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This blog doesn't just cover Auckland, it basically covers our journey from Queenstown down to Te Anau and Milford Sound and then back up the West Coast, the ferry crossing from Picton to Wellington and the final drive up to Auckalnd.
We left Queenstown early on the Tuesday morning and drove south, heading to Milford Sound. Now Milford Sound is very close to Queenstown but unfortunaly there is a big pile of mountains in the way so you have to drive all the way down and round the mountains. And incase you are wondering just what Milford Sound is, it is a fjord situated within the Fiordland National Park. There are organised tours around Milford Sound so we had to wait until the following day to get one, so we stopped in Te Anau, the town just below Milford Sound. Leaving Queenstown, the scenery was just so amazing. We drove round the big lake, Lake Wakatipu, and the clouds were so low that they were touching the lake. It looked as though there was steam rising from the surface of the lake. The mountaints were all snow capped and the road stretched out for miles in front of us. After a 3 hour drive we got to Te Anau. Te Anau is home to a glowworm cave so we thought we might as well pay that a visit whilst we were there. We hopped on a tour boat and set off across the Lake Te Anau getting running commentry from our tour guide. She explained that New Zealand has a native bird with a 'rid hid and rid ligs'. We were slightly confused as to what this meant until we translated the New Zealand accent and discovered she actually meant that the bird has a red head and red legs! We arrived at the site of the glow worm cave and began our traverse through the tiny cave opening. Our journey took us to the heart of the cave where we got on another small boat and our guide paddled us into the pitch black. Luckily we managed to restrain our fear of being in a pitch black cave surrounded by water with nothing to hold on to and we looked up to see thousand of tiny glowing dots. It looked just like the sky when it is filled with stars. We spent about 5 minutes floating around inside the cave before our guide paddled us back out and we made our return journey through the cave and back out into the open air. That was it. The end of our $30 dollar tour. It's just not like Asia! Still, at least we can say we have seen a glow worm cave!
We spent the night in a Youth Hostel in Te Anau before getting up nice and early to head to Milford Sound. We planned to do Milford Sound in the morning and then drive straight back through Te Anau and on to Queenstown, hopefully getting there before night. Unfortunately, things did not quite go to plan as you will find out. Bear in mind that the date was in fact Friday the 13th.... spooky! On the way to Milford Sound the scenery got even more amazing. We passed HUGE cliff faces, iced over rivers, snow covered trees and icicles. Not just any ordinary icicles though. These ones were bigger than us! And just hanging off the side of the cliffs. It was amazing. We had to keep stopping the car every five minutes to get out and take pictures! We got to Milford Sound as about 11am, perfect timing for the 11.30 tour. As we parked the car we notcied that the one next to us was very dirty so we thought it would be rather amusing to write a note for the owners, in the dirt. We proceeded to the ticket desk sniggering with glee at the 'clean me, i'm so dirty' messages we had left on the unsuspecting owners car! We bought the ticket with the buffet included and got on the boat to find a sumptious feast laid out before our eyes! Mussels, rice, chicken legs, kimchi (which Nyima loves much to the distaste of Martha and Laura... due to the unfortunate effect it has on a persons breath after they eat it!). And as we are cooking for ourselves in New Zealand we stocked up on extra food for dinner and breakfast the next day, filling our hats with as much fruit, bread rolls, lamb steaks and tea bags as we could manage! Sly! As the boat steered its way around Milford Sound the views were spectacular. Milford Sound was formed by glaciers so it was absolutely freezing and windy on the top deck of the boat. We spent a while taking pictures of the massive rocks rising out of the water and the waterfalls crashing into the water from the top of mountains. We also saw some seals stretched out on one of the smaller rocks. We were told that if we were lucky we might see some dolphins swimming along side the boat but no such luck. In the end it was just too cold for us so we took up refuge inside. The tour was only an hour and half long so we were back to the car at about 1. On the way back it seemed the roads had suddenly become somewhat more icy. This is where our day went horribly wrong. Martha was driving and as she rounded one particularly icy corner the car skidded on the thick layer of ice and went careering into a snow filled ditch off the side of the road. No damage was done to us luckily and not much was done to the car. But it was well and truly wedged into the snow. We vacated the car and proceeded to ust stand there for a bit, not having a clue what to do. Thankfully the road was quite busy with people going to and from Milford Sound and the first car the followed us round the corner pulled over to offer their help. And three guesses as to whose car it was. Yep, the one with 'clean me, i'm dirty' written ALL over it! The family inside were very nice and turned round to drive back to the hut about a mile up the road. There they arranged for a tow truck to come and pick us up before giving us some chocolate and heading on their way. We decided to get back in the car and wait as it so cold and there was a huge bird of prey watching us from the roof of a branch just above the car. Every car that went passed pulled over and asked us if we were okay so it was nice to know that people were willing to offer us their help. One lady warned us that the bird of prey may start to eat our windscreen wipers and shortly after she drove off it landed on out roof and proceeded to peer in the window and look menacingly and greedily at us. A few people gave us some food and one very nice genlteman provided us with some of the most amazing chocolate biscuits we have ever eaten! For three and a half hours we waited and waited for the tow man and finally arrived at 4.30. He attached his pulling devices onto the back of the car and then pulled it right out of the ditch. The bumper looked a bit dodgy but the car still worked so we started to head off. Nyima drove back and as we pulled away we noticed there was something wrong with the car. The breaks didn't seem to be working and the steering wheel was really stiff. We called the tow man back over to have a look. After a quick look at the car he told us what was wrong. The car wasn't even switched on. Whoopsie! We began the drive realising that we were probably not going to reach Queenstown by that evening. So we stopped off for anothe night in Te Anau.
