New Zealand - The South Island

Day 89 - 91 - Christchurch

Christchurch is described by many as quite an "English" city. To quote someone who shall remain nameless, "even the chip fat smells English" It certainly did feel like home when we stepped off the plane at 10.30pm as the temperature was about 5 degrees. A few people on our flight were frantically searching for some warmer clothing to supplement their shorts, T-shirts and  flip-flops (known as "jandals" in NZ and "thongs" in Oz). We were thankfully better prepared.

We spent 3 days in Christchurch, staying at a nice place called Stonehurst, which was central, comfortable and well equipped, if a touch on the pricey side for NZ. We spent a day exploring the city on foot and took a kayak along the River Avon (!) which flows around the botanical gardens at Hagley Park. The scenic river journey will forever be remembered as the place where Naomi was savagely attacked by a wild animal. After all of her concerns over the sharks, rhinos and lions of S. Africa and the spiders, snakes and sharks etc. etc. etc. of Australia, the purpetrator of this savage attack was.......a duck! I guess we got to close to a group of baby ducklings and mummy/daddy took pre-emptive action. You'll be glad to hear that amputation of the finger fortunately wasn't necessary and that all visible signs of the attack disappeared after about 30 seconds. We have now added ducks to the list of animals to be avoided.

Whilst in Christchurch we picked up our hire car, a Toyota Corolla automatic, and took a trip down the coast to the Banks Peninsula and the lovely little coastal town of Akaroa. Stunning scenery on the way as we passed through mountains and we saw dolphins swimming off the end of the pier. I felt sorry for the boat trip operators who were trying to get people to pay to go out and see them! Baking hot day - must have been near 30 degrees.

While in Christchurch we bumped into friends of mine from school, Luke, Neil and Sion who were also staying in our hostel. It makes you wonder how often you just miss bumping into people you know. Anyway, we went out for a few drinks with them and reacquainted ourselves with the term hangover (albeit mild) which was nice.

Days 92 - 94 - Greymouth

From Christchurch we headed across the really scenic road through Arthur's Pass to the West Coast of the South Island. Amazing scenery at every turn until we got to Arthur's Pass itself and then the rain and fog brought visibility down to about 20 metres so hopefully we didn't miss too much. 

A quick word about the roadkill. In some areas you will see a dead possom on the road almost every 100 metres. I felt quite bad for them until I learned that they were introduced from Australia and now number about 70 million in New Zealand and are threatening the survival of lots of native NZ creatures (including the kiwi bird).  Save a kiwi, eat a possum.

Our next stop was the town of Greymouth which can only be described as um... Grey! The town was also matched by the weather. We stayed at a cracking hostel called Global Village which everyone should be made to go and stay at before being allowed to open a hostel. The free fresh-baked chocolate muffins before bedtime were the icing on the cake (so to speak).

Whilst in Greymouth we did a caving trip with Wild West Adventures, which was good fun. It basically involved climbing down (and back up) a steep underground river into the depths of a cave and then floating along the bottom section in the dark in a rubber ring, watching the glow worms. It was a bit tougher than we both expected, although Naomi quite enjoyed being the one calming down someone else in the group who got a bit spooked after getting a bit stuck in one of the tighter sections of the cave.

The following day I did a heli-rafting trip with Eco-tours on the Hokitika River. I was doing well at persuading Naomi to come with me until I got to the bit about the helicopter, then it was Game Over. As it turned out, the helicopter trip was probably the best bit as the company had found the smallest helicopter on the planet to take us all up to the top of the river. It was just possible to squeeze two people at a time in the front with the pilot. I persuaded the pilot to do some tricks en-route (he didn't need much persuading)and he obliged with a white-knuckle flight up the canyon which ended in a helicopter version of a loop-the-loop (well, almost). The rafting itself was really good fun too, mainly Grade 3 and 4 rapids, so not too dangerous. Wearing a full length wetsuit, boots and a helmet, only my hands were exposed, but I later discovered about 10 sandfly bites on each. Ten days later I still look as if I'm recovering from Smallpox!

Day 95 - The Glaciers

After leaving Greymouth with a $150 fine in my pocket for failing to stop at a Stop sign (don't get me started - I must have been going at least 2 miles an hour turning left at the quietest junction in NZ with full visibility in both directions - yep, still mad about it) we headed down the West Coast towards the glaciers of Franz Josef and Fox. We stopped at both to take photos and go for a walk up to the face of the glacier, although we decided not to pay extra to walk on them. It was shocking to see the amount that they had both retreated back into the mountains since 1750.

