New Zealand - South Island


Advertisement
New Zealand's flag
Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region » Nelson
March 1st 2011
Published: March 4th 2011
Edit Blog Post

Christchurch CathedralChristchurch CathedralChristchurch Cathedral

As it was when we were there, now its missing its spire
14th February – 28th February 2011

Air New Zealand is the best – let’s make that clear from the start. The in-flight entertainment is unrivalled and the generosity with the wine is faultless. It is actually done electronically, you simply click your order on the screen and within a minute or two it’s there. Steve’s screen started to play up towards the end but we suspect it was disabled by the cabin crew who noticed the stock of Chardonnay dwindling rapidly. The only problem was that the song playing on the entertainment system at the time was caught in a loop and there is only so many times you can listen to Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones before wanting to jump off the wing. Ellie discovered the best soft drink ever – it’s called L&P standing for Lemon & Paeroa, a refreshing beverage native to New Zealand.

So we landed in Christchurch pretty late but would have two full days in the city before picking up our hire car, which we would have for 3 weeks. We were told that Christchurch is a very English town and by jove, it is. It’s called the Garden City because of
LyttletonLyttletonLyttleton

This small town was flattened 5 days later as it was the epicentre of the quake
the number or parks and gardens and even has the River Avon running thorough it, on which you can go punting! We had been told by a crazy lady that another earthquake was possible but we kept our fingers crossed. We went for a wander and looked at the Cathedral and central areas of the city and we were surprised by the amount of damage caused by the 2010 earthquakes as many of the buildings were fenced off as they had been deemed unstable. We took a trip on the Gondola which is a cable car that offers great views of the city and the surroundings. On reaching the top Ellie had a feeling of déjà vu and later had it confirmed by her mum that she had been here before ten years ago on a family holiday! Fortunately it was a clear day and we were able to see for miles.

On our next day, we spent a few a good few hours at the Christchurch Museum learning about the Maoris, Captain Cook and the early days of the city. There were some really fascinating exhibitions and it was free, which is always a bonus. The museum is next to the Botanical Gardens where we spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun.

Later that day, Steve discovered a new love, Pak and Save. This is a warehouse style supermarket where they get tons of stock in, pile it up and then sell it off pretty cheap! As we were about to aquire a car, this would come in handy in supplying us with lots of cheap dinners and beer. So as soon we got the car the next day, our first stop was, you guessed it, Pak and Save!

After getting to know the car (a mid 90’s Mazda Demio resembling a box) for a while, we christened it Doris, which is a reflection more of its acceleration than anything else. She did manage to get us to our next destination though, Dunedin, in the Otago region. Here we discovered the Cadbury’s factory for Ellie and the Speights Brewery for Steve and we booked ourselves on a tour of both for the next day. So it was chocolate a plenty in the morning, followed by beer in the afternoon.

At the chocolate factory we were made to wear some very fetching hair nets and given
Christchurch MuseumChristchurch MuseumChristchurch Museum

Go on girl......
an empty bag which we were told may get filled with chocolate throughout the tour – and they were not wrong – by the end of the tour we both had a goody bag full of lovely treats and Ellie was very happy. So after lunch in the park, we headed to the brewery where we had a tour followed by we were allowed to pour our own drinks and have as many tasters as we could in half an hour – bonus!! The brewery is built on the spring which goes into the beer and therefore it has been in this town centre location for ever. It’s a 6 storey building and starts off with the ingredients at the top and each process takes place on a different level with the beer being ready by the ground floor. We crammed a bit of sampling into the 30 minute slot and the beer was delightful – we declared it would be our official beer of New Zealand during our stay.

Next stop was Te Anau, which is in Fiordland on the west of the island. Our first day was spent on the Kepler Track, which is a 67km walking
DorisDorisDoris

No caption required
track which is supposed to take 4 days and takes you around the lakes and Fiords in the area. This seemed a bit much to us so we did 15km as a day walk. The next morning was an early start as we left at 6am to drive up to the 9am sailing of the Milford Sound Cruise. We decided on the early cruise as it was cheaper than the rest, but the early start meant that we avoided the crowds and shared a very large boat with only 30 other people. Milford Sound was realy beautiful, the rain stayed away and we were fortunate enough to see penguins, seals and dolphins, which we are told was a rarity. At one point the skipper of the boat manouvered the bow underneath a waterfall and it was very refreshing. After a fantastic morning we got on the road to Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand.

When we arrived, we made the decision that we must do an adrenalin fuelled activity, and Steve was set on a Canyon Swing, Ellie not so much as it basically involves chucking yourself off a cliff, 109m above the canyon floor, freefalling 70 metres
Pak and SavePak and SavePak and Save

Nothing compares 2u
at 150kmh and then swinging 200 metres. However, in a moment of madness we both booked oursleves on to do the canyon swing and a Shotover jet boat the next day. We wont talk too much about the canyon swing as we think the videos explain it all but viewers should be aware that Steve uses some uncharacteristic explicit language and Ellie has never been so terrified in her life! For those of you who are on Facebook, the videos can be seen on Ellie's page - for those who aren't we will show you them when we get back if you fancy.

