Uncle travelling KEITH (FLYNN) and his stories from afar.
17/06/2004 So Long and thanks for the pies (the end)
07/06/2004
Central North Island
29/05/2004
Welington to Tongarrio
20/05/2004
Top of the South
01/05/2004 The Real Middle
Earth
25/04/2004 The Fellowship Journey's on
08/04/2004 Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud)
FIRST MAIL FROM OZ
Keith's Pics on Yahoo
Back to Seminal Groove Home Page
Well it's over now. No more boring long winded email reports written by a drunk
Paddy abroad to tide you through your tea breaks. For me, no more racing around
like a blue ar$e fly, looking at new sights and wonders. No more pie for lunch.
No more 10AM hostel checkouts - whether you like it or not. No more trekking
and walking myself almost into a state of fitness all in the aid of promoting
tourism.
No, I'm officially All Tourist-ed Out and I'm off home to do a simple days work
each day, head home after, kick back in the recliner chair, watch TV, and drink
Guinness. Oh and of course watch the English getting beat in Euro 2004 without
having to get up at 6:30AM to do so!!!! Ya, it's back to the easy life for me!
So, where did we leave off? Just after risking life and limb jumping from a
plane and even worse, hanging from a rope 100m above the ground, it was onto
The Coromandel Peninsula for some R&R. First destination was a little village
called Hahei famous for the beautiful Cathedral Cove beach and for the aptly
named "Hot Water Beach".
Hot Water Beach is basically your normal run of the mill beach except that just
under the sand there are numerous of hot and cold water springs. Once the tide
goes out, all you need to do is don your shovel and as long as you dig enough
and in the right place, you get yourself an instant personal spa pool. Sweet
as!
Now given that the Irish are famous for many great construction feats, including
New York, I felt I had to do my country proud and build the biggest spa on the
beach (smart ass comments welcome, but I'd like a little wit to be employed,
if you must!). With an ideal location with a mixture of hot an cool springs
I was able to regulate the temperature a bit so that I wasn't getting scalded
every time I stood in the water! After plenty digging, we eventually had a fine
temperature controlled pool built and had even attracted new occupants by the
name of Zoe, Bethany, Jason, and Jackson, who ranged in age from 4 to 8.
These clever youngsters knew better than remaining in their parent's substandard
Kiwi-built pool and refused their parents request to relinquish their occupation
of ours. Always happy with an enlarged work force, I introduced the lads to
the wonders of digging while the girls decided that a spa pool isn't complete
without a sea-shell mosaic on the back wall, and so they set about putting the
finishing touches on our masterpiece. With all the troops suitably employed,
I did as any good foreman does and sat back in the hot pool to admire the work
in progress (there'll be no unions on my site!). Twas heavenly! Eventually though,
a natural disaster occurred as the tide inexplicably turned around and started
to wash away our enterprise, leaving our endevours in ruin, and like Atlantis
our achievements reduced to legend...
Well, after declaring my interests in the construction industry bankrupt, we
headed onto Coromandel Town, where we stayed one night admiring as much as time
would allow us of the beautiful peninsula coastline. We also visited the interesting
Waiau Waterworks, a fun little park with lots of water driven sculptures and
toys. Throw in a few water fights, Zip Rope rides (or Flying fox), boat races
and the likes, then it proves an interesting little place for a big kid like
myself!!!
Time pushing on, and we next headed straight onto Cape Reinga, the extreme North
of the country, where you can actually see the Tasman Sea and the great Pacific
Ocean meet. The drive back included surfing down the countries largest sand
dunes on a boogie board - great fun, but after climbing them three times I decided
that the Heart Attack was too imminent to risk a fourth climb. Not too bad though,
cos some of the guys back at the hostel reckoned that they couldn't make it
up a second time! The drive back along the 60 mile long "Ninety Mile Beach",
was quite enjoyable, especially watching the sunset turn the white foam of the
waves into the most amazing pink and red colours.
From Cape Reinga, it was onto the Bay of Islands and The Waitangi Treaty Grounds,
where the famous and ever controversial founding document of the country was
drafted and signed. The place was a disappointment to me as it didn't try to
tackle (or even explain) any of the issues or politics involved in the document
(the original of which I actually saw back in the National Archives in Wellington).
Instead they seemed to just be happy saying that it all happened here and giving
stories of how the house was built and modified over the years. Not good enough
folks! Address the issues! Or at least EXPLAIN them!
In the Bay of Islands I didn't bother chartering a boat or anything like that,
so I decided to just have a look around the bay and then move on to see Tane
Mahuta (God of the Forest), the countries largest living Kauri tree (51m high,
14m girth and 244.5 cubic meters volume). It was pretty impressive! I also made
a point of visiting the Kauri Museum in Matakohe to learn about the felling
and exporting of these giant, usually knot-less (making them ideal for working)
trees. The museum was excellent, with insight into the milling industry, various
types of trees, pieces made from the wood and an amazing collection of Kauri
gum, a protective resin produced by the trees that hardens to form what we know
as Amber.
Well, all toured out, and it was back to Auckland to sell the wheels. This proved
surprisingly easy despite the lull in the market, and I was quite happy to sell
for around 170% of the purchase price. Everything included (insurance, petrol,
maintenance, everything to do with the car), I spent $2,700 to cover 15,000km.
Thats about 18 cents a km or 10 Euro cents. Definitely the ONLY way to travel.
So finally, Auckland. The city isn't as bad as everyone here makes out and could
conceivably be a nice place to live. It is huge though (1000 sq km or 390 sq
miles), hosting 1.5 million peoples. That's huge for here, believe me! The city
is built on a series of extinct volcanoes, which provide nice city center parks,
and the location decision has to be seen as more prudent that that of the cities
in the center of the island that choose to live on ACTIVE volcanoes!
Places I visited here include the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the southern
hemisphere. This pretty cool tower is visible from all parts of the city, and
it really loans the city an air of confidence that I can't help thinking it
would feel lost without. One Tree Hill (another extinct volcano) is the second
most impressive site I've seen in the city, with amazing views and a colourful
history where it always attracted protesters the result of which, it would now
be more apt to call it No Tree Hill. The Kiwis claim Bono wrote the song of
the same name for this hill, but I've seen no proof of that. The rest here is
the usual boring tourist stuff, museums, gallerys, lots of folk shopping and
of course the obligatory beers...
