My last few days in New Zealand were ace and whilst it's lovely to be home and seeing everyone, I was very sad to leave.
In Kaikoura, James, Bev and myself went along for whale watching. This is a boat trip (obviously) which takes you out near the Kaikoura Trench, which is a deep trench in the ocean a few miles out from the coast of Kaikoura. It's this trench that apparently attracts the whales to come and hang out there due to the rich supply of plankton and other tasty whale treats.
It was a lovely, warm day and a real contrast from the snowy places I had been to previously. The Southern Alps that are directly throught the middle of the South Island, means that certain places are much wetter, sunnier or colder than others. It was a perfect day to be on a boat.
Several types of whales have been spotted around this area and we were lucky enough to see 4 sperm whales. It was a really awesome sight as you see them lingering on the ocean surface and then taking a dive. You only get to see about 1/3 of their whole size and it does make you realise just how enormous they really are. It was also obvious why they were easily hunted, as we got very close to them in the boat and it just didn't really bother them. They are unfortunately, pretty easy targets. The hardest part, I imagine, is lugging the huge weight back to shore. It was a very good afternoon and I was so stoked we got to see 4 whales, very lucky.
Early start the next day as Bev and James were driving me to Picton and I needed to get my ferry across to the North Island. When we arrived, we said our goodbyes and I boarded the ferry. The crossing took a little while, but there were some great views and again the weather was pretty sunny. Unfortunately, true to form, Wellington was rainy when I arrived. I had checked into a cheap Travelodge due to needing to be up at 3.30am on the morning of my flight and seeing as how I only have to look at Stu to get hammered in his company, I thought perhaps staying with him was not the best idea. It turned out that I couldn't get hold of him anyway, so just as well I did book somewhere!
It was really great to be back in Wellington, as there was a lot of stuff I didn't get a chance to do last time. I rode the cable car from the city centre up to the botanical gardens. That was pretty awesome actually and there was some good views on the way up. I had a walk around the gardens and luckily, it was a sunny day, so I could really appreciate them. At the top of the gardens, there was an observatory with a museum attached. I had a look around that and also saw a really cool show in there, which was basically a projection on a large domed ceiling of what an astronaut experiences during take off and what can happen to them in space (a lot of it isn't good funnily enough). We were also given another look at the Southern Hemisphere stars and constellations. It is currently the Maori new year (matariki) and a lot of their myths are tied up in the constellations, so I learnt a little about that too. Very interesting.
I got the cable car back into the city centre and went back to the Te Papa museum and took in all the exhibitions that I missed last time. Some of these included art work by New Zealand artists and an exhibition on the history of immigration to the country.
I was up at 3.30am the next morning to get to the airport and catch my flight to Sydney. When I arrived, I was told that as I was catching a connecting international flight, that I couldn't leave the airport. This was not good news as I had 7 hours until my flight to London would be called, so had a lot of time to kill. Reading made me very sleepy, so I ended up watching the departures board for several hours and having to see the same Emirates Airline advert repeated over and over again. It was a slow day.
The flight to London was not so bad, although I was sat between two pretty large guys, so didn't have much room. They were both nice guys though and it could have been worse. I felt like shite when I landed though and I worked out that I probably had about 6-8 hours sleep in the last 2 days. Despite my best efforts, I ended up falling asleep after arriving home in the afternoon. The rather marvellous Dan woke me up at 8pm for bangers and mash and I was back in bed and asleep by midnight, so jetlag has been averted thankfully!
Thanks for all your comments whilst writing this, it really made me feel still connected to home and often made me laugh :).
I had a really brill adventure, saw some fantastic places and met some brilliant people. It has completely opened my eyes to the possibilities of travelling and I'm already starting to plan where I will go for my next long term trip.
The above titles means "see ya New Zealand!" in Maori by the way, just in case you were wondering...
Thursday 17 June 2010
Thursday 10 June 2010
Lots of places and two familiar faces...
I've done bloody loads since the last blog that I'm having a hard time remembering it all. Here goes!
