We got up early and checked out and met our new driver Flea who took us to the ferry terminal where we had to check our bags in airport style onto the ferry. The ferry crossing was really smooth which was good since some of the ferrys that went the day later were cancelled because of the rough weather. They served warm scones on the ferry which were yummy with clotted cream and jam. We walked around the outside of the ferry as we approached the South Island to enjoy the views of Marlborough sounds as we pulled into Picton.
Marlborough sounds from the ferry
We collected our bags from an airport style carasol. I had my usual panic when my bags don't come off straight away that they must have been lost even though there were lots of other people still waiting for their bags.
We drove through Marlborough country and since they are famous for their wine we stopped at a vineyard and tried a Saviongn Blanc, a Pinot Grisio, a Pinot Noir and some desert wine. A very civilised afternoon for $2, so we had a small taste of 4 wines for £1!
Wine tasting
We pulled into Kaiteriteri, checked into our hostel and then wandered down to the beach. We really wanted a jump beach shot of the four of us and so experimented for over half an hour with self timer and burst shots trying to get it right. We were hysterical and still no closer to having a shot when we weren't on the ground when a retired lady who is also on our bus came over to take it for us and we ended up chatting to her for ages. I hope when I'm here age I'm still travelling and exploring new places. She said she could have got on a bus aimed at her age group but they never get offered the fun activities that buses aimed at 18-30 do. I've met at 73 year old lady who decided to do a skydive!
We cooked a massive curry between us girls tonight with garlic pitta and then we went and sat in the tv room. The plan was just to write our diaries for a bit on the sofas then wander across and see if people were in the pub next door but in the end we watched the entire of the day the earth stood still (not a good film but by an hour in we'd invested too much time not to find out how it ended) before going to bed.
Day 142: Able Tasman national park, Kaiteriteri
I got up early to have breakfast at 7 before kayaking and it turned out the kitchen didn't open for another 30 minutes. That's 30 minutes of sleep I missed out on! I did put that time to good use though and booked myself onto a skydive for tomorrow morning! Eeeeekkkkkk!!!!!!!
We were picked up by a minibus and taken down to the kayaking office to pay and get our life jackets and the kayaks. We drove down to a bay and walked down to near the shore line to learn how to paddle the easiest and stuff. The tide was coming in so fast that we were in the water by the time we were ready to get going! I got lucky and had the guide as my kayak partner so either I'm a lot stronger than all the other girls (as my core and arms didn't ache too much when we finished) or he was doing most of the work!
We had a beauitful 3 hour kayak along the coast of the national park stopping for 45 for tea and a muffin on apple tree beach. The guide had brought a frisbee so we got to through that around for a bit which was cool until one of the boys threw it into a spiky bush and we had to drag it out with a stick. And then I did the same thing. A that point we decided to put it away and kayak around to the finish point.
We were meant to be doing a full day kayak but the winds were predicted to be so strong in the afternoon that we walked a small part of the 4 day Able Tasman Coastal track back to the kayak hire place. It was such a beautiful walk. We were protected from the wind and it was great being able to see the national park from the water and then from land. I walked with these two lovely Canadians who had the fastest walking place I've ever encountered. We did the 4 hour track in 3 hours including stopping for lunch.
We chilled out at the kayak hire place in the sun until they gave us a lift back to the hostel. We sat with some people outside talking and took me an hour to summon up the energy to go inside and shower and make myself dinner. Felt so tired.
In the evening we chilled out in the bar and played pool and I learnt the correct way to set up the balls and the easy way to remember how to do it. I managed to loose every game I played though.
Day 143: Skydive and Westport
I was awake at 5am excited and unable to sleep as I was skydiving today. I didn't however in my half excited half sleepy state think about going to watch the sunrise on the beach. Missed opportunity there.
Finally 7am rolled around and I got dressed and then picked up by the skydive minibus and taken to the airbase. We got shown a video so we knew what to expect, signed all the paperwork and then sat outside watching the groups before us going up in the plane and then landing in front of us.
Skydive plane
When it came to our groups turn we got kitted up our jumpsuits and harnesses and then met my jump master who would be strapped to me and the guy who would be filming and taking the photos of my jump. I had a quick interview to go at the start of the video of my skydive and then we were straight onto the plane and up in the air! Either it all happened so fast or my brain was already in meltdown and unable to cope with what I was about to do.
Whilst on the flight up my jump master checked my harness, pointed out the scenery and clipped us together. At 8000ft I was given an oxygen mask to breathe through as the cabin isn't presurrised (obviously as the door gets swung open). At 13000ft the first 2 girls jumped. The door swung open which I only noticed because it suddenly got chilly and then it was closed again!
