Alice in Wonder[ful]land
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2008
1
13
18
Trip End
Feb 28, 2009
South Island,
South Island,
New Zealand
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Helped by arriving to gorgeous sunshine. I picked up my fantastic little van, Thrifty, hit the supermarket and headed straight out of Christchurch. I decided the first stop would be a place I had seen on the map when I was on the plane, it's a natural hot springs resort called Hamner Springs. I stayed in a camp sight up the road, with horses next door for company, and went for a sauna and dip in the sulphur pools the next morning. Unsuprisingly it beat Bath SPA for views, but not on amount of kids being all noisy and kid-like. I felt great afterwards though so I drove back through the Alpine countryside and headed up to Kaikoura. I arrived the same afternoon and immediately went Kayaking with a small group. We woke-up some big New Zealand Sea lions and they came over to splash about us, but they've seen it all before so went back to sunning themselves. Can't blame them.
Last night I stayed in a free camp sight with a few other vans, right on the coast, it was stunning. At night about a kerbillion stars rage in the sky like some giant pulled a christmas cracker and an actual kerbillion trillion stars escaped to float just out of reach above. The most beautiful night sky I have seen. Ever.
I love my Thifty van, waking up by the ocean and to a view of snow capped mountains is more nourishing than all the chocolate in the world.
xx
I made it to Picton today via a number of wee adventures, like finding a deserted beach because I suddenly decided to turn right off the main road, sending everything in the back of the van flying, where ( I met a beautiful "I'm nearly 27" year old guy come to fish sharks (there are 6ft sharks in the water, but they don't eat you...hmm...don't think I'll risk it) and we watched the waves get bigger and bigger and the wind pick up until, 2 hours later, I left to seek out White's Bay which he recommended for swimming.
Alpine
I didn't meet up with him later in a local that he suggested because it looked way to unsavoury for a well-classy bird like me and I wanted to get out of Blenheim and head for a campsite on the coast. Turned out White's Bay is a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite so I set up there and went for a swim in a stunning Lord of The Rings type bay with lush growth all up the Robertson Range surrounding the Pacific Ocean. It was stunning. I had a swim at 8:30 this morning and I had the whole bay to myself. Tomrrow I'm going wine tasting in the afternoon, instead of walking 7 hours along the Queen Charlotte's Sounds, figured I better try a few local delicacies while I'm here...it's only polite and it's mainly in a work capacity in order to report back to Mark and Nigel so that Nigel can see that everyone reading my blog is a work-related activity and he doesn't threaten to ban it agian. I'm on to ya Nige. Mark stop eating all the Green and Blacks you *****^*&%*%. Not even one decent email!
Oh and I've decided to do a sky dive in Wanaka to celebrate my 30th birthday...did I mention it's my birthday in 10 days??
xx
Met Connie in Picton after my wine tasting and Dolphin searching trip (not at the same time and no joy on Dolphin swimming, although much wine joy) and headed up to Abel Tasman, stopping in the most beautiful places in the world. Swimming in a waterfall, getting bitten by evil blood sucking vampire Sandflies, Blokarting, Swimming in Golden Bay, went on the ugliest 12.5km walk you have ever seen and we're on the way to see the Glaciers on the West Coast.
Neighbour
It's really shit here.Booked sky-dive for my birthday, on Sunday 18th January by-the-way, gotta jump out a plane when you reach 30...NZ law.
xx
A whistle stop tour of the West Coast where the drive down Route 6 past sweeping ocean and mountain vistas, zooming along, waving at the penguins and stopping for a couple of nights to visit Franz Jospeh and Fox's Glaciers led us steaming into Wanaka on Friday early afternoon with a 15 pack of beer and a bottle of vodka. I couldn't have asked for a better Birthday Festivities weekend, people in the streets were coming up to Ivy (my wicked and joyful hostess who I haven't partied with since I was 15 in Findhorn, thank goodness because we realised neither Wanaka nor our livers (or indeed our reputations) could handle us being in the same town for too long...she is BRILLIANT!!) asking about the 30th birthday celebrations. It went like this (and it's still going btw, I'm just waiting to do my sky dive). Friday afternoon we drank beer at Ivy's before heading off to watch the dedicated, extreme Kiwis taking part in Challenege Wanaka while we drank and ate all weekend. It's an insane Triathlon, absolutely epic, it finished after midnight last night while we were dribbling and giggling our way to the final bar of the night. After fish and chips on Friday eve we went to a bar to watch a Gypsy band (via a cocktail bar in aid of Jummy and cocktails in Jacks, which I would have been doing had I been in London).
Goodnight
We drank and danced until there was no more dancing to do and met Mike, Neils (another friend who I haven't seen since 1994 in Findhorn), Rob & Katherine and many more of Ivy's mates. Then about midnight when we had worn the soles off our shoes we began to gather up friends for a Pier Jump into Lake Wanaka. As it turned out word got around and in never-before-seen numbers about 15 of us stripped off and ran naked off the pier into the cold lake to dance with the eels. And of course. Doesn't count unless you do it twice. By the end even the band had turned up to jump. It was a classic skinny-Birthday-Festival-dip-pier-jump which could be followed only by whiskey and a hot fire at the nearest bar then six of us headed back to Ivy's to carry on into the wee hours. But it doesn't end there. This is the 30th Birthday Festival Weekend and on Saturday morning we started with a Birthday breakfast of egg and croissant and Champers, well it would be rude not to. By Saturday evening we had rested and visited the river and generally hung-out and done nothing so we were ready for an amazing Birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant. It was myself, Ivy, Neils, Connie (the lovely Germ I picked up in Picton who i have had a superb week travelling with) and Ivy's superb dance-tastic, wipe the dance floor clean friend Rob. We had an amazing meal and sampled 5 bottles of NZ wine before hitting a bar for some mean pool action and loads and loads of shots, vodkas and dancing dancing dancing around mayhem. It was just the 6 of us shouting, dancing and bustin' moves in this smart bar, causing general chaos and I even got to do the Running Man to Ice Ice Baby, my favourite 90s hit ever. At midnight they bought me a delcious rasberry cocktail and put on Stevie's classic Happy Birthday and then 50 Cents (or someone gangsta') It's your Bitrthday, gonna party like it's your birthday. And we danced and laughed so much I probably weed a bit. But apparently that's what happens when you're 30.
xx
Comments
Much more positive
Didn't realise you've got there already! Wow, sounds amazing. Lovely to see sealions and I expect there are more creatures to be seen. Keep your eyes peeled.
love mum.
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Sounds very nice indeed.
Good luck with the skydiving.
By the way it's spelt campsite.
But I can spell...
...twat.