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We arrived in Wellington very late at night and got a taxi straight to our hostel in Plimmerton. Due to our late arrival (and no staff at reception) we were given special instructions telling us how to get through the hostel security and into our room without disturbing anyone. The email said it would be very 'cloak and dagger' but not to worry. By the time we got to the hostel it was 12:30am and the building was in darkness. Thankfully we found the correct door, the door code worked, we navigated the doorways correctly and the room key was where it was supposed to be.
Plimmerton is 20 minutes out of Wellington and was original developed as being the Brighton of New Zealand. Things didn't quite turn out the way, and now Plimmerton is a small village with about 5 shops, a few cafes and restaurants, a church and a very small and quaint railway station. Our hostel was situated 15 minutes from the village centre, along the shoreline of the ocean. It was a very pleasant walk, and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery.
On our first full day in New Zealand we headed straight into Wellington to explore what is called the "cool little capital of New Zealand." We found the tagline to be accurate - it is a really nice place. The city is indeed small, but there is everything there that you could want. It's also in a beautiful location surrounded by hills and the ocean. We walked along the harbour and then through the main city streets. Our main job for the day was to go to the I-Site, a tourist information centre, so that we could organise our time in New Zealand. Although we had rough ideas of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go, we didn't know how we were going to get around. The I-Site was brilliant. It turns out there is one in every town in New Zealand, and the staff are super helpful. There were several options for getting around the country and we worked out we would be able to visit quite a lot during our 3 and a half week stay. We decided to get a 'Flexipass' which is a ticket that allows you to buy a number of hours of transport by bus and boat. A map shows how many hours it takes to get to each place, and the transport is timed to be able to make easy connections. It was perfect for what we wanted - much cheaper than hiring a car or campervan, and much more freedom that going on a tour bus. The following day we booked all our transport and hostels for the following 3 weeks. We were so organised!
On our third and final day in Wellington we visited the Te Papa Museum. The receptionist at the hostel told us that it was the best place to visit in New Zealand. She was very enthusiastic. 'Te Papa' is a Maori phrase, that in English means 'Our Place'. The huge museum houses exhibits about New Zealand; it's Maori history, geology, wildlife, music, art, modern history, and culture. The museum has 6 floors and apparently it takes 10 hours to see everything properly. We started at the top and worked our way down. The art exhibits on the fifth were mostly good (don't get me started on the modern art again!). We particularly enjoyed the Maori art - the wood carvings were fantastic and so intricate. I knew next to nothing about Maoris (my only facts being they do the Haka and are quite good at rugby) so all the information on the fourth floor was very interesting. There were lots of videos and interactive bits that told us how the Maoris got to New Zealand, and there was a big Maori house that we could go in and have a look around. While we were on the fourth floor there was a tsunami alert so everyone in the museum had to go up to the top few floors until we got the all clear. The alert was only a practice though, as it seems there was a tsunami awareness initiative happening throughout the Pacific at the time. Luckily we were already on one of the top floors, so we could continue looking around without delay. The next exhibit we liked was an interactive junkshop. We sat in there and watched a film about New Zealand's recent history while the junk shop came alive around us. We then had to rush through the information about New Zealands' geology so Charlene could have a go in the Earthquake Room. After that we visited the nature exhibit which contained lots of taxidermied native animals, along with a big tank containing a giant squid. Charlene was a bit disappointed by the giant squid because she thought it would be a fairground ride. Bless. After the obligatory visit to the museum shop, we headed back to Plimmerton for the evening. Te Papa is a fantastic museum and was well worth the visit. We were hopefully that Te Papa was just the start of the great things that New Zealand had to offer.
We had an early start the following day as we had a long journey from Wellington to the South Island and to it's largest city, Christchurch. The journey required us to make several connections, and we were a little worried that if one journey was delayed, then we wouldn't be able to get to our final destination. We first had to get a train from Plimmerton to Wellington, then we had to get the shuttle bus to the ferry terminal. We then had a three hour voyage to the South Island, and then had another bus to take us four hours south to Christchurch. Luckily we made all our connections and the bus stopped on a busy duel carriageway somewhere in Christchurch. Due to the four earthquakes in the past year, central Christchurch is inaccessible and is a fenced off 'Red Zone'. We had no idea where we were and the bus driver couldn't tell us where we could go to get a bus to our next hostel. Fortunately we found a taxi, and it took us to our hostel in a suburb of Christchurch called New Brighton. While in the taxi, the driver told us about the devestation in central Christchurch and pointed out the Red Zone as we drove past it. It all looked rather desolate. We told him we were staying in Christchurch for four nights. He said that these days, that was a long time. When we arrived at our hostel we saw the building was covered in scaffolding, and the taxi driver feared that it might be closed like so many other buildings due for renovation or demolision. We were relieved to see that it was in fact still open, however it wasn't the nicest of hostels and perhaps should be demolished!
