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.