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Published: September 29th 2006
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Mount Cook
Biggest mountain in New Zealand, impressive! Mount Cook and Christchurch, with some hot springs and whales thrown in……….
Bear with me, I need to cram loads in to this blog as I’m hugely behind with my blogs, partly because the east coast of Australia is hectic and I have had no time and partly due to my laziness, sorry.
After Dunedin, we decided to venture to the foothills of Mount Cook and it’s namesake village. There were several distractions along the way. It was a huge journey, we had to go right back across the country to get to Mount Cook, but it had to be done….couldn’t leave New Zealand without seeing the biggest mountain they had.
Feeling more refreshed than the day before when we both had mouths like dry, dusty badgers, we set off to the Moeraki Boulders which we had read a bit about. Quite a big tourist draw but as with most stuff here in winter, there was hardly anyone around. These boulders are huge and just sit in the surf line, loads of big boulders, all circular and freakishly round, weird. Did some lunges on the rocks, got wet, moaned a bit. Had to walk fairly quickly on
Lunge on a rock
The lunge returns, this time at a bit of altitude...sweet the way back to the car as the tide was fast approaching and we didn’t fancy a dip (no laughing at that please Bettsy, you know why…). We stopped off at shag point as well, not sure why….think it was so I could take a photo of the sign (I am so mature, love it). After that we drove on to Omarama to camp. Nice little place, had snow on the ground that had been there for 6 weeks, cold.
In the morning we set off for Mt Cook…or Aoraki as it’s know by the Maori…which means ‘Cloud Piercer’, as it was a nice clear day. On the way we stopped at Peters Lookout which was great for some snaps, when we pulled up there was a mini-bus full of tripod carrying enthusiasts all looking through various cameras….! We saw them later on in the day at the Hermitage Hotel which is a big famous hotel which burnt down in the fifties but got rebuilt and has stood ever since…..I think! Don’t quote me on that.
When we got to Mt Cook village we parked up and embarked on a fairly challenging walk, most of it was uphill, to
Boulders in the surf....
The Moeraki Boulders in all their glory get a beater view of Mt Cook. It was worth the walk as we got awesome views and spent a bit of time here admiring the mountain and catching our breath! So unfit. After taking our photos we got back to the car and drove back towards Timaru.
There were a couple of huge lakes to stop beside on the way back, glorious views and lovely sunshine combining to make for a spectacular outlook. Stayed beside Lake Tekapo for quite a while, soaking up the rays. Got to Timaru in the early evening and grabbed some take-out, nice and healthy. Campsite was ok, parked on the top of this little mound and it was chucking it down with rain so I got a bit concerned about my wheels getting stuck….leave it til morning, it will be ok…! It was, luckily, wheels spun a bit which was pretty sweet. Anyway, Christchurch was our destination and we were looking forward to spending a bit of time in a fairly large city….although in reality it’s not that much bigger than good ol’ Norwich! We had not booked anywhere to stay in Christchurch and so rolled up at Stone Hurst and managed to
Sperm Whale
Diving down for food get a power site. Pretty good as they are a huge hostel with spaces for campervans round the back……and you get to use all the hostels amenities. Didn’t do much after we had checked in apart from check out the main square in town and have a couple of drinks at an Irish bar (there are thousands of these ‘theme’ bars everywhere…with each one claiming that they are the real deal…hmmm). Next day we ventured out into town again but we did touristy things today. We climbed the church spire which was…..as good as climbing steps can be..!! We also had a punt on the Avon and disappointingly missed out on seeing the wizard as it was too cold for him, pussy. Anyway, we met up with our American friend Mon again for a few drinks in the evening. It was a messy night but really enjoyable, managed to find a cool little club playing break beat/house so that was all good….drinking sambuca was not all good. Liked Christchurch, had a fresh feel about it….didn’t feel too fresh the night after our session though infact as soon as we got to our next destination, Hanmer Springs, Fran went to bed!
Fran looking cool with the shades on...
This was taken on the way up to Hanmer Springs.. She didn’t stay in bed for long as I wanted to go to the thermal springs later that day! We went down in the early evening and I’ve never experienced anything like it before. Loads and loads of small to large naturally heated thermal pools ranging in temp from 35oc to 41oc. The sulphur pools smelt of egg but were the warmest so that was a nasty double edged sword. Nearly fainted in the really hot pool, not a good idea to be hung-over and dehydrated when going to this place..! Anyway, had some gourmet burgers on the way back to our camp site and got some well earned kip in….not sure why it was ‘well earned’ thought that sounded good…. Anyway I’m babbling, sorry! Before we left we went to a mini golf thing which had an Indiana Jones theme, sweet. I loved it. We left Hanmer and drove to Kaikoura to do some whale watching! Quite excited about this and we weren’t disappointed, awesome trip. They take you out to the continental shelf and you see loads of wildlife…well not always as on some trips all you see if your lucky are one whale and a bored
Cool lake
On the way back from Mt Cook we stopped here at Lake Tekapo...think thats what its called, pretty nice tho... seagull called Dave. We were lucky, we saw five sperm whales, a wandering albatross, some seals and loads of randomly named birds. Seeing the albatross made my trip as I’ve always wanted to see one in the wild. The whales were ok, they don’t jump about like humpbacks but are still pretty awesome up close.
We took the scenic drive to Blenheim, our last stop in the south island, and parked up for the night. The following day we cleaned the van (much needed as people were playing noughts and crosses on the side of the van it was that dirty) and set off for our ferry crossing. Very sad to of left behind the south island, would love to come back again one day, beautiful. Well, we must push on, skydiving etc to come next!
Hello all, we are in Cairns at the moment, the east coast of Australia is so hectic, felt like a student again the amount of drinking we have been doing….getting too old for it! Sorry for being so slack, the next blog will finish New Zealand so I can get on with telling you what we have been up to in Oz.
Anyway, as always take care and look after yourselves. Any messages would be sweet, always cheers us up to see that people are enjoying them! Peace and love and as the late great Bob Marley said….‘don’t worry be happy’…great ethic.
Up the Spurs....we need lots of help, we are lame at the moment.
Thommo (the man with no tan)
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