TravelStream™ news feed for member deankezontour on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/deankezontour en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:48:25 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205173920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205173920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205173920/tpod.html Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:48:25 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Te Anau, New Zealand

We had a bit of a lie-in, this campsite is huge so there is no issue about a leaving time. We waited until the tide went out and had a walk down to Curio Bay to see the fossilized forest. It is interesting and you can obviously see it was a forest but I wished we had booked onto the guided walk where a scientist would have explained what we were looking at. Still, I'm glad we paid the visit and I wonder why it is fossilized and why the wood didn't just rot away as you would expect. I'm sure there is a very exciting, scientific explanation but we never found out what is was. Maybe I will 'google' it when I get home.
After looking at the beach we drove for several hours to get to Te Anau which is the gateway to Milford and Doubtful Sounds. It is a lovely little town which consists of just a few streets with shops, bars and restaurants. The town sits peacefully beside New Zealand's second largest lake. Lake Te Anau was gouged out by a huge glacier, and has several arms that penetrate into the moutainous forested shore. It's deepest point is 417m and it stretches 53km long. The lake takes its name from the caves called Te-Ana-au (cave with a current of swirling water), which lie on it's western shore. Once present only in Maori legends, these impressive caves were re-discovered fairly recently in 1948. Accessible only by boat, the 200m cave system is said to be a magical place with waterfalls, whirlpools and a glow-worm grotto in its inner reaches. We are hoping to go and see the glow-worms while we are here.
We booked ourselves into the Great Lakes Holiday Park which is within two minutes walking time to the town. This campsite is possibly the best we have ever stayed at. The kitchen is huge with lots of electric/gas rings , two ovens, two microwaves, loads of toasters, loads of space, loads of everything. The dining area is also absolutely huge and there are vending machines and heaters everywhere. There is a large TV room with a log fire and a little internet bay with two coin-operated computers. Both the kitchen and TV room are open 24 hours. There are lots of showers and toilets and everything is spotless. It is much warmer here, away from the coast and the wind. After sorting the van and awning out, we sat outside in the late afternoon sun. It is lovely here, I already don't want to leave. Another bonus is the campsite is directly next to a DVD rental shop. It was a bit late when we arrived here so we picked up a load of leaflets to look through and decide what we wanted to do tomorrow.
I definitely want to see the glow-worm caves so the next day we headed into the town to look around and book the trip (although we could have booked directly at the campsite). This is an example of how small the population is here:- there is a small supermarket and every day, they have a board up displaying the names of the local people whose birthday it is that day. I thought that was really quite sweet.
There are lots of souveneir shops here and I love these type of shops, I could spend hours browsing in them - Dean was very patient. The shame about back-packing is you have to carry everything back home on your back so not much room for souveneirs. I could have spent a fortune in those shops, everything was so nice. We found a tour booking place and booked ourselves onto the glow-worm tour for that evening. We could only get onto the 7.15pm one as all the others were booked up. I was surprised as there doesn't seem to be enough people in the town even if you count all the tourists (which I think must all be hiding somewhere).
So, with our trip to look forward to, we set off back to camp to get showered, changed and fed. We dressed warmly as we expect it to be cold underground and when we got to the lakeside meeting place there were loads of people waiting for the boat- it was full. It felt like we were on a pensioners day out, I think we were the only people in the group under the age of 60. We all boarded the boat and every seat was taken. Dean and I wanted to go upstairs on deck to look at the lake and the scenery but they wouldn't let us until after the stupid safety video. We did eventually get up there and it was very cold and windy but the views over the lake to the mountains beyond were amazing. The boat journey was only thirty minutes long and as we were about to disembark we were told that we would be counted into small groups of twelve to go underground. There were two women in front of us who were absolutely determined to be the first off the boat and were willing to trample over anyone who got in the way of their goal. They were pushing and shoving, completely forgetting their husbands behind them and they irritated me immediately. They did manage to be the first off and we were just behind them. They counted us off as we came off the boat and the two women then realised what they were doing and suddenly remembered they had husbands with them. They started shouting for them to come up to the front with them but we had already been counted into a group and the guide said no, they would have to go back in the line to join their husbands if they wanted to be in the same tour group. Well, they weren't prepared to give up their precious position at the front and chose to go without them.
The entrance to the cave was so close and there was an underground river coming out of it that I wondered how come it took until 1948 to re-discover it. The caves here are about 12,000 years old which is young in geological terms. But the limestone they carve through is ancient - up to 35 million years old. This cave system is quite unusual because they are still increasing in size. The river that flows through them is mildly acidic, which helps the water dissolve rock and create passages. The entrance to the caves is low (even I had to duck ever so slightly), but it quickly opens up into the expansive cathedral. This is the highest known point in the caves at 20m, it is quite magical (if you like that kind of thing). As soon as we went in, we could hear rushing water which in the darkness is a bit spooky. We were glad of our warm clothes and woolly hats, as it was a bit cold in there. We are not allowed to take pictures or videos in the caves as it disturbs the glo-worms and they switch their lights off in reaction to light or noise. At the far end of the cathedral, there is a waterfall and we can see fossillized shell fragments and marine skeletons in the limestone walls. These date back to when the limestone formed under the sea millions of years ago. Past the waterfall there is a whirlpool and a natural sandstone bridge. At the end of the walkway, we all got into a small boat to float into the gloworm grotto. We were all warned before we got to the boat that we must be absolutely silent from the moment we get into the it. I ended up sat next to the annoying women who immediately began talking loudly between each-other as soon as we sat down. Everyone was whispering "Sush" at them but they continued for another four more "Shushes" directed at them when they finally got the message and shut up. They were so annoying, I was seriously tempted to throttle them in the pitch black. And it was pitch black when the boat started moving, we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. We could clearly see the gloworms in the darkness, their little lights shining brightly all over the walls and ceiling of the cave. It was quite eeerie, the boat moving silently in the darkness but I liked it, it was peaceful. The gloworms are not actually worms, they are the larva of a fungus gnat. The brilliant lights of the larvae attract flying insects to sticky threads that hang from their nests. The hungrier the gloworms, the more brightly they glow.
The boat journey lasted about ten minutes and then we left the cave system the way we had come in. We passed the second group half-way into the caves on our way out. Back outside the caves, there is a building with a little cafeteria and we were offered tea and coffee (free). We were glad of a hot drink and two cups tea later, it was time to get back on the boat. It is a cold night tonight.
Back at camp I spent my evening in the TV room on the internet. Dean came and joined me after about an hour, announcing that he had booked us on a trip for the next morning. He wouldn't tell me what it was, it is a surprise. I love surprises and Dean is not usually so spontaneous so I revelled in the moment and looked forward to it.
The next morning, a minibus arrived at 9.30am and I still hadn't got a clue what we were going to do. I couldn't make it out from the writing on the minibus either. Someone got out and introduced himself (I forgot his name) and he gave the game away immediately asking us if we'd booked for horse riding.
Horse riding?!!
I must admit I was pretty surprised as Dean has always maintained that you'd never get him on a horse. I have always said you'd never get me on a horse either. I am a bit scared of horses, they are so big and daft and skitty. However, it's something I have never done before and I'm looking forward to having a go - how hard or scary can it be? I did jump out of a plane at 12,000ft and the royal family go horse riding all the time don't they? So, it can't be that dangerous or they wouldn't be allowed.
The minibus picked up another couple along the way but they are doing quad-biking. We were then driven to a farm where we met our guide, a fresh-faced lovely young woman called Katie. She was very excited about having two absolute beginners who have never even sat on a horse before and her confidence is infectious. I was glad to find out it was just the three of us riding that morning, I think I would have been more nervous in a large group with lots of horses. We got fitted with a hat and then she took us over to meet the horses who were all ready and tied to the fence. My horse is called Blackadder and he is the smallest horse (he is huge). Dean's horse is called Hooter and the lead horse is called Nick. I was relieved to see a stepping block in the field, I didn't have to hoist myself onto this huge animal from the ground although I'm sure that would have made an incredibly entertaining video. How on earth can anybody get on this thing from the ground?
