Full update and a hell of a lot of pictures
Now I'm back from the jetboat ride (which incidentally was really good fun), I have time to do an in depth account of what I've been doing the last few days. After my last entry in Christchurch, I met up with Amanda and Robbie and we went for a drive and had fish and chips sitting on the beach near Christchurch. We then went to a place called the Wunder Bar which was really interesting. It was kitted out with all sorts of eclectica. There were lampshades made from plastic doll heads sewn together, old magazine and newspaper clippings as wallpaper, shirts and ties hung over lamps to make a shade etc.
We had a couple of drinks there and then drove back to Amanda and Robbie's place. Really cool little townhouse and Robbie has an incredible collection of vintage cameras...probably a good 50 or so. We were all feeling fairly tired, so I didn't stay too long, and they dropped me back at the hostel where I passed straight out.
Next morning bright and early I met my tour group. There are 21 of us + a driver and guide. Pretty much everyone is early to mid 20s, and we have people from all over: Brazil, Korea, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, Australia, and a lot of Brits too. 15 of them had already been on a longer tour for the previous 9 days, and 6 more of us joined in Christchurch.
Our drive on the first day was over to the beautiful West coast of NZ. We stopped in a few places on the way, and had lunch in a town I forget the name of which is the Jade capital of NZ. A bunch of us went to the supermarket and headed for the beach to have a picnic there. I had a quick stop in a little Eco zoo type thing they had there, and saw crayfish, eels, turtles, trout, and even a few Kiwi birds which were in a really dark enclosure (they are nocturnal). Lunch on the beach was great, and we hopped back on the bus and drove over to Fox Glacier where we went on a bit of a walk up the river before going to the inn where we were staying.
We got in about 5:30 and dinner was at 7:30, so we headed straight to the bar to sample a few of the local beers since there was nothing else to do in "town". There was meant to be Karaoke but for some reason they switched it to a DJ instead...the DJs not being particularly good and having the music up way too loud. We went for a walk in the glowworm woods and saw loads of glow worms lighting up the trees. They're not actually worms. More like maggots, and they have long sticky threads in which they catch food. They have no bottom, so they burn their waste and that's what the bioluminescent reaction is. Burning poo. It was a pretty cool walk in the woods and then we went back to the bar. The DJs were still playing, and in the end we just took our drinks outside and were playing touch rugby in the car park. Long story short it was about 1:30 am before some of us got to bed and certain members of the group who shall remain nameless needed to be helped to bed...
The next morning a bunch of us went for a half day hike on the Fox Glacier. We were driven to a car park near the terminal face of the glacier and then hiked up the side of it to where the guides had hacked steps into the ice with picks. We put on crampons (the spikes that get strapped to the bottom of boots to grip in the ice) and then made our way up onto the glacier for about an hour walking around. It was really quite impressive the size of the glacier and how sometimes you forgot you were actually on a massive block of ice that moves about 60 cm a week, and in the last 70 years has receded about a kilometre and has dropped in height by about 40 or so metres at the terminal face.
The hike was good fun, although it was mostly over the "Dirty Ice" where it is blackened by lots of stones and dust formed by the stones grinding against each other. You'll see what I mean in the photos.
Back to town and a quick lunch, then we set out on the road to Queenstown, driving a bit further down the coast and then inland through the Haast pass and along the river that runs through it. Driving along we saw all sorts of scenery that's familiar from watching Lord of the Rings. We drove past the bit where the scene with the Warg riders attacking the convoy of Rohirren traveling to Helm's Deep was filmed, drove past the river where the Fellowship travels down between the two massive statues etc etc.
It was a really nice drive down, and we got into Queenstown about 6:45 or so after a 30 minute y-front fight. For some reason there was a packet of 5 pairs of y-fronts on the bus and they ended up being thrown around at people.
The place we're staying is a really nice hotel, but we're in the Budget accomodation at it's arse-end so we don't get a view of the lake out the front. We do however get a discount in the bar and get use of the pool and hot-tub which is nice! Sarah who is our guide and cook rustled up some nice Spag Bol for dinner, and then a couple of dips in the hot tub later, a bunch of us went into town and explored a bit, ending up in a bar where the locals were doing interesting things with flaming alcohol. Had a relatively early night and went back at about 12:30.
