We flew from Sydney to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand on a mammoth flight. If like me you thought Australia and New Zealand were close, you would be surprised by how long it takes to get between the two. Unless our pilot was taking us on a joy ride of the pacific, the direct flight time is about 11 hours.
As soon as we arrived in New Zealand we were treated really nicely by everyone, it was a bit like being in America but with more sincerity. We took a bus from the airport and got our first impressions of Christchurch. It was as if we had returned to England (with friendlier people)! Or more specifically a retirement village in England. All the houses were bungalows separated by perfectly-kept gardens, the streets were wide, quiet and clean, and a pretty river ran through the city. We felt at ease at once.
Yes it could be Cambridge!
Our hostel in Christchurch could not have been more different from the hostel in Sydney, it was like a retirement home. Rooms were decorated like your Grandma’s house and they surrounded a large flower garden with benches and tables. It was beautiful! The city itself was very quiet indeed. This may be as a result of the September Earthquake, or perhaps it has always been somewhat sleepy, but whatever the reason I really appreciated some peace and quiet. We wandered along the river, saw the city and barbequed at the hostel. Something strange to note is that in this sleepy New Zealand city, all the teenagers dress as though they are in an American punk-rock band. It makes a strange contrast against the English country garden backdrop.
The day before we left Christchurch we went to Quality Car Rental (the clue is in the name) to sort out our transport for the next few weeks in New Zealand. It wasn’t grand, it wasn’t even clean, but it was a functioning car where we would be spending a lot of time! Here’s a picture of our little baby.
It was a Mazda Familia, but since the M had fallen off it was now an “Azda” Familiar which meant we had to keep slapping our bottoms and talking about the Asda promise, whenever we used her. She looked a lot like every other hire car in New Zealand, but she was easily spotted by the missing “M” and also the fact that she only had three hub cabs (one of which we lost somewhere!). On our first day with our Azda car, we drove to Akaroa where we took a boat to see the local wildlife. It was a great boat trip, and with the help of Mitch the dog we spotted lots of Hector dolphins. They are the smallest dolphins in the world and are native only to New Zealand. We also saw seals, penguins and various sea birds. After the boat trip, we had a look around the sleepy town, which was so sleepy it was comatose! I loved it!
Hector Dolphins
The amazing dolphin-spotting dog; Mitch
We had put a note up in the hostel advertising the fact that we would be driving South if anyone wanted a lift, and so the next day Christian and I drove the Asda familiar down to Queenstown, with our new-found friends Tania and David from Chile. It was a long and mostly straight drive for about 7 hours and so it was good to have the Chileans to chat with, and they gave us some valuable tips for our next stop in Santiago, Chile. New Zealand is a popular location for South Americans, especially Chileans, to either holiday or come to work (mostly fruit picking).
Hair raising and hair cutting
Queenstown is the “Extreme sports mecca” of New Zealand and the town’s business is largely dependent on this. On our first day we both went white water rafting, which was fun, but to be honest the most nerve-racking part of this activity was taking an old bus up the Mountain pass, the rafting itself wasn’t particularly extreme. The next day Christian did something really extreme and jumped out of a plane at fifteen thousand feet.
At the same time, I pushed my adrenalin limits and had a haircut and a coffee. However, my heart did race that day when Christian and I were lounging on some grass in town and heard a squeal, a somewhat familiar squeal. It was my friend Amrita from work, and we spent a great evening with her catching up. We knew that she was in New Zealand but had no idea where. It was so nice to see a familiar face (which wasn’t Christians! His face is probably more familliar now than my own).
An embarrassing garage stop
After Queenstown we drove to Te Anau lake in the Fiordlands of Western New Zealand. It is worth mentioning at this point that New Zealand seems to have no radio stations at all, and we had already spent over 7 hours in the Asda Familiar listening to our one CD – the new Kings of Lean (which is nowhere near their normal standard, sadly). Just outside of Queenstown I invested in a new CD, approved by Christian, and we were really looking forward to listening to something different. This is a bit embarrassing for me to admit what the CD is, but to excuse myself…I’m not really a huge fan…we just wanted something to sing along to….and so we bought Mariah Carey the greatest hits double CD (believe me, she doesn’t have enough for two CDs!).
When we got into the car we discovered that we were unable to eject the Kings of Leon CD. Both of us pushed our technical minds as far as they would stretch (in my case not far) in order to try and eject the CD, pushing every single button we could find. Christian even removed the radio from the car – yes we were that desperate for Mariah Carey! and also tried ringing Quality Cars. Eventually we had to admit defeat and listened to yet more Kings of Leon for a couple of hours. However when this got too much for us we pulled into a dirty looking garage in the middle of nowhere, and asked the huge and greasy mechanic to help us. He was also dumbfounded for a while but eventually found the eject button, and I could have kissed him! Luckily he didn’t see the CD we had ready and waiting, something told me he wasn’t a Mariah fan. And so on we went to Te Anau, singing “Hero” at the top of our voices! I was secretly singing about the Mechanic… “And then a hero comes along, and finds eject to end that song, and you cast you fear aside, and you know you will survive!”
Kepler Trek
As we were to discover in much of New Zealand, there was not much to do in Te Anau (although we did spot this funny road sign)
So no sooner had we arrived, then we headed off on a four day trek. Over four days we trekked 60 km, we carried all of our food and clothes in our rucksacks, we stayed in mountain huts (that were a bit like chicken coops), we got very excited about chocolate, we got tanned, windswept and wet, and Christian survived without an internet connection. It was loads of fun and is best summarised in photos and a video:
Day one and all is well
View from the hut
Day two and something has changed. Can you spot what’s missing from this photo. Answer: the sun
Day two and Christian looks at peace with his surroundings. In truth, he is about to kill a sandfly.
Day three and the sun is back. Just.
The view from our hut on day four of the trek.
You be the judge!
Finished. Where’s my medal? No seriously, I deserve something!
Afterwards we desperately sought a shower in Te Anau without any luck, and so with 4 days worth of sweat and dirt caked to us, and with a lovely New Zealander in the back of the Azda Familiar (who had completed the whole 60 km in less than 5 hours!) we headed to Lake Wanaka, to begin our journey Northwards.
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