Getting onto the horse via the stepping block was easy but as soon as I got on him, I immediately got cramp in both hips. This horse is WIDE, my little legs are not designed to be that far away from each-other. I began to doubt the entertainment value in this particular activity but luckily the cramp disappeared after about 20 seconds and it's quite a nice feeling being sat high upon a horse. Dean also managed to climb onto Hooter without incident and Katie explained the reins, how to hold them and how to make the horse turn. It all seems so easy and these horses are very used to the walk and having beginners in the saddle. Immediately we were on the horses, both of them put their heads down to eat the grass. Dean stopped Hooter from doing it by pulling his head up by the reins. I felt sorry for Blackadder, he was obviously happy to be out of his paddock munching on all the un-munched grass out here and I let him. I would regret this later.
We set off with Katie and Nick leading, I was surprised to learn that there is a hierarchy among horses and they follow each other in single file but in a specific order. Hooter stays very close behind Nick, practically up his bum in fact. Blackadder lags behind them both at his own pace. Katie had warned me that because Blackadder's only got little legs, he gets behind and occasionally runs (well probably more of a trot) to catch up to the others. This was incredibly alarming the first time he did it (and painful) and I hung on for dear life as I was bounced up and down in the hard saddle. Katie told me to lift my bum off the seat when he did this but I never did get the hang of it properly and my feet kept bouncing out of the stirrups every time he picked up his pace.
Apart from that, it was lovely trotting around the farm which has many acres of land. It was a gorgeous sunny day and a pleasant way to travel around. Dean really enjoyed it too and looked like he'd been riding horses all his life - it suited him. After an hour or so, we stopped for some home-made muffins, chocolate chip cookies and a drink. My legs felt like jelly when I got off, I couldn't stop them shaking and I hoped they would be capable of getting back on him. They were and luckily there was another stepping block in this field too.
For the next leg of the journey, Katie is going to lead us through a river and up and down some hills. We went into a field full of clover and Blackadder thought he was at a birthday party. He kept stopping every five seconds to put his head down and munch. There was no warning when he did this and every time I was thrown forward in surprise. I tried to stop him but he was strong and I had let him do it earlier, he knew I was a soft touch and he wouldn't listen to me at all. He was being so naughty and in the end, Katie put him on the rope or it would have taken us until Christmas to complete the walk. Hooter was just as eager to get to the clover but Dean had much better control over him.
Blackadder was well behaved with Katie holding his rope. In fact, he seemed very smug because now he was at the front alongside the lead horse and Hooter was behind. Katie told us that Blackadder loves to be in front. His 'little legs' had no trouble keeping pace now and he even tried to nose his way slightly in front of Nick. Nick nutted him whenever he did this to put him back in his place and I thought this was highly amusing. After we had cleared the clover fields, Katie let Blackadder off the rope and Hooter immediately nosed his way past him to resume his usual position. So, Blackadder was lagging behind again going slower than ever.
It was fun going through the river and Katie showed us how to lean forward when we go uphill and lean back when going down. They sure make it look easy galloping up and down mountains in Lord of the rings but it definitely isn't. Take it from me, horse riding is not as easy as it looks and I feel bruised already from bouncing in the saddle which isn't soft. We came to a gate and Katie got off to open it. While we were stood still for a moment, Blackadder took a fancy to a tree that was there. He started to eat the leaves and then proceeded to drag me into the middle of it. I squealed as I first tried to move the branches out of my face and as a after-thought realised that it was a possibility I could be dragged off the horse altogether. Luckily Katie was on the ground and grabbed Blackadder, putting him back on the rope and telling him off. Crisis over, Blackadder managed to behave himself for the rest of the walk, I think he had scared himself. We came to a field with lots of mushrooms in it and Katie picked some for us to take home. It was a lovely walk back to the farm and I have to say that I have really enjoyed the horse riding. It's definitely not an activity I would have picked myself but I'm glad we did it and it is a lovely way to see the countryside. I would definitely do it again but don't expect to see me in the Grand National anytime soon or ever. It has given me a certain kind of respect for people that do ride horses, those that gallop about on them must be pretty fit to do that. My legs were feeling quite sore when we got back to the farmyard and I still had to exit the horse. I wasn't sure they would support me jumping off but I didn't have to worry because Dean came and lifted me off and gently placed me on my jelly-legs. I gave Blackadder a cuddle and a kiss on his nose, he is a lovely horse really - just hungry.
We were driven back to our campsite with a huge bag of freshly picked mushrooms. We decided to fry them up for our dinner and we had a delicious meal of bacon, eggs, beans mushrooms and toast. It has been a very different but again an incredible and enjoyable day in paradise that is New Zealand.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205096460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205096460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205096460/tpod.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:22:01 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Owaka, New Zealand

I would have liked to stay here another day, I love the campsite and the sealions but Dean thinks we should move on and explre some other areas of The Catlins. So, we packed up and headed towards Curio Bay which has a 180 million year old fossilised forest for a beach which we think will be interesting to see. As we drove that morning, we saw a turn-off for a waterfall, The Horseshoe Falls, so we chose to stop and have a walk to see it. The sign said it was a thirty minute walk away and we have plenty of time. The track was muddy and a bit steep in places, we were glad we had our walking shoes on. It wound through quite dense forest and it was nice and peaceful through there, we saw only two people along the way. As promised, we came upon the waterfall within thirty minutes and although it is not a very big one; it is lovely (I love waterfalls). We took a few photo's of it and headed back to the van. At the top of the track, near to where the van was parked, there were two young girls struggling down the muddy decline in flip-flops. As we passed, we shook our heads at them but judging by their squeals and giggles a few seconds later, they had already discovered their lack of wisdom in their choice of footwear.
We got back on the road and saw many more turn-offs for waterfalls and look-outs but we didn't stop again until we got to Curio Bay. I didn't realise until we got there that the campsite is a DOC one. We paid for the one night (at least it was cheap) and then went to have a look at the facilities. The facilities are hilarious; very, very basic to say the least. The showers are apparantly hot but Dean and I took one look at them and decided we would have a baby-wipe wash instead. The "kitchen" which didn't even have a door on it and from the outside looks like a public toilet (round in shape); contains a kettle, one electric ring and a microwave. We went to find a spot to put the van, this campsite is huge with lots of little 'coves' surrounded by very tall grass. It is incredibly windy here, blowing a gale and it is very cold too. We put the van on the cliff-top where we could see the sea through the window. We were backed into a kind of cove with high grass (as high as the van) surrounding us but the front facing the cliff-top and the sea. I have never seen the sea look so angry and big. The surf here is huge and the sea-spray is thrown up so high, there is white foam everywhere. It is so dramatic and beautiful. I find the sea hypnotic to watch anywhere I am, and here it is totally awesome.
