West and South NZ update
I've been a bit amiss in posting but here's a summary of what I've been up to.
From Christchurch I passed over Arthur's pass (home to sets from LOTR and Narnia) over to the rugged, windswept and rainy (!) west coast. I'm now in the wildlife area of the scenic south being trapped on beaches by sea-lions and waiting for hours on end to see penguins arriving home.
The highlights are:
Meeting up and travelling with a japanese girl called Yumi. I'm also trying to teach her non-US english ie 'I want to' instead of 'wanna' and 'gonna' that she was taught in Japan!
Heli-hike on Franz-Josef glacier - we took a helicopter to just beneath the very top of the glacier and had a 3hr hike around caves, ridges, blue ice blocks and valleys on this very active glacier. It is the only glacier which is actually growing (6ft a day when we were there)! The thunder of falling blocks from way above was a good signal. Amazing experience and also the first time in a helicopter - woopee....
Wannaka - a lovely quaint village on the side of a brilliant blue lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. A gorgeous and relaxing place at the best of times but it was also cool watching storms approaching Wannaka from the end of the lake over the snow topped mountains.
Conservation volunteer in Queenstown. Q'twn itself is a horrible touristy place beside a gorgeous lake and surrounded by mountains. I decided to help out clearing wild pines from a mountain ranch, however as it had been raining non-stop (in NZ rain in the valleys means snow on the top of mountains) it had snowed on the ranch so instead we were helicoptered (!) onto the top flanks of Ben Lomond mountain above Q'twn. With only goat tracks to follow we slipped and slided our way across/up and down the flanks and up and down the 'gulleys' (so steep and deep they were almost ravines) connecting the flanks. I tumbled head over heels down one gulley, but apart from a few bruises am fine. I take that as being my adrenaline version of the bungee jump which Q'twn is famous for. Some of the english boys in my dorm had done 3 bungee jumps in 3 days - I think their brains must be scrambled! We started off at 9am and got back into town at 8pm, went to a pub and pampered the aching muscles with beer and potato wedges. A nice end to a mountain goat day (I've never done so much scrambling, climbing and falling before:))
Caitlins, southern route. I stayed at a small hamlet called Curio Bay and whilst I did'nt see any Hector dolphins (the seas were far too rough), I loved walking on the beach being blown around by 60mph winds and going back to childhood in running about in the waves. Soooo relaxing. In the evening I took part in a penguin watch with the Dept of Conservation ranger Matt, waiting for 4 kamikazee penguins to come back to their nests. The 1st arrived at 6.20, 2nd at7.30, 3rd at7.40 and 4th at 8.20. I was flipping cold at the end of it but it was brilliant to see. The penguins had chosen the most difficult bit of coastline ever to nest on and literally had to surf a wave over a plughole type area before arriving on the first ledge and then doing butterfly stroke until they finally jumped out on a rock and started preening themselves before finally jumping up to the nest.
We also saw loads of sea-lions relaxing or playing games along the coast, as well as a holiday camp for fur seals (sunbathing on the rocks, playing in jacussi type pools or swiming up and down rock pools, as well as some practising mountaineering skills up a pyramid shaped rock).
Less fun elements, however I'm glad I tried it, was river surfing - ie. you lay on half a surf board, get in a freezing cold river, and surf down grade 3 rapids. I was too boyant for this and kept on crashing into boulders whilst being beaten up by the rapids. That was on the 1st March and I'm still trying to get feeling into my left knee! I won this the night before in a pub famous for cocktails served in porcelain teapots and I was definately feeling a bit the worse for wear the next day when I found out I'd won river surfing and gave it a go. Not sure if the mistake was the river surfing or the drinking!
From Christchurch I passed over Arthur's pass (home to sets from LOTR and Narnia) over to the rugged, windswept and rainy (!) west coast. I'm now in the wildlife area of the scenic south being trapped on beaches by sea-lions and waiting for hours on end to see penguins arriving home.
The highlights are:
Meeting up and travelling with a japanese girl called Yumi. I'm also trying to teach her non-US english ie 'I want to' instead of 'wanna' and 'gonna' that she was taught in Japan!
Heli-hike on Franz-Josef glacier - we took a helicopter to just beneath the very top of the glacier and had a 3hr hike around caves, ridges, blue ice blocks and valleys on this very active glacier. It is the only glacier which is actually growing (6ft a day when we were there)! The thunder of falling blocks from way above was a good signal. Amazing experience and also the first time in a helicopter - woopee....
Wannaka - a lovely quaint village on the side of a brilliant blue lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. A gorgeous and relaxing place at the best of times but it was also cool watching storms approaching Wannaka from the end of the lake over the snow topped mountains.
Conservation volunteer in Queenstown. Q'twn itself is a horrible touristy place beside a gorgeous lake and surrounded by mountains. I decided to help out clearing wild pines from a mountain ranch, however as it had been raining non-stop (in NZ rain in the valleys means snow on the top of mountains) it had snowed on the ranch so instead we were helicoptered (!) onto the top flanks of Ben Lomond mountain above Q'twn. With only goat tracks to follow we slipped and slided our way across/up and down the flanks and up and down the 'gulleys' (so steep and deep they were almost ravines) connecting the flanks. I tumbled head over heels down one gulley, but apart from a few bruises am fine. I take that as being my adrenaline version of the bungee jump which Q'twn is famous for. Some of the english boys in my dorm had done 3 bungee jumps in 3 days - I think their brains must be scrambled! We started off at 9am and got back into town at 8pm, went to a pub and pampered the aching muscles with beer and potato wedges. A nice end to a mountain goat day (I've never done so much scrambling, climbing and falling before:))
Caitlins, southern route. I stayed at a small hamlet called Curio Bay and whilst I did'nt see any Hector dolphins (the seas were far too rough), I loved walking on the beach being blown around by 60mph winds and going back to childhood in running about in the waves. Soooo relaxing. In the evening I took part in a penguin watch with the Dept of Conservation ranger Matt, waiting for 4 kamikazee penguins to come back to their nests. The 1st arrived at 6.20, 2nd at7.30, 3rd at7.40 and 4th at 8.20. I was flipping cold at the end of it but it was brilliant to see. The penguins had chosen the most difficult bit of coastline ever to nest on and literally had to surf a wave over a plughole type area before arriving on the first ledge and then doing butterfly stroke until they finally jumped out on a rock and started preening themselves before finally jumping up to the nest.
We also saw loads of sea-lions relaxing or playing games along the coast, as well as a holiday camp for fur seals (sunbathing on the rocks, playing in jacussi type pools or swiming up and down rock pools, as well as some practising mountaineering skills up a pyramid shaped rock).
Less fun elements, however I'm glad I tried it, was river surfing - ie. you lay on half a surf board, get in a freezing cold river, and surf down grade 3 rapids. I was too boyant for this and kept on crashing into boulders whilst being beaten up by the rapids. That was on the 1st March and I'm still trying to get feeling into my left knee! I won this the night before in a pub famous for cocktails served in porcelain teapots and I was definately feeling a bit the worse for wear the next day when I found out I'd won river surfing and gave it a go. Not sure if the mistake was the river surfing or the drinking!
posted by boozysoozy at
4:22 PM
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