt yourself when you fall and when you look around most of the people are on there bums. But nothing is that simple in audreys world, I had to fall while getting off the chair lift, I was a picture of elegance wobbling all other the place and then while I was lying face down in the snow the chair lift went over me knocking me on the head. In a big field of snow I manage to find the most dangerous place to fall. Anyway I learned my lesson and got off that bloody chair lift as quick as possible, even if I did have to take ste down in the process, haha! The visibility wasn’t great today, it was such a pity it was snowing and foggy alot. We didn’t realise how lucky we were yesterday when the sun was shining, we were roasting and could see amazing views from the ski slopes. So later that night we made lovely fajitas and got talking to lad from Leitrim in the kitchen. The best way to describe him was he was exactly like father noel from father ted (Grahme Norton, remember in the caravan), he was hilarious! We ended up havin a drink with him and his friends in the HQ,(its a lovely bar!). SO that was today, a good day all round, the skiing just has us so tired, and my legs are pretty sore. We were right about the 3 canadians in our room except there not long termers (there just really messy boys), they were actually in the junior (under 20) world ski and half pipe competitions, impressive! The competition was on were we were skiing, we saw a bit of it. So not much other news for today, night night, love Audrey xxx
30th August
Up at 7.00am and on the bus 7.45am we were on our way to Cadrona slopes. It was only 30minutes away but once you reached the ski resort it was a long 30minutes up snowy and steep edge cliff roads. After the first day, I managed to be asleep every time we went up or down that mountain, it was scary. Today was our last day skiing and I was getting more confident, so ste finally convinced me to do a different trail (it was suppose to be a beginners track), It would take about an hour to get around and your just following a map of a beginners track (thats in your head, you dont physically have a map, which was a bit worrying). Like yesterday the fog was really bad, I could only see about 15 feet ahead of me, you just have to follow orange flags along the slope thats how you know you still on the track. So anyway we headed off on the track, started off well, then as we were getting further away, the fog was getting worse, then it start snowing, it was like needles hitting you in the face it was so bad, THEN ste took me down the wrong track, it wasn’t a beginners track we discovered when we checked the map at the bottom of the slope (although the whole way down I was screaming at him “THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS TRACK”). When I was standing side ways and my ski’s were still sliding down the slope thats when I start to panic, Im sure I looked like a right idiot but I was very scared (to say it politely)! But we made it to the end alive, I dont know which was my favourite bit, the needle sharp snow, the steep slope that I almost crawled down, or the sking along a cliff with a whopper drop down the other side, Hum... I think i’ll just stick with my comfort zone infuture. But serious it wasn’t that bad, it is all about the experience and afterwards we had a good laugh about it and I was so proud I that did it! I think we were really unfortunate to get such bad weather, I would imagine skiing when you can actually see the slope infront of you is alot easier. Ste is already planning the next place we can ski. After 3 days of sking and getting up early we finally had a lie in in the morning, so we went out for dinner and a few drinks. The lads from lastnight met up with us and we had a great laugh. Me and ste headed back to the hostel about 11.00pm and heard music in the bar attached to the hostel (mint), so we said we’ll just go in for one last drink. 1.30am we left the bar, ha! There was karaoke on and a bus had just off loaded about 40 -50 people into this pub, it was great craic and really great night!! Oh did I pay for it the next day!! Wanaka has been very nice, its only a small town, it has a few bars and shops but nothing else. I have heard some people say its a bit boring but we had had the skiing booked so it suited us perfect. We never got to go the the cinema pardiso but I heard its suppose to be a great experience!