The tide is in now so we can't go and see the fossils until tomorrow. Again, we bumped into Julia and Adrian here (maybe they really are stalking us). I don't envy them in a tent, it is freezing and the wind is so strong. Take it from people who know, (anybody who has camped in the UK) - it is cold tenting in these conditions but at least it isn't raining. There is nowhere on this campsite where we can get together and have a chat like we did last night and I refuse to be outside, it is too cold for that. Even walking briskly uphill, we can feel the cold wind penetrating all the layers of clothing we have. We walked around the beach and looked for dolphins, we didn't see any and there are no sealions here either. We walked along the cliffs and around the campsite but we had to keep going back to the van to get warm. I think this is one of the nicest views we have had out of our van window, these heavy seas are so dramatic and amazing to watch. We did spend quite a bit of time that day gazing out of the window and drinking tea which may sound boring but really wasn't. Unfortunately our back awning didn't seem to fare so well in this strong wind and two of the press-studs kept coming out because the wind was causing it to flap about and the force was pulling them out. Dean first of all tried hammering the press studs with a rock, trying to change the shape of them slightly and therefore making them tighter. That didn't work and they stilll kept popping out, trust it to be my side of the bed too. Dean solved the problem by taking the elastic string from the top of the chilly bag and looping it around the awning to stop it from flapping about. We then secured the string from the inside with pegs to stop the elastic from slipping down. Genius! The press studs stayed in place for the rest of the night and it was much quieter too, that flapping noise was doing my head in - the wind is noisy enough.
It was really spooky later when it got dark, we couldn't see our hand in front of our face outside the van. It was so dark and the sound of the crashing sea seemed so loud (and so close) . We watched a DVD that evening and sat in the van with all our layers and woolly hats on. At least we didn't have to worry about anyone hearing us, there is nobody anywhere near and they probably wouldn't be able to hear above the sound of the wind and the crashing waves. It was a bit of a pain going to the toilet though, I didn't like getting out of the van by myself, it was so creepy up there on top of the cliffs in the dark and wind and sea noise. After a few drinks a panicky thought crept into my head - 'What if the hand-brake fails and we roll down over the top of the cliff in the middle of the night?' The more I thought about it the more it seemed like a real possibility so I woke Dean up in the middle of the night to ask him what he thought. He sleepily told me that it was an impossibilty because the van is in park. Luckily, Dean finds my ridiculous, paranoid fantasies (usually wine-fuelled) amusing as opposed to annoying and always manages to reassure me, usually with a big grin on his face because of how silly I am. Anyway, much happier - I stuck my head under the duvet, snuggled up to Dean and slept solid until morning.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205003520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205003520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205003520/tpod.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:39:14 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Owaka, New Zealand

Continued....

We were both hungry so we headed back to camp to get showered and make a meal. The facilities here are small but lovely. There is a small kitchen but is very well equipped with everything you could possibly need. They are currently building a dining area which isn't finished yet. It does need one, there were about four different people all trying to cook in there and we were tripping over each-other in the small space. There is only one dining table inside that seats four so it was a bit of a cram finding space to prepare your food etc when there are more than two people in there, cooking. But we managed, we all just smiled and chatted as we danced around each-other.
There is just one shower each for the male and female and two toilets but for a site this small, that is sufficient. Neither of us had a problem getting into the shower, there was no queue. The showers were hot and spotlessly clean. This is the cutest little campsite and I really like it here.
After sorting ourselves out and tidying/washing up done, we decided to go back down to the beach to see if the sealions were still there and if they had woken up. It was about 7pm by now and the tide was way out so we could walk along the beach instead of the track. We spotted a family group of sealions up ahead, they were wide awake and seemed to be playing with each-other. The female and the pup were play fighting near the shore and the male was laid towards the back of the beach. We kept our distance as sealions can move quickly over short distances and as I said earlier, they are not afraid of people. We sat on a log nearby and watched them. The sun was starting to set over the sea and it was a stunning sunset, the perfect backdrop to this sweet little scene before our eyes.
The female kept coming up to the male and 'having a go' at him. She was biting and roaring at him, they make a loud noise. He was roaring back and kept rushing at her to bite her back but it was playful, there was no force behind it. I think she was trying to get him down to the water and she did succeed in getting him to the shore but he wasn't having any of it. It was so funny to watch, they kept biting and roaring at each-other and then they would both grunt and flop down with their backs to each-other, kind of a sealion domestic or that is how it seemed. The pup meanwhile was obviously bored, he kept coming up to his mum and biting her then waddled off into the sea for a swim. He was just messing about by the shore though, I think he was eager to get off and go fishing but wasn't going anywhere without his parents. It was so cute and amazing to watch these huge creatures in their natural environment. We sat there for an hour just watching them but as the sun went down, it turned cool so we made our way back to camp. The sealions were still biting and roaring at each-other when we left. I could have sat there all night and watched them but Dean was in shorts and was getting cold and bitten by sand flies.
We bumped into Julia and Adrian on the beach, they had also been watching the sealions. We chatted on the way back to camp and they invited us into the kitchen for a game of cards with them. We happily accepted and went to get some drinks from the van. We didn't have one game of cards in the end, just sat talking with them and having a laugh for the next few hours. It was a very enjoyable evening especially since we haven't really socialised very much since we have been in New Zealand. They are travelling around for a year and are off to China next. We discovered that they had recently got married while travelling and we congratulated them. We have swapped e-mail adresses and they have said they will definitely try to make it to the festival of fireworks this year back in England. It would be nice to see them again and I hope we really do keep in touch. When we walked back to our van, we were amazed at all the stars in the sky. It was a gorgeous, clear, crisp night and I have never seen so many stars, it was awesome.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205013240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205013240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1205013240/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:56:25 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Owaka, New Zealand

Dean has been up all night with toothache which must be the reason he's been feeling rubbish for the last few days. First thing in the morning, I went to the office to enquire about a dentist. Today is Saturday and all the dentists are closed so we could have difficulty getting hold of one. The office gave me the number for an emergency dentist and I rang it three times but all I got was an answering machine every time. I didn't bother leaving my mobile number as for some reason it doesn't seem to work when anyone in New Zealand tries to ring it. I don't know if this is because it is a UK network and you have to put a code in or something. We decided to try at the hospital as the office told me she thought they have an emergency dental service there. The hospital proved to be the worst sign-posted one in the world, it took us ages to find it. Good job neither of us were bleeding to death! We did eventually find it but they just gave me the same emergency number I already have. The receptionist was very nice and tried to ring it for me but she only got an answering machine too. We decided to continue on our journey and on the way out of town we stopped at the few dentist surgeries we saw along the way, on the off-chance they may be open.
They were all closed and we were just about to give it up as a bad job when we saw another with a flat beside the surgery. The surgery door was closed but the door the the flat was slightly ajar. I felt awful intruding but I rang the bell anyway. Nobody came to the door but when I turned to go back to the van, a couple were walking up the drive. I asked them if they lived here and the man replied; "No, I don't. I'm the dentist." I explained our predicament to him and how we had been trying to get hold of the emergency dentist unsuccessfully. He immediately told us that he couldn't do it but he would ring around and try to find out who the on-call dentist is and get in touch with them personally for us. He opened up the surgery and made several phone calls and seemed quite annoyed that it was so difficult (even for him) to find out the information he sought. He did eventually find out who the on-call was, someone he had never heard of and he tried to contact him on his personal number only to get another answering machine.
In the end, he asked Dean what the problem was and said it sounds like an abcess. What he could do was to give him a prescription for some antibiotics to help him out until we could find someone after the weekend. His wife was with him and said "You should take a look at it first." He sighed heavily and motioned for Dean to come into the treatment room. I talked to his wife while he was in there and discovered that they are actually moving house today and the two homes are 50km apart. We had already been in there forty minutes by now and I felt terrible realising that they were giving up their valuable time on their moving day of all days. Dean came out and the dentist had x-rayed him and everything. The conclusion was an abcess and he gave him prescription for some antibiotics. He will have to have root canal work or an extraction later but at least this should cure the infection in the meantime. We asked him how much we owed him and he said; "Nothing, just have a great holiday."
