May it be Gondor or Narnia

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Heading even further down under

The alarm going off at 5.15am was always going to be a nasty surprise, but it was even worse after having had only 3 hours sleep. But reluctantly, I got out of bed, got dressed, packed away the last of my belongings and headed out the door to find me a taxi. The trip from here on in went pretty smoothly. It took a while to get through check-in due to some large group of Italian School girls but I eventually boarded the plane to the delight of getting an emergency exit seat and slept most of the way to Christchurch. The view as we started the descent through the clouds was beautiful and I knew straight away this was going to be an enjoyable holiday.

After practically running to immigration to beat the queue, I was ushered through by a very nice Kiwi lady (American immigration officials take note), picked up my backpack, went through Quarantine (much quicker than in Oz) and headed out the door to find my super shuttle. Now, I was not expecting much as the last airport pick up I had was late and the one before that did not even realise I was turning up. I followed the instructions given to me but alas nothing was there. So, after wandering the airport for a while and asking numerous people, I found a woman from super shuttle, though it was obvious she was not expecting me! However, with my voucher in hand we waited (a long time I might add) for other tourists to be picked up and off we headed into the city.

As I got to sit up front in the bus, I got to see the suburbs on the way into town. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day and the houses along the main road into town were fascinating. Ranging from what can only be described as a round hut to a big yellow brick house and everything in between, each house was as different as the next. We then reached the city centre and I could only think in my limited view of world towns, that it reminded me slightly of Chester city centre.

Eventually, it was my time to be dropped off at the YHA and a nice girl who constantly said "sweet" all the time checked me into my room. I freshened up a bit after travelling and then got to meet up with Julian, a friend I met on my GVI South Africa trip. After over a year, it was nice to see him again and he showed me around his city before we went and had a few drinks. I eventually had to let him go though due to his busy work schedule and I had some dinner and went to bed.

Christchurch

After a seriously long overdue sleep in, I got up and got ready to head out for the day to see Christchurch. I had decided that my first port of call was going to be the Gondala (or cable car for most of us). I couldn't be bothered to pay the expense of a tour so I set off to find the bus station and got a public bus out of town to the Gondala (much cheaper than in Oz!) Once there, I got my ticket and queued for a while due to unfortunately turning up behind one of those dreaded tour groups!! Whilst queuing, I admired the signpost, telling you the distance to major cities around the world. Funnily enough, I was almost 19000km away from London but only 3700km from the South Pole! I eventually got in a cable car with this nice older English couple, the lady of which was terrified of heights so that added much amusement to the trip. The whole experience was similar to Table Mountain, with the complex and walkways at the top. However, it was much colder than I had anticipated (I should probably refer back to my earlier comment about the south pole) so I did not stay outside long. Just long enough to take some photos. I then headed into the complex to have some lunch and went on this strange time travel ride thing before heading back down to the bottom and riding back to Christchurch.

I had next decided to go to the Botanical gardens, however on arrival back in Christchurch it was much colder than I'd imagined. So I walked around and found some nice places to treat myself to for dinner but it was only 3.30pm and I had some time to waste. On arrival back in Cathedral Square, I had a wander around the mini-market before heading into a pathetic excuse for an aquarium although it did have a kiwi house and several tuatara (creatures I studied in my degree!) After my kiwi viewing, I decided to try the Arts Museum, mostly because it was free and looked quite funky from outside. I was only in there though for 30 minutes due to closing time but it showed all ages of art including Tate modern style stuff. I then decided to finally go for dinner. I found a cute little place called "Sticky fingers" that read about in some guidebook somewhere and had an enjoyable dinner for several hours as I was just too engrossed in my book. It was then time to head back to the hostel, which was now easy having got my bearings quickly.

Trans-Alpine

Naturally it was still dark when my alarm went the following morning and as I looked outside, I could see that the weather had declined dramatically. I managed to silently get ready in the dark and headed downstairs to wait for the free shuttle to the train station. Late, it showed up but was practically full so we had to wait for another one. After picking up everyone from nearby hostels and hotels we headed to the train station, where I checked in and walked down to the very end of a long train to put my luggage on the luggage cart. Of course, my allocated seat was in the cart at the complete opposite end of the train so I wandered down and found my seat. Luckily it was a window one in a seat of four. With me (as the train was packed) was an English woman, a South African woman and a man of who knows what nationality because he never said anything other than "I'll never have to speak a word," in response to the South African woman's comment on his being lucky to sit with three ladies. And so the train headed off and for the first 15 minutes, I strongly began to wonder why this was supposed to be one of the most scenic train routes in the world. It felt like being on a train in England, on the way out of a city with miserable weather and the tracks being covered on either sides by graffitied walls and warehouse buildings. But as it was a 4 hour long journey, I thought I should give it a chance, so I got out my book and read whilst half listening to the other women’s conversation. They must have both been in their early 50's but they were both travelling alone but with families and husbands at home. The English woman had even come out on her own for 3 months. Good on her!

