We only really had one day in Wanaka. We stayed in the Motor Camp down by the lake. It’s a huge one – and cheap too. It’s license is up for review and one wonders if it will be renewed or if some big commercial development will come along and ruin the place. Sigh.

Anyway – headed up my favourite wee walk near Wanaka called Mt. Roy. It’s a bit of a slog so I was pretty happy that mum and dad decided to give it a go. They did very very well (you do climb about 1200m).. Dad managed to get to the top (though he cursed me for it ;) and mum about 2/3 of the way. Stunning views though.

That evening we went to Cinema Paradiso – the cinema in Wanaka. Well worth a look in. We saw the film Priceless. Excellent – really enjoyed it. Has the actress Audrey Tautou from Amélie (happy Liam!?) in it.

WE pretty much skipped Queenstown – had a short stroll around the gold mining town of Arrowtown and headed South to Te Anau. Stopped off at the Kingston Express – an old railway line which started operations about 120 years ago connecting Queenstown to the South. Two French Paragliders recently buzzed the train in their motorised paragliders. One of them skipped the country – the other was fined $1500…

After that it was down to Te Anau and Dad and I had our briefing for our Kayaking wilderness experience..

So the next day we were collected at 06:30 and taken to the Boat to bring us across Lake Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. It’s quite interesting.. NZ realises that it’s a bloody long way from anywhere – and that to get here you have to burn rather a lot of carbon. Thus the Tourism industry is trying to promote itself as a green industry (once you’re here!). This company – fiordland wilderness experience has been chosen as one of a few to try and be as green as they can – to be ambassadors for the industry.

Kayaking is a pretty low-carbon sport to begin with – but they have tried to improve all areas of their operation. The biggest eco-cost to them was the boat across Manapouri… so what they did was to team up with another operator that goes at that time of day and go on their boat. Win/Win… I’m sure we’ll see more and more of this!

Anyway.. had a great trip. There was an Irish bloke Martin on the trip who had a ridiculously sharp wit. It’d forgotten how much I enjoyed (and missed) the constant slagging / thrust and parry of Irish humour. But yes – it was a great trip. Not particularly exhausting but just good fun.

And yes, I am drinking a bottle of Monteiths Original in the above picture :) Part of any healthy kayaking diet. The campsite we stayed in for the night was pretty cool. They have a shelter set up in the bush.. it’s quite nice being inside and seeing half a bazillion sandflies outside. Makes the wine taste much better.

Mum elected not go to on the trip and instead went on a cruise on Doubtful Sound which I think she really enjoyed (even if she didn’t manage to get the boat to cruise by us.. I’m not sure that would have added to the ‘wilderness’ part of the experience.

So we left Christchurch and headed in the direction of Wanaka. Stopping off at the Cookie Time factory to buy two packets of their discounted broken cookies (delicious) and also some fruit products from the Barkers factory shop in Geraldine. The plan was to get to Mt. Cook by the evening, but like all good plans this one was subject to change! We got to Tekapo…

… there’s an observatory there and we decided on spec to go on the tour. Unfortunately the weather clouded in who while we waited until after midnight to go on the tour it didn’t happen. We did get an impromptu lecture from the lady there which was great. She had the most ridiculously powerful laser pointer I have ever seen. I swear if you shone it in someone’s eye you’d burn it out in no time. How much fun would one of those have been in school? ;)

Next it was on to Mt. Cook itself via stopping it at Glentanner to see Orla – a friend of my friend Carole’s from Ireland. WE arranged to go on a tramp on Stewart Island together.

This happened to be the weekend that NZ was mourning the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary. It’s hard to appreciate just how much he means to NZ. I guess he really put the place on the map. Everywhere we went the flags were at half mast. The exhibition in Mt. Cook (well worth going to) was free for the weekend – and the 3D film (not so good) was half price.

We went for a short walk to Kea point too – just a nice hour long walk with great views off the glacial lake and up to Mt Cook (which was stubbornly still hiding himself in cloud).

It was a *very* windy night parked behind some matagauri bushes. Our camper van is one of those flip top things where the roof pops up to make a sleeping space. It’s *definitely* designed for a family with parents and a kid or two… as there was very little space (or height) for my toes! But anyway.. I had visions of the top of the van being clean ripped off by the wind.

It wasn’t though… you can all relax ;)

The next day it was on to Lake Hawea North of Wanaka for a night. On the way we stopped at the Clay Cliffs…

… before heading on to Lake Hawea.. This was also the wonderful introduction to sandflies for my parents. Honestly, before then they were going to sell up in Ireland and move out to the Promised Land. Repeated exhortations (yes I’m trying to improve my vocabulary) not to scratch the bites wasn’t always heeded. Oh well.

There’s a nice legend which goes something like this : The Gods created Fiordland and it was so beautiful that they knew humans would never want to leave – so they created sandflies. How kind.

The next day we did another short walk and had a lovely sunny (at last) drive down to Wanaka.

Right.. just a quick update.. and will re-post with pictures ‘n videos ‘n all sorts of exciting things (to keep the short attention span people interested – Dec ;)

After leaving ChCh headed to Mt. Cook. Checked out the cookie time factory (worlds largest cookie) and Barkers shop (yum fruit products) before getting as far as Tekapo. There we were going to have a short stop – but instead opted to go on an observatory tour. Unfortunately the skies clouded over so we didn’t get to do it.

Then on to Mt. Cook. Stopped off to see my friend Carole’s friend Orla in glentanner. Missed a free helicopter flight ‘cos of more bad weather. Sigh. Did organise to do a tramp on Stewart Island with her though. Then onto Mt. Cook village. There’s a newly opened Sir Edmund Hillary exhibition – because of his death it was free for the weekend – and very interesting it was too. All of the flags around NZ are flying at half mast – he was a *very* important figure to NZ – hard to over estimate.

Next to Wanaka – well had a night in Haast pass first and did a short walk there. Also mum and dad’s first proper introduction to sandflies. Personally I feel they were on the verge of moving out until they met them! Then into Wanaka – dragged them up Roys peak for the view. Mum made it 2/3 of the way – dad managing to make it to the top for the spectacular views. I think they’re going to do some training before venturing out this way again! Also the obligatory cinema session (plus delicous homemade ice-cream and cookies). We saw ‘Priceless’ a french film with a actress from Amelie in it (who’s name I temporarily forget!). Really enjoyed it though :)

Then a night on the crown ridge road between Wanaka and Queenstown (windy night), before going to Arrowtown and on down to Te Anau.

Once in Te Anau dad and I got our briefing on our 2 day kayaking on doubful sound – which was great fun. Fiordland is a funny place – we had beautiful sunny weather – but in a way it would have been better if it was lashing rain – as then you get all the waterfalls. Still, a great trip.

After that it was on to Milford for a cruise, and stayed in Gunnes camp for my birthday – great spot. Finally mum and dad dropped me off at Bluff where I will meet shortly with Orla and off to Stewart Island for a 3 day tramp. Or that’s the plan.

So unfortunately all too soon it was time to leave the sounds and head south to Christchurch. The drive along the coast is very scenic and our excellent driver stopped off to let people take pictures at one of the seal colonies. It’s really quite good – even on the national bus carrier they stop off and give you a running commentary of interesting things along the way. I’m sure they do this in other countries – I just don’t remember it!

Had a nice day around ChCh and booked mum and dad into my two favourite places in Akaroa for the evening. They’re off to C’est la vie for dinner and a really cool hostel called the Onuku farm hostel where they will stay in one of the stargazers for the night. The stargazers are these low roofed chalet/huts where one third of the roof is perspex so you can look up at the stars.

I was really lucky to get back in time to say goodbye to Jana and Julian who left today for Germany. It was a really nice party – as you’d expect because lots of people are going to miss them. One more place to visit when I’m next back in Europe!

As Maaike hasn’t stopped raving about how wonderful the hostel she is WOOFING in is, I thought that I should check it out and see the truth of the matter.

The hostel is called Hopewell, and is set in native bush deep in the Marlborough Sounds. To get there you can drive two odd hours to the end of a road – or (as I did) catch a water taxi to their jetty. It was a 50 minute taxi ride from Havelock – or a 40 minute (but two taxis’) from Picton.

I’m not quite sure whether it is formally the best hostel in New Zealand – but it certainly is up there, no doubt about it. When you arrive either Mike or Lynley (the owners) get you a fresh pot of tea / coffee… It’s just the little extras (of which there are many) that really set it apart.

There are kayaks and bikes to rent (for $10 a day or something super cheap like that) to explore the area. They have a lovely hot-spa which looks right out over the sounds.

One of the highlights for me was definitely the mussel night they had. They owners have their own mussel farm and every few nights they harvest them and put on a feed for everyone. Completely delicious – and made even more so by the fact that it’s all free! So yes, thank you Maaike for the encouragement to come and see the place. It really was wonderful and I would definitely recommend that if you’re in the area you make the effort to spend at least a couple of nights there.