| New Zealand Our flight over to New Zealand was fairly eventful. It was supposed to be 14 hours, but was delayed by 2 hours as they decided to remove a couple of shady looking characters from the plane (and then remove their luggage) - although we didn't really get to find out the reason why. We had this tiny Indian brat sitting next to us on the plane who was crying & screaming & basing his mum for absolutely ages (this was before we even took off) and his mum didn't try to shut him up at all. Eventually the cabin crew gave him a sedative that knocked him out. NZ is 20 hours ahead of LA, so we lost a whole day on the flight. I wore my Monday socks in commemoration of that lost Monday. We missed the connecting flight from Auckland to Dunedin because of the delay, but by some lucky fluke we were able to get on a different flight almost immediately. On arriving in NZ Mel went off on her own; she had two months here and wanted to do a bus tour, whereas we only had one month and have bought flight passes. The first impression of New Zealand was that it's really cool - cold in fact. Moving from the summer heat of Californian desert to the winter cold of Southern New Zealand was a bit of a shock! The first thing me & Jo did was to buy some warm clothes - gloves, hat & warm jacket. Dunedin in the southeast of the South island was a nice little place - and really reminded me of the UK. Dunedin is actually Gaelic for Edinburgh as it was founded by scottish settlers. There is definitely a strong link to Edinburgh here. The school kids where kilts, and the scenery is similar to the highlands. Its really quite like England, they drive on the left, have little cars like us! and the weather's pretty similar here anyway. It's fairly cheap, and we got a roast pub lunch here for $6 - about 2 pounds. The town: a big student town, with lots of pubs, the steepest street in the world, a brewery (we went on the tour), a botanical gardens and a pleasant Victorian house (with a cerayzee lady who does the tour - "improprieties – that’s a lovely word"). Our hostel does some *award winning* nature tours of the Otago Peninsula , and we were able to see Royal Albatross, Fur Seals, Hooker’s Sealion and Yellow Eyed Penguins. We saw two royal albatross, little penguins coming out of the surf, and watched from just a few meters as sea lions were playing as the sun set. We also saw seals and cormorants and black swans. The scenery is just amazing. Oh, there were lots of sheep too. Our next stop was at Queenstown, mainly a ski resort full of skiers and relatively more expensive, but still cheap by UK standards. It is famous as a resort for extreme sports. We skipped out on most of them, but did luge down the mountain, and go jet boating on the Shotover jet, which sped through rocky canyons at 80kmph throwing you right up against the rocks and doing 360s which was wicked. We also stayed at a hostel that had a pretty weird owner - so that was fairly extreme too. Ish. We rented a car and drove up to the magnificently beautiful Milford Sound, picking up some hilarious Japanese hitchhikers, and some mischievous Kea birds tried to pick at some of our car. We had a cruise at Milford , taking in the fantastic views - Snow capped mountains perfectly reflected in lakes and all the rest. The place really gave Yosemite a run for its money. We also were tying to spot scenery from the Lord of the Rings movies, as a lot of it was filmed here. Wanaka was next, where we chilled out before we moved on. Pop fact: Many football referees come from this area, leading to the expression "The referee's from Wanaka" * * this fact is clearly made up. The sport is rugby, not football The coolest thing here seems to be the eccentric looking cinema, with the seating made up of old armchairs - there is even a car in the cinema that you can sit in. We saw the arty film "A Time For Drunken Horses". There was an interval in the middle where we bought freshly baked cookies. Continuing our journey Northwards, we drove by coach to Franz Josef. As with most of the journey, it was very scenic - we stopped at a salmon farm and stuffed our faces with gorgeous salmon during the brief coach lunch stop. A comic highlight was the coach driver giving a long lecture about not touching the electric fence next to a scenic photo point. Immediately afterwards, some Japanese tourists leaned against it, oblivious to what he had just said. Fortunately for them, it was turned off. FJ is famous for its glaciers, and we went on an exhausting afternoon glacier hike. They gave us jackets, boots and socks and gloves and crampons to stick on the bottom of your boots into the ice, we went down sideways through crevasses where the ice was above our heads. Our next destination was Christchurch, and we travelled there on the famous Tranzalpine train through the Southern Alps and Arthur’s Pass. It is reputed to be one of the best train journeys in the world and it wasnae bad. One of Christchurch's attractions is "The Wizard", a