Almost A World Tour!

Translated from Maori to English Kaikoura means "Eat Crayfish" it is one of the best places in the universe for Crayfish apparently, unfortunately I don't eat any fish which isn't tuna and Mark has a allergy to fish which makes his face explode - he wasn't sure if this was covered in his travel insurance so decided best not to risk it.

It wasn't all bad though, Kaikoura is also famous for it's whale watching so we were straight down the whale watching centre waiting to board our vessel with multiple like minded nature enthusiasts. Typical of New Zealand the tour was exceptionally well organised, our vessel was brand-spanking new and fully blinged out with all the very latest whale located gadgetry.

We cruised out for about 15 minutes as the guide set our expectations, on average 1 or 2 whales are spotted per trip, if we got a "no show" (highly likely given our track record) a 80% discount is given. No fear though, the GPS had already picked up our first candidate and it was a millions knots ahead before it disappeared under the surface again.

There she goes

The whales appear every 45 to 50 minutes to breath on the surface for roughly 10 mins before they dive down again. You only see 10% of the whale above the water but they are enormous measuring up to 60 feet long and weighing in at a colossal 40 tons - it was hard to believe we were so close. The guide got on the mic after a few minutes and advised us to get our camera's ready "She's going down" and then the whale took a massive dive and flung it's tail in the air for the money shot. We were lucky enough to see a further two whales so we finished our stint in Kaikoura mission accomplished.

Picton & Nelson.

We continued north to Picton to book our ferry to the South Island in a weeks time and spent two day's doing some walking around the Queen Charlotte track.

Picton scenery

Nelson was much the same although we thought it may be abit more lively. We took the opportunity to book some flights to Raratonga for Xmas and toyed with the idea of making a trip to Abel Tasman National Park only to discover it was a pricey affair - cue brainwave.

Renwick - Marlborough wine region.

We realised that we would pass through a tiny village called Renwick on our way back to Picton to catch our ferry and decided to spend two days doing the wineries. The Marlborough wine region is New Zealand's most important wine area famous for its Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

Our first stop in Renwick

The lovely lady at our hostel gave us a map of all the wineries in the region, furnished us with two bikes and sent us on our merry way. Our first stop - Cloudy Bay probably the most well known in the UK (well to an amateur like me) and incidentally my Mum's tipple of choice. The Holland clan have endured many a cloudy head after a bender on the Cloudy Bay. Well it wasn't long before we were swilling, smelling and slurping like proper wino's. We visited six wineries in total sampling Chardonnay's, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grit. To think we spent 8 weeks in Oz drinking goon by the gallon is criminal - we've come a long way!

So we had a great day getting drunk for free - it was a fitting end to a great month in the South Island.

Our next stop - Wellington.

At 13kms long Fox Glacier is the longest of New Zealand's coastal glaciers with it's peak rising to over 3,000 meters high, it now forms part of the South Westland World Heritage Area. The glacier constantly advances and retreats, held in delicate balance by the accumulation of snow gained in the upper glacier and ice melting in the lower part. Overall Fox Glacier has been advancing since 1985.

We arrived in Fox, found ourselves a cosy little hostel for the next few nights and went to go and book our glacier hike for the following day. It turns out we were sharing a dorm room with two aussies (Sarah and Steve) who were also doing the glacier hike so we were all up early the next morning for hearty hikers breakfast and making our packed lunches. We headed over to the hike centre to get kitted out with boots, thick socks, hat, gloves, rain jacket and cramptons to attach to our boots when we reached the glacier - we looked like extra's from Touching the Void.

It was a short bus ride to the glacier where we were spilt into two groups of 12. After an initial hour long hike through the forest we were ready to get onto the glacier so we all stopped to get some extra layers on and most importantly attach our Cramptons. Our guide was a guy called Chris who was really knowledgeable so as we were walking to the glacier he enlightened us to all the geography behind the glacier and its movements.

Fox Glacier

We had decided to do the day long hike as we've done alot of walking on our travels and it meant we got to go higher onto the glacier for better views and ice quality. It felt pretty weird at first as you are literally just walking on ice but Chris had told us how to use the Cramptons effectively so we didn't slip all over the place. There were pre-cut steps for the majority of the path's we used in the morning up until lunch time.

