Day 15 - Christmas Day 2005
And a very wet Christmas Day too! We celebrated with our first (& well earned by this point) lie-in & leisurely breakfast. Then on or way we made a slight detour from our main route to the West Coast Glaciers, stopping (in the now torrential rain, but fully kited out in new wet weather gear) to check-out the beautiful Hokitika Gorge and it's dazzling blue waters.
Christmas Day would not have been the same without keeping to some amount of tradition and so we took an intermediate comfort & refreshment stop at Lake Ianthe for Christmas Cake & coffee! As the rain finally decided to stop we reached the village of Franz Josef, location of the Franz Josef Glacier & our home for the night. In fact we arrived in time to enjoy a Christmas Day tramp - Glacier Valley Walk - to the glacier terminal via 'Peter's Pool' and the 'Sentinal Rock'.
Day 16 - Boxing Day 2005
Today was our first time in a helicopter - not a totally convincing experience! We awoke early to clear blue skies and light winds, perfect weather for a heli-hike on the Franz Josef Glacier. After a somewhat turbulent though breath-taking 15min flight over the Glacier we landed at about 1000m on the Glacier and prepared for our hike on the ice. Then followed 2hrs of guided hiking over the ice - an amazing challenge with the route completely raw and untouched. And we got really lucky that day - as the weather held out for our trip on the Glacier but others were not so lucky. The weather soon turned bringing with it heavy rain & wind, which meant the trip after us was cancelled, giving us an extended hike but unfortunately a not so pleasant helicopter ride back to base.
Our feet safely back on ground we headed South via Lake Mathson, which on a clear & still day, apparently provides unsurpassed reflective views of Mount Cook & Mount Tasman. Our luck was slightly lacking that day as the remnants of the weather gave the lake some chop disturbing its stillness but at least it was brightening up and the scenery was beautiful and continued to be as we made our way along the Haast Pass inland to Wanaka - making a notable stop at Bruce Bay, a gorgeous beach strewn with beach-wood ...
Day 17
Today's ride in a helicopter turned out to be somewhat of a more pleasurable experience - gorgeous weather and with it gorgeous views. Kited out in our mountain biking gear (including newly purchased baby-pink Camel-bak for me, Lisa) we boarded our sports helicopter (does that mean just for fun or do they race them ???) for an amazing trip to the top of Treble Cone mountain, a popular skiing/boarding resort during the Winter season in Wanaka. I think that you'll agree from the pics below that at 6000ft the views were simply breath-taking - as was the altitude and our all too obvious lack of fitness! Fortunately for us we were doing a down only ride that day - our route followed 'Upper High Street' & 'High Street', both blue class snow runs, followed by 'Treble Treat' (green class run) all the way to the bottom. 'Sweet as!!' as they say over here!
Our destination on Day 17 - Manapouri, at the heart of Fiordland National Park.
Day 18
A relaxing Wilderness Day Cruise on Doubtful Sound amongst dramatic scenery and an abundance of wild-life in their natural habitat. I'll let the images below do the talking for today ...
Day 19
Today we headed for Milford Sound & a Nature Cruise. The drive there, which without any stops on the return journey took only a little over an hour, took closer to 5hrs on the way there - such was the majesty of the scenery surrounding the Milford Track. So an early start again but worth it - including the cruise through the Fiord (Milford Sound is actually a Fiord that eventually opens up into the open Tasman Sea, South-West NZ) surrounding by towering, shear rock faces and captivating waterfalls - at least for those members of the boat party willing to get wet as the boat ventured into the falls itself!
We then retraced part of our route over the last few days to arrive in Queenstown, our home until New Year's Day.
