Country number four on our round the world trip; New Zealand!
We arrrived in a sunny Christchurch a very cute little 'city' that feels a bit like Cambridge without all the bikes. I was overwhlemed by how "English" it is! We wanted to get on the road so only spent one whole day there, we walked in a beautiful oak tree filled park full autumnal golden colours, where the adjacent "Kings college" public school pupils were all playing rugby or tennis and took in a bit of art at the city gallery.
From Christchurch we picked up a giant motorhome. We had two days to relocate it back to Queenstown but only paid the equivalent of a fiver for the hire. Our route took in some coast and then headed into the foothills that run along the centre of the south island, at this time we couldn't see the fabulous backdrop of the southern alps proper as it was overcast, but we did have a wonderful stopover in a place called Lake Taupo - which has a bright cloudy blue colour from glacial minerals deposits. That evening we went on a star gazing tour (there is a university run observatory positioned on a hill above the lake as there is very little light pollution) sods law.... the wind and the cloud cover came in so we only saw a few with the help of some huge telescopes. It was still cool, especially to learn about the southern cross (which you see on the NZ flag) and how to use it to find true south. It was not as our man in the hut on the razorback walk had told us!
We then drove the motorhome to a remote camping spot alongside another lake (in the dark this took decidedly longer than it should, such that we ended up cooking pasta in the well equiped kitchen at midnight - the red wine helped to smooth the stresses though!). Waking up to the epic view of geese landing, ducks quacking and a mountain backdrop really woke me up to how beautiful this trip was going to be. The scenery has ever increased in "wow" factor with each step our journey. Basically, when you next come back to antipodia, make it NZ it wont dissapoint. Australia's scenery becomes a Holland next to New Zealand's Switzerland!
So our challenge was to get the vehicle back by 3pm, seemingly simple with only 300km and all day to do it. So we checked out a few views, had a hot chocolate and cruzily got on our way, even stopping to heat up the leftover pasta dish in our"luxury" kitchen. Of course, we hadn't added a "NZ" factor - the roads are incredibly windy and hilly with plenty of farm vehicles to slow you down! We were on route 1 (equivilent of the M1) yet met with steep inclines and spaghetti single lane roads. Not that this was unpleasant, the scenery was continually intriguing and ever changing from mountains,to flat plains and vinyards, to lush farming valleys, to ravines with white water rivers. And the roads are in perfect condition and well signed...just about 50mph slower than we had assumed!!
Anyway we made it more or less (thanks to the laid back staff at the hire company) and dropped off the motorhome without too much stress. And so we found ourselves at Queenstown "international" airport (where you can practically touch the planes taking off) starring up at the imposing craggy face of the 2500m Remarkables range. Its a pretty impressive greeting.
Queenstown itself is basically a British occupied Ski resort, awaiting its first snow. Over the three days we were there, we took advantage of the great micro-brewed beer, indulged in a Ferg Burger (a Bun Laden and a Sweet Bambi), went to see Boy (definately look out for in UK - great NZ film), and played a game of Frisbee golf; they have an offical course with holes, tee points and pars!! They even have different weight frisbees, for putting or driving etc.
We also took advantage of the clear blue skies and did 3 days of local walks including the impressive Ben Lomond (1800m) which revealed great vistas of the snowcapped southern alps - pretty tough ascent though starting at 400m and climbing pretty steadily the whole way!
Aside from that, our mission was to organise and prepare for a Great Walk (there are about 7 Great multi-day treks in NZ). We found that south island had recently suffered severe flooding (severe by NZ standards, really means it - this is landscape that is regularly landsliding, earthquaking, erupting and ...well...raining!!) and much of the tracks were washed out. The Department for Conservation (DOC) whose function is a cross between the National Trust, the Foresty Commission and the Third Reich, warned that difficult river crossings were likely, huts where emptied of firewood and track damage may have occurred.
Despite this, we actually managed to do the 60km Kepler Route in 3 days without incident! It was a lovely mixture of fern ridden temperate rainforest, mossy cloud forest, exposed moorland hilltops and huge lakes. We also impressed ourselves by consistently beating the times it said the sections would take, though there were some crazy Czechs who overtook us and basically jogged the route. We had to stay in the backwater huts for two nights, luckily both the huts great with plenty of people and fire wood to keep us warm. We teamed up with a couple from California for much of the time and really enjoyed it.
From the vicory of the Kepler we took in a few more of the amazing sights of the Fiordland National Park (a huge expanse of primary wilderness covering the south west of South Island) including glow worm caves and sea kayaking up Milford Sound. We managed to pick a seriously wet day to take to the water so we didn't see quite as much if the sound as we would have liked but all the waterfalls were out instead which was cool and the mist added a certain mystery to the place. As well as the kayaking the drive to and from the sound was completely stunning, huge expanses of rock and ice towered above us and we were surrounded by amazing waterfalls, we drove home as the sun set with orbital on the stereo, the perfect music for that setting.
