Notes from the Road: 27 November, 2007

Hi again folks,

Hmm, where was I? As you can tell, I've been up to a lot in NZ, so I'll try to get caught up here before I fall further behind!

When I finished my last email, I was in the little town of Makarora, in the Haast Pass. After Makarora, we left for Queenstown - my cold was in full swing now (I think I might FINALLY be getting over it - I've heard of people who've caught it on the wet/west coast and had it for a month!), and we made our way towards Queenstown, adventure capitol of the world. En route, we stopped in Wanaka, which is a lovely town on a lake (Lake Wanaka, interestingly enough).

I would like to have stayed a bit longer in Wanaka, but was having such a good time with the people on the bus that I didn't want to break my journey with them. We did, however, spend a few hours at Puzzleworld! Imagine letting 20 giddy, probably hungover backpackers loose in a 2-story labyrinthe. We were all very amused. :)

After Wanaka, we rolled on towards Queenstown. En route, we stopped the AJ Hackett bridge, where two crazy Kiwis invented the bungy jump. There was an opportunity for people to bungy from the original bridge. I'd thought about doing the bridge, but wanted to have a bit more mental preparation time than that, so I passed. At this point, 4 of my travelmates signed up for the Nevis bungy, 134 metres, and the world's 3rd highest. Impulsively, I threw my credit card at the desk (it's taken a real beating in NZ, but worth every penny) and signed on to do it the next day.

For the rest of the day, I was full of nervous energy - I knew I'd jump, given that I'd already paid for it. But bungy is half brave, half stupid, y'know? It's not normal to want to hurl yourself off a stable platform with nothing but a fortified rubber band/elastic tied around your feet ...

When we got to Queenstown, I immediately understand why it came about. It's in a really stunning location, and the ski fields must be quite something in the winter. And everywhere you look, you'll find some company that's trying to sell you a new experience that's higher/faster/scarier/more extreme than the next guy. There is ALWAYS something more that you can do, something better to spend your money on. And when you're done, you can go out on the town and celebrate your successes with a drink or two or ten. :) It was an interesting experience to arrive in Queenstown, the first proper TOWN we'd come across since we left Christchurch.

And this is the thing about NZ - there's just so much of it that's out of the way, off the beaten path. You don't have to go very far to find a place where there's nobody else. So to arrive in a town with a supermarket, multiple internet cafes, a pharmacy, a cinema, a McDonald's, and several bars was almost overwhelming. You'll be glad to know that we survived the culture shock by having a few (ha!) drinks in the bar. it sounds like I've just been drinking my way around the South Island, doesn't it? Well, that's partly true, but I have good excuses!

First, a group of about 20-25 of us were basically together all the way down the west coast, where there's not a whole lot to do. Second, we'd all become pretty close, especially after the glacier, where we bonded. Third, there were birthdays scattered around to celebrate. And on top of that, it's what you DO on holiday. :) And, as you can tell, I've done TONS of other stuff that didn't involve drinking. We're just cutting loose a lot here, and having a great time at it.

Anyway, after another VERY late night (4:30?), I got a little sleep. The next morning, I woke up thinking about how long 8.5 seconds is, because that was the length of the free fall for my bungy. I won't rehash it again (can you tell how proud I am of myself for having accomplished it?), but I'll say that it was a pretty big single accomplishment on this trip. I've cured my fear of heights, it seems. And I got a t-shirt for my troubles. I was terrified, though - I rang my sister and brother-in-law before I jumped for a bit of moral support. And rang them after to let them know that the bungy didn't break. :)

What did I do that night? You guessed it - I celebrated! Plus, it was Halloween, and there's no better place in New Zealand than Queenstown for Halloween festivities. We had some male french maids (one pretty, one not-so-pretty), a bunny, Minnie Mouse (me), some bungy jumpers that didn't survive (only in New Zealand!), a few nerds, and a herd of pirates. It was a fun night, though we had to leave EARLY the next morning (6:30am), so I only had about 2 hours of sleep.

The next day was the start of the southern loop. We had a long sleep-filled bus ride to Milford Sound, which is a stunning fiord (erroneously named as a sounds). I can't really say much about it, except that it's one of the most stunning places I've ever seen - I'll get photos up when I can. We took a 2hour cruise of the Sound, out to the mouth at the ocean. En route were some fur seals and a rare penguin (yellow-crested? I forget ...), very cute.

