Travel Diary
Sep. 25th, 2011 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanJust for my own records, before it all fades into the vagueness of Memory...
Wednesday 14.9 ~ An obscenely early rise before dawn, but a surprisingly easy one, given neither of us had slept terribly well anyway. Nerves? Snoring?
Collected at 5am by our good friend & his Commodore & at the airport by 5.30, only to find that the check-in counter we needed wouldn't open until 6am. So, sitting in the vicinity, we waited... joined after a few minutes by a twenty-something British girl, her backpack & her mobile phone, which she didn't stop motormouthing into for the forty minutes we were there... "Like... it was like, I was like & then like..."
Eventually checked in, we went in search of breakfast & COFFEE!! while also looking for reading material & I found a Rugby World Cup scarf in no team colours which would come in handy. Another wait for boarding, then the three & a bit hour flight. Did you know you can play sudoku on the in-flight entertainment system?? Fortunately. our 'like'-minded tourist was nowhere near us in the 'plane.
Crossing the NZ coast over Hokitika & then the snowtops of the Southern Alps before landing in the shakiest place in the Shakey Isles ~ Christchurch at about 3pm NZ time. We collected the rental RAV4, collected some late lunch & hit the road back the way we'd flown... into the mountains heading for Hokitika. Forty five minutes later, the first photos were taken of the first of many snow-topped mountains to come... We ran out of daylight near a little town called Arthur's Pass (pop. 62) about halfway across the Alps, so found the first (only?) motel, checked in & followed the owner's recommendation & directions to the local café, encountering some not-at-all-shy Keas outside, harrassing a driver while she was still in her car. Venison stew & a New Zealand red wine which wasn't a Pinot Noir... harder to find than you might think. The World Cup match between Scotland & Georgia on the television.
Thursday 15.9 ~ What started as rain in the morning quickly became snow as we headed off. I'm easily pleased, just give me a decent car, an open road, scenery & snow & I'm in some kind of heaven. More photos near some more spectacular mountains & human engineering feats to get through them, then downwestward into Hokitika in time for breakfast & COFFEE!!
Glaciers were the plan for the day, so down the coast we went, seeing our first Kiwis (the bird, not the populace) scuttling into the bush on the roadside as we drove. Franz Josef Glacier was first up & a short-but-steep walk led to a viewing platform with a plaque showing just how far the glacier has retreated in the last 150 years. We'd actually driven past a sign on the way that showed the position of the glacier in 1760... about five minutes at 80km/h before we arrived at its present location. Mist, snow, stunning scenery so... photographs!!
Down the road awhile to Fox Glacier, with more evidence of its gradual retreat, the most compelling of which was the longer walk from the car to the glacier front itself. Snow, high cliffs, vivid blue pools of glacial ice, waterfalls... photographs!!
Realising we were about to run out of West-Coast road, plans were made to turn inland & head for Queenstown en-route to Milford Sound, but we ran out of daylight near a coastal town called Haast (pop. not very many) which seemed to consist of two motels, three backpacker lodges & a pub. The New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets recommended one of the motels & the pub, so steaks, salads, a not-Pinot-Noir & the RWC match between U.S.A. & Russia on television.
Friday 16.9 ~ Early departure, hoping to get to Milford Sound by evening, which meant driving a large U shape from coast to Queenstown & back to the coast over more mountains & snow which, we'd learned by now, take longer to get through than the physical distance suggests. Petrol was running nervously low by the time we reached the outskirts of Wanaka, detracting from the beautiful countryside, as I didn't fancy having to hike through it in search of a petrol station. However, we made it on the last few fumes in the fuel tank & consulted the New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets for breakfast & COFFEE!!
Then a steep zig-zagging drive over the Crown Ranges to Queenstown, past a few bungey-jump locations, strengthening my resolve to NOT do it & enjoying the mountain lakeside driving... a little too much apparently, as I was pulled over for doing 115km/h in a 100km/h zone by Highway Patrol. No points off my license & fines in NZ are cheaper than the revenue-raising ones here at home. However, point taken & an eye was kept on speed for the rest of the trip.
