Last days in New Zealand (soph) February 26, 2008

North Island NZ

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello Y’all,
We are on our last day in New Zealand and are very excited about flying to Australia. We are being met by the gorgeous Debsi West,soon to be wed. After spending four months on our own we will finally be socialising with people we know and for more than just one night. Fantastic!
We are not in quite the state we thought we would be by this point in our travels. We planned on being lean,tanned and sporty. Let’s just say that the tan is as near as we have come to accomplishing this. So our brown pot bellies are finally leaving NZ. We have been here 6 weeks and seen both islands now. The last few days have been spent in and around the Bay of Plenty. We headed back to Napier for the cricket (England v NZ international 1 day.) Check me out, i am so into cricket.
It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky. Ironic as it was spent in the shade of a stadium. Much more fun than i thought it would be with many people using it as an excuse for day time drinking. They were mad as it cost two pound fifty for a half of warm lager and we managed to not get lulled into it,unfortunately.
England batted first and i was a little gutted that Monty didnt play (he is my favorite,so gentle and worried looking.)
As the day progressed it got less and less exciting for me, ball hit, lots of clapping, ball thrown,lots of clapping! Chris loved it and barely looked sideways as i asked annoying questions for the best part of the day.”Why isnt he out?e.t.c”
It did become a bit more fun at the end when NZ were trying to catch up, finally ending in a draw. The men behind us,in their fifties, grew increasingly immature as the beer sunk in. Much to my amusement they started shouting out things like “hairy bum” to put off Smallbottom who was bowling (Chris is sitting next to me and just told me that’s his name) and phoning their wives with declaration of love. On a trip to the pizza stall a man staggered past shouting abuse at some one (didnt think it was me) and pointing to his NZ map that was tattooed to his chest. Quite alarming, but at least he will always know where he lives and he definitely looked like the type of fella that might forget. Cricket is definitely a lot rougher than i thought and involves a lot of shouting “you sit down,you sit down” being one that springs to mind. But the main thing was that in made Chris very happy, although he got a bit emotional in the middle and started biting his nails!
After that sunny day we set off North to Maunganui Mount to enjoy the last few days in this beautiful country and top up the tan. But alas no, it wasnt to be. The sun that had followed us up the windy roads to the coast ,disappeared literally as we put the car brakes on and got out at our destination. The skies opened up,the wind whistled and our hearts sunk. Mr and Mrs Warn ,get back into a cabin! We headed for cover and found out via internet that the weather was here to stay. We were gutted and all camped out, so we hurled ourselves into a snoozing contest. Hours of lounging,reading,snuggling and tv watching followed over a 3 day period. We actually enjoyed it quite a lot and although we didn’t see, or even walk the Mount we found other pleasures. I had my hair done and said goodbye to the roots, last addressed in India. We watched cricket in a pub ,drinking wine in the day time,we caught up on our sleep and ate very fattening meals,indulging ourselves into a frenzy of cheese boards,scrabble and buns. It also gave us time to put our wit to good use (Chris insisted i put this in.) While drinking orange juice i commented on how much pith there was in the bottle. Chris replied “i think it is making my throat sore with all the pulp friction.” Come on chaps, you just can’t get humour like that anywhere. He is awesome!
