JBs World Tour Web Report Extravaganza
Part 3 - New Zealand South Island
[intro][Singapore][NZ-North][NZ-South][USA]New Zealand South Island
Wednesday 26th, Early start to catch 9.30am Inter-island Ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island, ferry takes about 3 hours, and had great views, passing through a very narrow sound which lead all the way into the port of Picton. We then got onto the Transcenic Railway to Kaikoura, which again had amazing views and the best idea on a train I have ever seen !! An open carriage, so you can wander about and get great views as the train rattles along, and take pictures over the railing - superb !!
Train got into Kaikoura around 4pm, so we walked into town lugging all our bags, we had phoned round a few hostels from the train, and all seemed full, so were not surprised the hostel we had booked was at the top of a steep hill, and a bit of a dive, but not too bad, rooms were fine, and we didn't plan to use the kitchen much. We had phoned ahead and booked a whale watching boat trip (the reason we were stopping in Kaikoura, as it is famous for this, as it has a bay which has a year round pod of Sperm whales living in it, as well as visiting migratory whales at various times of year). We wandered into Kaikoura for a look around, and as the seafood is reputed to be so great here, we had fish and chips for supper, Ken had crayfish, which is a local specialty, so we all tried that too.
Thursday 27th, We were up very early, and got to the Whale Watching office by the train station by 7.15, hung around for briefing and video, then coach to the big jet boat which we were going in, which seated about 40 people, and was very bumpy, so everyone felt a bit queezy, and a few people were seasick.
It was well worth a little discomfort though, as we saw 3 fantastic sperm whales, resting on the surface after a dive, before diving down flicking their huge tails in the air on their way down for another hour underwater! Nicola felt a bit rough, but enjoyed seeing the Whales, and on the way back we stopped in a pod of about 100 dusky dolphins, which frolicked around the boat and was amazing to see!
We spent a quiet afternoon after the boat trip, wandering around the shops in Kaikoura, found a lovely print of the sunset with a couple of dolphins leaping, so that is a nice momento. After a light lunch, Ken rented a bike to cycle out to the Seal Colony, which is about 3 miles outside Kaikoura, so me and Nicola took a shuttle bus out too. We saw a couple of big seals really close, and a lot more in the distance on the rocks as the tide was in. Shuttle bus picked us up in time to get us back to the hostel to get our bags and walk back to the train station, to catch the train onto Christchurch. Had a lovely meal at 'Dux De Lux' which was just round the corner from our hostel, and Nicola had tried before when she was last here, it is Seafood and Vegetarian, so had a nice meal, and an early night!
Friday 28th, fairly early start to take the courtesy bus to the train station, as today we were taking the Tranzalpine railway from Christchurch over to Greymouth on the West coast of the south island. Another scenic trip, with an outside viewing carriage, and we arrived in Greymouth in the rain, the weather is completely different on each side of the South island due to the mountain ranges which split the island. Booked into a fantastic hostel, which was fully themed as Neptunes hostel, so all the walls were painted in beach and seascapes, and everywhere you looked there were stuffed fish, novelty octopus clocks and lots of other great stuff, hostel was also incredibly clean and really nice to stay in ! As it was a rainy afternoon, we walked down to the visitors centre to find something to do, and me and Ken booked a Quad biking trip, while Nicola chose to wander round the shops and have a lazy afternoon.
Quad biking was fantastic, only me and Ken with a guide, and we went up and down very steep hills, through rivers and mud gulleys, and got stuck a couple of times, but managed to get going again with a little advice from the guide, so it was really amazing, and we managed to keep fairly dry under all the waterproof gear we were wearing !!
Cooked a meal in the evening, as there was an all you can eat barbecue in Greymouth, but it seemed to be the other end of town, and we were all a bit tired, so quick meal and an early night !
Saturday 29th, Got back onto the Magic Bus for drive to Franz Josef Glacier, stopped at Ross, an old gold mining town on the way, they still mine gold here in open cast mine, but this was a big gold rush town in the late 1800's, so the visitors centre ran a short walking tour round the town, and up to the hill to the graveyard which was very interesting, they also let us pan for gold, and we all found tiny bits of gold and semi-previous garnets, which was fun.
Bus on through Arrowtown, which is another gold mining town, no full of tourist shops, and onto Franz Josef. We were hoping to take a helicopter up to top of the glacier, which then lands on the ice, and you can walk around for a few minutes before a scenic flight back down. Sadly as there was low cloud, the helicopters were not flying, so instead Ken booked a half day walk up the glacier, with ice boots etc. While me and Nicola took a more leisurely walk up with a private guide (the glacier is a restricted area for safety, as chunks of ice falling, and rockfalls are common). Our guide took us right up to the face of the glacier, and told us all about it, and even made us a cup of tea right at the top which was great!