Through Te Anau & up to Milford Sound, reaching it by about 3pm... earlier than anticipated, so once accommodation was sorted, we retraced the route back through the spectacular 1.2km mountain tunnel to the other side & threw snowballs, took photos & suffered an overwhelming bout of Scenery Overload. An encounter with another of those not-at-all-shy Keas was another highlight. Quite happy to pose for portraits, but probably not as happy that I followed all the signs advice to '... not feed the Keas'. Back to Milford Sound via 'The Chasm' waterfall & down to the only pub for dinner & the NZ All Blacks vs Japan on TV.
Saturday 17.9 ~ Rain! Mist! Cold!! Rain!!! Just the thing for our cruise around Milford Sound on a mostly-open boat. Five layers of clothing, beautiful scenery, seals, penguins, extremely up-close encounters with waterfalls & frozen fingers on camera buttons. I could stay there forever.
But onward-ho... Our RWC game tickets required us to be in Dunedin by Sunday, so goodbye to Milford Sound (pop. about 50, mostly tour guides, barstaff & backpackers) &... via Te Anau & a late breakfast/lunch & COFFEE!!... hello to Dunedin (pop. 110,000), after making better time on the afternoon drive than expected & arriving at sunset to traffic, traffic lights & the first hotel we could find without the word 'No' lit up on the 'Vacancy' sign ~ given that the hotel we'd booked for the following night wasn't ready for us a night early. Dinner at the Dunedin Casino which was really just a grand-looking pub with pokies & a roulette wheel & Australia vs Ireland on the TV. You know you're the only Australians in the room when the whole place goes wild when Ireland beat us... Trapped. Alone. In a room full of NZ Rugby fanatics...
Sunday 18.9 ~ What to see in Dunedin before the England vs Georgia game? Well, as we found out, NOT Larnach "Castle" outside town on the Otago Peninsula. A wonderful scenic location & views to build something surely more impressive than what turned out to be a Victorian-era Manor with pretensions & delusions of grandeur. An exorbitant entry fee paid, only after which you find out you can't photograph the insides of the house. However, the Dunedain seem rather proud of it, so we kept our gripes to ourselves... until now.
The Albatross Centre was closed, so we decided to go to the Stadium & collect our tickets for the game. Now... Carisbrook Stadium bills itself as the 'Home of Otago Rugby', therefore you'd expect the game to be played there, right? Wrong, as we discovered after a roundabout GPS route to the wrong Rugby field. There's a new stadium in town... on the other side of town... purpose built for the RWC I was told by the lone man in the bar at Carisbrook. So off we went, collected our tickets & headed into town in search of a late lunch/early dinner, some local street-fair action & a Guinness in an Irish pub during the Wales vs Samoa game. Well, okay... only I was looking for that last part.
Street closures around the new stadium meant a twenty minute walk to the game, surrounded by English fans in all their face-painted & costumed barminess. Once settled in our seats in the corner of the stadium, we were surrounded by them again. A not-quite-full house meant that we were able to move to seats closer to the middle of the field & once the game started, our contingent of St George-Crossed fans decided they would support Georgia instead of their home team. Which made for a much more entertaining evening for us, as they booed the English team, cheered the Georgians & abused the referees whenever a penalty went England's way. I'm sure they were still pleased that England won, as was expected, but such bipartisan attitude & support was surprising... & impressive. A walk back to the car, some driving in circles around the road closures & back to the motel via theWoolworths Countdown supermarket for road-trip supplies.
Monday 19.9 ~ Destination Queenstown, only grazed past on our way to Milford Sound a few days before, now due for a proper visit. But first, a detour up the East Coast to Moeraki... home to some oddly round-shaped, but ultimately unimpressive beach boulders & also to Fleur's Restaurant, situated above the fishing boat marina & first seen by us during an episode of MasterChef, when the long grey-haired Fleur showed the giggling twentysomething girls a thing or two about chowder. Her restaurant was closed on the day we were there, but a caravan kitchen outside it serves a few things from the menu, cooked up on the spot by a cheerful bloke who could have been one of the chefs for all we knew, such was the quality of the seafood chowder & the basic-but-beautiful battered fish & chips we had.
