Milford: Sound!

Sorry in the delay in posting but we have been in the back of beyond without internet access and without sunshine. Yes, the rain seems to have finally caught up with us over the last few days so we've been holed up in the camper van staring out at puddles and reading books. We did manage to make it to Milford Sound before the rain though and it was pretty cool. We stayed in a place called Moke Lake which is near to Queenstown and Su took this nice photo :

The next day we drove to Milford Sound and got on a boat called "The Friend-Ship" for a two and a half hour journey around the Sound (actually not a Sound but a Fiord). I guess the "Good Ship Lollipop" was in for repairs. Here are some photos:

It was a bit cloudy that day but you get the general idea - lots of steep cliffs and mountains on both sides and lots of waterfalls.

We then got back to the camper van to find it dead - we left the lights on but a set of jumper cables soon had us back on the road to a place called Lake Gunn which is near to Milford Sound and I took this as the sun disappeared (little did we know that we wouldn't see it again for a while) :

Yep - so it's been raining pretty much ever since. We celebrated the lovely Su's birthday (she's 21!) with a bottle of bubbley and junk food and we even managed to buy a Mississippi Mud Pie for Valentines day. Believe it or not (especially after the last blog), we still have some left. This is our last evening in New Zealand - we fly out to Sydney, Australia tomorrow for 4 or 5 days of soaking (and I mean soaking) up the sun and getting the chill out of our bones. If the weather isn't good there then a letter to the Prime Minister will be written. A stern letter at that. New Zealand is such a fantastic place, that if you get a chance to visit, do. The people are extremely friendly and the scenery is so good that we have to stop yourself taking it for granted.

Australia here we come!

Extreme Queenstown and Extreme Eating

We've spent the last few days knocking around Queenstown - "Extreme capital" of New Zealand, where you can do everything from Extreme Bungee (up to 134 metres high), Extreme Sky Diving, to Extreme Jet Boating. I had already Bungeed before, and Su had done both a Bungee and a Sky Dive, so after a day of Extreme partying, and a day of Extreme Hangover recovering, we decided to do the Shotover Jet Boating, and the Luge.

The Shotover Jet is a jet-powered boat (3 tons!) that rockets you down the Shotover river at speeds up to 80 kilometers per hour, narrowly avoiding canyon walls, and spinning 360 degrees in it's own boat length! Crazy stuff!

The boat only needs about 4 inches of water to operate on and is powered by twin V6 Buick engines. The twin Hamilton Jet units thrusts out 800 litres of water a second. We recommend it!

Afterwards we got the Queenstown Gondola to the top of Bob's Peak to do the Extreme Luge! Good craic, but tame after the Shotover Jet. The Luge is a three-wheeled cart that you plummet down a winding track on and then get a chair-lift up to for another few go's.

Here is me and Su on the chairlift:

All these activities pale in comparison to what came next. It was time to show these Queenstown folk what "Extreme" really means. Jumping off a 134 metre bridge with an elastic tied to your legs, or jumping 5000 meters out of a plane, or anything else like that doesn't even come close to Extreme Buffet eating. In our defence, we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast - and they had a deal on. So - we went down the Gondola, changed into appropriate clothing for a dinner out, and went back up the Gondola to eat them out of house and home. It was supposed to be a six-course meal (I counted 7 courses but maybe one was a choice...). Making sure our trousers were nice and loose, we began:

The soup course was first: we had a choice between Mushroom soup and Cauliflower and Blue Cheese soup. Needless to say, I had both. With bread. I know what you are saying "Foolish to fill up with bread at a buffet" and normally you'd be right - but my jeans have been loose lately so I needed to sort it out. And I was only getting started.

Next came the Salad course: I had Green Salad, Pasta Salad, Sweet corn, Potato Salad, Olives, Cous cous, Beetroot, Egg and Rice Salad, Mediterranean Salad, Feta cheese, Jalapenos, and Lardons. It was all very nice. Su was tucking into her main course by this stage.

Next was the Seafood and Cold Meat platter course featuring: Salmon, Mussels, King Prawns (just the one big one for me), Prawn cocktail, Salami, Ham, Pastrami - all served with condiments. Just to clarify - I'm not naming what was available - I'm naming what I had (both the same up to now). Su was getting to the desserts at this stage - which I must admit is her specialty.

Then the Hot Entrees: The choice was Chicken in Capsicum sauce, Pork belly in Honey Sauce, Fish in coconut sauce, Venison curry, and creamed potatoes. So I had Chicken in Capsicum sauce, Pork belly in Honey Sauce, Fish in coconut sauce, Venison curry, and creamed potatoes. The staff were beginning to notice now. And they were beginning to look nervous.

