A lively few days...
Greetings from NZ. I'm still here, as I extended my stay for another 6 days (without any charge) as there was too much to see and too little time! I now leave for Oz on the 18th March.
When I last emailed, I was stranded on terra firma, as my Helihike had been cancelled. I never did do a Helihike, but the next morning I finally (3rd time lucky) made it on a helicopter, and went on a flight over the glaciers, with good views too of Mounts Tasman and Cook. A breathtaking trip (and very noisy too!), and sitting next to the window I had a great view too (I'm afraid of heights but didn't have any problem with the trip). We stopped high in the mountains to have a quick look outside before flying over the Franz Glacier Helihikers (another time perhaps...) and making our way back down to earth. A real highlight of the trip. The photos are below, the later ones are from the helicopter.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/album?.dir=9884&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos
Back on 4 wheels, I continued down through Haast to Wanaka, and then on to Queenstown (via NZ's highest road), the centre of adventure tourism. I took the cablecar up the mountain (it was rather windy which made the journey interesting), and in between being blown around by howling gales, and trying to buy a beer in the world's slowest bar, had a go at the luge, a sort of downhill cart, that went around a twisty track. Quite good fun, but nowhere near as challenging as the real roads in NZ, many of which are very twisty and have some serious drops over the other side!
Next day I took a Jetboat ride down Shotover creek, another Queenstown 'institution' Once you got used to whizzing down narrow gorges at 80km/h, steering into and narrowly avoiding rocks and logs, then doing 360 degree spins spinning on the spot, it was a lot of fun, and nowhere near as scary as an Istanbul taxi driver! (Borzou and Brian will know what I mean).
After slowing down the pace in Arrowtown, I popped over to another legendary site, the Karawau bungy jump where I watched the nutters flinging themselves off, which was scary enough for me just watching. The photos of the Jetboat are lo res (I haven't downloaded the high res ones yet) but you should be able to spot me in the boat. (A clue, I'm the manly, brave looking one!)
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/album?.dir=ef43&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos
Moving on, I headed to Fiordland (passing an ostrich farm on the way), first visiting the caves in Te Anau (which has some glowworms and a really impressive underground waterfall) before driving out to Milford. The drive is an exciting one, as the road climbs over the mountains, made more exciting by a snow blizzard at the top, and down on the other side, chasing Keas (mountain parrots) off my car at a waterfall stop, before they ripped off my windscreen wipers! Milford Sound was very beautiful, and highly dramatic. It had rained (and hailed!) a lot, so there were waterfalls everywhere (the water runs straight off the hard granite ground). Many of these waterfalls are a lot bigger than they look, the grand scale of the scenery (1km peaks rising on either side) confusing the eye. The underwater observatory there is interesting, what you are seeing is not a fish tank, but the real fiord outside!
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/album?.dir=c30d&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos
The next day, for even more peace and dramatic scenery, I took an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. To get there, you have a take a boat, followed by a coach trip along a completely unconnected road (built for the hydroelectric power station) before reaching your cruise boat. While on a side arm of the Fiord, I had a go at Kayaking (yet another first for me!). In case you're wondering, no I didn't fall in !!! It was very peaceful out there (apart from my curses as I got wetter and wetter). I managed a fair rate of knots, but had problems keeping in a straight line, and managed to beach myself on some rocks...
We anchored for the night in a quiet bay, it was very quiet, and very remote. Sadly the sleeping quarters weren't so quiet, as the Irish guy in the bunk below me had kissed the 'snoring stone' before leaving Limerick...
The first day on the boat was dry, the next morning it rained solidly. Well Fiordland does get up to 7 metres of rain a year - that well know desert, the Lake District only gets 2!
Mike
When I last emailed, I was stranded on terra firma, as my Helihike had been cancelled. I never did do a Helihike, but the next morning I finally (3rd time lucky) made it on a helicopter, and went on a flight over the glaciers, with good views too of Mounts Tasman and Cook. A breathtaking trip (and very noisy too!), and sitting next to the window I had a great view too (I'm afraid of heights but didn't have any problem with the trip). We stopped high in the mountains to have a quick look outside before flying over the Franz Glacier Helihikers (another time perhaps...) and making our way back down to earth. A real highlight of the trip. The photos are below, the later ones are from the helicopter.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/album?.dir=9884&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos
Back on 4 wheels, I continued down through Haast to Wanaka, and then on to Queenstown (via NZ's highest road), the centre of adventure tourism. I took the cablecar up the mountain (it was rather windy which made the journey interesting), and in between being blown around by howling gales, and trying to buy a beer in the world's slowest bar, had a go at the luge, a sort of downhill cart, that went around a twisty track. Quite good fun, but nowhere near as challenging as the real roads in NZ, many of which are very twisty and have some serious drops over the other side!
Next day I took a Jetboat ride down Shotover creek, another Queenstown 'institution' Once you got used to whizzing down narrow gorges at 80km/h, steering into and narrowly avoiding rocks and logs, then doing 360 degree spins spinning on the spot, it was a lot of fun, and nowhere near as scary as an Istanbul taxi driver! (Borzou and Brian will know what I mean).
After slowing down the pace in Arrowtown, I popped over to another legendary site, the Karawau bungy jump where I watched the nutters flinging themselves off, which was scary enough for me just watching. The photos of the Jetboat are lo res (I haven't downloaded the high res ones yet) but you should be able to spot me in the boat. (A clue, I'm the manly, brave looking one!)
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/album?.dir=ef43&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos
Moving on, I headed to Fiordland (passing an ostrich farm on the way), first visiting the caves in Te Anau (which has some glowworms and a really impressive underground waterfall) before driving out to Milford. The drive is an exciting one, as the road climbs over the mountains, made more exciting by a snow blizzard at the top, and down on the other side, chasing Keas (mountain parrots) off my car at a waterfall stop, before they ripped off my windscreen wipers! Milford Sound was very beautiful, and highly dramatic. It had rained (and hailed!) a lot, so there were waterfalls everywhere (the water runs straight off the hard granite ground). Many of these waterfalls are a lot bigger than they look, the grand scale of the scenery (1km peaks rising on either side) confusing the eye. The underwater observatory there is interesting, what you are seeing is not a fish tank, but the real fiord outside!
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/album?.dir=c30d&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/my_photos
The next day, for even more peace and dramatic scenery, I took an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. To get there, you have a take a boat, followed by a coach trip along a completely unconnected road (built for the hydroelectric power station) before reaching your cruise boat. While on a side arm of the Fiord, I had a go at Kayaking (yet another first for me!). In case you're wondering, no I didn't fall in !!! It was very peaceful out there (apart from my curses as I got wetter and wetter). I managed a fair rate of knots, but had problems keeping in a straight line, and managed to beach myself on some rocks...
We anchored for the night in a quiet bay, it was very quiet, and very remote. Sadly the sleeping quarters weren't so quiet, as the Irish guy in the bunk below me had kissed the 'snoring stone' before leaving Limerick...
The first day on the boat was dry, the next morning it rained solidly. Well Fiordland does get up to 7 metres of rain a year - that well know desert, the Lake District only gets 2!
Mike
posted by Michael Conway at
12:48 am
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