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Published: March 1st 2010
Summit of Ben Lomond
Ben on the summit, with the view of Lake Wakatipu behind (Queenstown is hiding behind the hill)Queenstown
The first stop on our tour of New Zealand was Queenstown, situated towards the bottom end of the South Island. This is widely regarded as the adventure capital of New Zealand, and has plenty of different activities available, at least to those with sufficient money in their wallets...
We got into town just after lunch, to find that the hostel was closed for an hour. Being experienced travellers by this point, we took this in our stride and headed to the nearest pub. However, it turns out that our South East Asian travelling experience weren't sufficient to prepare us for what was to come.... 7 New Zealand Dollars for a pint (£3.20)! Within an hour of arriving, one thing was clear: it was going to be a lot more difficult to live within our budget here.
After checking into the hostel we wandered into town to explore a bit more (and seek out some cheaper beer). The best way I can describe Queenstown is to compare it to Ambleside in the Lake District, only
surrounded by more impressive hills, with better weather, and most importantly built up around the 21-35 age group (i.e. more adventure sports and
Queenstown
View of Queenstown from above, complete with requisite paragliders bungee jumping, and less focus on tea shops and Beatrix
Potter). We finished the evening with a curry - finding a Wednesday night special deal for 14 NZD. Still, at those kind of prices we reluctantly agreed that we were going to have to start cooking for ourselves.
Ben Lomond As we'd accepted that minimising costs was now our main priority, I looked to the fine example that Dave has set over the last few years for some tips. Unfortunately there wasn't a Tesco nearby for us to stock up on Value range products, so we opted for his second favourite pastime and went for a walk instead.
The genius of Queenstown's location meant that within 10 minutes walk of the hostel we were able to head off up a wooded hillside and onto a track leading to the summit of the imaginatively titled Ben Lomond (a lot of the landscape looks quite Scottish, and as a result, the early settlers seem to have just reused all the Scottish place names). After the best part of 3 hours we arrived at the summit - a height of 1748m. This means that even after taking into account the
Queenstown
James climbing with Paul - about 2 mins out of the town centre! fact that we started at 300m above sea level, we'd climbed higher than it's possible to anywhere in the British Isles (based on my 3 peaks experience, it's likely that had Falzon been with us, he'd still be on his way up right now...). The views from the top were stunning, taking in Lake Wakatipu to the South, and snow capped mountain ranges to the North. Looking back, this was one of the best experiences of our 2 weeks on the South Island, and definitely the best value for money!
That night we realised that the guide books and locals were right - there really can't be much left of the ozone layer over New Zealand. Despite having been a good 10 degrees cooler than we'd been accustomed to in Thailand, we'd both severely burned the backs of our necks, and in my case, my nose. Note to self: it's pretty stupid to carry suncream with you all day, and not apply it...
Rafting - Shotover River Our first organised activity in New Zealand was white water rafting down Queenstown's Shotover River. This runs through a deep canyon, littered with remnants of its gold rush past (the
Queenstown
The Shotover Rivwer - scene of our rafting exploits Shotover is said to have been second only to the Yukon in terms of the amount of gold it held). The trip started with a bus ride along "Skipper's Canyon" road, reputedly one of the most dangerous in the world, and one of only two in New Zealand that car hire companies ban tourists from using. I can see why, as the rickety bus (towing rafts on a road where trailers are banned) struggled to make its way around the numerous hairpins, occasionally stopping to reverse up them when we met oncoming traffic.
The leaflet for the rafting had said: "if you're looking for some serious white water action, the Shotover River is the one for you", "New Zealand's most popular white water", exhilarating rapids", "there's no stop button on Mother Nature's rollercoaster". We were therefore pretty surprised when an hour into the trip we were barely damp, and hadn't really paddled much. In fact, for James, the wettest part of the trip came when he took up the option of rolling off the raft during a quiet section to test the water temperature (significantly colder than we were used to!).