Sunday 30th, back on the bus, morning stop was at Lake Matheson, which is a famous mirror lake, due to some chemicals from the trees the water has a thin layer of waxy film on the surface, so is incredibly reflective, and the view of the mountains and Foxes glacier reflected in the lake is incredible ! Had breakfast, and then back on the bus. Lunchstop was at an amazing little place called Ships Creek, which was picturesque but riddled with sand flies, which were a bit of a chore, perhaps because it is so oppresive to people, this beach is a favourite of Hectors Dolphins, which are the smallest breed of dolphins, and we saw them 'surfing' on the waves into the beach, swimming within the hump of the waves, which was just amazing. Pictures didn't really come out well, but it was an amazing thing to see first hand.
Bus then carried on to Makarora, which is a tiny village on the Haast pass through the mountains, which has a single campsite with small A frame cottages to stay in. We arrived in the rain, so went straight out on a 50 minute Jet boat ride, which ran right up the river at about 50mph, even though it is only a few inches deep in lots of places, and the driver swerved behind tree's and very close to the edges, and also spun the boat round doing 'donuts' which was great fun !
In the evening, the hostel chef cooked a barbecue for everyone, which was nice, so just sat and chatted to other people from the bus, and had another early night !
Monday 31st, Back on the bus to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the South island. Our breakfast stop was at a town called Wanaka, which has an amazing Puzzle world, which has lots of interesting things to do, including a weird 15degree room where everything is tilted, which is very strange to walk through, as you see water flowing uphill, and take odd pictures as you can see. They also have a perspective room which is all built on funny angles so from the end of the room it looks normal, but if you walk from one side of the room to the other you appear to grow from normal height to fill the room - which was great fun, but a little strange !
After lunch break at Wanaka, the bus carried on into Queenstown, on the way in we stopped at a fantastic old suspension bridge, which runs across the Kawarau river. This bridge is famous for being the first ever bridge in the world to run a commercial Bungee jumping operation from, the bridge was built in 1880, and in 1986 AJ Hackett started the bungee site, which has since spread round the world, and in Queenstown alone there are 4 other Bungee operations running, but as this was the first, and is still a fantastic jump at 43Metres (140ft) right into the river, Ken wanted to jump, so I thought I would do it as well, as it looked like a superb bridge to jump.
Having got strapped up and on the edge, Ken froze up and didn't jump, so I went ahead of him, and had a superb jump, I hoped to touch the water, but jumped out too far, so didn't quite touch it, but it was still a superb jump, and the pictures came out well. Ken had another go afterwards, but froze up again, so decided not to jump.
Bus carried on into Queenstown and dropped us at our Hostel, so had a wander around Queenstown, and took the skyline up to the top of the mountain for a great view down over Queenstown, the Luge was not running as it was still a bit wet, probably a relief to Kens good ankle though ! On our wander we found an indoor mini-golf place called Caddyshack City, which is billed as the ultimate gold experience, so after tea we headed back for a round, which was very funny, the holes had amazing themes, and working lifts, ski-lifts and other challenges for the balls to go through, so it was good fun, and then back to the hostel for another early night !
Tuesday 1st April, Early start as we had a long day ahead, taking a coach trip to Milford sound, which although only 66 miles from Queenstown, is a 5 hour drive round the mountains to the Homer Tunnel, as this is the only way to get over the mountains to Milford ! Everyone raves that it is well worth the trip as Milford is an amazing Fjord area, with fantastic wildlife. Bus trip out wasn't too bad, we had a few scenic stops, and the views from the road are just breathtaking. The homer tunnel is a single lane rough tunnel cut through the mountain, with no lights, road markings or other niceties. It also runs downhill, so water flows off the ceilings and through the walls and down the road surface as well !
Arrived in Milford and got straight onto the boat for our cruise around Milford Sound, the scenery is just fantastic, and we were very lucky to have a fantastic day, with blue skies and bright sunshine. Milford is famous for having ridiculous amounts of rain, about 9 Metres annual rainfall, and it rains about 3 days in every 4 here ! We saw fur seals basking, and amazing waterfalls, and sheer cliffs up from the water which were just breathtaking.
As the weather was so nice, and we had missed out on the Franz Josef flight, we decided rather than taking the bus back to Queenstown, we would switch to a flight back, in a small 6 seater plane, which was amazing, and we had breathtaking views over the mountains on the way back, and got back much earlier to boot ! So had a lovely meal in a little restaurant called 'the cow' which was an old milking yard.
