Te Anau & Milford Sound

Day 1 – Te Anau

Waking up fairly late to make the most of our nice lodge we then headed off to have a drive around Wanaka Lake and take some pictures as we had not really explored the place fully.  Apparently there were some nice walks to do around here, but we were feeling lazy.

Next we had a 4 hour drive to our next destination of Te Anau, which was only a stopping off place so we were closer to Milford Sound the next day (there is nowhere to stay in Milford Sound).  As our little Nissan Sunny ate up the miles (or should I say Kilometres), once again we plugged in our learn Spanish audio book and we preceded to cover the windscreen with spit for a couple of hours before stopping to have a picnic lunch.

Another couple of hours later we arrived in Te Anau which was a pretty small town, but as our hostel for the night was another 18km up the road and appeared to be in the middle of nowhere we decided to have a quick drink before heading there.

On checking in to our hostel it was a pretty basic affair, but it would do for the night.  The owner had given us details of a nice walk we could do, so once we got settled we headed out to get some fresh air in our lungs.

The first part of the walk took us through a wooded area which then led to Mistletoe Lake which was a small glacier lake, which was quite pretty with the backdrop of the mountains behind.  After a few pics we then headed on through a wooded area which took us back to the main road, the first part of the walk was done and it had taken us 10 minutes!!

For the second part of the walk we crossed the road and scrambled through to the main lake which ran outside of our hostel.  We couldn’t see the particular path that had been recommended so we just improvised walking along the edge of the lake, jumping over streams and basically trying not to get our feet wet.

After walking around the lake for about ½ hour and not being able to find a route up to the road and our hostel, we then had to backtrack and go back the way we came and then scramble up what was possibly a path, through someone’s front lawn and back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel we chilled out for a bit before heading to the communal kitchen to sort out dinner, which was the left-overs of a Spag Bol that Shell had knocked up a couple of days previous.  We sat in isolation (only seems to be one other guest here) and had this with some salad and washed down with a bottle of Red.

As there was no one around and  we did not have a TV in our room, we decided to grab another bottle of finish wine and watch TV on sofa’s in the communal room for the rest of the evening (we can be sociable when there’s no one else around!) before having a relatively early night.

Day 2 – Milford Sound

We had booked a boat trip on the Milford Sound for today, which is supposed to be one of the most picturesque places in NZ.  It also proclaims (as many other things do) to be the eighth wonder of the world, but for us it meant yet another early start.

Setting off at seven as we had our trip booked for 9.15 and it was a further two hour drive to reach Milford Sound.  We were making fairly good time so we stopped off at a little viewpoint called Mirror Lakes which had been recommended by the hostel owner.

Drawing up at a layby we got out the car and proceeded down a walk way which took us to a set of small lakes, which indeed did act like mirrors reflecting the images of all the snow-capped mountains that surrounded them.

Ten minutes later we jumped back in the car and continued along the way taking in the beautiful mountain scenery with waterfall’s streaming off them all around us.

Getting close now we then came to a set of Traffic lights in front of a tunnel which seemed to take an eternity to change.  But when we entered the tunnel we found out why as it was a pretty much one track road, roughly carved out, with no lighting that went on for about 1km into the mountain and what felt like the bowels of hell.

We were pretty pleased to see daylight at the other end and after a few km of the winding road we found the tourist car park and headed to the boat terminal.

For once we had been lucky and the weather was pretty good (despite poor reports) and we boarded the boat and got ourselves a hot tea and waited set sail.  Immediately the views were stunning with snow-capped mountains lining the estuary that is Milford Sound.

After about 5 minutes we were passing one of the larger waterfall’s that fell from the mountainside into the Milford Sound.  An interesting fact about the Milford sound is although it is a saltwater estuary, because of the freshwater running into it off the mountains, it has a freshwater top layer of a couple of feet which makes it very dark in colour.  Because of this, the bottom of it is very dark so it has species of marine life in it that are generally found at far deeper depths out to sea (about time I put a fact into this nonsense!).

Continuing up the sound, the scenery all around was wonderful and with all the waterfalls coming off the surrounding mountains combined with the sun, there were small rainbows everywhere.

Next was a bit of a surprise as one of the other boat skippers had spotted dolphins and so our captain headed across and we were soon watching a small school of dolphins.  As it was slightly out of season we were lucky as there were not too many people on our boat, which meant it was quite easy to move around the deck and get good views of things, resulting in the decent dolphin shot below.