Franz Josef
31st August
We left Wanaka today and drove 4 hours to Franz Josef. We’re staying here for 2nights in YHA hostel. Its a really nice hostel, very old but has a lovely atmosphere to it, and a really comfy TV room, me and ste sat and watched two movies, it was a very relaxing and huge over day! The rooms are very spacious, we’re staying in a 6bedded dorm $23 each per night which is pretty good. On the trip here I managed to get sick 3times during those 4hours, and I slept for the rest of the time, poor ste, I wasn’t great company for him! Oh the other hand maybe he enjoyed the piece and quite, ha! We went for a lovely dinner tonight in a restaurant called the landing, it was amazing, absolutely gorgeous! So now im off to sleep cause we had a full day climbing glaciers tomorrow, I dont know if that knot in my stomach is excitement, dread or just hungover, haha! Ok night night, love Audrey xxx
1st September 2010
Today was such a great day, we did a full day hike on franz Josef Glacier (the 5th biggest glacier in NZ). We met at 8.15am, and put on all our gear (the tour give you woolly socks, hiking boots, crampons (spikes that go under your boots), wet trousers, raincoat, bunbag for around your waist, a hat and gloves), its great how they give you everything you will need, we just had to bring our own lunch. I was a bit nervous about this trip cause the brochure said it was for those with a high level off fitness and very adventures, those of you who know me know I am not the most adventures (although this trip has proven otherwise), but im certainly not fit! But thankfully the group was divided into 3groups, 1 been the fittest group and 3 been the group for all the mammies, haha only jokin, it moved at a slower pace. I was right back in group 3, but we actually caught up with the other 2 groups plenty of times and did the same track. We hiked for 7hours so yes I was breathless at times, but the rest of the time I was just too scared to breath at all. We walked over, under, around and through the glacier, it was amazing! We climbed up pieces of ice with a rope to get to the other side, then we went straight down the other side, putting our feet on a tiny ledges that the leader had hacked out of the ice with an axe. Sometimes we kept going down really steep until we were almost under the glacier and couldn’t see the sky at all, these were the most scary. We had so little space you had to stand sideways between the two ice walls and really slide your way through, it was terrifying, at once point we had such little room we had to get on our belly and slide along the ice ground to get out of the glacier. After I got over the shock of been stuck in such a confined space, it was a bit of fun after that. I have a good video of ste trying to squeeze through the walls, I think you only get a true understanding of how little space there was when you see his feet at the end and one foot is straight infront of the other shuffling along. At 12 we stopped for lunch and ate our chicken and cheese sambo’s sitting on the glacier. It was one of the most bizarre but rememberable things ill ever do. After we left the glacier we had a 40minute track down a mountain and through a rainforest before we got back to the bus. What an amazing day and I actually survived it!!
After this we just got a few things organised like booked accommodation for the next 4-5 nights and any trips we want to do. We made mince burgers and wedges for dinner, did some clothes washing and played a board game. Ste is snoring on the bottom bunk at the minute and now im going to sleep too. We’re gona try do a 6-7hour drive tomorrow to Kaikoura, we’ll see how that goes!! Night night, love Audrey xxx
Kaikoura
2nd September 2010
Today we spent 8 hours driving from Frans Josef to Kaikoura (thats allowing for a one hour in total stop). There was plenty of places we could of stopped off and stayed for the night but nothing that interested us hugely, so we decided to keep going to Kaikoura, which is known for its amazing marine life. The drive was long but when you have amazing scenery to look at its not that bad. Me and ste shared the driving, when your driving time goes a bit quicker so I did the middle 3 hours, and he did the rest. New Zealand is huge and just like one big country side, we aim for the next town on the map which could be 2 or 3 hours away and when you pass through it, there is a church, school, shop and that’s it. We’ve only seen about 3 or 4 decent size towns. In between the towns is nothing, not even a phone or radio signal, just a road to the next sign of life. The scenery is just amazing!
