So we have finsihed our zippy tour of New Zealand, we did over 3,500km in our spaceships, Spock and Mork. It was great to have the freedom of a car after relying on buses and trains for so long.
Highlights
Sleeping outside a school by mistake and being invited to sleep on the driveway of the headmistress and then invited in for a shower and a coffee, lovely people.
Beeing invited in by another New Zealand family, who were very kind and made us feel at home
Seeing Milford Sound and almost being trapped by an avalanche
Learning to Ski in a day
Walking on a glacier that is moving a metre a day
Going out with some lovely Canadians to an impromptu comedy night in Christchurch
Doing the worlds fastest wine tour in three hours on the way to the ferry
Doing NZ best museam Te Papa
Walking around a volcanic region and smelling the country air
Becoming a Cheif for the night and getting a Maori greeting... very scary
We drove the few hours up to Auckland and said goodbye to our spaceship, Mork. He did us proud and we managed to drive 3,400 km around New Zealand, not counting the 2 bus trips we did, to the ski field and to the Lord of the Rings film set, so we feel we've got our money's worth. Views from the top of the tower; Kieran tries to ignore his vertigo
Auckland is a big cosmopolitan city but with only 24 hours and not much energy we just hung out. We did manage to get to the sky tower - a huge, well, tower with great views of Auckland and its surroundings (82km in each direction) and even got to see someone bungy jumping off the platform. Well, it wasn't really bungy but you still jump off and a rope slows you down near the bottom. Whatever, you won't catch me doing that!
The tiny dot to the right of the tower is a crazy woman!
New Zealand is famous for it's adrenaline sports and I can't decide if New Zealanders are just crazy people, or if NZ is such a boring place they feel they have to do extreme things to make life more interesting! El doing the sky jump...not!!
It was lovely to be back in a bed in a room and we celebrated by having a yummy Japanese meal...mmMMmmmm sushi.
We fly to Chile on Monday 27th at 5.35pm and then arrive in Santiago, Chile on Monday 27th at 1pm. HANG ON....HOW THE F*&%#$ DOES THAT WORK? I guess traveling around in a spaceship has given us the ability to time travel too!
Up to Rotorua and a bit of R&R is in order. It is a large sprawling town that feels like a giant suburb - all grid systems and cafes - built upon the legacy of the thermal pools. Every campsite and hotel has a thermal pool, or you can spend $100 on hot mud packs in a trendy spa. Like everywhere in NZ, there are a million and one things to do - helicopter flights, sky diving, bungy jumping, trekking, skiing, spa-ing, you name it. So we hung out in the lounge of our campsite and read our books. We did venture out on Friday night and chose a homely looking pub with cheap beer.
To our wonder and surprise they had some thing going where in the Rugby (it was playing) if they predicted the first person to get a try (I don't know what that means but Kieran says it's a bit like getting a goal) then they'll put $1000 behind the bar. They predicted and got it right so we feel it was our duty and obligation to drink as much as we could FOR FREE!!!!!!!! We went from beer to Margaritas to G&Ts and then we suddenly thought we ought to have some supper and had to tear ourselves away from the bar (there were only about 15 people in there so we could have kept going all night!!).
We decided to try for a bit of culture in Rotorua and went on a traditional Maori Hangi (feast) and concert. At the start of the evening someone was asked to volunteer to become the "chief" for the night and represent everyone there. Of course I volunteered Kieran and much to his dismay no-one else wanted to do it so he got to be chief of our tribe! We were shown around some rainforest and saw a traditional canoe being taken up a stream, complete with ethnic dancing and singing.
In the concert Kieran was expected to be on stage for the welcoming dance which is pretty scary. Lots of huka's and scary men running round with tattoos on their faces. He picked up the token peace gesture and had to make a speech, before being given the traditional Maori welcome - heads touching. He loved it really! The Maori folk then demonstrated lots of singing and dancing and musical instruments and gave us an idea of Maori culture. It was a really interesting experience and fun too. We did feel a bit sorry for the performers though as it was freezing and they were all wearing loincloths and skimpy wraps! Maori chief welcoming us to their tribal village.
