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Published: December 17th 2009
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Invercargill As we got out of Milford Sound we were going to stay the night at Te Anau again. When we got there we decided against it and headed off to Invercargill. This is the southern most city in NZ and has a strong Scottish heritage as you could probably guess. We headed to the info site and found a nice campsite to stay at. As out tent was so wet we asked for the cheapest accommodation and it turned out to be an on site caravan. We let our tent dry out and the owner told us it was prob best that we didn’t camp because they were due to have storms in the night. Got into our 1970s caravan, the ones JC blows up on Top Gear, and realised that it was the best thing we could have done. It was cheaper than a cabin yet you get a seating area and a fridge. Its like having a studio apartment. We drove out to Bluff, which is the southern most point in NZ, just 1500km to Antarctica. So far south in fact, that in 1994 they had the Southern lights there, Aurora Australialis I think!! Anyway the main
reason for going there was to say we have been to both extremities of NZ!! Back to town and what to do here!! They have a lovely garden but we were going to do that the next morning and they also have the closest living relatives to dinosaurs. We were going to go see them when we both realised we had no interest. We went back to the caravan and chilled. It was nice to have our own space. Made some dinner, had a few drink and watched a film. Bliss!
Dunedin The guy wasn’t wrong about the rain in the night - it poured. Good thing we werent in a tent because I don’t think we could hack it 2 days on the trot. The park was off the agenda due to bad weather so in the car we got and off on the southern scenic route to Dunedin. The scenery is not as good as anywhere else in NZ. It is mainly farmland and because it wax raining we felt like we were in the wet Kent countryside. We got to Dunedin and it was still raining. Decided to go for a caravan again as they
are cheap and this one was even better. We had more space to sit, a table and an area to cook. Bargain!! We also noticed they had Scrabble for hire so took advantage of that. We headed into town to see what was around and get some food but it was miserable in the rain. Went back and had a marathon Scrabble session.
Up the next morning and the weather had improved a lot. First place to visit was Cadbury’s World. It was a lot smaller than Birmingham’s, so much so, the crème eggs they produce in 6 months, Birmingham do in a day!! It was still good to have a look around and get lots of samples. The best attraction was the 1ton liquid chocolate waterfall. Very impressive!! Our guide was called Rachel and she certainly took advantage of working in a choc factory, if you know what I mean!! After out first indulgence we went to our second. Speight’s Brewery!! An interesting tour but done like the Guinness store house, so more like a museum. Our guide was very pro NZ and Speight’s and could get a bit annoying. We met a couple called Chris and Brooke,
Boulders
We stopped on the way to Timaru. Along the beach are these natural boulders. who were also on our Cadbury’s tour and after Speight’s we had a drink together in the pub next door. From there we had a wander round town and got some food for dinner. Neither of us felt well so ended up not eating and having an early night. No Scrabble for us!!
Timaru Up and out of the caravan to go to Baldwin Street. This is the steepest street in the world and bloody hell was it steep. You could drive up it, but Zo and I had had a crumpet and were bursting with energy, so we decided to walk up it. At the steepest point it is 1 in 2.85 - meaning steep!! Luckily they have steps on one side otherwise it would have been hard in flip flops. We got back to the car at the bottom and picked up our certificate to say we had walked up it. Next stop for us was Timaru. We arrived at a campsite just out of town and got ourselves another caravan, started to fall for them. There isn’t much to do in Timaru and this made us think what we were going to do for
the next week, as we had seen everything we wanted. We decided to call Qantas and change our flights to Oz. We moved them to 15th Dec, so it gives us time to see Melbourne before we go see Baz. We had a walk around town and realised we had done the right thing in leaving early. There was nothing to do!! Bought travel scrabble and had some dinner.
Christchurch Up and out to Christchurch, for the second time! Pulled into a camp site outside of town and set up our tent, which would turn out to be the last time in NZ!! Went into town and down to cathedral square. A very pretty square, which had a market on and where we got the tram from. It was a beautiful day, 25 degrees, and the tram took us on a guided tour of a small section of the town. We had bought the combo ticket which meant we got to go punting down the Avon. It was a lovely day for it and very relaxing. Luckily we didn’t have to do it ourselves because the punter struggled to get us back up stream!! After the punt we
drove to our 3rd attraction, the gondola. The drive was bout 15mins from the centre of town but a great view from the top of Christchurch and the harbour. Included in our gondola ticket was the Time Tunnel Ride - not really a ride, more of a slow moving educational journey and not really that exciting. Back to camp for some dinner and our last night in the tent.
Our car was full to brim with stuff , so we decided we had to get a cabin just to organise it before our trip. Got ourselves a cabin and spent most of the day trying to organise our gear before we got o Oz - there is a lot of it. Went into town to have a walk around, thought it would be busy it was the 2nd to last Sunday before xmas, but how wrong were we. It was empty so didn’t stay there long. Picked up some boxes on the way back to send some unwanted stuff home. Made dinner and watched a couple of films in our room.
Up and out to send our parcels home before doing a massive wash and dry before trying
Lone Star
Our last meal in New Zealand to pack up our gear. We have left our pots and pans and our cheap sleeping bags because we just don’t have the room. Spend most of the day round camp before going out to Lonestar for our final dinner in NZ. Went back to take on the huge fajitas again!! We got talking to one of the staff after our meal and then the manager came back and gave us a free Lone Star T-Shirt apparently just for being nice people!!
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Chris Hampden
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Free T-shirts
Tommy, are you sure they didn't give you the t-shirt because they thought you were homeless with that hair??? Only joking. Enjoy the heat in Oz. 2 days in England for me so far and it has snowed and is below 0 degrees. Shock to the system!!