Our plan was to follow in several of our friend's footsteps and rent a campervan; however after a bit of research into costs and a chat with the reception staff in our hostel we were persuaded to rent a car instead. It turns out you have to pay to stay in campsites anyway as its illegal to 'freedom camp' so if you're happy to be a bit less hardcore and like your home comforts such as a full length bed, your best option is probably a car and sleeping in a hostel.
After a couple of days in Christchurch milling around and enjoying our last bit of time in a city for a while, we took off in the budget mobile (a snazzy '98 Nissan Pulsar automatic) to Oamaru, the next town of interest down the south coast. We were put onto a scenic route by the chap who rented us our car and we were soon driving through the most stunning landscapes we'd seen on the trip so far - needless to say what should have been a short drive ended up taking a fair while longer with all the picture stops:
We'd decided to be a bit cocky and leave booking our accommodation until we arrived like the good old days in Asia, however this quickly backfired as it turned out Oamaru's only annual event was occuring that weekend - some big Victorian fete, typical! After a bit of searching we luckily managed to find a lovely little hostel a little way out of town but right by the coast and with a really homley feel with a proper fire place and everything.
After settling in, our first mission was to go a see the penguins that inhabit the coast surrounding the town. Our guidebook gave us the info to buy tickets to watch them from a grand stand set up near the town, but the owner of our hostel put us onto a free viewing point a little further out in the sticks. Naturally, being stingy backpackers we took his advice and set off for the free spot, glad we'd managed to save a few bucks. We made the journey about 15 minutes further up the coast to a lighthouse where a penguin fanatic couple had set up a viewing platform and a penguin hospital. Straight away we saw seals and sealions bathing in the sun and it was pretty amazing to see all these creatures in their natural habitat completely unaware of our presence a few hundred meters away. As we were there for the penguins we decided to test our patience waiting for them to arrive...a good hour or so later one lone yellow eyed penguin decided to waddle to shore.
It wasn't exactly the hordes we'd been told to expect but hey, at least one had shown up so we could justify heading back for some dinner and a beer!
The next day we thought we may as well go and see the event happening in town, as it seemed to be a pretty big deal with all the accomadation in town completely booked. Turns out the Kiwis get really into it with locals and tourists alike in crazy Victorian fancy dress strolling around watching events like penny farthing racing etc in the historic section of the town, it was all a bit surreal:
After a stroll around and a cake and tea at one of the 'Victorian' tea shops we set off to our next destination - the Moeraki boulders, a natural phenomenon of rows of spherical rocks that had mysteriously appeared on the sand.
Although quite strange, the boulders didnt provide much entertainment so we were soon back on our roadtrip heading further south to Dunedin.
After another three hour drive through the blissful NZ countryside we arrived in the second biggest town in the South Island, Dunedin. It turned out that they had a Cadbury chocolate factory in town, so naturally this was the first thing we signed up for that afternoon. NZ is the first country we've come to that has proper chocolate, ie not fake Cadburys that they have in Australia with so many chemicals to stop it melting in the heat that it no longer tastes like chocolate, so we took full advantage and gorged ourselves silly on all the free samples :)
After that, we felt we ought to do something a little more cultural so we went and had a look at some of the old buildings like the train station thats supposed to be the second most photographed thing in the Southern Hemisphere (or so we were told at Cadbury world but we've never seen it before....who cares they were giving us chocolate.) It did seem like a bit of a bold claim though - a train station second only to the Sydney opera house.
By this point we were beginning to realise that most places in NZ are quite small and you really dont need longer than one or two days to see all the attractions, it really is all about the scenery so once again we headed off, this time west to Queenstown.
Yet again, the drive didnt dissapoint and before we knew it we were in Queenstown - NZ is definitely the first place where we've complained that the journeys have been too short! After checking into our hostel we headed straight for the cable car to get a good view of this amazing town:
We couldn't resist a go on the luge they had to take you part way down the mountain which was good fun. Not quite as good as the one we went on at the Great Wall as you still had to walk 99% of the way back down (a track that turned out to be a right old leg killer) but a start at least.
