Thursday, March 31, 2005
Phill's Ambulance Service
Phill: 31/3 to 1/4, Coast to Coast - We left Te Anau the next morning, and set off for Queenstown. As the crow flies, it's probably about 20kms (12 miles) from Milford to Queenstown, but the drive all the way south around the mountain range takes about 4 hours! Ren's eye needed some fairly urgent attention, so we went straight to the medical centre and got her an appointment an hour later. We spent that hour discovering that Queenstown is a place where having car-parking is essential, and that as any tourist hot-spot, it was overpriced. Fearing the worst, and knowing that there wasn't much in the way of medical facilities, we didn't check-in anywhere. How twisted is that? A ski resort in winter, and the self-professed adrenaline "sport" capital of the world, and it doesn't have an E.R.? That's just wrong. The Doc confirmed the worst - she didn't know what was wrong - and we had to get to an eye-specialist in Dunedin Hospital - so off we drove. Now, to you American/Australian readers this is no futher than you'd consider driving for a Saturday-night party, but to get it in perspective for the Brits out there... It's like driving from Bristol to see a doctor in Central London (118 miles), then them telling you to go to hospital in Sheffield (170 miles). So continued our tour of NZ hospitals.The doctor in Dunedin was great, especially considering he was still working past 7pm, and he quickly disgnosed Ren as having Iritis. As you can see, this is not good, and a course of three different eye-drops (one of which was taken hourly) began. Another drop was to keep her pupil dilated, so that it didn't "stick" in a contracted position - which also meant she couldn't drive at all. We decided to get a bit of comfort for the weekend and checked into one of the best places we've stayed - the Manor Motel. We could only get a room for one night, and I figured a little driving never hurt anyone, and so we headed back to Queenstown the next morning.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Southern Scenic Route
Phill: 27/3 to 29/3, Dunedin to Te Anau - In typical fashion, the day we decided to leave produced some fantastic weather. Mind you, as we were taking the scenic route onwards, it was good for that too. Before we left Dunedin, we had to go to the "World's Steepest Street", Baldwin Street, which it has to be said is a steep old climb. Finding the Scenic South Route proved to be a little difficult at first thanks to some poor road signs, but that was only at the beginning, and soon we were heading south on winding roads with great ocean views - with the occasional stops for lookouts and waterfalls. We decided to stop for lunch at a really nice beach at Cannibal Bay where they say you can sometimes see Sea Lions. We took a walk on the beach, and were watching the tide coming in and eroding some sand-banks in its way when I pointed out to Ren how much one of the huge piles of seaweed looked like it could be a sea lion. Then it moved! So, being good citizens, we strolled casually over and stayed "landside" of what turned out to be a pod of 3 huge sea lions. We managed to get a few pictures before a young girl and her dad decided to come sprinting along the beach and scare them off... but it's still great when you get an animal sighting that you consider hugely unlikely.That night we stopped at our half-way point to Invercargill, which was a place in the middle of nowhere called Papatowai. The cute little campsite was half taken over by a group of 4 or 5 seperate families that go there most Easters, who had today decided to sit in the sun and drink all day. They were in high spirits, and were pleasantly insistent that we come over and drink with them. We did, and had a great time meeting the locals - most of whom only knew each other from that campsite. Despite an entire bottle of port, we never quite got to their stage of dancing to Shania Twain and singing loudly along to the adult-rated version of "Living Next Door to Alice".
