Queenstown

We made Queenstown our base for a few days as it had a lot to offer. For starters this town was home to the bungy jump Jonny had his heart set on doing. He wanted to jump from a 47 metre high bridge above a fast flowing river. I cannot believe he suffered with such bad vertigo when we left the UK. Jonny was so brave, an instructor took him to the bridge as I watched from below. They placed a towel around his legs then attached the bungy cord. Jonny then waddled to the platform and the instructor counted down “3 . . . 2 . .” Jonny looked down, big mistake “. . .1” he didn’t  jump. I was gutted, we had discussed that he has to jump first time as it would only get harder as the reality would set in. The instructor quickly told Jonny to take a deep breath then he started again “3 . . . 2 . . . . 1 . . . Bungy” Jonny through his self from the bridge with arms out stretched like rugby star scoring the winning try. He did so well and the first thing he said to me is “I want to do that again”. I think next time I will have to join him.

Queenstown is a ski town with many lovely restaurants, pubs and clubs to choose from.  When we decided to go for a few drinks we chose to stick to the snow theme and visited an ice bar called Below Zero. We were given extra warm coats and gloves and enjoyed the cocktails so much we somehow managed to stay in the giant freezer for over an hour.

The main purpose for being in Queenstown was to go skiing. It was my first time ever on the slopes and Jonny and I agreed that I probably wouldn’t benefit joining a busy ski school due to the limited time and funds we had. So we took the brave decision to let Jonny teach me. Most couple would advise against this as the disagreements and arguments could lead to divorce. But I am very pleased to report Jonny was a fantastic teacher, he was patient and taught me the basics. He must have been good as I managed to stay on my feet for the first 2 hours of our day. After a successful morning we decided a break was in order so we went for a well-deserved hot chocolate. I sat and chatted with a friend we had met while Jonny went back on the slopes to do some more challenging skiing. In the afternoon I returned to the snow with Jonny, I wish I could say things continued to go smoothly but things took a tumble and by things I mean me. The slope had become so busy with children and ski schools and I was unable to stop or steer myself properly. As I was heading straight for a 5 year old I panicked and through myself on the floor in a not so gracious way. My hat went flying behind me, my sticks went in another direct and I ended up in an emotional heap. Jonny collected the parts of me from down the mountain and picked me up, he tried to convince me to give it another go but I was too nervous about all the kids that were everywhere. I have not written skiing off completely; I will give it another go but I’m not in a rush . . . .

After Queenstown we drove to another sky town called Wanaka which is a situated on a picture prefect lake. We enjoyed an evening here as well as a stroll around the lake.

Milford Sound

Our day started in Te Anau a small town about 2 hours from Milfors Sound. At the port we boarded our ferry which cruised around the sound. The whole day including the journey was one we will never forget, we saw some of the most gorgeous landscapes we have ever seen. We are unable to describe Milford Sound and do its beauty justice, so we will let some of your photos do the talking . . . . .

Oamaru & Dunedin

The next major city we were going to stop at was Dunedin. However we had heard that Oamaru was a good stop to see some wildlife and in particular see a penguin colony. Leaving Christchurch we travelled south down the east coast for about 3 hours before we arrived in Oamaru. We were staying in a small campsite right on the coast with backdrop of the Southern Alps. We were told by the campsite owner that there were two colonies of penguins that inhabited the area; The Little Blue Penguins and The Yellow Eyed Penguins. We learnt that the Yellow Eyed penguins are in fact one of the rarest form of penguin on the planet.  On our first night we went to the area of land where we were told we could see the Little Blue Penguins. On arriving we found out that a charity had set up a lookout and a small fee was charged to the public to go in and watch them. We were sadly too late to pay and watch as they had already started to arrive. We decided to go up on to the cliffs to see if we could see any of the Yellow Eyed penguins. Knowing that our luck with seeing wildlife had not been the best so far, we were very surprised to see two of them just under the viewing platform. Apparently to see one in the cliffs is lucky so to see to we felt really privileged.

