Te Anau to Invercargill

Te Anau was our base to Milford Sound, just a bed for the night. It was the only hostel that I've been in that has single rooms as standard meaning not putting up with anyone else's snoring and being able to fart freely and as loud as you want without thinking.

The route leaves the mountainous region of the Southern Alps and slowly changes into grazing hills of sheep, cattle and deer. We stopped off in Colac Bay for a fish & chips lunch then drove to McCrackalls point for a last sighting of the alps stretching north from the southern ocean. The drive to Invercargill (described by Mick Jagger as the arsehole of the world) took a further 30 minutes.

Tomorrow we're gonna go to the southern most point of NZ, watch the penguins come to shore around tea time then head to Dunedin.

Milford Sound

Kerry has been to Milford Sound 31 times as a bus driver and only twice before has he experienced a similar perfect day. It rains two out of every three days so we were lucky. To visit after heavy rains is a totally different experience; waterfalls suddenly form from high up in the mountains and drop tremendous heights to the sound. The captain of Milford Sovereign pointed out the error in the naming of Milford Sound. A sound, in geological terms, is a river formed valley whereas Milford was formed by glacial movement which is known as a fjord. Click here for a better explaination.

Anyway, Milford Sound in the winter sun was startling. We had a rare sighting of bottlenose dolphins as we started our cruise. The sheer cliffs that rise vertically from depths of 700 metres below the sea could make for some of NZ's tallest mountains if height was measured from the seabed.

Early start

I'm off to Milford Sound this morning. It is meant to be absolutely amazing on a clear day and totally pointless on a cloudy day. Lets pray for the former. The drive there is meant to be stunning too but somehow I think I will miss that as farewell drinks last night went on until 2am and my bus picks me up in about 10 mins at 7am.

Just arrived in Wanaka

The bus dropped me off in Wanaka today. It continues on to Queenstown so I'll be catching the next stray bus on Monday. Hopefully they'll be people on that bus who I got to know but got off at various points along the way. The bus stopped off at Puzzling World just before Wanaka. It's quite a cool place where there's lots of optical illusions and mindbending puzzles to puzzle over.

The three of us who were dropped off in Wanaka walked back in the afternoon to complete the maze. You have to find the four towers in each corner then get to the exit. We made a bit of a game of it, Kathy won even though I cheated at one point.

Brendan and I were going to watch the rugby, springboks vs All Blacks but I've been uploading photos for the last 2 hours instead. It's nearly done so gonna go get fish and chips for dinner.

Skydiving

Yeap, I've finally jumped from a plane. There was only me in on my flight which took us on an amazing ascent to 12,000 feet over the mountains and fox glacier. I could see out over the ocean and for miles around in every direction. The weather could not have been more perfect. A near cloudless day. I had my thermals on so I felt just right ;) I could see Lake Matheson below:



We were at the same altitude of the peak of Mount Cook and head out over the plains to the south.



Surprisingly I wasn't shitting myself about jumping. We got to our jump height and to the right spot and the door to my immediate right was opened. The instructor put his leg out first, I was attached to his front. I dangled from him outta the plane, smiled at the camera on the wing tip and then crossed my arms over my chest and put my head back. We fell and rolled twice before levelling out and free falling for what seemed like only 10 seconds but was actually 45 seconds. Most people have sensory overload where the brain can't cope with all this new stuff happening, wind flying in your face, spinning around, adjusting your breathing, total new perspective of the world and the adrenalin pumping! Before I knew it the parachute was released, a sharp jerk and we were floating down to earth. It was quiet enough to be able to speak. I took my camera out and took a photo of my feet:



And my face flapping in the wind with the parachute above:



Here is the booking office from the ground just 'cos: it looks pretty.



If I had the chance and the money, I would definitely jump again. I don't think I could have jumped in a more beautiful part of the country. Definitely spoilt. I wanted to get right back up there!

Punakaiki

This is the location of the famous Pancake Rocks. The BBC filmed a bit of Walking with Dinosaurs here. There are awesome blowholes around here so Kathy, Brendan and I paid a visit at high tide which was just after midday. There was an almost prehistoric feel to the place, especially at one of the blowholes which was set quite a way back from the ocean so you could hear the whispers of crashing waves in the distant and then occassionly there would be a massive boom as the water echoed in what must have been a large cavenous space just below. The rocks still remain a mystery to scientists, they cannot explain how they formed this unique layering effect.

