Queenie - Wellington

The route up the east coast took us via Christchurch and Kaikoura. While we were in Christchurch we were lined up to stay with Kristina Barker - a friend of Tracy's from the old MSc course at the college.

Before we left Queenstown we tried another high-energy (but cheaper than most others) activity - we found they had a luge track! Check out the video below...



OK so it's mostly just a shot of my foot for most of the track, but it was difficult to steer and hold the phone upright all the time.

Anyway, we left Queenstown with a much better opinion of it than before we arrived. We thought it would just be a mental, expensive, busy place, but I reckon it still keeps itself respectable at the same time. Maybe a summer visit would be different?

We left Queenstown (eventually - the Stray bus had to come back for us as they forgot we were staying somewhere other than their recommended hostel) and set off up the east coast towards Christchurch. We'd decided to spend a few days in Christchurch (or Ch-ch as it's known) with Kristina Barker. I'd not really dealt with Kristina on the DMI or MSc course, but of course Tracy had been pretty much in day to day contact during the course of her job. When we met Kristina after we left the bus I knew it would be a great two days - she was so nice and welcoming and had arranged a couple of days off from working so she could show us around. Our first stop was at a coffee shop - it was getting better and better :-)

Over the next few days we went had a look around the arts scene in CHC, but the highlight was dolphin spotting. We went after the smallest dolphin in the world - Hector's dolphin - at Akaroa. We could either try to swim with them or just go out on the boat to look for them. We decided that it was too cold to try the swimming, but when we got there we found that there were indeed people crazy enough to try it. We spent a few hours on the water looking at the little blighters - and very cute they are too. Unfortunately, the dolphins were too intent of feeding to show any interest in our swimmers, so they spent what must have been a frigid few minutes in the water being ignored by dolphins. We patted ourselves on the back for a wise decision, well made.


Unfortunately, our luck ran out when we got to Kaikoura. We left Kristina at the Christchurch hostel which served as our pick-up point after a (perhaps ill-advised considering we had to be up at 6am) late night chat. Our experience of Christchurch was vastly improved by hanging out with Kristina. She's one of those people that we find ourselves wanting to do more for without the ability to do so... One day I'm sure :-) Anyway, we got to Kaikoura and booked ourselves a whale watching trip to go and see the whales that we were told teemed just off shore due to an abundance of food. Unfortunately for us, a combination of the whales being further out than expected and rough offshore weather meant that our trip was canceled and our window of opportunity gone.

So now we're back in Wellington after an uneventful trip back. We're hoping to do the Tongariro crossing on the way back, but we'll see I guess. I'll keep you posted - watch this space!

Southern Loop (& back to Queenie)

I feel I have to stand up for myself somewhat here - I find leaping off a 60 foot platform to be completely mental, no matter how many safety ropes you have attached. I'd much rather jump off a bridge with NO safety devices attached. More later...

My day snowboarding was awesome! Starting off from square one, I ended being able to get my way down the mountain - albeit on the easy slopes and only coming off the board a few times... I would just think I was getting the hang of things before my board turned on me and sent me flying face first into the hard packed snow. All in all though it was a very exciting day and despite not throwing myself off anything too high I reckon it's not too bad on the excitement-o-meter.


Anyway, our first stop after the adrenaline capital of Queenie was the Milford Sound. Although Milford Sound is technically a fjord rather than a sound, then name has kinda stuck... Milford Sound is a beautiful area in the far south west of NZ - full of waterfalls, snow covered mountains, lush forests and glacial valleys. We took a cruise out into the fjord/sound itself and had a close-up look at all of the scenery. One of the highlights of the trip south was seeing a Kea. Keas are really cheeky little alpine parrots who love to steal things from backpacks or tents and unattended items like cutlery, nails, food - anything really.


When we got into our accommodation, we took over the DVD player to watch Tracy's Canyon Swing DVD. Fun was had by all.

