South Island

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First off this was the country I had most been wanted to see. No one I have ever met that has been to NZ has a bad word to say about the place. After spending almost 3 weeks here I can echo all the great things people say and commit to print that NZ is probably one of the nicest places in the world and comes a close second to London, look at the photo above this. Awesome!!! My one caveat is that it is so frikken far away from anywhere else.

We arrived in a cool afternoon and got into a cab for a drive to the motel we were staying in the cab driver was the first South Sea Islander we met, a cool Tongan that was happy to chat away about South Island and how nice it was.

We arrived at the motel and the first question which had us stumped was full far or semi skimmed to which i replied. Huh! The lady was referring to the fact that in NZ whenever you got to a motel you get given the choice of 2 types of fresh milk. Revolutionary!

I called up my old work mate Nick 'Baggers' Baggerley so that we could meet him the next day and we went a wandering. We liked Christchurch immediately there was an air of quietness, openess and freeness to let everybody get on with what ever they were doing. What we were doing is as you guessed it. Looking for food.

What we found was another Greek based kebab merchant with a packed shop of people chowing down on great looking kebabs. Lamb, Pork, Chicken, Falafel or any combination of the above. With one lamb and one pork kebab consumed with salad and yogurt dressing we continued walking about. We walked passed the namesake church and up and down the streets near the river. But around 9pm most of the streets are empty of people and it gets real quiet.

The next day we wait in the drizzling rain underneath the Remembrance Arch to meet Nick for lunch and he takes us to a local pub where we try some real NZ beer before we move to the Belgium Bar because Shabana has a craving for mussels in raspberry beer that we read about in the book. Unfortunately they didnt have that but they did do a great mussels and frites along some Rockwurst and Stoemp which is Belgium sausage and mash for those that don't know. After the beers in the first pub and the beers in the second pub Nick was rather late getting back to work and looking a little the worst for wear. We also arranged to meet him later on in the evening after he had recovered a little and got some of the work he needed to finish done.

More wandering about including looking in the Christmas displays in the shops (no one does Christmas like home) and then spending some time sorting out some essentials in the internet cafe and a quick shower and change and it was time to meet Nick again. This time we went to a locals bar that had the great idea of having a huge wood fire and grate outside so people could lounge about on the old sofas outside and still be warm. The fact that the inside was tiny also meant that they didn't have a kitchen but they had menus and delivery agreements with 3 of the local restaurants so you could have Mexican, fish and chips or Indian food. I opted for the opening battle in the fish and chip off with the UK and Aus and Shabana after resisting Mexican food in a host of countries opted for some nachos. Once again the antipodean chips although fine for McCain chips were a sorry let down. The fish was lovely although the batter was not up to the standards of Perth was still a v tasty bit of fish. Sorry NZ, Aus is winning so far.
A few more drinks later and Nick is looking like he did a few short hours earlier, but at least he doesn't have to go back to work. Soon the night comes to a close as we have a long road trip to look forward to and we have to try and get a couple of warm clothes for Shabana as the weather.

We hired a car, after much umming and ahhing about whether we could afford and would want a huge 6m long Camper van and decided that it was going to better for us in the long run to have a smaller cheaper and more fuel efficient vehicle for us to motor about in. We stopped briefly in the outlet store to pick up a big cardigan coat like thing which i have taken to calling the Magpie coat, as it is similar to the one we got in Nepal that Shabana's nan called the crow coat. Then we are officially off on the road and heading to Lake Tekapo. When we turn off the main North South road the traffic thins from not very much to virtually zero. The place is quiet, by the time we get to Geraldine it really is just a car here and there. We drive past our first hitchhiker and after noting the state of the traffic and the lost boy look on the guys face i pull over about 20 meters up the road. He is trying to get to Wanaka by nightfall and while i don't think he has a chance we agree to take him as far as we are going. This is the first time i have ever picked up a hitchhiker and he turns out to be a real nice guy from Alaska who happens to work for Sarah Palin that presidential running partner to John McCain in the Obama election, she couldn't open her mouth for weeks without putting her foot in it.

