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James & Tracey

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James & Tracey World Tour

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Fun time with Flipper

Kaikoura, New Zealand

May 24
Up and out of the parking spot reasonably early (partly cos we weren't meant to be there! We went to the dolphin encounter building where we were given full wetsuits, gloves, boots and hoods ready to get into the 14 degree water.
The boat headed south out of Kaikoura where some dolphin had been spotted earlier. They have a wide variety of marin life just off Kaikoura as there is a deep canyon where cold nutrient rich water comes from antarctic and warm water from the north mixes and comes to the surface. They get fur seals, Sperm Whales, Dolphin, Albatross and lots of migrating animals too.
We were looking for the Dusky Dolphin, otherwise known as the Acrobats of the sea, as they like to jump and somersault out of the water.

Flipper

We spotted a few Dolphin in the distance so adorned our kit and prepared to enter the water. As we got closer we realised that there were hundreds of Dolphin (around 400!). We got in the water, after an initial shock of the coldness it was soon forgotten as we were completely surrounded by Dolphin.

Hello Dolphins!

Watch out for the tuna nets

Swimming on the top, and round in circles, making noises and diving down we were plenty of entertainment for all of the Dolphin.

Dusky Dolphin

After an exhilarating 40 mins of being in the water we were called back to the boat, completely exhausted and ready for the Hot Chocolate and ginger biscuits they supplied.
As we set off back to the harbour the Dolphin enjoyed riding up by the bow of the boat and doing flips and jumps in the distance.

We started up the coast, stopping occasionally to look at the fur seals on rocks.
We headed and stopped in Renwick at a small Backpackers which allows campervans.

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 24, 2007 from Kaikoura, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Blissful relaxation

Hanmer Springs, New Zealand

May 23
After a bit of a lie in we set off again driving the rest of the way (around 200km). We arrived at Hanmer Springs. They have thermal pools here, where we headed to have a dip.
We also treated our aching bodies to a steam room for half an hour. The hottest pool was 41 degrees as it was a sulphur pool (so also smelt a bit). We stayed in the mineral pools around 36 degrees for a while, just chillin' and taking in the mountainous views around us whilst it rained above us - This is the life!

After being totally relaxed we headed down the road and went into the mini-golf course.


Not so crazy golf

We started off nice and jolly, but by the end James was showing off as he was winning. I videoed him and he spooned it - sweet! He only beat me by 4 points, so the gap is getting closer.

We set off on the road again towards the east coast, only a mere 180 km drive.


permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 23, 2007 from Hanmer Springs, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Fox Glacier (not the mint)

Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

May 22
A bit of an early start, had an amazing view of Mountain top when we awoke.

View in the morning

We headed into Fox Township and to the Alpine Guides to book our tour for the day - "The Nimble Fox".
Wearing thermal long-johns, trousers, vest, t-shirt, long sleeve sweatshirt, fleece jumper, 2 pairs of socks, hat and mittens - I was ready for our adventure.
We walked through rainforest and up around 150 steps, slowly peeling off al the layers as we got to boiling point.
It was time to put on the cramp-ons and back on the layers - we were ready for the ice.
We spent a total of 4 hours on the ice, walking on the Glacier, with our guide cutting fresh steps for us to climb up with his pick axe. We went through a couple of caves and got a bit wet.

Beneath the Ice

The Great Explorer

The Fox Glacier is up to 350m in depth and terminates 250m above sea level, making it so accessable to us. They get 35-45m of snowfall each year, and the Glacier is still growing and advancing about 20cm per day (meant to be 1m but 80% melts).
We walked back through the rainforest and to the bottom where the Glacier ends - it looked huge!
After getting back and warming up again with a hot drink we set off for another long drive. We drove for around 250 km along windy roads before finding a resting point, had dinner and exhausted from the day enjoyed a drink!

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 22, 2007 from Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Adrenaline Capital (if open)

Queensbury, New Zealand

May 20
We were up and out of the camp, into Queenstown and headed straight for the AJ Hackett shop to book James' Thrillogy Bungy Jumps. This means 3 bungy jumps totalling 224m over 6 hours! I headed down the road to book tomorrows Canyon Swing for the both of us.
We waited around a bit for the bus to take us to the first stop "the Bridge". The original and birthplace for the bungy. The Kawarau Bridge is a 43m bungy above a river.

