Our World Wide Adventures: May 2005

South Island - New Zealand

Christchurch - We were able to hire a car for only NZ$20 a day for 38 days to get us to Auckland. We are really happy with this. It is REALLY COLD!!! So we have had to buy beanies to keep our heads warm, gloves, an extra layer and more socks! Three nights in Christchurch practially planning how we were getting around and how we were moving on. Did the tourist tram around the centre of the city, and went to the Museum, but that was about it. Lake Tekapo - south west and inland. Apparently the small stone church (of the Good Sheppard) is the most photographed, with the amazing snow capped peaks in the background over the lake. Fantastic scenery. Went for a 4 hour walk. Stayed one night. Picked up our first backpacker hitch hikers (the girl had done it all throughout the north island - imagine the money she is saving). Dunedin - one night in dodgy hostel. Saw the steepest street in the world and did a walk to the top of Mt. Cargill, with views of the town and sea. One night in a pub in Riverton (past Invergarill) - as we didn't want to stay in a big town ie. 50,000 people - so we stayed in a town with 1750 people. One night in Milford Sound (west coast). We went on a cruise on the sound and went into an underwater observatory (which was only 9 mtrs under the water, but has conditions to see coral and wildlife that normally sit at 100 mtrs under the water, such as black and red coral. Two nights in Te Anau (which we had to drive through to get to Milford Sound). Went on a Glow worm caves tour (which was OK). Our accommodation was great. Open log fire, pool table. Queenstown - for 3 nights. The place of wild activities!! Went up the Skyline Gondola (supposedly the steepest in the southern hemisphere), for a great view over the town and mountains. Up here is an activity called Luging. Kind of like sledging, but on concrete, and you control how fast or slow you go. Good fun. Ian and I did a Canyon Swing. I actually went along as an observer, and then at the last minute changed my mind. Kind of like a bungy jump. 110 metres from the river. A 60 metre freefall (I was sooooooo scared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and a 200m swing (arc). You can chose which way you want to jump off, i.e. forwards, backwards, backwards sitting on a chair. Ian went off backwards and up side down (with his head and arms facing the ground, and his legs wrapped around the rope straight up). I chose to go off fall off backwards so I didn't have to see the ground, or have to jump / step off. I was fine until I got to the edge and then I nearly cried. In hindsight - kind of glad I did it, can't really say I enjoyed it, and still get an anxious feeling in my stomach talking to people about it. Ian dived off the highest Bungy in NZ - 134 metre Bungy!!! (I observed). Also went on a fast jet boat along a thin river in a gorge, which was not scary in the least, for us anyway (it just made me laugh, when some others were screaming). An hour north to Wanaka and stayed for 3 nights. We had a great drive to Mt Aspiring National Park and did a walk to see a glacier. Cold. On the roads there and back there were heaps of cows and sheep, and it's abit funny to say, but they all looked really clean and healthy. Well, the meat in NZ is lean and yummy. Wanaka is home to Puzzle World, so Ian amused himself inside trying to complete hard puzzles, and I ran around the outdoor maze finding the four corners, and then having trouble trying to get out. Loads of fun for the whole family! Frans Joseph was next (on the west coast), where we went on a full day glacier walk. This was absolutely brilliant. Walking through ice caves, squeezing through tiny crevices, (getting wetter than anticipated), up and down man made steps, and at times having to hold onto ropes for safety. Absolutely exhausted by the end of it, and my body was sore for 3 days. Arthur's Pass, high up, in the middle of the west and east coasts, was a perfect place to rest our weary bones and do nothing for a couple of nights. If I was up to some walking (which I wasn't), there are some great ones in this area. The backpackers here was amazing. Old school cottages, each one with 2 double rooms and a couple with bunk beds. Log fire, great kitchen, music, games and loads of magazines to keep you amused, whilst doing nothing. I get excited too when our accommodation has an oven, so our meal consisted of roast pumpkin and potatoes, with our steak. I must say that we do eat extremely well (for those who think backpacking is all about junk food and crappy accommodation!!!). Having the car is great for big supermarket shops, so all we do is open the boot of the car and we have bags of food, veg, beer cartons and bottles of wine. Nice!! A night in Punakaike (back on the west coast) to see Pancake Rocks - this night we cooked fish and veg. (I think you get the idea now - so I will stop going on about it - apart from the fact that in most hostels we have an ensuite with our double room - no bunk beds for us!). Nelson was our base to prepare for the Abel Tasman walk, and our first overnight "tramping" experience. We walked approx. 25 kms over 2 days and stayed the night in a hut. Basic - mattresses on the floor, no electricity, actually had heating in the kitchen, and no cooking facilities. We had hired a cooker and thought we'd try out the camping dehydrated food - roast lamb, veg and mash, just add hot water - it was beautiful. We didn't have plates so we used our pitta bread (more hardy than carrying a loaf of bread) as plates - which of course we could then eat! We also had to hire sleeping bags, which was the biggest ones you have ever seen. Great sight strapped to my small day bag with my clothes line! Highly recommended, we then stayed in Renwick (Malborough Wine Country), rented a push bike and road around the wineries. Only went to 4 out of the planned 5, due to not needing to drink any more, and it possibly getting dangerous on the roads. Brilliant day! Shared soup and shrimp toast with a glass of wine at our favourite winery - Clifford Bay (really recommend you to try!!!!), as an entree to lunch, and then had the biggest platter of food and a bottle of wine at the Mudhouse Winery (also very nice) - mussels, large piece of salmon, cheese, pate and salad. The same English couple we met in Nelson also highly recommended walking "tramping" the Queen Charlotte Track (71kms) near Picton. So we changed our plans to do this and the wineries. It takes 4 nights and 5 days, but we didn't want to spend so much time, so we organised a 2 night, 3 day trip, with a couple of taxi boat transfers to cut out about 14 kms of the walk, and this also meant that we could stay in a couple of backpackers that were the nicest places. So we walked about 58 kms, and had our luggage picked up and dropped off each day so you don't have to carry any large packs - just our day bags with our lunch and waterproofs. Each night it poured with rain and thankfully stopped for us to walk during the day. The tracks were very muddy though, and made it slow and sometimes slippery. Ian and I both agree that we couldn't have done 5 days of walking - as we were over it! But it would have been really good to spend a couple of nights at each place. We are catching the ferry (with our car) to Wellington late tonight, so our South Island adventure is over. Bring on the North Island. Unfortunately we only have 2 weeks to explore it. We have an extra week after this catching up with two couples that we know in Auckland .