Once the dolphins had got bored of the attention and buggered off the captain then manoeuvred the boat close to some rocks nearby where there was a colony of seals hanging out.  We watched them for a while whilst they either squabbled amongst themselves of just chilled out on the rocks, before heading back up the estuary to where it met the open ocean.

One thing I didn’t mention was that there was quite a stiff wind blowing so it was freezing and so Shell and I were wrapped up as if we were heading off on an arctic expedition.  As we neared the mouth of the estuary it started to get a bit choppy so we were quite pleased when it turned around and then we had the wind at our back.

On the return leg we were approaching the highest of the waterfall’s and the skipper said he was going to get us up close and personal with it.  He also warned that with the wind you were likely to get very wet if you stayed outside on the open decks, so Shell and I did the sensible thing and got indoors.  He was right as the water from the falls lashed onto the boat and a few hardy souls who had braved the open decks came back in quickly looking like drowned rats.

The rest of the journey back to the jetty was just spent marvelling at the wonderful scenery and probably taking far too many photo’s which would have to be trimmed back later.  We are also sure that we saw a couple of swimming penguins on the way back, but they dived under the water before we got close enough to positively identify (there are penguin colonies here too).

Back at the jetty we headed off to the car for what was to be another long drive.  It had definitely been worth taking this long trip to Milford Sound as it is pretty spectacular, Snow-Capped Mountains, Waterfalls, Dolphins, Seals, what’s not to like!!

Returning the way we came we were soon faced with the journey back through the tunnel, but once again we were held at the traffic light.  It wasn’t so bad this time as we suddenly saw that the car in front had a Kea Bird (Alpine Parrot) trying to remove their rear windscreen wiper which was quite amusing. 

Well amusing until it set its eyes on our silver dream machine and not having much luck with the windscreen wiper decided to switch car.  It also must have called its buddy’s down as we heard at least another two thumps on the roof, they then preceded to have a good chew on anything they thought may be tasty.  So we had one attacking the wing mirrors whilst the other would pop their heads over the roof and have a go at the window seals.

Fortunately the lights turned green before they could remove anything from the car, but despite picking up speed I think one clung on until we actually entered the tunnel.  Safely through the tunnel, we then drove for a while before we came to another place that had been recommended by the hostel owner, which was a walk to a waterfall, someone or somethings Chasm!!!

It was quite a pleasant walk through a moss covered forest until you got to the chasm/waterfall, where  we thought we would have a picnic, but there wasn’t anywhere really to sit down so we finished the walk and headed off in the direction of the car again.

A bit further along we saw signs for a lake viewpoint so thought it would be a good spot for our picnic, so we got out the car once again and started a little hike.  It came apparent that finding the lake was going to involve a big hike so we just stopped by some river rapids and waterfalls and had our filled rolls there (Shell’s getting very good on filled rolls duty!).

After we had eaten it was then time to hit the road for our long drive to our next and final destination of Queenstown, which was 4-5 hours away.  Once again along the way we forced ourselves to do another 2 hours of Spanish lessons, well it kills the time if by now you are bored by stunning scenery everywhere you drive!!

Arriving it Queenstown, our first impressions were very good as the town is set on a huge lake and as usual surrounded by beautiful Snow-Capped mountain’s…..yawn!!! (Am I using Snow-Capped mountains too much???).

Our little car struggled up a very steep hill to the hostel we had booked and after parking up ensuring the handbrake was well and truly on.  As this was our last stop in NZ we had decided to treat ourselves to an apartment for 5 nights so we could relax, catch up with the blog and do some research on Chile, before we had to get back to hard core travelling again.

Unfortunately we were slightly disappointed with the room as it wasn’t exactly our Wanaka lodge, it had no settee (two wicker chairs) a kitchen without oven or hotplates (just a microwave) and the loft bedroom was little more than a crawl space.  It’s one redeeming feature was that in had fantastic view of the Ice-Coated Hill’s (see what I did there!!).

Once we had settled in and transferred all our belongings including the travelling larder, we then drove to the supermarket to pick up some more food for the next few days (and some booze of course!!).

Arriving back at the hostel we also had a little spring clean of the car we had been driving round in for the last 3 ½ weeks as we had to return it the next day.

It had been a long day with a lot of driving and we were  too tired to go out and explore the town so instead we opted to stay indoors have a little party and have a simple meal of hotdogs, before climbing the hazardous ladder to limbo into bed!!!

Wanaka

Day 1 – L- Shaped Love!