The night before we had a couple of beers in the local pub, we were the only customers then bought a take out and headed back to probably the best hostel I've stayed in so far. We all jumped in the outside hot spa and looked up to the clear winter night sky. Just beautiful especially with a couple of stubbies!

stop off

Umm, don't know what town I'm in but the bus has just stopped off for us to get some grub at the supermarket. I've just had a brill few days in Abel Tasman Nation Park. I plan to write longer when I get the chance but today stuck on a bus to Punakaiki where the Pancake Rocks are located. Better go now before the bus goes with out me. I'm gonna be staying at http://www.punakaikibeachhostel.co.nz/ tonight.

Apple Tree Bay II

This place was breathtaking. I stripped from 4 layers down to just my t-shirt and read my book for 20 minutes. Then a bloke with a chainsaw turned up and informed me he was going to cut down some branches from a tree I was sitting under. Before I knew it I was mucking in, passing the saw up, tying rope around the branches to pull them into a safe position as they fell. It was good fun, something totally unexpected. The tree surgeon lived just around the corner in a hidden bay. He said that in summer the beach would have been teeming with people and there would be about 300 kayaks darting around the sea.

I made my way down the bay to find one of the steep paths that led up to the main track. I had to take my shoes and socks off at one point to get through a creek than flowed from the mountain into the sea. It was a bit nippy. I found the path and was aided up to the top by pulling on bits of hose pipe tied to tree trunks. When I got to the grass clearing again I sat and read for a bit and was joined by Kathy who had taken a boat early in the morning to much further down the track. She had been walking for the past 5 hours except for a stop for lunch in her own deserted bay.



I got back to Marahau with just enough light to take some pics of the animals on old McDonalds farm. Hens, ducks, pheasants and native birds were waddling along.



There was a field of llamas and our bus driver, James, delighted in telling us that llamas will poo in only one part of a field unlike sheep who do it wherever.

Apple Tree Bay I

I stayed at Old McDonald's Farm just on the southern border of the Abel Tasman National Park. I woke up this morning to watch five escapee piglets trotting past the cabin kitchen window. Ten minutes later they ran past in the opposite direction being chased back to their sty by Old McDonald.

I was planning to go Kayaking, a fellow from the Stray Bus, but it wasn't running because they hadn't enough bookings. Instead, I went for a walk along the Abel Tasman track, apparently the most popular track in NZ because it's a fairly easy route. First, I stopped at the hippy wood carving workshop and marvelled at the sculptures springing to life from numerous tree trunks. There wasn't an ounce of tack around, every sculpture, large and small, was first class. I nearly bought a hand-made ocarina, a small round peruvian wind instrument made from clay with 6 holes in the top and 2 in the bottom. When blown it emits a soft tone much like the bass notes from a flute but with a much richer sound.

It was 11am by the time I started out on the track which meant I had about 6 hours until sundown. The first part of the walk took me by boardwalk over wetlands to the first deserted bay.



From then on much of the track was a corridor of trees and metre high mud banks with the sound of the tide lapping at the hidden shoreline below. Occassionly a break in the bush would perfectly frame the view of isles, ocean and distant mountains. After an hour I entered a grass clearing made purposefully for camping. Suddenly I became aware of something fluttering behind from left to right and turned to see the tiny fantail bird gulping down the invisible insects I disturbed from passing leaves and branches. I stopped and the bird sat on the grass beside the path, posed for a photo patiently waiting and understanding that a further feeding frenzy was to come as soon as I coninued onwards.



After another hour of following the coastal path, winding slowly up, increasing the fall through the undergrowth to the passing ocean, my destination came into view. There were several steep, rarely used side tracks down to the secluded bay but I carried on the main track for a further thirty minutes, over a fast flowing creek and slowly descended to the north entrance of the bay. As I made it on to the bay, the sun recolouring the frosty white sand to its startling gold appearance, two distinct sets of footprints told me that I was the third person that day day to witness the splendour of Apple Tree Bay. I wished for a set of footprints next to mine, and I know the style and size of boot.

