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Published: July 16th 2008
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(Catherine)
When we were planning our round the world trip we knew we'd be arriving in New Zealand in the middle of winter. We were prepared for cold weather and even some rain, but we had no idea how much Mother Nature would try to scupper our plans!
Skiing was the only thing we were actually in the right season for so we decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and when we first arrived in New Zealand, all the ski resorts were closed due to lack of snow. We rearranged our route so we would arrive in the Southern Alps as late as possible and crossed our fingers. Luckily, by the time we reached Queenstown, two of the ski resorts had opened.
We booked a three-day package through a local company which included two night's accommodation, ski rental, clothing hire, two lessons a day, lift passes and transport to and from the slopes. At 175 pounds each, it seemed like a pretty good deal. It was the first time either of us had skiied and we both really enjoyed it. In my last lesson, I went on a chairlift and down a
Yey, I'm skiing
The chairlift in the background is the one I went on on our last day - very exciting! fairly steep slope which was very exciting and a bit scary! Matt progressed even further going on higher chairlifts and down steeper slopes. Matt also had a go at snowboarding but I decided to stick to skiing - snowboarding looked much harder and you fell over more!
From Queenstown we headed down to Milford Sound, part of the Fiordlands National Park. We had heard that it rained quite a lot there but nobody had told us that it is, in fact, one of the wettest places in the world! On average, it rains two out of every three days. As we were there for three days, statistically one of them should have been dry but, oh no, it rained constantly the whole time! Luckily we'd got a good deal on some decent accommodation - a brand new riverside chalet. It wasn't until we arrived that we found out the reason it had been such a steal - the TV hadn't been installed yet! Milford Sound is a tiny place with only one cafe, two lodges and an information centre so there really isn't much to do at all. Luckily our lodge had lots of board games so we spent
Matt Snowboarding
In the background is a conveyor belt you stand on to get to the top of the little slopes! our evenings playing Scrabble, Yahtzee and Battle Ships!
On day two we braved the rain and went on a scenic cruise. This is apparently a 'must-do' for tourists on the South Island and, although I can imagine on a clear day it's very nice, it didn't really live up to its hype. We saw some nice waterfalls and a very bright rainbow, but the visibility wasn't great and we got very wet indeed!
Mother Nature had another surprise in store for us when we went to check out of our accommodation the following day. It had snowed heavily during the night and the only road out of Milford Sound was blocked, so we and 30-odd other guests were trapped! We had to meet every two hours for updates and just as we'd given up hope, we heard that they were opening the road for half an hour to get us all out. As we'd arrived by bus we had to hitch a ride with a father and son who were heading in our direction. In a convoy lead by a snow plough with a flashing light, we slowly made our way out. We were surprised by how heavy
the snow fall had been and it wasn't until an hour later that the snow plough left us and our driver could put his foot down.
We spent the night in Queenstown and woke up the next morning to discover the whole town covered in snow! Of course, the only road out was closed so, once more, we were trapped! We finally managed to get out of Queenstown late the next afternoon and headed towards the east coast to a town called Kaikoura.
We'd booked a whale watching trip for our first day in Kaikoura but our old friend Mother Nature had other plans! The boat couldn't go out due to bad weather so we re-booked for the following day and visited a seal colony (where a really big seal tried to chase us!) and went on a long coastal walk (where we only got a bit wet!) instead.
The next day, the whale watching trip was running...but with a sea sickness warning as the waters were so rough! It was a bumpy ride but we were lucky enough to see three sperm whales. They were about 15 metres long but you only see a small part
of them as the rest is under the water. We saw lots of water blowing and got some really good views of their tails as they dived under the water to search for food - I had no idea a creature so big could be so graceful.
From Kaikoura, we travelled to Picton and caught the ferry to the North Island. Our first destination was the town of Rotorua, which is known for it's natural thermal reserves. It was very strange driving towards the town and seeing steam rising from thermal pools dotted around the countryside. While in Rotorua, we visited Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland which has bubbling mud pools, lots of different coloured thermal pools and a geyser that erupts at 10.15am every day, and the Kiwi Encounter, a hatching centre for kiwi birds.
On our way to Auckland, we stopped in a town called Waitomo which is famous for its network of caves, in particular the Glow Worm Cave which is filled with thousands of, yes you've guessed it, glow worms! It's supposed to be a spectacular sight but unfortunately, it was one we didn't get to see. Heavy rain the night before had flooded the cave
so it was closed! Instead, we went on a trip to some other nearby caves which were still safe to enter. The first one had some glow worms inside - the light they give off is a bright green dot - but it wasn't as impressive as the Glow Worm Cave is supposed to be. By the time we returned from our trip, all the caves in the area had been closed as it was still raining and water levels were rising, so you could argue we were lucky to have at least seen something!
We spent our last few days in Auckland stocking up on provisions for the rest of our trip and eating all the food we don't think we'll find in South America! For once, the weather was on our side and we didn't have a single drop of rain in the three days we were there - maybe Mother Nature was feeling a little guilty!
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