Magical Milford Sound!

We left the rain of Dunedin behind and took the Intercity coach across country to Te Anau, the nearest town to the spectacular Milford Sound. Te Anau is the small, laid-back, chilled out kinda town that we have come to love in New Zealand! It's right on the edge of Lake Te Anau, which is the largest lake in South Island and the 2nd largest in New Zealand, after Lake Taupo. We arrived to blue skies, sunshine and to see the little seaplane coming in to land as we drove along the lake front! Couldn't have asked for a more perfect arrival than that! Our main reason for coming here was to take a trip on Milford Sound, which is a definite "must see" if you're in New Zealand and is simply stunning! To get there we took a 2 hour trip by minibus along the Milford Road, otherwise known as State Highway 94, which has been described as one of the highest and most scenic state highways in New Zealand. 940 metres above sea level at its highest point! Also one of the windiest roads, as you can see from the photo! (Can't take credit for that one myself unfortunately - searched it out on the web to show you what it was like!) Setting off on the boat we got a great view of the magnificent Mitre Peak which totally dominates the skyline. Awesome! (to quote a well used expression over here!) After that we thought we would be settling down for a leisurely, relaxing cruise but, due to the strength and direction of the wind on the way out, we spent the first half of the trip ducking out of the way of the huge amounts of spray coming in bucket loads over the side of the boat! It was an amazing trip though along the fiord - random waterfalls, sheer cliffs rising straight up out of the sea and fur seals sunbathing on the rocks! Then on the drive home we stopped off at various scenic spots along the way for a few photos. We've also been trying to fit in some walks while we're here as there are some great walking tracks in the area. Have been a bit hampered by the weather though as some days it has been solid rain - and when it rains here it REALLY rains! I think this area gets more than it's fair share of rain most of the year, which is why its so green and lush and beautiful!! Still, we did manage to do part of the Kepler Track - up to Brod Bay, where you can see CK relaxing on her log on the beach! At least until the sand flies came by to say Hello! (Tiny but persistant & pesky little critters that actually draw blood!) That drove us off the beach quite quickly(!) despite coming across one of the many ready-made BBQs that are prevalent on the beaches over here - perfect if you happen to be carrying a slab of meat in your backpack! But, being as all we had were 2 bananas and a muesli bar, short of killing a possum (which is quite a sport in some parts over here as they are considered a pest!) we decided to give it a miss and headed down the track for home!

We're "Aw Dun" in Dunedin!

(That's We're "All Done" in Dunedin for those of us, like myself, who are not of Scottish descent and not totally fluent in the lingo!) Anyway, we left Christchurch last Friday in heavy rain which lasted all the way down to Dunedin - and in fact didn't stop for 4 days! CK was particularly excited about visiting Dunedin as it has a strong Scottish heritage! This was evident from the first day when we sloshed through the rain on George St, only to stumble upon the final moments of a pipe band competition! In the space of about half an hour I think we saw more kilts and bagpipes than either of us had ever seen in Scotland itself! Hope the guys were wearing something UNDER their kilts though (no, we didn't check!) as it was quite a chilly day! Needing to take shelter from the rain on Monday (yes, I know - any excuse!) we decided to visit the Cadbury Chocolate Factory here in Dunedin. They have lots of different varieties of Cadbury's chocolate that we don't have in the UK so we felt it was our duty as British citizens to sample them (well - somebody has to do it!) We did in fact get a goodie bag on the factory tour that was filled up at various points along the way! As you can see from the photo, I discovered CK's secret stash of chocolate this week and thought you would all like to see it! No - it's actually the combination of our goodie bags, the samples we got from Cadbury World and our emergency chocolate supply of course! (Well, you never know when you're going to be stranded up a mountain or wherever and might need it eh?! Best to be prepared!) Snatching the brief window of opportunity when it wasn't raining, I took a photo of a couple of Dunedin's famous landmarks for you to see! Firstly the fabulous Railway Station building (where incidentally we filled in a survey on Maori culture for Tim, a friendly university student, and received the large bar of Dairy Milk chocolate that you can see in the earlier photo! Thanks Tim - all donations gratefully received!) Secondly, you may have noticed CK standing next to her pal 'Rabbie' - Scottish poet Robert Burns who is the adopted bard of the city of Dunedin! Yesterday, despite the weather, we took a trip along the Otago Peninsula to the little town of Portobello. Well, turned out to be more of a village really! You can see CK standing in the heart of the action by the general store! I think if it had been a clear day the journey there and the bay itself would have been a spectacular sight - but we did get to experience some genuine Scotch Mist as you can see! I loved the quirky little boat with the Nessie style figureheads too! AND - we did get a mean cup of hot chocolate, accompanied by 2 marshmallows, from the little coffee shop overlooking the bay! The swirling mist was in fact very atmospheric and would make a great setting for an Ian Rankin novel! And you can't get much more Scottish than that!

