Dolphins and a very brave Jojo (and lots of bubbles!)

Hello all, thanks again for all the comments on the last blog, sorry it's taken so long to write another one of these but you know how it is, we're having far too much fun to sit in an internet cafe for a few hours.

I can't even think of all the things I want to say we seem to have crammed so much into the last couple of weeks.

One thing Jo did mention the other day to me is that she seems to be scared all the time and that every day she has another thing to be afraid off.  Recently that includes sea kayaking in the ferry lane, crossing numerous wire bridges, walking along a 20cm wide ridgeline with a 200m drop either side, walking up an underground river with very little space, potentially getting in the water with a killer whale, taking a helicopter through the mountain passes and most terrifying of all getting her palm read.

suffice to say Jo has all of these challenges with remarkable fortitude and even enjoyed them all (possibly apart form the caving).

I think that the last time I wrote we were heading south to see a petrified forest (not scared just preserved in stone.) We also managed to visit the next bay famous for a small pod of Hectors dolphins that live there and swim in the surf.  We got there in the bright sunshine and after looking around decided to take a dip.  There were 2 or 3 other swimmers in the water but they were only in up to their waists not 25 yards further out where the dolphins were.  I put my foot in the water and my leg started to shake involuntarily, by the time I was knee deep my body was blue and by the time I got in up to my waist my feet had developed a nasty case of frostbite.  I boldly went where no man had gone before and got out into the surf.  It was pretty fantastic.  I could only breathe for a couple of minutes before i got out but the dolphins came within a foot or so of me and I could hear them "squeaking at me".  On the way back in I body surfed surfed the wave and there were 2 either side of me. It was pretty amazing.

Within a matter of days I had thawed out and we made our way further north to walk around lake Wanaka where it was even warm enough for us to swim quite conformably on a deserted beach or two.

During this time we stopped to get our palms read, well Jo did. The guy sounded earnest enough and pretty greasy and unwashed so I said OK and I'd give it a go too.  Jo has been worried ever since that she is going to leave me when she is 35 and find true happiness when she is 40.  I on the other hand am going to live to 90 years old and have a dislike of people with psychological problems...... like this nutter then!

We carried on up to the Fox and Franz-Josef glaciers where we took a helicopter flight - Jo called this compulsory and the best thing she has done since we left home so I'll let her explain.

From there we went up to the Abel tasman national Park to explore it with an old friend of mine Josephine (Ann and Oats' daughter for those in Kenya).  Although far more experienced than us in terms of overnight walking and camping we persuaded Josephine that we would be able to Kayak and walk the 3-5day track in only 2 days.  If all had gone exactly as planned we would be cutting it a little fine.  We should have been ok however the people we hired our kayaks from insisted that we take a competency test before we got going. We listened to a massive safety briefing and then farted around for half an hour. Next he subjected us and an israeli couple who couldn't understand a word of english to three different tests - essentially could we go, stop and turn.  It turns out we could manage but the Israeli couple who couldn't understand what they were meant to do kept steering into Jo and the instructor and were made to repeat everything.

I finally lost my patience and suggested that he let us go which he obligingly did.  by this time though it was 10.30 and the plan was that we would be well underway by 9, do our 5 hours kayaking then get another 5 hours walking out of the way allowing us to be safely in camp by 7 or so. It was important to make good time otherwise we wouldn't be across some of the beaches by the time the tide came in.

Unfortunately Josephine realised that she hadn't got her boots in the kayak with her so ran back across the beach, mud flats, through the town and up to our van in order to get them (all in her Buoyancy aid and kayaking skirt). That didn't take too long but when we got going it was 11 o'clock.  by 1pm we had caught up an hour on our plans but didn't have time to get the kayaks to the next drop off point by the time they needed picking up. (it was complicated but trust me)

Our walk had now turned into a 7 hour walk or as we discovered 8 1/2hours when we turned up to the first flooded beach.  In addition to this we forgot to bring the map with us!  We stopped once for about 2 minutes in the following 6 hours and made it as the sun was setting but it was a bit of a route march.  We've made a bit of a mental note to ourselves not to drink so much wine the night before we do these things - I'll keep you posted on how it's going

The following day was beautiful with gorgeous beaches etc etc lovely walk and we made it to the end in time for tea and medals.

