On to the Land of the Long White Cloud

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Emma Hydroslide

Marc Hydroslide

First of all new thing a little video for you to watch.

So after a wonderful 4 months of easy living, it was time to hit the road again into country's new. New Zealand was to be our next stop, a short flight and a few hours later we arrived in Christchurch, we took an airport shuttle to the YHA, it was opposite the arts center and museum and close to the center of town so we could not of picked a better spot.
After dropping our bags in our room we took the short walk across the road and in to the old university buildings which where now being used as small craft workshops and shops selling the goods being made. After a quick look around Emma decides that this area is worth a longer second look and that we are only on a scouting trip today, so with the reconnoitre over we headed in to town, as we walked in we could not help but notice the similarity between Christchurch and Oxford, both towns being university towns Christchurch even being named after one of the colleges from the "old country", the punting, on the river Avon, although
Juggler
the river runs a lot faster here so it is more like steering than punting. When we reached cathedral square a quick look in the information center filled us in on all we needed to know about the local area, so with our arms filled with leaflets we could read at our own leisure we headed over to the cathedral You can climb up the bell tower for a few dollars where you can get some lovely views of the surroundings. Emma was very taken with the art gallery where as I felt that the museum was the better, but ether way many a happy hour was spent in both. Emma arranged for us both to go to a bone carving workshop with the “bone dude”, when we arrived (slightly late) there were four other people already hard at work on there pieces, in there craft vices, files in hand shaping the bone. John (our tutor) asked us to choose a design from a selection and then told us how to file and sand until we had our designs smooth and ready for John to polish .
Soon it would be time to start our tour of the south
Graduation Day
island so we did a little research into camper vans, as this was to be our home for the next 36 days, we decided to splash out on a 4 berth camper (oh what luxury) to avoid cabin fever and it meant we didn't have to make the bed up every day, the best deal we found was with Backpackers, who it turns out our owned by Mauri and Britz. After a short delay we collected our van(and big map book) and we were off down south on national highway 1,after a couple of hours of driving we came across a gypsy fair,so we stopped to take a look, there homes are made out of converted buses and lorries and looked like middle earth on wheels, we reached Oamaru just in time to see the the fairy penguin colony (also known as blue penguins) coming back in from there day out at sea, we were lucky enough to see 40 or so even though it was molting season, we opted to “free camp”, which meant we had to find somewhere 15 km away from residential area and not on private property, having failed to find the picnic site we were
Tram
looking for, we ended up at the top of a hill over looking Trotter's gorge in the pitch black feeling more than a little exposed, but in the morning we were greeted with a breathtaking view that made it all worthwhile.
So after a quick coffee it was back on the road to Moeraki beach to see the amazing spherical boulders, then on to Dunedin where we had been told that there was a good museum, we were lucky enough to get a parking spot just outside the museum (which is no mean feat when you are driving a van 6.2 meters long) the top floor of the museum is laid out just as it was in victorian times with lots of dimly lit ceiling high mahogany and glass cabinets full of stuffed animals after this it was time to find somewhere to camp after waking to such a beautiful morning we “free camped” again but this time on a beach, near Brighton.
In the morning we went for a walk before breakfast and had the whole of the beach to ourselves except for the horses exercising. A long drive to Curio bay in between Porpoise Bay and
Bunny
the Petrified Forest, after booking into the campsite we took a stroll to look at the forest, you can see all the trees laid out on the shoreline (it goes for 20 km), the next morning we took a walk around porpoise bay and where lucky enough to see some Hectors Dolphins (very small, very rare).
After a good drive to Riverton via Invercargill (to pick up some thermals as the weather is not as warm as it was) after a short walk to see Stewart Island we book in to a lovely camp site that used to be a church camp that had a huge hall with an open fire and a pool table and great showers. After leaving Riverton we only made it about 20 kms down the road before we came to Orepuki (a gem beach) which was so nice we decided to stay for the day and night (Emma spent the day collecting sacks full of stones and then bringing back to the camper for sorting).
Next morning it was back to doing some serious miles and heading up to Te Anau, we booked ourselves onto glow worm and cave tour for the afternoon
Bone Carving
so with a few hours to kill we wondered around town for a bit ( I finally conceded that it was getting colder and got a hat and gloves), we boarded the boat and after a short while arrived at the Aurora caves (very strict no photography rule) we where split into three groups and taken into the caves, there was some very impressive waterfalls in the caves and the chambers are all quite large and the glow worms twinkled like stars on a clear nights sky, after the tour it was back on the boat and back to Te Anau as we still had some daylight left we started to head off for Milford Sound we spent the night at Deer Flat about halfway to Milford as the light started to fail.
In the morning it was drizzling and the day looked like it was going to be a bit dull, it was in fact a real bonus as it meant that all the water coming off the hillsides made waterfalls every 100 yards or so. There is only one place to park your camper in Milford Sound and it does not have power so you need to
The Finished Items