Christchurch

We are just coming to the end of a week spent here in Christchurch - the largest city on South Island. Was a bit of a shock to the system after the small towns that we have enjoyed spending time in around New Zealand - our favourites so far being Paihia, Coromandel & Picton. Christchurch is very much like being in a UK city - and not sure we were quite ready for that just yet! Having said that it's been great for places to eat and for stocking up on all those little necessities that you tend to run out of! It's been a lot cooler as we have headed further South, as we expected, so our jeans and jumpers have got a bit of an airing again! (Although last week when we were in Picton Christchurch was in the 30's for awhile - so you never can tell!) Sunday was a gorgeous day though so we took a day trip over to Akaroa, a pretty little town on the coast, where we went on a walk up in the hills to admire the magnificent views. It was ok until the last part of the walk where the handwritten map instructed us to turn right at the fence and cross the sheep paddock. Don't know when the map was written, but the sheep paddock was now a field full of cows with their calves and a few geese thrown in for good measure! The cows mooed loudly as we approached, no doubt protesting at the intrusion upon their personal space, but we gave them a wide a berth as was possible and escaped over the stile at the other end of the field! The waterfront at Akaroa was lovely, with lots of little cafes and restaurants and the littel building that you can see at the end of the jetty was apparently the very first custom house in New Zealand! Christchurch is also the place to be for embarking on what is reported to be one of the most scenic train journeys in the world - the TranzAlpine from Christchurch over to Greymouth on the west coast. Basically you spend the whole day on the train if you do it in a day but it was well worth it for the scenery! It was a 4 1/2 hour trip each way with an hour to spend in Greymouth before getting the train back again! The train was really comfy too with reclining seats, huge windows and an open air viewing carriage. That was where I managed to get the photo of the train as it rounded a corner - but it took some effort I can tell you! The viewing carriage was only small and was filled with tons of people wielding huge cameras with foot long lenses hanging off the end of them! For the time I was in there I felt like I was a fully fledged, card carrying member of the paparazzi, as I struggled to poke my tiny point-and-shoot digital camera under someone's elbow to get the shot! Arthur's Pass was the highest point in the Southern Alps where we had a brief pitstop to stretch our legs before carrying on to Greymouth. Yesterday we had a bit of a wander around Christchurch itself. You can see CK posing down by the River Avon! New Regent Street, with the coloured buildings is a particular favourite of mine! I took the photo as CK was browsing in the gift shop window. If you look closely on the top floor of the building (click to enlarge the pic!) you can see some of the bears making a bid for freedom! Then, almost on cue, one of the attractive city trams came by to complete the picture! We finished the day, being a little chilly(!) with a hot chocolate, sitting outside a bar with our own personal fire to keep us warm! What a good idea! Reckon we could do with something like that in the UK don't you think?!

Sailing onto South Island & Marlborough Sounds

After spending 3 days in the capital, Wellington (cold, wet & windy while we were there!) it was time to leave the North Island of New Zealand and take the 3 hour ferry trip over to South Island. It was a very rough crossing as you can see by this video I managed to take of the ferry going in the other direction to us!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66j6vazwLFg&NR=1 We docked in Picton, our home for the next 2 weeks, and we have now already done many of the walking tracks in the area, including Snout Track where you can see CK & I posing at the tip of the peninsula. (Photo courtesy of Henry - music director on the Regent SS Voyager cruise ship - thanks Henry!) We decided to take a day trip to Blenheim, having heard on the news that it had won the award for being the sunniest place in New Zealand during 2008. As you can see by the photo it was an extremely sunny day when we were there - NOT! One of the things we really wanted to do while we were here was take a boat trip out on the Sounds. Picton is situated right on Queen Charlotte Sound and we found a trip that would take us on a cruise up to Ship Cove, drop us off to do a 4-5 hour walk on the Queen Charlotte Track and then pick us up again where the walk ended at Endeavour Inlet. The cruise was on the mailboat, which also delivers mail to the 80 or so permanent residents on the sounds, as there are no roads - only access is by boat! We bumped into Mr James Cook again at Ship Cove (after having encountered him many times in Australia!) It was reported to be his favourite place in New Zealand (being as it was the only place he visited more than twice in the whole of the South Pacific!) He crossed the Strait from North Island in 1770, naming it the Cook Strait after himself on the way! Well, I would have done the same, although Kynnersley Strait doesn't really sound quite right! Kerr Strait has a better ring to it but sorry CK - Mr Cook got there before you! After surviving gale force winds on the crossing, he spent over a month at Ship Cove repairing his ship "The Endeavour". We could certainly see why he liked this part of New Zealand - with its deserted sandy beaches, picturesque bays and panoramic views from the headlands. Wow! Can't really show you the full splendour of it all in just a photograph but hope these few give you a bit of a flavour of it! P.S Was only joking about the ferry crossing! Came across that video on youtube and couldn't resist it! Fortunately we had a very calm crossing! But if we had seen that video before booking the ferry trip I think we would have forked out the extra to fly instead!!

