The land of the hobbits

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So here we are, New Zealand. A country steeped in natural beauty, blue skies becoming overcast becoming snow, hot chocolates and coffee and a whole lot of sleeping in a car. Here are a few of the things we’ve been upto.

After arriving in Christchurch after what was probably the best flight of my life - incredibly smooth and the view over New Zealand was astounding, we spent the first few nights in Christchurch - getting incredibly cold and so buying thermal layers, jumpers, waterproofs and thick woollen socks before returning to our hostel room complete with electric blanket - a very nice addition!

Christchurch was ok, but for a city didn’t seem particularly happening, and it rained freezing cold rain a fair bit so we didn’t see it in the best light. After 3 nights we went to pick up our Jucy crib - basically a 7seater people carrier which had all but the front two seats ripped out and replaced with 2 benches that magically became a bed (magic would have been nice, it actually involved a fair bit of swearing and shoving followed by a little cursing before revealing something that resembled a bed), a small sink, a “fridge” which only worked when the engine was running and was invariably hotter inside than the rest of the car, a small gas stove that was “only to be used outside and NEVER as a means of heating the vehicle” - which soon became our main way of heating our vehicle and very little storage space. It took us a few days to appreciate the car for what it was - fairly cheap and much nicer to drive than a camper - but still felt the smugness of those who had opted for a camper when parked next to our car.

The first place we went was Hamner Springs - after an afternoon walking in the sun, a night sleeping with the car being pounded by heavy rain the next day we went to the hot sulphur pools under light drizzle. We then headed for Kaikoura, hoping to do a little whale watching... unfortunately the seas were pretty rough the day we arrived and no boats were going - we booked for 7am the next day but as the alarm went off at 6am the cold was so intense that we didn’t thaw out in time to get there. We went for a walk later via a big seal colony which was fun and decided to try the next day. The next morning the rain came and looked pretty set on staying for the foreseeable future - so after a cup of hot chocolate and some baked goods we decided to drive south in search of some better weather.

We arrived in Akaroa a few hours and several heavy showers (I would call them downpours but didn’t rhyme so well) later - found a beautiful place to stay by the sea. The owner told us not to freeze. We almost did. There was snow settling only 100metre higher than us and the constant rain was become a little tiring. Still whenever it was daylight we could appreciate how beautiful this country is, despite the weather. After a few races on the flying fox the campsite had (I beat Ben everytime - just don’t ask Ben about it... he may remember things differently) we did a scenic drive round the hills of Akaroa which was absolutely beautiful, before getting to the main town where our main accomplishment was finding some excellent homemade fudge.

After a night freedom camping by the lake we went for a walk the next day up into the surrounding hills, saw a possum entangled in the undergrowth. Ben freed it but it still seemed a little distressed, considering Kiwi’s see them as a pest didn’t see much point trying to get help but hopefully it was a happy ending. We had fun watching several sheep panic when we walked through their fields and stopped out walk just short of the summit due to an increase in the snow and it being pretty slippery. We then returned and left Akaroa... stopping only to get some more fudge on the way!

We drove down the east coast, stopping to see yellow eyed penguins - once from about 200metres away through binoculars and a second time less than 20 metres away! Saw a few more seal colonies, Dunedin for another hot chocolate and some quality free internet time (well Ben went to an art gallery.... possibly a better use of time but it’s all subjective!) and spent several nights shivering in our car!

Stopped for a couple of night in Catlins and went for a day’s hike. We were joined for an hour or so by a fantail bird we nicknamed “Word” who seemed to take quite a shine to us. Due to the recent rain the forest was very pretty but the wood that had been used in several places as steps and small bridges were very slippery - both of us slipped at different points but mine was most spectacular and had it been caught on video would have been a sure pick for you’ve been framed.

Went to the petrified forest which was fairly dull - apart from a few obvious fallen logs and a couple of stumps it might as well just have been some rocks in the sea... apparently the reason it’s so unimpressive is down to good old tourists and locals taking a stump or two for their own collections!

Invarcargil was pretty dreary - although again it was raining, but after stocking up on food at the mighty yellow Pak ‘n’ Save and fuel (plus another hot chocolate - Kiwi’s truly know how to make them!) we were off heading towards Te Anau in order to drive to Milford Sound.

Made it to Te Anau the next day... but due to heavy snow chains for the car were compulsory (never found out if fashion or for the tyres) and the girl at the information centre advised against driving it unless one is used to driving in snowy/icy conditions... which one is most certainly not. So we decided to head to Queenstown and, if the weather cleared up, return to Milford Sound in a few days.

