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NORTH - Sam's Entry
I climbed down from my bungee jump high in Queenstown and went to Wanaka to see Dave throw himself out of an aeroplane from 15,000 feet. What was unique about Dave's jump was that instead of the other jumpers, who went at 12,000 feet, Dave had employed a crazy cameraman to climb on top of the plane and dive after him, filming the persuit. The black clouds obscured the freefall for me on the ground, but the DVD afterwards is insane and I'd recommend a viewing if you're among the lucky few to see the premier at Dave's house this summer.
After the dive, two English girls came off the plane and it turned out we'd unknowingly bumped into them that morning - company is a rare occurance so we had a hot chocolate, cooked up some food together on a public BBQ then talked about our old schools, friends and family back home. I think they are off in Thailand now. It's a real shame now and then when we meet people we like and can be mates with, then inevitably we have plans and part ways - special reference to Yorkshire Laura and Phillipa from Fiji who I'm keen to meet up with when I'm living in Leeds!
The road from Wanaka was one of my favourite ever experiences for scenery. New Zealand hadn't failed to disappoint as an amazing place before this point, ie. an abundance of rocks, beaches, waves, cliffs, assorted nice things... but I wasn't prepared for the West coast. I remember saying to Dave as we drove through the Haast Pass, "This is like Jurassic Park"... I can't describe it without sounding like a soppy romantic novelist, but I was gazing down on a gargantuan ravine coated in lush evergreen trees, imposing greywacke cliffs on either side; waterfalls cascading down ledges, one after another; and a thick, drowsy fog hugging the trees in places like huge, static puffs of smoke. It was amazing.
If that wasn't enough, we came out of the dense woodland and discovered the glaciers. A glacier, as we've been told many times in NZ nature museums, is a massive density of snow compacted by gravity into a block of ice which grows down a mountain, or retreats up it, every few thousand years. At present the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers are retreating - meaning a fierce torrent of water pumps down from the foot of the mountain and carves its way down the rift left by the glacier. Looking at it, I'd have thought the glacier had charged in from the sea and smashed into the mountain - almost like a giant worm had eaten away the land and become ice. The cliffs on either side were dead vertical, which made it very dangerous for people to go climbing alone.
To us, the glaciers looked pretty small, but in our latest experiences of walking around we've found that everything's actually just very far away. We got to Franz Josef and booked a full day of scaling the glacier, and the next morning made sandwiches, put on our woolies and hired some boots and crampons. A minibus took us up and we were split into confidence groups (nothing was going to stop us going first!). Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, we also got the nutters in our group, one of whom was a self-proclaimed "Ironman Triathlete" wearing no clothes except for a pair of bright pink Y-Fronts. Almost as punishment for his attention-seeking, he nearly froze to death on the ice. It took us nearly an hour just to walk to the glacier, and the world was transformed. From a few kilometres away a glacier just looks like a load of snow that's slipped down the mountainside; when you're on it, it's akin to something from Narnia. There were 150 metre-deep holes in the ice (bottomless to the eye, higher than the bungee jump), giant chasms and waterfalls, water rapids, ice roofs and terraces, and even massive caves that our guide cut steps into so we could creep down. A tiny crevasse almost got the better of us because it was only narrow enough to slide through and claustrophobia quickly got the better of most! (nipples sticking to the ice nearly got the better of naked guy).
It took us hours of climbing and cutting our own steps in the terrain, our half way point signalled by a 10 metre ice wall about half way up. We saw a team of climbers trying unsuccessfully to scale it and called it a day. Getting back down was it's own challenge and I proudly maintain the group record for falling over, earning the dubious nickname "Bambi" from Dave, which I've been called before. Overall, it was a momentous day and I am bursting to get home and put up photos of us crouching in the ice dungeon!
I would just like to brag about our record of not showering for 4 days before it became unbearable. Some nice girls offered us the use of their hostel shower but then when the extent of our dirtiness was revealed they ran away from us (I wish I was exaggerating). We were heartbroken and decided to do everything in our power to get clean. Eventually we discovered a motor camp with unguarded hot showers, so we parked up, ran in, then ran out - and we didn't even have to book a room! Back on the move, we drove through Greymouth and Westport with nothing of interest to report... There were many sessions of kicking practice on public fields. Saving money for seeing Dave's cousin was a priority, so we did nothing that wasn't free except eat and buy petrol. Whilst it was rubbish at the time I think fondly of me and Dave huddling up around our useless camping stove in abandoned audience stands, trying to boil water for pasta and tea.
