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Published: April 14th 2007
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Milford Sound
Astounding Scenery After a nice shower and a raid on Rachels cupboards we set off to Queenstown on a miserable wet and cold morning. Rachel the new addition to Van Diesels crew the drive was uneventful apart from a few glimpses of what was to come, rolling mountains and vast lakes.
We arrived in Queenstown in the early evening and were very shoked at just how many outdoor shops there were, it was Blacks-R-US and with none of our team owning any fleeces this was the place to get one...although noone wanted one. The town itself was quite small but the outskirts offer winding roads at deadly inclines. We had to be very careful not to roll the vans. We cooked pasta in a carpark overlooking the big lake and went to town for a few drinks. Because it was Good Friday everything was closed untill midnight so we loitered the streets and then found The World Bar which was to be our watering hole for the next 3 nights...they served 6 shot-strong cocktails in teapots.
The next morning all hungover we were rudley awoken by some kind of disgruntled police-cop-traffic-carpark-enforcer guy who said if we didnt move our vans
in 5 minutes he would fine us $400 each and also handed us a helpful leaflet on the camping laws of New Zealand.
We prepared ourselves then headed to the Queenstown Bungy Centre to hop on our bus to face the Nevis. It was terrifying, a 40 minute buympy off road bus ride up impossible roads led us all to the awesome site of the Nevis gorge. On what look like pathetic cables from each side hangs a steel box with ropes hanging from it. Every ten minutes you hear a scream and see a tiny speck launch from the box into the abyss. To get to the steel jump box there is a cable car with a see through bottom that slides over the crevass. I wimped out and said id do the much more friendly looking bridge jump however the other lads sucked it up and plummeted to the ground one by one. The night brought with it celebrations for the three of them and comiserations for my battered ego.
Milford Sound was next, exceedingly beautiful scenery with rolling hills, turquoise blue rapids and lakes and lush green forests it was well worth the 4 hour drive to see what the South Island really had to offer.
We then decided to press on up towards picton and the ferry to the North Island. On the way Simon and i decided to fill up and have some lunch and after flashing and beeping at the other two to stop for a good half an hour we decided just to stop and hope they would eventually look in the rear view mirror. What they did was stop for a bit, and then back track 100kms to find us. They drove past the slightly concealed layby we were in and Simon and i decided to do the sensible thing and press on to our destination. The next day at around Midday we were in Picton filling our vans up (again) when Tom & George, out of breath and very relieved rushed us in the petrol station. We found out that they had called the van company and 24hr road assistance to look for us as well as stopping cars on the road to ask if there's been a crash. Let's just say me and simon found it funny and George an Tom were genuinely concerned. Nevermind.
A horrendously early ferry got us to Wellington where we found a secluded car park and slept all day before pushing on to Lake Taupo.
The weather was overcast and Lake Taupo seemed a bit boring so after a freezing cold night we decided to become Zorbonauts.
Zorbing is done in Rotorua. After donning our suits we queued for our turn and felt a little dissapointed as it didnt look to exciting. We were very wrong. It was absolutley brilliant and the injuries Simon sustained made it even better. Exhilarated we drove on to Auckland where we would have to hand in the campers the next day which i was dreading. This was because i had actually crashed Van Dutch into a fence a few days before and there was a sizeable dent in the bonnet as well as a severely bent number plate.
A hectic night in Auckland ensued and we woke up late the next day panicking about cleaning the vans for the 10am deadline. i was fined $200 for the damage and although it stung it was certainly better than the $500 i was expecting. Free of our new homes, and sad that we now had to walk everywhere we made our way to a hostel in the city and prepared for our early Singapore flight the next day.
Asia awaited and we were certainly looking forward to it.
Junglist Movement BOO YA here dis Ash-man signing off BO
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Grand parent
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Speling
I sea the exspenive edumacation has payed off four the speling Ash-man