We were soon out of the drab hole and entering into the Canterbury plans which included lots of fields and grassland. We then started to climb up into the Southern Alps and the views suddenly started to get a lot more impressive. Rolling mountains, rivers and viaducts, tunnel after tunnel, we wound through the scenery. Of course, the photography aspect was practically impossible due to the reflection of the windows but I could not be bothered to go to the other end of the train for the tiny outside platform as I knew it would be packed. We stopped numerous times during the trip but only once were we allowed to get off the train and that was at Arthurs Pass. There wasn't a whole lot to see there but the weather had cleared up dramatically since leaving Christchurch and it was turning into a beautiful day. By the time we got to Greymouth, the final destination, there was barely a cloud in the sky and I couldn't believe my luck!

I eventually got my backpack off the train, though it was practically the last one off and did the short but tiring walk to the YHA. I dropped my stuff off in my room, freshened up and headed into town. Well, what little of it there is!!I'd practically seen most of it when I walked to the hostel. It reminded me a bit of some of the towns in Alaska, so remote it felt. I found a nice little place to sit and have some lunch, before walking around the town some more and along the Grey River banks where I spent several hours lounging in the sun.

First Magic experience

I was way too comfortable to get out of bed the following morning but I finally dragged myself out, got packed and headed outside to wait for the Magic Bus. It was supposed to arrive at 8am, however by 8.30 it still wasn’t there. It eventually pulled up and it was packed! I managed to find a seat besides a nice girl called Fran who, it turned out, went to Manchester University! The guy who checked into the last hostel before me was also on the bus. We then had the fairly short drive down to the Franz Josef glacier but we made a few stops along the way. The first one was at the Ross goldfields, were some people paid to pan for gold. The next stop was at the Bushman centre, which involved a slight sense of humour to appreciate. The Bushman (the owner) was a man who jumped out of helicopters onto his prey whilst hunting! The centre did have some really cute animals to feed though and a display of lots of funny letters sent to the Bushman from around the world critising what he did. We then headed onto Franz Josef, where I once again checked into my YHA and got ready to go on my afternoon hike up the glacier.

Franz Josef Glacier

After milling around town for a short while, it was time to embark on my glacier adventure. In the centre. We went through the whole process of being given over trousers, socks, boots, crampons, hats and a huge ski style coat. We then hopped on the bus which was to take us to the beginning of our glacier walk. It was a good hour or so walk to even reach the bottom of the glacier, so off we started, hoods up to avoid the rain falling quickly off the trees. I'd started talking to a girl called Laura in the shop and we suddenly became inseparable on this trek. We talked the entire time, I knew practically everything about her, yet by the end of the day, I still didn't know her name!! Funny how these things happen. Anyways, Laura and I chose to be in Group 2 of 4 because we could understand the guide better (and Laura thought he was really cute) so off we trekked along the valley bottom, clambering over moraine left behind by the glacier. At one point we had quite the hill climb through some forest to get to our starting point at the base of the glacier.

Now this thing was impressive. I've seen two glaciers before but the colour of this one was majestic, and you could see how quickly it moved from the razor sharp points and strands of ice! When we reached the bottom of the glacier plain, it was time to put our crampons on before we reached the ice. We then started to climb the man-made steps (made out of the ice) up on the first section of the glacier. It was hard and slippery work but the view was just incredible. Our guide then took us around up steps, down crevasses around nooks and crannys until it was time to head back to base. The whole experience was exhausting but so worth it and we got back to our hostels cold and wet and ready for bed!

The Long and winding road

Leaving Franz Josef was to be a lengthy affair as the drive down to Queenstown was to take all day. The bus was packed too but for some reason I got to be very lucky and got two seats (Laura had been put on a following minibus). Again we made several stops along the way, mostly viewpoints including Mirror Lakes and some waterfalls. Laura was staying another night in a place just before Queenstown, so I had to say goodbye to her along the way. And our last stop before entering the city was at the famous AJ Hackett Bungy Jump which luckily for me they were closing up when I arrived so I couldn’t be tempted to do it!!