Our next stop was Kaikoura, a place famous for its marine wildlife. We spent hours reading and sitting around at the seal colony to watch the sealions flop around and play. Dolphin and whale cruises were a bit flashy and expensive for us but we heard good stories about them. It was high time we had some luxury and a real bed - we checked in to a lovely hostel that looked like a Victorian mansion conversion. There was a big hot fire, movies in a room full of sofas, nicely laid beds and power points! Cooking on a real hob in a proper kitchen was a joy too. We ate well, chatted to travellers (almost all on tinny package tours with no choice of where to go or how long to stay) and even snuck back in for movies and a pub quiz the day after. It may interest you to know that in my school Year Book, we all had to write down an aspiration. Mine was "To become an unbeatable pub quiz champion". To my dismay, we slid through the contest in last place, somehow managing to push up to 2nd to last place in the final round.
Tails behind legs, we fled north to Blenheim. We'd planned to meet Dave's cousin Sam (son of Dave's uncle Dave - the confusion!) at the weekend so we spent the next couple of days in Blenheim and Nelson reading, sitting around, cooking budget pasta, throwing a rugby ball around and saving money. When Friday afternoon did come, we went to Sam's and immediately got in the Dominoes and drinks. I had an absolutely brilliant time - Sam is a hero and a great laugh. It was great to kick back and spend a bit of money - Sam drove us around the sights, took us to his work where we went into his laboratory and took samples of our skin (thriving with horrid bacteria!), and to top it all off, took us out on his friend Eric's boat on the Queen Charlotte sound. We spent the Sunday clad in flippers, snorkels and bodysuits, free-diving for fish and Paua (protected NZ shellfish, sort of like a sea-mushroom). Me and Dave bagged a good 15 Paua between us and added to Sam and Eric's massive load of butterfish. We reckoned that Sam had broken the New Zealand record for a butterfish catch but we were too hungry to weigh the thing... we got straight on with shucking the Paua and filleting the fish.
There was a big feast on that night, lots of drinking, relaxing, watching films and falling asleep on the sofa. A great weekend, and a fitting finish to what's been my favourite place so far - New Zealand's South Island. I love it. A great place to work... a superb landscape to see... an honest and generous people to live with.
We moved on, taking the ferry to Wellington, capital city of New Zealand. From what we saw of it, it seems to be about the same size as Maidstone. Despite not having the skyscrapers and population density of any normal capital, it made up for it. We found a street called Cuba Mall with little dusty second hand book shops, independant cafes and bistros, pokey pubs and music shops. I loved walking around, poking my nose in and finally aquiring books one, two AND three of Lord of the Rings.
Wellington was also home to an amazing museum which had just about everything - a colossal squid, 3 levels dedicated to Maori culture, an art gallery, a Pompeii exhibition and a section on New Zealand's ethnic makeup. We spend so much time in museums because they're free.
On from Wellington was Taupo. Not a great deal to do there, but the lake beside it is about the same size as Singapore! after a day of not getting up to much, we decided it would be worth the money to get a bus to Tongariro National Park and attempt the Alpine crossing. the one thing I wanted to do in the North Island was to climb Mt. Tongariro, which was used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. We got up at 5am, commenced the walk at 8am, and climbed for around 8 hours. The start of the trek was hard, climbing up into the mountains and passing through the clouds - the wind hit at the top and it became bitterly cold and difficult to walk in a straight line. The two of us broke off from the trail and climbed to the peak of Mt. Tongariro, scrambling up a rock pile to touch the summit. It was like being in heaven - clouds surrounded our feet and stretched out into the horizon forever. On one side loomed the biggest mountain in the range, Mt. Ruapehu, which looks almost cartoon-like in appearance.... one gigantic triangular volcano, almost impossible to climb. Despite that we saw two groups of nutters trying to do it... there's a warning given out that if you slip, you fall all the way down to the bottom because it's at such an unforgiving angle, and covered in dust and pebbles. We were happy sitting atop Mt. Doom anyway. The day wasn't over - we descended into a giant crater, saw green and blue sulphur pools and went into a fern forest on the way back! We'd had a hard day so instead of the planned noodles (Dave) and vegetable stir-fry (me) we got stuck into an all-you-can-eat buffet at Pizza Hut. Deserved!
