Advertisement
Published: June 13th 2008
Hello from cold New Zealand!
Not used to this coldness after 3 months of sun!!! Have been spoilt!
We flew into Christchurch on 1 June and were greeted by Jane and Doran (Jane is my mum's oldest friend for those of you who don't know). It was so nice to see them and to actually be greeted at an airport. Every time we get off a flight there's loads of people waiting to see their loved ones and no-one there to see us!! :o(
We stayed with Jane and Doran for 2 nights in their lovely house. I was very excited to have my own bedroom and access to a bath! Don't know what I would have done without these stops in between staying with friends! We went shopping in Christchurch to get some warmer clothes and a desperately needed haircut. I knew I wasn't a lover of the kiwi accent but I still can't get used to it! I don't know how many times when we were in the shopping centre they asked over the tannoy for people to come to the "service disk"!! Give me the aussie accent any day! The night before we left Christchurch
we went out for a nice meal with Jane, Doran and one of their daughters, Hazel which was nice.
We left the next morning, feeling fully refreshed, and started our Magic Bus tour around NZ. The tour that we booked starts in Christchurch and ends in Auckland which is where we're flying out from. Our driver was called Richard who was really nice and quite funny. Our first stop was Kaikoura. You drive through lots of little towns on this bus but some are compulsory overnight stops. The Magic Bus staff are really good and pass round forms for activities in each location and hostel information and you just pick one and they phone it through and book it so that it's all done for when you arrive. Perfect!
The main thing to do in Kaikoura was whale watching so after we'd arrived and dumped our backpacks we set off. It was a good day and we were really lucky and saw 5 sperm whales. They were huge! I don't know what's happening to me in my old age but I got quite seasick on the catamaran. Luckily not as bad as when we were in Cairns but
I never used to get that. Every time one of the crew spotted one of the whales we'd head over towards it and watch it while it was up for air and then they would inform us when it was about to dive back down so that we could get some good shots.
We spent that night thawing out in our hostel and were dismayed to discover that they didn't provide bedcovers unless you paid an additional fee. What a cheek!! Out came the sleeping bags!
The next day we boarded the Magic Bus again and headed to Picton. Picton is where you catch the ferry over to the North Island, there's nothing much to do there so we just wanted to head straight to Nelson, the next stop, but as it's winter they only run the buses 5 days a week and the connection wasn't going that day so we decided to hop on an Intercity bus straight to Nelson so that we didn't waste a day as we were short of time as it was.
When we arrived in Nelson we went on the world's first skyline. It went for 1.6km over the forest at
a speed of 90km per hour. It was quite cool but not as scary as I was expecting. The guy had told us what position to be in to make it go faster but it didn't quite work! He must have liked us as he gave us a free go afterwards which was nice.
We spent 2 nights in Nelson. The hostels in NZ are cheaper than in Oz and you get more for your money I think. Nearly all of them have jacuzzis (although I'm not sure about getting in a bikini in this weather!), saunas, free hot soup in the evenings and some do free breakfasts. The only thing they don't have are bars which all the ones in Australia did.
For our full day in Nelson we booked to go to Abel Tasman to do a Seal Safari tour. We got picked up by a very moody bus driver who came into our hostel 5 minutes before the pick up time demanding we get on the bus or he leaves with out us! Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Touchy! We set off and had to sit on the side of the road 20 minutes later as he'd left someone
behind who was trying to catch up in a taxi. We arrived in Kaiteriteri expecting to meet our group for the day and were turfed off the bus and told to go and get a ticket for the sea taxi which we did. We boarded and set off and the driver dropped a few people off along the way at different places and then took us to a place called Onetahuti. By now it was 11am and from here we were supposed to do a 1 1/2 hour trek. Wherever you get dropped off, you are supposed to trek back to the stop before and get picked up from there. So it was just the 3 of us on our own in the middle of nowhere and were told that we weren't getting picked up until 3.30 so we had 4 1/2 hours to do a 1 1/2 hour trek. Great! We asked him what the point of giving us over 4 hours to do a 1 1/2 hour walk was and he said that most people carry on trekking even further rather than just sitting freezing for over 2 hours. So off we went walking through the forest and
did the trek in 1 hour and 20 minutes which left us no alternative but to have to carry on walking to the next stop - a total of 13km!!!! Deaks was not a happy bunny. We carried on walking, all wondering why we'd bothered to get out of bed for this ridiculous "trip"! We arrived at Torrent Bay and then to make matters worse, had to take off our socks and trainers and enter the freezing water and wade over to the boat as the water was so low and he couldn't get nearer to us. The water was FREEZING and I couldn't feel my toes. We left Deaks who was reluctant to move due to her fear of fish but eventually realised this was the only way! I tried not to look at all the dead crabs floating around and hurried to the water taxi as quick as I could. We got back to Kaiteriteri and had to be pulled out of the water, on the boat, by a tractor! Have never seen anything like it. One minute we're in the water, the next we're still on the boat, being driven back to our coach. We had to
laugh! Took 2 hours to get home as moody bus man stopped and picked up every random off the street!!! As it turned out the "seal safari" part of the trip consisted of the driver pointing out some seals as we sped along!!!!