Now for the Hot Carvery: Roast New Zealand Lamb served with boiled potatoes, noodles, broccoli, creamed pumpkin, carrots and peas. Again, very nice!

Don't worry - I had left room for dessert. Su, by this stage, had been through most of the dessert cart and I could see what was available. There was really way too much to mention here but she sampled the Chocolate Mousse (naturally), the Creme Brulee (sp?), the Vienisan Slice, Chocolate Truffle, and the Chocolate/Almond cake.

I went for the Creme Brulee, Pavlova, Choc Mousse, Fruit Salad (for the health), the Carrot Cake (also for the health), Tiramisu, followed by hot Fruit Crumble with Creme Anglais (I had to go up a second time). The plates were clean when I finished. The staff were diving for cover by this stage thinking I was going to explode at any second.

Su was looking a little bit green now so I only made one trip to the Cheese board. It was a little pathetic anyway as all the cheese was a bit mank looking, so I settled on one cracker and some blue cheese, which I crammed into my mouth as Su dragged me away.

There was tea and coffee aswell but at that time of night we thought it might keep us awake. I did manage to break away and grab a banana from the fruit bowl on the way out though.

Can I say to any of my family reading this: if you are ever in Queenstown and plan to have the buffet dinner at the top of the Gondola, don't use the name McGrath to book it as there's a very good chance our name is blacklisted up there. In my defence, we are backpacking and have to stretch every penny...

I do realise the similarities to Homer Simpson though so no need to mention it.

Glacier Country!

We headed EVEN FURTHER south on the West Coast and entered Glacier Country - home to a number of New Zealand's glaciers - most famous of which are Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. Both myself and Su weren't in the mood for any hiking (thanks to numerous sand fly bites to the ankles - Feckers!) so most of our photos are from a distance. You'll get the idea anyway - massive ice flows coming down mountains:

The photo above is of Franz Josef glacier. The next one is also a photo of Franz Josef glacier but taken from a place called Peter's Pool:

Despite the name, I didn't have any urge to swim in (no doubt) freezing Peter's Pool.

Then we went to Fox Glacier! No sign of any polar bear sitting on this Fox Glacier (sorry):

You get a sense of size of the glaciers from this photo - the little dots on the bottom right hand corner are people. Normal sized people at that - not little people!

Su reckoned that this glacier could do with a cleaning as it wasn't as white as Franz Josef.

Then we drove further south again and just as we thought we were leaving Glacier Country we rounded a bend and saw this:

This is Mount Hooker (hey, I didn't make up the name) and it also has a glacier on top. Hooker Glacier to be exact!

So that's it for the day - we're all glaciered out now and ready for our next stop: Queenstown! Backpacker central! We're looking forward to chilling out and maybe hitting the town for a night or two. Look out!!

Punakaiki and the Mystery of the Unsolved Pancakes

The pizzeria outside Charleston turned out to be a little stranger than we had imagined. We went in to check it out and found it run by eccentric heavy metal loving Germans. After having a pizza each (which were very nice) and a glass of wine we found the bar attached (with a disco ball), full of local New Zealanders and the hosts (about 6 people in total). We got the impression that the night could be a late one so we had a drink or two each and chatted to the people at the bar (one guy had family from Inis Boffin!) and got out of there when the music turned from Motor Head to German techno. It was all a bit odd. We filled Hyacinth full of water and headed off to Punakaiki to solve the riddle of the Pancake Rocks.

Now for the science bit: Through a layering-weathering process called stylobedding, the Dolomite Point limestone of Punakaiki has formed into what looks like piles of thick pancakes.

No one knows why this happens here so that's the mystery. Satisfied that erosion was the answer we took more photos:

At certain times when the tide is right the sea surges into caverns and comes out of blowholes (didn't happen while we were there).

If the rocks aren't impressive enough for you, you can imagine them in shapes of animals and people! What fun!

The hours we spent there imagining different things! The craic we had! Finally exhausted we took off and have stopped off at Lake Mahinapua for the night. We are heading to the Glaciers soon so stay tuned!

Nelson Lakes to Golden Bay

Quick update with a few nice photographs - we're currently on the West coast of the South Island after leaving Nelson Lakes (after our long hikes... yeah right) and drove up to the north of the South Island to Golden Bay. We took a nice photo of meself and the missus on the jetty at Lake Rotoiti - the other of the Nelson Lakes:

I felt like a bit of a spa sitting on the jetty by myself while Su set the auto-timer on her camera so excuse the grumpy face. Still a nice photo though!

