An Alpine Paradise

Between Nelson and Franz Josef the bus stopped firstly at Lake Rotoiti where these pictures were taken- the third bloke is a farmer from Dorset called Oli who has been on our bus since day 1.

We then arrived at the old gold mining town of Westport. If you have started conglomerating thoughts of romantic runaway mine trains, short ginger bearded men in checkered shirts and abandoned towns of the Wild West then you will have, like me, been fooled. It was in fact the most boring place I have been in New Zealand, an arrow straight highway, with a generic pizza restaurant, supermarket and some faceless cafes dominating the town. I can only assume the reason we stopped was for the Kiwi bus to pick up some commission from the admittedly homely hostel we stayed at.

Lake Mahinapua was our next destination, via the geologically spectacular pancake rocks of Punakaiki, and the town of Greymouth where fancy dress was chosen for the evening. We reached the small West Coast Pub of Lake Mahinapua in the late afternoon of the 7^th March. This pub and attached hostel, has been run by the 85year old Les since the Kiwi Experience began in the early 90's. It relies completely on the buses for it's income (nobody else can stay there). Many of the places we have visited have a Mono-dependence on the bus, it’s such a great way for these people to make money- a very predictable income by hospitality industry standards, plus it negates having to deal with any of the promotional graft so heavily invested in time and money by small businesses. 

The pub was the most characteristic of the trip so far, the dark wooden walls adorned with people's memories, captured on fading Polaroids, showing every Kiwi bus to have passed through. The ceiling was covered in caps, bras, signed T-shirts and other such paraphernalia of buses long gone. It really did pong though! 

The evening started with a massive barbeque consisting of a pretty tender gigantic ½ pound steak, heaps of salad, coleslaw and a stunning venison stew(wish id had more rather than the steak). The evening rolled onto fancy dress in the bar. The theme was Nasty, Naughty or Nice. Rob and I aimed to pick the most cost effective costumes possible, hence he turned out as a lifeguard. In a charity shop I purchased a $3 nightgown, certainly worn by a person now deceased,  and then hunted for something to go with it. I happened to stumble upon a Fez in a toyshop turning me Mr Ben style(remember him?) into some sort of Moroccan dignitary- a big odd but nonetheless cost efficient. The only way I could see it fitting in with the theme is with it being intimidating in the way people claim Burkas are- a justification with about as much clout as a right hook from Mr Muscle.

The night was awesome, most people got absolutely wasted and many new acquaintances were acquired. The only exception was a group of 10 or so Danes on our bus, who didn't dress up and began forming a clique which would develop as the bus went on.

The 2-hour trip to Franz Josef was quiet, the majority of people resting off the hangovers of the night before, This process continued upon arrival, with people sleeping away the afternoon, or like myself Rob and some other mates bathing in the free hot tub at our hostel/campsite- Rainforest Lodge. That night people met in the site bar where prizes were given out for costumes from the night before, the winner Megan being dressed as a present which was actually Chlamydia.

Nearly everybody on the coach had booked onto the full day glacier hike for the next day meaning the night wasn't too wild.

A five minute walk into the centre of the Alpine village, which lies in the shadow of the impressive Southern Alps(a range which includes New Zealand’s highest mountain and can certainly live up to its European namesake) took us to the centre where we collected our day's equipment- woolen socks, insulating waterproof jackets, hiking boots and crampons for walking on the ice.

Buses Shuttled the sixty people up to the start of the glacier walk where we were split into groups of 10's and, set off up the Franz Josef glacier- named after the Austrian emperor at the time of European discovery.   

Our group was led by Justin, a passionate explorer type from the Canadian border with the coolest beard I have ever seen. We spent the day slowly moving up the glacier, stopping regularly whilst Justin hacked the ice to make a path with his pick axe. 

Justin with Rob and Myself

 The sky was plastered with fluffy dry white clouds with the sun appearing and lighting up the ice at rare intervals- a gem for a town which receives rainfall for 280 days of the year. We moved down fissures, pulled ourselves up mounds and walked through the dripping ice tunnels of the world’s fastest moving glacier and the steepest which you can hike. 