After our cruise, we headed off to our stop for the night, a little town (it's definitely a town, since there's a general store and a pub, but that's about it) called Tuatapere. On our way there, we went to tour a sheep farm. Y'know, you haven't lived until you've sheared a sheep! :) We saw a working sheep farm, complete with amazingly skilled sheep dogs, new lambs (less than 12 hours new), a chance to bottle-feed young lambs, sheep sorting, and each had a go at shearing a sheep. This was followed by dinner (lamb sausages, big surprise) in the kitchen of Ray, the owner of the sheep farm. Okay, so it's a little bit touristy, but it was so much fun I don't care. And I got a job offer to work a sheep farm - never know when it might come in handy ... :)

The next day, we left for Stewart Island, the southern-most tip of the south island. Since some mates and I had extra time, we stayed here three nights. It was so lovely! There are only 27km of paved road on the whole island, and about 300 inhabitants (in the summer), so it's a quiet but quirky place. After we checked out the town, Oban, on the first day (this took about 10 minutes at a slow pace), we sat in the pub and chatted to locals. That night, our bus driver, Ricky, whipped up a delicious fish fry for dinner.

The next few days were lovely and quiet (four of us stayed for three nights and had the hostel to ourselves), with a few nice walks, a driving tour around the island, and a movie night. The last night was quiz night in the pub, and that was a real hoot! Full of locals, who weren't terribly happy that our three teams placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (my team won!). It was a good opportunity to chat with the locals and make some new friends.

We left the next day for Dunedin, on the southeast coast of the South Island. The weather was pretty rough en route, so we didn't stop off much (the Stray bus stops along the way pretty often to take short walks or look at waterfalls/rivers/rocks/etc). Dunedin was ... cold, actually. We didn't see too much of it, but it's a university town, so it has that sort of flavor. What we DID do, however, was tour the Speight's brewery - this is one of the beer that's found everywhere in NZ. Nothing beats a few beers and a good curry - then we hit the town. Again. :)

We headed back to Queenstown the next day, finishing the south loop. My return to Queenstown was a bit quieter than my first trip, thankfully. We played a little bingo (as you do) and won free cinema tickets, so a few of us went to see Resident Evil (3?). Quite a gore-fest, but amusing nonetheless. And free, magic to a backpacker's ear! We also did a bit of street luge, which is a fun 3-wheeled vehicle that you race down a hill and try to smash into your mates. Which, of course, we did, though no major bruises or skin loss for anyone.

My next stop was really one of my favorites. On the way back to Christchurch from Queenstown, I decided to hop off the bus at Twizel and go to Mt. Cook. Pete, a Scouser I'd met on Steward Island, came along with me. For the non-English, Scouser = someone from Liverpool, complete with a funky accent. We were blessed with brilliant weather, and went out to Mt. Cook Village. Not really a town - the biggest general store is behind the counter at the youth hostel where we stayed. :)

On the way, we saw our first post-glacial lake, Lake Pukake, which is the most stunning aqua color. We booked onto a glacier boat tour for the afternoon (can you actually hear the money draining from my bank account? scary, but worth every penny), which was one of the coolest things I've EVER done. We hiked out to the edge of the Mueller Glacier, where a lake is formed by the glacier moving and melting. These things are HUNDREDS of meters deep! So we took a boat ride out onto the lake, where there were icebergs floating in the water.

We got to step out onto one of the bergs, which was so interesting. And we went up to the terminal face of the glacier. It was amazing to see this awesome sight, and tragic to see how much of the glacier has been lost in recent years (and my president STILL isn't convinced of global warming ...). The glacier has receded 1400 meters in the past YEAR - it's a sobering, stunning thing to see.

The weather was so stunning that we decided to stay a second day at Mt. Cook. Two sunny days in a row there is just unheard of, so we changed travel plans, and added another day. The next day, we took a great 5-hour walk to the Hooker Valley (at the foot of the Hooker Glacier), with perfect views of Mt. Cook. Again, NZ is a place of such stunning beauty that I'm at a loss for words. I'm so glad I stayed longer and had that walk. What a gift!

