NZ Magic - Christchurch to Queenstown
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 1 December 2009 | Views [701]
My flight to New Zealand was uneventful and fairly relaxing. I arrived into Christchurch at 3pm, local time. Upon decent the pilot told us that it was 10 degrees that day and as I stepped out of the airport and onto a bus the temperature was a bit of a shock to the system after my 30degree weekend in Melbourne.
I had pre-booked into a hostel in Christchurch city centre for monday night and after a 20minute bus journey my helpful Kiwi bus driver pointed me across Cathedral Square to Base Backpackers.
I checked in and on my way to my room found Ali on one of the computers in the internet room. Coincidently, we had been put in the same dorm room and we were able to catch up while I got settled in for the night. Hannah, who I had met in Melbourne, was also staying in the same hostel so we went down to the hostel bar to make the most of Happy hour.
Ali and I were both booked on to take the "Magic Bus" around New Zealand and our tour started the following day. Our route was going to take us on a loop of the south Island before going up to the North Island and ending in Aukland. The bus has both comulsory and optional stops, which gives you the choice to stop where you want to. The drivers recommend hostels to stay in and activities to do when you reach your destination and will book these for you en-route if you would like them to. The south island route means that you have to stay in Christchurch twice, so I wasn't worried about not really seeing "the most English city outside of England" before setting off for our first stop, Kaikoura. Along the way we had a breakfast stop and stopped to take photo's of a seal colony who were relaxing on some rocks just below the road on the shoreline. We also had a short 5 minute walk up to a waterfall where seal pups were playing in a little pool there. Unfortunately, the weather was grey and drizzley so pictures weren't quite as good as they could have been but it was still nice to see animals in their natural habitat.
We arrived in Kaikoura at around lunchtime and checked into our hostel before going to suss out the area. There were options to go dolphin, whale or seal watching, but I decided to opt out. If I heard it was really good I could always do it when we came back on the way up to the North Island. We found Kaikoura to be very small and quiet although the scenary was amazing, just like it had been during the bus journey from Christchurch. Snow topped mountains join the sea and it feels like you are constantly walking around inside a postcard or a canvas painting. I even didn't mind the rain because it meant that the trees and grassy hills were a vibrant green - not the beige and brown I was used to in much of dry Australia - and the waterfalls we passed along the way were gushing with fresh water.
The weather brightened up as we walked down the one main street in Kaikoura and we took photos and looked at seafood restaurant menu's before deciding that we couldn't afford the local delicacy - Cray fish, afterall. (Kai means "to eat" and Koura translates to "crayfish"). We decided to try the local fish and chips instead for dinner and dubiously went to a small little cafe which suprised us by presenting us with delcious fish and chips for $8.50 (4 pounds!!). While walking back to our hostel, Dusky Lodge, after dinner we spotted Hannah in another one of the hostel bars and we decided to pop in and say hello, which ended up in us being persuaded to take part in the Pub Quiz. We were a terrible team and ended up losing the first 2 rounds, which led to us having to drink a shot of Tequila and tabassco and downing half pints of larger through a straw. Not quite the civilised evening we had started off with.
The following day we were picked up from our hostel at 8:30 to head towards our next stop, Blenheim. It was an optional stop on the tour but it was in the Marlborough Wine distrct and surrounded by Wineries which produced Wine that Ali had sold during his time working for Majestic Wines at home, so he was keen to go on a wine tasting trip and, of course, I was happy to tag along. We were dropped off, along with another girl on our bus, at a small homely hostel in the tiny town of Blenheim just before lunch time and booked on to an afternoon Winery tour. We went to Lawson's Dry Hills, Wither Hills, Saint Clair, Drylands and Baldervines. We sampled maybe six or seven wines in each - Sauvingon Balnc, Cardonnay, Piont Noir, Reisling....the list is endless. Ali taught me some wine tasting tricks, to help bring out the different flavours and help me appreciate the different wines. By the end of the tour (which lasted a good four hours) I was feeling a little tipsy but had thoroughly enjoyed myself and had spent the whole afternoon thinking "Mum would absolutely love this". It had been a perfect way to spend a rainy, grey afternoon! We spent the evening tucked away in our comfy hostel reading and catching up on our journals.
