Kaikoura & Our Return to Wellington

We are nearly at the end of our bus tour and our second last stop is Kaikoura, a small beach town on the east coast of the South Island. The main activity here is whale watching and swimming with the dolphins. We did neither – but did see dolphins jumping from shore for free. On the way to Kaikoura we drove through Christchurch to pick up and drop off some passengers. There isn’t much to see here due to recent earth quake devastation; however we did stop at Ohau Point Seal Colony & Peninsula Seal Colony along the high way. Very entertaining creatures indeed.

 

In the morning we were off to Wellington. We planned a 5 night stay in order to see all that we missed the first time through. We stayed at the downtown Nomads hostel where we had nice clean rooms with an en suite bathroom, good laundry services, and an evening snack included in our fee.

We had a great time with our remaining bus mates on the city hop on/off bus tour – we obviously hadn’t had enough of being on a bus just yet… We saw the Zoo, Weta Caves, rode the Cable Car & wandered the Botanical Gardens.

Wellington. On the way to this lookout we passed many hill side mansions that had their own personal cable cars to access their property, very "flash" as they say.



Walking down Cuba Street. Hoping that this water feature doesn't splash me...

Botanical Garden Gangstahzz

Ahhh that's the life.

Weta Cave - a mini museum of Peter Jackson's creations

 

Cable Car Ride

 

Wellington is a great little city. It has beautiful character buildings, creative outdoor sculptures and lots of good food:

-          Burger Fuel

-          Scopa

-          Espressoholic

-          Wholly Bagel & Pizza

 

Our final stop is back in Auckland. We have missed it and can't wait to be back!

 

 

Mount Cook & Rangitata

 

On our way up to Wellington we stopped at the tallest mountain in New Zealand Mount Cook and then to Rangitata. If you look real closely you will notice that there is not a single picture of Mount Cook. This is because a sub-alpine storm raged from the moment we left Queenstown to the moment we arrived in Rangitata. We stayed at the base of the mountain and it rained so hard that we thought that the roof was going to cave at any moment, very powerful winds and rain. We believe it was for our sins in Queenstown…

 

 

 

We stopped at some nice hot springs at Lake Tekapo before going on to Rangitata.

 

 

A road side stop to see some very cute farm animals.

 

 

We stayed in a nice little cabin in Rangitata where they usually host white water rafting trips. The river was closed to us for the next 10 days so we had to amuse ourselves with a ping pong tournament and viewing the local wildlife.

 

 

Next stop Wellington.

Milford Sound & Invercargill

Milford Sound

 

After three rowdy nights in Queenstown our blood was a mix of alcohol, caffeine and adrenaline we needed to escape before we required liver/brain transplants. The next leg of the tour was South through Milford Sound and all the way to the Southern most tip of the country Bluff’s point near Invercargill. We had travelled NZ in it’s entirety from tip to tip. We left Queenstown at the ungodly time of 06:30am so that we could make the afternoon Milford Sound ferry. It was pissing rain and the mood on the bus was catatonic. By the time we made it to the ferry we were alive enough to shuffle on and attack the free tea and coffee. Once we had a couple doses of coffee we were able to enjoy the ferry tour as we made our way past waterfalls swollen from the recent rain. It was impressive but not the highlight of our journey. The ferry commentary toggled between English and Chinese making it hard to enjoy the scenery. You could see that if the weather cooperated this tour would be more picturesque but for us it was just wet.

 

 

Gunns Camp

 

After Milford we travelled to the edge of the National park to our accommodation for the night a rustic ex-government work camp. On the way we encountered one of NZ’s coolest creatures, the Kea. The Kea is a crafty little mountain parrot that was preening for us as we snapped a couple photos while it Snowed!!! We didn’t even get off the bus and kept our heads down until it was raining again. Gunn’s camp was a pretty cool place where the hut we were staying in was heated by wood and coal and we actually had fun between the boiling heat and frigid cold that seemed to be the two temperature settings we could produce. Our friends even took pity on me and tried to teach me how to play chess. I think I’ll stick to my career as an unemployed gypsy because I suck at chess.

