South Island - part one

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Starting out

Tom speaking: Christchurch is a nice city. Has a very 'British' feel to it. Some of the suburbs the cab was taking us through were lovely - the houses were a nice mix of quirky contemporary styles and traditional, and actually looked like they'd survive more than a light breeze (proper brick vs. the usual wood construction). The cabbie went on to say that this area was one of the most expensive in all NZ. At least that confirmed we have expensive tastes...!
Our first night there was pretty cool - the hostel was called 'Jailhouse' and actually used to be the city jail. In fact it turned out to be easily the cleanest and best equipped hostel of our travels. Can recommend to anyone coming here.

So we picked up our wheels for the next 3 weeks - a VW campervan. Compact, but had everything you needed (except a toaster - annoying). I'd especially been looking forward to this bit as I was gagging to get some bits in my own fridge and cook some of my own food. So after fighting through the Good Friday traffic leaving town we free-camped near Mt Hutt village, about an hour to the SW. Safe to say it was rather cold that first night, so we decided to rock up at motor parks henceforth, at least on the South Island (van has an electric heater but it's 240V so you need a hook-up to run it).
So over the next couple of days we continued our journey South towards Queenstown. Absolutely stunning scenery - pretty well every corner you turn is another shot from Lord of the Rings.

Queentown
Bry speaking: Queenstown - capital of all things adventurous and outdoory (in this country anyway). Parachuting, jet-boating, hanggliding, paragliding, white-water rafting, bungy jumping... I had the obligatory arrival lie-in on Easter Sunday whilst Tom busied himself Luging and Paragliding down the hill. Then we headed out for a days thrills on the Shotover River. Started with Jet Boating... Tom was quite taken with the mechanics of it... basically it's a boat which jets water through at a mammoth pace such that you get flung around really fast. they run up and down the Canyon coming within centimetres of the rockfaces on either side and showing off with 360 degree turns. Good fun. We then hopped into our white water rafting gear and into a helicopter. The heli ride gave amzing views of the river and canyon below. The water here is a beautiful icy blue, quite different from anything I've seen before. Then out of the heli and onto a two hour raft trip. The waters were pretty calm, a couple of reasonable rapids... we made up for it with splashing and capsizing the boat. I surfaced under the upturned boat, which I have to admit was a little scary. After a good solid soaking we were treated to a sauna before heading back to base. We ate at the van and headed out for a well earnt drink... only to find that the licencing laws on religious holidays restrict the sale of alcohol without a full meal. I cannot believe enlightended and intelligent people let such fairytales such as Easter actually influence law making. We've been reading Dawkings 'The God Delusion'... so we're pretty fired up and proud of our secular beliefs (Tom's read it, I've read the intro and then got distracted by Philip Pullman's Dark Materials). Anyway, we had beer in the van, so we made themost of that. Then off to see some ice...

Fox Glacier
Bry speaking: Rocked up in Fox Glacier pretty late and headed to the pub... where Tom proceeded to talk about aeroplanes with an ex RAF guy for nigh on two hours! The next day it was time to hit the ice. We opted for a heli-hike, which takes right up into the glacier for a walk round the tunnels and caves. All kitted up in our three layers, boots and cramp-ons we had a magical few hours looking at the sculptural wonderland around us. The light wasn't great as the clouds were low and the upper glacier was totally out of sight. Then our guide said they'd called it and we needed to get off the Glacier because the visibility was getting too poor. 'No big deal' we thought... headed to the heli-pad and heard the comforting sound of rotorblades coming towards us and then rather worryingly away again. The guides said they'd curcuit and come back... so we waited. They got on their radios and decided it was time 'to find the barrels'. All quite exciting really. So, we all put our grips back on and trudged down the Glacier to where the guides said there were barrels with warm weather gear, food, etc... only they couldn't find them. So, we walked over to an old heli-pad to wait a bit longer whilst one guide went off to find the barrels. Found, we were all issued with ground mats, sleeping bags and warm clothing. It stank... really musty. Everyone was in pretty good spirits, enjoying the adventure of it. Would have been a bit crap if someone had freaked out. So, we put our mats down, huddled in under our sleeping bags and then it started to drizzle... not quite so much fun! Out came the tarps and we all huddled beneath them whilst the guides brewed up hot drinks on a little gas stove... there must be a little British left in them... I mean what else to do in a crisis then drink tea!! They hadn't had an all nighter for 33 years... but it was getting close and the sense of adventure was definitely wearing off as the light started to go... then, we're put into groups and herded over the the heli-pad. Tom and I were lucky enough to be on the second ride out. When we got to the bottom the crew told us that they were pretty glad to get us down as there was some really rainly, foggy weather due in for the night and next day... that really would not have been fun!! So, six hours on the ice and a good story later we headed up to Franz Josef for a steak dinner and bottle of red. And yes, it did rain for the next 24 hours.