So that's it, done and dusted. I must say that I've had a fantastic time and
some great experiences, but it will be great to get home and see everyone again
and to live the life of a settled person again for a while. The life of a Nomad
is fun, but there's a lot to be said for you own bed too...
Right, next stop, is my last bad pints here, followed by a few time travel tricks
where I arrive in LA before I ever leave Auckland, and then leave LA 10 hours
later, but still before I leave here, before arriving home to friends, family
and the much missed pint of plain!!! Confusing yes - but impressive none the
less. All I need is my own DeLorean!!!!
Take care and hopefully I'll see you soon...
Keith.
P.S. Finally, the last few pics are as usual to be found at http://photos.yahoo.com/keith_flynn...
Over and out!
Alright Folks,
Sh*t - I don't know where to start! Since the last update (which could only
have been a week ago I reckon - but I can't really believe it was that little
time right now), I picked up a Swedish traveling companion, drove for miles
(nothing new in that!), saw hundreds of Maori carvings (some were SO class!),
more beautiful landscapes (goes without saying at this stage), got a helicopter
to an active volcano island, witnessed geysers, bubbling mudpools, and other
amazing thermal phenomena in untold quantities. Then of course there was rolling
down a hill inside a huge plastic ball, jumping out of a plane at 12,000 ft.,
abseiling from 100m (~300 ft.), walking through huge rapids inside a cave and
climbing a 30m (~90 ft.) vertical ladder. Shit - I need more beer!
Oh where to start? At the beginning, I suppose! After doing the Tongarario Crossing,
I headed out across backroads to Napier, on the East coast. The scenery along
the way was splendid, but I won't bore you with that, cause there's so much
else... Anyway, Napier is a city that was destroyed by a huge earthquake (which
also sparked a huge fire) in 1931. Despite the disaster hitting at the height
of the depression, the city gave it their all trying to rebuild their world.
Art Deco was the trendy thing at the time, and thus, they decided to rebuild
the city completely in Art Deco architecture. The ambiance has largely been
retained and is surprisingly nice to see (for an art form that has had so many
horrible examples anyway!).
In the hostel in Napier I bumped into Ingrid, a Swedish girl I first met in
Metven, just after Andrew left (you'd be amazed how many people you keep meeting
over and over while traveling out here). Anyway, we started catching up on where
we had both been since we met last and when I mentioned my planned future route,
Ingrid decided to tag along. No bodder sez I, real company is always better
than singing to yourself in the car!
Next stop was Gisbourne, where we ended up staying in a backpackers that used
to be a bl**dy convent!
I have to say, I laughed for hours after we arrived there! I had so many visons
of delivering flour to Gortnor Abbey as a young fellow, when Michael Murphy
would try to make me spill the flour on the kitchen floor so that the nuns would
come and kick my unholy ass for messing up their kitchen! Those, mixed with
visions of the nuns running the convent in Michael Mann's fantastic film, "The
Magdalene Sisters" (a must watch). Twas just a humorously freaky experience!
So off we headed around East Cape, where we law lots of cool landscapes and
Maori carvings (the Cape has a quite large Maori population). The drive was
scenic, but I have to admit expecting more, maybe I'm getting spoilt in the
scenery stakes!
When we eventually got back to civilisation, we hit the main part of what is
known as something like "The Taupo Volcanic area", a region of land
over the Indo-Pacific fault line that is rife with volcanic activity and geothermal
action. Why 200,000 people would decide live right in the middle of one of the
world's most volcanic areas is a little intriguing, but when the geothermal
activity in the area provides so many natural phenomena as to bewilder a poor
tourist, I suppose that the locals feel obliged to wait around and give a helping
hand...
The first place I wanted to visit along this belt was White Island, off the
coast of Whakatane. However, weather conditions postponed that, so we went straight
onto Rotorua (or Roto-Vegas, as the locals call it because of the tourism aspect!).
The first thing to explain about Rotorua is the smell. I thought that The Tongarario
Crossing had prepared me for the smell of Sulphur (not sure if I mentioned it
in the last mail), but to put it mildly, no - it hadn't! Arriving into Rotorua
(with the windows fully up), about 10 km outside the city, you're just driving
along when you involuntarily put your hand to your nose and say "For F*CK
SAKE Ollie", and then you start to realise that Ollie isn't in the car,
and even his farts aren't potent enough to reach the other side of the planet!
Blame then inevitably turns to John John or Macker, before you realise that
it can't be them either, and that it's just those "harmless" gasses
steaming out of the ground anywhere they can find an orifice in said ground!!!
Ti's smelly, that's all I'm trying to say!
Well, the city had so much to see and do, it was almost impossible to plan your
way around. Now, it has to be acknowledged that the place is a major Tourist
Trap, but it is one for a reason. Never before in my life have I seen pools
of mud spitting eruptions of said mud five meters in the air, or geysers shooting
water 20 meters high, let alone lakes and rivers of the most unnatural natural
colours! I won't even list the number of parks and areas we visited, and all
I can say is that I was held in awe of the hidden power of the Earth looking
at all those open air boiling pools.
The area suffered it's last MAJOR eruption in 1886 when Mt. Tarawera blew it's
top and opened a 17km rift in the ground as it spewed molten rocks from it's
bowels. For comparison, the eruption was about 3 times the size of the Mt. Saint
Helen's eruption in 1980! Since then, it's been happily steaming away and entertaining
the tourists, and nobody seems to care about the fact that it could spew again
at any time. But, I suppose you can't call the Kiwis that live here any crazier
than the Kiwis that live in Wellington (despite it being a class city), when
some people predict that that city will have disappeared in less than 50 years
because the tectonic plate on which it sits is being pushed further and further
under the neighboring slice of Earth Crust!
Of all of the parks we visited with geothermal wonders, we got to see an almost
endless selection of geysers, mud pools, fantasticly couloured lakes, amazing
silica terraces, and countess steaming furamules and craters.