To sum up the previous evening it was pretty stressful. As Glenn said, we couldn’t move our flight forward. It turns out that a certain number of seats are booked for around the world tickets (RTW) passengers and all of these were sold out for the next two months. So either we hang around for a couple of months in NZ =No!, pay the difference of about £1000,  do about 3 legs, the first via Los Angles and costing-in any overnight stays and taking us about 4 days to get there, plus pay extra for the privilege. Or, sack the RTW flight with Quantas completely and book a cheaper fare with a new carrier, we did this.

With our RTW deal, we were entitled to two free flights across anywhere in America. We knew we wouldn’t use both as we couldn’t fit them both in within 12 months (part of the criteria for RTW) so asked to use one of them to get us from Santiago to the south of the country. You can imagine how we felt when the agent told us we were no longer entitled to these two free flights as we wouldn’t be traveling on the Quantas flight. So! They get to sell our flight at a higher rate as we won’t be taking it and wont honour us the two free flights as it meant we would have travelled less mileage? You can imagine that after a smoking credit card from paying for a new flight, how we were both feeling!

We left it with the agent to go back and prove this as we wasn’t previously told about it and to expect an answer in the morning (it was midnight our time when we hung up the phone with him). We woke up in the morning to some better news. He was right, but as they had no proof of explaining this clearly to us they would honour the onward flight, phew! Sorry about the rant but it’s really put a dent in our budget and I guess the lesson here is to book onward flights close together and constantly move them forwards so that you don’t risk allocated spaces filling up.

As a result of the above, we both awoke with massive hangovers!

Making an executive decision not to have showers in the not so clean facilities, we opted to fill up on the free b/f and head off to Wanaka.

I was looking forward to Wanaka which is billed as a laid back Queenstown. We had traded in some free nights on hotels.com and discount codes which gave us some pretty good accommodation with en-suite and within budget.

The weather hadn’t improved so we drove out of Dunedin (which could have been Scotland in this weather) and headed straight for Wanaka. We arrived a little early so the not so friendly lady in reception gave us the room which was available which gave us a lovely view of the mountain.

The room was amazing!, spacious, balcony, kitchenette, views and an L shaped sofa to chill out on!. An L-shaped sofa, just like Glenn has back home! PLUS we had it for two nights, no driving for Glenn tomorrow.

We dragged ourselves away from our new home and headed into town for a wander. The lake was just in front of the Motel so we headed there first for a few more stunning snaps of this beautiful country.

We then had a hair of the dog before going for supplies and quickly belting it back to our lovely new home. That’s the thing!, the weather had changed and the sun was now shining, but we didn’t want to lose out on our lovely accommodation so instead of opting for a nice walk around the lake, a trek up a mountain, a kayak adventure, we instead opted for nice home-cooked food and a chill on the L-shaped sofa!.

We had booked a sky dive for the following day and both feeling pretty nervous, and because of the previous night’s shenanigans, we had a relatively early night in readiness for jumping out of a bloody plane!

Day 2 – 40 something adrenaline junkies

We both woke up fairly early as we had to be at the Sky Dive centre by 9, so getting ready and having a coffee we were both a bit quiet.  I don’t think it was that we were nervous but just thinking about what we were about to do.

It was a bit cloudy so we were wondering if it was going to go ahead, but by the time we reached the Sky Dive centre it was pretty sunny with blue skies. We checked in and realised it was really going to happen!

Completing the check-in sign up we were asked if we wanted video’s/photo’s and after considering it we decided that this was once in a life time experience, so we opted for the package (yet more money), which meant we would both have a photographer sky diving alongside us.

Once registered we were sent to a video briefing where it showed what we had to do during the sky dive.  After this we had some time to go outside and watch some people who had already jumped, land in the area just next to the centre.

It was then time to get kitted out and we were both given jump suits to change into and then we were helped into our harnesses, which made for a very flattering picture.

We then had to wait until the last set of divers to return to earth before it was our turn.  Shell was then introduced to the professional that was going to be her tandem partner and also her personal photographer.  Shortly after I met my guys and we were heading towards the plane.

Glenn’s Account

There was about 6 jumpers on this trip and we were all squished into a small plane, it was at this point I realised that I was right next to the door so was going to be the first one out of the plane!!

The plane took off and began to climb to 12,000 feet, it was going to take 15 minutes to get to this height so we were told just to enjoy the views along the way.  It was spectacular as you could see the snow-capped mountains and lakes below, believe it or not we were both (I think) pretty calm at this point.

