Jan 6/11 8:30pm
We haven't even been away from New Plymouth for a month and it feels like it's been many weeks! Being on the road sure slows time down in some ways.
So our wwoofing stay in Christchurch was actually really nice. The house had 5 or 6 bedrooms and it was very luxurious. We had a bathroom to ourselves and our bedroom had a couch and a balcony! So we were a bit spoiled for our 5 nights there. We helped clean up the gardens because he's hoping to sell the place next year so we pruned trees, weeded, planted flaxes and other stuff around the yard. I washed the windows and Dustin helped with clearing the spouting. We went into the city on the 30th for the cricket match. New Zealand played Pakistan and they had quite a spectacular loss but we still enjoyed ourselves. They hand out these little banners and one side says "4" and the other says "6" so that you can hold it up when they score either of those. We had front row seats in the middle of the field so it was great!
On new year's eve we worked during the day and we ended up being lazy and just stayed in. Our host had gone out so we just watched Road House because it was the only thing on really but I've never seen it and it's quite funny because it's so bad. Then on Jan 2nd (which is a public holiday here as well called "The Day After New Year's Day") we picked Pete up from the airport and drove down the guts of the South Island. We stopped near a place called Omarama to camp and the next day went down to Queenstown. We hadn't been there before so this was new territory to us. We stayed two nights and the boys went river rafting but I'm not sure what all the hype is about. They call it the adventure capital of New Zealand but it's a bit more of an adventure factory. We stopped at this suspension bridge on the way into town and it's also where they do bungee jumping. We watched for about 20 minutes and saw at least 5 people jump. They just pump 'em through at $180 a pop. The town itself is really cramped and busy so we stayed about 5 kms out of town in a lovely holiday park. We've been having lots of laughs with Pete along the way. His boss is looking into buying a block of land in Queenstown so we went down the realty office (much to the agent's surprise) and she took us up to look at it because Pete's boss asked him to have a look. The building was pretty much condemned but the land was situated with an amazing view over the lake.
After Queenstown we drove down a couple hours into Te Anau which is the last town before you get to Milford Sound which is this very popular fjordlands area here. From Te Anau it's another couple hours to Milford but since we had booked a kayak tour that started at 7:15am we drove about an hour of the way to camp the night - that's some of the last camping before Milford which is a settlement of about 200 people in the high season and 80 in the low season. The people living there all work on either boat tours, the cafe or in other sightseeing ventures like helicopter rides and flights. Again, it's a very busy and cramped place but the only thing you can do there is go for hikes or take a cruise around the sounds. We got starryeyed about kayaking because "you can get closer than the big boats!" so we had a 4 hour tour set up. Unfortunately Dustin's gotten a bit of a cold so his chest is all congested. He wasn't sure if he would be going on the kayak tour or not but decided to - he was feeling ok and plus they don't do refunds. This is a place where it rains 200 days of the year and the other day a 33cm rainfall over 10 hours was nothing to sneeze at. So we geared up in terrible purple well-worn thermals, a spray skirt and bright yellow rain jackets to brave the elements. Luckily the water was quite calm because it's well away from the open ocean. Aside from the wakes caused by the big tour boats and a few times when the wind kicked up, it was generally like a lake. It was quite foggy and it did rain the whole trip so we didn't get to see some of the big peaks that come up. But the rain does good things to the waterfalls of course. There were a few that were quite stunning but for some reason I didn't think about a 4 hour kayak tour being as long as it was and I was ready to come back before it was over. A lot of the scenery up there is similar to BC but with more waterfalls. Literally there were generally about a dozen coming down any one face of mountain at a time. We didn't end up taking too many pictures because it was too wet out to keep taking the camera out of the dry bag (not to mention I was spooked about flipping because the spray skirts were really hard to pull off) but we got a couple of some seals on the rocks.
We escaped the rain in a cabin tonight at the Possum Lodge in a town called Manapouri. Another 2-3 hours of driving tomorrow to get to either Colac Bay or Invercargill for a few nights before we put Pete on a bus back to Queenstown where he flies out of. Then we go to a farm with 3400 ewes or something like that. It's definitely been interesting to travel around during the peak season this time, it's crazy busy in most places we've been to. The kids don't go back to school until February so I think it calms down then but there will still be heaps of travellers in campervans. At the park in Queenstown it was fairly calm when we checked in and set up but when we went out around 4pm to get groceries and came back after 5 or 6pm it was chockers. So we'll continue to fight the crowds and the weather and hope for the best!
We haven't even been away from New Plymouth for a month and it feels like it's been many weeks! Being on the road sure slows time down in some ways.
