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Hi all,
Wow wow wow I'm totally loving New Zealand!!!! Just felt I had to get that out of the way. Right I believe from our last blog Bex left us at the mouse incident. We had been driving quite abit, hours each day, so on our way back through Queenstown we decided to stay for a couple of nights at the same campsite in order to recharge us and Nessie.
Queenstown is great, lots going on, the main base for all of the extreme sports but as we were saving our money the most extreme thing we did was go on a cable car ride up a hill and luge back down. Lots of fun though. The track was pretty quick but it would've been better to race other people or at least get timed! Bex said she enjoyed it but her pale face told me otherwise. The view at the top of the hill in Queenstown was spectacular, as with most views in the south island. The best way to describe it is to take the best of Wales, Scotland and the south of France all blended together and rolled out in a Lord of the Rings style. The movies were filmed here. Breathtaking though.
Already wishing we had twice the time here we had to start heading North, so we drove up the west coast toward the glaciers. "Beware of the sandflies if your heading up the west coast" locals would say. Yer no problem, we've got Deet spray and mosquito coils left over from south east asia. Soon found out they didn't work. We stopped at a lake to camp and thought it would be nice to sit outside, but this was not good, we got attacked by the little b*****s! Shorts were a bad idea.
A little further north we stopped again at lake for lunch and walked along the stoney beach to realise many people had made their own constructions on the beach of these rocks. We decided to leave our own artistic mark. Bex created a pretty sculture with some driftwood and long grass, I wanted to get as tall a pile of rocks as possible. More difficult than I thought but I was pleased with my 3 foot creation and took some arty photos of it in the sun. Bex even got photographed by a Japanese tourist building hers! Wonder if they are still there...the rocks not the Japanese.
Fox glacier was the next stop. A small town built on the tourism of the glacier. The best way to view this natural wonder is to take a scenic flight or a guided trek but the weather was terrible and we were saving our money for activities in Kaikoura. We did do a free trek, to the face of the glacier though. We got within 200 meters of the face, which while very impresive just made you want to go closer. The weather was terrible though so we made the choice to keep on heading north to Hammer springs, where if we were lucky we would arrive in time to soak our bones in some thermal pools. We did, just! After about 7 hours driving it was heaven. But the next would be the best yet, we were going to swim with dolphins....
Kaikoura is on the north east coast of New Zealand and a mecca for wildlife. We knew we wanted to do an organised trip of either viewing dolphins or whales. I wanted to see whales at first, but knew Bex wanted to swim with dolphins. In the end I'm glad we decided on the dolphins as it would be alot more interactive. It was to be an early start though, 6am, but it would definitly be worth it. We had a day to kill though and decided to get in the wildlife mood by doing the penisula walk, where according to the information we would see seals, seabirds and great scenery. But just as we started on the main section, a mist rolled in from sea incredible quickly and in the end we saw 2 seals, the odd bird, ducks and a cow.
Ok, dolphin day. I had heard before, its special, amazing, top of the list of things to do before you die but i've always been a bit sceptical. We managed to get to the centre on time, be it with morning hair and tired eyes, amoung many germans who looked as if they did this everyday. We all got fitted out with wet suits and snorkle gear, Bex laughed at my extra large flippers for my extra large feet but I knew it'd just make me quicker in the water. A short safety video and bus ride and we were on the boat setting off into the Pacific ocean with the sun just beginning to creep over the horizon. Totally the right choice to go at 6am, the sunrise was the most beautiful we have seen, just check out the photo. After about 30mins we where alerted to the first sightings of Dolphins heading straight for the boat, amazing to see them rising out of the water. The boat sped up slighty and we were joined by more and more dolphins swimming in the bow wave. Difficult to get a picture but something I won't forget. It wasn't long though before it was our turn to join them, about ten of us altogether swam as some others stayed on board to watch. We were told to make as much noise as possible with our mouths in order to keep these inquistive creatures interested. Later Bex told me she was singing jingle bells?! The boat stop anyway and we jumped into the cold morning Pacific, took the breath away but we soon got snorkling. Its difficult to describe the feeling of being so close to these amazing animals, and boy did they get close. Graceful, beautiful, fast, agile and awesome. It was great to have an individual swimming around you as you felt clumsey trying to keep up, but when a pack of about 6/7 swim at you from the deep blue, that takes you breath away more than the cold ocean. We got 3 good 10-15 minutes swims with them and it'll be an experince not to be forgotten. Everyone was beeming on the boat as we warmed up with hot chocolate and ginger biscults.