Eventually, the weather (at sea) cleared up a bit and I got my chance to head
out to White Island, 50 km off the East coast. I ended up forking out the Big
Bucks to get a helicopter out there as the boats weren't travelling. At the
edge of the aforementioned volcanic region, the Island is one of the most active
sites in the world and erupts so often that it makes the folk inland feel safe
because it vents all the pressure going on beneath their own homes. Personally,
I think I'd need a little more reassurance!
Anyway, the island last spewed it's load about three years ago, and they reckon
it's shaping up to give another ould spit. The lake in the crater is rising
at almost 70 cm a day and they reckon that in 6 months it will be high enough
to flow out into the sea.
The mists over the lake were indescribable. I remember looking at them thinking
of some non-descript, eerie, mist shrouded scene in LOTR when the tour guide
told me that Jackson filmed the same mist, and using the wonder of computer
graphics, placed it in the films over scenes shot on slightly more solid terrain!
After all of the amazing geothermal sights, it was time for a little adventure
stuff and this was started with a run in a "Zorb". This yolk-a-ma-jig
is a huge plastic ball with you sitting inside with soapy water all around you.
You slide all over the shop as the ball rolls down the hill. I have to admit
it's as simple as that, but believe me it's good fun....
Onto Taupo and things got more serious. I've always said that I would NEVER
do a bungy or a skydive, but before I left the South Island, Paul drunkenly
convinced me that a skydive wouldn't be as bad as one feared. After driving
lots of scared folk to and from the site, I considered that he might actually
know what he was talking about (for a change!!).
So as I was passing through Taupo I tentatively booked a skydive, with a mixture
of being brave from Paul's (and others) testimony, and the knowledge that most
jumps didn't happen due to adverse weather conditions. Given my schedule, I
couldn't wait around for weather changes, so it was a one off and I could say
I tried after it was all canceled on me.
Well trust fate to have it that some people had to wait around for four days,
but I got the very first bloody flight I b0oked! Maybe God didn't hear my prayers
for high winds, or he was just punishing me for missing mass last week. Either
way, I found myself being sat into a plane heading up to 12,000 feet where I
was attached to one of only 20 female tandem masters in the world and ready
to jump out of a plane.
It's probably a good thing that my mind had shut down at that stage, cause it
may have asked questions like, "What are you doing up here when you're
afraid of heights?" or "How come only 20 women in the whole world
are tandem masters?" or "I wonder will she be stopping to touch up
her make-up half way down?".
Well, no turning back from 12,000 ft. (The flight is one way, the buggers only
give one option on a way down!). Sitting with the legs out the door of the craft,
my new Aussie friend pushed me towards nothingness and I in turn thought her
some expletives she never knew existed. With me busy concentrating on the beers
from the night before intermingling with the brekky somewhere around my esophagus,
we hurtled down through the air for number of seconds before I realised that
it was OK to breathe. I'm not sure if they said we did about 200kmph as we fell,
but twas a long 45 bl0ody seconds before she ripped the chute out at 4000 ft.
God knows what tricks or twists she did on the way down, and I'm glad he does,
cos' I certainly don't! But,
"That's it", thought I, as I had the stomach wrenched out of me yet
again, before we started sailing toward the ground, "Sure didn't they say
it's nothing from here on down?".
Nothing! My arse! We twisted and maneuvered and cut through the wind in every
other direction as we headed towards the landing site and I found myself wondering
what attracts folk to this kind of madness! Well, we eventually got to the ground
and I happily plonked my arse bones onto it with no intention of ever moving
them again!
After bringing us back to base, they sat us all into a room and showed us the
video of the jump (personalised to follow one of the girl's jumps).
Any of you that know me well, know my aversion to appearing in a photo or video
of any kind, but I didn't have much choice in appearing in this one. After sitting
watching it though and listening to the whole room laughing everytime my scared
visage appeared I actually decided to break the rules and buy the bloody thing
so that evil folk back home can laugh at my expense if they so dare. It'll cost
you all beers though - I might be scared sh1tless after falling 12,000 ft.,
but I'm not above thinking how to scam a few beers from the lads!!!
Well, madness breeds madness I suppose, so next stop was a 100m (~300 ft.) abseil
down into The Waitomo Caves. Any idea how high 100m is???? Well when you're
being attached to a rope to lower yourself down that distance, hanging mid air,
without even the support of a cliff face or ledge, then let me tell you it's
well bl0ody high! They even make the harnesses extra tight so that you can't
sh1t your pants too much! That said, for any normal bodily functions to work
as I hung up there would have been a minor miracle! As it was, I was so tense
and gripping so tight that every muscle in my body ached when I eventually go
to the bottom!!
Right! Apologies if you actually read all of that crap, but I'm off to the cot
now...
I'm assuming that ALL of you (including Lorraine, James, and all other English
Folk here) Will be cheering on the All Blacks next weekend!
Regardless of who looses, take care,
Keith.
So, after entering "The Lost World", a beautiful valley of vegetation
100m less above sea level than it should be, we stopped for lunch and then headed
off into the caves, climbing rocks and eventually climbing into a river going
upstream. The trip I was on was the most extreme in the whole of the Waitomo
Caves and there was just the two guides and myself and an American girl by the
name of Laura who totally loved the abseil (as apposed to those of us who questioned
whether we should commit ourselves to a sanatarium for what we were PAYING to
do!!!).
Then came part two of the trip, upstream in the river. Now I had acknowledged
that I was a non swimmer, but Laura ascertained her great ability in the water.
This sh1t was different though! Being a swimmer meant nothing! With a torrential
current against you, it's impossible to swim anyway. So it's all down to clinging
onto whatever rock out-crop is there and pulling yourself along - just my kind
of swimming!
I suppose that it did help my case that I'd gone through Cave Stream with Andrew
and his sunglasses though. Seriously Andy, I we had been geared up as I was
in Waitomo with a wet suit, hard hat, and head held waterproof torch, we would
have pissed it through that cave with it's trickle of water!!!!