After Franz Josef it was on to Wanaka, which is a lovely little town that is based at the bottom of Lake Wanaka. The hostel was a gorgeous place too and on my first morning there, I had breakfast next to the window, which overlooked the lake and surrounding snow caped mountains and thought that it doesn't get much better than this really. I had seen Jennie on the bus to Wanaka, who is one of the gang I met on the brewery tour, so it was lovely to see her again. After watching the sun go down over the mountains, we went out for a beer in the evening we arrived and as it was bloody freezing, we found a bar with a big log fire. Also tried some of the local Wanaka Ale, which was pretty tasty. When that closed, we went to a bar called The Ale House as I thought it sounded like a cool place. It did have nice ales but was basically a Wetherspoons bar, so not too impressed. The company was fab though.
The next day we hired bikes and cycled around some of the lake. The cycle route was actually pretty exciting as it took you along narrow paths very close to the lake edge. It was also enough of a challenge that we both felt pretty well exercised afterwards.
The following morning, we took a walk just outside Wanaka to a place called Puzzling World. It had a maze and various optical illusions to explore. One room claimed to challenge your sense of balance, so I wandered in fairly full of myself that I would be fine, only to find that I had to cling to the walls to move and it made me feel like I was absolutely hammered. As I genuinely felt I was going to puke, I had to leave feeling like a massive wuss. There was an old lady outside who saw me leave and said "I couldn't take it in there!". It was bloody horrible. There was also a room there that showed how size perception can be altered through illusions and we got an awesome little film of me and Jennie looking like giants and then tiny wee people.
In the afternoon we caught the next bus on to Queenstown. The bus stopped at the Kawarau Bridge and normally the bus stays a while and you can do a bungee jump here. Unfortunately as snow was forecast and the driver still had some mountain roads to cover, we could only stay 10 minutes. I was absolutely gutted that I couldn't do it, I've wanted to chuck myself off that bridge for years and it was something I was looking forward to doing in NZ. I even thought about coming back to Queenstown before I flew home, but it was too much hassle and expense for a bungee jump. I will definitely be coming back to NZ though so it's certainly not my last chance.
I didn't actually spend a huge amount of time in Queenstown really and only explored the town at night. It certainly seemed a lovely place and again was a picturesque lakefront location. On the one full day that I had in Queenstown, I had arranged a trip to Milford Sound, which was totally worth it. Milford Sound is within the Fiordland National Park and is probably one of the most stunning sights on the South Island. The drive was very long from Queenstown, but again was just lovely scenery all the way. We then took a 2 hour boat cruise around the Sound and as far as the Tasman Sea. We saw bottle nosed dolphins and loads of awsome waterfalls. One of them was the waterfall that Huge Jackman lept from in X:Men Origins. If you haven't seen the film, don't bother - it's really shit.
My next destination was Dunedin (which is celtic for Edinburgh apparently fact fans). It's a Scottish settlement that was set up many years ago and I think still has a healthy population of Scots to this day. It is also home to the world's steepest street and my photos just don't do it justice unfortunately.
Once I arrived in Dunedin, it was a quick check in at the hostel and I was then picked up for a tour of the wildlife which hangs out on the nearby Otago Peninsula. I had such a good afternoon there and our guide, Sean, was really knowledgable and interesting. We saw a few albatross flying over when we arrived and they are bloody huge. I'm not used to seeing giant birds at all.
We were then driven to section of private land that is owned by a local farmer. Part of his land incorporates a beach and luckily for him both sea lions and the reletively uncommon yellow-eyed penguins have taken residence there. We walked down to the beach where the sea lions were hanging out and they were completely unfazed by our presence. For some reason, sea lions just do not fear humans, so it was really great to see them so up close. The younger males are a bit playful though and love chasing things, including humans, so we did have a couple run at us and Sean managed to shoo them off. It was quite scary at times as they're not small. I got some great photos of them and even filmed one of the males being sick, which just about made my year.
