The Beautiful south

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Everyone has said that the south island is even better than the north so we were very excited to be on the ferry over. The ferry journey itself is pretty impresive going past some beautiful mountains and bays. It takes about 4 hours on the ferry but it's a fantastic experience.

We picked up our Subaru car from Picton and made our way to Nelson for the first night. We were told to get petrol whenever you see a stop as you may not see one again for a fair while! We have followed this advice and haven't come unstuck so far!!! Nelson was a lovely little town and we ended up in a B and B as the hostels were all full up. This was the first time this happened so made a mental note to book in advance in future. Now one thing we did notice on the way to Nelson was the huge amount of winerys on the way. Vineyards everywhere. We also noticed the increase in the number of sheep on the south island. You see them everywhere and I have to comment again on healthy and happy they look. Lovely lovely lambs and my they taste good too. We had lamb steak purchased from the supermarket for dinner tonight and it only cost 2 pounds or even less for 2 steaks. The meat here is such good value.

Our first major stop was in a town called Motueka. Just outside of the Abel Tasman Park area. It was recommended we go visit the park and we enjoyed a 2 hour walk along the coastal track to check out some of the sandy bays and unspoilt scenery. You can do a 3 day hike with your ruck sack and stay in huts along the way, but we just got a small taster of the area, and that was nice enough for us.

Anyway, back to our movements, not wanting to waste time we basically end up driving down the west coast of the south island. Up until this point we had no need for insect repellent of any sort but were told about sand flys. We were expecting these big black flys however they are no bigger than the size of an ant, but my can they do some damage. I will come to that later on, but we HATE the things, and they are most prevalent down the west coast. Oh joy.

Now we are about to partake in some of the most monotomus driving of our trip. At first you think, oh wow what beautiful surroundings but the roads are constantly windey and long. Up mountains, down them, around them, you get the idea! Ross has done most of the driving in the south island which is great for me but not one to suffer from motion sickness, i can see how people could get pretty ill, going round these roads! We end up in city called Greymouth, and it was raining that day so all looked pretty Grey to us, but got chatting to some fellow travellers about the Glaciers and we were now on some kind of mission to get to Franz Joseph Glacier as quick as possible to see what it is all about.

We arrive in a very small town with Alpine type buildings and a misty sky ahead. We were expecting snowy mountains and all sorts, so we drive to the Glacier look out point and see it for the first time. Having never seen anything like this before, we were quite taken aback. It is like someone has waved a wand on a massive river and frozen it in time. It is all very hard to comprehend from a distance so we did walk up nearer to the terminal of the glacier to get a closer look.

This area of the west coast gets 6 metre's of rain a year, and this comes 200 days out of 365 so we weren't suprised that the next day was absolutely chucking it down with rain. There was no chance we were going on any hikes this day so Ross decided to do some ice climbing indoors. He was in the icy room at minus degrees for an hour and a half and by the end of it couldn't lift his arms that well. He did so well climbing the hardest wall in there. I watched through the glass with others jeering him on. He couldn't hear us but everyone was impressed with how well he climbed and Ross had a massive sense of achievement afterwards so it was all well worth it.

The next day we head of to Fox Glacier, (25 minute drive down the road) taking a 19 year old girl Stefanie with us, who was going to hitch to get to Wanaka which is where we were heading after Fox. So with Stef in the back, we head off. It was quite nice to have some company with us. We are later to be joined by another guy Matthew (also only 18!) who was also needing to get to Wanaka. Anyway, we book in for the Fox Trot which is the half day hike up to and on the Glacier for that afternoon. We had some time on our hands before we were to set off so we took a short drive to Lake Matheson which is one of the most beautiful lakes in New Zealand with some amazing reflections of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. We stood captivated for a while taking as many shots as we could at the magical moment when the wind calms and you can see the wonderful reflections in the lake.