So our wwoofing stay in Christchurch was actually really nice. The house had 5 or 6 bedrooms and it was very luxurious. We had a bathroom to ourselves and our bedroom had a couch and a balcony! So we were a bit spoiled for our 5 nights there. We helped clean up the gardens because he's hoping to sell the place next year so we pruned trees, weeded, planted flaxes and other stuff around the yard. I washed the windows and Dustin helped with clearing the spouting. We went into the city on the 30th for the cricket match. New Zealand played Pakistan and they had quite a spectacular loss but we still enjoyed ourselves. They hand out these little banners and one side says "4" and the other says "6" so that you can hold it up when they score either of those. We had front row seats in the middle of the field so it was great!
On new year's eve we worked during the day and we ended up being lazy and just stayed in. Our host had gone out so we just watched Road House because it was the only thing on really but I've never seen it and it's quite funny because it's so bad. Then on Jan 2nd (which is a public holiday here as well called "The Day After New Year's Day") we picked Pete up from the airport and drove down the guts of the South Island. We stopped near a place called Omarama to camp and the next day went down to Queenstown. We hadn't been there before so this was new territory to us. We stayed two nights and the boys went river rafting but I'm not sure what all the hype is about. They call it the adventure capital of New Zealand but it's a bit more of an adventure factory. We stopped at this suspension bridge on the way into town and it's also where they do bungee jumping. We watched for about 20 minutes and saw at least 5 people jump. They just pump 'em through at $180 a pop. The town itself is really cramped and busy so we stayed about 5 kms out of town in a lovely holiday park. We've been having lots of laughs with Pete along the way. His boss is looking into buying a block of land in Queenstown so we went down the realty office (much to the agent's surprise) and she took us up to look at it because Pete's boss asked him to have a look. The building was pretty much condemned but the land was situated with an amazing view over the lake.
After Queenstown we drove down a couple hours into Te Anau which is the last town before you get to Milford Sound which is this very popular fjordlands area here. From Te Anau it's another couple hours to Milford but since we had booked a kayak tour that started at 7:15am we drove about an hour of the way to camp the night - that's some of the last camping before Milford which is a settlement of about 200 people in the high season and 80 in the low season. The people living there all work on either boat tours, the cafe or in other sightseeing ventures like helicopter rides and flights. Again, it's a very busy and cramped place but the only thing you can do there is go for hikes or take a cruise around the sounds. We got starryeyed about kayaking because "you can get closer than the big boats!" so we had a 4 hour tour set up. Unfortunately Dustin's gotten a bit of a cold so his chest is all congested. He wasn't sure if he would be going on the kayak tour or not but decided to - he was feeling ok and plus they don't do refunds. This is a place where it rains 200 days of the year and the other day a 33cm rainfall over 10 hours was nothing to sneeze at. So we geared up in terrible purple well-worn thermals, a spray skirt and bright yellow rain jackets to brave the elements. Luckily the water was quite calm because it's well away from the open ocean. Aside from the wakes caused by the big tour boats and a few times when the wind kicked up, it was generally like a lake. It was quite foggy and it did rain the whole trip so we didn't get to see some of the big peaks that come up. But the rain does good things to the waterfalls of course. There were a few that were quite stunning but for some reason I didn't think about a 4 hour kayak tour being as long as it was and I was ready to come back before it was over. A lot of the scenery up there is similar to BC but with more waterfalls. Literally there were generally about a dozen coming down any one face of mountain at a time. We didn't end up taking too many pictures because it was too wet out to keep taking the camera out of the dry bag (not to mention I was spooked about flipping because the spray skirts were really hard to pull off) but we got a couple of some seals on the rocks.
We escaped the rain in a cabin tonight at the Possum Lodge in a town called Manapouri. Another 2-3 hours of driving tomorrow to get to either Colac Bay or Invercargill for a few nights before we put Pete on a bus back to Queenstown where he flies out of. Then we go to a farm with 3400 ewes or something like that. It's definitely been interesting to travel around during the peak season this time, it's crazy busy in most places we've been to. The kids don't go back to school until February so I think it calms down then but there will still be heaps of travellers in campervans. At the park in Queenstown it was fairly calm when we checked in and set up but when we went out around 4pm to get groceries and came back after 5 or 6pm it was chockers. So we'll continue to fight the crowds and the weather and hope for the best!
Sounds like you are having a very interesting jhourney on the South Island. Swimming with dolphins must've been so cool! Plus you've lucked out a couple of times wwooffing by having nice homes to stay in. What did you do for New Years? May the sun find you wherever you are. Sounds like you are having a good time with Tom. Miss you lots! Love you guys!!!
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