Advertisement
Published: April 2nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Cavers Ahoy
Emma certainly dresses for the part of explorer extroidinaire. So the end of our times in good ole ch.ch have come to an end - an on a high at that. I finished work with more than a singular tear welling up in me eye...I think it was the moment that Mrs Richardson gave me a wee kiss goodbye on the cheek that pushed me over the edge. Then Emma our new found and hopefully long term friend was to depart. We went on a last expedition to Cave Stream before her mid-week departure. T'was sooooo cool. You just turn up at this river armed with torch and back up batteries and go into this cave, which is about 20 metres high in places, 2 or 3 in others. waist deep in water, in pitch black where you can't see your hand in front of your face, over the course of the next hour you force your way upstream over boulders, through the force of the river. fun times that's for sure! It's the site where they filmed Narnia, and we emerged bedragled, to brilliant sunshine and scenery and tourists taking our pictures as we scramble out in a particularly un-elegant manner. We'd lost emma, but Jen and Jess
came back to town for a couple of days, as did 5 boys from my primary and secondary schools back in England - we boogied. I apparantly met someone quite famous, but can't really recall the incident.
Then with a mega hangover, we cleaned. It was horrible. Despite the fact we're living out of a back-pac, we'd accumulated so much stuff - some more than others (Alison). Eventually we left for our adventure. Alison and I to start with. We went due North. Amazing stars greeted us at Kaikoura after Ali nearly killed us hitting a gravel patch in the road at close to 100 km/h. Thundering hearts we survived and slept in the car at a camp site at goose bay...I liked the name. Onwards to Nelson...No major driving incidents. Ali slept.
To summarise the main events of the past week, we have kayaked in the Abel Tasman (the most visited national park in NZ because it's loverly). the sea was green, the guide was attractive, Ali and myself were really slow and could not keep up with the Canadian couple joining us on the excursion. It hurt my arms so I was 'windmilling' = doing it
Stuck in a sand dune
But it's not us this time!!! Our bed for the night though wrong! We have walked, been to museums. We've been rained on. Been sunburnt. Met some whack-jobs. I sacrificed some toothpaste for a man in need, and got offered discounted skydiving as a result. I declined. I didn't get paid by work so was down to 40 cents at one point before the payment came through...Made petrol purchasing exciting and frustrating as I split the cost over 2 cards and with cash. We've eating a heck of a lot of cold beans and tinned fruit. WE have driven over more comically named streams - Dry stream (which was wet), Wet stream (which was dry), Dunlop stream closely associated with the Duffer stream next door. Ali saw her 1st glacier. We're sleeping in picnic spots across the country, which have proven to be divine to wake up to. Once we slept in a cul-de-sac in the car which is so not comfortable. We've covered nearly 2000 km already in the old grey banger. When Emma, Jen and Jess went on their trip round the country a couple weeks ago now, I was deeply shocked and appalled that they didn't shower for 6 days.
It's been 7 since my last.
I'm sorry...It's just so hard when you're going around the way we are. I've managed to wash my hair in a bucket twice, so that's got to count for something! Tonight we're booking into a proper campsite. Yep siree...The time has come. In the alternative words of MC Hammer - It's shower time!
We met Angela at the designated site, at the designated time after driving pretty much solid over 1/3 of the country in 1 day. It was her b'day. She's way OLD (23). For this special day we went to puzzling world which was mega fun - a maze for grown ups and illusions. I loved it...hope she did. We also dragged her kicking and screaming to see Miss Potter in Wanaka. Now, this was not a cinema outing just for the sake of seeing a fil-um...oh no...This was a cinema experience quite unlike any other. Instead of the ususal rows of red seats, this cinema offered sofas and a converted beetle to sit and watch from. There was also an interval where they produced freshly baked cookies. Angela indulged with a very grown up glass of milk too. Crazy times for the b'day girl.
Next day we awoke, took down the tent round the ears of the sleeping beauty Ali and set off into the Town of the Queen (a.k.a Queenstown). Here we had a little bit of shocking news. Alison received a phone call from Louise (who had had to miss out on this exciting trip because the loser is still working). The red car had been nicked from outside her house. Gutting times! Ali took the news remarkably well considering that the car had all her belongings that she hadn't taken on this trip - and there's a lot of them! Even more gutting though, was the fact that the car contained my entire CD collection I'd brought with me. This consisted of a heck of a lot of CDs from homw to entertain me for a year (<1kg worth - I weighed them) and about 13 CDs I'd bought over here as part of my 'kiwi music experience'. Bah! Police reports bekoned and Ali decided to fly back to Ch.Ch as it was a lov-er-ly day and would kind of be a scenic flight over Mt Cook etc.
Angela and I were left...well...lost, cold, despairing without our alison by our side. Life goes on though. But at this point I need a break. Part 2 of the travels will b on it's way...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.185s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.1477s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
claire grigson
non-member comment
random
Hey Ranon, i have a random story for you-on Saturday night a young man came up to me and said 'your rhiannons friend aren't you?', to which i replied 'yes' in a drunken confused state, and he said 'I'm gordan!',at which point i got very excited,threw my arms around him and embraced him like a long lost friend.....i think he may have been afraid!!i then garbled some drunken crap to him,and walked off...nice.... :-) poor Gordan!!xxx