The next morning we had to get up at 6am to get over to Stewart Island. The rest of our group weren't up for it, so we could make our own plans. SI is the island that sits off the south coast of NZ and is generally regarded by most New Zealanders as a pretty backwards place - similar to Australians and Tasmania... Anyway, we got a roller-coaster of a ferry over the short stretch of water and soon were standing on wee Stewart Island. The main draw (for us) of SI was the wildlife, so we soon found ourselves on a water taxi bound for the wildlife reserve of Ulva Island.

We stepped out onto a small jetty and were immediately (after the boat left that is) surrounded by the background noise of a living forest. While on the island we added the Bellbird, Grey Warbler, Kakariki and Yellow Head to our list of seen birds. We also saw more robins, kakas, fantails and wood pigeons.


That night we had a look around outside to see if we could see either a kiwi or the Southern Lights - but we were unsuccessful on both counts. The closest we got to a kiwi (the bird that is) was a road sign.


So we rejoined our group in Invercargill and we set of towards Dunedin. We stopped off in several locations to try to see various things (fur seals, petrified forest, yellow-eyed penguins) but the best we got was watching a solitary yellow-eyed penguin being stuffed into a backpack. I must quickly add though that the penguin in question did have a hurt foot and the people doing the stuffing were actually trained rangers rather than random penguin baggers.

We stayed in Dunedin just about long enough to take a tour of the local brewery and get some provisions. It's a shame really because Dunedin seems like quite a nice place generally - we just didn't have the time to stick around too long. At the end of the brewery tour we got to sample the local brew (Speight's) and take some comedy photos (which seemed much funnier after the sampling...).


We stopped by - and climbed - the world's steepest street. Not much more to say about that though...

Seeing as no-one wanted to do the bungy in Queenstown, it was suggested that instead we jump off a different bridge. I was surprised to find I was the only one up for this. Luckily Morrie, our driver, said he'd do it too. I figured that if I had to jump off a bridge in Queenstown (and everyone has to do it once) it may as well be for free. This bridge was only 10 metres above the water, so how bad could it be. Well, what I found out afterwards was the spot we were to jump was called "Deadman's Point". Oh dear.

After watching Morrie plummet for what seemed like an eternity into the icy depths of a snow-fed lake I was having second thoughts. I had stood atop a 40 metre bridge and this didn't look too dissimilar in my eyes. I was assured that yes, this was only 10 metres. My travelling companions sensed my discomfort and offered helpful advice like "come on - I can't hold my camera out all day". The passing of another tour bus made my mind up for me - I couldn't let the Stray team down and let the Contiki crowd think I was chicken. Besides, how embarrassing would it be to climb back over the bridge railings. Before I knew it I had lept out into nothingness.


I plummetted of the bridge and found out that, yes, the water was Baltically cold. I dragged myself out to the bank and swore to myself that I would never again thrown myself off a bridge in Queenstown.

Queenstown

Here we are in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world! Iff is currently snowboarding all day, so he'll post something about that later on.

I'm not tempted by snow danger, but I am so drawn to freefalling. I was sorely tempted to do the Nevis bungy jump, the highest bungy jump in the world I think, but I was too scared of the glass gondola ride to get to the jumping point. (Is it odd that I'm not afraid of the jump itself, just having to be on the see-through platform spanning two really high canyon walls?) The slightly lesser-known canyon swinging seemed the perfect idea...a big freefall but from a much safer-looking platform. So with Chris shaking his head and worrying about my sanity, I signed myself up for it.