We viewed the yellow-eyed penguins from an enclosed hut, as they are scared of humans. They put on a good show for us though and we saw several of them coming out of the sea and head towards the bushland. Their habitat is the undergrowth, which makes them quite unique. They have beautiful markings on them too, I was quite taken with them I have to say.
We took a walk across to a seal colony also and that's always fun to watch. I could sit and watch seals for hours, they're bloody hilarious, not too mention insanely cute.
On the bus back into Dunedin, I showed my video footage of the sea lion blowing chunks to a guy called Zac (another Magic Bus dude) and he mentioned that whilst he was in Vietnam, he took a tour to a place called Monkey Island and one of the group got a little too close to a monkey whilst taking photos. He was then chased down the beach by 3 monkeys and was wrestled to the floor by them. He regrets not filming it as the guy was left unhurt. I was laughing about that for a good hour afterwards and I could tell he thought I was a bit strange for still being so amused by it. If anyone else is still pissing themselves after picturing that for a while after, please tell me as I'm feeling a bit evil.
That wildlife tour was a definite highlight for me and even the rubbish weather didn't ruin it. The following day it was back on the Magic Bus to be taken to Lake Tekapo. This area is now completely covered in snow, so the views where some of the best I've seen so far on this trip. Lake Tekapo itself is so beautiful that (and I feel a bit silly admitting this) I got a little bit emotional whilst taking it all in. It's just very overwhelming and when you think that the South Island just can't get any better, it will prove you wrong. My hostel here was again right on the lakefront, so the dining and reading rooms had some great views. I explored the area a little and then later on that evening was picked up to be taken to Mount John and the observatory that is located on top.
On the last part of the drive to the top of the mountain, I had to shut my eyes as it was pitch black and the driver announced that he will killing the headlights on the van. They keep light pollution to a minimum up there, so other than some markers on the road, the driver had no headlights on at all whilst going up a snowy mountain road. Brilliant.
He didn't kill us all and when we arrived hooded figures with low light red torches took you to a building, where they provided us with mega chunky arctic weather jackets. They were very much appreciated as it was stupidly cold up there. We were then led up to a patio with several telescopes and the guides used these really cool laser pointers when talking about certain stars and planets. It was another first for me as I've never really seen the sky in an area with almost zero light pollution and the sky in the southern hemisphere is pretty damn amazing. I learnt an awful lot that evening and had an awesome time looking through their telescopes. They were just a really nice and enthusiastic bunch of people up there.
It was another Magic Bus early the next day back to Christchurch and also my final Magic Bus journey, so had to say cheerio to a few people. It was nice to be back in Christchurch, as there were a few things I missed out on last time. I checked into the hostel for a couple of nights and had a wander around the city. As I was walking along, I heard someone calling me and asking if my name was Jo. It was Bev and James, who are two people I know from way back and hadn't seen them for about 6 years. It turned out they are travelling too and we were all a bit freaked out that we had randomly bumped into one another thousands of miles away from Northampton.
We went off to get a beer, which turned into several and then dinner and then more beer. They had hired a camper van and were setting off to Kaikoura the next morning. I mentioned I had passed through there and due to the weather, had my whale watching trip cancelled. They invited me to come with them, so I accepted and I'm now in Kaikoura again, with a whale watching trip booked for tomorrow. Very bizarre indeed. I'll be with with them up until Picton on Sunday, where I get my ferry across to Wellington. It's been really lovely catching up with them both.
This is my penultimate blog now, as will write again from Wellington on Monday. I have mixed emotions about coming home next week as I have missed my family and friends and want to see them very much, but I'm not ready to leave here. I could happily continuing travelling indefinitely. Good things must come to an end though and it really will be lovely to see y'all and find out what you've been up to these last couple of months.
Ta ta for now...