After another hour, punctuated by a handful
Milford Sound
View of the fjord - note the other tour boat in the distance of fun rapids, we came to a tunnel blasted through the rock by gold miners. We crouched low as we passed through, knowing that as we emerged we'd been warned to hold on tight... What faced us was a vertical drop in the river, which was quickly filled by our raft. I felt myself hit the water and go under, holding on with my hands and expecting to surface somewhere under the raft. Miraculously, as we were washed clear I realised that the raft was fine, and I was just hanging over the edge. I was then grateful for two things: 1) James reaching over and pulling me back in; and 2) that I wasn't the American woman previously sat behind me, who hadn't been so lucky and was now being dragged into a different boat. The last rapid had certainly been enjoyable, but we couldn't help thinking
that it was all a bit too controlled compared with Asia.
Milford Sound A stay in the Queenstown area wouldn't be complete without a trip to Milford Sound, New Zealand's most famous fjord. This lies around 50km to the West of Queenstown, but unfortunately can only be reached (by car
Milford Sound
Seals enjoying the rain on Milford Sound anyway) by taking the road via Te Anau - which is a 300km/5 hour epic coach journey. We managed to find a good deal on a trip, and were pleasantly surprised when a brand new coach arrived to pick us up, boasting acres of leg room and a glass roof. However, good things never last, and after 2 stops to fill up with coolant on the way to Te Anau, we started to worry. Fortunately I'm a pessimist, so when our replacement coach turned out to be a 20 yr old banger with half the leg room of the original coach, I wasn't surprised. After an eventful journey up the mountain road (at times we could have walked quicker), we finally arrived in Milford.
At this point we transferred to a boat, which took us out for a 1 hr 45 min tour of the bay. I got chatting to a English girl who worked on the boat, and who was very excited about the fact that there were a number of waterfalls on the Sound which she hadn't seen for weeks. Unfortunately for us, this meant that it was the first day for weeks that had experienced significant
Milford Sound
Very wet Milford Sound waterfall rain.... Still, at least it gave me the opportunity to wear my raincoat, which I'd lugged around for the previous 10 weeks.
Queenstown, Paul and Katy I couldn't write about Queenstown without mentioning James' cousin Paul and his girlfriend Katy. They both live in Queenstown, and as well as showing us the sights (and scaring James at climbing), kindly let us sleep on their floor on our last night in town. Thanks to them, our average cost per night (as tracked by my spreadsheet) has been kept down, and I finally got the opportunity to use the sleeping bag Fran gave me on Phi Phi!
On our Friday night in Queenstown James and I ignored Paul's advice and finished the night in The World bar. As predicted, we did feel pretty old in there. However, we managed to put that out of our minds as we drank Long Island Iced Teas out of teapots - an unusual experience, which we hope will be rolled out in UK bars in time for our return.
After 5 nights in Queenstown (too many really, given our timetable), we headed North to Wanaka. Before we left there was just enough
Queenstown
Ben struggling his way around the Queenstown municipal disc golf course time for a round of disc (frisbee) golf on Queenstown's municipal course. Dave would have been in his element (the course is free to use..), but probably a little disappointed to find that the course isn't quite as professional as his mate Del's in Leamington - some of the fairways share space with park benches and sunbathing locals. Scores are unimportant in disc golf, so I won't bother boring you with which one of us won.
Wanaka
Wanaka is only about 50km North of Queenstown, and in many ways lives in its shadow. This isn't lost on the locals, who are very keen to explain to you why Wanaka is better than its big brother (during the
bus journey the driver told us about climate, atmosphere, traffic...). One thing that even Queenstownians would have to admit though is that Wanaka offers the best canyoning in the area.
Canyoning When James had first suggested canyoning (making your way down a river canyon by sliding, jumping and abseiling) I'd been somewhat apprehensive. Fully kitted out in my wetsuit and gear at the top of a 9m high "slide", I realised why... There's something un-natural about giving in to
Canyoning
Very attractive canyoning attire... the forces of gravity and water, especially when you only have your guide's word that the pool below is deep enough, or that
there aren't any sharp rocks jutting out halfway down.