It was awesome!!! I was in a group of 6 people up for this adventure. We got taken out to the lovely Shotover Canyon, watching a DVD during the ride of the different ways one can jump off the platform. They rate each of the different jumps with 1 to 5 pairs of pants for scariness! I was strangely calm about it all, having previously been so nervous about the freaky Nevis platform. The crew there are hilarious, using humour to put people at ease. They belted all six of us up, and then we just had to wait in turn. I was third to go, and I was feeling fine until it was time for me to jump. We were at the top of a deep canyon, and the canyon walls were covered in sharp rocks, with a lovely river at the bottom. It looked so peaceful until it was time to jump into it. Here's me before I actually had to jump, feeling as happy as I look:


It was possible for them to pull a rope to release me into the fall, but I really wanted to jump off myself; my choice of departure (simply called "forwards") was rated with 3 pairs of pants. Easier said than done; it was a long drop! I asked them at least a few times if they were sure the ropes were ok, and I counted down from three several times in my head, but my brain just wasn't ready to let me do something so counter-instinctive. Finally, though, I took a huge breath, counted down from three and just went for it. I jumped off, plummetted quite rapidly for 60 meters and then swung in a 200 meter arc back and forth between the canyon walls. WOW. Here's the video:


Far too soon, I was hoiked back up to the platform with tears of joy (honest!) streaming from my eyes. They brought me back onto the platform, and I immediately decided I'd have to do it again!

The second time I went, I wanted a scarier jumping style; the first one was only 3 out of 5 pants, after all! A lady working there recommended the "gimp boy goes to Hollywood" jumping style. Intriguing, and 5 pants! So I went for it. The first time I went, I was so scared and amazed at this new activity that I didn't appreciate the scenery or properly enjoy the ride. This time, I was guaranteed to appreciate the scenery...I'd be hoisted up above the platform facing up, wrap my legs around the rope attaching me to the other lines, lean my head back as far as possible so I was looking down at the ground, put my arms out above my head and pointing at the ground, then signal the crew to release me. This was the scariest thing I've EVER done, just getting into that position. When they told me to release my death grip on the rope and stretch both arms out and towards the ground and arch my back as much as possible (pointing my whole body at the ground), I found it so scary one of the guys had to reach out and press up on my back so I'd feel safer letting go and stretching out towards the ground.

I can't stress enough that I was scared witless. So as soon as I got into position and caught my breath, I told them to let me go. The cheeky monkey pretended he couldn't hear me, so I yelled at him to do it, and off I went. In that position, I watched the ground come up to meet me, felt every bit of the plummet and the speed of it. I was screaming, but I was paying attention to everything happening. When I finished the freefall bit and went into the arc bit, I was hooting with joy. Suddenly I saw some goats on a ledge of the canyon wall; I stopped hooting and said to myself, "Oooh, goats." Then I quietly appreciated the lovely river and canyon before they winched me back up; it was such a lovely place on a cold but gorgeous sunny day. Absolutely brilliant. And 5 pants!!! Here's the video:


I am now an adrenaline junkie. I might just do that Nevis bungy jump after all when we circle back to Queenstown in a few days...

Franz Josef Glacier

After the wonderful knife-making day in Barrytown, we headed to the wee town of Franz Josef for access to the Franz Josef glacier. This is a big fat block of ice which moves quite a bit for a glacier, at least a meter each year. And it's set between lovely mountains and hills and lots of crumbling rocks for the glacier to play with. Brilliant!

We opted for the full day of ice hiking, and it was awesome. Chris will have photos up soon. I was worried about falling off the thing, but the guides were brilliant and managed to keep me (and everyone else) safe. There were about 30 of us, and they split us into three groups depending on how confident we were about it all. I stuck with the least confident group just in case, and loyal Chris came with me rather than rushing ahead with the nutters in the first group. That was a good thing because he had our lunches in his backpack!

We climbed up pretty high on the glacier but by no means to the very top. The guides were good enough to chop steps into steep areas and even put up ropes for us to cling to in the really slippery bits. It was all great fun. We hiked up and down, through the most gorgeous crevasses, sometimes having to fight to squeeze ourselves through really narrow gaps between towering walls of ice. (Good thing the ice was melting in places; those of us with big hips appreciated the greased surfaces!!!) I'd also been worried about the impact of our hiking on the glacier, but the whole thing is in a constant process of melting in places and growing in other places and shifting around so it stays huge. We were all given ice picks for balance but also to help chip away at ice when required (Chris really got into this!), and I got the distinct impression that the glacier didn't even feel us there!

