Kia Ora!
Its been a while! I haven't forgotten you, I've been travelling around the 'deep south' where normal facilities such as the Internet are pretty sparse! In addition to lack of Internet and phone signal, it is bloody cold in the south so I'm glad to have now made my way a bit further north back to civilisation and warmth....well I say warmth, I mean you can get away with just a t-shirt, jumper and coat, rather than the scarf and gloves too! So I'm a little jealous to be reading on face book how you are all having lovely sunny bbq's for Easter weekend! My Easter weekend has been a bit uneventful due to a run in with one of New Zealands finest, the Sand Fly. He won and has left me with one very gammy infected foot. Despite persevering for the last week, I've had to give in and on the advice of the pharmacist (who was very helpful, as you would expect from a Kiwi, and basically gave me a GP consultation for free) and stay in my hostel for a couple of days to rest my foot. Ideally I need to take some antibiotics and it would clear up pretty quickly, but I'm not allowed to take them due to lack of Iron I have at the moment. Grr, very frustrating seeing I am in the beautiful town of Kiakoura where there is so much I wanted to do! Luckily my hostel is right on the beach so I was able to hobble out there for a few hours this afternoon and enjoy watching the crashing of the waves, but that is as much excitement as I have seen on this fine Easter Sunday.
So, I'll stop harping on about that, and tell you what I have been doing pre-mobility issues! So on leaving Queenstown, I headed south to Milford Sound. This was only about 80km from QT, as the crow flies, but due to the mountains regions and lakes we had to drive over 300km to get there. So there was a lot of time spent on the bus on this day, but the views out of the window on the way were pretty special so this was ok. On arrival at Milford Sound, we jumped onto a boat to be able to views the sounds from the water, this is really the only way you can see them. If you have seen any pictures of Milford Sound, you'll know it is a stunning area, and you have also seen about as much of it as I have. I'll just have to believe that what is on the postcards is what was hiding behind the cloud on my trip there. I'm sure it really is, I just wasn't to see it. So I haven't posted any pictures of Milford Sound on facebook for you, as pictures of some grey clouds, really won't impress you at all! We were lucky enough to have a pod of dolphins play along side the boat most of the way though, and they put on quite a show with their acrobatics. Apparently this doesn't happen very often, so we should be grateful for that.
After leaving the cloudy sounds, we headed to our accommodation for the night in the national park area, which is described by the Lonely Planet guide as 'ultra rustic', and I can confirm that! It was essentially a series of sheds, each sleeping 6 people. The 'cabin' I was in was very close to the river, so I was hoping that we didn't get too much rain in the night. Thankfully there was a fire in each cabin to keep us warm, but we had to keep topping it up every hour. Larissia took charge of this in my cabin, and I was a bit worried we may suffer from smoke inhalation when she pretty much dumped all the wood on it in one go before we went to sleep to try and keep us warm in the night. I didn't make too much of a fuss though, she is German and they generally win, so there is no pointing discussing it! She is the funniest German I have ever met and went on to become one of my main travel buddies for the deep south. She is the only person I have met who dislikes her own nation so much, and was moaning about Germans more than anyone else. It was so funny. It is worth saying at this point that there are Germans everywhere here. On the bus through the deep south, it was 80% Germans and I was the only British person. Anyway, back to the sheds, with no electricity, we were all tucked up in bed by 9.30pm, which is probably a good thing seeing we had to leave at 5.30am the next day to make it to Bluff to catch the ferry to Stewart Island.
I have never suffered from any kind of travel/motion sickness......until the crossing to Stewart Island. Stewart Island is the furthest point south on my trip and is probably about as far away from the UK as you can get. After Stewart Island the next stop is Antarctica. As the 1 hour boat ride crossed the choppy seas I have never felt so ill in my life, I wasn't the only one, the sick bags were made good use of that day. I kept looking at my watch thinking, "it must be over soon" and thinking, "I am gong to have to live on Stewart Island, I can't get on this boat again". Stewart Island is NZ's 3rd largest island, and 98% of it is national park, there are only 300 people that live there. I would have made it 301 if I hadn't successfully persuaded myself to get back on the boat again the following morning. Anyway, Stewart Island is famous for its bird life where you can find many species that are extinct on the main land. I have to say, I didn't overly enjoy Stewart Island, I felt so ill when I got there, I was tired from getting up so early, and it was grey and rainy. I did venture for one walk for a couple of hours and did a bit of ornithology, but that was about it. Apparently if you are going to see a kiwi (bird) in NZ, this is the place to see it. Although according to 'Seagull' the driver for the deep south, you have more chance of seeing the Queen giving a blow job, than you have of seeing a kiwi. I didn't see a kiwi on Stewart island, and thankfully, I didn't see the Queen either.
