Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.......anyone?

New Year's eve, the bells, were spent in Queenstown. The place has just filled up to the rafters since Xmas as the school holidays get into full swing. There is probably ten times as many people here as were here at Xmas. Every hotel sold out every parking spot taken every bar and cafe full.

Queenstown Hogmanay consisted of a shockingly bad cover band and a very impressive fireworks display in the lake. Highlight of the evening has to be seeing someone drop their camera over the side of the pier though.

The other evening we took a romantic cruise across the lake in the TSS Earnslaw. About 40 minutes across then a sheep dog display, don't worry Roddy I got an autographed DVD.

A couple more attempts at fishing have proved fruitless though. Last night in Queenstown tonight then we're off tothe Otago peninsula (where Dunedin is) to hopefully catch a glimpse of the only mainland albatrosses (i'm sure thats not the plural) in the world. Then we're heading off down the Catlins Coast. Three hostels along the coast, two nights in each (although I'll be testing out the new tent tomorrow night). The Hostel we're hoping to stay in on Friday/Saturday says you can watch the porpoises play in the surf from the sofa so it could provide some distraction from the TV and watching stories of temperatures in England getting as low a freezing, how do they survive it.

After the Catlins we're going to Fiordland. That should be a highlight of any trip.

Anyway that's all for now. Hope all your new years are as good as mine is going to be.

Christmas etc

A pretty quiet Christmas for us. Christmas dinner was a Bollywood Banquet from a top curry house in Queenstown. Boxing day was pretty uninspiring too. Had a nice thunderstorm though and it snowed on the mountains. See the photos.

Today we went ont he shotover jet boat. Excellent! Like a rooler coaster on water. Highly recommend it if you ever come down this way.

We then headed to the far end of the Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy and Mount Aspiring National Park. There were a few glaciers to be seen around the peaks in the distance. We followed a sign to 'Paradise' and arrived to find why although it is at the end of 12 km of grave track.

Anyway Jamie has his dinner so time to go.

All the best.

Queenstown Day 1

Glorious day here today. Just a note to say Merry Christmas and a couple of photos from Queenstown. Check out the AEGON T-shirt too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Oamaru - Queenstown

After leaving Oamaru we headed cross country up the Waikato Valley. The Waikato river has been utilised for Hydro Power and has various impressive dams built along it. The most impressive being the Benmore Lake dam. Very impressive and supplies a fair amount of power too.

We travelled on to Omarama and our next hostel, Buscot Station. What a lovely place, a cracking location on a Merino Sheep farm and a cracking host in Tony Gloag. The Gloag name originating from Crieff/Muthil of all places. He showed us photos of his trip there in 1999.

The view out across the flat valley floor towards the southern alps was worth the money alone. Well more than the money actually. This is fishing country so I bought my new rod and a license for the year and some flies selected by the tackle shop proprietor. That was all I needed having taken my own real and line from Scotland.

We had a go in the nearby stream and after spying a few monster trout we had fished the river out and headed for the real thing.

The Ahuriri River is world renowned for it's big trout. We had a few casts that evening but to no avail.

The next day we headed up to the upper reaches, 20km along a gravel road up into what looked like Lord of the Rings country. The cloud tipped mountains at the top of the valley still had a good covering of snow.

Anyway the crystal clear water means you can spot your fish before you attempt to catch them. And spot them we did. Bigger than any trout we'd spotted before in our lives.

We fished up the river for about 3 miles then Jamie fished back down to the car and I fished on up.

A lot of the little sections of river which had split from the main section seemed to hold fish and soon after leaving Jamie I found such a spot. In no more than 8 inches of water at the back of a small creek around 3ft wide lay a lovely looking trout. The next trick was not to let it see me. After many many casts and fly changes I was lying on my front in the long grass only a few feet from the target with the rod out infront of me dangling a fly about 18 inches from the tip of the rod. I lowered it down right infront of the fish and after about 3 seconds it was solid, I struck the fly and stood up and it was on. After a pretty short struggle it was in my hands. Quite small by Ahuriri standards at around 4 1/2 lbs but by far my biggest ever brown trout. Getting the fly out was a nightmare though as it was right in behind the lower teeth and it would have easily cut my skin if it had bit down in my finger.

The rest of the day was pretty inconsequential really.

Today we travelled from Omarama to Queenstown. We picked up a hitchhiker just outside Cromwell (60km from Queenstown) he turned out to be a complete psycho and we had to leave him in a lay by.

No we didn't he was a top Kiwi called Ben. He was going to Queenstown from Dunedin to pick up a camper van.

Anyway we're in Queenstown now and there is oodles and oodles on offer. It's not too busy yet either. On the agenda are the Gondola, Jetboat, Steamer Cruise, fishing ofcourse and maybe a bungy. We'll see.

Photos will follow very soon hopefully.

Cheers for now.

Penguins and Boulders

Well we got our car and hit the road. Monday we drove down the coast to a little hostel by the beach in All Day Bay, just south of Oamaru. That evening we went to watch the blue penguins at the harbour at Oamaru. We sat in a football stadium like stand with a bunch of noisy french people and watch the little blighters struggle up from the beach to thier burrows and nests to our right. The noisyness of some of our fellow spectators (yes we do 'regarde' now shut up) meant the penguins kept their distance. We stayed on though and after the majority decided the 'show' was over we were chatting to one of the guides when one of the penguins waddled past no more than a couple of feet from us. Amazing.

The next day, Tuesday, we went to see the Moareki Boulders. Huge spherical rocks which have gradually been appearing from the shore as erosion from the sea cuts into the dunes. Quite other-wordly. Phots to follow.

