New Zealand

Caught the bus down to the Antarctic Centre and arrived there around 1pm and spent around 3 and a half hours looking around and also go the chance to ride in a Hagglund which was a good laugh. It’s a vehicle that they use in the Antarctic which is capable of climbing up fairly steep hills and also able to drive through water around 2.5 metres deep.
Probably the best part for me today though was going into a room where they take the temperature down to -18 degrees celsuis although afterwards it did take several minutes before I did manage to warm up again. There was also a video showing you what life is like actually living in the Antarctic and how people actually cope with it which was something else that was very interesting although the idea of cutting a hole in the ice and then diving in the freezing water with no clothes on certainly doesn’t appeal to me.
So finally after spending some time here I had finally found something worth doing in this area and my recommendations are if you ever come to Christchurch only spend one day here.

A Hagglund

A nice cool temperature of -18 degrees celsuis

Pretty much the same as yesterday except in the afternoon Simon and I spent 5 hours playing golf. Tomorrow im going to the Antarctic Centre and thankfully I don’t have much longer to spend here in Christchurch.

Well my initial thoughts on Christchurch were right. This is the worse place I have visited on the whole trip to New Zealand and the only place I can say I don’t like. For a city its terrible and theres nothing of any interest worth seeing at all (Oh besides going to the Antarctic Centre which I will be doing in the next few days). As for today it was spent having a look around the city just to make sure there wasn’t something I had missed. THERE WASN’T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again it was another one of those days spent driving but certainly the first half of it was very scenic as we left Mount Cook and then drove past Lake Tekapo. Once arriving in Christchurch though I suddenly got the feeling we were ending our trip to New Zealand in possibly the worse place to visit, maybe that’s why they liken Christchurch to a city in England so much. I guess the next few days I would either wish I was still in Mount Cook or somewhere else or maybe a small miracle would happen and this place would appeal to me but it wasn’t looking promising.

Lake Tekapo

Another day where I was looking to set off early but again thanks to all the noise and moving about in the room last night I didn’t sleep very well. Eventually I was ready to leave and once outside I soon noticed how warm it was and knew it was going to be a hard days walking. The first part of the track is reasonably flat but once you get to the Sealy Tarns turnoff it soon rises up and pretty drastically and some of the track is fairly dangerous in areas and you wouldn’t want to lose your footing or it would be a long fall to the bottom, but the views you soon got were pretty amazing and well worth the hard work. But then a major disaster occurred, I had already used up one bottle of drink to get me to Sealy Tarns and still had a fair distance to go and when I went for my second bottle I realized I hadn’t filled it up the night before. A dilemma occurred now did I push on for the top knowing the views would be awesome or was it safer to make my way down with no water left. I initially continued up to a point where I reached the snow but still had some distance to go and the snow was pretty deep and I wasn’t prepared to get wet feet in the process so I made the decision to walk back down the track. At first I was a bit pissed off but once back at the information centre and on flat land I knew I had made the right choice seeings as the sun was still very hot and I was already feeling dehydrated.
After a quick visit to the café and gulping down an orange juice and lemonade I then got back to the hostel and was feeling exhausted but happy I had at least got out for a good long walk.
That night I was quite looking forward to having an early night but an English woman who had just checked in said would I like to go to the pub for a beer or two so the early night soon went out of the window and I enjoyed a few beers before stumbling back to my bed.

View from Mueller Hut track

View from Mueller Hut track

View from Mueller Hut track

Another bright and sunny day today and perfect for walking. Hoping at first to get an early start I didn’t actually get going till 11am mainly due to not getting much sleep, mainly thanks to a man in the bunk bed beneath me waking me up every half hour as he would make the bed shake like there was an earthquake every time he moved. I chose to walk over to Hooker Lake today which would give me the closest view possible of Mount Cook without actually getting on the mountain itself and seeings as im not an experienced mountaineer that wasn’t possible. The walk there was amazing and took me over 2 swingbridges before coming to the end of the track by the lake where I sat for awhile and tried to take in the amazing scenery. I then got talking to an elderly Kiwi couple who only live a short distance from here and I tried to imagine how nice it would be to have the opportunity to visit this place whenever the chance was available. They also told me about how in 1991 a substantial piece of Mount Cook’s east face around 14 million cubic metres fell away in a massive landslide and also that there son had climbed it on 3 occasions. Also seeings as they had done most of the walks in the area I asked if they could recommend a walk worth doing and they told me a walk up to Mueller Hut is definitely worth the visit and it goes up to a height of 1922 metres, and from Mount Cook Village it would mean you would gain a height of 1162 metres. So that would be my plan for tomorrow and I thanked them as they went on their way back along the track.
By then time I got back to the hostel myself it was around 4pm and the rest of the day was spent relaxing and sorting my bag out for the walk tomorrow.