Anyway back to the story, when the big, yellow, selfish ,rude, holiday spoiling sun, finally did come out (hip hip horray) we were on our way to Auckland for our trip to Aus. We managed to get a night camping at Orere Point in and enjoyed a stroll on the beach. Unbelievably we were woken in the night by quails fighting, what an earth would a quail fight about in the darkness?i have no idea, bread? If i had a shot gun i would have taken them out (sorry Pat and Roger and any other twitchers reading this). It didn’t help that i was dreaming about Silas in the book i am reading (Da vinci code,probably the last person on earth who hasn’t read it yet) and incorporated their scarey fighting noises in to my dream.
The next day the sun was out and we had sucessfully dried some of our washing. Not much point washing our clothes as all faded,stretched and grubby looking. As you can imagine this effects me more than Chris and i often think about all my lovely clothes at home and dream of shopping all day alone, without Chris ever knowing how much i have spent. Damn those joint bank accounts!
We are now in Auckland after a night in a cabin,the tent is dry ,our sleeping bags have been washed and we are good to go. We both love flying and are the most enthusiastic passengers, grateful for fun onboard meals and we don’t speak to each other at all to make sure we get our moneys worth of in flight entertainment. I have previously stayed awake well into the night on a flight to squeeze in one more free movie.
It feels like a bit of a mile stone in our travels now that we are heading to Oz. We have been on our own for 4 months and camped loads in Nz. I am very proud of us for getting on so well as travelling probably is a bit of a relationship tester. New Zealand is stunning and people have been friendly. It has rained a lot more than we thought and it gets really cold camping sometimes.We have the amusement of waking up next to each other fully covered from head to toe in sleeping bags with only our faces half showing. Auckland is beautiful and we loved our kakaking trip and glazier heli ride. The down side is that the place has robbed us blind by lulling us into all its tastey adventures and it has been no-where near as cheap as we thought it would be. Oz is the next big adventure and i have a feeling boozing will be high on our list of day events. We are no longer the beer fit people we were before we left so hopefully the photos will include some views and not just a group of people pulling faces into the camera while intoxicated. Watch this space.!
Just a quick one before i go to say hello to all the wine club girls and to sent the Walshies our love. They are due a baby Walshy and we are thinking of them every day waiting for the news. Big pushes Caz!!
And a quick hello to Roanne who mananged to combine a skiing holiday and a young baby (George) well done chick, you must be a hellava mum.

