Don't bank on it

The Banks Peninsula was our home for the final 2 weeks of our time in New Zealand. As I mentioned previously we stayed and worked at Mount Vernon Lodge on the outskirts of Akaroa Village. The Banks Peninsula is a remarkable outcrop of land that was created millions of years ago by 3 massive volcanic eruptions. The natural harbour of Akaroa cuts through it's centre and a village of the same name sits prettily at it's end. The french were the first europeans to colonise this part of New Zealand but the english and even germans weren't far behind. They were thrilled with the calm waters and warm climate and thrived in their seperate bays. A lot has changed but their influence is still as fresh as ever. Akaroa itself is shockingly french, with street names, cafes, patisseries, art, architecture and even an attitude. One afternoon we were sitting at the Madeira Hotel, enjoying Happy Hour with the locals, when all of a sudden we witnessed their raw and unusual charm. The crowd was the strangest bunch of people I have ever shared space with. A bizarre mix that included everything from the crap on the shirt farm boy to the tipsy stumbling bowls chaps (who have their bowls afternoon before happy hour every week). At our table was Jacqueline, myself, my jug of Speight's, Jackie's gin and tonic, a bearded fellow with more chicken poo than collar, a woman who looked like she was about to clock in at her corner and a couple that oozed a mix of wealth, garlic and camembert cheese. Included in the happy hour deal was a free bowl of bar snacks for each table and ours arrived alongside an irritated looking waitress. Our table mates took one look at the snacks and vulched them down without even the slightest glance or sign of concern. We let them tuck in purely as an experiment into the psyche of the locals. In 5 minutes they were done and we had not had a single piece. I must at this point emphasize again that they're a strange bunch.

Akaroa - and now for something completely different.....

We've been whizzing around NZ for over 6 weeks now and have made the decision to base ourselves in Akaroa (1 hour from Christchurch) for the rest of our time here. Our aim is to try and get to grips with the area and also learn a bit more about the locals, who seem to be just as unfriendly and elusive as their national bird.

Through a website called help-exchange we have managed to organise ourselves a place to stay in exchange for a few hours of work a day. Mount Vernon Lodge is a venue for conferences and weddings and has a fantastic setting up in the hills. We've loved being in our camper but my word is it great to have our own chalet overlooking the harbour. It's a family run business with a real farm feel. Besides Jeremy, Victoria and there 3 kids there are 10 cows, 1 dog, a donkey that thinks it's a dog, a horse, a tame red deer, 4 peacocks, 2 geese with 4 goslings and a whole lot of ducks.

Our first day was spent herding cows, feeding birds, removing peacock poo from everything, making beds, a bit of clearing out of the garden and a lot of zooming around on a quadbike. The amazing thing was that the family went off to Christchurch for the day and left us to our duties. A bit crazy we initially thought, but after spending a few days with them we've realised that they are a really nice bunch. We've had a great braai at their place, attended Hugh's 3rd birthday party (where he decided to drive his quadbike into a dam), gone clay-pigeon shooting but done quite a bit of work too. Today I was fertilising all the paddocks with the boys and Jackie organised the entire venue for a conference on thursday. On saturday there is a big paintball event (which I am taking part in) which is being followed by a cheese and wine and then a braai.

Peel Forest

On the drive across to Christchurch we decided to spend the night in a campsite in the Peel Forest. Before settling in for the night we followed a track into the forest and walked through the thousands of ferns and onto a hill. A very beautiful place and one that is rarely visited.

Mount Cook

It's the highest mountain in Australasia but more impressive than that is the collection of glaciers and turquoise blue lakes surrounding it. The colour of the water is because of the rock sediment formed after glacial movement and is especially visible in Lake Pukaki (above).

We spent a couple of days in the area trying to stay warm and dry and relying purely on the rugby to keep us entertained. When the weather cleared we got the chance to explore and it was well worth the wait.

Them stones

On the way from Dunedin up towards Mount Cook our first stop was the Moeraki Boulders. These are a set of giant marble-like stones that were formed millions of years ago and now find themselves on a beach. We continued on to Oamaru, home to colonies of both yellow-crested and blue penguins. If you're feeling really stupid you can pay $20 to sit on a grandstand and watch a couple of blue penguins. If that's not for you, you can drive to another spot, walk along a short clifftop track and watch yellow crested penguins coming ashore, shuffling up the beach and through the vegetation of the hillside.

The reason for our 3rd stop was another collection of rocks clustered in a depression of land on some chaps farm. The Elephant Rocks are definately worth the stop but a word of caution. The slopes around the rocks, with an early morning dew lacing the fine grass, are very slippery. This is aggrevated further if you're wearing your skydiving shoes. Almost a dislocated something for me and a good laugh for Jacqueline.

Dunedin

On the way to Dunedin, we drove down to the south coast and then through the Caitlins in some torrential rain. The only thing we dared getting out of the vehicle for was Nugget Point, which is a set of nuggety looking rocks scattered out to sea.

Dunedin is gaelic for Edinburgh and has a strong scottish heritage. It is home to the steepest road in the world, the usual spread of optomistic shops and best of all, the Speights Brewery. We joined a tour through it's quarters that covered not only the history of the brewery and beer in New Zealand but also the origins of beer and a couple of interesting stories. The original beer, brewed by the Egyptians, was known as 'buzah' and the Nordic toast of 'Skol' was first used by vikings who toasted each other with mugs made of enemies skulls. The tour ends in an open bar where the more we drank, the more excited our guide became and the more frequently he told us "the main thing is that each one is different".

Milford Sound

The weather had squashed our first attempt at getting to Milford Sound but a couple of days later we got the opportunity. We'd booked a guided kayak trip and were pretty chuffed when we realised that we would only be accompanied by our guide Will. The drive from Te Anau was an adventure in itself with awesome landscape along the way. Will was still quite upset about his teams rugby performance but we managed to cheer him up by the time we parked at the water's edge.

After around 10 minutes we paddled off and fairly quickly became aware of the difference between Milford and Doubtful Sounds. Milford is unfortunately a rushed transit hub with an air-raid overhead and boats departing every 10 minutes. I'd most certainly not recommend joining the sardines on any of the cruises. Kayaking however was a wonderful way of seeing the fiord and cutting our own path across the water, dodging boats and exploring some of it's quieter corners.

Doubtful Sound

Our first experience of 'sounds' was those of the Marlborough region on our ferry crossing to the South Island. Sounds are valleys that are formed through erosion, very different to Fiords that are carved out by glaciers. All of the Sounds of the south-western corner of the South Island are actually fiords but for some reason have held onto their name.

When Captain Cook first rocked up at what he thought was a harbour he doubted whether he'd ever be able to get out (because of bad weather and the prevailing westerlies) and decided to can the idea. This name stuck and today Doubtful Sound is accessible to tourists from the town of Manapouri.

We booked ourselves on an overnight trip on Doubtful Sound and after a ferry across Lake Manapouri and then a 1 hour bus ride through the mountains, we arrived at Deep Cove and boarded our ship. We set off just after 2 and spent the afternoon watching wildlife and enjoying the pure remoteness of the place. Cruising through the fiords with dolphins surfing our wake, eating freshly baked blueberry muffins while watching the spectacular combination of water and sheer cliffs, and the waterfalls connecting them, we almost felt embarassed at what we paid for the trip (especially with our YHA discount). Just before sunset, in spite of a stubborn downpour, we paddled off on kayaks into the freshness of the evening. We got back on board with frozen hands but after a power shower were ready for our buffet feast. The night ended with a few board games and a couple of beer fuelled songs by a german girl who'd shared our table.

Morning arrived and we embraced the chill on deck, being rewarded with more blue sky than not and views of the fresh dusting of snow on the mountains. The highlight of the morning (and probably the whole trip) was a silent drift into the depths of the Hall Arm. Seeing wildlife in an area of such raw beauty on a comfortable boat with surprisingly good food was a real treat. The best thing about it was that it felt like friends of ours had taken us into a part of the world that they absolutely love.

"New Zealand is a great place for the waterproof explorer"

A quote from Richard Henry* that you can truly appreciate if you've spent more than a month in the country. With 4 seasons in 1 hour and winds that make driving our camper more exciting than many of the countries extreme sports, it really can be rough. One of the largest radio stations even spent an hour trying to convince callers not to leave the country because of the bad weather. At the end of the hour the DJ had booked his flight.

* Richard Henry was one of the first kiwi's to start trying to save their vanishing birdlife.

A brief history of the fauna and flora of New Zealand

After hearing a couple of stories from locals and tour guides I did a bit of reading and feel that I should share the following with you.

New Zealand was part of Gondwanaland many million years ago. It broke away from the main land mass before mammals and became the perfect environment for it's native species. The bird life was spectacular, with many even losing the ability to fly, like the Takahe (pictured above), because of the complete lack of predation. This would not last forever.

Early european settlers couldn't bring themselves to the comply with the eating habits of the Maori's and had become bored with eating birds. They introduced rabbits and were very happy with themselves. These flourished but caused massive erosion of farmland. In all their wisdom the New Zealand government decided to counter the exploding rabbit population with weasels, stoats and ferrets. These are unbelievably reproductive creatures. A stoat female normally has 10 offspring and by the time these leave the nest all of the females are pregnant. These animals did a fantastic job with the rabbits but then turned their attentions to the bird life. They have almost completely wiped out the native birds of New Zealand.

After the end of the gold rush, New Zealand decided to introduce Possums with the view of using their fur. Once again a highly stupid move that has resulted in huge amounts of native vegetation being consumed and a further impact on the bird life.

Walking through the forests is magical but the silence is ghostly.

A Dart River Safari

Queenstown was a huge shock to the system after having the North Island to ourselves and travelling down the fairly remote west coast of the South Island. A place that seems to proud to be the tourist hub of New Zealand. Conde Nast magazine voted it the friendliest city in the world but in our opinion it's overpriced and irritating, with a large proportion of it's inhabitants requiring shock therapy. Besides having a coffee in Queenstown and tasting some wine in the Gibbston Valley, our only activity for the area was a safari on the Dart River, starting in the sleepy (no ATM or shop) hollow of Glenorchy.

Our trip began with a rushed drive into the Mount Aspiring National Park and through Arcadia, a farm that is the occasional home of film crews and casts when they're around. Films set in the surrounding mountains include Lord of the Rings, Narnia (1 and 2), White Fang and Vertical Limit and there are also at least 30 advertisements shot each year. I don't think the farmer's too concerned about his cows when he rents out his fields for $800 a day.

After a quick guided walk through part of the ancient beech forest we climbed into our jetboat and travelled upstream and back, taking around 1 and a half hours. Amazing that a jetboat is allowed to zoom into such a beautiful and peaceful place. An exciting ride but the real wonder of the trip is the location.

The drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves........

A walk above Wanaka

After the excitement of our skydive we decided to take it easy for a while. We found a quiet campsite in Glendhu Bay, just outside of Wanaka, and chilled. The weather was kak, so relaxing in a coffee shop and watching some TV was pretty easy. When it cleared we headed for the hills, Roy's Peak to be precise, where we endured a surprisingly tough 3 hour climb to a snowy summit with 360 degree views of almost everything.

The Haast Pass

Once upon a time there was a huge glacier, now there is a pass, both named after the same german. The road that cuts through the Southern Alps Dividing mountains is an interesting 2 hour drive through an area of imposing land and water.

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