Awesome Ice tunnels were frequent on the walk, the ice often appearing an ocean blue compacted by the weight of the ice above. This provided excellent photo opportunities. 

The water on the glacier tasted amazing, crystal clear and of course chilled- some people filled up full bottles of it. The mountain air was fresh and cool, surrounding the glacier were high cliffs with gushing waterfalls. All of the geographical features shown in a classroom were there, striations, moraine and sedimentary rock, once part of the ocean floor, but since lifted by the pressure of the tectonic plates to form this young 5 million year old mountain range- a Geographers paradise. The ice made distances seem deceiving, a walk which looked like it would take 20 minutes would end up taking an hour. It was a great day, rounded off by a soak in the hot tub and Tui beers at the hostel.

Before leaving Franz Josef on the 12^th March, Rob and I went Kayaking on Lake Mapourika using a small family run firm, based in a bus turned office in Franz Josef. The weather was excellent,  no wind and relatively clear skies made the lake look like a mirror, never have I seen the sky reflected so clearly. The lake is surrounded by picturesque mountain scenery on one side(with the peak of Mount Cook visible in the distance), and everywhere else by rainforest- one of only two regions in the world like it. We pottered slowly across the lake, accompanied by sand flies foolish enough to land on our boat at the shore, and our guide lead us along small waterways into the forest where we saw some of the flora and fauna unique to New Zealand. This activity was in contrast to the high octane adventures of the past few weeks, with only a group of five of us Rob, myself, two Canadians and our guide present in this tranquil, untouched place. Photos were included with the modest $80 price tag (£40), it was a gem of an activity, which many adrenaline hunting Kiwi Experience travelers will overlook.  I wish I had left my skydive till here, as the promotional pictures of this are the most spectacular I have seen yet.

The End of the North Island

The Kiwi experience includes a one day stayover in Taupo, though we booked an extra day to relax after the hectic schedule of recent times. Arriving in after the skydive, the adrenaline had left, and everybody was knackered and ravenous so a group of us headed to Pizza hut for a full out buffet which was unfortunately not up to the standards of home. The skydive and eventful days that had just passed exhausted everyone, so much so that the majority were conked out in bed by 11 after one or two Guinness’s in O’Mulligans, the local Irish bar.

After a marathon sleep, the next day was spent chilling out, several of us, the same group we had hung around from since the start of the bus, walked the half hour or so to a favourite local spot by the river. This has a natural hot(actually boiling) spring flowing into the crystal clear river, provided you get the right distance between the two you have a natural spa at your disposal. We all just sat about, foraying into the stream for brief swims and skimming and juggling the unusually light rocks in this volcanic region.

Around 4 we all left to head back to the Irish bar which put on a replay of the England v France six nations match- Brian Moore proved as irritating as ever! That night we went to our hostel bar for a free BBQ before coming second in a pub quiz by a point.

For some the end of the night signaled a permanent goodbye to some as our bus was due to depart the next day but in Taupo we had arranged to stay an extra night. Fortunately we would see many people we had met again at later stages of the trip. 

Our final full day in Taupo involved rising at 0545 in order to catch the coach for a 1.5hr trip to the Tongariro national park where we took a whole day to complete what is known as one of the top ten walks in the world. The 18km hike began with clouds rumbling low over the mountain passes ahead and views which whilst good were hardly award winning. However as the walk went on and the altitude increased, the skies cleared providing us with phenomenal views of the volcanic landscape. The walk included some of the scenery used in Lord of the Rings, the most obvious being Mt Doom itself (the real name is Mt Ngaruruhoe), but also the plain below, which Rob and I believe was where the final battle scene at the gates of Mordor took place. There was the option to climb Mount Doom, however it was over 2000m high and as the pictures show phenomenally steep. Instead we did a climbed its less steep and smaller sister peak Mt Tongariro. 

The descent from the peak included seeing a spectacular hole in the side of a part of the mountain caused by an eruption in 1975 before the eggy stench of sulphur drifted up the mountain as we descended past geothermal pools. 