Flying lesson.

Just after speaking to Clare I ran up to my dorm room to fetch my sunnies and just as I was going for my pre-flight pee the guy from reception informed me that I was late and the instructor was waiting downstairs. We set off to the airfield in Matthew's car and he asked me about my previous flying experience. I told him about flying a Boeing 747 across the atlantic when I was a 10 year old kid on my to Disneyland with my father. A month before the flight to Florida I wrote to Richard Branson asking if I could visit the cockpit of the plane. I had totally forgotten about my request with all of the excitement awaiting at our destination when an air stewardess took me by he hand and led me towards the front of the plane when I saw the door to the cockpit was open. I couldn't believe it when I was led through the door and the captain rose to greet me and ushered me into his seat to take hold of the controls. You'll be reassured to know that autopilot was switched on and all controls were disabled. Other than this brief encounter my only other flying experience is on MS Flight Sim 4 and flying Desert Storm missions over Iraq in a F19 Stealth Bomber.

Surprisingly, Matt told me this was all valid experience as it gave me a basic understanding of the flight controls and indicators displayed on the dashboard. I wasn't convinced but hey if he wanted to let me fly the plane then I wasn't going to complain. We arrived at the airfield and after a few preliminaries walked over to the plane. As Matt performed the standard safety inspection he pointed out various parts of the planes' anatomy and described how control of these parts would manouvre the plane when in flight.



The plane was a Cessna 150 with a 100 housepower engine and was light enough for two of us to push from under a tree. In we both hopped, a quick explaination of the controls and I started the engine. We taxied to the start of the runway, waited for the engine to warm and a constant oil pressure, pushed the throttle in until we were cruising down the the runway at 150 knots. A little pull on the yoke, the nose rose and we left the ground heading straight for the mountains. When we were at altitude of 300 feet I took control and banked left to avoid the oncoming mountain and headed out over the sea then levelled out to follow the coast northwards. I had to climb to 2000 feet and fly around Kaikoura Penisula. Below, I could see where I had walked the previous day from the seal santuary up to the lookout and followed the track along the southside of the penisula. At first I banked the plane to turn at very slight angles as it was quite an unnerving sight looking out of the side window to see the ground below. Slowly I adapted to the planes' abilities and began to have faith that the flying piece of metal wasn't going to fall from the sky even if it was upside down.



I was flying around the Kaikoura valley for around half an hour and before I knew it we were heading back towards the airfield. I managed to get a quick few photos in and relax enough to take in the magnificent views before Matt talked me through the landing procedure he was performing. The landing was much smoother than I expected even though we touched down on the grass. Matt gave me a piece of card certifying that I had contributed 0.4 hours to earning my pilots licence which requires 50 hours flying time. Somehow I don't think this will ever be a reality but we can but dream.

Picton

The ferry from Picton goes through the Malborough sounds across the sea to Wellington on the north island. I, however, stayed here for 3 days hoping to do the Queen Charlotte walk over 2 days but didn't get a chance because of the rainy weather. Instead I went on a winetasting tour in the Malborough valley, the most famous NZ wine region, renowned for its Sauvignon Blanc. Here's a pic of me at Mudhouse winery:



Our hostess was an english lady who had moved over years ago and she was bloody funny. Here's a pic of the people in our group:



The previous day I borrowed a bike from the hostel and cycled a short way to the next bay along where I was luckily enough to witness a mauri rowing club coming ashore in their traditional waka canoe and then perform their haka.

When I was leaving Picton on the Stray Bus the NZ Army had just stepped off the ferry and I was again lucky enough to see them performing their haka. It was powerful stuff.

Whhhoooooooooooaaaaaa!

My dad just emailed me to tell me that I've been accepted to Durham University to do a masters!

I can't actually believe as I didn't think I would get in because it's a bloody good uni.

I was meant to be starting a 2 day hike today along the Queen Charlotte track in Malborough Sounds but it's raining cats and dogs so I'm going on a wine tour instead. Gotta go the pc just beeped.

