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Published: November 29th 2006
Littleton Harbour - Christchurch
View from the top of the gondolaHello my friend's and welcome to New Zealand, or as a Lord of the Rings fan might say, "Welcome to Middle Earth"! And on many occasions since stepping on to these lands for the first time it has felt to me like I've just stepped straight into a Lord of The Rings set, minus the Orks and Bilbo Baggins of course. I did see Gandalf the Grey the other day though! This is one amazing and extremely beautiful country. No wonder Peter Jackson chose to film his epic Lord of the Rings triligogy in this magnificent country that he can call home!
And then there's the fellowship of the sheep! I've never seen so many of these white fluffy animals in my life! Sheep are everywhere here, and they are big business! It is estimated that there are around 50 million resident sheep in New Zealand. With a human population of around 4 million, that gives them about 12 and half sheep per person! They are outnumbered my these crazy animals that go Baaaaaa! But they seem to love sheep and take great pride in them. Sheep shearing is like a national sport, and there's endless supplies of woollen gifts,
and sheepy souvenirs for sale. The sheep seems to be even more popular than the endangered Kiwi bird! Yes, a Kiwi is a bird, not just a tasty green fruit! They just love the sheep man! But anyway, that's enough about the sheep for now. Long live the sheep!
And so, my story begins in the South Island...
After a journey that I have very little memory of, the plane touched down on the Kiwi tarmac of Christchurch at around 11.00pm. I am now 13 hours in front of England! Could I be any further away from home? Probably! I stepped off the jet plane and into the airport, to be greeted by the lovely passport control woman. They seem to be very thorough with their enquiries! They also checked my walking boots to make sure that I wasn't bringing any foreign soils into the country. I wasn't! Their accent still makes me laugh. I love the way they pronounce their e's like you say it in the alphabet. "Head" therefore sounds like "Heeeeed". They also love the phrase, "Sweet As", and everyone here is your "Bro". Sweet As... Bro!
The first thing I noticed on getting
outside was the temperature. Brrrrrrrr! Compared with Australia it was pretty damn cold, and it was raining. After a 20 minute bus ride into Christchurch centre I reached my destination hostel for the night! It was already midnight and I was still pretty tired out from Melbourne Cup Eve so I decided to leave the sightseeing for the next day and get some shut eye. Goodnight folkes! The hardest thing when checking in at night is getting into the dorm with all your stuff in the dark, and making it into bed, making the minimum amount of noise! I don't know why I bother sneaking in quietly though - nobody else seems to!
When morrow arrived I discovered that I had slept in slightly. Oh well, I am on holiday! The day had brought with it some rather appealing weather so I decided to explore this place they call Christ's Church to see if it really is like the Church of a holy one! No sign of a church, but there was a massive great Cathedral right opposite my hostel! Christchurch is often referred to as the "Garden City" or the "English City". When I stop and think, it
is actually quite English: The Anglican Cathedral in the city square, the river Avon flowing through the city with its punts, and the gardens with perfect lawns and English flowers. But this place isn't just about its similarities to England - it does have a character of its own!
My day's expedition began in the square peering up at the Cathedral. I couldn't help but notice a man in the middle of the square bellowing his crazy philosophy to the passing crowds. After some further research I discovered he was a local celebrity who dresses like Harry Potter and irritates passers by on a daily basis with his philosophical mind bending craziness. Nice! I headed down New Regent Street admiring the colourful buildings, and dodging the trams with their English names. Following my map I explored the network of streets, went over the little bridge, past the Avon river, the museum, and arts centre, and to the green lush environment they like to call "the botanic gardens". Not much time to relax as I''m on a mission - Past Oxford terrace which is full of bars and restaurants and through the shopping plaza street and I arrive at the
View of Queenstown and lake Wakatipu
From the Queenstown gondola lookout! Amazing view! bus station - next stop Littleton.