Right i am off to buy a tankini!keep blogging chaps,we love hearing from you and our stats are brill xxxxxxxxxxx

A Twist of Fate, Chris’s Nanna’s Mate and a trip to Hell’s Gate! (C – 19/2) February 19, 2008

North Island NZ

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Things have been very interesting over last couple of days and the time seems to be really flying past in NZ. After last blog we spent a leisurely day in a camp site still in Napier, recovering from our ‘extreme’ dining experience on Valentine’s Day. Decided that I should ring my Nanna’s friend Joan who lives in Rotorua and who we were going to try and meet up with, after several calls I finally got through this time, she seemed to have a busier social life than us!

After that I rang my friend Neil Carson (a bloke I hadn’t seen for 2 years as he went down-under to join the Aus Navy, I did my Perisher with him back in ‘98) it was on the off chance really as his wife had passed a mobile number to us via e-mail. Got him first time and after a conversation that went something along the lines of ‘Hello Neil’ ‘Hello Chris’ ‘Long time no speak, where are you?’ ‘Napier’ ‘Oh that’s a shame I’ll be there in a few days, I’m in NZ at the moment’ ‘Cool’ ‘Where are you and Soph tomorrow?’ ‘Taupo’ ‘Good I’ll see you then, I’m down there fishing tomorrow!’ – yes it was surreal, he was only in the same town as we were the following night, he was visiting Auckland on an Aus Submarine and had a few days R&R – so we arranged to meet up. I walked back to the camp-site in an excited daze, looking up at the sky as an aerobatic display team practised in the skies above for the Napier Art Deco weekend celebrations. I was rudely brought back to planet earth by almost being run over by the Napier Express an old steam engine which took to the lines at this time of year, bringing people clad in thirties outfits into the town centre. I hadn’t really noticed the hundreds of people gathering track side to get a photo of the hissing monster! Still myself and Soph were very excited and waved to everyone on board, just like a grown up and slightly dishevelled pair of railway children!
Off to Taupo the next day and it was a glorious trip across wooded areas, which were engaged in replanting in a big way, so there were lots of different sized trees as far as the eye could see. Stopped off to view Waipunga Falls, NZ has lots of these Scenic View signs up by the side of the road, too numerous to do them all, but when we do stop invariably it’s something wonderful as was the case this time. Rain came in again on and off, but we didn’t care as beers were booked that evening! Arrived at our camp-site and had a quick game of tennis as we had the luxury of a court on site – rain came down in sheets mid-way through the first set and we almost abandoned it, but our Englishness shone through (unlike the sun) and we kept at it, right up to the point where I started losing really badly and claimed my sore throat was still hurting and I wanted to stop. Can’t believe these camp sites charge you for racket hire though, really tight!
After this it was a quick call to Neil (aka Willie after the jockey, not that he is anything like a jockey as you can see by the photos) and he was sat in the Maccy Ds (just a coffee Vicky, no burger) so we dashed down to meet up with him, shelving our plans to go for a long walk. Really good to see him and I won’t bore you with the details but the evening went off very well. Ended up in an Irish bar watching Warratahs (who Sam, Neil’s son, is playing under 21 rugby for) in the Super 14s, before going to the ‘back’ bar and dancing and singing along to the Maori barman, who every so often stopped serving and flashed up his guitar, mostly Maori protest songs, but a great night! Soph told me later it took me quite a while to get into the tent as we had the fixed mesh bug screen over the entrance, I could see the light inside but just couldn’t understand why there was something holding me back! Think I may have broken the zip of my beloved Coleman tent!
We were certainly not so great the next morning however and we had a long day ahead. First up a bit of rehydration and a burger king and then another snooze, well ,we are on our holidays. Took the chance to walk along the Haku River water-front area and wandered into a spot where a natural hot spring ran into the river, beautiful temperature water which you could just sit in and several people and a couple of dogs were doing just that. Wish we’d brought our cossies, but just had a paddle instead. Then we went back up river to the Haku Falls Jet Boat ride, which we had pre-booked and then delayed due to the headache! I was excited and, as you can imagine, so was my wife. 75km/h in a shallow bottomed jet boat, steaming down the river towards the falls, narrowly missing the canyon sides and various trees/swans with the odd 360 degree spin manouevre thrown in for good measure. Excellent, we didn’t buy it because it was a bit pricey, but one photo taken of our boat mid 360 had everyone laughing with their hands up and in the dead centre of picture is my wife, a stand out, with her mouth wide open in a silent scream and terror on her face – classic Soph!
We were left with 27 minutes to view the falls from the bridge crossing the gorge and then double back on our tracks to get down to the Aratiatia rapids for 4 o’clock. These rapid are dry apart from 4 times a day when the floodgates are opened and all the water is allowed to crash back down the wadi. We managed it with 30 seconds to spare, as the alarm went off and the gates opened a real force of nature (sort of) as the mass of water and power erupted down the valley. Never seen anything like it and the rapids re-filled really quickly such was the sheer bulk of water, you just wanted to dive in it looked so clear, fresh and beautiful.
We trooped back into the car to go and meet my Nanna’s friend Joan (82) who lived in Rotorua, cut it fine and we were a bit late but she was as nice as pie and offered us dinner, which we eagerly accepted. Glad we did, Joan was top company (she was a sort of child genius or so it sounds and gained Uni entry at 16, then originally trained as a pharmacist before becoming the first female Post master general of this area! That’s where she met Nanna and the rest they say is history) and she can make a lovely chicken and veg. She sent us to bed at 2130 as we looked so shattered from the night before! Bless.

