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Published: December 3rd 2005
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Yellow eyed penguin's
Rarest penguin's in the world Well its a long entry - partially because last time i'd put so much in and couldn't be bothered to keep going and also because I've done a lot of stuff in the last week! This i'm afraid means lots of photo's especially as I am having a bit of a love affair with the beautiful new zealand scenery!
DUNEDIN: Well as with all good stories i shall start at the beginning! We travelled down from kiakoura to Dunedin which is a city where the scottish settlers landed and apparently its name is celtic for Edinburgh. It was from here that we visited the Otago Penisular which is an area rich in marine wildlife. We visited a reserve for the yellow eyed penguin's, one of the world's rarest penguin's and also saw some new zealand fur seals resting on the beach. We also saw flocks of the little blue penguin (again pretty rare)come ashore at dusk (about 9pm) which was amazing as it was just us and two other people observing this and at times the penguins were only about 2 feet away as they returned to their nests in the cliffside!!!! Unfortunately unable to take photo's of this as
Yellow eyed penguin nesting box
The father (who's fathered about 40 children) is looking after the chick - the penguin's have equal parenting we were banned from using our flash as it would scare the birds and it was too dark to get good pictures. We stayed in a really nice hostel here called Ramsey lodge Backpackers which is opposite the YHA and they were very helpful and have good facilities.
QUEENSTOWN: Queenstown is the adventure capital of new zealand - here Tom did a bungy jump, I did Jet boating at the shootover canyon, we all did luging down a mountain and went up in a gondala (cable car). It is also a very beautiful setting with an amazing lake and surrounded by mountains. The jet boating was great fun and I took some photo's with my waterproof camera so looking forward to the photo's. A part of the jetboating is they can do a 360 degree spin and also go in very shallow water(they only need 2 inches of water) -the drivers go so close to the canyon walls its crazy but at the same time its very safe. Luging for those of you who don't know (I didn't know what it was) is kind of a cross between go karting and sledging - you luge down a man made
track down the mountain and you are in control of speed and direction however there is no engine, just gravity. Whilst in Queenstown we also visited the kiwi and birdlife park and got to see our first elusive kiwi!
LAKE WANAKA AND THE SKYDIVE: Nervously we drove to Wanaka airport from Queenstown on the day of the skydive having booked a tandem skydive from 9000 feet! We watched the safety video, put on our jumpsuits and met our tandem partners - still terrified we walked towards and got on the plane -I got on last which meant I went first! As we were flying up, the instructors were pointing out the wonderful scenery above and below us through the clear glass door - I wasn't taking much notice of this. We reached 9000 feet, put on our gorgeous flying goggles and the door opened, my tandem partner and I edged towards it until I was hanging out of the plane (literally, he was still sitting in the plane) - we paused for a wing photo in which I was instructed to smile, then we got into the fall position and out we went! The initial tumble was slightly unpleasent
as your stomach lurches but not as bad as some theme park rides i've been on and it was only for about 2 seconds - then you are freefalling which amazingly, you don't actually feel like you are falling. Its incredibly surreal as you fall through the clouds and see the ground approaching but you don't feel afraid because its so surreal. And then the parachute opens and although you are far above the ground, you feel immediately safe and secure and then you can admire the beautiful scenery and if you want your tandem partner gives you some 360 degree spins. It still feels surreal, as if you are above a model of the landscape as everything is so small and far away. Its the most amazing feeling and I'm definately glad I did it, I even think I might do it again one day. We went exhilarated, onto the town of Wanaka and stayed here for two nights, it really is the most beautiful place. A gorgeous lake set amoungst the alpine mountains. We also visited puzzling world whilst here which is a kind of illusion theme park, this was fun although it made Ele quite ill as
one of the rooms was set on a 15 degree slope but set up as if this was normal so it played with you balance and depth perception etc. Check out the photo of the hall of faces - the faces turn to follow you wherever you go!
The trouble with driving in New zealand is especially in the south island, the scenery is so beautiful that you just want to stop all the time - this may be demonstrated in the excessive amount of roadtrip photo's I put on my blog! This was particularly true on the drive from Lake Wanaka to Franz joseph.
FRANZ JOSEPH: We booked into Chateau Franz which is a really nice hostel with a free spa, free video hire and free soup every night!!Its sad what gets you excited after a while! Ele and I chose the 3/4 day hike up the Franz Joseph glacier, whilst Tom chose to do the ice climbing trip. To negotiate the glacier you are required to take a guided tour and this certainly proved to be true on our trip. The glacier is advancing at about 1 metre per day and is constantly changing -it was
quite amazing to be walking on the glacier which we could see changing around us through out the morning. We went with Franz jospeh Glacier guides and our group was split into two groups (fast and slow!) -to be honest there did not seem to be much of a difference in the pace of these two groups as we followed them up the glacier, Ele and I were happy to join the slow group as it may have allowed us more of an oppurtunity to take photo's and enjoy the scenery. The colour of some of the ice was a brilliant blue and we saw many crevasses and amazing shapes in the ice. However unfortunately due to the changing nature of the glacier we had to turn back after 1/4 of the way up -this was because overnight one of the crevasses had widened and the bridge to traverse it was no longer safe. The guides tried to find a safe way but were unable so unfortunately we had to turn back. However we had a great morning and did a fair amount of climbing and in the end it was free as they insisted on giving us a full
refund as well! The guides were very good with us and were constantly cutting new steps to make it easier/safer. All equipment was provided too, I really couldn't fault them. During the walk to and from the glacier, through the new zealand rainforest and into the valley, the guides pointed out to us that about halfway through the valley we were standing on a major fautline between two tectonic plates. Apparently they get about 35 earthquakes a year there - how cool / scary is that?! Well onto Nelson now and hoping to catch up with my friend Paula who I used to work with in Enfield, not long left in new zealand now 😞
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