Our new coach contained large numbers of 18 and 19 year olds making me feel like I was back in sixth form. Some of them looked no older than 12. It’s strange how the difference in maturity between an 18 and a 22 year old is so much larger than that between a 22 year old and 28 year old. A drive through among the most picturesque countryside seen on the trip, dominated by small hills(think it may be called an egg basket topography) lead us to our activity lodge in River Valley. That afternoon we, alongside club 18 swam in the crystal clear waters of the river jumping off the many high rocks and points in the surrounds. A smashing bbq watered down with the ludicrously priced $7.50 jugs of beer set up a nice evening. Staying in isolated places such as this is great as there is only one place to go and so the whole bus is in the bar, unlike the towns where people tend to drift off doing their own things. The barman was a Canadian fellow who looked like Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribbean and was one of the biggest wallys I have encountered on my travels. He gave off this image of being Mr funny, Mr cool and Mr relaxed, one of his first statements being “come hang out with me and you’ll find me a funny guy”. He was a slow and sloppy barman, always chatting to people for great lengths whilst queues for the bar grew. The statement of the night had to be “people shouldn’t live in the same place all their lives because that’s unnatural, its unnatural to have order and routine which is why people should travel around and have more randomness in their lives”- people like this need their head examined.

Unfortunately he was our white water rafting instructor the next day- this was the reason we were in River Valley- the place itself is literally just the lodge. A half hour minibus trip along dirt tracks lead us to the start of the river. Four of us went in a raft, rob myself and these two other girls from the coach. We went down the river in the boat, though I was pretty underwhelmed by the whole experience. We never really went that fast, the drops were all mild even though this is a grade 5 rapid and I never felt in danger of falling out- it just wasn’t that exciting, though the river was at low tide. Also we didn’t just go down the river continuously, taking a drop before pulling up and waiting for all the other rafts to catch up. In addition Jack Sparrow was an annoyance, demanding that everyone paddled in sync when it wasn’t strictly necessary plus there was quite a bit of irritating sarcasm- no other instructors were so anal. He was really harsh to the girls on our boat whose English wasn’t perfect and his poor attitude and lack of positivism just sucked some of the fun out of what should be a memorable experience.

Two days were spent in New Zealand’s capital Wellington, a pleasant city, where I purchased a new camera and we visited a highly recommended, excellent free museum which detailed the natural and human history of New Zealand.

Following this, we took the 3 hour ferry over one of the worlds roughest, but most scenic, sea crossings to the South Island on the 4^th of march and drove through the vineyards of the Marlborough Valley to Nelson, New Zealand’s sunshine capital. Here we were in for a treat as, due to the recent Earthquake, the Super15 rugby team the Crusaders couldn’t play home games in Christchurch and so temporarily have to play theirs in Nelson. That night there was a match on against the Waratahs from NSW, Australia. This tournament is one of the best rugby tournaments in the world involving 15 teams, 5 from Australia, South Africa and NZ- the equivalent of footballs Champions League. On show were many All Black internationals including New Zealand Captain Richie McCaw and the world’s best player- Dan Carter. It was a sell out crowd in the small ground, a see of red and black all round, beautifully set against the backdrop of the town and mountains behind. The Crusaders won, after which we went for a messy night out- the first proper one in New Zealand.

The bus is now drifting through the spectacular forests and stopping in small towns on the way to one of the worlds most spectacular Glaciers in Franz Josef.

The Start of New Zealand

The first day in New Zealand was spent in Auckland- by far the largest city with nearly a third of New Zealand’s 4 million people living there. The city itself was tidy, though to be honest quite bland. The CBD was like a microcosm of Melbourne with smaller size, skyscrapers and streets.

We had a chilled out day- sorting bits and bobs out and then taking a boat trip around the harbour and its islands, some of which were less than 400 years old. A phenomenal lamb with tzaki and beetroot burger, followed by quality beer in the neat Irish and Belgian bars, rounded off the day.

The next day started in the exotic hangout of McDonalds with pancakes for breakfast, before gandering down to a branch of the ‘lets get smashed and look really cool’ gap yah hangout that is the Base hostel network (basically Reading University overseas).

 We boarded our delayed bus and began our trip out of the city via a viewpoint towards out first stop- Mercury Bay.