After Franz Josef it was on to Wanaka, which is a lovely little town that is based at the bottom of Lake Wanaka. The hostel was a gorgeous place too and on my first morning there, I had breakfast next to the window, which overlooked the lake and surrounding snow caped mountains and thought that it doesn't get much better than this really. I had seen Jennie on the bus to Wanaka, who is one of the gang I met on the brewery tour, so it was lovely to see her again. After watching the sun go down over the mountains, we went out for a beer in the evening we arrived and as it was bloody freezing, we found a bar with a big log fire. Also tried some of the local Wanaka Ale, which was pretty tasty. When that closed, we went to a bar called The Ale House as I thought it sounded like a cool place. It did have nice ales but was basically a Wetherspoons bar, so not too impressed. The company was fab though.
The next day we hired bikes and cycled around some of the lake. The cycle route was actually pretty exciting as it took you along narrow paths very close to the lake edge. It was also enough of a challenge that we both felt pretty well exercised afterwards.
The following morning, we took a walk just outside Wanaka to a place called Puzzling World. It had a maze and various optical illusions to explore. One room claimed to challenge your sense of balance, so I wandered in fairly full of myself that I would be fine, only to find that I had to cling to the walls to move and it made me feel like I was absolutely hammered. As I genuinely felt I was going to puke, I had to leave feeling like a massive wuss. There was an old lady outside who saw me leave and said "I couldn't take it in there!". It was bloody horrible. There was also a room there that showed how size perception can be altered through illusions and we got an awesome little film of me and Jennie looking like giants and then tiny wee people.
In the afternoon we caught the next bus on to Queenstown. The bus stopped at the Kawarau Bridge and normally the bus stays a while and you can do a bungee jump here. Unfortunately as snow was forecast and the driver still had some mountain roads to cover, we could only stay 10 minutes. I was absolutely gutted that I couldn't do it, I've wanted to chuck myself off that bridge for years and it was something I was looking forward to doing in NZ. I even thought about coming back to Queenstown before I flew home, but it was too much hassle and expense for a bungee jump. I will definitely be coming back to NZ though so it's certainly not my last chance.
I didn't actually spend a huge amount of time in Queenstown really and only explored the town at night. It certainly seemed a lovely place and again was a picturesque lakefront location. On the one full day that I had in Queenstown, I had arranged a trip to Milford Sound, which was totally worth it. Milford Sound is within the Fiordland National Park and is probably one of the most stunning sights on the South Island. The drive was very long from Queenstown, but again was just lovely scenery all the way. We then took a 2 hour boat cruise around the Sound and as far as the Tasman Sea. We saw bottle nosed dolphins and loads of awsome waterfalls. One of them was the waterfall that Huge Jackman lept from in X:Men Origins. If you haven't seen the film, don't bother - it's really shit.
My next destination was Dunedin (which is celtic for Edinburgh apparently fact fans). It's a Scottish settlement that was set up many years ago and I think still has a healthy population of Scots to this day. It is also home to the world's steepest street and my photos just don't do it justice unfortunately.
Once I arrived in Dunedin, it was a quick check in at the hostel and I was then picked up for a tour of the wildlife which hangs out on the nearby Otago Peninsula. I had such a good afternoon there and our guide, Sean, was really knowledgable and interesting. We saw a few albatross flying over when we arrived and they are bloody huge. I'm not used to seeing giant birds at all.
We were then driven to section of private land that is owned by a local farmer. Part of his land incorporates a beach and luckily for him both sea lions and the reletively uncommon yellow-eyed penguins have taken residence there. We walked down to the beach where the sea lions were hanging out and they were completely unfazed by our presence. For some reason, sea lions just do not fear humans, so it was really great to see them so up close. The younger males are a bit playful though and love chasing things, including humans, so we did have a couple run at us and Sean managed to shoo them off. It was quite scary at times as they're not small. I got some great photos of them and even filmed one of the males being sick, which just about made my year.
We viewed the yellow-eyed penguins from an enclosed hut, as they are scared of humans. They put on a good show for us though and we saw several of them coming out of the sea and head towards the bushland. Their habitat is the undergrowth, which makes them quite unique. They have beautiful markings on them too, I was quite taken with them I have to say.