Littleton contains Christchurch's port - Littleton port. Half an hours bus ride from the centre and I arrive at Littleton! I missed my stop, but it didn't really matter. I had a quick look at the port from the bus windows before getting the same bus back through a tunnel in the hills! A few minutes later and I'm at the Christchurch Gondola start point. I paid the fee's and headed up in the Gondola to the top of Mount Cavendish, 500 meters high. At the top it was somewhat chilly and windy but with the aid of my fleece I was able to keep snug. There were some wonderful 360 degree views from the top, of Littleton and its harbour, Christchurch centre, and of the Southern Alps. There was even time for me to go walkies in the hills before heading back down. Spectacular scenery up here!
Back in Christchurch the day was drawing to a close. Sat there in the communal area I was struggling to decide what do do for dinner. It was now raining again very heavily and I didn't have anything to cook. Then I heard what
at the time seemed like a message from god! Over the speaker phone of the hostel three magic words tingled my ear drums... "Pizza", "Delivery", "Cheap". In a flash I was at the front desk, had ordered my pizza, and was eagerly awaiting its delivery, sat in front of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". And then heaven arrived, and I was happy. Very happy! Thank you god!
Another early start for me as I have a new destination on my agenda - Queenstown. Now, despite being 28 degrees celcius a few day's ago, the night had brought with it a fresh covering of snow and clear blue skies! The journey from Christchurch to Queenstown was therefore a joy. Beautiful, stunning scenery all the way! Mountains, snowy hills, glistening lakes, and plenty of sheep! After a few toilet stops, some roadworks delays and a few phone calls to arrange a place to stay, we arrived in Queenstown!! Yeeeaaah! Queenstown was given it's name as it was once thought to be "Fit for a Queen". The nearby Shotover and Arrow river's were once the source of large amounts of gold!
Queenstown has to be one of the most picturesque towns
I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. Nestled right beside New Zealand's third largest lake - Lake Wakatipu, it is completely surrounded by beautiful rugged snow topped mountains. The impressive ''Remarkables'' which are popular with skiers during the winter and the Eyre mountains, provide a pretty amazing backdrop to this lovely little town and wonderful lake. After dropping my gear off at a rather nice little hostel named "Bumbles", with some pretty nice bedroom views of the lake and mountains, I headed out to explore the town. Often referred to as "the adventure capital", Queenstown has a long list of activities on offer: Bungee Jumping, Skydiving, Skiing, Tramping, Mountain Biking, Jet Boating, River Surfing, Paragliding. That's just a few! The list goes on and one! There's some pretty crazy and insane activities on offer here! There's so much stuff to do and so much to spend money on! It's therefore a pretty touristy town by New Zealands standards, but lovely none the less!
The afternoon was still young and I wanted to make most of the weather so headed up in the Sky Gondola for some very special views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. The Sky Gondola is basically
a cable car which takes you up to the top of a hill above Queenstown. After watching the paragliders circling around in the sky, and admiring the panoramic views I decided to ride the luge! Similar to the Luge in Singapore but boasting much better views and a better track, the luge winds it way around the hills above the Sky gondola lookout. Lots of fun and 3 goes for the price of 2. Perfect! Great fun! Love it! Yeeeeah!
After making my way back to the hostel and meeting some room mates I noticed that the sky was producing some pretty vivid colours, so I headed out on a walk along Lake Wakatipu. Beautiful sky's and some magical lake reflections on this cool spring night in Queenstown. For dinner I headed to the best burger joint in town - Fergburger! The Lamb burger was mint! Literally! That was one tasty burger! Love it!
Now there's not that many things that scare me, but one thing I'm not that keen on is heights. But, while I don't like heights and feel kind of dizzy when I look over the edge of high places I kind of feel I
need to try stuff that involves being high. After waking up on this fine sunny morning and heading to reception to see the lovely Scottish lady, I enquired about the Canyon Swing. Many people I met during my worldly travels recommended this Shotover Canyon Swing so I had to see what it was all about really! She phoned the place and said they had availability in 5 minutes if I could get to the office, so I made the decision and ran into town to meet the Canyon Swing man, four other keen volunteers, and the Canyon Swing mini van to take us to the remote location!