We couldn't believe it, the kindness of a stranger - it is people like this that restore your faith in humanity. To have given up his precious time on this moving day and then to have charged us nothing, not even for the prescription; Dr David MacDonald of Dunedin, you are truly a saint. In truth, I think he was a bit embarrassed and annoyed that the emergency dentist system didn't work for us and it should have done. I also think that He and his wife have a bit of a soft spot for Brit's as they have a daughter who lives in London and they love going to England as often as they can. We thanked them both from the very bottom of our hearts and wished them luck with the move. We went straight to the pharmacy at the bottom of the street so that Dean could begin his course of antibiotics as soon as possible and then we were on our way again, amazed at our good fortune that morning.
We arrived in Surat Bay which is in The Catlins National Park a few hours later. I had picked a little campsite right on the beach front for us to head to. It only has eight tent sites so I hoped we wouldn't have a problem getting in. We didn't and the Newhaven Holiday Park is a gorgeous, tiny little campsite - it is so lovely here. We were also thrilled to discover that they rent out DVD's and we picked one out for our evening's entertainment. We bumped into a couple who we have seen over the last four days because they have been at the last two campsites we have stayed at - are they stalking us?! We had not introduced ourselves before but we did so now and they are from Manchester - Adrian and Julia. We made small talk for a while then we headed off to the beach.
It wasn't exactly as 'beach-front' as I had thought, the beach was a ten minute walk along a sandy track. Still, it ws a nice day and the beach was beautiful. As soon as we stepped onto it we saw the sealions, there were about twelve of them laid in various small groups dotted along the huge beach. They were all asleep, lazily flicking sand onto themselves with their huge flippers, trying to keep cool. We thought that the New Zealand fur seals we had seen near Kaikoura were big but these were Hooker Sealions and they are absolutely massive. We could get fairly close to them, they are not afraid of people.
Hooker Sealions are one of the rarest types of sealion in the world, I think they are only found here in New Zealand (but don't hold me to it, I could be wrong). Their numbers have dwindled over the years mainly due to being caught in fishing nets and on shore - dog attacks. They are now a protected species and thier numbers are starting to slowly increase. They are so lovely, I was thrilled to see so many of them. I had expected to see maybe the odd one or two if we sat here long enough and this has surpassed my expectations. They have very dark fur except for the pups which are still grey. There were a few family groups; mum, dad and pup all cuddled in a heap together. We could tell the pups from the adults because of the colour of their fur and the fact that they are slightly smaller. Judging by their size though, they probably won't be pup's much longer. We spent a good couple of hours on the beach, watching them, hoping that one of them would wake up and waddle along the beach or something. They didn't, they were all enjoying their sleep in the sunshine too much and most of them didn't even open their eyes as we tiptoed up to them.
To be continued
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204839780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204839780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204839780/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:51:09 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Dunedin, New Zealand

Dunedin isn't very far away and it was a pleasant drive along the coast road. It is a large city but the campsite we have picked is on the outskirts, near to the beach. The campsite is interesting as they have a lot of cabins here and every one is brightly painted with a different theme or scene. There is a Simpsons cabin, Scooby Doo and lots with beach scenes on them - whoever painted them has done a good job, they look lovely.
Dean wasn't feeling so good while we were here so we didn't really do much at all in Dunedin except for taking a few long walks along the beach which is huge and very pretty. I did a lot of reading and typing while Dean rested and there is not much to say about our time here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204843200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204843200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204843200/tpod.html Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:32:13 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Oamaru, New Zealand

As we left the campsite that morning, there were a young couple hitch-hiking at the end of the drive. We decided to be nice and stopped to ask where they were going. They were headed for Queenstown so we said we could take them as far as Omarama which is in the right direction and about 50km away; they thanked us and hopped in. They were lovely German people in their early 20's - Patricia and Peter. Patricia spoke excellent English and was very chatty but I think Peter's English wasn't so good and he didn't say very much. We chatted along the way about our respective countries - how beautiful Germany is at Christmas time with all the snow and markets, how crap England is not to have snow anymore. She is very well travelled and has hitch-hiked everywhere it seems. She told us how she had hitched from London to Glasgow a few years back; very brave for a lone female. They were both absolute sweethearts and it was nice to have their company for a little while. We said our goodbyes at Omarama, shook their hands and wished them luck with their travels.
The rest of the journey to the coast was very scenic and we found a beautiful lake where we decided to stop for a while. We got our chairs out of the van and Dean made some tea while I busied myself making a few sandwiches. We sat outside drinking tea and enjoying our picnic. It was a gorgeous spot and would have been a lovely place to camp for the night. It is legal to just park up and camp anywhere in New Zealand, except in specific places where there are signs telling you not to do so. We haven't done this yet, always choosing to pay for a campsite where there are facilities we can use.
We got to Oamaru in the late afternoon and booked into the Top 10 holiday park there. It is a bigger town than I thought it would be but seems quite a nice place. The reason we came here (it was my choice) is: - Penguins! There is a colony of blue penguins and a colony of yellow-eyed penguins here and we are hoping to see them. There are some public gardens, smack beside the campsite and we had a lovely walk through them that evening. It is a bit windy though and therefore a bit cold. It was too cold to sit outside that evening and we spent a bit of time in the warm kitchen. The great thing about all the Top 10 holiday parks is the kitchens are open 24 hours, not the case in other places where they lock them at 10 or 11pm. It's a bummer when you have forgot you left some food in the fridge and you fancy a late-night snack. Dean watched some TV in the kitchen while I tried to catch up on my diary a bit, I have fallen behind.
The next day was relaxing and we caught up on a few chores. Then we had a stroll around the town and around the harbour (which is lovely), looked around the shops and eventually treat ourselves to some fish and chips. Unfortunately we couldn't get any blue cod, (they didn't sell it) and it was nowhere near as nice as the fish we had in Kaikoura. We went to the supermarket and our campsite has an oven so we bought a pizza to have later that evening while we watched a DVD.
We set off at about 6pm to go and see the yellow-eyed penguins that apparantly start to come ashore around 7pm. There were loads of people already there and we couldn't get anywhere near the hide because it was too full. You are not supposed to go onto the beach after 3pm because the penguins are very shy and if they see people, they won't come ashore. Likewise, if they are already on the shore, they will go back into the water - they are easily frightened. There is a big long pathway on the cliff top, above the beach and it was absolutely blowing a gale up there; it was freezing. It was hard to see anything at all because tears were streaming out of my eyes due to the wind. It wasn't a great view because it was very high above the beach so I was a bit disappointed as I had expected we would be able to get closer to them.
Anyway, we stood there for about 45 minutes and we saw three penguins waddling shore and a seal that was asleep on the beach. We went back to the van seconds before we both got frostbite - Jeez, it was cold up there.
It was so cold, we decided not to put the back awning up and try making the bed the other way tonight (this is the first time we have done this since we had the van). The bed looked really cosy in there but we lost 30% space inside the van which was a bit annoying. However, it is much warmer and much less noisy (this campsite is situated beside a busy road and the traffic sounds do your head in, this is not why we came to New Zealand). After dark, we had a drive down to the harbour to see if we could see any of the blue penguins wandering around. We may as well while we are here, we are leaving tomorrow. We had just about drove into the town when we remembered that we had left the pizza on top of the van to keep it cool. We laughed all the way back to the campsite as we immediately turned the van around and set off to find it. Dean spotted it on the road just outside the site, it must have slid off as we turned the corner. He managed to retrieve it just before a big truck ran it over. We examined the cellophane wrapper to make sure it was still intact - it was. Amazingly, nothing seemed to have run it over while we had been gone. So, off we went again with the pizza now safely in the van but we didn't see any more penguins that evening.
We went back to camp, watched our DVD and ate our pizza (which was delicious). It was much warmer with the boot door shut but the lack of space irritated me.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204442760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204442760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204442760/tpod.html Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:15:37 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

We have decided to go and see Mount Cook while we are here, this is the tallest mountain in Australasia at 3,755m. It is a long way from Kaikoura so the plan is to have an overnight stop somewhere along the half-way mark. However, once we were on the road, Dean decided that he'd like to try to go all the way in the one day.
