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I know, this is bit of a cheat really, as we are now home, but lets ignore that fact for now, and tell the story of New Zealand.
First, Christchurch, a lovely... city. small and very quaint, beautiful, with a sort of english feel to it. Very pretty, and colder climate. We stayed two days, slept for one and arranged oward travel for the next. The spaceship we hired ws called Krissy and she was a bewt. We went up to Kaikora and saw seals basking on the sea shore which was amazing, all in their natural glory and behaving like big tired beasts.. Quite an amazing sight really. We woke in the morning and saw dolphins playing off the coast, and got a real sense of the hugeness and great depth of the ocean just 1k off shore. Its like the whale M5, with regulars and lots of migrgating whales passing by. What a contrast to WA! Then off up to Hamner Springs to bathe in the natural springs for the afternoon. By this point it was hot hot hot - and a splash in these strange mineral baths was lush!
Next day we drove Krissy through winding vineyards up to Nelson, to get near to meeting with Ruth for a few days. Bizarrely, we pulled into a camp site, gave her a ring and she was 5 minutes away, literally! After meeting the gorgeous Joel and sharing excitement, she went off to be with him, and we agreed to meet the next day.
The sky was similar to WA, with massive big skies, only penetrated by mountains and clouds causing incredible colours and shapes.... amazing. We loved sleeping under the Southern Cross, staring at the billion star sky and wondering about big cosmic things...
The festival - a smalll but perfectly formed affair, in a mountainous basin. I have never been to a festy with such perfect sound arrangements - you could not hear one system over another as they were spaced out in such a way that you just walked over a ridge to hear the D&B music, or live stage.... very, very cool. This was our first feast of the sand flies, and they feasted on us like it ws christmas day or something. After the flies of WA, we thought they were pretty harmless, and brushed them off. These b*****s draw blood, and leave a really nasty itch. Much of the following days was spent scratching and cursing them. Seeing Ruth and Joel was fAntastic, they are such a cute couple, adn Joel is a real nice country boy with interesting conversation and a lot of patience for us all gassing and catching up. The festy itself was pretty small with maybe 500 people, lots of hippies and very chillled people. We had a mad night on Sat eve, mooching about in the cold night air, dancing, sitting by fires and having a few sly drinks. All festies in NZ are alcohol free - to keep them violence free, and it seems to work. Noone was hectic, all were smiley and it ws a very friendly affair. We met some really cool people, and Joel has some great people - its a very nice quality of life up there.
Sadly we left Joel and Ruth on Monday after a few really good swims in rivers. Rivers are particularly CLEAN and beautiful, and you can't resist going for a dip whenever possible. we made it back to Kaikora, to meet up with Andy and Paulo. Its always strnage meeting friends while away, cos you have all that stuff in common from home, but you share new experiences and can't help the inevitable comparisons with home. Home feels less and less like home now, and being surrounded by stress free beauty and time becomes normal. Having to be somewhere on time was wierd.
From this point on, we had a tight time scale and had to cover as much ground as possible in a week. Crazy really as its such a gorgeous place, you just wanna get out and smell the flowers everywhere. We didn't do it justice and there is so much more to see and do out there. We basically cut across the island, headed west and then south, doing a big loop and coming back up on ourselves to Christchurch again. We all had a few places we wanted to see and stop for a while. Franz Josef was one of them. Within 10 days, I achieved my goal of going from Desert to Glacier. Franz Josef glacier ws incredible, and Paul, Andy, Em and I all took a guided walk onto the glacier itself, and were blown away by the sheer beauty of it all. Massive ice mountains, reaching back beyond the horizon, cut into a canyon of stoney mountains and high cliffs. Completely unbelievable, and, until the sun went down, wierdly quite warm!!
Before then, I forgot,( *how could I?) we went on a trip to see the whales. A very swish boat ride out to the underwater canyons, going down several thousand feet very suddenly. We did see a sperm whale, and, if i'm honest, and not for the first time, I cried. It wsa totally beautiful as this massive creature came up for air, filling its whole body with oxygen and replenishing its lungs, just for 10 mins, so it can plunge back down into the deep, deep blue. Awesome. You should see the pictures. Then we came across a pod of dusky dolphins who were just out playing. Also incredible, and they are great big show offs - jumping out of the water and flipping over and over and over again - just cos they can.
Milford Sound has been on our list since we started planning this journey at home on a winters day. To get to it is a complete pain in the arse though, as there are huge mountain ranges in the way. Waht can I say? It is well, well worth it. Sincerely, it is one of the mnost beautiful places on earth. I have never seen anyhting by it, and once again, believe it or not - we were all blown away. Its not a sound, its a fjord, caused by glaciers carving out the rocks to leave an exposed canyon, which later fiulls with sea water of the Tasman sea and water from the surrounding glaciers. It is so unique and beautiful, were were speechless for quite some time. The drive in was also awesome, and we had to stop often to look upwards and say wow.... this is really s***. Wish I'd gone to the broadway. You said we could go McDonalds. This is s***. Words like awesome, amazing, wow, beautiful don't even come close after a while, and no, we were not just being a bit hormonal, it is truly that gorgeous. Milford Sound has just one place to stay, a lovely backpackers, where we conceded to not sleeping in the van, but to staying in a dorm with Andy and Paul. we met a Kea - a kind of land parrot, who befriended us, only cos he wanted food, and then woke us all up at stupid o' clock with calls and cries. OUr own fault really. At this point, we had come as far as we were going to, adn after this point, the slow and very long journey home would begon. We sat by the river runnin off the mountains after dinner with a bottle of wine and chatted. we toyed with the idea of getting in and having a dip, but it was bitterly, bitterly cold - the kind of cold that stings your feet when you just dip a toe in. At that point, of realising that tomorrow we would have to travel a few hundred k to start home i jumped in. You don't get to the end of the world, as far as you can get and not jump in. f*** it. So we did. Paul, Em and I all stripped off and took the icy plunge. I am still here to tell the tale, and so are they. No regrets baby.
Pictured is lake tekapo, where we stayed the following night, and also swam. well, mostly.... The water is unbelievably bluer than that - many of these piccies look enhanced, but its just unreal colouring, like nothing you have ever seen before. When we were there, we did Tek a Poo but not innit. You must go nd see these places to appreciate the colous - I just cannot describe them well enough.
Back in Christchurch, our adventure in NZ was over, and we screamed and laughed and cried our way around NZ, ate gorgeous food, heard some great music, and were blessed with fabulous company all over. I feel that we have only seen the tip of this great place, and only tasted it, rather than chewed and enjoyed it to its full effect. We will be back. Next stop - final stop - Sydney......
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