Now I was pretty nervous during the journey there but when I got to the beautiful location at the top of a massive canyon over the Shotover river I was shitting myself! This thing these guy's have built is absolutely insane! This is one hell of a swing - the guy who invented this must be a mentalist! You just have to see it in person to realise how mad it is. You start on a platform with a harness on, looking down at the Canyon below, jump off, freefall for 50
metres then do a 200 metre arc at incredible speeds, before swinging back in the opposite direction and so on.. As I watched the people in front of me do it I was getting more and more nervous! Then it was my go. There are loads of different way's you can jump off or be released and they reckon its better if you can do it yourself rather than them release you so I decided to just leap off forwards. As the bloke attached my harness to the ropes and stuff, he started asking me questions about what I did back home - all that was going through my head was the terror of jumping off this thing! this was not the time to discuss my education! Then they start messing with your head telling you that it's more dangerous because its windy and what you should do if you hit the canyon!
My legs were like jelly, and I could hardly stand up but after some initial preparations I leaped off, Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh! It was impossible not to shout and swear as I hurtled towards the river! Despite being probably the most scared I've ever been it was an
immense and insane feeling. I've never felt anything like it in my life! Big adrenaline rush! Check out the Canyon Swing 1. video at the top! Despite my smiles, my heart is beating extremely fast and I'm about to soil my underwear. My legs were so wobbly it was hard to run up to jump off!
Now, after doing it once, you can do it again for $39. After paying $159 for the first jump that's pretty damn cheap for a second, and to be honest it was pretty damn fun despite the scariness! The second time I did it I was just as scared if not more! They said I had to do it backwards upside down. I did one called the "Elvis Cutaway". Just watch the video below! Extreme head rush! Amazing! Scary shit!
The adrenaline was pumping inside me for the rest of the day and my legs remained wobbly for a good few hours! After spending some time relaxing in the Queenstown sun beneath the beautiful snow capped mountains I decided to climb Queenstown Hill. It was about a 3 hour return hike through some pretty cool forests with some great views at the
summit, over Queenstown and of the Remarkables. Back at Bumbles I laid in bed. Flashing back to the Canyon Swing I kept getting that same fear factor and rushing feeling as I went through it in my brain. It's was pretty weird. A mad day! A good one though. Very good. Awesome!
New Zealand Weather is weird, unpredictable and changes a lot! One day it's boiling hot, then it snows, then it rains loads. The next day it rained and rained and rained! Lots of rain all day long. I spent the day wandering around the shops in my raincoat looking for some supplies for my little adventure ahead of me. The next day I would be starting the famous Milford Trek. Time to go tramping! Tramping is what they call hiking/trekking/bush walking over here in NZ! It's got nothing to do with homeless people. Honest!
The Milford Trek is considered by some as one of the best walks in the world. It is by far New Zealand's most famous tramp and they limit the amount of people that can walk it each year. Accommodation is in huts, managed by the Department of Conservation. I booked this trek
Me - Queenstown
Enjoying the sun! months and months ago, as it sells out extremely quickly. There's only space for 40 people each day to start this 4 day 54km trek. The location is the Fjordlands of Western South island, New Zealand. It therefore gets lots and lots of rain, and I was told to expect plenty of it!