We then gave Josephine a lift back down to her brothers in Christchurch stopping to take in the thermal springs at Hamner and to do a whale trip at Kaikoura.  At sea we saw some huge Sperm whales with very big tails which were surprisingly graceful.  On the way back to shore we went through a pod of 300+ dusky dolphins which persuaded us to come back this way in the hope that we could swim with them. 

The whale  guide told us that a couple of days before there had been a small pod of Orca (killer whales) in the area and that their boat had been full of a class of 10 year olds.  The orcas attacked the dolphins throwing them around and ripping them in half.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house!

We dropped Josephine off and headed up to Arthur's pass to do some more walking.  Oats had recommended a couple of walks and we chose one called Avalanche peak. It wasn't as bad as the walks he used to take us on as kids and it was pretty exciting half the way up wasn't so much walking as climbing and the top was a walk along a ridge made of slate that kept crumbling and breaking off every time you grabbed it.  At the top though there were 3 Kea birds that wouldn't leave us alone - it made for some pretty spectacular photos that I can bore anyone who is interested with when we get home.

On the way back we stopped at this caving site that had been recommended to us.  You parked by the side of the road and walked down the hill following a river until it disappeared, then we kept following it.  Jo was a little unnerved at the prospect of going into such a small space that was half filled with water but gave it a go.  It was quite wierd really thinking that you had an entire hill above you but also slightly reassuring that it was natural and not man made as a coal mine is.  The water varied between ankle and waist deep and involved a lot of scrambles up small waterfalls and over or under fallen pieces of roof.  Our torches were inadequate but it was great fun even if Jo swears that she is never going in another cave as long as she lives.  I'd recommend it to everyone coming to NZ.

We then went back to Christchurch where Tom bet me $50 a game at table football.  We went up to his firestation and I did my best to fill my wallet.

We sadly left the Banks peninsular a couple of days later on a mission to swim with dolphins in slightly warmer water.  Our plans backfired a little as at Kaikourra they explained there was a week long queue before we could.  it's incredibly tightly controlled and only 12 people are allowed out each day, you also can't go in if there are any young around or they are feeding. luckily the tourist information knew of one other place you can do it which is up north (even warmer water) in the Malborough sounds.  They even had a cancelation for the following day so we hightailed it up here.

This time we were with Bottlenose dolphins in a pod of about 50.  The boat dropped us off with masks and snorkels (and wetsuits) infront of the pod once the young ones had gone past and if they were interested they would stop and if not we could get to see them as they swum past.  Unfortunately they were on a bit of a mission and didn't stop but we did the drop 4 or 5 times and we saw quite a few swimming past. That was very special.

Yesterday we did a wine tour around Blenheim on bikes and thanks to Kat and John we had a tour around one of the vineyards.  Banhams, wine, enough said.

Today we are recovering and spending a day on the internet and that pretty much catches you up other than my annoying propensity to get injured. 

Now I'm fairly big and the van is pretty small - I can't even stand up so unsurprisingly I'm getting very fed up banging my head.  Even so I keep getting some pretty random injuries.  The other day I was driving along and I wound down the window.  I tried to bring my hand up to the steering wheel and I found I couldn't, somehow my hand had got caught in the window winder.  Luckily there are only 7 cars in the south Island so I had plenty of time to stop and wrench it out.  3 weeks ago I flushed the toilet and managed to bend my thumb right back, It's still swollen.  Yesterday I put my hand in my pocket and a bee stung me where my nail joins my finger.  What the bee was doing there I have no Idea!

love to all - I'm off to find more things that'll scare Jojo

Rupert

Jo's turn:

Hello all,

Phew - that's a mammoth entry! On the off chance you guys have more important things to do than read our emails I'll try to keep this brief!

