Sore down south

So to another adrenaline fuelled activity-delightful canyoning- NOT. Oh my, for those unfamiliar with canyoning, here is an outline: you put your trust in a burly man(in our case a huge Austrian- not Arnie but of his proportions) as he lowers you over a cliff edge- way too fast mind, whilst you try and master abseiling down the rock face but fail as you get bumped off the rocks and never manage to find your footing. But it's worth it(yeah right) as at the bottom you're forced to dive head first into a freezing pool where no one is quite sure how deep it is but hey, it should be deep enough! And there's more- rock slides which you have to master backwards, rope swings, climbs up the steep rock face and jumps into yet more pools of uncertain depth from a wee 6 or 10m height. Even by chosing the smaller height I was unrewarded as I landed on my left buttock rather than on both cheeks- ooch that hurt. All this "fun" was performed whilst wearing the most inflexible wetsuit which hadn't even dried from the last lucky person to experience the canyon adventure. You may have gathhered I'm not a fan and ended up with many a large bruise not least on my backside! Mark loved it, ah well he's on his own next time.

The following activity was more like it, horseriding. We travelled 30mins out of Queenstown to where some of "The Lord of the Rings" was filmed, a beautiful place called Glenorchy. The horses were great, my horse was Will and he liked to eat as much as possible, it took some muscle to try and stop him grazing every few metres. I thought I was well matched to Will as I do like to munch as frequently as possible but no one was more closely matched than Mark to his horse Tom. It was the most grumpy horse of the bunch and for this reason had to be put at the rear to stop him falling out with the other horses. With quite a few riders in our group Mark and I were quite far apart but I could hear strict instructions from one grump to the other and when Tom was startled by a passing motor bike the group was entertained by Tom galloping off down the road-Mark clinging on for dear life! The grump levels were rising!

The horseriding was fantastic but my already sore bum was even more sore and now sported a lovely blister to add to the canyon bruises. Mark's heart rate took a while to recover(from Tom and not my bum) but the next day it was racing again as we booked onto the river surfing trip. After the canyoning I wasn't too thrilled to be squeezing myself into yet another wetsuit and plunging into the cold rapids of the Kawarau river, however it was great. We had 2 runs of the river, a total of about 24km with many rapids and rocks to navigate. We were given a sledge to lie on and basically it's all down stream from there, great fun! We rounded off our Queenstown fun with a game of crazy golf. We've actually had quite a few games in NZ and my whipping Mark's ass in Tekapo was certainly a highlight!

From Queenstown we drove many miles north to see what the glacial region had to offer. We stayed in Franz Josef and enjoyed a trip to the Fox Glacier nearby. There are only 3 glaciers in the world where you can experience walking through native forest onto the actual ice. It's pretty spectacular being on an amazing glacier surrounded by mountains and forests with the sun beating down.

After this we travelled further north to the edge of the north island and a great place with no roads but lots of beeches, forests and lagoons. This was Abel Tasman and we booked a 2 day camping and kayaking trip. We'd had a bit of experience kayaking but felt a bit unprepared to spend a good 2 full days kayaking an unpredictable sea. Like the river surfing we were pleasantly surprised and had a great trip. we had a double kayak with Mark being in charge of steering(this is obviously too much for a woman to master!), he was sat behind me- a very convenient place to slack off and take a break from paddling as often as he could get away with! He blammed his sore back(what about my sore bum I say), he struggled to get comfy and so I came away with biceps which would intimidate Popeye(and an even sorer bum)!

Following all our exertions we were pleased our next destination was less demanding on physical activity, we headed to Nelson where we raised our bulging biceps to a few nights of the drinking activity. A glass of wine(or many) certainly tastes good after a good workout and numbs the sore back and bum. Cheers!

Our final destination on the south island was Kaikoura, a lovely place on the east coast famous for it's whale watching, seal spotting and dolphin swimming. It's a busy place and we could only get a reserve place on the dolphin swim. We weren't expecting to get to go so we were delighted when we got a last minute place on the 9am trip. Not as delighted to be told we needed to be at the office on time, we got this news at 8.50am whilst still in bed! I've never seen Mark move so fast(well except on that horse) but we made it and it was amazing. We got to swim with 50 or so dusky dolphins, seeing them play and interact with each other is a real priviledge. They're a horny species though, the females mating 3 or 4 times each hour! Well we were happy to join them in their squeals- to attract them we were advised to sing of squeal as loud as possible through our snorkel, it was like one big orgy!

We 've been so impressed with the south island and we're sure the north island won't disappoint, our next destination is "Windy Wellington", hopefully not too smelly and easier on the bums.

