Hi there,
We were just saying yesterday how it seemed like we were up to date on our Blog and then remembered how it was actually over a week since we'd written - it was a very, very swift week!!! We packed quite a lot in, but unfortunately we've only got a couple of days left in NZ right now. We're going to be very sorry to leave - we've had a lovely time and both of us have really gotten to love the place.
After finishing our Blogs in Dunedin, we had some lunch and started to plan the next few days. We decided to stay in Dunedin on the Saturday night as it's a very cute town - lots of funny shops selling the weirdest things (I bought an olive pitter!!), so with that in mind, we headed off to do some sightseeing. We vistited the Otago museum and while it's not Te Papa in Wellington, it's still a very interesting place. They've got an enormous and informative section on the Pacific Islands and a huge hall with every type of stuffed animal you could think of. Their big selling point is a giant Japenese Spider crab. I had to be dragged out of their "Fashion through the ages" section, lamenting yet again that I wasn't born in a time when everyone wore hats........
After we were kicked out of there at 5pm (we were the last two to leave), we found ourselves a nice motel (decided against staying in the place we had slept the previous evening, as it was a bit grotty), and put on our shorts and t-shirts and found a squash court. We played for an hour or so (still no news there........) and then got some provisions to make ourselves a nice dinner. Mart cooked while I read and kept him up to date on the score of some Super 12's game. It was a really relaxing end to the day.
The next morning, we set off for Christchurch, but before leaving Dunedin, we had to visit Baldwin St, which is apparently the steepest street in the world. I think they also say that about Lombard St. in San Fran, so I'm not sure which is correct, but let me just say that Baldwin St. is extremely hard to walk up. Some nutball was actually jogging up it as we huffed and puffed our way to the top. We saw another man attempt to cycle up, but he gave up after about 2 metres. The walk down was nice!!! After some photos, we hopped in the car and drove to Christchurch. We had quite an uneventful drive really; we stopped for a DIY lunch of sandwiches at about 2pm and didn't stop again till we got to Ashburton at about 5 o'clock. There was some temptation to just stop there and get a hostel, but we resisted. It was the kind of place where people were standing outside the local pub having a quick cigarette and playing very bad air guitar to the strains of the "Live act", which could probably be heard back in Dunedin. We escaped and got to Dunedin for about 7 o'clock.
Once we checked into our hostel, we had a game of chess, made dinner and went in search of a watering hole to have a quick drink. Our time in Christchurch was limited, so we wanted to see a bit of it before it was time to leave. We had a very interesting walk into town!! When we got to the town centre, there was a shady looking character, sniffing out of a plastic bag and kicking the door of the cathedral. He kept shouting "OPEN THE DOOR, IT'S IN THE TREATY. I WANT TO GET IN". Sounds funny now, but it was a bit distressing at the time. Anyway, Martin was just about to call the police, when about 3 cars arrived, and 5 policmen handcuffed him and brought him to prison, I presume.
The next morning we checked out of our hostel and drove to the International Antartic Centre near the airport. It's a really well put-together museum of sorts, detailing what life is like in the Antartic, the animals that live there and how humans have adapted. The best bits were a Haggland trip, which is a 15 minute drive in a vehicle specially adapted for driving in Antartica. It can drive over metre wide crevasses, up and down the steepest of hills and can even float in water. We also went into a large room full of packed ice, an igloo and an ice slide, where they simulate and exact reconstruction of a storm. It gets down to about -15 degrees in there; luckily they issue you with nice warm jackets and rubber boots!! We amused ourselves for the rest of the time, watching short documentaries and reading bits and pieces of information about the continent.
Once we left there, it was well past lunchtime, so we went back to the Arts Centre in the botanic gardens where we had our lunch and then wandered about the place. First stop was the fudge shop where we tried (and re-tried, just to make sure), some different flavours of fudge. It was a hard decision, but we picked our favourite three and bought some!! Then it was onto the pottery shop, where I was inspired to decide to take up pottery again, once I get home. I wanted to buy a piece there, but Martin wouldn't let me, making feeble excuses about how it would get broken in transit!!! Next to the candle shop, where again, I was willing to part with lots of cash. Again, I was forbidden!! We even had a look around the fancy dress hire shop and I lamented how I hadn't been born in a time where girls wore big dresses, white wigs and lived in castles....... I was dragged out of there too!!
