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Published: October 8th 2006
SUNDAY - VANessa begins to w(h)ine!
After a night of fast food and commercial big city activities (Burger King and cinema) we felt it was time to get out to the countryside once again so headed east towards the peninsula and Akaroa. On the way we stopped off at a 'French' winery/restaurant which was way out-classed our hairy-2-weeks-in-a-campervan look, but we accepted the wine tasting in a building that looked like it could have been plucked from the french countyside and dropped in a beautiful field in New Zealand, it was also decorated exquisitley inside, quite divine. As I was filming I noticed a notice sayinh win tasting $1 a glass, not the normal 'free' we were used to. The gentleman behind the bar was quite an arrogant so-and-so and wasn't very impressed with my new wooly hat, but never mind. We said thanks and left only to hear him mutter something, none os us heard, but as we droveo ut of the driveway we pondered on whether he said "that's a dollar each please boys".... ah well we a were well on our way now!
As we began our ascent up a typically steep New Zealand mountain towards
Whalewatch bus
we caught this at the whaleway station! that's not my joke, it was where we caught it from, I promise!the coast, good old VANessa decided it was all too much and once again smoke began to puff out from beneath the front wheel. At least this time we knew what the problem was to after having to wait a good 30mins and after a brew we filled her back up with cold water from our limited water supply and carried on our merry way explaining to EZY Rentals this wasn't acceptable!
We got as far as we thought we could go and pulled into a layby by the side of the road to call it a day. The view looked as if it would be very impressive if it wasn't for the large long white cloud covery the tops of the hills and mountains opposite us across the bay. The south Island is aptly named the land of the long white cloud and this was proof why.
MONDAY - VANessa calls it a day and we feel like a bit of VANity
Waking to find the weather was grey, cloudy and miserable, sadly not giving us the chance to see the, what I'm sure is beautiful view, I drove VANessa to the nearest car garage in
the small town of Akaroa. The mechanic quickly found out that the thermos in the engine was not working, hence the constant over-heating.
He took the thermos out and we were back on the road to Christchurch where we were told we'd be better off having a new van, but we weren't able to pick it up until 4:30pm (it was about 12pm at that time).
I drove us back into the city centre of Christchurch to waste some time, have a coffee and some cake and consider buying dog-tags from an army surplus store, in the end we didn;t think it was a wise expenditure on our tight budget, ah well!
4:30pm - we rolled into the EZY Christchurch branch to pick up our new home. Our van was in a pretty grotty state as we had run out of watert eh previous night so hadn't washed all the pots and pans, there was also thick dust covering the sink area and hobs due to having the windows open on dusty gravel roads, nice. So we were more than happy to leave her behind.
From one van to another as we carted our belongings to the
fresh shiny new van and were soon on the road again, with a bonus free CD in the player - 'HEAVENLY songs of worship' brilliant!!!
Next stop Kaikoura, where we pulled into a picnic area right on the beach in the dark to cook our tea and have a nice early night.
TUESDAY - Moods, whales, dolphins, seals, sea-birds; a day out at sea.
I was first up and out of the confines of my sleeping bag and in a mood not disimilar to the once again grey weather. Not sure what was wrong with me, but I didn't really talk for a good 4 hours until Chris and I spontaneously decided to do a whale-watching trip as we were in one of the best places to do such a thing.
We headed to the Whale-way station (great name!) and forked out $130 for a trip out to sea. We were warned bfore we departed about the seriously bad weather conditions and if we were at all sea sick this wasn't a good idea. Both strong sea stomachs we weren't bothered. After a short wait we were piled into a coach and taken promptly to
Wandering Albatross
it looks like normal seagull in the picture, but believe me this bird is HUGE!!! the harbour where we boarded a large modern looking boat covered with 'whale-watching' artwork. It was a very nice vessel and as we trauled out of the harbour it quickly began to cut through the bumpy sea at very high speed.
*
when we did the great barrier reef trip in our little, slow 'Noah's Ark' boat we saw huge ships zoom past us at high speed and we, along with the crew, swore at them.. those money spending rich kids.... well now we were in one of those boats *
As it hit and rose over large waves and dropped back to the sea it was an awesome feeling which added a whole un-expected excitement to the trip - the journey itself was almost worth the money at 25knots, roughly 40km/hr which is pretty fast for sea transport.
I had done a whale-watching trip in Iceland 2 years ago and seen nothing but dolphins, which was good, but a little dissapointing, so I was very excited when the guide tells us we are in hot pursuit of a large sperm whale seen and heard by the on board equipment. The captain spins us to a stop and
we hop out into the deck to admire the huge dark coloured back of a Sperm Whale. Huge puffs of water were being extracted form it's blow hole in true wahle fashion. It was SO big, I know whale's are big, but when you see a real one just 40m away you can truelt recognise the vast size of the mammal. The guide then informed us that it was about to dive and the tail would be out of the water. In typical BBC Wildlife on one style I was poised with my camera capturing the enormous whale curl its tail out of the water and into the air as the whales head plumet's vertically towards the sea bed. It was an amazing sight and ful-filled my trip 100%. The boat then zoomed it's way to another site where the Sperm whale's usually are. Using a large pole with a Hydophone on the end the captain was able to locate a second whale listening to the whale's song. Once again we were in hot-pursuit of a whale and as the captain slowed the boat we were all out on deck and feasting our eyes on another large Sperm whale. This
one floated in the surface for quite sometime before making the impressive dive down, splashing it's tail out of the sea and descending to depths of almost 1200m where it would stay for upto and hour before returning to the surface again.
The jolly guide was excellent telling us everything we needed to know about whales using a computer linked to a plasma screen showing 3-d animations of everything out at sea and of course whales of all shapes and sizes. (there's a project for you bro, 3-D whale modelling!)
We were then taken to a spot where Dolphins buzzed around the under-belly of the boat and huge Albatross soared above. The Albatross is the sea bird we tried to see in Dunedin but failed; it is massive, it's wingspan stretches to nearly 4metres; the largest bird in flight in the world! We got to a spot where there were lots of them; all different types (royal, wandering and shy) fighting over some food. We were told that if we saw a Wandering Albatross (the largest) take off from the sea we'd really know about it and be very impressed. The largest of the group and the one
pictured then began to open it's huge wings and run across the top of the sea for some distance before flapping it's wings and soaring into the sky, wow!!
The dolphins continued to buzz around under the boat as we began our journey back to the harbour.
It was an awesome trip and even though it was way out of our tight budget it was definatley worth the money.
That night we drove through Blenheim and Picton as far north as we possible before sun-down and before Nelson, stopping at a view point over looking the impressive Marlborough sounds. A place where we weren't alone, with two other campervans parked in the car park.
WEDNESDAY - As far north as possible and a bit of Pu pu?!
Determined to reach to most furthest point north we drove through Nelson, through Collingwood and stopped in Port Puponga, where we walked through a field full of sheep to see the most northern point of the South Island, and felt a sense of achievement having driven the full length of the island, form Invercargill to Farewell spit.
We drove back towards Nelson, stopping on the way at a
One for the Lincoln Uni crowd!
To think that's where we all met, and here it is in New Zealand! cool little place called PuPu springs, where a creek leads into an expanse of water, which bubbles slightly from beneath. It was a place the Maori's used to bath their young and had spriritual and healing qualities, back in the day.
We drove back through Nelson searching for a place to park for the night as the sun began to set on the horizon over the calm flat sea. We found a little car park with only a road seperating us from the sea and as usual had tea, watched the Office with a brew and went to bed.
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