Kawarau Bungy Bridge

James was jumping at 12.45. He had a bit of a brush with the water and came out feeling rather shaky but good. We then had a 2 hour wait for the bus to take us to the next jump, so we watched a few more crazy people jump off a perfectly nice bridge and be picked up by the rubber dinghy below.
The bus picked us up and we headed for the Nevis, a mere 134m bungy that is suspended above a tiny river (well it looks tiny from the top). Both of us got geared up in harnesses and went across the wire in what looked like a big shopping trolley, to get to the bungy platform in the middle of a valley. At this point James had lost most of his tan he had accumulated thus far. He had to go first, and I watched from the see-through floor in the suspended platform/room.

Bungeeeeeeee

We had to wait for all of the others to do their jumps before we got to leave. James now getting most of his colour back took some photos and bought the DVD of his jump.
The next stop was back in Queenstown and a short ride up the Gondola to the top of a cliff. The "Ledge jump" is a 47m Bungy in the dark, that overlooks the glinting town below, and at the side of the gondola. The Bungy is tied to the waist so you can take a running jump. I think this was the worst of all as you just couldn't see where you were jumping.

We went back down to the town, as James was famished after the full adrenaline day. We had been recommended the "fergburger" so had a go - lush!

May 21
An early start as we had to be at the shop for the Canyon Swing for 8.20am. We headed 10 mins out of town to a Canyon with a small wooden platform on.


I was this close!

We got harnessed up. I was second in the queue. Stood on the edge, leant back with great fear for the photo, waited for the wind to die down, ready....No not yet need to psyche myself up, yep ready, no wait for the wind to die, psyche myself up again, ready, nope we are going to close the swing as wind is up to 60knots and not allowed to swing above 25knots. Gutted!
I was shaking all the way back up to the van as all the adrenaline had to seep out of my veins without the rush of the swing. The swing was full up for the rest of the day so no way we could get to do it - deflated!
Went back to camp to cool down and think about what to do next.
After a bit of time on the internet and some pizza, we decided to move on as there is lots more to do in South Island and we are running out of time. So we set off on our 400km drive and arrived around 9.30pm, in the dark and parked in a random picnic spot.

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 20, 2007 from Queensbury, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Glowworms and Milford Sound

Te Anau, New Zealand

May 18
We had a surprise phone call from Megan in the morning - Thanks for the Kiwi welcome!
We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us, stopping now and aging for photos. We arrived in the town of Manapouri and looked into going across to Doubtful Sound. This however is a lot more expensive than the trip to Milford Sound and spending the same amount of time on a boat, so we decided not to go and drove down the road to Te Anau.
The lady in the Information office told us that Te Anau doesn't have any free camping places within 7km of the town so we had to settle for a campsite by the lake. We booked a couple of tours and headed away for dinner.
As we finished dinner and were preparing to have a nice gentle stroll along the Lakeside to get to our trip set off point I looked at the ticket realising that the trip stared at 7pm not 7.30pm, so it was a mad dash in the campervan to the jetty and quick jog onto the boat - in true Franks style "just in time".
The trip was a 25 min boat ride across the lake to get to some caves. These caves went in 7km but we only walked in about 250m, then caught a boat in the dark to look at the Glowworms. Small blue lights all over the ceiling. It was cool, except we weren't allowed to take cameras in so couldn't get any photos to show you - Rubbish!

May 19
A reasonably early start to the day as we had a 120km drive to get to the starting point of our next trip. As we drove out of town along the Milford road we went past loads of free camping places - So not far at all to save a bit of money, think the Info girl was on Commission!
We stopped at Boyd Creek - a small stepped waterfall. It took a while for us to find it as the paths weren't very good and we just followed the sound of water (and I followed James).
Next stop was the Mirror lakes, as the names suggest they have a mirror image of the lakes. Some photo opportunity here, except the walkway was in the wrong place to get the perfect shot - apparently!


Mirror Lakes

The road was quite windy so it was difficult to stop at certain places when the views were magnificent, so you'll just have to take our word for it!
We went through Homer Tunnel (d'oh) which was cut through the mountain and emerged the other side with a series of hairpin turns in the road - awesome!
Our final stop before Milford was the Chasm. A rock chasm that has been formed by the rushing waters of the Cleddau river and a pretty good water fall.
Arriving at Milford Sound and getting onto our boat - The Milford Mariner, we headed out into the river for our 2 1/2 hour journey. It started off well with a bit of sunshine breaking through the clouds, nice views of waterfalls and quite pleasant outside, then went to misty, cold and wet, so the waterproofs were donned.

Millford Sound Waterfall

Milford Sound isn't actually a Sound it is Fjord. This means that it was formed by a Glacier then flooded by the sea, rather than formed by a river (sound). But they still kept the name?!
After the trip we then headed back down the 120km windy mountainous road and added another 180km to Queenstown. We think we were on an amazing road as there were loads of signs for lookouts, except we couldn't see a thing as it was dark, oh well!
We stopped at the first caravan site we came to as we were shattered.

