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Published: December 17th 2006
Magnificent Mount Cook
Another rubbish view! Taken from our camp site, when we got up (i.e. after 10:00am).Hi everyone!
Sorry for our delay in updating, we have been living in a camper van for the last 3 weeks and grabbing a few minutes on email where we can. We now have a couple of hours before we go to a BBQ with some friends Jo and Steve who are back in NZ for Christmas. It will be nice to see some friendly faces and will be nice to have a few beers!
We arrived in Auckland on Fri 24th November from Tahiti where Ady managed to contract Dengue Fever, which put a bit of a dampener on the start of New Zealand as he was laid low with fevers, aches and pains and rashes and sheer knackerdness for over a week. We saw a few doctors but were scuppered by country wide laboratory strikes and were passed from pillar to post trying to get a diagnosis. Our main thing was to try and rule out Malaria.... He is much better now, whatever he had, back to his moaning old self!
Luckily for me we were staying with my mate Jo Wyatt and her mate Sarah for the first couple of days, so I was well looked
Mt cook from Lake Tekapo
Some of the colour of the lake comes over in this shot, on the South Island after and entertained and Ady was kept in fluids and paracetamol in a comfy king sized bed with amazing views!
It was fab to see Jo and we had a good catch up a few glasses of sparkly, BBQ's and beach trips while Ady slept. Jo tried to convince me on the way to the beach that we should do some boogie boarding, but after dipping out toes in we decided a beer and reading our books was more up our street!!
Jo is an absolute star and leant us her pride and joy camper van for our month in NZ which has been fantastic. It is great to drive on the empty roads with stunning views and has been our bed for the night too... We can't thank you enough Jo..
We set off North on Sunday 26th in the van with me driving (Ady would have ben a lot more scared if he wasn't feeling so crap!!) and camped in some great places, the first night by a beach with millions of cockles which I cooked up and ate a small portion of, they were lovely and great to pick your own!! The next night
Milford Sound
Dramatic scenery on a difficult weather day for photography ... we stayed on a farm with stunning views over a cove. We then headed to the Bay of Islands and did the obligatory boat trip to the hole in the rock, not the most exciting, though we did see dolphins hopping around which you don't see every day! Ady had felt a bit beter in the morning, but the boat trip was a bit much and sent him back to bed.
After this we headed South (via Auckland Hospital, who turned us away because Ady wasn't going to die and there was a strike on) for the ferry and have spent 2 weeks travelling around the South Island which is stunning, we drove through the coves and stunning views ofver the lakes of Malbourough Sound to Haverlock (green muscle country) and Blenheim (the wine region) where we sampled some of the most minging red wine we've ever had!! It was Ady's first drink for a week, we managed 1 glass and used the rest for cooking!!! I think kiwi white wines are a better option!! We stayed in Kaikoura and did the 'Whale watch', which was absolutely fantastic, we saw 4 sperm whales, some albatrosses and hundreds of dusky
The cheeky Kea
The Homer tunnel's own guardsmen, a squadron of Kea stationed at each end. They like nothing more than to eat a windscreen wiper or adjust the nearside wing mirror so you can't see jack! dolphins jumping up and down in the sea- a must if you are in this area! The whales were absolutely massive!!
We then spent the evening in Akaroa, a village on a peninsular made by an old volcano, stunning views and bright blue water. From there we went to Rakia Gorge and took a jet boat up the gorge with owner/operator Murray McDonald and one other customer through steep sides of the gorge and greeny blue water. We had our cheapest night camping here on a great little sight for just $8 for 2 (around 1.25 each!) not bad hey!!
Mount Cook was our next stop, it was a lovely sunny day and we were surrounded by snow capped mountaind, glaciers and lakes. Lake Tekapo is the most amazing colour of blue. We drove through Queenstown in the afternoon and stopped to watch bungee jumping at the famous AJ Hackett Kawura Bridge bungee jump (the first bungee jump in NZ), although great to watch we weren't tempted by hanging upside down on a piece of elastic!!
We then headed for rainy Milford Sound (6 meters of rain a year) so guess what, it was raining!! The road
The Shotover Jet
We were to cheap to buy the real photo at 40 bucks, so use your imagination! into Milford Sound is amazing through a massive tunnel on a gradient with amazing views down the valley's despite the rain. This just adds to the hundreds of small water falls in the area. On either end of the tunnel are cheaky Keas, a parott like bird that sits on your wing mirror and stares in at you and tries to pick the rubber out of your car door!! The Sounds themsleves are very beautiful and on a sunny day must be absolutely stunning! We did a boat trip and the mist and eeriness reminded us of our ferry through the Chilean fjords, especially when we went out into the rough Tasman sea for a bit, luckily this was only a few minutes, rather than the 14 hrs we experienced in the Pacific!!
Jo flew down to Queenstown and spent almost a week with us, which was great fun!
