Our time in New Zealand started on Mon 22nd Sept after an epic 28 hour journey. We arrived in Christchurch and were met by James' brother Simon and girlfriend Rachel who have been living over here since January. They whisked us off to Bruce and Mary's - a lovely kiwi couple who have built self-contained apartments in their garden. We got to stay in this haven near the beach for 2 nights whilst we looked around Christchurch and played monkeys in Adrenalin Forest (see photo album).
Day 3 took us down the coast to Akaroa which is a gorgeous little harbour town where we got great "fush 'n chups" and camped in the freezing cold - cos we are hardcore. And I'm doubly hardcore cos I picked up a hideous cold from somewhere (probably the flight over) and thought my sinuses were trying to kill me.
We drove to Mt Cook village on day 4 which was a long but spectacular drive. We were extremely lucky with the weather and got to see Mt Cook (the highest point in Australasia) in all it's glory with the sun set reflecting in the snow on the peak. We stayed in the world famous Hermitage hotel that night and waking to the view of the mountains was awesome.
We started day 5 with a walk to get a little closer to Mt Cook (summit next time honest), again the weather was beautiful - freezing cold but sunny. We bought some fresh fresh salmon from a farm down the road which we barbecued up that night - yummy. We drove south down the east coast of the island that afternoon and saw some ancient maori cave paintings and Elephant Rocks, which are cool, but don't look like elephants (see photos). We stayed in Oamaru that night (camping this time - can't afford the Hermitage every night now can we?!) and got to see some blue penguins coming ashore to nest. These little guys are the smallest penguins in the world and watching them slip slide over the rocks from the beach at dusk was brilliant. No photos unfortunately as the flashes scare them.
Day 6 was a day of disappointments - for Simon at least! He wanted us all to get costume portrait photos done in Oamaru but the place was shut - on a saturday?! Later on we tried to book onto a tour of the Speights brewery (NZ beer) in Dunedin but that was booked up too. Just wasn't his day. On the way to Dunedin we saw the Moeraki boulders which are pretty cool - check out the photos if you like. We had a posh picnic there of red wine and Whitestone cheeses - they're made in Oamaru and taste fantastic! Just don't say we don't know how to rough it! Dunedin is a nice city and you can get good thai food there too.
Day 7 saw James and Simon nearly kill themselves. Not even joking. Baldwin St in Dunedin is officially the steepest street in the world and the boys (being boys) ran up. By the time Rachel and I made it up (walking at a leisurely stroll) they were coughing up blood and looking pretty peaky. We did get a certificate to prove the feat though, so that's ok. From Baldwin St we went down the Otago peninsula in a bid to see some Royal Albatross, which failed. We also realised that we had neglected to put our clocks forward the night before for daylight saving which made us feel pretty silly. So we drove on south via the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins which is really pretty. We stayed that night in a backpackers cottage which we had all to ourselves so that gave us space to settle a few Yahtzee and Uno scores.
More next time...
