Well, this is a new way to share my stories!
We left Nelson and headed back towards the West Coast for Kaikoura and the whale watching. Was a lovely drive over there and just outside Kaikoura was a place you could stop at the side of the road and have a nosey at a seal colony!! For real. They were so close, I was really excited, have only ever seen the odd one bobbing about near hilbre Island before now!
Booked ourselves onto the Whale watching trip for the following morning... Kaikoura was a nice small town, with fantastic views over to the mountains (the Kaikoura Ranges funnily enough) Treated oursleved to a proper curry which was well good, though decided we will not have any more till India now, otherwise we will be sick of cirry before we even get there, well me at least, dont think Matt will ever get tired of curry!!
The Whale watching trip was great, other than feeling incredibally sick (me) and Matt having to look after me! We ony saw the one whale - they say he would have been about 18ft long, male sperm whale. There are quite a lot of them living around this area as the water is incredibally deep, just how they like if for diving for food. Was auite cool to see, and we saw some enourmous birds too, think Matt saw a giant Albatross, they have about a 4 metre wing span I think!
From Kaikoura we headed east and a bit south to Greymouth, which was very grey,,, and the hostel although very nice, was ful of a bunch of teenagers! Schoolgroup, think they were there for some sports thing or other... Not what makes a great atmosphere in a hostel... boo hiss, I dont like teenagers! Didnt stay very long here, just headed further south to the Glaciers, kind inland and very very rainy. We did stop off at some more springs though, they were great, Japanses Style, outdoors with fab views of the trees and hills from the springs themselves. Have to admit I was not enamoured with the smell, and very very black water, you could not see yourself when in it, and all this black slimy stiff kinda sticks to your skin... its very good for you so I am told though! Was a nice break from sitting in the car though, and as the weather was bad anyway we quite enjoyed it. The glaciers were a bit of a washout. Very grey and we couldnt see them at all :( So we holed up in our motel room at Franz Joseph glacier, which was nice, and had everything we needed until morning when it finally stopped raining!!! Yey. Headed further south again, and stopped of at the Fox Glacier, which we could actually see, very blue grey in colour and not like anything I have ever seen before, couldnt get very close as there had been ssome flooding nearby, but all the same was good to see it.
Headed from here to Wanaka, through more rain and saw tonnes more fields of sheep etc! The scenery as we got to Wanaka was lovely, huge mountains and some lakes which were quite enourmous. The weather cheered up by the time we arrived, just as hoards of people coming off the snowfields and into the town, the most people we had seen in ages!
Was a nice enough town, with fantastic surroundings, on a big lake with huge snow capped mountains beind and all around really. Really pretty. We stayed in a really pants hostel for the first night, we hadnt bothered booking - big mistake, v v busy and not many rooms free! Ended up in the garden shed out back, kitted out with a bed and all, but bloody freezing in the middle of the night and morning! Swiftly moved on the next day to a much nicer place - Mountain View Backpackers, and we really did have mountain views from our room. An auful lof of snowboarders in the hostels here, lots of Japanese, some of which were proffesionals (and had the injuries to show they hadnt been on the nursery slopes all day!!)
We (after a lot of deliberation) decided to go skiing for one day since we were so close, and booked ourselves in! The day before though, we went for a walk up one of the mountains, close to the town, and although it was a bloody big hike for me at least, was so worth it for the views, beautiful blue skies and we could see so far, and so many mountains and lakes. And the top of the mountain still had snow on it, was pretty cold at the top, but we stopped long enough for lunch etc, then the journey down, think it was 3 hours up and 1 hour and a bit down!
Well skiing was great, I actually remembered some of the dry slope skiing I did as a child, and only fell a few times, really enjoyed it, though my legs were killing me at the end of the day. Matt was better than me, and got the hang of turning much faster, only went on one of the bigger slopes once, I thought me knees would give way halfway down. Have to say though, I was totally put to shame by all the mini children whizzing past me! They were mostly very very good!
From here, Queenstown for a short visit, way too touristy then onwards very south to the Catlins national park (fab cottage by the sea) saw seals, sea lions and penguin. from here back way north to Dunedin. pants hostel, decided we really are not here to see the cities to left the next day, visited the museam thought which was really interesting, and not full of boring crap.
Spent an afternoon on the Otago peninsular (nothing like the wirral other than in name!) in search of wildlife, though have to say dont think we saw anything other than seals which were so far away they might as wekll have been rocks, and a lot a lot of seagulls. The pengiuns must have been sleeping or out fishing :(
headed up to Oamaru, a pretty town (for a short visit, think would goa lil stir crazy if there too long) Didnt see any penguins here either, but did hear them from our bedroom - so noisy, a bit like a child wailing!
Decided to head towards Mount cook - Town called Twizel as it wasnt as far as we had thought, and found a lovely place to stay on a farm - they rent a cottage out to backpackers, we had the place to ourselves for the first night, lovely log fire and all. really nice. Drove up to mount cook which was a fantastic drive just for the scenery. yet more mountains. ooh and I forgot we saw a mirror lake on the way to Twizel, that was something I will not forget. Wait and see the pics!
Did a lovely walk in Mount Cook _ yey not uphill this time, you hve to be a proper mountain climber to do that one, and thankfully Matt has shown no interest in that activity just yet... The weather was on our side and as we walked further into the valley we got stunning views of the mountain, which just cleared the clouds as we got close. you can get pretty much to the bottom of the mountain which seems to just rise vertically, with a bit of a glacier at the bottom which appears to be melting into the lake, and onto the river, really strange, like what i imagin the arctic to be , on a very mini scale obviously! Lots of lumps of ice floating about!
Well, now we are in Christchurch, and you will be glad to hear, the end of todays ramblings...! havent seen a lot yet, stayed in a lovely hostel 20 min walk from the centre last night, and now we are off to have a quick mooch about before heading to the airport later this afternoon. Drop off our now stinky hire car, keep our fingers crossed they dont notice all the chips... we have insurance if they do tho! then stay in an airport hotel, a wee bit of luxury before Asia, v early morning and long day tomorrow. Cant quite imagine how hot and humid it will be ??!
Have to add though that I had the best pizza I ahve had all year in a small food court last night, am going to try and badger matt into making it lunch!. Hope this gets to everyone!
xxxx
