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Published: November 15th 2006
We caught the ferry in at 9 in the morning, to be honest I'm not even sure how long the crossing took. It was a very big boat and didn't even feel like we were on water, so I tried to regain some of the sleep loss I had been developing over the last week or so....
I did manage to wake up and get up to the top of the boat to see the stunning Marlborough Sounds on the way into Piction ferry port. We boarded our new coach for the South Island and drove a little while before getting to Nelson, the sunnest place in New Zealand. We stopped off at a vineyard for some wine tasting where I managed to scam an extra wine taster! It was then off to the hostel before deciding what to do in the afternoon. It was a lovely sunny day and the options on hand were, walk to the centre of New Zealand or play a game of football in the sun. The football won. We later found out that the hilltop marking the centre was in fact not the centre which was on someones private land, didn't miss much there
Franz Jopesh Glacier
With Jo at the bottomthen! That night we had a Sunday roast provided by the hostel before heading into the town for a few drinks. The next day Matt decided he wanted to spend an extra day in sunny Nelson, so I got on the bus and said goodbye. This was the first time we had travelled separately.
The next day we headed down the west coast towards Westport. Today however the weather was terrible and raining. We picked up some new people in Greymouth who had connected with us from Christchurch. We stopped at Nelson Lakes National Park for lunch, where Smiley reliably informed us that there was a great view. It was full of cloud and rain! We ran into a shelter to make some sandwiches where the sand flies were having a field day and trying to bite any available flesh in site. We arrived at the ghost town that is Westport where me, Jo and Carrie got checked into our own private room witha separate bathroom and kitchen. We had requested to go in a different hostel just to esacpe the masses of the bus for a night. We spent the night cooking then watched some TV before getting
a much needed early night. We were told the next night would be 'large'.
We headed further down the coast on route to Lake Mahinapua. Tonight we would stop at the Mahinapua Hotel where we would have a fancy dress party at the 'Poo Pub'. We stopped off to get some supplies for the party. We found a charity shop where I bought some old slippers, a nighty and a dressing gown. The theme of the fancy dress was something as the first letter of your name. Therefore I went as a granny. We stopped off at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and blowholes where we watched the the sea playing smashing into the coastline. When we arrived we went for a walk along the beach and kicked around a football before having a fantasic group meal of steak vegetables and more meat! Yum. We then got changed into our costumes before having a fun evening. There was a prize for the best costume, to win a canyon swing. Ed won as Edward Scissor hands, which was a good costume.
Back on the road where we set off for the Franz Jopesh Glacier. When we arrived there, some people
were quickly rushed off to do a skydive and some the helicopter tour over the glacier. I went for a little walk to get a view of the glacier. At the end of the walk Smiley gave me a voucher for some river surfing (worth $NZ119!) Someone who had won it last night didn't want to so luckily I was in the right place at the right time! The following day we did a full day's hike of the glacier. We were kitted out with a fetching blue jacket and waterproof trousers plus some crampons to wear on our feet. We were split into different groups, only Jo from the bus was in mine. When we had been in Mendoza we met a guy who worked as a guide on the glacier and it turned out the guide we had was using his old ice axe! Jo manged to fall into some water and twist her knee on the way down, but was okay to walk back. We got down after about 6-7 hours of walking that day.
We arrived in Wanaka the next day, on route we were supposed to get a view of Mount Cook (the highest
Ice fight
We got given ice axes but there was no need to use it as the guide kept cutting steps everywhere mountain in NZ) but it was too cloudy. Wanaka was a really nice place and reminded me a bit of somewhere like Keswick in the lake district. That afternoon I went for a walk up Mount Iron as it was really sunny by then. It only took about an hour and a half up and down but gave some great views. I would have stayed an extra day in Wanaka but the whole bus was arriving in Queenstown the next day and Queenstown is the party capital of NZ so I didn't want to miss that.
I spent just over a week in Queenstown. In between partying at night, one day I climbed a 6000ft mountain (there was snow at the top!) and did some crazy activities. One was called the canyon swing. It was similiar to a bungy jump but instead of springing back up at the bottom of the jump you swung into a big 200m arc. I went along with a few people from the bus. There were various ways of jumping off. I choose to be suspended out over the canyon and hold onto a rope above my head. They would then realise the tension
and the rest would be down to me when to let go. They started off by getting me in a harness and then one of the guys setting up the equipment pretended that he hadn't done this one before saying it wasn't very popular. They then said that sometimes the lines get tangled up with this jump and if they did, it meant I would have to hold on for a bit longer and they would get a safety line on me and pull me back in. I was feeling pretty nervous by this point when they moved me out over the canyon. I took hold of the rope and they released the tension. They were now shouting to me that there was some kind of problem and they needed to get the safety line on me, I tried to move my legs towards the ledge but it was too far away. I then realised they were just taking the piss and besides I couldn't hold on any longer as I had the whole weight of the harness too! I let go and the ground came rushing up towards me, then before I knew, it was into the arc swing
Incased in ice
It's amazing how blue the ice is up here which was really relaxing especially with the realization that I wasn't dead!
A few days later I did the river surfing, it was a mad experience which involved getting into a wetsuit (the river was freezing) and taking a body board into the river with you then floating down the river and trying not to drown in the rapids (this was certainly one of the most dangerous things I'd ever done, because the whole way down I had cramp in my legs, which meant swimming was quite difficult!!
By this time Matt had caught us up and we went on a day trip to Milford Sound in the Fiordland National Park. The whole way there the scenery was amazing just snow capped mountain after snow capped mountain. We saw where there had been avalanches along the way too. Once we got there we did a 2 hour cruise of the Sound and saw a pod of dolphins which swam along with the boat. We also saw two pengiuns and a seal. On the bus ride back our bus caught fire! We were driving along when there started to be a horrible burning smell. The driver quickly pulled over
Our guide
Gavon our guide looking over the glacier and smoke started pouring out from the toilet at the back. Everyone jumped off and went and sat on the grass by the side of the road. Jason, the driver then went back on the bus to see what it was. The turbo on the engine had got so hot it had burnt through the floor of the toilet, which it was below, and the toilet floor had caught fire. We helped Jason try and put it out by going and getting water from the river. We went through two fire extinguishers which did nothing before just using a water bottle to spray into the hot engine to stop it from burning anymore. Another coach stopped and picked everybody up expect Matt and I who were helping Jason until the fire brigade turned up. They went inside the bus and sprayed down the toilet! We didn't get back to Queenstown that night until 8-30. we did bump into Jason in a pub a few days later and he bought us a drink.
We then headed for Christchurch and stayed there a few days before going to beautiful Kaikoura where we did some whale watching and saw three sperm whales!
Ice climbing
This was done when our guide wasn't watching or I would have got told off..! Then it was back to Christchurch where we went to watch fireworks at Brighton Pier on Nov 5th. before catching the plane to Melbourne.
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Simon Harrison The King
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Wotcha Woolley
Hey Mammoth! It's cool seeing you at the very places I stood not 6 months ago. Nice to see you're having somewhat better weather too... Milford p*ssed it down the 3 days we spent in the region! I trust you will be doing a skydive somewhere? I can thoroughly recommend 60 seconds of freefall plummetting towards the ground at 200 km/h from 15,000ft totally awesome mate !!!! Enjoy the rest of your trip. SH PS next time to you speak to Mark can you tell him to go **** himself ... and then say "Mince Pies." Thanks very much!