From there, I headed back to Christchurch. I was lucky to spend a day and night with Richard and Leanne Slater, who I'd seen my first time round in Christchurch. Leanne and I worked together at UCB in the UK. While we were friendly before, this was actually an opportunity to really get to know each other, which we did. It was really terrific to spend a night with them. And it was great to behave like a "normal" person. I slept in a room with noone else in it. I stayed in a flat/apartment, not a hostel common room. There were only the three of us there, not the average 30 in a hostel. It was, in a word, bliss.

After a lovely Thai meal, I had a gorgeous sleep on a double mattress in a room with no other snoring backpackers. The next morning, Richard and Leanne took me on a driving tour around Christchurch. Just like in Sydney, this is the only way to REALLY see what a city is about. We went out into the hills around Christchurch and did a brief abseil (repelling down a rock face). They're both climbers, and I had told them I'd like to try abseiling. So, being the terrific hosts they were, they threw some climbing gear into the van, and we found a rock with anchor bolts already installed in a handy rock. Et voila, I did my first abseil (12 meters, I think?). Such fun.

After a hike up to some great views of the city, we went for lunch at a really lovely cafe. Again, I can't overemphasize the normal factor here. I'm so used to backpacker menus (noodles, beans on toast, spaghetti, etc.) that it was a huge treat to eat a nice meal with linen napkins and something with goat's cheese in it. :)

That night, we met up with my Stray bus mates and I showed Richard and Leanne how the backpackers do it. :) A sports bar pizza and beer deal for $12! Actually, it was great pizza, so I was able to give Leanne and Richard a new place to take their "normal" friends.

We all took off for Kaikoura the next day, on our way to the north island. I'd been there before, you might recall, and did whale watching. While I'd planned to do nothing and save some money, I ended up swimming with NZ fur seals instead (the draw of this and the need to spend money on crazy activities is unbelievable ...). While there weren't a huge number of seals, we had a few who were VERY inquisitive, as seals are, and were swimming in and around us, withing a foot of my face. Seals are fun creatures, and have an obvoius sense of play, particularly the young ones. It was a real treat to be in the water with them for over an hour - fear not, because although the water temp is only 14degrees C, we were well-armed with wet suits.

That night was a bit of an impromptu pool tournament at the bar (one of TWO bars in all of Kaikoura), and I did pretty well - apparently, hard cider makes pool better for me!

The next day, we hopped the ferry to the North Island, from Picton. The ferry is an easy crossing - there was even a cinema down in the bowels of the ship, and a few of us watched The Bourne Ultimatum to pass the time. A bit surreal, but fun nonetheless.

I'll stop here (again!), and start another email for my adventures on the North Island. I'm currently in Paihia, north of Auckland, and I fly to Fiji to lie on a beautiful beach on Thursday (it's Tuesday, I think). I'll finish the next email soon, hopefully, though it might not get done before Fiji, and I hear that the internet is sketchy there.

I hope you're all well. Here are some of my photos from New Zealand; I think they go as far as Queenstown. Again, I'll do my best to upload more as soon as I can. I have over 1000 photos in NZ alone(!), so it might take a while...

For those of you I'm hoping to see in the US, don't worry - I'll be in touch very soon! I'm landing in California on the 5th of December (about 1 1/2 - 2 weeks behind schedule, but oh well), and then making my way across the US before heading back to the UK on the 29th of December. I can't wait to see some of you!

Best,
Dina

Ooh! I'm hoping to skydive again tomorrow! One of our crew, Pete from Liverpool, won a 2-4-1 deal here in the Bay of Islands and offered me the other spot - cross your fingers for good weather. It'll be a fun way to exit NZ, so to speak. :)

Oh, and a belated Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. I was in the Tongariro National Park on the day, and not a turkey to be found. Fortunately, my family in California is holding Thanksgiving for me, so I'll have some turkey in a few weeks - I'm SO excited for this!

New Zealand 8 - Queenstown 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29367&l=b3b15&id=620235943

New Zealand 9 - Queenstown 2 - Halloween
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29369&l=3e9eb&id=620235943

New Zealand 10 - Milford Sound
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32433&l=9fdad&id=620235943