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Published: December 15th 2008
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Arrived in Auckland after a fantastic week in the Yasawa islands of Fiji. (Quickly dug a fleece out the bag.) A little Toyota Shuttle wagon took us to our hostel…. (nice idea…..cheap shared taxis to your door!)
Next day went for a long walk along the Auckland coastline…. Got sunburnt. Went up the Sky Tower Revolving Restaurant for a meal on my birthday…..had a lovely meal….but the revolving restaurant is a con….. The windows and the central kitchens and bar stay still….. Only the dinner tables on a large sort of ’washer’ rotate…..one revolution an hour. I felt like very slow sushi…..We had fun though, after Kevin had drunk enough champagne not be too scared to look out the window….. Up until then he just stared straight ahead. The lift has a glass floor and windows. It would hve cost $35 each just to use the lift, but if you ate at one of the resteraunts you only had to spend $30.
Decided to go to Christchurch to buy a van (should be cheaper than Auckland and the flight was only 30quid) Dug coat out the bag!!
We took the Trans Alpine train over to Greymouth and back, very scenic!
Ended up joining ‘Trade Me’, NZs eBay..….. Found a van in Dunedin. So our tour started from there, down the Catlins coast. Nice remote windswept beaches, waterfalls and wildlife.
Fiordland next, stayed a few days in Te Anau (on lake Te Anau) from where we took a trip to Doubtful Sound….. Across the lake, coach over the pass, taking in the underground power station on the way, then another boat out into the sound, beautiful and quiet. We were lucky enough to see quite a few crested penguins, unique to the area.
Drove up to Milford Sound and back…. Just for the views. (See photos, beautiful river banks and meadows full of Lupins…… I made a startling observation…….. The yellow ones don‘t grow with the other colours!!?) Went back again the next day for the boat trip. It was quite different from Doubtful and very enjoyable despite the drizzle. We drove on to Queenstown, by Lake Wakatipu, the same day.
The scenery is absolutely stunning, Queenstown is lovely, in spite of the adrenaline junkies and extreme activities.
We went up the very steep gondola overlooking the town and were given a Maori Haka welcome.
Kevin paid 109 nz dollars to
Very nice rose gardens
we ventured through this as we went for a lon walk. hurtle down the Shotover River through narrow canyons on a jet boat with large rocks inches from his head…. I declined the invitation. While I waited, I just kept thinking of how it must have sounded as a business proposition when seeking permission from the local council….. “Well…..we want to put a dozen or so people at a time in this big jet boat thing, and whiz really fast, through really scary, really narrow, really, really winding, jagged rocky canyons on the Shotover River…. (-: “
…..This is New Zealand.
Glenorchy next…. tiny place at the top of Lake Wakatipu. From here we took a trip by jet boat up into the wilderness, Lord of the Rings country (and The Great Escape, Chronicles of Narnia, Wolverine). We then came downstream for a couple of hours in inflatable Kayaks, 2 people fell out .…and it wasn’t us!! hooray (-: The water was freezing. However, we did manage to get ourselves stuck on some rocks, while others hurtled past us in the white water. We had to do syncronised jumping, which was not easy as we were sort of kneeling. Anyway we made it off the rocks and were catching
up with our group, who had beached the kayaks to wait, then found ourselves going backwards….. We remained backwards as we scraped along the shore for a hundred yards or so, afraid to turn it round in case we got into fast running water and couldn’t stop at all!! Kev was a bit miffed when our guide asked if we wanted to tie up to her boat ….‘as we seemed to be ‘struggling’.
“No, no, quite intentional” replied Kev, ….Master Kayaker!!
Anyway, we got back in one piece, remained dry and had a great time. The scenery was quite stunning.
Drove up to the Coronet Peak ski area, just out of Queenstown…. Poor old van wheezed a lot. Then went to Arrowtown, very quaint. Over Cardrona Pass (the highest pass in New Zealand ) …..Through Cardrona…….the Bra Fence is no more! (taken down as the bras got tatty and faded!) And on to Wanaka, similar, but not as big as Queenstown. Walked from Raspberry Creek to the Mount Aspiring hut, 18km return, on a glorious sunny day. Great views of distant mountains and glaciers. Got feet wet several times as we had to cross many little streams.
Auckland across the bay
the very high tower where we dined........and I'm not too keen on heights. Went back to Dunedin, across central Otago, to pick up the paperwork for the van. Drove out to the Albatross place on the Otago peninsular, didn’t bother with Lanarch Castle (NZs only) as the weather was awful.
Stopped off to view the boulders at Moeraki, on a windswept beach, lashing it down with rain. They were worth it, fascinating….. (Rough Guide told us all about it, back in the warmth of the van!)
Back across to Mount Cook….drove 51km each way up an unmade road…. Walked up to glacier view point, weather not brilliant, popped in to see some clay cliffs on the way back, visually very pretty, (nearly running out of fuel), then drove on to Fox Glacier. Joined an organised Tramp (hike) up to the glacier, climbing over 700 big steps, through rain forest and clinging to the edge of cliff faces…..exhausting.
Then out onto the glacier with crampons on our boots. Quite surreal to be standing on a huge river of ice looking at rain forest! Great, but would have been so much better if we weren’t soaked to the skin and frozen.
I’m looking forward to the North Island for a bit of warmth…..
And hopefully, getting away from the relentless sand flies…..which, of course, I am very sensitive to. Each bite becomes a huge red itchy blister which lasts at least a week!! Sand flies, unlike sneaky mosquitoes, can be felt when they bite, so at least you get to squash every one that gets you.!
It seems that all the DOC (dept of conservation) campsites have a sand fly sanctuary and breeding program going on.
Drove up the west coast, through Hokitika and Greymouth. Headed inland, up to Arthurs Pass, on to Springfied, (did not see Bart and family), and back, stopping for a walk round some huge rocks at Castle Hill Reserve….used in the filming of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Headed along the coast again to Westport, stopping at Pancake Rocks, Puakaiti. From Westport we headed inland to Murchison.
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