Then it really was time to get ourselves to Kaikoura. It wasn't a long drive, but it was about 7 when we got there. Our hostel was fantastic - we had a two bedroom house to ourselves, so we cooked a nice dinner and had a game or two of chess. The next morning, we tried to get ourselves on a whale watching tour, but unfortunately, they were all cancelled due to rough seas!! We consoled ourselves with a walk around the cliff tops of Kaikoura. It was very pleasant - you have to mingle with sheep and cattle to get to the cliff top, but as long as you remember to close the gates, they're fine about it!!! When we got back to our car we noticed that since the tide was out, a lot of people, kids especially, were getting very close to the sealions that were lazing about on the rocks. It's a real shame. There are no park rangers about or anything, and they really trust that people will look at the sealions from a distance of about 10 metres and just be happy to do that. Unfortunately, if kids start screaming and running around them, they'll either disappear to somewhere they won't be bothered or else they'll get vicious and start attacking (probably innocent) people. Either way, it'll be ruined for everyone.......
Lecture over!! Having left Kaikoura, we drove to Blenheim (in the Marlborough wine producing country) where we had booked to stay for two nights in a cottage on a vineyard. This was paid for out of the money we saved by not doing the ill-fated bungy in Queenstown!! It was a good call! The next morning, I went for a little run and on my way back, I met our hostess out examining the vines. She told me about how she sprayed and covered them to protect them from the pesky birds and how they were going to harvest them at the end of last week. I hope it went well for them!! After we showered and breakfasted, we were picked up by Ray, who was taking us off on a wine tour of the region. We picked up our tour mates, a couple from near LA and three women from Boston, Washington and Miami. We visited about 6 wineries altogether and very much held ourselves back from buying too much, as there's only so much we can carry, especially once we give our car back and start the trek from airport to airport.
When we got back to the cottage, Viv (our hostess), invited us to join her and her husband Jim, for a drink in the main house. We had some of their wine, made from the vineyard, which was lovely and were very entertained by Jim, who it seems is an expert at everything. He regaled us with stories of how good he is at bridge (he's a grand master), how he can do all maths in his head (calculators are for cretins) and basically how he can turn his hand to any sport in the world. I was looking for a quiet moment, to ask him for adivce on my squash/chess inadequacies, but there just wasn't time!! We had a very entertaining couple of hours before heading back to our place to cook some dinner for ourselves!!
The next morning, Martin cooked a lovely breakfast (eggs benedict) and we packed up and drove the short distance to catch our ferry in Picton. We were very sad to say goodbye to the South Island - we had had such a fantastic time there!! We had a smooth crossing to Wellington and once we arrived, we checked into the YHA (didn't make the same mistake this time of staying in Rowena's!!) and went off to find some lunch for ourselves. After a wander around town, we decided to go to the biggest cinema screen in the Southern Hemisphere again, as they were showing Sideways, which is a movie about two idiots, who go to the wine growing region of California for a buck's week. We thought it was apt, given the previous day!! It was very funny, much enjoyed!! Then, we went back to an already tried and trusted restaurant for dinner and decided to walk back (the few metres) to our hostel. On our way, we passed the only Welsh pub in the Southern Hemisphere again!! This time, we decided to go in for a look. You might remember, that last time, it wasn't exactly the most appropriate weekend to check it out!! So, once we found a door that wasn't locked, (we actually thought the place must be closed) in we went. It was a hive of activity inside. We were immediately surrounded by people, and a guy with a guitar was in the middle of a rendition of "Ireland's Call"!! The owner/barman introduced us to two Irish people, so what was going to be a quiet short drink turned into about an hour and a half, swapping travel stories and trying to teach the singer "The Fields of Athenry". We signed the visitors book on the way out and wrote down all the words for them in the back!!
The next morning, we had a long drive ahead of us to Tongariro National Park. It took us most of the day to be honest, as it's quite far up the country. We checked into a nice hostel in a place called National Park, made a huuuuuge salad and tried to get an early night. The bus was arriving the next morning at 06:45 to take us to the start of the Tongariro Crossing, one of the most famous walks in NZ. AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!