Chris cutting our path

After lunch it got alot more exciting as Chris used his pick-axe to cut our path as we walked - we were proper off roading. The views were amazing and the ice alot better quality, it has a really nice light blue shine to it, a result of it being so tightly compact - I suppose that is where the term ice-blue comes from. Chris took us on a walk through some really narrow crevasses which was really cool (literally) they were really narrow and cold (obviously) but an excellent experience. There were also really deep natural crevasses which you had to be really careful to not slip down otherwise you could get trapped and die.

The hat isn't mine!

In the Crevass

We all made it back safe and sound and abit tired after a long day and celebrated with a few Speight's.

The TranzAlpine

The following morning we got the bus to Greymouth so we could ride the TranzAlpine to Christchurch. The TranzAlpine is regarded as one of the most scenic journey's in New Zealand crossing from the West coast to the East. We travelled through the fields of the Canterbury Plains, spectacular gorges and river valley's of the Waimakariri River and climbed the Southern Alps. It was a welcome change to the bus and well worth the $$$'s invested.

Christchurch
where's da Craic at?

The largest of the south islands cities, we hoped it would be hardcore party time in Christchurch. We've searched high and low but to no avail - no Craic was not to be had. We have whiled the past few days away with a combination of city tours, walks up more mountains and trips to the cinema. Today we ventured as far as Hanmer on a day trip to the thermal pools and spent hours sitting in 41 degree sulphur pools until we felt faint - now we just smell of rotten eggs.

Our next stop - Kaikoura.

I seem to be on a right role with the blogs from New Zealand but there is so much to do and therefore alot to report back.

We were back in Queenstown for an overnighter en route to Fox Glacier and also to see if MBNA had managed to send my card through. There had been no delivery at the hostel so I gave them a call to discover that it had actually be sent to Queensland Australia and not Queenstown New Zealand - easy mistake I suppose..? So we're back to square one but after many apologies I was assured that my request would be handled with the upmost urgency.... we'll see.

So what to do, we had an afternoon in Queenstown to kill so I decided to satisfy the adrenalin junkie hiding deep inside in me with something thrilling. Bungy jump? Jetboating? Nah.. there was a new kid in town - The Canyon Swing.

I signed myself up for a 3pm jump and after a short bus ride out of Queenstown with 7 other equally nervous looking people we arrived at the world highest Canyon Swing. Standing at 109 meters it involves throwing yourself off a edge of a cliff into a Canyon in whichever style you feel most comfortable. There is a initial 60 meter freefall before the cables kick in and then you start a 200 meter swing over a canyon at speeds of 150 kph.

I was the third person to jump from our group and was feeling pretty good about it. The first person popped off the edge no problems but the guy before me just froze and stayed on the edge for ages before he eventually went. Then it was my turn, the guys who run it are really funny and have abit of banter with you as they do the final checks and get you cabled up. Then your lead to the very edge and given the Ok to jump. I had decided to go off forwards which I don't know whether was a good or bad strategy but I figured if I'm going to throw myself down a Canyon I may as well have a good view of it.

The trick is not to think about it so as soon as I got the Ok I just went for it and chucked myself off. It was all over pretty quickly but the feeling was amazing. It felt just like I had thrown myself off a cliff and was falling towards the ground pretty bloody fast. The different between a Canyon Swing and a Bungy is that you don't feel the mechanism kick in after the freefall so it isn't until you feel yourself swinging outwards in a giant arc as apposed to just falling straight down that you know it's done it's job.

The Canyon Swing

After I had finished swinging and was winched to safety I went to check out the photo's and DVD they take during your swing but was too alarmed at how much I was balding to part with $55 as a constant reminder.

All in all I was well chuffed I challenged myself and did it and I dare say I went to bed that night with abit of a satisfied grin on my face.

So we headed over to Tu Anau to check out this Milford Sound place everyone has been banging on about. We had heard alot about walking the Milford Track which is a 4 day, 53.5 km walk often described as one of the finest walks in the world - we had alot of chocolate & beer to work off so why not..? Well - we soon discovered we were 3 months too late to get a booking, it appears we weren't the only ones who had caught onto this idea so we had to settle for doing Milford lazy-boy style courtesy of a cruise.

There is no denying that it really is spectacular and completely worthy of its reputation as we admired the views from the warmth and comfort of our little boat.

It is essentially a 22km long fiord which is dominated by sheer weather scuffed cliffs and peaks, the highest being an almighty 1,692 m high.

We stayed in close by Tu Anau for easy access to Milford. It was a hardcore walkers kind of place filled with the types who have all manner of equipment clanging off the back of their backpacks - I felt abit amateur in comparison.