The next day we set off a bit earlier than we might've liked, to catch the low-tide so that we could see the Cathedral Caves (very similar we expect to Cathedral Cove from the Coromandel Peninsula) - but the Maori-owned access road was closed because of an "Abnormally high low-tide". As we were now familiar with neap-tides, and we also knew that the next one wasn't due, we were suspicious that they'd actually just closed to have the whole Easter weekend off. We took a walk to a McLean Falls, one of the best "roadside waterfalls" we've seen in NZ so far, then headed down to Curio Bay. This bay is the site of a petrified forest - the result of a forest becoming covered in ash and rock 160 million years ago, and now the sea has finally eroded enough of the rock to expose the preserved trees within. It's really quite fascinating, and was completely accessible leading us to confirm our theory about the closed-road to Cathedral Caves earlier. We ate our lunch at Porpoise Bay, but didn't get the hoped-for dolphin sightings before we drove down to Slope Point. I've no idea why, but a simple sign stating the position in the world and that it was the southernmost point of the NZ mainland actually made it somehow interesting. Bloomin' freezing though! I guess that's what happens when the wind passes over no land between the South Pole and you!
We finished that day in Tuatara backpackers in Invercargill, another well-facilitated but deserted city, though Easter might've had something to do with that. The curry house next door though did us a fantastic take-out, where better than NZ to get a lamb curry! ("It was delicious, and I don't normally fancy lamb curry" -Ren)
Ren's eye infection was worsening with the drops, so we spent the morning finding an optometrist/opthamologist, but they can't write prescriptions over here, so he just sent us to A&E at the hospital anyway. We left with some antibiotics, and continued on the scenic route to Te Anau. There wasn't so much of interest to us on that stretch, apart from an old suspension bridge, and it was pouring with rain, so we managed to make it all the way that afternoon. We grabbed a cabin on a campsite - as it's getting pretty cold here, and Fiordland is "one of the wettest places on Earth" - and kept our fingers crossed for good weather the next day.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Akaroa to Mt. Cook
Phill: 22/3 to 23/3, Akaroa to Mt. Cook - It's a sign of how long we've been on the road that it took us a while to get going from T&P's house, as we didn't manage to set off until almost 11 o'clock for some reason. The weather had cleared up nicely though, so the views as we drove out to Akaroa were good and got us in the mood to be travelling again. Akaroa is a strange little ex-French town out on the Banks Peninsula (a weird cluster of bays that you can't help but notice when you look at a map of the South Island). This all made for a great place to stop and eat the lunch that we'd bought from Barry's Bay Cheese Shop (a local institution) surrounded by water and French street/guesthouse names.The guys had fortunately told us that geographically it made sense to go to Mt. Cook (Moari name: Aoraki) before continuing further south, and so we headed west as far as we could, which was Geraldine. That little town was another one of those weird places taht seems to have a lot of shops for very few people. It was deserted... fairly nice though - we had a few beers and some fair pub-grub and continued on in the morning.
The journey to Mt Cook was scenic, with a couple of lookouts and lakes along the way. The mountain really is pretty big (3750m), and the weird perspective you get as you head into the valley - as the mountains seems to remain the same size (and far away) while the other hills and landmarks continue to fly-by - is a truly dwarfing experience. Once we got there, we debated long and hard about what walks to do, and eventually settled on some walks down by the lake, and the short version of the Kea Summit that takes you to a lookout point closer to the peak. The first walk was a disaster! Ren and I have figured that whilst we both don't mind walking - we do both feel that it has to be for some sort of reason. The first walk was a "Glacier Walk" - at the end of which we expected to see a glacier. What they don't tell you though, is that the glacier is a few hundred feet underground - I mean, really! So, feeling a bit cheated, we took the walk to the Mt. Cook and Mt. Sefton lookout. This time we weren't disappointed. As with many of the natural beauty spots that we've visited here, we got perfect weather. Blue skies with just a little cloud gave us some nice photos, and the chance top vainly attempt to top-up our fading tans in the glow of the snow-capped peaks. We even got to admire the huge gouge in the land made by the passing of the now-hiding glacier, which was pretty cool. After that, we turned south and apart from some pretty impressive dams, we didn't see much until we got to our stop for the night at Oamaru.
