We left Queenstown, not appreciating it's greatness. Since leaving Queenstown, numerous people have recommended many things that we should have done while we were there! Gutted! My main regret was not doing the Nevis Arc, the largest swing in the world. Ah, well, next time! So we left to drive to Milford Sound. We made a quick grocery stop in the last place of civilisation in Te Anau. We drove into the town centre which consisted of one street with about 10 shops on it! Then we got back on the road to travel up the one and only road into Milford Sound – a 2 hour drive with no turn-offs, no civilisation, no nothing. There is one road into Milford Sound and that same road out, so it's a pretty isolated place. I don't really like isolation.
Along the way we stopped off at the Mirror Lakes which were small lakes with the most crystal clear, blue water I have ever seen. I think that will be my resounding memory of New Zealand – the amazing colour of the various waters here! Then we stopped off again later in another lay by to have a look at a crazy parrot like bird that we saw. It was huge and green and seemed really tame, coming right up to us and sitting on our van. We couldn't understand why there was a big sign saying 'do not feed the Kea', they seemed so cute. We would later discover that they are annoying and cheeky and they have learnt to look cute to extort food from tourists!!
The next obstacle on our journey to Milford Sound was the site of special interest, the Homer Tunnel. For anyone who is claustrophobic, I would not advise going through this tunnel – although if you want to visit Milford Sound you don't really have much choice! It's the strangest tunnel we'd ever seen. It's a tiny hole cut into this massive mountain, it's pitch black inside and only wide enough for one and a half cars, which can cause problems as it's a two way tunnel! It goes on for what seems like forever and if the feeling of being squished into a tiny black hole isn't scary enough, just think of all the tonnes of rock hanging above your head. Thankfully, I wasn't driving because if I had been I would have reversed right out of that tunnel entrance and headed back in the opposite direction. Even Kev had a fright when he first came across it but he powered on through, while I quickly picked up the camera (not to take photos of this odd site of interest I'm afraid) but to look through the day's photos that we'd already taken. It was the only way I could take my mind off the bizarre little version of hell that we had just entered into!
We made it out the other side and I put all my effort into not thinking about the return journey that loomed heavily over my head (but not as heavily as the mountain we had just travelled through). We arrived at the camp-site situated between two beautiful rivers with waterfalls running from either sides of the surrounding mountains, it was a glorious day. We then parked up before heading into the kitchen to cook the remains of yesterday's catch – the Rainbow Trout. It felt quite nice to clearly be the envy of all the other campers who were reluctantly beavering away over hot stoves making powdered pasta meals and tinned veg! When I pulled out my whopping great fish I could see the envy in their eyes! Many of them couldn't resist and asked me where I had caught the fine specimen. I proudly replied that I had scooped him fresh out of the lake just the day before. Some lingered around me for slightly too long, just looking, longingly at him as he lay quietly poaching in my frying pan. 'Oh yeah, that's going to taste so good' they would say, 'Yes, I know' I would reply! And sure enough, that was the nicest Rainbow Trout I've ever tasted, much nicer than the Brown Trout we had for dinner last night.
