Travels in New Zealand Part 1 – Christchurch, Franz Josef, Westport
Day 1: Besides the being held for longer than normal at the customs desk because neither myself or Jude could remember or find the address of our first hostel, we finally made it to the rental place.
Here’s Simon. There was some serious debate over his name, and I petitioned for Neil strongly for about 10 minutes before conceding. Jude also tried to name him Sunny but I was having none of that. During our drive to the hostel I hit the switch for the windscreen wipers instead of the indicators approximately 17 times because they are conveniently on the wrong side of the car. Needless to say Jude didn’t fare much better the next day.
On arriving in Christchurch which was surprisingly sunny (although all the locals seemed to be wearing coats) we took a walk down to the beach. I’m optimistically wearing sunglasses. After our tiring walk to the beach we got a takeaway from Pizza Hut and fell asleep at promptly 8:30pm.
Day 2: We set off early and headed to Franz Josef, a small town surrounded by giant glaciers.
Jude driving, look, there's a mountain in the snowy background!
Look, there's a cow and a snowy mountain!
Oh look, the mountain's getting closer, how pretty!
Vicki: Um.....do we have to drive through that?? Jude, now is probably the time to tell you I'm terrified of heights!
Jude: *swerves round 'Deaths Corner' at 85kpm*
I kept complaining how cold I was, and Jude kept reminding me that we were “in a giant cocktail glass with ice.” Nevertheless we donned out bikinis and checked out the local hot springs, made up of 3 pools which range between 36 and 40 degrees. They were rather hot, but not so hot that Jude’s glasses steamed up (although I would have paid to see her enter the men’s changing rooms by mistake...). After half an hour we were as wrinkled as prunes so headed back to our hostel. Later that night dressed as nicely as you can in a town made of ice we headed out for a discounted dodgy chicken burger and chips and headed to “the strip” to check out the bars.
Day 2: We set off early and headed to Franz Josef, a small town surrounded by giant glaciers.
Jude driving, look, there's a mountain in the snowy background!
Look, there's a cow and a snowy mountain!
Oh look, the mountain's getting closer, how pretty!
Vicki: Um.....do we have to drive through that?? Jude, now is probably the time to tell you I'm terrified of heights!
Jude: *swerves round 'Deaths Corner' at 85kpm*
I kept complaining how cold I was, and Jude kept reminding me that we were “in a giant cocktail glass with ice.” Nevertheless we donned out bikinis and checked out the local hot springs, made up of 3 pools which range between 36 and 40 degrees. They were rather hot, but not so hot that Jude’s glasses steamed up (although I would have paid to see her enter the men’s changing rooms by mistake...). After half an hour we were as wrinkled as prunes so headed back to our hostel. Later that night dressed as nicely as you can in a town made of ice we headed out for a discounted dodgy chicken burger and chips and headed to “the strip” to check out the bars.
Upon arriving at second of only two bars we could find we purchased a corona and checked out the man candy. We kept looking. Desperate to practice our skills on the pool table we asked to go doubles with two men from the Philippines who lived here, one of whose brother-in-law worked at the bar so they kept offering to buy us cheap pizza. We happily took the free corona’s but turned down the pizza. We also met some cute guys from the States but they shortly left and we were back to wondering how long it would be before the guys attempted to kidnap us. An offer to go back to theirs to play karaoke was all we needed. We staggered home, turned the heating on, and curled up in bed. Alone.
Day 3: After a hearty breakfast and what felt like two tins of baked beans we took a walk up to the glacier. Here’s picture number five. After the first four attempts we realised our heads were too big so we had to duck down to get the glacier in the picture...
I took over the driving that day having been less than impressed with Jude’s “driving” the day before, and taking corners recommended at 25kpm at 125kmp. After I pointed out that one of the corners up ahead was called Death’s Corner she slowed down to 85kpm. We were heading up north along the coast to Westport. Having missed out Queenstown because I didn’t want to drive seven hours to watch Jude bungee jump, we decided on Buller Gorge in Westport which is another hub of sports activities.
Next up were the pancake rocks. In my head they looked like this.
In actuality, they looked like this. I was rather disappointed.
Finally we arrived in Westport and checked into a rather nice backpackers which offered fresh towels, heated blankets, and a cosy living room with a fire place. We hit the local supermarket to buy some nail varnish remover and some make up remover, which we forget, but I ended up with a cheap pay as you go mobile phone that just about calls and texts. After scouring the streets we found a nice play called the Danniston Dog Saloon for dinner, but found later on that the concept of bars didn’t exist in Westport yet.
Day 4: This was it: our adventure day! First up – horse riding. Now this may not seem like a dangerous sport to you, but here is a picture of Jude riding....
Here is a picture of me riding.
Here is another picture of me NEXT TO Jude.
After than was Quad biking. But after managing to crash 3 times while going in a straight line I admitted defeat and went home to shower. I returned half an hour later, nearly running over Jude on her quad bike while attempting to cross the road. Here is a picture of Jude on her quad bike looking all muddy and stuff.
Jude told me she was amazingly good at it and is thinking about taking it up as a career, and not to tell her mum. I’ll wait for the proof. On the way back from picking Jude up we got pulled over by the police. This had never happened to me before so I was equally terrified/excited/wondering what on earth I’d done wrong. Luckily I hadn’t, and they were merely checking for fugitives. Phew.
After Jude showered because she smelt we took a trip to the seal colony. Here are some pictures of the seals. You have to look quite hard because the rocks are brown and the seals are brown. If you’re colour blind don’t bother.
This is how far we are from you guys in London. It’s pretty far. That’s why we’re 11 hours ahead.
This is Jude blending into the hillside.
And so ends the first part of our journey because Jude has just
emerged from the kitchen with wine and if I continue there will be even more typos. Stay tuned for wine tasting and swimming with dolphins – but not necessarily in that order.
