New Zealand Continued

So in my last post I was residing in the Mount Cook Township. I still count that as one of the highlights of my New Zealand journey, Beautiful alpine scenery with treks and hiking tracks into some of the most amazing glacial landscapes combined with snow capped mountains and more glaciers than I could count. I did indeed go kayaking on a glacial lake the next day, Lake Tasman at the base of the Tasman glacier. Here we paddled among leviathans of ice floating silently around the 250m deep lake. We even had the opportunity to handle some of the baby icebergs and roll them over, showing us how true it is that we can only see 10% of the ice above the waterline. The paddle was a really worthwhile experience and was topped off at the end with a glass of scotch whiskey with 500 year old ice from an iceberg!

Big Berg


mmm tasty


trying to knock over a berg


Lake Tasman


Yours truly enjoying a Glacial Whiskey


After my excursion paddling I was ready for more adventuring so off I wandered to the highest one day track i could find. The red tarns track led away from the village and up past the snow line into the strange mountain landscape. After this I had yet more energy so i headed for the Hooker Valley track to catch a glimpse of the Hooker glacier, hours of trekking overall but certainly worth it for the views and landscape

One of many swing bridges


Glacial river coloured grey from the powdered crushed rock


Red Tarns


Myself at the top of the red tarns track


Mt Cook village from the peak


So after all of my adventuring in the Mt cook region I decided to make tracks to my next destination Wanaka, Before i left Mt Cook YHA however I got talking to Michael Carmody an Irish doc on his travels through NZ like me, we caught up in Wanaka the next day and booked ourselves in for a skydive, An incredible experience!! Being thrown out of a plane at 12000 feet Then freefalling at 200kmph! Your body freaks out for a second or two convinced you are going to die but once you level out and start lookin around the spectacular views and incredible feeling of speed make you forget about the rapidly approaching ground! after freefalling for around 60 seconds your divemaster pulls the ripcord and the parachute deploys. This results obviously in massive decelleration and almost silence as opposed to the wind screaming past your face. With still a few thousand feet to descend my divemaster pointed out the places of interest below us, from lake Wanaka to Mt Cook and everything in between. I would definitely reccomend it to anyone who gets the opportunity to go skydiving!

Kitted out and ready to jump


The Turboprop we were thrown out of!


So after our skydive we spent a good few hours wandering around Puzzling World which was actually very entertaining with perception bending rooms and a great maze which looked easy to start with... after that Michael and I parted ways and i headed for queenstown for my birthday weekend. Without realising the timing I arrived in Queenstown to find it was also easter weekend so the town was packed to capacity, I booked into a large budget hostel which although well furnished and central was full of drunk teenagers and made me feel very old! however i did have fun for my birthday and met a group of irish lads in the bar below the hostel. The rest of the weekend was rather uneventful and after relaxing for a day or two I hopped into the car and made tracks for Fox glacier township. On the way i stopped in a very remote hostel near the town of Haast, properly in the middle of nowhere it was a little gem along the coast and one thing that sticks out is the silence at night and the brightest stars i have ever seen at night. From here the next morning i drove on and reached Fox glacier.

Mountain roads


Sandstorm in Haast valley


Jimbos backpackers in the true middle of nowhere


Johnstons pass beach


sunset at the end of the world


Here I ran into Tanya from Canada whom I had met previously in queenstown, so together with her friend Kristina we ventured throughout the area, seeing a very nice forest trek to lake Matheson and from there we drove to the Fox glacier itself,

Glacier face with cavern from the glacial river


Fox glacier


Again


One of many stream crossings


Mirror lake


From Fox glacier I drove to Franz Joseph glacier which was another small township but with a nice hostel and some homely bars, here I got talking to a great barman called Jason, he hunts deer in the area and showed me some of the mounted heads which he had shot cleaned and preserved himself. Anyone who is into their hunting and shooting would Love the mountain towns on the southern alps, Deer are plentiful and range from big Red Deer to Elk and Chamois. Some gamekeepers who have large ranges to cover for seasonal culling also offer a seat in their helicopter to hunt with large bore semiautomatic rifles, yes they genuinely shoot running deer while in persuit in a flying chopper! Sadly my budget and time constrictions meant i wasnt able to partake this time although I am assured that there is a lot of work in australia culling kangaroos on the big farms so I will definitely look into that!

So from Franz Joseph township i drove along the western coast to the northern point of the south island stopping in a few towns for the night as i made my way along the wild weathered coast. Most memorable of these stops were Greymouth, Westport, Nelson and Kaikoura.

Good Local Brew


Bex the retriever in Noahs ark backpackers lodge


Noahs ark


Hotrod in greymouth town




After Greymouth Westport was a much smaller quieter town yet it still had its charm



Seal colony


Can you see the face?


pancake rocks





After Westport i made my way to Nelson, a nice quiet town with some quaint old buildings and nice people. The next morning i drove on towards christchurch and while passing through Blenheim i picked up a hitchhiker called Barnaud from Belgium, however due to his small beardy appearance and accent the kiwis had christened him Baggins, so baggins it was then, we drove on along the coast and talked about our travels, once we got to Kaikoura we stopped to do some fishing and decided to find somewhere to camp for the night considering i hadnt gone camping in quite some time and the coast is full of empty beaches and forests. So away from the town we drove and found a perfect spot in the bush on the beach with large stone circles from previous campers. We ate like kings on beans and sausages even topping it off with shake n' bake pancakes! after some food we headed up the beach where we met some austrian guys and a kiwi called dave, good craic was had and baggins even provided the music with harmonica. Considering this was one of my last days in New Zealand it was a great way to just chill out and take in the surroundings with the sea crashing on the rocky beach behind us and the giant fire burning the wood we gathered from the beach and surrounding trees.

the campsite


Baggins at the fire in the morning




Diy cutlery


I really like this photo


And so after leaving Kaikoura I inevitably had to make my way into Christchurch.
Its a very sad place to go at the moment with grey tired suburbs covered in dirt from the liquefaction and random buildings boarded up with red posters telling of their danger, timber supports hold up failing walls, and every so often a fallen building lies in a pile of rubble blocked off by temporary fencing. This becomes more common and numerous as you move towards the city centre until eventually the streets are blocked by military vehicles and barricades. The entire city centre is in ruins with buildings in various states of collapse or boarded up and scheduled to be destroyed, there is no business any more, no people in suits getting coffee or shoppers returning with their bags, there is just a few bored tourists standing at the barricades taking sad photographs of destroyed lives and concrete, even the pretty river running through the city covered in weeping willows is tainted by the destroyed sewerage systems pouring into it. Hopeful posters speak of regeneration and development but i think it will be a very long time before this city returns to what it looks like it used to be, I have only seen this destroyed quiet place but its buildings and surroundings suggest a well developed city with a buzzing centre. see for yourselves...

The weeping willows over the tainted river





An abandoned highrise


One of many destroyed streets


The street blockades


A totally destroyed building with the elevator shaft exposed


The Centre of the city








What used to be a church


So thats a glimpse of the city as it stands today, there is so much destruction that they will be rebuilding for years to come, that is relying on the hope that no further earthquakes will strike, rendering the city centre a permenant disaster zone. With the possibility that it may cave in to an underground cavern were it to be hit by another 7.0 or higher shake!
After my day in Christchurch I returned my trusty ol corolla and headed to the airport, I am now writing this from the Railway central YHA and it is very late so i think i should get some sleep. I leave you with one final photograph of the sun rising over Christchurch as my flight rose above the clouds, Thats all for now

Talk Cha!