Mt Sefton

Mt Sefton

Climbers Memorial with the tip of Mt Cook just in view on the right

Giant daisys with Mt Cook in the distance

Mt Cook from Hooker Valley

Sir Edmund Hilary Statue looking towards Mt Cook

At last somewhere I was really looking forward to visiting and the best thing was the weather forecast for the next few days was fantastic so hopefully it would give me a chance to get some good photos of Mount Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand).
The first part of the drive was pretty boring but then we turned a corner and all of a sudden all you could see were snow capped mountains all around and further down the road we came to a lake which had the most amazing colour and it was really hard to believe it could actually be this colour although how it got that way I really haven’t a clue. We stopped in a small town called Twizel to stock up on food and petrol before we got to Mount Cook as they are no shops or garages within a 45 minute drive of the hostel.
Once we got checked in I was eager to get straight back out for a walk seeings the sun was still shining and there was no telling how long it would actually stay like this.
After a quick bite to eat I got my walking gear on and decided to head to Kea Point which would give me an amazing view of Mount Cook and I could of easily sat here till it got dark but once the sun went down behind the mountains it soon turned cold and after looking at the fantastic view for half an hour I headed back.

Lake Pukaki

Mt Sefton

Mt Cook

Visited the only castle in the whole of New Zealand today that being Larnach Castle which was built in 1871. It’s a very small castle but very much worth a visit and the gardens are definitely worth going to see.
Next we drove over to Penguin Place and we were hoping to lots of penguins in the areas however we didn’t realize that you actually have to pay to see them and none of us were prepared to do that as the prices were a joke, so we continued along the coast to the Albatross Colony for a quick stop before driving back.

Larnach Castle

Gardens at Larnach Castle

Gardens at Larnach Castle

Gardens at Larnach Castle

Had a walk around the centre of Dunedin first and had a look at St Josephs Cathedral, The Town Hall, Robert Burns Statue and also the Railway Station which is quite an impressive building. Then we picked the car up and drove over to Baldwin Street which has the Steepest Road In The World and upon looking at it there was no way our gutless car was going to make it to the top but I wanted to walk to the top anyway. At first I started to jog up the road but without even making it halfway I was already out of breath so decided to walk the rest. Every year they have a race to the top and the quickest time is around 2 minutes so these guys must be super fit because I would be happy to get up there in double that time. From the bottom of the road it doesn’t actually look that steep but once you stand at the top it looks unreal and I wouldn’t even like to cycle down it its so steep.
After walking back down we then drove out to Signal Hill Lookout which gives you a great view of the whole of Dunedin and then headed back to the hostel to relax for the evening.

St Josephs Cathedral

Robbie Burns Statue

St Pauls Church

Sports Hall of Fame & Railway Station

Sports Hall of Fame & Railway Station

Baldwin Street

Baldwin Street

Baldwin Street

Baldwin Street

Me,Ibon,Simon and Jill at the top of Baldwin Street

Me

Spent the whole day driving and after getting to Dunedin Jill, Ibon and myself went for a short walk around the town although the rain then started to pour down. However then we bumped into Alex a german guy who was on the Milford Sound cruise with us and we all decided to find a pub and have a few beers and here we stayed for the next 4 hours.

I couldn’t believe how well I slept on the boat as I was expecting it to be rocking from side to side all night but it didn’t move at all, however I was hoping to get a lay in but everybody got woke up by someone making an announcement as to what they next few hours lay ahead of us. Luckily though it did mean I would make breakfast on time and it was my first fry up in a long time.
Next we headed back out to the Tasman Sea and the waves made the boat rise up and down a fair bit as well as making my breakfast nearly come up in the process. Before we headed back to the harbour we pulled up really close to a waterfall where a few of us brave people got a good soaking from the freezing but refreshing water, it certainly did wake you up if you weren’t awake already and after that we managed to spot a few more penguins before the cruise was over.
The sun was surprisingly still shining which made it a pleasant drive to Te Anau.