Friday, March 18, 2005
Christchurch
Phill: 18/3 to 22/3, Christchurch - Not for the first time, we'd over-estimated the size of NZ, and found ourselves at the outskirts of Christchurch around lunchtime. We hadn't actually finalised plans to meet Teresa (a great friend from University), which worked out really well, as she suggested we meet for lunch. Christchurch was easy enough to find our way around, and we met Teresa at her new place of work, sporting a new haircut and looking in fantastic shape for having had a baby 8 months ago. I know she'll argue against that, but then the sort of people that run marathons in Kenya for a laugh often have a different perspective! We grabbed a coffee and spent an hour getting over the weirdness of seeing someone you know out of their normal "context". On T's advice, we spent a beautiful sunny afternoon doing some "Admin" in the park and walking aroung the Botanical Gardens. T ducked out of work and we went for a pint or two in the city, before heading to their house for delicious burritos with Pete. Ren and I had wine and apple-scnhapps from our winery touring, which somehow vanished before our eyes, and we had to move on to T's port. Aren't those evenings where you talk solidly for 8 hours without realising just the coolest?We were woken by James in the morning, who whilst being adorably cute, does have this amazing passion to lecture you at the top of his lungs. It's hysterical. He even puts his fist in the air, like the leader of some radical political movement. Looking a little like Winston Churchill (like all babies should) makes it even funnier. Once T had mobilised the army, she drove us up to Hanmer Springs, a cute little town that is the site of a large thermal pool complex. After some bad pub food in good company, we took James for a splash around, while we had a good soak.
Sunday was a glorious, lazy Sunday - we sat around chatting for most of the day, before Pete took us for a drive in their new van, which was nice, but the weather was rotten and misty. The guys had a 1st birthday party to attend, so we joined them and hung out with the other drinking, childless guests which was handy, as we got a bit of useful info about where we were heading next, and met some "normal" Kiwis. Ren and T had decided that the fact that I'd never seen the movie "Babe" was some sort of crime against humanity, so we stopped at the video store on the way home. To my utter dismay (yeah, right), they couldn't find a copy of it, so we ended up watching Troy instead. Pete cooked us some lovely steaks, to go with a salad, and a top-notch bottle of red we'd aquired on our travels. Life is good.
Sadly though, Ren had developed some sort of wheezing illness again, and didn't sleep much. That meant that she stayed in bed most of Monday, which gave me some time to get online and sort out the latest batches of pics (coming soon). I think T&P were kind of shocked to find that we hadn't left the house all day, but that's the thing - when you don't have a house, it's just nice to stay in one. Also, the things we wanted to do around Christchurch all involved scenery which just wasn't visible in the Autumn rain that looks set to stay awhile.
Before we knew it, it was time to leave, and after getting up in the morning to say bye to the gang, we had a sluggish morning getting packed-up and then set off on our travels once more.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
A Whale of a Time
Phill: 16/3 to 17/3, Blenheim to Kaikoura - So sick of our lousy campsite, we decided to get a decent night's sleep and check into a motel for a night. Everywhere seemed to suffer from "Blenheim Tax" though as the prices were artificially inflated, but we found the cheapest we could and checked-in to a little luxury for a change. After a slow start, we hit some wineries in the area, including Cloudy Bay, Mud House and a place called Prenzel that did lots of different schnapps. That was pretty much it for my driving limit, and we both agree that you can't taste much after the first 3 or 4 wineries anyway, so we headed back to cook ourselves a meal in our "own" kitchen for a change.The next day we drove down to Kaikoura on the West Coast - it was a pretty windy day, which made the ocean-side drive beatifully dramatic, with huge white waves breaking into the rocks and showering the road with sea spray. It was also a bonus to see a huge seal colony, literally just off the road. After finding that yet another Top Ten campsite was sandwiched between the main highway and the railway line, we checked into another campsite which was really pretty, lots of sheltered camping spots, wooden buildings and high-pressure showers (at last!).