You could spend 2hours driving in zig zags around, up and down on mountains sides, we passed huge mountains every shade of green with millions of sheep, then suddenly your driving through the southern alps which snow covered mountains all around you (its funny there is so much snow on the mountains but not a drop of it reachs the road and its not freezing weather ethier, only when we were skiing and drove to the very top of the mountain we then saw snow and there was soooo much of it and it was below freezing, whatever that is!!), then you’ll be driving by an amazing lake with mountains in the background. We passed the tasman sea on the west coast of the south island, it was very rough but beautiful, then we crossed over and drove along the south pacific ocean on the east coast, this sight was amazing! To the left was the ocean, i’ve never seen so many colours in an ocean, there was turquoise, mint green, navy, blue, it was gorgeous, then straight ahead in the distance were snow covered mountains, then just to my right were the brightest and greenest mountains I ever seen, and just for good measure a train track was running along the right side of the road and there was a couple of fluffy sheep dotted around. So when you have views like that to keep you company, it makes it that bit more pleasant. But we also had the unpleasant time of torrential rain while driving around mountains, but that new Zealand, you get all 4seaons in one day. Ive said before its similar to Ireland, we passed a roads sign that said “Donegal house”, also we passed a town called Longford and we passed “Dublin creek”, there is also a place called palmerston in the south island, so there are lots of little reminders of home.
The trip should of been only 6 hours but we came across a sign on the roads that says you can only access the route if you had chains for the car (it must of been to dangerous with snow), we dont have chains so we had to turn around. Its not like there’s alot of roads to choose from, there’s only a few roads that take you from the east to the west side of the island and this was one of them. So we had to take a big detour as a result which added alot of time to the trip! When we were driving through Blenheim we passed so many vine yards. This town is known for wine making and tasting, we didn’t put it on our itinerary cause ste is not a wine drinker. But we passed the vines of two of my favourite wines, oyster bay is lovely, but my favourite is Montana. It was mad, I had a bottle of Montana in the boot of the car and there was all the little montanian’s growing on the tree’s, there was a few sheep in there too, probably getting drunk! So eventually we arrived in kaikoura and we’re staying in dusky lodge hostel for two nights. It was $23 each per night in a 4bedded dorm, so thats not bad. The rooms are nice and big and good stable wooden bunk beds that dont squeak with every twitch you make (particularly annoying when you want to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and your trying to get down the stairs in the dark and the noise of the bed wakes the whole room up), anyway the beds are nice here. Its a nice hostel, id say its great in the summer cause they have a huge pool and sauna and Jacuzzi. We met an irish couple (Jackie and adian) here that we got talkin to in Christchurch, so we got a box of beer and stayed up drinking by the fire, it was a good laugh! So thats all that happened today. Roll on tomorrow, hopefully we’re going swimming with dolphins! Night night, love Audrey xxx
3rd September
I had a lie in today which felt GREAT and because its low season no one else had checked into our dorm so we could just hang around the room in our pyjama’s and relax! We were booked in to swim with dolphins at 12.30pm, but when we got to the dolphin encounter place we were really disappointed to hear the trip was cancelled because it was bad weather. It hadn’t been running for the last 3days because of the weather, but today was gorgeous we had our flipflops on, so we presumed because its low season they just didn’t have enough people and cancelled the trip, we were later proved wrong! So we went back to the tourist information area and looked for a plan B which was a kayaking trip. Turned out it was just me and ste in a double kayak and the tour guide, so it was a nice private tour. To be honest I never realised how much was involved in kayaking (sorry joanne and olly), I thought you just jump in and start paddling!! We had all the wet gear to put on, the boots, trousers, skirts and jackets and life jackets. We then had a safety briefing (eg. How to get out if you capsize!!) and he thought us the basics of paddling and ste had pedals to steer with at the back!! Soon enough we were out in the water...breathless...haha, its hard work paddling into the South Pacific Ocean. I was stuck focusing on these massive waves coming towards us, apparently they are called swells, and they are safe because they dont actually break, we just floated over them. But I was soon distracted from them when we saw seals, chillin out all along the rocks and in the water, in the kayak we got up right beside them. Once they are in the water and they see us, your allowed go as close as the seal wants and the new Zealand fur seals are very friendly, just like the people haha! They were once endangered because people hunted them or there fur, anyway theres plenty now so we through one into the kayak and ate it later, haha only jokin! So while we were watching them we got a visit from little hector dolphins, they came over checked us out and swam off, we followed them for a bit, it was great to see them. There small dolphins and very very rare, the guide said there almost extinct, so that was really cool. So far