guy who rants outside the Cathedral. We saw one guy ranting on this speakers corner of sorts - I'm not sure if it was the wizard or not (he didn't have a pointy hat on), but he was hilarious, particularly when an even bigger nutter started arguing religious points with him a way that reminded me of Monty Python: "There were 12 tribes in Judea!" "No there weren't" ... and so on. We checked out the Canterbury museum & botanical gardens , the many secondhand bookshops and the aquarium. We were able to get a look at a real life Kiwi. It was a bizarre little thing, bobbing about in the dark - there aren't many in the wild any more after introduced species all but wiped them out. Christchurch is the south island's largest city and we were glad to be back in civilisation after seeing nothing but sheep for quite some time. (NZ has 5 million people and 44 million sheep). Christchurch was very English, with punting on the river Avon. But we struggled to keep ourselves amused for two whole days. After catching the last episode of Xena Warrior Princess on TV, we headed to Kaikoura , famous for it's local marine life. It is the most accessible spot on the planet for whale watching. It is quite unique because just off shore there are very deep canyons underwater filled with ice cold water from the ant-artic, so there is so much marine life here. We started off with a whale-watching tour . The sea was pretty choppy, and the earlier tours the day had been cancelled - however we continued to be lucky with our weather and we were able to go. The sea was still pretty rough - almost half the people on the boat were sick (including Jo). As we watched from the side of the boat, almost immediately we saw a group of Orca Killer whales, and lots of Albatross. The aim of the trip was to try and find a Sperm whale. We were lucky enough to see 2 and although we could only see a part of its back & blowhole and then its tail as it finally dived down, it was a pretty magical experience. The whales are massive, 50 metres long and can feed on giant squid at the bottom of the ocean. Recently one washed up on kaikoura beach and was 55feet long! Closer to shore we saw about 100 dusky dolphins. The sea was just covered in fins, and there were about 10 riding up the bow of the boat. It was amazing. But we didnt stop for long. The crew member told us they were courting, and are one of the most promiscuous animals. A research team recently found a female mated 5 times with three different partners in 2.5 minutes!! Apparently on average they mate 8 times a day, every day, from the age of four months. The next day, we went on a dolphin encounter to go swimming with dolphins. The centre kitted us out with a full wetsuit (with gloves, mask etc) - essential in the cold water. They even had prescription lenses for my goggles. Well, you can see the results in my photos! We also bought a disposable underwater camera. Soon after going out in the boat, we came by a pod of about 450 dusky dolphins. We swam off from the back of the boat, swimming with the dolphins and trying to take some pictures. Masses of dolphins were swimming by, looking at us, sometimes as many as 8 dolphins were close by - it was absolutely incredible. When the dolphins had swum by, we got back on the boat to catch up with them & repeat the experience - in all we had 4 swims. Afterwards, we warmed up on the boat with a warm shower and hot chocolate then sat on the boat, watching the dolphins swimming alongside the boat. Kaikoura also has a large Seal colony, and we visited that before moving on to the nation's capital Wellington . It has the slogan "Absolutely Positively Wellington". When we first got there we absolutely positively snoozed all afternoon. The following day we took the historic cable car up for a panoramic view of the city, and walked back down through the pleasant botanic garden . There we found a pleasant surprise - THE SEDDON MEMORIAL! Needless to say, I was dead chuffed. It is a large memorial in honour of Richard "King Dick" Seddon. He was Prime Minister of New Zealand at the end of the 19th century and was pretty popular, and apparently is some sort of great uncle of mine. He was Prime Minister when women were granted the vote, though apparently didn't think it was a very good idea. Afterwards we visited the Te Papa museum, which was pleasant enough. Incidentally, I don't believe that there is a "Yo Mamma" museum. Leaving Wellington, we flew to Taupo on a tiny little prop plane, which freaked my chicken, but Jo thought was cool. Lake Taupo was created in what was thought to be the biggest volcanic erruption ever, 25000 years ago. The lake is the crater of the volanoe and is 600 sq km. Luckily NZ was not inhabited at the time. In Taupo we exerted ourselves on an energetic walk (out of character, I know) along the Waikoto River, visiting "The Craters of the Moon", almost naturally formed holes in the ground, pouring forth hot sulphurous steam. I called them stink holes. The smell gave me a