We took a walk across to a seal colony also and that's always fun to watch. I could sit and watch seals for hours, they're bloody hilarious, not too mention insanely cute.
On the bus back into Dunedin, I showed my video footage of the sea lion blowing chunks to a guy called Zac (another Magic Bus dude) and he mentioned that whilst he was in Vietnam, he took a tour to a place called Monkey Island and one of the group got a little too close to a monkey whilst taking photos. He was then chased down the beach by 3 monkeys and was wrestled to the floor by them. He regrets not filming it as the guy was left unhurt. I was laughing about that for a good hour afterwards and I could tell he thought I was a bit strange for still being so amused by it. If anyone else is still pissing themselves after picturing that for a while after, please tell me as I'm feeling a bit evil.
That wildlife tour was a definite highlight for me and even the rubbish weather didn't ruin it. The following day it was back on the Magic Bus to be taken to Lake Tekapo. This area is now completely covered in snow, so the views where some of the best I've seen so far on this trip. Lake Tekapo itself is so beautiful that (and I feel a bit silly admitting this) I got a little bit emotional whilst taking it all in. It's just very overwhelming and when you think that the South Island just can't get any better, it will prove you wrong. My hostel here was again right on the lakefront, so the dining and reading rooms had some great views. I explored the area a little and then later on that evening was picked up to be taken to Mount John and the observatory that is located on top.
On the last part of the drive to the top of the mountain, I had to shut my eyes as it was pitch black and the driver announced that he will killing the headlights on the van. They keep light pollution to a minimum up there, so other than some markers on the road, the driver had no headlights on at all whilst going up a snowy mountain road. Brilliant.
He didn't kill us all and when we arrived hooded figures with low light red torches took you to a building, where they provided us with mega chunky arctic weather jackets. They were very much appreciated as it was stupidly cold up there. We were then led up to a patio with several telescopes and the guides used these really cool laser pointers when talking about certain stars and planets. It was another first for me as I've never really seen the sky in an area with almost zero light pollution and the sky in the southern hemisphere is pretty damn amazing. I learnt an awful lot that evening and had an awesome time looking through their telescopes. They were just a really nice and enthusiastic bunch of people up there.
It was another Magic Bus early the next day back to Christchurch and also my final Magic Bus journey, so had to say cheerio to a few people. It was nice to be back in Christchurch, as there were a few things I missed out on last time. I checked into the hostel for a couple of nights and had a wander around the city. As I was walking along, I heard someone calling me and asking if my name was Jo. It was Bev and James, who are two people I know from way back and hadn't seen them for about 6 years. It turned out they are travelling too and we were all a bit freaked out that we had randomly bumped into one another thousands of miles away from Northampton.
We went off to get a beer, which turned into several and then dinner and then more beer. They had hired a camper van and were setting off to Kaikoura the next morning. I mentioned I had passed through there and due to the weather, had my whale watching trip cancelled. They invited me to come with them, so I accepted and I'm now in Kaikoura again, with a whale watching trip booked for tomorrow. Very bizarre indeed. I'll be with with them up until Picton on Sunday, where I get my ferry across to Wellington. It's been really lovely catching up with them both.
This is my penultimate blog now, as will write again from Wellington on Monday. I have mixed emotions about coming home next week as I have missed my family and friends and want to see them very much, but I'm not ready to leave here. I could happily continuing travelling indefinitely. Good things must come to an end though and it really will be lovely to see y'all and find out what you've been up to these last couple of months.
Ta ta for now...
Thursday 3 June 2010
Ice ice baby...
The bus ride to Greymouth was pretty awesome and I met a really nice bunch of people who were also booked in to do the brewery tour too.