Next day, spent looking at the various thermal springs of Rotorua. Visited the local park in central town, Paikau park where there are fenced off boiling springs and mud baths, there for all to see. That was a taster and after this we went to Hell’s Gate (for the name more than anything, there are several sites we could have gone to) to view the big boys. Fascinating place, originally called Tikitere, after a visit by George Bernard Shaw in the 1900s he nicknamed it Hell’s Gate and the Maoris allowed the adoption of the name. He also named a few other individual pools, but with ‘the goblin’s nostril’ and ‘the hippos ring of fire’ we believe we should have been given the task. The most impressive sight was the steaming cliffs, which was a pool about 30 feet across filled with boiling mud 145 degrees C at 1 metre down apparently. All I know is that the sulphur was extremely strong and the explosions violent, every few seconds you would get a strong belch of fetid, moist gas from the eruptions (it really was like a night out with Chris Taylor).
The smell of sulphur pervades the whole town and originally my wife kept giving me knowing and accusing looks, but I promise you IT WASN’T ME! After the walk around Hell’s Gate, we stopped off at a carving stall by the exit and met a bloke called Benji Hatu the resident expert and were allowed a free go at some wood carving, great fun and we were ace! Also bought one of his originals, so have finally got a bit of NZ art. Back to the camp site for dinner and a quiet night, we’ve noticed the two nights here in Rotorua have been cosier in the tent than anywhere else and think it must be the thinness of the earth’s crust in the area keeping us warm at night. Had a bit of an embarrassing moment as we made our way to the tent at 11ish. Several noisy, braying Dutch folk were sat outside the communal TV room all talking at once about how fit they were or something, so we basically told them to be quiet (in a niceish way.) As they all grumbled off to their accom, and as I was getting into the tent I accidentally set off our car alarm! Ha, ha excellent skills – you should have seen me move to try and cancel it though, like a cobra! One tent based stat for the spotters out there – we’ve been travelling 126 days and have slept in our tent only 33 times – now that’s slumming it! We are back in Napier now and ready to view some more International cricket tomorrow, a one day match which is in the balance with Eng needing a win, just off to see if we can find Ian Botham in a pub!

Do you know the way to Taumata whakatangi hangakoauaucta mateaturipu kakapiki maunga horonuku pukaiwhenua kitunatahu? February 15, 2008

IMG_7625Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello you lovely people,
We are finally drying out after a couple of very wet days in the luscious New Zealand. Seems like we have been here for ages now and we are absorbing all the healthy outdoor karma. That said poor Chris has been ill! His throat (as pictured in the last blogg) has been really sore so he is now making a good recovery with the help of antibiotics.
We are now in Napier.Where is that? i hear you cry. Well it is the east coast of the North Island.
After arriving in Wellington we became caught in what was discussed on the news as “a heavy electrical storm.” A little unfortunate i grant you. We were originally camping but the weather was so bad we had to stay in a cabin. Lucky we did as the rain kept coming and coming. Even Chris’s tent which he continues to say is”made for this type of weather” would have got soggy.
When we talk about “cabins’ they are not the romantic ones with fires and minibars. They are normally about as big as a garage with bunkbeds in and not much else. Recently we had one with tv as well and we were so pleased we turned it on instantly and watched it like a couple of cave men, all night!
Poor Chris has been snoozing a lot so just as well he had a bed for it. We spent a day under cover before heading up the east coast to Hastings. On the way we did a detour to see the worlds longest place name. It was strange when we arrived as there was just the sign and nothing else. Great sign though and we defied death to get our photo taken either end of it. We had to put the timer on the camera ,place it in the middle of the road and then press the button and run back to the sign. Took a few attempts but well worth it! The place is named after “The Brow of a Hill Where Tamatea,the Man with the Big Knees who Slid,Climbed and Swallowed Mountains,known as land eater,played the flute to his lover.” And its’ official name is,say it with me !
“Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauctamateatuvipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitunatahu”

After another night in of rain we woke to a break in the weather and paddled around in the big puddles left behind, with all the ducks bragging about what a great night they’d had. Soon enough the fantastic NZ sun came out and in a couple of hours it was like it had never rained. We had a quiet reading afternoon to aid Chris’s recovery and a night in front of the communal campsite tv. I shamelessly wore my pyjamas in public,i love them! We have begun to realise that we care less and less about what people think of us. Home comforts are missed massively if we are ill or it rains and we talk about what we would do,eat,wear e.t.c if we were at home.I often day dream about my xlarge marks and spencers fluffy blue dressing gown and Chris dreams about sky sports and our leather sofa, we both dream about a cheese board as well.