Later, we drove down to the Whaleway Station to see if there was any chance of getting on a whale-watching boat trip, and to check how the visibility would be as you couldn't see a thing through the spray at the shore. The guy there told us that it was clear on the open sea, but that the swell was creating waves of around 3 metres (9ft) tall, so you should only go if you don't get sea-sick. Whale-sighting and a roller-coaster ride, woohoo! Fifteen minutes later we were being thrown around on a high speed catamaran heading out over the ridiculously deep underwater trench that is just a few kms from the shore here. The tour was run with absolute crisp professionalism, and in no time at all we had sighted our first whale. There's no denying it, these creatures have a surreal majesty about them, kind of like they belong to a different world, and in a way, I guess they do. The tour continued with us sighting another 2 of the huge mammals, as well as a few albatross with their amazing 4 metre wingspans. Thanks to our early sighting, we got to see our first whale for a second surfacing, before heading back with a few dolphin sightings along the way. The trip was brilliant, and the huge waves really added to it.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Napier to Wellington
Phill: 12/3 to 14/3, Napier to Wellington - We'd decided to stick to form and take the scenic route down to Wellington, which meant that we got to do a lot of driving along winding country lanes past fantastic landscapes, and also got to take in the longest place name in New Zealand and allegedly the world. They cheat a little bit though, as the place is nothing more than a hill - not one single building - but with the nameTetaumatawhakatangihangakoauaotamateaurehaeaturi-
pukapihimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanarahu which to the best of my research is the Guinness Book of Records Second Place entry (Bangkok's "real" name is actually the world's longest place name), it still makes for an impressive road-sign.
I came down with a nasty fever later that day, so poor Ren had to do all the driving while I tried to enjoy the views. We stayed at a place called Masterton, that was another one of those large-ish towns with no people, at a campsite made noisy until about 5am by a bunch of teenagers - kids, eh! We also bumped into an older Kiwi couple that we'd spoken to briefly at our previous campsite - they were so nice and helpful and spared me some paracetomol, and even gave us their address so we could pop in for a cup of tea sometime. That's just one example of why the Kiwi's are winning the "World's Nicest People Award" so far.
The next morning, we drove out to the coast to a place called Castlepoint, simply to enjoy the countryside and see the bay there. It was a drive well worth taking, especially as the weather was stunning that day. We continued onto Hutt City (just on the edge of Wellington) where we stayed in a cabin with a little kitchenette to help me recover a bit more, ready for the South Island.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Napier
Phill: 10/3 to 11/3, Napier - Napier is known for 3 things, the worst is that it suffered New Nealand's largest natural disaster in the form of a major earthquake in 1931, the best are the wineries of Hawkes Bay. Somewhere inbetween those two lies the extensive art deco buildings to be found in the town centre. For those not familiar with art deco, just picture what somebody would've thought looked modern in the 50s, or an American diner today, or any cinema that still calls itself a theatre and you'll get the gist. When we first arrived, the place looked like some sort of fake movie set. It was all a bit tacky and weird, but I'll be honest it does kind of grow on you, and it's certainly better than the faceless glass and plastic frontages that major chains slap on buildings nowadays. By the end of our stay, we even took a few photo's of the best examples, which looked kind of strange with new cars in front of them.We went to the museum while we were there, which had some interesting stuff, as well as the to-be-expected earthquake display. Whilst the few hundred deaths were obviously awful, what was really interesting was how much new land was created - most of the "new" Napier in fact. Having been to one or two other cities that have been rebuilt, you feel bad for saying it but they could've done a better job on the street planning. The roads wind completely aimlessly, and they change name at totally random points (not even at intersections) which makes map-reading a nightmare.
The few wineries that we tried here, at least in terms of customer service, were fantastic. Esk River and Brookfields were great, with the former providing friendly service, great Chardonnay and dipping sauces, and the latter gave a full presentation of their wines instead of the usual tasting. Great stuff. Crab Farm winery had an interesting story, as it was so-named because the land was taken as payment of a debt before the new owner discovered that it was a swampland. After the quake however, the swamp was transformed into fertile volcanic soil - perfect for grapes! Around Napier there were many farm-stores selling fresh veggies, so we put together a huge meal (with steak of course) and tucked in to one of ours days purchases - life is so hard!