There were so many adventurous activities organised around Queenstown - its famous for its bungee jumps (its where they "invented" it), but you can pretty much do anything crazy there. The budget wasn't quite ready for us to go mad, so we sorted through everything and decided that jetboating would be the trip of choice. We headed off the next day, choosing a tour that took us along their famous Skipper Canyon - a really crazy dirt track used in the gold rush that is so risky to drive the rental companies wont insure the tourists to drive it =) On the way they stopped off for some more magnificent view points :
The tour we signed up for took us out to the Skipper's Canyon section of the Shotover river. We didn't really know what to expect from the boats, but it didn't take much hanging around on the river bank before we got a taste of what we'd let ourselves in for :
The jet boats were amazing fun - they work a bit like jetskis by sucking up water underneath the boat then shooting it out of the back, making them crazy fast and really manoeuvrable. Their trademark trick is a 360 degree Hamilton spin (named after the first jet boat, nothing to do with Grand Prix), something the driver pulled out quite a few times to give us a bit of a soaking and a good laugh.
It was another place with a Lord of the Rings claim to fame (we were beginning to spot a pattern emerging...) - the chap claimed they filmed the section where Arwen raises the river to block the dark riders there, and then proceeded to blast around there at high speed a couple of times. It could well have been the place, it looked similar to the picture, but to be honest most of the turns in the river looked the same so who knows!
That was it for our whistle stop trip to Queenstown, we loved it and its definitely somewhere we'd like to go back to with a bit more cash in the pockets. Because of the way the roads were laid out in the south, it turned out we'd need to come back through Queenstown on the way north, so we'd see the place again in a couple of days time anyway. Next stop was the Fiordland national park, which is the largest in the country.
We thought the scenary on the way up to Queenstown was amazing, but the trip to Milford Sound blew everything else away... it is by far the most dramatic drive either of us have ever done.
So many amazing photos to choose from, it was a small wonder we stayed on the road there was so much to look at.
It was quite a long drive all the way from Queenstown, and Milford Sound is a tiny little place at the end of the park, so we booked a little cabin (/shed) at a campsite in Te Anau so we didn't have to drive all the way back to QT that day. After dropping off our stuff there we headed into the park and hit a few easy trails recommended in the guide book. Now I'm not really much of a walker - definitely not compared to Alex "If theres a mountain here I'm gonna climb it" Bentley - but the views from these tracks were so beautiful it was definitely worth it... see I'm actually happy after going on a walk!
The view just around the corner from there was a contender for best picture of the trip so far :
And that was just some lake we stopped at on the way to the main event. After another hours worth of driving we made it to the end of the road at Milford Sound. The guide book had prepared us for the slight disappointment of there not really being anything there - the journey was more amazing than the destination, but yet again the scenery was well worth the effort.
Even though we'd been driving all day, we still had lovely sunshine the whole way back to Te Anau as it doesn't get dark until around 9pm here - its just perfect when the sun is out!
Thats about enough of the pictures of the scenery for a moment, because when we arrived back in Queenstown the rains came down and it wasn't quite so pretty. We consoled ourselves with an amazing gourmet pizza in one of the restaurants in town (probably better than Fire and Stone is was that tasty.)
The next day we were due to head north up to glacier land so had an early night in preparation for a 7 hour mission of a drive.
Its been at least one paragraph without a picture of a view, so not to worry here is another one. The sun was out for the drive and the great views were back.
You could stop every 5 minutes pretty much, and just pull over and take in the views if you wanted. It would take you a flipping long time to get anywhere though, so we had to get our heads down and stop taking photos for the rest of the journey...
The driving was starting to get a little much as we hit the winding roads up towards the Fox glacier. This was the first stop for a walk before heading onwards into Franz Joseph where we were staying that night. There was a bigger glacier in Franz Joseph so we wont post any of Fox; it was very cloudy so both glaciers look pretty much the same. There wasn't much to do in the town of Franz Joseph, but the hostel pointed us towards a nighttime walk where we could go glow-worm spotting. Any excuse to get the head torch out I reckon is worth it, so off we went into the darkness.
It was a bit of a let down to be honest, we saw quite a few glowing specks but you'd be hard pressed to call them worms. The walk in the dark was fun, we kept bumping into other people walking down the track in total darkness.
The next day we headed out to the main attraction of the town, the glacier. In hindsight we should have paid the big bucks to go on the guided tour, as they only let the pro guides take you onto the glacier itself. We opted for the zero cost walking around option, but we got pretty close to the front of the ice flow :
They have very scary signs telling you not to walk up and touch it, so thats about as close as we dared to go! When we are millionaires this is another place to come back to - they fancy trips involve flying on a helicopter, landing on the glacier and climbing into the ice caves... sounds amazing!
Thats about if for this update - its been a few days in the making and by now we've made it to Wellington on the north island. We've got another 10 days of adventures here, before he head of to the USA, so fingers crossed we'll have some blogging time later this week. Bye for now...
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