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Published: December 17th 2006
Banks Peninsular
Mike makes friends with ETYep, you read it right. We've been wheeling our way around New Zealand's South Island in a spaceship. Ok, it was actually a people carrier which had been coverted into a very basic campervan but it was called a spaceship and it's name was ET.
We collected our new best friend from Christchurch on 12th November after a couple of lovely days in Christchurch city meeting up with Shelley (a friend from London) and sampling the cafes and bars. Christchurch is a very British town in appearance. There is a river running through it, fetes in any green space you can find on a weekend and architecture which reflects its anglo roots. We picked ET up and headed for Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, south of Christchurch. The scenery throughout the journey was stunning. At one point we turned off the main road and drove down a dirt track to the coast. The brilliant blue of the sea and desolation of the area where overwhelming. Arriving in Akaroa town was a bit of a disappointment. After our earlier sample of the coast we were expecting something truly spectacular. In truth, its a small town next to an estuary which I'm
sure would be absolutely stunning on a bright summer's day but, unfortunately, the weather had started to turn. As we pulled into our first campsite we were horrified by the Haven Holiday feel of it all - we hadn't expected our galactic adventure to be quite like this!
The following day we set off a little dejected, desperately trying to lower our expectations and hoping the journey wouldn't continue in the same vein. We were heading for Mount Cook, stopping on route in Lake Tekapo. We were told when we rented ET that it wasn't necessary to stay in caravan sites or campsites but that any quiet spot away from the road side that wasn't private property would be fine. Well, we found none of these magical little dells. We tried at Lake Tekapo but after a 45 minute drive down a dusty track we came to a strange caravan village type thing. After an encounter with some sandflies and noticing a big rubbish pile nearby we decided to give up on the free camping idea and just pay for sites on our journey. Once again disappointed that our plans had been frustrated we headed for St John's Observatory
which we had passed on our search for the perfect camp spot. It was just what we needed. The view from the top of this hill was amazing. We could see mountains on all sides and the wind was strong enough to send you flying. After a quick lunch we got back on the road feeling re-energised. Camping at Lake Tekapo was lovely. We took a walk along the lake shore and then cooked our dinner. We met Mike and Dinah and their family from Malaysia (also travelling by spaceship) and watched them eat salmon sashimi with beef supernoodles in a truly imaginative way!
Mount Cook was next on our list and once again the journey was highlighted by the incredible scenery surrounding us - a vista of blue waters and white mountains. When we arrived we headed for a quick walk up to the Tasman Glacier. Sadly it was the most disappointing glacier I've seen as it was covered in black rocks. The icebergs were impressively large though which we only realised when a tour boat went crusing by looking like a yellow speck in comparison (see photo). We did a couple of other walks in the area
Queenstown View from Cable Car
No its not a postcard. It really looks this amazing! but found the fun/challenge diminished somewhat by the pavement-like wooden walkways snaking from the carparks and the huge over estimates of expected walking times. The scenery made it amazing nonetheless and we planned to tackle a 3 hour walk (supposedly) the next day. When we got up the next day we found that a night of fierce winds had brought in a lot of rain so after walking along the planned route for 15 minutes we were beyond soaked. We decided to turn back and save our energies for another walk another day.
Next ET took us to Queenstown which we had been hearing good things about the whole way along. It did not disappoint. The town itself is lovely and the surrounding countryside is beautiful as well. We stayed for several days, taking in the town life and going on a big hike up to Ben Lomond on one day. The weather closed in pretty quickly on our walk and when we reached "The Saddle" which is the bottom of the start of the summit walk we coincidentally met with Sam, the Finnish guy that I had been kayaking with. An experienced hiker he took the wind out
of my sails a bit as there was no way on earth I could walk up the steep summit path with the leggiest man on the planet.
We said a sad goodbye to Queenstown eventually and drove to Milford Sound which is in Fiordland on the west coast. Again, the drive was spectacular. As we drew closer to the area the scenery became increasingly astounding. We started driving through these humungous mountains from which waterfalls poured. There was also plenty of snow and ice around which we got very close to when we stopped to go through a tunnel. Homer's tunnel passes through one of the aforementioned big peaks and its a very interesting experience as water pours down from the ceiling all the way through. When we emerged on the other side we were blown away by the valley lying below us.
We had already booked a cruise for the next day so we arrived at our campsite for the night and got our dinner ready. It was an interesting experience as there were some middle aged Germans who a) started helping us cook our dinner and generally interfered and b) started trying to steal our cooking
utensils despite there being plenty provided in the kitchen! The cruise the following day was a spectacular. Typically it rains most of the time in Milford Sound but we were very lucky and got some spotless weather. The water was calm and we even got to see some penguins! The pictures truly do not do justice to this amazing place. After our cruise we thought we would attempt to drive all the way to Dunedin which is around 400km in distance. We quickly changed our minds and instead decided to stop enroute to do a walk which was the end part of a famous trek called The Routebourne Track. The scenery was excellent and the walk to the top exhilarating. We had a fantastic view of the valley. We stayed the night at Te Anau (119km away) and whilst its a pretty quiet place, we were treated to the most glorious sunset either of us had ever witnessed.
