Location: Christchurch, South Island, NZ
In which we visit a few more vineyards (including Cloudy Bay), walk on a Glaciar, skydive from 15,000ft, jump off a ledge into a 120m deep canyon, dive Milford Sound, kayak in Abel Tasman and relax in Dunedin & Christchurch.
After taking the ferry to Picton, through the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, we headed a little to the south to Renwick. This is the small town that is nearest to the main vineyard area of Marlborough, (Blenheim is a bit further away). We had a wonderful day cycling around from estate to estate, samling a little as we went, with a long lazy lunch overlooking some vines. It is all very flat so cycling is no effort and it was one of the first proper hot and sunny summer days that they had had so far this year. Very pleasant, and it left us with a few bottles to enjoy over the following weeks.
When I was last in NZ, (Nov 2000), I only went to the South Island, but didn't manage to go to Abel Tasman. So we corrected this mistake this time and what a stunning place it is. Some of the most gorgeous beaches I have seen anywhere. The water is a very clear emerald green, fringed by dark blue as it gets deeper. It is just a shame that the water is quite cold. Not so cold to stop us getting in mind (and not as cold as the sea was in Antarctica!). We spent two days paddling up the coast, with most afternoons lazing on a beach, after we had put the tent up. The third day we walked back down the coastal track for about 7 hours before being picked up. The forest stretches all the way down to rocky a shoreline that is interspersed with golden beaches, many of which are only accessible from the sea. We saw a few seals and a solitary penguin and had a great few days splashing around in the sun. This trip has been one of the highlights in a couple of great months in NZ.
From Abel Tasman we went to Arthur's Pass. Sadly the weather was pretty poor, but we still got out in the rain for a few hours to walk part of the way up the Bealey Valley track even though the views were disappointing. It rained heavily for about 3 days as we were around the northen part of the West Coast, but since then we have been blessed with sunny skies. It looks like summer has finally arrived in NZ.
The Glaciars
We have seen many glaciars in the Andes, including some of the most visually impressive to be seen anywhere, but we didn't actually get on them to have a walk around. This had to wait until we got to the glaciars on the west coast of the South Island. Like Perito Moreno (see the Oct 04 archives) the glaciars here descend down through temperate rainforest, and the termainal faces of the 2 main ones in NZ (Fox & Franz Josef) are currently advancing, as is Perito Moreno. We went for a walk on Fox Glaciar, which is slightly cheaper than Franz Josef, and more importantly was easier to find accommodation at short notice. We spent about 4-5 hours on the ice, found a few caves that enabled us to get some photos of the blue hues that are characteristic of compressed ice. Although the trip was well worth doing, Foz can in no way match the grandeur of Perito Moreno.
Wanaka
On the southern shores of Lake Wanaka, this town has a great location, and here was the next stop after the glaciars. One of Phillippa's ambitions for the NZ part of the trip was to go skydiving. So we did. Wanaka has fantastic geography, which becomes even more impressive from a small plane at 15,000ft (about 4,600m). Since it is a tandem jump, with a qualified bloke strapped to your back, there is very little to do, it is a very passiev involvement. Hence there is actually very little to worry about, and there is no requirement to make that decisive leap out of the door. Before you know what is happening, the plane is disappearing, the wind is rushing all the way through your sinuses and the ground looks a long way away.
It was very memorable. We had near perfect conditions, with great all round visability and limited cloud cover. Were it not for the cost I would have loved to go straight back up and do another one! There are some photos of us just before we jumped (Phillippa and me), these can also be found via the link on the right.
For the other few days that we were here we did a bit of walking and a fair amount of just lounging around in the sun. We took a friend's advice and went to the cinema in Wanaka, a quirky place that has sofas and lounge chairs, with an intermission for pre-ordered food. A much more enjoyable experience than a cavernous, characterless cinema. In fact we also went to another boutique cinema in Motueka that was even smaller, with space for only about 18 people.
Our stay in Wanaka was blighted slightly by the presence of bed bugs! Eugh! Having avoided them until now, despite staying in some places of dubious quality, dear old first-world NZ was where we found them. Or they found us. Very unpleasant, and extremely itchy it was too!
On the way to Queenstown we stopped at a few more vineyards, and restocked the boot of the car for the final couple of weeks!
