The Kiwi Experience - The South Island!

  Picton - Christchurch, New Zealand
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Day 24 - Arrived at our destination Picton after a 3 hour boat journey across the Cook Straight from Wellington.

The Cook Straight

 

 

Enjoyed a bit of kip, before hooking up with Toddy and a new crowd of 40 people before continuing our journey through to Nelson.  Only 5 of us remained now from the original bus myself, Nick, Johnny, Andy and Neil. However, more friends would be made soon enough :-)
Drove through the Marlborough Sounds, passing through some beautiful countryside before we arrived at Nelson around lunchtime.

The journey from Picton

  Checked into our hostel, which was ok.  Did some local beer tasting in the hostel bar, before having a stroll through town.  Went to the jewelers where the ring was made for lord of the rings, before returning for a lovely roast (finally some veggies!) at the hostel.

Nelson

The evening was rather chilled, went for a walk up to the 'centre point of New Zealand', with some stunning views of the local area. Then had an early night - for a change!  Could of easily spent another night here as one regret I had was not kayaking through the Abel Tasman National Park, oh well on with the show!

Day 25 - Left Nelson at the rather shocking time of 7am and started our journey through to Westport.  Headed towards the Nelson Lakes National Park for a stroll around one of the lakes called Lake Rotoiti.

Lake Rotoiti

  Crazy Neil decided he would like a swim in the freezing lake - nutter! Had lunch whilst being attacked by the local duck community, before finally seeing them off and chilled by the lake.  Toddy mentioned this would be a taster for Milford Sounds - more of that later!.
Headed off again on the bus through to Westport.  Before we arrived we had a choice of activities.  The majority of us decided to go Jet boating with a guy called 'doc'. 

The Jet Boarding Is About To Commense

Aboard the Jet Boat

The boat was the fasted jet boat in N.Z and we traveled for 1 1/4 hours along the Buller gorge.  Myself and Nick got front seats so naturally got soaked when he was doing 360 degrees spins and ploughing through the rapids!  Cracking fun though if a little wet!
Left the boating and headed into Westport.  Stayed at an ok hostel and headed with the rest of the bus for some beer and pizza at the only bar in a very quiet town run by an Aussie!  Got to know our new friends a little better, Darryl from London, Phillipa and Phoebe from Essex (Good old girls :-) ), Tamsyn and Bethia from Penzance, Richard from Darlington, a group of 6 Irish lads and 6 Irish girls - You can hear my Irish accent flowing cant you :-) I'm not bitter! a couple of Swiss ladies and a German and South African guy - who we beat at pool that very night :-)  They all seemed really nice people.
Day 26 - Left very early again for a long day through to Lake Maninapua and our fancy dress party :-) Another really long drive awaited us along the spectacular West Coast road.  We stopped off at Tauranga Bay for a 45 minute walk along the coastline and along to one of the largest seal colonies in New Zealand.

Far From Home

Nice Seal

  Stopped off for lunch at the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes.  This was pretty impressive and yet again had to negotiate some flipping rope bridges - blimey! 

The PanCake Rocks

The East Coast

At this point got a little sunburnt - silly boy!
We then continued the drive up the coast to Greymouth for shopping for tonight's BBQ and to pick up our fancy dress gear.  Each Kiwi Bus has a different themed night at the hostel we were to stay at, our theme was 'bin bags' - fantastic!  Myself and Nick got our creative hats on and came up with Mr Baker as Batman and Mr Norman as the Masterful Zorro!  So Nick purchased lots of cardboard for his ears and myself a plastic sword and an Incredibles Mask (for a five year old !) for my cunning disguise (that was to prove difficult to wear later in the evening) and of course many bin bags!

Batman and Zorro

The Hostel we were to stay at was run by an 82 year old called Les, great bloke with a long grey beard - don't mention Gandolf!  Watched a bit of the cricket (I seem to remember this was one of the sessions we did well in!), so spirits were high as we prepared for our fun evening!.  This was a great night we had everyone dressed up, the beer and jaegars were flowing and many of us got into the dressing up, including our mate Neil who went as Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice - Neil just loves dressing up

Spot the Fairy - whos that in the background?

and our driver Toddy as Alice Cooper!  Also myself and Nick enjoyed a good night with the ladies, so happy days all round!
Day 27 - Well all nursing terrible hangovers we boarded the bus for another eventful day through to Franz Joseph.  First stop was to the 'Bushman's Centre', which explained how people made a living out of the bush.  This included many pranks within the walk through i.e dead possum that came down from the ceiling and water squirters, so myself and Johnny were in our element...hehehehe - sorry ladies!  We continued the drive to Okarito, including great views of the Southern Alps and the Okarito lagoon, the largest unmodified wetland in NZ.
We arrived at Franz Joseph mid afternoon and had our first glimpse of the glacier we would be climbing in the morning.