This morning I did this jetboating - pictures of which I should hopefully have in a day or two online. The boats work on the same principle as jet-skis - a water intake engine and pushing the water out the back to propel the boat at great speeds. The boat only needs 10 cm of water to run in which is lucky as that's all there is at some places. It goes at about 90 km/h and the driver does 360 spins and brushes you up almost against the canyon walls. It was great fun, although a little cold when you got wet and with the windchill it was face-numbing.
This afternoon in a few hours I'm relaxing a bit and going out fishing on the lake here.
Anyway, enough chitchat...photos below, unfortuntely in reverse order due to upload difficulties.
Shotover river - you can see the canyons we sped through
The lake here at Queenstown this morning
Fernanda and Robbie on the swings last night
Group photo - the good shot. Natalie, Stefan, Robbie, Sarah, Fernanda and me
Group photo attempt number 1 - random local's backside in shot.
Robbie and Natalie
Dancing to the voices in our heads
Again
And again
Another group photo - Natalie, Carly, Stefan, Fernanda, Megan, me and Robbie
Some of the y-fronts being modeled on the bus
Some lake...
Again
Another lake
And yet another
Some mountains and a hut
A river...
The west coast
Up on the glacier
Me in an ice-cave
Group photo opportunity
Me on the glacier
A beautiful morning for a hike
Dirty ice
...
more dirty ice
Disco dancing makes the ice fall
more ice
A lonely duck
Glacier from afar
from even further
Mount Tasman
The hills with some snow on them
That's Jon and our bus...
Scott, our driver, Julia with bottle, and a local
Local, Heather and Johan
Early drinking
A lake
In the temperate rainforests
Lunch on the beach
A crayfish
Some tortoises or turtles or something
A Kea - wild parrot that eats car windshield wipers when it's feeling naughty
A big bridge at Dead man's bend where people used to drive off the cliff all the time
The stones where the Warg Riders attacked
ditto
A mountain...
We had a couple of drinks there and then drove back to Amanda and Robbie's place. Really cool little townhouse and Robbie has an incredible collection of vintage cameras...probably a good 50 or so. We were all feeling fairly tired, so I didn't stay too long, and they dropped me back at the hostel where I passed straight out.
Next morning bright and early I met my tour group. There are 21 of us + a driver and guide. Pretty much everyone is early to mid 20s, and we have people from all over: Brazil, Korea, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, Australia, and a lot of Brits too. 15 of them had already been on a longer tour for the previous 9 days, and 6 more of us joined in Christchurch.
Our drive on the first day was over to the beautiful West coast of NZ. We stopped in a few places on the way, and had lunch in a town I forget the name of which is the Jade capital of NZ. A bunch of us went to the supermarket and headed for the beach to have a picnic there. I had a quick stop in a little Eco zoo type thing they had there, and saw crayfish, eels, turtles, trout, and even a few Kiwi birds which were in a really dark enclosure (they are nocturnal). Lunch on the beach was great, and we hopped back on the bus and drove over to Fox Glacier where we went on a bit of a walk up the river before going to the inn where we were staying.
We got in about 5:30 and dinner was at 7:30, so we headed straight to the bar to sample a few of the local beers since there was nothing else to do in "town". There was meant to be Karaoke but for some reason they switched it to a DJ instead...the DJs not being particularly good and having the music up way too loud. We went for a walk in the glowworm woods and saw loads of glow worms lighting up the trees. They're not actually worms. More like maggots, and they have long sticky threads in which they catch food. They have no bottom, so they burn their waste and that's what the bioluminescent reaction is. Burning poo. It was a pretty cool walk in the woods and then we went back to the bar. The DJs were still playing, and in the end we just took our drinks outside and were playing touch rugby in the car park. Long story short it was about 1:30 am before some of us got to bed and certain members of the group who shall remain nameless needed to be helped to bed...