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Last Photos for Australia
The last batch of pics from Australia are now available for viewing under the subfolders: (South) WA, South Australia, Great Ocean Road & Melbourne, and Sydney and Kiama. Find them at Australia (3)
Monday, March 07, 2005
Taupo Tandem
Phill: 7/3 to 9/3, Taupo - We had no luck with a cheap petrol station, as it only took NZ-issued credit cards and had no staff (cheeky!), but we got lucky with our duvet and pillows that we'd decided to buy because nights in the tent were getting simply too cold. Taupo is at the heart of the Thermal Highway, so called because of all the areas of geothermal activity along the way and we took in a few of the sights, including the impressive Huka Falls and the Craters of the Moon. The falls are a little different, as they are a power generating system where a huge amount of water gets forced through a narrow channel, very impressive. The Craters comprises of a scenic walk around many steaming and bubbling vents and craters in the ground that really do give a strange "other-worldy" feel to the place. Of course... it still smells though! We drove through a geothermal power station - very enterprising, and very clean - and visited a honey-shop where they had "see-through" hives for you to examine, with a little bit of nervousness. We also went to a dam, where they release the water several times per day for power generation purposes - it comes gushing down through a craggy channel, and although it's not like a "wall of water" or anything, it still has to be seen to be believed, just how quickly the rapids form.In the evenings, we began cooking for ourselves in earnest (we overspent in Oz!), and had a few fantastic meals, especially as "bigger than the plate" steaks here cost very little. We found some backpacker places that did $10 pasta & beer meals, found a broken pinball machine that allowed us free games for a while, and laughed at the strange behaviour of our fellow campers. Well, strange to us anyway - like the trio of Israelis that had managed to camp in NZ for 3 months without buying their own $10 mallet. Or the pair that managed to be in the kitchen eating something every time you walked past. We'd selected Taupo as the first of our adrenaline activities though, and after a dissapointing drive around Pureora forest park, we set off for our tandem skydive.
Let me begin by saying, that the experience was simply amazing. We took the cash-hit, and made the jump from 15000 feet (~4600m) which meant that we had a good 60 seconds in free-fall, which is kind of the only way to go. I say that because both of us in the last 15 seconds or so (the "extra bit"), felt a definite change in our emotions and in the whole thing. It's kind of like you have time to say, in a calm and adrenaline-less voice "Oh... wow... I'm actually falling, I wonder when the chute will open?" The DVD of the jump was done very well, and edited pretty professionally, and the extras like the limo pick-up and the free post-jump beer are nice... but... it has to be said that the whole thing is a bit shabby. You never feel that there is very much professionalism around you... or much organisation for that matter. The limo has seen better days, the beer is the cheapest brand, and the staff do things like give people lifts, or make jokes about things going wrong to try and scare you a little more. They also don't provide real value for money - in that the cost difference between 9000ft and 12000ft is only $40, but 12000 to 15000 is $100. The DVD also costs them next to nothing to make, after initial overheads, but they charge $140 for it, and then try to sell you a T-shirt to advertise their company. A fantastic experience, and well worth doing, especially with the beautiful scenary and the expanse of Lake Taupo below you, but they could do with a bit more competition.
