New Zealand Top 10 4/02/10 - 4/04/10

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Well hello again folks, and sorry again folks. The travel blogging was kind of swept to the side in NZ as i was just having far too much fun to think about it.
Wev been in South America for 3 weeks now and i think i would feel too guilty to leave out New Zealand entirely so iv decided to write a top 10 instead. Theres no way i could write about everything we did, there was just too much. Maybe when i get home and have a spare few months il compose the extended full version, but for now this will have to do.

So here we go.....

NUMBER 1: Surfing at Whangamata/Bathing at Hot Water Beach

We arrived in NZ and took a few days up north at the beautiful Bay of Islands. After our time there myself, James and Luke (Dave was waiting in Auckland to possibly find work and Craig was with his girlfriend who had flown out for a few weeks) headed to Whangamata with some of James´relatives. We stayed with them in their lovely little beachside pad for a couple of nights. On the first full day Mitch (James´Mam´s Boyfriend´s sister´s husband took us out on the waves for a spot of surfing. As lessons usually cost around 20 quid an hour he saved us fair few bucks. As none of us had done it before it we started off small and before long we were riding the 30cm waves with style. I was having a blast and took his board out again in the afternoon for a few hours. By then the waves were bigger and i managed to catch a few beauties. Evidently my muscular endurance had regressed slightly from my swimming days and paddling out past the breaking waves before trying to quickly paddle back into them was a mission. In the end it went a bit like this: Paddle out past breaking waves, hover about the stage of unconciousness for a few seconds, catch breath for 10 mins, strech arms for a further 5, think about catching a wave for a good while, catch a good wave after about 10 had already passed, ride wave to shore for 10-15 seconds, repeat. Hard work.
I attempted to go out the next morning at the crack of dawn do do some more but my body wouldnt allow it. After 1 wave my whole body was screaming in pain. My chest was bruised and my thighs were chaffed something awful from lying/paddling on the board the day before, and my arms felt like lengths of lead. I retired after 10 mins and went back to bed. That was the only time we surfed but its something i desperately want to do again.

After our stint in Whangamata the 3 of us went to Hot Water Beach on Mercury Bay for another couple of nights. Here we stayed with a lovely old couple called Auntie Dawn and Uncle Joe. They had a carvan and a shed in their garden who they let out to backackers who were passing through. It was possibly the quirkiest place wev stayed in yet and drinking Uncle Joes homebrewed "Sundowner" (pronounced "Sandenna" by himself) in his little decorated patio only added to the strangeness of it all. What attracts people to the area is the geothermally heated water that lies just below the sand at a certain strip on the beach. So at low tide we slung a couple of Joes shovels over our shoulders and headed to the beach looking like 3 scantily clad overgrown dwarves. Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, its off to the beach we go. With a hairy crack, and a sunburnt back. Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho.
The place was getting busy with spade-yielding tourists so we thought we better get digging. Our first spot was freezing cold and instead of giving up instantly and moving we persisted for a good 10 mins thinking tht if we dig deep enough wed finally hit the hot stuff. We were wrong and so we sent James on a solo undercover covert mission to test other pools and report back with temperture and locational data. It proved successful and we managed to park ourselves on the most perfect spot on the beach. We dug a decent sized pool and slow-cooked ourselves for a couple of hours. Sometimes the water would get almost unbearably hot and pathetic little sqeals of pain would escape our mouths. There was a great comunal feel to it and you would sit and speak to your neighbours while trying to build up sand walls between pools. Our tub got quite a lot of attention and we invited people to try it out themselves for a few seconds. Luke was on standby, shovel in hand, incase anyone overstyed thier welcome. One old central European lady (probably of pension age) was sent packing with a limp and a bloody nose. That´ll teach her.

After Hot Water beach we boarded the Kiwi Bus which would take us round the remainder of the North and South Islands for the next few weeks. We paid for the whole bus tour in Auckland so our transportation for the 6 weeks that followed was all sorted before we set off. (we did the "Funky Chicken" route for anyone who wants to check it on kiwiexperience.com Its a great way to see the place as you can hop on and off as you please on the way round. We were so lucky with the people that were on our bus and we pretty much stuck with them all the way round. The 3 Yorkshire girls Laura, Philippa and Samara. Gemma and Millie from the Reading area. And Jamie and Nick from another planet to name but a few. So the following top 9 were alll shared with them.