So I made it back from Stewart Island (thankfully the seas were a lot calmer the next day) and the next stop was Dunedin. The deep south is all about the wildlife (there aren't many people) so we took the scenic route along the coast to make some stops to spot sea lions, dolphins, albatross etc. We didn't see any. Not a great day given it was supposed to be all about the wildlife. So we left the wildlife hiding and made it to Dunedin, civilisation again. I decided to hop off the bus here and spend a few days here, its a good thing I did as one day in Dunedin was taken up with a hangover. We may not have had a wild (life) day on the way to Dunedin, but we did have a wild Saturday night in Dunedin. I didn't expect much from this student city, but it was actually a really good place. On arrival we headed straight to Speights for the brewery tour, this was pretty boring to be honest, although our guide was the great grandson of the founder of Speights so that was a nice touch, but the best bit was the sampling at the end. Although I'm sure that's ll people ever go on brewery tours for. After the tour, we had an awesome night out /early morning in Dunedin. A couple of the people I was out with were staying on the bus and leaving Dunedin on the Sunday morning, we got back just in time for them to jump on the bus at 7.30am and after waving them off, I went straight to my bunk for a snooze. In the afternoon, hangover in tow, those of us that stayed in Dunedin, headed to the worlds steepest street and climbed up there. It was pretty steep, but to me the pictures of San Fransisco look steeper, so I not sure of the authenticity of this fact!
Having been let down by the lack of wildlife spotting's on the way to Dunedin, I went on a tour to the Dunedin Peninsula, which thankfully provided an abundance of wildlife spotting, seals, sea lions, penguins, albatross the lot. This was a great tour, as included access into a protected area of coastline owned by a farmer, where only a few people are allowed to go a day. We were stepping into the natural environment of all these animals which was great. The tour guides were so good and gave us so much information about all the species, I just wish I could remember it all! We stayed out on the tour right until dusk where we sat in a little shed on the beach and watched the penguins come home from their day at sea, trying to avoid the sea lions lazing on the sand as they waddled across the beach. This was a real treat. I was a bit scared at times though, as we walked along the beach were all the sea lions are and they are so big, and they don't have lion in their name for no reason, they can be aggressive! Apparently they can also 'run' at 20km/h!
Dunedin is also home of the Cadbury factory for New Zealand, so of course I had to go on the factory tour. Oh my Buddha, they give you sooooo much chocolate as you go around, and of course, I took every piece offered. If you attempted to answer a question the tour guide asked, you even got a chocolate as a reward. There was no shutting me up! I did suffer from a chocolate hangover later in the day. Oh man, that was a good day though, even if the tour guide was dressed like an umper lumper and sounded like an American squirrel on helium. I'd like to say the experience put me off chocolate, for life. It hasn't. I got over the chocolate hangover pretty quickly and got back on it the next day.
After Dunedin, we headed to Mt Cook. There are some pictures of facebook. This was absolutely stunning, not a cloud in the sky this time! Here I took a boat trip out on a glacial lake and had a tour of all the icebergs floating in the lake that had broken off the glacier, I even tasted one! This again, was a really good tour (it included a speed boat which gave it extra points!) and again a really good guide who gave loads of information. This guide was from Ipswich, and I don't like it when we get English/American/Canadian guides, I prefer to have someone local, but this guide made up for it with his knowledge and enthusiasm, top marks awarded. If you get a good guide for a trip, it really does make the experience, I know from being a trainer that repeating the same thing day in day out can be boring, but the ones that make it sound like it is the first time they have said it are great.