It was a good seven/eight hour drive past some beautiful lakes. We went past lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki which the campsite was situated beside. It was a cloudy day but the colour of the water in the lakes is the most stunning ultra-blue colour we have ever seen.
Imagine this picture-postcard, gorgeous lake with the mountains in the background, you cannot help but just gaze in awe of just how beautiful it is. The blazing turquoise colour is due to 'rock flour' (sediment) in the water. This so-called flour was created when the lake's basin was gouged out by a stony-bottomed glacier moving across the land's surface. With the rock-on-rock action grinding out fine particles that ended up being suspended in the glacial melt water. This sediment gives the water a milky quality and refracts the sunlight beaming down, hence the brilliant colour, even on a cloudy day. What can I say; you have to see it to believe it - it is just beautiful.
The campsite was very easy to find on the main road and the first thing that hit us as soon as we got out of the van is the cold. There is a breeze, not much of one but it is biting. We expected this in the mountains though, it is a lovely site with loads of little hidey-holes to put our van. There was another spaceship here and we parked beside it. Dean tried to chat to the bloke from the spaceship, he wasn't sure which nationality he was, (maybe Swiss or German judging by the accent he couldn't quite place). Whatever, anyway for some reason he didn't seem very friendly so we decided against asking about a DVD swap and left him alone. It was quite late so we went into the kitchen to prepare a meal.
There is a dining room/TV room just off the kitchen. This is where we spent our evening, gosh it was freezing when it dropped dark. We took some beers and wine over to the dining room and played cards all evening. Dean beat me by quite a large margin but it was good fun and at least it was warm in there. There is a big log fire in this room which wasn't lit but there are piles and piles of logs stacked outside and a large basket-full inside on the hearth. When everyone else went to bed and there was only us left in there, we tried to light it but there was a big pile of ash at the bottom. It looked like it hadn't been used or cleaned out for ages and we couldn't see anything around to clean it ourselves. It's a shame, all the firewood everywhere, it is autumn in New Zealand now and particularly here, you can tell. At least we were lovely and warm cuddled up under our duvet in the van but we got told off again about our DVD. It is so deathly silent here, the sound carries. We apologised and went to sleep and we both did sleep well despite the cold outside.
When we awoke the next morning we discovered it had snowed in the night (I told you it was cold). Not where we are but about 1,000 ft up - the mountains were covered in a fresh blanket of snow and it looked lovely in the morning sunlight. The first snow of the year seems to have prompted the staff to light the fire and it was lovely and cosy in that room eating breakfast. Seems like a weird time of day to light the fire though, there were only us in there.
After breakfast we set off to the Mt Cook village which is about 20km further up the road. We want to do a walk today and are going to have a go at the 'Hooker valley track' which is a four hour steady walk through the Hooker valley to a lake and the terminus of the Hooker glacier. The view of Mt Cook and the surrounding mountains are absolutely awesome driving up to the village, especially with the fresh snow. I have always wanted to see snow-clad mountains up close and now I have. It was worth the long drive here just to see this picture-postcard beauty.
The air is quite fresh but the sun is shining, so is the perfect weather for a walk. The Hooker valley track is nice and easy with lots of photo opportunities along the way. We had to cross two swing-bridges which I didn't like very much, they are high above a surging torrent of water and it bounces when you walk on it - creepy. I went across as quickly as possible and Dean was laughing at me.
Along the way we stopped at a lake to take some photographs and were lucky enough to see an avalanche high up on Mt Cook itself. Well, I say we - Dean saw it and by the time I figured out where I was supposed to be looking, all I saw was a puff of white. I could hear the rumbling though - I hope nobody was up there at the time. There was an avalanche warning sign along our walk, telling us of danger of avalanche past this point from May-Nov. I expect it is gorgeous here in the winter, I was talking to the cleaner this morning and she told me that they get 3 and 1/2 foot of snow here around June. It snows all day, every day for a month and the roads are cleared every morning and evening so that everybody can get to work. It's hilarious to think back of England, where it only has to lay a few centimetres of snow and the whole country comes to a standstill and everybody dashes to the nearest supermarket to stock up on food, just in case. If we had 3 and 1/2 foot of snow that stuck around for a whole month, it would probably be declared a national disaster. But having said that, there is so little traffic on the roads here, it is surely much easier to cope.
We eventually reached the lake we were aiming for and it doesn't look much like the end of a glacier although you can see that is what it is. It is grey and looks like rock. The lake itself is a kind of milky colour and it has an iceberg in the middle of it, interesting. It had dropped cold now because the sun has disappeared behind the mountain and we put our woolly hats on for the walk back. It is a lovely walk to do and such a beautiful valley, we have thoroughly enjoyed it. We stopped at the Alpine Memorial on our way back, a lot of young people have been cut down in their prime here in these mountains. We read the memorial messages, most were in their twenties and were taken by avalanche but some died from falls. The peaks around here are dangerous enough to challenge the most experienced of mountaineer's and this is where Sir Edmund Hillary did his training for tackling Mt Everest.
We were starving when we got back and cooked up a huge stir-fry with rice. We spent our evening playing cards in front of the log fire and drinking. Everyone goes to bed so early here, it was just the two of us in there by 10.45pm and Dean took advantage of our solitude and piled a whole heap of firewood on the fire. It was like a sauna in there by the time we went to bed. We had to keep nipping outside to cool down! We're off on our travels again tomorrow but I'm so glad we came to see Mt Cook. We had ummed and aaahed about because it is a big detour and not really near anything else we want to see but in the end it has been so worth it - those views!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204275300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204275300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204275300/tpod.html Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:44:19 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Kaikoura, New Zealand

It was about a three hour drive to Kaikoura with fantastic views along the way. I love New Zealand and I challenge anyone who comes here not to fall in love - the countryside, coast and mountains are so beautiful. There is much less traffic on the roads here than the North Island, sometimes you can go for a few miles and not see another car. Driving in the UK is going to come as a big shock to Dean when we get back, especially as our journey home means hitting the M25 in rush hour on a week day morning, but lets not talk about home, this is now and we are going to enjoy every second, even the long distance travelling sometimes.
I like Kaikoura, it is a small town and the town centre is basically just one street with shops, a small supermarket and a few bars, restaurants and take-away places. The Top 10 holiday park is situated fairly close to the town and I suggested to Dean that this would be a good place to have a night out, we haven't stepped foot inside a pub since we got to New Zealand. Sometimes this is because our campsite has been miles away from a pub but mainly it's just because we haven't been bothered. We are quite happy to sit around our camp having a few beers bought from the supermarket. The first thing we did when we got into town is to find the space-station here to swap our DVD's - we have enjoyed our DVD player and it gives us something to do on an evening.
Then we went to book into the Top 10 and set up camp. It is a lovely campsite with a swimming pool, games room and large TV room with a huge flat screen TV and Sky Movies. It is a friday and the campsite was already fairly full, a german family came and set up two tents in the space beside us. They had a small boy and knowing our DVD player can sometimes be heard when people are in tents close by, Dean offered to move the van so that they could put their car in between. The bloke who he spoke to was a bit off with him and refused to move the car but we moved our van up a bit anyway.
