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I will carry on from where i left off.... After the glacier walk we got to expereicne some real authentic kiwi hospitality in the heart of NZ's high county at flock hill station which farms fine wool sheep, beef cattle and red deer all set in a picturesque backdrop in little cute log cabbins with log fires and wood effect walls. We filled up on a lovely roast lamb dinnerwith pumpkin and kumara (sweet potato) then chatted to derek and anna, some good friends we made before snuggling in our cabin which exceeds our expectations after the dives we stayed in for the rest of our travels!
We woke up early in our lovely cosy little boudoir and went for breaky with the gang.We were meant to check out staright away and go expolre but as we had already done horseriding (never again!) we couldnt resist sneaking back into our villa and chilling there till the bus left. We watched trashy tv including baywatch and blind date and sang and danced on the furniture to the music using the remote as a mic. Later we re-grouped for a tour of the farm. We nmet the working dogs who help herd up the cattle and watched them in action in the fields. Some of the bullocks were huuuge with rings in their noses and we had to run out of the field before they thundered past us into the shed with the dogs yapping behiond thwem. We managed to hitch a ride on the back of the farm boys quad bike 9before us the dog had been riding on the seat with his head over the boys shoulder it was sweet). whilst everyone else walked and we learned how wool is farmed and graded before being shipped to italy to make mens designer suits. We had lunch of veg soup and brie and bacon sarnies before hitting the road again and stopping at the place where cetain scenes from lord of the rings and narnia were filmed (i should really watch these films!!). We ened up back in christchuurch where we siad goodbye to half out grouop by going for a meal in town. We drank cocktails and ate naches and greek lamb pizza which made a change from the packet noodles we have been scoffing for the past week. It was a great first week and i was looking forward to see what the north island had to offer.
Our mornings drive took us to the small town of kaikora nestled in the foothills of the kaikora ranges. Here we did an hours trek over the hillsand past the pebbly beach with the sun shining above us (yey!). We wandered onto the rocks and stubbled upon some adult fur seals lounged on the beach ywaning occasionally and lolloping forward to get more comfy. We took photos with them but kept our distance as they can be viscious and territorial. I was amazied to see them in their natural habvitiat it was exciting enough seeing them at the aquarium. they looked like my dog eve. Gem and i were so caught up photing them that bthe bus nearly went without us!! Check the pics they are adorable!
Next we enetered the vineyards of the marlborough region, famous for its delicious new zealand wines. We paid for a tour round the vineyard leanring how the wine is made and how different grapes create different types of wine. I wont bore you with all that now. Maybe i will tell you whilst we are sipping on a glass in kennedys mum! We got taken down into the cellar where the wine is processed and stored and saw the different stages it goes through before reaching us as the final product. We also got to do wine tasting where we sampled 8 different types of wine each with different flavour as we learned how to distinguish whther the wine had been aged in a barrel, the bottle or the presser. For example a chardonaythat had been aged in the metal presser resauklts in the flavour being of a fruity disposition (apple, apricot, gooseberry and sometimesa spicy or straw like etc) whereas in the barrel there would be more musky tones (bread, nuts, smokey, vanilla etc) this perhaps is due to thewood of the barrel which is made of solid oak and cost 1500 dollars each. Some companies are sly and only use wood chippings as the dont want to fork out for the expensive barrel so on the bottle it may say aged 'with oak' instead of aged 'in oak'- something to look out for! Wine can be drunk straight from the presser although comes out cloudy and not very appetising and needs to be separated and cleaned using either egg white, yeast products or fish products (yuk!). We also learned that red wine is made suing the skins of the grapes whereas white winer is made after emoving them.. Some of the wines we tried were delicious and some horrible even though they had won awatds. My fave was the chardonay we sampled in the cellar i wish id bought a bottle but it would have been hard to transport back home. We finished our last glass whilst watching for sperm whales over the viewing point of the sea. It was cool ive always wanted to do wine tasting, god knows i gfet enough practice! We watched grease lightening on the coach and stoppped by the sea for fish and chips (sea perch) or fush and chups as they say in their accent!! Gem lucy and i chilled in our little pink hostel room looking like the 3 bears whilst we watched forrest gump and drank hot chocolate.