An early morning wake up and I'm on the bus to a place called Te Anau. Even bus journey's here in New Zealand are enjoyable as the scenery is so amazing. The journey from Queenstown past the bottom end of Lake Wakatipu and through the hills, mountains and farm lands to Te Anau was beautiful. At times I didn't know which window to look out of as it was stunning in all directions! Te Anau is a pretty small settlement next to New Zealand's second largest lake with the same name as the town... Lake Te Anau! It was once formed by a giant glacier that cut its way through the land. It's 53km long and 10km wide at its widest point! Te Anau is in close proximity to many of New Zealand's great walks and is therefore a popular start and end point for trampers
- like me! :-)
On arrival on this pretty overcast day I headed straight to the DOC, (Department of Conservation), and picked up my bus, boat and hut tickets. I then hired a medium sized rucksack, some water/wind proof trousers and a cooking set from a local outdoor shop. I only had my big 85 litre rucksack with me and I needed to keep all of my other belongings in that at the hostel in Queenstown. I did have my little rucksack which just wasn't big enough, so had to hire a 65 litre jobby. They only have gas hobs in the huts, no cooking equipment, so I had to hire some pots and stuff and bring food for my own consumption. The bag seemed light compared to my big one, but then again I haven't had to carry that one 54km!
At the pie shop the lady told me she knew people who had been waiting 3 years to do the Milford trek so I should make the most of it. I will! I enjoyed one of her home made pies and some chips before making my way back to the DOC in the afternoon to catch
PeterPopper - Queenstown hill
Remarkable mountains in the background the bus and boat to the start of the trek.
The starting point can only be accessed by boat so after a 20 minute bus ride to Te Anau Downs, on lake Te Anau we boarded a boat for the hour journey to the end of lake Te Anau. The journey on this now chilly day was a wonderfull experience! We travelled through a mystical world of mountains and snow capped peaks - The Stuart, Earl and Franklin ranges. I was pretty excited to be entering this mountainous, wet, green, forested area in the protected Fjordland National park. A special place!
And then, the adventure began! The first day's walk from the start point near Glade house huts to Clinton Hut was a relatively short walk at 5km but an enjoyable one. I met some cool people on the way - Heather and Matt from Hawaii and Oregon and Dan and Lucy from near me in the UK. The tramp began through some rather delightful beech forest, following the Clinton river with its crystal clear waters. Crossing a number of suspension bridges and passing through some beautiful nature we arrived at the Clinton Huts in the evening. The
hut's are like big dorm rooms with about 20 people sleeping in each of the rooms. There's no heating, just a basic bunk, but that's why you bring a sleeping bag!
The hut warden took us on a quick nature walk to the wetlands and showed us a few bits and pieces. It was then time for me to cook my freeze dried dinner. Instructions - Boil water, add to bag, stir, leave for 10 minutes, Eat! Perfect! Yum! Well, not the best meal I've had but it will do! Don't worry though - I have chocolate and sweets for when I need that energy buzz! I ended up playing some cards, listening to a German girl sing and play guitar, (badly), and eventually got into my warm sleeping bag for some sleeps. Can you believe she's actually carrying a guitar with her for 54km, though forests and wetlands and up and down mountains. It wouldn't have been so bad if she could actually play and sing in tune! Silly girl - should have just brought her iPod. Like Me. Don't worry - I have waterproofed it fully!
Milford Trek day 2 - When I woke up due
to the noise, hustle, and bustle of everyone else, it was pretty damn cold! I didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag! But I did! 16.5 km to walk today, but a very enjoyable 16 and a half k it was! We headed out from the huts continuing to follow the Clinton river through a lovely section of lush forest and after a few hours broke out of the forests into an open valley. On either side there were massive snow capped mountains, their peaks hiding in the mist. This part of the walk was extremely picturesque, passing a number of waterfalls, and lakes fed by the glaciers above. The track also goes across 56 avalanche paths but there wasn't major amounts of snow so there was little danger. Despite the low temperatures I got pretty hot tramping along with my rucksack on my back and stripped down to t-shirt level to keep cool. However, as soon as I stopped it would get pretty damn cold again. Good job I brought that fleece with me after all! After a number of food stops, and after crossing more bridges, we entered some more bushland as we began to climb
Lake Te Anau - Te Anau Downs
Getting the ferry to the start of the Milford track. steadily. The types of forests are extremely diverse here, they go from wet mossy lands to lush green to beautiful wetlands to other crazy mysterious lands. Some of them are like crazy worlds, dream worlds, some very strange and wonderful places here! Eventually as the first of the rain started to arrive in cool spittle's, I arrived at the Mintaro Hut. Time for more freeze dried food! Love it!
