Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2011
Ok, so sorry for the delay in write up. Its been an eventful couple of months.
So last time we updated we were just about to do the Franz Josef Glacier Hike. This full day hike was amazing!!! What an experience walking on ice! It took a bit of getting used to with the boot equipment they gave us, and it was quite tiring and cold at times but we'll never forget walking through ice crevices and seeing ice caves. The colour is beautiful too, so clean and blue.
After leaving Franz we went on to Queenstown!! This is our favourite place so far at this point (town/city wise). It has lot of bars, restaurants and cafes and views to die for! Now on the way here on the bus we stopped at Kawarau Bridge for Bunjy Jumping. So I headed up there, got the gear on and jumped off the bridge in what was a fantastic if not very quick experience!!!
We met Alex's mum here and from this point we did a day trip which involved a speed boat experience then kayaking down a fairly fast flowing river in a blow up kayak!! Took us a while to get
the hang of it, but after one tip out of the boat we were confident in our kayaking ability (sort of!!).
We hired a 6 berth campervan and took off on the road heading South towards an area called the Catlins. Now I will say at this point that the hiring company does not allow you to insure the undercarriage of the camper or the sleeping compartment overhead. So any damage to this will need to be paid for.
So we're in this town which I cant remember the name of, and we decide to go to a fish shop to get some fresh fish. So Alex is driving, her mum Sandy is in the front passenger seat and Im in the back. We pull in front of this shop only to hear a scraping sound and the owner of the shop running out screaming!! Alex asks "have I hit something?" and then says "oh no, not the roof, Ive hit the roof, Mum Im so sorry"! Poor Alex has not seen the roof over the shop and we have crashed the overhead bed straight into it. I rather large hole is now in the roof of the extremely expensive
campervan! Amazingly, Alex's mum is as calm as a cucumber and says "dont worry Al, its fine, it was a mistake". My mum would have lost the plot!!!Lol!!
So I go see the owner of the fish shop who says she was only screaming as she didnt want us to do any damage to our van, she didnt care about her roof thankfully!! So we bought our fish and drove to the nearest repair garage. Our main worry was if it rained and then had water damage to deal with. Thankfully we found a fibreglass specialist who repaired the hole for 100 nz dollars (50 squid) and we were back on the road!!
The Catlins is beautiful. Our most memorable moment was at a place called Curio Bay where at sunset we went and sat on the beach and watched yellow eyed penguins return from sea to feed their young. What an incredibly moving moment.
We then headed on to Milford Sound. The night before we were due to do our Milford Cruise I unfortunately had an attack of diarrhoea and sickness which I assumed was food poisoning from some fish I ate that night. I was back and fourth
to the camp loo through the night and as we headed to Miford Sound I knew I wasnt gonna be well enough to go on the cruise. Anyone who has been to New Zealand would know that Milford is famous for its stunning scenery and wildlife. I was gutted. I stayed in the campervan whilst Sandy and Alex went on the cruise. Thankfully when they got back they said it actually wasnt all that (trying to make me feel better or telling the truth who knows!). That was my Milford Sound experience 😞
Once back in Queenstown we returned the campervan, and thankfully they seemed happy with the repair job and we didnt get charged any extra!
Alex and I left Queenie and headed on the Magic Bus for Dunedin, founded by Scottish settlers. We had an apartment for this and didnt do that much over the 3 nights as not much to do!! Played an awesome match of table footy though which was our highlight of Dunedin!
From Dunedin to Lake Tekapo where we set up camp for 3 nights and spent our time walking and also hired a couple of mountain bikes and went off into the
forest to do some tracks. Great fun 😊
So from Tekapo it was on the bus to Christchurch. By this point we were wanting the trip to come to an end just because we were fairly tired of putting up the friggin tent!!
Christchurch- what can I say. A beautiful city which looked like Cambridge or Oxford. Punting on the river, gorgeous green parks and cool places to eat and relax.
We arrived at Stonehurst Hostel and dumped our stuff in our double room on the top floor and headed out to see about kayaking on the river. This was good fun mainly coz Alex and I raced each other most of the way and back!! Instantly fell in love with this place. The next day we spent following a walking tour out of the Lonely Planet guide which took us round the great sights of the city. Had a scrummy brekkie and a good lunch too. We went in the museum in the afternoon but Alex's camera had died so we decided we would come back the next day so we could take photos in there. Little did we know what would happen that next day.