So the time comes to do the Glacier hike and we get kitted up before we head off. This involved getting hiking boots, clampons and any waterproofs that were needed. I had a panic about my boots as we were to be hiking for about 4 hours and i didn't want to get blisters. I ended up being fine but was a little worried wearing boots for the first time on such a mission! Ross didn't like his boots at first but they actually looked the most comfy of all the others so agreed that he had done quite well!!

We were told that there would be a hike up to the Glaciers through rain forest for about an hour before we get on to the glacier itself. We were in a group of about 20 people and I didn't want to make a fuss but the hike up to the glacier was far from easy. We had to climb over 400 steps at various angles and heights. By the time we had got to the glacier it was a huge relief and we securely fastened our crampons over our boots so that we won't slip on the ice. The views on the way up were incredible and once we got on the glacier itself it hard to imagine that there was 200 metres of pure ice underfoot. We hiked around on the ice for about 1 and a half hours, exploring caves and checking out the blue ice. We had a guide ahead the whole way chipping ice away with his axe to make sure the walk ways were safe. There are some man made steps on the glacier that have to be reformed every morning as the glacier changes everyday. It apparantly moves about a metre a day but luckily we didn't experience any movement of the ice below us! After heading back down all those steps our legs were pretty shaky and we were pleased to see we weren't the only ones experiencing this. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and were pleased we did the hike rather than pay loads to fly over the glaciers. It was great to feel the ice underfoot and appreciate the vastness of the glacier itself.

Our next adventure was to go out on a cruise of either Milford or Doubtful Sound. These are right at the bottom left of the south island and the main gateway for the trips is a very small town called Manapouri. We booked to stay at a hostel and we agreed it was the worst one we stayed in. The house itself where we stayed had spectacular views over the mountains but this is where we got attacked by sandflies in a big way. We must have taken a couple to bed with us as the next day our feet were completely covered in bites. They are so ITCHY! Aghhhhh. The bites are still with us a week and a half later!!

Anyway we decided to do Doutbful Sound and booked onto the smaller boat so you only share the experience with only 20 other people. You start off with a boat trip over Lake Manapouri with some wonderful views of mountains. We also go past a massive power station which we get to see on the way back. It is hydro power and suprisingly it didn't ruin the views too much. After the boat we get on a bus through some desolate roads to finally aboard the boat to take us through the sounds. Now we didn't know much about Sounds but we were to learn that this particular sound was offically a Fiordland, where a glacier from years ago has melted to form a valley that then gets flooded by the sea. The first part of the trip you are on fresh water and then amazingly that mixes into the sea water and you are on the Tasman Sea. Again we saw some beautiful untouched scenery, mountains, waterfalls, bays and islands. We also got to see a fur seal laying out on a rock and a pod of wild dolphins splashing around. We had a lovely relaxing day out on the boat and throughly enjoyed our experience of such a beautiful part of the world.

The south island seems to just get better and better. After these two amazing experiences you think things can't get any better, but NZ has so much to offer you just drive on and get to experience something different everywhere you go.

Our next mission was driving from the west to east coast which was a suprisingly managable journey. We ended up in Dunedin on the East Coast and checked into one of our favourite hostels so far. It was called Hogwartz and had such a homely feel and modern toilets and kitchen. It made a nice change from the one in Manapouri that's for sure. In Dunedin we checked out the local brewery. "Speights - the pride of the south". We had a tour around and had a tasting session at the end. This was Ross's favourite and mine was the tour of the local Cadbury Factory. Hmmmm the chocolate smelt lovely and we got tasters all the way, and in the shop purchased a dessert range of Banofee and Lemon cheesecake chocolate. Yummy!!!!!

There is a small peninsula near Dunedin where you can check out very rare yellow eyed penguins. We were told that if you go at about 5pm you can see the penguins coming ashore. We weren't to realise that to get to the spot involved a pretty long walk across beach and up sand dunes. We marched on and arrived in the look out to see one very shy penguin from afar up the grassy mountain waiting for his friends. Well we were waiting too but none came so we headed back to the car, pleased for the work out but a bit dissapointed to only see one little penguin with no friends. Maybe next time!

