Livin’ the Dream

(written by Steve)

Hello all, our apologies for the periodic posts. We’ve been out and about continuing to explore the South Island of NZ. Wow, so much to write about don’t know quite where to start.

Greymouth. Our Magic bus tour of the “top of the south” continued after Nelson to a dreary little town called Greymouth. Our new bus driver/best friend showed us a good time by taking us on a tour through the local Montieths brewery. The tour was standard brewery experience except for the fact that at the end our brewmaster guide left us to pour our on litres out of the tap – basically as many as we could hammer in 30 mins he was gone. Needlesstosay, it was a great start to a night that would end with Richie (our Magic bus driver) getting us all kicked out of the local pub. Rumor has it that you can pick up Montieth’s Black (Steve’s favorite flavor) at your local Trader Joe’s. Someone please confirm…

Arthur’s Pass. From Greymouth we jumped aboard the TranzAlpine train which is supposedly one of the 10 best train rides in the world. The first leg was pretty but nothing special. The second segment from Arthurs Pass back to Christchurch was nothing short of spectacular. Huge gorges swept out by glaciers long ago now filled with glistening turquoise water. Mountain tops still covered with patches of snow. Absolutely breathtaking. In Arthurs Pass we stopped for 2 days to explore and hike around the High Sierra-esq area. We were stuck in a bit of a rain storm and Jenny came down with a cold, but that didnt stop us from hiking to the local waterfall and further back up into the mountains through moss forests and raging rivers. All in all, a great stop.

Christchurch. Back to Christchurch, the hub of all South Island travel for Steve’s BDay and to pick up our now beloved Space Ship. OK, the Spaceship is just a 10 yr. old tricked out minivan but it’s been our home for the past 8 days and we got 5 more to go with ‘er. Aside from provide sleeping quarters, she (her name is Ming) is also our kitchen, living room, dinning room, and office and oh yeah, also our only means of transportation and the main reason we are already completely over budget. Stupid Petrol prices….. Anyhow, the first thing I did when turning 25 was rent a ca, well actually a campervan in case you were wondering. And for my birthday well, we kinda celebrated in advance on March 23 buy splurging on a fantastic dinner on ‘the Strip” in Christchurch. The night was great, incredible food, good wine, music, the works. Definitely very memorable.

(cont by Jenny)

New Zealand: The Space Odyssey

So we have gone white trash and picked up a lovely little 1996 Toyota
Space Ship named Ming aka a camper van to tool around the country. Yes
Steve and I are now intimately familiar with many of the lovely
holiday parks in the country as well as with the many biting insects
that the tour guides neglect to mention!

So here is the quick run down on what we have seen since with started
the space odyssey:

Hanmer Springs: After a hair raising trip trying to maneuver Ming
through the treacherous streets on inner Christchurch on the wrong
side of the road we entered in our coordinates and headed to the
sleeping alpine village of Hanmer Springs. It was in a word wet! Known
for it’s naturally occurring sulphur hot springs we indulged in a
smelly dip at the bath house. Then we spent out very fist night in the
cramped quarters of the space ship that would be our home for the next
12 nights. Unfortunately it pored all night and we spent an
interesting night trying to construct our origami bed without getting
soaked. Great fun really.

After our wet adventure we decided to cross over the southern alps via
Lewis Pass inquest of better weather. The drive through the alps was
incredible we saw very little besides sheep. Right now the trees are
changing color and it is absolutely beautiful. After camping one night
on the West Coast just past Greymouth we arrived at Franz Josef.

Franz Josef: Is an interesting place essentially an alpine village
that is set in a temperate rainforest. To get the full experience we
stayed at a holiday park called the Rainforest Retreat which apart
from the mosquitoes was incredible it was literally set in a moss
covered jungle. In Franz Josef we too a full day hike on the Franz
Josef Glacier a temperate glacier that is actually advancing (growing)
something that I never thought I would see in my lifetime. We strapped
on rubber boots and crampons and climbed straight up the terminal face
of the glacier. We even got to carry ice axes! Apart from the penguin
so far this has been the highlight of our trip. (Check out the
pictures) Steve managed to escape the adventure unscathed I had one
embarrassing fall that has left me a bit bruised but other then that
no ill effects.

Lake Wanaka:
In an effort to pack as much into our time in NZ as possible we took
the next day to Lake Wanaka. We didn’t make it the whole way to the
town but managed to reach the northern tip of the lake by sunset. We
found the most incredible campsite on a spit sticking out into the
lake great beach fantastic view and then we got out of the car and
realized that we had arrived just in time for dinner and we were the
main course. We were instantly surrounded by hundreds of sand flies
also known as biting flies that leave bites that feel much like
mosquito bites awful little buggers. The Maori say that sand flies
were created by god so that people wouldn’t be rendered immobile at
the beauty of Fiordland (southern tip). I think we could have managed
with out them. After the sandflies the mosquitoes attacked and after
we finally managed to get into bed for the night we awoke to strange
noises looking out of the van we found we were surrounded by
reflecting eyes, turns out they were possums but unnerving never the
less. At dawn we made a B-Line for the town of Wanaka.

Wanaka:
Situated on the end of the Lake Wanaka is a beautiful sleepy town with
great food , fun shopping, and really nice people. We had a great time
relaxing for two days on the beach and doing very little. After our
sandfly disaster we splurge and stayed at a 5 star holiday park with
hot tubs and even a car vacuum. We promptly did laundry. It is so nice
to finally feel clean again!

(cont by Steve)

And now we are in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. Adventure in New Zealand speak translates to “we will suck your wallet dry on activities you can’t pass up”. Just today we hoped on the world renown Shotover Jet boat, a specialized water vehicle capable of screaming down the narrow gorges of the Shotover River at 80km/hr on 10mm of water. The boats utilize a jet impeller (read really advanced internal water engine) and thrust vectoring enabling insane 360 spins. A very cool piece of engineering at $230K NZ a pop. Also on the to-do list while here is a bungee jump. I always said I’d do it in New Zealand and well, I guess that means it’s time to do it. The only decision now (parent’s please skip ahead) is to jump the original bungee site where AJ Hackett started it all, the Kawarua Bridge down into the gorgeous Kawarau river. Yes, into the river. Or really sack up and head to the Nevis, what I believe to be the highest bungee jump in the world, a whopping 440 ft down. Should be a good thrill regardless.

Other than that, it looks like we will be heading to the Milford Sound tonight for an early cruise in the morning. When traveling in Ming we usually have one of three option for sleeping at night. Holiday Park, (the NZ of KOA but usually much nicer, much proffered but usually costs $30NZ), DOC site which is a dept. of conservation rural campsite usually complete with loads of mesquitos and dreaded biting sandfly’s. Oh how I hate you sandfly’s but ah ha! I just bought a Kathmandu mosquito night so good luck getting to us suckas!. BTW, combined Jenny and I have something like 60 bites between us. Oh and the third, cheapest and least preferred option is to park on the side of a road, close the curtains and crash. I believe this third option will be the one we will utilize most the next couple days…..ugh.

Aside from the Milford Sound, we’re also looking forward to a day’s tramp on the Routeburn before the mad dash back up to Christchurch to catch our flight to Sydney on 06 April.

All right. Think that covers most of it. Now let’s see how this picture uploading thing works. BTW, in Sydney, we’ll try and upload all the pics on yahoo photos for your enjoyment and to clear our memory cards.