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Published: April 1st 2008
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In one of the many cravesses in Fox
Feet firmly flat, its harder than you think staying upright on the real blue stuff! Well, comparerd to the other international flights we've endured, Melbourne to Christchurch was a piece of cake, so short, it was great! Though it was pretty cold when we got off the plane, a far cry from the heatwave in Melbourne.
Spent our first 2 days in Christchurch, had a wander round the city, botannic gardens, the museum, coffee (see picture!) - very cultural!
We went to pick up the campervan, though it wasn't quite what we were expecting. First off, it was a Toyota, not a Hyundai and then to our horror, it was automatic, neither of us have driven automatic before! The agents just laughed at us and told us it was like driving a gokart, so off we trundled...
After our first day with the van at New Brighton beach where Greg did a bit of kiting, we discovered a number of problems with the van. Started to cook dinner and no gas. Finally found a petrol station open to refil the canister, by which time it was dark, so we switched the lights on in the van and nothing. Two bulbs were out. Went to run the tap to fill the kettle and it
pi**ed out all over the work top. Plus we had a number of essential utentsils missing, most importantly bottle opener! So, we were a tad peed off. Our 2nd day with the van was spent at a garage in the middle of a sprawling industial estate, getting all our "issues" sorted out.
Finally on our way, we made our way out of Christchurch and in land to Lake Tekapo where we spent our first proper evening camping, which was beautiful.
Further down to Queenstown, where we spent a couple of nights while we did a trip to Milford Sound to do the boat trip to see all the amazing enormous cliffs towering out of the water. You really have to remind yourself that you are at sea level, and those green hills are a whole lot bigger than they look, something you only notice when you see another boat up by the base of one of the mountains. None of these enormous sandflies we hear about, just some lazy seals resting in the sun.
Queenstown is quite impressive, and we wished we could have stayed longer and more central. Nice little buzzing town with the amazing 'Lord
Lake Pukaki
Really clear day and no one around - Aoraki Mount Cook in the background of the Rings' Remarkable mountain range towering across the lake. We can certainly see why no special effects were needed to create the landscapes in Lord of the Rings, we've never seen scenery and landscapes like this.
Our wistle stop tour took us of to the sistering town of Wanaka, Greg did a tandem paraglide off of one of the ski slopes, no snow obviously as we're only in Autumn coming up to Winter. As we were so high up, we had amazing views all over Wanaka. Fear set in that evening as we realised that for some reason (?!?), New Zealand does not allow the selling of alcohol on christianic public holidays. Oh well, it did us good!
One of our favourite parts so far was at Fox Glacier where we did a guided walk on the glacier, which was like being in the Antarctic! We had to learn to walk all over again wearing crampons - the spikes which grip the ice. Greg decided he knew what he was doing and tried to climb a near vertical wall of blue ice before our guide had cut steps, inevitably, he failed, came a cropper and gave everyone
a good laugh. No broken bones though, just a bruised ego!
At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the next day, we moved on to Putakaki and Pancake Rocks. Amazing rock formations on the coast, where the waves crash against them and are forced up through tiny blow holes creating tall surges of sea spray and huge bangs as they hit. It was really warm and sunny in Pukaki and we watched an amazing sunset on the beach while sipping on a lovely Pinot Noir. Ah Paradise..... entered the dreaded sandflies. Poor Greg is still suffering, but as always Emma misses out on the feeding frenzy!
Next on to Nelson for a few days r and r. Greg did some landboarding on the beach while Emma tried to convince herself that she's still fit and did a few early morning runs/jogs/walks/ staggers on the beach! We planned to get across to the Marlborough region to do a bycycle tour of the vinyards, however the weather decided to finally break to some good ol' English weather, so a local wine tour of Nelsons region was in order to keep us dry. Slightly better than the one in Melbourne
First NZ Coffee
I just liked this one (and the wines were affordable). We were taught more about how to taste wine and what to look for. Still not sure about Pinot Noir, it's a bit weak, but we did buy a couple of bottles of Gewurztraminer (ha try and say that!) from the Seifreid vineyard, which we're planning on drinking with Greg's infamous Singapore chicken noodles. Bloomin lovely! Also into the bargain, Marks and Spencer sell it at home too, though it's over double the price it is here!
After our lazy days in Nelson, we were at the end of our stay on the South Island, so made our way to Picton to catch the ferry across to Wellington on the North Island. We were sorry to leave, there is so much more to see, we'll just have to come again...
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Nikki Meek
non-member comment
Crikey!
Wow!!!!! You guys really are intrepid travellers! New Zealand looks amazing and the coffee! Your photos really are showing a fantastic trip. Looking forward to seeing you and hearing loads more about it when you get back. Keep having fun! Lots of love Nikki