The next morning was an early start, which was just as well as the Kea had taken a shine to our van and were having a party on the roof. As soon as Kev stepped out of the van so they swarmed around him, begging for food, but when he didn't give in they tried to eat our toilet roll instead. Between them and the thousands of sand flies that infest Milford Sound (and which ate poor Kevin alive) we were having just about enough of wildlife. We met up with our Kayaking instructors and drove down to the Deep Basin area where we would get kitted up. Once we were attractively adorned in a succession of rubber layers it was time to get in to our boats. In true sexist fashion, every single pair on our trip chose to place the man in the driving seat at the back and the girl in the front. Kev had a bit of trouble adjusting his foot pedals correctly and as this was a fairly integral part of steering the rudder at the back, I was relatively keen shall we say, for him to get this adjustment correct. I think Kev would say here that he has never been as uncomfortable as he was on that day, squished into a tiny plastic hole with his legs in a very flexible frog position and his knees pushed up so far to the inside of the boat that they virtually came through the other side by the end of the day. We spent the entire kayaking trip moaning at each other, me moaning that Kev wasn't steering properly, and him moaning that I wasn't paddling correctly. But you have to realise that tensions were high that day because the thought of capsizing into the freezing cold, and surprisingly rough sea was at the forefront of our mind at all times. We paddled out into the sea and eventually stopped on an isolated beach for lunch. But while we were eating, so the weather completely changed and the sea that had, five minutes ago, been a haven of beauty, was now an ocean of waves big enough to sink the titanic! But we had to get back and so into the sea we went in our tiny little plastic boats, which Kev couldn't steer and I couldn't get to move – things weren't looking good. By now the thought of capsizing and getting really cold wasn't even the worst of it – if we capsized, there was a strong chance we would die (I think anyway!). Everyone else in the Sea Kayaking group managed to paddle off fairly confidently and it wasn't long before me and kev were being left behind. The waves were crashing over the front of the boat, the wind was raging in our faces and no matter how hard I paddled, we still didn't seem to go anywhere! It got to the stage where I felt like I was in the Wimbledon Final as with every push of the paddle I let out a huge and involuntary grunt, but nevertheless, we still barely moved! I thought I was going to cry at one point as I genuinely thought there was no way we were ever going to catch the rest of the group and there was no way we were going to survive this storm. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, we did survive and we did catch the group, thankfully. But things weren't about to get easier because now we were far out on a treacherous sea and even the guide said that if he'd known the weather would change like that, he wouldn't have brought us out – good to know! It was time for us to all 'raft up' and take safety in numbers. So we positioned our boats side by side and grabbed on to the boat next to ours. Me and Kev were the middle boat with Emma and Jeremy (from Australia) on our right and Terri and Dustin (from Georgia, USA) on our left. While Jeremy and Dustin tied a sail to the end of their paddles and held it up to the sky, Emma and Terri held the front bits of string attached to the sail. My job was to cling on hard to Emma and Terri's boats so that we all stuck together (seriously, no easy challenge I can tell you even for a girl with guns my size) and Kev's job was to be the skipper, hmmm, you guessed it, to steer the entire ship! Uh oh, I thought! But in fairness, we managed and despite pulling every single muscle in our bodies we sailed into shore. When we got to shore all the other couples were hugging each other lovingly, whereas me and Kev were still nipping at each other for our failures at sea. 'Look', I said, 'all the other couples had a lovely time and they still like each other at the end of it'. Little did I know, but would later learn, that all those other couples were just apologising to each other for the arguments they had also had at sea. That evening, in the pub, we would learn that the locals call those Kayaks, 'divorce boats', so we were not alone!
Back on dry land we all decided that we would meet up in Te Anau for a well deserved drink that evening, and we all headed back into our vans for the 2 hour drive, down the only road out of there. Oh, I forgot to say, we did sail past penguins, which was pretty cool, and the scenery was alright too! So, back through the scary tunnel and all the way to Te Anau, for a Saturday night on the town which consisted of one small street. We met up with Emma, Jeremy, Dustin and Terri and had a really good night. Terri told us all about her wedding (she and Dustin were on their honeymoon and instead of a regular wedding list, they had got everyone to buy them awesome things to do in New Zealand, so while they were there they were literally doing everything!). Terri had a great accent and being from a small town in Georgia, their wedding sounded like something out of a film. Terri arrived on basket of her dad's tricycle, all the guest sat on hay bales and they got married under a tree in their farm. Then Dustin wheeled Terri off in a wheel barrow and the whole town (about 300 people) had a big drinking session in the local brewery. It just sounded awesome. Emma and Jeremy, on the other hand, had taken a select few people to Vanuatu where they had paid a wedding organiser to do everything for them. Emma didn't even know what time she was being picked up in the morning, let alone anything else, but they had a great day getting married on the beach.