On the road north we came to Rotorua, which had a strange milky lake and lots of steaming geothermal geysers dotted around. Unfortunately, business had taken over and charged admission fees for more or less everything, so we held firm, saw the things on public view and went to a market where we chatted to some crazy hippies in a bright yellow bus.
That night we pushed on to Auckland. Taking a break to cook, we realised that it'd be our last camping-stove meal... our last sleep in our trusty van, Herbert the Highlander... our last washing up of utensils in public toilets and our last period of alienation from showers.
We sold the van the next day just south of Auckland. It was very nervewracking... the deal had been done on the internet, and we'd tried our best to clean and wash the thing (by hand...) but we were keenly aware that we'd managed to break the horn and the radio. By a stroke of luck, the buyer was a scrap dealer! he didn't even get into the van or check it - just signed the forms and handed the money straight over. Whilst excellent for us, it was nasty for Herbie, who'd just had his death warrant signed...
Demobilised, we got the bus back into town and spent the day doing things that excited me more than my birthday - showering, washing my clothes, charging my camera and using a powerful gas cooker.
Tonight, we spend our last night in fair Kiwiland, and prepare to leap into the unknown adventure that is South America. Our flight leaves tomorrow for Santiago, Chile. I know nothing about the place (aside from the major earthquake) and speak no Spanish. I hear they speak no English there either - this will be a problem. Nevertheless, I've got big smiles in abundance, enough money to last me till the end (for the first time), and a fierce determination to make the last month of my sojourn a crazy, experience-saturated, prison-free venture.
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Nz - Queenstown to Auckland.
Hello Family & Friends, I hope that with few blogs left to be written you are all still reading and enjoying our entries. (Well at least reading them). Despite the Ash Cloud hovering over you all the weather should be perking up by now surely. I'm hoping to complete the outrageous feat of experiencing a full year of sunshine when I return, the only thing standing in my way is a British Summer.
Since leaving Queenstown we have been moving upwards, first through the South Island and recently in the North. The next stop on the Journey was Wanaka, where I decided that It would be a good idea to throw myself out of a plane from 15,000 feet. Despite several ridiculous ideas circulating my mind e.g. doing it whils't eating a banana I opted for the simple but yet thrilling standard descent in the end. More daring than me was the camera man I had paid to film the experience who boldly got on top of the plane at 15,000 feet in order to get the right angle for the filming, all I could think about was how interesting his primary school "What I'm going to do when I grow up" reports must have been to read. SkyDiving through clouds at 200Km/H was pretty intense, luckily enoughmy instructor negotiated us safely back down to Terra Firma with no problems. On reflection I think the point I was most worried at was when I looked down from my window, turned around and asked the chap how high we were, the response "Only 7000 Feet" was met with a "Right" and a swift gulp. The Skydive was really good fun all in all and made sure I got my adrenalin fix after Sam's bungy effort the day before.
Wanaka Is such a lovely part of the country and being the gateway to Mt Aspiring National Park it holds a special significance to our family. I took time out while we were there to just have a wander around the lake and take in all of the beutiful autumn colours that were emerging on the trees of the shores. I have put a Gold Autumn leaf in a book for safe keeping, and on my return I plan to frame the little beauty so it can remind me of Lake Wanaka and the incredible setting there.
Moving on from Wanaka the plan was to head up towards the West Coast, this we did In our loyal van and ever loved companion Herbie. We took the highway up To Haast taking in all the natural wonders along the way such as Bush walks through west coast rainforest, marvelling at huge waterfalls and staring into crystal blue pools. The South Island of New Zealand is incredibly beautiful, add that to the hospitality and kindness of the folks and the place really is quite magical. There's a few folks down In Dunedin and One up in Blenheim who are the real highlights though.
