NZ +5: The Journey to Queenstown

It's actually Wednesday morning now, so really NZ +6,(and Happy Birthday, Chris Chappell!) but I'm going to post some photos of the journey yesterday which, although long, was just amazing. To be honest, if we had stopped at every view which was worth a photo, or greater appreciation than just zipping past at 120 (that's kph, so don't worry!). we would have never got here.

Here's a sample:



This was our first really good view of mountains in the distance. The first part of the journey (about 4 hours) was characterised by views like this, mountains which never seemed to get any closer and very long straight roads.



More of the same, which makes it seem very tedious, which it wasn't at all. Every two minutes the view seemed to change completely as the long straight road turned a slight bend into another stretch of long straight road.

And of course, we got our closest to Mount Cook, NZ's highest mountain, which, going the way we went, yout get a view of for about 5 minutes. You can't see it before you get to the viewpoint at all, and it disappears completely after you leave. Being as it is the middle of winter, there were about 3 other people there...



It was a bit hazy, and that photo was on 11x digital zoom. The next one gives you a fairer impression of how far we were away from it still..



We stopped at a place called Omarama for coffee, that's where I posted the last entry



The word fast was somwhat of a misnomer as I think the whole of the town communications infrastructure was carried thus:



Anyway, after Omaramamama, we got into the mountains. High passess and narrower, twistier, altogether more dangerous roads. But still with views British people would pack a picnic for...



Finally arrived at Queenstown about 5.30pm and settled into the lodge...



..and we were all a bit disappointed with the view from the window...



All for the equivalent of £40 a night, breakfast included. That's £40 for the room, for all three of us. Not each.

NZ +5: Arrived in Queenstown

The journey to Queenstown took about 8 hours in total, stopping for lunch and regular coffee.

The scenery was just breathtaking. I'll describe it all better when I have time.

I can't share any of it with you at the moment, as the computer I'm on is not equipped with any form of plug to attach a digital camera. It's barely equipped with a keyboard, but a high percentage of the most common letters are here. If I have to write anything in Maori, I've had it. I suspect that might be the case over the next four days, and you will have to wait until the weekend for the slideshow.

We stopped at Mount Cook. Well, at the Mount Cook viewpoint - it was still another 50km away or thereabouts. Again, you will have to wait for photos. But you've probably seen it anyway...

The view from the lodge window is fantastic, as is the view from the bathroom window, which has no blinds. Hence you can shower while looking out over snow capped mountains.

It's actually nothing but snow capped mountains here. But scenery fatigue hasn't set in yet...!

NZ +5: Off to Queenstown

We're up early this morning as we are off to Queenstown. Hoping to get some good views as we drive into the mountains, particularly of Aoraki (Mount Cook), NZ's highest mountain.

Depending on Internet access, I might not be posting until we get back to Christchurch at the weekend, so see you then!

NZ +4: Cemetery and Sulphur

Today we drove north out of Christchurch into Northern Canterbury...
(click the map for a better view)



...to a small village called Waikari.

We went there because David's dad grew up in the village and his grandparents are buried here. Their final resting place has an amazing view...



We also went to see his Dad's old school...



(notice map of NZ on playground)

...where we had a chat with the peripetetic drama and music teacher. She wasn't really rushed off her feet as the school only had 30 pupils with her, a principal and two other full-time teachers. And if you think that would be expensive to run, you are right. She was saying that a lot of the schools in villages such as Waikari had been closed down and children were bussed away to larger towns. Here though, the principal had obviously done her NPQH and worked out her vision of how to up pupil numbers...



Helen was the principal. We didn't see her. She was at the school house having lunch and, perhaps, taking calls.

We then drove further up Route 7 to Hanmer Springs, which is a lovely little resort village. They have strong smelling sulphorous hot springs which you can go and wallow in, if you feel inclined. I didn't. I had a hot chocolate instead. It was the absolute best hot chocolate ever - very silky and smooth, swirly chocolate syrup in the top and marshmallows - and it was served in something the size of a cereal bowl...



(Phone cameras are useful when you don't want to attract attention to the fact that you are trying to take a picture of your drink in case they cart you off to the funny farm.)