The tour was of the local Monteiths Brewery and it was bloody brilliant actually. A taxi came and got us from the hostel and very nice chap showed us all around the actual brewery itself. I really enjoyed that and he was a very interesting guide. The best bit was the tasting room though. You're led into an area which is decked out like a bar and there are 6 beers and 1 cider available to taste. You're given a taste of all of them (most of them were lovely) and when you're done tasting, you can go up and serve yourself. You can basically have all you can drink in half an hour. It was a lot of fun and I still can't believe how generous they were. Part of your fee includes a meal at the nearby Railway Tavern and you can get jugs of beer for $6, so we happily continued our evening there.
The group were a really nice bunch and the great thing is that as we're all using the Magic Bus routes, some of us are travelling in the same directions, so I'm still seeing lots of familiar faces and those of us taking the same route are still hanging out.
We all had to be up early to catch the bus to Franz Josef the next day and surprisingly we were all pretty chipper considering the night before. On route to Franz, we stopped off at Punakaiki, which is home to the pancake rocks. This is a pretty awesome sight and the walkway takes you around the coast where the rocks are based. They are basically huge rock formations that look like a pancake stack, it's really strange looking, I've never seen anything quite like it. They won't last long though and it's predicted that eventually the sea will wash them away. Certainly not in our lifetime though, so you still have time to check them out should you be in this neck of the woods.
From Punakaiki it was straight off to Franz and myself and another guy called Iain was whisked off on arrival to the Fox Glacier to do a skydive. I booked it the day before and was really nervous I have to say. We arrived at this airfield and was ushered into a room to put on jumpsuits. A massive bloke then came in and told us what we needed to do when we're hanging out of the plane and harnesses were then attached. I was then straped to the same massive bloke and Iain was strapped to a much sexier guy, so I was a little envious. We practiced the jump position again and was then squished into the aircraft (which was like a VW Beatle with wings) and took off.
I was right next to the door and weirdly enough, my nerves went away as we flew higher. We flew over the Fox Glacier, which was worth the money in itself and we could also see Mount Cook and the surrounding area. Even though I've been here over 2 weeks now, I never stop being amazed by New Zealand. Once we reached a height of 12'000ft, the door was opened and out we jumped. I have to say it's one of the best and weirdest experiences of my life. We were free falling for 45 seconds before the shute was pulled and then glided slowly back down to earth. It was really surreal being 1000's of feet high without being incased in a metal tube, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. I wasn't aware of being that scared during the jump, but must have been on some subconscious level as the dude I was strapped to said in his lovely Kiwi accent "you have to let go of my arms Jo, I need to steer the parachute". I wasn't actually aware that I was still clinging to him, so just relaxed and hung off his front as we came into land.
Iain loved it too and he suggested we knock out two people who were waiting to go up and take their place. I was half tempted to be honest. Now, my jump was filmed and I will attempt to put it on Facebook very soon, but I am a bit shite on it. I'm not saying this because I screamed throughout most of the freefall, I'm pretty sure most people would in those circumstances, but it's the interview before I go up. When I asked for it to be filmed I didn't realise they would want a pre-jump interview, so when I was taken to the front of the plane and asked how I felt, I had no idea what to say. I just look really unenthusiastic and I could tell the guy was very disappointed in my lack of wooping. Someone should really publish a book called "Witty Things to Say Before a Skydive". I'm sure I would have looked way cooler...
I spent the afternoon settling in and exploring the very small town that is Franz Josef, it is basically 2 long streets. Lovely surroundings of course and you can see the top of the glacier from the town. In the evening, myself and another lady from the hostel decided to take a walk along a woodland trail near the hostel as we had heard that there are glow worms in there. We borrowed a torch from reception and set off. On the way we met a group of Filipino ladies who had come from the trail, but had no torch so couldn't go in. We invited them to join us and they were so much fun. We went quite deep into the trail, switched off the torch and lo and behold, there were loads of glow worms. It was a really beautiful sight.