Along the way our photographers kept taking pictures of us, but it was pretty hard to see how Shell was doing as she was squashed just behind me so it was hard to turn round and see her face, although I could hear her chatting away.

All of a sudden my instructor told me he was going to strap me to him and to put my hat, gloves and goggles on.  No sooner done then the side door was opening and this shit was getting real!!

My instructor then got me to move to the door exit and then got me to hang out and do what we were told to do in the instruction video, hold onto the shoulder straps, push your hips forward, put your legs underneath the plane carriage and lay my head back on his shoulder, not forgetting to smile for the camera (the camera man was already outside of the plane hanging on).

Next thing I knew we were falling and tumbling out of the plane and I could see the plane getting further away, it was quite disorientating but not overly scary (you don’t have time to think about that).

We were then hurtling towards the earth with the wind rushing past my ears, with great views of Wanaka, the mountains and lake all around us.  Although to be honest it was hard to appreciate as the dive  was an all-consuming assault on your senses, I would also like to say that I was also thinking about how Shell was getting on but I would be lying as it’s hard to think about anything else when you are doing something so unnatural.

The free fall reaches 200mph and lasts 45 seconds, but during that time the photographer closed in on us and then reached out his hand to me, which I grabbed and then he pulled away sending both in a very fast spin (at least I think that’s what he was doing).  Spinning like a top really doesn’t make it easy to focus but to be fair it was pretty cool.

Then the photographer was below us and getting me to look like I was really cool and enjoying it so he could take a few more pictures before he dropped away and pulled his shoot.

45 seconds go much quicker than you think and all of a sudden I felt a jolt as the instructor had deployed the main Shute.  It was incredible as I always thought I would be worrying all the way down until the main Shute was opened, but I hadn’t even thought about it.

Now everything went silent and it was very peaceful and you could enjoy the panoramic views as you floated down.  The instructor now was able to chat to me on the way down and he slackened off a few of my harness pieces to make me more comfortable.

As I floated down I then saw Shell passing me with her canopy fully open which was great as I had not had a second to think about her since I had left the plane.  We were now getting lower and it was getting time to land back on earth.

The instructor told me to raise my legs up as he then turned in tight spirals as he headed towards the ground, which made me pretty dizzy.  All of a sudden we were touching down and I soon found myself skidding along the ground on my arse, which is the perfect landing and much better than my hang glider crash landing in Brazil.

Shortly after Shell came sailing past me on her landing, she was down safe too.  After a few more photo’s I was unclipped from my instructor and after thanking him for the experience and for getting me down safely I headed across to embrace Shell and have a few more photo’s taken.

Honestly it was an amazing experience and it was cool that Shell and I got to do this together.  It wasn’t half as scary as you would imagine and if they had offered to give us another go for free, I think we would have both jumped at the chance without hesitation.

Shell’s Account

We both did a hang-glide in Brazil and Glenn was pretty nervous then so I was really proud that he was giving sky diving a go. We agreed (well he told me) that he would go first this time as I went first on the hang-glide which freaked him out a bit.

I did get slightly worried when Glenn was introduced to his instructor. He was no midget but not a big fella at all, and he had to hold Glenn’s entire weight when Glenn dangled out of the plane before launch.

Part of my logic for spending out and getting a 2^nd diver to take shots was: 1. the cheaper option was to have my instructor have a wrist camera attached to him and I didn’t fancy photos that close (glad I did, some of the pics taken from a distance will never ever see light of day again!. 2. My logic was if we got into trouble, there was a second guy on hand to help?

I was quickly introduced to my team and we were heading to the plane, I scrambled in, followed by Glenn which meant that he would go first. I saw this dawn on him as he climbed into the plane and wondered if he had had second thoughts.

We were soon up and away and feeling strangely calm. My instructor told me it would take at least 15mins to climb to 12000 feet so to sit back and enjoy the view so I did.

The scary bit was when my instructor showed me his watch which told us we had reached the height and was I ready. Suddenly the door was swung open, wind gushing in and Glenn was being manoeuvred to the edge. My only thoughts at that time was for Glenn. Could this fella hold him?, will Glenn go through with it? Will he remember to put his head back? Then suddenly he was gone!

Immediately following,  I was being manoeuvred to the edge, I look really scared on camera but I promise you that my only thoughts were on what I was told to do in training, put your head back, hang onto to your straps (so you don’t knock the instructor out!) stick your hips out and legs outside and under the plane.