The next morning we drove to Wanaka, but we decided to make a quick stop in Queenstown to sample the famous Fergburger, and what a worthy stop that was – awesome blue cheese burger, oh yeah! Randomly, we bumped into Jeremy who was off river rafting (which I was very jealous of), but Emma had lost her voice and was taking a day off adventuring. We drove along the highest road in New Zealand then, from Queenstown to Wanaka, and while Kev thoroughly enjoyed driving at the top of the world with nothing but air and an incredibly steep drop either side of us, I spent the entire journey gripping my seat and trying not to think about the lack of safety barriers along this death trap of a windy, road. Kev kept saying, 'Wow, look at that view', but I kept my eyes fixed firmly to the floor of the van. We then continued on to Wanaka, down the windiest road I had been on by that point (yet not the windiest we would be on, the roads here are like a snakes and ladders game without the ladders – I exclaimed just the other day 'why can't they just built straight roads here?', but Kev cleverly pointed out that the outstanding mountain ranges were some what of a hindrance to straight roads). We went past an awesome pink Cadillac monster truck, naturally, we had to stop and have a look. I noticed that they had a real ex-American Monster Jam truck and my jaw dropped to the floor, especially when I found out you could even drive it yourself. I was totally sold and was even prepared to pay the $250 for the 8 minute drive. But then we met the guy who owned to trucks and he was a bit weird and I began to question the safety standards of the place, especially as this guy was an ex-stuntman who could barely walk. I decided against the drive and settled for my picture next to the Cadillac instead.
We arrived in Wanaka and were a little disappointed. Everyone had told us that it was like a less commercial Queenstown, but in actual fact it was just a tiny place next to a big river where a load of annoying hippies hung out. All the extreme activities that were on offer there involved getting picked up and taken back to Queenstown, which seemed a bit of a waste, so we didn't really fancy doing much there. The guy camped next to us recommended a good bar called Kai Whaka Pai. Keep in mind that in words here 'WH' is pronounced 'F' and now try and say the name of that bar – you can imagine why we weren't so sure about going there at first, but it turned out OK and we headed there for some drinks. I got annoyed by a hippy in moon print slacks who went to the bar and asked for a Pinot Gree – I even put on my facebook up date that the stupid hippy was too far-out to finish the rest of the word 'Grigios' (or however you spell it), but it turns out that I'm the stupid one because here they do called Pinot Grigios, Pinot Gris!
Anyway, the next morning we took the van to the beach around the lake and cooked up breakfast. While we were doing that, so Emma and Jeremy shot past in their camper van and by their shouts from the window as they went past, Emma's voice was clearly better. Me and Kev went for a walk and on our way back Kev took a photo of our van as we approached. As he did so, another camper van pulled up in front of ours and Kev said 'good job I took that photo when I did because now someone's ruined my shot', but then we realised it was Emma and Jeremy who had ruined his shot!! We all decided to go to puzzling world which had been recommended to me by Sarah in Glasgow (and Laura too). I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was, but there was this one room which messed up your head because, well I don't know why, but the floors or something was all weird and when you went it it felt like you couldn't stand up or walk – it was the strangest feeling and totally messed with your balance. It's hard to explain but hopefully the photos will make it clearer. Then we went to the outdoor maze and I challenged Emma and Jeremy to a competition, who could reach all four corners and then find their way out again first. It's scary how competitive I am and when we bumped into them in the maze and discovered they had already found 2 corners, while we hadn't even got to one, I forced Kev to pick up the pace and we literally ran around the 3km course! Sure enough – we won, but by about 5 seconds!!
We were all heading off to Franz Josef which was a long drive, so we planned on stopping along the way and we said we'd meet up. The drive was, again, majorly windy and there were heaps of tiny little one lane bridges over huge gorges. We stopped at 'The Gates of Haast', mainly because it sounded like it should be the name of an awesome rock band, but also because it looked pretty beautiful and we were both desperate for the toilet (here I just want to add that Ron's She Wee gift turned out to be not the most reliable of devices, I shall let your imagination do the rest!) The road was totally isolated and we past through what we thought were going to be towns, but they turned out to be like a cluster of 2 houses and a pub. We thought Haast (with it's impressive gates!) would be a big place, but it consisted of a petrol station and a couple of houses! It is beyond me how anyone can enjoy living in such remoteness, like 2 hours from any civilisation, but some people obviously do – in fact the guy in the petrol station at Haast was about 20 years old, I have no idea how they can live like that. I didn't even like driving through such remoteness and I was getting freaked out by the fact that we were literally in the middle of nowhere. I think that stretch of road had to be the most remote stretch we have done on the entire south island. Anyway, so me and Kev continued up the road but ended up further ahead that we were meant to meet and we spent the night in a camp-site in Fox Glacier rather than where we were meant to meet Emma and Jeremy. I felt so guilty about standing them up and it was playing on my mind for ages. That night, the camp-site was pretty spooky, with no lights and no-one camped around us. We went into the kitchen to eat dinner and when the windows steamed up we saw 'I see you', written in the misty window – that totally freaked me out! I didn't sleep too well that night.
