New Zealand Part 2…….NYE and Rain
I’ve tried to write about what I have done in my last week in New Zealand for sometime now. I keep on writing things specific to that day, I never finish it, for reasons I can’t remember and when I read it back it just seems pointless too send. So I’ll start from scratch and cover the last week in New Zealand.
After spending Christmas Day alone waiting in a hostel for my bag which never came off my flight down to the South Island, I went out around Christchurch to get my Christmas dinner. You probabbly all had roast turkey, potatoes, sprouts and lots of alcohol. I had a vegetarian turkish kebab, with water. Whilst you were all sat next to the fire, watching TV – I was sat outside in the sun, reading a book, occasionaly pausing to stare at the breakdancers spinning frantically on their hands, before falling painfully on their backs.
Boxing day was similar, but more breakdancers showed up and performed moves which involved straining their backs to near the point of breaking. It was also a little bit wetter.
When Alasdair, his Cousin (Doug) and Girlfriend (Iris) arrived in their rented car to take me away, I was ready to leave. We travelled to the North of the South Island first to go whale spotting and to relax in the natural hot springs. The whales were unable to squeeze us in for that day and the ‘Hammer Springs’ were springs, converted into modern swimming pools. They still stank of sulpher though and they still attracted thousands of fat, thin, young and old tourists. We decided against queing for 1 hour and decided to walk 2 hours to see a piss-poor waterfall instead.
We continued further North to a place called Picton, all I remember from the first night was staring at and confusing a strange looking cat (it turned out to be a possom) and freezing my bottom off in my $12 sleeping bag. The next day I ditched the sleeping bag and purchased a douvet, pillow, ground mat and a bed sheet cover – (which was of course was really useful, seeing as I didn’t have a mattress).
We then kayaked around the Marlborough Sounds, in a yellow kayak, in yellow kayak.
The following day involved lots of driving in the blistering sunshine until we reached a small place called Franz Joseph. Thousands of people cram here to gaze, take photos and climb the huge glacier. Franz is also situated in a rainforest, which is where we camped. The brochure for the campsite said “Take a 5 minute walk to the centre of the village, but not not before you’ve enjoyed our bar and laundry machines’
At night and all morning we heard the sound of rain pounding against our tent. This, unsuprisingly, was the day we were booked onto to do a full day tour of the Glacier. Coincidently, this was also the day Iris and Doug had those work related things to do -you know, one of those “it came to me in the middle of the night, whilst in a rainforest in a tent whilst being pounded with rain” memory sparks. (I think they just wanted to enjoy the laundry machines)
The glacier was cold, slippery and remarkably astonishing. Which, I guess is how you would imagine a huge chunk of ancient ice to be.
Travelling further South to Queenstown, we set up camp next to a gang of juvenille delinquents all from Christchurch. What fun it was to watch them drink beer through funnels and debate whether or not to head-butt their cars.
New Years Eve day was spent watching New Zealand and Sri Lanka at cricket, New Years Eve night involved the same frolics which have existed since fireworks and alcohol have been on earth and New Years Day rained, hard, pretty much until the 4th of January – which is when I left New Zealand.
Yesterday I visited 4 different countries. I started in New Zealand, then flew to Australia, Indonesia and where I am now, Singapore.
I’ll tell you about Singapore tommorrow, or Saturday. It’s only little country to it shouldn’t take up too much of your time.
Tags: New Zealand, Travel
Rob Hasler
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