 

 

Invercargill

 

 Some great lake stops along the way

 

 

From there we travelled to the mullet and ginger infested town of Invercargill. The rain stayed with us and we were forced to amuse ourselves by touring the local brewery and having an impromptu pancake breakfast complete with streaky bacon, maple syrup and hash browns.   

 

 

AUS pancakes vs. the Canadian's at our hostel in Invercargill.

 

We skipped Stewart Island due to the weather conditions. This was taken from Bluff - the southern most point of the South Island.

 

 Altogether we are happy that we travelled south and saved ourselves from a couple mental nights in Queenstown.

 

 

 

Queenstown

 PART ONE

We got a round of applause from people below after we had this makeout session...

We arrived in Queenstown (The Adventure capital of New Zealand) shortly after Jeff jumped off a bridge and were delighted to see a quiet lakeside mountain city that resembled Banff on steroids. There is a little of everything for everyone, but most importantly it is the place to party. Jeff started the day with a quick haircut followed by a chilli hot chocolate and dulce de leche from Patagonia. Once we were fuelled up we were ready to hit the slopes of Queenstown, the luge slopes that is. Seven of us took the gondola up and tested our cart racing skills. I took my time and failed to pass anyone due to the scenery, but Jeff overtook nearly everyone – all but the wily Swiss who claimed to have a ‘lame cart’ until he rocketed past. This was a huge amount of fun and actually got the adrenaline levels pumping.

After our cart racing we had the ‘World Famous’ Ferg Burger. Jeff gives it 4 out of 10 Fergs. It is an impressive size, but not great value. Being in Queenstown our next stop was obviously a pub crawl. It must have been good because we have no idea which pubs we went to and were surprised that we could actually walk from bar to bar without freezing to death – a Canadian novelty. Being the old married couple of the group, we took it upon ourselves to make the craziest faces in all of the pictures, and I took over a DJ booth. We spent the following day recuperating and continued South to Milford Sound and Invercargill.

 

PART TWO

 

 

On the return journey we stopped in Queenstown again. We did the Queenstown Hill Walkway. In the first photo you can see Jeff having a dream in the Basket of Dreams, and this pose is common following a night out in Queenstown. Some Asian hikers inspired us to take some jumping photos.

We really enjoyed Queenstown. It is easy to navigate and you can find something fun to do around every corner.

 

 

 

 

Bungy!!!!!!

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I was going to avoid any ‘pant filling’ activities. When we arrived at the A.J Hackett Bungy outside of Queenstown my wife convinced me that jumping off a 43 meter bridge at the first commercial bungee site would be a good idea. It also helped that because we are such a large group we each got a discount. It couldn’t have been a better day to jump off a bridge. The weather was great, the water below was a brilliant blue and peer pressure was in full force. I thought I would be more frightened than I was but was mostly concerned with getting in a good jump, and not looking like a turd on the way down. It was a thrilling experience but I don’t think I need to jump off anything taller. I didn’t have the best jump of the day or the worst.

Punakaiki & Franz Josef

Here is a great little spot that we stayed at in Punakaiki called Te Nikau Retreat. Many little details make this a place to stay longer: Fresh baked bread and muffins made by the staff, big spacious cabins, JENGA, and any spice you can think of in the kitchens, (in a hostel you never find anything more than salt and pepper if you are lucky). A short 15 minute walk away is a big private beach. Slightly overcast this day, but you can imagine what it would be like on a summer day. After a recharging day in Punakaiki we headed to Franz Josef.

Me looking pretty in head to toe North Face...

Jeff testing his ankle to see if it's gotten any better.

 

Franz Josef

 

 

In Franz Josef we splurged for the heli tour of the glacier. This was a first for both of us, and the heli ride alone was worth the expense. We took off from the air field and came around the mountain to see the glacier within minutes. As one of the fastest moving glaciers this was pretty jaw dropping to see the scenery, let alone explore it. We spent a couple of hours in our crampons visiting various parts of the glacier and learning about its history and the different formations within it. Afterwards we had ‘free’ entry into the hot pools to ease any aching muscles.

 

Glacier view from the chopper

 

 

 

 

Every place we go ends up being better than the last, so we are ready to see what is next!