NUMBER 2: Caving in Waitomo

A couple of days into our Kiwi experience we arrived in the cave-riddled area of Waitomo. Like every place in NZ there is some extreme activity to partake in, here its exploring the caves. And that we did.
We opted for the 6 hour trip as it offered the most. So our group of 10 or so got suited up in our wetsuits, gloves, helmets and gumboots and went subterranean for a while. After a brief safety briefing we were let loose. Our point of entry was a little crack in the ground beside some trees in the middle of some random field. Standing on the surface you would have no idea what lay beneath.
We individually absailed down about 40m to the darkness below, before being strapped to a zipline and thrown into pitch black darkness to get down a bit further. We were all given a cup of hot chocolate in an attempt to prepare for what was to come. We were all given a rubber ring and told to jump backwards off a ledge, simply assuming there was water below, it was too dark to tell. Thankfully our two guides made the only girl of the group go first. The splash confirmed there was indeed water below (either that or she wet herself BIG TIME on the way down), but unfortunately the screams also confirmed the water was pretty damn cold. Once we were all down we set off floating down the water deeper into the caves. We hit the end of the cave and were told to switch off our leadlamps before turning and floating back down the way we came. With no artificial light at all the caves were eerily lit with the backsides of thousands of glowworms. The sight was incredible. It was like being outside on the clearest night but all the stars were glowing green instead of white. We all lay back in our rings in complete silence for a while before the guide said that the acoustics made any singing voice sound great. We all burst out into a bit of a singsong and did a couple of wonderfully screamed renditions.
We got back to where we had started with the rings, threw them to one side and continued on foot, stumbling and falling all the way as you couldnt see the bottom. We jumped off a couple of waterfalls, again putting our trust in the guides that the water was deep enough at the bottom, squeezed through a couple of tight cracks and came face to face with a couple of horrible looking, and probably extremely bored eels. The last part of the trip involved making our way back to the surface. To do this we had to climb up a few waterfalls and crawl up through some more tight tunnels. The thing i liked best about it was that the guides put a lot of trust in you. If anyone had fallen on the climb it could have been nasty, which made it all the more exhilarating, and gave you a real adrenalin rush. I couldn't help but think that if it was back home the British health and safety officers would have cracked down on it and probably installed ropes, harnesses and possibly a set of escalators in places. So glad things over there were left as they should be.
We emerged into the daylight after a cracking day and enjoyed some drinks with our crew at the hostel bar afterwards.

NUMBER 3: Skydiving at Taupo.

The following day we bussed it down to Taupo, a big town on the shore of the massive lake Taupo. We arrived, checked into the Base hostel (one of a few we stayed in on the way round) and headed to some natural hot springs to prepare for the jump. The place was idyllic. The hot spring water flowed into and mixed with the cool crystal clear river creating a nice warm pool. If you wanted it hotter you moved to to the little waterfall where the spring water came from, and if yo wanted to cool off you went out into the river. After we were finished there we got the bus to the skydive site. At this time it was still just Me, James and Luke and we had all signed up for it and would all be jumping out the same plane with another 3 girls off the bus. We got there, signed the bit of paper that said if we ended up as a thinly spread mixture of blood, bones, guts and brains the company wouldnt be held accountable, and suited up.
Dont know what it is about Luke but whenever he dresses up in anything he manages to look the part. Today he looked like a 1920's light aircraft pilot...a really nervous looking 1920's light aircraft pilot.
Before we got on the plane my nerves were fine, and I was just purely excited about the jump. But as we all crammed onto the plane, strapped ourselves to the guys with the parachutes, and set off upwards the butterflies hatched in my stomach, and when i realised i was sitting beside the door and would be the first to fall, i thought i was going to throw up a pile of brightly coloured wings. We reached 15,000ft after about 20 mins and they opened the hatch. My legs were swung out over the edge and i took a look down. What i saw was the same thing iv seen dozens of times from airplanes, the subtle difference here though was that i was strapped to the front of a guy wearing a parachute and not into a chair watching an in-flight movie, sipping a complementary glass of white wine. The fear hit me but before i could think about it we were tumbling towards the earth. From that height we had a full minutes freefall (it may not sound like that long but just time it yourself right now, its a lot longer than you think) before the parachute opened. The feeling is indescribable but il try my best. Its like being in a wind machine thats blasting freezing cold air in your face. Once you reach terminal velocity it almost feels like your floating as your so high you dont notice the ground getting any closer. We were so lucky with the weather again and we had the clearest evening surrounding us. We could see for miles and miles over the lake and over to the mountains. Once the parachute opens theres another 7 mins to go before you hit terra firma. During this time the adrenalin is pumping so hadr you dont have a chance to get scared at the fact theres still nothing between you and the planet below. Once the 6 of us had all landed we were jumping round like idiots, safe in the knowledge we had survived something no human was ever meant to do.