It was so cold we made the decision to check into a hotel for a few days. Found a decent place 10 minutes drive from town for $60 a night (actually found the price on lastminute.com and discovered later that should have been Australian dollars which would have made it closer to NZ$74...) Room was pretty huge with two beds (electric blankets included), tv, fridge and ensuite with a bath. Oh, and for the first night we were the only guests so had the run of the joint - which included a sauna - hooray!

Spent 4 nights in Queenstown waiting for the weather to stop snowing so I could go paragliding and Ben skydiving. Due to the snow we spent a good deal of time eating and taking it easy, but also played indoor mini golf which was fun but very expensive (I won by the way!). On the third day the sky was finally blue when we peaked out our curtains and we hurriedly got dressed and drove into town, where we were told it was too windy. Flip. So instead we went on a mighty journey along “the road to Paradise” where a few Lord of the Rings locations were and the whole area had been used as a backdrop to several more scenes. We were determined to do it properly and blasted the soundtrack to Fellowship through our car as we drove to Isengard (just round the corner from Paradise). Decided Frodo should maybe have thought about doing it our way.

After the clouds and snow returned the next day we gave up on our plans and decided to drive to Lake Wanaka the next day.... which meant leaving behind the warmth and comfort of our hotel room and returning to the tight confines of our car. Stopped at Puzzling World on the way, had fun walking round, getting frustrated with the countless puzzles then getting lost in the maze after we were so smug that we’d found all the towers in a much shorter time than average... I did beat Ben though so it turned out ok!

I planned to go paragliding the next day and Ben skydiving, went to book Ben’s skydiving first and I came away a little perplexed as I too had put my name down. Huh. Interesting move and one I was not entirely revelling in! Decided to sleep on it and cancel in the morning.

The morning was pretty cloudy and after driving into town for a (you guessed it) hot chocolate - Ben having 2 strong coffees and ended up a little wired - we looked out the window and let out a sigh of relief as the clouds had been growing steadily thicker. Ben phoned the company to confirm it wasn’t going head.... only to be told that 10kms away where the airport was situated the clouds were clearing so the jump would go ahead. Excuse my French but crap, crap, crap, crap, crap - and slightly stronger words alongside. A little shakily I drove us out to the airport. Arrived, decided I wasn’t going to do it, went in decided I was going to give it a shot and paid, decided to go to the toilet and had to use every bit of my inner strength not to climb out the window, put the jump suit on - changed my mind several times before meeting Chris my tandem jump buddy/instructor and deciding maybe it’ll be ok, found out we didn’t have time to watch the safety DVD... wondered what Chris could forget to tell me and contemplated insisting on the information but thought better of it, got in the tiny plane - hesitated before shuffling back along the bench, chilled out a little as the plane climbed higher and higher and the views were spectacular and Chris and Eugene (Ben’s instructor) seemed very chilled out and were joking around with Ben’s straps (made me laugh) then the panic returned tenfold as Chris leant over to tell me he was going to secure all the straps as we’d be jumping in under 3 minutes...me first then Ben last of all... calmed down a little after the first person went.... shuffled to the doors as the second person jumped - hesitated a bit as all I saw was a black blob disappearing in a split second... and all I hear was an ear splitting scream... asked if I was ready to go - reply was “no” - totally ignored by Chris who replied “just enjoy it”, then we were sitting on the edge, legs dangling outside the plane - a very abnormal feeling! And after reminding me to be like a banana (the shape you need to be in - also I found it helpful trying to get into the mindset of a banana, “...............................................................”) we fell. The first second was horrendous - a real stomach churning moment where I was pretty certain I’d made a mistake but then that feeling stops, and a weird almost floating feeling takes over. The only reasons I was pretty certain I wasn’t floating was a) the view and the knowledge that it’s not possible to actually float and b)the intense cold and ear pain I was experiencing the further we fell. At one point Chris spun us round all I remember was me shouting, “no, no, no, no, no, no!” so cool. And suddenly peace, calm, serenity as the parachute opens. Couldn’t hear a thing for a while, but after equalising the pressure a little I started to really appreciate the whole thing.

Floating down to Earth after the hurtling was very nice... Got to really take in the views without wondering whether it’s possible for ears to implode with too much pressure. My instructor pointed out where Ben was and took our parachute so we floated alongside each other for a bit, before taking me through a cloud... because he could! When it came to landing he explained how to do it looking very cool by running and landing on your feet - worst case would be landing on arse... I somehow hit the ground intending to run, found out to late that my legs apparently hadn’t unfrozen from fear and landed face down in a mess. Real smooth.