Queenstown
QT is known as NZ's adrenaline centre, so we indulged a little. The latest craze, post-bungy, is for large swings. The same idea as the swing you find in playgrounds, but here there are just much larger. The Shotover canyon swing that we did involves a fall of about 60m before a gentle arc that bottoms out at about 110m below the platform. All this takes place in a gorge, with a gorgeous river flowing down below. Having jumped forwards at the 134m Nevis bungy before, this time it was time for a backwards jump. People say this is more scary than going forwards, but I'm not so sure. Hands behind the head, then you just fall gently backwards, as if falling onto a bed. But rather than being held on a big fluffy duvet, you just keep falling. We have a photo of this, and one of Phillippa, but not a digital copy. Phillippa kept running once in mid-air, a bit like a cartoon character. It was so much fun I decided to do a second jump. This time I was hung upside down, back to the near canyon wall, but with arched back, my arms stretched above my head and looking directly down and slightly behind me. When they let me go I rushed down the side of the rock face before levelling out. Quite good fun really! The second one was not particularly scary since it didn't involve a conscious decision to jump, someone else pulled the pin. I think that maybe going over forwars, as Phillippa did, is perhaps the hardest way, since you can clearly see where you are going and it is that which drives the fear factor.
The other trip we went on was to go river surfing, something I had done and enjoyed last time. Riding through 1-1.5m waves on a white water river is much more fun on a small polystyrene board than in the comfort of a big rubber raft. Having your head a few inches above the water certainly makes them appear a whole lot bigger!
Fiordland
After QT we went to the fiords, Milford Sound in particular. This is the most touristy, and we had thought about going to Doubtful Sound, but because we went on a diving trip we managed to avoid nearly all the other tourists in their large ships. Because of a layer of freshwater, stained by organic matter, sitting above the salt water of the sea, a lot of the light is filtered out. This means that conditions at 20m replicate those that are normally found at nearer 100m. So we could see black coral (which is actually white) and red coral, plus a variety of deep water fish. It was a great couple of dives, with a great company that we would highly recommend (Tawaki Dive). Plus the sea was very flat, inside the protected fiord, meaning Phillippa could enjoy it too!
Since that point we have been quite relaxed for the last 2 weeks. No long hikes, a few short walks, some beautiful coastal scenery in the Catlins, which is at the very south of the south island, along the Southern Scenic Highway. We then proceeded up to Dunedin for a couple of days and are now at the end of a few days in Christchurch.
We didn't make any real effort to see penguins in Dunedin, having seen thousands in Antarctica. (In fact earlier to day we picked up 10 rolls of developed photos that cover Paraguay to Antarctica, and we have a lot fo snaps of penguins. A lot of icebergs too!) Christchurch is very attractive: large enough to have most of what you might need, but small enough to make getting around easy, with limited congestion. A very pleasant way to end our time time in NZ, relaxing with a beer, in the sun on the banks of the Avon, watching punts drift by.
A wise old geezer once said that he was glad to have gone to NZ before going to South America, since some of the scenery in NZ is similar to but utterly dwarfed by parts of the Andes. I think that is a fair comment. Before this trip I still thought that NZ's south island had some of the most beautiful countryside that I had seen anywhere. But the northern Andes, the glaciars in Argentina, the lake district by Barriloche (Arg.) and Torres del Paine, to name a few, are places that put NZ well in the shade. The advantage of NZ is that most of it is slightly more accessible to your average punter.
NZ been wonderful, especially the south island, which was helped in part by the arrival of summer. It has been a slightly different type of trip from the earlier Latin part. Our time in the US was really like a holiday. Our time here has been a bit like an extended holiday. Having a car makes life easier and there is none of the sense of adventure that there is travelling through remote regions of South America. It has been very enjoyable, but not quite as exciting in many ways as the first 7 months. One of the surprises here has been the need to be a little more organised than we had been for most of South America. We were used to making few arrangements ahead, never booking accommodation in advance and only occasionally booking buses more than the day before. But here, because it is summer and peak season, we have found some places we wanted to stay have been booked a couple of days ahead, and the whole thing requires a little more thought as to where we may be 5 days hence.
You have to love a country that has a tourist attraction called Sheep World. An attraction that showcases farming methods, different breeds of sheep and has shearing and dog shows. There are also adverts on the TV for tractors! NZ does seem at times very parochial. But it can be quite enchanting.
I did once say, in 2000, that if I came to this part of the world again I would go to NZ and not to Australia. I think that still remains my view, but with a friends in Oz we can't come all this way and not drop in! So off to Oz next.
