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Tuesday 10 - Sunday 15 November: Roadtrip!
Hired a car with Phil and Young from the bus. Having spent the last 2.5 weeks not even thinking for ourselves to the point of not even knowing where we're going every day, being directed to the supermarket and told what and how much to buy, and for when, we struggled to focus on anything. 4 hours after checking out of the hostel, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and general thicko behavior, we were finally on our way - free from the bus! We headed to Te Anau which is the gateway to the Fiordland and after exploring the bustling metropolis (and me buying up the pharmacy which seems to be my aim in every town we arrive in as I still have the blasted cough and cold I've been nursing and driving everyone insane with for the past week), we spent the early evening in the local "the Moose" on the edge of the lake and then cooked (well, I sat there and watched while the boys slaved away!) a gourmet mussel risotto. Stayed in a dodgy holiday camp and then headed off the next morning for Milford Sound via the mirror lakes which again were about as mirrorful as a tarnished teapot. Armed with our gourmet lunch of hot pork and plastic cheese sandwiches, we managed to get on a small boat with only 10 people and started what I can only describe as an awesome journey. The sheer vastness of the cliffs is impossible to describe or show in a photo and none of the picture really do this place justice - it's simply spectacular. Saw a few penguins and lots of seals but unfortunately no dolphins. We did float about in the open Tasman Sea for 5 minutes which is a place I wouldn't want to sail - far too much like a rollercoaster. Got back to Te Anau just in time for happy hour at The Moose and then headed to The Ranch which was full of the local talent - mullets and all. We then settled down to another gourmet meal of steak, mash and salad washed down with some of NZ's finest boxed red - who says backpackers can't be classy?!(Once again I managed to get away with just doing the washing up!)
On Wednesday, we collected a timid Japanese hitchhiker and set off in the direction of Gore which is the world's capital of brown trout fishing (eh?!) and NZ's capital of country music. As with every other famous NZ town, we hunted down the giant fiberglass brown trout statue. We dropped our Japanese friend off in the Hicksville town of Clinton (who would ever have thought to put those 2 towns a few miles apart?!) and left her in a pub full of inbreds. She seemed quite content although did have her face pressed up against the window as she waved us off. We then got lost in the Catlins Forest and carried on to Kaka Point and Nugget Point (bumping into the Stray bus on the way and rushing out of both vehicles to hug our long lost friends in the middle of the road). Waited for the yellow eyed penguins (one of the rarest in the world) and saw 3 plop out of the sea but they were so far away it was difficult to get excited, even for me.
Met up with the Stray bus in Dunedin where we did the Speights brewery tour which ends in a 30 minute pour your own free for all - 6 beers on tap and drink as much as you can, which Phil did. Had my first real offensive moment in this town as the guy on reception at our hostel told me I was too old to be travelling and when I went back there later on, made some reference to the 'old bird' when introducing me to the night reception bloke and then asked me how old I was. If I'd been more with it I would have kneed him in the balls.
Put my navigation skills to the test the next morning as I attempted to direct us to the steepest residential street in the world (and took us in the complete opposite direction). Got there finally (thanks Phil) and drove up it - it looked steeper than it actually was; not that exciting really. So, we carried on to Shag Point (no picture with the road sign I'm afraid even though we had our positions all worked out - Phil kept going on about hi-fiving - I'm far too innocent to know what that was all about J ) but we did see a whole load of seals fairly close up. Further on we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders which are like giant marbles with honeycomb centres. All a bit odd as nobody really knows how they were formed and the do have a very odd look about them. I insisted we then go to Oamaru as the guidebook lied and said that the place was full of steam trains, penny farthings and has an obsession with penguins, even going so far as calling it Penguintown. "The town is completely fixated on penguins - penguin postage stamps, penguin statues, penguin burgers, penguin cocktails" - they lied!!! We did go to the blue penguin colony though and got to see some chicks in their nesting boxes. I've got a feeling one of the boys has an unsightly photo of my arse as I was lying on the floor trying to peer into one of the nests but I'm sure that will appear on facebook at some point. We then went to the Whitestone cheese factory and did a tasting (and of course bought some for dinner as it was so delicious) and decided to head to Twizel in the Mt Cook region for the night. Found a fabulous place to stay called Omahau Downs which is a working farm and ahs a great view of Mt Cook and the mountain range. We were expecting a backpacker dorm but they've stopped it so after we'd seen the little cabin they offered us, we fell in love with it, got super excited and decided to splash out on the extra $10 for some luxury. What a great place to stay. I had a lovely soft double bed all to myself (clearly the boys had no choice but to share the twin room; didn't even come up for discussion!) and it was so nice to be away from a backpacker place with some privacy and normality for a change. We settled down to another gourmet meal of cheese, veggies and bread and somehow demolished 3 litres of wine and a box of beers between us. Popped out to look at the stars later on in the night - I've never seen such packed skies as I've seen here in NZ - incredible - and lots of shooting stars.
I thought I was going to have to be prised out of bed the next day as I was so comfortable (I did manage to have breakfast in bed which was nice!) but we hit the road again and headed towards Lake Tekapo, seeing some stunning scenery on the way, including the view from the observatory on Mt John. Made a pit stop in Geraldine for some "fush n chups" wrapped in paper. Here we also saw the world's largest woollen jersey displayed in a wool shop and confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. I still don't see this as a great achievement but the boys were quite impressed (oddly enough!) so I shut up! Made our final leg towards Christchurch, randomly coming across a town called Rakaia where there's a giant fiberglass salmon on the edge of the town (no info on why though). Was expecting to like Christchurch but found it rather an odd place - some lovely building on the outskirts where there are lots of English sounding names such as Cambridge Terrace, Durham Street, Oxford Terrace and there's punting on the river but for a Saturday night, there was diddly squat happening. But, as usual, a few beers later and we were talking the usual crap and making our own entertainment.
Anyway, needless to say, this was a great few days and I'm glad I hopped off the bus and spent the time with 2 such great guys - I'll miss them but I guess that's the good and bad of travelling. I'm struggling to load any photos onto my blog site as it keeps crashing but the next time I write I will probably be at Jeanette's so may have some more success there.
Hope everyone is well and not having as much fun as me (although I do need to slow down as I've spent about 2 months' budget already but that will change when I get to sleepy Vanuatu).
L xx
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