The drive from Milford Sound in the far south west to Kaikoura in the north east winds entirely across the island is a 14 hour epic. To break things up a bit we spent a night in the small town Twizel (fo shizzle bizzle!), the residents pronounce it Twy-zel but we didn’t let that limit our Snoop Dogg impressions. As well as having a great name, Twizel is also only a stones through from Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain. Unlike the high peaks we’ve seen in the Himalayas and the Alps, Mount Cook is surrounded by a lot of flat land and lakes so you can get some great views without much effort (something we were both pleased to hear). We drove to the basecamp and walked to a glacial lake just at the bottom before burning on towards Kaikoura, for our much anticipated seal swim.
Decked out in super-thick, hooded wet suits we could barely breath due to the heat, let alone hike 20 mins to the seal colony. Getting in the icy cold water felt amazing for about half a second and then we were wishing our suits were twice as thick. With snorkeling gear and fins we swam out to were the seals were basking on the rocks and suddenly they were swimming around us, upside down, doing twists and loops. Occasionally they would swim really close to our faces and stare at us with their massive black eyes. After the initial amazement we started chasing them around until they led us too far out to sea to continue. Our guide found some Paua and cooked it up for us to try later that day. The locals call it black gold because it’s so expensive per kilo. We thought it tasted a bit too much like fishy mushroom to get overly excited by it.
After over 5100kms on the road, almost as far as London to New York, we finally arrived in Christchurch, our last destination in New Zealand. Noted as being more like England than England itself it was good to get a taste of home. With punting on the Avon river, lots of old buildings and parks we spent a day mouching around getting ready for our trip back to Oz for the outback adventure. When heavy rain on the window woke us up we’d decided that Christchurch was a little too much like home and felt a bit better about leaving such a great country.
Queenstown is well renowned in New Zealand for its plethora of adventures for adrenaline junkies. On our way there we made a toilet pit-stop at the site of the first commercial bungy jump operator, A.J.Hackett. Seeing how terrified their punters look we probably could have picked a better place to stop for the loo. We took a walk onto the brigde and peered over but a lack of cash and guts prevented us from taking the plunge ourselves. After what seemed a mammoth drive we finally arrived in Queenstown only to immediately leave. In contrast to the quiet, empty spaces we’d seen everywhere else in New Zealand, Queenstown was totally congested and too much for Helen to bear (must be her age!). So off we went to nearby village of Arrowtown; originally a gold mining settlement. This brought us straight back to the New Zealand we’d become accustomed too. Autumn colours had just arrived so we made the most of the scenary, tramping it up big time. Check out the super-bumpkin campervan we spotted! Perhaps we’ll get one of those for our second honeymoon.
Just a bit to the west of Arrowtown, but another big drive due to some ill-placed mountains are glacier carved fjords of Milford Sound. We took the obligatory cruise and it certainly didn’t disappoint as you can see from the snaps. There is so much beautiful scenery here we’re not sure how Mount Judd will compare when we’re back home.
We reluctantly tore ourselves away from Nelson lakes to travel onto the west coast, home of the pancake rocks! The rocks are eroded by the elements leaving them looking kind of like a stack of pancakes, or so the locals say. Though impressive we got more excited seeing our first live possum (we’ve countless dead on the road). They’re considered vermin here so we got some odd looks from an Aussie family when we knelt down to take a photo.
If you look closely at the first photograph below you might just make out some seals hiding at the bottom. There was quite a large colony near to ‘possum’ rocks and it was cool to watch them in the wild, no ball balancing tricks here.
With a long drive ahead of us to Queenstown we paid a visit to Franz Josef and Fox glaciers on the way. We didn’t see any polar bears at Fox glacier so presume they don’t make the mints here. We did see two enormous glaciers however that are still advancing in size, pretty rare these days. To appreciate their vastness fully companies offered helicopter rides along the glaciers. Our budget however only stretched to the free walking tour, ending around 100 metres from the face. Not that we’d want to venture too nearer, two Aussies were killed by falling ice last month trying to take close-up pictures!
After almost a fortnight of sitting in the car we decided it was time to get some exercise and have a stab at part of the Abel Tasman tramp. Please put all thoughts of Bumfights aside, a tramp in New Zealand is long hike, usually over a few days. By taking a one-way speedboat out along the track we gave ourselves no choice but to walk all the way back to lodge. Not that we needed any encouragement to keep going, the scenery was awesome. With virtually no other trampers in sight it felt like we had the place to ourselves as we explored deserted beaches. With aching feet we finished the 18km stretch and continued south to the Nelson lakes for some serious R&R. While a small ski resort in the winter for the rest of the year this place is about as peaceful as it gets. The scenery was so beautiful we even put back on our walking shoes for a quick stroll despite the previous day’s efforts. Neither of us wanted to leave, but after only just beginning our south island trip the draw back to the road was stronger.