One of the highlights of the day was seeing a couple keas on the glacier. The kea is a cheeky monkey of a bird. He's a sort of parrot who lives in the mountains on the southern island of NZ. To see a parrot sidling along ridges of a glacier was the coolest thing. We saw one on two occasions. The first time he got quite close to us, angling for food. Our guide threw some ice in the kea's direction (not trying to hit the bird or I'd have smacked the guide!), making the bird fly away so we could see the brilliant colour under his wings. The next time we saw a kea was during our descent to the ground. We were going down some steps with a hand rope, and the kea was checking out the rope. He took a few pecks at it but luckily didn't dismantle it! These guys are known to cause major damage to cars; the way our guide put it, "Keas have a fetish for rubber." Ha! They know how to unzip backpacks and tents. They just like to get into things and explore and -- I'm convinced -- annoy people as much as possible. Genius!

So we've now walked on a glacier! We hadn't even seen one before that. What a great day!!!

Knife-making and [no] glacier hiking...

We were slightly nervous about the knife-making activity, especially when we happened to be the only participants and Steve, the guy who would be showing us how to make our knives, insisted on showing us his throwing axes before we started. Luckily it turned out Steve wasn't a maniac nut-job and didn't intend on hacking us up at the first opportunity. I think his wide, Robyn, is a calming influence...

When he showed us what we'd be working with - a steel bar and a few gash pieces of wood - I honestly didn't really hold much hope of creating anything worth writing about but we started hammering away gamely anyway. Gradually, the steel bar became slightly pointed at one end and thinner on one side than the other. A great start we were assured. It turned out that the length I had made the blade would produce a fearsome weapon worthy of any self-respecting slasher movie villain. Nice. Anyway, after the battering we gave the steel, it was generously and strategically applied to a grinder. Then we made a start on the handle - and I was impressed with Trace's power saw work - I thought that Steve would surely lose a finger, but somehow all 10 digits made it though unscathed.


So we spent the next few hours gradually shaping the blades and handles on a variety of machines whilst drinking tea and hot chocolate respectively. Every now and again we'd look up and see that we were being watched by a horse, dog, duck or chicken. All rather surreal...


Every now and again, just when we thought we'd done a pretty good job, Steve would have a quick look at our handiwork and give it an extra tweak on one of the machines (probably reversing all the terrible mistakes we'd just made) usually creating an impressive shower of sparks.


At the end of the day we emerged on the other side of our experience with a couple of rather impressive looking blades - a his and hers if you will... The knives are even more impressive when you consider what they started off life as:


While we were at Steve and Robyn's house we had a minor drama as it seemed like their dog had dragged in some poor unfortunate animal which had been killed by the notorious poison, 1080. 1080 is used to try to kill off possums which are a real pest here, but there have been several pets killed by it because they eat the dead possums and end up poisoned themselves. Once an animal gets dosed by 1080, the only hope is to make it sick before the poison is able to enter its system - otherwise there's no cure. Luckily, however the dog pulled through - although we were all rather nervous for a while.

Steve also showed us his incredible jade collection. Jade occurs naturally here and sometimes washes up on the beach! He's spent years picking up jade pebbles and now has quite a collection. He showed us the entire collection and it covered most of his living room. Before we left, he actually gave us a small piece of jade to keep.

Steve and Robyn were such wonderful people and the knives we made were so impressive looking I can't help recommending them to anyone going anywhere near Barrytown.

Wellington - South Island

We've been out of contact for a while now, so it'll be tough to catch up - so I'll try to be brief but informative.