Hidy Hi Trampers! Overnight it rained and rained and rained. Massive amounts of rain! When we woke up it was still raining but the hut warden told us the weather would get better. It's a good job I hired those waterproof trousers! Myself, Heather and Matt decide to head out at around 9.00am and put on our waterproofs! This will be a good test for my so called waterproof Gore-Tex boots!
It was intruiging how much the landscapes had changed. The nearby lake that on the previous night was pretty empty was now overflowing into the surrounding fields and tracks. There were spectacular waterfalls everywhere coming down from the mountains above - it was a beautiful sight! There was water everywhere! This was to be the hardest day's trekking
as we had to climb up to over 1000m and then back down again. As we began to climb the zig zag track up the mountain the rain died down and eventually stopped. However, there were now many streams and waterfalls flowing through the track and the track itself had turned into streams and waterfalls in many places. The climb was steady but pretty tiring and I soon got hot in all the layers I was wearing. It was a hefty bit of exercise!
The views on the way up were stupendous, looking down on the Clinton Canyon, Mintaro lake and mountain ranges we had walked through the previous day. The views of the hundreds of waterfalls flowing into what looked like tiny rivers and streams far down below were immense! The tops of the mountains were still hiding in clouds and mist and the whole atmosphere was pretty mystical. At the top of the climb it was pretty damn chilly. We were up there amongst the clouds in this mysterious mountain land. At the top there is a memorial and slightly further on something known as "the 12 second drop". I think that basically means if you fall
PeterPopper
Milford track - start point. off the cliff edge it will take 12 seconds before you hit the ground! It was a long way down! At the top there were some Kea's. They are like very inquisitive parrots that live in the mountains! Cool birds!
After a rest and as the cold set in, we headed up to the summit at 1069 meters and the day shelter where we cooked up some soup. Every so often the clouds would open up to provide some magnificent views. There was a strange eerie atmosphere up there. I liked it. Amazing experience.
The time had come to descend the 1000 meters in the space of a few hours through rocky, rugged terrain. Coming down was probably the hardest bit and very taxing on the knees and feet. Due to the rain the downhill slopes were very slippy many of which were now small streams. The views on the way down were absolutely incredible! We had to cross a few rivers very close to some dangerous looking waterfalls and then follow a path past some other gushing waterfalls and through some magical and enchanted forests and mossy madness! At times I felt like I was in a
Bridge Crossing
Milford track - Day 1. fairy tale world!
Eventually, with sore knees and feet we arrived at the Quintin shelter where we left our bags and filled our water bottles. Half an hours walk through some flooded areas and we arrived at New Zealand's longest waterfalls at 500 and something metres. It was impossible to get very close to them due to the power and spray of the water, but we got as close as we could! They were very impressive and extremely loud! Lot's of power out there!
We continued on from the shelter to eventually arrive at Dumpling Hut as the sun had come out and the skies cleared! I even put my shorts on! After dumping our stuff at Dumpling we went to find a local swimming hole. The water was bone chillingly cold! My feet instantly went numb as soon as I stepped in and the numbness quickly turned to pain! It's not surprising it was so cold... Many of the rivers are fed from a glacier! A few people actually managed to swim in it - I don't know how. I managed to go up to my knees and wash my face which was actually quite refreshing! Nice!
I think we walked about 16km today but it seemed like longer due to the steep climb and decent! Slightly sore legs but I haven't got any blisters yet! Those magic socks I bought are certainly doing the trick! My final freeze dried meal wasn't too bad - lamb and veg in mint gravy and mash! Perfect! When it was sufficiently dark, we went to see some local glow worms - they are pretty cool little things. They certainly lightened up my life on this chilly evening! Then it was time to sleep! good night trampers!