make sure your battery's are charged before you get there. We booked our trip on the explorer and added the underwater observatory, that night the gods let loose the dogs of war, at least thats what it felt like in the camper as the wild howled as it rocked us and the rain came at us on a horizontal plane, Emma said it was like being in a car wash without the car, in the morning it was as if nothing had happened, the sun was out ,not a cloud in the sky and just the slightest of breeze, a perfect day to take our cruise, except that when we arrived to get on the boat we were informed that the underwater observatory had been closed due to the increased depth of fresh water caused by the rain the night before ( they lower and raise the coral to make sure it stays in the salt water) due to the black corals intolerance to fresh water, however once we were underway they announced that it would be re-opening by the time we got there.
The boat took us past fur seals basking in the sun and right up to
The Bone Dude (John)
the waterfalls (they put a row of plastic cups on the bow of the boat) so you could taste the water, after a couple of hours we were dropped off at the observatory to finally see the famed black coral (which is white). Once back on dry land we headed out of Milford Sound, which by the way should be called Milford Fjord as it was formed buy glaciers and a Sound is formed by rivers (don´t I sound clever).
Next stop Wanaka for the famed cinema Paradiso, a small cinema that has old sofas and chairs instead of cinema seats (there is even a Morris Minor in there to make more like a drive in movie theatre, we watched Spiderman 3. While the film is playing the staff bake cookies and half way through the movie they stop the film and open the doors, allowing the smell of the freshly baked cookies to waft in...... every one then rushes out and comes back in with coffee and warm cookies to watch the rest of the film (highly recommended both the cookies and the film).
Next day we took a slightly adventurous 50 km drive to go to
The old observatory
the start of the Rob Roy glacier walk, the road starts out good enough but soon changes to unsealed, then becomes single lane, then as you go into the mountains it takes on the twists and turns of an epileptic hose pipe and then throws in fords at regular intervals that get deeper and deeper the further you go until you are not sure that you will make through the last one and of cause not forgetting the herds of sheep and cattle sitting on he road (but only after a hairpin bend), finally we arrive to the near empty car park (not to many people are willing to risk there cars to get there) the walk to the foot of the glacier takes about three hours and passes through some lovely woodland before heading out of the valley and up into the hills, when you arrive (some distance from the glacier) you have a wonderfully clear view of it and you can hear it moving, unfortunately we could not stay as long as we would have liked as I did not want to be driving out in the dark, next stop Fox!
Fox Glacier is the slightly less
Pillars
commercial of the two glaciers (Fox and Franz Joseph). Emma had already decided that we would splash out on a heli hike which would take us high onto the glacier where we would hike around for a couple of hours before being flown back down, we considered it worth every penny of the $300 each to be allowed to walk on the clean ice and crawl through ice tunnels tinted blue by the sun light, was a real thrill and a great experience for us both.
After the excitement of the glacier what were we going to do next, the answer, black water rafting, so off to Graymouth we headed and booked ourselves on with Wildwest adventures to go into the Taniwha (Dragon) caves, you arrive at there headquarters at 8 am to get kitted out in your very own gimp suit (wet suit, two jumpers, wetsuit jacket, two pairs of socks, rubber socks and then short wellies, rubber cap and then finally a hard hat with light complete your outfit, you then all (eight of us) pile into a van to be taken to the caves,when you arrive it is just a short 20 min walk through the
Our Home
woods to the cave entrance, once inside the cave it's not long before you are waist deep in water and wondering if it was such a smart idea (it was), soon we are swimming, sliding off waterfalls crawling through narrow chambers until we arrive at a pile of inner tubes we each sit on a tube turn off our lights and gentle float down the river looking at the ceiling with all the glow worms making it seem like a night sky (again), then it time for our guide to break out the hot chocolate and the mini Moro bars (Mars bars) for a well earned rest and warm up, all to soon it is time to start heading back to the surface, when you get back above ground it's your chance to go down the 100 foot hydro slide (great fun) then back to base and it is time to jump into the hot tub and enjoy a beer and muffin while you watch the pictures of your adventures on the tv all in all a great time.
After all these adventures it was time for something a little more down to earth so we headed off towards
Gypsy Fair
Nelson the craft center of the south island, I have to be honest and say that were not overly impressed,we wandered around town and went to the cinema, saying that I did buy a really cool t-shirt and got my hair cut by a barber who came from Merstham, just down the road from home and as time seemed to be getting the better of us it was time to move again this time to Picton and to book our ferry to the north island and the Queen Charlotte Walk, we didn't do the walk in the end because of the cost and also we could get on the ferry that day for only $260, so endeth our trip to the south island.

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Comments

[Anne]

Blenheim and Champagne
Wonderful evening had by many much riding uniformed upon horses, land of hope and glory with the inevitav ble champagne. Beck Ele Helen Ed Gary Ross Wynne Yvonne and I plus some others donned sensible foot ware and in true english syle went out to party. You were both sorely missed as you may have gathered from the attempts and sending photographs of fireworks for mark and my yelling "slightly squiffed done the phone. Many request of where are they when are they moving on to the next place and a riot of questions I could not answer. Thye blogg looks great Marc has a real knack for these sensational communications. As you can see I am now up and running, the story of how this has occurred would make a screen play. Well chillen must get on love and light Annie