The next morning, still feeling guilty, we walked to the edge of Fox Glacier. I was worn our by the time we got there, which made me nervous about the following day's Glacier Hike that we had booked up Franz Josef. Fox Glacier wasn't that impressive to be honest and we didn't stop long. We went to the view point which was further away and from there it looked much better, although I got freaked out because the little country road was blocked with huge cows and I didn't know how to drive in the vicinity of huge cows!
We drove the short distance up to Franz Josef and found our camp-site for the night. The weather was boiling, for the first time since we'd been here, so we spent the afternoon in a beer garden sampling the local beers (Monteiths). Then when it started getting cold again we decided to go to the hot pools just across from our camp-site. They were lovely and consisted of outdoor pools of varying temperatures. We settled on the 39 degree one and in there we got chatting to another Australian couple. We chatted to them for a couple of hours and then thought we should get out before we turned into prunes. Me and Kev thought we'd take one last dip in the cooler 37 degree pool first though. But then I heard someone calling my name and sure enough, there were Emma and Jeremy. I was so glad to see them and apologise for standing them up! They had just done the full day glacier hike and it sounded like pretty hard work and pretty dangerous at times! I was glad we were just doing the half day hike the following day.
We left the hot pools and went to the pub with Emma and Jeremy and there we met the other Australian couple that we had met in the pools (Thomas and Gabbi). I thought they were all from the same place in Australia, but turns out that country is pretty big and they live no where near each other – who'd have thought it eh!
The next morning we got up early to go on our hike. I was slightly worried I wouldn't be able to keep up with the fast pace of the hike, but I really had nothing to worry about. We got our big hiking boots on and got in the bus to the car park near the bottom of the glacier. Then we walked for 45 minutes to the foot of the glacier and there we were split into three groups – all of different speeds. We chose the slow group so that we could take our time and it soon emerged that being about 30 years younger than everyone else in that group, we were the fastest of them all. We were glad we took that group though as because everyone else was so slow, we really got our money's worth and spent longer on the glacier than the other teams.
Climbing the glacier was pretty easy, although one guy managed to fall over like 3 times!! Thankfully he didn't fall down the side of the glacier, but I don't know why he couldn't master the art of walking. Admittedly, crampons have a habit of getting caught in the laces of your other foot if you don't open your legs wide enough, but when your on the top of a very steep glacier (which as the name suggests is made of ice and very very slippy), most people quickly get used to the art of walking safely! We had a couple of really annoying Australian women in our group who were doing our heads in by the end of the trip, so we were glad to get to the bottom to be honest. It was totally worth doing, but wouldn't bother doing it again. We weren't lucky with the weather either and it was cold and rainy up there.