NUMBER 4: Conquering Mt Doom on the Tongariro Crossing

Walking the Tongariro crossing was the third major activity in 3 days. After a night filled with skydive dreams we woke up at about 6am to catch a bus to the Tongariro National Park. We each had a bag full of energy bars, bananas, isotonic drinks and water. We would most definitely be needing them. We arrived at the start of the walk (voted as one of the top 10 one day walks on the planet) around 7am just as the sun was coming up. We were pretty much above the clouds and I rememer the landscape being very similar to Shetlands, very cold with lots of heather, lots of short thick grass and no trees.
We set off with our jumpers on but as the sun came up and we started ascending the "Devils Staircase" they were quicky removed. The walk takes you past Mt Ngauruhoe (used as Mound Doom in the Lord of the Rings flms) and walkers have the option to climb it if they so desire. As it takes a while to do and the last bus leaves the other end of the walk at 4.30pm only those who deem themselves fit/stupid enough attempt it. We were always going to go for it so we tied our shoelaces tight and headed for the summit. As there is no path up we had to make our own way. On the bus there we were all told the easiest way up is to climb up a dried lava flow off to one side...advice we foolishly never took on board. We had our eyes on the prize and headed straight up the middle of the scree slope. The climb was ridiculously hard. Because the whole mountain was just made up of ash and small pieces of volcanic rock it was like running on a treadmill. ou would exert so much energy trying to get up a couple of metres. It you were lucky the ground below you would hold and you caould try for another couple of metres, but for the most part the ground would just slip back to where you started. It was a proper mental battle. I remember getting to about halfway and questioning whether it was really worth it. So i took another break, cleared my head, munched a banana and a snickers and ploughed on. As we approached the top the people who were ahead of us started climbing over the bigger looser rocks and dislodging them so they came rolling and bouncing down the hill towards us. It was crazy. You would be down on your hands and knees trying to get up an extra couple of feet and hear someone scream "ROCK!" from up ahead. You would look up and see 3 or 4 football sized lumps of dried lava fly down towards you. It was petrifying. Whenever someone shouted i flipped my backpack round to my front crouched down and held my bag upto my chest and face as protection incase one took a random bounce. We all had to scramble out the way a couple of times. A guy from our bus was hit in the back of the leg as he was trying to get out the way and left him with a nice gash in the back of his calf. He was ok though and managed to complete the walk.
When we got to the top after an hour and a half of solid pain we were dripping with sweat and panting like dogs. We all agreed it was probably the hardest thing wed ever done. The climb was thankfully worth it and the views from the top were spectacular.
The decent was lots of fun. Because the surface is so loose you can pretty much ski down it in places, like running down a massive steep sand dune.
With Mt Doom conquered it was time to complete the last 15km of the 19.4km route. The walk took us over a crazy moonlike landscape, past bright green sulphur pools (in which some nutters decided to go paddling in with an inflatable dingy. We walked past and eft them to it so we dont know if they made it out with their skin intact). The last hour or so of the walk seemed to last an age. Nobody was in the mood for talking and we walked through the now thick vegitation in near silence, the only noises being made consisted of fatigued sighs and murmurs of "My God, when is this gonna end" and "The sign said 2km left about 5km ago". When we arrived at the end I felt no hapiness at all, just pure relief that there was a bus there to take us back to bed.