The countryside up until this point is nice but nothing spectacular but by the time we get to the Lake Tekapo Natural Reservation area it gets stunning, with the sun shining the vista opens up to see the snow capped Southern Alps in the distance and the road verges fill with brightly colours lupins amongst the green grass. It gets even better a little further down the road when we catch our first look of Lake Tekapo. The lake water contains a rock flour which is the output of years of glacial movement which crush the rocks to dust and fill the lake with fine particles. This when the light gets reflected gives the lake a brilliant light blue colour the like of which i have never seen before. It really is a magnificent sight.

We drop our hitcher at the other side of town and find a bed in one of the many hotels, i had forgotten we were so far south so it was still light past 9.30pm so maybe he made it to Wanaka after all. We have a wander around the lake and determine to visit the little church we can see across the water the next day before we move on. Stupid decision in the end because by the time we get up and on our way the next day the Japanese tourists (who love NZ) are all over it. We didn't know that there was an observatory here and one of the best places in the world to see the stars so we signed up for a 2 hour night time viewing on a nearby hill. One of the many disappointments which hit us during our stay in NZ is to follow as shortly before we are due to meet up the clouds roll in and the trip is cancelled.

The next day we head up to the Mount John observatory for a look down at the lake from high up and again we pick up a hitcher on the way to Mount Cook our next stop. By the time we get to Lake Pukaki (along with Tekapo and another 3 lakes generate all the hydro electric power for NZ is generated here) a short time later the tops of the Alps are in the clouds and we can't see Mount Cook. By the time we are alongside the road heading directly for Mount Cook the weather has closed in and it starts to rain, and that is pretty much is the last of the good weather we see for the next 2 weeks. Now the Mount Cook area is a really impressive place even if the weather is not up to much.

We tried a few of the guest houses and hotels that were here but they were all booked up with people so we were forced to check out the most expensive place here, and one of the most famous hotels in the whole of NZ. The Hermitage. Their are three parts to the hotel, the main hotel which features huge floor to ceiling windows to allow you to see the full majesty of the mountains, a motel area and a set of a frame chalets. Shabana liked the look of the cabins and with a bit of persuading we got a great deal on a lovely chalet with a kitchen and a money off discount voucher to use in the hotels main restaurants.

With the weather not too good we decided a short walk before dinner would be great and we set off on the 1 hour round trip to Kea (a kind of parroty bird) Point in the hopes of seeing one (more on those later) and a chance to see our first glacier. The rain kind of stopped to a drizzle and then completely on our walk and the sun came out a little, we didn't see any signs of the Keas but Shabana did get her first taste of mountain life and after feeling she needed to commune with the mountain we returned to spend some time in the Edmund Hillary Centre and our discount vouchers on the Hermitage's a la carte restaurant (mountain walking sure builds an appetite). A starter of 3 kinds of bread and dips was followed by rack of lamb with a cous cous tomato souffle. Now this is living. It was only on the way out through the buffet restaurant when i saw all the desserts on offer there that i thought maybe we made a mistake.

The Centre showed a whole bunch of videos and movies including some great 3D ones on the mountains and it seemed you were really flying around (with a cartoon like Kea to keep you company at times), but the most impressive thing they had is a state of the art planetarium, it showed real time, crystal clear pictures of what we could have seen if there had been no clouds as well as being able to zoom in to all sorts of stuff and show pictures of galaxies, clusters and stars from all angles. The guy there was also really informative and answered loads of question even after the session had come to an end. A by the by that Edmund Hiliary dude was also a pretty cool guy in his time. We didn't really want to leave the area but with the weather so poor we thought we may as well crack on with a epic scrabble around South Island.

