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Published: April 8th 2009
15th February- 25th March
So onwards again...
After an enjoyable few days in Welly, catching up with Kate, we set off for our first leg of the adventure on the South Island. We shared the ferry crossing with many sheep (alive) and (dead) animal carcasses, these made our journey very fragrant...
Once on the 'mainland' (as the South islanders call their part of NZ) we pitched our new home, Buckingham Palace (Buck for short), for the first time and awaited, with baited breath, the arrival of Rob (again...we really couldn't get rid of him!). On the sunny first day in Picton we ventured out on our (hired) mountain bikes with Robert for a scenic, steep and sweaty ride, we appreciated the beautiful views and were looking forward to a well earned rest and a cup of tea... However, Rob came up with the very bright idea of taking a few kayaks out for a 'spin'- 'Let's try and paddle to that island girls!'. Luce and Rach had other ideas and instead headed for a slightly closer bay, owned by Bob. Rob was somewhat relieved (we think) with the change of direction when he realised that he was being
slightly ambitious in getting back to the North Island in the 40 minutes that we had hired the kayaks for (and it was really a 3 and a half hour ferry ride from Picton back to Welly)! That evening and needing a well deserved pint (or two...) we headed out into the vibrant nightlife of Picton (aka the Irish and Scottish bar) for some extreme jenga and a tinkle on the ivories.
The next morning we awoke to rain and Luce and Rach took down Buck, with much hysterical laughter, whilst Rob sloped off to the safety of his car 'I'll just go and put the kettle on girls...', whatever happened to chivalry?! After putting Buck into his black bag we said our goodbyes to Rob, who was back off to the UK, and headed off towards the Abel Tasman National Park (still in the rain). Whilst pitching Buck, still in the rain, Luce said a rain prayer (for lack of it) for our weekend adventure. It worked and the next, sunnier, morning we hopped on a water taxi, out around Split Apple Rock and up to Totaranui where we started our 6 hour hike. We camped at Bark
Bay and spent an enjoyable evening with some fellow walkers looking at the Southern Hemisphere stars and Milky Way. Another sunny morning saw us meeting our fellow kayakers and embarking on the 5 hour paddle back to Paihia Along the way we saw seals, had a go at rafting in our kayaks and braved the 7 mile stretch along the coast which can be a bit treacherous-it was great! Our next stop was Golden Bay and when around the area we visted Farewell Spit, Te Waikoropupu Springs (the largest freshwater spring in the Southern Hemisphere) and Harwoods Hole (the largest hole/cave in the Southern Hemisphere).
After such a strenuous few days we stopped off at Hamner Springs for a spot of relaxing in the thermally heated pools, which were up to 40 degrees centigrade and smelt of eggs, before our trip to Kaikoura and the hope of some whale spotting. It was an early morning wake up call for our whale spotting but made worth it by the amazing sunrise and the fact that we saw two sperm whales, seals and a variety of sea birds including albatrosses. It was another beautiful NZ day and so we went for
Stand by your paddles
We embarked on a solo kayaking trip with Rob to discover a new bay in Picton, South island...a coastline walk around the Kaikoura penisular, stopped off for a sheep shearing show and to visit one of the oldest houses in NZ before heading back to our 'Top 10' camping site and a spot of competative table tennis!
Unfortunately, due to the apple season being over and the weather not being great for the ripening of grapes, our original plan of working was flawed. So instead, when in Nelson, where we were trying to find some work, we took a (free) trip to the center of New Zealand. We were a little disheartened about not being able to find any gainful employment and so signed up to 'Helpxchange', in exchange for chores you get housed and fed by locals, and headed to Christchurch for our first taste of 'work' in 6 months. Before we commenced our hard graft... we spent a few days exploring Christchurch, this included taking the gondola from Lyttleton up to Mt Cavendish hiked for an hour before collected our bikes to wizz down the off road area back to the gondola. Rach was most distressed at nearly being blown off of her bike and over a rather large cliff edge a a strong
gust of wind...Luce had not noticed the strong gusts whipping over her and the bike...as she was more preoccupied with the firemen doing bush fire checks!
After our four days of work (painting door and window frames and cleaning up after the young family) we headed on back to Christchurch for an emotional reunion with Antony (who we first met in Brisbane) and a few (more) days mooching around Christchurch and taste testing the pre mixed rum and coke varieties avaliable...!