Then we were flying. It really doesn’t feel like you are falling but rather floating. The only problem was that nobody bloody told me that I should keep my mouth shut. My first reaction was to open my mouth to get gulps of air (not a good idea at that speed). So I,d say the first 30 seconds of my free fall was spent wondering how I could breathe! And yes, any thought for Glenn’s safety had clearly left me by now.

I was just working through this when the photographer flew in to take some pics. My instructor tapped me on my shoulder to indicate I could let go of the straps and then we were truly flying. .

What an absolutely amazing experience.

All too quickly though we were suddenly shooting up to indicate the chute had opened and then silence. The only trouble was though was my ears were totally blocked and I couldn’t release the pressure.

My instructor released some straps to make me more comfortable and removed my goggles and asked me if I was up for a bit of fun? Assuming he didn’t mean a bit of ‘hows your father’ at this height I said yes and we were soon swooping, spinning and tumbling as we made our way to earth.

Now I had my senses back I looked for Glenn and saw him below us. I pointed him out and my instructor swooped in on him so we could wave at each other which was pretty cool.

The next thing was landing, we circled around and I could see Glenn ahead of me. Again my thoughts were on Glenn again as he had a pretty bad landing on the Paragliding but I shouldn’t have worried, he executed it perfectly. My turn so legs up and we were soon gliding across the grass.

The photographer dashed in to take some pics and was asking me questions at which I was guessing at. My ears were still pretty blocked. You might be able to spot me trying to clear them on the vid.

Suddenly Glenn was by my side, we did it! Yay us! Middle aged adrenaline junkies!

We headed in to watch the vids and after laughing till we cried at mine (not Glenn, he looks pretty cool). We then headed back home for a well-deserved beer and then to settle on L-shaped sofa to re-watch the videos.

I would definitely do it again but would insist on wearing a helmet like the instructors wear to enable me to breath and save me some dignity

Dunedin

Day 1 – Furthest Point from Home!

Today we were heading for Dunedin, which is officially the furthest point in the world from London at 11,851 miles and pretty much the only reason we were going there!

It was a 3 hour journey that would have been travelling through great scenery if the weather had not been bad and all we could see for most of the journey was thick fog.

On arriving in Dunedin we tried to book into our accommodation but were told we couldn’t until after 2, so we decided to drive up to the peninsula to see the wildlife that this part of NZ was famous for.

The drive was a nice little coastal road that hugged the beaches with tight winding bends which stopped at the top of the headland where the Albatross Centre was, as this headland was a breeding ground for them.

We had heard on the radio that a fisherman was just about to be prosecuted for killing 30 Albatrosses on his long line, so it was quite pertinent that we then learned more about this in the centre.

It was very wet and windy on the headland so we thought better on booking a tour of the headlands to see the nest sites of the Albatross (and we had heard on the radio the last of them had flown the net this morning).  Also we weren’t prepared to come back to sit around waiting for the resident penguins to arrive back on the beach later on that day. Instead we decided to have a look around the museum before we headed back to town to check-in.

It was a back-packer hostel and when we were shown to the room it was the smallest we had stayed in so far, with only room for one bunk bed, Shell quickly bagsied the bottom bunk (which will make my midnight dash a bit tricky tonight).

As there was little point in hanging round in the room we headed out to see if we could find a second hand book store to get a Chile travel guide.  Unfortunately this has proved difficult so far and once again we were disappointed after checking out the second hand stores.

Dunedin as it sounds,  is closely associated with Scotland as there was a large amount of Scottish immigrants that settled here (for the gold rush I think?).  So, we thought we would do as the Scots would do and go for a drink.  In our defence the pub we went to, Speights, was one of the main breweries in New Zealand.

A couple of beers later we headed to the supermarket to pick up some food to cook back at the hostel.  On returning we went to the kitchen where Shell and I knocked up a spag bol to eat later, chatting to a few of our fellow back-packers as we did so (one of them was baking his own bread – hardcore back-packer!!).

Earlier in the morning, we had bad news that we could not move our Chile flight to when we wanted to or for any time this or next month! We had tried to sort this out via E-mail and eventually asked them to call us. Whilst we waited for a response we went back to the kitchen to have our evening meal.

After dinner we went back to the room and phoned the travel agent and tried to sort out alternatives for our flight and he said he would get back to us in a few hours.  Whilst we waited we had a few drinks and went for a fag in the communal area where we met a guy from the west country so we started chatting to him and she gave us some tips on Queenstown.  It turned into quite a long conversation with a couple of bottles of red chucked into the mix, so we arrived back at the room some time later a bit tipsy.

