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Published: April 5th 2008
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Well, after our doubts over whether we would ever see the sun again in our last blog - we did!! On a tip that the weather was coming from the south we went south to the tourist town of Hokitika (although we were going there anyway...). The sun came out and we browsed shops selling local jade and had some fish and chips, (or seeing as 2/3 of us didn't eat fish.. just chips. Ben had a particularly unhealthy fried doughnut with a chocolate bar melted inside it if I remember correctly...). We went to the beautiful aquamarine Hokitika Gorge then tried to find somewhere to camp where there were no sandflies!
Arthurs Pass/Christchurch
Next day we headed over the Arthurs Pass back to Christchurch to pick up Chris' friend Aimee who was ariving from England for a 3 week stint in the Z-land. We were particularly blessed with the weather on this day and we had amazing views of mountain tops as we drove though them, we even saw our first bit of snow! Back in Christchurch we camped in Chris' friend's garden and had a crazy night cycling round the streets of Christchurch with vegetables and
sandwiches rescued from bins in our baskets. Yes, you read right!! A hostel by the seaside for our next night with real showers, we even had a homecooked meal including mashed potato, vege sausages and peas - not something that is easy to cook on one gas stove when camping! Aimee arrived looking surprisingly perky after a very very long flight and we had a bit of lunch in town (more cheap Hare Krishna food!) before heading out of Christchurch and back across Arthurs Pass. This time across we were a bit more prepared (I now had some shoes, mine had previously broken along with my muscles and soul on the Croesus Track), so we stopped off at a place called "Cave Stream", which was exactly what it says on the tin. It involved an hour or so of walking climbing and wading (up to our bellies) through a cave! It was lots of fun but we did all have wet shoes for a good few days afterwards and our bags probably still smell of them!
Glaciers
Our next big stops were the famous Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and they certainly were something. They were both very
Franz Josef
It's a block of ice! different but both equally beautiful (Fox was the favourite though, there was something about it that actually made me take a step back and think, wow this is incredible. Very moving)
Ben taking over... The glaciers were huge blue, grey and transparent cascades of ice that slowly travel up or down valleys on and between huge mountains. We could get closer to Fox glacier, and enjoyed the risk of walking through a landslide zone (you weren't allowed to stop walking) surrounded by huge boulders and piles of rubble. There were however no landslides and we are not very flat. We had lunch that day by lake something or other that boasted fantastic reflections of Mt Cook/Aoraki, the big famous NZ mountain and Mt Tasman, but the weather was rubbish and the beautiful lake had nothing to reflect but cloud, fog and rain.
Wanaka
The drive to Wanaka, past lake Hawea and lake Wanaka, was stunning and the clouds dispersed and the sun shone bright to welcome us inland. Enjoying the turn in weather we visited puzzling world where we spent an hour in a large two storey outdoor maze, and visited the room of illusions,
where faces followed you, you stood at 45degree angles and holograms leapt out at you. it wasn't massively puzzling, but was fun, so too the small coffee-table puzzles to enjoy in the cafe.
The first night we spent just outside of town camped by a river in a cheap but not free campsite, and the second night we camped in a scenic reserve near town, basically a big park. The thing was we weren't supposed to (we knew but had been told through a chain of people passing on information that it was actually ok), so we got woke up at 5.45 by an irate man, probably a park ranger, telling us to get up, pack up and leave before the police arrived with $500 fines. So we did. At least it got us up nice and early. To our credit, we left no trace of our being there, as we always are careful to do, and surely being there at night (not allowed) doesn't differ much from being there during the day (allowed).
Near Wanaka we did a stunning day walk over a river on a swingbridge, through a forest following the river upstream, up a mountain
to a view of a glacier near the top, called the rob roy track. It was a very beautiful place. The drive there and back we had to push past thousands of sheep roaming happily everywhere and running in front of the car. There really are a lot of sheep in this country.
Queenstown
Queenstown was a bit like Wanaka (on the banks of a big and pretty lake, with moutains and hills ringing it), but with more houses, people, tourists and money spending activites for tourists. Here we arrived early (after our early awakening in Wanaka), had a cafe breakfast to warm us as it doesn't get anywhere near warm until midday most days, before heading up the big hill to do the infamous luge. Here Sarah, Chris and I rolled downhill tracks on go-kart type devices and surprisingly breakneck speeds and had a brilliant 15 minutes or so of speeding around. We walked up a very big hill for 45 minutes to get there, and then walked down (the luge didn't deliver us to the bottom of the hill as i'd hoped). It was good fun, and riding the chair lift was a treat too.
ok, back to Sarah... Milford Sound
Our next stop was the famous Milford Sound, which is technically a fjord (see how much we have learnt!). It was a lot of driving to get there but it was worth it. On the way we saw the CHASM (it's always written in capitals), as very spectacular waterfall/chasm with a very powerful riverpounding it's way through, and some nice lakes and waterfalls, as well as a 1.2km road tunnel through a mountain with one way traffic and traffic lights! We also had our coldest night yet just outside Milford, our tents actually froze solid. That wasn't such a pleasant night!
At Milford Sound we had, for once, not been stingey and booked a cruise. (One day I'm going to be rich and come back to New Zealand and go on every bloody boat trip and helicopter ride there is - but our meagre budgets don't allow for such indulgences!!!) It was worth it, the place was very very beautiful, with huge steep sides that made 100 metre waterfalls look like tiny streams. Very impressive Mother Nature!
We have to be off now or we will get radiation
poisoning so our next installment should come soon!!
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