Whale Watching

I left England Street at 7:30am to catch the Stray Bus from Base Backpackers at 8am. I bought the Ron pass that does a complete lap of the South Island ending in Christchurch. We head north to Kaikoura, stop once for mid-morning breakfast and arrive at our destination at midday. A quick bite to eat (well I had a roast lamb dinner!) before departing for the whale watching. Six of us from the Stray Bus are going so the driver gives us a lift to the information centre where we hang around for about 30 minutes reading about the Haka (Mauri tribal dance), sperm whales and catch the end of a national geographic film. Finally we board the boat and once we are past the choppy waves the captain engages full throttle and we head towards the whales! I went with Whale Watch Kaikoura and their website tells you all about the reasons why so much marine life is attracted to this part of ocean. One reason is that is one of only 3 places in the world where the ocean floor drops to a staggering 2000m only 500 metres from the coast. Because of this near unique feature whale's come to feed here, spending up to 2 hours on a return journey to the ocean floor where they gather much of their 1.5 tonnes requirement of food per day.

To find the whales one of the guys on board puts some headphones on and drops a long microphone device capable of listening to whale noises. The noises are a series of clicks sounding similar to clicking your fingers, however as the whales ascend closer to the surface the pitch of the clicking becomes inaudible to the human ear because they're at such high frequencies. The whale predominantly uses sound underwater to locate food and talk to one another. As sunlight doesn't penetrate below a depth of 50 metres it is complete darkness around the ocean floor where the whales go to feed on plankton and giant squid which have tentacles up to 20 metres long so echolocation comes in very handy. Sperm whales, may be other species too, have been known to consciously use echolocation to create a sonic boom to stun or sometimes kill a shark. They have the largest sound box (big space) in the animal kingdom, it makes sense as their head is 1/3 it's body length.



The man with microphone shouted over to the captain that a whale was about to surface somewhere close so we zoomed off to find it. After the boat had stopped everyone rushed outside to see the whale bobbing in the water spouting every 15 seconds or so. It was truly massive but you couldn't really get a proper idea as most of it's body was submerged. After about 20 minutes the whale started thrusting its body forwards to gain enough momentum for its next dive. The body disappeared then 2 seconds later the tail fluke came high up into the air then held it's position just long enough for a photo followed by a tail-slam into the water.



Next the boat turned around and headed to where the dusky dolphins were playing. One dolphin seemed like it had a trampoline just under the surface as it did about 10 perfect vertical leaps in a row. There must have been at least 200 dolphins all around the boat. For each dolphin at the surface you can add at least 3 more dolphins swimming beneath them as part of their pod. These were beautiful and I am quite tempted to go swimming with them at the next opportunity. Dolphins, like whales, are intelligent mammals with a high social order. Also they have been known to save divers by pushing them to the top, most of the time the divers don't actually want to be saved but hey, the dolphins probably know that! When you swim with them they love interacting, making noises, swimming around in circles and they will follow you.



After we had seen the second sperm whale we made our way back to sure. On the way we made a brief stop to watch a seal who had just popped up to the surface with a tasty octopus. They was a hungry albatross sitting in the water beside the seal waiting for any leftovers.

Hungover

Got up at midday after a farewell night on the town with housemates. Susie and I went to watch the rugby at shooters and then was joined by the new english girls, Sue, Victoria and um, forgotten the northern girls' name. Later on, at eye spy we were joined by Pauline and Dan and then a tequila marked the end of my memory though I do remember being in another club called Mansion.
I've just bought a Stray Bus ticket around the south island, nick-named the Ron pass, for $620. The bus leaves at 8am tomorrow from Base backpackers so I'm spending one more night here but I'm having to share room as a French guy is supposed to be moving in today. I'm gonna go fall asleep watching the basketball, Tall Blacks vs Aussie.

Skiing at Mount Hutt

Brilliant. I thorougly enjoyed myself today. Even forcing myself out of bed at 6am into my thermals, jeans and 4 layers on my upper body. Indeed, I was very determined not to get cold. After a 2 hour drive we begun our ascent of Mount Hutt. Most cars and buses had chains on their wheels for extra grip up the icy road but as we were in a 4WD vehicle we accelerated past the newbies coming perilously close to the edge at most left handed bends.



