Travelling to NZ

Ok. I've decided to put the experience of a recent trip with my cousin to NZ down on the blog. It was a quick 8 day trip, starting off at Christchurch, driving around South Island stopping off at Fox Glacier, Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound and Twizel.

Day 1 (Melbourne -> Christchurch)
Touching down into Christchurch we flew over some glorious mountains. Fortunately there were no issues with carrying on cameras onto planes when we were travelling. Seriously, has society gotten so nuts that soon we'll only be able to board a plane in our undies? This was the view from the plane. How magnificant is that skyline and it just keeps going out of sight. The only problem with this one is the nice dots on the windows. Damn thumb smudges....

There were no issues getting through customs, just tight without going over the top. Just reminds me of a line from Seinfeld on x-rays at the airport: "What's that a hairdryer with a scope on it? And a bowling ball with a candle on it? Yeah just move it along"

We hired a car which ended up costing around $500AUD for the 8 days. I now have a renewed respect for the Corolla. Its a solid A to B car. Great just to give some freedom to go to whereever we wanted whenever, instead of being stuck on a Contiki bus with women our age looking for fun... (Why did we get a car again?). On the way to Fox Glacier we stopped off at Springfield. Damn I wish I got a pic of me next to a Springfield sign. (I can hear people saying: You Idiot!) Very small town but we stopped off for a steak pie. Damn that was good... Later that night after about 3 hours of driving we made it Fox Glacier, whilst on the way we picked up some bananas. Not because we wanted them, but we felt we had a duty to buy them at $1.30 a kilo instead of the $12+ we were paying back home. (I think we had 2 left at the end of the trip - It just didn't feel right eating them!) Freezing our balls off and driving through what looked like Santa's workshop town, we made it to a little Holiday Park to check in.

Day 2 (Fox Glacier - Glacier Walk)

Fox Glacier is purely a tourist village (Not big enough for a town I don't think). There's nothing more than a couple of restaurants, hotels/motels and 1 or 2 bars. Without a steady stream of tourists I think this place would not exist. But after the visit, I would recommend this place to anyone.
A full day's trek up to the glacier via the side of the mountain was an awesome experience. Knowing that there are only a few of these magnificant wonders of nature that exist in the world made it even more special. Matt, the guide, was great - knowledgeable about the glacier, the history and was a great down-to-earth bloke. They have to go up everyday to carve out the man made steps. Guys were there when we began our trek and still there when we finished chipping out the steps for the next day. That's how they get their 'popeye' arms.

One goal I had on this trip was to experience as many beers NZ had to offer. Dinner was at a saloon type restaurant and I sampled some Speights and Export Gold. Both very nice beers... Perhaps unwisely, we decided to checkout the glow worms that was a short trek down the road. As stupid as this sounds, have you ever walked in the bush at night, where there's no noise, no stars or city lights? I almost literally shat my pants. Those days of Stephen King's IT just for childhood trauma and the Blair Witch Project popped into my mind and I made sure I kept blathering to make sure my cuz knew I was still behind him... He let me know afterwards that if I was taken by the axe wielding maniac, he would have done the noble thing and run off to save his own life. Yeah I think I'd do the same...

Day 3 (Skydive @ Fox Glacier, Monster Bus, Queenstown)

I did a skydive in Nagambie in Victoria. That was great, but it doesn't compare to this. The helmet or condom hat was "Wearing me for protection" as Seinfeld would say.















You wish you could just float around in the sky for 20 minutes just to soak up the views, but before you know it you're on the ground and you've got to think of some remark to say to the camera like "Ridgy Didge!" or "Shitscared Micky!" - I don't know what to say!

The clouds rolled in shortly after our feet were firmly on the ground. Perfect timing... Off into the car to the next place...The best scenery was at Lake Wanka but unfortunately it was only a passing visit.


On the way to Queenstown, we stopped off to ride in a monster bus. Not as exciting as it sounds as the maximum speed of the beast was 30 miles/hr. Anyway that was fun in anycase. What would have been better would have been to drive through on the quadbikes, but we got that opportunity later...

We made it to Queenstown. What a place! People everywhere, heaps of activities to do and places to see.

To be continued...