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Published: October 14th 2007
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After a descent over snow capped mountains we landed in Christchurch and boy was i confused.
Am i in england, not really sure.. why is everyone talking in funny accents, why is this cucumber nearly two pounds, why is this meat so cheap.
Nope definately not in england, i shall never bully people who live near sheep ever again, because all this livestock means copious amounts of cheap good meat.
The first few nights we stayed in a hostel where the lady ran a tight ship, the place was spanking and her nails where almost 6 inches long.
Once again we hired a car but struggled to name it, we ended up with 'Old blue' but i have never come to terms with this poor excuse for a name - whats wrong with 'Papa smurf' or 'Suzzie blue'
Old blue was a Subaru, this rhymed, i liked that.
He took us down the coast, to penguin lookouts and albatross look outs and lakes.
Te anau is probably the greatest place in the world, there is a massive lake and a tree with a swing, i was happy.
Here we took boat trips to Milford and Doubtful
sounds.. stunning views and winds that made the waterfalls fall upwards.
This is also where i met brian the dolphin who took time swimming alongside the boat for a good 5 minutes.
There was also a glow worm cave here, sounds a bit boring but you float in there on a boat and its like looking up at stars.
The best way to see NZ is to drive, you get to continuosly drive through hills mountains and past lakes and rivers.
We hit queenstown, the tourist town.. its was nuts and had the greatest burgers i have ever had which where closely rivaled by the 'stimp burger' collaborated a few weeks later.
Queenstown has a luge, much like the one in singapore but 10 times as dangerous and the smeel of burning rubber as you sped round the corners only made me want to take it even further to the edge.
Queenstown is also home to the Nevis bungy, 134m - massive and something i would quite like to do once a day because it was Nuts.
Most bungy's are 40 to 50 meters so this is clearly the one to do, the 8 second freefall
is just enough time to get some serious air racing past your head.
We later stayed in wanaka, lake wanaka where we did the 15,000ft skydive, also nuts and my tandem guy let me fly the parachute on the way down.
On to Fox glacier where you can do a glacier walk.
On the day it was pouring down and as we were provided with clothes and crampons - spikes for your shoes, yes spikes! - i was excited as we could get as muddy and wet as we wanted..
After weeks in the sun many would find all this rain a disappointment, i like to call it 'mixing it up'
The glacier walk was amazing, rocks were falling down the moutnains, the rivers were swelling up from the immense rain and i was getting more and more excited.
Unfortunately the wind picked up to much so we had to turn around as it was too dangerous, we saw the galcier but didnt get on it.
After a couple more stops up the west coast we got the ferry over to the north island.
This is when i ran out of money ,my card stopped
working and i had 5 dollars, thankfully i am with four others and started a 'Tab'
I later found out i had maxed out my overdraft and my credit card was also not working because i hadnt paid the minimum - Opps.
Sorting out this whole bank problem was made more enjoyable by the internet banking not working, a postal strike at home and the bank not being allowed ot tell 'me ma' any details.
What was even more fun was that i only had 5 dollars and it costs 5 dollars for a phone connection card and 5 dollars for a 'talk and save' card. - and obviously phoning nationwide from here probably costs more than that.. so i just decided to buy a pint, a packet of Nerds and watch Jeepers creepers 2 until eventually the internet started working again and good old nationwide extended my overdraft which cleared two days later.
The remaining time in NZ, one week, was to be spent in a 6 berth camper which was massive and named 'The rig'
We took The Rig to lake taupo via 'desert road' (a dangerous road) in the rain and stayed a few nights
by the river which was where i had the greatest wash in the world, no soap just a good bit of fresh mountain river water.
There is a shrimp farm nearby so of course we went, did all the fun stuff to do like feed some and catch some.. i caught one.
After the five of us took the three shrimps we had caught and the restaurant cooked them up.
Probably the greatest shrimp i had ever had;
Firstly beacuse it was massive and secondly because i followed the menu instructions which told us to suck all teh juice out of the head which was amazing and i would quite like a pint of it.
After a week of cheap campervaning, mentle meals including 'stimp burgers' and 'Mega wraps', wine and jammin' with the guitars we hit our last stop - Hot water beach.
This is where you get a spade and dig a whole, and of course it fills with sea water but as its over some sort of hot spring it heats up so you have a jacuzzi in the beach - NUTs but also dangerous as some of it heated up so much we had
to get out - steam was pouring of them.
We have driven somewhere around 10 - 15,000 km in the last 7 weeks, in the rain, through mountains and in the dark kangaroo infested roads of Australia - so obvioulsy Hot water beach carpark is where i decided to bash the Rig into another rig - Opps!
Thankfully we took the premium insurance option which meant we could pretty much bash anything for free, just have to fill out a few forms and drink free hot chocolate.
A night in Auckland in a Lit-up disco dancefloor ended New zealand, but not before ending the night with a Burger king meal where it costs 30p extra to get onion rings - dangerous!
If you like scenery go to New Zealand, Do it!
To America, today! Ahhh! 10 Days left! ahhhhhhhhh!
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katie p!
non-member comment
wow!!
That sounds amaaaazing mate! I did a skydive in aus and loved it. And Old Blue is a perfectly good name me thinks... When you home? I'm living in Brighton now but missing 24hr spar greatly - bet you are too (maybe not..) Have fun xx