Once we had arrived at the base station Matt, our bus driver, helped us equip ourselves with ski boots, ski's and poles. After I was ready I went out at messed around a bit on the ski's before my lesson started at 11:30 but after 5 minutes of just standing there too scared to move I sat myself down and watched the professionals at work. Finally, my first lesson begun with Jose, a very small spanish guy. I was in a group of three 10 year olds which made me feel a lot more confident at not being the worst in the group. The first lesson consisted mostly of feeling comfortable walking around on the ski's, being able to control your speed on a slight slope by pointing your ski's inwards, a wedge shape. After a light lunch, we went on to the longer beginner slope, about 100m, which had a lift you grabbed on to pull yourself up. After a number of times of going down the slope at a controlled speed we all began pushing ourselves down hill a little faster which made turning a lot easier. Again, I upped my speed as I started to enjoy the thrill of zipping in and out of other novices but soon realised the wedge-technique for slowing down didn't work at this speed. I ended up careering into the guy at the lift queue and pulling him down to stop with one of my poles just missing a 5 year old's bonce. I thought that would be enough for the day. When you take of the ski boots and put on your usual shoes you feel like your gliding instead of walking.



Kea birds were the local vandals in the carpark. They've got blooming strong beaks that rip the rubber seals from windows, pull your wipers off and generally cause a nuisance. In other parts of the country they have been accused of pecking sheep to death! Nice eh? They are one of the most intelligent birds in the world because of their inquisitive behaivour. Have a read about them here.

Alpine Expeditions

I've just booked Transport + Ski Started Pak at Mount Hutt for tomorrow. Thankfully, they have a door to door service which means they pick me up from my house at 7am and deliver you straight to the ski field. I'm nervously excited as I have never skied before and have nightmares of one leg going one way and the other going in the opposite direction and serious pain commencing. Also I've never broken before and I hear that this is common enough whilst skiing. Also it's gonna be frreezzing. I might buy some thermals today. I'm going with a company called Alpine Expeditions and they arrange the pick up, 2 x 1.5 hour lessons, hire equipment, ski clothing and a novice ski pass.

I'm gonna take my camera so should get some awesome shots across the Cantebury Plains of the Southern Alps. I love mountains. They have an almost mystical presence that stems from their ancient age and what they must have witnessed over time if they had eyes overlooking the surrounding land. Mountain ranges are so immense I wonder if other forms of life live deep inside the mountains' heart, or is it just rock?

Reading random blogs

Reading random blogs has an almost cathartic effect when I realise that what I couldn't articulate is felt and described someone else... it gives you hope and makes you feel part of the collective fucked up world. Hooray.

I'm listening to one of my housemates snore her head off through a closed door. Jeez it's loud for a woman!

waiting for cd to burn...

Just burnt a CD full of mp3s I've just ripped from a load of CDs from the library. I'm now off to return them to the library... Don't worry, I've owned them all before when I was back in England but some git (most likely an abo) broke into my car in Australia and stole mp3 cd player along with the CDs so I've only recently bought a new one.

No hot water!

Tried to have a shower but there's no bloomin' hot water. Luckily the landlord and his agent were looking around the place at the time so it should be sorted by this afternoon. So I'm just gonna have to go in town smelling slightly.

I put $3 into the jar for the houses shared stuff like bog paper, washing up liquid, etc... after a stinky note was left on the white board by Francis. Why couldn't he just talk to me face to face as we live in the same house? What a wanker!

Last night I talked to a friend back home whom I haven't talked to for ages. He is a friend from my school and church days. We were also in a band together, he was the singer and I was a guitarist. I phoned to congratulate him as he's getting married in October to an Irish girl. The wedding is in Belfast so if I'm back in time I hope to go. My closest friends have already booked their flights and are making a long weekend of it. I'm really happy for him because since school he dreamed of marrying a beautiful Irish girl. God must have rewarded him for committing himself to the church and becoming a methodist minister, he was ordained last week after a two year probationary period.

Last day at Pak'n'Slave

Woooooooooaaaaaahhh!

I just got in from my last day of work at New Zealand's lowest priced supermarket! I met a couple of funny guys there but most were loser teenagers. I bought a guitar from Justin in the 1st week and now he's buying it back from me! So I am free again to travel. I've got until Sunday 11th July til I have to move out so I'm gonna spend a couple of days skiing at one of fields nearest to Christchurch, probably Mount Cheeseman or Hutt.