Happy Campers
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
36
50
Trip End
Ongoing
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The ferry trip was not your usual Stranraer jaunt, oh no, this was the real McCoy..............mist laden mountains, fjords, forests and remote fisherman existances, real picture-book stuff. This was followed by THE train journey, picture the Antrim coast road and multiply by a zillion..............where "the volcanic mountains sweep down to the rugged ocean"
After a couple of days in Christchurch and believe it or not a pipe band competition!!! it was time to climb aboard the travelling machine and head out on the open road in "the Poke Van"
We nicknamed the camper van the pokey because it's rego has the numbers 99
39 shades of green
!Day 1 was from the depot ( a suburb called belfast!) to the west coast and a place called Greymount!! I'm not joking, how uncanny is that? We make the trip up over Arthur's pass, through BIG mountain territory and eventually to our first stop........ a bush in the middle of nowhere! Well it was free and so were we yippee. Only thing was we weren't on our own. There was aother pesky varmit there, a gold panner called Roddy. So me and yer man spent a few hours panning for gold in the local creek. I'm not joking it was like something out of Scooby Doo. He turned out to be a decent spud and we had the best of crack over a wee cup of rosy-lee and we went to our scratchers with tales of tales of gold feeveeeeer.
Day 2 we headed down along the west coast, destined for the 2 massive glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef. Wondering what adventure would come our way.............we didn't have to wait long. We spotted an awesome fast-flowing river and pulled over for lunchypoos. We discovered there was a helicopter flight place just beside the river, so I enquired how much it was, $200 says yer man, too dear says I, he dropped a bit and I kept saying NO. Eventually he came over to the van and says OK, I'll take you up for $95 (that's less than 35 quid) for a 25 minute flight!!!!
A river runs through it
! Say no more, chocks away and tally ho! After our glacier and Lord of the Rings flight we eventually made it to the glaciers, of course they were really COOOL ha haDay 3 started with a short trip to Lake Matheson and jaw droppingly beautiful scenery and views of Mt Cook (NZ's biggest) all reflecting in the glassy still lake, complete with ooh aah mist hovering in the air. Then it was life on the open road and headed to a place called Wanaka. The main attraction here is a place called Puzzling World, it has a maze (thankfully no stadium at it) and a load of optical and interactive illusions. The room where you look tall and small, the intriguing Roman toilets and the sloping room. We had a great giggle and eventually made our way out of the maze. We decided we would stay at a "real" caravanners park, as it was about time we were reintroduced to water and soap...............Oh oh, it was the set of HI-De-Hi (ho-de-ho). If this place was a reality TV show it would be called 50 years older or All our yesterdays, and the campest thing about it was the 2 blokes who run the place!...........the kind of place you go in at 9 and come "half-eight"
Day 4 and the engine was running very early with Oamaru in our sights, a lovely old fashioned town where you get your tea and scones complete with doilies. On the way we stopped at Elephant Rocks, a crazy rock formation which was used to film the Chronicles of Narnia.
Day 5 and we began our journey north again stopping at the amazing Moreaki boulders (a bit of a spherical Giants Causeway) before heading to the mega picturesque Akaroa, the road here had more hairpins than Ena Sharples barnet, but a real smasher of a place
All A'Bard.............punt on the Avon
. We enjoyed strolling around, taking in the historic feel and atmosphere and preparing ourselves for the big event the next morning.....Day 6 up very early, no need for a shower because this morning we are heading to sea and going for a wee swim with some dolphins!!!!! Absolutely AWESOME!!! These wee guys just swam right up and around us. We had to make noise by blowing into our snorkel tubes to attract them, a bit like underwater karaoke.............ironic as that is where most people would like to see me when i get up to sing ha ha One of the dolphins came right up and as I span round he circled me for a few minutes. Grins like Cheshire cats for the rest of the day :-) Then back to Belfast to drop off the Poke Van.
Next stop: The Jam (auckland)
Comments
Hey Mr giveus a poke!!
I AM RAGING!!!!! JULES HOW COULD YOU??? YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I WANTED TO BE A POKEVAN DRIVER!!!! LOL!!
furthermore, Nic is RAGING too. She SOOOOO wants to swim with the dolpins!! We're soooooooo jealous!
speak soon
Love screwball, wafer and 99!