NUMBER 5: Birthday Night in Wellington

By the time we reached Wellington our bus all knew each other pretty well. We spent the last week or so living, eating and drinking together so we had a fairly decent sized posse. This made my 23rd birthday one to remember. The whole day was awesome. In the morning Gemma and Millie knocked us together a wonderful full cooked english breakfast, the boys bought me a case of lager (something the Kiwis know how to make well) and the Yorkshire girls came a knocking with a goodie bag and a card....... and a 1kg bag of rolled oats. In the afternoon we took a trip to the Te Papa museum for a look at the giant squid and various other wonderful artefacts.
When it came time to get the party started everyone crammed into our 6 bed dorm and the good times began. The strict "no alcohol in the hostel" rule was grosely stretched and everytime someone knocked on the door after coming back from the toilet there was a cacophony of whispers and clinking glass (probably audible from 2 blocks away) while everyone tried to hide the evidence just in case it was a security guard. Luckily we got away with it....as we did in every hostel we stayed in, and the drinking game involving beer, wine, a pack of cards, a cup, a stalk of broccoli and a carrot could be played out undesturbed. Wen all headed down to the hostel bar afterwards for a bit of a boogie, Laura challenged me to a dancefloor shake off. I duly put her in her place. The next day was a bit of a write off, but well worth it.
Now with the North Island done we caught the ferry across the sound to the stunning South Island to continue the adventure.

NUMBER 6: Poo Party

Now in Shetland with the Birthday Bus culture, you would think that we would be used with partying in remote locations, which to a certain extent is true. But Les´ famous Poo Party at Lake Mahinapua takes the biscuit. While driving alon a quiet country road with no evidence of civilization (of which NZ has many) we pull into a little driveway, a little driveway leading to a pub, a little driveway leading to a pub owned and run by an 83 year old man named Les who hosts a crazy party every single night!
During the day we were let loose in a nearby town to prepare our outfits, the theme our driver decided on was "ABC", translated as "Anything But Clothes".
So with bagfulls of randomness we boarded the bus and headed for the party, we had a massive buffet meal of steak, venison stew, salad and veg (cooked by Les himself) before heading to our pub-side rooms to get ready. I had decided on a bathtime theme for myself and had wrapped a kids mermaid towel round by waste and hung a plug and a rubber ducky round my neck. On one hand i wore a pink exfoliating glove while the other was brandishing a back scrubber. James went for the budget option, wrapping himself up like a mummy in a 12 pack of cheap toilet roll, Dave (who was now with us after catching up with us in Wellington) went for the toga look and Luke decided to take the...em...eh...theee um...how do you say..."Big shopping holdall tinfoil man" approach. Originallity and resourcefulness at is best folks. The Yorkshire girls went as a trio of pink balloon models making going to the toilet quite a task. Nick and Jamie made an apperance as the least threatening looking Maoris NZ has ever seen and Gemma and Millie went for the giftwrapped look. It was a cracking night enjoyed by all.

NUMBER 7: Climbing Franz Josef Glacier

The following day we boarded the bus, only some people were still wearing their outfits but every single one of us was wearing the same face....the blurry eyed sleep deprived one. One slightly annoying thing about the Kiwi bus is that they insist on always leaving at silly o´clock in the morning regardless of the previous nights exploits.
So anyway we arrived at Franz Josef, our next stop down the South West Coast. Like most places in NZ it is surrounded by mountains, but what draws people here is the Fox Glacier which lies between two of them. We were recommended the full day trip by our driver so we all signed up for it. The following morning we got kitted up in our climbing gear and set off around 9am for the glacier. We walked upto it over the floodplain to its terminus and began to climb the ice steps carved out by the guides. Once we were on the actual glacier and it was too slippy to continue in our trainers we strapped on our crampons. For Luke the transformation to "Overly-Enthusiastic Geography Teacher" was complete.
The trip involved squeezing through crevasses, walking throuhg a couple of small ice tunnels and scaling some steep faces with the aid of a much needed rope. The one negative point of the trip was when we stood around in a tight crevasse for over an hour while the guides tried to cut us a new path up through the glacier. It might not have been so bad if they had actually succeeded, but when we were told to turn around and go back the way we came we were not best pleased.
It turned out to not be that big a deal and we saw everything we would have seen and our guide kept us on the ice for a bit longer to make up for it. Highlights of the climb were seeing Keas (mountain parrots) up close, drinking ice-cold, super fresh, crystal clear glacial water and seeing a Tom Cruise lookalike.