That evening we explored New Brighton. Apart from a small selection of restaurants and takeaways and a supermarket everything was closed. Some of the buildings were only half standing and were waiting to be knocked down. The place felt like it had just experienced a major disaster. Although the earthquake that did the most damage happened in February, there were two more in June that, although causing no more fatalities, still destroyed many buildings. It was a sorry sight. The following day was Saturday, and we stayed around New Brighton. It wasn't much busier than the previous evening, and the gloomy weather didn't help the appearance of the place. We walked to the beach and then to the end of the long pier, all the while being buffeted by the strong winds. There was a small crowd at the very end of the pier, and two guys in wetsuits with surf boards grabbing onto the wrong side of the guard rail. The waves were huge, it was very cold, and these guys jumped off the pier into the freezing water and swam out to catch some waves. Crazy!
On our second full day in Christchurch we ventured into the city. We walked around some of the half demolished buildings and looked through the wire fences down the abandoned streets covered in rubble, that a year ago would have been the bustling town centre. It was all so very sad. After a short walk we got the bus to the International Antarctica Centre. Christchurch was the starting point of many expeditions to the frozen continent (Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott etc.), and now has an Antarctic research centre, an American Artarctic exploration base, and is where lots of scientists start their tour of Antartctica. The International Antarctic Centre is a brilliant tourist attraction. The first room describes the Antarctic year and is set up like an Antarctic landscape. The lights change according to the season, and there are historical audio recordings of accounts of people's harsh experiences there. The next room contained information about what life is like working in Antarctica in the present day. We then went into a cold room which was covered in snow and was minus 8 degrees celsius. We then experienced a night in Antarctica as the lights dimmed, the wind got strong and the temperature dropped. It got quite chilly in there! Next was a highlight - going to see the penguins. The Little Blue Penguins (that is their species name) were very cute. The ones at the centre were all rescued and would die if they were let out into the wild. The disabilities include; blindness, arthritis, only having one leg, crooked beak, and a paralysed flipper. Later that day we saw them being fed, some eating the fish in the water, and the other less able ones being hand fed. When it was time to feed the blind penguin, the keeper had to call it's name repeatedly, and the penguin found her by following the sound of her voice. After watching the penguins for a while we had a go in a Hagglund. The Hagglund is an all terrain vehicle used in Antartica. The driver took us on a field testing course that had us going up and down some very steep hills, crossing big gaps, and going deep through water, where the vehicle becomes a boat and it controlled by rudder. It was great fun. We then went to watch a 4D movie of Antarctica which had some beautiful 3D photography, but got a bit tiresome towards the end as we kept getting squirted with water (that was the 4D bit). The rest of the centre had lots of information about conservation and survival in the continent and finished with a short movie about Antarctica on a massive screen (thankfully this time in 2D). Seeing all the pictures reminded me of our time in Ushuaia in Argentina, when we saw the big ships taking tourists to visit Antarctica. We definitely want to do that someday!
