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20/04/06 - 24/04/06 -
THE KIWI EXPERIENCE: THE ROAD TO QUEENSTOWN
I had finally left Christchurch and was beginning to make my way to Queenstown, which will be my home for the next 3 months. After having so much fun on the Oz Experience I couldn't wait to get on the Kiwi Experience bus.
On the first day we were heading to Westport, which basically meant we had to drive from the East coast to the West. Our road went up through the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass, and we spent the day constantly stopping to take photos of the beautiful mountains, lakes and waterfalls. We even saw one of the locations used in the Narnia film, which would have been cool if the film was actually any good.
Westport is a tiny little fisherman's town, so that evening we just played some cards and went to the pub to get to know each other.
On the second day we headed down the coast line to Lake Mahinapua. Some of the stops included spotting seals; looking at the Pancake Rocks (which were rocks that supposedly looked like pancakes); and buying clothes for our fancy dress party that evening.
The theme of the party waws bad taste, so the driver (Andy) suggested you could dress like Hitler, for example. The prize for the person who's outfit had the worst taste was a Canyon Bungy Swing worth $150!! I won't tell you what I dressed as because you'd probably judge me and think I'm a horrible person, but I'll tell you I didn't win. We all had a really great laugh that night though.
The third day we head to Franz Josef. On the way we stopped at the Bushman's Centre which was a small museum about NZ's wildlife and the deer hunting industry that developed after European settlers brought deer to NZ and they multiplied rapidly, destroying NZ's forests and landscapes.
A guy named Pete ran the museum and was really funny, and he had loads of funny signs around the museum. He said deer hunting began in a time when "men were men and, and sheep were nervous". Some of the signs included "The following video contains scenes of deer hunting which may upset children or adults from 'Planet Bambi'" and "Vegetarian is an old Indian word for piss poor hunter."
They also had a sign in the cafe explaining that they don't serve Cappucinos or Espressos, JUST coffee. To them, a Cappucino was a leader of a Mafia gang; an Espresso was a fast Japenese train; a Long Black was Michael Jordan; a Flat White was an Englishmen run over by a truck; and a Latté was a gay Frenchman.
Anyway, that evening we arrived in Franz Josef and chilled out in the hot tub before heading to the bar. The next morning we were going to walk up the Glacier, despite the fact it was pouring with rain. The landscape was so weird there. We were only a few kilometres from the beach, we were surrounded by rainforest, and we were at the base of an 11km glacier that goes all the way up to the top of the mountains that are over 3000m high.
At the tour centre for the walks up the glacier I saw Oscar, who was in my group on Fraser Island! I didn't know he was going to NZ and I thought I'd never see him again, it was like being reunited with an old friend! We agreed to meet up that night for drinks.
Once we had our gear sorted, we headed to the glacier. Usually, there's a nice flat 2km path leading to the base of the glacier. However, because of the heavy rain, the river had blown its banks and the path was out of use. This meant we had to use the 'alternate' path through the rainforest on edge of the mountains, which wasn't a path at all. We were walking up streams, climbing over trees, using ladders to go up waterfalls, and then using a rope to get down a hill so steep, it can only be described as a cliff! At one point I fell over in a stream, and I couldn't see the people in front of me because they had gone on ahead, which meant for about 20 minutes I was guiding the rest of the people behind me through the rainforest, trying to guess which route the others had taken. It was SO much fun, it felt like we were on a real adventure.
Once we reached the glacier, we put our cramp ons on. We were already soaked from the rain, but weren't too cold because we had so many layers on. Walking up the glacier was great, the first hour we were going up really steep steps and paths to reach the first plateau. The views were incredible. After reaching the plateau, our guide Dan said we'll continue further on up, have a wonder round and just make things up as we go along. We thought he was joking, he wasn't. Obviously the guides know the glacier like the back of their hands, but he was literally just walking up the glacier, using his axe to cut steps into the ice, making a new path up as we went.
We were up there for quite a few hours, and of course on the way back we had to go through the rainforest again. All day, whenever we were cold, we told ourselves to look forward to relaxing in the hot tub when we get back. Of course when we got back, the hot tub was out of order. Instead, we just headed straight to the bar, where Oscar joined us and the two of us had a great time catching up.
On Monday we headed to Lake Wanaka, stopping at the Mirror Lakes to take photos of Mount Cook. The road we took up to Wanaka was beautiful, and we stopped again to take lots of photos of the waterfalls, mountains and lakes. Wanaka itself is a small ski resort on Lake Wanaka, and once again we headed to the bar to have lots of drinks.
The next morning we were heading to Queenstown, for a big night out, and of course 3 months to follow that...
Next: Christchurch: The Quest For The Work Visa
Previous: The Kiwi Experience: The Road To Queenstown
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