Sorry this is one pretty long blog as we have done so much whilst we have been here!!! Possibly one of the best experience's of my life was to come, the highly anticipated dolphin swimming!!! We basically drove from Dunedin up to Kaikora in a day. We booked into do Whale watching the next day. This involved going out on a boat and in this particular part of NZ it is very easy to catch sea life as there is a massive crater in the ocean so you regularly see sperm whales, seals, dolphins etc. Within about 45 minutes of being on the boat we see a sperm whale for the first time. We weren't sure what to expect and unfortunately the massive whales only show one third of their body to us, which is just visible above the water, they shift around for a bit and then after they have got enough air dive down again for their next feed. This is the best bit as they flip their tail up and we got some great photos. We saw the same sperm whale 3 times that day, and on the way back to land they take us to see a pod of dusky dolphins! Oh my god we were blown away by how many there are and how acrobatic they are, as you can see from the pictures they do massive jumps out of the water. This was when I knew that swimming with dolphins here was pretty likely and a girl said they almost guarantee it. Ross decided he would save money for the biggest bungy in NZ and I was gonna go out and swim the next day!! Yey yey yey!!!!

We all get wet suited up, and with about 15 other people head out to sea in search for the dolphins. It only took 30 minutes and we were near the pod of dolphins. There were about 500 of them in the water so with only about 12 other people swimming you get a pretty amazing time with your own dolphins. Most of the time the dolphins are on the move so the boat stops and you get in the water as they are about to swim past. It is important to be as entertaining as possible to the dolphins and make noises but i was so blown away the first time we got in the sea, I just got really tired and overwhelmed and just watched as they swam around and circled me in the water. We managed to get go in the sea on about 5 different occasions and as my confidence grew I was having dolphins only a few centimetres away from my body. Truely amazing and quite an experience for one day. They swim around you, under you, by your side, it was the best thing ever. My only regret is that i didn't touch one as we were told not to and I didn't want to upset the beautiful things.

After all this excitement we drove to back to Christchurch to settle for a while and meet up with Craig and Katy who are having a few weeks holiday in NZ and Fiji. We finally found a nice enough hostel for the holiday makers and settle there for the week. Our first highlight was more for me than Ross, but he booked us tickets to go see some Netball here. It is the Trans Tasman League and we head to the stadium in Christchurch. It was an excellent experience and great for me to get a fix of netball!!! The funniest thing was that they do take it quite seriously here, and it was all televised. We got back to the hostel put on the tele and saw ourselves close up in the audience!!! ha ha!!!

It was very exciting to meet up with Criag and Katy and we are still with them in Queenstown. Whilst we were in Christchurch we went on the gondolas but visibility was poor unfortunately to see the views, still cool though. We played indoor crazy golf too with Katy's sister who came down to meet us from Auckland. Ross says it is the best in the world and he did won it too! We also took a day trip to Hamner Springs to go bathe in the Thermal Pools which we all found very relaxing. Craig and Katy had travelled a long way in a short time so think it helped recharge their batteries too! We have been playing quite a bit of chess to I'll have you know. I'm still rubbish but Ross is getting really good, with a little help from Craig.

Earlier on our trip we did scoot past Queenstown after the Glaciers but we knew that Craig and Katy wanted to visit there so we all hired a car together and took road trip down. Ross and Craig shared the driving which was good as it took us about 7 hours. It was the first time we had driven across the middle of New Zealand and we knew but perhaps hadn't realised just how vast and desolate it was going to be. At some points it looked like we were driving across desert and others there were grassy mountains and stunning backdrops in front of us. And of course loads and loads of sheep!

Oh I forgot to say that before we got to Queenstown Ross and Katy booked in to do the Nevis Highwire Bungy which is a 134 meter jump from a cable car! So we arrive in Queenstown on the Friday and head for a Fergburger. Wow, we had one of these burgers when we drove through before and agreed it was one of the best burgers ever. Great bun, amazing burger and fresh salad with a garlic aloil sauce. So for dinner Friday we went there, and it was so busy. I had a cockle doodle oink (chicken and bacon) and wished i'd gone for the beef, but all the same it was fan bloody tastic!! Fergburgers rule man!!

