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Greetings all from New Zealand, Sweet ey bro!
Just thought that i should put up a quick note from the land of the long white cloud and fush'n'chups before the next part of the trip.
Following arrival in auckland we immediately emersed ourself fully in NZ culture by having a belgian beer and a Turkish Kebab for supper (and yes rich the kebabs here are good), we did make up for this by joining the kiwi's in the pub to watch the allblacks play a game a bit like rugby that the english play but alot faster and without all the standing still and dropping the ball. The english backs in particular should watch them sometime, they run with the ball and everything!
Anyway the following day we caught our plane to Queenstown to begin our epic journey through the land in our overly small camper which i christened Boris for reasons unknown. We initially had a days skiing in Wanaka (probably the most beautiful place we have been so far a mon avi) which is near the Gap of Rohan... but then headed south to Te Anau and Fjordland to see Milford sound while we waited for snow.
The drive from Te Anau to Milford is just stunning, and that is in comparison to the rest of south island which is already heartachingly beautiful. Basically, you drive through empty glacial valleys with steep forested sides and snow capped peaks before entering the mountains themselves which is reminicent of Chamonix in the 2000m straight vertical climbs but happen to be by the sea! In milford we took a cruize and were lucky enough to see fur seals, penguin and the highlight, dolphins surfing the bow wave on the return . Kirst was most impressed as she had only initially agreed to the cruize on the promise of free tea and muffins which was sounding pretty good after a night rough camping in the snow.
From Milford with snow on the way we headed back to wanaka and had 4 awesome days of Powder which saw Kirst hiking into the back country for some off piste skiing for the first time. Although she maintains that her off piste doesn't count if most of it was a sort of repetitive face plant, she actally did really well. With skiing sussed she decided to have a day on snowboard in an attempt to be 'radical'. Her success in this endevour came at a cost as by the end of the day she was sucessfully linking turns which is pretty good for someone with concussion, suspected whiplash and a very bruised bum. That day ended with kirst giving back the newly christened 'board of death' and reclaiming skis... my favourite thing about the skiing though was the kea which are a bolshy mountain parrot who are pretty fearless and are known to like biting through shoes. very odd skiing with bright green birds flying around but better for it.
From wanaka we drove north (in another storm) up the west coast passed the glaciers on our way to nelson. Weather was a bit tasty but that made the sea pretty exciting at times as it the waves were reaching the roads in parts. Boris was virtually tacking and jibing into the headwinds at points but we made it to nelson in time for a look around. Since the engagement Kirst is drawn to pretty much every jewellry shop we pass i reckon and here kirst the ringbearer was drawn to the jeweller that made the one ring to rule them all for the films , however frodo's ring had no diamond and therefore was not good enough!
In the North Island we went out for a night with Chris and lisa in Wellington, kirst and I finding out we were fairly out of practice at going out. That said we threw some awesome shapes on the dancefloor despite my dancing to Madness having the appreciation of only 1 person..me.
Next, frodo and I headed into Mordor which is more commonly known as Tongariro Park, located just of route 48 despite what the films portray. we intended to do a great walk called the Alpine crossing but found that the necessary transport only runs in the summer and we were told we would need crampons and ice axe for the route ( NZ does not do winter walking...fact). not detered we decided to see how far along it we could get an ended up walking 2/3rd of it twice as we had to get back to Boris. The walk goes through active volcanic landscapes with hot streams, craters, and views of mount doom. As it was we could only see 20ft as the rain and clouds battered us all the way but it was still pretty sweet ay bro!
Ever northwards to Rotoroa for a few days which you can smell before you see. Geothermal vents open up in the park and then close with regularity and alot of the drain covers are steaming. It feels a bit like the whole place is going to erupt at any second but as a plus side every house seems to have it's own mineral springs and the camping sites come with natural underfloor heating.
Anyway from here in auckland where we have been royally looked after by our friends Angus and Gemma, we will gladly see the back of Boris who has been getting smaller by the day and make our way on to Fiji.
take care all.
Ian
- comments
rich Are you sure you got enough Lord of the rings references in there? And was it really Roturua that smelt? Are you sure that wasn't Eau d' meyer?
Ian Yes I think i just about covered the Lord of rings reference front. And in Rotoroa you could break wind to your hearts content and no on ecould proove it was you......