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[Due to the incredible natual wonders the country of New Zealand possesses, I make no apologies for the ridiculous amount of pictures on this particular post.  It may however mean that this post takes a stupendous amount of time to load up, especially if you’re on a slow connection, or your computer is crap.  Any complaints about this matter should be directed to Mr. John Kissmearse, LikeICare Street, You’reJustJealousAnyways-ville, P.O. Box 25,000,000,000.]

Views from the Interislander Ferry:

  

Caught the Interislander Ferry without a hitch – spent the three-hour journey reading and occasionally popping up on deck to take in the beautiful scenery as we entered the Tory Channel and approached Picton on the South Island.

 

From there, Matt the Englishman, Colin the American and I boarded our Tranz-Scenic Coastal train service to Christchurch.  We travelled via Kiakoura, were we were to spend the night.  The train journey was great – the scenery alternated between rows of vineyards, high mountain ranges and lush coastal views.  There was even an open-air viewing carriage from which I took most of my pictures:

  

  

 

 

Kiakoura – After spending a night in this sleepy-but-beautiful seaside town we were up and ready by mid-morning for our Whale-Watching trip.  There was just enough time beforehand to squeeze in a few pictures of the surrounding area:

 

 

Our Catamaran hurtled out to sea at lightning pace causing at least 60% of passengers on board to vomit continually as we traversed the ocean swells.  The girl next to me threw up the entire contents of her stomach, intestines and pelvic region into several paper sick bags.  I on the other hand made the wise decision to pay NZ$2 for a sea-sickness tablet and calmly focused on the horizon to avoid such a drama.  It worked a treat.

 

 

Unfortunately the Sperm Whales we were in search of only surface for a very short space of time, and today was not our lucky day.  We ran out of time, and with no sightings we had to return to shore.  All passengers received 80% of their fare back, meaning that some poor people had wasted nearly NZ$30 for the privilege of being thrown around on the open sea only to eject the contents of their guts.  Haha.

Shortly afterwards however, Matt and I briefly sighted one of the elusive beasts…

…only for it to decend into the depths again… upon where it made a tasty lunch for an even larger mammal…

In the afternoon we caught our Tranz-Coastal connection to Christchurch, once more taking in some of the splendorous views you become accustomed to in New Zealand…

 

   

   

…and the next morning, after a very brief overnight stay in Christchurch, we took an even more scenic train journey – the Tranz-Scenic Alpine rail route – cross-country, from Christchurch to Greymouth (situated on the East Coast):

   

   

  

 

Greymouth – Hmm.  What can be said about this fantastical West Coast haven…

 

…not much to be honest.  There’s bugger all to do here apart from get absolutely saoked by the torrential rain that sweeps in from the mountains (as I did), or drink like a fat fish (as I also did).  my excuse for the drinking was the fact that Greymouth operates an evening tour of the Montieth’s Brewery.  I’d never heard of the infamous N.Z.-brewed ‘Montieth’s’, but the prospect of FREE BEER and BBQ DINNER followed by a trip to the local pub won the hearts and minds of many a hostel-goer.

  

  

Greymouth by name, simply Grey by nature – there is nothing of note here.  Happily I only spent one night in the town, and best thing I did (before the drinking commenced…) was have a bubble bath at the hostel.  Super.

 

Franz Josef – By now I’d finally reached the real New Zealand.  That is, the stunning scenery you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else on the planet that makes this country one of the most beautiful of the world’s locations:

  

 

Our full-day Glacier Walk took us to the face of the ice that you can make out in the above photos.  The sheer size of this thing is deceptive: it is truely gigantic, and rises to several thousand metres above sea level.

 

 

 

The fun parts were squeezing through some of the sharp crevaces…

 

…and generally taking stupid ‘explorer’/’cheeky-chappy’ photos…

 

It was a long day (8 hours) but it passed quickly.  We were thankful for the weather, considering the forecast for the next three days was rain.  The problem with the rain is that not only is it cold and unpleasant, but it washes away the tracks and ice steps that take the organisers of such tours hours to construct.  This often results in subsequent tours being cancelled or delayed.  So yeah, you could say we were pretty lucky in that respect.

 

 

Queenstown – Having spent a day in transit, on approach to Queenstown we stopped to watch the odd person jump 43 metres (about 141 ft) off the Kawarau Bridge – the world’s first ever commercial Bungy site – towards the river below:

 

It scared the bejesus out of me, as whilst there I went ahead and booked my Nevis Highwire Bungy jump for the following day.  Considering the one I went for is 134 metres (440 ft!) above a gorge, I was understandably getting a little nervous about it.