After the glacier climb we drove to Hokitika. We were thinking about staying there the night, but when we arrived it looked like somewhere out of the wild west. It is a place that's famous for it's New Zealand Jade and the jewellery they make from it. We had a look around, but didn't see anything we wanted and certainly didn't see a ring, well, I did see one, but in typical Rosy style it was about £200!! We popped into the information centre and booked our Quad Biking trip for the morning and it turned out the woman we booked it with is married to the guy who took us out on our Quad bikes – inbred little place! We drove on up to Greymouth in the pouring rain and parked up at a camp-site just outside of the town centre. We went on line briefly to book our Dolphin Swimming in Kaikoura in a few days and I even booked my Skydive for next Monday over the Abel Tasmin national park – I can still back out and only lose my deposit!! The weather was awful and it was so wet that we couldn't be bothered to try and cook. We went to the local restaurant and had some delicious Monkfish and a beer, perfect. Back to the camp-site and I went to the kitchen to fill the hot water bottle, which was going to be much needed that night. The camp-site was pretty gypo to be honest and I didn't really want to chat to anyone, but as is always the way, in the Kitchen some bloke dressed all in desert style camo started chatting to me. Turned out to be pretty interesting as he was a buffalo hunter from Australia. He lived in the middle of nowhere and when he needed to do his grocery shopping he had to take an 8 hour drive to the store, stay overnight and then drive 8 hours back the next day! I asked him what it's like to not see people for weeks at a time and he simply replied 'why would I want to see anyone?' - I didn't really have a response ready for that question and it would have felt some what rude to have said 'well, because humans are social creatures who should thrive off interaction with fellow members of their species'. So, I just laughed and made my exit – swiftly. If I thought Fox Glacier camp-site was spooky, this one was ten times worse – cold, windy, rainy, no lights and a Buffalo Hunter who hated humans lurking around, no doubt with his gun and Possum poison in hand (he was in New Zealand killing possums – turns out they hate them here and my Possum wool gloves and socks are apparently the equivalent of us wearing rat skin to keep us warm – never mind they do the job well!).
The next morning, Wednesday morning, we drove to the other side of Greymouth to the Quad Biking Farm. There we had 300 acres of muddy, swampy Quad Biking track to speed through and we were both really looking forward to getting wet. The Quad Bikes were much bigger than I though and surprisingly hard to steer, in fact, my upper body is aching all over today! We went round a practice track, which was scary enough, but the guide assured me that I would get my confidence after just 10 minutes. Sure enough, I did and we had great fun speeding through the swamps. There was a couple of hairy moments where I thought I was going to tip myself over and land with the bike on top of me, which would have seriously been disastrous, but we made it through. The guide stopped us at the half way point to tell us the history of the farm, which was great as it used to be a gold mining area and even now there are hidden gold pits that can be like 50 metres deep and sometimes if people walk off the beaten track they fall down them – that's the truth, no legend. He told us about the trees, but I can't remember what they're called, they begin with M. Anyway, you're not allowed to chop them down now, but it used to be what all the houses on the west coast were built from, but because they're such slow growing trees you can only cut a limited number down now. All very interesting.
After the biking, we headed on up to Hanmer Springs. We'd heard so many people saying that the hot springs in Hanmer Springs were to die for, so we were pretty excited. But when we got there we realised that Hanmer Springs is a tiny town that has built up around a glorified swimming pool. Inside the 'Spa' there were a few pools which felt positively cold compared to the ones in Japan and in each of the pools were hundreds of very gypo tourists. Me and Kev sat in the hottest one briefly before leaving!
We went to the pub across the road and entered in for the pub quiz. There was only two of us on our team and we obviously had no local knowledge, so we didn't like our chances. But by half time, we were in third place! There were so many answers that we were going to write and then we changed our minds and it turns out they were the right one and things like that, we were getting so frustrated. The question master asked which female author has sold the most fiction books and I knew it was Agatha Christie, I knew it, we wrote it down and then we thought, oh, hang on, now maybe JK Rowling has over taken good old Agatha – hmmm, yeah, scribble out Agatha and put Scottish woman in her place – you guessed it, the answer was Agatha! There were so many of those type incidents that we were getting really worked up! Then some drunken bum sat next to us and proceeded to spit his steak all over me while telling me he had the best idea for a documentary that would really make me get a name for myself in the TV World – hmm, really? - I hate it when people do that and the worst thing about it was that he was interrupting our last few rounds of the quiz. I'm going to blame the drunken bums distraction for the fact that we came second to last in the quiz at the end. But it wasn't all bad because first place, second place and second from last place all won a prize – good times – a $10 bar tab was proudly ours! The only problem was that we couldn't spend it because we didn't want to sit with the drunken bum any more. So we got up and left and then walked back in the other door. Thankfully, the bum had gone and we had one drink for the road.
We walked back to the camp-site in the pitch black and here in New Zealand you know you're totally safe. But that doesn't stop me getting the heeby jeebies about zombies or ghosties. When Kev blurted out, oh look someone's coming, I punched him in the stomach for scaring me!! There was indeed someone coming, but just a bloke walking in the other direction, not a zombie or a ghost, so fear not people! (P.s. To Kev's family – I didn't really punch him in the stomach, it was more a gentle tap, but no seriously, I didn't!)
