So from Picton, where the ferry docks on the south island, we had a half hour drive to Blenheim to our hotel for the night. Blenheim was bigger than Id expected.
The next day we drove to Christchurch down the east coast, via kaikoura. It was a lovely drive down the coast with the mountains and the seals. We had a little driving tour of the city from the bus driver who is from those parts. For a city thats had a massive earthquake, you wouldnt think it to look at the place. Just a few bits of scaffolding and supports for some buildings, its amazing really. We had a few hours to spare that afternoon, so we headed off to the botanical gardens. It was a lovely sunny day and there were baby paradise ducks around and all the flowers were out. We also stopped off at a market.
The next day we headed off for the Trans-Alpine train, which goes from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast, across the southern alps. We only did half the trip - from Chch to Arthurs Pass. It was a beautiful sunny day and we got amazing views of the mountains and lakes. As soon as we crossed to the west coast, the cloud came down! From there we headed to Hokitika to have a look at a Ponamu (New Zealand Greenstone) factory and see how its carved. Its amazing to learn how the Maori's learned to carve it. From there we headed to the Haast river to have a jet boat ride. The weather was awful! But fortunately, we were in a covered jet boat. THe scenery would have been spectacular, but it was snowing and the cloud was down so we didnt see a thing! Some of the Australians on board had never seen snow before. From there we headed to Franz Joseph. The cloud lifted a little bit so you could see the glacier, but too cloudy for mum and dad to do a helicopter flight up onto the glacier which was a shame. But it was still cool to see it. We had an amazing meal of prawn cocktail, lamb and chocolate cake - delicious!
We got up early the next day to head off to Queenstown. It started off quite foggy and was like that for much of the drive, which was a shame driving past lakes Howea and Wanaka, but the sun came out for Queenstown. That evening we went on the TSS Eanslaw for a boat ride over to Walter Peak farmstay and our dinner. It was really nice. On the boat on the way back, there was a pianist on board requesting everyone go and have a sing song - the song list was all the old style songs that I can't stand. Everyone else seemed to enjoy singing 'walzting matilda' and 'its a long way to tipperary'... *shudder* I can't stand that sort of guff so made a very speedy exit outside to look at the steam room and the snow covered mountains and the southern cross - a very nice way to spend the ride home - and out of earshot of all those songs!
The lake that Queenstown is next to is lake Wakatipu, and that's what we went on the boat. The lake rises and falls each day. This is actually due to the fact that the lake is so long (80ks or so) and the air pressure at either end is usually different, and the water moves up and down the lake accordingly, creating the rising and falling of the lake. Its known as the Seiche effect. The Maori's have a different explanation as to why this happens. The shape of the lake is a Z shame, resembling a person lying on their side with their knees drawn. Lake Wakatipu is named after the “Hollow of the Giant” or Whakatipua, and came about when an evil giant named Matau, kidnapped Manata, the beautiful daughter of a powerful Maori chief.
Manata’s sweetheart, a brave warrior known as Matakauri, came to her rescue, then married Manata, and later returned to fell the giant once and for all, burning him while he lay asleep.
As the snow melted, the depression left by the giant’s body formed a lake: his head in Glenorchy, his knees in Queenstown, and his feet in Kingston. The only part of the giant’s body that didn't burn was his heart, which continues to beat to this day, forming Lake Wakatipu’s ‘tidal’ rise and fall.
So anyway, enough of the science and legend for now... the next day was a very fun filled day :) First of all, we went on a 4 wheel drive safari type thing for the morning. I've bever been 4 wheel driving before and it was great fun! We headed up to around the K bridge and saw the bungy site and where some of the Lord of the Rings stuff was filmed which the geek in me really enjoyed! Then we went off to a river and went through it so many times! It was so much fun! We stopped for cake and hot chocolate and then headed onto Arrowtown to go gold panning - I found some! Then we went up to a canyon, but I cant remember if it was Skippers or Shotover - bad Lorna. It had interesting history about the old gold miners. And the road through the canyon has been preserved the way it was when it was first build - so if there's any repairs that need doing, they use the same techniques as they did in the old days when the road was first cut.
