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Published: February 7th 2008
It was time to head South... next on the itinerary was the rugged coastline and forests of "The Catlins", a place not frequented by foreign tourists. This segment of our New Zealand jaunt was to coincide with my last days as a 23 year old too. We packed up our tent in Oamaru and began our drive south along the east coast, stopping off in Dunedin for a quick lunch. Dunedin is like a mini Edinburgh with its very own, Prince's Street, Moray Place, George Street and Canongate! Even the architecture looked like it had been plucked from the Royal Mile! We continued our drive south through the beautiful forests of the The Catlins, getting stuck in the odd sheep traffic jam along the way. Our home for the night was a gorgeous hostel in the town of Papatowai. It was more like a plush B & B than a backpackers, with a luxurious room and bathroom and killer views of the sea and surrounding forest. Just what we craved after a long day on the road. We decided to start the birthday celebrations 2 days early and cracked open a bottle of Lindauer (a weekly tradition for us in NZ!)
The Catlins
View from our hostelwhich Mark had bought for us to have on my birthday. We sat by the bay window for the evening, taking in the breathtaking views.
The next day we drove along the south coast headed for Curio Bay (an ancient fossil ground), just a few miles down the road from Papatowai. We set up our tent at the most stunning campsite we have ever seen. It was located on the top of a headland with the roaring sea on either side of us and long grass dividing tent sites which gave you the feeling of complete isolation. The weather was incredible and we sat for hours outside our tent watching the waves crash against the cliffs below us. When we stay at campsites like this, it makes us realise how lucky we are to have our tent with us. Without a tent, we would have missed out on staying at such a spectacular place. We celebrated my last few hours as a 23 year old by dining in style at a picnic table overlooking the blue sea, eating last night's leftovers out of plastic bowls with plastic cutlery, watching the sun set over the water. Perfect.
The next
day I woke up feeling a little bit taller and a little bit wiser and we had a birthday breakfast by the beach with the sea lions. I was sad to leave this special place but I felt so lucky to have spent the night there. We packed up, jumped into the car and headed off in the direction of Invercargill and then Te Anau in Fiordland. Surprisingly enough, Te Anau is quite a happening place, probably the most lively place we had visited in the South Island so far. It's a small town with loads of great restaurants, cafes and bars, and more importantly, it's the gateway to Milford Sound. I was thrilled when Mark presented me with my birthday presents of British Vogue (the best present ever when away from home!), a box of Roses (which we got stuck into before dinner!) and a home made voucher for one leg of a pair of expensive Superfine jeans (to be purchased in Sydney). We went for a few beers before enjoying a fabulous pizza and more beers! As we stumbled back to our tent in the early hours, we heard a loud growling animal noise coming from the tree
next to our tent. Terrified we shined the torch up into the branches... this put a stop to the growling but we were horrified to see a huge and angry looking unidentified koala like animal staring down at us. We looked at each other and dived into the tent to save ourselves! The next day we drove to Milford Sound (2 hours drive away) and went on a cruise of the Sound. It was the perfect day for it, a scorcher of a day with a clear blue sky. We saw loads of wildlife, including more sea lions and dolphins. The Sound is really impressive, flanked by huge mountains on either side, rising out of the sea. Again, typical New Zealand really...
Our next stop was Wanaka. We were going to Wanaka for one reason, and one reason only. SKYDIVE!!!!!!! Wanaka is just north of Queenstown and is widely regarded as a quieter, less frantic and less touristy Queenstown. It boasts a superlative location on the shore of Lake Wanaka surrounded by snow capped mountains, even in summer. We had planned to camp here but when we checked out the campsite it kind of resembled a tinker camp so
we opted for a hostel instead. At this stage we were feeling very nervous at the thought of jumping out a plane at 3,650m (12,000ft) and sleeping the night before the jump was difficult to say the least. We drove to the airport the following morning, terrified. Luckily though, we didn't have much more time to think about what we were about to do, as we were distracted by getting strapped up and into our overalls for the jump. We were introduced to our tandem masters, who were a good laugh and in no time we found ourselves sitting on the floor of a tiny plane and speeding down the runway. On the way up, the views were just spectacular with Mount Cook in clear view poking its head above a blanket of cloud. Mount Aspiring was also clearly visible and Lake Wanaka was glistening in the sunlight. Perfect conditions for a skydive. Adam, my tandem master pointed out on his altimeter that we were just approaching 12,000ft so it was time to get ready. He went through the procedure once again, and we practiced the jumping off position. He tried to scare me even more about a minute before
we jumped by saying "oh my god your straps are so loose, good job I noticed that in time"... I freaked out big time, until he said, "ha! only joking, they're meant to be like that"!. He was good fun though, and very reassuring about everything, apart from that little "joke" of his. So, there we were, about to jump out of a plane and freefall for 45 seconds. Hard to believe really.