We set off into town to book a whale-watching tour which is the reason we came here in the first place. I have always wanted to see a real-life whale (not in a pool) and hopefully we will achieve this dream tomorrow as we are booked on the 1.15pm tour. It is a bit windy here and I hope it won't be cancelled on account of the weather. The coastline here is gorgeous, a rocky beach with mountains in the distance. On the way down here we had seen a seal on a rock, it was huge and Dean had stopped at the next picnic area to see if we could see any more. They were everywhere, sleeping on the rocks and I was thrilled to see them. They are so cute (New Zealand fur seals), they have furry coats and are three times as big as the seals I've seen in the UK. We sat on a big rock in the sunshine watching them for about half an hour and I was in heaven to see so many, they are absolutely gorgeous and are amusing to watch. We were fairly close to them and they don't seem to be afraid of people.
That evening, I tried to catch up with my diary a bit and we've finally found out how to work the radio (how long have we had the van?) I'm sure Dean would have worked it out except I had told him there wasn't one and he took me at my word and didn't bother looking at it. I had been reading the DVD/CD player manual and discovered that there was one, so now we can have music. We had some drinks, listened to the radio and went into the games room for half an hour to charge the camera up and play air-hockey. It was about 11pm when we got around to watching our DVD and the German's were already in bed. After, we decided to watch our sky-diving DVD another three times until we got a knock on our spaceship door. It was the German bloke complaining that we had kept him up all night with our music and television. "It's 1.30 in the morning," he complained. "We have had no sleep because of you." Oops, we didn't realise it was that late but it wasn't on very loud, we apologised anyway but giggled about it for another half an hour. We're always getting told off, it hasn't been the first time. Anyway, he should have moved his car instead of being a snotty git with us - serves him right.
The next morning we got up and had a big breakfast, Dean is getting good at cooking bacon and fried eggs on a gas barbeque, there is a knack to it. The weather is a little bit overcast but it's not blowing a gale so we are hopeful for our trip to go ahead. We got to the whale watch place with about forty minutes to spare and apparantly there is some swell out there on the sea but not enough to stop the trip. We were waiting around watching a DVD about whales and who should we see? The German family. Oh damn, hopefully they are not on the same trip as us. We tried to avoid them until the coach turned up to take us to the boat. They were not on our trip but the coach was full, there will be a lot of us on the boat. The boat is a large catamaran with seating on the lower deck and a viewing deck at the top.
The boat didn't sail very far when it stopped as there was a small group of dusky dolphins to watch. We also saw some albatrosses - they are huge with a massive wing span of up to 7m, it was lovely to see them. The boat tracks the whales but it doesn't use sonar as this intereferes with their hunting. They explained to us that the whales they are tracking are sperm whales and the reason they are here is that there is a very large, deep canyon in these waters which is good hunting ground for them. They are all male sperm whales as the females are smaller with less blubber and the water here is too cold for them. The whales stay under for 40-60 minutes hunting, and then they surface to breathe and re-oxygenate their blood. This is how they know roughly when they are going to surface, they know what time they went down. It took some time to track the whale, the captain kept stopping and putting like a big microphone into the water to listen to what it was doing. It makes a noise when it is hunting, they put it on the loudspeaker so we could all hear it, it makes a clicking noise, it's cute. When the whale is silent, they know it's getting ready to surface.
Eventually, he did surface and he was huge. I was thrilled to see a real, live whale. The boat was quite far away from it though so it was hard to get a good look at him or many good photo's because obviously he is under the water and we could only see parts of him when the waves moved. We could see him spouting and he stayed on the surface for about fifteen minutes. They pre-warned us when he was getting ready to dive so we could all get our camera's ready for the tail shot.
I thought they would take us back to shore then but they didn't, we set off to track another one that would be surfacing soon. This one seemed to be easier to find so we got to see two sperm whales and lots more albatrosses along the way. On the way back we saw a huge school of dusky dolphins, there must have been at least thirty of them. We didn't know which direction to look, they were everywhere. Some of them were jumping out of the water and some of them had calves with them, it was lovely to see. They stayed with the boat for about twenty minutes, it was brilliant.
It started to rain just as we got off the boat so we had been very lucky, the people waiting to get on the boat we had just exited most likely got drenched. We decided to treat ourselves to fish and chips on the way back to camp. We ordered blue cod and chips and took them back to the van to eat them with a big pile of bread and butter. I don't really like fish - I will have the odd battered cod but I have to be in the mood for it. That said, I have to say I will dream about that blue cod for years to come - it was absolutely delicious, definitely the best fish I have ever tasted. I went on about it for ages afterward which surprised Dean as it's so unlike me to go an about fish.
We didn't go out in the end, we stayed around the camp and charged the camera and mobile up some more in the TV room. We managed to get through the night without upsetting anyone.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204092780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204092780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204092780/tpod.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:13:49 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Picton, New Zealand

I awoke really early and it was a beautiful, sunny day with not a breath of wind; looking good for the skydive. We could hear trains passing last night, very noisily and in the light of day I could see the railway line directly above our heads. The scenery from the campsite is gorgeous, we are surrounded by mountains and I could see the walking tracks up them which I would like to attempt if we have the time. There is also a lovely little stream running through the site, the water is pure and clear - it is very pretty. We made ourselves some breakfast and sat enjoying the sunshine. I went off to the office to see if I could pick up an AA brochure from there. These AA brochures are at campsites everywhere, they are free and contain good, detailed road maps and lots of discount vouchers. I wanted to see if ther were any for our skydiving company. I was surprised to be told at the office that there was a message for us. The skydiving people want us to ring them ASAP, Oh no, what can go wrong now? They allowed me to use the office phone and I rang them to be asked if we could bring it forward a bit and they will pick us up in 40 minutes. I said that was fine and went back to tell Dean, only 40 more minutes to panic about it.
They were very prompt and so were we, it was a woman who picked us up and I was a bit stressed so I fail to remember her name. She was chatting to us in the car on the way to the airport and we told her about our cancelled skydive at Taupo. She said, "Oh, I'm so glad that you will get to do your first skydive here." She explained that Taupo are more of a "factory-type" operation with big planes and lots of people jumping out of them on the same flight. Here, they have made a conscious decision to keep it much more personal and we were surprised to learn that we would be the only two in the plane (and of course our tandem jumpers, pilot and cameraman). Her husband is some sort of skydiving safety person and he gets all the accident/incident reports from all over New Zealand on his desk. She told us that Taupo has a pretty bad record for incidents, so there you go. I must admit, I didn't ask about their accident record when I booked and she told us that people rarely do. I was happy to learn that this company has a clean record when it comes to accidents/incidents which is reassuring to know.
It is a beautiful, hot day with not a cloud in the sky and no wind - it is the perfect weather for what we are about to do. First of all when we got to the airport, she put a DVD on to give us an idea of what was going to happen when we got up there and what position we would need to be in to make the jump. I was feeling really nervous by now and watching the DVD didn't help very much. Then a bloke came and talked us through it, what we have to wear and the arch position for jumping, how we would land etc. We both had to fill in and sign a form, agreeing that we are doing this at our own risk and therefore cannot sue them if there is an accident or we get whiplash or something. Then the woman helped us to get into our jumpsuits and harnesses. My jumpsuit was miles too long in the leg but it was the smallest they had. She does all the tightening and adjusting, we are not allowed to make any of our own adjustments to the harnesses once they are on - they know how tight they have to be. We also have to wear a cap type of helmet and this is more to protect the bloke behind us with the parachute. All in all, it took about an hour from being picked up to get to this point, it was all very relaxed and unhurried, there was no rush and loads of time to ask questions. For once, I didn't have any - I was too nervous to think any up.
There were different options for the DVD, we could have a hand-cam, a cameraman or both. We decided we would have both as we probably will only ever do this once. Of course, he can only film one of us so since this is Dean's lifelong ambition, I told him to film him. This seems fair to me, I held the koala bear and Dean didn't - this is his dream now.