Ah well, on to the feast where the food had been buried in a pit in the ground with fire and hot rocks to cook for a few hours and was now ready to be scoffed. No meat for El but the veggies and salads were plenty to be getting on with. All in all a lovely evening's entertainment and a great way to round up our trip.
The next day we headed further north still to Rotorua, one of New Zealand's most famous areas. On the way we stopped at another geothermal field - Wai-o-Tapu - where there is a staggering 17km square area of thermal pools, mud pools, and weird hot springs made odd colours by the high content of various chemicals, including sulphur. Their star attraction is Lady Knox Geyser, a rather boring looking thing that looks a bit like a miniature volcano.
It sits upon an underground pool of cold water that itself sits on a pool of hot water. When the pressure gets great enough the water mixes causing the geyser to shoot water into the air - sometimes as high as 20 metres. Of course, this being organised New Zealand, it was figured out (by accident) some years ago that the surface tension can be broken by putting soap into the crater and an "eruption" can be generated. So, of course, they do this at 10.15am every day (its natural blow cycle is about 2-3 days).
We all sat curiously around the geyser while the soap was added. It started bubbling over with foam almost immediately and took about 5-10 minutes to get going, and then suddenly the water was spurting out of the top between about 4-8 metres tall. Bonkers.
Lady Knox Geyser
The rest of the area is just crazy. Huge bright yellow lakes with translucent water lapping at rocks stained red and orange by the chemicals. Bubbling mud pools with the gurgling sounds of babies blowing bubbles. Even the moss and foliage is stained bright orange by chemicals that interfere with the chlorophyll in the plants. All in all we have never seen anything like it and makes you wonder in awe at nature.
You think you've seen everything in New Zealand and then you travel 50 kms and it surprises you all over again!
We had a good 5 hour drive up to Lake Taupo, pretty much in the centre of NZ's North island. Driving north of Wellington, it is striking how much more it is populated that the South island. The strangest thing is that the countryside suddenly becomes just like the home counties - gently rolling hills with green grass and English-looking trees, with sheep and hedges and you could be on the A404 driving through Oxfordshire. All of a sudden the mountains start to appear but these mountains are Volcanic and we started to enter one of the world's most active volcanic regions. We passed two volcanoes and were struck by how beautiful they were and how different to normal mountains. The second - Mount Ruapehu - is just the epitome of what a classic volcano should look like, but covered with snow. Just stunning.
Mount Ruapehu Finally we got to Lake Taupo, a pretty lake in the shadow of the volcanoes, and made a stop at a nearby attraction: The Craters of the Moon. This whole area is a big geothermal field where the heat in the Earth is desperately trying to get out and does so in the form of sending heat rising to the surface causing these incredible areas where steam literally seeps out of the ground, plus geysers, mud pools and a variety of bonkers sights.
We got a late ferry crossing over the Cook Straight between the South and North islands and arrived in Wellington just in time for bed. It is by far the largest city we have come across in NZ and really has a city feel. Having said that there is still something small about it and there is not much problem in walking around most of the city centre in a day.
The museum in Wellington - Te Papa - is legendary and every single person we have met has gushed about it so we felt it really ought to be our first stop. It covers a massive 5 floors and includes exhibitions on wildlife (cue stuffed Kiwi animals), forces of the earth (cue earthquake rooms and videos of volcanoes), and of course a wealth of Maori historic and cultural information. A lot of money has been spent on the exhibits and modern technology has been put to really good use with computer screens and videos all over the place.
To be honest the wildlife and geological sections were interesting but we kinda knew a lot of it already, but the Maori section was fascinating with huge replica buildings - sacred and homely - and a huge number of beautiful carvings and feather-woven cloaks give a really good introduction to the rich cultural heritage that Maoris are trying hard to make sure it is not forgotten. One morning was enough though and after a coffee and cake in the excellent cafe we meandered around town to get a feel for the place.
Day 2 saw us go to another museum - Wellington City and Sea - which had a wonderful exhibition on twentieth century Wellington with 100 "stories" about Wellington, one for each year of the century. It was a fascinating insight into this new town and the English and Scottish heritage of the place is very apparent.
Finally we had a little drive around the suburbs and were surprised by how hilly and windy all the outskirts of Wellington are. We had a good bout of culture here and had a wonderful stay in the best hotel we've stayed in so far - a YHA - and I can tell you sleeping in a bedroom after 2 weeks of a camper vans is a luxury indeed!
We decided to take the North island a bit more slowly in our last week here and have only 2 stops before getting to Auckland on bank holiday Monday. We need a bit of a break and after covering a lot of miles feel that we can sit back and take it a bit more easy...just got to do the 5 hours drive to our next destination.
The drive north of Kaikoura takes you through the key wine-making region of New Zealand - Marlborough - where the relatively hot and dry climate is ideal for wine producing. Mainly Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, the vineyards sprawl across the rolling hills and in the small town of Blenheim you could do a different wine tasting in a different winery every day and still be at it after about 2 months!
We chose a short tour around the largest and oldest winery, Montana, where you get to learn about the wine-making process, albeit in a mass-produced way, and then (most importantly) get to sample 5 wines from their top range. The tour was interesting and Kieran kept the tour guide on her toes by asking a million questions. The wine was pretty good too but all out of our price range.
Kieran tries a little fruity number
We hot-footed it to a smaller, independent winery who, as we discovered, were only open for another 10 minutes when we got there. We didn't care and still managed to knock back a few samples and came away with 2 excellent bottles of wine to guzzle at our leisure at a later date!
The we caught a ferry from Picton on the north of the South island and headed to the bright light of Wellington. Although there is mountainous scenery in the North island, it is much more populated and the emphasis is more on culture (NZ and Maori) rather than rugged good looks. We have seen so much beauty and vibrancy in the past 2 weeks that in some way the city will be a relief as there is this constant feeling that just around the next corner will be something even more fantastic. You think you've seen everything here and then you drive 20km in a different direction and you could be in a different country or continent. We'll be sad to leave this leg of our journey but eager to slow the pace a bit in the North island and learn a bit more about Maori culture and legend.
We went further up the East coast to a small (tiny) town called Kaikoura where we planned to swim with dolphins and perhaps meet up with Matt & Mary (our new friends from Christchurch). We arrived in time to take a lovely coastal walk around the peninsula where seal colonies live and rest on the beaches and rocky outcrops. It has big rolling hills, bright green with grass and dotted with white fluffy sheep. It is spookily like the Dorset coastline actually - even some of the vegetation is the same: thistles and daisies among the grass.
A bit of al fresco dining
We had a delicious seafood lunch at a roadside stall so decided to splash out on a gourmet meal that night and went to the local gourmet dinery. The food was no disappointment and neither was the wine. We got chatting to a nice Welsh lady sitting near us who was also planning to swim with Dolphins the next day. There was a bit of excitement later on when she started choking on something. We asked if she was OK and when she shook her head and pointed to her back Kieran leapt to her aid and gave her a good hearty whack in the back, followed by the Heimlich maneuver (although you're not supposed to do that anymore). Luckily this did the trick and she was incredibly grateful among her embarrassment. We were all rather proud of Kieran who became the restaurant hero - he was calm and didn't even stop to think (I hadn't even put my fork down before he was by her side). He does claim that he was just trying to feel her tits but I don't believe a word of it!
Even the restaurant seemed to think he was a hero and gave us a cheeseboard for free which was really kind of them!
Anyway, the next morning we got up to swim with the Dolphins. OK yes the sea is bloody cold - a measly 8 degrees (In Thailand it was 30) - but we would have thick wetsuits (7mm) and hot showers on the boat and as the pods of dolphins were totally wild it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. The pods can reach up to the hundreds and even up to a thousand so we had high hopes for a really special experience.
We suited up at the shop and caught the bus to the boat while they radioed the plane they send up to find the pods to see where they were. "Sorry guys", our guide came and said. "The plane can't find any dolphins and the wind is picking up so we're not going to go". The boat wasn't even in the water at this point so we felt very disappointed. We hung around for the afternoon boat but that was canceled too so we didn't get to do it this time.
The closest we got to the dolphins...this time anyway
We reluctantly left our rainforest campsite to head back over the Southern Alps - over Arthur's Pass - and back to Christchurch to change our 4X4 car for a normal one (a bit cheaper). Arthur's pass is a famously picturesque mountain drive and we'd been looking forward to it for ages. The weather wasn't really on our side though and much of the drive - like Milford Sound - was in cloud, although what was left over was pretty lovely anyway!
I think the highlight of the journey for both of us was passing through Springfield and seeing a giant donut a la Simpsons by the side of the road, and then coming across a field of Ostriches. They are bloody massive and pretty scary!
So we swapped our spaceship "Spock" for another, "Mork" and checked into a campsite. We got chatting to a Canadian couple, Matt and Mary who invited us to join them in going to an improvisation night (like "Who's Line is it Anyway?") which we jumped at. After wetting our whistles with a few glasses of red wine, we had a really good laugh at the theatre and the evening was made even more special by some bloke proposing to his girlfriend live on stage (he set it up with the show's host). Not surprisingly she was very embarrassed but to our relief said yes! It was also lovely to meet up with some really nice people and go out on the town for a change.
The next morning we opted for a bit of culture, although Kieran's hangover spoiled it somewhat for him. We went to see "the bone dude" and hand carved our own traditional Maori bone pendant. It was actually pretty easy but really fun and the bone dude, John, was a patient and funny instructor. We both came away with really lovely necklaces and a sense of exercising our creative craft juices.
The afternoon saw us in the Antacrtic centre, cooing at little blue penguins and trying out their antarctic room which is kept at a constant minus 8 degrees with snow and ice. To be honest it felt pretty similar to temperatures in Queenstown but then once an hour they dim the lights, ramp up the "wind" and simulate blizzard conditions (without the snowstorm though). The wind chill factor takes it down to about minus 18 which is bloody freezing and although we lasted the full 5 minutes we were glad to get the hell out of there!
I've got a very cold nose
We finished up by going to a cinema and seeing a really funny NZ film - Eagle Vs Shark - about 2 geeks falling in love. Despite the sprawling nature of Christchurch, it has a lovely relaxed feel to it and we had a good little relax while we were there.
New Zealanders love giving things humourous names (see above)
We left Queenstown among beautiful weather (again!) and made the once again spectacular journey back up to Wanaka and then over the Southern Alps to the West coast. It is really lake country in this area and the routes are dotted with places to get out and stretch your legs and take another gazillion photos. Once again the scenery turned from brown grassland around Queenstown, to more greener areas around Wanaka, then past the lakes there was more forest - some of it rainforest and some of it more normal woods, but the mountains were green rather than brown grass.
The lakes provide breathtaking views and stunning reflections and it is really getting to the point where I'm running out of good adjectives for all this lovely countryside!! Once we got over the the West coast and started heading north the beaches provided a completely new stunner for us. The terrain over on the West coast is very rugged again and bears the brunt of the bad weather from the sea. The trees give a whole new meaning to windswept and because of the proliferation of sand flies (nasty biting flies, a bit like mozzies) there is very little settlement here.
We did find one beach which was a mixture of sand, beautiful rounded pebbles and the kind of driftwood that could easily be shown in art galleries and sold for extortionate prices! Luckily the sand flies didn't really get us although we did decide to eat our vegemite and crisp sarnies in the car! We passed a salmon farm and got some delicious smoked salmon pate and headed up the windy coastal road to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. We drove up to Fox and touched the icy meltwater, but you can't actually get close to the glacier at this point.
Beware of avalanches, surf and people drowning
Instead, the next day, we went on a glacier walking tour and, armed with crampons and warm gloves, we had a 3-hour walk among the glacier. If you've never done this it doesn't sound very exciting but it is something else to wander about on ice so blue it looks like sky (unfortunately though the sky was a rather murky shade of grey that day!). To make it really special we even smuggled a small bottle of bubbly to eat with our vegemite and crisp sarnies for lunch - mmmMMmmmm, the ONLY way to enjoy glaciers darling!
Admittedly, the journey wasn't too hard as the guides carve out steps with their pick axes as you go along, and constant trips leave a myriad of previously cut steps, so the going isn't too tough but you still get a great sense of adventure. Quite an exhausting day but rounded off nicely by a visit to our campsite's outdoor hot spa (jacuzzi) which was a lovely hot bath to soothe our aches and pains. If you add the fact the campsite was actually situated among virgin rainforest as well it must rate pretty highly as one of the best we've stayed in!
Queenstown was great. We camped in a site not far from town. First day we chilled out and booked ourselves into skiing the next day, beginners pack for 145 dollars all in.
The kitchen area in the campsite was wall-to-wall glass which must be great in the summer but in near -4 conditions was no fun for us, we ended up switching on all of the 40 cooking hobs to stop ourselves from freezing. This was OK as we were the only ones stupid, or tight enough, to be cooking :-).
In the morning the spaceship had stalactites in the inside of the window, I am not sure if this thing is airtight and safe for proper space travel.
El bought us a NZ mascot for the car a big fat sheep called Wellllington (said in an NZ accent) that has been keeping our good karma up.
The next day we headed off for the slopes in a van, with a load of school kids on a trip. The day before they had to put snow tracks on the van and the trip took ages, but we were lucky and it only took an hour. Our good karma again!.
El and I had a quick go before our lesson and El did so well that we skipped the number one lesson and went straight to number two, El was born to ski!.
I can't tell you how much more fun this is than snowboarding!!!
After a two-hour lesson with our Italian Ski instructor, Gabriela (all he kept saying was: WE GO NOWA! ) we went up the top slope on our own, El is a speed demon and scares me a bit!!! She kept wanted to go offslope and go "Freestyle" as she called it lol.
We met some Aussies at lunch and had a nice chat, until one of them pointed out that nobody much likes the English, which insulted El and interested me as it was the first bit of racist opinion that I had heard about the English. James had a book called "The Angry Englishman" which covered the world opinion of the English that I must read when I get home.
So after a wicked day we finished off in the Queenstown wine experience where you load a card up with money and go to a machine where the bottles are are filled up with argon, an inert gas, so the wine does not go off and you swipe the machine and it gives you a taster... we were in our element, it felt like gambling and always winning :-). It was a great night and we ended up in a bar with a huge log fire and massive leather sofas and drinking far too much wine, but it made us feel like we were at home and that was nice... while the hangover was not.
Kieran tasting a bit of wine....he's quite the expert, you know
We made an early start from Te Anau and hired our obligatory snow chains from the garage once we'd found out that the road was going to be open at 11am (yippee!). It was about a 2-3 hour journey over the mountains to the fjord of Milford Sound and it was proving to be a most spectacular drive.
The road begins in fairly open country and after 60kms or so you pass a few lakes and then plunge into forest territory. This part of the world is actually tropical rainforest (albeit a bit colder than the amazon at this time of year) and so the forest is incredibly wet - the trees are covered with amazing lichens literally dripping off the leaves, and ferns cover the forest floor like a rich and lush carpet. Tree Feen
Unlike the brown grassy tussocks in the east coast around Canterbury, the mountains take on a dark greenness that you expect from New Zealand with snow-capped mountains framing the scenery in usual fabulous fashion.
Lovely Lake reflection
Every valley you encounter on this trip has different weather systems and we covered everything from bright sunshine to near snow on the way. Once we got to the part of the road that can be closed it was not yet open (avalanche clearing still in progress) so we took a short detour to a waterfall walk - The Humboldt falls. The waterfall itself was very pretty but the best thing was the walk itself through (almost) pristine rainforest. Huge tree ferns line the route with lichens and moss taking over like a crazy virus, the water drips from the trees and the plants and shrubs make English woods seem barren and bare. Remember this is mid-winter here and yet still the deciduous trees are covered with foliage and the smells and the sounds of the birds and wildlife are truly invigorating.
Finally we got to Milford Sound and headed out on a boat trip. Milford sound is a fjord some 450m deep and stretches out to sea amid some impressive mountain scenery. Many people feel this is one of the most amazing sights in New Zealand so we were a bit disappointed that the sky was very cloudy and rain threatened like a big guy with a knife in a dark alley!
El looking snug as a bug
Nevertheless, the trip was pretty awesome and we tried not to think about all the mountains views we were missing behind the clouds. In fact the weather gave the whole area a moody and dramatic atmosphere. On the outskirts of the open sea we even saw some seals on the rocks which was pretty cool, and then the rain started.
Ah well, it was still dramatic from inside the boat and the free tea and coffee helped to warm our numb fingers. The drive back to Te Anau was equally as spectacular with numerous opportunities for photos. As we drove back we stopped off at a short canyon walk with a powerful stream which had eroded weird shapes in the bedrock and we were treated to a close up of New Zealand's crazy rainforest parrots - known as Keas - that are incredibly friendly and curious and, apparently, are exceeded in intelligence only by dolphins and monkeys.
Finally on the road home we were stopped by an avalanche (not literally, it was actually a traffic jam that stopped us!) and we wondered if we'd get back that night. Luckily the avalanche dudes sorted it quickly and we managed to get all the way back to Queenstown that night, ready for a bit of R&R.
We left Wanaka in Spock (our spaceship) and headed around the snow fields to Queenstown, with a brief stop off in a town who's draw card was a bunch of giant fruit sculpture.. so we stopped off and took a picture and drove off again,!.. as you do.
El looks beautiful framed by fruit by the way
We drove into Queenstown in the rain but the scenery had changed again into tall canyons that had a red colour. Queenstown had a much better feel than Wanaka, more of the ski town feel I expected. We stopped off to check the road condition of Milford sounds and discovered that the road was closed and that they were flying around with dynamite in a helicopter blowing the hell out of the potential avalanche spots. I joked with the girl in the info centre that that would make a great tourist tour. So the girl said that we could go to Te Anau the gateway to Milford sounds and stay the night there and hope that the road would open the next day.
We drove down and again the scenery changed to a more bleak landscape. NZ is amazing like that, that every two hours the landscape keeps changing, so most of our pics have been landscape shots instead of people like the ones in Asia.
Te Anau was a little town on the edge of another lake, one thing that the south island is not short of: mountains, sheep and lakes. The only events to do were to watch a film made about Milford Sounds or go to an underwater cave with glowworms, unfortunately the cave was flooded and all the glow worms had probably drowned, so we watched the film instead. The cinema was specially made for the film and had the best chairs, nearer to sofas really, that I have ever ever sat on. The film was directed by a local helicopter company owner and made over ten years, so all the shots were made from a chopper and some of the footage was amazing, we could not wait for tomorrow, fingers crossed that the road was open.
We tried to go skiing in Methven (home of Tom's parents, Bill & Cheryl) but the road was closed so we headed south-west for the couple hundred km drive to Wanaka. The countryside around Christchurch is very flat with mountains in the distance and we took the road that skirted the hills. They are very rounded and covered with this yellow tussock grass giving the area a very rugged look. The snow-capped peaks in the background give a very scenic view and makes driving very pleasurable.
We skirted past Lake Tekapo (or lake take-a-pooh as Kieran calls it) and admired the scenery. Already the wind was picking up and the clouds were gathering so we didn't hang around very long. Then onto Lake Pukaki where the minerals in the water make the lake an incredible vibrant bright milky blue colour that has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately the sun is very low in the sky and so many of our photos don't do the colours and landscape justice.
Then on over an amazing pass with windy roads on the sides of rugged and beautiful mountains. We finally got to Wanaka, also situated by a huge lake, at the same time as the rain but we settled in for the night and hoped we'd see a bit of the town and local countryside.
We headed out, rather optimistically, in the rain the next morning to Rob Roy Glacier, a small glacier about an hour's drive up a wonderful unsealed road, through about 7 fords and up a stunning valley. Even when it is pissing with rain the scenery is staggering beautiful. Unfortunately it really was raining too hard for the walk so we headed back down the road and went to "Puzzling World" instead: a crazy Escher-inspired museum-cum-puzzle house with lots of perspective perplexities which was most enjoyable and helped pass a rainy afternoon.
It's a puzzle
Wanaka is a small town, and everything in NZ is small really, so there was not an awful lot to do. We were eager to do more fun stuff so we decided to head further south to Queenstown and beyond, while it was raining.
We got the flight OK and picked up our spaceship named "Spock"... cool eh? (double bed and gas cooker in the back) and we drove out of Christchurch and ended up sleeping behind a house when we go too tired to travel any more and just had to stop... We got a knock on the door at about 10.30pm (which gave us a bit of a fright), and thought "oh no! we are going to be moved on". It turned out that we had parked behind the local school and Anthony, who was knocking on the car door, was the husband of the school principal coming to check up that we were not evil robbers out to steal from the school!
In true Kiwi style he invited us to park on his lawn instead and come in for a coffee and shower at theirs in the morning, what a welcome to New Zealand hey!!! :-)
Our first camp site - thanks Anthony & Diana
We went into to see Anthony and Diana, the school principal, in the morning (K was a bit scared that we were going to get detention, but luckily she was lovely) and had a lovely hot shower and coffee, and some toast with vegemite. We actually made Anthony late for work as he kindly gave us a few hints and tips on what to do and scribbled on our map in a felt pen.
We set off to the local town to take a Lord of the Rings tour and went to see where Edoras in Rohan and Helms Deep was shot. We headed to "Erewhon" (nowhere splet backwards) and took a 6-wheel drive over some rough tracks and through a few rivers and halfway up the outcrop where the capital of Rohan was built: Mount Sunday. The scenery of the Southern Alps is amazing: snow on the peaks and the basin of the mountains where the glaciers had cut flat the mountains into a rugged landscape of thorn bushes and these lovely golden soft bushes, smaller but similar to the type that you get on sand dunes. Geeks in the audience will recognise this mound
We walked up the outcrop and re-enacted some of the Rohan scenes ("Your words are poison!") and took some photos of us with a flag and a battle axe, finishing off with a yummy sandwich and glass of champagne.
We even did some reanacting of the film
This evening we had dinner at Toms parent's house. We met Tom in Singapore and he said to look his parents up, we did and they kindly cooked a lovely meal for us and even gave Eleanor a chance to do some yoga with Cheryl :-).
All in all we had a great time and I think a lovely start to Kiwi land. We can't believe how friendly everyone is and although our little car is pretty cosy to sleep in, at this rate we'll get a few beds after all!
A slightly different view of the opera house
We woke up today and had a lazy morning at James's flat on our arses (is that better Norman :-)), we finally emerged and walked over Sydney Harbour Bridge in fantastic crisp winter sun to see the Opera House up close. The building has a strange but lovely design up close kind of a half honeycomb. We saw a half aborigine blowing on his didgery doo on the way, which was a bloody ripper mate!
We then caught a bus to Bondi Beach, the famous surfer beach of Sydney, there we saw some 50 odd surfers in the middle of winter, some joggers, and a few skaters in a skate park... these Australians really like the outdoor life. This, I think, was the biggest thing that I will take away from Oz, the smiles and easy going nature that comes I think from the family outdoor life that they seem to lead here, or maybe it is the fact that it is not so bloody cold here. The view around the headland at Bondi beach
The walk around Bondi was not as impressive as Manly but more interesting was the bus ride over there as the route went through a more run down / older area of Sydney, and it was nice to get a contrast of the residental areas here.
We met James after his work day ended, in his local cafe "Stir crazy", a fantastic place, where I have a sneaky suspision that James spends as much time as possible (further evidenced by the fact his fridge is empty). El and I have named Sydney the City of Good Smells, as it has been the best smelling city so far on our trip, strange but true, after traveling around Asia for 8 months.
It has been fantastic to see one of my best mates after so long and to find out that he is happy in his new life and planing to stay here (maybe), all the better for free OZ holidays for us :-)
Bid of a shame though thad we caughd his illness - Teenaemia - because all Aussies oud here suffer the same illness where because they don't drink enough tea, they put "d" in words where "t" should be. Id is hard to notice ad firsd bud liddle by liddle you stard to pick id up yourself undil you need to make a brew to replace all the losd t's. We tried to make James drink lots of tea to cure him bud id remains to be seen whether id works or not.
We had a spectacular flight over Australia. Great swathes of bugger all pock-marked with the odd road or town. Quite an awesome sight and a great introduction to a new country and continent.
James met us from the airport and it is WONDERFUL to see him - both because he is a great friend who we have missed terribly since he moved here 2 years ago, but also because it is wonderful to stay in a home and be able to pretend to be a normal person for a few days.
We just had a few red wines on our first night and on our first day we headed into Sydney city centre for a bit of shopping and wandering around to soak up the atmosphere of the place. We picked up some proper food on the way home and El cooked a delicious pasta for dinner. It may have been slightly helped by he LLoyd Grossman's pasta sauce that we found in "treats from home" - a shop that imports English stuff. We also bought curly wurlies and laughed at the fact they had everything from marmite to black jacks and wham bars!
We then decided to head out on a lovely coastal walk from north Sydney up to Manly Beach, one of Sydney's main beaches. The walk was knackering but really beautiful and was very remensicent of Dorset scenery in a funny sort of way. We caught the ferry back from Manly Beach after drinking the best hot chocolate ever!
We love Sydney. The food is brilliant, the people are so friendly it takes you twice as long to get anywhere because you end up taking to random strangers on the way, the scenery is stunning, the weather is mild and sunny for mid-winter, it is spotlessly clean and basically Kieran and I have thought very seriously about coming back here for a year to live and work.
Saturday night was us going out into town for a few bevvies and so sample some Sydney Nightlife. It was great to be out as a person and not as a tourist! Suffice it to say an awful lot has been drunk in the past few days and Saturday night was no exception.
Sunday saw us having a real life Sunday: lie in until 11am, head out to pub, have barbeque in pub (you buy meat/fish and BBQ it on the bbq provided), drunk beer, played pool, then headed home to drink more and eat more and watch a video. Proper Aussie barbeque plus a few tinnies!
El finishes off the trip with a sing at the opera house
Sadly the extraordinarily yummy chilli crab (or something else) gave El a pretty bad tummy so she spent the 2nd and 3rd day pretty much in bed with a high fever and bad tummy. It was horrible and Kieran was very bored- he found the local gaming arcade though where he was able to get a fix of computer games, something he's been craving for ages.
We finally managed to get out on the last day and headed to Raffles Hotel, named after the founder of Singapore, and also the location of the birth of the "Singapore Sling" cocktail with our roommate, Tom, from New Zealand.
The hotel is an amazing, beautiful white building with a warren of rooms: tea rooms, bars, billiard rooms, gift shop, restaurants. If you had the money (of which apparently you'd need tons - the cheapest room is over $700) it would be a fabulous place to spend a few days.
The long bar, where we got our Singapore Slings is a classic old bar where you get a box of monkey nuts with your drink and you are actively encouraged to litter the floor with the shells. Sounds quaint, and in a way it is, but you can't help wanting them to sweep up a bit as the rest of the city is so spotless. We enjoyed our sling but tried not to be too disheartened when we spotted the barman pouring out the drinks from a tap rather than making it fresh, and yet it cost about 8 quid per glass (gulp)!!!
We then headed to a micro brewery at Clark's Quay - a trendy area full of bars and restaurants. We failed to have dinner so ended up searching the streets late at night but eventually found somewhere wo eat (phew) although the food wasn't the ideal last Asian dish we had hoped for the end of the Asian leg of our trip. Kieran and Tom drink BEER
Lucky for us, Tom was also heading to the airport the next morning on business expenses so we shared his taxi and got to the airport cheaply and with plenty of time. Singapore airport is supposed to be the best airport in the world and we enjoyed spending our last hours in Asia sampling it's coffee shops and free internet terminals.
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