Me at Milford Sound

Milford Sound

Waterfall at Milford Sound

Milford Sound

Sunset at Te Anau

Sunset at Te Anau

Sunset at Te Anau

Ibon at Milford Sound

Seal at Milford Sound

Penguin at Milford Sound

Well where do I start, I think today is nearly if not on a par with the boat trip in
Pahia to the Bay Of Islands.
We were booked on the Friendship boat and were due to sail at 4.45pm and it was costing us $145 and that was a reduced fee to. To my amazement the weather today couldn’t be any more different compared to yesterday. The sun was shining and apart from abit of a breeze it was a perfect day and even better as we would be able to get great views while out on the boat later.
We sat around reading in the hostel till around 2pm and then went off for a drive to look at some waterfalls and then had a short walk around the sea harbour before again we met up with Ibon who had been walking the Milford Track over the past 4 days and he had gotten totally drenched with the pouring rain over the past few days.
We boarded the boat at 4.15pm and as there were only going to be 11 of us on a fairly small boat I was looking forward to it a lot more than the boat that had 60 people crammed on it. I always find small groups tend to get on a lot better than huge ones and people tend to chat more and get to know each other but also its easier to relax and chill out if you want to. The plan was to sail out of the Milford Sound to the Tasman Sea and look at some of the spectacular sights along the way like raging waterfalls and various animals like seals and penguins. Then eventually we would find a place to stop and relax for the night and get up early and go kayaking for abit before heading back to the harbour. Well everything was going great for the first 2 hours or so we thought but then the captain comes up to us with a dilemma. He says hes having problems with the generator so either we could stay on this boat and probably have no power, lights or heat for most of the night or all of us jump on the Milford Mariner for free and join them.
Well the Milford Mariner would of initially cost us over $400 each and you get ensuite rooms, a bar, 3 course meal, huge breakfast and on a totally upmarket and much bigger boat. At first I was disappointed as I quite liked the little boat we were sailing on however everyone else wanted to leave so I joined them along with the 3 free bottles of wine we were given.
So eventually we all boarded the Mariner and found it to be full of mostly fat rich miserable unsociable old gits and here we were a fairly young bunch of troublemakers gatecrashing there party and we had paid a fraction of the price they had.
That night we enjoyed the free wine and a few beers and an awesome 3 course meal but the only problem was we weren’t sure if we would be getting the chance to go kayaking, however after some gentle persuasion they decided to let us go out before it got dark. Ive only ever been in a canoe once and was really looking forward to kayaking and it was just a shame it was only for around 25 minutes, however it was a lot more tiring than I thought it would be although I had just stuffed myself with endless amounts of food and wine. After the kayaking we sat around chatting for a few more hours before retiring to bed about midnight.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound

A rainbow from the waterfall

A rainbow from the waterfall

Milford Sound

Me kayaking at Milford Sound

Me kayaking at Milford Sound

Another day which was spent all day driving although there was plenty of nice scenery and mountains to look at along the way although the closer we got to Milford Sound the worse the weather got. This place is on record for getting over 7 metres of rain a year, which is insane. What else was insane was the tunnel you have to drive through before you actually get to Milford Sound. People started to dig this tunnel with pick axes in 1935 and it wasn’t actually finished until 1953 and looking at it you wonder how on earth its actually still standing in one piece.
We arrived at the hostel around 4pm and got our first taste of middle of nowhere life when we were told the power in the hostel is turned off between 11pm and 6am so there was a frantic rush to get cameras charged up and ready for the overnight boat cruise the following day.

After 2 fairly late nights it was starting to catch up on me so we didn’t get out till around 12pm. We drove back to Wanaka and past the scene of my driving offence and onto Puzzleworld. What they have here is a mix of things from a huge maze to get lost in and I did plenty of that, then inside theres a large mixture of puzzles for you to solve and finally some seriously bizarre rooms that are really hard to explain unless you see them for yourselves like you walk upwards into a room but this pool table looks like its flat but when you put a pool ball on the table it actually rolls. Then theres a room where you look into it and it looks normal but when you get into it and one person stands in 1 corner and another person in the other corner 1 person looks like a giant and the other looks like a midget. Just check the photos if it doesn’t make sense.
After that we had a quick walk around Wanaka which is another very picturesque place before heading back but not before stopping off at what can only be called ‘The Bra Fence’. Apparently a few years ago some womens bras mysteriously turned up hanging on this fence and over the years several more have been found and its got so bad that the fence has actually been raised for more to be hung on it.

The Bra Fence

Puzzleworld

Puzzleworld

Puzzleworld

Wanaka

Not a very eventful day today as I just spent the day walking around the town.
That night Jill and I went out for a few drinks and met up again with Simon and Rachel and I turned into a very long and drunken night out for me. Most of the night was a blur and all I can really remember is ordering a kebab then walking to a shop to get some chips and then somehow walking up the hill to the hostel and falling asleep in the lounge while watching a film before getting to my bed about 3am.