A short while later whilst practicing some boozy Spanish the travel agent phoned back and we ended up having to pay extra money (not good) to get a new flight on the date we wanted.  Once we had confirmed and paid for this I then had to get on a website to book our connecting flight from Queenstown to Auckland, hopefully I booked the correct date and time!!! (Shell had fallen to sleep by this point!!).   

Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, Mount Cook & Fairlie

Day 1 – More jaw dropping scenery

We set-off after b/f for the Mackenzie region which were heard was beautiful. It was another 3-4 hours so we kept ourselves occupied with our Spanish Lessons. I can just about order a coffee, a bottle of wine (always good) and get a bed for the night. Glenn however is sailing along nicely ordering tickets, getting directions and starting to converse. Guess who will be doing most of the talking in South America?

The first stop was Lake Tekapo, another stunning lake surrounded by snow topped mountains. We got out and stretched our legs and had a picnic by the lakeside. Next we headed to the tourist centre where we were informed about a scenic drive all the way around to Mount Cook. Given Glenn had already driven for a while, we weren’t sure how much of the drive we would cover but as the alternatives on offer were kayaking (too cold) and walking up a hill to a café thing (couldn’t be arsed) we set off.

We were glad we did! Lake Pukaki was even prettier than Tekapo, again with a stunning backdrop of mountains where you could see Mount Cook in the distance.  NZ definitely hasn’t let us down on jaw dropping scenery. Every corner you turn you are rewarded with yet another WOW moment as the views get better and better. We decided to head on towards Mount Cook.

A direct but winding road took you to Mount Cook where every now and again the mountain would come into to sight. It was a pretty clear day for a change so we hoped we would get close enough for a good look before the clouds set in, having to stop off occasionally to take pictures. I promise there are no filters on these, look at the reflection from those clouds!

We made it to Mount Cook just before the cloud cover came down so were able to admire it and take some pics before heading to the town. The town turned out to be a few houses and hostels so we looped around and headed in the direction of a glacier we had seen sign posted on the road.

Arriving, we trekked to the top of a steep hill. The Glacier itself wasn’t that rewarding (not if you’ve seen Perito Moreno in Argentina). But again the lake was stunning and had a few ice bergs knocking around in it. Climbing back down, we made our way back to the car for the 3hr drive to our lodgings.

Given it’s a national park, accommodation is pretty scarce and everything was sold out when we tried to book. We had found a pub in Fairlie which, although meant back-tracking the way we had came, had reasonable priced rooms with shared bathrooms. We hadn’t stayed in a pub yet and given we like the odd jar, was looking forward to it.

The pub itself was a bit run down and smelt, we were given an upgraded (bigger bed) coz someone had peed on the floor of ours the night before! We quickly secured our belongings and headed down to the bar for a pint.

It was pretty empty apart from a few locals at the bar and a couple of travellers. We orders a jug (cheaper) and waited for our food. Given that we rarely eat out we were looking forward to it. I ordered their highly recommended Blue Cod which turned out to be expensive fish and chips but Glenn’s man sized mixed grill went down well.

Given it had been a long day, it wasn’t long before we went back to the room to chill and watch some downloads.

Hanmer Springs & Christchurch

Day 1 – Missing Penguins

As the weather predicted more rain and fog, we decided to head to Hamner Springs where there were natural sulphur springs you could bathe in. We had missed out on doing the ‘Spring thing’ in Rotarua and given the weather, this seemed the best plan.

First though we were going to look at the penguins we had spotted on our drive into Kaikoura. We drove a little way and parked up and pushed through the wind and rain to find black and white birds, yep birds of the airborne kind! I don’t know what they were called but they definitely weren’t penguins! We promptly jumped back in the car so no pics of penguin-like birds to share.

We headed to Hanmer Springs which was in the mountains. The scenery would have been stunning if we could see much in front of us. The fog was pretty fowl and I felt for Glenn having to negotiate the climbs and curves (but, you notice, I didn’t offer to take over driving).

Arriving at the springs, we found it was only about $5 extra to get your own private bathing area for 30 minutes so we opted for that. After some challenges with a locker we then headed to our private bath type thing. We were shown into a room with a big glass wall and a pool. There was a sign warning you not to immerse your head as the water was sulphuric (we didn’t attempt it to see what would happen). The pool was okay but to be honest, not private enough to totally enjoy yourself (if you get my meaning) and knowing there would be a knock on the door in 30 mins we decided to just have a bit of a float and meditate.