The last few weeks have been manic, we don't seem to have stopped exploring this amazing country. Rups has already taken you through some of the highlights, but here are mine....

It's true that most days I seem to find myself doing something that either scares me, gets me wet, makes me cold, gives me blisters or leaves me shattered, but there you go - I'm still giving everythign a go and I won't be leaving NZ without trying! The only plus side though is that all this activity gives me the excuse to indulge in Cadburys dairy milk (mmmm....) although I'm not convinced the amount I'm consuming is justified.

The palm reading was a very interesting experience. Aside from the numerous other depressing things he told me, apparently as I get older I am going to become a hysterical depressive - something to look forward to then!

Incase any of you were wondering what I was doing while Rupert was having his 'flipper moment' surfing with the Hectors dolphins, I was jumping from foot to foot trying in vain trying to get into the freezing water!The same happened at the deserted beach we found in Wanaka. We thought the water would in fact be warmer than in the South and as we hadn't taken our swimmers we thought it would be OK to do a spot of skinny dipping. The water was again freezing, so again I didn't make it in and took up naked paddling instead.

I did however rectify all this when we swam with dolphins last Tuesday, it was incredible and also very funny. Apparently to attract the dolphins attention you have to sing through your snorkel - just imagine 10 wetsuited swimmers in a pod of 50 dolphins singing popular tunes from 'we wish you a merry christmas', to the theme tune to the Sopranos, to (my own creation) 'Shoes, glorious Shoes' (it's amazing what pops into your head while swimming next to a 4 meter mammal).

This brings me nicely onto another major highlight; New Zealands Number 1 Shoe Warehouse. Last weekend Alex, Ann and I had the bright idea of sending the boys up a mountain and going shopping! Armed with my plastic we hit the shoe shops and 4 purchases later I managed to sedate the urge for shoes that has been building up over the last 3 months. It was heaven.

An absolute must for anyone visiting New Zealand has to be the helicopter tour up the Fox and Frans-Joseph glaciers (thanks Ann and Ray). Flying over these huge seas of ice and cravasses is incredible - the size and colour from the air awesome. We were lucky enough to be on a tour that landed on the top of the glaciers allowing you to walk across them - Rups was disappointed he'd not brought his snowboard and had to make do with a quick snowball fight.

Due to the weather conditions we had to wait at the Fox glacier for a day or so until the helicopters were able to take off. This allowed us to explore the very small town of Fox. We were adopted by some of the locals (mainly tour guides) for a night on 'the town'. They seemed to be fascinated with us which we couldn't understand until we found out that the majority of them had never left the South Island, let alone the New Zealand. One had once visited Christchurch (the biggest town in the South Island) and had to leave early as the size 'did his head in'.

Given I've not ridden a bike in many years we decided to test the theory that 'you never forget'. To add to this challenge we decided that if we were going to be cycling we'd better do it in style and take ourselves off on a wine tour (again - thanks Kat and John for setting us up with some fantastic wines!). Cycling from winery to winery tasting wine (and of course plenty of the bubbly stuff!) and getting slowly drunker - fantastic. As for the biking, well I had my moments much to Rupert amusement, but I made it across the whole region in one piece despite being several bottles of wine heavier. Quite an achievement!

Looking back at this entry I don't think I've done well in keeping it short, and I haven't even mentioned chilling out in the thermal pools, or the recent 'domestic goddess' incident which involved my accidentally cooking enough rice to feed an army (much to Bee and Ruperts amusement).

We've now only got a few days left in the South Island before we move North and hopefully hook up with some more familiar faces. This weekend we're embarking on a three day walk - the Queen Charlotte, this may sound tame at the moment but I've no doubt at some point it'll be petrifying!

Love to all

Jo