Fortunately Chris is finally on the mend after having to pay a painfull admin fee to join the medical centre. He was nearly on fighting form for Valentines Day, the day of lurve!
We squeezed out of our tent to be greeted by a sunny day and after coffee on a picnic table we headed to Napier as Chris had planned a suprise(the little beauty) On the way we listened and talked along to our Spanish lesson on C.D. instantly forgetting the words as soon as they have passed our lips.
Pulled up into Napier to find it was Art Deco week so people pottering around in all the gear and lots of vintage cars are driving around. Napier is beautiful and romantic. Loads of freshly painted art deco buildings,flower beds,fountains and sea front cafes.Our mums would love it here,loads of gift shops!
We pottered around and had some photos taken with people dressed up. Two of the ladies in costume looked elegant in all the gear and posed for a photo for us. In return Chris (the smoothy) gave them a kiss ,not on the lips thankfully and they sauntered off(we didnt tell them about the tonsilitis!)
Chris’s plan unfolded as we went to a lovely hotel room with an ensuite,something that has been alien to us since new year. We normally run across a wet field with torches in the night if we have to go to the loo.Some of those toilets are really spooky at night and the knowledge that it is cockroach happy hour means the toilet trips are speedy and a bit upsetting!
So our Valentine day was spent in luxury with a kitchen,tv,fridge,bathroom,fluffy towels and double bed all to ourselves.Bliss! Chris later told me he had booked us up on a gourmet wine tasting restaurant tour for the evening and i was so happy i cried!
Absolutely brilliant idea and our evening was really special. My husband is brilliant. I am telling you,that fella has got all the moves!
We were collected for the tour at 5.30ish and met by our guide Carl and another couple from Canada who were doing the tour with us. The five of us set off to a beer tasting start at a place called Roosters. we tried to guess some samples and match them to the menu. So much from our years of drinking,we were rubbish and didnt get any right. How can we have drunk so much and know so little?
Roosters was great outdoor place like The Dolphin with lots of hardy men in vests drinking after work. A great day time drinking pub,no food,just beer.
We moved on to a restaurant for a seafood platter and lots of wine samples. Mostly white wine from Marlborough region,blimmin lovely!
After putting in our order for dinner we headed to the hills and watched the sunset on Te Mata Peak and popped open a bottle of bubbly. Real V.I.P treatment with Carl topping us up and telling us about the wines of the region. The citylights were just starting to twinkle below and it was just perfect. Our new Canadian friends Murray and Harvey were great fun and we bonded over booze and beautiful food for the rest of the night. The trip took us to another two restaurants,one for main course and another for pudding. Lovely,lovely,lovely! The restaurants were all top notch with lots of fairy lights and candles,my favorite.
Back to our great accommodation we stayed up even later to watch tv and make the most of the home comforts. Fabulous!
Sunny day today and we are back in the tent. Boo! Hoping the weather will stay sunny so we can enjoy the beauty of NZ for our last two weeks. When it is sunny we have the best time but when it rains it feels a bit like we are on the run from the law! Cover photo is one that dates back to our kayak adventure in abel Tasman (South Island), this is our kayaking gang getting a sail up to Anchorage Bay -right to the beach very cool! (Copyright Bart from San Francisco, y’all have a good time now!)