Day 20
Rather than take advantage of a well earned rest day with no real plans and time to just generally chill ... we decided to make today another early start with a jet boat ride on the Shot-over river at 8am!! This really was awesome fun, including full 360° spins and racing at 85kph on only 2 inches of water! But we kept the adrenaline pumping with a 16km white water rafting trip down the shotover river and through some Grade 3/4/4+ rapids, including a 150 metre long tunnel originally built by the gold-miners years ago. I'm not sure what was the more nerve-racking - the bus journey to the start of the rafting or the rapids themselves (not exactly a very stable road, which frequently needs to be re-built in sections after bad weather tears into it). Needless to say a camera was not something we got an opportunity to use during either the jet boat of rafting ride ... you'll just have to take our word for it ... the shotover river rocks! Maybe we can get a postcard or image of the road/track though - not something you can take a hire vehicle along! - it was as Dave said quite simply the scariest journey ever and probably had good views if you were watching them on TV as opposed to being in the midst of it. Still the Kiwi guide who gave the running commentary was simply brilliant - very funny and helped to take everyone's mind off the lack of roadside.
Off shortly to meander around town before heading for Queenstown's top Thai restaurant (@ Thai), booked en-route from the very expensive campervan mobile phone late afternoon during one of those rare occasions when we actually have a mobile phone signal! Good job the Navman isn't driven by the same signals ... the GPS is serving us excellently so far!!
Our plans for New Year's eve are shaping up - nothing heavy planned for the evening, just a nice meal in at the van and then maybe check-out one of the more local haunts in town for some friendly New Year's eve drinking and socialising - just a couple of minutes stroll from the campsite - which is 400m from the Town. As for our daytime activities? Well assuming another OK day weather-wise, we'll be taking the last of our helicopter rides to the top of the Old Woman Mountain Range, which apparently resembles a moonscape in Summer! Then follows a 1700m descent and a 3-5hr down (with some up too!) on our mountain bikes, finishing with a well earned lunch at a local vineyard. Will let you know how we get on when we get back ;-)
As for the first few days of the New Year? We'll be taking the road West from Queenstown to Dunedin then heading North inland to Omarama before returning to Christchurch on Jan 3rd, our final destination in NZ. So a few days to absorb yet more wonderful scenery before hopefully making our Hot Air Balloon trip on our last day in NZ, Jan 4th. So all fingers and toes are crossed for good weather that day!! And then we're off to Fiji for a few days of pure relaxation!
Day 22 Update (written after the rest)
Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's went with a bang. As your New Year began some 13 hours behind ours we had hoped to be able to post this Blog before New Year for you all, but unfortunately the campsite WiFI went down :-( and there was only Internet Cafe's without WiFi open on New Years Day in Queenstown :-(( Anyway we were thinking of all our family & friends back home in the cold UK (heard it's been -7 ?? brrrrr!) ..... Due to the WiFi let down we left Queenstown a bit later than planned but one of us was happy with that as the Jewellery store that was closed New Years Eve eve had reopened before we left.........so that'll be the 3rd new necklace this trip for one of us then!
New Year's Day afternoon, after an easy start in the morning, we headed to Dunedin via the A.J Hackett Bungy Bridge (famous for being the first one apparently) for a look at the brave soles jumping for joy in 2006. As you can see below some people choose interesting ways of sobering up on New Year's Day........and some forget their clothes may come off too!!! :-)........He He He!...............and No it's not us on any of the pics!! ;-).......Give us some credit for our sanity !!! - that's one thing neither of us really fancy, watching was good enough and anyway it only lasts a few seconds for a lot of dollars!! You could go Heli-Biking instead! :-) ......or buy more jewellery! ;-) Also there are some other shots from on the way over to Dunedin just showing the diversity of landscape.
That's it now for New Zealand. This is being posted in Christchurch on the eve of our potential Balloon Flight (mind you its been very windy the last couple of days). Tomorrow we return the van to Maui and fly on to Auckland before heading to Fiji the following morning for a few days R&R on the beach!! Expect we'll be dreaming of driving the van - approx 5000+ km's covered in 24 days but all of it through absolutely stunning scenery and beautiful landscapes. We've enjoyed every minute of it and would recommend NZ as a destination for anyone - it has everything to offer, action & adventure if you're up for it or much quieter and relaxing pursuits too. We've had a superb time and can't speak highly enough of the country and it's diverse population from home grown Kiwi's to ex-pats from all over the world.
Take care everyone & we'll see you soon!!
