The Lower South Island

Well here we go again! So Mat brought you up to Franz Josef and I'll take you up to Lake Tekapo from where we'll travel back to Christchurch again so we can fly to Auckland tomorrow (14th) to make our flight to Hong Kong the day after (15th). We then have 3nights there before the overnight flight home (18th-19th).

Franz Josef is glacier country, NZ actually has loads of glaciers and is one of the few places in the world where they're easily accessible, 3 run down right into the rainforest. We stayed in Franz for 3nights, the first day we took a walk from the hostel out past mountains and through the rainforest itself to the Franz Josef glacier face. It was very surreal terrain, it made me imagine a childs picture where they just throw together everything pretty that comes to mind: river, snow-capped mountains, lush rainforest, blue sky, fluffy clouds, rainbow, ice! It's odd enough that it's cool in a rainforest environment without all of that on top. The glacier viewing spot was actually a fair distance away still for safety's sake, there have been incidents of people straying too close becoming buried under several tonnes of ice which has broken off above them. The glacier is formed from the compression of continuous snow fall on the mountain top causing ice formation, as new ice is formed it causes the older ice to start a very gradual slide down the mountain as pressure on weak points causes them to break off and shift. This process was evident when on our second day we took a trip down the road to nearby Fox Glacier where we'd booked onto a half-day glacier-climb. For this we had to get kitted up with warm clothes, walking boots and crampons and a guide then led us out onto the top of the glacier itself. Path cutters had been ahead to create nice safe ice steps and find any interesting features for us to view; the ice is ever-changing. We got brilliant views of the ice and saw some 'moulins' where ice-melt running down ends up pooling and mills out a hole in the ice shelf below it creating interesting shapes, one of which was a tunnel we got to climb through!

After Franz we had another 8hour coach journey to reach Queenstown, a lovely lakeside town nestled in the midst of the mountains where we'd splashed out on a 4star hotel! We awoke the next morning to pristine sunshine and went for a wander to explore the area. There were absolutely gorgeous views any way we turned and despite being cold the sun made it a pleasant day for just meandering around the shops and lakefront and scoping out places for dinner.

 

For day two we'd booked a day tour to Milford Sound in Fjordland. The coach departed at 7:40 and didn't return until 8pm despite the fact that we only spent around 2 hours at the sound itself which gives an idea of the travel involved! The journey there was beautiful though as it passed through the mountains (literally, through the middle in underground tunnels in places) and we had quite a few stops for photo opportunities. A sound is an area where there used to be a glacier but it's now retreated and the sea has moved in (I can't remember how exactly it differs from a fjord). It's basically an area of outstanding natural beauty where extremely steep sided, forested mountains rise straight from the water. We took a boat cruise seeing fur seals and even a penguin and the pictures will tell the rest. That evening we tried the world-renowned Fergburger. This place is open 22hours a day 7days a week and had a huge crowd spilling onto the pavement every single time we passed so had to be tried. The burgers were large and held up to their reputation especially after a long day!

Day three we just wandered around again, it wasn't as clear as our first day but the mountains had had a few inches of snowfall overnight so were a gorgeous christmassy backdrop to the lakefront artisans market as we wandered around, we also skimmed stones on the water, bought a few souvenirs, got lunch and visited a recommended chocolatiers for a mug of cocoa and home-made ice cream all before heading back to the hotel to utilise one of the complimentary private spa pools!

From Queenstown we had a 4 hour journey up to Lake Tekapo where we decided to stay mainly to break up the journey back to Christchurch. It's a small town near Mount Cook (NZs largest mountain) which you're meant to be able to see reflected in the lake. However as everything has been cloud covered the entire time we've been here I'm afraid we can't confirm that. A consolation though is that it started snowing as soon as we arrived and just kept going well into the night so we awoke to a very pretty postcard type scene. Hong Kong's going to be a shock to the system that's all I can say!

So there we go, that was New Zealand. We probably won't be able to post about Hong Kong until we're actually already home so I guess for now we'll just say thanks for reading and we'll see you all in the weeks to come!

Lots of love, Leah and Mat xx

The Upper South Island

Hello again.