I'll let the photo's do the talking.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound's highest waterfall

Milford's first Post Office

Our next stop - Fox Glacier

We had a brainwave, instead of paying a fortune to take the bus to our next stop Dunedin we discovered that some car rental companies need cars moving from one town to another i.e Queenstown to Dunedin for really cheap rates and so our road trip was born.

We headed initially down to the very south of the South Island - Invercargill from which we would drive the coastal road through The Catlins to our final destination of Dunedin. Driving in New Zealand is so easy, there is hardly any other traffic, all the roads have 100 km speed limits so its a case of pointing the nose in the right direction and sitting pretty. Ofcourse, no road trip is complete without a soundtrack and this is where we fell short. The car had the worst radio ever which just refused to pick up any signal despite our constant efforts but more about that later.

Invercargill

We arrived in Invercargill without any real expectations and that was a good thing as there is literally absolutely nothing to do at all. We checked into a nice hostel (about the only thing going for it) and headed to the tourist information centre with the expectation of being dazzled with a list of "must see's" - no such luck. The highlight of our afternoon was chancing upon a music shop on Invercargill High St where we raided the bargain bucket and walked out rather, worryingly with Destiny's Child - all 16 Hit Singles...? Accepting that Invercargill was dull by foot we drove down to the most southerly point of the South Island just because we could really which was Ok. I'm pretty sure Invercargill has an 8pm curfew that we weren't briefed about, as we ventured out that evening in the hope of a few beers and the place was deserted - just like that film 28 days later. We ended up in the local multiplex watching Jackass 2 followed by an early night.

Most southern point of the South Island

We checked out the following morning and armed with Beyonce and the girls headed for The Catlins coastal road en route to Dunedin. In a complete twist of irony it ended up taking us 45 mins to get out of Invercargill (and I wasn't even map reading)

The Catlins

We had a great day driving The Catlins and taking in the awesome scenery. There are about 8 or 9 suggested tourist spots to visit along the way including small secluded beaches popular with Sealions, numerous bays and ever popular rock formations. It was a pretty long day on the road and to honest we both got abit sick of listening to the same 16 Destiny Child tracks despite putting the CD on random hoping that the change of track order would help - it didn't.

Sealions at The Catlins

Dunedin

Dunedin, the South Islands second largest city after Christchurch brought hope of some action and didn't let us down - I really liked it.

It poured down the whole of our first day but fear not we had a chocolate and beer extravaganza planned. Dunedin is home to both Cadbury World and Speight's brewery which both run very agreeable tours to cater for the hungry and thirsty backpacker community - the promise of free chocolate & beer - where do we sign?

We kicked off with Cadbury World a proper Charlie and The Chocolate Factory experience. We saw huge vats of steaming chocolate, easter eggs being moulded and chocolate bars flying in all manner of directions on conveyor belts. Free chocolate was hanged out at regular intervals so we concluded the tour with our little plastic bags full to bursting.

Speight's Brewery was a similar affair (in the sense that it was also a tour) One of the largest independent breweries in New Zealand and "Pride of the South" We were shown round by a very charismatic fella who looked like he had enjoyed a few Speight's in his time for an hours long insight to the brewing process. This was all well and good but the real deal breaker of the Speight's tour is a visit to the tasting room - and boy were we thirsty after all that chocolate. To cut a long story short and with little surprise we both discovered that Speight's was pretty awesome stuff and our short teasing taster session was followed by an evening in the Speight's pub next door getting pretty familiar with the bottom of empty pint classes.

Getting stuck in at Speight's

Excellent news - Speight's doesn't give you a hangover so we were up bright as buttons the next morning for our Eco-Tour of the Peninsula. First stop - Royal Albatross which I was surprised to learn was a bird and not a pig liked animal... They look like really big sea gulls and to give you some perspective as to size they can be up to 1.8 meters from beak to the tip of their tail and have a wing span of over 3 meters - impressive stuff. We piled back in the bus and headed for a private nature reserve where we got up close and personal with wild sealions and seals on the beach. The sealions where all sleeping so they didn't provide too much action but the seals did plenty of things that made us all go Aahhhh. The highlight in my opinion though were the yellow eyed penguins. Just was the sun is going down they all come in from the sea to kip in the nests they have made on the banks of beach. They are very shy creatures but if you keep really still they can get pretty close as they wander past.

Yellow eyed Penguins

Seals

Our next stop - Milford Sound