After that, I took mum and dad up the gondola to have a look at the views and to go Lugeing, then we had a wander round town and went on a jet boat which was ace :) The day was finished off with Fergburgers - a bit of a tradition when in queenstown - they are MASSIVE gourmet burgers andt they're delicious!
The next day we headed out to Milford Sound. I was worried the weather might be rubbish, but we had a perfect day for it! We headed for a cruise for around 3pm which was great as we missed most of the crowds that usually get to Milford at about 1ish. The weather being fine, I got to see more of the Milford Road than I did before. The road itself is well worth a drive down as there are loads of stops and walks along the way. You also have to drive through the Homer Tunnel, which is a tunnel through the mountain - the only way they could build a road to the sound. When you get out of the Tunnel into the Cleddau valley, you're hit with the most amazing sight of the mountains around you, just a sheer wall of rock, everywhere you look, it takes your breath away. For our cruise, we went on a small boat from Real Journeys called the Sinbad. I recognised Adam the Skipper from when I was in Milford before for my interview, he was working on the Observatory then. I also met Dave who was our nature guide so it was nice I met a few more people that worked there before I started my job :) The cruise was really lovely and we saw penguins and seals. We headed back to Te Anau for the evening, which is the closest town to Milford Sound, approximately 2 hours drive away. Our hostel for the night was really quirky, the layout looked like a little village, and each room had a shop front to it.
The next day we headed to Dunedin. We didnt have very long there to see the city as in the afternoon when we got there, we headed straight onto the Otago Peninsular to go looking for seals and penguins. We saw both. The baby seals were gorgeous and they came so close to us!
From Dunedin we headed up the South Island to Mt Cook. We stopped off along the way at the Moraki Boulders which I was glad about as I'd wanted to see those. They're really interested. They're perfectly round, shaped that way by the different currents there are around the area. I personally think Aliens put them there.. especially when some have cracked and look a bit like the pods from the Alien films... We stopped off in Omaru for lunch which was a nice place, nice buildings and a really good sandstone carver. From there we headed inland to Mt Cook. It was a lovely day and we had perfect views of Mt Cook :)
When we got there, we headed out to see the Tasman glacier, which is the largest in New Zealand apparantly, and had a trip on the glacial lake, around all the icebergs and stuff. THe lake itself was really white in colour, due to all the 'rock flour', or ground down rock. I stuck my hand in the water, when you just dunk it in for a second it doesnt feel that cold, but when you stick it in for about 10 seconds, its really painful!! Some of the icebergs were huge, its impossible to get an idea of their full size when you can only see 1/10 of them! We broke off a bit of an iceberg and had a taste of it. THe water was over 300 years old and was so pure, it had no taste to it t all - incredible!
That evening was the groups last night together as the driver wasnt staying with us in Christchurch. We stayed at the Hermitage Hotel in Mt Cook which is super posh! And had a lovely buffet. There had also been a competition throughout the tour of who could guess the mileage driven in the whole trip and I won a bottle of champagne as I was the closest with my guess, being out by only 5k which wasn't too bad I thought :)
The next morning, it was lovely waking up to see Mt Cook out the window! From there we headed back to Christchurch. The next day we went on a tour of a few of the sights of Christchurch. Started off at the international Antarctic centre which had an awesome HD cinema showing shots of antarctica - it looks like an incredible place! Add it to the list of places to get to at some point in my life... From there we went to a wildlife centre and saw some kiwis amongst other things. Then we went up the gondola and had lunch with some lovely views. We also went on the tram ride round the city.
The next day we pottered around and went to the arts centre which has some really cool arty little shops. We went on a punt on the avon in the afternoon, had gourmet pizza for tea and drank my winning bottle of champagne from the tour :)
The next day mum and dad left. It was sad to see them go, thinking it would be over a year until I see them again. But it was an awesome trip, we managed to cram so much into a few weeks! It was lovely to see them again and brilliant being spoilt in hotels with so much food! Thanks mum and dad! xx
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