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 18, 2007 from Te Anau, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Very Windy day

Dunedin, New Zealand

May 17
We headed down to Dunedin and the Otago Penninsula. To get to the end of the penninsula we had to wind our way along a road which was next to the edge of the sea, so close in fact that the waves were lapping onto the road carrying with it sea weed and sending salty spray all over our van - good fun though! We got to the end to the much awaited Albatross centre. However, it was too much for our budget mostly because all you are going to get to see are birds which, ok, are a bit bigger than other sea birds, But at the end of the day they are just birds! We tried to get a sneaky peek around the corner but had built a big wall out over the cliff, obviously others had tried this before and felt the same way about the cost of getting in.
Instead we decided to find our way down to a secluded bay which held the possibility of seeing some Sea Lions. After negotiating quite a few kms of dirt tracks in our not-off road campervan we found signs for our bay, as the road ran out. It was blowing a gouly outside, all weather protected we headed out over a field. As we went over the sand dune and down onto the beach the wind was really starting to pick up, the waves were kind of being blown backwards and a constant sand storm was blowing across the beach. We kind of knew that no Sea Lions in their right mind would be there, but we had to have a look to make sure. We headed off down the beach, with our anoraks blowing madly in the wind, only to find when the wind died the waves took that chance to come all the way up the beach, leaving us scrambling up the cliff side to safety!

Run for your lives!

After a retreat back along the beach, battling against the winds/sand storm/timing between the waves, we made it to the tranquil environment of our van.

We headed into town to have a look around, only to find that parking is restricted to 5 or 10 mins and all of the pay and display multi storeys don't have any where near enough clearance for our 2.7m van. So we decided to make tracks out of town to find ourselves a free picnic spot to camp for the night. On our way out we spotted a Fish and Chip shop, which of course is where we got a cheap feed.

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 17, 2007 from Dunedin, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Rik Stein's choice of Restaurant

Moeraki, New Zealand

May 16
From bushy beach we headed down the coast to Moeraki. Following signs for the "Moeraki Boulders". These are ancient spherical boulders that are in the sand and surf. How they got there we don't know as there were no guides or signs to help us, guess it must have been some volcanic thing at some point. Who cares they look well good. As you might be able to tell by the number of photos!

Moeraki Boulders

A short journey in to the village we found our way to World Famous Fleur's Place. After a brief discussion they agreed to let us camp in thier car park for the night (Right next to the harbour and ocean) as we were eating there that night.
To get our bearings and to kill time until dinner we went for a walk over the head land, however, after finding many sheep on top we realised it would be a long way in the dark to the other side, so we turned round to head back and have a drink overlooking the sea instead.
We had heard quite a few comments about this restaurant, all very good, and as we found out much deserved. As Rik Stein had found out when he went there and apparently said on his TV show - the fish is absolutely fantastic and was all about back to basic cooking. My Monkfish was absolutely spot on.

May 17
As we had found out there is only enough hot water in the campervan for one person to have a quick shower. Today it was James' lucky day as he had the full hot shower and was going to be clean. I, however, had half and half (hot and cold!).
Not because of its name but because of what we were promised to see there. We headed of to Shag Point. After half an hours wandering along the cliff top edge we spied many Shags (a type of Cormorant). We also started to spot Fur seals getting up on to the rocks to enjoy the morning sunshine, where they would probably lounge around for the rest of the day after a night on the ocean - fishing.
A few of the Seals seemed a little concerned with our present. Whilst most just gave us a disapproving look, some of the more cautious fled along the rocks and into the sea (sorry!)


Hello little seal

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 16, 2007 from Moeraki, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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What a surprise view

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

May 15
After we had parked the van in the dark the night before with no real idea of where we were, we woke to an amazing surprise. To find we were on the side of a hill overlooking a big turquoise lake, surrounded by mountains with the sun rising over the top. We really thought we are going to enjoy New Zealand.

Morning what a View.

We decided to get some better views of this landscape so we set off for a 2 and 1/2 hour walk. As first thing in the morning it was still cold, so we put on all of our new warm clothing, and set off.

New Hat.

Shortly enough we found some panoramic view of the surrounding hills and lake.