When we left you before we had just arrived in Kaikoura, which was our first stop on the South Island of New Zealand. We only had one day in the sleepy little town so that we could enjoy the activity Kaikoura is renowned for; whale watching. Whilst the oceanic geography around the town makes it a haven for the giant mammals (not far out to sea there is a wall in the ocean floor where the depth drops dramatically, this is a prime location for fish and therefore the whales which feed off them) and an encounter is 95% guaranteed, they are phenomenal creatures to see. We were very lucky to see three Sperm whales and the boat stayed with each of them for the entire time that they were at the surface so that we could see them dive. We also saw a number of seals, loads of albatross as well as a pod of Hector dolphins (round-nosed dolphins which are both the world's smallest and rarest!).

the inaccessible 'Red Zone' where
the most damage was done

Our next destination was the largest city on the South Island; Christchurch. Known as the garden of NZ, the city is meant to be the most 'British' of the country and you can see the influence as you wander around; lined with streets such as Worcester St. and Gloucester St. it even has its own river Avon on which you can punt! Unfortunately the city is still in a state of forced regeneration after an earthquake devastated much of the CBD in February 2011 (the earthquake reached 6.8 on the Richter scale!). In fact it is startling to see the level of destruction that must have occurred, the main precincts have largely been fenced off as the buildings have either collapsed or been structurally damaged so much that it will be easier to level them and start from the ground up rather than try to save them. It is particularly sad to see areas such as the arts precinct along Worcester St. where many of the old buildings didn't survive; this is particularly true of the Cathedral which was heralded as one of the prettiest in the world and is now in tatters. 

ReStart Precinct

Nevertheless, the people of Christchurch are trying to move on and nowhere is this more evident than the vibrant and innovative ReStart precinct. This unique shopping area has a very youthful and fun vibe about it where brightly coloured storage containers have been used to set up a shopping area which has become a tourist hotspot all of its own. We only had a day to explore the city and we spent a lot of it thinking what it would have been like before the quake; we found ourselves a little short of things to do and on a grey day like the one we experienced it meant that we sought refuge in a café (albeit one which roasts its own beans and produces its own blends, even better the unctuous brownie came complete with fruit and nuts inside - it was fair trade, organic and gluten free which I think makes it healthy...).

The next morning heralded an early start so that we could make the 8am Tranz-Alpine rail service. As the name suggests, this train runs across the breadth of the S. Island and through the Southern Alps. The journey started in the flat and open farm lands of Canterbury before the scenery changed dramatically as we wound our way through the mountains to our destination in Greymouth. We had a beautifully crisp and clear day for the journey and made full use of the open sided viewing carriage to take in the spectacular scenery. The best way for you to appreciate how stunning the views were is just to check out the pictures we've posted below.

From Greymouth we had one more bus connection which took us about two hours down the west coast to Franz Josef. We'll leave this post here and we'll pick up in Franz next time.

Lots of love,

Leah and Mat

Auckland to Wellington; the North Island

Kai-Ora, Hello from Kaikora!

We've been in New Zealand for about a week now after arriving in the early hours of last Thursday (26th). Our kiwi adventure began in Auckland; an attractive city surrounded by water who's only downside was how spread out it felt. Despite our sleep deprived states (our flight had set down at 5am local time, 3am Australian time and we had probably had about an hour or so's sleep) we managed to drag ourselves around many of the city centre's highlights before our first day was out. Firstly, we visited the museum of Auckland which was filled with many Maori treasures as well as a fantastic National Geographic photography exhibition. From there we walked into the CBD and towards the harbour. Auckland spills onto the water and the East coast is the point of origin for the city; where the older buildings are evident amongst the recent modernisation into a trendier marina filled with restaurants. This was also a great place to grab a night shot of the city scape later in the day. That evening we ate at one of the Belgian beer cafés where the local green-lipped muscles were cooked in your choice of sauce and served with chips and mayo. 

After a very long and satisfying sleep we spent the remains of the next morning walking to and up Mount Eden (The tallest of many volcanic cones in the Auckland area). Though only a tall hill really it offered great views of the city and made us both appreciate how beautiful the city is. That evening we picked up our rental car and due to Leah's elusive map reading skills managed to orientate ourselves only when we accidentally returned to Mt. Eden. Thankfully it wasn't far from there to the hostel - although it's never fun driving around unfamiliar cities in an unfamiliar car (I was expecting a manual and although automatic is no more difficult I found myself looking for the clutch on more than one occasion!).

The next morning we checked out from the hostel early and hit the road to Rotorua. The three hour journey was fairly easy-going as we passed through lots of quaint villages and towns, including Cambridge. We decided to break the journey there and stop for coffee in a converted church which Leah had spotted from the road. It was fairly typical of the churches we have seen in NZ in that it was wooden and looked like it 'belonged in a model railway village', I was more interested in the coffee which was brewed with care and the selection of cakes wasn't bad either. Before long we were back on the road and passing through the rolling hills of Waikaito (otherwise known as the Shire from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy - we didn't spot any hobbit holes though).

Rotorua is central North Island and has a very distinct feature. It stinks of rotten eggs! The city sits in the middle of one of the most active geothermal sites in the world and is surrounded by hot springs and bubbling mud pools all giving off the rather unpleasant sulphurous gas. Even the drains steam! It's also Maori heartland and we found ourselves wandering through one of the Maori suburbs within minutes of parking in the city. The Marae (meeting houses) are very intricate and have fantastic detail both inside and out and the size of the rowing boats that the Maoris used to get to NZ are hugely impressive too. Our hostel had it's own natural spa in the garden and we were tempted to go in but the air temperature put us off somewhat; we were suddenly feeling the cold in Roturua - especially on the wind (there's a stark difference between NZ in the winter and North Australia in the winter!!). The cold even prompted both of us to invest in winter coats, luckily it's currently off season in NZ and there are heavy sales in many of the shops.