The following day we went and had a walk around the small Victorian town which was very quaint. We did a little bit of research and found that the best time to see the Yellow Eyed penguins was just before sunset. So we went back to the cliffs and waited, our luck was in and we watched several penguins make their way from the sea, waddling to the cliffs. We were also lucky enough to see some sea lions and seals. From here we made our way to the Blue Penguin charity look out.  We paid our money and took a place in the lookout which was more of a small stadium. As it was winter the penguin numbers usually decline and we were told to expect to see between 30 and 50 Baby Blue’s come out of the sea. Yet again luck was on our side as the researchers counted over 140 make the journey from the sea to their nest, we were amazed. Unfortunately we were unable to take any photos as the flash effects the penguins eye site and the charity are very strict on enforcing the no photography rule, so you will have to take our word for it; these penguins were adorable. 

Yellow Eyed Penguin

Our first impression of Dunedin was that it was such a student town. It is home to Otego University and the city is therefore littered with bars and pubs offering discounted drinks and eats; we felt right at home. Our campsite was a next to a stream which we followed one evening to find glow worms sparkling in the bushes. It was a lovely unexpected treat as they glitter looking very special. We spent our first full day exploring what Dunedin had to offer, we took a trip to the shopping centre, the botanical gardens and to the Forsyth Barr rugby stadium which Jonny was most impressed with.

The following day it was time to do something we were both very excited about, a tour of the Cadburys Chocolate Factory. We were treated with many samples which went down a treat. Of course we are bias but decided it is not as good as the Birmingham factory back home. 

We had a lovely time in both places and before we knew it we were moving on.

Christchurch

As soon as we landed in New Zealand we were impressed, everything just seemed to go smoothly. We had picked up our new campervan and were driving around within the hour. We spent the first evening just getting familiar with our van and the city. We decided to name our new van Elton as he stands out in a crowd; he also looks like a man yet has many girly qualities, such as the campest horn we have ever heard. Elton is not only a lot bigger than Shrek, he also has electric, room to stand, a bigger fridge and heating. All of which we now treat as luxuries as we sent the past 7 weeks getting dressed lying down. When we get home I don’t think we will ever take for granted the ability to put washing in the machine while making a cup of tea and sitting in fount of the TV without freezing our arses off or getting rained on. Anyway we LOVE Elton and had a good feeling we were also going to LOVE New Zealand.

On our first full day in Christchurch we went and saw what was left of the CBD after the earthquake. The devastation that the earthquake caused was far more devastating than we ever imagined. Even a year and a half on, the city is like a ghost town with the majority of streets “no go areas” due to being a safety hazard. Walking along the road it was like being on a film set seeing high rise building with windows blown out, shops left abandoned and a cathedral which had crumbled to rubble. 

During our travels in New Zealand we both knew that we wanted to watch a game of rugby, all be that probably for very different reasons. We wasted no time and on our 3^rd night in the country we got tickets to see The Crusaders Vs The Bulls at Christchurch temporary stadium the AMI. With the Crusaders playing a handful of the New Zealand world cup winning team it was a great game to watch and unsurprisingly the Crusaders won.

A few people had recommended a visit to a small French town called Akora which is about a 90 minute drive from Christchurch. We took them up on their advice and were blown away with the scenery. We drove through mountains to arrive at this quaint harbour town with its beautiful restaurants and rather gorgeous ice cream parlour. For our journey back to Christchruch we took the scenic route which included a drive on Summit Road. As we looked up at the mountains from the harbour we could see a very faint line running through the top of the mountains “That can’t be a road surely” we thought – o but it was. Before we knew it we were heading up a very steep mountain, this was a serious test for poor Elton who definitely struggled but he made it. When we got to the peak of the first mountain we faced a road which lead down to a bay, this peak was so high we were above the clouds. As we looked out we could see the sea then the clouds then the sky above, it was unlike anything either of us had seen before. The drive continue to amaze us with clouds pouring over the top of the peaks and views to the bays which turned Jonny’s tummy inside out.  