The following mroning our pick-up wasn't due until 11:00am, so we enjoyed a bit of a lie in before the bus turned up, slightly late, at 11:45. Our next stop was Nelson but along the way we had a pit stop in Picton to pick up people who had travelled over from Wellington, in the north island, on the Ferry. We arrived in Nelson around 4:30pm and were given a quick tour of the town before being dropped off at our hostels. Taking a little walk around the town that afternoon we were suprised at how quiet it was considering it was meant to be one of the larger towns on the west coast. There was such a diiference between the towns here and the towns down the East Coast of Australia, which were always bustling with backpackers and there was always someone in the bars.
We were booked onto a trip to Abel Tasman National park on Friday, so were up at 6am to make our packed lunch and catch our "Magic Connections" bus to the little bay, where we were met by a boat which took us on a scenic trip up the coast of the park to where we were going to start our four hour walk. The start of the walk was a fairly steep uphill climb but I was pleased to finally be getting some much needed exercise and the views once we reached the top were more than worth a bit of thigh ache. As we continued our walk through the park the sun came out and every corner we turned provided us with more stunning views and photo opportunities. By the end of the day I had so many "scenic" photo's, I could have opened a postcard shop. After a couple of hours, we decided to have our lunch-break down in a deserted little bay, just off of the walking track. By this time my feet, which had been used to being in Flip Flops for 5 months, had begun to blister inside my walking shoes. Unfortunately this put a bit of a dampner on the rest of the walk - my feet always seem to ruin my fun! Despite my hobbling towards the end of the trail, we still reached our detinatation, Marahou, well ahead of schedule and I was able to introduce Ali to the Street Family Tradition of a much earned pint at the end of a walk. We were picked up by the bus and driven back to our hostel, where we spent the evening with a bottle of the Locally brewed ale and some Pasta.
It was another early start on Saturday morning to make our way down to Greymouth. We made a couple of stops along the way at Cape Foulwind (so named by Captin Cook after his ship was blown of course here....not because he ate too many beans) where we saw yet another seal colony relaxing on the rocks. Another stop was made at "Pancake Rocks", where we did a litttle 10 minute walk to see the flat-topped rocks that lined the coast line. We arrived in Greymouth (where it was indeed Grey) at about 5:30. We had just about enough time to check in before being picked up to go on a tour of Monteiths Brewery. Monteiths is one of New Zealand's famous Breweries and produces its own Ales, Pilsner and Cider. We had a short tour around the working part of the Brewery, where we were told about the process of making the beers, before hitting the brewery bar to sample the friuts of their labour. We got a taste of each ale and then got to pour half a pint of our own choice (I think I'd need more practice before working in an actual bar!). The price of the Brwery tour also included dinner at one of the pubs in Greymouth Town, which we enjoyed along with jugs of Monteiths Original. There isn't really a lot going on in Greymouth and considering it was a saturday night the pub was extremely quiet. As the night wore on though, it became evident that "The Railway" was the only place to go in Greymouth that stays open past 11 o'clock and soon there were all sorts on the small dancefloor - hen parties, backpackers, old men. Ali and I spent the rest of the evening being entertained by people dancing away to the in-house band.
Our next destination was the alpine town of Franz Josef. After stopping off in the town's of Hikitika (famous for Pounamu (Greenstone)) and Ross (famous for Gold mining), we arrived early afternoon to yet more rain. Ali and I had decided to do a Full Day Glacier hike, so after booking oursleves onto this we had the afternoon free, although I was so cold (being higher up in the mountains with added rain and cold wind) that we didn't really manage to do much apart from write in our jounals and drink hot tea.
