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Published: January 11th 2007
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Welcome to Middle Earth
sorry I couldn't resist the LOTR reference. Hey everybody and happy new year. I've been touring around the south island of New Zealand here for about a month and figured it was time to update everybody on what's going on. Here's a quick breakdown of my trip on the south island so far.
number of cars purchased- 1
km driven- approx. 6000
number of times I've driven on the wrong side of the road- 3 (and haven't killed anyone yet)
number of speeding tickets- 1 (it's the first one I've had in like 12+ years, I swear)
amount of road kill- 2 (the rabbits and birds around here aren't the smartest)
number of different cities/ towns I've stayed in- 8
number of glaciers seen- 2
number of times I've gone bungy jumping- 3
total meters bungy jumped- 224m
highest jump- 134m
amount of fun I've had- tons
I flew into Auckland from Fiji but got an internal flight down to Christchurch on the east coast of the south island so that I could start my trip on the south island. I stayed in Christchurch for 5 days while I found a car to buy. I walked around the city during the day and checked
out some of the great old buildings from when the city was founded in the late 1800's. There are some great gothic buildings in the area and the city has a great central square area, river running through the city, botanical gardens, and park areas. I soon became the proud owner of a 1988 Ford Sierra station wagon and now own a car in two different countries. How many people can say that? It's a real mean machine let me tell you. Actually it's not too bad outside of the fact that the radio crapped out on me a few days into my trip.
After I picked up the car, got some insurance, and got used to driving on the opposite side of the road and shifting with my left hand (good thing I got that insurance) I headed up the east coast. Once I got out of the city I started to see the green country side and tons of sheep you expect from New Zealand. And when I say tons of sheep I mean tons of sheep. They are literally everywhere and they say there are 11-12 sheep for every one person in New Zealand. That's a
lot of wool. The scenery is really amazing though with green rolling hills and mountains (with snow in places) in the background.
I spent the first night in Kaikoura which is known for it's whale watching tours. On my way up there from Christchurch I stopped off at Gore Bay which was a great little bay with some great views. There were also some cathedral rock formations which are similar to the ones in Brice National Park in the states. I got into Kaikoura in the late afternoon/ evening (it's hard to tell because the sun doesn't set until 9-10 around here) and got set up in a hostel there. The next day I drove out to the seal colony and then hiked on the cliffs above. The weather was great and I hike for an hour or so through sheep pastures watching out for the sheep bombs. More great weather and great scenery everywhere.
I then continued up the east coast on my way to Nelson in the north part of the island. Evidently this was where I was in a little too much of a hurry to get up there and picked up a speeding ticket
on the way. Even the cops in New Zealand are nice (still gave me the ticket though). I got up in to Nelson late in the day and got settled into The Green Monkey hostel which was a great little place. The next day I set out and hiked around Nelson seeing the Center on New Zealand which is the geographical center of the country. I got some great views above Nelson overlooking the Tasman Bay over to Abel Tasman National Park and Golden Bay. I hiked for 4 hours or so up along a river and through both public and private land on a great walk. Again the scenery was great.
The next day I drove over to the west coast. I stopped off at the Buller Gorge Swing Bridge which is supposed to be the longest swaying pedestrian bridge in New Zealand. I opted not to pay the extra $25 to ride back on a zipline. The Buller river was very beautiful and there were some great short walks around the area. From there I headed out ot Westport and then headed north on the coast to little Wanganui and Karamea. These were two quite coastal towns
My new machine
I know you all wish you had one just like it. that were great to see. The road up was snaked through the coast hills and offered some great views. I was hoping to find some surf up in these areas but the wind was blowing in force that day and everything was blown out. There were some great beach areas and river mouths with lots of potential though and endless beauty everywhere you looked. When I got to Karamea I turned around and headed back to Westport where I stayed for the evening.
The next day I finally got a chance to go surfing before headed down the west coast towards Franz Josef. I surfed in this little bay near Cape Foulwind with one other guy about 200 yards away. The waves were ok and the water was cold. Back at the hostel there was a girl from the Netherlands hitch hiking here way down the coast so she joined me for the ride down. We headed over to Cape Foulwind and walk around to see the sights, more seals, and tons more sheep. From there we headed down to Punakaiki where there are some cool rock formations called pancake rocks and a blowhole. After this we slowly wound
our way down the coast to Franz Josef, the home of one of the two biggest glaciers on New Zealand. We had just enough day light left to hike up to the bottom of the glacier and get some pictures.
The next day I booked a full day tour onto the Franz Josef glacier and was up at the base of the glacier outfitted in Gore Tex jacket and pants, waterproof boots, and "talons" which were strap on spikes for walking on the ice by 10:30am. It rained most of the day that we were on the glacier and it was cool at times, but there was no better activity to be doing on a rainy day. The glacier runs up a valley that it has cut and was surrounded by temperate rainforest on the hillsides. We hiked up cut steps, through valleys in the ice, and squeezed through ice caves on our way up and down the glacier. We even saw a Kea, an alpine parrot, walking around the glacier after we had finished lunch. The whole trip was a little wet but super fun. After I got the glacier I drove over to Queenstown to catch up
with some people I had met in the Cook Islands for Christmas.
I stayed at a great hostel called Bumbles in Queenstown for Christmas and Boxing Day hanging out with Rich, Nick and their UK crew and had a blast. Queenstown is a great little town right on Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by hills and mountains all around. It is a very scenic and lively place and the center for all action sports. We started out Christmas day with a dip in the rather cold Lake Wakatipu and then BBQ'd out and hung out around the hostel for Christmas brunch. On Boxing Day I got out and did some more walking, posted to the web blog, and then joined the others for dinner and celebration of Boxing Day UK style. We went out and hit some of the local clubs and finished up the night with the required stop at Furgburger where you can get a great burger the size of your head.
On the 27th I drove down to Dunedin on the south east coast to check it out before I headed up to Christchurch to pick up Brittany who was flying in the next day. I
didn't get too much of a chance to see much of Dunedin because it was raining, but what I did see made sure that I would come back. The next morning I did get out to the beaches to check the surf which looked ok but didn't have enough time to surf so I would have to save that for next time too. From there it was off to Christchurch to pick up Brittany.
I'll get into the really good stuff on the next blog so stay tuned.
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Biznatch
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Dude I'm hooked!!!
Glad things are going well, and I'm really really jealous. Happy New Year Rich!