After our experience we were on a bit of a high and decided to drive to Fox Glacier... Probably driving with such adrenaline may not be a good thing and I definitely had to watch my speed a few times - especially on going round tight corners (Ben had to hold on to the car’s overhead handle a few times... occasionally with slightly white knuckles!), but we made it in one piece and no speeding ticket so all’s good! Treated ourselves to a meal out - once the day’s budget has been blown by about £600 there’s no point trying to keep it under control so good time to spend more! We then freedom camped near a big lake and tried to sleep!

Spent the next few days walking round Lake Matheson, seeing the Fox Glaciers and hiking round a hill to get a better view, booking ourselves on a day’s hike on the ice at Franz Josef, saw a salmon run (and a fair few give up and become bird food) and plenty of wildlife before the day of our hike arrived.

We were in a group with 8 other people and our guide. The day was really fun mixed with a whole lot of hard work and squeezing through narrow spaces, one of which I got pretty stuck, but being only one way out I somehow convinced myself that I wasn’t actually stuck and got myself out. I also lost concentration for a second whilst climbing some steep ice “steps” our guide had just cut - luckily I was holding onto a rope as I swung off the steps and into the wall of ice next to them. Managed to just about pull myself up and back onto the steps but I still have a bruise the size of a small mellon to show for it (very attractive!).

Next day we drove a long way, through Arthur’s Pass back to the other side of the island, up the island a bit and back to Kaikoura - weather had been much better recently so we booked ourselves onto a whale watching tour for the next morning, this time at 11am so we would have no excuse not to make it!

The weather was pretty clear but a little breezy the next day - seasickness warning was in place but the tours were still going so off we went. Saw loads of albatross, which are huge, and many other birds before catching our first glimpse of a whale - 100 metres or so away and just diving down. The average number of whales seen from close up is 1-2. We saw 4 and several more from afar! It was pretty amazing to see them dive down but would have been much better to watch from under the sea as you only get to see ten percent from above, but the tail for the last few seconds is magical!

Now we’d finally seen the whales we decided we’d done enough of the south island - especially as the weather was due to get much worse over the next few days and the only thing I still wanted to do was paragliding - which apparently isn’t very doable in 40kmph winds. So the next day we headed to Picton and drove onto the ferry or the 3.5 hour ride through pretty rough seas which included many people throwing up and us near the toilets... a lovely mix! We were amazed at the ferry being 5 minutes late and the captain being incredibly apologetic and hoping it wouldn’t ruin anybody’s plans... they need some of that courtesy in England!

Didn’t stop in Wellington, instead spent the first day searching for a few more Lord of the Rings sites - followed the signs to Rivendell (the only LotR signposts we’ve found!) and then drove up to Mordor and Mount Doom and played in the snow because we could!

Then spent a few nights in the Taupo region - had planned on maybe doing some white water rafting... but it was too cold... then thought about possibly another skydive... but it was too cloudy... so ended up spending our time (1.5 days of it) doing the extreme sport of prawn fishing. It was intense. So after catching and eating 8 prawns (of which I caught 5 including the biggest and Ben 3) and playing another game of minigolf - this time won expertly by Ben we headed to see Huka Falls - the waterfall was fairly impressive but what really caught my eye was an old guy with an absurdly ridiculous tartan bobble hat - made even more ridiculous by his slightly stern demeanour - and his friend who had a perfect Hitler moustache. Brilliant.

Went to see the Orakei geothermal park which was pretty but very overpriced for what it was before making our way to Rotorua.

Spent a few days in Rotorua just wandering around, avoiding the big groups of teenagers (felt like being at home again!). Planned on doing some things at the Agroventures site, but when we drove there everything looked pretty lame - and all centred around the car park so instead we went to play our third round of minigolf - agreeing before we started that the winner would be the ultimate minigolf champion... you can guess who won (incase you can’t it was me) but I don’t recall Ben actually calling me the ultimate minigolf champion...!

That night Alex, out friend we’d met on the Trans Siberian trip, came to meet us for a drink. We headed out to the “grumpy Mole” (how could we not!) before spending a few hours in a bar in town where everybody was real friendly - when I asked the barman for cider and found out they had none I struggled to think of what else I felt like drinking - he looked at me, told me to hang on, disappeared for a few minutes and was back with a big bottle of cider - he’d gone to the pub next door! Now that’s service! Had a really nice evening before finally heading back to our cold car for the night.