That done it was into the public pools, there were various pools each at different temperatures. We tried out the hot sulphur pool until we got a bit dizzy, the rock pool coz it looked cool, a massage pool which was just a chlorine pool and undid all of the good work of the sulphur and some other pool which I can’t remember the benefits of.

After a quick shower I met Glenn outside the changing rooms where he asked me to take a few pics of the pools as he felt like a perv. I took a couple and got what he meant. Sorry there aren’t really any pics but taking snaps with young kids and half naked adults in the background can get you arrested these days!

We then drove to a YMCA in Christchurch. Our dwelling was a one bed, shared bathroom/kitchen thing as cities are soooo bloody expensive. It wasn’t bad, pretty big and clean. Plus the bathroom wasn’t too far away for the midnight dash.

Both a bit knackered, we went to the bar underneath the YMCA whilst our jacket pots cooked. Whilst preparing our gourmet meal we noticed several boxes marked ‘Free Food’. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, we helped ourselves to free mayo oil and some spaghetti pasta. Cheers YMCA peeps!

We are pretty chuffed with this ‘free food malarky’ only I think you are only supposed to use what you need and then put it back? We took it literally and are still carrying around the spag as we write!

Day 2 – City Tour

As there were no city tours on offer we decided to just use our city map and work it out ourselves.  Firstly we stopped at the on-site tour desk and opted to do the Tranz Alpine Train journey in a couple of days. We wanted to go the next day but it worked out cheaper to stay an extra day in C.C and go the following day.

We then headed out to try and check out the local sights and graffiti murals across the city.  The first thing we noticed was how the city was still rebuilding some 6 years after the massive earthquake that had hit it.

Walking around for a bit we found various artworks and struggled to find others which had been obscured by new builds (buildings are going up that fast).  After wandering around for a while we eventually found New Start, which was an area full of storage containers that had been converted into shops, restaurants and even banks! (a replacement for a former shopping centre that had been devastated by the earthquake).

We then sort shelter in a nearby bar for a couple of drinks as it was freezing, before heading for the Christchurch earthquake centre which was a museum that commemorated the earthquake.  It had some extremely interesting stuff. Most notably an hour long film that had locals recounting their own personal experience of the day the quake hit, very poignant and really worth the watch.

After the museum we found another bar before checking out more artwork and then hitting New Regent Street which was a lovely street full of art deco buildings, with the city tram running straight through it.

On the way back to the hostel we passed the old cathedral which was still showing the effects of the earthquake with half of it collapsed and being propped up with steel supports (they can’t decide whether to repair it or knock it down and start again).

When we got back to the hostel we hadn’t eaten so we went to the kitchen and Shell managed to cobble together a few ham toasties from what we had available in our mobile larder. 

As we returned to our room we noticed that all the toilets/showers were now out of order on our floor, so we went to reception to complain (well Shell did the complaining) and we were told they would not be in operation until the following week.  After trying her best we were offered a room on another floor, however Shell not particularly happy with this outcome checked online and found they had en-suites available.  With this information in hand we returned to reception and Shell asked for a free upgrade to an en-suite for the next two nights, she got it, result!!

The better accommodation sorted for the next couple of nights we returned to our room for the rest of the afternoon/early evening and relaxed and caught up with a bit of blogging.

In the evening I had been in contact with an old Surreal Madrid (football) mate, Rob Gibbs, who now lived in Christchurch and was up for a beer, even better he agreed to meet us in the bar underneath the YMCA.

Shell and I went down to the bar and waited for Rob to turn up and had a cheeky beer whilst we waited.  Just after 8pm Rob turned up and we had a couple more beers in this bar whilst we caught up and asked him questions about his life here, earthquakes and any recommendations he may have.

Our bar,  although convenient wasn’t the most lively place in the world so we all headed off for Victoria Street which was supposed to be a good area for bars and restaurants.  On arriving there we headed for a bar named, Boo Radleys which is a bit of a live music venue.

The bar was pretty cool and the live music turned out to be a one man band, playing guitar, drums, harmonica and singing the blues (think one man band on acid!).  We spent a few hours there, shouting at each other over the noise and drinking a number of beers until we felt it was time to go home (Sorry Rob if it was early on one of your very few nights out).

On the way back to the room I picked up some chocolate bars and crisps from the vending machine (that we didn’t eat) before hitting the sack.  Only embarrassing thing is if they have CCTV in this establishment they may have seen me doing my 3am dash thought the corridors in my budgie smuggler pants and nothing else (thank god no one else was around, a bit drunk and couldn’t be bothered trying to find my trousers!!!).