Wednesday 2nd, got picked up for our 4x4 safari in a big Toyota Landcruiser, to drive us 2.5 hours off road to Macetown which is a host town, from the gold rush in the late 1800's. The drive out to Macetown was amazing, with lots of river crossings, and hard terrain. In the 1800's when Macetown was a thriving gold mining community it would take 2 or 3 days to get there on horses, so it was a very remote area. We stopped for tea and cake at the centre of the old main street, which now has only one remaining building, the bakers oven house, where bread was baked. There were pictures of how the old town looked, and it was just amazing that nothing was left now. An amazing drive back too, along the same route driving on the bed of the arrow river, and we stopped to pan for gold, by just digging up gravel from the river bed, and panning it. Found a tiny spec of gold, but not enough even to get out of the pan !!! Also saw abandoned gold mining equipment including this battery ram which crushed up quartz rocks to release the gold within, it was powered by a waterwheel from water sluiced down the hill behind, and was abandoned when the gold ran out.
Got back to Queenstown in time for lunch, and a nice wander around the town, before heading to the bird sanctuary where we saw Kiwi birds, and Pukeko's, and other native birds and lizards, which was really good. Kiwis are about 3 times bigger than I expected, and look incredibly strange, so it was lovely to see them. As they are nocturnal, we saw them in buildings which are dark in the daytime, so we saw them feeding and moving around which was well worth seeing!
In the evening we went on a dinner cruise on the steamship TSS Earnshaw (behind Nicola in first picture), which is the oldest coal fired passenger vessel in the world, built in 1912 the same year as the Titanic, it has run on lake Wakatipi ever since, and originally serviced the sheep stations on the lake, taking supplies out and sheep/wool out, but now runs purely for tourists. We took the boat out to the sheep station where we had dinner, and saw a demonstration of sheep dog working, and sheep shearing, under floodlights, which was good. The two boilers need a ton of coal shovelling into them every hour to keep the ship running at its maximum speed, and the whole boat was open to explore, so we went up to the bridge, and walked over the boilers on a walkway watching the stokers shovelling coal in so that was great.
Thursday 3rd, Back on the bus to Dunedin, a Scottish settlement, it is built on a hill, so hard work walking around. The hostel we were staying in also organises nature tours, to see Albatrosses, Seals, and Penguins, so we spent the afternoon on that, saw lots of birds including Royal Albatrosses (the guide would shout albatross every time one flew overhead, which had us in stitches), and walked down to the seal colony which was huge, hundreds of seals, and great to see them in their normal environment.
We then walked across the beach where the male seals were fooling around and fighting a little, to see more penguins nesting, which was amazing too, very strange to see penguins which we think of as arctic birds, living on grassed beaches !! A lot of walking though, up and down hills, so we got back knackered and after an exhaustive search for anywhere decent to eat, we ended up in McDonalds, much to Nicola's disgust. The following morning, we were back on the bus, stopping on the way out of Dunedin at the steepest street in the world, which is very steep indeed, some time ago a camper van fell on its side when the driver having failed to get up the hill, decided to try a three point turn halfway up it ! The fire brigade were called out to remove it, and had to drag it down the hill on its side to get it out, which destroyed it by all accounts!
On the drive from Dunedin to Christchurch, we stopped at Moeraki Boulders, which due to the movement of silt in the ground are almost perfectly round, and look amazing. Most of the smaller boulders have long since been taken by souvenir hunting early European settlers, but the larger boulders remain, and are quite surreal to see !
Back into Christchurch, so had a wander around town, and dinner at another hostel which does a $5 roast (about £2), which was nice, and another early night, before our last day in New Zealand.
Saturday 5th, weather was drizzly, for only about the second time on our trip, so locked our bags at the hostel, and took then short walk to Cathedral Square, where we climbed the 144 steps to the top of the Bell tower for a view out over the city, sadly as it was drizzly and cloudy the view was not that great, but still nice to see. We then walked over to the botanic gardens and park, and alongside the river Avon to the boat sheds, as we planned to rent a canoe or rowing boat to get on the river, but it started raining harder so we had a cup of tea to see if it might improve, and saw these hardy Japanese tourists on a punt, with loads of umbrellas!
When it was clear it wasn't going to, we instead walked over to the arts centre, and old university buildings which are now lots of small shops, each occupied by artists and craftspeople selling their wares. Wandered around looking at everything from kites, to paintings to carvings both wooden and bone/jade, bought a few things including some lovely hand painted cushion covers. Wandered back to the hostel in the rain in time to get a taxi to the airport for our flight up to Auckland and onto Los Angeles, New Zealand has an airport tax which you have to pay before you can leave the country of $25 (about £10), which you pay right before you get on the plane, which is a little bizarre !
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