Queenstown is a great little place – with literally every form of life-threatening activity available to undertake (time and money permitting), it’s no wonder they call it the ‘Adventure Capital’ of New Zealand.  Overlooking a large lake and being surrounded by vast mountains, it also makes for a perfect Alpine-style ski resort town:

  

 

  

  

And so the day had finally arrived.  For well over a year-and-a-half now – back when I was still planning my trip – I had my sights set on scaring myself stupid by undertaking the highest Bungy Jump in New Zealand: The Nevis Highwire Bungy.  You already know the height (134 metres, or 440 ft… just try and imagine that if you can… if you can’t, think of it like this: Blackpool Tower is 518 ft 9 inches, only 28 metres (79 ft) higher…), and the drill was as follows:

This is the Gondola…

 

…and this is the pod:

 

You climb onto the pod with a harness attached…

 

…which transports you via a cable system to the Gondola:

  

You wait your turn…

…then they call you up and sit you in a chair, where they atach a very very long bungy cord to you legs and harness:

 

You move towards the edge of a miniscule platform which extends from the side of the Gondola:

 

 

…and then – “3…2…1…”

 

“Buuuuuuuunnnnnngggggggggeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

I know the video quality isn’t the best (it was taken by a fellow jumper on my digital camera), however I have purchased a DVD which shows the jump from several different angles and is slightly better quality.  If you’re wondering, I turned to the camera prior to leaping and said “Conquer your fears, or one day your fears will conquer you!” – although not quite as cooly and confidently as I would have preferred!  The feeling was incredible: unless you’re there, you’d have no idea how far down it really is…

 

…and unless you’ve actually done this jump [cue smug pic of Mark Baxendale]…

 

…you’d have no comprehension of the sheer elation you feel – from the moment you leap to the moment they winch you back up to the Gondola.  A bus full of smiling faces wound its way back down to Queenstown… just as another bus-load of terrified about-to-do-it faces made its way past us on the way up.

 

Milford Sound – The South-West corner of New Zealand has one of the world’s most astounding areas of natural beauty – a vast network of Fjords which channel for miles all the way out to the Tasman Sea.  Our day trip left from Queenstown, passed the township of Te Anau and tooka winding road through an amazing region known as the Earl Mountains:

  

Once at Milford Sound we boarded a ferry which cruised along a Fjord past countless gynormous waterfalls and forest peaks:

  

  

The weather changed from ‘not bad’ to ‘pissing it down’ by the time we got to the wharf.  As a result my camera decided it didn’t like working in the rain, hence the blurry, semi-impressive pictures on display here. Still, the journey to Milford Sound was worth it alone with the sheer amount of photo opportunities that present themselves to the visitor.

  

 

And now for something completely different…

…this post is already long enough without having to intricately detail every aspect of my remaining few days on the South Island – so for your sanity and amusement, here is a summarised version of events:

Queenstown to Dunedin… ah yes… got heavily intoxicated the night before and as a result missed the morning bus… had to pay $40 for a slightly shitter bus journey which took twice as long.

 

Dunedin – Only spent one night here…in fact only a few hours including sleep – what can be said about Dunedin? This: Cathedrals; churches; hills; Scottish heritage EVERYWHERE; more Scottish related stuff (it’s basically a Scottish city that’s been uprooted and moved to the other side of the world…there’s even a statue of Robert Burns right in the city centre!).  I have no pictures to prove any of this, but I don’t care either.  Right, next!…

 

Lake Tekapo – Beautiful little place with (yet another) stunningly massive lake:

  

 

Christchurch – Shitty big city without a purpose.  A bit like Preston I suppose…but at least we have the Butter Pie…

 

And finally… [drum roll]…

Kiakoura (again.) (again?) – Yes, again: There was no way in this world or any other that I would leave New Zealand without trying to attack some sort of fish… I mean swim with, yes swim with, of course the amazing creatures that are the Dusky Dolphins:

  

  

These things were difficult to get snaps of to say the least: they were ultra-fast and the sun shinning on the water didn’t help.  None of that matters though – I actually swam with these dolphins, and there were hundreds of them. They come and swim right next to you and follows you around under the water – words can’t describe how amazing an experience this was – it’s something I’ll never forget.

 

New Zealand really does have something for everyone.  It’s a land rich in beauty, culture, adventure and opportunity.  It can be bloody cold at times but I’m used to it being that I’m a Brit.  I’ve had a fantastic time here and I would recommend coming here with as much money as you can, as there are many fun ways to part with your hard-earned cash that just don’t exist back home.

I head to Fiji next for about 8 days, followed by Rarotonga (Cook Islands) for 2 weeks, so my Internet usage is likely to be very limited.  Anyone expecting a blog update anytime soon (especially after this mammoth typing exercise) will have to wait at least 3 weeks.  Anyone emailing me/leaving comments, etc. should also bear this in mind.

So for now its ‘Kia ora’ from me.

J.

Tags: New Zealand, Random Stuff, Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 2:30 am and is filed under New Zealand, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.