After Mt Cook, we spent a night in Rangitata. I'm not going to say much about this place, as it was pretty much a 'nothing' stop. And I resent having to pay $26 to stay in a 10 person dorm with triple bunks (yes triple) when I can pay the same price for a 4 person dorm somewhere else. They might try and call this one 'rustic', I call it taking the pi$$. I'm nearly 30, I don't need to be climbing to the top of triple bunk bed!!! To the American girl who screamed in excitment at the triple bunks and how it was just like a slumber party, "no it is not 'cute'"
On leaving Rangitata, we by-passed Christchurch and headed straight to Kiakoura. This is a beautiful seaside town again, which again, is all about the wildlife. Before the foot got the better of me, I was able to fit in a whale watching trip, where I saw 3 sperm whales. Apparently most countries in the world have sperm whales, but Kiakoura is special because it is one of the few places in the world to have such deep water so close to shore, which means you can get to a whale feeding environment very quickly. The water is up to 2km deep in some places - needless to say, you can't go swimming here! On this 2 hour trip I also saw dolphins and albatross. It really is great so see so much wildlife in such an unspoilt part of the world.
Other than the whale watching, Kiakooura hasn't been a a great place as I've had to say goodbye to my two 'deep south' travel buddies, Larissa and Syibelle who I have had so much fun with , and have had to spend two days doing nothing in the hostel. It is very nice hostel, but with no TV and being located 1k from the town centre, it is not the best place to be with a gammy foot.
Tomorrow I head back to Picton and leave the South Island and jump on the ferry back to the North Island, so that is the South Island done. It has been awesome, I have looooooovvvveeed every minute of it. I cannot explain how amazing it has been.
Right, I think I might hobble over the convenience store over the road and treat myself to an Easter egg.
Happy Easter everyone, enjoy the days off and sunshine.
All my love
Katrina x x x x x x
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
To the point......
Hi blog fans, and those that are not so keen on the blog.....
I've got wind of a vicious rumour that my blog posts are too long, with me writing too much....... I believe the phrase 'you can write for England' was used. To protect their identity, I will keep the source of this rumour anonymous, and I will endeavour to keep this one as 'concise' as possible. It is a lucky co-incidence that it has been a pretty quiet week, so there isn't too much to report anyway!
I have spent the last week in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world and the party capital of New Zealand! I have certainly participated in the later, but not so much the adventure side of QT. The most adventurous thing I have done in QT is a game of 'frisbee golf', (which did unexpectedly have some risk associated with it!). I know, I know, how can I be in QT and not throw myself into a Canion on an elastic band? Well as I have said before, a bungy jump does not appeal to me at all, and having already done a sky dive etc, I have kept myself busy with the tamer side of QT. Although there must be something about QT which I have fallen for, because I was due to leave of Sunday, and on this sunny (but cold) Wednesday afternoon I'm still here. I am leaving tomorrow though, after a week in this glorious town, having only planned to spend two days here.
So what have I been doing to keep myself busy here? Well after a long 4 days apart, I met up with some of the girls from my previous bus (plus Rocky who is an honoury member of the 'bimbettes'), so of course we were obliged to have a reunion night out to celebrate being together again. QT did us proud and really did provide us with an awesome night out in the party capital of NZ, I particularly like the 'tea pots' served in the World Bar...in Asia drinks were served in a bucket, but a tea pot is just so much more refined! I also dragged a couple of people out who I had met at my hostel, who will be referred to as 'Essex' and 'German' (they are ok with this!), I'm not sure they knew what they were letting themselves in for when they agreed to come out with me, but a good night was had by all, which was rounded off nicely by the legendary 'Fergburger' on the way home. Pictures of face book.
So back to the adrenaline activities of QT, myself, Claire, Gemma and Essex participated in a game of 'frisbee golf'. Yep, as it says on the tin, a 18 'basket' course, set within the beautiful QT botanical gardens, each basket has a par, in which you need to get the Frisbee in. I not sure it was supposed to, but for us it provided hours, literally, of entertainment. The course should be completed in a par of 58, I got 115! Myself, Claire and Gem were all in the region of 110-120, and Essex improved on this taking the game with 87, but still quite an abysmal performance all round I would say! We had to keep stepping aside to let the more able play through! It was a lot of fun, and one of the highlights was Claire chasing her Frisbee down the hill towards the lake as it just keep rolling and rolling further away from us. My sides were hurting I laughed so much.
I have also taken a trip up the 'Skyline' Gondola which provides amazing views of QT (pics on Facebook), and I am embarrassed to say, this sedate journey which does not count as one of QT adrenaline junkie sports, did make me a little nervous! I know, I have thrown myself out of plane, but the cable car, did give me a funny feeling in my tummy.....in my defence I did go on quite a windy day so it wobbling around quite a bit!