The K Team Conquer Mount Taranaki!

Our main purpose in visiting New Plymouth was to see the impressive Mount Taranaki (2518 metres high) and attempt to climb it! It's yet another dormant volcano (last eruption 1755 so we felt quite safe - despite reading in the guide book that another eruption is well overdue!) We hired a car, got up early for a big breakfast and set off up the mountain at 8am. We were advised to pack for all weathers so had our backpacks stuffed with extra clothes, waterproofs and of course lots of water, food and chocolate! The first section up to Tahurangi Lodge wasn't too bad, apart from the infamous "Puffer Hill" - aptly named because puffing and panting is exactly what you're doing all the way to the top of it! After that a wooden stairway led us up to the North Ridge and then the fun began! Slopes of scoria had to be encountered to get up to the Lizard Ridge but it was so hard to climb up as for every step forward you slipped about 2 steps backwards! We were very glad we had brought our gloves as we ended up wearing them to grab onto rocks along the way up! After scrambling up the scoria slopes we then clambered up some rocky crags onto Lizard Ridge which led us to the volcano crater itself. Even though it's summer here, some bad weather a few weeks ago meant that there was still some crater ice to cross. (Fortunately only a short, but narrow, ledge where we had to grab onto the rocks on the left side to avoid slipping on the ice and going over the crater edge on the right!) Then it was down into the crater itself which is filled with snow all year round! By the time we got up there the clouds were below us which blocked the view from the top somewhat but it was fantastic to be up there above the clouds and see all the snow and the ice crystals hanging from the rocks! Awesome! (to quote a well used Aussie & Kiwi phrase!) It took us 5 hours to climb up the mountain so we allowed ourselves about 20 minutes to play around in the snow before starting our descent! I didn't think that going down would have been as taxing as going up - but how wrong can you be?! It was much more precarious climbing down the rocks than up and as for the scoria slopes - well your feet just slipped out from under you and you ended up on your backside! Well I did! Connie did much better at staying on her feet than I did - but it wasn't the most dignified descent for either of us, put it that way! We were both dead chuffed with ourselves for having done it though - it felt like a real achievement! Not sure we would do it again though! Or if we did - it would have to be on the condition that a helicopter would come to wynch us up from the crater at the top! I wouldn't want to repeat that descent again for all the money in the world! Having an easy day today after yesterday's exertions! It was exhausting but the exhilaration in getting to the top more than made up for it! And as Connie put it when we got home last night - we were absolutely Taranackered!

Lake Taupo

We arrived next in Taupo and our hosts kindly gave us a lift to our accommodation in Acacia Bay. Lovely place and a fantastic view of the Lake from our courtyard (which CK is admiring, accompanied by her glass of vino!) Only hitch was that it was a 4 mile walk into town and back with no public transport! Oops! Sorry CK! Must have missed that nugget of information when I was searching the web for somewhere to stay! But, being as we now seem to have an SAS style survival course being planned for us in outback Wales on our return (Thanks Bridget!) maybe that extra little bit of exercise will come in handy! Anyway, we decided to hire a car mid week (No - not to drive ourselves into town and back!!) We needed one to go up to Wai-O-Tapu (another sulphur smelling but spectacular thermal area!) that we didn't get chance to visit last week. Here we saw the spouting Lady Knox Geyser and various pools full of amazing colours, depending on which minerals had been deposited. The best of which were the bright green Devil's Bath and the Champagne Pool - bottle green and bubbling but fringed with burnt orange and swirling with steam! A fantastic sight to see, but in certain areas of the park the smell was horrendous! Haven't been able to face a plate of scrambled eggs ever since! Next we drove to Tongariro National Park to see a group of 3 volcanos and where parts of 'Lord of the Rings' was filmed. The largest of the volcanos (the one with snow on!) is Mount Ruapehu, which last erupted in 1995! In fact our car (where CK is posing with the map!) was old enough to have witnessed the eruption and still had the marks on it where the ash had fallen. We reckon the garage should advertise it as their "Volcano Special", having lost their former "Backpacker Special" which was a cheap to rent old banger that we wanted to hire(!) to a Taiwanese couple who trashed it by ploughing straight through a Give Way sign! Anyway we drove as near as we could get to Mount Ruapehu and visited the Whakapapa Alpine Village (yes, sounds like something out of the 'Night Garden' as those people who have any dealings with children under 5 might agree!) The Grand Chateau that you can see on the photo was quite impressive and is the posh place to stay if you are skiing up there in the Winter, but not much more there to see really. In keeping with the ski theme, how do you like the cool bench that I found to stretch out on back in Taupo?! Next stop New Plymouth ...