Pre-Franz Josef climb

  Franz Joseph had the feel of a ski resort due to it being nestled bang in the middle of the Southern Alps and its log cabins.  Our hostel was really cool, with a great bar with a lively feel.  Straight on the beers after a quick walk round town, was just the preparation we needed for our long walk :-).  Everyone was out in the bar, so the night took its course and we headed into town to Blue Ice bar.  I left the youngsters for a bit of well deserved shuteye, but Nick informed me himself and Johnny were pole dancing until the early hours in the club and enjoyed a rather eventful nights walk home....those damn jaegar bombs!
Day 28 - The Franz Joseph Glacier 8 hour hike had arrived.  Having stirred Johnny and Nick from their pits, we all headed out to the glacier pickup.  We got kitted out in all the gear, full waterproofs, gloves, hats and boots with spikes.  The weather was not kind to us though, it was pouring down and really cold!

Wet and Cold, but still smiling

We all got split up into groups of ten and descended up the glacier.  The first part of the hike got us to the base of the glacier, then we had to negotiate 2 hours of really steep ice steps, ledges and across some more rope bridges before enjoying our sandwiches in the driving rain at the start of the glacier itself - this is where it got interesting!

We all got issued with ice axes (which was worrying in itself!) and descended in the masses of crevasses and caves if the glacier itself.  I was behind the guide so everyone in my group was following my every lead, apart from putting my whole leg into an ice pool, i did ok.  It was really tough work, but well worth the effort - great experience.  Highlights were getting through a small whole from an ice cave and jumping from some random ice steps across a crevasse, not your run of the mill day thats for sure!

The Glacier we conquered

We headed down behind Nick and Johnny's group.  This took an age as the guides had to keep chipping out loose ice.  My whole body was drenched and drained.   We covered a total of 12 miles during the hike up and down the glacier, but it was well worth the effort as this has been one of the highlights of the trip.
We all enjoyed a great evening, played a bit more pool.  I randomly got talking to a girl from Christchurch, Bournemouth who actually went to school with Nick! - Small World!.  Later in the evening after showing the locals our dance moves to Technotronic and Snap,  myself and Nick did some well earned groundwork with our ladies Tamsyn and Phillipa.  We returned to the Blue Ice Bar for some more crazy dancing and drinks!
Day 29 - Another bleary eyed morning start to begin our journey through to Lake Wanaka.  First stop was the breath taking views of Lake Matheson, with the mirror reflections of Mt Cook and the Southern Alps near the town of Fox Glacier.

Lake Matheson

We continued our journey through the Haass Pass and into the Aspiring National Park, after another few more stops at some more Waterfalls :-) before arriving at Lake Wanaka early afternoon.
I feel like I am repeating myself but this was the most picturesque stop yet.  Wanaka is best known for its skiing and snowboard slopes in the Winter, but equally in the summer it is a popular destination.

Lake Wanaka - beautiful

  We all checked into our hostel which had a TV in the room, we were going up the luxury scale :-)  Myself and Andy went for a walk around the lake, whilst Nick and Johnny went for a run and a swim in the Lake.  Had a relatively quiet evening for our standards, but went to an Irish Bar and myself, Nick, Andy, Neil and Darryl enjoyed a good evenings Cricket until the final few overs!
Day 30 - We departed Wanaka and off to the party town of Queenstown.  Our first stop was 'Puzzling World'.  Now myself and Nick haven't enjoyed the best holiday for stupid bets and it wasn't to get any better.  All of the lads had tried to complete a block puzzle for the around an hour and we bet Tamsyn that she could never do it.  She was desperate to do a Bungi-Jump later in the morning and we bet her that if she did this we would pay the 50 quid for the bungee.  She of course did it in 5 minutes - poke it!
We therefore arrived at the 43m Kawarau Bungee (just outside Queenstown), Tamsyn enjoyed her jump, as did many guys from the bus.   Nick was half tempted but came to his senses and followed my stance by watching everyone else scream on the way down! At this point Johnny had left us to do the Nevis 134m Bungee (the highest bungee in the country) - the innocence of youth indeed, but good on him he did it and we watched the dvd as proof.  Neil left us to do the bungy swing across the gorge! - Fair play lads, rather you than me!
We arrived in Queenstown for our bus photo on the edge of Lake Wakatipu and checked into our hostel, home for the next 5 nights!  We all got our glad rags on for the big night out at the hostel bar and down the famous 'World Bar'.   Tonight at the hostel bar was karaoke and myself and Nick were about to make the crowd go wild with our rendition of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' until finding they didn't even haven't - I even had my Dizzie Rascal rap all ready - disgrace!..Oh well we continued to nail many shots and drinks before heading to the World Bar. 

Pheobe and Phillipa at the World

Those Tea-pots are kicking in!

The night soon descended into chaos after the cocktails served in 'tea-pots' were being readily consumed.  Nick and I went mental at the sound of many house classics like 'Out Of Space' and 'Insomnia' and left at closing with a few ladies!
Day 31 - After finally enjoying a huge sleep-in for a change, we had a stroll round town and some lunch.  In the afternoon we traveled up the huge hill overlooking Queenstown in the Gondolas to enjoy the amazing views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.