The following morning (Monday) we had to report to the Glacier Hike office at 8:15. We were fully kitted out with hiking boots, waterproof trousers and coats, gloves and hats. Once ready to go we were driven for 15minutes up to the Glacier Car park. Our first sighting of the Glacier was when we emerged through the trees into a rocky valley. Steep mountains with the occassional impressive waterfall lined the sides of the Valley making the Glacier appear a lot closer than the 2km it actually was. Here the start of our trek began. We walked to the bottom of the Glacier, which up close was even more amazing - just a huge block of ice, dotted with the occasional black rock, rising up from the valley floor. We sat on large rocks to put on our Crampons, which were going to enable us to walk on the ice, and were given a safety talk from our guide. We then begn the hard climb up the hand-made steps at the bottom of the Glacier. The first part was the steepest and the hardest but my surroundings made me forget about my burning legs and lack of breath and once we reached the top of that first climb and taken off a layer of clothing we were ready to see more. It was the most amazing experience. The ice is so compact that it traps the sunlight and refelcts a deep turquoise colour back at you. Our tour guide was ahead of us, constantly digging steps and pathways out of the ice with a huge pickaxe. We climbed up and down and squeezed between big mounds of Ice and through ice caves, my only embarrassing moment being when I slipped a few feet back down the rope while trying to climb up and out of an ice cave with mittens on. I learnt my lesson after that though and I was suprised at my lack of accidents during the whole day. I think I may have to invest in a pair of Crampons for the bottom of my shoes to wear in day to day life. They managed to keep me fully upright the whole time! My only injury being my blasted feet. I started the day with double plasters on both heels and managed to ignore the rubbing until we reached the rocky valley at the end of the hike. Here I found I couldn't walk properly across the uneven ground and was left hobbling behind the group back to the car park. I was almost in tears by the time I reached the bus and once I had taken my boots off I realised that the plasters and tape I had put on my feet in preparation had slipped off during the hike and I now had nasty looking holes in the back of my heels, so painful even walking without anything on my feet was difficult.
We walked back to the hostel to grab our swimming things before heading down to make use of the Hot Pools to rest our weary limbs (i'm actually speaking for myself here, I think Ali's legs were more used to exercise than mine, although he was suffering with a bad blister too). The Hot Pools were basically just three different extremlely large hot tubs of varying temperatures but they were nice to relax in and we got entry at a discounted rate because we'd booked it at the same time as our hike.
We were moving on again the next day, this time to Fox Glacier. This was also an optional stop off but Ali had been recommended by a couple of friends to go here and do a sky dive, so we booked to do a jump from our hostel in Franz before we had time to think about it. It was only a half an hour drive to Fox Glacier, so we were checked in to our hostel by 8:45 on Tuesday Morning and headed straight for the small airfield. Here we were met by 2 guys in jumpsuits - Deano and Rod. We were given our own jumpsuits to climb into and were given a quick demo of what positions we had to hold when we were in free fall. It all went so quickly - I had visions of us going through meticulous safety procedures and talks, but within 10minutes we were squashed into a tiny plane, strapped to our instructors. The weather was fairly good - if a little cloudy, but it didn't affect our visibility in the slightest. We were given a 20 minute scenic flight over Fox Glacier and the surrounding mountains, which was incredible. I was surprised at how calm I felt. No nerves at all and I was just enjoying the view and taking loads of pictures - this was until we reached 12,000ft and they opened the door. It was so loud and for the first time I felt a few butterflies in my stomach. Ali was right by the door, so it was him who was going out first. Suddenly he just disappeared. No wave, no warning, he flew past the plane window with Rod and a parachute attached to his back. As soon as Ali was gone it was my turn. I had to shuffle along the plane floor towards the door, which was more difficult than it sounds with a man attached to you. I had to dangle my legs out the door and, it sounds ridiculous, but the strength of the wind shocked me and my legs were being forced to side. The pilot peeled my hand off the side of the door (I didn't even realise I was hanging on!) and there I was just hanging out the side of a plane at 12,000 feet. I wasn't even sitting on the edge any more - Deano was holding all my weight. After a couple of pictures taken by a camera on the plane wing I felt my self tip forward and we were out. I think I made some sort of little screeching noise as we went tumbling through the air, the plane and the ground flashing through my vision. I felt a tap on my shoulder indicating I had to assume the Free fall position - arms out to the side, legs bent at the knees. We fell through the air like this for 45 seconds and I was smiling the whole time. I knew this because I was suddenly aware of my teeth hurting due to the air being so cold. I felt movement behind me and suddenly we slowed down, it went quiet and my legs swung out in front of me. I heard Deano ask me if I was alright and then say "we've got a good 'chute up there so we're not going to die today". The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. The views were stunning and once the parachute had opened it was so peaceful. I could have stayed up there for hours. Another positive of diving at Fox is that they allow you to take your own camera up with you, attached on a string around your neck. So once I was under the parachute I could take out my camera and get photo's of the views. I saw Ali land safely below me and Deano circled us round (which caused my stomach to turn, like I was on a rollercoaster) and we landed extremely softly on our bottoms on the landing strip. I couldn't believe it was over and wanted to do it again! Ali and I climbed into the car and were driven back to the airfield, babbling away like excited school kids the whole way. We both absolutely loved it.
