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Published: September 14th 2007
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New Zealand, land of the Kiwi Rugby Union and Maori as well as Lord of the Rings Middle Earth! As hopefully you are aware, New Zealand is made up of two main Islands (North & South), I am splitting blogsbetween the two.
With only 15 days in New Zealand, I had to quickily decide on a bus tour to see as much of New Zealand as I could in the time I had. I decided to choose a Magic bus tour that started in Christchurch & ended in Auckland (north Island) which fitted perfectly with flights. The bus dropped & picked us up from accomodation and was to take us to all the sites.
South Island route Christchurch (by train)>Greymouth (by bus)>Franz Josef>Queenstown>Dunedin>Tekapo>Christchurch (by train)>Picton Ferry Terminal
I arrived intp Christchurch from Sydney. The next day at 7am I was picked up from my hostel at 7am to make the
Tranz-Alpine train journey from Christchurch to Greymouth. The journey included going literally right through the NZ Alps which were breathtaking. The journey offerred a variety of scenes from the flat Canterbury planes to the foothills of the southern Alps to the labrinth of gorges and hills
known as
The staircase, river valley fringed with dense forest and snowcapped peaks.
Greymouth - Just as I was going to do in alot of the places in NZ, I spent 1 night here. This was the home of Monteiths brewing Co. Went on a tour of the works and got to sample all the beers afterwards 😊 Also BBQ afterwards where you got to eat as many sausages as you wanted, the record was apparently 43, I only ate 9!
Franz Josef -Next morning headed down the west coast to Franz Joseff glacier. I was able to walk on the Glacier which I very glad I decided to do. It was pretty amazing, we put spikes onto walking boots and walked up the man made steps cut into the Ice. Walking between great walls of ice and through ice tunnels was pretty cool!
Queenstown - Known in NZ as the
adrenaline capital of the world. This was a happening town with lots to do, so I gave myself the luxury of staying 3 nights. First full day I spent having Ski lesson on the slopes called The remarkables. Was the first time I had tried sking,
and was alot easier than I thought it would be. By the end of the 2nd lesson I was able to happily ski down the slopes that wetr not to steep!
The next day i decided to do a couple of
bungy jumps. Queenstown was home to the first ever comercial bungy jump that started in 1988, and I decided that I would do this jump. It was a 43m drop into the river, which in bungy terms is not high, but I made the mistake of looking down, and when the guy counted down and told me to jump, i stayed where I was on the jump platform. Took another count and a few gulps to gain the courage to make the jump to my potential death! Fortunately a second later my head was dunked into the river and I was bouncing back up the rubber bungy rope.
That was the first of two jumps, the 2nd was the
Nevis Hirewire, which was 143m (over three times as high as the bridge jump i did in the morning!!). I made the decision not to look down on this jump, else I may never have jumped! This one
looked alot scarier as you jump from a platform in the middle of a remote gorge, the platform being held up by cables. To add insult to injury the bottom of the platform was partly glass so you could see how far you were jumping. I shuffled slowly along the jump platform as if I was walking the plank on a pirate ship (it felt as bad!). Jumped, and as I was hurtling towards the ground with 6+ seconds of free fall with the river bed beneath hurtling towards me, wow what an incredible ground rush. Then it was over and I could sit back and unwind, enjoying the views and watch the other jumpers.
Dunedin - After the excitment of Queenstown, Dunedin was alot more laid back one day visit. Did little more than look around this Scottish settlement town. On way out the next morning we visited the worlds steepest street, and I mad the mistake of trrying to race a couple of the others up it (thoughy my lungs were going to explode!!
Lake Takapo - Again just one night on this very small town by the Lake. It is on the East side of
the South Island on the way back to Christchurch. It had an outdoor ice skating rink. Everyone apart from be had been Ice skating before and marvelled at the way I fell down every few seconds. After about an hour was starting to get the hang of it (well wasn't falling over so much) so we had a game of Ice Hockey! Well it was like playing football with my shoe laces tied together and I fell over every few seconds again, which was very painful and retired injured after avout 10 mins from 100 to many falls.
Christchurch (Tranz-Coastal) - From Lake Takapo it was back to Christchurch having done a lap of the south Island. As this was my second visit to Christchurch I decided to have an easy afternoon as I had to be ouside my hostel at 6.10am for lift to train station for tranz-Coastal train from Christchurch to Picton. Well I expect the first two hours of the train journey out of Christchurch are very nice, but I am not definate as I slept through them! The train followed the coast line up the East coast to Picton (reminded me a bit of
?????????
CAN ANYONE LEND ME A HAND? the part of the train journey from London to Plymouth when you go through the coastal town of Dawlish which is also very beautiful.
From Picton I caught the Ferry to the North Island...............
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