Early start the next day as I was off on a full day hike up the Franz Josef Glacier. Amelia, who I met on the Magic Bus, came along too. They provide you with all of the equipment and a guide takes you up the glacier and back down again. It was hard going in places, but so bloody awesome. As the glacier is constantly changing, the guide has to hack in steps in places and attach ropes to get you up and down the steeper slopes. He also took us through caves formed naturally in the ice by running water and that was quite unnerving at times due to how small some of them were. You have to squeeze your way through some very tight spots and one cave had water gushing through it still, so we got soaked crawling through that one. We all had a great time and we were lucky to have a good group who was pretty fearless and willing to try anything the guide suggested. The glacier itself is a magnificent sight and some parts of it was a lovely deep blue colour. It was also weird walking up this massive piece of ice that was in a valley surrounded by rainforest. I took a lot of pictures up there.
As we had gone for the full day hike, we were able to use the outdoor Glacier Hot Pools for just $15. So myself, Amelia and another lady we had met on the hike, went along and relaxed there for the evening. There are 3 hot pools in total, the hottest being 40 degrees, and it was just what we needed after a days hiking. We ended up staying there for 3 hours in the end.
Today is my last day in Franz and I spent in on another hike with Amelia. We took in one of the walks that takes you along the mountain range and should end at the foot of the glacier. Unfortunately the route abruptly ended at a bridge as part of the track was flood damaged. We wanted to continue to the glacier, so we walked through some vegitation on the river bank and walked along some of the exposed riverbed. We had to climb back onto the road part way along as the river suddenly curved and left no exposed area. This wasn't that easy as the bank leading up to the road was really steep and slippery, so had to drag myself up onto the road on my stomach. Luckily no cars were coming along the road at the time, otherwise I would have looked a bit odd. It was an ace walk though and took us off the beaten track a little.
I've had a really good time here and a little sad to be leaving, but I head on to Wanaka tomorrow, which I have been told is very beautiful and has some great walks. I'm there for two nights and then head on to Queenstown, where I plan to do a bungy jump off the Kawarau Bridge and go on my first Lord of the Rings tour. Yeah!
The tour was of the local Monteiths Brewery and it was bloody brilliant actually. A taxi came and got us from the hostel and very nice chap showed us all around the actual brewery itself. I really enjoyed that and he was a very interesting guide. The best bit was the tasting room though. You're led into an area which is decked out like a bar and there are 6 beers and 1 cider available to taste. You're given a taste of all of them (most of them were lovely) and when you're done tasting, you can go up and serve yourself. You can basically have all you can drink in half an hour. It was a lot of fun and I still can't believe how generous they were. Part of your fee includes a meal at the nearby Railway Tavern and you can get jugs of beer for $6, so we happily continued our evening there.
The group were a really nice bunch and the great thing is that as we're all using the Magic Bus routes, some of us are travelling in the same directions, so I'm still seeing lots of familiar faces and those of us taking the same route are still hanging out.
We all had to be up early to catch the bus to Franz Josef the next day and surprisingly we were all pretty chipper considering the night before. On route to Franz, we stopped off at Punakaiki, which is home to the pancake rocks. This is a pretty awesome sight and the walkway takes you around the coast where the rocks are based. They are basically huge rock formations that look like a pancake stack, it's really strange looking, I've never seen anything quite like it. They won't last long though and it's predicted that eventually the sea will wash them away. Certainly not in our lifetime though, so you still have time to check them out should you be in this neck of the woods.
From Punakaiki it was straight off to Franz and myself and another guy called Iain was whisked off on arrival to the Fox Glacier to do a skydive. I booked it the day before and was really nervous I have to say. We arrived at this airfield and was ushered into a room to put on jumpsuits. A massive bloke then came in and told us what we needed to do when we're hanging out of the plane and harnesses were then attached. I was then straped to the same massive bloke and Iain was strapped to a much sexier guy, so I was a little envious. We practiced the jump position again and was then squished into the aircraft (which was like a VW Beatle with wings) and took off.