Breakfast in the morning was gorgeous stewed plums and yohurt and with it being a rainy day we got a taxi with anna and derek to nelson town and went indoor rock climbing. We learned how to use the ropes andclimb to the top and abseil down with the help of the partner on the floor controlling the rope. It was nerve racking at first as gem was controlling me and she said she didnt know what to do when i was at the top. We got quite good but it was quite taxing! Later we came cack and chilled in the louge area watching king kong and eating peanut butter and jelly sarnies- we are addicted since we met some people from america in fraser island! mmmm
Our journey the next day took us to the little town of picton and past the school where the guy who first split the atom and the guy who first set up NASSA were educated- must be a good school! We made our way to the interisland ferry for our trip across cook strait and enjoyed a lesiurly 3 hour sail across to the north island with cracking views from the deck. On arrival into wellington we drove through the harbour and up to mount victoria for 360 degree views around the area- it was raing again though!We checked inot our hostelthen anna derek, frederick, lucy gem and i decdied to check out te papa, the national museum of NZ which was cool and we learned about earthquakes, evolution and the earths layers. It was raining so we didnt get to see wellington in its true light but i wasnt overly impressed. We were lucky not ot expereicne an earthquake as they are extreamly common here, the houses have to be built in wood on stilts to take the shakes. We went to bed at 6pm, exhausted then woke up at 10pm for noodle tea with a fask mask on! Lazy b******s! We saw glow worms in the caves of today- the hugrier they get the more they glow apparently.
On the road again the following day passing the active trio of volcanos commonly known as mount doom from lord of the rings. We passed geothermal steam hovering over the ground and huge crater lakes reminding us that this regionrests imediately above the pacific ring of fire! We went to view some natursally hot mud pools which were boiling hot so we had to stand back when they bubbled up and sdpat mud everywhere it was like avolcano and was steaming up it was amzing that it is a natural thing. Apparently the area is so hot becasue the earth is thin here therefore we are closer to the earths crust. you can literally feel the heat under your feet!
We stayed the night at a maori meeting house (the orignial tribes of NZ). On arrival we were greeted traditionally with the lady singing to us as we had to walk in barefoot, ladies first to be made un-sacred to them. We listened to them chant and sing then had to sing a song of our own to them- we chose doe a deer haha! Afterwards we had to shake hands with each mem,eberr and touch noses with them in order to share the breath of life, we had to go along the line and do it with the old people, teenagers and kids. one woman had oxygen going to her from a tank so i jumped a mile when i had rto touch noses with her and some air pumped out! It was weird but cute abit like gnome kisses!!
We spent the night on the floor of thier wooden meeting house decorated in red black and white to represent the afterlife with eery seual wooden carvings surroudning us. Before bed we had a roast chiken dinner and did some traditional maori crafts including making pois which are balls on the end of plaited colourful string given to babies instead of rattles for hand eye co-ordination and used by adults to strenth the wrist. We also made flowers out of vine leaves. Lucy, gem and frederick and i walked in the rain with our torches to the jetty where we watched the black swans and got excited about our white water rafting trip (which would be over a 7 metre waterfall, the bibiggest rafting in NZ) unfortunatley it was cancelled the next day due to the rain maybve it was a sign as it sounded quite dangerous but i was gutteed as i really wanted to do it! A tornado was predicted for tongiht and i was scared sleeping in the meeting house but it was more like a storm than anything.
We left the maroi meeting house to stay in a motel with its own hot tub in the bvack of each room- wwooo!I got on the bus in the drivers seat whilst he was at the loo and switched on the microphone and said welcome to jojo's bus of fun' to everyone who got one. Then i started telling jokes and being silly i think it cracked everyone up anyway including the driver when he came back!We walked to the main maori village and saw how they live and cook (using the hot eatrht underground to cook meat and by dipping thier veg in cheescloth and into the natursal hot pools in the ground). As soon as we entered we were referred to as family. The full name of the village was... wait for it.... Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauawahiao now that was a mouthful but we learned how to prenounce it all the same! It was hard not to laugh as aloth of their words are prenounced 'f***'!We watched traditioanl maori dancing and looking at the beautiful children dancing and swimming for coinds in the river that tourists have dropped in over the years, i threw some in and watched them dive for it. This place is magical although it stinks like sulphur and the steam is everywhere rising from the groud and boiling lakes everywhere, they use it to their advantage though. update soon, ive run out of time sorry for spelling errors i think steam comes off me when im typing so fast!! 2 weeks to go wooooooooooo! xx
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