We arrived in New Zealand’s capital city to find it had a far more bohemian feel than Auckland. With little planned to do we wandered around the streets getting to know the place when we bumped into Jermaine from the amazing Flight of the Conchords. After seeing Kenny at a shop in Melbourne we have decided it must be our fate to meet all local celebrities on our trip, although as before we were too cool/scared to introduce ourselves so no pictures I’m afraid.
Wellington is a LOTR nerd’s paradise; even my hairdresser was giving me tips on where to go to see locations used in the films. Instead of following in the footsteps of young Frodo we contended ourselves with a visit to the Weta Workshop where all of the film’s special effects were created. At least here we posed with a few local celebrities and got to see some great props from Peter Jackson’s archive of films, all the way back to the legendary Bad Taste. A visit to the great Te Papa (New Zealand’s natural history museum) finished off our stay and our time in the North island. The Interislander ferry smoothly sailed us across the Tasman sea and over to Picton in the south. The scenery between the two islands was amazing as were the pods of dolphins that swam along with us from time to time.
Rotorua or “Sulphur City” lived up to its name with a distinct eggy smell wherever we went. With the most thermal activity in the north island the ground bubbles with mud pools, spurting geysers and lakes full of the most exquisite colours. It was fascinating to walk around but the stench was particularly overpowering despite the colds we both had. Vaughan, one of Mark’s work colleague from his Sendo days met up with us for a curry in the evening and it was lovely to see a familiar face when we so far away from home.
We left Rotorua for an ambitious drive around the East Cape which contains New Zealand’s highest proportion of Maori. It was a long and winding road but offered spectacular views and a much more rugged coastline than further north, full of bleached and contorted driftwood. We stayed the night at Tokomaru Bay a particularly stunning beach and got to sleep in our own little Bach; Kiwi’s term for a beach hut. This was part of a hostel, but as the only guests we we had the run of the place and hung out with owner Sean and his Bullmastiff Butch.
We expected this landscape to resemble Lord of the Rings, not Lord of the Flies, so sharing a tea break with a rotting pig’s head and skin was quite unexpected. Moving swiftly on we arrived in Napier; a city destroyed by a 1932 earthquake and rebuilt in the style of Art Deco. The buildings were in great shape and a walking tour and historical video has turned us both into Deco nerds, spotting speed lines, zigzags and sunbursts from a mile off.
After a brief stop at Goat island for more snorkeling and another over-nighter at George and Rosie’s place we headed East towards Whitianga at the end of the Thames to Corramandel scenic drive. Cars crawl around this section of road because everyone is staring gobsmacked at the amazing views. Stopping off for a walk to Cathedral Cove we ended our day on hot water beach, an unusual stretch of sand sitting on top of a thermal spring. At low tide we turned up and helped dig a pool which filled with warm, to boiling hot water. As you can see from the photos some spots were far hotter than others!
Ahoy mateys! The first destination on our four week tour of New Zealand was to the bay of islands in Northland. Due to Helen’s notoriously wobbly sea-legs we almost didn’t make it up here since sailing is the reason to visit, but after finding a sturdy vessel and some local home-brew sea sickness tablets we set sail on the good ship ‘Straycat’. With only four guests on board a boat big enough for twenty we the run of the ship and plenty of opportunities to help out our skipper Karl with the business of sailing. Cutting a path around the islands, Karl recounted historical stories as we cruised past locations Captain Cook once visited on his voyage of discovery. The scenery was beautiful and when the sun shone it was fine day to be on a boat, even for Helen who was singing the praises of her new wonder drugs.
On our way back down to Auckland Helen insisted we pay a visit to the Hundert-Wasser toilets in Kawakawa. Though I tend not to post most of the photos I take in public toilets on this blog, I think an exception can be made in this case. We left talking about how we could replicate it when we finally get back home. As we continued southward we saw a breed of sheep quite unlike any we’d observed back in England. We knew New Zealand was famous for Lamb, we’ll have to keep our eyes open for their special pink wool.
Touching down in Auckland we were picked up from the airport by George and Rosie, friends we met way back in Vietnam on our Halong Bay boat trip. They’d kindly invited us to stay for a few days and show us around so of course we gratefully accepted. Like a home from home, Rosie cooked us dinners and baked cakes and biscuits while we grilled George on which of New Zealand’s sights we mustn’t miss. In between all the planning we got chance to visit the Pacifika Festival, attended by the major Pacific island countries, each hosting stages and stalls. Watching ass-shaking dancers and sampling regional delicacies it almost felt like we were back in Fiji. We had such a great time staying with George and Rosie we both felt a bit sad to be heading off. Nevertheless, getting behind the wheel our hire car and setting off to explore the rest of the country felt like our adventure was starting again. It also helped that we’d arranged to stay another night in Auckland for another chance for some good old home cooking. They must have thought we’d never leave!