The final day wasn't too difficult considering it was the longest walk at 18km. I headed out with Dan and Lucy at a pretty fast pace. Alongside the Arthur river we tramped through more forests crossing a number of bridges with mirror mountain reflections in the water. The Mackay waterfalls looked like some sort of paradise Jurassic park island world with lush green trees surrounding it. Lovely place! After entering Bell rock, and passing over the rock cuttings which were cut by prison gangs in the 19th century, we eventually arrived at the Giant Gate falls where we finished up the last
Wetlands
Milford track - Day 1. of the food. It feels good not to have to ration myself! I headed into the river to play on the rocks in front of the waterfall - cold cold cold but nice on the tired feet! Another hour and half and we arrived at the finishing point, Sandfly point, on schedule to meet the boat at Milford Sound. Sand flies are not nice - I have a few nasty bites, probably the first bites I've had my whole trip! Milford trek complete! Congratulations! Thanks! Sweet As!
A short boat trip and we arrived at Milford dock. There's only a few buildings here, and boats. A very small settlement! Much smaller than I expected! We finished our long tramp with a 2 hour boat cruise on Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a pretty spectacular place. The boats are dwarfed by the massive forested and snow capped mountains that surround the sound. It kind of reminded me of Halong Bay in Vietnam, but on a much bigger scale! With the clouds and mist it was more mystical and mysterious. There are also a number of waterfalls flowing down the mountains in some gravity defying directions! (It was a windy day).
Forest and river
Milford track - Day 2. We headed out into the rough Tasman sea for a bit before returning along the length of the sound to the dock. A spectacular, wonderful place! Beautiful!
The bus journey back from Milford Sound to Te Anau where we began our adventure has to be the most scenic and magnificent drive I've ever experienced. I was absolutely exhausted after the trek but my eyes were glued to the windows! The landscapes were so incredible and as the sun was going down it made for a pretty special end to an amazing 4 days! Spectacular Mountain ranges, Lush green fields and rolling hills densly populated with sheep, vivid blue glacial rivers, endless forests, stunning colours, fluffy clouds with sun rays sneaking through, beautiful land shadows, glaciers, snow, striking mountain silhouettes, lakes, Lord of the Rings style visualisations everywhere! This is a beautiful part of the world!
Back in Te Anau I checked into a guesthouse and went for some food. There was only one thing that would have satisfied my taste buds... pizza. Luckily there was a pretty good pizza restaurant in town. Perfect!
The next morning can only be described as "Wet". Lots of rain. I don't
mind though - we were pretty lucky on the trek so I don't mind getting a bit wet for a while. And anyway, I've got a bus ride back to Queenstown ahead of me! Rain all the way, but when we arrived it was starting to clear a bit. I might as well go jet boating! Like a number of other crazy, fun things, Jet boating was invented by a kiwi guy! I headed to the Shotover river for a half an hour thrilling jet boat ride through the Shotover canyon. Very good fun and extremely close to the rocks at times! The 360 degree spins make it that extra bit special! Lots of fun today!
Welcome to the next day - Pretty cloudy and overcast. There's only one thing to do when its this cloudy - climb high up so that you are in the clouds. Well actually there's other stuff you can do but there was only one thing on my mind on this day! The Ben Lomond track is a pretty difficult track starting at the top of the Sky Gondola and is billed as a 6 hour return trip. I headed up in the gondola
and then began the trek. It was pretty steep all of the way and it didn't take long before I was in thick cloud! It took me about two and a half hours to reach the summit at 1748 metres. I was exhausted when I reached the top but felt good to get there. It was so quiet up there with very little wind. I would say the temperature was near freezing, there was some snow and lots of cloud slowly drifting around me. There weren't any views at the top - just white cloud. I decided to get back as quickly as possible and jogged where I could. I managed to get back in about an hour and a half and for the last hour it started to rain. I also saw this random goat called Fred. He ran off though. Miserable unfriendly goat! I manged to get a few blisters but nothing major. Oh well! A good bit of exercise today! I liked it up there!
