Spaceships and dolphins
Well we've been in NZ for just over a week now. The TranzAlpine ride was brilliant, really pretty views and we both managed to take a ridiculous amount of photographs. Greymouth was rather plain BUT we did find a cafe with the most amazing sandwiches in the world!!!!!! Minted Roast Lamb sandwiches with big lumps of lamb... yummy yummy yummy! The ride back was just as good with sunset and we met an american girl who was studying in Wellington who gave us some info on the things to see which was cool.
The Rugby in Christchurch was awesome! The All Blacks beat Australia 27-12 and we met a girl Sarah (To be forever called "Crazy Rugby Girl") and some of her family. We went out for a few drinks after the match and stumbled around lost in Christchurch until we finally found our way back to the hostel! A great evening and a good crowd - cheers Crazy Rugby Girl ;o)
The next morning we went to pick up our "camper van" that we have hired for 3 weeks... it's called a "Space Ship" and is a bright orange people carrier that has had some "modifications". It's pretty cool and even has a dvd player and 2 dvds which we can swap around the country and with other fellow space ship commanders.
Now... on the rumours of New Zealand being a terribly wet country... it is true we have had some rain, but not much! We started our journey by travelling to Lake Tekapo and then Mt. Cook which was lovely and sunny. We spent the first couple of nights in some camp grounds to acclimatise ourselves. We then headed across to the East Coast to see the Moriaki Boulders (big weird circular boulders on the beach) and driving down the coast stopping off to see seals and fail to see penguiins. We didn't have enough time to stop at Dunedin so rushed onwards and "free camped" in a picnic area off the road. It was cozy enough though a little cold without the heater. We continued our journey along the South Coast stopping at view points at various beaches. We had hoped to see some waterfalls and caves but they were all closed due to a combination of season and possum poison! We did stop off at one place that really wasn't worth the bother... "Niagra Falls (NZ)" which was "comically" named by a "funnyman" of New Zealand... it's a babbling brook really. Another stop allowed Ed to reveil his bum but I'll save that one for the photo album!
So then we entered Fiordland... and it started to rain! We camped at another campsite in Te Anau as we couldn't find anywhere else. We took it easy the next day as it was still raining. Milford Sound (the most popular tourist attraction in New Zealand was inaccessable as the road was closed off due to heavy snow. We drove up as far as we could and took some nice photos. We had hoped to do a cruise on the Sound but instead booked ourselves onto a cruise on the quieter Doubtful Sound for the next day despite warnings it may be a bit wet again.
We found some free camping nice and early and froze to death but did manage to get up in time to go on the cruise. We had got 2 of the last tickets on the smaller, cheaper vessel in the area and we were very lucky indeed! It wasn't raining at all and didn't rain at all! Glorious sunshine all day - a very rare thing in the area at anytime of the year! Fantastic! The views were amazing and we had dolphins swimming right up next to the boat where you could almost touch them! They did manage to splash me once or twice! It was a brilliant day and well worth it! The sound was so quiet and we hardly saw any other boats... it was wonderful.
When we got back we headed straight over to Queenstown and free camped just outside. We've booked into a nice campsite tonight and are spending the day seeing the sights of the town. Everyone seems rather into thier skiing and snowboarding... it's not quite Whistler though... and Ed and I are still both sporting our injuries so we think we'll pass on that one!