So now we were all suited and booted, it was time to get into the plane. My tandem jumper is very tall and he is called Neil, origianally from County Durham in the UK. Dean's tandem jumper is called Rob and doesn't seem as chatty. First of all Neil sat on the side of the plane to go through with us again the arch position as we are leaving the plane. We have to tuck our feet under the plane, tuck our hands into the front of the harness and lay our heads back on the parachutist's right shoulders so our bodies are in an arch. When they tap us on the shoulder, we have to put our arms out at a 90 degree angle (we won't be able to speak to each-other in freefall).
The plane is tiny, it doesn't look big enough to fit all five of us in it. Dean will be first out so I got in the plane first. Neil had attatched the bottom two buckles to me already, and he attatches the top two just before we jump. As I got into the plane, I realised there was absolutely no going back now - I was committed to doing it and the thought made my heart race. It was a very tight squeeze, all five of us in the back of that tiny plane and felt odd to be jammed in between a strange bloke's legs (even more odd for Dean). Oh well, as long as he's packed his parachute properly, I can live with it.
I always said that you'd never get me in a tiny plane as the thought terrifies me. But, as we took off it was nothing like I expected it to be and I was strangely quite relaxed. It took us about 30 minutes to get up to 12,000 feet and the scenery over the Marlborough Sounds was absolutely stunning. When they opened the door of the plane, Neil told me to look right (away from it) and I don't know why he did that. He knew how nervous I was and he had been chatting to me and reassuring me all the way to altitude. Maybe he thought it might panic me to see the door going up.
I looked back just in time to see Dean disappearing out of the door and as soon as he was gone, we were shuffling forward towards the door ourselves. The scariest bit of the whole thing was dangling out of the plane, knowing what you were going to do and not knowing what it was going to feel like. I remember thinking, "what the hell am I doing dangling out of this perfectly good aeroplane?" I tucked my feet under the plane as best I could, trying to make a good arch. Neil was talking to me all the time, then he gently laid my head against his shoulder. Then, Whoosh - the next thing I knew, we were in the sky. At first I got the sensation that we had tumbled upside down for a second, it was scary. Later thinking about it, I don't think we did - it just felt like that. The difference between being in the aeroplane and in the sky is awesome - it is so fast. Neil tapped my shoulder and I put my arms up as I had been instructed to do. I cannot adequately describe freefall except to say it feels like you are flying very fast. I kept opening my mouth to breathe and had to close it because the wind makes your mouth dry. You don't get the sensation that you are falling because the ground is so far away, it's not like you can see it rushing towards you or anything like that. I'm terrified of heights (and so is Neil) but the ground doesn't look real from up here and the harness is very tight and gives you a feeling of security and safety. We dropped 7,000 feet in 45 seconds of freefall but as I said, it just feels like you're flying, not dropping. I'd just got used to the sensation of freefall (and started to enjoy it) when we shot up into the air like a bullet and the harness tightened even further - the parachute had deployed. It's funny, I'd forgotted about the parachute and as soon as I realised what had happened, I remember thinking "Oh yeah, the parachute - we need that!" I thought I would have spent the entire freefall worrying about the parachute opening (or more to the point, not opening) and it didn't even enter my head at the time.
As soon as the parachute was open, Neil started talking to me and congratulated me on my first skydive. He also slackened my harness a little so I would be more comfortable. I could have taken the goggles off at this point but I didn't because I had my contact lenses in and I was worried my eyes would get dry and ruin it for me. The canopy was deployed at 5,000 feet and it was lovely up there on this sunny day looking over the stunning scenery of the Marlborough Sounds. I immediately asked where Dean was and Neil swung around so that I could see him beneath us with his parachute also open. Once I knew he was okay, I could relax and enjoy the ride. Neil let me have a go at controlling the parachute which was fun but a bit scary. I was terrified I would let go of it and something bad might happen. It was a strange sensation but I found it a bit hard to pull the strings down, it seemed heavy to me. Neil was pulling down hard on the handles and we swung round quickly, it make your belly go funny - like a fairground ride. I could see Dean's parachute beneath me twirling around all over the place and I thought it was probably Dean controlling it at the time - I expect he would like the swirly sensation. It didn't seem to take very long to get to the ground, Neil made me practice lifting my legs up into a seating position before we got down. This is the position I need to be in so he can land. We had a really soft landing and Neil landed gently on his feet. Sometimes the landing is a slide on your bum. I later found out that is how Dean had landed. The cameraman came running up to us as soon as we were down and I will try to find a way to put the DVD on the net for you to see.
As soon as I was unbuckled from Neil, I gave him a kiss and a cuddle and thanked him for looking after me and for a fantastic experience. Then I saw Dean and I set off at a run and jumped into his arms. We both hugged and kissed eachother, buzzing with excitement, exhiliration and adrenaline. I still can't believe I did it but I'm so glad I did - it was an amazing experience, the best thing I have ever done. I would definitely reccomend it to anyone and I would definitely, 100% do it again - it was brilliant. 'Skydive the Sounds' are a very professional company and although may be more expensive that some of the others, the experience is a very personal one and there is no sense of being rushed to get the next people in. I'm so glad that our Taupo skydive was cancelled now and we had the chance to do it here with such lovely scenery and lovely people looking after us, keeping us safe. Dean always says that things happen for a reason.
We both got out of our harnesses and jumpsuits and I bought a t-shirt to mark my achievement. I am so proud of myself, I never thought I'd do that. Neither of us can wipe the grin off our faces. The DVD takes a while to edit so they told us that they would drop it off for us at the campsite office this evening so we can watch it later in our spaceship. We can't wait to see it.
Neil drove us back to our camp and we are both so very hungry. He told us that is very common because the release of adrenaline causes you to use up all your glucose stores. He says the best thing we can do is have a beer and eat a big pile of food. We are not one's to ignore the advice of a professional so that is exactly what we did as soon as we got back to camp.
We have seen a poster in our site kitchen for a day boating on the Marlborough Sounds, the Marlborough sarfari they call it. You get to drive your own boat and we both fancy it so we decided to give them a ring. I rang them and said we would like to do it tomorrow and asked if they could pick us up. It was a bad line and kept breaking up, I gave them my mobile number and the woman on the phone promised she would ring us back to confirm yes or no.
No-one called back but about an hour later, the owner of the park came over to our van with an envelope - our DVD. She also had a message, the safari people had rung and they're picking us up at 9.00am tomorrow. We said Okay and thanked her for bringing our DVD over, they must think we're popular with all these people ringing up and leaving messages for us. We haven't got a clue what we have just booked ourselves onto, we only saw a poster.. We don't know what to take, what to wear or anything. I had to ring back to ask and was told that we had to bring a packed lunch. It's a good job I rang otherwise we would have gone hungry for the day. We realised we didn't have any supplies to make a packed lunch so we went to enquire if there was a shop nearby and paid for another night at the campsite.
There was a supermarket which we had forty minutes to try and find so we set off down a little track which wound uphill where we got great views over the campsite and the stream. It was only a ten minute walk but we struggled to find some nice, cold meat for a sandwich. They've got a thing about 'gluten-free' here, everything is gluten free; ham, bacon, in fact all meat and it tastes of nothing. We eventually found a pack of ham without the taste taken out of it and bought a bottle of pop to take with us. So, we have another exciting day to look forward to tomorrow. I spent a few hours on the internet that evening, it was cold here again at night. Dean watched Gordon Ramsay in the TV room, torturing a German that was in there too. Later, we tried to watch our DVD. For some reason there are two CD's and we were gutted when the screeen just said "Disc cannot be read." I suggested putting the other one in but Dean said if this one doesn't work, the other won't either. We gave it up as a bad job and went to sleep disappointed.