The door was opened for my jump and the photographer guy climber out and hung out of the side of the plane whilst the jump master and I bum shuffled together along the floor to the door. So there I was at 16500ft with my legs hanging out of a plane. And then I was falling to the Earth! My brain went into complete sensory overload and it all happened so fast but was such a rush! When the parachute was pulled I thought we'd been falling for 20 seconds rather than 80! Watching the video back on the ground I know I was posing for the camera doing peace signs. The Chinese guy in the video we watched before we jumped did that and so I think my brain must have latched onto that so I kept doing it!
Excited on the plane
Sweet as!
Once the parachute is pulled everything slows right down and you're just floating there hanging in your harness. It was so good just relaxing there and looking around at the scenery. From where I jumped, even though it was a bit cloudy, I could still see both North and South Island which was cool and I could see Mount Doom (who's real name I've forgotten).
When we came into land the dive master started doing all these turns so we landed in the right field. We came in pretty fast and the camera guy was running backwards and tripped slightly trying to get out of our way and we landed sitting down in the grass. It was so cool.. Buzzing from it! I think if you want to know what happened you'll have to watch the video when I'm home!
We were taken back to the hostel and got on the kiwi bus. I'd been feeling pretty rough after the skydive on the bus. Think it was a combination of motion sickness (from both the jump and the windy roads we were on) and all the spare adrenalin pumping through my body that I had to sit up on the jump seat next to the driver. We stopped at a lake and I cured all my problems by running off the jetty straight into the freezing waters (twice). It was a shock to the system and I can't believe only 5 people from a bus of 50 did it! How often do you get to jump into a lake with snow capped mountains behind it. I guess they must have seen the eels I ran past and decided against it. Luckily they and the ducks got out of my way when I tried to get out of the lake.
We stopped in a small town and I rewarded myself for my bravery jumping into the lake (and to warm myself up) with a hot chocolate with little marshmallows.
There's not much in Westport, our destination for today, but the hostel was pretty cool so I chilled out on the swing chairs after dinner.
The bus left a bit late in the evening so when it pulled into the carpark at the beach we ended up running across the sand and got there just in time to see the last 3 minutes of the sunset. It was really pretty and the mountains behind us were coloured pink and red from the sun light which was so nice.
Sun setting behind the lighthouse
Pink mountains
Kiwi experience!
We spent the evening on the beach with a bonfire. The beach was littered with drift wood so it was the perfect place for a good bonfire. It was so nice and the guys went all cave man and wouldn't let any of the girls collect firewood and then they dragged over all these tree trunks so we all had benches to sit on.
Day 144: To Franz Joseph
We got on the bus and started our morning with a nice hour walk along the coast from Cape Foulwind to a seal colony. All the adults were flopped out on the rocks and the baby seals were surprisingly agile wobbling themselves up and over the rocks. Could have stood watching them for ages.
The drive into Franz Joseph was along stunning coast line to one side and mountains the other. We stopped at the pancake rocks for a walk the see the limestone sculptures which I thought looked more like camel humps than pancake rocks.
We stopped briefly in Greymouth to wait for people getting of the transalpine train and then continued on to Hokitika. The fudge shop opposite where we parked had a sign saying free tasters so obviously we went in there. They were making their own waffle cones and they smelt delicious so I ended up having a Hoky Poky ice cream in Hoki.
We pulled into Frans Josef and I met up with the girls again. I'd made my own food for dinner so I ate that and then sat in the bar whilst they had theirs. We spent the evening at the Moonsoon bar that was attached to our hostel, the rainforest retreat, and it was a really nice evening.
Day 145: Ice Explorer, hikes and hot pools in Frans Josef
We checked in at 9.15 for our Ice Explorer. We were given boots, waterproof trousers, a thick overcoat and wooly hat and a cool red bag to put all our stuff in. We got changed into our gear and them walked across the road (the most dangerous bit of our day statistically). We were helicoptered up onto the glacier and then we put our crampons on so we could walk around easier on the ice. The way to walk in crampons on ice is to walk like John Wayne and to stomp like an angry small child! It was so cool being up on the ice. The guide had to maintain the steps and the path as we walked around so we had lots of time to take photos and to appreciate where we were whilst he did that.
He showed us how far the ice has retreated in the last 6 years and told us the Maori story of how the Frans Josef glacier had formed. The story goes that a woman who was half human half god who lived in the mountain and she came down the the beach and feel in love with a human but she had ice cold blood and he had warm blood so everytime they touched it burnt. They decided to walk to Mount Cook to see one of the gods to ask if she can be turned human but Mount Cook is sacred and the human man should have asked permission to go there. Angered, the god set an avalanche down to kill him. She climbed to the highest point and cried and cried and cried. The other gods felt sorry for her and so frozen her tears as a permenant memorial to her grief.
We got to slide and shuffle our way through a little tunnel in the ice which was pretty cool and I'm so glad the guys went down first as I knew if they could squeeze out the other end I must be able to.