The next morning a bunch of us went for a half day hike on the Fox Glacier. We were driven to a car park near the terminal face of the glacier and then hiked up the side of it to where the guides had hacked steps into the ice with picks. We put on crampons (the spikes that get strapped to the bottom of boots to grip in the ice) and then made our way up onto the glacier for about an hour walking around. It was really quite impressive the size of the glacier and how sometimes you forgot you were actually on a massive block of ice that moves about 60 cm a week, and in the last 70 years has receded about a kilometre and has dropped in height by about 40 or so metres at the terminal face.
The hike was good fun, although it was mostly over the "Dirty Ice" where it is blackened by lots of stones and dust formed by the stones grinding against each other. You'll see what I mean in the photos.
Back to town and a quick lunch, then we set out on the road to Queenstown, driving a bit further down the coast and then inland through the Haast pass and along the river that runs through it. Driving along we saw all sorts of scenery that's familiar from watching Lord of the Rings. We drove past the bit where the scene with the Warg riders attacking the convoy of Rohirren traveling to Helm's Deep was filmed, drove past the river where the Fellowship travels down between the two massive statues etc etc.
It was a really nice drive down, and we got into Queenstown about 6:45 or so after a 30 minute y-front fight. For some reason there was a packet of 5 pairs of y-fronts on the bus and they ended up being thrown around at people.
The place we're staying is a really nice hotel, but we're in the Budget accomodation at it's arse-end so we don't get a view of the lake out the front. We do however get a discount in the bar and get use of the pool and hot-tub which is nice! Sarah who is our guide and cook rustled up some nice Spag Bol for dinner, and then a couple of dips in the hot tub later, a bunch of us went into town and explored a bit, ending up in a bar where the locals were doing interesting things with flaming alcohol. Had a relatively early night and went back at about 12:30.
This morning I did this jetboating - pictures of which I should hopefully have in a day or two online. The boats work on the same principle as jet-skis - a water intake engine and pushing the water out the back to propel the boat at great speeds. The boat only needs 10 cm of water to run in which is lucky as that's all there is at some places. It goes at about 90 km/h and the driver does 360 spins and brushes you up almost against the canyon walls. It was great fun, although a little cold when you got wet and with the windchill it was face-numbing.
This afternoon in a few hours I'm relaxing a bit and going out fishing on the lake here.
Anyway, enough chitchat...photos below, unfortuntely in reverse order due to upload difficulties.
Shotover river - you can see the canyons we sped through
The lake here at Queenstown this morning
Fernanda and Robbie on the swings last night
Group photo - the good shot. Natalie, Stefan, Robbie, Sarah, Fernanda and me
Group photo attempt number 1 - random local's backside in shot.
Robbie and Natalie
Dancing to the voices in our heads
Again
And again
Another group photo - Natalie, Carly, Stefan, Fernanda, Megan, me and Robbie
Some of the y-fronts being modeled on the bus
Some lake...
Again
Another lake
And yet another
Some mountains and a hut
A river...
The west coast
Up on the glacier
Me in an ice-cave
Group photo opportunity
Me on the glacier
A beautiful morning for a hike
Dirty ice
...
more dirty ice
Disco dancing makes the ice fall
more ice
A lonely duck
Glacier from afar
from even further
Mount Tasman
The hills with some snow on them
That's Jon and our bus...
Scott, our driver, Julia with bottle, and a local
Local, Heather and Johan
Early drinking
A lake
In the temperate rainforests
Lunch on the beach
A crayfish
Some tortoises or turtles or something
A Kea - wild parrot that eats car windshield wipers when it's feeling naughty
A big bridge at Dead man's bend where people used to drive off the cliff all the time
The stones where the Warg Riders attacked
ditto
A mountain...
posted by Ken at 10:57 pm
2 Comments:
wow ken...looks like loads of fun
i dont know how you keep everyones names straight though, youve been in contact with like 500,000 ppl in a month, k maybe not that many...maybe 499,997...or maybe 4815162342.....HA im a nerd!
so still loving it? or ready to get home?
Still loving it...I'll be sad to see this 6 day tour end - really really nice people on it
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