The next morning, our minibus was waiting for us as we got to the camp office. A man got out and introduced himself as Lester and we both liked him immediately. He explained that he would be taking us on a scenic drive to his home where the business (and boats) are. He took us along the Queen Charlotte drive which is a windy mountain road with beautiful views around every corner. He explained that this used to just be a track but people found out about it and a lot of tourists started coming so they sealed the road and it costs the council a lot of money to maintain it and keep it open today. He chatted to us all the way about all sorts of things: house prices, his family, how he started the business, England and how much he loves our old buildings and history. He is so friendly and easy to talk to; one of those people that is impossible not to like. We were surprised how far he had come to pick us up, it was a fifty minute drive. It was nice for Dean though to watch the scenery and let someone else do the driving for a change.
When we got there, we met the other two people on the trip with us - a young Swiss couple, I fail to remember his name but she was called Christina. I was a bit surprised that we would be the only four but it's probably better with a smaller group. Firstly, Lester went through all the boring safety stuff, then he showed us how the boat works; the motor and everything. This was far too complicated for me and I forgot it as soon as he said it. Luckily, Dean has driven a boat before and knows what to do - I don't want to drive it anyway. All the time he was explaining all these things, Lester was making us all laugh with his little quips and jokes, he has a great sense of humour.
We eventually got onto the water after choosing some flip-flops to put on our feet as we would have to stand in the water to get in and out of the boats. The boats are made of aluminium, Lester is a boat designer by trade and he has designed them himself. Ours had a 9.9hp motor on the back and there would be plenty of room in the boat for a family of four. It seemed quite large with just the two of us in it. We all managed to set off okay and Lester put a flag on his boat so we would know it was him from a distance. Dean absolutely loved the boat and immediately put it into full throttle to see what it could do. The Swiss couple were like snails behind us and we all had to keep stopping so that they could catch up. Everytime we looked back, we could see them miles behind us. It was lovely being on the boat, having it all to ourselves. It was a hot sunny day again and as the sun got higher, Dean took his shirt off and I stripped to my bikini top and shorts. It was the perfect day for a trip on the water, not a breath of wind and not a cloud in the sky. The Marlborough Sounds (which we saw from the sky only yesterday) are just as stunning from the water. The mountains are just beautiful rising up from the water which is clear and blue. Lester took us to see a mussell farm and explained how it all works. Then he harvested some mussells for us all to take home with us. The mussells are huge and a shiny green colour, they throw the black ones away here.
He then took us to see a jurassic forest and explained a bit about the different plants here, how old they are etc. He also has some knowledge of the land, the Mauori's that once owned it and it is very interesting to us. He took us to a lovely bay to have some lunch. Luch was a bit late today because we kept having to wait for the Swiss couple. I don't know what was wrong with them, I think they were just determined to be at the back all the way. It didn't bother us, Dean and I found it amusing. We had our sandwiches and sat for a while, the five of us chatting on the beach drinking tea which Lester had provided. The Swiss couple are lovely, the bloke speaks better English that Christina, sometimes he translates for her. We discovered that she is three months pregnant and we congratulated them on their exciting news.
After lunch, we had a bit of a nature trail round to the next bay along a bridle path through the forest. It was a nice little walk, only 1km. Meanwhile, Lester tied all the boats together and towed them round so we wouldn't have to walk back again.
Back on the boats, we had some fun on our way back to shore as there was a bit of wind and the tide was coming in so we had some nice, choppy waves. I also had a go at driving the boat (until it got too choppy) and I didn't do too bad, it was quite easy and good fun. Dean was pushing the boat as fast as it would go and weaving it from side to side, trying to surf Lester's wake. He has absolutely loved driving the boat all day, he wants to take it home with him. I was stood up at the front, holding onto the bar and it was great jumping over the big waves. The Swiss couple even managed to have got a bit of speed up but Dean accidently splashed them with the wake of our boat and they both screamed as they were completely drenched. They tried to get us back (I think) but Dean was too fast for them and they couln't catch us.
Sadly, we didn't see any dolphins or seals while we were on the water but we did see a stingray. We also saw the most incredible scenery all day long and caught a suntan at the same time. I can so recommend this trip to anyone as it is quite inexpensive for a full day but so much fun. Lester kept us all smiling all day long and also gave us some interesting information and facts along the way. It was over all too soon and we brought the boats back at about 4pm. Dean didn't want to take any mussells back with him (I don't like them) but Lester helped the other couple clean them so they could take them home. It was only when we came off the water we realised just how strong the sun was, it was baking hot and Dean's back was quite red.
Lester has been taking photo's of us all day on his digital camera and he put them all onto a disc for us to take home for no extra charge. We said goodbye to the Swiss couple, apologised for soaking them and wished them good luck for the new baby. Lester then drove us back to Picton and he offered to stop if we wanted to take any photo's of the scenery along the way. This was very kind of him but I think we were a bit tired after all that sea air and we couldn't be bothered. Lester dropped us right outside our van on the campsite and we thanked him for a lovely day. If you like boats and scenery then the Marlborough Safari is definitely for you, I think it is probably the most value for money trip we have been on since we got here.
That night, I tried the skydiving DVD again and it worked - Hooray! I looked at the two discs and one said 'your photo CD' and the other says 'your DVD'. Uh, Duh! I must have put the wrong one in last night. Needless to say, we watched it and it is brilliant, my face is hilarious - I look absolutely petrified. It is fantastically edited and we love the choice of music they had used. We watched it three times before we went to bed.! We have certainly made the best of our two days in Picton, moving on tomorrow towards the next adventure.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204017120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204017120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deankezontour/round_the_world/1204017120/tpod.html Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:28:07 -0400 Dean and Cairey big adventure 2007

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Picton, New Zealand

We set out for our short drive into Wellington, our ferry is not until 6.15pm so we have all day and can take our time. We need to stock up on supplies and stopped just outside of Wellington in a place called Porirua where we went to the supermarket and then spent a bit of time looking around the shops here. It seems like a nice enough place, it is strange to be somewhere so busy again and to see lots of cars and people (and traffic lights).
We got back in the van to drive to Wellington which wasn't very far. First of all, we went to see where the ferry was so we would know where to find it. It was well sign posted and therefore easy to find so we headed into the city. Wellington reminds me a little bit of Sydney with it's high buildings and busy streets. There are lots of very well-dressed, posh looking people here and we felt a bit out of place in our un-ironed jeans. We parked the car up and went to have a look around the shops. I found an internet cafe and decided to have a few hours typing since we have time to kill. Dean wandered off by himself to have a look about and came back for me later.
We had a slow walk to the car and set off for the ferry. After checking our vehicle in and obtaining our boarding passes, we then had to sit in a queue for about an hour. The ferry was a bit late but we got on eventually and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. There is everything on board; several lounges, eating places and a bar. I thought it was great looking around the various decks and there is even a movie theatre here.
The ferry is an experience in itself, the scenery was gorgeous - we could see all the mountains and it ws just so pretty. We spent most of our time on the deck looking at the scenery although it was a little bit cold. We went and had a drink in the bar and sat outside with our beer, it is not very busy and not many people about. It was a bit of a shame it was getting dark so we didn't get a good look at the scenery as we approached the South Island but what we could see was stunning. It was like taking a scenic boat ride and we both really enjoyed the journey, the water was very calm. Picton looked lovely as we sailed into it, it was dark and the lights of the town looked all twinkly from the deck. I was a bit worried we might get lost in the dark trying to find the campsite but it wasn't a problem and we found it straight away. We were there within ten minutes of driving off the ferry.
It's not the nicest campsite we have stayed at, the kitchen is a bit scruffy but functional and there was a big cockroachy thing in the Ladies. Of course, we couldn't really see much of the site in the dark. We put the awning up and it seemed a bit cool so we got in the van and had an early night. Tomorrow, all being well, we will be falling out of the sky.
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