Just before we climbed down to the bottom and got the helicopter back, we took off our top layers and got a group shot...
A cafe had adverts where you wait to go onto the helicopter so all I was thinking about when I was hungry on the glacier was the bacon sandwich that was waiting for me at the bottom. Their advertising worked so after returning all our gear we walke across to the cafe and I had a delicious buttery bacon ciabatta smothered in ketchup. Mmmmmmm
In the afternoon 3 of us went for a 3 hour walk. We walked the 45 minutes out to the carpark and from there we did two small return walks. The first walk went to Peter's pool (actually a small kettle lake) were you could see the reflections of the mountains behind in it as it was so still. The second walk was vertically uphill up to a lookout point for the glacier. There was a really sad flip chart that showed just how much the glacier had retreated in the last 100 years. The glacier has been known to go through cycles of retreating and growing but the rate at which it's been retreating the last 6 years is unprecedented. When we were up on the ice you could see the line where it was 6 years ago and it's shrunk by a good 30m if not a lot more in height in that short amount of time.
After dinner we went to the hot pools across the road from the hostel as we got in free with our wrist band from the ice explorer. I thought they were naturally occurring hot pools like in Roturua but it was actually spring water that was heated to the perfect temperature. Not that I'm complaining! We all sat in one of the pools chatting until we were all prunes.
I was feeling so relaxed and sleepy after the hot pools that I ended up spending my Friday evening sitting in bed catching up with my diary. A guy from the hostel came round to check people weren't drinking in the rooms and we were like look at us... We have Bastille playing on my iPod and we're all sitting on our beds with our diaries. Does it look like we're drinking! I totally fit in with the kiwi experience stereotype of spending every night drinking!
Day 146: Lake Wanaka
The bus departed at 730 and our first stop was for a walk to Lake Mateson to check out the reflection of the mountains in it.
We then drove through the winding valleys if the aspiring national park. We stopped at a lot if scenic photo ops and the blue lake pools which was really pretty.
On the way into Wanaka we stopped at Puzzle world which was really cool. The first few rooms were full of illusions Nd then there was a tilted house that completely messed with your brain. Then we did the maze. It took us longer to find the exit than it did to find all 4 corners if the maze!
Tilted house - you can see on the protractor behind where horizontal is
Once we were in Wanaka and checked in we went to the Wanaka farm show. Saw alpacas, sheep, horse jumping and there were all these stalls selling clothes, tractors and jacuzzis! We then wandered down and sat by the lake for a while enjoying the view. One of the girls and I cooked dinner together and ate it outside on the balcony in shorts and a t shirt with the sunset over the snow capped mountains behind us. Pretty cool.
Something I overheard someone say is so true.... New Zealand is the only place where the actual views are better than any postcard you can buy. No camera can capture New Zealand's beauty.
In the evening we went to watch the new 300 movie at this really cool old fashion movie theatre which had sofas to sit on and half way through the film there was an interval and they served warm chocolate chip cookies. Such a comfy place to watch a film. So nice to be somewhere to chill out and watch a film rather than having to clamber up a ladder to go to bed or sitting hunched up on a bottom bunk so you don't smack your head.
Day 147: To Queenstown
Got to have a little lie in as the bus wasn't leaving until 10am so I got to sit in the park by the lake and chat to Will, which was nice since I hadn't spoken to him for 2 weeks!
Our first stop on the way to Queenstown was at the 45 degrees latitude line. So at this point you're exactly half way between the equator and the South Pole. All towns from here on South are nearer the South Pole than the equator! How crazy!!
45 degrees latitude line
On the way into Queenstoen ee stopped at the home of Bungy jumping and I watched some people from my group do it. I'm not that brave to do it myself. We then stopped at a lake where we went for a swim before pulling into Queenstown.
The girls were already there and waiting for me having filled in my details on the check in sheet. They sent me straight to reception whilst they hunted for my bag off the bus. Such a great idea of there's! I'd checked in, sorted myself out and was ready to head out whilst most of the kiwi bus where still milling around in reception waiting to be checked in. What good friends they are!
We went for a wandered around town to explore (it's a pretty small place) and then chilled out on the beach by the lake for the afternoon. We phoned and ordered fergburgers to skip the queues outside and then just went to pin them up and took them back to the beach to eat them. They live up to their name! They are the best burgers in the world. Mine was a delicious chicken, avo and bacon burger. You may think I'm doing my usual talking about what I've eaten but this burger has won awards and is often voted as the best burger in the world. A title which I think it deserves.
In the evening we went to a couple of bars to try out Queenstown legendary nightlife. Guessing what with it being a Sunday it wasn't as legendary as usually. The bars were cool but we ended up leaving the first place, which did cool tea lot cocktails, as we couldn't hear each other to talk to. We are getting so old! We had a good night though, again as always in NZ, not because of the place but because of the people I was with.
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