So, with our goals in the deep south completed, we began our 3000km road trip north, which would eventually end in Auckland.
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Final days in Oz
So back to Melbourne through the torrential rain to begin the goodbyes as everyone headed back to England, we also saw Jarlath and Pip off to their proper honeymoon in Fiji.
As usual it was really sad to say goodbye to them, if only we could teleport ourselves across the world to have dinner with them all the time.....boo to the fact that teleporters don't exist yet. Still we will see them next year for the wedding and hopefully before while we are in South America if they can find the money, though with the Aussie dollar as it is at the moment I recommended they do all the travelling they could!
So just me, Ronan and Steve left to our own devises in Melbourne. We had managed to get some free accommodation down at Nelsons Prom which Ronan's brother, Niall, had booked when it looked like the ash was gonna delay them by about ten days and now couldn't use as their flight had been brought forward.
The little town were staying in felt seriously like an off season beach resort, nowhere to eat, the shop closed at 4pm and no one about, not auspicious beginnings!
Next day we headed out to check out 'the Prom' as the as the Aussies call it and it didn't disappoint even though we weren't there while it was hot. We squeaked along squeaky beach, climbed one of the peaks and did a 20km walk as well which took us through another weird burnt out forest and lush rainforest as well, saw some pretty serious fungi to add to our fungi photo collection which I know you will all be dying to see the slide show of when we get back.
The 20km walk felt like good practice for all the walking we would be doing in NZ and I didn't die at the end of it, in fact I drove us the 3 hours back to Melbourne.
It was almost time for us to leave Melbourne, just enough time to say hi to Dave once more and partake in one last quintessential Melbourne activity, a gig in a darkened upstairs bar. Went to see Georgia Fields (http://www.myspace.com/georgiafields) who was fantastic, her and her band used all manner of bizarre instruments including a power drill, a great way to say bye to Melbs.
Getting back into practice for being backpackers we took the cheapo overnight bus to Sydney and arrived looking a bit worse for wear into seedy Kings Cross, we found our hostel and flopped straight into bed to sleep off the night's journey. Having fully recovered, we stepped out at lunchtime to see the city and found a fabulous sunny day, a little bit more summer to enjoy before we headed into the southern hemisphere winter.
Sydney is proper glam! If Melbourne is the slightly grungy cool kid in skinny jeans who likes bands you have never heard of then Sydney is the fabulous, toned, tanned, gay man who loves glitter and house music. Its a city that is fabulous and knows it! The harbour is really stunning and full of international landmarks like the bridge and the opera house.
We spent the afternoon with Ronan's parents eating fish and chips and drinking rose over in one of the little bays, looking back at the CBD as the sun set, very chilled. In fact sydney was pretty much all catching up with people.
We spent another sunny afternoon with my cousin Andrew who took us to brunch on the hip streets of Surrey Hills then gave us a guided walking tour around the city he has called home for a year now. We did another sun set down by the water and then drinks watching the moon on the water.
Our final day in Sydney I took Ronan to his first aquarium ever! I have no idea how he managed to get to 30 without ever having had this experience and luckily Sydney is a pretty cool one complete with sharks, giants rays, turtle and even Dugong (look a bit like a manatees).
The evening was spent catching up with some more friends, Aine and John, who took us to see the classy side of Sydney with cocktails in a revolving 18th floor bar and then dinner in the Rocks. In the end we had to call it a night at 11 as we had to be up at 4am to take our flight to New Zealand.
Waking in what seemed like the middle of the night we were off on the next adventure in the land of sheep and mountains, Aotearoa!
As usual it was really sad to say goodbye to them, if only we could teleport ourselves across the world to have dinner with them all the time.....boo to the fact that teleporters don't exist yet. Still we will see them next year for the wedding and hopefully before while we are in South America if they can find the money, though with the Aussie dollar as it is at the moment I recommended they do all the travelling they could!
So just me, Ronan and Steve left to our own devises in Melbourne. We had managed to get some free accommodation down at Nelsons Prom which Ronan's brother, Niall, had booked when it looked like the ash was gonna delay them by about ten days and now couldn't use as their flight had been brought forward.
The little town were staying in felt seriously like an off season beach resort, nowhere to eat, the shop closed at 4pm and no one about, not auspicious beginnings!
Next day we headed out to check out 'the Prom' as the as the Aussies call it and it didn't disappoint even though we weren't there while it was hot. We squeaked along squeaky beach, climbed one of the peaks and did a 20km walk as well which took us through another weird burnt out forest and lush rainforest as well, saw some pretty serious fungi to add to our fungi photo collection which I know you will all be dying to see the slide show of when we get back.
