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Published: February 12th 2011
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Wow!! We had arrived in New Zealand and from the moment we touched down we knew this was going to be an amazing country to travel in and we loved it from the very start. We picked up our rented car which we had for the next 18 days as the plan was to travel from Queenstown in the South Island to Auckland in the North Island.
Little did we know when we started the day that it was going to one of those days? The kind of day that turns out to be just perfect. We decided to start off by taking the Gondola to the top of the mountain overlooking Queenstown. The weather was fab and the views beautiful. As we arrived we saw the luge track and some people Bungee jumping from a platform on the edge of the mountain. Well bungee jumping was out of the question and so the luge it was. A small ski lift deposits you at the top and after a quick lesson involving how to stop and how go we were off some more slowly than others. Jacks or should I say Schumacher raced off and took the corner at speed
whereas I slowly meandered around the bend putting into practice the breaking part of the lesson. It was great fun going very slowly on the beginners’ route with the children.
Jet boats were invented in New Zealand therefore we felt it our duty to try it. We went on the famous Shot over jet and had the most exhilarating ride ever. The Shot over river is a narrow river with high cliffs and rocks on either which winds its way through the valley. I was sat on the end of the 2nd row and got the shock of my life when he steered the boat into the cliffs. All of your natural human instincts tell you that you’re going to die and then you open your eyes and see that the back of the jet boat has turned away from the cliff. Each time the driver steered us into the cliffs I had a split second panic before remembering that we weren’t about to crash. This along with 360 degree turns on the river really gets the adrenalin working.
After drying off we headed to the Ice bar which in hindsight was a complete waste of money but it
added to the diverseness of our day. In shorts, t-shirts and flip flops we were perhaps a little under dressed but we swopped the shoes for fur boots and were given huge oversized padded winter ski jackets which came down to the knees. The look was most fetching - Big coat, bare knees and fur boots. You heard it here first!! We drunk a vodka cocktail from an ice glass and sat on ice chairs. After half an hour they chucked us out and not because we were drunk but because our time was up so we went next door to the suitably named boiler house bar to warm up and have another drink and a chat to some Americans we’d met in the ice bar.
The perfect day ended with a great meal in homely pub with live music. The singer who we did not know but was clearly very good and perhaps a little famous sang and played the guitar to old Bob Dylan and The Beatles songs as well as his own. It was relaxed and mellow and a fitting end to an action packed day.
The following day we were making our way to Milford Sound.
The long drive did not disappoint as for the entire route we were rewarded with spectacular views. We had a boat to catch which would take a tour around the sound. From the cliffs waterfalls sprang from every possible crevasse and crack. Towards the end of the boat trip around the sound the captain headed for a large waterfall and gave us all a tremendous, take your breath away, shower. Instead of making the journey back that same day which would have been another 7 hours driving we stayed at a town 2 hours from Milford sound which was situated on another beautiful lake with mountains all around.
Once back in Queenstown we moved to a hostel which was for flashpackers not backpackers. Our room had a balcony, flat screen TV, fridge, kettle and en-suite bathroom. We spent more time hanging out in the town and the surrounding areas and I went panning for gold in a nearby town. And found 4 pieces of gold. OK they were little pieces but nevertheless they were gold.
Eventually we pulled ourselves away from Queenstown and headed towards Franz Joseph Glacier. Again the journey was full of stunning views. The town is
as small as can be with a couple of restaurants and not much else but after a long drive we headed for the nearest restaurant to eat and as luck would have it the last test of the Ashes was showing and England we watched wickets fall and cheered with the other English and then the days play was over with England needing only 4 wickets to win the test, the series and the Ashes. The meal was delicious. We trekked to the Glacier but chose not to trek on it or fly over it as we were planning to do that in Argentina. (Having been to the glacier in Argentina I cannot write about this one descriptively as the Argentine glacier was 100 times more beautiful.)
We had already decided to miss out Christchurch and so we headed up the west coast and visited the pancake rocks. These were rocks that were layered like pancakes and really quite amazing looking. We drove on through mountain passes and stopped in a tiny hot springs town called Hamner springs. They have a huge outdoor pool complex which includes pools for kids and pools for grow ups only. The pools were set
at a variety of temperatures and some had different jets of water shooting from them which you were able to massage your body with. The weather was beautiful and in the distance stood the mountains.
Our next stop was Kaikoura. This was the place where we had planned to go Whale watching. We booked the trip and were not disappointed. We saw 2 sperm whales and a pod of about 200 dusky dolphins. It was awesome. (sorry I know it’s an overused word but it’s perhaps rightly used here) On the boat we were told to sit down as we would be travelling at high speeds and once we had found a whale or other wild animal we would be allowed to get up and go outside. The boat travelled at high speed on choppy waters and at times we all felt a little nauseous but then we had a whale in our sights and soon forgot about that. The first sperm whale we saw was the size of a 747 plane. Sperm whales have very large heads but only small brains. The heads are filled with oil which is the main reason why they were hunted and also
why they have their name. The first whalers that caught a sperm whale cut it open and from its’ head flowed a white liquid the whalers believed it be sperm hence the name and so they thought that it must be a male whale but when they caught more and more they realised that both male and female whales had this fluid which we now know as oil. The reason why the whales have this oil is not known for certain but it is believed to help them both to sink and float depending on the temperature of the oil and therefore the density of it.
Small parts of the vast whale show above the surface but before the submerge fully they do a tail slap on the surface of the water before disappearing for an hour or more. The tail slaps are amazing and graceful. The dolphins were very small and highly social and spend ages swimming, jumping, spinning and playing in the waves created by our boat. It was a fantastic trip which left us humbled by the sheer size and beauty of such a huge and magnificent animal.
We left the beautiful south for the
North Island
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