The door of the plane opened. Mark was first up. He and Uros (his tandem master) shuffled to the door. With his legs were hanging out of the plane, he turned around to me, screaming "Woah!", a look of sheer terror on his face. And just like that, he was gone, tumbling out of the plane so fast I only saw him for a second or two. Then it was my turn and my memory is slightly blurred from here on! I completely forgot everything Adam had told me a few minutes earlier and got all my movements mixed up! I remember my legs dangling out of the plane, Adam pulling my head back on his shoulder as he clung onto the side of the plane
and thrust us off the edge. We tumbled out of the plane so quickly that the plane was a speck within a second. The freefall was UNREAL. I screamed my head off as I struggled to breathe against the wind. Adam was cheering and screaming too and it was so much fun! I was so preoccupied by the fact that I was falling towards the ground at 200km an hour that I forgot to look around me at the view. Adam grabbed my head and pulled it up and I could see Mount Aspiring and Lake Wanaka hurtling towards me. He also pointed out Mark and Uros, a tiny yellow speck in the distance- their parachute was up at that stage. After 45 seconds of freefalling, I felt the tug of our parachute and we started to sail. I had to take a deep breath to take in what I had just done and finally started to relax as we drifted towards the airport. We had a nice soft landing and I laughed to myself before standing up. Adam gave me a congratulatory hug and Mark came running over for a kiss! What an experience!
We were so exhausted
after all that adrenaline we had to take it easy for the rest of the day. The next day we drove towards Queenstown through the spectacular Crown Range and headed straight for Glenorchy. We hadn't realised until now that we had actually saved the best journey for last as this brought us on a truly spectacular drive along Lake Wakatipu, with probably the best scenery we have seen in New Zealand. I have never seen anything like it, and it really took my breath away. Many scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed in this area and it's easy to see why... it is very otherworldly indeed. We had a lovely lunch in Glenorchy and then continued to drive around the Lake on a gravel road to the other side until we reached town of Kinloch. I use the word "town" loosely as Kinloch is comprised solely of a campsite and a small hotel. We camped at a very basic government campsite here, on the shore of the lake, with more beautiful views. The only thing that could detract from the sheer beauty of this place was the abundance of sandflies. They were extremely annoying, flying in our faces
as we tried to pitch the tent. Since we were camping for free that night, we splashed out on a fancy dinner at the lovely hotel across the road.
It was back to Queenstown the next day where were to camp for our last 2 nights in New Zealand before heading to Australia. We reluctantly returned our car to Ace Car Rental and said our goodbyes. We had become very well acquainted over the 3,500 km which we clocked up over three weeks in the South Island. Queenstown really is the adventure capital of the world and Mark was in heaven. We stayed at a great campsite in the middle of town(!) and in anticipation of our travels to Australia, we off-loaded our left over food and washing powder to a group of English guys camping near us. We ventured out that night to see what Queenstown had to offer in the way of nightlife, enjoyed some fabulous sushi (Mark had meat!) in a cute Japanese restaurant and a few drinks in the Kiwi institution of the Pig and Whistle Pub. We were up bright and early the next morning to go jetboating. Jetboating on the Shotover River basically
involves a white knuckle ride down a narrow river canyon with a lunatic of a driver and screaming your head off for 20 minutes. We did loads of 360 spins and went terrifyingly close to rocks in the water and the sides of the canyon! Great fun, apart from the rain which pelted us in the face as we sped along at 85km/hr- pretty painful! We couldn't believe it when we later saw a photo of a 96 year old man who had done this a few years ago!
It was 10am and the Shotover Jet was only one of 3 extreme activities that Mark had booked for the day! He still had the Shotover Canyon Swing and the Ledge Bungee jump to conquer. So, I'll hand you over to him now to tell you all about those....
Hi all! Adrenaline Junkie #1 here. After the Shotover Jet Boating, we were both a bit damp to say the least. I had booked in for the Shotover Canyon Swing just before lunch (thankfully!) and I was driven out to the canyon in the torrential rain. On seeing the platform that I had elected to jump from, I did curse
rather profanely. I was going second, and the chap ahead of me chose to fall off backwards. He looked pretty relax, so no need to fear I thought. I chose to jump "pin drop" style, which entailed leaning over slightly with my hands behind my back, and hopping to my left. With being 109m up and 60m (2 seconds) of freefall ahead of me, I was a wee bit nervous. When all necessary precautions were in place, the jumpmaster said "Whenever you're ready..." For me this was a little casual, a little bit unceremonious, so I requested a countdown from 5. After winding me up 3 times with false starts, they confessed I was better off just jumping myself. So with a quick internal countdown, off I hopped. Good god. I was waaaaaay to scared to scream. Once I could feel the ropes take my weight the relief started, and I could manage a yell, god only knows what rubbish I came out with. Shaking with adrenaline I was back on the platform in one piece, completely high from the rush. I decided to go a second time, strapped to a garden chair, where I rocked off backwards. This was
The Catlins
Curio Bay, at our campsite fantastic too, but not as scary as the pin drop! It is best visualized on YouTube, so here are the links: (
,
)
Still alive but only just, I decided to take on the grim reaper once more and do The Ledge Bungy, which is on the hillside overlooking Queenstown. A not inconsiderable 47m or so, they hooked me up, counted me down from 3, and off the edge I ran. It was a fantastic rush again, but there was not as much tension built up as on the canyon swing. After a bounce or two I was restored to terra firma, again buzzing from the adrenaline.
I have learnt that the highest bungy in the world is in Hong Kong
So that's it for New Zealand folks... Next installation will be from OZ!
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Liz
non-member comment
happy birthday :-)
I'm glad you had a good birthday kate, the photos are amazing! I've been following your blog for a little while (not in a stalker way!) and i've loved every entry, your route is very similar to the one i have planned for next year. I hope you both continue to enjoy every minute. Liz x