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Published: August 28th 2009
Tuesday, August 25th
Our target for today was to reach Hanmer Springs, about two hours from Kaikoura. It's an adventure hub like a mini Queenstown in the sense that there's snowboarding, jet-boating, bungy-jumping, rafting, hiking and thermal pools. It sounded like our kinda place so we got an early start. We had a great time driving through the beautiful country side. Luckily there was almost no traffic because we were going pretty slow, babbling and listening to music.
We reached Hanmer Springs and immediately liked it. It's a little Alpine village with great views and a slow pace. It was sunny and warm, but the wind was blowing something fierce. We got a camping spot just outside of town and after an early lunch we drove in search of a few hiking trails. We were feeling very lazy so we decided to try and “walk it off”. We found a forest walk which wasn't very relaxing because this area is old and considered a danger in high wind conditions. The wind was howling through the trees and we saw a lot of fallen trees and kept waiting for a pinecone to whack one of us on the head.
With
that done and a lot of day light remaining, we drove into town. We'd read about Conical Hill and its nice views of the valley, but we had no idea where it was. By sheer luck we drove right up to it and proceeded to climb to the top. It was rather hot so we just climbed in our T-shirts. At the top we enjoyed the views, but it was windy and chilly so after a few pictures we went down.
Driving back into town we stopped for a few supplies. Ferdi had a craving for red-meat while Talita desired spinach. On the way out of town we spotted a fudge shop. Upon investigation it turned out to be a shop selling all kinds of strange bits 'n bobs. After a browse we got a tub of assorted fudge, but it was so sweet Ferdi could barely eat it! Talita's sweet tooth wasn't phased and she had a nice snack.
Back at our camp we spotted a fluffy kitty that enjoyed attention so much it drooled on Ferdi. We had a quick snooze on the couch, had a shower, then prepared a big and sumptuous dinner. For dessert
(like we hadn't had enough sweet stuff today) we had delicious mixed berry cheesecake. Later, safely tucked into our van, the wind picked up again and it started to rain.
Today's highlights:
1. Awesome drive to Hanmer Springs.
2. Meeting the loving, drooling kitty.
Impressions of NZ:
New Zealand is often referred to as "God's own Country" or "God Zone" for short. We agree whole-heartedly. Wednesday, August 26th
We woke to a rainy and windy Hanmer Springs. After breakfast the sun came out but it continued to drizzle. As we drove out of town we saw a gorgeous rainbow ending on the road in front of us. That was a first for us and we had to stop and take a few pictures.
With the previous nights rain the ice blue rivers of yesterday were brown and gushing today. A few kilometers out of town the rain started again and the wind blew like a freight train. Ferdi had to battle the winds to keep the van on the road since it seemed adamant to drive. So it went all the way to Christchurch.
At about noon we arrived in "The Garden City" and drove
to Cathedral Square. The first order of business was to find the toilets and once that was done we visited the Cathedral itself. Talita went up the spire while Ferdi stayed below and took pictures. It was pretty but not terribly inspiring. With our dose of culture in for the day we drove to our campsite with the intention of preparing lunch. We were ambushed by a Subway at the Eastgate Mall and while we were there we decided to get some more supplies. We ended up buying Ferdi a new watch (his old one had perished along the way), gum-boots for Talita, warm snow boots for Ferdi, and a crate to store all this new stuff in. Only
then did we get to buying the supplies! Some days we're just hopeless.
We found a camping spot for the evening and at reception met our very first three-legged cat. When he was younger a car ran him over, but after a lot of surgery he's now as good as new (minus the left front leg of course). We repacked our van, had dinner (and the rest of the cheesecake), showered, and watched a bad Vin Diesel movie. Some movies
are better not watched.
Today's highlights:
1. Our first NZ rainbow.
2. New watch for Ferdi.
3. Cold/wet weather boots.
Impressions of NZ:
Christchurch is as flat as Wellington is hilly. Thursday, August 27th
This morning we visited the International Antarctic Centre. To get there we drove through a part of Christchurch we'd not yet seen, and we thought these certain areas were quite pretty. The Antarctic Centre was rather expensive but the tourist books hailed it a "must do", so we swiped the visa card and in we went. Initial impressions wasn't that great, a little too fake, but they did manage to create an atmosphere. We arrived just in time for the Little Blue Penguins' feeding time and we could watch them dive after their food through a big glass window below the water level. We then moved up and could watch the ones that can't swim being fed by hand. They were extremely cute and when they waddle from one place to another they lift their flippers up behind them, lean forward and kinda stumble toward their intended destination (it reminded us of something Keira likes to do). After the feeding session we could
watch the penguins chilling in their hides through special glass panels that look in on their nests.
We then walked around looking at various displays. There was just way too much to read so we ended up looking more than reading. The cool thing is that they encourage interaction with a lot of the displays which is great, cause human nature drives us to touch every thing anyway. We learned that Polar bears only exist in the northern hemisphere and penguins only in the southern hemisphere (we never knew that). When we were done browsing we went to the Snow & Ice Experience. This room has real snow and ice and is kept at a constant -8 degrees Celsius and after donning a jacket we went in. -8 is cold, but then the wind machines kick in and suddenly the temperature dropped severely because of the wind-chill-factor. The temperature dropped to -18.6 degrees Celsius, a record low for us (the coldest we've ever experienced was -14 on Kilimanjaro).
With frozen fingers and noses we exited the room, warmed our hands on the heated railing and went to the Audio-Visual room where we saw amazing footage of Antarctica. It's
beautiful and most certainly on our to-do list.
We exited the exhibition and went outside for a ride in a Hagglund, those cool tank-like trucks they use in Antarctica. It was an awesome ride and by far the highlight of our visit! John, our driver, took us through an obstacle course intended to show of the prowess of this Swedish-made monster. It was a rollercoaster ride over three-storey high peaks and crevasses, floating through 3m deep waters and various tight turns. Awesome fun!
Thoroughly thrilled we drove around the city to visit the Gondola. A cable car took us to the crater rim, overlooking both the city and the Lyttelton Harbour area. There's a walkway along the rim of the crater so we walked around taking pictures. The wind picked up and when we wanted to go down we couldn't. They had stopped operations until the wind died down. We wandered around the shop and after about 35mins we could leave. The conductor mentioned that we were lucky only to wait this short as the gondola can get stopped for days. Luckily there is another road down the hill if that should happen.
By the time we got
back to the van it was late afternoon. We drove out of the city to a different camping ground. After we found a spot to park, we wandered down to the beach. The wind was still blowing and the sun was almost gone so it was a little chilly. We returned to the van, made dinner, had a shower and crawled into bed early.
Today's highlights:
1. Seeing the Little Blue Penguins.
2. Experiencing -18.6 degrees Celsius.
3. Riding in the Hagglund.
4. Gondola ride.
Impressions of NZ:
We don't know if it's always this windy in this part of the world, but it's crazy. So far, we like Christchurch more than Wellington, but less than Auckland.
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