We did the Shotover jet which was pretty scary as it aimed for cliff walls and sticky out bits of rock at top speed... we got drenched in ice cold water with 360 degree turns at top speed.. Good fun though, we spent most of the journey screaming and laughing!
This is how it's done
Jacko keeps it on the island .... In the afternoon we did a white water rafting trip down the Shotover River. We got togged up in our wetsuits (which were very stylish, so there was a pact that there would be no pickys for you to laugh at!!!) and they put us into groups of 7 with a guide, ours was Chris. Should we have been worried when Norman and Brian brothers in their 60's from Manchester were in our group?!?!? I think may be we should!! Especially when they requested to go at the front of the raft where they had to row in time for the rest of the raft follow!!! Their timing shall we say wasn't the best and with Norman's deafness to commands it made for a fun trip!!! By the end Norman was rather henpecked by Jo and I!! The rapids were grade 4 plus and we had a few close together to negotiate which were a bit tricky, but in general the river was a bit tame though great fun. We so nearly came out and the raft was so close to tipping over in a rapid called the 'Toilet bowl' it was untrue! I honestly don't know how we
Jo and Nic and scenery
Jo Wyatt, who's campervan we are lucky to be borrowing, and Nic, early on the downhill trip (sorry Jo, you got blogged)! didn't, I think it was a miracle!! It must have been the tea stiring Norman did with his paddle that kept us in there!!! A great way to speand an afternoon and the hot sausage roll and cup of tea at the end were well deserved!
The following day we opted for down hill mountain biking with a company called 'Gravity Action', would definitely recommend them, the bikes were good quality and the people were great! Noboddy told me that you had to do the whole thing standing on your pedals though and it wasn't the done thing to sit down!! Oh no... There were 2 routes and easy one 'The Skipper's Canyon Road' whach was a bumpy dusty gravelly road with hair pin bends!! (Not quite so easy!!) and a hard one, off road which I didn't attempt but had some scary moments going down large gradients and through streams. Ady, Jo and I did the easier option first, which was fun, I managed to stand up on my peddals most of the way and look like I knew what I was doing!! The others were just a tad faster than me!! We got taken back up to
How did he stay on it?
Captain Mainwairing shows the gang how to dress for the occasion.... the top in a mini bus, with the bikes on a trailer and could go again. This time Ady and Jo were brave and went down to extra hard route and I went down the canyon again, was just thinking how good it was, how well I was doing... slight loss of concentration, increased speed a grab of the front break and I was over the handle bars and sporting a grazed elbow and bruised knees!! Which I still have...... This made my Mum and Dad laugh as I spend most of my childhood years with scabby knees and a bust lip from pressing that front break and coming over the top!! Luckily this time my lips are still intact. One day I will learn!!! The other 2 did great and didn't fall off!! Was a fun day out despite my little mishap and I would do it again, but next time think they might need to unwire my front break!!!
We headed over to the West Coast to the Fox and Frans Joseph Glaciers, our aim being to do a heli-hike, which is a helicopter ride to the Glacier and a 2 hour hike accross the ice! Unfortunatelty
A new road sign is born...
Following Jacko's contretemps, the NZ Highways Department commisioned this sign for the Skippers Canyon Road. the weather wasn't kind to us, the cloud was too low for the helicopter to land and it started to rain. We tried 3 times with no luck, so had to move on.
We travelled through the stunning views of Arthurs Pass, through the mountains, amazing it is a highway and lorries use it, the roads are so steep. We camped by a river in the middle of nowhere with lots of stars. We left Jo in Christchurch to go and do a bit of work! Was a good few days, shame about the heli-hike, but you can't have everything. We'll just have to come back!!!
Pancake rocks and blow holes were our next stop, rocks pretty impressive, but only one blow hole that was a bit tame!! We travelled back to Picton via Upper Buller Gorge where there is a swing bridge that is 150m across the gorge. It sways quite a bit as you walk over. We took the tandem comet back, which Ady describes as a chair that goes down a wire across the gorge, was very funny but not very scary and we have pictures and a little video of it (which we bought
We rode the Buller Gorge Comet!
Well, at least it didn't come to an ignaminious stop half way over. But the adrenalin generated wouldn't have been enough to cover a small wafer biscuit! at a snip after quite a collapse in their first suggested price)....
We arrived in Picton and decided a couple of beers and a curry were in order!! Who did we bumb into in the street, but Brian and Norman....
It is off to the BBQ now to meet another Jo and Steve. We are heading North again on Monday via, Napier, Taupo, Rotarura and the Coramandel Peninsular and will be back in Auckland on Thursday to see Jo and Sarah and the meet up with an old friend of mine Jayne and her husband Luke and children before we fly to Oz on 23rd Dec for Christmas.
Hope you all have very happy Christmas's and great New Year's with family and friends.
Take care
Lots of love
Nic and Ady xxxxx
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Jan Gonnella
non-member comment
Merry christmas
Happy Christmas to you both - sounds like an action packed trip so far, expect some action packed BBQing for xmas on the beach !