| Diary 15 |
| 29th Oct 2005 Woke up to blue skies again this morning, but quite weird because there was low cloud below that around the mountains, with the sun burning through!! Wrapped the feet as best as possible and took a handfull of pain killers and started the last day of the trek. Once the tablets took effect we were flying again and finished the walk in 3 hours. Had to wait for an hour for a boat back to Glenorchy so sat in the sun with Grant and Sandy (Scottish couple). Back in Glenorchy we showered and collected the car, then the four of us went back to Queenstown and had the biggest burgers ever!!! Left them and sorted a few bits out in town then drove to Te Anau to stay the night. 30th Oct 2005 Te Anau is tiny so didn't hang around and drove straight to Milford Sound. When we were nearly there we had to wait at the entrance to a tunnel (traffic lights change every 15 mins), so we parked up at the side of the road as there were a few Keas (big parrots) attacking and pulling people's cars apart! One jumped on the roof of our car so we fed it some bread and soon there were a few more - good fun, cheeky birds!! Got to Milford Sound and went out on a two hour cruise around the Sound out to the sea. We saw fur seals and yellow eyed penguins and huge cliffs rising straight out of the water, towering above us. The biggest of these was Mitre Peak, so called because it looks like a Bishop's mitre (It's a mile high). Very peaceful and of course beautiful!! Didn't hang around because we were being attacked by sand flies, so drove to Invercargill (the most southerly city in the world). The scenery on the way was very different - a lot flatter - hills nowhere near as high as the mountains in the West. 31st Oct 2005 Went into the town and managed to get a new phone (Terry's finally died after the shower gel, water and being bashed about) and fill up with cheap petrol. Drove to Dunedin via the Catlin's Coast, but the scenery was a little disapointing - not as impressive as the West Coast. The weather probably didn't help as it was grey and miserable and raining on and off all day. Got to Dunedin and found a campsite next to a river - another lovely setting! Then walked into the town to admire the architecture - they're very proud of their Scottish heritage and there are lots of Victorian and Edwardian buildings - makes a nice change from all the weatherboarded bungalows elsewhere. Stumbled across a cinema in the Octagon (centre of the town where the road goes round in an octagon!), so we watched The Fatest Indian - a true story about a man from Invercargill (Burt Munroe, played by Anthony Hopkins - not a good Kiwi accent!!!) who went to the Salt Flats in the US and broke the land speed record for motorcycles under 1000cc's.... so maybe Invercargill had more to offer than we thought!! It was dark when we came out of the cinema and all the trees in the Octagon were lit up with white fairy lights. We also saw a Halloween walk and some children dressed up and trick or treating!! 1st Nov 2005 Visited Dunedin's Botanical Gardens - wandered round for a while and also saw lots of different parrots in the avaries there. We then drove out to the Otago Peninsula and went to Larnach Castle - the only castle in New Zealand and very small compared to castles in England - but it was built as a family home so completely different! It has been beautifully restored by the current owners and the views from the 'battlements' are superb - you can see across the harbour to Dunedin and across the peninsula and out to sea. We then drove further along the peninsula to Tararoa Head where you can see penguins and albatross, but it was blowing a gale and too windy to go and explore - Terry got out of the car and had trouble staying upright, so we went back to the campsite for dinner, after which the wind had died down, so we ventured back to try to see the penguins at dusk (when they come up the beach to nest - the best time to see them), but we misjudged the drive and when we got there it was dark and we couldn't see anything!! 2nd Nov 2005 Left Dunedin and went along the coast stopping at Shag Harbour and then the Moeraki Boulders - smaller than we had expected but quite unique. They are perfectly round and formed similar to a pearl. We then headed in land to Mount Cook via Dansey's Pass - a scenic 'short cut'. Got to the mountains and camped beneath them just outside of Mount Cook village. The weather had been brilliant all day (typical as we were in the car for most of it), but it was quite late when we got there, so we just went for a short walk to a viewpoint - but you couldn't actually see Mount Cook from there. 3rd Nov 2005 Unzipped the tent this morning and was surprised to find it in the same place we had pitched it - the wind last night was rocking the tent so much (apparently the highest gust was 51.2 kph we found out). So the weather not good at all - still very windy and raining this morning, so we struggled to get the tent down without it blowing away and then popped into the visitor centre in the village. Too bad to go for a walk to see Mt Cook properly - damn - we drove away disapointed, something else for the next trip here!! We decided to go to the Banks Peninsula next, passing Lake Tekapo on the way with its tiny memorial church overlooking the lake - spoilt a little by the two bus loads of Japenese tourists that pulled up just as we got there!! Waited for them to leave before having a look ourselves. Got to Duvauchelle on the Banks Peninsula about 3pm, by which time the sun was braking through and it was extremely muggy - so we relaxed on the grass feeding a family of ducks. After dinner we went to Akoroa and had a walk round this French settlement while the sun went down. 4th Nov 2005 A bit overcast today so we decided to go into Christchurch, but didn't linger long as it was so big and busy. Came back via Lyttleton and the summit roads with great views down to all the little bays around the peninsula - didn't realise it was so vast. 5th Nov 2005 Very hot day - perfect for going out of Akoroa Harbour and swimming with dolphins - Hector's Dolphins, the smallest breed in the world. The sea was quite rough so we were lucky to get to swim. Stayed in the water for about an hour. I saw them about 10 times and saw 3 at once, but Terrywas the lucky one that day. He was diving down and playing with them so had 8-10 with him for about 15 mins - apparently they only usually react like that if you're pregnant??? He was so busy playing he didn't realise where he was and came back up under the boat with the propellers still going!! Temp. hit 30 degrees so we went to Okains Bay after to sleep in the sun - wind picked up though so we got covered in sand!! Watched fireworks being set off from the beach by our campsite when it got dark - forgot it was bonfire night as the weather was so good! |