Thugs, bugs, thunder and lightning – very, very frightening! February 11, 2008

South Island NZ

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Well after Soph’s last blogs we ran out of really beautiful photos to show you, involving blue skies and even bluer water. This photo collection is a bit bizarre. We spent a lovely couple of days in hut accommodation in Christchurch, spoiled ourselves with walks along by the river and even out for a nice bottle of white wine and a snack before the big match ie Eng v NZ 20/20 cricket. As we meandered through the town we saw David Gower and Ian Botham proving they DO drink before a SKY broadcast, the last time I saw those two out together, they were in a house of ill-repute in Antigua (but that’s another story). Also saw ‘Bumble’ Lloyd but he always looks wasted so not sure if he had been drinking or not – all good fun though. The match itself was a bit bizarre 1) it’s not real cricket it’s more like baseball 2) the crowd were a real bunch of hill-billy red-necks and there was even some crowd violence with people being thrown out etc. We avoided all that business, but did manage to drink a fair bit to build up our protective shields. Match was over without any tactics, Collingwood scored as did Mustard, but K-P let himself down again. If you don’t like cricket, stick with me! Went back into the town centre afterwards to meet up with the victorious team and have a photo with Monty, but they didn’t show – light-weights! With slightly baggy heads we didn’t do a lot the next day and this head-ache stayed with us for 2 days, we are just getting too old!! We travelled north to stay at Picton (really big waves on this East coast and only skilled surfers and lots of Fur Seals in the water) before catching the ferry back to the North Island. In Picton we decided to go to the cinema and after the biggest in Asia in Kuala Lumpar, this thing was a bit of a come down, the size of our bedroom in Fortescue Place with what was effectively a big TV at one end. Bizarre because it was accessed through the local aquarium, free access with your cinema ticket. So after viewing some sea-horses and a giant rotten squid in a suspiciously yellow liquid we went through and watched a Danish film with sub-titles (and this evening isn’t even recommended in our Lonely Planet!!) A damp evening, but again we treated ourselves with a meal out, my first cooked fish dish in South Island unbelievably. Sat in a nice bistro type restaurant and listened to some live music, first girl was young, nervous and good and I only insulted her as we were leaving by asking her if this was her first time performing (she said she’d been singing at a big music festival that afternoon). Second girl was very right-on, explaining the meaning of all her own songs and advertising her new album (Helen House, anyone ever heard of her?) she expounded views on political and social injustice, bit boring really when you’re halfway through your cheeseboard and port! In fact the only social injustice we wanted to hear her shout about was the fact that the cheese portions were so miniscule! Stayed in a camp site in the rain with THE biggest cockroaches we have ever seen, all laying dying all over the place, whatever they were putting down to kill them certainly worked, but it was disconcerting even just standing on them as your hair brushed the ceiling (yes they were that big!) Ferry trip back to North was miserable (just like on the way down) so we never truly got to see Queen Charlotte Sound in all its’ glory. Wet when we arrived in a dank looking Wellington, why isn’t Auckland the Capital, it’s bigger and much more attractive in our view! Drove north to camp at Lower Hutt, which is closer to Wellington than Upper Hutt and probably Middle Hutt (if it existed). Hutt river was where they filmed the hobbits in boats scenes in Lord of Rings, but we never saw it’s charms as there was heavy fog. We pitched our tent and as I was suffering from a sore throat (pse see photo, no I don’t want any sympathy, no it’s not ‘man-flu’, yes it does hurt!) just rested up. As we did so the rains came and came and came, we packed up the sodden tent mid afternoon, because Soph didn’t want to make me any worse, bless her! We are so very glad we did, because last night was the worst storm we have seen on any of our travels so far. You could feel it come in, strong gusts of wind then the sound like approaching Hell’s Angels and then lightning and more thunder. Even some simultaneous lightning and thunder like a cannon shot, meaning the thing was right over our park. I looked out of the window as Sophie slept through it and the water was streaming off our roof and flooding the small carpark, thank god we weren’t in the old tent – the multiple ducks in this park must have loved it, it really was their kind of weather! Up today and the sky has cleared and we are in Wellington, which is nice enough, but not awe-inspiring like say looking at Mt Cook down the length of Lake Pukaki. Two bits of news before I sign off 1) we are now expert at clearing a communal TV area and 2) we have taken to hiding from one another in big places. This is great fun (I hid under our chalet table the other day and scared the wits out of my wife by rushing out from under barking like a dog) but can be confusing, as I was looking for Soph in the Aquarium the other day for about 10 minutes chuckling to myself and congratulating my wife on her stealthy Ninja like abilities when I realised she had left the room and gone into the gift shop. Take Care all.