Hanmer nestles in the foothills of the Southern Alps, so there's a lot of scenery like this, which isn't really done justice by a photo.



You also have to cross this bridge to get to it...



...which, if we'd seen it from this angle before we did so, we might not have done. It is single track and has a rather pleading sign at each end asking for only one heavy vehicle to use it at once. Were we heavy? What if we weren't heavy, but someone following us was? The additional weight of someone bunjy jumping from the sides might have have left us starring in When Bridges Collapse on Channel 5.

As promised, here's the photo of the car and some scenery...

NZ +3: The Maori Experience

Had the full cultural experience this evening at Willowbank. New Zealand history, culture, wildlife, bumper stickers etc all in an hour and a half. I can safely come home now knowing there is nothing left to see...

I was chosen as tribal chief and had to stand there while a Maori warrior came out and gave it all the sticks and waving and shouting and generally scary stuff about two feet away. Then he dropped a leaf on the ground and I had two choices. I could either (a) tread on it, precipitating war or (b) pick it up and rub his nose with mine, meaning we were allowed to go in and watch the singin'n'dancin'. Advised well by the Maori guide (General Grievous in a rug) I chose the latter.

This is the Poi. Basically it's what the women do instead of the Haka* and involves swinging some oversized tennis balls around their heads on the end of a bit of string. I'm sure it had immense cultural significance.



It perhaps has less cultutral significance when done by women in anoraks...



This bit involved them chucking sticks at each other. I think we have to remember that this is the equivalent to something at home like Ye Olde Sherwood Forest Experience, where some students dress up like Robin Hood and his merry men, while perhaps still wearing their trainers, and pretend shoot arrows and steal your wallet as entertainment for tourists.

The give-away that these people were not quite the full Maori ticket was that they dropped the sticks. A lot.



The singing was outstandingly good though. I hope you spotted the genuine Maori guitar in the background.

They then did do the Haka, sans rugby kit, bringing the good ones to the front.

They did the mad staring eyes and the sticking their tongues out.





(* Although, apparently, women do the Haka too.)


We then went on a bit of a wildlife tour and saw eels and kias and lizardy things and pigs and kiwis. Now, I thought kiwis were little birds which sat in the palm of your hand, but they are about as big as chucks (**). They are also very shy, and despite being nocturnal, seemed to be very inactive even though it was pitch black and the Crocodile-Hunter-esque guide had to pick them out of the dark with a torch.

Much more entertaining were the kias, which performed and flew past your ears when you least expected giving you the fright of your life...



(** chickens)

NZ +3: Touristy Christchurch

We went into Christchurch today and spent a little more time there. Much of this time was spent eating, which seems to be a developing theme of the holiday so far, but that's not a bad thing. Here's a quick synopsis of the non-food related aspects of being a tourist in the city...



I take back what I said about Christchurch Cathedral. It's actually really lovely. Just like a mini version of a "proper" cathedral! We climbed to the top of the tower, as mentioned in Breakfast Blog Below, so you're going to get the obligatory "view from the top"...



The Minnellium Flowery Chip Cone is evident again...

This is the Lord's Prayer in Maori from a wall inside the cathedral...*



*Also available on a tea towel in the gift shop.



And the permit to take photos inside the cathedral cost $4.00, so appreciate them!



The tram is more of a tourist trap than it is a useful mode of transport for anyone. It's a circular route which seems to take about five minutes. You could possibly walk it in six. It does, however, go "ding, ding" as they should, and lends a sort of colonial aspect to the city which I thought it would have in abundance, but which actually it doesn't. (Apart from it being called Christchurch and being in Canterbury, I suppose...)



This is Scott.
Of the Antarctic.

It was while I was taking this picture that I realised, to my shame, that that's really all I know about him. Don't know when he was about, don't know his first name, don't know whether he was British or a New Zealander, don't know if he was the "I may be gone some time" man or if that was someone else. Surmised he went to the South Pole and was very brave, but have made mental note to self to learn new facts about him. Will let you know how I get on...

And finally and very quickly. As you will know, it's compulsory to take a photo of a strange telephone box. So here it is:

NZ +3: The Mirror Project

When I was in Dublin two years ago, I took a photo which showed my reflection in a plinth near a statue of Oscar Wilde. You can see that photo in The Mirror Project, which defines itself as follows...

