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Published: April 8th 2007
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Well hello there! Sorry it's been so long. We had a very enjoyable month spent with Tim's parents cruising through New Zealand in the van and staying in lovely motels (often with smashing mini golf). After a lovely month they left us in the middle of March and since then the van has been our home. We're back on the North Island now, so here is a little summary of what we have been up to on the South Island.
After we had said our sad goodbyes to Tim's Mum and Dad in Christchurch, we headed south to sleep our first proper night in the van. We found somewhere to free camp by a nice bay, but after a short walk on the beach we discovered rather a lot of shotgun shells and a badly wounded one seater couch, so it was swiftly back in the van and round to the next bay. That was the start of many nights pulled up in various dusty roads or by beautiful lakes. Or first stop was the city (in NZ city means more than one shop) of Dunedin. We were told that the city had many fine buildings so set out
Chris and Bruna
Tim's parents chilling in the back of the van to discover the history. Indeed there were over two buildings built more than 80 years ago!!!!! The weather had turned rather Scottish so we checked out the art gallery and went to see Hot Fuzz at the cinema, cracking stuff. From there we cut across sheep country to discover the mystical Milford Sound.
The Milford Sound is a beautiful fiord, and flowing into the deep black waters are hundreds of waterfalls tumbling from the forest clad mountains that surround you. Now these waterfalls require a fair bit of rain, 6 metres a year to be exact, so they don't get much good weather there. On arrival the rain was well underway but luckily after a good nights rest in the stunning carpark the following day was only very cloudy. Grasping this rare piece of luck we took an early morning cruise up the sound (swung by a free buffet breakfast). Stuffed full of croissants and coffee we headed on deck to watch the amazing scenery. It was like something out of a fantasy film, water was flowing from everywhere into the sound.
On the way back from Milford we stopped at a view point and were delighted (momentarily)
to see a Kea, an unusual type of parrot here. The beautiful bird hopped its way over to us and we cooed with delight as it eyeballed us from less than a foot away. Sadly we had forgotten that Kea's have a reputation for being highly intelligent and also like to eat cars. Having checked us out it flew up onto the roof of Toma (our van) and started eating some loose wires. It was too wise to be scared of our attempts to shoo it off. Only after Tim had driven at high speed across the car park, slamming on the brakes, sending the hitchhiker we had piked up flying across the length of the van, did the Kea decide enough was enough.
For the next week or so we took advantage of the good weather to go on a number of lovely walks. On one near Queenstown we stumbled across a giant bird, so we slayed it and claimed its nest for Britain . The trees are starting to turn here as autumn approaches making the walks all the more enjoyable. As we worked our way north again we stopped at humourously named Wanaka where we visited
the notorius Puzzle World. They had a great maze and lots of optical illusions and it was all rather exciting.
We steered the van north, passing the amazing snow capped peaks of Mount Cook to arrive in Christchurch. Once there we visited the rather impressive open range zoo and quickly headed to see the Spider Monkeys. We sat and watched them for some time, made monkey noises and rather embarrassed ourselves as they didn't feel like responding to our desperate cries for monkey attention. Finally, after we could take their rejection no more we went to see the lions. At feeding time we boarded a cage mounted on the back of a truck and headed into the large lion enclosure. The chirpy lion man fed the massive beasts through the cage and we were surrounded, one even jumped on top. They were amazing and had the most unbelievably deep growl, it was a brilliant experience to be so close to them. From there it was animals all the way really. Further north at Kaikoura we took a trip to see sperm whales. We were really lucky to see three of the giant creatures come to the surface, where they
Nest Claimed for Britain
Actually a piece of artwork on the top of a mountain. took on air (enough to stay under water for up to an hour). We then watched them dive, seeing their beautiful tale arc into the air.
Just as we thought things couldnt get much better we booked on a Dolphin Swimming tour. Now both rather excited we had talked ourselves into a protective "if I just see one I will be happy" stance. We had perfect weather and within half an hour our guide had found a large pod of a hundred or so Bottlenose dolphins. They came swimming close to the boat and before we knew it we had slipped in the water to join them. We were told that we must entertain them to see lots of them, and that singing was the best way. So like a bunch of idiots we swam around all singing away into our snorkels...Laura found the best results with the theme tune to 'Flipper'. It was unbelievable to be in their world, to hear their cry and watch them swim around you, turning to look you in the eye. We were in the water four times on the trip and saw loads, sometimes as many as 6 would swoop around you.
Trying not to sound like a pair of sad hippies, the feeling was indiscribable, for the next few days we just floated around on such a high feeling so relaxed and fuzzy in the chest. There was something about them and being close to them that had such an effect on us. Now we are obsessed with Dolphins as well as Spider Monkeys.
The people here are great and incredibly refreshing. At a supermarket check out yesterday we started to pack the bags forgetting that the cashier usually does it here. The woman in her 60's asked if Tim would stay all afternoon and Tim asked "What are you paying?", to which she replied "Sh*t"! Another startling thing we have noticed is that all the kids here are very friendly. Whenever a small child walks by they say hello and often young kids have asked for our help without knowing us. Clearly the paedophilia paranoia obsession is not in full swing here, probably down to the fact they don't have any Daily Mail style rag tabloids to wip up fear. It's great to have a chat with a kid in a store about what the difference is between a
Jandal and a Sandal. We're still no clearer.
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Tim 1 (or is it Tim 2? I can never remember)
non-member comment
Something fishy going on here...
I think I've had just about enough of all this "oh, we're having such an amazing experience, we've just seen a flying unicorn save the lives of a mother and her newborn son by harnessing the power of a mystical rainbow..." yeh yeh yeh. I mean, how much of this travelblog has actually happened? As if you really met a family of dolphins who decided to adopt you and take you home to watch a Neighbours omnibus - everyone knows the world's just not that kind to us. I'll wager you've been holed up somewhere all this time, probably in the ghettos of Norwich - you closet scum fans - and you've been photoshopping every single picture you've posted on this blog. How stupid do you think we really are? Do you really expect us to believe that there's anywhere in the world with a name half as good as 'Colonial Knob'?