The next day it was on to Dunedin. We got there mid afternoon and settled ourselves in a camp just outside town. We were conscious now that time was slipping away and we only had around a week left with ET.
So the first day we headed straight for the coast. We had heard there were some great sand dunes at Sandfly Bay so after getting a bit lost we headed there. They did not disappoint. We spent half an hour throwing ourselves down them - more than making up for our previous sand dune disappointment in
San Pedro de Atacama and all that came after. On the same beach there was a penguin hide to observe the little fellows heading to shore in the afternoon. Unfortunately for them there were lots of sea lions lounging around that day which meant that they risked being a tasty treat if they came near. The sea lions were impressive though. They were scattered along the beach at various points with a concentration around the penguin entry point. It got a bit scary at some points when we had to scuttle past them! Dunedin seems like a nice enough place - lots of shops and some funky looking bars. We didn't really have time to get a full impression though. After our couple of days there we headed back to Queenstown - not because we couldn't stay away but because Becky had won a downhill mountain biking trip and had kindly donated
Kaikora Beach
Lunch stop on bus to Christchurch it to Mike. The company, Gravity Action, were pretty unfair about it though. They said he couldn't pre-book and only go if they had spaces left on a trip. After a no go the evening we arrived, the same the next morning and again at lunchtime we left Queenstown thinking that Gravity Action were pretty mean to give away a free ride and only later attach such restrictive conditions.
We headed off to Franz Josef Glacier next for some glacier climbing. The weather was pretty bad when we arrived and started to walk around the area near the glacier we got completely soaked and a lot of paths were closed off due to flooding. Keeping our fingers crossed for better weather the next day we booked a full day glacier hike. We set off at 9.15am for our induction and after kitting up were transported with 48 others to the glacier itself. We ended up in the average ability group which was ok. The start of the hike was hard as we had to climb up steep ice stairs for about 45 minutes. After that we got to the good stuff and began squeezing through crevasses and balancing on
the sides as we passed seemingly bottomless puddles. Our guide was excellent and we had a great time. There were a few trips and slips from all of us but no-one hurt themselves until I slipped on a rock when we were back on dry land - thankfully only my pride took the pummelling!
We both wanted to go sea kayaking after my previous experience and we had heard that Abel Tasman National Park was a great place to do it. So that was a our next stop. We headed to Marahau on the southern boundary of the national park. As the kayaks were entirely booked up for the following day we decided to spend an extra day there and kayak the day after. The area is beautiful. It is basically a stretch of coastline with a trail that takes 3 or 4 days to walk in total. We did the start of the walk and headed to a lovely swimming beach. The walk itself was an easy trail so we decided to head back via the beaches and rocks which was far more interesting. At one point we walked past two black birds with bright orange eyes and
beaks. They reminded me of something ghostly - perhaps the sort of thing you would see in a horror film just before the hero or heroine is attacked - and sure enough they took a deep dislike to us! It started with some high pitched squawking and ended with Mike and I running as fast as we could when they began to dive bomb us! Our sea kayaking adventure the next day did not happen as the weather had become too windy. Disappointed, we decided to head to Blenheim, which is known for its wineries, for some wine tasting. We arrived at 12.30 and booked on the 1pm tour. It was quite an afternoon! I have never been wine tasting before and it was eye opening to hear the descriptions of various types of wine. We bought 8 bottles (not all for us) which were delicious! Halfway through it turned out we had gotten on the wrong tour bus. By this point we were having a real laugh with the two other couples in our group all of whom were from South England (Windsor and Brighton) so we were disappointed - our guide sorted it out for us though and
Lake Tekapo "View" of Mt Cook
Tomorrow we're heading into those clouds! we got to stay!
We only had a day left after the wine tasting so on the way to Christchurch we stopped at Kaikoura where there is excellent whale watching to be had. We parked up at the campsite and went to the company that organises boat tours. Apparently the weather was so bad that the captain had issued restrictions for the tour (i.e. no elderly or pregnant people) and suggested anyone who suffered motion sickness not go on that day. Always one for a bit of extreme weather Mike rubbed his hands with glee and we headed out on the open seas. Apparently the norm is to see 1 or 2 whales and maybe some other sea creatures, however, we got to see 6! They were sperm whales which are of the able-to-eat-a-human variety! We got to see all of them dive down and flip up there tails which was really impressive. We also got to see some dolphins which was amazing! They are so acrobatic - it seemed as if they must have been showing off for us!
We finally crept back into Christchurch on 2nd December. It was sad to say goodbye to ET -
it was fun having a car again! We spent the night in Christchurch then caught our flight the next morning to Auckland. The original plan had been to stay there for 3 days but in order to get to Sydney early to surprise my Uncle on the day of his birthday party we managed to change our flights to leave Auckland the same day as we arrived. All in all we had a good time in New Zealand. Thinking back to the things we did while we were there and looking at the pictures I am amazed that we didn't enjoy it more but I think we had been spoiled in South America and as such the beauty of new Zealand took its time to come to us. The people there are unbelieveably friendly and the scenery is glorious.
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Calum
Calum Shaw
Boo! Down with Gravity Action
Thankfully your space ship achieved escape velocity...