the trip was going great, but I noticed the guide kept looking at the sky, he then decided after an hour and a half we should head back, which was fine with me, I was fairly tired. Half way back in he started to look a little worried, he said there’s winds forecast for up to 80 kph and there on there way. I was thinking well thats great but id be more comfortable if you old me this while we were on dry land. He continued to say the wind is gona catch up with us you need to try keep steady and not capsize, just paddle as fast and as hard as you can cause we need to get back fast, I was thinking ok I can do that. We were paddling and then he shouted be ready, its 30 seconds before the wind is here, I felt a little push I was thinking ooh there it is, then suddenly I have never seen anything like it, it was like someone suddenly turned the wind machine on full blast, with rain and wind and waves...it was a little bit scary! I guess we didn’t make it back as quick as he hoped. It was so bad we just put our kayaks together and held on to each others boat, if we made a raft we couldn’t capsize and the wind was blowing towards the shore so it would slowly take us in to shore. After a few minutes the weather was really bad and it was gona get alot worse very quickly so he asked if we would be able to make a run for it, we were gona have to break the raft eventually because we were heading for rocks. On the count of 3 we let go and when I say I paddled the fastest and strongest in my life, that would be an understatement. Thank god ste was sitting behind me, otherwise I think my kayak would of taken a few summersaults backwards!! Oh it was horrible, I kept thinking I was so close, but the wind was stronger than us. Eventually we made it back to shore I was shaking and freezing so they tumbled me into the van and sorted the kayak’s out. I guess it was a bit of excitement at the end, ste thought that was the best bit, I on the other hand didnt, but its experience like that that make the trip rememorable!
We got back to the hostel and cleaned up and had a nice dinner. Me, ste, Jackie and Aidan (our irish couple friends) went to find a bar. We did a bit of a pub crawl between the 3 pubs in Kaikoura town (and this was suppose to be a decent size town!), we enjoyed our drinks and had a good laugh. In the last pub there was a sign on the bar that said “don’t drink and drive ask for alternative transport”, so I asked cause it was bloody freezing and we had no way home, so the bar guy said “if you wait to wait until im finished my shift i’ll drop you’s home”, haha! We didnt hang around to long it was a “jamming session” which ment everyone brought there own instruments and played away, the picture was a tiny stage, a guy on drums, 3 older men and 1 young guy playing the guitar (one was standing so close to the window he was almost falling out cause there wasn’t enough room on stage), a guy on a saxophone and another guy on the bongo’s all playing together, at the same time! I was raging I forgot my tin whistle, haha!! It was hilarious and we got a good laugh out of it but didnt hang around for long. 1.30am after getting a bit of heat into our bodies with the help of a few pints we fought through the cold and storm that had started when we were in the sea. We were back in the hostel eating ham and cheese sambo’s in no time. 2.00am we headed to bed, not realising we would be woken two hours later!! Thats all for now folks, night night, love Audrey xxx
Nelson
4th September
7.30am my mam rang me wondering how I was?! And I was fine, a bit hungover we had a great night out, then she told me there was a major earthquake in Christchurch. I was still asleep, so I was thinking oh thats terrible, funny though cause we’re not that far from Christchurch. So I hung up and was lying in bed and suddenly it hit me. I would of swore it was all a dream, I remember waking up and the bunk bed was shifting alot back and forth. Normally the bunk beds in hostels are really squeaky and unstable so any slight movement from the bottom or top bunk you both felt it, but these bunk bed were very secure and wooden, there didn’t even twitch when you moved in them. I had some drink on me so I think thats what stopped me from panicking. I just sat up in the bed and thought what is ste doing down there making the bed rock, I could also hear the beds in the room above us moving, but in my sleepy state I just wondered what is going on. So I checked on ste underneath me to tell him to stop moving but he was fine, then the shaking stopped and I though oh...next dream and dosed off. Even the next morning I thought it was one of those crazy dreams you have after a night of drinking. Ste went out of the room and everyone was talking and had felt it really bad. Our friends were staying in a double bed and said it was terrifying. Thinking of it, it was terrifying, the top bunk had no side bar, Im always afraid im gona fall out, nothing better to help you over the side than an earthquake, haha!! But seriously I do remember getting a fright, its not something you experience everyday, but I think its thanks to a few beers that I just didnt panic. But thankfully we were staying in kaikoura, its 2hours north of Christchurch so there was no damage or injuries beside us, but it caused major problems in Christchurch, they’ve declared a state of emergency. Its so hard to imagine because we were just there! The last I heard the the earth quake reached 7.4 on the scale. We were warned of the after shock and I read they they have experienced a few in Christchurch reaching up to 5 on the scale, but we didnt feel anything else. We head 3 hours up north today, it was part of our plans anyway but just aswell we get out of the way of any more after shocks.