Next day we headed to the gondola with Alex, planning on just the gondola and a few rides on the luge - somehow I was talked into the skyswing which sounded pretty terrifying! Enjoyed the peaceful gondola ride before going to watch a few people being thrown through the sky in a cage type thing... just about got enough courage to walk up and sit down in the contraption before deciding I could probably have more fun not doing it - was talked into it by the guy in control of the ride (Kiwi’s are ridiculously calm and persuasive!) and strapped the seat belt before being hoisted up into the air then let go, dropping at 150kmph for a terrifying second and then slowing down really enjoying swinging over Rotorua.

After that we got to ride the luge a couple of times - which was brilliant - a lot faster than I thought it would go and seemed fairly dangerous at times.... which made it even better! Once we’d exhausted ourselves we caught the gondola back down, went for some lunch in a cafe (I discovered omelette and avocado are an amazing combination!) before spending a few hours soaking in the hot pools. Good day!

After saying goodbye to Alex we headed off to the Waitomo caves. Spent the night nearby then booked ourselves to explore them at 2pm that day. Had an amazing lunch at a pub in a nearby town before heading to the caving company. Had one other couple in our group and that was it - small groups always good! There were pretty friendly and after getting into our Wetsuits and boots we went to the cave’s entrance. First bit was abseiling down 30 metres and was real good fun. Problem was when getting to the bottom and having to wade through the water and realising just how cold the water was (vey bloody cold) but not much we could do about that now! Walked along the side of the caves until we got to a small cavern. We all sat down on a couple of logs and turned out headlights off to see hundreds of glow-worms lighting the ceiling. Our guide made some loud noises and the glow worms became much brighter! He told us a bit about them and also that David Attenborough had sat in the exact place we were, to film the glow-worms for Planet Earth! We then continued our walk through the caves and went into some real tight spaces which actually weren’t too bad. Afterwards, we got into our rubber rings that we’d had to carry with us and floated along the river, turning our headlights out and did a little black water rafting - illuminated only by the glow worms! A little more caving, some more floating, tad more crawling through small narrow spaces (though never actually to get anywhere... just because they were there!) before wading back through the still freezing cold water and rock climbing up 20 metres in almost dark to get out of the cave. Was a good day but not as challenging as we thought it was going to be!

Decided after the caving to drive up north of Auckland so we could enjoy a couple of days in some nice warm weather before dropping our car off. It was the most painful drive of the trip - took 4.5 hours driving in the dark getting more and more sleepy and having to stop for a Drive through MacDonalds just to wake me up a bit (forgot just how bland their food is but my stomach needing to digest and the caffeine hit from the coke kept me going for the last couple of hours!)

Made it about 100kms north of Auckland, found a place to stay and crashed out. Next day it rained. And rained. And rained some more. Can’t believe the effort off driving up here and when we asked in an information centre what we could do in the rain there best recommendation was the cinema. Not much to do up there unless there’s good weather! So we checked into a campsite and sat in the TV lounge most of the day glazing miserably out the window.

Next morning the rain had eased, so we hoped to go in a glass bottom boat to see some fish and coral - but the sea was still too choppy, instead we drove to a big regional park and by the time we got there the sun had actually come out! Spent a few hours on the beach looking in various rock pools at low tide, finding tonnes of hermit crabs, anemones, starfish, small fish, shrimps (too small to bother eating!), and sea slugs which was fun! We then went for a long walk seeing tonnes of birds and rabbits and Ben slipping on a wooden bridge - I waited to check he wasn’t really hurt before laughing.... it had been a very impressive fall!

Next day we started the trip to Auckland. Stopped a couple of times along the way - had some honey ice cream and of course hot chocolate, before dropping our stuff off at my cousin Susie’s house in north Auckland near the sea and drove to a campsite in the city near the place we’d be dropping off our car the next morning.

After giving the car a good clean and filling her up with petrol we bid her a fond farewell and returned to using our feet to get around! Spent the day in Auckland city centre but the weather was rubbish so we didn’t do much! Got the ferry in the evening to Devonport where Susie picked us up and took us to a house... where we could stand up and even walk around... and sleep in a real bed! It’s now 3 days later and apart from going for a real nice walk along the cliffs nearby and a quest for food this lunchtime we haven’t really left the house... it’s just so nice to feel like being in a real home for a bit! We did cook a roast yesterday which took up 5 hours of the day, preparing, cooking, eating and clearing away but never went outside (it did rain a fair bit!).

So we now only have 2 days until we cross back into the northern hemisphere and the land of Mickey Mouse and much food, until then this is Hannah and Ben signing out!

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