I have also been on a couple of walks/hikes as well, one to the summit of one the mountains which QT is nestled beneath, and one along the lake to the next town. You can walk anywhere and be presented with stunning scenery, particularly this time of year where the trees are turning for Autumn, so there are so many different colours, the sun is shinning and the mountains are all snow capped.
QT has also been the venue for karaoke event number 2, yes, that's right we did it again! I am embarrassed too, particularly when we put our next request in and the DJ said "are you sure you really want to sign again?" and encouraged others to perform by saying "you can be any worse" than us! How rude!
So I have stayed here for 6 nights and that is the longest I have stayed in one place since I left Southampton(well there was one room change involved, so almost the place same for 6 nights, which was caused by a high tension incident between myself, 3 Chinese ladies and a lot of plastic carrier bags, but I won't dwell on that). It has been really nice to spend a bit longer in one place to feel the atmosphere in the town and get to know people and make friends in the hostel etc. Although you know you have spent too long in one place guy behind the counter in the off license says, "you have been in a few times now, do you want to get a 'locals' card?". Time to leave QT I think!
Lots of Love
Katrina x x x x
I've got wind of a vicious rumour that my blog posts are too long, with me writing too much....... I believe the phrase 'you can write for England' was used. To protect their identity, I will keep the source of this rumour anonymous, and I will endeavour to keep this one as 'concise' as possible. It is a lucky co-incidence that it has been a pretty quiet week, so there isn't too much to report anyway!
I have spent the last week in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world and the party capital of New Zealand! I have certainly participated in the later, but not so much the adventure side of QT. The most adventurous thing I have done in QT is a game of 'frisbee golf', (which did unexpectedly have some risk associated with it!). I know, I know, how can I be in QT and not throw myself into a Canion on an elastic band? Well as I have said before, a bungy jump does not appeal to me at all, and having already done a sky dive etc, I have kept myself busy with the tamer side of QT. Although there must be something about QT which I have fallen for, because I was due to leave of Sunday, and on this sunny (but cold) Wednesday afternoon I'm still here. I am leaving tomorrow though, after a week in this glorious town, having only planned to spend two days here.
So what have I been doing to keep myself busy here? Well after a long 4 days apart, I met up with some of the girls from my previous bus (plus Rocky who is an honoury member of the 'bimbettes'), so of course we were obliged to have a reunion night out to celebrate being together again. QT did us proud and really did provide us with an awesome night out in the party capital of NZ, I particularly like the 'tea pots' served in the World Bar...in Asia drinks were served in a bucket, but a tea pot is just so much more refined! I also dragged a couple of people out who I had met at my hostel, who will be referred to as 'Essex' and 'German' (they are ok with this!), I'm not sure they knew what they were letting themselves in for when they agreed to come out with me, but a good night was had by all, which was rounded off nicely by the legendary 'Fergburger' on the way home. Pictures of face book.
So back to the adrenaline activities of QT, myself, Claire, Gemma and Essex participated in a game of 'frisbee golf'. Yep, as it says on the tin, a 18 'basket' course, set within the beautiful QT botanical gardens, each basket has a par, in which you need to get the Frisbee in. I not sure it was supposed to, but for us it provided hours, literally, of entertainment. The course should be completed in a par of 58, I got 115! Myself, Claire and Gem were all in the region of 110-120, and Essex improved on this taking the game with 87, but still quite an abysmal performance all round I would say! We had to keep stepping aside to let the more able play through! It was a lot of fun, and one of the highlights was Claire chasing her Frisbee down the hill towards the lake as it just keep rolling and rolling further away from us. My sides were hurting I laughed so much.
I have also taken a trip up the 'Skyline' Gondola which provides amazing views of QT (pics on Facebook), and I am embarrassed to say, this sedate journey which does not count as one of QT adrenaline junkie sports, did make me a little nervous! I know, I have thrown myself out of plane, but the cable car, did give me a funny feeling in my tummy.....in my defence I did go on quite a windy day so it wobbling around quite a bit!
I have also been on a couple of walks/hikes as well, one to the summit of one the mountains which QT is nestled beneath, and one along the lake to the next town. You can walk anywhere and be presented with stunning scenery, particularly this time of year where the trees are turning for Autumn, so there are so many different colours, the sun is shinning and the mountains are all snow capped.
