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Published: February 10th 2007
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Beachcomber
Lake Manapouri So it seems Middle Earth lives up to the hype. As far as New Zealand goes we hope the pictures speak for themselves. If they don't do the job, that's our fault! It's the most beautiful place either of us have ever visited.
We started off in Christchurch and managed to catch some of the
World Buskers Festival. A little like the Edinburgh Fringe with the usual mixture of hilarious, entertaining and terrible acts. We saw a mute, balloon artist comedian called
Pedro and
Gamarjobat - a pair of human penguins with mohicans. We also caught a French-Canadian fireshow trio called
Les Walkyries who could bend in ways that aren't possible for normal mortals.
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols After a lazy few days in Christchurch, it was time to hit the road. It was with some trepidation that we arrived at the Wicked Campers depot to collect our van, having heard stories of vehicles daubed with 'Just Married' and 'Barbie'.
Thankfully, we were paired with a quite impressive looking Sex Pistols van. Happy with our punked out ride we set off for Kaikoura, quickly forgetting what was painted on the outside of the van, and wondering why
Clean sheet
Milford Sound so many people were staring.
Turning our attention to the scenery we were driving through, we realised that New Zealand reminds us a lot of home, only bigger and more dramatic. And then there's the weather. We'd forgotten about the cold wet stuff that drops from the sky. And that it can manage to do so non-stop for a whole day. That and the wind prevented us whale watching in Kaikoura.
Still the whole Scottish connection was further reinforced when we had a random knock on our van door one evening, opening it to see a couple of friends from home. Over a nice meal and a few pints of 'Sheep Shagger' lager with
Steven and Julie we managed to forget about the rain and catch up on everything we'd each been up to in the past six months.
Scotland. Only bigger. And with more sheep. Hoping for better weather, we headed south to the Otago Peninsula. Which may seem like a bad idea, seeing as it takes you away from the equator, and closer to the Antarctic. We know this because we saw penguins. And a couple of Hooker's Sea Lions who seemed intent on keeping their population
Ring of fire
and it burns, burns, burns levels up.
Surprisingly enough though, it did stop raining. Although Carolyn seemed to struggle with the temperature drop. Her backpack was undoubtedly at its lightest of the trip. She was wearing about 14 layers every day. The locals were all a little bemused as they strolled around in shorts and t-shirts.
Speaking of the locals, we managed to bump into a nice Kiwi family at a campsite in the Catlins, despite them choosing to park at the opposite end of the site after spotting our Sex Pistols van, and figuring it would be occupied by a couple of anarchists.
It was a good thing too, as they pointed us in the direction of the rather fine little
Invercargill Brewery. After adding some tasty bottles to our chiller we headed on our way.
Fjordland Milford Sound is one of those places that you might recognise, without even knowing it. So iconic is the imagery that you can even find it popping up in prints at Ikea. It's a place that was high on the (long) list of must sees before we left home. And thankfully it lived up to expectations. We even used up some of our luck reserves
Mitre peek
Milford's famous mountain tries to be seen through the clouds by getting a nice sunny day.
The region is notoriously wet, getting metres of rain a year, with more than 2 in every 3 days seeing the wet stuff falling from the sky. We were told that the best conditions to hope for were a nice sunny day right after a good few days of rain. Lets you get outside on the boat, and still have the waterfalls at their most impressive. Like we said, we were lucky.
The captain of the boat - who claimed to be called Fjord - made the most of the abundant and overflowing waterfalls by steering the boat as close as possible to a few particularly impressive examples, in a bid to soak as many passengers as possible. Fortunately the cameras survived the onslaught and we were rewarded with a tasty glass of fresh water straight from the source.
We were considerably more grateful to the eagle eyed captain when he spotted a pod of bottlenose dolphins frolicking around on the other side of the Sound. Off we went in hot pursuit, before realising that the dolphins were just as pleased to see us, and we became the quarry as they
played around in the wake of the boat.
The dolphins weren't the only wildlife we encountered that day. We got up close and personal with some Keas on the stunning Milford Road en route to the Sound.
Stopping at the Homer Tunnel, where some crazy Kiwis have a naked race every year, we were forced to wait for the 15 minute traffic light sequence to turn in our favour. Stepping out of the van to take a few photos of the surrounding scenery, we figured we were safe enough to leave the vehicle out of reach. It was the perfect signal to the group of cheeky Keas to settle themselves on the roof and bonnet in a bid to stock up on the rubber that is clearly lacking in their normal diet. Like monkeys at a safari park, they pulled and chewed at windscreen wipers and window surrounds with vigour.
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deleted_21595
Perfect 10
Jealous, so jealous! You needn't have written anything - the photos speak for themselves. PS Will someone please go to NZ and come back and tell me that its horrible and that I'd hate it.