I was right next to the door and weirdly enough, my nerves went away as we flew higher. We flew over the Fox Glacier, which was worth the money in itself and we could also see Mount Cook and the surrounding area. Even though I've been here over 2 weeks now, I never stop being amazed by New Zealand. Once we reached a height of 12'000ft, the door was opened and out we jumped. I have to say it's one of the best and weirdest experiences of my life. We were free falling for 45 seconds before the shute was pulled and then glided slowly back down to earth. It was really surreal being 1000's of feet high without being incased in a metal tube, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. I wasn't aware of being that scared during the jump, but must have been on some subconscious level as the dude I was strapped to said in his lovely Kiwi accent "you have to let go of my arms Jo, I need to steer the parachute". I wasn't actually aware that I was still clinging to him, so just relaxed and hung off his front as we came into land.
Iain loved it too and he suggested we knock out two people who were waiting to go up and take their place. I was half tempted to be honest. Now, my jump was filmed and I will attempt to put it on Facebook very soon, but I am a bit shite on it. I'm not saying this because I screamed throughout most of the freefall, I'm pretty sure most people would in those circumstances, but it's the interview before I go up. When I asked for it to be filmed I didn't realise they would want a pre-jump interview, so when I was taken to the front of the plane and asked how I felt, I had no idea what to say. I just look really unenthusiastic and I could tell the guy was very disappointed in my lack of wooping. Someone should really publish a book called "Witty Things to Say Before a Skydive". I'm sure I would have looked way cooler...
I spent the afternoon settling in and exploring the very small town that is Franz Josef, it is basically 2 long streets. Lovely surroundings of course and you can see the top of the glacier from the town. In the evening, myself and another lady from the hostel decided to take a walk along a woodland trail near the hostel as we had heard that there are glow worms in there. We borrowed a torch from reception and set off. On the way we met a group of Filipino ladies who had come from the trail, but had no torch so couldn't go in. We invited them to join us and they were so much fun. We went quite deep into the trail, switched off the torch and lo and behold, there were loads of glow worms. It was a really beautiful sight.
Early start the next day as I was off on a full day hike up the Franz Josef Glacier. Amelia, who I met on the Magic Bus, came along too. They provide you with all of the equipment and a guide takes you up the glacier and back down again. It was hard going in places, but so bloody awesome. As the glacier is constantly changing, the guide has to hack in steps in places and attach ropes to get you up and down the steeper slopes. He also took us through caves formed naturally in the ice by running water and that was quite unnerving at times due to how small some of them were. You have to squeeze your way through some very tight spots and one cave had water gushing through it still, so we got soaked crawling through that one. We all had a great time and we were lucky to have a good group who was pretty fearless and willing to try anything the guide suggested. The glacier itself is a magnificent sight and some parts of it was a lovely deep blue colour. It was also weird walking up this massive piece of ice that was in a valley surrounded by rainforest. I took a lot of pictures up there.
As we had gone for the full day hike, we were able to use the outdoor Glacier Hot Pools for just $15. So myself, Amelia and another lady we had met on the hike, went along and relaxed there for the evening. There are 3 hot pools in total, the hottest being 40 degrees, and it was just what we needed after a days hiking. We ended up staying there for 3 hours in the end.
Today is my last day in Franz and I spent in on another hike with Amelia. We took in one of the walks that takes you along the mountain range and should end at the foot of the glacier. Unfortunately the route abruptly ended at a bridge as part of the track was flood damaged. We wanted to continue to the glacier, so we walked through some vegitation on the river bank and walked along some of the exposed riverbed. We had to climb back onto the road part way along as the river suddenly curved and left no exposed area. This wasn't that easy as the bank leading up to the road was really steep and slippery, so had to drag myself up onto the road on my stomach. Luckily no cars were coming along the road at the time, otherwise I would have looked a bit odd. It was an ace walk though and took us off the beaten track a little.
I've had a really good time here and a little sad to be leaving, but I head on to Wanaka tomorrow, which I have been told is very beautiful and has some great walks. I'm there for two nights and then head on to Queenstown, where I plan to do a bungy jump off the Kawarau Bridge and go on my first Lord of the Rings tour. Yeah!
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