Blogs from Methven, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

We were glad to leave Twizel Kiwi van park this morning. Nothing to do with the weather, all to do with the anal camp nazi owner/manager of the park, small man syndrome, obnoxious, impatient and downright rude. When we arrived he chided me for not telling him FIRST that we were in an Apollo van, which gives us 10% discount, most put out to have this information at the end of the transaction. Next when we asked about fishing he said to us, "I'll tell you this once and once only, both of you listen, 2 pair of ears". phew! And then we got the park information, where was what, times for this and that, all too much information. And to top this off at 10pm last night we were sitting in the comfy TV lounge ... read more

7/10/10 Yesterday we went to MT.Hutt where we were about to get a snow boarding lesson. We woke up 6:45am to get ready for the trip. We had to catch a bus up to the snowfield which was about 300m above the clouds. The snowfield was so hot that we were boiling so we didn’t where are jacket’s or glove’s. are lesson started at 9:30am at the beginners slope. Our teacher, Paul, taught us a heal turn, toe turn, C turn and a S turn. Dad and I were pretty good, it helped that I was good at ripstiking, I could jump with the board and go up a half pipe. After we were bummed so we got a coke and a trumpet while waiting for the bus. When we were driving back we drove through ... read more

As the wavering red glow shrunk and then disappeared into the still-dark sky, the decision was made - there was going to be no launch from the centre of town, and we went in search of calmer skies to cast away into. Not too much later, just as the sun was rising, another helium filled balloon was released to assess the winds and the launch site for our hot air balloon adventure was decided. This, we were informed, is a team sport - so it was all hands required to unload the basket, burner and envelope (balloon). Actually, it was more a case of 'take photos of the sunrise while the pilot and ground crew unload them', but everyone was needed to help spread the envelope. Slowly that lifeless rainbow started to come alive, and once ... read more

Just some things I forgot to mention earlier. I met a woman at the CHCH airport when I arrived, she was from California. Her son lived in Royal Oak right near main street. I can now fully accept the fact that it is a small world. Also, I forgot to talk about the roads to Akaroa when I went. They were very narrow, and constantly winding. The speed limit was 62mph. The scary part was that people actually drove 62 mph while I wouldn't break 30. I woke up this morning and headed out towards Lyttelton. I really don't know what my plan is, I am just going to drive. I want to hike a bit but it's forecasted to rain all day. I am currently stopped at a coffee shop writing this journal. I got ... read more

Kia Ora! (Apologies if you get this one twice: there were server problems when I posted this and I don't think the emails went out). So, here I am, back in New Zealand. I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone when I say, that, I quite like it here!! Arriving in Christchurch I didn’t really have much of a definite plan, all I knew was that I was probably going to hire some form of transport and head down to Queenstown and do some skiing at Coronet Peak when it opened on 13 June. As by this time, I’d decided that I was nearly ready to come home, I couldn’t plan anything until I’d spoken to the airline about changing my flights so, that was my first job. All sorted, I found the Spaceship office and organised ... read more