Day 3 – French Town

We had to check out at 10.00 so we could check back into our upgraded room later in the day, so the plan was to drive to Akaroa where we had previously thought of staying.

The drive to Akaroa was around two hours and once out of Christchurch we were soon climbing up bendy roads.  Eventually as we got near Akaroa we crested a mountain top and were suddenly confronted with an amazing view of a massive crater lake with small villages surrounding it.  So we pulled over to the side of the road and took a few pics.

Winding down the road appreciating the view we then got to Akaroa which is a village with very strong French roots as it was originally where the French Settled in New Zealand.

Parking up by the side of the lake we then had a wander around the village, which had French road names, crepe shops, bistro restaurants and other French stuff.  It was pretty quaint so we went to a supermarket and picked up some snacks to have a little picnic lunch by the lake.

After lunch we decided to take the tourist scenic drive which pretty much took us back up into the mountains that surrounded the lake.  We drove for a while before dropping back down to a beach along the route, again a steep drive down.

Getting out at the car we noticed signs indicating that there were penguins here so we followed the path down to the beach to take a look.  Arriving at the beach there appeared to be steam coming off of the beach, so it looked as if it was another geothermic beach (although we did not dig a hole again to find out for sure).  As far as we could see there were no obvious signs of penguins so we headed back to the car to continue our drive.

Circumnavigating the lake crater for around an hour taking in the stunning view and more pictures we then headed back to Christchurch via a supermarket to pick up some stuff to cook for dinner.

Arriving back at the hostel around 4pm we checked back in to our upgraded room (we now have an en-suite, yay!!), before heading to the communal kitchen to prepare my now famous chilli for dinner, before the evening hoards descended. Whilst we were there we managed to liberate some spaghetti and vinaigrette from the free food shelves (we like this free food concept!).

For the rest of the afternoon and early evening we relaxed before heading down back down to the kitchen to re-heat my chilli for dinner(it was now packed and we were lucky to get two pots and a couple of rings to cook on).  We felt quite smug with our chili and rice with a nice bottle of wine, whilst we watched our fellow backpackers knocking up spaghetti pasta with tomato sauce squeezed on top!

Day 4 – Tranz Alpine Railway

Today we had booked to go on what our guide book described as one of the top 10 railway journeys in the world, which was a train trip from Christchurch (East Coast) to Greymouth (West Coast) through the mountains. 

Unfortunately this meant being up very early once again as we were being picked up about 7.00 in the morning. The mini-bus picked us up and took us to the train station where we picked up our tickets, we had been tipped off to ask for window seats on the right hand side of the carriage as this provided the best view.  We were lucky as the guy we asked did this for us, where we heard a lady on the next counter being told the seats had already been allocated and they could not do this.

The train headed out around nine and we were soon headed towards the mountains listening to an audio commentary along the way, providing us with all the history of places we were passing.

It wasn’t long before were soon getting great views of snow-capped mountains and passing over bridges with mountain rivers passing underneath.

As the trip went along (5 hour journey) and the scenery got even more beautiful Shell and I headed for the viewing carriage, which had open sides which you could get better pictures from.  Well you could do as long as you fought off the Japanese/Chinese tourists that are a nightmare once they have a camera in their hands, trying to push in front of you so they could get their shots!

It got cold after a while standing there so we headed back to our carriage to relax and watch the views as we went past, also enjoying some filled rolls that Shell had knocked up for the journey the night before.

We then stopped for a while whilst they hooked up a couple of engines to the train to ensure we got through the next part of the track, which was about a ten mile stretch of track that went through a tunnel underneath the mountains.

After 10-15 minutes of darkness we then exited on the other side which in contrast was more sunny and had less mountains and more rivers and lakes along the way.

Reaching our destination of Greymouth late meant that instead of having a whole 45 minutes to explore we only had time to go to the loo before we had to get aboard a mini-bus for the return journey (cheaper than getting the train back).

The journey back was again about 5 hours but it was done via road, but it pretty much followed the same path as the train which once again meant that we were treated to fantastic mountain views along the way.

Arriving back at the hostel around 6ish we were pretty pleased that we had cooked a couple of batches of the chili so all we had to do was go to the kitchen and re-heat it for our dinner.  We also took the opportunity to restock our travelling larder with a jar of mayonnaise, bottle of cumin and a bag of rice.

For the rest of the evening we just relaxed, did a bit of travel research and watched some TV before hitting the hay.