New Zealand concludes...

Having finished our canoeing exploits in the Abel Tasman National Park, we embarked on a killer drive down the West coast to lake Wanaka. We managed just over 500km before it started to get too much, & too dark, so we stayed in a campsite just outside of Franz Josef. I am very glad that we did, because when we set off the next day we had time to check out the nearby Glacier...which was incredible

Global warming has a lot to answer for, as this Glacier has retreated hundreds of metres in the past three decades! After we had finished staring in awe at this marvel, it was time to move onto Fox Glacier - which was equally spectacular...

The drive to Wanaka was, as usual, amazing. What did truly take our breath away was our first view of lake Wanaka

...and then lake Hawea...

I would strongly recommend this drive, as it was one of the most awe inspiring journeys of my life. It was so incredible that we had to stop at the end of lake Wanaka & refresh with a pint. Beer tastes even better with a view like this...

The next day we decided that we had to see more of this scenery, so we headed off to find a decent walking track that would offer us the views that we craved (I now believe that it is possible to get addicted to scenery!). We managed this in the form of the 6km round trip hiking trail, past lake Diamond (pic below), that reached one of the peaks along the south end of Wanaka.

The climb was incredibly steep in places, but our endeavour was well worth it. Once more I shall just let the pictures tell the story...

If you are going to be visiting New Zealand at any point, you MUST visit Lake Wanaka. It is a big thing to say, but it is the most impressive place in NZ - in my opinion.

After all that scenery & steep walking, we decided to go for some more light hearted entertainment, in the form of PUZZLE WORLD!!! They had the world's biggest outdoor maze, which was a lot harder than expected. Apparently people have spent a whole day in there trying to find the towers in all four corners...we gave up having found three - mainly because we found the exit again, & we had had enough of the walking!

Inside the puzzle world there was plenty of mind bending activities/displays, with many optical illusions. I will try to give you some idea with the following pictures...

The last picture is the "false perspective room." The principles employed here are how film makers achieved many of the hobbit shots in LOTR. Fact.

On our last day in Wanaka it was time to fulfill a dream of mine since I was 16 years old...

Oh YES, people, Smalls & John are sky diving fools!

I wish that there were words that could explain the feeling of sky diving...only, there aren't! My expression (left) should explain how I felt afterwards - I could have gone up again & again all day! The views across the mountain ranges & the two lakes was breath taking too - as if jumping out of a plane wasn't enough! We were incredibly lucky with the weather, as all of the clouds cleared literally minutes before we went up. Had we been an hour earlier we would have seen only clouds, then fields. Lucky boys! Both Smalls & I got our jumps recorded on DVD handycam, so some of you will be lucky enough to see those upon our return to the real world. If you have ever considered doing it, don't put it off any longer - I would be addicted to this if I could afford to be!!!

After our jumps we made the short journey to Queenstown, which is another stunning NZ town...

We met a couple of lovely Scottish girls at our hostel (no tent for us that night!), Kirsteen & Laura, who accompanied us out on the town...we felt we deserved a few (?!?!) drinks to congratulate ourselves on our earlier flights ;-)

We clearly had a good time! I have never seen Smalls so enthusiastic when it comes to lazers?!? Nothing to do with a strong mix of adrenalin & alcohol, of course! :-)

Our stay in Queenstown was brief, as we had been tipped off about Milford Sound as a "must see" in NZ. Milford Sound is one of the Fiordlands on the West coast of NZ, more glacier constructed scenery - although due to the watery nature of it it is only accessible by boat - so we took a cruise. I have to say that we weren't disappointed...

We saw more Dolphins & Seals whilst out on the cruise - something we are both, ashamedly, becoming rather blaze about! The only negative element of the excursion to Milford Sound was the high concentration of dreaded sand flies (pic below)...DEATH to them ALL...

We have been told that they are an essential part of the fagile ecosystem in NZ. I personally believe that they ARE the ecosystem - there as SO many of them in places & they are pure evil.

Our whistle stop tour took us from Milford Sound, on the mid-West coast, down to the national parks on the South West and along the South coast to Invercargill...the most southern city in NZ. It is a beautiful place, incredibly tidy with many amazing parks. We walked around a few, which included an excellent array of NZ birds in the Avery, & a very impressive Rose garden. In fact, all of the gardens were stunning.

Later that day I went for a walk from our campsite to the nearby beach, which was well worth the short 4km round trip...

After Invercargill it was time to move onto Dunedin. At this point I would like to add that Mr Christopher Small was pulled over on the Highway for speeding - 125kmph, when the speed limit is 100kmph! Disgraceful. After much fluttering of eyelids by Mr Small, the nice policeman sent us on our way with words of warning - but thankfully no fine. Tut tut tut.
Dunedin is the biggest of the cities in the south of the island, with a 20% student population. We milled around the place but there wasn't a lot to do there, so we kept our stay to the one night. We did visit the aquarium though, which although small, was actually quite good. Have you ever seen a pig fish before? They are found exclusively off of the South coast of NZ. It's an unfortunate name, but quite fitting...

Our last stop in NZ was Christchurch, which is a very big city (for NZ standards, although not as big as Auckland). Yet again, it is a lovely place. The city sprawls out, & it is very green & tidy. The architecture is the nicest that we have seen throughout the country - which has a heavy British influence. We timed our visit perfectly, as we were finally able to catch a live game of Rugby. We saw the Canterbury Crusaders vs the Western Stormers (who are a South African team), in the Super 14's - which is the professional Union league. The prematch entertainment was enjoyable...

The game was poor, finishing 11-7 to the Crusaders, but we enjoyed keeping hydrated on Tui beer & chatting with the fans around us - which included a large group of graduates who were on a pub golf outing. Not wanting to appear rude, we couldn't help but accept their offer to join them after the game. Needless to say that too many, random, drinks were consumed in a very short amount of time & neither of us made it to bed before 5am...good times ;-)

New Zealand has been incredibly good to us. We have had an amazing time touring the whole of the North & the South islands. No matter what anyone says when comparing the two, all I would advise is that all of it is incredible & needs to be visited. If you had to pin me down, I would have to choose Lake Wanaka as my favourite destination...a truly stunning place. After completing this entry it will be time to return Annabelle (our car), which will be a traumatic ordeal, then board our plane to Oz - where one Mr Andrew Dicks will be joining our adventures! It will be great to see him & no doubt he will add to the mischief/chaos that we will be getting into. I am also looking forward to catching up with some Aussies friends that I have made in my N.American travels.

Thank you New Zealand & bravo!!! :-)

written by

johnnoble on March 26, 2009 from Christchurch, New Zealand

from the travel blog: John's year off...

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Heh, sounds like you boys had tons of fun, and wonderful pics. I am still extremely jealous that you got to go to New Zealand by the way. It has always been one of the top destinations of my list.

Anywho hope you guys have fun and keep blogging!

Tis nice to read about these places that I may never get to visit.

Oh, and it's Chelsi from Hawaii by the way. Me and my friend took you and Smalls to see the volcano, though she didn't perform for you D:

written by Chelsi on March 29, 2009

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