I had a really good nights sleep in the hostel, the dorm to myself and was really toasty in the morning as the room had underfloor heating. The downside of this was that anything which I left on the floor got hot and filled with condensation! Most of the morning was spent trying to sort out the next stage of my trip. I'd heard that Queenstown was really busy and when I phoned, I couldn't get there until Sunday. This meant that I had until then to fill, so I decided to go to Christchurch for a few days and do the things I was going to do at the end of my trip.
I headed back to the hostel for lunch and spotted a Kiwi Experience bus outside. The Kiwi Experience is a different way of seeing New Zealand where the bus network takes you from place to place on a designated route. Generally there are lots of party people on the buses and my heart sank when I saw the bus. I'd got a terrible cold and felt pretty rough, so the last thing I wanted was lots of "yoof" havin' it large! I sound like such an old man don't I!
After lunch it was time for my whale watching trip. I walked down to the "Whale-way Station" where I was due to book in for 1:15. I duly did this and was then told that the trip didn't actually go until 1:45! I was happy to sit outside and watch the sea though and I bought some orange juice and a Crunchie to keep my stomach happy. At the check-in I was warned that conditions off shore, may induce sea-sickness. "Bring it on!", I thought to myself after the Bay of Islands trip.
We had to take a school bus for a five minute spin to the harbour where we all got on a whizzy boat to whisk us off shore. The crew of the boat were really cool and they had a plasma screen with a GPS system showing a map of the area, recent whale spots and our position. One of the crew explained everything as we went along. Did you know that albatross mate for life and they meet up every two years? During that two years, they fly around opposite sides of the world and then meet up again. Amazing!
It wasn't long before we saw our first sperm whale and what a sight! It looked incredible, bobbing on the surface, breathing out through his blow hole, getting ready to dive. Kaikoura is right on the edge of the continental shelf, so you don't have to go far from the shore, before the sea gets really deep. The whales love this as there is lots of food for them. When the whale dived you get an amazing view of it's tail as it drops below the surface. I think the tail is called a fluke, I wonder if the two meanings of that word are related?
We saw a few more whales before my highlight of the afternoon. We came across three whales, alongside each other, getting ready to dive. One by one, they took a deep breath and dived below. Incredible! These whales can swallow giant squid and other sea creatures up to four metres in length, whole!
I forgot to mention before when I was in Wellington, a great white shark had been spotted in Wellington harbour! This was very unusual and when we left Wellington, I was slightly worried incase I heard the "Durrrr Duh" music and a fin break the surface! Of course, I didn't in the end but I was glad to get back on dry land.
After seeing some more whales we went to look for some dolphins. These had eluded me in the Bay of Islands so maybe I was going to be more fortunate this time? No, the dolphins must have chuffed off somewhere else, this was my last chance to see them in the wild this trip so I was a bit sad. The only consolation was that we saw some very cuddly seals resting on some rocks. Of course, though they looked cuddly, they would be quite vicious if they thought they could take you on!
We headed back to the shore and once again, my sea stomach was fine. When I got back to the hostel, it was absolutely chocca. Heaving with Kiwi Experience people. There were three in my dorm too, so I was just hoping that they wouldn't party all night...
I went for a walk down the beach to chill out and look at the amazing stars. The sky was really clear and you could see the band of the milky way stretching across from horizon to horizon. I even saw a shooting star which was the icing on the cake!
Well, in the end, I did get some sleep but I did keep waking up. I woke at 4am to hear what sounded like an air raid siren go off! Goodness knows what it was, but I didn't hear any bombs and once it died off I went back to sleep.
I did meet some nice people at the hostel too, there was Brad, Jennie, Yoko, Liz and Karen and although you feel a little stupid asking everybody the same questions "Where have you been, where are you going.." etc. we had some good laughs. We also watched the film Leon on the first night, which was a bit bizarre as in New Zealand it's called the Professional for some reason. I had forgotten what happened at the end so it must have been quite a while since I'd seen it. A great film.
I was catching the bus today to Christchurch and toddled down to the information centre to wait for it. There was an American couple, quite elderly waiting with me and we had a bit of a chat. They were from Oklahama and were also spending two months out in New Zealand. When the bus arrived, it was really full so I ended up squashed up in the back corner with the Americans.
The first bit of the journey was really spectacular as we drove along the coast, plunging through rock tunnels and winding around bays. Then we headed into the hills and the American woman kindly offered me a sweet. It was individually wrapped and looked like a large polo. They were called life savers and I was expecting a fresh minty, polo kind of taste.
Argggghhh!
Were they trying to kill me! The sweet tasted mainly like germoline, but it wasn't just germoline, it had a spicy kick which felt like a hole was burning in your tongue. Watch out for these, they had brought them from the states and I'd be surprised if anyone else would want to sell them! It also reminded me of the root beer which you used to get from McDonalds when they first came to the U.K. Which, strangely I used to quite like in my youth, before I stopped going there!
