It's a kiwi magic...

It's been much too long to really write much with details, so I apologise, and I'll try.

We decided to go up north to a place called Takaka to have a few days pure R and R. David had told me we'd be near a beach, we weren't, but it's ok cos it rained most of the time. The day it didn't rain we went to the somethingsomethingPupu Springs (yes, that is pronounced "poo poo"). These are fantastically clear fresh water springs, the Maoris consider them very spiritually important, the birth place of the water god. They are very beautiful, you just want to jump right in - but you can't because there's an algae called didymo starting to appear around.

Back to Nelson, just for two nights, so we could book our magic bus. Next day we got the bus to Christchurch. Quite an eventful journey with the bus almost turning on it's side, well it felt like it was. Everyone was severely rocked about on long, twisty roads. Nothing like the prospect of your bus turning over to brighten up a journey!

Arrived in Christchurch, and felt like we were back in England. It's very much like home, not just the fact everything is written in English, but they actually have public transport and a fair few bicycles. A nice town, but we found a bit... boring? We went to an aquarium and got to see kiwis, two brown Northlands or something. They're bigger than you think and really quite cute.

So from Christchurch we caught a train called The TranzAlpine. An amazing journey straight across the middle of the country. Sadly it was a bit cloudly when we left Christchurch and it took a while for it to clear, but eventually it did and there was some beautiful scenery. In fact, most of what we've seen of NZ has been beautiful scenery. The train took 4 hours ish and we arrived into Greymouth.

That afternoon we took a tour up to Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks. First, the guide took us on a little bush walk and we saw some big trees. A cool thing were things parasitic vines that grow up teh sides of trees and eventually eat them away. It takes hundreds of years, but still pretty amazing. So onwards to the rocks which are a pretty cool natural formation of limestone rocks that look like a big pile of pancakes, so of course I tried to take a bite. Not so yummy :(

Next stop was Franz Josef to see the glacier of the same name. It was quite impressive, but after seeing the Perito Moreno it doesn't really compare. The setting was pretty spectacular in the middle of a massive mountain.

On the way to franz Josef we stopped in a small town called Ross. Most of the West Coast got invaded to the end of 19th century by gold diggers, looking for lots of the pretty shiny stuff. Thought they plundered a lot, there's apparently 250,000,000 british pounds worth of the stuff left in the ground! So we decided to do a bit of gold panning and see what we could find. We only got a little, but hey - it's more than nothing. Oh, and David got in a little trouble for stealing gold. I didn't tell them that I panned more than him...

Yesterday was a long day, getting up at 6ish to get on a bus at 7:30 and then arrive in our destination at 7, loooooong day. But a nice day. The scenery on the way was just spectacular, we stopped at nice little (well, 28m high little) waterfall and a nice lunch stop, and then just before arriving in Queenstown we stopped at the world's first bungy, neither of us had a go (I'm saving myself for skydiving) but it was pretty cool watching people just off a bridge...

Tomorrow I'm going to Milford Sounds and David's gonna do something. Our hostel is situated on a lakefront and there's mountains opposite, quite a nice little spot really.

Oh yes, I am also on my 6th, yes 1 2 3 4 5 6th pair of sunglasses, but they are funky cool red ones - photos to follow in the next post probably. David's on his 2nd pair, but the first pair are still alive and well.

5th January 2007 - And a happy new year!

So where did you spend New Year?

We spent it here, Okiwi Bay!

Tony - David's dad's cousin, and his wife Paula, invited us to spend New Year with them so we did! It was beautiful.




We arrived on New Year's Eve and the drinking started pretty much straight away. Plenty of beer had been bought the previous day!
Also staying at the "bach" (what kiwis call beach houses) were Paula's mum and dad, brother, his wife and kids, some friends of his and a dog so around 16 of us in total. The Kiwis are also big into fishing, there were three boats staying with us as well. That day some of them had been out diving and fishing and bought back plenty, including some crayfish. David enjoyed consuming legs and pincers, but it wasn't quite my taste.



Later, we headed down to the beach to watch the fireworks over the bay - very beautiful. And then back to the bach for more drinking until new year rang in. Another house celebrated it a bit early, we weren't sure when it was exactly so just burst in a round of Auld Lang Syne and hugs and kisses all around. I went to bed at around 12:30, but David, being Scottish and that, went out "first-footing" with Tony, but they just ended up in a pub. Tch!

Next day Paula's dad, Jim, took us out on his boat fishing. I'd never done it before, and never had but hadn't caught a fish. It was SO MUCH FUN! I've found a new talent and caught the "catch of the day" a 39cm long cod. I caught the most fish as well. We had encounters with barracudas, but didn't manage to catch one!

Yesterday we took a drive north and visited Kaiteriteri beach, Guardian voted it one of the top 5 in the world! Didn't stay here long, but visited a look out which was missing a London sign, but did have had a Buenos Aires sign, spelt incorrectly. Then we had a lovely BBQ out on Rabbit Island and attempted to get David's kite to fly. It took ages and it was only when we were giving in and winding it in that it finally took flight, yay! David and I had a swim in the sea, suprisingly warm despite the grey clouds over head.

We're still in Nelson, just mooching around the city today. We're gonna head somewhere for a farmstay next, not sure where. Just waiting to hear back from some places.


Hope your New Year was lovely.