Top of the world(NZ soph 2-5feb08) February 6, 2008

South Island, Franz Josef GlacierOriginally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello all,
I am lucky enough to be writing up the last few days activities and am very pleased about it as we have had the best time! I will warn you now that some of the photos may make you dislike us!I also apologise that it is cold at home and yet the photos will show us having too much fun in the sun.Sorry!
We drove up the west coast towards Franz Joseph glacier in really bad weather and arrived at a gloomy looking town with not a lot happening.After a night of wet wet tent sleeping, we fell out onto another cloudy and wet day.Camping is a nightmare when it rains,the tent is tight to get out of and i always flail around a bit in panic ,shaking water onto my back.Then once you get out of the tent you just have to hit the ground running and sprint to the dry buildings,normally across a small damp field.It does wake you up quickly though.
Anyway after doing that business we headed to town for our massively exciting helicopter trip to the glacier.Unfortunately we would have to wait as it turned out.Too cloudy for travel so we sat in a cafe and kept our fingers crossed for a few hours.Back again and the ‘all clear’ led us to the scrub land for top helicopter action.I hadn’t been in one before so a little nervous but as we took off it felt really stable.That feeling was quite short lived as the pilots like to add a couple stunts to liven the trip up(why?).This involved going towards mountain ranges and then swerving quickly away and putting the helicopter at an angle.I wasn’t with Chris on the trip out ,but couldn’t help myself and ended up squawking out loud at a particularly scarey manouevre. After looking surriptiously around i was pleased to see no one had heard as they all had on the ear pad things.
We headed over a few low mountain ranges and arrived at the glacier pretty swiftly,the pilot deftly lowered our helicopter onto the glacier and then we spilled out onto it, slipping and sliding around.Absolutely beautiful and only a little bit chilly.The sun was shining and the ice had streaks of white and blue like marble.
Chris arrived a few minutes later on the next flight and the trekking began.We had some spikey things (crampons) for our shoes and i was thrilled to see that we instantly looked like intrepid explorers in our kit. We stomped around the glacier for 2 hours with our guide,who had the type of hair i had always wanted and never got(long blonde ringlets. )Chris and i felt really lifted by it all and hurled ourselves in to as many glacier poses as we could photo,we then dropped our camera in an icey puddle and stopped such nonsense instantly.We were amazed by the colours and shapes in the ice and felt great knowing that some of our friends had previously walked these steps before us and enjoyed this cool fresh air(Ani Lesley,the Walshies and Charlie and Bobo Thomas)
Amongst the ice sculpture were holes and caves ,all captured on camera, so we will bore you with them on our return.By the time the helicopter came we were on a high and felt it was a once in a life time trip.The helicopter trip home had one more adventure in store for us as it climbed high over the nearest mountain and dropped manically down the other side.With our hearts in our mouth I let out another scream (heard by all this time despite ear pads)and looked down to find that i had taken hold of the hand of the lady next to me.A little embarrassing but she was very understanding.
We handed back our intrepid explorer outfits on land (boo)and bounced off to our car feeling very pleased with ourselves indeed.Brilliant trip!
Then next day was a drive up the rainy west coast from our camp in Westport on to Motueka.The rain was hurling itself at our car in bucket loads, but we did not care a jot as we were still high from our glacier trip.It was a day for making up some miles to our next adventure so we wiled away the hours with continuous bad singing along to our mp3 player.
A beautiful day greeted us as we staggered out of our tent in Motueka and we set off to begin a 2 day kayak trip around the north island headland. The sun was shining and i was a little worried about such a physical challenge.We arrived and met up with our group for the day.Ben and Shaye(Aussie couple)Bart and Michelle(American)and Johan and Eliha(swedish.)I did a once over to see if they all looked fit(they did) and then worried even more about how taxing our trip would be.We took off on a very fast boat trip which gave me big palpitations.I was thinking our driver was wreckless and that i would complain about his dangerous driving as he cut into waves and raced other boats, while we bounced around clinging on for dear lives.Then i took a look around the boat and realised everyone was having a great time and loving it,it made me realise that i needed to lighten up a bit.So i put on smile i kept my feelings of dislike about the driver to myself( i still feel a bit annoyed with him as i am writing this).