So the morning
of Feb 22nd we had a lay in and didnt leave the hostel til about 12.25pm. We had arranged to meet a friend of Alex's who she hadnt seen for about 5-6 years. We headed to Cathedral Square and met Louise and decided on a restaurant in the square opposite the Cathedral. Just as we were about to be seated a shaking started. Instantly I knew it was an earthquake as I had heard that there were often aftershocks occuring from the Sept one. However the shaking turned to violent swaying and the lights went out. People were screaming and we ran to the doorframe. A guy pushed us out the way to get out, Alex fell to the floor and something flew off the wall hitting her on the head. I just kept thinking do I stay in the doorframe or do I run out the building. Alex was screaming at us to run out, Louise was saying we should stay, I was trying to stand out straight which was impossible. We ended up running down the stairs and out of the building. When outside I started shaking and just couldnt believe I had just experienced an earthquake. I
instantly though wow this is what these people experience regularly, not relaising the actual huge scale of the quake. I look up and there is the Cathedral, the spire fallen to the ground. Dust covers the air and starts to float towards us. We just grabbed each other and stood in shock for a few moments before walking over to see the damage. Injured peoplpe sat on the ground, dust covered and bleeding. A mother holds her baby that has been injured, blood visible on the childs head. This cannot be happening! Then as we are standing not knowing what to do another quake starts, a big one again. People are screaming and grabbing each other, running away from buildings. More brick tumbles from the Cathedral. I just keep thinking there has to be people in there, under the rubble. A car is completely crushed underneath, thankfully noone in it. A statue in the square has tumbled. I look around the square more and I catch glimpses of more buildings damaged by the quake. We just stand there not knowing where to go or what to do. A police officer then announces to us all that the safest place is
the parks and points us all in a direction to head. I cant get over the damage as we walk throught he city. Its frightening and fasinating all at once.
After reaching the park my brother texts me saying "just seen theres been a huge quake in cchurch, are you anywhere near there"!!!!!!
We decide to go and walk to check on our hostel to see if there is any damage. Helicopters fly over top of us, taking water from the river to try and extinguish a nearby fire, which we learn later is the CTV building.
Arrival at our hostel, still experiencing the aftershocks, to see our hostel no more! The buildings ground floor has collapsed, leaving what was a 3 storey building to now just a 2. Our room is visible from the outside as the wall has collapsed. We can see our stuff, our bed etc but the building is deemed unsafe. We then headed through the streets to Louises home to check for damage. Thankfully structually it seems fine, however inside is fairly smashed up from fallen items. TV is still standing though, woo hoo!!
Alex and I leave Louise and her partner to deal with
their stuff whilst we go back to our hostel to see what the progress is. On the way we realise that we havent eaten anything all day nor drank anything. Nothing is open because of what has happened and we realise the severity of this, an actual natural disaster has happened and we are in the thick of it. Our stuff is gone, my passport, our tent, my phone, camera and al our clothes, everything! We are now with just our clothes on our back and thankfully Alex's phone. We sit in a park dumbfounded as to how this will play out. Magic bus informs us that the bus will not be picking anyone up from Cchurch the next day. We manage to crash the night with Louise thankfully. All through the night there are aftershocks and the whole house rumbles. We didnt sleep a wink. The next morning we fid out off the news channel that they are flying starnded travellers out of cchurch to wellington and auckland. At 6am we make our way to a welfare tent, where we register with the red cross then get fed some brekkie and take a seat for the long wait ahead.
We did have a flight booked out to wellington for the evening but we were trying our lucj for anything sooner. We wanted out of there.
Ended up heading to the airport our own way and catching the flight we had booked as werent sure how long we would be waiting for the Hercules Air force plane. We landed in Wellington and was met by Alexs friend Catherine and to hers we went and stayed for a few nights.
The next few days were strange. We were on edge and jumpy at loud noises or any kind of rumbling. We went to the British High Commision to get my passport sorted out which amazingly they did in about an hour and a half!! A full passport, excellent.
We hopped back on the Magic Bus and headed north for Rotorua, back at the Kiwi Paka hostel where they put us up for free because we came from Cchurch. We decided to at least do some of our plans still before we went back as we had already missed the whale watching and wine tours which were our next stop after cchurch. We did the Hobbiton tour which Alex loved and I
appreciated!
Back to Auckland for a night and then home to Sydney. Stayed there for a few nights and then drove back across the Nullabor to perth. The rest of the trip after Cchurch was about getting home. We didnt want to be travelling any more in our circumstances.
So we are staying in Perth for the remaider of the trip. We have decided we cannot afford South America this time around but definately will be going in the future.
We have an apartment in the city and I start my new job tomorrow, cleaning in a care home. Alex will be teaching and we will enjoy the sunshine, layed back lifestyle as well as enjoying more adventures along the way 😊
Sorry its so long guys!! Thanks for reading.
Love Clare xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0477s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Lorraine
non-member comment
Wow
Cheers for that Clare, wish I hadnt read at work tho as it made me cry! take care you two x