Barrytown
Baz-Vegas, what can I say, this was a tiny coastal town on the West coast, full of colourful locals. We stayed in a guest house that had its own bar, which is always a good thing. The bar was host to an indoor cricket match on the first night, and the 2nd night the staff decided to throw a party where all the guys had to dress up as girls, whilst the girls had to fashion garments out of bin liners. Predictably there was a slight air of unease amongst the guys (well, most of them) at the prospect of cross dressing, but unpredictably that all flew out of the window once the girls brought out a rack full of dresses and a box of various accessories. Suddenly it was like the January sales in Debenhams. I think I even remember being upset when one Dutch guy stole the dress I had been trying on for size just moments earlier.
I also decided to take part in a work shop where you make a knife from scratch, with an eccentric local called Steve who brews his own moonshine. The process and results were pretty amazing really, you start with a rough strip of steel, some wood, and after 6/7 hours you end up with a pretty decent looking blade. After putting our knives down safely out of the way, it was time to end the day by sampling Bruce’s homebrew, which washed down pretty well with some orange juice or coke.
Franz Josef
This has to be one of the highlights of the trip, we had a disappointing first day as it rained relentlessly, but I decided to stick around for an extra day so I could do the Ice Climb up the Glacier. We started just after 7am, the sun came out and it was really beautiful hiking up the ice fields, and we managed to do 2-3 climbs up some ice walls with axes and crampons. I was pretty good at it, I think because of my frame and the fact that I’d tried it before in an indoor ice wall in Covent Garden! I really enjoyed the trip and can definitely see myself getting into climbing generally; I would like some bigger challenges some time…
Queenstown (bungee!)
Queenstown is a pretty nice town to be in, although I found it generally too much after the quiet and ruggedness of Franz Josef. However there are more extreme activities than you can shake a stick at, and I decided to go for the ultimate – The Nevis Highwire Bungee. We drove up into the mountains for a half hour, and eventually reached the bungee site. On seeing the tiny box suspended in mid air by wires in the middle of an awesome valley, with a drop of a few hundred metres to the river below, I think everyone had the same thought: F##K!
However, soon enough I was being strapped into my leg harness, and was shuffling towards the edge of the platform, vaguely aware of what the guy was telling me to do, but also going into a slight trance-like state as I prepared to do what I really wasn’t sure I’d ever want to do. I stared at a point ahead of me on the mountainside, and jumped forward with my arms spread out in my best approximation of the perfect dive. Suddenly I was out of the trance, and my first thought was simply “Shit, I’m falling!”. But then I was falling down fast towards a beautiful blue-green river far below me, and I loved it, I pointed my arms forwards and just wanted to touch the water. Of course I couldn’t, as the jump was ONLY 134m down. The bungee line reached its elastic end point after 8.5 seconds, and after that I bounced back up 3 times before being hauled back up to the platform. Truly amazing.
(video to follow!)
Milford Sound
Very pretty, although we arrived there on a gorgeous sunny day which is rare, and so we didnt get that whole misty-waterfalls effect. But really amazing scenery, deep fjords and tall mountains, and we even saw some seals and Dolphins swimming in the sound!
Stewart Island
I spent 3 days on this lovely island, and it was well worth the extra expense. On arriving I went on a fishing trip to catch blue cod, which was great fun although very different form how I usually think of fishing. Basically you get a long line of rope about 1cm thick or less, with two hooks on it onto which you place some fish meat, and you then drop this over the side of the boat until it hits the bottom. Then you pull it up just enough so that it isn’t lying on the bottom, and you then just have to feel for the fish biting below, and you then give a quick tug at the right moment and haul up the fish fast if you are successful. We caught an amazing amount of fish, which we cooked for supper, yummy! We also managed to catch 2 little sharks, each about 2 feet long, but those we threw back into the ocean. I also couldn’t believe how many seagulls and albatrosses were constantly following our boats and trying to steal our catch. I really don’t like Albatrosses; they look very sinister, almost like mechanical birds. You’ll be happy to know I didn’t shoot any down though.
Apart from that Stewart Island has amazing coastal and jungle treks, I had time to try a short one, which was really cool, I even managed to sneak up on a deer in the forest, it was my Deer Hunter moment.
Dunedin-Christchurch
Dunedin is a fairly nice student town, although I felt one night was enough there. On the way to Christchurch, we stopped off in a remote bay in the Caitlin’s Wilderness, where the rare Hector Dolphins come to swim and play. The water was absolutely freezing, but I just had to go and see if I could get one of the Dolphins to swim near me. Luckily after about 10 mins I was floating around in the water when I saw one of them heading towards me, which made me happy but also a little bit nervous! Still, the dolphin swam by about a metre from me, and after that I had to get out of the water before hypothermia set in. The experience is hard to describe, but I felt pretty humble and quiet afterwards, but also quite peaceful. Cool.
Christchurch was very pleasant too, the Cathedral Square was very English/European so I felt slightly at home there. But again, one or two nights was enough there.
Kaiokura
Kaiokura is a beautiful spot, the colour of the water is stunning and the mountains backdrop makes it a pretty special place to be. Dolphin swimming is hugely popular, and you have to book far in advance, so I had to give that a miss. However I did go swimming with seals, which was really good fun! They are very playful on the whole, but you have to respect their space and you can’t chase after them. However I got a good look at a few individuals whilst snorkelling around them, very cute with their big staring eyes.
Wellington
Spent two days in Wellington with the Parkers, which was great except by then the trip was really starting to take its toll on me and I really struggled to stay awake on the first night! However Wellington is probably the most liveable city in New Zealand, I like its San Francisco –like houses on hills, and there are some nice things you can do around there. Was also really great to escape hostels for two nights, and staying with Dave and Tanya was really cool!
Back to Auckland
And that was pretty much the trip! Overall it was a great way to see New Zealand over a month or so, and I can recommend it, although by the end you are really sick of the bus journeys, they get very tiring on a tight schedule. In fact looking at the route map afterwards is amazing, because before the trip you get no sense of how much you will be covering, but afterwards it’s a feeling of “wow, I can’t believe I’ve done so much in 30 days!” I saw amazing things everyday, breathtaking beautiful scenery, did some really fun activities, and met a lot of really cool fun people along the way. New Zealand is an amazing country, and I really like the Kiwis. I missed some great spots out, like Mount Cook, Wanaka, and really didn’t get to experience Maori culture at all, which is definitely my biggest regret! I really hope I can come back and spend more time re-visiting some of the places I liked best.
Sweet as…..