After meeting some crazy Japanese girls I headed to Winnie's for a special gourmet delicious pizza! (Thanks for the tip Sammy) Top notch pizza here! I will be back! These people
Forested lands
Milford track - Day 2. know how to make special pizza. An interesting menu also!
When the morning of the day after arrived I awoke early for a bus ride to Twizel which is a town that isn't supposed to be there anymore, but it is! The town was set up to house the workers that set up the hydroelectric power plants in the area. It was mean't to be knocked down when they had finished, but the people kind of warmed to the place so they pursuaded the council to take Twizel over from the power company and it became a permanent town!
In Twizel I booked a shuttle bus to Mount Cook village, where I planned to stay. The mini bus driver was pretty cool - he gave me a running commentary telling me about the geography and geology of the area and even phoned the backpacker places for me to try and get me a bed. Only one problem - they were all full. I ended up going to these climbers huts which the driver said were only 30 minutes walk from Mount Cook village. It turned out to be at least an hour! Anyway, I dropped off my gear
and he gave me a lift into the village in the terrible terrible weather. It was raining so much and so cloudy that I couldn't see any of the mountains, so I headed to the information centre and to the climbers cafe where I proceeded to have chocolate cake, hot chocolate, pumpkin soup and beer. There really is nothing else to do when its raining here, unless you want to get wet! Mt. Cook village is a pretty small settlement, has about one cafe, two backpacker places and an expensive hotel! Its a nice little place though! Mint location!
Luckily, after a good few hours sat in this rather warm and cosy cafe, the rain stopped a bit. I headed out for a walk to Kea point to see if I could see Mount Cook - not really, it was still too cloudy but it was a nice walk amongst the other mountains. I kept hearing loud bangs and wondered what they were before eventually realising they were avalanches! I headed back to the village to my favourite cafe for beer battered fish and chips and more beer! Good stuff!
As the evening came the clouds parted and
Kea
Milford track - Day 2. the blue skies sneaked through. I headed out yet again as Mount Cook was starting to show and the snow capped mountains near by were glowing in the sun! By the time I finished my walk it was starting to darken. It took me at last an hour to get back to my basic hut which had no heating and a concrete floor. I met some climbers in the room before jumping into my sleeping bag to keep warm.
I managed to keep warm for most of the night and planned to get up really early to go walking again. I only managed around 7.30 which wasn't too bad I guess. Another walk back into the village on this clear sunny day. I could now see Mount Cook in its full glory - New Zealand's highest mountain at 3754 meters! The famous New Zealander and climber, Edmund Hillary used to practise on Mount Cook before being one of the first to climb Everest. Apparently quite a few people die each year climbing in the Mount Cook national park. Dangerous place! The weather is very unpredictable here!
Later in the morning I took the shuttle bus back to Twizel.
The driver stopped so that I could take some photo's of Mount Cook and the amazingly milky blue lake Pukaki. This is probably the bluest of the lakes due to its high concentration of rock flour coming from the glaciers. It really is a spectacular colour especially in the sun with all of the reflections! Very tempting but I can imagine the water is very cold!
Back at Twizel I caught another bus back to Christchurch. A quick overnight stop here before heading to Kaikoura. I was up pretty early for the bus to Kaikoura which is north of Christchurch on the East coast. We arrived around midday and checked into a pretty sweet backpacker place on the top of a hill, overlooking the sea and mountains. Kaikoura is a picturesque little place, popular due to its wildlife! I headed out on a walk around the coast, along the black sandy beach and to a seal colony below the cliffs. I carried on over the rolling green sheep and cow hills and along the cliffs. Some lovely views from the top of the ocean, the seals and of some albatross! I ended up walking for a good few hours,
It's Me
Milford track - Day 2. and finding myself in some random farmers fields before carefully climbing over barbed wire fences to escape! It was a long walk back but there was a BBQ on the go when I arrived! I headed to the butchers for some meat which was cooked for me by the bloke at the hostel. Nice! We then got loads of beer from the shop and drank it on this glorious evening. Lovely day!