The 20km walk felt like good practice for all the walking we would be doing in NZ and I didn't die at the end of it, in fact I drove us the 3 hours back to Melbourne.
It was almost time for us to leave Melbourne, just enough time to say hi to Dave once more and partake in one last quintessential Melbourne activity, a gig in a darkened upstairs bar. Went to see Georgia Fields (http://www.myspace.com/georgiafields) who was fantastic, her and her band used all manner of bizarre instruments including a power drill, a great way to say bye to Melbs.
Getting back into practice for being backpackers we took the cheapo overnight bus to Sydney and arrived looking a bit worse for wear into seedy Kings Cross, we found our hostel and flopped straight into bed to sleep off the night's journey. Having fully recovered, we stepped out at lunchtime to see the city and found a fabulous sunny day, a little bit more summer to enjoy before we headed into the southern hemisphere winter.
Sydney is proper glam! If Melbourne is the slightly grungy cool kid in skinny jeans who likes bands you have never heard of then Sydney is the fabulous, toned, tanned, gay man who loves glitter and house music. Its a city that is fabulous and knows it! The harbour is really stunning and full of international landmarks like the bridge and the opera house.
We spent the afternoon with Ronan's parents eating fish and chips and drinking rose over in one of the little bays, looking back at the CBD as the sun set, very chilled. In fact sydney was pretty much all catching up with people.
We spent another sunny afternoon with my cousin Andrew who took us to brunch on the hip streets of Surrey Hills then gave us a guided walking tour around the city he has called home for a year now. We did another sun set down by the water and then drinks watching the moon on the water.
Our final day in Sydney I took Ronan to his first aquarium ever! I have no idea how he managed to get to 30 without ever having had this experience and luckily Sydney is a pretty cool one complete with sharks, giants rays, turtle and even Dugong (look a bit like a manatees).
The evening was spent catching up with some more friends, Aine and John, who took us to see the classy side of Sydney with cocktails in a revolving 18th floor bar and then dinner in the Rocks. In the end we had to call it a night at 11 as we had to be up at 4am to take our flight to New Zealand.
Waking in what seemed like the middle of the night we were off on the next adventure in the land of sheep and mountains, Aotearoa!
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Along on the honeymoon
The post wedding week started with a bit of stress as Ronan's other brother and his wife were due to leave for England but were being royally foiled by the ash cloud, they headed back to Melbourne anyway hoping it would all sort it self out (hmmm....).
Bless Jarlath and Pip, they sacrificed going on their honeymoon for a week to spend it in the mountains with us. They even invited us all around the day after their wedding for a bbq at their amazing honeymoon pad, the romance was quickly destroyed by a session of balcony cricket that I am amazed didn't end in a broken window.
We left the newlyweds for a little peace next day to get our first taste of the mountains the next day with a trip up the seemingly endless windy road to mount buffalo. it was a little 8k walk but it seemed pretty long to me at the time, I was gonna have to seriously step up my game for NZ! Still get got some fab views and watched the sunset from the wonderfully named 'horn' and encountered wallabies and owls on the way back down the dusky mountain.
We had some fantastic evenings at the homestead, it was a proper outback affair with a huuuge porch and one of those bbq that can cook food for about 20 people at one, at it did do that a number of times, I consumed by bodyweight in sausages I think! We also sampled a lot of the great local wines as well.
It was Jarlath's birthday that week and his celebration of choice, a walk in the mountains and staying the night in an unheated back-country hut. The Leydens are weird but who am I to argue so we set off for apparently one of the best walks in Victoria and it certainly didn't disappoint.
The weather was seriously moody with deep dark cloud hanging over the hills but it really only served to enhance the drama of the landscape, all the hills were covered with plants that had been burnt in forest fires. We made it up the peak we were aiming for though we couldn't see a thing at the top due the cloud and the clouds finally broke on our way back down to soak us just in time to get to the hut, luckily this did mean that we saw the most perfect sunset.
So started an interesting evening. We thought we would have the hut to ourselves but arrived to find a slightly drunken and rambling man called Howard in a boiler suit from the 70s, he was seriously old skool hiker who used firelighters to heat his food and seemed pretty pleased to have found a captive audience to talk at. At the time he got seriously on my nerves but looking back he was pretty amusing, he repeated everything he told us at least three times in slightly different ways and seemed to believe he know all there is to know about the mountains carefully ignoring the fact that Jarlath also knew everything he was telling us. We escaped to our sleeping bags at about 9pm.......
The week seemed to fly by and on a seriously rainy Saturday we headed back to Melbourne to head our separate ways.
