Going South!

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Well what can we say...loads has happened since our last blog! When we last wrote on here we had been to the bay of plenty and White island. From there we took a leisurely drive down to Lake Taupo, more hot springs here so we didn't stay too long, just long enough for Ric to find a golfing game where you hit golf balls and try to get them onto a man made island floating on the lake! Of course the prizes are great IF you can take up the challenge AND win however the task is nearly impossible but was a good laugh all the same. From there we drove to a city called Napier on the east coast which is full of art deco architecture...mainly because the city was destroyed in an earthquake, I think, and they rebuilt it in art deco stylie! Anyway the next morning we woke hearing rumours of an earthquake. We turned on the radio and heard about the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Samoa. As Samoa isnt far from NZ we were being advised that NZ was now on a tsunami alert and to stay away from the beaches and as Napier is a port all the ships were being moved out of the harbour. We had to find an alternative route out of the city as the beach roads were all closed and people had been moved out of their homes as they were so close to the coast. It turned out that the coast had higher waves than normal but nothing near to a tsunami however we were listening to the radio all day finding out information about Samoa. That day we drove to Gisborne to see where Captain Cook parked his boat, to commemerate such a huge event they put some signs up to direct you where to go, followed by a big monument thingy and to top it all showed you a row of beaches where he maybe hopped off his ship! Pot luck really to guess which one it was!!! So we promptly turned our high speed home around and set off for our tiny 3 hr journey back to Napier! Along the way we looked to see if any of the bays had been hit by a massive wave but we were very lucky. From here we made our way down to Wellington over a couple of days, we arrived on thursday night ready for our ferry on Friday at 2:05pm we also randomly met up again with a couple we had met in Napier! The ferry crossing was quite calm with great scenery but a bit bloomin cold and windy! We arrived in Picton 3 hours later and drove to the next campsite we wanted to stay at, it was chucking it down with rain and when we got there we found some lovely lakeside scenery but not much else, just power sites but no loos! So we decided to drive to the next one which Ric says is in Brokeback mountain country. We arrived about half 7 at night and we were the only people camping there! The scenery as we found out in the morning was fantastic, right by the river in between loads of mountains and not much else!  However at that time of night it was pretty erie! Spoke to the campsite lady in the morning she didnt have axe and a monobrow so we appeared to be safer than we first thought, and she said they had sold the property to people who were into helicopters and hunting and posh things! But apparently it'll still be a normal campsite for the likes of us! The next campsite which was last night, we stayed at a pickey site. Here everyone had an Irish accent and wanted to fight us for a caravan! Apart from the owner who had a really big lisp, it was difficult to pay for our site and keep a straight face, had images of the gween gween gwass of home (that was ric writing that by the way I however remained as diplomatic as ever!) oh get you! (that was also ric, how rude interupting my train of thought!) So now we are back to today where we have been to see 2 glaciers, one called the Franz Josef glacier, the other called Fox glacier, Ric wondered if that's were they got the name for fox's mints for! Anyway they were both amazing but had shrunk considerably in the last few hundred years, if ever there was a reason not to leave your light on at night this would be it. Unfortunately we didn't get up close to the Fox glacier as it was closed due to flooding/rock fall/uneven surface! However ric thought it was a money spinner coz it was free to see the glaciers but people on paid tours could still go up closer than the none fee paying joe public! How rude! Throughout our trip we've been going through the road map and seeing little icons that mean they are filming places from lord of the rings, we haven't really seen any up until now as they have been up moutains that we have driven past in the pouring rain! Think we actually saw one today tho at the site of the first glacier, might need to actually watch the films to find out for sure though! We also ain't seen Gollum or any signs of "my precious" or a ring piece either!   
Now we are sitting in a local pub in a small town called Haast that has a worrying amount of antlers and moose/deer heads attached to the walls and ceilings! Even have a goats head too, dont think they are biased to any four legged animal, didnt see any dogs tho! Possibly more Brokeback Mountain Country! Campervan door locked then locked again tonight! Going down to Queenstown tomorrow which is reported to have snow, regreting turning down having a heater with the campervan now! Oh well!
At Queenstown we will be more than halfway down the south island, plan is to get to the most southern point we can so we can say that's probably as close we will ever get to the south pole! Or putting it another way, this will be the closest the south pole will ever get to us, given global warming an all that!
Anyways stay tuned for more crazy instalments as Wic and Lisab go around the world in more than 80 days!  

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