Around Half way up the west coast we did our glacier adventure walk on The famous Franz Josef Glacier. Trekking to the base of the Fox Glacier the day before was a cool experience but didn't really prepare us for full on crampon/ice axe action. Nothing it has to be said could have prepared us for doing the climb with a Man wearing only Pants for cover and with an innate desire to show off, lead the group and demand we all wait until he declared it safe to proceed despite the official group leader giving us the all clear. Funny at first, tiring by the end, mildly annoying throughout, he may well have been the biggest mentalist I have ever encountered. Aside from this the Glacier walk was spectacular, after adjusting to using crampons Sam and I really started to enjoy the ventures through Ice caves, under Ice arches and generally up towards the upper echelons (Of the lower half) of the glacier. 8 Hours on the ice was great fun and testing at times as I had to overcome a spurt of claustrophobia when negotiating my way through an ice corridoor. We had a fantastic experience up close and personal with the glacier and it really made me realise how dangerous mountaineering over this kind of terrain can be, when your one slip away from a chasm stretching down hundreds of metres with only ice waiting for you at the bottom you make sure your crampons stick, failing that you grab a man wearing only pants for security (this didn't actually happen but it could have and the possibility of it is funny enough). The Ice was magical and the huge caverns and caves that had formed made for great exploring, few things are as good as being that close to nature in all it's glory.
Moving up the West Coast along stunning coastline we reached Westport before moving inwards through the centre of the country on our way to Blenheim and a weekend spent with Cousin Sam. Prior to arriving in Blenheim we allowed ourselves a bit of luxury and took a day relaxing in the Hot Springs at Hanmer. The fact that it was all outdoors, the sulphur smell was unpleasant and pungent and we were sharing said springs with the world and his wife didn't matter, going days without showering means you learn to appreciate water, even if many have bathed in it. The Springs were a major tourist destination but that didn't stop us enjoying the day and we came out feeling cleansed and relaxed ready to gear up for a weekend which was going to include plenty of fun.
We also spent a few days in Kaikoura And Nelson before finally reaching Sam at his place in Blenheim. The dodgy weather that had been following us for days finally gave way to glorious sunshine in Nelson and we lazed our days away throwing a rugby ball around in the park and eating multiple jam sandwiches, the staple diet of my life for the past week and a half. We arrived with Sam on the friday night and from then until we said our goodbyes on the monday morning we had a wicked time, all weekend. The friday was spent catching up, eating good food, drinking good beer and relaxing at the flat. After having left Dunedin a few weeks ago, it was so nice to see a family face again. On the saturday we got to see the lab where Sam works with a full guided tour from the boss himself (the cousin) and he was even kind enough to lay out a few slides for us to have a look out in between getting us to swab ourselves in a how clean is your body experiment. This was followed up by a drive out to a lovely lookout over the Marlborough sounds and a walk up to another great lookout over Blenheim in the fading early evening sun. We topped off a great day with A BBQ and a few drinks at the flat, Sam is such a wicked fella and it was great to spend the day getting to know him better, the real treat of the weekend waited for us on the sunday though with a trip out on the sounds with Sam and his friend Eric on Eric's boat to go freediving.
The only thing standing between us and freediving for the finest fish you could ever hope to eat was the results of our experiment the day before. I'm not going to divulge the personal information that materialised, but I will leave you with a thought, that if you wish to travel the world via the medium of backpacking do not expect that after 6 months your body will resemble anything near clean/remotely hygenic, that is all I have to say on the matter thankyou very much. We couldn't get out on the sounds quick enough and despite the gusting winds we found a good spot to get the wetsuits and snorkels on and get into the blue, freediving in a little cove for the beautiful little shellfish that is Paua. Sam (friend) and I were firsttimes so we stayed mainly in the shallows, not attempting to match anything that the cousin can manage, diving upwards of ten metres takes some practice and Sam (cousin) is remarkably skilled and well trained in his hobby. We gathered a good collection, 30 or so in fact and this added to the cousins hearty catch of delicious butterfish ensured that our sea to table hunter/gatherer experience ended in a great feast come the evening. We had such a great day out on the sounds, and hopefully when that cousin of mine reads this he gets an idea of how thankfull we are to him for giving us a brilliant weekend and teeing it all up for us, your a hero dude.