Up at 4.45am the next morning after not much sleep! Why? Well, it was time to go swimming with some dolphins! As I mentioned before Kaikoura has lots of wildlife due to a drop off out in the ocean which somehow provides lots of foods for the sea life!
As I walked to the reception of the dolphin swimming place at 5.15 in the morning the sun was rising. I arrived at the office with another girl from my hostel. They gave us wetsuits to put on including booties for our feet and a balaclava thing, as well as fins, snorkel and mask. We all then sat in this room in our wetsuits watching a video presentation - It looked pretty funny! It was then time
Mossy Forest
Milford track - Day 2. to head to the harbour to board the boats. We were split between 3 of them and I was in the smaller faster one that headed out first to look for the dolphins! After about 20 minutes of travel out into the sea a pod of dusky dolphins were spotted. There were absolutely loads of them. Hundreds! What a sight!
When we got close to them we were given the OK to jump in. The water was pretty damn cold but not as bad as I expected! I was instantly surrounded by load's of these amazing dolphins swimming around me. The view of them swimming underwater was very special! Beautiful creatures. They told us a few different tricks to keep them interested. A a dolphin would come right up to my face underwater I would spin around keeping eye contact with it. As I did, it would follow me around doing loops and tricks underwater, trying to swim around faster than me! And it did swim faste - I got slightly dizzy! It would also do little leaps out of the water and as it did I would pop my head up to see it in the air. It
really was amazing having a dolphin look back at you so close!
After a quick rest we moved over to another pod. There were literally hundreds of them swimming together. The view of them swimming on this clear blue day with the low sun was truly amazing. Again we jumped in with them. As I put my head underwater I could see loads of them swimming around me. Everyone was making strange dolphin type noises to catch their attention, (we were told to do this). Diving down also seemed to get them excited but it was very difficult with the buoyancy of the wetsuit! Some of them had little babies, some were doing flips out of the water, some just liked to swim around and under you. they were extremely playfull! This really is one of the best things I've ever done. I didn't expect it to be this good!
We had about 4 different sessions in the water and by the end of it I couldn't feel my hands. The water is pretty cold out here on the South island as you can probably imagine! Luckily they had a hot water hose on board and hot chocolate
and cookies. We followed these dolphins for a while to take some pictures, as they were flipping and leaping right out of the water to entertain us. I never expected there to be so many. They estimated that there were about 500 of them! Swimming with wild dusky dolphins was such a cool experience. They are completely wild, are not enticed in any way and its completely up to them whether they want to interact with the swimmers. They also limit the amount of people that can swim with them on a daily basis and only one company are allowed to do it. What an amazing morning! It was definitely worth the early rise! A very special experience!
We arrived back on dry land at around 9.00am. I hopped on the bus that conveniently picked me up and we headed up the coast to Picton via another seal colony. A nice ocean road and some great scenery on the way. In Picton we boarded a ferry for the 3 hour trip to Wellington on the North Island. We travelled through the Marlborough Sounds and into the open ocean. It was a lovely sunny day but very windy up there
on the top deck where I sat for 3 hours. Wellington here I come!
And that's it for the South Island for now. But don't worry, I will be back. I have some unfinished business here!
I'm doing New Zealand in a big loop so will be back to do the West coast of the South Island later.
So goodbye from me... Pete Rocks, and goodbye from the South Island sheep... BAAAAAA!
Sweet As.... Bro!
Over and Out!
PeterPopper :-)
P.S - 6 pages of photo's for this one and some video's for you to watch as well! Tip - If you find that the video's are bufferring lots, let them play once and the second time you watch it will be smooth! Safe As! Enjoy!
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lucie
non-member comment
Hey there!
Looks like youre having a fantastic time, im just chained to my desk at work - you're clearly having a lot more fun! love looking at the photo's, have read bits of your blog - v funny - should write a travel book! take care you little popper!