Travelling north
Bry speaking: After a night's stopover in Greytown on a very grey day we headed for the natural hot springs in Hanmer. They're great... the hottest ones 41 degrees celsius. A great way to warm up and chill out. Getting out was a bit tough... the light was going and the air temperature was smarting, especially after the sumptious warmth of the pools.

Kaikoura
Tom speaking: Kaikoura is the NZ home of (1) Crayfish and (2) Whale watching. Well the crayfish here are lobsters without the big pincers - a bit overrated if you ask me but there you go. Bry was going to go whale watching but didn't set the alarm properly so missed it. We did get some horse trekking in though which was quite good.

Malborough
Tom speaking: A beautiful drive up the East coast took us to Blenheim, which is at the Eastern end of the Marlborough wine region. Needless to say we stocked up as best we could and got some shipped home. The whole area is not what I expected - it's a flat low lying valley in between two mountain ranges. It gets bugger all rain and the ground is very gravelly, so the vines work really hard and you end up with cracking Sauvignon Blanc in the main (70%!o(MISSING)f the grapes here).

Abel Tasman
Tom speaking: This is up in the North East of the South Island. It's the smallest national park in NZ, and home to a beautiful coastline where there are a few seal colonies. We took in a day's sea kayaking along the coast and saw loads of seal pups playing about.

Bry speaking: I actually enjoyed some excercise! It has absolutely never happened before... but in the afternoon, we paddled for about two hours and I really got into a rhythm and enjoyed it. I even think I got an endorphin high... how cool! I must remember that and find something I enjoy at home. I don't suppose 29 is a bad age to start doing a little physical activity.

Ferry from Picton
Tom speaking: Not very enjoyable beacuse (1) the Cook Straits were pretty choppy (but we managed not to chunder) and (2) I watched England get spanked out of the World Cup by South Africa :-(

Bry speaking: Dad's always said that food is the best cure for sea sickness... so I ate loads and slept. Felt fine... recommmend it as a strategy.

A few other observations....
* Some favourite phrases:
*"Get into it" meaning something like 'crack on', 'let's have some fun' *"It's all good" meaning 'it's ok'

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Photos

Porridge
Interior of the Jailhouse (Bry is having kebabs not porridge)

Cone thing
Modern art in Cathedral Square, Christchurch

Sculpted fella
Christchurch cathedral in the background

Got any salmon?
Nice to be able to stop and grab something fresh for dinner - I think the place we got this bad boy claimed to be the highest salmon farm in the world.

Banished
Bry isn't too keen on tinned fish smell, so I was kicked out to enjoy my pre-helihike snack in solitude

Run! Get to the chopper!
Our lift onto Fox glacier

Waiting for a lift
View from under the tarps

Me first
Our lift home arrives

Nice vista
Lots of these here

But when it rains here, it REALLY rains
Not a particularly happy camper - waiting for the freshwater tank to fill up

Letterboxes
On the (very) winding road from Nelson to Picton ferry

Comments

[Rowena]

Making the most of it!
Wow! You two really are making the most of it. It all sounds brilliant.