After that, off round the coast to see some yellow eyed penguins. These are larger and come and go to the sea alone. We wandered down to the vieing hut and after seeing our first one a couple more appeared from on shore. At this point some more of our French friends appeared with two very young children. Needless to say silence did not ensue.

We left the hide and wandered along the coast. The rocks were covered in fur seals and we soon got our own private penguin show as three of them took a tour around the beach in front of us.

Anyway we're in Omarama now, 110km inland on the edge of the Southern Alps. Two nights here and then off to Queenstown.

Thats all for now.

On the road

We have a car, it's a loan car until we get the real thing on Monday. It's an automatic and it's what they call a 'lemon' over here. ie it's rubbish. Our new one is miles better and we'll have it on the road on Monday.

Last night in Base Christchurch tonight, tomorrow we are staying in a beach side suburb. Lovely place called Sumner.

Anyway I've uploaded photos to photobucket.

Here's the link and I'll add it to the side link too.

http://photobucket.com/albums/d139/zerfahs/

Still in Christchurch

Two days in Christchurch. Bought a quality digital camera, plenty messing around with that. Amusing ourselves watching fish in the river.

Money from my UK account has arrived in my NZ one so we're off car hunting tomorrow. After that we're free as a bird and off exploring.

We went up the cable car/godola to the top of the hills at the east of the city. A great view over the Lyttleton harbour which was buzzing with various ships and trains etc.

The fog was rolling in from the sea and partially obscuring the view at times but it provided an interesting atmosphere.

Feel free to add your comments.

Greymouth

Yesterday we took the Tranzscenic across to Greymouth up across the alps and through Arthur's Pass. We passed some cracking looking rivers, turquoise and clear not to mention some sweeping mountains and glacial remains.

Greymouth itself is a pretty quiet place, a bit like Fort William, lots of great stuff going on round about but the place itself is pretty dull. We didn't really have time to get anything done yesterday but this morning, before we got back on the train, we had a tour of the Montieth's Brewery followed by a tasting session. We also got to taste some malt grains, I needed a beer to wash the taste out after that. Nice beers though and served up by a very bubbly character while we sat with a family from California who informed us the heat (ok it was about 20C) was pretty much what they'd left at home. Also, interestingly, they will leave here on Christmas Day evening only to arrive home on Christmas Day morning. The kids are expecting twice the presents.

Back in Christchurch now. Our rail journeys behind us. Now the real trip starts, buy a car, fishing gear, tent etc and take things at a slightly slower pace and more on our terms.

3 nights booked in base backpackers and hopefully we'll have a car by next week.

It's only 16C here by the way.

Christchurch

Travelled from Wellington to Christchurch yesterday. 745 am start to the wellington - picton ferry. The ferry is a rather hefty, but accommodating former sealink ferry. Even at this time of year the car deck was barely 1/3 full. The journey through the sound to picton was very scenic, turquoise waters framed by steep sided, tree clad shores. The sound buzzed with small speed boats and the odd small plane or helicopter. A three hour trip and we arrived in picton, a small town not unlike Oban.

A short walk to the train and away we go on another magical mystery tour on Tranzscenic TranzCoastal. It's so dispiriting seeing huge truck fly past you on the road running parallel but when you sit back and remember you're in no rush and that it just gives you more time to admire the scenery it seems quite acceptable.

We're still coming to terms with the fact that time is not important, we're in no rush and nothing needs getting done.

We passed through the currently drought stricken vineyards of malborough and down to the coast, over various shrunken rivers and through sheep, cow and deer covered fields.

The coastal seas and pacific ocean just pleaded to be swum in and soon before kaikoura, whale watching capital of the world it seems, we saw dozens of new zealand fur seals lounging on the rocks, some of them managing to clamber to seemingly impossible heights. After a couple of long 'operational' stops we got to Kaikoura. We're definitely going back there. Soon after we were back inland and Bill Hicks entertained me on the MP3 player for the rest of the journey much to the suspicion of the passenger opposite as smiles and smirks continued to appear across my face for no apparent reason.

Anyway, thanks to the wonders of the net, I managed to get us the weekend in a 4 star hotel for 48GBP for a twin room per night, it's normally 113GBP so a little luxury for a fraction of the price. Back to the hostels next week though.

Happy Days.

Wellington

Had a rather lengthy train trip down from Auckland yesterday. Up at 615am (easy enough as still slightly time lagged), train leaves at 725am and should have taken 12 hours. It took 14 hours and 5 minutes. Great scenery though and very relaxing, it seemed more of a case of simply managing to get the train to Wellington than anything organised or important. I can see why the kiwis dont use it.

Anyway in Wellington now, stayed in a hostel last night and tonight. Went to the national museum, it's excellent and we were browsing around for atleast 4 hours, not something I usually do. It covered pretty much everything from natural history to immigration and the maori traditions and culture.

Then up the cable car, quick pint in a welsh pub, that's right a welsh pub.

Eating oriental food most nights, there's al lot of seriously authentic places and luckily they're dirt cheap.

Anyway off on the ferry tomorrow (hopefully, they have some strange booking procedures) and the train to christchurch. Tomorrow night and Saturday in Christchurch then train to Greymouth, two day s there then back to Christchurch for a week or so.

Arrived!

We're here, safe and pretty well (I have a cold which is rather annoying) Didn't sleep at all on the flights. In need of bed but holding out till 9pm.
It's warm here, 19C according to pilot, 29C according to sign on a building, feels about 20 jamie says.
Hotel is very good, quality shower which is a major plus point. Just surviving until tomorrow when we hope to get some proper stuff done.