Our next stop was Taupo, about an hour's travel along Highway 5 (otherwise known as the Geothermal Explorer highway). The township sits on the Northern bank of the great lake Taupo, the largest in NZ and has the Waikaito river running through it. This is the home of adrenaline sports in NZ and is the location of the country's first bungee jump. Skydives and white water rafting are also popular in the area as is the much more sedate sport of trout fishing. We didn't try our hands at any of that (mostly so that we could save money for the rest of our trip and partly because we had already planned what we'd do whilst there) but our first port of call was to a stream that runs from one of the hot pools into the river. The attraction of this stream is that it has lots of natural pools along it which act as natural hot baths and even jacuzzis where the current is strong enough. Even better though, the higher up the stream you go (closer to the source) the hotter the water, so you can pick the pool/bath which suits you the best. We chose one that was fairly hot and melted into the warmth. We didn't even have to be submerged; the amount of steam that was coming off the water was making the entire surrounding area really pleasant compared to the cold we'd felt the rest of the day.

Modelling our coats!

The next day we walked along the river to the nearby Huka falls. Huka means foam in Maori and although the falls weren't steep in any way the amount of white water that was generated by them made it clear how they got their name. The water looked like it was glowing as it tumbled through the falls; a really vibrant icy blue colour which stood out on the rather grey day that we were experiencing. Further down the river was Aratiatia Dam which is opened three times a day for the public. We actually managed to find ourselves in the wrong place to watch the opening and although our view of the rapids that followed was good it was a shame that we didn't actually manage to see the water crashing through the gates. Nonetheless we were glad we made the effort to get there. The geothermal activity in Taupo is being harnessed for power generation and our final stop of the day was one of the areas where the steam is being drilled. We were able to drive in amongst all of the piping and see the steam leaking out of the huge drilled holes in the earth. The whole place had a very futuristic feel about it, almost other worldly.

We left early the next day with a long journey ahead of us down to Wellington. The direct route is a five hour or so drive but we decided to take a slightly longer route around the Tongariro National Park on the advice of a Kiwi who was staying in our hostel. It was worth the detour to get a better view of the mountains in the park. These mountains should have been visible from Taupo but the weather was very overcast and often rainy which meant we didn't actually see them until we were fairly close. Although not as large as the mountains in the South, these were still rather impressive and were also stars of the Lord of the Rings films where the middle peak (Mt. Ngauruhoe - the most uniform and conical of the three) became Mount Doom itself. Although the drive was long it was a fantastic way to see the country. We felt that North Island NZ felt a little like the hills and valleys of Wales crossed with the forests and mountains of Canada. Of course, the scenery was dotted with the obligatory sheep which typically ran away when we tried to take their photos!

We made it to Wellington with about twenty minutes to spare before the car was due back but it turns out that the city is one of the more awkward to navigate as it is littered with one-way streets. Cue fifteen minutes of rush hour stress, inner city mania and panic of getting lost multiple times and we eventually arrived at the rental shop bang on five o'clock, just as we were due in!

Wellington itself felt much busier than Auckland and it certainly wasn't as pretty (that's not to say it was ugly, just that it felt a little bit more industrial) and we didn't get the impression that there was a great deal to see. If it had been better weather we may have climbed Mount Victoria on the western side of the city but as it was we had views that were almost as good from the botanical garden which was also atop a rather large hill. From here we took the cable car back to the city centre and ambled along the water front to the museum. We spent a little bit of time here but both felt fairly tired and before long we decided to head back to the hostel and take it easy for the rest of the day.

This takes us to today (2nd) which was also a very early start, this time so that we could make the early morning ferry across to the South Island. The journey took about three and a half hours and we arrived in Picton at nearly midday. There was just an hours wait at the ferry terminal before we connected with our coach down the East coast. We arrived in Kaikoura (about half way between Picton at the top of the South Island and Christchurch somewhere near the middle) just after three this afternoon and have been dodging the heavy rain ever since. We're hoping it clears up a little by tomorrow as we've got a whale watching trip booked. The area is renowned for its sperm whales and the company we're going out with has a 95% success rate of seeing the giants. It's also highly likely that we'll see dolphins, albatross and even seals so we have high hopes for the trip. From there we've got another coach booked and should be in Christchurch by about six o'clock tomorrow evening.

The view from the Interislander ferry

Anyway, that's more than enough from us. Hope everything's well at home,

Lots of love,

Leah and Mat

(Written 2nd August, posted when we get internet...again).