We also went for a walk around the mirror lake of Lake Matheson where we could see the reflections of the surrounding snow capped mountains. Nice, although to be honest I was still in a foul mood about the fine!

We drove on to Lake Wanaka, a popular town which threatened to see us sleeping in the car after we had foolishly hoped to turn up and take the pick of the hostels on offer. Every bed was full, but we eventually (at about 9pm) found a motel with a spare room. With Sky TV! Hoorah! (although I did have to watch England get hammered by Australia AGAIN in the 20/20 cricket match. On the plus side I have almost now become immune to the disappointment to watching us lose to the Aussies).

Days 96 to 98 - Queenstown

We drove on down to Queenstown, stopping en route in the rain to visit Puzzling World (a maze and illusion-room type place), narrowly missing out on being their 2 millionth customer (by about 10 minutes).

In Queenstown we stayed at Scallywags, a hostel at the top of town with possibly the best view of Queenstown possible. We really enjoyed it there. We resisted the temptation to do a bungy jump, canyon swing, hang-glide or white water raft, on my part because I'd done them before and on Naomi's part because apparently they were just not challenging enough.

However, we did walk up to the top of the mountain (which we both found embarrassingly difficult - yes we will be renewing gym memberships on our return) and had several goes on the luge - which involved racing a little cart-type thing down a steep track. Naomi was actually overtaken by a granny pushing a shopping trolley on her first run, but was getting a bit speedier by the final run. We also satisfied our CRAZY side with some crazy golf, which as you can imagine was pretty wild!

Day 98 - Milford Sound

We took the long drive aroud to Milford Sound to do a boat cruise of the fjord. The scenery on the way was probably the most dramatic of our time here so far. Real Lord of the Rings country - Steep snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, crystal clear lakes and royal blue sea. The weather improved during the day and was sunny by the time our 2.5 hour trip had ended. We saw plenty of seals and a pod of dusky dolphins swam alongside the boat for part of the journey. We stayed at Lakeview Motor Inn at Lake Manapouri, which had possibly the grottiest, most fly-infested  kitchen of any place we've stayed at. Although the view over the lake from the room was spectacular and the rooms were OK, it got a big thumbs-down from both of us, especially as it was twice the price of some of the nice hostels we've stayed at. 

Days 99-101 - Dunedin

We decided to skip out the very bottom bit of NZ, including Invercargill, once famously described by Mick Jagger as the ars*hole of the world (they haven't invited him back) and took a more direct route over to Dunedin through farming country. I am currently wondering if any of New Zealand is not farming country. There are certainly lots of sheep, which are probably only outnumbered by the possums (and rabbits, which are becoming a major player in our roadkill spotting competition).

Dunedin itself is quite a pleasant city and certainly gets bonus points for having a Cadbury's Chocolate Factory, which we took a tour around and the world's steepest street (as recognised by Guinness), Baldwin Street, which we walk/climbed up. We can officially confirm that yes, it is steep.  It is also on the border of the Otago Peninsula which has a great coastal road and has some good spots for seeing albatross (we think we may have spotted some sat on the cliff), seals (we definitely saw some of them) and yellow-eyed penguins (we decided against paying extra to see them).

We also had a look around New Zealand's only castle, Larnoch Castle, built in the 1860's by Mr Larnoch, a banker turned politician who went on to have 3 wives, (one of whom was his sister-in-law), before shooting himself in the New Zealand Parliament. His son later shot himself too.  Anyone for Happy Families?    We stayed at Elm Lodge Too, which kind of resembled a student house, but we made the most of the DVD player in the room and the dreary weather and watched all three Lord of the Rings films within a couple of days (for research purposes obviously).

Day 102 - Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook

From Dunedin we went back inland and north to see NZ's highest mountain, Mount Cook (3700m I think). Still covered in snow in the middle of summer it was a fantastic sight, particularly as it is near to the most amazingly coloured jade-green lake we have ever seen. We stayed at a nice hostel called Tailor-Made Tekapo Backpackers near to Lake Tekapo. Really peaceful place, apart from the young German children trying to kill each other in the garden!

Day 103 - Back in Christchurch

On the way up north it made sense to break up the journey by stopping off at Christchurch again. Times are getting tough and we're trying to tighten our belts a bit by cooking all of our own food rather than eating out (which I don't think we've done since we've been in NZ - more pasta anyone?). To save a bit more we actually spent last night in a prison. Yes, a hostel called Jailhouse, which was used as a prison until 1999. It has been renovated, but it is still very much looks (and smells) like a prison. We slept soundly in our cell and fortunately were let out this morning. 

We hope to see some whales in Kaikoura tomorrow. Fingers crossed.