Tip Top
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
40
51
Trip End
??? ??, 2006
East Coast, South Island,
New Zealand
Monday, October 31, 2005
Well, I suppose we started by giving Invercargill (arsehole of the world) a miss. We'd seen a bit of it in the latest Kiwi film, The World's Fastest Indian, and reckoned that was enough. Whatever about Invercargill the film is a must see. Anthony Hopkins plays Burt Munro, a old motorbike fanatic who goes to America to break the Indian motorbike speed record. One of the best films I've seen in ages.
The next destination was Dunedin where we stayed in Bishop Brennan's old gaff. It had been cleverly converted to a hostel after Bishop Brennan met his boss. I'm not too sure if he'd be happy about the name change to Hogwarths but I suppose that doesn't matter anymore. We hadn't met many fellow Irish backpackers travelling around the South Island but funnily enough we met loads of them doing the tour at the Speights brewery
Barney's Rock, Kaikoura
. After we learnt lots of interesting stuff about beer (Guinness hops come from Nelson in NZ, beer in NZ is delivered to pubs fresh in tankers, beer makes you intelligent and pretty, etc) we all headed to the pub for a session. The next day we went to the Cadburys factory to see how they make Easter eggs and eat a ridiculous amount of chocolate. This was more of an OAP gig than an Irish backpacker one. But the grannies and granddads were a good laugh although I still reckon it was unfair when the tour guide gave all the grandparents an extra bar of chocolate. Grandkids are people too you know! Cadburys in Dunedin make lots of nice chocolate including their famous Perkynana - a banana chew chocolate bar. This also comes in Giant Perkynana varieties. I found this really funny even though I probably shouldn't. The tour guide said the reason why Cadburys tastes different in different parts of the world is because the cows supplying the milk eat different types of grass (all the cocoa comes from Malaysia). I'm not fully convinced. I'll have to research the matter further.
My other favorite thing in Dunedin is the aviary in the botanic gardens. There's loads of different talking parrots. You could spend hours talking to them. In fact several old ladies looked like they did spend hours every day talking to the parrots
BBQ in Blenheim
. Hello, bugger, who's a pretty boy, oh no, goodbye.We hung around Christchurch for a couple of days mostly spent wandering around the botanic gardens and Canterbury Museum. I can't remember anything very exciting happening except for the theatre listings. The main play on in Christchurch at the moment features a man who has fallen in love with a goat. Judging from the newspaper reviews the goat part of the theme isn't raising many eyebrows. I should mention that the play is written by an American, which goes to show that some themes are universal.
We were feeling a bit guilty after spending a few nights in beds and neglecting the tent. So we headed out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. It was labour weekend and the place was pretty busy. Akaroa is a pretty little seaside town that claims to have a strong french heritage. This manifested itself in such gallic attractions like Le Mini Golf and Le Bakery. We drove on another few kilometers and found the nice people at Onuku Farm Hostel who kindly let us pitch the tent in their garden. Unfortunately the garden was on a slight slope so for three mornings we woke up in a ball at the bottom of the tent. But the place was gorgeous and the views spectacular and what's a few degrees between friends? What's more they had pet lambs and let me feed them
Dreadful Matching Trousers in Christchurch
. We reluctantly left Onuku and headed inland to Hamner Springs where we found a flat piece of land to reside for a few days. New Zealand has the misfortune of being on two continental plates, the indo-australian and the pacific plates. This means there's lots of volcanos and earthquakes. But it's not all bad! Hot springs are everywhere and they're really nice. For the ridiculously cheap sum of $10 we spent the entire day lazing around in the 10 different thermal pools in Hamner Springs. I managed the 41 degree pool for a few minutes but 37 degrees is definitely my favorite.
A while ago we discovered the joys of Tip Top icecream. According to a book of Kiwiana (typical New Zealand stuff) I found lying around a hostel the Kiwis eat more icecream than anyone else in the world. Every dairy (corner shop) and fish and chip shop sells scoops of Tip Top icecream. And it's a bargain - $2 for a double scoop which you know is going to fall off unless you eat it really quickly. The national favorite flavour is Hokey Pokey - a kind of vanilla with bits of toffee. I'm a fan of their vanilla, boysenberry, passion fruit, orange chocolate chip, lemon and lime, cookies and cream, triple choc,..........
But it's not all bad food we're eating
Dusky Dolphins
. In Hamner Springs I finally got to have some whitebait. The whitebait season started in September and since then thousands of Kiwis spend the entire day standing in rivers trying to catch the tiny baby fish with nets. The fish are so small they sell them by the litre. I probably wouldn't put in that sort of effort but they did taste very nice in a whitebait sandwich.I'm running out of time in the internet cafe so I'm opting for a quick summary for the rest:
Kaikoura: swam with dusky dolphins - amazing, great night out with Grainne and Eoin, met Rebecca and Roar and had a great night in, great hot tub in the hostel
Blenheim: popped in to visit the gang in Grapevine
After we left Blenheim we read in the paper that there had been 3 earthquakes there the previous day - and we hadn't even noticed!
Front page of the Malborough Times - local man wins $800 betting on the Melbourne Cup
Got a boat to Loch Mara in Malborough Sounds, stayed in an amazing lodge, walked the Queen Charlotte Walk back
Ferry to Wellington
Bye bye South Island! I'll really miss the place.