By 10:30 we were walking back to our hostel with 2 days ahead of us in this tiny alpine village. Ideally we would have only stayed for one night, but there wasn't a bus coming through Fox the following day, so 2 nights was our only option. After being on the move constantly for a week, we decided to make the most of our days off and read, catch up on our journals and have a lie in!
On Thursday we travelled to Queenstown. It was a fairly long day on the bus, not arriving into Queenstown until nearly 6pm, but we had a couple of stops along the way. The first stop was only 10minutes after we'd got on the bus - Lake Matheson. Also known as the 'Mirror Lake' due to the reflections if the surrounding Southern Alps that can be seen on the surface. Unfortunately it was a fairly cloudy day, so the mountains were hidden. We still took the short walk down to the Lake and saw some moody cloud refections. The next stop was at Lake Wanaka, which was yet another stunning Lakeside town, with views of mountains lining the edge of the lake. We sat here for a while, admiring the view and waiting for the bus to come back after having to go off to pick people up and fill up with petrol. On our way into Queenstown we passed the worlds first commercial bungey site, the Kawarau Bridge. It looked pretty scary!! Queenstown is known as being home to many extreme sports and there is a lot here to keep you entertained and help you spend all your money. We booked onto a trip to Milford Sound on Friday, so once we'd booked into our hostel and had a little wander round town we had a quiet evening in preparation for our early morning the following day.
It was a long journey to Milford Sound but, as usual, the scenary was stunning - especially through the Fiordland National Park, and we stopped in a few places to take photo's. We arrived at the ferry port around lunchtime and boarded our boat for a two hour cruise through the Sound. It rains at least 200 days a year in that part of the world, so we weren't surprised to find ourselves in our raincoats. In a way though, the rain adds to the scenary. It means that the waterfalls are flowing and the plants and trees are a luscious dark green. As well as the many waterfalls and hanging valleys, we also caught a glimpse of seals and one lone penguin. As we pulled back into the port, the rain stopped and the sun made an attempt to shine, which meant that we got a clearer view of the scenary on our coach journey home.
Ali had booked to do a canon swing on saturday morning. I was tempted after absolutely loving the sky dive, I had got a taste of extreme adrenaline highs, but it was another $200, so I decided to save my money. Maybe I'll do it next time I come to New Zealand..... I paid $20 to go and watch instead. It was a 15minute drive out to the Canyon Swing site and in the minibus on the way there I felt more nervous then I did just before I jumped out of a plane! I'm not sure why, but perhaps it was a good job I wasn't jumping after all! Ali got harnessed up and I went up to the look out point, armed with both of our camera's. Canyon swing is simialr to a bungey, but instead of just going down and up again, you swing out across the canyon in a 200metre arc. You can also choose how you jump off...forward, backwards, flip, attached to a plastic chair, upside down. Ali chose to do the "pin drop" first, where he just hopped off the edge sideways. I think that would be the worst bit - having to jump off yourself. It's an unnatural thing to do. At least with a Skydive, you don't have the option. Your Rod or Deano decides for you. He did it though, just a little sideways hop was the difference between him being on a solid platform and flying through the air. The guys who work there really wind you up before you jump too, pretending they haven't attached you to your harness properly or that there is serious risk of injury or death if you jump in a certain way. Ali loved it though - so much that he jumped a second time. This time they hung him off the side of the platform on his back and just cut the rope when he wasn't really paying attention, so he went swinging across the canyon on his back. It looked so much fun - but pretty nerve wracking.
We spent the rest of our day in Queenstown and decided that since we were in a place that actually had more then one pub and got busy at night, that we should take the opportunity to have a night out. We started in a bar where we got 2-4-1 drinks and bumped into Rick, a Canadian guy who was on the Brewery Tour and Glacier Hike with us. He was with a friend and we ended up doing a little bar crawl with them and had a really good night. It's funny how, when you're travelling you randomly bump into the same people in different towns. It makes things more intersting though and I think Ali was happy to have someone to talk to about motorbikes and cars and other boy things which I have no knowledge of!
