Kiwi Adventures - South Island
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
21
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Auckland,
New Zealand
Monday, February 14, 2005
Here we are about to finish our Kiwi Adventure, we thought it was about time we let you all know what we have been up to for the last month or so.
We arrived in Wellington,NZ on the 15th Jan. Martins uncle Patsy and his wife Phil, kindly met us at the airport and whisked us off out to their house. The following day we had something of a family reunion for Martin as all his cousins, some of which he had never met and others hadn't seen since he was a child, all came over for a Barbie (naturally). It was really nice to meet and get to know them all, and they were able to give us plenty of advice on places to visit and stuff to do. We hadn't planned anything for NZ, and really didn't know where we were going.
Without wasting any time, we took off for the South Island the next day. The ferry crossing was calm enough, and if the scenery from the ferry was anything to go by we were in for a big treat.
The ferry docked in Picton, where we hired a car drove south to a place called Kilkora. The drive was stunning, but this only gave us a taste of what was to come.
For two weeks we drove all the way around the south island in a loop, stopping Christchurch, Dunedin, Te Anau, Queenstown, Franz Josef, Hokitaika and finally Nelson. All the way the scenery was spectacular. Before arriving in NZ we were becoming a little weary of traveling all the time, and it was becoming harder and harder to impress us. We'd seen so many beaches, mountains, caves, cliffs, canyons, lakes, monuments, churches, temples, you name it, we'd seen it. So we really weren't expecting anything new, but I have to say, we were totally blown away by the south Island. It is truly amazing.
In Kilkora, Martin took a whale watching flight, and saw 2 Whales, they were about 20 meters long, really impressive creatures.
At Franz Joesf we took a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier, and hiked on the snow for a couple of hours, it was a fantastic experience, climbing though snow caves and sliding around on the ice.
In Dunedin we drove out to the Otago Peninsula, where we watch the sunset at an albatross colony, and in Christchurch we just chilled and checked out the cafes and museums.
On the west coast we visited Te Anau and drove up to Milford Sound, which is a huge fjord. We took a cruise out as far as the sea and back, due to bad weather the views weren't a good as they should have been, but the waterfalls were impressive anyway.
One place everyone talks about is Queenstown, its like the adventure sports capital of the universe. I was expecting it to be very built up and touristy I had heard so much about it, I thought it was going to be huge. When we arrived, I found I was pleasantly surprised, it was quite small, and wasn't full of tacky tourist shops. It's surrounded by mountains and lakes, so the views were, once again, quite spectacular. Everywhere you look people are jumping out of planes, hanging off helicopters, flinging themselves of cliffs or bridges or anything at all that is fixed to the ground. The lake is full of people being pulled by high powered boats, or jumping off them or up on them, just general madness everywhere really. Well, as they say, when in Rome...
We decided to do a skydive. The first afternoon we arrived we went down to the place where you book these things and asked would it be possible to arrange a sky dive within the next few days. Now, in truth, we were half hoping the girl would say "oh god, no, all booked up, can't be done, the weathers to bad, its the wrong season" or something like that, any excuse at all, so we could go off and say we tried, but it didn't work out. But instead she said - "of course, do you want to go now?" ahhh no, says I, maybe I'll wait till tomorrow. We were told to be there the next morning at 8.30 sharp.
After a very restless night, we made our way down to the shop, shaking like leaves the next morning. We were loaded into the mini bus and drove out the drop center. Before I knew what was happening, I was suited up, strapped to a man name Krass an ex policeman from Bulgaria and 12000 feet up in an airplane.
Martin jumped first, I just remember him hanging off the side of the plane with his eyes closed, then he was gone. I didn't hear any screaming, so I assumed he was alright. Then it was my turn. It took all my will power to keep my eyes open, but I was glad I did. The views were fantastic. We did a free fall for about 45 seconds, it felt like forever. I thought I was going to be sick from air rushing up my nose and into my mouth. Then Krass pulled the shoot, and our parachute opened, and after a quick jerk, we were floating effortlessly down toward the ground. It was a fantastic experience, all around me I could see lakes, rivers, mountains. We were very lucky, we got an excellent day - there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The landing was easy, Krass did most of the work, so I didn't break a leg or land in a tree as I feared I would.
Next we tried some jet boating on the shot-over river. It was pretty cool, ripping through a narrow canyon at high speed in a boat, we came very close the walls of the canyon, and it was pretty exhilarating, but to nothing could beat the skydive really.
So we abandoned the extreme sports and went in search of the local pubs.
One such place was the Minus 5 Bar, where everything is made out of Ice. The walls, the bar, the glasses, the seats, everything. They give you a big coat and some gloves and boots before you go in. We warped up, entered and enjoyed some lovely vodka cocktails. I also found a bar that sold cocktails in teapots!!! I couldn't believe it, naturally I had to sample a few different ones, just to be sure. Definitely my favorite bar in New Zealand.
In Hokitiaka we visited some glow worms, which light up in the trees at night, it was magical, like something out of a fairy story. Our final stop on the south island was Nelson(Linda - it was lovely).
We didn't get up to much here, because Martin, in a bizarre accident, managed to get a paper cut in his, wait for this -his eye. So he couldn't see where he was going for almost two days. We thought that is was surely the most unique injury ever, like something you would read about on the Internet, till we visited a doctor who told us she had treated someone for the same thing before. We couldn't believe after jumping out of a plane, being flung about a canyon at high speed and climbing up a glacier, that it was the sports section in the Sunday paper that finally ended his extreme sports career!
So, we headed back to the North Island to visit uncle Patsy and Auntie Phil once more.
Martin - now that he can see again, is going to fill you all in on what we got up to in the north island.
Bye for now,
Roisin