Across the rolling hills & then mountains to Queenstown, again passing some high bridges where people throw themselves off, trusting in rubber bands. Not for me... The New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets told of a place overlooking Lake Wakatipu near the centre of town that sounded ideal... & we were surprised to not only find a vacancy there, but also how reasonable the price was, given the view from the windows & balcony. We also booked ourselves onto a Jetboat-Helicopter-Cablecar 'experience' for early the next morning, then headed into town to find dinner & red wine that wasn't Pinot Noir, which we found at the Speight Brewery House. The Speight dark Porter wasn't bad either... Speight's ales seem to be the ones New Zealanders keep for themselves, as I'd certainly never encountered it in Australia. I'd only ever had Steinlager, which must be NZs version of Fosters Lager ~ the beer they export because no one in the country will touch the stuff. Venison & salmon were perfectly prepared & eaten with gusto. No live RWC games on TV, but "highlights" of Australia's loss to Ireland were gleefully being replayed. And so, back to the hotel.
Tuesday 20.9 ~ At too-damned-early o'clock next day, we parked the RAV4 on a hillside street above the Jetboat Centre, marvelling at how surprisingly easy it was to find a spot... & presented ourselves to be checked in & marked with seemingly indelible texta for the morning adventure. We scored front seats in the Jetboat which was great until we were hurtling through the river canyons at over 80km/h & lost feeling in our faces. When the boat paused at a bend in the river, I touched my cheek & it felt like touching stone ~ my fingers registered I was touching something, but there were no corresponding sensations of being touched anywhere on my face. The ride was incredible though & I'd gladly & numbly do it all again. A short & steep bus ride up the surrounding mountains brought us to the helipad for our first helicopter trip... which was too short for me, but quite long enough for L-SP... depositing us at the top of another mountain where we took the cablecar back down to town. There we discovered why it had been so easy to find a parking space... it was an illegal one & we'd been ticketed. Still nowhere near as expensive as parking illegally in Sydney & only slightly more expensive than parking legally in Sydney for the amount of time we'd been gone. To a café for lunch & COFFEE!!, then we headed north to Mt Cook, hereafter referred to by its Maori name Aoraki because I prefer it...
The drive there was the second time I suffered from Scenery Overload. Stunning blue lakes & streams & ever more incredible mountains 'til we reached the Hooker & Abel Tasman Glacier Valleys & Aoraki him/itself. The New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets pointed us to the Hermitage Hotel, attached to the Edmund Hillary Centre & a pricy-looking stay, but accommodation had been so reasonable up to then, that we decided one expensive night couldn't hurt & took a room. The room was the highlight of that overnight stay, with a view straight to Aoraki & twin queen-size beds. Tearing ourselves away from there, we headed down to the Hillary Centre & its Planetarium/Theatre for some astronomical education. A film crew had been up on the mountains that day &, after our first short film, requisitioned the theatre to check their footage. So our Usher/Attendant/Nice Bloke told us to come back in the morning before 9am & he'd give us a private screening of any film on the programme.
Dinner at the Hermitage was a problematic affair. We had to book for a 'sitting' & the only one available was at 8pm... too late for us hungry travellers, so we found the Backpacker Hostel down the hill & its Pub-with-Bistro with good food, Guinness & NZ red wine that isn't Pinot Noir all reasonable & available, along with Italy vs Russia on the projector screen.
Wednesday 21.9 ~ Breakfast at the Hermitage was also a problematic affair. All we wanted was some toast & COFFEE!! so we could take up our Usher's offer of an early movie, but in order to get toast, we had to book a Continental Breakfast at $18 each. The head waiter 'graciously' offered to bring us coffee in the Lounge Bar & we soon wished he hadn't. The worst coffee of the whole trip was in the most expensive place we stayed. Go figure... Anyway, the movies were great, especially the 3D one about Aoraki's history & scenery.
Off to the glaciers then... & the Tasman Glacier presented the best option for us, as we didn't really have time for a four hour walk to a closed-for-repair suspension bridge. The Tasman Glacier was also the only time we really took the RAV4 off-road, onto a track with a sign unequivocally recommending we don't drive on it. About three bone-shaking kms later, we agreed, returned to the carpark & walked thirty minutes to the hills above the glacier. Cresting that last hill & seeing the glacier lake & icebergs below was an "Oh my god!!" moment & worth the time & climb.
But time was running out for us, so we pointed the RAV4 in the general direction of Christchurch & reluctantly left the mountains behind... eventually ~ it took about three hours at 100km/h for them to disappear & be replaced with farmland & then the outskirts of Christchurch (pop. 300,000ish), arriving in town just in time for peak hour & accompanying traffic jams. This last night was the only time we had any trouble finding a room, eventually getting a 'Family' room at the fourth place we tried. With a spa bath!!!
Most hotels, motels, hostels & bed'n'breakfasts in Christchurch are filled with construction & destruction workers dealing with putting the town back together after the earthquakes. The extent of the destruction was brought home to us when driving around town that afternoon & evening, especially when we tried following the New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets recommendations & the GPS directions to various restaurants that had wire fencing, warning signs & rubble where the food used to be. We found a top-notch Thai place near the centre of town amongst the fences & signs where the food was excellent, the service brilliant & the not-Pinot-Noirs eminently drinkable. Then back to our room for a spa bath!!! Just because we could...
Thursday 22.9 ~ Deciding that there wasn't really enough time to properly go through the Antarctic Centre, a morning of aimless sightseeing/driving was chosen... after breakfast & COFFEE!!... before heading to the airport, returning the car & departing. On a sunnier day & when it's back in working order, it will be nice to revisit the town, but it felt a little voyeuristic & ghoulish to be driving around just looking at damaged places, so we headed for New Brighton, just on the northern outskirts of town for one last little long drive, then to the airport.
Coming home was done in two stages. A short flight to Auckland, through that 'Long White Cloud' the country's known & named for, a ninety minute stopover for lunch/dinner & COFFEE!!, then across the pond back to Sydney by about 7pm, picking up some duty-free & being picked up by our good friend & his Commodore, bringing us full circle.
Sydney (pop. too-many-millions) is proving difficult to adjust to, even after such a short time away & I don't know if I really want to adjust to it, preferring to retain the feeling of peace & comfort small (& downright tiny) towns gave us. Not only has the travel bug bitten & we're already planning the next two holidays, but rumblings & murmurings of leaving this big city have begun in enthusiastic earnest. Again.
Where to from here..............................................................
Wednesday 14.9 ~ An obscenely early rise before dawn, but a surprisingly easy one, given neither of us had slept terribly well anyway. Nerves? Snoring?
Collected at 5am by our good friend & his Commodore & at the airport by 5.30, only to find that the check-in counter we needed wouldn't open until 6am. So, sitting in the vicinity, we waited... joined after a few minutes by a twenty-something British girl, her backpack & her mobile phone, which she didn't stop motormouthing into for the forty minutes we were there... "Like... it was like, I was like & then like..."
Eventually checked in, we went in search of breakfast & COFFEE!! while also looking for reading material & I found a Rugby World Cup scarf in no team colours which would come in handy. Another wait for boarding, then the three & a bit hour flight. Did you know you can play sudoku on the in-flight entertainment system?? Fortunately. our 'like'-minded tourist was nowhere near us in the 'plane.
Crossing the NZ coast over Hokitika & then the snowtops of the Southern Alps before landing in the shakiest place in the Shakey Isles ~ Christchurch at about 3pm NZ time. We collected the rental RAV4, collected some late lunch & hit the road back the way we'd flown... into the mountains heading for Hokitika. Forty five minutes later, the first photos were taken of the first of many snow-topped mountains to come... We ran out of daylight near a little town called Arthur's Pass (pop. 62) about halfway across the Alps, so found the first (only?) motel, checked in & followed the owner's recommendation & directions to the local café, encountering some not-at-all-shy Keas outside, harrassing a driver while she was still in her car. Venison stew & a New Zealand red wine which wasn't a Pinot Noir... harder to find than you might think. The World Cup match between Scotland & Georgia on the television.
Thursday 15.9 ~ What started as rain in the morning quickly became snow as we headed off. I'm easily pleased, just give me a decent car, an open road, scenery & snow & I'm in some kind of heaven. More photos near some more spectacular mountains & human engineering feats to get through them, then downwestward into Hokitika in time for breakfast & COFFEE!!
Glaciers were the plan for the day, so down the coast we went, seeing our first Kiwis (the bird, not the populace) scuttling into the bush on the roadside as we drove. Franz Josef Glacier was first up & a short-but-steep walk led to a viewing platform with a plaque showing just how far the glacier has retreated in the last 150 years. We'd actually driven past a sign on the way that showed the position of the glacier in 1760... about five minutes at 80km/h before we arrived at its present location. Mist, snow, stunning scenery so... photographs!!
Down the road awhile to Fox Glacier, with more evidence of its gradual retreat, the most compelling of which was the longer walk from the car to the glacier front itself. Snow, high cliffs, vivid blue pools of glacial ice, waterfalls... photographs!!
Realising we were about to run out of West-Coast road, plans were made to turn inland & head for Queenstown en-route to Milford Sound, but we ran out of daylight near a coastal town called Haast (pop. not very many) which seemed to consist of two motels, three backpacker lodges & a pub. The New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets recommended one of the motels & the pub, so steaks, salads, a not-Pinot-Noir & the RWC match between U.S.A. & Russia on television.
Friday 16.9 ~ Early departure, hoping to get to Milford Sound by evening, which meant driving a large U shape from coast to Queenstown & back to the coast over more mountains & snow which, we'd learned by now, take longer to get through than the physical distance suggests. Petrol was running nervously low by the time we reached the outskirts of Wanaka, detracting from the beautiful countryside, as I didn't fancy having to hike through it in search of a petrol station. However, we made it on the last few fumes in the fuel tank & consulted the New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets for breakfast & COFFEE!!
Then a steep zig-zagging drive over the Crown Ranges to Queenstown, past a few bungey-jump locations, strengthening my resolve to NOT do it & enjoying the mountain lakeside driving... a little too much apparently, as I was pulled over for doing 115km/h in a 100km/h zone by Highway Patrol. No points off my license & fines in NZ are cheaper than the revenue-raising ones here at home. However, point taken & an eye was kept on speed for the rest of the trip.
Through Te Anau & up to Milford Sound, reaching it by about 3pm... earlier than anticipated, so once accommodation was sorted, we retraced the route back through the spectacular 1.2km mountain tunnel to the other side & threw snowballs, took photos & suffered an overwhelming bout of Scenery Overload. An encounter with another of those not-at-all-shy Keas was another highlight. Quite happy to pose for portraits, but probably not as happy that I followed all the signs advice to '... not feed the Keas'. Back to Milford Sound via 'The Chasm' waterfall & down to the only pub for dinner & the NZ All Blacks vs Japan on TV.
Saturday 17.9 ~ Rain! Mist! Cold!! Rain!!! Just the thing for our cruise around Milford Sound on a mostly-open boat. Five layers of clothing, beautiful scenery, seals, penguins, extremely up-close encounters with waterfalls & frozen fingers on camera buttons. I could stay there forever.
But onward-ho... Our RWC game tickets required us to be in Dunedin by Sunday, so goodbye to Milford Sound (pop. about 50, mostly tour guides, barstaff & backpackers) &... via Te Anau & a late breakfast/lunch & COFFEE!!... hello to Dunedin (pop. 110,000), after making better time on the afternoon drive than expected & arriving at sunset to traffic, traffic lights & the first hotel we could find without the word 'No' lit up on the 'Vacancy' sign ~ given that the hotel we'd booked for the following night wasn't ready for us a night early. Dinner at the Dunedin Casino which was really just a grand-looking pub with pokies & a roulette wheel & Australia vs Ireland on the TV. You know you're the only Australians in the room when the whole place goes wild when Ireland beat us... Trapped. Alone. In a room full of NZ Rugby fanatics...
Sunday 18.9 ~ What to see in Dunedin before the England vs Georgia game? Well, as we found out, NOT Larnach "Castle" outside town on the Otago Peninsula. A wonderful scenic location & views to build something surely more impressive than what turned out to be a Victorian-era Manor with pretensions & delusions of grandeur. An exorbitant entry fee paid, only after which you find out you can't photograph the insides of the house. However, the Dunedain seem rather proud of it, so we kept our gripes to ourselves... until now.
The Albatross Centre was closed, so we decided to go to the Stadium & collect our tickets for the game. Now... Carisbrook Stadium bills itself as the 'Home of Otago Rugby', therefore you'd expect the game to be played there, right? Wrong, as we discovered after a roundabout GPS route to the wrong Rugby field. There's a new stadium in town... on the other side of town... purpose built for the RWC I was told by the lone man in the bar at Carisbrook. So off we went, collected our tickets & headed into town in search of a late lunch/early dinner, some local street-fair action & a Guinness in an Irish pub during the Wales vs Samoa game. Well, okay... only I was looking for that last part.
Street closures around the new stadium meant a twenty minute walk to the game, surrounded by English fans in all their face-painted & costumed barminess. Once settled in our seats in the corner of the stadium, we were surrounded by them again. A not-quite-full house meant that we were able to move to seats closer to the middle of the field & once the game started, our contingent of St George-Crossed fans decided they would support Georgia instead of their home team. Which made for a much more entertaining evening for us, as they booed the English team, cheered the Georgians & abused the referees whenever a penalty went England's way. I'm sure they were still pleased that England won, as was expected, but such bipartisan attitude & support was surprising... & impressive. A walk back to the car, some driving in circles around the road closures & back to the motel via the
Monday 19.9 ~ Destination Queenstown, only grazed past on our way to Milford Sound a few days before, now due for a proper visit. But first, a detour up the East Coast to Moeraki... home to some oddly round-shaped, but ultimately unimpressive beach boulders & also to Fleur's Restaurant, situated above the fishing boat marina & first seen by us during an episode of MasterChef, when the long grey-haired Fleur showed the giggling twentysomething girls a thing or two about chowder. Her restaurant was closed on the day we were there, but a caravan kitchen outside it serves a few things from the menu, cooked up on the spot by a cheerful bloke who could have been one of the chefs for all we knew, such was the quality of the seafood chowder & the basic-but-beautiful battered fish & chips we had.
Across the rolling hills & then mountains to Queenstown, again passing some high bridges where people throw themselves off, trusting in rubber bands. Not for me... The New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets told of a place overlooking Lake Wakatipu near the centre of town that sounded ideal... & we were surprised to not only find a vacancy there, but also how reasonable the price was, given the view from the windows & balcony. We also booked ourselves onto a Jetboat-Helicopter-Cablecar 'experience' for early the next morning, then headed into town to find dinner & red wine that wasn't Pinot Noir, which we found at the Speight Brewery House. The Speight dark Porter wasn't bad either... Speight's ales seem to be the ones New Zealanders keep for themselves, as I'd certainly never encountered it in Australia. I'd only ever had Steinlager, which must be NZs version of Fosters Lager ~ the beer they export because no one in the country will touch the stuff. Venison & salmon were perfectly prepared & eaten with gusto. No live RWC games on TV, but "highlights" of Australia's loss to Ireland were gleefully being replayed. And so, back to the hotel.
Tuesday 20.9 ~ At too-damned-early o'clock next day, we parked the RAV4 on a hillside street above the Jetboat Centre, marvelling at how surprisingly easy it was to find a spot... & presented ourselves to be checked in & marked with seemingly indelible texta for the morning adventure. We scored front seats in the Jetboat which was great until we were hurtling through the river canyons at over 80km/h & lost feeling in our faces. When the boat paused at a bend in the river, I touched my cheek & it felt like touching stone ~ my fingers registered I was touching something, but there were no corresponding sensations of being touched anywhere on my face. The ride was incredible though & I'd gladly & numbly do it all again. A short & steep bus ride up the surrounding mountains brought us to the helipad for our first helicopter trip... which was too short for me, but quite long enough for L-SP... depositing us at the top of another mountain where we took the cablecar back down to town. There we discovered why it had been so easy to find a parking space... it was an illegal one & we'd been ticketed. Still nowhere near as expensive as parking illegally in Sydney & only slightly more expensive than parking legally in Sydney for the amount of time we'd been gone. To a café for lunch & COFFEE!!, then we headed north to Mt Cook, hereafter referred to by its Maori name Aoraki because I prefer it...
The drive there was the second time I suffered from Scenery Overload. Stunning blue lakes & streams & ever more incredible mountains 'til we reached the Hooker & Abel Tasman Glacier Valleys & Aoraki him/itself. The New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets pointed us to the Hermitage Hotel, attached to the Edmund Hillary Centre & a pricy-looking stay, but accommodation had been so reasonable up to then, that we decided one expensive night couldn't hurt & took a room. The room was the highlight of that overnight stay, with a view straight to Aoraki & twin queen-size beds. Tearing ourselves away from there, we headed down to the Hillary Centre & its Planetarium/Theatre for some astronomical education. A film crew had been up on the mountains that day &, after our first short film, requisitioned the theatre to check their footage. So our Usher/Attendant/Nice Bloke told us to come back in the morning before 9am & he'd give us a private screening of any film on the programme.
Dinner at the Hermitage was a problematic affair. We had to book for a 'sitting' & the only one available was at 8pm... too late for us hungry travellers, so we found the Backpacker Hostel down the hill & its Pub-with-Bistro with good food, Guinness & NZ red wine that isn't Pinot Noir all reasonable & available, along with Italy vs Russia on the projector screen.
Wednesday 21.9 ~ Breakfast at the Hermitage was also a problematic affair. All we wanted was some toast & COFFEE!! so we could take up our Usher's offer of an early movie, but in order to get toast, we had to book a Continental Breakfast at $18 each. The head waiter 'graciously' offered to bring us coffee in the Lounge Bar & we soon wished he hadn't. The worst coffee of the whole trip was in the most expensive place we stayed. Go figure... Anyway, the movies were great, especially the 3D one about Aoraki's history & scenery.
Off to the glaciers then... & the Tasman Glacier presented the best option for us, as we didn't really have time for a four hour walk to a closed-for-repair suspension bridge. The Tasman Glacier was also the only time we really took the RAV4 off-road, onto a track with a sign unequivocally recommending we don't drive on it. About three bone-shaking kms later, we agreed, returned to the carpark & walked thirty minutes to the hills above the glacier. Cresting that last hill & seeing the glacier lake & icebergs below was an "Oh my god!!" moment & worth the time & climb.
But time was running out for us, so we pointed the RAV4 in the general direction of Christchurch & reluctantly left the mountains behind... eventually ~ it took about three hours at 100km/h for them to disappear & be replaced with farmland & then the outskirts of Christchurch (pop. 300,000ish), arriving in town just in time for peak hour & accompanying traffic jams. This last night was the only time we had any trouble finding a room, eventually getting a 'Family' room at the fourth place we tried. With a spa bath!!!
Most hotels, motels, hostels & bed'n'breakfasts in Christchurch are filled with construction & destruction workers dealing with putting the town back together after the earthquakes. The extent of the destruction was brought home to us when driving around town that afternoon & evening, especially when we tried following the New Zealand Guide to Lonely Planets recommendations & the GPS directions to various restaurants that had wire fencing, warning signs & rubble where the food used to be. We found a top-notch Thai place near the centre of town amongst the fences & signs where the food was excellent, the service brilliant & the not-Pinot-Noirs eminently drinkable. Then back to our room for a spa bath!!! Just because we could...
Thursday 22.9 ~ Deciding that there wasn't really enough time to properly go through the Antarctic Centre, a morning of aimless sightseeing/driving was chosen... after breakfast & COFFEE!!... before heading to the airport, returning the car & departing. On a sunnier day & when it's back in working order, it will be nice to revisit the town, but it felt a little voyeuristic & ghoulish to be driving around just looking at damaged places, so we headed for New Brighton, just on the northern outskirts of town for one last little long drive, then to the airport.
Coming home was done in two stages. A short flight to Auckland, through that 'Long White Cloud' the country's known & named for, a ninety minute stopover for lunch/dinner & COFFEE!!, then across the pond back to Sydney by about 7pm, picking up some duty-free & being picked up by our good friend & his Commodore, bringing us full circle.
Sydney (pop. too-many-millions) is proving difficult to adjust to, even after such a short time away & I don't know if I really want to adjust to it, preferring to retain the feeling of peace & comfort small (& downright tiny) towns gave us. Not only has the travel bug bitten & we're already planning the next two holidays, but rumblings & murmurings of leaving this big city have begun in enthusiastic earnest. Again.
Where to from here..............................................................
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Date: 2011-10-05 05:32 am (UTC)Sounds like a lovely week-and-a-bit. Though I'm sorry the albatross centre was closed when you got there.
I'm pretty sure we did the jetboat/helicopter thing (not sure about the cable-car) when I was last in Queenstown, around 1986. Do they still have the big maze?
BTW, you might be entertained to know that
Fisters(!? Well, there's a typo!) Fosters is readily available around here... but despite the kangaroo on the oversized can, the local version of Australia's joke on the rest of the world is actually made up in Canada. *snerk*