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Big day in the mountains
So the English invasion decamps to a lovely farmstead in the 'alpine' region of Victoria.
No Mnt Blanc in this version but it was still pretty stunning and we arrived to fabulous weather predicted for the wedding weekend (seriously luckily considering it pissed it down on the one before and the one after).
The day before the wedding it was all systems go with everyone assigned jobs to help get everything ready, we all ended up at the reception venue putting the covers on the chairs, I was chief bow tier and the place looked pretty damn good by the time we finished if I do say so myself!
Wedding morning came and the boys were off early to set up the ceremony venue, apparently Jarlath has to be persuaded to get into his suit about a hour before the wedding as he was busy setting up the speakers and doing handstands on the lawn.
Meanwhile I had been assigned the task of bus conductor on one of the minibuses hired to take guests to the ceremony and reception. A task I managed to fail in when we left Pip's cousin and family behind and the ceremony was delayed for their arrival. In my defence we waited 15 minutes for them and tried all their phones to no avail, apparently they even saw the bus from their room....
It was an absolutely stunning day and everyone looked fantastic hanging out, they were come cute , having taken the 20s theme seriously, there were some fabulous flappers and very dapper hats on the men. The bride and groom certainly disappoint either, Pip's dress was perfect and Jarlath wore a great sharp little suit with a hat with a gun on the side, maybe a little risqué for his wedding day!
The ceremony was a short ans sweet, personal affair with the bride and groom standing on the vine covered veranda of this fabulous house they had hired with us all stood on the lawn watching. As soon as the vows were finished we were popping the champagne corks and got gently sloshed in the sun as the photos were done.
Once the champagne was finished it was time to head to the reception which was being held a stag farm, though it wasn't just deer hanging out, there were emu, ostriches and goats galore as well, something to amuse as as we ate our canapés. I did have a close encounter with one of the deer who I think may have been trying to mount me, I mean I know it was a great dress but really!
We had a really fun evening, very informal with lots of booze flowing, the speeches we great and Ronan and his brother did a great job of letting all the aussies know what Jarlath was like as a small boy (very similar to be honest). They had a chosen a really cool wedding band, some classic ska and I did quite a lot of pogoing. It all gets a bit hazy form there on in, Ronan reliably tells me I was pretty drunk and some rather unflattering late evening photos attest to this, the hangover wasn't too bad though and a big breakfast sorted me right out to begin our week long jaunt in the mountains.
No Mnt Blanc in this version but it was still pretty stunning and we arrived to fabulous weather predicted for the wedding weekend (seriously luckily considering it pissed it down on the one before and the one after).
The day before the wedding it was all systems go with everyone assigned jobs to help get everything ready, we all ended up at the reception venue putting the covers on the chairs, I was chief bow tier and the place looked pretty damn good by the time we finished if I do say so myself!
Wedding morning came and the boys were off early to set up the ceremony venue, apparently Jarlath has to be persuaded to get into his suit about a hour before the wedding as he was busy setting up the speakers and doing handstands on the lawn.
Meanwhile I had been assigned the task of bus conductor on one of the minibuses hired to take guests to the ceremony and reception. A task I managed to fail in when we left Pip's cousin and family behind and the ceremony was delayed for their arrival. In my defence we waited 15 minutes for them and tried all their phones to no avail, apparently they even saw the bus from their room....
It was an absolutely stunning day and everyone looked fantastic hanging out, they were come cute , having taken the 20s theme seriously, there were some fabulous flappers and very dapper hats on the men. The bride and groom certainly disappoint either, Pip's dress was perfect and Jarlath wore a great sharp little suit with a hat with a gun on the side, maybe a little risqué for his wedding day!
The ceremony was a short ans sweet, personal affair with the bride and groom standing on the vine covered veranda of this fabulous house they had hired with us all stood on the lawn watching. As soon as the vows were finished we were popping the champagne corks and got gently sloshed in the sun as the photos were done.
Once the champagne was finished it was time to head to the reception which was being held a stag farm, though it wasn't just deer hanging out, there were emu, ostriches and goats galore as well, something to amuse as as we ate our canapés. I did have a close encounter with one of the deer who I think may have been trying to mount me, I mean I know it was a great dress but really!
We had a really fun evening, very informal with lots of booze flowing, the speeches we great and Ronan and his brother did a great job of letting all the aussies know what Jarlath was like as a small boy (very similar to be honest). They had a chosen a really cool wedding band, some classic ska and I did quite a lot of pogoing. It all gets a bit hazy form there on in, Ronan reliably tells me I was pretty drunk and some rather unflattering late evening photos attest to this, the hangover wasn't too bad though and a big breakfast sorted me right out to begin our week long jaunt in the mountains.
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