Having said all that, I actually had a great day, with a different abseil or slide around every corner, and some stunning views of the canyon that you wouldn't otherwise get. Fortunately for me there were no compulsory high jumps into the water, and I therefore generally let James go it alone where they were an option.
If any of you ever have the pleasure of visiting Wanaka, I can thoroughly recommend the Deep Canyon guys. As well as an action packed day, we were also more than pleased to find that our wetsuits kept us warm throughout the day (the water was bloody cold!), and that they laid on a picnic lunch at the end.
The Paradiso When we told one of Katy's friends in Queenstown that we were going to Wanaka, she told us that the stay wouldn't be complete without a visit to the local cinema, the Paradiso. We were intrigued, so decided to give it a go...
Our one
Canyoning
James running out of abseil rope, and sliding into the pool below and only cinema excursion on the trip up to this point had been to the Bangkok Imax - which (unsurprisingly) sits at the other end of the spectrum compared to Wanaka. In short, The Paradiso didn't have a large Imax screen, had very little in the way of tiered seating, and couldn't hold anywhere near as many people.
On the other hand, the Bangkok Imax didn't have sitting room sofas for seating, an intermission during which you could pick up pre ordered freshly baked cookies, or a VW beetle convertible parked in the corner (complete with 4 cinema seats - although those in the front have to watch the film through the windscreen). All in all it was a pretty bizarre place - more similar to watching a film at home than at a
cinema.
Franz Josef
Our next stop was the tiny town of Franz Josef (population: 330, number of streets: 2). This lies on the South Island's West coast, where it experiences a depressingly large amount of rain. We got the chance to see that rain first hand when we arrived, and were glad we'd booked our accommodation ahead as we bumped into a guy
Franz Josef
The glacier up close who was contemplating paying someone to sleep on their porch as he couldn't find a bed for the night.
Fortunately the weather was much better the next day, as James and I were booked onto trips to take us up Franz Josef's main (only) attraction - the Franz Josef Glacier. James had opted for a full day ice climbing experience, whilst I'd preferred the prospect of going a bit further up the glacier as part of an organised full day trek. I started to fear that it wouldn't be the peaceful experience I'd hoped for as the bus deposited a group of 66 of us at the glacier car park. However, I was then pleased as we were split into 6 groups of 11, each with our own guide, who carried a pickaxe to cut steps in the ice. I opted to go in the front group, which meant that we moved pretty quickly and weren't held back by dawdlers. What I hadn't realised was that we were effectively a scouting party, and therefore had to stop quite often, as our guide planned the route for both us and the 5 groups behind us to follow (the glacier moves
Franz Josef
Ben on the glacier - with the guide cutting some steps in the background over a metre a day, and consequently is always changing - no two trips are ever the same).
Walking on the ice wasn't as difficult as expected, aided largely by the fact we'd all been kitted out with crampons. In fact, initially it was easy to forget that you were on a glacier, as the early section was covered in rocks (which our guide painstakingly poked and prodded at to make sure they weren't about to roll towards the later groups - a process I'd have considered overly cautious if we hadn't sat and watched a few very big rocks rolling off other parts of the glacier's face!). As we got higher we emerged into gorgeous sections of blue ice - with the highlights being climbing through an ice tunnel (very cold and wet), and sliding down through another (again, cold, wet, and this time very bumpy on your behind). These most impressive sections were in an area of so-called "defiance ice", where the glacier is rolling over a cliff hundreds of feet below, causing the ice on the surface to split apart, widening further as the sun melts the newly exposed sections.