Queenstown and Milford Sound

I soon checked into my YHA hostel and arranged to meet up with Matt, the guy I had been following around on the Magic Bus since Greymouth, to go and have an infamous Fergburger for dinner. We got there to this tiny little shop but the amount of people there was incredible. The burgers were justifiably famous and huge as well. After eating, we went to try out World Bar and there teapot shots and we were soon joined by Dusty our driver. However, we did not have a late one as both Matt and I had to be up early the next day for our trip to Milford Sound..

The bus picked us up fairly early the next morning and we had the beautiful long windy drive down to Te Anu which I luckily slept for most of before heading on to Milford. Our cruise left shortly after we arrived and it had turned into the most gorgeous day! We sailed around the sound for about an hour and a half, going out to sea and turning back around again. On the way back in, our cruise picked up a stream of Dolphins which followed up for a good 20 minutes. Matt and I rushed down to the front of the boat to see them which also resulted in us getting soaked when the boat pulled into a nearby waterfall!! The trip in all though was fantastic. The journey back was relatively quick also due to the driver putting on the new version of “The Italian Job.” Once back in Queenstown, Matt and I decided to rush up to Gondola to do the go-kart racing down the mountain but unfortunalty it was closed, so we just decided to go up the Gondola anyway. It was a good decision because it was sunset once we arrived up top and the view was spectacular. Afterwards, we headed for dinner at this pizza place Matt had heard of, where they did special pizzas and the roast dinner pizza was heaven on a plate.

Dunedin

The following day, I was on my own once again due to Matt staying in Queenstown for another night. Dusty picked us up and off we headed for the long and fairly dull trip across the country to Dunedin on the opposite coast. Now, granted it was grey and rainy in Dunedin, it was still a completely miserable place and reminded me horribly of an ugly northern English town (no offense intended). I checked into my hostel which was very cute but horribly cold and decided to go for a walk around town to see if this would change my opinion. It didn’t. The only enjoyably experience there was the petshop around the corner from the hostel which had just the cutest kittens in them. Luckily, I left the following day, though not before Dusty took us on a detour to see the world’s steepest street!

Lake Tekapo

The journey to Lake Tekapo was at least more interesting than the journey to Dunedin and we got to see some of the most beautiful dams and lakes with water the colour I’ve never seen before. The journey was all going so well, that is until we broke down. Not only did the bus break down, but we broke down on our way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. So we sat around for half an hour while Dusty ventured on foot up the mountain to get signal. He then came back down and said Magic Bus were to send a bus from a nearby town to collect us. However, this other bus did not arrive for at least another hour. And then when it did, it turned out to be not much bigger than a minibus. So we all crammed on with people standing in the aisle and sitting on people's laps down to Lake Tekapo, which fortunately was not far away.

We finally made it and got checked into another adorable hostel before Jenny and I (another girl I made friends with in Dunedin) decided to have a wander around the lake a bit. There wasn’t much in the town itself but the views were beautiful. Back at the hostel, Jen and I cooked ourselves a monster meal of Bangers and Mash before it was time for me to get dressed up all warm to go stargazing.

Back to Christchurch

And so, on my final day aboard the Magic Bus Experience, I ended up travelling the last leg of my journey on a non-magic bus. The journey to Christchurch was the shortest of all and once again, I checked back into my YHA where I started the whole thing. The following day was to be my last in New Zealand and so I woke up nice and early in order to fit in a trip to the Antartic Centre before boarding my plane. There was a shuttle leaving from the main town square to take me right where I needed to be. Once there, I bought my ticket and entered the attraction. The first room was pretty cool in itself. It was set out like a base camp and it went through the seasons of the year in Antarctica in 10 minutes. It even snowed! I then went to watch the Penguin feeding show which, although entertaining, was nothing much different than you would see at a zoo. The Antarctic experience was amazing. We got to put these huge ski jackets on as well as these strange elastic boot covers and in we went to the ice room permantly set at -8C. And I was wearing cut-offs! The room then went dark and a screen showed the wind temperature the room was being increased to, reaching a whopping 26.6mph and a wind chill of -18.4C! Freezing as! The final attraction was this snow buggy ride called a Hagglund; a transport mobile they use to travel over rough terrain in the Antarctic. They took us on this rollar coaster course, through water and over huge gaps, while we were all rolling about and screaming in the back. All in all, a really enjoyable attraction. And luckily it was set right next to the airport where I wanted to be. And off home (well back to Coogee) I went.

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Photos

Baldwin Street
The World's Steepest Street