South Island: Extreme Activities and Epic Banter
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2006
1
51
55
Trip End
Ongoing
All over South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The next day was greeted by a host of new legends boarding our bus for the south island adventure. It was a scenic drive to the Buller Gorge. Here we went jet boating. It was rapid and we got extremely wet. The mad man of a driver was showing off his ability by driving ridiculously close to the valley walls and sporadically placed rocks. To be fair he seemed to know what he was doing and threw us about in a fit of 360s. Westport was the overnight destination
A little un-PC i thought!
. Getting the vodka out proved to be the best way to meet new friends, notably the duo of Karen and Annabelle, who we affectionately call 'Kannabelle'. The privillaged few got invited over to the Kiwi Experience house to party with Dan, the driver and his mate Kuta who journeyed with us the whole way for free (absolute legends)!Extremely hungover we made our way to Mahinapua. Luckily we had several walks to endure today, and one in particular which was by far nicer than the Great Ocean Road in Oz. Punakaiki pancake rocks, self explanatory, rocks that had formed like pancakes but were stunning. After making full recoveries, the night was upon us and the legendary POO PARTY at the Mahinapua Hotel. This place was practically a shed in the middle of nowhere, but its run by 84 year old Les, a comic genius. Every Kiwi bus stops here and they have a fancy dress party. Ours, "The Binbag Swingers Ball", meant we had to make a costume entirely of bin bags. At the local hardware store they sold alsorts of colours and everyone made an outstanding effort. I went as peter pan, with green bin liners, a sword and my blue long-johns! I looked a corker! My favs were; Christine Aguerilla, performed by Jon, in chaps, a bar we fashioned out of a dog safety harness and 'Dirrty' written across his back. Annabelle's ladybird, and a 2-man pantomine horse!! Brilliant efforts! Needless to say we had a stonker of a night
A random coastal walk
.The next day, our journey took us to Pukekura Bushmans Centre. This was hilliarous, but it basically glamourised the killing of animals, with its 'Who shot bambi's mother' and the best way to kill possums features. But our destination for the day was Franz Josef. I loved it here. Our afternoon was spent rolling around thick jungle in the most extreme game of paintball known to man. In a game of 23 v 23 we were thrown into thick jungle and told to battle it out! A painful sport. It was the next day however, that id been waiting for since i left ye old england behind all those months ago. We spent 8 hours treking up the world's steepest commerical ice glacier. We were provided all the appropriate equipment, and the crampons proved most useful as i didnt land on my arse once. Its without question the most impressive thing ive done on my trip and surpassed my already high expectations. We climbed up and down ice peaks, pix-axing steps into the floor where necessary. We learnt how it was formed, how it is possible to have a glacier retreat down the valley so much with the contrasting climate of the rainforests in such close proximty. It was an interesting and tiring day, but being able to walk through small cracks and holes of pure blue ice dug out by water was unreal. One of the most impressive things is that they have to forge new routes every day as the glacier is always different as it moves so much
Annabelle in a hole dug out by the flow of water
. A momentus day.Lake Wannaka was our next destination, and some of the most spectacular views in New Zealand (if fact, its all pretty much spectacular). My only excitement was staying in a luxury backpacker hotel (which had a bath!!!) and being part of a 6 man team to beat a 5 litre beer drinking contest, in fact we smashed the old record of 1 minute 4 seconds to just 33 seconds...well done!
What a day followed, maybe the previous night didnt help but we visited a place called puzzle world. A morning of mind bending fun, i was literally unable to fathom how most of the attractions worked, for example there was a room with slanting floor one way, but a pool table with balls and running tap water which went in the opposite direction. Our destination for today was my favourite in New Zealand...Queenstown...the nations party capital! On route i did something id already promised my self i wouldnt be able to, a bungy jump. We pulled up and having not signed up for it, we watched a video of the history of bungy and it seemed like a good idea to sample the delights. The place i jumped was Kawarau Bridge, the world's first commercial bungy. Its not the biggest at 43 metres but it scared the excretion out of me, whilst i was up there, preparing to jump, i could only think of how stupid id been. But when the time came and the man said 1-2-3 there was no way i could back out...i was attached to Natasha!! It was exhilerating, whilst the freefall wasnt as long as the skydive i did in oz, there was the river rushing towards my face at a rate of knots!
Having got the taste for being lauched off high platforms I signed up for a canyon swing the following day
Beautiful Queenstown
. This was different to the bungy as it more about scaring the be-jesus out of you. At the top they 'professionally' muck around trying to worry you, saying things like, 'oh that harness is a bit loose, i hope it doesnt come off'. It didnt. I did 2 swings as the second was cheap for charity. There are many ways of doing this swing, and they rate them on a brown pants scale. For the 1st (4 out of 5 for browness) i was taken to the valley edge, shown the drop, which was a bloodly long way. They they strapped me to a chair, balancing the back two legs on the ledge. Then they rocked me back and forth, pretending to drop me, then they said it was up to me to push myself backwards down into the canyon. Once id built up the courage to do it they stopped me inches from going, then teased me some more before randomly letting me fall 60 metres before it transformed into a swing right across the valley. It was immense, and a weird sensation falling backwards strapped to a chair! But i loved it so much I went again, choosing their 'scariest' swing. I was suspended upside down with my face starring directly at the drop below and at a point of their choosing, they pulled the release cord. That was phenomemonal and really felt like i was flying through the air as it vered away from the floor below.I spent 5 nights in Queenstown and it wasnt all about falling, there was alot of party nights too with all the great people we'd met along the way
Binbag party!!
. But it wasnt just partying either, I made the trek up the mammoth summit to witness the cracking views of Queenstown and the surrounding areas. The town is encased by lakes and snow capped mountains, like myself, very attractive. I partook in sports too, mini golf, apparently it cost $2 million dollars to construct, that still didnt help my handicap.After my bank balance pleaded with me, it was time to move onto new pastures. So i made the trip to Christchurch with Jon, Alex, Sam, Luke and the Bristol boys. We checked into a penthouse for an extra $2 but it was well worth it. We stayed in to make use of our private facilities, such as DVD, playstation, kitchen, etc. We spent the day times at free attractions aswell, museums, botanical gardens to name a few. Christchurch was a small, very english town.
Day twenty three of my epic Kiwi experience took me to the east coast, and Kaikoura. This was all about the marine wildlife. We went on a whale watching expedition. Luckily we were able to see Noodles and Tono, two large sperm whales known to the area, hundreds of dolphins and albatroses. It was definately a highlight of the south island. It was the next day that we headed back to the ferry terminal to make our way back up to Auckland in the north.
South Island, New Zealand - Amazing, i cant say anymore!!