Christchurch and birthday commiserations
Franz Josef
Ice tunnel we all had to crawl through on the glacier The next day was my birthday, and what better way to celebrate turning 29 than by spending 6-7 hours on a bus...? This was punctuated by an hour's stop in Greymouth - a largely unappealing town, which marked the end of our journey up the West coast. From Greymouth we took Arthur's Pass, a stunning drive across the Southern Alps, which is one of the only routes to connect the two coasts.
We arrived into Christchurch (our first city since Bangkok) in the early evening. As I settled into the hostel James disappeared out on a mission, reappearing hours later (OK, maybe a slight exaggeration) with a bottle of gin and some tonic water for us to enjoy before we headed out on the town. This was my second birthday treat of the day - the first being that morning when he'd given me 2 slices of toast with
"29" written on them in jam - not that I noticed, spreading the "9" before a disappointed James told me to stop and look at my plate (sorry mate, but I'd have preferred cake).
We left the hostel some time after nine, having a couple of drinks in the
Christchurch
Trams and punts - the World's most English non-English city Stock Exchange bar before finding our favourite place in New Zealand - Boogie Nights nightclub. We stayed there until about half three, enjoying such nightclub classics as S Club's Reach, and Bryan Adams' Summer of '69...
The next couple of days were generally quiet, but in many ways that suited Christchurch - a slow and friendly city, proud of its boast that it's the most English city outside of England. We could see why, as we wandered past the old cathedral, crossed the River Avon, and watched men dressed in Edwardian costumes punting tourists downstream. Whilst there we took the opportunity to hone our kayaking skills, racing each other up the river, before tiring where the current got strong, and then drifting back to the boatsheds.
Blenheim
Our final stop on the South Island was Blenheim, a small unremarkable town in Marlborough, in the North East corner of the South Island. However, we were here for good reason - Marlborough receives more sunlight than almost anywhere else in New Zealand, which together with its soils, make it ideal for growing grapes. Consequently, the region produces over 50%!o(MISSING)f New Zealand's wine.
We shunned the various expensive
Wine Tasting
James enjoying our final wine of the day wine tours in favour of renting a couple of bikes from a shop in Blenheim. Then, armed with a map of the 40 or so local vineyards, we headed West into the heart of the wine region. Most of the vineyards offer free tastings, and we were hoping to take maximum advantage of this generosity. Deciding that without a useful purpose such a trip could descend into chaos, we decided to rate each wine, thereby turning the day from a bike based pub crawl into a highly scientific consumer survey...
Unfortunately (maybe not for our livers), most of the vineyards are only open from 10 until 5, which coupled with the 30-40km of cycling and lunch, meant that we only managed to squeeze in 7 stops, and 44 different wines. The results of our highly scientific study (i.e my favourites in each place) were:
Wither Hills - Sauvignon Blanc
Villa Maria - Riesling
Highfield - Riesling
Framington - Select Riesling
Nautilus - Twin Islands Sauvignon Blanc and Nautilus Pinot Noir
Number 1 Family - Number 8 and Number 1 (sparkling wines)
Cloudy Bay - Riesling
The next day, nursing slightly sore heads, we got a bus 30
Wine Tasting
Some of Marlborough's many vines! mins up the road to Picton, where we caught a ferry to the North Island - but that's another story....
Learning Points
Cocktails taste better out of teapots
New Zealand bus drivers all think they're tour guides
Kia Ora isn't just a drink, it's a Maori greeting
Skin burns surprisingly easily in New Zealand
James finds it difficult to buy alcohol in Christchurch
Bunk beds aren't as exciting/as much fun as they were when I was 10
James is still constantly cleaning his ears
Daytime wine tasting gives you a hangover before you go to bed
New Zealand water is a lot colder than Thailand's
The English are New Zealand's cheap immigrant labour
James refuses to follow instructions when cooking (although that also applies to canyoning, ice climbing, and any other time he's been told what to do)
It's surprising how good it feels to know you can drink tap water
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Mary Coates
non-member comment
Another superb blog. We both enjoyed it very much. You are not letting the grass grow under your feet.