End of Nz
Trip Start
Jan 07, 2008
1
9
14
Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
had a couple of nights in Dunedin but pretty quiet as students not back in town yet (it's their long summer holiday and they come back last week in Feb). Actually the brewery usually only brews 3 days a week but a few weeks before the students come back (orientation week as they call it) they have to brew for four days to cope with the demand. Luckily Speights sailed a ship of beer to the UK and moored it in Canary Wharf so we can now get speights on tap in the uk - yay.
From Dunedin we moved across country to Te Anau, gateway to Milford Sound and Fiordland. It's a tiny place in a beautiful setting and we had a great walk along the edge of the lake, it was a very hot day and the path was covered in dust so we ended up with grey shoes!
It's a very busy place and tours come to Milford Sound from all over the South Island so we head out to the sound early for our small boat cruise. Left at 7am as it's a 2 hour drive along beautiful mountain passes and through the Homer Tunnel - carved in the 1800's out of the sheer rock of the mountain face.
Our boat is small by Milford standards - it has a maximum of 75 passengers! Some of the other boats are huge and fill up with coachloads of tourists from about lunchtime onwards so getting up early and having a small boat means we get to see the park at it quietest and can get close to wildlife. On our route through the sound we spot seals on the rock and can get in really close for some great photos, also we pass so close to a waterfall you can feel the spray on your face. The area where the sea and the sound meet is really choppy. As our captain tells us the lighthouse on the end of the rocks was washed away twice so the one the have there now is a really stubby short one.
On the drive back through the sound we stopped at a place called the chasm to look at the waterfalls. The rock there is interesting and you may be able to see from our photos on facebook that there are areas where the soft rock has been washed away leaving holes and tunnels for the water to flow under and through.
Spent the evening at a very groovy cinema in Te Anau, had a very retro bar and you could take your beer through to the film with you. We watched a local film called Ata Whenua (I think that is how it's spelt) made by the helicopter pilots on scenic flights. It was wonderful and makes you realize just how untouched and pristine the area is. Some bits of the coastline that were charted in the 1800's look bloody scary to go to by boat even with todays equipment. It certainly gives me some perspective on the bravery and skill of the early cartographers.
Our time in NZ is nearing the end so we head up the west coast, wild and blustery, to hopefully do a heli hike again onto the glacier at either fox or franz joseph. It's about a 6 hour drive and we take it in turns but obviously we were more tired than we though as it was here that the "fuel incident" occurred. I pulled into the petrol station and merrily filled up using the nozzle with the black hose, Pete had said to me - just wait for that chap to finish and use that one. I didn;t notice that it was unleaded, I even figured out how to get their pumps to just fill by locking the nozzle so I didn;t have to squeeze the handle! What a Jackass! The only was we noticed it was the wrong fuel was the cost - it was 90 dollars and we'd only paid 50 previously. Drove the van off the pump - we both know it is totally the wrong thing to do but luckily there was about 1/4 of a tank of diesel left in there so no unleaded went into the system. As the Glacier region is quite remote most petrol stations have garages and workshops attached to them so luckily they were able to drain the tank and refill it for us in about an hour (that was a very worried hour which we spent in an Internet cafe to keep our mnd of things). Thank god I made the mistake in NZ though as half an hour of labour in the garage was 80 dollars - about 30 quid the biggest coast was the fuel. Got to camp and had had enough so had half a bottle of wine before heading out to the local for fish and chips, speights ale and rugby! The really annoying thing is that we couldn;t do a heli-hike on the glacier as it was forecast to be solid rain for the next 2 days.
Up and out slowly the next day to allow for hangover, we continue driving up the coast and have a stop at pancake rocks, a very odd set of rocks that no-one is really sure how they were formed. They look like stacks of pancakes, hence then name and are coastal with the sea eroding them causing amazing formations and blowholes. As with all of NZ it's free to see and free to park.
Drive on to a place called Jacksons on Arthur's Pass, it's the highway across the mountains taking us back to Christchurch where we drop off the van. We stay the night in Jacksons Caravan Park, the best toilets, showers and lounge (real log fires) I have ever seen on a campsite. They also have their own glow-worms in the bush walk (sadly they have sandflies too and they love to bite me). The best bit is that they drop you to the local pub at 6:30 and the pub drop you home when you are done. Needless to say we are the only ones in the park who take up the offer and are able to watch England loose the last one-day match to New Zealand. It's Saturday night and the pub is pretty deserted, the kitchen closed at about 8 and the landlord was putting chairs on tables at 9:30, we decided that we'd better leave and although it was only 600m to the campsite we accepted the lift as there is no pavement, street lighting and it's raining!
Over Arthurs Pass in the morning, drove for about 50k and the weather changed from cold and raining to hot and sunny, that will make life difficult for the 100 or so cyclists we saw on a race - fair play to them as the hills were really steep. Also saw loads of Kea - mountain parrots - quite destructive animals that love to hop up on top your van and pick away at roof trims etc. Basically the bird equivalent of Longleats monkeys.
As if we hadn't had enough driving we passed through Christchurch and onto the banks peninsula - a very tiny piece of land that the French tried to colonize, it's hard driving but spectacular views and there are a few lovely seaside towns along the way. All the street names are in French and as you can imagine there were great cafe's and bakeries. Had a chilled out afternoon and then headed all the way back along to Christchurch (75k) to camp for our last night in the van. Had lamb chops, veg, mince sauce and a nice bottle of Pinot Noir!! The food her is amazing - so much of it is grown locally and it really does have that farm shop taste even if it comes form the supermarket.
The worst bit about the vans is having to re-pack everything when you leave them - it's cramped and not easy to pack two ruc-sacs in a small space but we managed fine and took the van back to the depot in Christchurch, everything was fine and although we'd phoned to let them know that we'd filled it with incorrect fuel when it happened nothing was said when we dropped it off. Free transfer into Christchurch and our guest house (same one we stayed at last time) and we spend the afternoon wandering round the shops and along the river. have a lovely meal in a French Restaurant and prepare to say goodbye to NZ. Next day we have a transfer to the airport at 12 so just have breakfast and I get my hair trimmed whilst Pete does Internet in the morning.
At the airport all seems ok, check in fine, no sign of delay until 3pm when we are supposed to board when we are told that there is a problem with the plane and a part is on it's way from Auckland, it will arrive at 5 be fitted by 6 and hopefully we can take off at 7. 90% of the people on the planes have onward transfers out of Sydney so not a Happy bunch. We get 8dollars for snack so occupy ourselves with pie, tea and cards! Amazingly the part is fitted and works but the crew run out of flying hours (as if they didn;t know that wou;ld happen earlier) and we are canceled. The best news is that most accommodation in Christchurch is allegedly full and some people may have to spend the night in the airport! Luckily once we have reclaimed our bags we get allocated a room in the Crowne Plaza, Qantas pay for dinner bed and breakfast and transfer us back to the airport in the morning. Had a lovely room, better than the one the night before in the guesthouse and better then the one we'd booked in Sydney travelodge! Once we sort out the semantics, call hotel in Sydney to let them know to keep booking open, get some more NZ money out of the bank etc we settle in and enjoy a great steak dinner and another bottle of Pinot Noir! We are the lucky ones as we are only going the 3 hours to Sydney tomorrow not flying all the way back to London as some other we spoke to were.
Airport transfer is at 4:30 am, less civilized than 3in the afternoon but at least we are on our way and able to check into our hotel in Sydney as soon as we arrive.
News from Oz will follow soon...................