I should explain how we are traveling New Zealand. We are booked up with a company called the Kiwi Experience. There is a route laid which you follow and you can take up to 12 months to complete. Essentially it’s a hop on hop off bus service. They will show you the sites, recommend and book activities in the region for you and take you to accommodation(which they will again recommend in the area). Your role is to sit on the bus and decided what you want to do and how long you want to remain in one place for.

The most interesting feature of the first day was a stop on the way to Mercury bay at a hot water beach called Hahei. You turn up and dig a hole in the sand, hot geothermal water comes up from the ground and fills your hole creating a hot tub to sit in. Some parts are horrendously hot, yet a meter away the water filling the hole may be cold, so for a few hours a group from the coach played around making a place to sit in.

We then boarded the bus and went to our hostel- a small personal place called Turtle Cove. The hostel was amazing, Clean with thick tense mattresses on the bed. For dinner the owner cooked a giant spaghetti bolognaise which we paid £3.50 each for-bargain. The evening was laid back, spent in the beer garden chatting with other people from the bus and playing pool.

Day two of the Bus took us to the town of Rotorua, via a place called Matamata where the Shire in Lord of the Rings was created- unfortunately the coach didn’t stop for a tour there- though the cost was extortionate anyway. In Rotorua we went Luging where you go up a mountain in a gondola and get given what is essentially an unpowered gokart which you race down the mountain on conrete paths. It was actually great fun as you pick up a lot of speed though I carelessly took my camera with me and busted it- this is bad though it means I have an excuse to buy an excellent camera when I reach Wellington!

Rotorua was strange with hot geothermal footbaths located on major roads for people to use, the eggy woof of sulphur, from the natural hot springs dispersed  through the town. That evening we went to a reconstructed traditional Maori village on a prearranged tour. We had to wait outside the village while the chiefs greeted us, with dances involving much tounge rolling and eye popping. The dance was purposely aggressive, being the way of determining if you are a friend or foe(this caused confusion among the early explorers many misinterpreting it as a sign of being attacked). A peace offering was made in the form of a silver fern(the leave seen on the sports teams here and symbol of the country). We then entered the village where people in different huts explained different functions of the place such as warefare, food storage and spiritual conditioning. Our dinner was then raised out of the ground for us, the food steamed using the hot rocks below the surface, as was tradition. We then entered a traditional hall where dances were performed including the Haka, before eating. The food provided included fish,chicken, sweet potatos and amazing lamb, with a self serve buffet. I loved the lamb so much I had a plate of just lamb and mint sauce and had some beers with the people on my preallocated table.

The night was good though it was disappointing that the food wasn’t genuine Maori- sheep only came to NZ through Europeans(prior to this they ate land birds many of which are extinct). It was actually quite an expensive night and probably overpriced.

Day three was one of the best days of the entire trip. The Coach continued it southern journey to Waitomo, arriving in around two oclock. The day before Rob and I signed up to black water rafting, on the advice that it is one of the best activities in the country. It took place in the Karst landscape that is the Waitomos limestone caves. We paid NZ$185 (£0.50~$1) and then were taken to the caves in which this takes place. The day was awesome, we had to absail 35 metres down a natural narrow hole in the ground, at points the hole was only a few feet wide. It was pretty scary but a thrill. Once all the group(there were probably around 12 people, all  from the bus plus two nerdy but knowledgeable instructors).Once underground we were led through some narrow passage ways, being careful not to damage any stalagtite formations(they take 100 years to grow 1cm) before being hooked up to a rope, and zipwired deeper underground. I was the first in the group to do this, and couldn’t see where the wired ended, you literally plunged into the darkness, I feared hitting against a rock, I just couldn’t tell. Once I stopped, an instructor popped up out of nowhere and unhooked me. This area was a giant cavern, head torches aside, the only light was from the glowworms flickering green on the walls and ceilings. They were the size of a full stop and had a sticky hair hanging from them to catch and trap insects for food. In the cavern the instructors gave us rubber rings(like the ones you use on the beach) and we jumped one by one, 3 meters into the freezing underground stream. From here we navigated our way using ropes along the walls to a place where we were told about glowworms. We then dispatched of the rings(which remained underground for the next group) and set off by foot along the stream, further into the subterranean labyrinth. The depth varied, from a few inches to several meters meaning you needed to swim at times. We spent several hours walking and admiring the caves arching to the glowing ceilings above. We also saw an Eel which lived in a little inlet, though it shyed away from our headtorches. The final part of the trip involved returning to the surface. We had two ways and easy or a hard way. Everybody took the latter. This was also fantastic, we had to crawl down a tiny tunnel, before reaching and climbing up two underground waterfalls in the darkness.  It was pretty hairy stuff, a foot wrong could have caused some complications, but everybody was buzzing at the surface. The day was so different to anything Id done before, it was quite simply, phenomenal.

