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Kolins Travels
To my dismay I read that Christchurch is the most English city outside of England and sure enough it was raining as I took my first steps off the plane. However, upon leaving, it quickly becomes apparant that all the world's variety of environments are in one place - and that place is New Zealand. This place has it all, I am enjoying being here and so excited at the shear amount there is to do! Historically New Zealand had no mammals (except maybe a bat?) - they were introduced by us British types when we colonised the Islands. When this happened alot of this countries flightless birds were eaten. Deer were brought here from Scotland and possums ravaged the land.(Possum pie doesn't taste that bad actually!) New Zealanders hunted Deer to export the meat, now they farm them. I saw a short history film showing New Zealanders jumping from helicopters barebacked onto the deers to catch them! ....anywayI decided to take the Transcenic Train across the South Island heading West from Christchurch to Greymouth on the East Coast. Leaving at 8.15am it starts across the flat, alluvial Canterbury Plains to the Foothills of the Alps. It then commences across gorges and hills called the Staircase made possible by numerous tunnels and three large viaducts. Then heading into valleys with beech-forested river giving way to the snowcapped peaks of Arther's Pass National Park. The pass includes a 8.5km tunnel through a mountain exiting on the West side into glorious sunshine! When it rains on the East - it's sunny on the West.From Grey Mouth I visited Punakaiki (The Pancake rocks and Blowholes) taking the coastal road which was amazing. In the evening I went on a Merelichs Brewery Tour tasting a few jars or...er five or six!! Accomodation was at the Noah's Ark Hostel.Weather and Scenery can just change here so quickly - The next day I arrive at Franz Josef(warm) Glacier (staying at Chateau Franz) and liquid sunshine is all around! Spent the afternoon quad biking through glacier flooded terrain, over river's with mud flying everywhere!! It was hilariously good fun with the track ending through a rain forest. Liquid sunshine continued to fall all day - non stop.I knew I was going to climb the glacier, I just didn't know how. Bad weather destroyed initial plans of taking a Heli - hike high upto the glacier. (That's via helicopter incase you are a numpty!) I then booked a Glacier Climb where I could scale large walls of ice with a ice pick etc..again this was cancelled due to excessive liquid sunshine. So, I ended up going on a full day 8 hour guided hike up the glacier which was unbelievable - two days ago being near the coast in the sun now surrounded by ice with wet feet! Wearing Ice Talons was the only way to stand up and walk on the Glacier - at its peak some 45 metres of snow fall a year!. Apparantly it's winds from Australia (Tasman Sea) which cause such excessive rains creating the beautiful scenery. I loved it! The Glacier changes everyday and with it the trails. The guides were constantly pick axing new steps as we treked over the glacier...on the day I went they had been there since 7am as the walk had been completely destroyed by overnight liquid sunshine! lolNext up I travelled to Wanaka (staying at The Purple Cow) for my tandom skydive. I planned to do this on 16th January but the weather was so good on the 15th I didn't need much encouragement to put it forward a day!! I've been waiting 4 months for this - 15,000 feet over Lake Wanaka (the highest they do) get me in the plane now!! The plane was small with all of us cramped inside. All I can say is - what an amazing experience! - freefalling and spinning through the air for a minute over Alps, rivers, hills and lakes above The World Heritage Mt Aspiring National Park is something I will never forget. Happy days. I was pumped up and excited and not really nervous - unlike others in the plane. I was last to go and paid for a camera man to follow me down - my guts went crazy initially at "jump off" but then I was all smiles!I spent last night in funky Cinema Paradiso (which has gorilla arms sticking out the front of the building !)where you can sit in cars and on sofas. I was drinking red wine sampling some local cookies watching the latest mel Gibson film...less said about that the better.The view here at Wanaka are just amazing seeing the lake, mountains and forests - money cannot buy a better breakfast or evening BBQ spot. On ward to Queenstowns..who knows what I will get upto???
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