New Zealand

---

Greetings from Queenstown New Zealand! It is a great deal colder here than in Australia. The temperature dips below the zero degree mark which is a nice reminder of how life is at home. I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt when it was about 5 degrees and I was amused by many of the crazed looks I received. I landed at midnight in Christchurch on Tuesday, spent two days there mostly just looking for a car as it doesn't seem like there was much to do there before heading off on my grand voyage.

While I was in Christchurch the earthquake happened on the Southwest corner of the south island near Te Anu. We never felt it but my friend in Queenstown at the time said that all the bottle in the bar were rattling and no one had any idea what was going on. There was relatively little damage as it was a shallow earthquake around 5km depth but measure 6.2 and lasted about 40 seconds. Yay for excitement!

I met up with a German girl named Alexis that I met on my first day in Sydney to help keep travel costs low here while she is around. She helped me look for a car until I found it. $800 NZ got me a 1989 Ford Laser named "the silver slug" by its former owner. She named it this because her friends thought it was an ugly car but quite reliable. So, Slug ferried us north of Christchurch to Kaikora where Alexis wanted to go whale watching. She is only here for less than two weeks so I figured why not, it wasn't too far and then it meant I didn't have to go back up that way so we left the day I bought Slug. We did a Limestone Cave tour which was fun to see but not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped based on my geology background. Hopefully the next one I do up the coast will be slightly more awestriking. We drove after the tour to go and see baby seals and take a few pictures while watching them frolic or laze around. They are quite smelly creatures despite how cute they were.

I declined from surfing at this point in time as it was a miserable day and I doubt my wetsuit would have been able to keep me in there too long without books or gloves. I will pick some up though and give the surf down here a try.

We then went on the whale watching cruise the following day, saw 4 sperm whales, a pod of over 100 Dusky Dolphins, a lot of birds including several species of Albatross and some more seals. The whales were nothing too special because it is difficult to see them or appreciate their size but just seeing them sit there fluking up water and diving down to be gone for about 45 minutes was still an amazing experience. Their tales always raised out of the water before their dive which was a good photo op. I guess we got lucky as average whale sitings on the trip were only about 2 every three hour cruise but we got plenty more than that. =) The dolphins were of course amazing. They are smaller than a human and the particular species we saw are known the acrobats of the ocean. They swan around the boat as it moved jumping and weaving between one another, doing summersaults in the air, jumping high out of the water and just being playful as can be. The cruise also had lots of info to keep us interested as we cruised hunting for sea life. Interesting facts such as the sperm whale being able to make the 2nd or 3rd loudest sound on the planet I think around 280 decibels, enought to rupture humans internal organs! Lots of info on whale morphology and other sea lifes morpholoy as well as some geology on why kaikora is good for whales, the deep sea canyons and the continental shelf. Good old Geology =).

We drove down to Christchurch soon after the whale watching, travelled until a town called Ashburton where we stopped for the night only so we could enjoy the scenic drive the next day and had an early start.

We met up with my Australian friend Annika in Queenstown, booked into a hostel and had a night on the town. Today we switched hostels, took it easy, enjoyed some sights and are taking a helicopter tour up to the mountains weather permitted for a scenic tour. I have opted out of doing the bungee jump or sky swing purely because I do not see why I should pay $250 for such activities. I am sure it would be exciting but I am traveling and need to save my pennies where I can. Besides, I am more interested in the hiking and scenic adventures. I will save my pennies for Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound in the week to come. I doubt I will even snowboard while I am down here just to save money though I might be too tempted and just take the plunge.

From here we stay in Queenstown a few more days then run off to the great scenic sights of the National parks with Milford and Doubtful Sound. I will post pics soon to make you all jealous but as my time has nearly expired on the internet I will leave it here.

Miss you all and hope you are all doing something exciting so you can tell me stories of your travels as well. I also do love hearing from you so let me know how things are going please!

---

Comments

[Monica Coulson]

Well Nick it is 25.5 degrees right now at 8 pm and evrything is green and growing around here! I am sure you ran around here and edmonchuk in shorts at 5 degreeds too. You just like to amaze/amuse people.Pam is at Shuswap with kelly and Poomba loves loves loves it , of course! And he is a good swimmer/fetcher of sticks by the sounds of it. I have been clearing out some of the shed, clearing out your old room, and painting the main floor walls pretty turquoise and sky blue, with a scattering of clouds. Just you wait until you see it. You can remember that I was painting blue sky walls whilst you were whale watching. Whenever you look at the walls, you can think about NZ. Grandma and Grandad really enjoy your blogs, which I have taken in for their amusement, so they can armchair world travel. Grandad always wanted to see just what was around the next bend ..... So glad you love your rocks! and geology . Happy trails, from the land of blue skies, sunshune , the true North strong and free.