On our last day in Christchurch we got the bus to Akaroa (about 2 hours away) to go and swim with dolphins. Akaroa has a French influence so there are lots of French flags flying, people in berets and shops with French names. We didn't see any French people there though. It is a very pretty village, and was only busy the day we visited due to the huge cruise ship that had just arrived and unloaded hoards of old American tourists. Due to mobility issues, they mainly stayed around the harbour, and so half the village was not affected. We saw a couple of hostels that looked lovely and we wished that we had stayed in Akaroa instead of New Brighton. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was so pleased because I had been a bit worried about the day. I don't do cold water, and the thought of jumping into the cold sea on a cold day did not seem a pleasant thought. We arrived at the pier and given a talk about the dolphins we would be swimming with. The species local to the area is the Hectors dolphin. They are the most endangered and smallest species of dolphin, and many were killed in the 70s and 80s due to them accidently being caught in fishing nets. We were also told that the water would be very cold. We got into our wetsuits and boarded our small catamaran and sailed out into the Pacific Ocean. After about 40 minutes we spotted our first dolphins. They swam right up to the boat and seemed very playful. Some more approached and so the ladders were lowered and we got in the water. It was freezing. After a while it got a bit better and became slightly less freezing. It didn't matter though cause what we were doing was amazing. The dolphins kept popping up out of the water, swimming towards us and swimming between us. As soon as Charlene got in the water one came up close to her. At one point I was a bit away from everyone else and out of nowhere one popped up of the water right by me. We took a few photos, but it was better to just experience it. There were times when they would swim away and people would start to get out, only for the dolphins to swim back, and everyone would get back in the water. We were in the water with the dolphins for about an hour and it was such a memorable experience. When we got out, the dolphins put on a little show for us and four of them kept jumping high out of the water totally synchronised. When the boat started going back to the harbour, some of the dolphins followed us and were playing in the jet stream. It was amazing to see wild creatures acting in such a way. On our way back, our guide put hot water in our wet suits to warm us up and gave us all hot chocolate. Just what we needed! It had been a fantastic day and one that I will remember for a very long time.
We had another early start the next morning as we got the TransAlpine train from Christchurch on the east coast, to Greymouth on the west coast. The scenery we passed through was beautiful. Filming for Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia was done in the area, and you can see why. There were so many rivers, valleys and snow capped mountains. Some of the best scenery I'd ever seen. From Greymouth we got the bus south to our next destination, Franz Josef.
Franz Josef is a small town in what they call "Glacier Country". We stayed there for just 3 nights as there isn't much to do there apart from a glacier trek. We booked the trek as soon as we arrived, and did the trek on our first full day there. Franz Josef is renowned for it's bad weather, raining on average 270 days a year, so we were lucky to be able to do the trek when good weather was forecast.
We reported to the trek offices and got our trekking equipment - waterproof boots, crampons, coat, hat and gloves. After we were kitted up, we were driven about 5 minutes up the road where our walk began. When the glacier was discovered hundreds of years ago, the glacier ended where we were dropped off. Over the years the glacier has receded, and now it is 3km walk from the drop off point to the glacier end. We walked through the valley past waterfalls and small streams until we got to a small rocky hill. When we reached the top of the hill we had a great view of the glacier. We put on our crampons and set off on the ice. The glacier changes on a daily basis and develops cracks and new formations so there wasn't a set established route that we followed. Our guide was exploring the area as much as we were. During our walk on the ice we found several ice caves and tunnels. Charlene squeezed through one of the tunnels and ended up getting a bit wet. Some of the ice was incredibly blue due to it being extremely compacted and dense. It looked very beautiful. After a couple of hours of exploring we left the ice and went back into town. The glacier walk was a fantastic experience and having seen a glacier already early in the year, it was great to be able to actually walk on one. Later that day we went to the hot baths. There were 3 pools, all at different temperatures, and we spent a couple of hours there relaxing. It was heaven. Afterwards we went to a pub for something to eat and I bumped into someone who I worked with about 4 years ago. She was also taking time off to travel, and it was great to catch up with her. It's a small world!
On our other full day in Franz Josef we visited a Kiwi Sanctuary which was home to 4 young Rowi kiwis. Rowi are the rarest species of kiwi, and there are less than 400 of them left in the world. The kiwis were very cute, and we saw them sniffing around, eating and chasing each other around. We watched them for ages. After seeing them we found out about the huge efforts being undertaken to try to make sure they don't become extinct. The kiwis all having tracking beacons attached and are closely monitored to see when they give birth. If nature took its course, 95% of births would be unsuccessful for a number of reasons. Instead when the eggs are laid, conservationists take them to hatch in a lab and therefore 95% hatch successfully. The young kiwis are then taken to a predator free island until they grow big enough to be able to survive in the wild. They are then taken back to where the egg was found and so the cycle begins again. The sanctuary was a really interesting place, and hopefully kiwis won't be on the endangered species list for much longer.
The following day we got the bus north to Nelson and the Abel Tasman National Park.
D
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