Talking of the McCrae family, it's pretty interesting that there are loads of McCrae's here and the history of the clan is really fascinating. Basically, centuries ago, the McCrae's in Scotland were facing hard times because as each generation had a family, so their farmland was getting split between each child and with each generation the farmland got smaller and smaller so that eventually they couldn't make a living off it. So the McCrae's were the first Scots to come over here to New Zealand (I think most of them came to Dunedin). They were a fierce bunch and they had come from such times of hardship that no-one in New Zealand messed with the McCrae's. They were known for their fighting skills (much like Kev McCrae, hmmm?!) and now there are loads of them here. Apparently, in a place called Gore (where we've not got time to go to) there is a whole museum dedicated to them. It's funny because before I came here, everyone said that New Zealand is like Wales, but from what I've seen on the south island and what with all the Scottish street names etc... it's a lot like Scotland here, especially the highlands. So far I've not seen anything other than sheep that reminds me of home!!
The next morning we got up and drove to Kaikoura, which was about a 2 hour drive away. The sea in Kaikoura is just beautiful, turquoise and so clear and the weather had perked up so it just looked stunning. We went to the Point Keen (I think that's what it was called) and saw all the huge seals there. Then we went to the local winery and sampled 6 of their finest wines. It was good fun because they gave you a sheet of paper which told you what you should be able to smell and taste and it was good to actually be able to smell and taste the things you were meant to. I bought a lovely bottle of rose which tastes of strawberries and cream!! Then we went to the Green Dolphin on the sea front which had been recommended to us by Emma and Jeremy. Here we had to try the Crayfish, which is what their famous for here in Kaikoura (that and Dolphin swimming), but the name Kaikoura means 'to eat Crayfish', apparently! It was pretty expensive but we had to try it and it was delicious and despite initial hesitation, Kev enjoyed getting stuck in with his scoop and nut crackers. He enjoyed showing me how much meat he could get out of the legs, but as with the crabs in Singapore, the legs of the Crayfish freaked me out, especially the front ones right by the Crayfish's huge googly eye looking up at me! It's gross when you try and break a leg off but then it bends at the knee while you're doing it- it just reminds you that you're eating a leg with a joint that once worked! The meat was good though and the cheesecake that followed topped it off a treat.
Then it was back to the camp site to get an early night ready for dolphin swimming in the morning. That next morning we headed straight to the Kaikoura Encounter centre, where I thought it would be a good idea to have a really hearty breakfast to ensure there was no sea sickness issues on board the boat. I had Eggs and spinach and a hollandaise sauce – such a bad move!! We checked in at reception where they warned us that there was a 'moderate sea sickness level' that day. I bought a herbal sea sickness table just in case. We got kitted up into our wet suits and flippers and snorkels and then hopped on a bus to the jetty. On board the boat we raced through the choppy waves in search of the famous Dusky Dolphins. While all around me were beginning to be sick, I proudly exclaimed that the herbal tablets were great as I was feeling fine! Gradually more and more people began asking for buckets and all around us people were looking green and hanging their heads in their multi-coloured plastic tubs. As time went on, it was looking less and less likely that we were going to find any dolphins and we started to resign ourselves to the fact that we needed to be happy with the massive Albatross sightings and seal spotting that we had done (did you know the Albatross' wing span can reach 3.5m – they're massive). But then, all of a sudden, we saw the Dolphins and it was time to quickly put on our snorkels and get into position at the back of the boat. When the siren sounded we slid off the boat into the cold, deep, very deep, ocean. It was a really surreal experience and it took me and Kev about 10 minutes to get used to the snorkels – it made us both panic getting used to only being able to take shallow breaths out of your mouth – eventually we got the hang of it and we put our heads down and started to sing to the dolphins under the water. Gradually they began swimming around us, but because they're totally wild we weren't allowed to try and touch them. Also, because they're wild and not coaxed to us in any way, we had to make ourselves interesting to them to keep them with us and make them want to swim with us. We had to sing and try and dive down and swim around them – I wasn't very good at any of this, but somehow we managed to get a load swimming around us. Like I say, it was really surreal and almost feels like it didn't actually happen. I can't really explain it but it was a bit like a hazy dream, but we loved it. That was...until....the sea sickness kicked it. It hadn't even occurred to me that you could get sea sick when you weren't in a boat!! Every time we put our head under water and the waves swayed us from side to side, we felt our stomachs churn. It wasn't long before we were both feeling rough but we didn't want to get out of the water because how many times in your life do you get to go out into the middle of the ocean and swim with wild dolphins!! We carried on as long as we could and then had to go back to the boat. There I proceeded to chuck up my breakfast and Kev had to walk away rather than help me otherwise he would have been sharing my bucket!! The staff were great though and I felt so sorry for them as they literally went from person to person emptying their buckets!! Man, I was so so sick and I was happy when we finally got back to shore, Kev was too, although he had managed to hold his breakfast in. I was tempted to ask for my $2 back for the sea sickness tablet but I figured the staff emptying my bucket twice was worth $2!! All in all a fantastic trip though, but I have vowed that there will be no more sea based activities for me on this trip!!