We started early again the next day and just decided to drive as far up the West Coast as we could. We didn't stop anwhere on the way but the view on the way up were amazing. New Zealand is just so beautiful and its so weird how you could be driving through a green field full of sheeop one minute and then suddenly you are surrounded by snow and mountains and then you are driving alongside a massive lake through the clouds. Unfortunately for us, another car incident happened though. A stupid grit lorry went passed and as it did it flicked up a small piece of grit which then flung itself into our front window with such a force that it cracked it. Oh great. We would have to pay to replace the windscreen We got to a place called Greymouth, about half way up the West Coast, at about 9pm, found a Youth Hostel, booked a ferry crossing for the following night and went straight to bed.
After another early start we started our final journey of the Southern part of New Zealand. With Laura at the wheel we found ourself cruising along small roads surrounded by forests. Due to the snow, the trees had a new white layer on the top and with the coldness of the temperature surrounding us we suddenly felt a bit festive. For the next hour we amused ourselves by singing every Christmas song we knew at the top of our lungs. Passing cars gave us strange looks as we belted 'Jingle Bells', 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' and 'Silent Night' at the top of our lungs. For us, Christmas came early this year! We got to Picton earlier than expected and decided to explore the town. Or what little of it there was. We found a cinema so thought we could maybe catch Harrp Potter whilst we had the opportunity. No Chance. The most recent film was about 62 years old. We found absolutely nothing to do so we found a car park and pushed the front chair of our car back to make a table, after which we proceeded to play cards for about 3 hours until it was time to board the ferry. We started to make our way to the ferry when we had to check in. We told the lady our names and she checked for our booking... only to find that we had accidentally booked it for Tuesday night instead of Sunday. Wa-hey, we would be stuck in Picton with NOTHING to do for 2 more days. Thank the Lord though she said there was some spaces on Sunday's ferry! So we booked our selves in and boarded right away. The journey took three hours during which we entertained ourselves with cards once more, before arriving in Wellington on the other side and finding a Youth Hostel.
The following morning we discovered that it would only take a day to drive up to Auckland and so we would arrive there that Monday night. Our flight out wasn't until Friday but we had no money left to be able to afford anything and we couldn't cope with the utter coldness anymore, so we decided to head into Wellington town centre to see if we could bring our flight forward. Excitingly we managed to grab one for the following day so we could drive up to Auckland, stay there for a night and then hop on a plane to Fiji! We left Wellington at about 11am and spent the day driving up to Auckland where we arrived at about 10pm. We settled in for our final night on New Zealand soil.
The next day we had to return the car before heading to the airport. Uh oh. We rang the company and asked how much it would be to take the car to the airport in the hopes that we could leave it without meeting face to face with anyone and risking them seeing our poor car. They said it would cost the same as a taxi journey. We thought about it and decided to just take the car back the the garage and get a taxi, as we didn't want to be late for a flight by getting lost on the way to the airport. We found the garage and pulled the car into the carpark. An old man came over and began his check of the car. He looked inside to check we had filled it up with petrol, which we had. He checked for dents, of which the was a rather large one on the bumper. But then by some fabulous miracle he gave ithe all clear! It seemed he had missed the windscreen! He called us a taxi and then came over for a chat. As he was chatting to us we noticed his eyes kept wandering to the bumper. We willed for the taxi to hurry up and thankfully it did a minute later. We jumped in and double checked the price. It was double what it would have cost to take the car back! We suggested getting back out and driving the car to the airport instead and we couldn't afford to waste more money. But then we saw the man getting in our car where he would without a doubt see the windscreen. So we shouted to the taxi driver 'DRIVE! QUICKLY!' And with that we sped off into the distance leaving Auckland behind and Fiji in the distance! Our final port of call before we come home! xxx
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