Hee-Hee!
After Wanaka we cruised into Queenstown, via the first bungy in the world. I decided it wasn't actually as scary as I'd thought it might be, only 49m but 150 bucks so decided not to bother there (wimp!). Queenstown was basically backpackers and rich homeowners central, but in a very pretty location by the coldest lake in New Zealand, it was a lovely day so we wandered a bit out of town and chilled by the lake for an afternoon. That night we stumbled across a 'horizontal bungy' in the bar below our hostel. Very amusing, it entails being attatched to a bungy cord, charging along the barroom, grabbing a yard glass, running/getting dragged along on your butt to the other side where you have to scull the beer as fast as you can, the winner getting a 100buck bar tab! hilarious. scotty our bus driver managed it in 23 seconds by some amazing feat.
So the next day was along to Te Anau in a minibus, next a stupidly long lake at a stupidly fast speed. We stayed at yet another fantastic family-run hostel, the quality in New Zealand is miles ahead of Oz. In this one, we checked in, after which the owner showed us into the kitchen and said 'grab a warm scone!' Anyone who knows me well will know this is just about the best thing anyone can say to me, apart from maybe 'can i scratch your back, all day long?'
The next morning at 6 (gah) two friendly guides picked us up for our Fiordland Wilderness Experience day-long kayak on Miford Sound. It was utterly fantastic in every way - the scenery, the wildlife, the company, the atmosphere, the sun. We arrived back in Te Anau in the evening very happy and chilled out people. Relaxing on the grass in the middle of nowhere with tea and biscuits and a group of people you feel like you've known your whole life, definitely the way to live. The attitude i'd love to have permenantly, but i know as soon as i'm back i'll slip back into the inevitably hurried, rushed, unsavoured life so many of us live too much of the time. Ah well - i shall just have to hold it off for as long as possible by being ultra cool and tuning you all into my fantabulous mindset, then we shall all live honestly, relaxed and upfront with each other! Ha.
So after not nearly enough time in Te Anau we trundled on back to Queenstown, and the next day, Christchurch. The following morning we set off up north to Kaikoura (Kai - Eat, Koura - Crayfish) hoping to get in a bit of dolphin and whale spotting over our three days there. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crappy for most of the time apart from the last day, when it was too late to book on any of the watery activites! We were staying in a fantastic family-feel hostel reccommended by Charly for it's hot tub. So we holed ourselves up in the hammock for a day or so. On the last night we had just warmed up our toesies in bed when this terrifyingly scary wailing siren started up, definitely loud enough to wake up the whole village. I was sure there was a sensible reason for it, and we'd heard it before in Westport without anything terrible happening, but this carried on for AGES and was indescribably haunting, so we thought maybe it was time to get out of bed and find out. The whole hostel was up waiting for it to stop, was apparently to rouse the fire brigade, though apparently it also starts as a tsunami warning, not that anyone will know it's anyone will know it's not a fire! Maybe it plays a different siren for different emergencies.
The next morning i woke up about half 5 desperate for a pee (it's terrible, i keep doing this, i'm getting ancient) and discovered the most breathtaking sunrise, so i pulled on some clothes and wandered down to the beach to watch.
A friendly lady from Australia happened to be doing the same so we wandered right along the beach chatting about nothing in particular for a long time, until her knees gave in infact! Nice start to a scorching day.
From Kaikoura it was up to Picton and then onto the ferry over to Wellington, i felt very sick once we got onto open water, don't know why i'm going to Fiji! Wellington looked quite acceptable but i'm afraid to say i spent most of our time there asleep! I needed to catch up but i do regret missing the museum there which sounds pretty amazing. Never mind, next time.
From Wellington we careered right up to Taupo as we have been fast running out of time. We'd booked a skydive and were getting rather excited about it, but it was cancelled due to low cloud, again! Damnit. The next morning before our next booked time we wandered out of town towards a place where a hot spa waterfall drops into a cold river and lay around in it for an hour or two, it was quite a strange experience but very pleasant and relaxing! We gave the weather most of the day to clear enough for a skydive, but no luck, so we thought we'd do a bungy instead!
I feel sick just thinking about it again! I wasn't particularly nervous waiting for it to happen, probably because the guy before us was on his stag night, dressed as a leprechaun (St Paddy's day) stark naked underneath the green dress! haha. I can definitely say that seeing a naked english man hanging suspended upside-down on a bungy cord is not a pleasant sight, but it certainly took my mind off the utterly idiotic activity i was about to subject myself to. I'm more scared thinking about it having done it, though i will say i am glad i hadn't eaten anything recently, as i think my trousers would have had to be thrown away afterwards. We decided to do a tangem bungy as then we could afford to buy one video of it between us, which was a good decision as i don't think i would have been able to chuck myself off that platform! David pulled, i followed close afterwards, injuring his eardrum on the way down! Would definitely do it again though, it's a massive rush, you feel invincible the rest of the day once your legs stop wobbling everywhere!
So after parting with 100 odd bucks for a couple of seconds of stark terror it was off to Rotorua for some eggy escapades! Rotorua is an amazing place, the crust of the earth underneath us is only a couple of k's thick so the water underground running underground heats up to very high temperatures and then bursts out of many geysers and suchlike, forming bubbling mud pits and natural hot mineral pools. It's rather fantastic to watch and swim in, but the process also produces hydrogen sulphide, which smells very strongly of rotten egg. It dosen't bother the locals, or David, very much but i am indeed my father's daughter, and a slight whiff of it results in a very loud and long chain of retches from me!
The Maori population in Rotorua is over 70% which is much higher than much of New Zealand, so the place is natually quite a tourist trap for assorted Maori activites. We spent a very happy night at Tamaki Maori Village, where locals show you a little of Maori history, culture, mythology etc in songs dances and displays. I was having too much fun too take many pictures, but i'll put this one on just for Anna which i know she'll love for her personal fantasies.....
If you're wondering about the stange positiong, i think we were being shown traditional tattooing methods.
They also put on a fantastic hangi for us. The hangi is the tradtional Maori meal, in which the food is cooked in a big hole, steamed by very very hot rocks for about 4 hours. It was bloody fantastic, Dave had 8 plates!
Yesterday was fantastic but i cannot describe it now as the boy is complaining (yet again!) of hunger. I actually do not know where he puts it all!
Hope you're all well. Oh and Stace, Dave says it was way too hot to camp but i'm sure he is just being a wimp, everyone else manages it every year. I may well be joining you in it yet!