We got to our chosen resting place in Golden Bay late enough in the evening. We saw a nice beach with a jacks nearby and made ourselves at home.

The beach is called Tata Beach (so Su tells me) and it seems to be a hotspot for motor boats, jet skis, and water skiers. Su showed me one of her hidden talents and rocked the water skis:

The seasoned water skiers on the beach were gob-smacked and in total awe of her abilities. Shortly after this photo was taken she did a triple back somersault and glided perfectly onto the beach and stepped out of the water skis to a rapturous round of applause. I've never seen anything like it (never).

After all that exertion, it was time to stop sunning ourselves and watch the sun go down. We stayed two nights at Tata Beach - no sand flies and lovely weather - you couldn't ask for more:

 

I think this is one of the better photographs I've taken. Anyway, we're just outside Charleston on the West Coast now - at a pizzeria that has a camp site attached! It's great! We might even splash out and go for a pizza being the crazy things that we are. Hope all are well!

Kiakoura to Nelson Lakes

We left the sunny weather of Kaikoura to take a trip further north-west to Nelson Lakes. On the way out of Kaikoura we passed a Seal colony and Su took this wonderful photo (she's got a great eye! Two, in fact.)

Not sure if that's a Seal in the background. Pretend it is anyway.

Then, after a few hours driving, the weather took a turn for the worse but we arrived at the first of the Nelson Lakes: Lake Rotoroa. The light was fading but I managed to get this hastily-taken shot:

It was hastily-taken, not because of the fading light though, but because of the feckin' swarms of sand flies that feasted on me as soon as I left the van. The little feckers were everywhere and it was like something out of a horror movie with myself and Su huddled in the van for the night burning insect repellent incense. Our Lonely Planet book of New Zealand now has a nice join-the-dots puzzle on the cover where dozens of sand flies have met their demise. Did I mention that they are feckers?

We awoke the next morning to rain, rain and more rain. We went for a short walk and got rained on and that was about the highlight of the day. We had four games of "20 Questions" - the score is 2-all so it's close. I'll let you know if either of us edge ahead at any time. The weather is promised good for tomorrow so we're determined to go for a proper hike and take some decent photos of the place. I know, us hiking - WTF?? Stay tuned!!

The South Island and Whites Bay

After two days of idling around Wellington (we did some shopping - Su bought prezzies and I bought a book - I've read Harry Potter in two days) we got the ferry over to Picton on the South Island of New Zealand. We hung around Picton for a while to stock up on the essentials (Shhhhpuds, Shhhhalad, and Shhhausages) and made out way down the south-east coast to the Whites Bay DOC Recreation Reserve where we were promised (according to the DOC Conservation Campsites booklet), hot showers, picnic areas, and bins for our increasing rubbish. The showers were cold unfortunately and were housed in "Blair Witch" style concrete loos which Su had a problem going in to after dark (not that I blame her) and there were no bins but don't get us wrong, we weren't complaining. The setting was, again, lovely:

Su rustled up yet another fantastic meal (10 points to those who can guess what it was? Spuds, Salad, and..... SAUSAGES!) I tell you - that woman can make the best meals out of the most basic of ingredients - she should make her mother proud) and then we settled down to a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy on the laptop (can you believe that McDreamy was already married!! We were shocked!! I think I need some male company soon...). Between episodes we had a peek out the curtain to see the moon rising. Very rose-mantic!

Getting the new battery for Hyacinth in Rotorua has been a Godsend - it has been 9 days now without plugging in and today has been the first time the 'electric' has run out. After spending another day in Whites Bay getting burned to a crisp (well - I did, Su had the good sense to put on sun screen early enough. I'm ok though - don't worry about me...), we headed further south along the east coast to Kaikoura to plug in to a campsite, recharge Hyacinth, and hit the town. Once we got to Kaikoura we stopped off at a seafood barbecue and had a lunch of Crayfish fritters, garlic Scallops, and garlic Mussels - TAS-TEE! We also met an Irish couple (Ken and Lorraine) who have been to a lot of the places we are planning to go to and updated us on the hip-hop-happening places to go in South-East Asia. So here we are now in the campsite - the fridge is up to full strength again, the beers are nice and cold, Su has had the hot shower she has been looking forward to since Wellington, I've got the blog up-to-date, we're both healthy and happy and life is good. We're treating ourselves to a meal tonight so fish and chips it is. Hope everyone is getting on well at home and you're enjoying the updates! Be sure to leave comments - it's always nice to hear from everyone!