The national park is amazing. It featured heavily in the Lord of the Rings as there are three huge volcanoes in the area. One in particular, Mt. Ngaruahoe is Mt Doom in the movies. It is exactly what a volcano should be - very menacing looking. Anyway, it was quite a dull morning, though still a bit dark when we started off. We started walking at about 07:20 and unfortunately, the weather didn't really improve through the day. A lot of the walk is quite difficult as we were walking into the crater of a volcano, through volcano ash, which because it's so soft, is not easy to grip. It was all very mystical though, with lots of cloud swirling about and often sheer drops either side of us. After about 3 hours, we got to the Emerald Lakes and the cloud parted just in time to see them for a minute or two in all their glory!! As the area is so volcanic, there's a lot of geothermal activity, so at times it stank a bit like Rotorua. We had our lunch at one of the huts used for trekkers doing a multi-day walk and that's when the weather took a turn for the worst. By the time we got to the end (at about 2pm), we were soaked to the skin and feeling a bit sorry for ourselves!! Martin also had very sore knees, due to the large steps that you have to jump off to get downhill. We had spent about 6 and 1/2 hours walking and were very grateful to get back to the hostel and immerse ourselves in the (covered) outdoor spa. After a shower and a little lie-down, we decided against cooking our own dinner and went to Schnapps next door for a lovely meal.
The next morning, I went for a run (what was I thinking - I ached so much on the uphill bits!!) and we thought we'd start off straight away for Waitamo Caves, but it was a beautiful day, so clear and blue. It was the first time we'd seen Mt. Ruapehu without clouds around it, so we drove up to the base of it and got the cable car halfway up the volcano (apart from being an active volcano, it's also NZ's biggest ski field). Once we were up there, we did the skyline walk, nice and slowly. We weren't going to exert ourselves too much after the previous day!!! Then we had some tea in the cafe and looked at all the pictures of the volcano erupting in 1995. It's funny to see all the skiers trying desperately to get down the mountain, before they got a lava shower!!
We arrived in Waitamo at about 6 o'clock and after experiencing the worst inefficiencies we've seen from the reception staff in any hostel in the Waitomo YHA, we checked into Juno Hall and mulled over the myriad of options we had for our cave trip the next day. Eventually, after help from the (very efficient) receptionist, we decided on the Black Abyss tour, which we started yesterday at 11:00 am. It was a fantastic day, probably one of the best we've had in NZ. Our guides Tim and Rich, put on a bit of a Wayne and Garth show for us, as if they didn't really know what they were doing themselves, but it transpired that they were very good at what they do, and not as flaky as they pretended!! We started off putting on all the really flattering gear - a wet wet-suit (freezing!!), some dreadfull football type shorts, a big red helmet with a torch and, le piece de resistence, white gum boots. I lamented not being born in a time when people wore..............only kidding!!
We started off with a 35 metre abseil into a big black hole, which got us into the cave. Then we walked a little until it was time to get trussed up to do a little flying fox. That was very cool, especially as Rich (at the other end) was making terrifying noises with a rubber tube as if whoever was on the end of the swing was banging into a wall at speed. None of us waiting in the queue knew what to expect. We then jumped into the water with our rubber rings (well, I didn't, I climbed in in a civilised fashion - I think I have a major problem with freefall). Once in the water, we all floated down to the end of the cave, looking up at the gloworms on the ceiling. It was just like being outside on a really, really starry night. Then, we all held each other's feet and made a human boat, to go up the river again, all our torches off. Once we discarded the rubber rings, we commenced the climb/swim/wade through to the exit. We squeezed ourselves through tiny holes in the rock, clambered up waterfalls and generally had lots and lots of fun. It was a fantastic day - we were underground for about 3 hours altogether and once we got back to base and had showers, we were treated to some soup and a bagel. Just what we needed for the drive ahead to Auckland!!
We arrived at Martin's Aunty Rosemary's at about 7:30 last night and went to a fantastic Thai restaurant in Pukekohe for some dinner and to reminisce about our holidays. We stayed with her last night, which was very good of her seeing as she's off to South Africa tomorrow to see her brother, (Martin's uncle) who isn't too well at the moment, so she's got lots to organise. We're both leaving Auckland on Thursday to spend two days in Sydney, packing up our belongings to send back to Ireland. We figured it might be a bit much for one person and anyway, I don't think Sydney is ready for me, let loose in a Hiace van!!!
Better go - we haven't really seen the sights of Auckland yet, despite spending so much time here, so we've got to get sightseeing!!!
Will update soon - we're arriving in Bangkok on Saturday evening, so we'll probably update sometime around then!!
Lots of love,
Sue XX