Being with Sam doing something that he is so passionate about was a very cool experience, it gave me a better understanding of what is important to him and sharing that experience and hobby with him was very special. It's quite strange really, that having only been with Sam so briefly in the course of my life that we get on so well and slot in so comfortably alongside one another, leaving Blenheim it felt like I knew him well and that made the goodbye all the harder. It's more a see you soon though, as plans are already in motion for a road trip when he works his way over to my neck of the woods on his travels in the years to come, and I for one am very, very excited about it all, now If we can only convince that other dear cousin of mine to join him it will be all the better, so get with the plan Lanz!
Wellington is a cool City, it's got plenty of character and soul and Sam and I really enjoyed the couple of days we spent there exploring it's museums, gallerys and various districts. We had a tour of the parliament bulidings including the famous Beehive building which was free and therefore made it significantly better than it probably was to everyone else who actually had the commodity of money in the bank. We moved on from Wellington after a couple of days though as we had to work our way up the island.
Moving upwards towards Auckland we have seen a few places if not everything in the North Island, the fact we spent so long in the South Island meant that our travels in the North Island resembeled something of a whistlestop tour but I think we got the timings just right, the South is Superior. The first place up from Wellington that we stopped for any considerable amount of time was Taupo. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake In Nz and we certainly enjoyed the scenery on offer but the real highlight of the region had to be the walk in Tongariro national park. It was as Sam and I agreed one of the best things we have done so far and the view from the top of Mt Tongariro (Better known as Mt Doom) was incredible. Despite the howling, freezing winds we persevered and completed the 20Km walk in a solid 8 hours, stopping at points to refuel (Jam Sandwiches) and to read our books by crystal blue sulphur lakes. Add that to the list of things done on the gap year, read a book in Mordor.
Rotorua was the last stop of note before moving into Auckland and our hostel. We took the option of saving money and did the free self guided walk around town instead of paying the silly prices for the hyped up tourist attractions. I think we took a good option actually as we saw plenty of geothermal activity in the form of lakes and hot springs, add this to hours spent watching the over 60's playing petqanque in the park and we had a very good afternoon. The smell in Rotorua is very . . . distinctive, it tends to linger but despite this we found it to be a pleasent place and the fact that it had a Pak & Save pleased us no end, a big tick in our books. For those of you unaware of the beauty of Pak & Save it is the ultimate money saving supermarket where you can buy three days worth of supernoodles for the equivalent of 80 english pence, good hearty meals too, the less said about the nutritional value the better.
We arrived in Auckland, threw our bags out at the hostel and made our way to a nearby district to sell Herbie the Highlander, the van that has served us so well during our time here. Herbie meant alot to us, his yellow colouration, his dodgy brakes in the mornings, his distinct ability to let all the cold air in at night but most of all his sheer determination to get two friends around a wonderfull, breathtaking and beautiful country. His service was immense. We wish you well good sir.
And now we are just winding down our last few days in Nz in the urban jungle that is Auckland city centre, it's not real Nz, it could be anywhere in the world, it's just a big city. I have grown ever so fond of small places since travelling, they always seem to possess a real character and spirit, I can't say that many of the big cities I have had the pleasure to stay in possess the same traits.
South America tommorrow - very exciting. I must confess though I will be very sad to leave New Zealand, it has been my favourite place on my travels so far, I always knew it would be, and I don't doubt that the fondest memories of my travels will lie here when I finally make my way back to 26 poplar walk in May. This time is different to the last though, it does not feel like I am leaving something behind, it feels like I'm carrying something with me instead, something that will bring me back often, something that in quiet moments I can find again, regardless of location, a quiet peace, a calm. The road trip has been immense, but as I said to my lovely Aunt the other day, Nz for me is family, so though I have enjoyed the roadtrip I think my favourite moments have been those spent in the company of Auntie Sue, Uncle Dave, Alana & Sam. You guys are what makes this place so special for me, you are the reason why I was most looking forward to coming here and you are the reason why this will be the hardest place to leave. So before I do, I just wanted to take the chance to say a huge thankyou, for being everything I hoped for and more. Your wonderfull, everyone of you, in every way & having the chance to forge the bonds we have has been something immeasurably special to me. Our tree's roots run deep.
New Zealand is home, England is home, my years to come will be spent enjoying everything the two have to offer and enjoying every moment I can with my family on both sides of this wonderfull world we all share. The future is ours to shape.
For my Father, who soars free over this land.
For my Aunt, for all you are, for our roots. Thankyou.
Dc
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