3 hours later we arrived in Nelson, we stayed in Hostel paradise for 1 night. We should of taken it as a sign to walk away when we arrived and reception was closed and there was a sign saying they’ll be back at 3.00pm, we should of ran! The place is horrible, do not stay here! We checked in and went to our little little room. It was a 4bed dorm, there was already two people there who had a big suitcase each. Im not exaggerating when I say there was no room for our bags, if we put our bags on the floor space that was left we would of had no room to stand, it was terrible! The two guys also had the two bottom bunks so we didnt even have somewere to sit, we didnt even have mattresses it was a bit of foam and horrible faded and holey sheets, uh what a nightmare! I suppose it was our fault for lack of research we just booked it, silly move!! But worst of all we dragged Jackie and aidan along (well I could say they just followed us in a stalker way, haha). They had a private room so we had to put our bags in there room, they had a tiny bit more space. I suppose we havnt really had a bad hostel yet, but I was really tired and just wanted to lie on my bed and read a book for a while. So we spent a small fortune and did everything in our power to stay out of the hostel until as late as possible. By the way it wasn’t just the bedroom, there tv room was also horrible and there wasn’t anywere else to hang out, oh they had a bus out the back garden that you could sit it, bet your all raging you missed out on this experience! But in the end we actually had a great evening!
We found a shooting range so the 4 of us just drove down to have a look. We said the boys could do it, I’ll just shoot one or two just because Ive never shot a gun before. Well you’ll never guess what, Im great at shooting!! I really really enjoyed it, it was a great laugh. We shot 40 bullets with a shot gun (I dont know the proper terminology, I’ll ask ste), hitting different targets. Then we had 20 shots hittin clay pigeons, I got a fright the first time I did that, the gun is really heavy, you kind of lean it into your shoulder but when I pulled the trigger it hits right into your shoulder and throws you back a bit. Then I did another one and another, I was on fire I got almost all the clay pigeons. I even impressed ste, maybe we’ll join a shooting club together at home, and go hunting, ha only jokin, ill be trying to nurse the poor animals to there death after I shoot them. We then used a and had 20 shots at hittin a target 400meters away with a high power assault gun. It was really enjoyable and only $55 each, which is very reasonable compared to all the other activies in NZ. After this we went for a nice dinner, Aidian really wanted an Indian so we settled for an Indian and Mexican restaurant (there was slim pickings!). After this we head to the cinema and watched “the expendables”, here’s a tip save your and just don’t go because there is absolutely no story line whats so ever! We had a good laugh in the evening, especially when Jackie insisted on diving into my popcorn cause she thought I was aidian (what an excuse) haha, that was the funniest part during the whole film. So thats another day over, I cant believe we’re leaving the south island tomorrow, its the most beautiful place ive ever seen and every one is so so friendly. Although it was cold, it was refreshing and amazing and has provided us with opportunities to experience the most amazing things (the earthquake is included in that)!! Night night, love Audrey xxx
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phil
non-member comment
WHOW!
All I can say to the pair of you is FAIR PLAY!!, Im reading your blog here, and I could nearly feel myself on the slopes with you, you both seem to be having a ball, You really know how to have fun, keep up the good work, Stay safe and ENJOY!!!!!!