Last thing I mentioned (except for the travel update) was the rugby in Wellington. Well, after that we visited the wildlife sanctuary of Karori. The government have set aside a few acres of Wellington suburbs for a wildlife sanctuary to try to regain some ground for native species (particularly birds) who have struggled against introduced predators. While we were there we saw saddlebacks, wax-eyes, hihis, kakas (I'm not making these up - ask James), NZ wood pigeons and a few others in their native habitats. These are wild birds - they aren't caged - but the sanctuary itself just has a predator-proof fence around it.

Before we left Wellington, we took a city highlights tour (on which we were the only passengers!) which took us around a few locations such as places where the LOTR films were shot and PJ's own studio and various picturesque spots. We did the "Red Rocks" walk - past some red rocks(!) to a seal colony. We got pretty close to the seals (before reading the "don't approach within 20m of the seals) but we were lucky 'cos they were pretty chilled out. It did rain on the way back, but we were suitably prepared - and got ourselves some brekkie when we got back.

We left "windy" Wellington on the Interislander ferry and picked up our next Stray bus in Picton - our first sight of the South Island. We should have seen it earlier, but it was a bit misty in Wellington, so we just saw a rather ominous murk...

Our first overnight stop on the South Island was for the Abel Tasman National Park. We stayed in a little place called "the barn" which was a converted barn. It was pretty comfortable, but the roof was a bit low. It was nice though, cos they had some cats.

In the morning we went for a quick cruise around the bays of the park in a catamaran. (Luckily no sightings of infamous pirate, Peg-Leg Tam!). We saw some more seals, cormorants, trees, water etc, but nothing too spectacular. We walked back home along part of the AT Coastal Track.

We then moved on to a small place called Barrytown. It was here when the Stray experience lost some of its sheen for us. There are a few things wrong with the Stray service and although we'd experienced some of them before, we put them down to minor glitches or particularly difficult passengers. Now we've been with Stray for a while, these things just keep happening and it's getting more noticeable.

1. Stray gives you a very limited number of activities and usually these things are only recommended because Stray either run them themselves - or know the people who do.
2. See 1. but for accommodation.
3. Prices quoted seem to vary. It may be only 1-5 dollars, but these things add up.
4. The drivers can be rather lax about getting things sorted and making sure everyone's OK - particularly people not doing recommended activities or staying in recommended accommodation.

In the future we've vowed to be a lot more careful about where we stay and what we do.

Anyway, moving on to more Barrytown... The place we stayed is run by a mate of the owner of Stray. On the whole it's a nice enough place - not far from the beach and close to a few activities - but it's basically a bar with rooms outside. Perfect for most of the crowd we've found ourselves travelling with. We had been told about a knife-making activity that was no-longer recommended by Stray that was a good day activity (highly recommended by a North Island Stray driver no less) which was better than any of the other stuff, so we decided to give that a shot. Find out about our knife-making efforts next time - check out the facebook photos though!

Travel Update

As some of you may know, we have managed to arrange our travel plans from here and will leave at the end of September and head back to the USA.

However, this time, rather than heading directly over the Pacific, we will stop in Tahiti and Ensenada on the way back. We'll also get a stop in Oakland, meaning that we will be sailing under the Golden Gate bridge.

Rotorua - Wellington

Before we left Rotorua and the wonderful (if oddly named) Funky Green Backpackers hostel, we thought it would be only right if we engaged in some gravity-based adrenaline pumping extreme activity that we'd likely never consider again. We ended up going for the "Swoop" - a 40m (120-ish ft) swing. The crane hoists you up, gravity brings you back down. It differs from a bungee in that instead of bouncing around vertically, you swing back and forth. It was great fun (after the initial terror wore off) but made me think I'd never be able to throw myself off a tower in true bungee fashion. Tracy did manage to undertake a freefall while safely on terra firma. Basically, the arrangement is you are positioned above a giant hairdrier and then they turn it on. She enjoyed it very much apparently.