We arrived on the beach and our 14 year old instructor(thats how old he looked)ran over some safety tips and said”sweet” at the end of most sentences while giving us the double thumbs up.He was very relaxed and we set off in double kayaks after him.The sea was a smooth green and i wondered why i had worried about the trip at all.After a potter around an island close to shore for a look at some seals we headed up the coast passing beautiful sandy bays ,empty of people with clear waters and lush greenland holding them all in.Chris and i got a rhythm going with the kayaking and we pulled up at one of the bays for a spot of lunch.It really was very civalised and Chris was delighted when they bought out a selection of cakes.
The rest of the day took us along the coast at a leisurely pace to Anchorage Bay.As we approached it the instructor said we were going to sail in.Great fun and we all grabbed hold of each others kayaks to form a raft.A sail came out of nowhere and the four people on the outside af the raft held it up.The people at the back had it attatched to their paddles and once they raised them up we were off.The wind filled the sail with a couple of blusters and we caught a few waves into the bay.We were all massively chuffed with ourselves and i like to think we caused abit of a stir on the beach with our brilliant sailing antics.I even saw people taking photos,we were that cool.It also serves as great bonding for us all and we jumped onto the beach triunmphant and a little tired from our first day kayaking.As the instructor would say”sweet”(double thumbs up.)
We were all staying the night on a boat house and promptly got picked up in a dingy boat to take us onboard.It was only a little way off shore and not quite as glamourous as it sounds.It was more like the Tamar ferry than a luxury liner.However we did get upgraded(shocker)to a room on the top, so missed the night some experienced in the bowels of the boat with low ceiling and a generator for company.
As soon as we were all dry we clinked stubbys to our tremendous kayaking trip and spent a few hours chatting before the tiredness of the sea air and the rain drove us to bed.Great trip so far and great people in the group to share it with.
Day two began with toast and coffee and a few goodbyes as it was only ourselves and the American couple (michelle and Bart) who were doing the 2 day course(we are so hardcore.)I should also mention now that Bart looked exactly like the doctor fella in Lost with his sun glasses on,we posed for a photo together and are thinking of sending it into Heat magazine and pretending it was him.Bart and Michelle were also great company with dry senses of humour that reminded us of our witty friends form home. We launched off with lots of banter and Michelle kept mentioning the headland we had to go around,and said she was worried about it.As usual i was not really aware of our route and was applying the usual”follow Chris he used to be a navigator”tactic.So it was a bit of a surprise when we headed into massively choppy water with 3-4 foot waves.We had no guide for the second day so we just had to get stuck in.I was nearly hysterical,whinning in a high voice and on the verge of tears as we pulled into the cove to get our breaths after the first part of the headland.I suggested getting out and walking(i was trembling by now) but my plan was scuppered when Bart and Michelle continued on throught the high seas triumphantly turning the corner out of sight.So back in the waves we went.I was shaking and cursing and my arms were going like the clappers.Chris was cool as a cucumber and kept us afloat and we got around the headlands collapsing on the beach around the corner.Really scarey and i would never had done it if i knew what it would be like. Bart and Michelle joined us and Michelle and i were a little emotional,while the chaps looked on amused but avoiding laughing for fear of attack.Michelle said she had told Bart not to talk to her for an hour as she was so upset by it all.Very funny looking back.When i finally did look at the map i saw we had just completed “the mad mile” and indeed there were big waves and a warning on the map too.That will teach me.I dont understand why my husband didnt warn me though,a mystery !
We had a really relaxing trip around the rest of the bay and arrived back at Motueka when the tide was at its lowest,the beach was huge!After dodging the thousands of star fish and shared a beer with Bart and Michelle ,who were brilliant fun,before heading off.A truely great adventure.and our trip is just getting better. As were were driving away Chris (my brilliant husband) summed it up beautifully by saying “These are the days of our lives”
In summary for my busy friends at P.R.S.U.especially Marky Mark, we are having a good time!