Kaikoura - swimming with dolphins - the most amazing experience!!

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To head north from Christchurch, I managed to snare myself a hire car! Because a lot of tourists travel New Zealand from North to South, hire cars often end up down in places like Christchurch, when punters are actually looking to pick them up further North. To get the cars back up to the North, the rental companies give you 24 hours to relocate the car for free - you only have to put in the petrol. I was given a little Daewoo something or other to relocate to Picton, the main entry port at the top of the South island.

Anyway, I should never be left alone in a hire car as it brings out the scouser in me (sorry mum). A quick look at my guide book showed me that Christchurch was surrounded by some mountains, and those mountains contained narrow winding roads and those narrow winding roads were like a moth to a flame for me and the trusty Daewoo! Not finding fourth gear until about half an hour into the journey I hooned up, down and around these deserted mountain passes having the absolute time of my life - though I definitely wouldn't have done that in my car though! My fuel economy was like that of a Hummer, and I think a new clutch might be needed very soon but eventually I remembered I wasn't 17 anymore and headed north to Kaikoura, my overnight stop.

First thing the next morning, 5.a.m., I was up and out in order catch a boat to go swimming with wild dolphins! Oh yes, dolphins! The girly New Zealanders were worried about some sort of 2 metre swell hindering our trip, but after my South African boating experience I was ready for anything. It turned out to be a rough but very exciting ride, with a massive reward at the end. 200 or 300 dolphins were swimming together, and so our driver got us in front of the pod, and wetsuits and snorkels at the ready were in the water.

The experience was absolutely amazing, maybe even better than the safari! We were swimming in the water, duck diving and humming tunes (yes really - I chose yellow submarine!) in order to attract the clever blighters. The dolphins are everywhere around you in the water, they swim under and around you, and if they take an interest in you they often do a few tight circuits around you which ties you in knots. There were so many swimming so close to me I felt sure one was going to hit me - but then I realised that these most graceful of mammals were never going to be stupid enough to bundle into a lumbering fool like myself. After the entire group of dolphins had passed us, it was back on the boat and we got the hammer down and overtook the pod again - repeating this for a total of about 5 swims with them. We then had 45 minutes or so following the dolphins from the boat and watching them perform acrobatics, seemingly just because they could! - it was absolute magic.

I got the car up to Picton without incident, although when I filled up with petrol I found that my slightly leaden footed driving style had meant that my “free” trip was actually more expensive that the bus! I headed to Abel Tasman national park, where the next day I did a seal swim - which, unfortunately, was a massive anticlimax after the fun of the previous day with the dolphins.

To cross to the North island I took the ferry to Wellington, passing through the very pretty Marlborough Sounds enroute. Wellington came highly recommended by everyone, but didn't really seem that great. A few museums, gardens and other bits - along with the most aggressive locals I've ever come across. If ever you fancy getting into a fight, Cuba Street on a Friday night seemed to be the place - most un-kiwi-like!!!

I also went to watch the Australia versus New Zealand cricket one day match, which was great fun but no where near the rowdiness of the Sydney test match - I actually ended up watching the cricket rather than the crowd! On the pitch, the game came to a thrilling climax with the Kiwis managing to throw away a potential victory, England-esque, into a bitter defeat!

The riches I had experienced in the South Island meant that I didn't expect all that much from the North Island, but I was still pleasantly surprised. I hiked the Tongariro Crossing, which is meant to be the finest day walk in New Zealand! One of the side walks climbs a volcano which I believe was used as Mount Doom in LOTR - or at least that's what I'll claim, seeing as you guys don't know any better! An ascent at 35 degrees (two steps forward, more than one vertical) meant that it was never going to be a walk in the park! Added to this, the cloud closed in so much that I couldn't really see where I was going, and the ridge line of hardened lava that I was climbing seemed to attract gale force gusts. When I hauled myself to the summit, I could see about 10 metres in all directions - d'oh! Much more rewarding was the journey back down, which literally involved running down the scree which formed the side of the volcano! It was kind of a cross between skiing and walking on the moon as I half slid, half bound down the slope my progress kept in check by the massive amounts of scree that I was dislodging. It was probably not the best for the environment, but was incredible fun! Other highlights of the hike were the emerald lakes, coloured by the heavy metals in the earth and the red crater of one of the nearby volcanoes.

Further north was the town of Taupo and then I moved onto Rotorua - the geothermal tourist town which just eats your money. In Rotorua managed to fit in a geothermal park, Maori Hangi (traditional meal and dancing which meant well but felt a bit twee and disney) and white water rafting. The river that I rafted included a 7 metre waterfall - the highest commercially rafted in the world they claim. Plummeting down the falls was an exhilarating experience, and with one of the company's cameramen poised nearby to take snaps as we took the plunge, the photos were great to see. One showed the our four metre long raft suspended vertically in mid air - the front not yet reaching the water, and the rear a good distance from the top of the falls. It really gave us perspective on just how large the falls were!

Another new experience for me was Zorbing. You stand in a giant inflatable ball in your swimming costume, then they put a couple of gallons of water in the ball with you and send you off down a massive hill - conveniently sculpted into a zig zag track. After all of 5 milliseconds on my feet I turned into a thrashing mass of elbows and knees bundling my way down the hill. Great fun.

From Rotorua, I did some caving at the glo-worm caves at Waitomo, then headed up to the biggest city Auckland for my final night in Kiwi land. After two fantastic months, I am disappointed to leave, but am really hankering to get to South East Asia where the track may be slightly less well beaten.

I feel I should write something clever and articulate about my experiences of New Zealand and New Zealanders. However, I can't be bothered to do that so I'll just make fun of them instead. New Zealand seems to have a bit of an inferiority complex. There's loads of great stuff to do there but none of it is ever quite the biggest or best in the world. So, they seem to concoct grand sounding facts about quite a few of their features. For instance, in Wellington I was proudly told to visit not the biggest building in the world, not the biggest wooden building in the world but the second largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere. Interesting!

Even so, for such a small country there are an amazing amount of diverse and interesting things to do here. The people are so friendly and easy to get along with, and the range of landscapes and wildlife to explore and experience are quite incredible. I've had an absolute blast and would recommend a trip to Aotearoa (Maori name for NZ) to anyone.

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Photos

Kaikoura Dolphin Swim
The view from the boat during my dolphin swim at Kaikoura.

Top of Mount Doom
The "incredible" views which greeted me after I had reached the summit!

Tongariro Crossing
Coloured lakes on New Zealand's greatest day walk.