We locked ourselves in our dorm that night with the heating on and were planning to have a nice relaxing quiet night coming to terms with the weird trip that we'd had and finding it funny by that point. I informed the Magic Bus driver, Richard, that the trip should be renamed to "Long, Boring Walk in the Forest" which he found very amusing! Suz had gone to use the phone and Deaks and I were in bed chatting when all of a sudden, in came Zadie from Hong Kong. She was the most overexcited person I have ever met. She danced into our dorm informing us she would be spending the night with us and then proceeded to sing to us and giggle for the next few hours and found it hilarous to deliberately call us by the wrong names! She even playfully hit me at one point when I asked her how old she
was! There went our quiet night! She was lovely though and good entertainment!
The next day we boarded back on Richard's Magic Bus for our next stop which was Greymouth. It was a long day and we didn't arrive until 4.30pm. On the long journey days the drivers stop at lookout points and places where you can do little treks to break up the day so we did a few of them but it was raining so wasn't great. We saw a couple that were on our Whitsundays boat 6 weeks ago which was random.
Wasn't much to do in Greymouth so we headed off the next day to Frans Josef where we wanted to do a Heli Hike which sounded brilliant but when we arrived it was all cancelled due to weather conditions. We'd only planned to stay there 1 night but as the weather forecast for the next day was good and we didn't want to miss out we decided to stay there another night and cut a night off of Queenstown which was a shame but couldn't be helped as we're on a tight schedule. We ended up in Blue Ice Cafe - the only
bar in the tiny town!! The rugby was on so there were loads of people in there and the atmosphere was good. We met our Magic Bus driver Richard and loads of people from our bus in there and started drinking. We were staying in the YHA and most other people were staying in a better hostel and had got free shot vouchers which obviously we didn't get at the boring YHA so I decided to annoy the manager until he gave in and gave us some free shots too. Clearly I wound him up too much as he poured this thick, red concoction into 3 shot glasses and said "here you go girls, enjoy!". Feeling very satisfied that he'd given in, Suz and I immediately picked it up and necked it clearly having missed watching Deaks taste it with her finger and quickly point out that there was no way she was drinking it. Within 1 second my mouth was on fire. I looked at Suzanne who looked like she was about to collapse. A girl ran over to us and gave us both a glass of water which didn't help at all. Within 5 minutes I demanded Suzanne
join me in the toilet where I promptly threw up! How classy am I?!!! I have never tasted something so evil in my entire life. It took over 20 minutes for my mouth to stop burning. I went back up to the bar, feeling a lot better, and informed the manager that he'd made me sick and his answer to that was to give me a tequila!!! No chance - Deaks got that one! Being sick was clearly the best way forward as I felt fine afterwards whereas poor Suzanne suffered for days afterwards, she must have burnt her insides!
We spent the rest of the night in this bar chatting to random kiwis. I had a girl come up to me at one point and congratulate me for still standing as people normally pass out and go home after that evil shot. I must be hardcore!! At the end of the night, Richard decided we should all go into the forest (at 1am!) and go looking for gloworms so off we all went (about 8 of us) and entered the forest. It was so scary. We only had 1 torch between us which the girls were too scared
to turn off which meant we wouldn't see anything!!! The others all chickened out and went back and I was left with Richard. It was pitch black and the next thing I know, I'm on my own, with no torch! I started shouting for Richard and asking where he was and was just about to get my phone out for some light when he came up behind me and scared the living daylights out of me. It was NOT funny but he thought it was. The good news is that I did get to see lots of gloworms!!
The next day we got up and were very happy to see that the weather had cleared and it was a lovely day so we set off on the Heli Hike. It was amazing! We got kitted up and then boarded the helicopter in groups of 6 and went on a nice little scenic flight and landed high up on the glacier. It was so cool. Once on the ice we got our crampons on and set off on a 2 hour hike around the glacier. The scenery was amazing. It was quite scary at times knowing that one wrong foot
could see you 250 metres below the ice and the tour guide only had a 60 metre rope so no chance of being rescued!!! We were so glad we stayed the extra day and got to do it - well worth it! We got the helicopter back down at the end of the trek. I was sitting at the front next to the pilot so got to see some brilliant views.
Spent that evening in the sauna thawing out and got chatting to a boy in there who informed me exactly what I'd drunk in the evil shot I'd had the night before: vodka, tequila, zambuka, absynthe, tabasco sauce and the hottest chillis in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!! I'm surprised it didn't kill me - no wonder I was sick!!! This guy was working in a hostel down the road and had to drink it as an initiation and he was also violently sick straight afterwards so glad it wasn't just me!!