We kidnapped Antony and headed back up to Picton to catch the ferry (minus Margo and Buck) across to Welly to meet our next stalker from the UK, Suzy Jones, although when we arrived at the airport to meet her, we were actually greeted by a Noel Fielding, from the 'Mighty Boosh', look alike. Once we realised that it wasn't actually Noel Fielding, much to Rach's disappointment and Luce's excitement, we set off back to Wellington city. As one friend arrived another went on their way and we said our goodbyes to Antony who was off back to Oz, Japan and finally the UK. Suze had one night to recover from her 25 hour journey and jet
Extreme Jenga, Luce and Rob
Robert did his best to put Luce off her game... lag, quite generous we thought, before we hit the town with Kate, who we were harrassing again! It was only going to be a quiet night...however after- savignon blanc, pinot noir and gris, singapore slings (Kate, Luce and Rach), lychee cocktail (Suze), champagne (to celebrate Kate's residency and completion of her first full triathlon that day, Suze's safe arrival and our existance), plum daquaries (x ?), vodka/mint/vanilla in a tea pot, apricot daquaries and the rest-we had a quick dance in 'Boogie Wonderland'... The evening ended as follows; Rach went back to Kate's to continue their catch up fuelled by the rest of the pinot noir, a new bottle of rose and the contents of her housemates food cupboard. Luce and Suze encountered some tasty snacks on their way home for their catch up, however, once back in the safety of the hostel Luce managed to lock them out of the dorm room, much to a very tired Suzy's dismay, only to then break in using her 'Visa Bureau' card (at least it came in handy for something). Needless to say we all had a really good night!
A few days later after recovering from our 'quiet drink', the
three muskateers hopped on the ferry back over to Picton, picked up Margo and Buck and then headed off down the West Coast of the South Island. First stop over was Greymouth for a nights rest after a long day on the road and then onto 'Glacier Country'. We spent a few days in the region of the Franz Josef region, in our time there we all did a glacier hike, which was amazing, and explored around the area. We loved our glacier experience(s) so much that we decided to explore Fox Glacier as well but this time included in the fun was a helicopter ride. The 'heli-hike' took us further up onto the Fox Glacier than we would have been able to go if we did a normal hike and seeing a glacier from an aerial perspective was phenomenal. Both of these glaciers are unusual because they are 'warm' glaciers, which means they have rainforest all the way down to them and they are two which are actually still advancing which is quite rare in a number of glacial regions at the moment. The whole glacial experience blew us all away and Rach was in her element since she
finally got to not only see what she studied at university but actually got to use some of her knowledge as well! Our heli-hike day on the Fox Glacier continued with a visit to Lake Matheson where we hoped to get a glimpse of Mount Cook and take some photos of the highest mountain in Oceania, unfortunately the clouds were in the way of the famous peak but this still didn't ruin our views.
Margot did a good job on our next six hour drive from Fox down to Lake Wanaka. We had a few scenic stops along the way including Bruce Bay and the start of the Mount Aspiring National Park. We had not heard much about Lake Wanaka, we just knew it was where we wanted to sky dive, and so were astounded by the sheer beauty of the area and the clarity in which we could see the surrounding countryside due to the amazing weather. Whilst in Lake Wanaka we did one of the recommened short (2 hours) walks to get some even better views of the lake, visited Puzzling World where we had a great time figuring out the maze (although we did use the
Our first rainy morning
Rach in PJ's pulling up tent pegs emergency exit to get out) and seeing how they made the hobbits look so small without any technology. The (adrenaline) highlight of Lake Wanaka had to be the 12,000 foot skydive which we all decided to do after much less persuasion from Luce than Rach and Suze imagined! We arrived at the skydive centre and robed up in what looked like multi coloured clown outfits, met our sky dive instructors and had a random interview from our camera men. Once all of instructors had all had a jolly good time making jokes at our slightly nervous expense 'I've only been doing this since Friday', 'I am quite nervous', 'Don't worry I'll figure out how to tighten your straps by watching how he does your friend's', we took off in the slim line areoplane circling up to 12,000, on the way up we all soaked up the scenery, including Mount Aspiring and, much to our delight, Mount Cook. Before we knew it, it was time to go, Luce and Rach were a little dismayed at not being able to wave Suze off, since before they knew it she was out of the plane and falling at 110mph for approximately 7,000 feet.
Split Apple Rock
Abel Tasman National Park, South Island Both of us followed in the same way... 'Wow!' 'Oh my goodness!' and 'I want to do it again!' were some of the comments we uttered on the way down. It was amazing! Our Mother's remarks on hearing what we had done were 'Bloody Nora!' (Caroline) and 'Is Lucy down safely as well!?' (Hilary). The rest of the day was spent celebrating our jumps, with our new found friend Louisa who had also done a skydive, with a few beers and wine and wine. Our adrenaline was pumping after this experience and looked set to continue when in Queenstown...
Rach and Luce xxx
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michelle
non-member comment
wow
hiya sounds great, bet suze is having a whale of a time too, did you get pics of the whales, will look later, more work to do now!!