The curse of the %#$&ing helicopter strikes again!!!
Hello again
This afternoon I had my adventurous head on, and was ready to do a Helihike on Franz Josef glacier, which entails a helicopter ride onto the glacier, followed by a 2 hour trek on top of the ice....but it was cancelled due to too much wind :-( After the Grand Canyon failure, I'm not having much luck with 'choppers', so it's back on terra firma I find myself, in an internet bus (an old bus converted to be an internet cafe!)
Retracing my steps, a couple of weeks back, the night after I returned from the Queen Charlotte Trek was memorable, as a noisy Aussie group arrived back to the guest house in the early hours, waking everyone up, esp a very drunk individual who effed and blinded very loudly, then proceded to have a very long argument with his missus in the room next to mine...well he did until the police came and removed him! Clearly the convict bloodline is still there...
Moving on to more cerebral matters, my next stop was down the east coast to Kaikoura, famous for it's whale and dolphin watching. I was up early (5 o'clock alarm call!) to catch the earliest and 'smoothest' whale watching boat. It was a productive trip, we saw whales, dolphins, a seal and a couple of albatross, but it was quite rough, esp when the captain turned the power off...I just about kept my breakfast down, but one poor woman wasn't so lucky, and spent the whole journey 'visiting the kiwi fruit farms of Te Puke' if you catch my drift...I also saw seals very close up on a coastal walk around the bay, indeed I had to get right up close, as a couple were completely blocking the narrow rocky path! Seals are well camoflaged, so you tend to smell them before you see them, as they stink
Crossing back across the South Island, I stopped at Hamner Springs for it's forest walks and mineral pools, then went through the Lewis Pass to reach the West coast, where I saw the famous Pancake rocks, got lost in a dark cave looking for glowworms, saw a seal colony (mothers and pups) from a smellproof distance, then visited the former coal mining heartland of Deniston, where an amazing railway used to carry coal from the top of a mountain to the bottom, using gravity, but is now deserted and overgrown (think Welsh mining village without the singing).
In order to meet long lost relatives, I then headed back north again to the Abel Tasman Park, where I stayed at Hilary's, a lovely house with a beautiful view over the water an 'split apple' rock, along with Daphne, a friend of Hilary's from N Ireland, and Jacqui her daughter who is also doing the RTW thing (and may spot the plagiarism in the below). The highlight was a trip in a Waka, a traditional Maori carved canoe, paddled by our good selves and 10 others to Stillwell Beach, where we had a picnic lunch and a speedboat ride back. We learnt traditional Maori chanting to keep time, keep the spirits up and to ask the God of the sea to keep us safe. We also learnt some "modi" - like the Haka but with oars in hand to fight off the enemy, the enemy being tourists in passing speedboats armed with their cameras (who incidentally have much better photos of us paddling than we have!)
From there I popped over to Nelson, via the Museum of Wearable Art, to see another relative Joe. While I was in Nelson, I swapped my car (an aging Nissan Bluebird auto) for something a bit more appropriate, i.e. smaller, newer and faster, though my time in the Bluebird was good practice in case I ever need to become a minicab driver when I return home.
Retracing my steps, I headed back down the West Coast to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, thus bringing things up to date! The walk to the base of the glaciers gives a stunning view, and if the wind dies down I may take a h********* up to have a look later today or tomorrow morning, but I'm not banking on it...
Mike
This afternoon I had my adventurous head on, and was ready to do a Helihike on Franz Josef glacier, which entails a helicopter ride onto the glacier, followed by a 2 hour trek on top of the ice....but it was cancelled due to too much wind :-( After the Grand Canyon failure, I'm not having much luck with 'choppers', so it's back on terra firma I find myself, in an internet bus (an old bus converted to be an internet cafe!)
Retracing my steps, a couple of weeks back, the night after I returned from the Queen Charlotte Trek was memorable, as a noisy Aussie group arrived back to the guest house in the early hours, waking everyone up, esp a very drunk individual who effed and blinded very loudly, then proceded to have a very long argument with his missus in the room next to mine...well he did until the police came and removed him! Clearly the convict bloodline is still there...
Moving on to more cerebral matters, my next stop was down the east coast to Kaikoura, famous for it's whale and dolphin watching. I was up early (5 o'clock alarm call!) to catch the earliest and 'smoothest' whale watching boat. It was a productive trip, we saw whales, dolphins, a seal and a couple of albatross, but it was quite rough, esp when the captain turned the power off...I just about kept my breakfast down, but one poor woman wasn't so lucky, and spent the whole journey 'visiting the kiwi fruit farms of Te Puke' if you catch my drift...I also saw seals very close up on a coastal walk around the bay, indeed I had to get right up close, as a couple were completely blocking the narrow rocky path! Seals are well camoflaged, so you tend to smell them before you see them, as they stink
Crossing back across the South Island, I stopped at Hamner Springs for it's forest walks and mineral pools, then went through the Lewis Pass to reach the West coast, where I saw the famous Pancake rocks, got lost in a dark cave looking for glowworms, saw a seal colony (mothers and pups) from a smellproof distance, then visited the former coal mining heartland of Deniston, where an amazing railway used to carry coal from the top of a mountain to the bottom, using gravity, but is now deserted and overgrown (think Welsh mining village without the singing).
In order to meet long lost relatives, I then headed back north again to the Abel Tasman Park, where I stayed at Hilary's, a lovely house with a beautiful view over the water an 'split apple' rock, along with Daphne, a friend of Hilary's from N Ireland, and Jacqui her daughter who is also doing the RTW thing (and may spot the plagiarism in the below). The highlight was a trip in a Waka, a traditional Maori carved canoe, paddled by our good selves and 10 others to Stillwell Beach, where we had a picnic lunch and a speedboat ride back. We learnt traditional Maori chanting to keep time, keep the spirits up and to ask the God of the sea to keep us safe. We also learnt some "modi" - like the Haka but with oars in hand to fight off the enemy, the enemy being tourists in passing speedboats armed with their cameras (who incidentally have much better photos of us paddling than we have!)
From there I popped over to Nelson, via the Museum of Wearable Art, to see another relative Joe. While I was in Nelson, I swapped my car (an aging Nissan Bluebird auto) for something a bit more appropriate, i.e. smaller, newer and faster, though my time in the Bluebird was good practice in case I ever need to become a minicab driver when I return home.
Retracing my steps, I headed back down the West Coast to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, thus bringing things up to date! The walk to the base of the glaciers gives a stunning view, and if the wind dies down I may take a h********* up to have a look later today or tomorrow morning, but I'm not banking on it...
Mike
posted by Michael Conway at
2:04 am
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