It is fair to say our first impressions of New Zealand were that is was incredible. We instantly loved the people and the scenery was just breath-taking. If the rest of our travels are half as beautiful as this we are in for a treat.

The Desert

One of the last parts of our trip in Australia was a drive through the outback to Uluru. Our journey started from Port Augusta, this is a little town in South Australia. We left the main high street of this town and started driving along Stuart Highway which is the main/ only road that links the south of Australia with the north. We had only been driving on Stuart Highway for 10 minutes and we had already lost phone signal, this was when we realised just how isolated we were going to be on this trip. 

The desert was far more beautiful than we ever expected, I think this was helped by the time of year that we travelled. We expected to see just a whole lot of red but instead there was a lot of greenery and we saw Kangaroo’s, Dingo, Wild Cattle, Eagles, Vulture’s and Emu. We had the shock of our lives when one giant kangaroo decide to bounce over the road right in front of our van.  When we say giant we mean giant, this kangaroo was huge, thankfully Jonny has seen it coming (it was so big it was hard to miss) and slowed the van in time. He was about 7 feet tall, bigger than our van and managed to jump a fence which was maybe 5 foot high. After this near miss one of us would always have an eye out for any suicidal wildlife that felt like crossing in front of us.

Our first and only stop on route to the centre of the desert was a town called Coober Pedy. This was a special little town known as the Opal mining capital of the world with a population of about 4,000 people of which 80% live under ground. Temperatures have been known to reach 60 degrees in the summer which is why people started to live underground as the temperature below always remains between 25 and 28 degrees. We went to see an underground home and were really surprised at how spacious it felt, we also visited a charming underground church. At the campsite where we stayed they offered underground camping and a tour of an Opal mine, we took part in the tour and loved it. It was fascinating to hear about the methods used and developed, Jonny had a go at using the copper sticks to locate where the Opal was within the cave.

We split our time between Kings Canyon and Ayres Rock at Uluru. Kings Canyon involved a crazy steep climb up to the top of the Canyon, it was so high and steep we didn’t stop to look down until we got to the top. The view at the top made the climb so worthwhile, we wondered around the rim of canyon seeing the most incredible sights all across the deserts. 

Ayres Rock was just as amazing; we first visited the centre which explained all the spiritual belief’s that the Aboriginals have. We learnt that they believe a lot of spirits live around Ayres rock and this is shown with large portions of the rock not being allowed to be photographed. Once we had finished at the centre we went for a walk around the base of the rock. The rocks base is a 10km walk, and gives you a good view of the rock form all sides. Aboriginals strongly believe that because the rock is so spiritual that it should not be walked on. This is clearly mentioned several times to all people visiting, yet we were shocked to see the large amount of people that felt the need to walk upon the rock. After walking around the rock all morning we went back to the campsite to get a few hours of shade before heading back into the national park to watch the sun set. Watching the sun set was an experience we will never forget. The rock really changes colour from a bright orange, to red, purple and brown. All night we had taken photos of the rock without any problems. On our way home we saw a lovely image of the rock and decided to pull over to take a photo. We were shocked to see that our photo we had taken was covered in orbs all over the rock. Spooky.

The following day we decided we would head to the other large rock formation in the national park, The Olgas. Now the Olgas are not that well known, but both of us feel that they are more impressive than Ayres Rock. They can only be described as the most gigantic (mountain size) boulders in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to do a walk all over them but sadly there was a fire in the local area that was out of control and sadly the path had been closed. In the evening we went to another sunset point which allows you to see the sun set behind the rock. This was good but not as good as the previous night.

On our final day we had to get up and leave early. We really wanted to see the sun rise over the rock so we were up super early to see this. We were expecting to see something magical but sadly the weather was not on our side and the rock just entered daylight without changing colour. It was a shame and nothing special but at least we can say we have done it.