We finished our time in Taupo with a few beers at our campsite, where we chatted with a family from the Isle of Wight that had taken their kids out of school to travel for 3 months - good on them! We had a pretty good, cheap meal out, then collapsed, happy and exhausted.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Rotorua
Phill: 4/3 to 6/3, Rotorua - Checking in at the Rotorua campsite took a little while, we still cannot understand what order they give out tent-sites, but all too often they seem to want to put you right in-between two other people when there's loads of room elsewhere, or put you right next to the brightly lit toilet block, or on the only muddy and uneven site available. This time, all of that happened - so it took a lot longer than it needed to, and by the time we had our 3pm lunch, we were starving. The sort of starving that makes cheeseburgers from the local, dodgy burger bar seem like the best ever.By a cool little coincidence, we'd ended up here at the same time as Paddy, so we went and picked him and another girl up and drove out to see some of the local geysers. The places were close to closing, so we saved our money instead, and went to the free thermal "park" near our campsite. Even though we'd experienced it before in Beppu, Japan - there's still something very surreal about walking through a park that looks just like a normal park in a normal town but has holes in the ground everywhere with boiling hot mud bubbling out. That's not to mentioned the wonderful sulphur-smell! A quick beer, followed by the worst Chinese Take-Away meal ever, and that was our first day done.
We were looking forward to enjoying one of Rotorua's many spa-baths, and the best value for money was at the Polynesian Spa which our guidebook correctly informed us was deserted at lunchtime. They had a hot swimming pool (38C - no laps for Ren!) and 3 other pools up to 42C that overlooked the lake. It was a perfect blue-sky day, and was thoroughly relaxing, except for the "must-do" ice-cold power-shower with body jets, but that was great too! The staff there were also so helpful, that when we asked about a phonecard to call and book our evening's entertainment, they actually looked up the number for us, and let us use their phone.
We wanted to do the best Maori concert and feast (hangi) that we could, as we only intended to do it once - and all fingers pointed to Tamaki Village. They have a shuttle bus that can pick you up, and it's certainly one of the best parts of the evening. The drivers are hugely entertaining, teaching you Maori words, telling jokes, and explaining the greeting ceremony that awaits you. The village is a replica of a traditional Maori fort (pa) and the greeting challenge is pretty serious and intimidating with a spear brandishing warrior ready to fight or welcome you according to your chosen "chief's" behaviour. You are then escorted through the fort, where there are groups of Maori taking part in traditional activites which are later explained, but the most striking thing of all is just how much music is a part of their culture. After another serious greeting and welcome, the atmosphere changes with the introduction of some great feel-good Polynesian music and dances. The concert is great, and obvious finale of the Haka was no anti-climax - superb stuff. The Hangi feast where all the food is cooked by hot rocks whilst buried under the earth was delicious and plentiful, and followed by an explanation of the cooking, and some more songs by the bus drivers. It was great, and it's a shame to say that it could be a lot better, but there were a few things that brought it down a little. You occasionally feel rushed, as it's big-business and they manage 3 shows per evening, each of over 100 people - which at $80/person is pretty staggering. It's also presented in a show-like fashion, rather than perhaps a more intimate feeling "mealside performance" maybe involving the audience a little. Finally, it's also a bit twee - with a few sickly-sweet moments about uniting the whole world. Don't get me wrong, I'm a dreamer too, but just not with the sugar-frosted-coating, you know? Again though, the day was saved by the shuttle-bus as the driver quite seriously demanded a song from every nation on board on the journey home. So much so, that he just pulled the bus over to the side of the road if a nation didn't come up to the front of the bus quickly enough! He'd also taken an impressive mental note of most of the names and all of the nationalities on-board, so of course, being Welsh meant I was up on my own. Oh well, all good fun. He continued to joke all the way back, including a Maori-version of the Hokey Cokey (Hokey Pokey), and a rendition of "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain" whilst doing repeated loops of a roundabout in the road!
We got dropped in town, so that we could meet Paddy for a farewell beer at his hostel. He was in fine form, regaling us with funny tales of his time in NZ, full of his typically colourful language! It was great to see him one last time, meaning that we've managed to meet him in every country that he's visited on his round the world trip, which was pretty cool.
The next day, we pottered around and relaxed a fair bit, and also went to see Constantine, which was surprisingly good, although we've leant our lesson once and for all on cinema junk-food and will not be getting any "combo deals" ever again. Who eats all that stuff? There was loads more to do in Rotorua, but we were getting a bit touristed-out, and we can come back through on our return to Auckland if we want, so we set off for Taupo instead.