Laura however gave up not far in and I have to say I'm glad (for her) as the
next stretch was so bad that despite pulling myself forward using a rope, I
only *just* managed to have the strength to pull myself through the last of
the rapids. So, after leaving Laura behind on a ledge to rest herself, the two
guides and I headed off further into the cave. We eventually made it to a waterfall
where they somehow convinced me to jump off a ledge alongside the water fall
(it didn't look that far from the bottom!). After, they themselves did a few
jumps with somersaults (nowhere as impressive as my Guinness-BellyFlop I must
say!), and we then headed back down stream to Laura.
The trip was supposed to continue on upstream into a huge glow worm cave, but
we had given up on that once Laura couldn't go on. Heading back down was fun
as the current was so strong, and we did most of it lying on our backs floating
down. Bar the few stones that I whacked into each of which nearly broke my arse,
it was all cool. So then we got back to Laura we finally made our way back to
a 30m (~90 ft.) vertical ladder which was to be our (ammended) way out of the
caves. I couldn't actually look up at the ladder from the ground because of
the dizziness it gave me as it disappeared into the dark miles above the power
of my torchlight. So when my turn came, I just grinned and decided it was all
about holding on!
My God, I wasn't prepared for the strain on the biceps though. After all of
the walking I've done recently, I guess my legs are (at last) fairly strong,
but my biceps burnt like hell as they pulled me up that ladder. Still, falling
was not an option (saftey ropes mean nothing to me - to fall and have it catch
you just confirms the fact you can fall!), so I gripped like the bejaesus and
kept on hauling myself up until at last we got out into the glorious rain (rain
is always glorious if you're in an already wet wetsuit!).
The trip was excellent, but it was also very expensive ($355), so when we got
back to the shop I asked for the manager and after praising the guides to the
hilt and thanking them for a really enjoyable day, I asked for compensation
for the curtailament of the trip as it was not my doing despite me being the
one that was afraid of heights and not able to swim. They refused a refund but
they did give me a T-shirt that they retailed at $40. I felt that was fair enough
and left happy despite paying for the most expensive package they had and still
not getting to see the caves lit up with gloworms that make the place famous
and drew me there in the first place...
Speed boat
Keith.
P.S. Look out for a new photo album at http://photos.yahoo.com/keith_flynn (entitled
"Central North Island")...
First of all folks, forget any rubbish anybody ever told you about the North
Island of NZ not comparing to the South. It's every bit as cool, and has so
much to do, that I won't be able to do half of what I want to in the time I've
left... The landscape here is, like the South, shaped from the fact that the
country lies on the fault line between the Indo-Australian and Pacific Continental
Tectonic Plates. The main difference between the two though is that the South
Island was further shaped by glacial movements, whereas the North Island was
more so defined by volcanic activity. It makes for a nice diversity in the landscape
and there are plenty volcanic and thermal wonders to be observed. Anyway, enough
of the geography lessons...
I started off in Wellington, a city which I immediately liked. My only problem
there would be how to get to see it all in as little time as possible. The city
has a vibrant nightlife and rests among beautiful hills overlooking a lovely
harbour. Anyway, I started out by taking a spin out to Karori to a lookout over
the city, where they housed a gun capable of firing 18 miles during WWII. The
views were splendid and you could see right down to the South Island. I then
headed up to Victoria Hill, another lookout, but this one right in the city.
In the woods here, the LOTR guys filmed the scenes of the Hobbits hiding from
the Nazgul as they left The Shire. As I was already driving, I also took in
a tour around the Marine Drive, which takes in a load of beautiful suburban
bays South of the city. Back into the city and I grabbed the Cable Car up to
the Botanic Gardens where I had a quick walk around and also visited the Carter
Observatory. The observatory was good, but there was no chance to see through
the telescope so that was a bit disappointing.
After that busy day, I devoted most of the next to visiting Te Papa, the enormous
National Museum. It was pretty cool with some good exhibitions on Maori Culture,
NZ art, European Settler history, and information on the volcanic and seismic
activities that the county is susceptible to. They also had an exhibit on The
Waitangi Treaty, the treaty that the British used to make peace with the Maori.
However, the Maori language and English language versions read different and
little did the chiefs know that the English version said the Chiefs would cede
all rights of Sovereignty to the Queen. And guess which version was subsequently
used as law.... The exhibit was very good as it outlines the results of the
treaty and how it still effects life here today.
That evening I went to see the musical version of Alan Duff's "Once Were
Warriors" in the Opera House. I was skeptical going in, as I don't normally
like musicals, and having seen the film version years ago, I couldn't see how
they could translate such a harrowing story into a musical. But they did, and
it was amazing. They had Maori warriors doing war dances at each door as you
entered, just to set the scene. And then the play started with Grace and the
other Kids reading about old Maori legends, before introducing us to the alcoholic
and gambling excesses of Jake the Mus and subsequently the effect of his behaviours
on his families lives. Really powerful stuff with some excellent war-dances,
Hakas and the likes. If you've never seen the film or read the book, then get
down to your video or book store and sort it out, the film is fantastic and
I've heard that the book is now being thought in some schools (not sure where).
If the show travels internationally, I for one won't miss seeing it again back
in the Fair City.
I decided that the next day would be my last in Welly, and I decided to spend
it exploring Government buildings. I first did a tour of the old Government
Building, the largest wooden building in the Southern Hemisphere. Designed to
look like a concrete structure, the building is fantastically restored and is
now mostly used by Victoria University's Law School. From there I went to the
Parliament Buildings and got a full tour starting with an explanation of how
they had to make the buildings earthquake proof by effectively cutting it away
from the ground and resting it on 400 rubber supports. An amazing feat of engineering
when you look at it (but I believe that it is a fairly common process now-a-days)!
Then it was into the debating chambers and library, getting information on how
the parliament works, etc.
Suitably intrigued, I decided to go into the Public gallery after lunch to hear
the days debates in the House of Representatives. First of all, I was shocked
at the turnout. Despite no real issues of importance being debated, and the
fact that the PM was away on a state visit in Italy, the house was about 75%
full. You wouldn't get it at home! After the debates started, I soon understood
why the turnout was so good. It was mad craic. They all just sit there heckling
each other and making jokes at each other. Some members were just downright
show-boaters!! For instance, when highlighting a safety issue where brake discs
from trains were being found along tracksides, the addressing member made a
point of presenting some of the said discs to the Minister responsible! And
when one member of the Opposition asked the Minister for Corrections, "How
does the Minister think the prison system relates Internationally?", another
Opposition member (from a different party) shouted out, "With Iraq!".
The whole house broke down laughing!!! It'd be funny if it wasn't so serious,
and probably more so if the Kiwi's didn't have soldiers in Iraq at the moment.
But we won't let those kind of details take from the humours of Parliamentary
work!! I have to admit, it was a great experience seeing how a country is run!!!
After Welly, it was back to the car, and a day driving around the Hutt Valley
and the South end of the Island. The scenery was spectacular, but the highlight
was definitely the Putangirua Pinnacles, which were accessed by a 1 hour walk
along a stream bed. They were the same idea as the "Clay Cliffs" Andrew
and I visited near Omarama on the South Island, but just the height and magnificence
of them towering above you was breathtaking.
Moving quickly along, I spent a day on Kapiti Island, just off the West Coast
North of Welly. The island is a nature reserve and free of all ground living
mammals including rats, cats and possums, and is a breeding ground for many
native flora an fauna, some of which is already extinct on the mainland. The
walk to the mountain peak at the center of the island was just magnificent and
the amount of bird life to be seen was amazing. It really was a most enjoyable
day.
Continuing North, I visited the Southward Museum, which had some really interesting
vehicles, including the bomb proof and bullet proof Caddy belonging to Al Capone's
driver. The cars on display ranged from the first horseless carts to famous
Belfast built DeLorean, made famous in the Back to the Future movies.
My destination after all that was Egmont National Park, as I intended to do
a walk on Mount Taranaki (an active volcano) the following day. Time pressures
unfortunately meant that I couldn't stop and stay in Wanganui, the beautiful
historic city of wooden buildings that I fell in love with straight away. I'm
told there's not a whole lot to do there, but still, the place did look class,
and I wouldn't have minded staying for a night...
As it happens, Mount Taranaki turned out to be wasted pain, as the clouds moved
in around the mountain as soon as I put my foot on it! Still, the walk was enjoyable,
even if you couldn't see 25 meters in front of you! Plus it loosened my calf
muscles up for The Tongariro Crossing which I was doing the next day.
The Tongariro Crossing is fast becoming the most popular walk in the country
(even more popular than the Milford Track). It's a day trip where you start
off with a steep climb over volcanic rock and debris until about 500 meters
short of the summit of Mt. Tongarrio. Here you encounter a large circular plateau
whose origin is identified via it's name, South Crater. You then walk across
the flat crater, walking on frozen hard mud before climbing another few hundred
meters to reach Red Crater, a huge hole down into the depths of the Earth with
red lined walls. This baby is active, so you need to be careful not to jump
up and down too hard or anything like that! Pretty amazing stuff. From this
summit, you get an amazing view of The Emerald Lakes, three green lakes in old
craters. After freezing yourself for a while at 1,700 meters, you then start
sliding down the steep slope to the lakes, and you continue on over the next
ridge to come to the next lake, it's name, Blue Lake, also being quite descriptive...
From there it's down the far side of the mountain with splendid views of Lake
Taupo and Lake Rotoaira to the North... A must-do day out for any of you visiting
this way...
Right, I'll leave it at that for now. Go have yourselves a wee cup of cha and
then GET BACK TO WORK!
Keith.
P.S. Look out for a new photo album at http://photos.yahoo.com/keith_flynn (entitled
"Welington to Tongarrio")...
20/05/2004 Back to top
Well Folks,
While you've all been lounging around taking it easy back home, I've been struggling
on seeking out new adventures to bore you to tears with. The things I do...
I'll be expecting a free months supply of Guinness when I get back for my troubles!!!!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the last update was just after I'd been to Steward
Island, right down there beside the South Pole... Well from there, I headed
back up the East coast right up to Kaikora in North Canterbury. Kaikoura is
a beautiful little coastal town, that used to be a thriving Whaling station
but is now a huge tourist attraction with seal colonies, whale watching, swimming
with dolphins, fishing and catching cray fish among the top attractions. While
there I decided to go whale watching which was an OK, if not a little expensive
experience. They hoisted about 40 of us onto a ultra modern catamaran and off
we set looking for the local sperm whale bulls. On the way out to sea, we passed
through a pod of about 100 dusky dolphins which was pretty cool. Anyway Kaikora
attracts the whales because the continental shelf ends only half a mile from
the shoreline and the sea plummets from a depth of 100m to 1100m almost at once.
With the prevailing ocean currents, the area is alive with marine life and presents
a top feeding ground for the whales. The whales dive for 50 mins at a time before
surfacing for 5-12 minutes to take in air. By keeping an eye on where the mammals
were last seen, how long they've been down and listening for them with underwater
microphones, the crew can quickly locate the whales. We got to see two whales
surface and take their breather before diving again. Pretty impressive creatures
at about 18 meters in length...
After the whale watching, I hopped into the car and headed out to a place called
Glenstrae Farm where I was booked in to go quad biking. I have to say that this
was the best fun I've had since coming out here!!! It was class!!! The bikes
were new Honda 350s, with 125HP of grunt and they kicked ass! First we headed
off across the hills of the farm, right out to the cliff edge where we were
greeted with some amazing scenery and even a seal colony. Then we did a free-for-all
along a beach before a drive up along a creek. The ride was about 2 1/4 hours
and was great fun... Definitely recommended to anybody traveling out this way...
From Kaikora, the next stop was Hanmer Springs, a small resort town built around
a thermal reserve where natural hot spas have been converted into a big hot
pool complex. It was just a day of chilling out in the various pools, playing
on the waterslide (my first time ever on a waterslide - how exciting is that
for a little kid like me!!!), and of course an auld massage to ease the suffering
of carting a smelly rucksack around with me!!! When you do it, do it right -
that's what I say!!!
After a month of glorious weather, things started to turn a little nasty after
Hanmer Springs. So unfortunately the drive through the Lewis Pass wasn't as
impressive as it might have been without the thick cloud cover. However, with
driving rain and high winds I decided that I would once again visit Punakaiki.
Andrew and I stopped there already at the beginning of our tour and we were
quite impressed by the Pancake Rock formations. However, being there at low
tide we didn't get to see the blow holes in action. With the high winds this
time around, I wasn't going to miss them again. So, I booked into the excellent
hostel nearby and at 11PM (high tide) I hopped in the car and once again headed
to the Pancake Rocks. With a full moon there was plenty light and the massive
surf off the sea was seriously impressive by moonlight. Still, I wasn't prepared
for the spectacular of huge spouts of water shooting out into the air from each
of the three distinctively different blowholes every time the surf hit the shore.
Awesome stuff - I could have waited there all night watching it!!! The biggest
one made you think that you were going to be washed away under a wall of surf
every time it blew up despite it being meters away from you!!
Check out the short clip (of the Putai blowhole) I took the following day at
http://www.geocities.com/keith_flynn/.
From Punakaiki a German girl, Gudryn who was heading in the same direction,
joined me and we headed up to Karamea on the North West coast to do part of
the Heaphy Track. The walk is a three to five day straight through affair, but
the start and end points are over 400KM apart by road, so I decided to walk
in halfway and then back out the same side so as not to have to come back that
distance for the car. The walk was splendid! We started off in the rain with
the Tasman sea roaring away along the trackside. The surf was almost scary and
the foam was so milky rich that it seemed as if a supertanker of soap powder
has split it's loads just 100 meters from the shore! At one point we had to
walk knee deep through the stuff! We got totally soaked on that first day before
the weather picked up for the second and the third. On the way back out, it
was amazing to come out of the forest to the palm trees lining the beaches in
the sunshine with the memory of the monstrous sea being a distant past in the
beautiful sunshine... The trek consisted of three days covering 24KM each day,
and my feet hurt like never before, so afterwards we were well happy to settle
into the Karamea Hotel for food and beer and a free upgrade to an $85 a night
room. The upgrade was courtesy of the proprietor Kevin, who happens to be the
Dad of Lynley, a girl I met in Sydney who works with Michael Canavan. It's not
what you know in this life!!!
After all that hard work I headed West to Blenheim, the heart of New Zealand's
Wine country and home to the world famous Marlborough Wines. I visited between
15 and 20 wineries for tastings and let's just say I was slightly inebriated
after it all, if such an understatement would ever be believed!
On my way towards Abel Tasman for my final adventures on the South Island I
drove around Marlborough Sounds. All I can say is that the scenery was breathtaking
with hundreds of fantastic bays, beaches, hills and islands. I must have spent
about 9 daylight hours driving around and still didn't see half of what I wanted!!!
It was just all too much....
With my time being well overrun on the South Island, I eventually got to Abel
Tasman National Park for a day Kayaking followed by a day Hiking before getting
the water taxi back to our hostel and the much welcome spa pool. The Park was
just beautiful and my timing of the weather couldn't have been better, as taking
the long way around and visiting the wineries and the Sounds before Abel Tasman
meant that the rain of the previous few days had cleared up in Abel Tasman by
the time I got there... The kayaking was a laugh and the tramp was amazing too
with stupendous views of some truly beautiful coast line. The only problem was
that it was all too short.
Unfortunately, there was so much more I wanted to see and do on the South island
but with time running out fast, I had to call it a day and head onto the North
Island. So here I am in Wellington, the capital city, a beautiful place. Again
time is annoying me, because the city has so much to offer I could stay here
for ever but the clock as always presses on....
You should find a new photo album at http://photos.yahoo.com/keith_flynn (entitled
"Top of the South") and it should have some shots of some of the places
just mentioned...
Till the next time - look after yourselves out there...
Keith.
01/05/2004 Back to top
Well folks,
It's been a mixed bag of activities since I spoke to you last with plenty chilling
out, a few major sessions and a bit too much physical exertion in the bush (ahem,
shouldn't that be "countryside" - Ed.)...
From Timaru, I headed out across Otago to meet the lads in Queenstown for the
Easter weekend. On the Saturday, Mac and I headed to Cardrona to watch the "Race
for the Sky", an annual international race 15km up a mountain side. The
race was good fun, with them racing everything from scramblers, to quads, trucks,
rally cars, and a few specially designed cars. The race was won (as always)
by the Japanese driver "Monster" Nobuhiro Tajima in his 1000 horsepower,
1 ton downforce specially built Suzuki...
Next day Paul and I went to Wanaka to watch the annual airshow "Warbirds
Over Wanaka", which is a 3 day show with WWII airplanes, acrobatics, and
simulated aerial battles. The show was OK, but was a little slow moving and
got slightly boring at times. Still, being smelly backpackers, we refused to
pay the $50 admission fee and just watched from the road, so maybe we missed
out on a couple of the more up-close actions over the runway... Still, we felt
that the $50 was much better invested in alcohol afterwards!
While in Queenstown, I decided to check out some of the amazing local scenery.
First up, Mac and I decided to climb Bob's Peak. Anybody who has been to Queenie
will instantly recognise Bob's Peak as the hill with the large cablecar gondola
at the back of town. It was a steep walk but we did it in under the hour which
was cool enough... At the top we had a go on the Luge, which is a cool little
speedway where you sit in a wee cart and bucket it down a concrete speedway.
Good fun, but the evening was cut short when the chairlift broke down. Thank
God we didn't get stuck on the lift though, we were only about five back in
the queue to get on just before it stopped. Always ready with the scams though,
we took full opportunity and got ourselves refunds on the ride and a free gondola
trip back down to town!!!!
Looking for the next thing to do, I decided to splash out a few quid on the
Shotover Jet, which is a jetboat ride down the Shotover Gorge. It's a big touristy
thing, so costs plenty, but was good enough fun. The ride is about 20 minutes
on the water where the driver drives through the gorge narrowly missing large
rocks and cliffs. They also make the boat do about a dozen 360 degree spins
which was cool enough...
After the jet boat ride, I took a spin on out to Skippers Canyon. The cliff
edge road (dirt-track more like) is forbidden to rental cars and advised to
be only for 4*4s, but sure with two wheel drive wasn't I half way there, so
off I went!!!! The views were just amazing and I went as far as the spot that
the used in Lord of the Rings to simulate the flooding of the River Anduin,
where Arwen carried Frodo across the river and summonsed up the huge flood to
stop the Nazgul following her... The area is really worth the drive, but is
definitely not for the faint hearted in 2 wheel drive vehicles!!!!
Continuing on the LOTR trail, I also visited Deer Park Heights which is a beautiful
hillside park with amazing views in all directions. The area was used for extensive
filming in The Two Towers and in particular in the scenes where the people from
Rohan made their way from Edoras to Helm's Deep. Because of the LOTR connection,
the park had a hefty $20 admission fee, which is crap cos the film stuff is
rubbish. But the views and the wildlife in the park definitely make it a place
worth visiting.
From there I moved onto Arrowtown, and the Autumn colour changes were just kicking
in, and the place was nothing short of amazing. Shades of yellows, reds, browns
ad green mixed everywhere to create such a beautiful picture. The town is a
real laid back treat despite being so close to Queestown. The Arrow river that
runs through it was the site for one of the areas first gold rushes and there
is now a nice partially restored Chinese Miners village beside the town. Extensive
LOTR shooting was done here too, with some of the shots of Arwen and Frodo fleeing
from the Nazgul in The Fellowship and the Gladden Fields where Isildur was ambushed
and lost the ring after he defeated Sauron.
Staying in the Lake Wakatipu Region, I also visited Glenorchy and Kinlock. This
is a beautifully remote area and was used for many scenes in LOTR ranging from
the site of Saruman's tower at Isengard, to Amun Hen where the Fellowship split
up after being attacked by Orcs, and also some shots for Lothlorien, home of
Galadriel. While there, I did a day walk up the Dart track, through beech forest
along the Dart river to prepare myself for some more serious tramping that was
to come over the next few days. The walk was picturesque but without a backpack
I later learned that it didn't nearly provide any of the exercise I would really
need to prepare me for what was ahead!!!
At this stage it was time to get a warrant for my car (similar to an NCT or
MOT). I could have got it done anywhere, but I opted to travel back up the West
Coast to the mechanic that serviced the car before, hoping he might be lenient
on me. Well, the gamble paid off and the car was declared fit despite those
little holes in the mid section of the exhaust pipe!!! Nice one!
On my way up the coast, I stopped off for a night in Wanaka and visited the
famous Cafe Paradiso, a single screen cinema with seating consisting of old
second hand furniture... Oh and a Morris Minor car... So that you can feel like
you're at the drive in, like... Different - I'll give it that!!!
The real pains on the West Coast started with my day walk on the Franz Joseph
Glacier though. An 8 hour walk with 6 hours on the ice, I was wrecked at the
end. Despite Liam Shaw's advice, I went for the fastest paced group, so it was
intense enough. That was the best way though. The walk was more adventurous
than the heli-hike Andrew and I did on the Fox Glacier, as you got to walk among
the Ice Falls, but the ice was not as pure as it was so much further down. Plus
the Franz Joseph is so busy that we kept getting held up in traffic jams of
people! Still, an enjoyable but tiring day.
Well if I wasn't wrecked enough, next morning I filed up my backback with a
few days worth of food, my new little stove and lots of other stuff that I didn't
need and headed off on the Copland track. The walk was 7 hours long, and the
backpack ended up being heavier than I was!!! The walk proved seriously tough
and I swear to God I didn't think I'd make it to my destination, which was Welcome
Flat Hut. And to make it worse I couldn't just rest up for a few hours as it
was already a race to get there before the darkness closed in. Every part of
my body ached and my knees were buckled by the time I dragged myself up to the
hut just as darkness fell!!! The main reason for the popularity of this walk
is the geo-thermal hot pools beside Welcome Flat Hut. Well, once I got there
I just dropped the bag, stripped off and crawled into the 50 degree water. God
it was great, but I did nearly faint in there, so I had to get out and sort
out cooking dinner!!! Well, I meet some great folk up there and decided to stay
an extra day to regain a bit of energy and wallow in the pools some more before
tackling the trek back the day after. All in all it was a great walk and the
pools definitely make all the pain worthwhile....
At this stage I'd been off the beer for a week (a miracle I know!) and when
we got back to civilisation, I bumped into more travelers that I'd met before
and the whole gang of us went for a pissup in Fox Glacier. A brilliant night,
but let's just say the next few days were a bit on the slow side...
I made my way back down the coast leisurely taking in the sights (and the smelliest
hitchhiker I've ever had the misfortune to pick up!) along the way. My destination
was Queenstown for one last time. And much to my surprise on my way there, I
stumbled on an International Motor Stunts show and Demolition Derby. This turned
out to be a great day out with all manners of vehicles doing all manners of
stunts ranging from driving on two side wheels, wheelies in monster bigfoot
trucks and bike stunts to having one bigfoot truck jump over the other. All
this culminated in a demolition derby which was great fun. Big kudos to the
guy that came second despite only having three tyres from around about the third
lap!!!!
Back in Queenie, I took in some White Water Rafting. I was a little apprehensive
about this to start as I can't swim, but in the end it turned out to be handy
enough with grade 2 and 3 rapids. The event was on the Kawararu river, which
was a added bonus, because the first part of the trip was to float through the
very gorge that The Fellowship of the Rings floated through when passing the
Pillars of the Kings on the River Anduin. That was pretty cool, and also cool
was the fact that around the next corner we went under the bridge that the guys
jumped off in the old classic film, Midnight Run. The next bridge was famous
as the worlds first bungy jump site and is still in operation as one of AJ Hackett's
Queenstown bungy sites. We moored the rafts momentarily to watch some poor sod
jump and get dipped to his waist in the water only a couple of meters from us.
The rest of the trip involved various stunts and tricks to get us all wet and
all that, so all in all a fun day out...