The evening was spent in a local –pub in the hamlet, called Curleys Bar which our driver Kane(that is his real name) had said was one of the best in New Zealand. There were 11 beers on tap, many local. The beer here is very good, with strong flavoured lagers like those on continental Europe. One tasted like a cold ale(and was surprisingly good) . They have lots of depth and flavour unlike the pisswater produced by New Zealand’s neighbors across the Tasman Sea. They don’t cost a bomb either with a pint being around the £3 mark. Dinner was a BBQ which we prebooked on the coach- Sirloin streak with sausage and salad. The steak was really tender and cooked rare, the best id had on my travels so far. All for just £7. As the evening evolved some attempted to get drinking games going but people just weren’t up for it which was a bit of a shame. 

 

   

 Today was another amazing day. The bus left Waitomo on a two hour journey to Tapau, the ‘activities capital’ of the north island- Tapau. With the morning skies clear, we had the green light to do a skydive. We took the advice of our coach driver who told us to do one when we can as they are weather dependent. Rob, myself and five others from the coach took the opportunity and skydived. We were taken to the airport where this was to take place, essentially a field with a line of tarmac. After being shown promotional material, we were kitted up with a boiler suit,  harnesses, flying hat, goggles and life jacket. We were then taken to the aircraft as a group and boarded the small plane. We climbed to 15000ft- this was supposed to take 20 minutes but took us over 30 as the weather had become overcast and the pilot needed a suitable spot for us to jump. At 12000ft we were given oxygen masks due to the thinning air- they didn’t seem necessary though.

 

I didn’t feel that nervous on the plane, it was only once the door opened, the wind poured in, the volume of the propellers increased and the first person dropped that what I was about to do dawned on me. I was third In the plane with Robert behind me. The speed at which people disappear into the clouds which had built up was scary. When my turn came, I had to sit at the edge of the door, feet battered by the winds, my trainers, doubled laced by myself on the ground suddenly felt very insecure. A cameraman hung to the outside of the plane to capture the moments. I adapted the banana position, neck arched backwards, hands on harness and legs bent back as instructed. Then it was time to go. I rolled into the white and surged, spinning round and round and accelerating at breathtaking speed, I saw the plane above me shrinking rapidly and felt small ice particles ping against my face like daggers, a hail storm on crack. The first cloud layer ended and the next appeared, I felt a tap on my shoulder from Karl who was attached to me, this was the signal that we were at terminal velocity, the acceleration had stopped and so I could now detach my arms from the harness and move around- a mere 4 seconds had passed but it felt like a lifetime. It was surreal, with the clouds around it felt like I was floating, the wind was incredibly powerful gushing below at 200kph. Then we went through the final cloud layer and the large lake and Tapau appeared below providing a stunning view. Suddenly I felt a tug before being jerked upwards as the cameraman fell rapidly away and our chute opened. Now all was calm, silent, there was no wind, I removed my goggles and spoke to Karl, whilst admiring the surrounds. He then let me take control of the chute, there were two toggles, by pulling one you could spin which I did letting me do a 360 degree turn. I experimented with it, and enjoyed having control and freedom to move about. Soon we were landing. This was smooth, my legs stuck out in front I slid onto the grass and stopped after just  a meter or two. Then there was the feeling of ecstasy, it was phenomenal. If it wasn’t for the small matter of $500 I would have been on the next plane to go again. In fact, should the money permit, I may have to do this again before I leave, it really was that much fun.