QT has also been the venue for karaoke event number 2, yes, that's right we did it again! I am embarrassed too, particularly when we put our next request in and the DJ said "are you sure you really want to sign again?" and encouraged others to perform by saying "you can be any worse" than us! How rude!
So I have stayed here for 6 nights and that is the longest I have stayed in one place since I left Southampton(well there was one room change involved, so almost the place same for 6 nights, which was caused by a high tension incident between myself, 3 Chinese ladies and a lot of plastic carrier bags, but I won't dwell on that). It has been really nice to spend a bit longer in one place to feel the atmosphere in the town and get to know people and make friends in the hostel etc. Although you know you have spent too long in one place guy behind the counter in the off license says, "you have been in a few times now, do you want to get a 'locals' card?". Time to leave QT I think!
Lots of Love
Katrina x x x x
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Burning the candle at both ends.......
What a busy week it has been, it has flown by! So, the last time I posted I was in Wellington at the south of the North Island, and since then I have crossed the water to the South Island, the larger of the two islands, yet it is the lesser populated. In order to make the crossing it was a case of getting up at 5.30am to catch the slow ferry with all the lorries,cars and goods containers etc, boarding this a foot passenger was cheapest way to make the crossing, rather than flying etc. This was about a 4 hour journey, and it was sooo pretty, especially going through the sounds as we approached the Picton terminal. I wasn't really looking forward to this journey expecting to be crammed in with all the cargo and not much to look at, but it turned out to one of the most scenic parts of my trip, I even got to see some dolphins swimming along side the ship. And it was the most funny part of my trip to date I think. When I wanted a break from standing outside on the observation deck taking in the sights (it was freezing cold), I went into the onboard cafe which was a bit like a road side truck stop, but the Kiwi working behind the counter was so funny he provided me with a good couple of hours of entertainment. It was a kind of 'you had to be there moment, so I won't waffle on about it, but it was better than any onboard film those flying to the South Island would have had! As I've mentioned several times, the locals really are so friendly, you'd be hard pushed to find a Kiwi with a bad attitude, I haven't found one yet. In fact, an example of this, before I left Wellington, I spent an afternoon walking around the city and chilling out on the harbour, soaking up the atmosphere etc, and to have a break on from this busy schedule of mine, I thought I'll have a little lay down on the quay wall for a quick power nap before continuing on. A couple of minutes after I had shut my eyes, the boatman from the shed behind me, came over and offered me a yellow pages to use as a pillow to make me more comfortable! How kind is that?! But he was then superseded by his colleague who brought me over an upgrade from the yellow pages, he gave a soft and squidy life jacket to lay on! This was very sweet of them, but I only planned to stay there 10 minutes, but after the trouble they went to, I felt obliged to stay a bit longer to use the life jacket pillow!
Anyway, back to the South Island. So once I had made the ferry crossing, I hopped onto the bus to make my way to the Abel Tasman National Park, where I stayed for a couple of days in a barn. It was here that myself and 5 other girls met and this night set the president for the next week! Some people on the bus have our coming together like a solar eclispe......its quite rare, it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, you don't want to look at it! After completing a tough day of sea kayaking, sailing, hiking and seal spotting, we heard a rumour from the guide about an Open Mic night at the local bar, which sounded like fun so we thought we would give it a try. The 'town' we were staying at had just this one bar open after 8pm, so all the locals hang out there, and apparently 'open mic Thursday' is the new Friday, and having attended I would probably agree.....it beats most Friday nights I have had out in Southampton! If you place 3 Brits, 2 Germans and 1 Canadian in an open mic night in a real small town, playing a game of 'fives' to help the evening along, a few rounds of jeager bombs, you end up several hours only the kind of dancing you would never dream of seeing in the UK, one awesome night and multiple hangovers the next day. I have to say though, the pain the next day was totally worth it, we had a great time through the Kiwis hospitality.