We left Frans Josef for our day long drive to Queenstown the next day. We had a new driver this time, Carl, as Richard had left the day before. Carl turned out to be just as funny
as Richard. We had a few stops along the way to do some walks and look at the scenery which was great. The west coast scenery is amazing. I would usually be asleep within 10 minutes of any long bus journey but every corner you turn in this country the scenery just gets better and better so I have had to control myself to stay awake and look at it. What a chore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was on this long journey that Richard informed us that anyone wanting to do a skydive could do it that afternoon when we passed through Wanaka. Eeeeeeeeeek! I always knew I wanted to do one before I even left home and I knew I would do it in NZ but didn't want to plan it too much before as I knew I'd get scared thinking about it. I decided this was the best time to do it as I only had a couple of hours to freak out about it. Deaks and Suz have been stressing about whether to do it for ages (Deaks had even looked up death statistics on the internet!) and eventually both agreed that if they were ever going to have
the guts, it would have to be a last minute decision so they too couldn't worry about it for too long so they signed up as well.
We arrived in Wanaka and got off the Magic Bus and were picked up by the skydive people. There were 7 of us doing it. There was no time to get scared, as we were on a tight timeframe the staff literally kitted us up and sent us straight up in the plane! The guy I was jumping with was called Geoff and he was really nice and kept talking to me the whole way up. Suzanne looked traumatised in the plane and kept covering her face with her hands! Luckily I was the last one in the plane which meant first one out!! There were so many of us squashed in we were all sitting on each others laps! Geoff looked at his watch and as soon as it said 12,000 feet he asked me if I was ready and opened the door. I'm sitting on the edge of the plane wondering what I'd let myself in for but before I even got a chance to be terrified I was out
of the plane and loving it!!! It was the most amazing feeling - I can't quite describe it! For the first 10 seconds you feel like you can't breathe which is weird but I had the whole thing filmed and the guy who was filming us was suddently right in front of my face and I was giving him the thumbs up and screaming with excitement!!! Geoff kept spinning us around too which was fun. The 45 second freefall was over all too soon and the parachute opened and we went flying upwards which wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world when you've got big boobs!! Once the parachute is opened you feel like you're just suspended in the air and not going down - it's really slow. Geoff kept turning us around so that I could see the other girls coming down. Saw great views of Lake Wanaka whilst we were coming down. I thought I was going to fall hard on my bum when we got to the ground but I managed to land on my feet. I thanked Geoff for making sure I didn't die and then got quite emotional and felt like jelly. It was
the best experience ever. I was desperate to go up and do it again! Deaks was hilarious when she came down. She landed on her bum and just collapsed back onto her guy and laid on the ground for ages thanking got that her parachute had opened and that she was still alive!! What a brilliant day!
We arrived in Queenstown a few hours later still on a high and arranged to meet all the Magic people and our new bus driver in Buffalo Bar that night. We weren't too impressed with our dorm, it was so small and there was nowhere to put anything so we just got ready and headed straight out. We had loads of 2 for 1 drinks vouchers so we ended up staying in there for hours just chatting and having a laugh before heading to World Bar where they do teapots of many different concoctions.
We went on a jet boat in Queenstown. We wanted to go white water rafting but it was all booked up so we opted for that instead. It was so scary!! We went hurtling along the river at 75km per hour and did 360 degree spins. I
screamed the whole way and had my eyes shut which probably made it worse!!!! Good fun though!
After a couple of days in Queenstown we headed to Dunedin - the home of the Cadbury factory! We went on an hour long tour. The smell of chocolate was so strong it nearly knocked me out. Deaks was in her element. Personally I'd have rather gone to a Lindt factory but we haven't come across one of them!! Got lots of free chocolate which was good and watched DVDs explaining how they make their chocolate and saw some of the factory in action. Can you believe they start making easter eggs from June until January for the following Easter! There are 4 million people in NZ and they sell 40 million eggs!! Pigs!
We left Dunedin the next day but not before stopping at Baldwin Street - the world's steepest street. Suz and I started walking up it but gave up as it was far too early to be exerting ourselves and we were only supposed to be taking pictures so didn't have enough time.
Next stop on the Magic Bus was Lake Tekapo which was another tiny little
town where there wasn't really much to do. We went for a little walk (which didn't take long!) and chilled out for most of the day. In the evening Deaks and I went ice skating as the open air ice rink had just re-opened for winter. Everyone at the hostel was watching Titanic (including Suzanne) so we watched that for a bit first and then I had to tear myself away on the verge of crying to go ice skating which was a scary walk up a long dark road. Deaks and I were the only ones there all night which was cool!
The next morning we headed back to Christchurch. The tour of the south island covers the Christchurch to Picton sectors twice as you can only get the ferry from Picton so we have decided to fly from Christchurch to Wellington tomorrow to save time. We are staying with Jane and Doran again tonight which will be nice.
That's all from me, sorry for the long entry but I have to write everything down so that I don't forget it!
Happy birthday to me!!!
xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.049s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 14; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0237s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Yee Wong
non-member comment
Very funny
Dear Lisa I loved your first NZ blog and laughed out loud on the description of when your parachute opened. I read it out to the others in the bay and they thought it was hilarious. Glad you are having fun. Your NZ photos bring back memories of my own trip there donkeys years ago! Say Hi to Suzanne and Sarah for me. Love Wongy