The rest of the bus journey passed without incident and I arrived in Christchurch at 1:30pm. It was a short walk to the YHA hostel where I was going to stay for the next four nights. My room has no heating this time and I knew it was going to be onimous when the warden gave me a hot water bottle when I signed in!
After dropping my bags off, I walked back into the city centre to have a look around. In the centre of the city is the cathedral so I started there. I had a look around and it is a lovely building. For 4 dollars one can climb the clock tower and this I did. My legs ached so much! I blame sitting on the bus all morning :) The view at the top was a bit disappointing as there are so many high buildings around. The city does look really nice though, reminds me of Oxford and Cambridge, except there are trams and not as many old buildings.
After looking in the cathedral I decided to head out of town to where a gondola takes you up a nearby hill. There is a free bus out there and so I took advantage of the offer! I almost fell off my chair on the way when I spotted a row of terraced, brick houses - I'd not seen any of those since leaving the U.K. and it kind of made me feel at home! At the top of the gondola ride is a restaurant and a cracking view of Christchurch, looking across to the Southern Alps in the distance. The other way is the harbour town of Lyttelton which is in the crater of an extinct volcano. A cracking view and it got even better as the sun went down.
Then it was time to head back to the city to catch a film and then head for bed!
The film last night was brilliant, ir's called Memento and is all about a guy who has lost his short term memory. Bit violent in places, but highly recommended. It really makes you think and consequently it took me ages to get to sleep. I had to get up early in the morning too because I was going to do one of the greatest train journeys in the world, allegedly!
The Tranz-Alpine express goes from Christchurch across the Southern Alps via Arthur's Pass to Greymouth and back again. I had to take a bus to the station and after a short wait was able to board the train.
At first the journey takes you across the Canterbury plains, but all the time you can see the Alps looming in the distance, getting nearer and nearer without seeming passable. The line then climbs steeply alongside a river, over huge viaducts, I think the biggest was 73 metres high, and through long tunnels until it reaches the higher ground. This train had an open air carriage where you can get a mad adrenalin rush as the train storms through the countryside. Especially on the downhill stretches on the way back where they really tank it.
Once again, I'd like to say that the railway track conditions are awful! You would never get a U.K. railway with such a bad track state, I even split my coffee at one point!
Anyway, when we reached the Summit at Arthur's Pass, the weather was really cold, there was snow on higer ground, but all around there was very thick hoar frost, making the going very slippery.
A short stop and then it was down through a long tunnel to make the descent down to Greymouth. The tunnel section and a short bit either side used to be electrified, I think a 14km section. This was all dismantled in 1997 which would make a lot of economic sense if it wasn't for the fact that the rest of the world is going the other way, investing and extending their electrified routes!
The rest of the descent was really beautiful, through huge forested valleys and past a couple of lovely lakes. I then had an hour in Greymouth to grab some lunch and then get back to the train for the journey back!
Not a lot to report on the way back really, I was really tired though, I think a combination of late nights, early starts and the continuing cold...
When I got back to my room, I met one of my temporary room mates who's name, I think was Chen. He had a bright yellow padded jacked on and I think was reading a Japanese newspaper. I said hello and then headed out for some food. When I returned two and a half hours later, he was in exactly the same position, still reading the paper! He then proceeded to get straight into bed, still in his clothes. You do see some unusual things when staying in hostels!
I spent most of the morning, after a modest lie-in, working out how to do the next section of my trip. Should I get a car in Christchurch, where it was cheap, or risk it and get one in Queenstown. Well, I phoned some places and in the end managed to get a good deal for the rest of my stay. Ok, the car isn't exactly what I would like to be driving around, a Subaru Impreza, but it is Japanese. Well it's a Nissan Sentra (SG!), and it's red, and it's 14 years old!
I have got a good deal though, it's going to cost me less than seven pounds a day to hire and it gives me so much more freedom for the rest of my stay. That is of course if the wheels don't fall off when it sees some of the mountain passes I'm going to be taking it up! I took some snow chains too for those tricky condiditions down South, hope I don't neet them too much. It's also done 225000 km, hmmm, maybe that's why it was so cheap. All part of the adventure I think!
After picking the car up, I decided to take it for a little spin, to Lyttelton. This meant negotiating some hairy traffic until I reached the road tunnel which takes you under the hills to the harbour. Lyttelton used to be a really buzzing place before Christchurch took off, now it is the main harbour for the area. There were lots of ships around, some unloading containers, others waiting for their loads.