From the National Park we headed down the 'wild west' coast town to the legendary Barrytown, or more affectionately known as 'Baz Vegas'. There is only one thing in Baz Vegas, and that is the hotel that we stayed at, so it is a case of making your own entertainment! So the bus collectively decided on a 'pimps and ho's' themed evening with a difference, the guys were the ho's and the girls were the pimps. On arrival we were presented with a box of old clothes that smelt like wet dog to create our outfits with. I'm not sure that any of us actually ended up looking like Pimps or Hos. I would say we more looked like a group of people that had picked a load of mismatched clothes from an old box that smelt like wet dog. I'm not going to say much else about what happened in Baz Vegas, because there is code of honour that you agree to when you enter Barrytown, "what happens in Barrytown, stays in Barrytown". All I will say is this..........when you wake up in the morning with eyeliner drawing and writing all over your face, having slept on the floor, still in the smelly fancy dress outfit from the night before with your pajamas over the top of the smelly fancy dress outfit, and only a travel towel covering you as blanket, as this was the only thing you could manage to find in the dorm of destruction when you went to sleep at 4.30am.......you've probably had a good time! I'll add some pictures to FB for your entertainment.
The bus journey leaving Baz Vegas was very quiet needless to say, and I'm not sure we'll all look at each other in quite the same way again.........ha ha ha. So putting that behind us, it was on to the Franz Josef Glacier where we had an early night to prepare for our glacier hike the next day. We wrapped ourselves up in several layers in preparation for this Arctic trek, where we climbed about 10km over the glacier. Unfortunately I was a little underwhelmed by the glacier and the hike. Yes, it is amazing to see such a vast scale of ice nestled between 2 mountains in a temperate climate, but it wasn't the crystal sparkling structure I had expected, and once you have walked 1 km on ice, it started to get a bit boring for the next 9 looking at the same thing. I plodded along thinking, my walk to work back in December when the roads iced over in Southampton was a bit more exciting than this, and I didn't have to pay someone $100 for the privilege. After the ice hike, we went to the local bar to warm up by the fire and have a chilled out evening, which you can probably guess, didn't turn out to be quite as chilled as intended, and once again ended up being another 4am-er.
The following day we headed to Makarora, which the Lonely Planet guide quotes as having a population of 50 people......so when our bus of 43 turned up, there was pretty much a ratio of 1:1 for local to foreigner. Again, it was a case of making your own entertainment, just like in Baz Vegas. And it was here in Makarora, that I broke my karaoke virginity. I can't count the number of times I have said, "no matter how drunk I get I will never do karaoke". Well here in Makarora, I lost all remaining dignity and self respect (there wasn't much left after the last few days) and let the world hear my special voice for the first time. Several times. Yes, people, I did it more than once, about 7 times all in all I believe. However, there were no solo numbers involved, I'm not sure the world is ready for that so it was always in a group. However, I am encouraged that me and the girls won the prize for the free bar crawl in Queenstown, so I am encouraged by my ability!!! Although in reality I think that it was awarded to us, to just get us off the stage and give everyones ears a break.
New Zealand has a population of just 4 million people, and majority of those live on the North Island, despite it being the smaller island. There are just 1m people living on the South Island. Because the towns are so much smaller and remote, we really have mixed more with the locals here which has been great, that is what travelling is all about, so it was good to enjoy the company of some non-europeans. Although this blog sounds a bit like an extract from a new student at Freshers week, I've had an amazing time with girls that I was fortunate to meet on this leg of the trip and the best moments have been hanging out with the local people. Having managed to fit in glacier walking, hikes, kayaking and sailing along the way, we really have been able to burn the candle at both ends to see and experience the best parts of New Zealand. However I think for the benefit of all other travellers on the bus, my bank balance and the locals in New Zealand, as I head on to Queenstown, myself and girls have now gone our separate ways, so it will be back to business as usual of me being the boring oldie, having her 'I'm almost 30 crisis' who is the first to bed every night. It was nice to have a week off though. :o)
I hope everything is good with all of you love. Think about you all everyday.
Lots of love
Katrina x x x x x
Anyway, back to the South Island. So once I had made the ferry crossing, I hopped onto the bus to make my way to the Abel Tasman National Park, where I stayed for a couple of days in a barn. It was here that myself and 5 other girls met and this night set the president for the next week! Some people on the bus have our coming together like a solar eclispe......its quite rare, it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, you don't want to look at it! After completing a tough day of sea kayaking, sailing, hiking and seal spotting, we heard a rumour from the guide about an Open Mic night at the local bar, which sounded like fun so we thought we would give it a try. The 'town' we were staying at had just this one bar open after 8pm, so all the locals hang out there, and apparently 'open mic Thursday' is the new Friday, and having attended I would probably agree.....it beats most Friday nights I have had out in Southampton! If you place 3 Brits, 2 Germans and 1 Canadian in an open mic night in a real small town, playing a game of 'fives' to help the evening along, a few rounds of jeager bombs, you end up several hours only the kind of dancing you would never dream of seeing in the UK, one awesome night and multiple hangovers the next day. I have to say though, the pain the next day was totally worth it, we had a great time through the Kiwis hospitality.
From the National Park we headed down the 'wild west' coast town to the legendary Barrytown, or more affectionately known as 'Baz Vegas'. There is only one thing in Baz Vegas, and that is the hotel that we stayed at, so it is a case of making your own entertainment! So the bus collectively decided on a 'pimps and ho's' themed evening with a difference, the guys were the ho's and the girls were the pimps. On arrival we were presented with a box of old clothes that smelt like wet dog to create our outfits with. I'm not sure that any of us actually ended up looking like Pimps or Hos. I would say we more looked like a group of people that had picked a load of mismatched clothes from an old box that smelt like wet dog. I'm not going to say much else about what happened in Baz Vegas, because there is code of honour that you agree to when you enter Barrytown, "what happens in Barrytown, stays in Barrytown". All I will say is this..........when you wake up in the morning with eyeliner drawing and writing all over your face, having slept on the floor, still in the smelly fancy dress outfit from the night before with your pajamas over the top of the smelly fancy dress outfit, and only a travel towel covering you as blanket, as this was the only thing you could manage to find in the dorm of destruction when you went to sleep at 4.30am.......you've probably had a good time! I'll add some pictures to FB for your entertainment.
The bus journey leaving Baz Vegas was very quiet needless to say, and I'm not sure we'll all look at each other in quite the same way again.........ha ha ha. So putting that behind us, it was on to the Franz Josef Glacier where we had an early night to prepare for our glacier hike the next day. We wrapped ourselves up in several layers in preparation for this Arctic trek, where we climbed about 10km over the glacier. Unfortunately I was a little underwhelmed by the glacier and the hike. Yes, it is amazing to see such a vast scale of ice nestled between 2 mountains in a temperate climate, but it wasn't the crystal sparkling structure I had expected, and once you have walked 1 km on ice, it started to get a bit boring for the next 9 looking at the same thing. I plodded along thinking, my walk to work back in December when the roads iced over in Southampton was a bit more exciting than this, and I didn't have to pay someone $100 for the privilege. After the ice hike, we went to the local bar to warm up by the fire and have a chilled out evening, which you can probably guess, didn't turn out to be quite as chilled as intended, and once again ended up being another 4am-er.
The following day we headed to Makarora, which the Lonely Planet guide quotes as having a population of 50 people......so when our bus of 43 turned up, there was pretty much a ratio of 1:1 for local to foreigner. Again, it was a case of making your own entertainment, just like in Baz Vegas. And it was here in Makarora, that I broke my karaoke virginity. I can't count the number of times I have said, "no matter how drunk I get I will never do karaoke". Well here in Makarora, I lost all remaining dignity and self respect (there wasn't much left after the last few days) and let the world hear my special voice for the first time. Several times. Yes, people, I did it more than once, about 7 times all in all I believe. However, there were no solo numbers involved, I'm not sure the world is ready for that so it was always in a group. However, I am encouraged that me and the girls won the prize for the free bar crawl in Queenstown, so I am encouraged by my ability!!! Although in reality I think that it was awarded to us, to just get us off the stage and give everyones ears a break.
New Zealand has a population of just 4 million people, and majority of those live on the North Island, despite it being the smaller island. There are just 1m people living on the South Island. Because the towns are so much smaller and remote, we really have mixed more with the locals here which has been great, that is what travelling is all about, so it was good to enjoy the company of some non-europeans. Although this blog sounds a bit like an extract from a new student at Freshers week, I've had an amazing time with girls that I was fortunate to meet on this leg of the trip and the best moments have been hanging out with the local people. Having managed to fit in glacier walking, hikes, kayaking and sailing along the way, we really have been able to burn the candle at both ends to see and experience the best parts of New Zealand. However I think for the benefit of all other travellers on the bus, my bank balance and the locals in New Zealand, as I head on to Queenstown, myself and girls have now gone our separate ways, so it will be back to business as usual of me being the boring oldie, having her 'I'm almost 30 crisis' who is the first to bed every night. It was nice to have a week off though. :o)
I hope everything is good with all of you love. Think about you all everyday.
Lots of love
Katrina x x x x x
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