Anyway back to the bungy, all very exciting, Craig and I had to pay to spectate, as it is an off road journey to get to the canyon and they let you go over to the cable car that they jump from. We had to be there to take photos and make sure they jumped!!!! So on Saturday we head to the bungy centre and Ross and Katy get weighed in and sign their live's away!!! Craig and I had to sign a small waiver as we were to go in the cable car too. We all get on a bus of about 20 people and head out of Queenstown for 45 minutes and end up off road on a cliff side road heading up to the AJ Hackett Nevis Bungy. A very anxious and excited bus load of people jump off (just the bus!) and we all get harnessed up, whether jumping or not as you have to take a small pod that carries only 6 ppl at a time over the high ground to the cable car located in the middle of the canyon. This in itself was quite an experience as you are clipped on by your harness in case you decide you want to get off mid way to the cable car!!!! At this point we are about 150 metres up and we are helped onto the cable car which is a lot bigger than we imagined. To get everyone psyched up there is techno music blasting in the cable car. And after only a moment had we arrived they got Ross buckled up ready as he was to be one of the first to jump. Afterwards he said it was a bit of a shame there was not much time to build up the anticipation and fear. Watching others jump helps kick in the realisation of what you are about to do. Having done a small bungy myself a while back I can relate to this a bit!!!

Anyway Ross smiles for the camera and looked remarkably calm. Ross really wanted to jump off backwards but they must have changed the regulations and everyone has to dive off forwards. He gets shuffled to the small platform, with the help of an assistant. They count down from 5 and on 1 he jumped off and fell through the air for 8.5 seconds before the cord is fully stretched. It looked amazing through the glass parts of the floor in the cable car. I thought Ross was waving but he was actually trying to pull the cord that pulls you upright ready to be lifted back up. Eventually this works and Ross is back in the cable car, buzzing at the experience. Katy had ages to wait in anticipation for her jump and was actually the last to jump. She did so well too, and Craig and I were very proud of them. So now Ross has done the biggest bungy in NZ there is talk of the 200m+ jump in Hong Kong!!! ha ha!

So we are still in Queenstown with only one more day left in this lovely country. We head back to Christchurch tomo and catch an early flight on Tuesday to Sydney where we are meeting Ross's parents.
Queenstown is a lovely place with cool shops, bars and scenery. We also paid a small visit to an old gold mining town called Arrowtown which is very picturesque.

Overall I think we could safely say that New Zealand has treated us well. We have stayed in a variety of accomodation, some fantastic, some not so nice, but you can't fault the way NZ is set up for backpackers. Travelling around has been easy and thoroughly enjoyable. There is so much to do and see, as you can tell from this long blog (and we still haven't included everything!!). My favourite experience was the dolphin swimming and Ross's has been the bungy jumps!! But what we have enjoyed is the natural beauty of NZ, the glaciers, the snow capped mountains, the reflective lakes, forests, turquiose waters and sea. It is a country that has a lot to offer to everyone of all ages. If you have never been to New Zealand then book a holiday there now!!!

If you have made it to the end of this blog then thanks for sticking with it! Sorry it has been so long! Lots of love xxxxxxxxx

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Photos

Abel Tasman National Park
It was very comfortable accomodation for the night!

Lake Matheson
Mount Cook and Mount Tasman in the back ground. Stunning.

Ice Climbing
Ross using his brutal strength and great technique to get over the sticky out bit!

Doubtful sound
Loads of waterfalls

Doubtful Sound
Rainbow!!

Doubtful Sound
View from the road we took down to the boat

Sperm Whale
Taking a dive back down

An acrobatic Dusky Dolphin
That i swam with !!!!!!! Well not this particular one but many of it's friends!

The Nevis Highwire
Can get the idea of high it all is!!!

3,2,1 Bungy
Ross is off and flying!