headache. We should next be visiting the natural springs here, before moving on to National Park in the Wakapapa region. After visiting these places that smell different (to put it politely). It made me sing this little song (to the tune of Abba's Fernando"): "There was something in the air that night, it smelt like shite, in Taupo". We relaxed in the hot springs there, which was fairly uneventful except for one kid thinking I looked like Jack Osbourne . Which I don't entirely agree with. After a particularly competitive game of Scrabble in which Jo refused to believe that "dank" was a word, our next stop was National Park. National Park is right next to Whakapapa (pronounced fak-a-papa without giggling if possible) where there is a pleasant ski field on the top of mount Rupehu. The mountain is actually an active volcanoe that last errupted in 1996 causing the lake in its crater to rush down the sides into a passing train killing 150 people . The main reason we visited there was to meet up with Tom Scruby, an Exeter uni friend, who was working at a cafe on the ski field. He seemed to be having a cool time there, and we had a pleasant time one evening when the local bar organised a schnapps belly button race. Tom lent us lots of his gear so that saved us a few bucks. We were staying in the smallest place ever with only a garage and a pub, no shop so for a week we hitched up and down the mountain nearby to go skiing because there was no public transport. But we met lots of nice people and as we have never really hitched before so it was a new experience (apart from New Years 2001/2). We almost hitched a lift in a stretched white limo with the license plate "GWBUSH", but we didn't so that doesn't make a very good anecdote, sorry. Listening to the radio has been quite funny at times. The profanity laws must be different here or something, because they've been f-ing and blinding on the like sailors. Sweary sailors. We often listened to Ski FM in the Central Plateaux region - the station was on EVERYWHERE, playing a wide variety of music, terrible adverts - one features a hideous Forest Gump Impression "mamma always said snow is like a box of chocolates, it melts in the sun". The main reason people listen is for the Ski report - to find out what's open. The main reason we turned of the radio is because of Pink - her latest singles "Making Me Ill" and "Don't let me get me" were played absolutely everywhere. I don't dislike the songs, but the blanket airwave coverage made me sick, Jo even more so. On the first day we tried Snowboarding, but a combination of horrible weather, a rubbish instructor, and painful boots was a little off putting. On the second day we spent 10 minutes on the ski field before the entire mountain was closed due to blizzard conditions. We had to wait 3 hours for our coach - the one that was supposed to take us was blown off the road on the way up. So for three hours we were the last 50 people on the mountain. The school kids waiting with us were all running round throwing snowballs with icicles in their hair in the 120mph wind! But we got down in the end. The next 2 days the weather improves and we got a good days skiing in. Joanne had never been before, and after a few initial tumbles, she seemed to pick it up very naturally. After this encouraging progress we tried another slope higher up and Jo was left rather out of her depth. My bad. I think my dad did something very similar the first time my mum went skiing. Our next stop was Rotorua - the geothermal tourism capital of NZ, in fact its tourist slant has earned it the nickname "Rotovegas". Its motto is "Feel the spirit", but could have been "wiff the egg", as the air has quite a strong nasty smell of sulphur. We paid another visit to a hot spa, which has alkaline and acidic pools, strong in all kinds of revitalising minerals. That evening, we did the must do activity in Rotorua, a Maori hangi (feast). It was pretty commercial, but had to be done really. The highlight for me was Jo exposing our Bus driver as being a bit of a charlatan. She wanted him to explain the difference between the words Waka and whaka – and he was forced to admit that he couldn't actually speak Maori... despite taking the piss out of us as he tried to teach us a few basic words a little earlier. On Saturday we visited the NZ Maori Arts and crafts institute at Te Whakarewarewa , but it was pretty touristy and we weren't overly impressed. We enjoyed the Agrodome far more. This place is the home of Zorbing - rolling down the hill in a large plastic ball. I was tempted to do it but decided against it. Very cool was their sheep show - with lots of breeds, dogs doing tricks, and sheering. Jo got to feed a baby lamb & loved it the wee softie. We took photos of the sheep Orking (check out www.monkeon.co.uk/orking/ to see what I mean - a very funny website) Our final day in Rotorua was hired a car and went on a big geothermal tour. We started off at Wai-O-Tapu, home of the famous Lady Knox geyser. It