Next stop was Dunedin, a small town on the south east coast, but before we got there we had to swing through Oamaru, to stop for lunch at the Whitestone Cheese factory and cafe. We tried a whole bucnh of them before i saw the special menu on the wall that gave you their 6 best cheese, bread, biscuits, fruit and chutneys. After polishing off that lot, we had just enough room for a slice of their cheesecake. My desert island dessert of choice. That was one of the best I had ever eaten. We got to Dunedin fairly late after all the cheese eating but when we drove into Dunedin we couldn't help but notice the huge Cadbury's factory. Cheese and chocolate the day to end all days. Lucky enough for our waistlines it was shut. They do a daily tour of the place and we looked into going so we could see the chocolate waterfall, but they didn't let you see that on the weekends so we skipped that. We did have a look around the Otago museum, and we stopped at the weekend farmers market for some stuff for later. We thought about going to see the penguins nearby but once again the weather put us off and so we cracked on to Curio Bay in the Catlins.

The roads empty were empty again, but by the time we had driven various gravel tracks to see Cannibal Bay and eventually arriving in Curio Bay the sun had come out on a early evening. The surfer dude that owned Penguins Rest had said he had seen loads of dolphins recently so i was really hoping we would be lucky enough to see some. Without binoculars it was a tough task but we maybe did see something but not enough to definitely say we did. Thanks NZ for nothing. Sure enough the next morning dawned not too good, it was turning into a pattern, crappy morning and early afternoons with rain on and off, then a few shiny hours before turning crap again.

Milford Sound was the next stop after a brief look at Te Anau, luckily for us some of the walkers that was doing to Milford Track had not turned up so we were able to grab a room in the main hotel there after the other accommodation were all filled. The drive to get there will be long in the memory, the lupins made a welcome return, glimpses of the mountains, winding roads and rushing streams. Just before the descent to the Sound you have to go through the Homer Tunnel with it's foreboding black mouth. Jaunty little Keas patrol the road like they own it, trying to get foolhardy tourist to give them some grub. They possess some steally (sp?) looking eyes let me tell you. This tunnel is no Swiss creation, it's dark, rough and a little steep. The headlights get soaked up by the size and you hope that no one ran the red light at the other end of the tunnel cos i would not wanna get stuck in here. A short minute later we breath a sign of relief as we are out the other side for the switchback descent to the bottom. We did a boat tour the next day amid the pouring rain so once again one of the beauties of NZ was much hidden from us.

We passed through Queenstown, the adrenaline capital didn't hold much fascination for us after I was pointedly told that no i couldn't do a sky dive, not that the weather was great anyways. A quick look at Arrowtown and the Chinese miners that helped fueled the gold rush. We did stop at the wacky Puzzle Land in Wanaka which was a fun filled few hours looking at perspective, a giant maze and loads of little puzzles. They did have a clairvoyant challenge to win $100000 i think it was if you could find 2 pieces of paper hidden within 50 meters of the office. You catch, you put up $1000 of your own and you only have 1 guess for each part. Anyone that things they have the gift, go put your money where your mouth is.

This post is rather long now so I will skip though our brief stop in Fox Glacier (raining and cloudy), Kaikoura, absolutely pissing down so no whales for us! With only a few days left and the weather forecast saying we were going to have 2 days of sunshine we headed back to Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook which was a totally different prospect in the blazing sunshine. We did get to see the stars from the hilltops of Tekapo, the first time i had seen the Milky Way in 20 years, along with a host of other stars. Light pollution has a lot to answer for. We took a helicopter ride up into the mountains and saw Mount Cook up close and we walked the Hooker Valley track to see the glacier there and built a small tarn.

Even with hours in the car, it didn't really feel like work, and it was so much better than sitting on buses in Vietnam. We would stop and take little power naps in the beautiful countryside, have a little snack and then carry on. Life in NZ was easy. No GPS is needed, as often than not there were only a few streets in each town and one one way to go to get from one place to another. I wish driving in England was like this.

New Zealand was a place like no other, even with the weather suspect most of the time we had a really really nice time and i would not hesitate to go back there in a heartbeat. Too bad it's on the other side of the world.

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Photos

Mount Sefton
Walking down the Hooker Valley

We loves cheese
If you get a chance at Whitestone cheese, take it.