Advertisement
I can fly!
Text book technique from Alex Having aclimatized ourselves to sunny Australia it was a bit of a shock when we got off the plane in Christchurch, New Zealand and it was 9 degrees. This shock was accentuated by the fact that we had brought no coats or cold weather gear to save space in our bags. So our first excursion in NZ was to a coat shop. To celebrate our purchases we went to a pub and tried out the delicious local brews.
The next day, slightly hung over, we picked up our campervan that we were to have for the remainder of our time in NZ. Compared to our Wicked in Oz this was like the Ritz (due to the time of year we got a great deal) - it even had a heater and a shower and toilet. It was a bit old and mouldy but it seemed ok.
First stop was Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in Australasia. On the drive in the weather was fantastic and the views of huge snow-capped mountains over smokey blue lakes were spectacular. However, this all changed over night when we had torrential rain and gales. Not only did this scupper our plans to
Mount Cook
Highest Mountain in Australasia scale one of the smaller mountains next to Mt Cook, but the worst of it was that the campervan's roof leaked like a sieve and we got soaked.
We phoned the hire company and they were really good and met us at our next stop, Dunedin, with a brand new, top whack replacement, complete with a bottle of wine and nibbles.
Before we left Dunedin we went on a really cool horse ride on the hills around the harbour. The horses were great (ex-trotting champions) and the guide was a French girl who was probably the most friendly horse trek guide we have ever met. And we had a picnic half way through!
The next few days were spent driving along the south coast of the south island through a very scenic region called 'The Catlins'. Alex set himself the mission to see wild seals, sea lions and penguins and fortunately the Catlins is one of the best places to see them all. Our first stop was Nugget Point where we saw loads of NZ fur seals messing around in a rock-pool and possibly an elephant seal. Next it was on to the ominously named Cannibal Bay
Cannibal Bay
No human flesh eaters here... In fact we hadn't seen another human for ages! where we saw some, apparently, very aggressive Hooker sea lions. Then we ended up having a mad dash trying to get to Curio Bay to see the very rare yellow-eyed penguins when they leave the water at dusk. Success - Alex happily ticked all three wildlife sitings off his list.
We then moved on to Milford Sound; which we have been reliably informed is actually a fiord and not a sound. There is only one road into Milford Sound so you have to drive 120km off the highway to get there and out again. It was well worth it for the drive alone. The road winds between snow-capped mountains and through and above lush, dense rainforest. Spectacular!
Despite the rain and low cloud what we could see of steep sided fiord, surrounding mountains and waterfalls was awesome. And if the rain didn't get us wet enough, the Captain kept driving the boat under the waterfalls. But we loved it really.
As we arrived in Queenstown our toilet breaks became a lot more frequent as we prepared ourselves for our long awaited EXTREME ACTIVITIES! We both signed up for the Canyon Swing, which is basically a massive 100m
It's a tiring life...
... for a sealion lying on the beach! long rope swing over a canyon except you start off 109m in the air at the top of one of the canyon walls. When you jump off you fall straight down for 60m before you even feel the swing pulling you away from the ground.
Ursula bravely went first. She did the most basic version, 'The Cutaway', where you sit in the harness over the drop and they release you. When they hoisted her back up to the platform she had a full body shake... it was maximum scary, heightwise!
Alex then greedily did four jumps in a row whilst Ursula was recovering from her ordeal. They make you do a different style of jump each time. The mean people subjected Alex to the four scariest ones: 1) jump off backwards, 2) Gimp boy (dangle head first), 3) Gainer (jump off forwards and then do a backwards summersault), and 4) forwards summersaults. Alex liked it really ;-)
In the afternoon of the same day it was time for our next EXTREME activity - the Nevis Highwire Bungy Jump. Ursula was not signed up for this but she found it double maximum scary just coming along to watch.
A frozen penguin...
On a petrified (fossilized) forrest! The Nevis takes place from a 'jump pod' that is suspended by cables over a canyon 134m deep. To get out to the jump pod you were transported in a tiny wire basket. This is what Ursula found so scary. What Alex found so scary was jumping out the hole in the side of the jump pod and falling for 8.5 seconds. Scary but fun!
After a marathon drive to Franz Josef, the location of the famous glacier, we did a day's guided trek on to the ice. They give you boots and metal spikes to attach on to them (like crampons) to enable you to walk on the ice. The glacier is particularly unusual because it is actually advancing and so is very rugged and deformed. For this reason the guides cut step-paths with a pick axe as they go. Slow going, but very impressive. You get to crawl and squeeze through all sorts of crevasses and caves where the ice was often a vivid blue.
Next we miraculously managed to meet up with our friends from home, Jim and Ria, and their friend Tim. It had been planned for a long time but it seemed
At Milford Sound
The beautiful fiord highly likely that conflicting itinaries would make it impossible. We were very glad that we all got our act together :-).
A slight downer was that it rained heavily the whole time we were with them. Not to be discouraged, we went on a tour of the Monteith's Brewery in Greymouth where we fast became brewing geeks and drank some very nice beer at the end.
We parted after a couple of days and made our way through the mountains of Arthur's pass to Kaikoura. Here we went on a whale watching boat trip. The average number of sitings per trip is one or two, but we were lucky enough to see six sperm whales! Depending on the time of year you can also humpback whales, blue whales (very rare!) and orca (killer whales) and loads of others. Apparently it's a really good feeding ground.
They then found us a pod of about 200 Dusky dolphins; it seemed like they were everywhere. We weren't sure who were the tourists - them or us?!? Dusky dolphins have beautiful striped markings and are one of the most acrobatic dolphins. They jump out of the water to show off and
Ooops we dropped her...
Urs plummets 109m to her apparent doom they really did seem interested in us.
Also at Kaikoura is a large seal colony. We went there expecting to see a few fur seals but when we got there they were all over the place; even in the car park. You could get so close that you could smell 'em - stinky!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0512s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ria
non-member comment
Don't we all look lovely! Great to see you guys. xxxxxxxxxxxxx