We got back into the van to drive to Nelson. We stopped off for a pie in Blenheim which seemed like a pretty pikey place and then continued on to Nelson. When we got there it was really strange because we'd got so used to being in places with a maximum population of about 100 people (well, maybe a few thousand more than that, but still not many!!) that it felt really odd to be in a city and it was a bit scary to see other traffic on the road. At the campsite some local fisherman came over and gave us a whole load of massive fresh cooked mussels because he had too many and they couldn't eat them all. I heated them up on the BBQ and they were absolutely delicious. Kev refused to have any though, saying that they looked too much like big bogies to him!!! Nelson turned out not to be the most happening of cities, but after we'd parked the van up we headed into the town centre to see what Halloween night had to offer in Nelson. We went to the main street and couldn't find a bar with any people in it, it was like a ghost town and pretty eerie. We chose one bar in the end where there was a live band dressed as zombies playing. The bouncer told us that Nelson didn't really get going to ten O'Clock – it was 9.40pm at the time so we didn't have high hopes for that Saturday night! We went in and got a drink and sat down to watch the amazing dancing that was unfolding before our eyes, I've never seen legs move in that way before, but it was a sight for sore eyes and the locals clearly loved the band that was playing. We got chatting to a guy from Dallas, Texas and his stories of back home made me want to go there even more. He used to work on the oil rigs in Dallas, how cool is that!! We're going to really try hard to find the time to visit Dallas when we're in America, fingers crossed.
We left after a couple of drinks and walked back to the van. Halloween, Saturday night, tucked up in bed by half 11, good work! This morning we got up and drove to Motueke, about an hour up the coast from Nelson and in the beginning of the Abel Tasmen National Park. It's much smaller than Nelson but is a really cool place and we were gutted we didn't just come here straight last night. We stopped off at the information centre to find out where we could park up tonight and it turns out that the girl at the counter is also doing a sky dive with me at 9am tomorrow morning, she's never done it before either and she's totally freaking out, so that makes me feel better – guess I'll see her there.
We drove on to further ahead in Abel Tasmen to Sandy Bay, just near Marahau. This is the gate to the national park and is absolutely beautiful, even if the roads are a little scary! We wandered along of a deserted beach with white sand and crystal clear water (but the water was really cold so no swimming!!). And the whole beach was surrounded by forest – it was lush, literally!! I popped into a little arts and crafts shop on along the road and picked up my most expensive ring yet :o It's New Zealand Jade though and it's hand made so that's why it was expensive, beautiful though, just like the place I bought it!!
We drove back to Motueke and parked up in a camp site then walked into town to visit the Gothic Pub that we had seen along the way. Turned out that was closed and not much else was open on this Sunday night in a tiny town. We went into one bar and we are now sat listening to some awful band playing while I'm writing this, Kev is not happy!! Got the skydive in the morning, so I'm pretty freaked out about that and fingers crossed I'll be in one piece to write the next instalment of this blog. xxx
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