Advertisement
Published: June 20th 2008
Edit Blog Post
After a 48 hour stop off in pretty but pricey Singapore I finally arrived at the other side of the planet after three months of near uninterrupted sun, plenty of rice dishes and getting an awful lot for the pound in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Touching down in the very British Christchurch made me feel like I had just landed back home in ways. With nothing too spectacular nearby and at the time with grey skies there was not much need to get the camera out.
The most welcomed change was the temperature and humidity. The heat in Cambodia in the day was up to the blisteringly hot mid 30s approaching April as the hottest month where it even takes its toll on the locals. So at around 20 Deg C at the end of New Zealand’s summer this was just right in comparison with South East Asia's heat and the freezing conditions of the UK when I left. No language barriers or beggars are also positives now.
After touchdown the airport shuttle van driver gave me 30 minutes or so to grab a pair of jeans and a warm top for the new conditions before dropping me off
at my very first hostel, to share a bedroom with up to 6 others. The biggest change from travelling in South East Asia is the impact on your wallet. To put it into perspective the cost of one of these beds for the night (approx 10 pounds) will get you in Cambodia an en suite room to yourself, 3/4 meals out per day, a few beers and the laundry done. A huge difference!
New Zealand though is renowned for its fantastic hostelling system and I stayed at one of the highest rated in Christchurch, offering a clean, comfortable and friendly place to get adapted and meet others. The BBH hostelling network provides a guide of all their participating hostels along with ratings and prices for the different beds available. Becoming a member for a small fee easily pays for itself with the slightly discounted bed stays and the highest rated places really do turn out to be VERY good and cost nothing more usually.
I spent roughly a week in Christchurch walking in, around and back out of the small city centre organising all sorts for my stay including NZ bank account, mobile phone, other items and most
importantly researching and buying a car! I picked up an extremely comfortable and reliable Mitsubishi Magna Station Wagon (Estate) for roughly 400 Pounds as at this time of the year there are so many people trying to sell cars they bought for summer season travelling so a buyers’ market it is. I just managed to carry everything in my rucksack in SE Asia but here having to buy food to cook and warm clothes it was a no go and so funny watching others struggle! That as well as the freedom meant I was not leaving my first hostel without a car.
I got talking to a Dutch chap who helps organise tours and works mobile in NZ and explained to me how the weather works (south/westerly winds means = cloudy on the east of the mountains and lovely on the west coast and the vice versa) so with it forecast to be sunny for the next week on the West Coast I finally set off through Arthur’s Pass!
After a night in the car I arrived at Hokitika and then Greymouth where the sun was shining! Here I stayed at the impressively clean and comfortable Global Village
hostel where I met the 6ft 7 German, Volker! The pair of us and another English guy headed out to Monteith’s Brewery for a tour and tasting session. It was a good crack and then took some more back to the hostel where we chilled and made use of the spa, mint! At the time I wandered what I’d be doing back home right now if I was there. There were some great sunsets here and a few days later we headed our own ways although I re-met with Volker back in Christchurch again after driving back East through Lewis’s Pass. The scenery so far was untouched and mountainous although not as impressive as further south to come. As I set off from Christchurch I realised how few people are about away from the main towns and cities being roughly the same size of the UK with just a fraction of the population, the same goes for Laos.
Back in Christchurch with Volker I checked the Museum, which had some pretty impressive stuff including the Arctic Expedition section. After a couple of nights it was up to Kaikora for Some Whale Watching although the weather prevented it this time
around so carried on up to sunny Nelson.
After a few beer fuelled nights in a very sociable hostel in Nelson (Superb Micro Brewery with Big Bottle Takeaways) it was time for a long drive down to Franz Jozef and Wow! I arrived just as the sun was setting and this is where the scenery becomes epic, the scenes you come here for! Huge snow capped mountains hugged by the clouds and the incredible sight of the glacier, Discovery Channel stuff! I met up with a guy who I met in Nelson and some other great people and hit a couple of the only bars before a walk down a path to find some glow worms (like white LEDs) scattered about down this path way.
The following morning this other funny English Fella and I took a drive down to Fox Glacier to check it out up close and took a stroll along a few of the short tramping paths to admire the views, a pretty chilled out day before the Heli-Hike the next. Although not the cheapest option the thrill of being in a helicopter, the stunning views from above and then landing on the higher part of
the Glacier where you can often see more features made this a must! We trekked for about 2 hours with the spikes attached to our boots and it was just unreal being so high up on the Ice Glacier with staggering views. The blue Ice and pools really did look something special! The scenery around was truly awesome wherever you looked!
Next it was on to Queenstown!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0415s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb