Sweet As

Landing in Christchurch, I took the bus into town and found a place to crash for the evening. I organized the Kiwi Experience which would be taking me by bus around the islands and made reservations to leave the next day. I walked around Christchurch for a bit and went and had my first taste of New Zealand brew... yum.

The next morning the bus picked me up early and we were off for Kaikoura. This is a small little sea town on the East Coast of the South Island. We had the option of going swimming with dolphins or seals or going on a whale watching boat ride. The weather wasn't too nice though so I just stayed in town, taking a walk to the top of the bluff overlooking the town. I couldn't see any whales from the top but the views of the coast line were spectacular. I headed down into town and did some shopping for the barbecue we would be having later that evening and then headed back to the hostel. Upon arrival I joined in an English drinking game. Good thing I took up the game quickly. We had a good old brai with lots of lamb that night before heading off to the pub to play quizo. Not a bad first day... I like this place.

From Kaikoura, we headed out the next day towards Nelson. We stopped along the way at Picton to drop off most of the people on the bus because they were headed for the North Island. After picking up a whole new crew we were off for Nelson. On the way we stopped at a vineyard in Marlborough for quite a crappy wine tasting... I'll stick to South African wines. On the road we made a stop at a small river where a few of us jumped off of the rocks into the river, braving the cold water. No worries, to warm up we just had a nice cold ice cream. We arrived in Nelson at our accommodation, the Prince Albert. Besides the name, the place was really nice and we got a cheap dinner there along with a beer tasting. The beer tasting soon turned into a beer drinking and eventually morphed into more drinking games.

I said goodbye to the people on my bus because I was headed off to the Abel Tasman National Park for the day to kayak along the coast. I arrived at the town of Kaiteriteri and hopped on a water taxi with a few other people and our kayaks and took a ride to Bark Bay beach where we would head out from. We met more people there on the beach, got set up and headed out to kayak back to Kaiteriteri. Along the way we paddled out to a seal colony at Pinnacle Island, explored some picturesque lagoons, had lunch on Adele island and then kayaked the Mad Mile back into town. It was a great day with perfect weather to enjoy this beautiful place. After a day of kayaking we headed back to Nelson where I met up with my roommate Tim and headed into town bar hopping.

From Nelson we headed towards the West Coast. We stopped for a picnic lunch in Nelson Lakes National Park at Lake Rotoiti. It was beautiful there having a nice lunch on the lake. It was a little cold for me but some people went in. After they got out I happened to notice some huge eels swimming around in the water. That was the end of swimming in that lake. After the nice break, we headed off for Westport. This is a small little nothing town on the coast. We made the most of the place though. That evening we stocked up on piss (Kiwi for booze) and headed down to the beach. We gathered the driftwood that had washed up on the beach and built a huge bonfire. It was great having a huge fire going at this social gathering of our bus. Around 11 the tide finally came in and washed away the fire. That was the end to another fabulous day.

The next morning we left Westport and took a short drive down to Cape Foulwind where we took a walk along the coast. It was beautiful scenery made even better by the local seal colony. All of the seals were accompanied by all of their brand new calf's. It was great watching them swim and crawl around on the rocks. We then headed down the coast further for Punakaiki. This place is famous for its pancake rocks and blow holes. The blow hoes weren't blowing too much, but the pancake rocks were pretty amazing. No one can really explain why they have formed but who cares, they are cool to look at. From there we headed down to Greymouth to get some supplies for the costume party we would be having that night. We left town and headed for our destination that evening, Lake Mahinapua where we were staying at the Poo Pub. The owner of the Poo Pub, Liz, is a local who is off his rocker and funny as hell. This guy is 83 and has been having this party bus come through there every day for the last 15 years. We had a wonderful meal that his wife cooked for us. After dinner we all got changed for the party that evening. The idea is to use trash bags to be anything that has the same first letter as your last name. I went as a gift. Not bad, but there were some great costumes there. We had ball gowns from trash bags, bees, Borat in his yellow thong, hells angels, and a loo man. My buddy Matt was the loo man, covering himself in chocolate sauce and pieces of toilet paper. By the end of the evening everyone and everything was covered in chocolate. I wasn't too happy about that and neither was Liz. In a drunken state it was decided that the best way to remove the chocolate was to go swimming in the lake. Maybe not the best of ideas with people camping there...

The next day we got quite a lecture from Liz claiming that we were the worst bus in five years. It was all good fun though. We left the Poo Pub heading further south along the coast. We stopped off at Bushman Pete's. Here we were greeted by Pete. Pete isn't a late drinking metrosexual boy from Auckland, no Pete is an old time South New Zealander from the time when men were men and sheep were scared. Pete had spent his life on the South Island culling the deer population. When the numbers got too low and deer farming became popular, Pete and others like him headed up in helicopters where the pilot would hover over the running deer and Pete would jump out of the chopper and tackle the deer. Pete now has built a museum to honor the occupation, complete with documentary film which has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Have these guys never heard of a tranquilizer gun? From the Bushman's place we headed down to Frans Joseph Village, where we would be climbing the glacier the next morning.

Unfortunately the next day wasn't as nice and we awoke to rain. They walk the glacier rain or shine though. After an hour walk through the rainforest we emerged at the base of the Frans Joseph Glacier. It was amazing how huge this chunk of ice is, and it is still growing. We put on the crampons and headed up the glacier. We climbed a nice easy track that was carved out at the base towards the glacial moraine. After climbing up the moraine for a bit we walked towards the center of the glacier where we practiced some climbing steps and then headed off to explore the crevasses, caves and seracs. It was amazing climbing through this pure blue ice. It was quite an amazing adventure and not too hard until our guide brought us to a pond that we had to climb around. There were two steps on the sides where we could step and had to use our ice pick to stable ourselves. I was sure I was going for a swim but somehow made it around dry. After exploring for a few hours we headed back down. What a day.

The next day we left Frans Joseph and made it about five miles down the road before the bus broke down. Scotty our stoner bus driver forgot to fill up with gas. He then continued to park the bus on a slope and put the air brakes on. This guy had no clue so I went outside to help him. He was a little embarrassed and tried to play it off like there was something wrong with the bus... yeah it needs gas. A few of us didn't feel like waiting on the bus so we headed back into town and had a nice lunch under cover from the torrential downpour going on. The bus came to get us and we were finally off for Wanaka. Apparently it had rained all day in Wanaka anyway and just cleared up when we arrived. This town has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The town fronted Lake Wanaka at the base of the Southern Alps. I went for a walk along the lake and before heading back to make dinner. The night was topped off with a trip to the pub for cheap beer and Manchester United playing Chelsae.

The next morning I woke up early because I was supposed to go skydiving in Wanaka. We called the still sleeping pilot who claimed that it was too cloudy. Bullshit. I didn't want to go back to sleep so I took a walk over to the grocery store to get some supplies. Half way through my shopping I was interrupted by someone running into the store to get me. Skydive was on. We headed to the airport and prepared for our jump. I got suited up and was really excited to to this. The other two guys in my plane were not as thrilled, as they had panicked looks on their face... all I could do was smile. I think that my instructor Evans was a little worried that I wasn't afraid at all. Hell no, this is going to be great. We headed up in the plane and Evans pointed out the mountains in the distance, including Mt Cook. It was time to jump and I couldn't wait. Up, up and away. The acceleration as you start to fall and are spinning around in the air is the best feeling. After stabilizing facing downwards, we had a little less than a minute to spin, roll, and dive, enjoying the free fall. After an amazing rush it was time to pull the chute. After the chute deployed, it was a pleasant cruise down to the ground. Evans gave me the controls and I continued to turn us and then put us in downward spirals. He could see I was having fun so he took the controls back and took me for a bit of a joy ride. After landing all I wanted was to go back up again and do it all again. Unfortunately I couldn't. After skydiving the bus picked us back up and we headed off for Queenstown. We made a stop at Kawarau Gorge to visit the home of bungy jumping. This is where AJ Hackett first pioneered commercial bungy. We watched a few people jump, but this was nothing compared to Victoria Falls. The big bungy jump was in the Nevis Gorge. Once people were done jumping, we took off and headed into Queenstown.

While most people spend their time in Queenstown bungy jumping, white water rafting, skydiving, or any of the other adrenaline activities available, I decided to take the time to relax by the lake, take in the sights and read a book. Finally some time to relax.