Ok, after the excitment of Kaikoura and the dolphins our next port of call was Blenheim which is situated in wine country! Excellent, loads of wine tours on offer, but we though we would hire a bike and just ride around at our leisure. Blenhiem is full of vineyards, it looks like france, very pretty. I haven't made a mistake saying we hired A bike, as we hired a tandem..... Yes we can just about get along with directions in a car but both in control aswell? mmmmm We were in good spirits anyway and hoped on, I went at the front first, Bex at the back. This'll be easy I though as we set off for a test ride down a quiet road. Not quite, we looked like we had started drinking with our cornflakes, walls came very close, coordination was lost and all eligance vanished as we stumbled to a halt, bursting with laughter. Several attempts later and were getting the hang of it, but we still had to get out of town and ride 8k before the vineyards! This took longer than expected, Bex blamed the headwind, I just don't think she was peddling hard enough. After lunch we braved into our first "cellar door" where people can taste the wines. The first one was Wairu river wines. We meekly entered into the posh looking barn conversion and browsed the gifts before a lady offered us a free taste. Feeling a little out of our comfort zone, we gulped down the various grapes and I fell in love with the Reisling. Feeling more cofident we went to another one and even gave comments like "fruity" "smooth" and "zingy". Heading back with our tanniers full of wine, cheese and crackers we headed home, back wind (Bex was right) we hit 40kph on our steed and cruised into town red faced, not sure if it was the wine or the exercise!
The north island had arrived all ready and it felt we had limited time before we had to hand back our campervan. But before we did I was to have my 30th birthday as we hit lake Taupo. I had been saying I should do something extreme like a bungy jump for it, but in the end decided on a tandam skydive. lake Taupo is stunning, a huge lake surrounded by volcanos, one which we trekked over the day before. 14k up and over. Knackered is not the word. Anyway the day came and we were picked up and taken to the airport. I had chosen the 12000 foot jump and after a session of hard selling by the company to try and get us to pay for a higher jump and various photo and dvd packages I stuck to my guns and went with the 12000 foot jump for my first jump. Bex was on the ground anyway so I would at least get some photos, but i knew it would be the experince I would remember. We got suited up and paired with a master jumper and I was getting very excited, I was expecting to be scared but I just couldn't wait to get up there. The single prop plane took around 20 minutes to get to the height and as I was strapped onto my tandam guy apprehension crept in. Only two of us jumped at 12000, the Italian guy was first, the door opened and he was dangled over the edge, then suddenly like a skittle up a vacuum cleaner he disappered WHUMP! Gone. Ok, now I was getting a little nervous, but before I had time to get scared I was the one with my legs dangling out of the plane. I know it sounds silly but I wasn't expecting the feeling of falling to be that great from that height. Alot of wind and noise and the knowing that you are hurtling towards the earth. I was wrong. That feeling of falling was sensational, amazing and frickin breath taking!!! Oh my god this is quick I thought as we tumbled, but we soon stabilsed and hit terminal velocity, a pat on the head and it was arms out and head up as we plummeted to the ground. I just tried to take as much of the experience in as possible becasue I knew in a few seconds the parachute would be deployed and calmness would take over. He pulled the cord and I was suddenly vertical, the noise completly disappeared. Except for me laughing and just sayin "wow!" alot. A gentle glide down and we a graceful landing (didn't fall over) and the ground never felt so solid. I was beeming, Bex was relieved. What a birthday and there i was not looking forward to turning 30.
We are currently in Auckland when we should be in Fiji, but the island have been hit by a tropical strom and flights have been cancelled. So it's auckland for the forseable future.
Chris
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Mum & Dad B Great blog almost seems as if we are there with you,but not quite unfortunatly. Just had this hilarious mental picture of you two on a tandam. P.S. Jack (Arbuckles) says HELLO