Chair-Lift above Queenstown

At the top we had enjoyed a spot of Luging.  Having negotiated the chairlifts, for the first few goes myself and nick were like a couple of old grannies going up :-)  We enjoyed 7 goes and Johnny was determined to wipe everyone out on the course, with Darryl coming off worse!  Good fun though. In the evening had a nice Italian and headed to the Hostel bar for some live music and pool.  Before ending up in the World bar yet again!  I said goodbye to Phillipa and walked her safely home to her apartment, making sure she entered the lift and then her bedroom safely - what a thoroughly bloody nice bloke I am :-)
Day 32- Another a really chilled out day.  Finally went to the Gym in the afternoon for a much needed go on the cross training and a nice sauna.  Myself and Nick went to buy our respected $60 on Xmas pressies for each other, it needed to feel like Xmas somehow! Had a quiet evening chilling playing pool and went to see Eragon - rubbish! We had to be up at 6am for Milford Sound.
Day 33 -  A really early start for the trip many say is the highlight of New Zealand's landscape - Milford Sound based in the largest National park in the country.  Myself, Johnny and Nick were about to board the mini-bus before seeing our bus driver Toddy rolling from his night out - thank goodness he wasn't driving :-)
We stopped off at some amazing places along the way to Milford.

On the way to Milford

  Including areas within the park where the whole of the opening scene from the second lotr was filmed.  We continued to make short photo stops along the way and passed through the Homer Tunnel -Doh!

Near the Homer Tunnel

and half an hour later we had reached Milford.  
We boarded our ferry to be whisked away on a ninety minute cruise on the Sound.  Milford Sound was formed thousand years ago during the ice age, it is the most northernmost fiord in the Fiordland National Park and without doubt the most dramatic.

Milford Sound

  We traveled along witnessing some amazing scenery, yet more stunning waterfalls and even took in a group of seals.  We stopped along the way at the Underwater conservatory before heading back to shore.  A truly amazing place!

Travelling through the Sound

Johnny had decided to travel back on a helicopter to Queenstown for $500.  Myself and Nick wish we had, as our bus broke down half way home and we didn't get back to 7pm. 
Time for a drink I reckon, so 8 of us headed out for a meal and into an Irish bar with the Irish lads and lasses and had a really cool night.
Day 34 - Had nice chilled morning before taking a walk around the Lake.  Johnny was on a mission to be fit so we walked whilst he jogged around.

Johnny running alongside Lake Wakatipu

 We then enjoyed a rather competitive round of indoor mini-golf.
It was our last night out so we had a trip down into the hostel bar and a last few tea-pot cocktails at the world bar until the early hours.  Said goodbye to remaining people left from our bus including Andy and Darryl, as we would be departing to Christchurch for the very very long drive at 8am in the morning.
Day 35 - Got up nursing the set hangover and boarded the bus with 40 more poorly folk!  Everyone slept for the first 2 hours of the journey, before we entered the Mount Cook national park.  We stopped for lunch and then continued our journey through to the amazing aqua blue lake of Pukaki.

The Aqua Lake and Mount Cook

  We had amazing view of both Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo, this truly was beautiful. 
We arrived in Christchurch around 6pm and checked into our hostels.  Johnny and I had a walk round town and along the river.  It was only myself, Nick, Johnny, Tamsyn and Bethia left now.  We enjoyed a bit of New Zealand cuisine - nice curry - lovely!  Went for a few drinks along the strip and ended up in the set Irish bar for some live music.  Nick enjoyed the last passioned clutches with Tamsyn - ah bless!  Had to have my i-pod on all night - Nicholas Baker tut tut!
Day 36 - Christmas Eve.  Johnny left us early morning as he was traveling back up to Auckland and the girls departed back home.  Went for a walk around town for a few hours.  Christchurch is the largest City on the south island with 400,000 and had a good Xmas feel finally.

Christchurch

  We had seen more Xmas trees in one place than the whole of N.Z put together!
Went back for lunch and who would we see but Andy and Darryl.  Headed out early for some dinner with the lads and we meet up with some of Nick's friends from back home and ended up in a really busy Irish Bar until 3am

Yuletide Greetings

 and celebrated Xmas Day in style.  We exchanged Xmas pressies (which were for your interest - Nick set of NZ golf balls, tees and markers, 2 NZ shot glasses and a Canterbury T-Shirt and Mr Norman received a lovely Auckland rugby top - super!).  Happy Christmas from N.Z.
Day 37 - Christmas Day.  Woke up to the sounds of 'Last Christmas' coming from reception before checking out and heading to the Airport for the start of yet another adventure - Australia - hello possums!
New Zealand has in one word been - 'Awesome!'  We have both meet some fabulous people many we will stay in touch with, had some great nights out, enjoyed some amazing experiences and activities, enjoyed the fabulous scenery and most of all enjoyed the great hospitality and kindness of the New Zealand people.  As they would say - 'Sweet as Bro!!!!'