I drove up the hill to take a look at the Timeball station. This is an old building with a large zinc ball attached to a pole on the top of it. Everyday at 12:57 the ball moves to the top of the pole, then at exactly 1:00pm, the ball starts to drop. This was to allow the sailors to adjust their chronometers on the ships to standard time for their navigation. The mechanism still works, but I'd missed the action, so it was really just a quick look around.
Also in the town is an old signal box, which has been restored and a delightful Steam Tug which unfortunately was closed when I went to have a look. It was a beautiful day though, so rather than heading back to town, I drove around the cliffs to Godley Head and then down in to the town of Sumner.
Sumner is a small seaside town and I was able to sit on the beach and have a coffee before exploring around. Next to the cafe was a huge rock, known as Cave Rock, which apparantly is quite unusual. There are lots of little caves under the rock with streams and sand in them. I had a little explore without getting my feet wet and then climbed to the top to watch the sun go down.
I wasn't feeling too hungry, but thought that I'd better eat something, so I headed into the centre of the town and found the Ruptured Duck. This unusually named restaurant was lovely. I sat next to a nice open fire and ordered a vegetarian gourmet pizza. For the record, this was the topping. Sundried tomatoes, eggplant, parmesan, roasted kumara (which is a Kiwi sweet potato), roasted potatoes with rosemary, garlic, capsicum and broccoli, topped with aoli flavourful. It was very tasty, but I just couldn't eat it all! Fortunately a doggy bag was provided so I could take the final quarter away with me.
Back then to the hostel and bed.
Now I had the car, I could travel a bit further afield and today I decided to head for Akaroa which is at the far side of Bank's Peninsula. Bank's Peninsula is the hilly thumb which sticks out into the ocean to the east of Christchurch. It is formed from the craters of a couple of old volcanoes and is a real contrast to the Canterbury Plains.
I started my journey by heading back to Lyttelton before joining the Summit Road. The idea for the Summit Road was conceived by a chap called Harry Ell who thought it would be a great idea to build a road along the summit of the ridges which loop around Bank's Peninsula. Along the way he wanted 'rest stations' where trampers could stay and also lots of small and large tramps to cater for all tastes. Most of his vision was fulfilled and although it would take me a lot longer, I decided to follow his road as much as I could.
The road really does keep close to the ridge providing some amazing views and when it came to a missing section it was a real shame to have to drop down. I then drove around the opposite side of the bay to Lyttelton and then headed across to Port Levy. From here to the next bay, the road was unsealed, basically a gravel trap and it was at this point that I wished I was in a Richard Burn's spec. Subaru Impreza world rally car as it would have been fantastic! It was slow going in my little red car though and at one point I got stuck behind a road full of sheep!
After the unsealed section, it was back on to another bit of the Summit Road which I followed round until it was time to drop down to Akaroa.
Akaroa was created when some french settlers arrived there to stay. The captain of the ship which dropped them off, raised a French Flag and set off back to France to gain permission to claim the territory. Unfortunately, whilst he was away, the treaty of Waitangi was signed and when he got back, all of New Zealand had come under the rule of the U.K.! The settlers stayed anyway and now there is a French theme to the town, with some French street names and architecture.
There were lots of balloons and flags around when I arrived and it seems that I chose to visit on Bastille Weekend! There were lots of people there and I had an intersting time looking in the musuem and visiting the cafes. It started to rain though and before long it was time to head back to Christchurch.
I went back the quick way for a change of scenery and was able to catch an amazing red sunset over the distant mountains on the way. Beautiful.
Dinner tonight was in a French Restaurant, not far from where I was staying. It is called Le Bon Bolli and although it was full, they squeezed me in near the bar. I ordered a risotto but had a moment of panic when the waitress left me a napkin, a spoon and a knife. I wondered if I'd ordered the right thing when fortunately she returned with a smile... and a fork, hoorah! Lovely food too.
Next I'm off to watch the Lions, hopefully beat Australia in one of the nearby pubs, that's if I can get in!
Well, the Lions lost in the end which was a disappointment, but I'd headed to bed with happy spirits anyway and woke feeling a bit pants. This cold was really driving me mad!
A frosty morning, so I scraped off the ice from the red machine with my air-miles card, packed my stuff in and set off South. The main road South from Christchurch was very straight and not very exciting, the best bit was seeing the mountains in the distance and knowing that I was getting nearer and nearer.
I then turned off the main road and headed cross country to Fairlie where I thought I'd stop for some lunch. I'd seen a sign for a Vege-cafe and sat down for a Banana smoothie, with honey, yum and a big veggie pie. The cafe was full of healthy foods and spiritual stuff and I was tempted to stay for longer, but I knew I had a long way yet to go.