After we got back even though we had stripped of our many layers we still needed warming with some good old fashioned Heinz tomato soup (or so we thought, just Watties is the exactly the same tin but with their name on - how cheeky!)
Trace then took over the driving and drove the next 100km to Glentanner. On the way we stopped off at quite a few lookout points of lakes and mountains. (this looks as though we might be able to take a lot of photos here)

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 15, 2007 from Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Mount Cook

Glentanner, New Zealand

May 15
We arrived at Glentanner, then headed straight for the village of Mount Cook. As the name suggests its right by Mount Cook!! The highest mountain in New Zealand. We couldn't actually see the top of the mountain though so couldn't see exactly how high it was, the summit was covered with clouds.
We decided as it was beginning to rain and the wind was getting up to leave our hike until tomorrow, and then hopefully see the top of Mount Cook. Headed back to camp.

May 16
James got up early and went for a bit of a walk to try and get the sun coming over the surrounding mountains - wearing hat and full waterproofs as overnight the wind had picked up even more and now was raining.


Sunrise at Mount Cook

We packed up camp and filled the van with water - James now not in his waterproofs got soaked as the tap fell off spraying water everywhere. Second lot of clothes today!
There was a magnificent rainbow that formed over the hill behind the camp, so we set about trying to photograph the whole thing, except it proved to be difficult, the further away we got the bigger the rainbow got, so after about 1/2 hour we gave up and made do with the ones we had!

Chasing the Rainbow.

As the wind had picked up, we weren't able to go for a hike by Mount Cook as we may have fallen/flown off the mountain side. Yes thats right we had 200km winds!
We drove away from the mountains towards the coast, stopping now and again to take yet more photos! There were some pretty cool Dams on the way through - the water was crashing over the top and it looked more like the ocean than a lake. James got out of the van to take some photos, I videoed him in the wind, just as I finished filming he got hit by a wave, Gutted I stopped it just too soon - third set of clothes for the day!!

The wave that got james!

We had lunch by a farmers field on the side of the road watching the dog trying to round up some cows, except the cows weren't having any of this and kept charging the brave dog.
We arrived at Oamaru. We went to where the Blue Penguins are but found out we were around 4 hours too early for them, as we were just passing through we didn't have time to stop. We were advised to make our way down to Bushy Beach lookout to hopefully capture a glimpse of the rare Yelloe-Eyed Penguins. These are apparently the rarest in the world. After about an hour of waiting and spotting one lone seal in the surf, we spied a little penguin head bobbing in the surf. Over the next half an hour a few more popped up, came in with the waves and waddled up the beach out of view. At this point we were quite cold and decided to call it a day, on the way back we had one quick look at a different lookout and were amazed to find one of the penguins had climbed up the steep bank through all of the bushes and was stood there right in front of us waddling along - these birds are meant to be extremely shy, but the little girls by us shouting away didn't seem to phase them at all.

Rare Yellow-eyed Penguin

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 15, 2007 from Glentanner, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Road to Nowhere

Christchurch, New Zealand

May 13
We left early to get to the Airport, where Ray waved us off.
Got on the flight to Christchurch. There was only one film showing on the plane so had no other option but to watch it (it was a chick flick!) We were served steak pie, which kind of
made up for it. The views from the plane coming into Christchurch were amazing - from left to right all we could see were mountains - Awesome!
After the hassle of getting through the rigerous customs in New Zealand we were greeted by Kea Campers and taken to our new home for the next 4 weeks - the campervan.
We straight away went and picked up $250 worth of grub and found a campsite. We then spent the next hour or 2 organising our new 10x6 room, cleverly laid out, but you can't get away from the fact the 2 of us are now sharing a transit van with no where to escape to - Uh Oh!!
To settle in James decided to put some ice cubes in the freezer, to his surprise when he turned the water on it burst out, hit the ice cube tray and rebound all over him. Hilarious!!

May 14
After waking up and finding our new home very cold, compared to our under floor heated flat at home, and our fridge still warm and those pesky ice cubes still being water. We took the Campervan back to the depot to get it sorted and then onto The Warehouse, to buy us some much needed warm clothes and waterproofs.
We decided to skip Christchurch town and concentrate on its scenery. We caught the Gondola (or Cable car to you and me) up the hillside where it gave us a magnificent view of an ancient volcanic area. During its past there has been 3 very large eruptions, creating this Lake surrounded by huge hills. We set off on foot for a lookout point half an hour away, didn't really find that one but carried on walking and found many of our own.


View from the Gondola

After a good 2 hour hike and plenty of photos later we got back to the cable car, very hot, sweaty and gasping for a drink (note to self - take drink with you in the future!)

Anyone got a drink?

As it fell dark, we did a quick 150km drive to our next destination of Lake Tekapo. We found a free picnic spot to park our van and enjoyed a night playing cards.

permalink written by  James & Tracey on May 13, 2007 from Christchurch, New Zealand
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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