The Mirror Project is a growing community of like-minded individuals who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces. The Mirror Project is about self-portraiture. You should be the one holding the camera, taking the picture. You, or some part of you, and the camera should be visible within the reflection.

Two years later, and better late than never, I took another one for The Mirror Project today while we were having breakfast in Christchurch.



You'll need to click on it to enlarge and see us, but we are there, reflected in the bulb above the table. Clockwise from the top... Nessie, Me (holding the camera), Lisa and Dave.

And breakfast was lovely. Eggs, bacon (for the hypocrite vegetarians), hash browns, toast and pancakes with maple syrup. Very welcome after climbing the 134 steps to the top of the Cathedral Tower.

Dorset, UK....

Technology is such that nowadays, someone camping near Wareham, UK, can buy a little portable television off Ebay, wire it up to a car battery in the middle of a field, get a picture (of sorts) take a photo of it with their mobile phone and send the picture half way round the world so I know that, thankfully, Kemal has been evicted...



Thanks, Cesia! x

NZ +2: The Car and Sumner

Just in case we were all knackered, we had always planned for today to be fairly uncluttered and local. And it turned out to be just that. Because we were.

We spent the morning getting up and eating breakfast and watching BBC World and drinking coffee and eating more breakfast and looking at the itinerary we had planned. Nessie looked at the itinerary and advised tweaking it here and there. Partly because she knows NZ well now, but mainly because we had made basic numeracy hour errors in calculating times and distances. It all looks much more possible now.

Then we went to pick up the car. This has to be the bargain of the holiday so far (admittedly only two days in). It's cost us $1000 exactly, which is about 390 pounds. (Still can't find the pound sign, useless non-British keyboard!). Split between us, we are getting the luxious Toyota Something for 25 days, for 130 pounds each. Picture to follow, Thought it would be better to have it parked in front of something interesting....

To try it out and make sure we didn't crash while trying to turn left and giving way to the cars coming towards us turning right (which is about the only rule of the the road that's different from the UK), we went to Sumner (where there's a curry house called "Indian Sumner" - do you see what they did there?)

It's about 5 miles away from Christchurch and it looks like this:



And like this:



There's a big outcrop of rocks with some roughly hewn and weatherworn (and very slippery) steps to climb up. And when you do, that's the view you get.

The weather looks beautiful, and indeed it is. But it is also only 8°C.

Was tempted to write "Specific Ocean" in a kind of reverse homage to all those people I have met in teaching who, despite their degrees, say such things as "Do you want a pacific one? Are we doing that on a pacific day?" Of which there are more than you might think.

£ - found it!

NZ +1: Quick Dash into Christchurch

There will inevitably be some of what I write here which is more for me when I get back than it is for anyone else reading it, so apologies if parts of it seem narrative and irrelevant. They will serve as memory joggers for me when I get back... Here goes.

Settled in to Nessie's house, which is roughly here, and had showers and began to feel a bit human again.

We then went into Christchurch to have a quick look round and to buy all the things we forgot to bring with us (shaving gel) or which exploded in Lisa's suitcase (shampoo) or which were needed for the holiday journals of people who aren't 21st century enough to do it online (Pritt Stick).

We also had lunch. Here.

Discovered the New Zealand version of WHSmith which is Whitcoulls . It's actually not just the NZ version of WHSmith, it actually WHSmith with a different name. Lots of the cards and merchandise they sell is branded WHSmith. We were served today by Torina.

Also found the Christchurch Millennium Folly. It's not officially called that, but you know the kind of thing... monument or sculpture inspired by the Year 2000, not actually finished until years later, cost fourteen times as much as originally planned, no-one likes it, spoils the view of something quite nice that was already there etc... Anyone who has seen the Millennium Spire in Dublin will know what I'm getting at here...

Anyway, here's the Christchurch version...



The thing that it spoils the view of is Christchurch Cathedral. Which, if it were back in the UK, whould be called "a small church".

Oh, and we also saw this in the supermarket car park. Click on it to enlarge and read the wording.



Apparently it's totally legal here to set yourself up to openly sell (split infinitive) party drugs from the back of a van so long as they are only "herbal".

Back tomorrow.