NUMBER 8: Jumping off a ledge attached to some elastic

After a nights stop off in Wanaka we arrived in Queenstown where we would perform probably the stupidest thing a human can do....a bungy jump. Thought up and first performed by a New Zealander, it was only right that we give it a go ourselves. There a few jumps around the country that you can do but we had saved ourselves for the big one, the Nevis. Standing at 134 metres over a huge gorge its the biggest in Australasia, and petrifying enough to reduce any man to a trembling bag of bones.
The night before the jump I was fine and had a good nights sleep, but when the morning came the nerves had begun to creep into my system, and by the time we went to the centre to be weighed I was as scared as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. We got the bus out to the site, along the way the driver decided to play a relevant selection of tunes including "Flying without wings" and "I hope im old before i die".
We arrived at the site and had a look at the jump. We had to be weighed again, presumably incase anyone had vomited or pooped themselved in the previous 20 mins. Once we got our harnesses on and had emptied our pockets, we got a cable car thingy out to the platform where we would be jumping from. Now the nerves had given way to sheer excitement and i was absolutely buzzing about getting to do it.
We got ankle straps wrapped round our calves and we were ready to go. As should always be the case it was ladies first, and Laura set the fearless standard we would have to try and emulate. After being sat down and attatched to the little, thin, weak looking, spindly excuse for an elastic band she was ready to go. She shimmied over to the edge hung her toes over the edge and dropped without hesitation. You could see her falling and springing back up through the glass floor.
When my turn came the nerves had returned slightly and my palms resembled 2 minature saltwater resevoirs. So i was now standing on the edge looking down. And 5...4...3...2...1...BUNGY!
I threw myself off with a yell of "Oh My God!" (clearly audible in the video) and plumited down dowards the rocks below. The first few seconds of the 8 second fall were the best as you could feel yourelf accelerating and see the ground rush up towards you. An awesome feeling. After you rebound back up you have a cool sensation of weightlessness and the bungy chord hangs limply around you for a few seconds before you fall again. Once you come to a rest at the bottom you get hoisted all the way back up to the platform to see the green faces of those about to do it.
Highly recommended!

To watch my video and see the pics go to http://www.ididit.co.nz/ididit/profile/2782 . If you click on the video thumbnail (the little one with the black and white border) and press play at the top of the screen it should come up for your viewing pleasure. For those of you who have facebook its on my page too.

NUMBER 9: Milford Sound

From Queenstown a few of us also signed up for a day trip to Milford Sound. The tour included a 4-5 hour highly scenic bus journey to the pier where the boats leave from, a 2 hour cruise up and down the sound, a ticket to an underwater observatory and a bus back to Queenstown. As there wasnt much else to do but sit and look at the sights, i think the pictures will do it more justice than i could ever do in words.

NUMBER 10: Living it up in Queenstown

On the Kiwi tour Queenstown is the place everybody looks forward to. On the bus all the way down the 2 islands our drivers were always saying what an amazing place it is, bigging it up at every opportunity. And they were right to do so. The week and a half we spent there rate as some of the best days of my life. Everything about is was perfect. We all shared a big dorm together, the location is absolutely stunning, the weather was perfect, the nightlife was booming, everybody off our bus was in such high spirits the whole time and there was plenty of stuff to do.
Besides the bungy jump and Milford Sound trip, highlights included, playing frisbee golf in the park, climbing up to the peak and taking a cable car back down, chilling by the lake, drinking teapots of long island ice tea at the world bar, teaching the girls to do keepie-ups, eating obscenely sized burgers from the famous Fergburger and meeting a guy who had "ginger lover" written on his t-shirt.

So there we go. All in all NZ was an incredible experience and it was a very sad day when we all had to say our goodbyes to our newly made friends and the beautiful country. Hopefully wel see each other again someday. It was also the time we had to say goodbye to Craig as he unfortunately had to cut his world tour short due to money constraints, the 4 of us would have to press on without him.

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Comments

[Grandad Smith]

Good as ever!
Well done again Andrew - we were there in 1996 and really enjoyed the whole experience. Today +4.1C and cold north wind, so enjoy while you canm. Cheers, Douglas