From Fairlie, the road heads into the hills and my little car started to wheeze a bit on the hills. At one point I passed a farm which had hundreds of pairs of trainers tied to the fences. Why, I didn't stop to find out, fearing a terrible hum from the ghosts of smelly feet! We made steady progress and arrived at Tekapo after about 40 minutes. I'd really been looking forward to visiting here and originally was going to stay a night. I'm glad I didn't know as it was a bit too touristy for me. There is a huge lake at Tekapo, surrounded by mountains and a small chapel on the shore. The pictures I'd seen of it looked beautiful, it looked like it was a grassy bank by the lake, when actually it was right next to a busy car park.
The crowds dispersed as the big buses left and I was left chatting to Bruce who was on on duty at the Chapel of The Good Shepherd. We had a good chat about travelling and all the tourists, I know I'm one myself and it left me feeling quite uncomfortable, but at least I was being a bit independent. Bruce pointed out a big hill, Mount St. John which you can walk up to get a good view, or drive up if the gate was open. So, when the next busload arrived, I said goodbye and jumped in the car.
The road up to the top of the hill had a big warning sign, saying "No entry except on Business" as the road is for an observatory. I thought it might be ok to drive up as the gate was open. The road winded it's way around to the top and then when I got there, there were a few important looking astronomers with huge beards and big telescopes looking at me fiercely! Well, there was one chap in a fleece who gave me a wave, but I was worried that when I got to the bottom there would be a tank waiting to blast me and the car into orbit for a future viewing. I zoomed back down again... just in case.
There are quite a few hydro-electric schemes around here and every know and then I'd cross a huge, fast flowing canal which zoomed off into the distance. It was really strange as our U.K. canals only have a small flow and the speed limit is 4mph, put a narrow boat in one of these canals and it would shoot off like a rocket! I took great care over the bridges to make sure I didn't drive in.
I was getting desperate for a coffee by this stage and as Tekapo hadn't appealed to me, I hoped that Twizel - Town of the Trees would come up trumps. But, oh no, it was Sunday and the place was a ghost town. My spirits drooped. I think I'm addicted to caffeine, which isn't too good as it clicked why I was feeling a bit down. In this part of New Zealand, the settlements are far apart and unless there is a specific reason to be open, like they serve a ski-field, they are shut... especially on a Sunday.
Coffee, coffee, coffee! The next town was called Omarama and I saw a sign for a Wine bar and vineyard, I drove up the drive and the place looked deserted. Inside there was nobody, it looked really nice, but I couldn't really serve myself! Then there was a crashing about and a woman called Judy appeared, fresh from pruning the vines. She made me a huge Latte in a bowl and as I sipped it and chatted, my spirits lifted. The place was called the Clay Cliffs Estate and I showed her the write up in my guidebook, which fortunately was good! It was really nice to stop and chat and as I was getting quite tired, I was very tempted to stop. Feeling a little more energised, but sad to be moving on, I got back to the car.
The rest of the journey seemed to take ages and I had to be on the look out for patches of ice, there was only one moment where I had to correct a little skid, but as it got dark you were never sure what was around the next corner.
It was dark when I arrived at Queenstown and I parked at the YHA to find it heaving. It was really busy and again my spirits slumped. I don't know why, maybe it was because I was tired but I often feel lonely when there are lots of people around like that, a bit shy! The other downer was the snow situation, they'd not had any new snow for weeks and the pistes were getting quite icy. This was one of the main reasons for coming down here, to go boarding - please let us have some new snow this week!
I found a comfy chair though and read a bit more of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", a rather obvious book to read when travelling, but I had tried to read it before and got stuck about half way. I think there are seasons for books and it seemed good to read it now. It has made me think reading it and I was quite sad at the end, but glad I made it all the way through... The new Harry Potter book is in my rucksack calling out to me, but I'm delaying gratification for a few days yet!
Didn't sleep very well either, I was sharing a dorm with seven others and although I was tired, I just couldn't get too sleep...
What a misery guts I was yesterday, just telling it how it is I suppose! Anyway, today was a nice day and after having a chat with one of my roommates in the morning, I headed down into town for a cruise on the old steamer TSS Earnslaw. This ship was launched in 1912 and has been restored to a pristine state. Of course, I do like steam things and tihs was a beauty. There is a gangway in the engine room so you can see the boilers, the piston coverings and all the valve gear. It was brilliant. There was a fireman, who they called a stoker, constantly firing the four boilers whilst there were two engine operators, one for each three-cylinder engine.
The cruise across the lake was really beautiful too and I was quite sad when it was time to go back. I wondered around the town and then caught the gondola up the hillside, similar to the one at Rotorua with a luge at the top. The luge wasn't as long or as good as the Rotorua one, but was fun anyway. You also get a better view from the top than Rotorua with the added bonus of being able to watch people bungy jump off the ledge below. Then, after I watched it go dark, it was back down into town to buy some food and walk back to the hostel.
Crumbs, another week gone!
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