Welcome to New Zealand

Sad to be leaving Oz, we arrived in New Zealand in Christchurch to cold and wet weather. Thinking that we had seen the end of the sunshine we prepared for the six weeks ahead by buying more long sleeve tops, jeans and even some hoodies. The two weeks since then have been glorious with lots of sunshine and nice weather. NZ is having one of the best summers on record! The best way to see NZ is by car so I had searched on the net for the best deal we could get. We picked up the car that is to get us around both the North and South Islands from a small rental company in Christchurch. We weren't expecting much for nine pounds a day and weren't disappointed. Our motor is a very small Toyota Starlett, has done over 100k, is looking very battered and bruised and hardly fits all our bags in it. That said, it's actually quite a good motor and I'm thinking of buying it for Tree as a Christmas present. Christchurch is the largest city by far in the South Island. However, it's pretty small and is more like an English town. We were lucky that it was the International Buskers Festival when we there as it was pretty lively. Many of the streets are named after English Cathedral cities like Salisbury, Durham, York, Canterbury and Winchester. On our way back one night we decided to walk down Manchester street and just like back home it was the least pretty and we counted 10 'ladies of the night' touting for business.
We set off to Lake Tekapo which is one of the most beautiful places we have been to. It's hard to describe how beautiful the backdrop to the town is. The water in the lake is a pure blue colour with the mountains reflecting in the surface. After a couple of days we headed south down the coast to Dunedin for a night. Nothing exciting happened apart from me reversing our little motor into a large motel. We headed into the Catlins which is a lovely remote area at the very south of the South Island. We saw plenty of seals and a penguin. The highlight was Curio Bay where our room looked out onto the ocean. Walking along the beach we could see dolphins in the sea surfing the waves. Despite the water being very very cold I dived in and the dolphins swam within a few metres of me, definetly one of the highlights of our entire trip!
We then walked to the southernmost point of the south Island and probabaly won't ever go further south than this in the world. It's still amazing to think that we were still only just about nearer to the south pole than we were the equator.
For some reason when planning this trip I thought it would be a good idea to book us on to the Milford Track. This is described as 'the most beautiful walk in the world' but it is 33.5 miles and takes four days to complete. Also we had to take all our own food, sleeping bag and clothes. We both therefore had a backpack weighing about 15kg. We were also warned that it 'always' rains heavy for at least one day of the walk and you often need to wade through waist high water. The first day was only a couple of hours and was easy enough. On the second day we had a longer walk of about 10 miles but the track was pretty good. The third day was really tough. We had to climb up a steep mountain over rough ground and then back down the other side which was even steeper. However, none of this mattered as the scenery was the most amazing we had ever seen. For me, it surpassed anything in the Lake District. We walked though valleys that were surrounded by massive, snow covered vertical mountains. We went underneath the highest waterfall in New Zealand and had amazing views from the tops of the mountain. Having to carry all our own food, we opted for packets of rice and pasta dishes. On the second day Tree made the porridge but got it a bit wrong. There's nothing better to start a ten mile walk than hot lumpy water! After a bad breakfast we were looking forward to lunch. Four hours later I was disappointed to find that my new flask had managed to chill my lumpy minestrone packet soup to just above freezing. Still, in six hours we could look forward to a packet rice dish (ate out the packet). At night we slept in basic cabins (no hot water) which we shared with the other 38 walkers that were allowed on the track each day. Obviously sharing a bunk room with others can be a bit noisy. One night was particularly bad with loads of loud snoring and non-stop farting keeping the walkers awake. Most people are reluctant to wake strangers up to ask them to stop - but I volunteered. I managed to wake Tree and she at least stopped snoring for a while but it must have been the porridge that kept her going from the other end. The last day was really tough as we had to walk 11.5 miles and our feet were really hurting by this stage. Still we managed to get to the end and were really pleased with what we had seen and done. We both agreed that it was definitely worth it. After finishing the walk we treated ourselves to an overnight cruise. It was brilliant to have a hot shower and a roast beef dinner. We also saw more stunning scenery on the cruise and the clearest night sky ever.
After our tough last few days the next stop was Queenstown. This is the 'adventure capital of the world' and we budgeted to do loads of adreneline activities. Queenstown is an amazing place and we were lucky to get some fantastic accomodation overlooking the town, lake and mountains. To get us warmed up for the next five days we started with a bungy jump. We choose the Kawarau Bridge Bungy. This was the first commercial bungy jump in the world and we both jumped off without any hesitation. It was exciting but not as scary as the tallest bungy we had already down in South Africa. At lunch time we took the gondola in the town and had a few goes of the luge. This was good fun and quite fast in places. The best bit was overtaking Tree. Her 'safety-first approach' was no match for my 'close-my-eyes-and-think-of England' style. In the afternoon we both went hang-gliding. We had fantastic views and it was really peaceful. The next day we stepped up the pace with a ride on the Shotover Jet. This is a fast boat that needs only two inches of water. It speeds through the canyons getting nice and close to rocks before spinning 360 degrees. In the afternoon we did the 'fly by wire' which is my favourite so far. You're srapped into a mini-jet and attached to a giant wire and can contol how high and fast you go. We are having a great time in Queenstown and Tree will continue to tell you about our adreniline activities if we both make it through the next few days alive!