The Shotover jet was a speedboat with 4 Buick engines on the back and meandered at breakneck speed through the canyon performing 360 degree turns. The only slight issue was that it was pelting with rain and the driver warned us that it might be a bit ‘rifrishing’. It was however like having needles inserted into your face but was excellent nonetheless. After an exciting day, we headed off to ‘Fergburger’, a legendary burger bar which everyone had told us about – we had been told by Americans that it was the best burger place in
Dunedin StationDunedin StationDunedin Station

The second most photographed building in Australasia..... the first being in Sydney!
the world, so we knew it meant business. As expected, Steve took on the biggest one on the menu and it was the size of a toddler. Ellie’s meanwhile was only the size of a baby but they were both seriously delish, so much so that we decided to make a second visit two days later as we left.

The following day was a bit calmer and we took yet another cable car up to the summit of a big mountain overlooking Queenstown. As well as the amazing views, there is a luge there which we took a couple of rides on. The first was a compulsory scenic route (slow) on which we familiarised ourselves with the controls and then we went hell for leather on the advanced (fast) track which was amazing! In the afternoon we took a drive to Glenorchy which is 50km away and was used in the filming of Lord of the Rings. As neither of us are fans of LOTR it didn’t mean much to us but at least it was very pretty.

This was the day that the earthquake struck Christchurch and whilst we didn’t feel anything (we were on the luge
Cadburys DunedinCadburys DunedinCadburys Dunedin

We had the option of keeping them.... but declined
at the time) two American girls in our dorm said that they felt the earth and the dorm beds shake – very scary and we felt very lucky to have left 5 days earlier.

After Queenstown it was on to Aoraki which is more commonly known as Mount Cook Village to see the mountain! We booked onto a glacial lake trip (Tasman Glacier) which was an interesting experience, taking us back to our A-Level geography days. Ellie had done the same trip 10 years ago but was very keen for Steve to see how amazing it was..... and it didn’t disappoint. Because of the earthquake, there had been a massive amount of ‘calving’ from the glacier so we were fortunate to be able to boat through many fresh icebergs, which we were told was very lucky as the last time it had broken off was 6 months earlier. Our next overnight stop was Fox Glacier, just the other side of Mount Cook about 20 km away. The problem was that we didn’t have our mountain climbing gear or helicopter on hand so we had to take Doris on the 500km, 7 hour drive. We stopped off at Wanaka for
Cadburys DunedinCadburys DunedinCadburys Dunedin

We considered offering Doris as a part-ex
lunch by the lake before heading north to the glacier.

We decided not to do a walk on the glacier as we had taken the boat trip and we’re starting the run out of time on the south island, but we were told that it was amazing. We did however, stop off and took a walk up to the face of the glacier and it was huge and quite brilliant. The next morning was a really clear day so we went to the Mount Cook lookout nearby and managed to see the top of the mountain properly against a backdrop of blue sky for the first time. It was then another monster drive up to Nelson in the north of the island. The surrounding Nelson and Malborough regions are famous for wine production and we realised that we hadn’t actually drunk any wine since landing in New Zealand – the Speights has just taken over. However, we decided to save our livers for some serious wine drinking in Hawkes Bay. The other thing the area is famous for is the Abel Tasman National Park so we headed here for another day of walking, or tramping as they call it
Speights DunedinSpeights DunedinSpeights Dunedin

Steve making himself at home
here!

We decided on the coastal track and we rewarded with glorious golden beaches and turquoise waters, which after a few hours of walking in the sun was refreshingly cold and a glorious place to eat our lunch and chill on the beach. After the walk back we had covered 15kms and thought we’d end the day with a 5km run in the heat which was a killer but a lovely way to see a bit of the coast around Nelson. Needless to say, we were pretty tired after all that excursion so we had an early night in preparation for ferry over to the Wellington, in the north island, the next morning.

Two weeks down and two weeks to go before we hit the Cook Islands.

Take care all

S & E xx


Additional photos below
Photos: 26, Displayed: 26


Advertisement

Milford SoundMilford Sound
Milford Sound

This waterfall was supposed to make you look 10 years younger.... but didnt!!
Shotover Canyon Swing, QueenstownShotover Canyon Swing, Queenstown
Shotover Canyon Swing, Queenstown

We jumped off that!!!!
Tasman Glacier LakeTasman Glacier Lake
Tasman Glacier Lake

"Have you got any G&T to go with my iceberg?"
Tasman Glacial LakeTasman Glacial Lake
Tasman Glacial Lake

Iceberg, right ahead!!
Weird art at Lake WanakaWeird art at Lake Wanaka
Weird art at Lake Wanaka

Give her a big hand
Jumping into freezing water at Haast BeachJumping into freezing water at Haast Beach
Jumping into freezing water at Haast Beach

Eat your heart out Hasselhoff!
Mount CookMount Cook
Mount Cook

A rare sighting as its usually covered by cloud


21st March 2011

Who it is?
Hi Steve and Ellie, Seems like the earth moved for you in NZ. Anyway,who is it in the choccy factory with Ellie,you or cousin David(he must have been a stowaway) LOL, Uncle Jim.

Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0587s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb