Wellington to Queenstown

On the 20th August we left the North Island, jumped on a ferry and 3 hours later arrived in Picton on the South Island. Like the last blog I am just going to give you a brief overview of what we did on each day. Hold on to your hats though as this was rather an action packed segment of my New Zealand trip!

Day 1 - After a really late nght and slightly excessive consumption of the hard stuff we all felt absolutely dreadful today so much so that Becky and I spent most of the 3 hour ferry journey over to the South Island asleep on reclining cinema chairs - well they were only playing cartoons for goodness sake! Fortunately we both woke up in time to enjoy the amazing Marlborough Sounds which you sail through on approaching the port at Picton.

First stop on the South Island was Hunters winery for a spot of wine tasting. Now I have to say that, given the way I felt, this would not ordinarily have been my first choice of activity and yet the wine went down surprisingly easily! Becky and I shared our wine (and therefore cost) which worked out remarkably well as the women, taking pity on us sharing, kept putting a little bit extra in our glass - bonus!

Our accommodation that night was in Abel Tasman National Park at a place called 'Old Macdonalds Farm' not the best of joints I can tell you. In our haste to get the best pick of the rooms, we managed to get disorientated in the dark and ended up with the worst - the one with the broken heater. Plunged into depression things were not looking good for us until we had a revelation - why not sleep in the TV room with it's 2 daybeds, sofa, heater, TV, space and proximity to the bathroom (everyone else had to go outside to get to the toilet block) - so you see every cloud!

Day 2 - Joy of joys we have nothing to get up early for - in fact it's amazing how much joy being able to lie in bed until 9am can bring! Our activity for today was hang gliding. We were picked up from reception at midday by our pilot Tom and driven to the airstrip at Matueka. I was the first to go up so having put on my cosy body suit I was zipped into what was essentially a footless bag, clipped to the actual hang glider then Tom the pilot got into his body bag and rolled the glider forward so we both slowly moved into the lying position (with me on top - see photos). We were then attached to a microlite plane which dragged us up 3000m above sea level before releasing us. I absolutely loved the initial take off - in fact my teeth were freezing I was smiling that much. When we were released from the plane I told him to pull out all the stops so he started breaking, accelerating, twisting and turning it is such good fun but a bit of a tummy turner too! Becky went up after me and then finally it was tall Becky's go. She was the most nervous of the 3 of us so we couldn't believe it when her drag chord broke at 1000m and Tom had to do an emergency landing in a nearby paddock. Both landed safe and sound but Becky politely declined the offer of another go.

Day 3 - The weather was absolutely dreadful again on day 3 which is such a shame as there is nothing more soul destroying than sitting for hours on a steamed up bus! We did stop a couple of times, firstly at West Port famous for it's seal colony and secondly at Punaiki in the Paparoa National Park to see the blowholes and pancake rocks. The biggest highlight of today however was bone carving - oh yes a group of us all went to a workshop to carve a necklace for ourselves out of the shin bone of a cow - how sexy is that? The necklace designs are based on 3 main Mauri shapes:

The triple twist - which represents a bonding of friendship, 2 lives becoming one for all eternity; The Spiral - which depicts new beginnings, growth and harmony; The fish hook - which represents strength and determnation and brings peace, prosperity and good health. It also provides a safe journey over water.

Erring on the side of caution I decided to select a design which incorporated all 3 of these design elements - well you can never be too careful!

Day 4 - Today was a driving day all the way over to Franz Josef and once again in the torrential rain! Following such an arduous day Becky, Liv and I decided to go and spend an hour lounging in the spa pool at our accommodation at Rainforest Lodge in Franz Josef. It was fantastic apart from the fact that the chlorine completely discoloured Liv's Tiffany bracelet!

Day 5 - The gods were shining on us today. After 2 days of rain the sun was out which brought enormous smiles to our faces as today is the day that we go for our glacier walk on Franz Josef. First stop was the walk offices to get kitted out with our walking gear - over trousers, socks, boots, crampons, jacket, hat and gloves.We were then bundled onto a bus and driven to the start of the walk though it's actually a 2 km walk just from the road to the bottom of the glacier! On arrival we were then separated into 3 groups - group 1 were the fastest, group 2 slightly slower and group 3 the dawdlers who wanted to take lots of photos. It was completely voluntary so we all decided that we were here for fun and joined group 3 - we can't have been that slow through as we actually overtook group 2! We then went on to have the most fantastic day, I won't bore you with the details but take a look at the photos to get a taste of what we did. Brilliant!

Day 6 - One can never have enough excitement, so this morning I chose to get up at 6am and head off to the airstrip near Lake Matheson to throw myself out of a plane - oh yes I'm going skydiving! There were a few clouds in the sky when we first arrived but by the time I came to jump (I was last along with a german girl called Caroline) the sky was clear and blue. We were taken up in a little sessner and then at 12000m the door is flung open and you're off. I remember thinking I can't believe I am just hanging here with only the man behind me stopping me from plunging to my death, as I dangled from his body. The free fall was amazing and went on for a good length of time until the parachute was opened and we gently glided down to the ground with a perfect landing.So that's another tick on the 'Things to do before I die' list - hurrah!

After the skydive we headed over to Lake Matheson to meet the rest of the bus. Lake Matheson is famous because it is so still that the backdrop of Franz Josef looks like a mirror image in it's reflection. So the idea is you don't know which way is the right way to hold your photo. Unfortunately there were ducks on the lake when we went to take photos so you most definitely know which way to hold my photo up! The scenery on our bus journey for the rest of the day was quite spectacular as we drove through the Mount Aspiring National Park. We stopped a few times for some short walks including the blue pools with its bouncy footbridge and snow (which resulted in an impromptu snowball fight - always a bad move on my part as I can't throw for toffee).

Our accommodation this evening was in Makarora - the story goes that the owner was driving through the area when his vehicle broke down, he managed to contact his wife and ask her to bring him some tools over. On her arrival she was blown away by the scenery and so they built a holiday village right there, in fact his pickup truck still stands as a monument in front of reception to this day. We were in lovely little pyramid cabins and so us girls took full advantage and had a bit of a pre karaoke party in our lodge, then it was on to the karaoke and then onto some locals house for a party, eventually turning in at 5.30am. Not the best move when we were all getting up at 7am but fun non the less!!!!

Day 7 - Today was all about driving to Queenstown but first we had to stop at the beautiful lakeside town of Wanaka to drop off some people including the 2 Becky's - boo hoo! Then we moved onto the first bungy jumping site of A J Hackett. They've built a proper centre with a cafe and a video room which we were herded into on our arrival. I have to say that the video you're shown is quite motivational and even I began to mellow towards the idea. In the end Liv and another german girl, Laura, decided that they would have a go there and then. Liv looked great, although she did scream and swear all the way down - again I felt quite tempted to have a go but in the end I decided to refrain - who knows though, maybe another day!

Day 8 - Liv and I are the only one's in the group to be going on this 3 day trip down to Milford Sound and Stuart Island so we left everyone else tucked up in their nice warm beds, lucky things! The primary activity for today was to take a boat ride on the beautiful Milford Sound, there's just one problem though - the weather is absolutely pants!!!! Oh yes it's steamed up bus time again. To get to the sounds you have to drive through the Homer Tunnel which was initially touch and go as there had been a recent avalanche and there were current avalanche warnings too. We actually drove through snow which was as tall as the bus to get to the tunnel. The tunnel, which cuts through the Southern Alps, was a project which was started in 1935 to provide work for the unemployed. Carved out by hand this was a phenomenal effort given that it's 1200m long and has a gradient of 1:10. The trip down the Fiord and out to the Abel Tasman sea is on a big tourist boat which I'm sure on a sunny day is beautiful but quite frankly in the wind, rain and mist it wasn't that awe inspiring! The fun thing was our accommodation for the night. We were staying at a place called Gunns Camp which is the original camp site for the people working on the Homer Tunnel. These were little wooden huts each with 2 small rooms, sleeping 2-3 people, and a small lounge complete with a real range which we had to keep burning - it was so cute and cosy!

Day 9 - Todays itinerary stated that we should drive for hours to some beach on the off chance that we might see some whales but Apples, our guide, suggested that, given the weather, we should forget this idea and head straight to Invercargill - the bus was whole heartedly in agreement. As the weather is so bad we have been advised not to go to Stuart island so it looks like we have got 2 days in Invercargill! We went to the museum today which fortunately was free. The most interesting thing was a film about a local guy called Bert Munro who held the fastest land record on a motorbike. He achieved this when he was in his 70's on a bike that he had bought in the 1920's. This colourful character actually had a film made about him called 'The Fastest Indian' with Anthony Hopkins actually playing him - how about that! Apples later took us to the beach where Bert used to practice on his motorbike.

Day 10 - We left Invercagill at 4pm for Queenstown but before that Liv and I went shopping. Liv is a professional charity shop shopper so off we set to check out Invercargill's offerings. It was really good fun and a number of items were purchased. It was also exciting arriving in Queenstown tonight as all the girls are back in town and David has arrived there too. We all decided to go out for the night but that it would be low key with a big night tomorrow for Lora and Breda's last night.