You should have noticed (if you've been keeping up the the photos - if not, shame on you!) that we also managed to track down boiling mud, clouds of steam, odd green pools and the like. These geological oddities are part of the wai-o-tapu thermal park. We spent a morning meandering around wai-o-tapu and ended up smelling somewhat of sulphur. In Rotorua that's OK though because everyone else does too.

We were due to head for Mount Tongariro and the famous walk that passes over the top, but the weather, alas, has not been favourable and the top of the mountain was covered in fog and mist. This means that no guides are willing to go up - and if the guides won't go up, I'm not chancing it on my own thatnks. We'll try to catch the Tongariro crossing on our way back up if we have time.

We're now in Wellington - we just went to the last game of Tana Umaga, legendary "All Blacks" centre/winger. I only just realised (from reading the wiki article) that he was one of the infamous "spear tacklers" of Brian O'Driscoll in the 2005. Well, that was his last game before heading off to coach in France somewhere.

It's very windy here - we were getting blown about all over the place earlier which was especially harrowing when the rain was whipping in nearly horizontally. We'll be here for a few days before heading to the South Island.

Finally - I recently became the proud owner of a previously broken HP Photosmart M525 6-megapixel digital camera. Unfortunately I'm not really sure what to do with it. It doesn't have cables, memory or batteries. Any takers?

[101st post!] Raglan - Rotorua

So we got to Rotorua a few days ago intending to stay for 3 days. We're now on our 3rd day and looking to stay another 2. That's one of the good things about hop-on-hop-off bus services.

The first thing we did was visited a local Maori village where we sampled the delights of "Hangi" (or food steamed underground by the geothermal activity). We also saw huge steaming pools of foul sulphurous-smelling water and boiling puddles of mud. It was all very other-worldly.

Apart from geothermal activity, Rotorua is also famous for a fun passtime that was invented round here called "zorbing". Zorbing is essentially throwing yourself down a steep hill in an oversized inflatable hamster ball. It's a lot of fun - especially when they throw a bucket of warm water in after you (hydro-zorbing).

Apart from the zorbing, we've partaken in another local first, the local luge track. This luge doesn't involve snow or ice though - it's a concrete track down the side of a hill and you steer a little go-karty thing down. There are 3 tracks which increase in difficulty (or intensity?). The "beginner" track is about 2km and is nice and gently sloped whereas the "advanced" track is only 1km, but pretty much straight down with a few bumps in it. The main problem is encountering slower lugers on the way down and avoiding them. Grrr.

Tracy and I parted ways for a morning today as we chose different paths - I chose the way of white-water rafting, Tracy chose the way of a few hours extra sleep thanks very much. I spent the morning trying to stay in a raft while plunging over waterfalls and paddling down rapids. I reckon I got the better of it - although Tracy may argue otherwise. The highlight of the morning was plunging over the 20ft (7m) Tutea Falls (and living to tell the tale!).

Other high adrenilin activities on offer are being considered and a bungy is not out of the question, but that'll be for another day and another post. In the meantime, I'm keeping my ears to the ground as I'm expecting news any day now of how Simon and (more importantly perhaps) Jenny are getting on with their new arrival due any day now... I'll keep you all posted.

Auckland - Hahei - Raglan

A lot has happened in a few days, so I may miss things out which - but I'll try to get as much in as possible...

We set off from Auckland and headed south-east-ish to the Coromandel peninsula. There we arrived at "Hot Water Beach" near Hahei and dug ourselves a thermal spa in the sand.


The water was so hot I went and jumped in the sea. Which was very cold. So I came back again.


We spent the rest of the day hiking around Hahei including Cathedral Cove and Stingray Bay. We didn't see any stingrays though...

After Hahei we headed south west towards Raglan. Raglan is a famous surfing spot (means nothing to me unfortunately...). We stayed in a beautiful hostel near Raglan and climbed a nearby hill. Unfortunately it started raining and the hill became incredibly slimy and horrible - making conditions treacherous underfoot. Luckily we all made it down safely.

So next stop is Rotorua with its thermal mud pools and sulphurous atmosphere.