goes off at 10.15 every day - with a little help from some soap powder that is poured into the geyser. Next up was the Waimangu volcanic valley where we took a boat cruise around lake Rotomahana and saw the still active mount Tarawera. It was very beautiful, but weirdly the area's main attraction (its spectacular pink and white terraces) were destroyed over a hundred years ago. The area's life was completely destroyed, and everything is starting from scratch - it is billed as a look at how life first began. Last on the day's itinerary was Hells Gate , boiling mudpools (that you can bathe in too). I think we'd burnt out on seeing all these geothermal sights (and smells) though and were left fairly underwhelmed. Joanne commented on some people over a sulphurous cavern "II don't know why they're hanging around all this stinking sulphur - just for the hell of it". Leaving a trail of sulphur behind us we drove to Auckland, stopping at Waitomo, to have a look at the glow-worm caves. We had an enthusiastic guide called Zane ("'cos I'm in-zane"), who only had 2 fingers on one hand. The cave & glow worm were well worth it and it was quite magical floating in the darkness, illuminated only by the glow from these tiny creatures. When we got to Auckland it was quite a weird sensation. We've been away from large cities for what seems such a long time that the experience was a little unnerving. However, we left the next day to go have a look around the very north before leaving for Sydney. We travelled up along the Northland's Twin Coastal route. The West is famous for the fabulous Kauri trees - absolutely ancient trees which grow to an amazing size - we saw one that was 45 feet wide and 150ft tall. Another was 4000 years old. Further north there is a swamp full of ancient kauri thought to be 30 - 50,000 years old. We visited the Kauri museum and Ancient Kauri Kingdom which has this amazing kauri tree inside the shop, and a giant internal staircase has been carved out of it. After visiting the ancient forests in Trounson Kauri Park & Waipoua forest we stopped at Opononi. The town is famous as the home of Opo the dolphin - a friendly dolphin who used to swim by the shore and play with the children (Unfortunately he died a few years ago). We continued on to the far north of NZ to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. We stopped at 90 mile beach - a long stretch of sand that can be driven along and used as a road. Jo drove on the sand a little bit - mostly threatening to run me over. That night we stayed at Manonui in Doubtless Bay where we met one of the freakiest people that I have ever encountered - think Will at his weirdest & multiply it by a number of your choice). "Nice guy" Johnny gave us a 3 hour monologue on his life story - his harsh upbringing in Prague, his clearly insane parents, his time in the Israeli army (when he pretended to be insane to leave it early - I don't think he needed to pretend too hard), his womanising, horrific bike accident, thoughts on God, and recent motor troubles. He was stuck in the middle of no-where because his car broke down - and going mad while the local mechanic kept on finding new problems. We escaped Johnny and continued back down along the East coast of the Northland. We stopped briefly at KawaKawa, which is famous for it's ornate toilets designed by Frederick Hundertwasser. Not an especially nice town - it's odd that anyone (apart from George Michel maybe) could envisage a town where the toilets are the highlight. The Bay of Islands area was next, and we stayed in "Romantic" Russell (as it promotes itself), a picturesque little town. We played scrabble again, with me turning the game around with "avenges" scoring 36 , very apt I thought. We arrived back into Auckland & the sunny weather made the city seem much more appealing than on our previous visit a few days earlier. We visited Kelly Tarton's Antartic Encounter Underwater World which was very cool. They have a wonderful Antarctic temperature Penguin area, as well as an aquarium that is viewed from underneath, along a moving walkway. We took in various other sights including Mount Eden, an extinct volcano that offers magnificent views, with a crater 50 metres deep that you can walk down to, and Victoria Market (NZ's version of Camden I guess). We checked out the views from the Skytower and met up with Davey (Will's friend from Cornwall) & his girlfriend Frankie. We chilled out in Devonport area & saw Xena the Warrior Princess' ship in the harbour (they film most of it in NZ). And that was New Zealand. An absolutely lovely place, but with little city life. My highlights were definitely Dolphin Swimming in Kaikoura, the fabulous cinema in Wanaka and the beautiful Milford Sound. About Contents Email I found this cool New Zealand site that is basically a journal of a guy that went there. He went to a lot of the same places that I went to and has some cool photos. He even mentions the obnoxious hostel owner that we met in Queenstown. |