From Queenstown, I bid farewell to the lads and headed south to do the Rakiura
Great Walk on Steward Island. And I just want to assure you all that I kept
my eyes tightly closed as I drove through the township of "Center Bush"
and I completely by-passed "Heddon Bush". My innocence is still intact
you'll be glad to know!!!
The Steward Island walk was a three day affair, which was moderate enough, although
a lot of the track had boardwalks and the steps on them were extremely rough
on the knees. The unboarded parts tended to be very mucky but easier to walk
nonetheless. The walk was mostly through forest so the scenery didn't change
that dramatically, but when you did get views out of the woods, it was pretty
cool, and there was also some cool native wildlife to be seen. And as if three
days walking wasn't enough, we had a few hours work on the second day trying
to find dry dead wood for the fire - we hadn't the heart (or balls) to cut branches
off live trees in a national park!!! Then came the task of carrying it back
to the hut and slicing and dicing it with with axe and bushman. Great fun after
5 hours hard trekking I can tell you!!!! :-) Anyway, if we ever meet those sods
that used the last of the wood and never replaced it, there'll be fun!!!
So that's it, I'm currently on my way towards the north end of the South Island.
With only 6 weeks left, it'll be all go to fit in all that's left to see, so
I must keep trucking on.
You should find a couple more photo albums at http://photos.yahoo.com/keith_flynn,
with pictures from the last adventures... Enjoy and keep it country folks...
Keith.
Well folks,
We've covered quite a few miles since my last update, and the Oz Experience will soon be coming to a close, but not before we fit in the Grand Prix this weekend and some meeting up with old heads and some Paddies day celebrations back in Sydney!!!
To continue from where I left off, we ended up staying in Byron Bay a little longer that originally planned - the place was just too cool and chilled to leave! We mostly just kicked back a lot out there and I think I already mentioned that we went sea kayaking to see dolphins. That was calss, Paul & I split from the main group of kayaks and ended up in the middle of a school of about 20 dolphins. They were all around us, it was pretty cool. On the way back we got brave and did some wave surfing, but Brady forgot to steer in the craic of it all and we ended up being fecked out of the boat after!!! Given that my swimming expertise is in the Anchor Stroke, that was a nice expierience!!!
We also made a trip out to Nimbin (the hippy and funny smoking capital of Oz). It's a mad little town with guys openly selling grass on the streets and the cops not caring. Seeingly it was even very quiet when we were there as there had been a recent swoop by the cops (they have to make it look good from time to time)... There wasn't a lot to do in the town, that I'd ever admit to anyway ;-) so we took in a few sights on the way back to Byron, the coolest of which had to be the "Open Air Cathederal" in a village called Bexhill. Check out http://www.geocities.com/brady_paul for a funny animated GIF of Brady pontificating from the alter!
From Byron we drove almost straight to the Blue Mountains (west of Sydney) stopping overnight in Port Maquare. The Blue Mountains were class! Lookouts and waterfalls all over the place and the real jewel had to be The Jenolan Caves, a famous cave system containing over 300 caves in a limestone hill 16KM long by 1/2 KM wide. I couldn't even start to describe some of the amazing formations that had formed in there and we only got to see about one and a half of the nine caves that are open to the public (that still entailed over 2KM walking underground and about 1300 steps!!!). Excellent stuff - I could have spent a week there... Of the aforementioned lookouts, the best had to be the East Point Lookout in Katoomba overlooking "The Three Sisters", famous rock formations on a cliff top you'll see the pictures evntually! In fact we even awarded it with the coveted number 1 lookout prize, once and for all usurping the egotistically named "Best of All Lookout" back in Springbrook National Park!
From Katoomba, it was back into the car for the long drive to Melbourne (about 1000KM). We stopped to rest last night in a small town called Albush about 300KM from Melbourne. It was student night, so there was plenty people around so we just had a few drinks and joine din the craic. Sure aren't we almost akin - smelly students and smelly backpackers!!!
Today we made it to Melbourne and picked up our Grand Prix tickets! Deadly that! We're meeting Sue later on tonight and will be staying with her for the weekend, so a fun weekend should be in store!
Then it's back to Sydney to meet up with a few more folk and to sell the car before moving onto New Zealand. Anyhow, watch out for our ugly mugs in the crowds on the telly at the weekend and have fun whatever you're at.
Till later,
Keith.
08/04/2004 Back to top
Or New Zealand as the Europeans called it....
It's been a while since the last report and thus this will most likely not be
the shortest read you've ever had in your life... are they ever???!!!! Still,
if you don't want to get yourself too bored, then you could just check out the
few photos at http://photos.yahoo.com/keith_flynn. Otherwise make sure that
the coffee percolator is full!!! Hopefully there will be a laugh or two in there
to keep you amused though!
I think I last sent a mail from Melbourne, and I have to say that feels like
years ago. The Grand Prix was great to see even if the result was a bit predictable.
And more importantly we had an absolute ball with Sue and Dave. It was great
to see both again and even better that I got to turn the tables and become Sue's
lodger for once!!! Talk about hospitality though, with all those meals she cooked
us, I have to admit there was trouble fitting the beer in after, but we struggled
on nonetheless!!!!
From there, we worked our way back to Sydney and tried to sort out selling the
Camry. Going there I was confident enough that we had a good enough car to not
have a problem with it, but once I saw the amount of cars for sale, and realised
how much of a buyers market it was (with feck all buyers around anyway), I started
to feel different. Still after 3 or 4 days in a garage four floors underground
we did eventually sell it. The Swedish girls we sold it to got a great deal,
but we were delighted to be rid in the end, all except John that is, who I still
reckon was perversely enjoying the sales game!!!
Sydney was great fun all the same though. We hooked up with Stephen Hegarty
(an old acquaintance from College), Mairead Daly (also from college days), Michael
Canavan (from back home), and Marie Lawlor (all the Dublin p1sshead crew will
know Marie). Lets just say that the lads did Sydney proud and my liver didn't
know what hit it... I was handling it OK until Paul and I did a huge session
with Mairead and the next day, with the worst hangover I could remember, I joined
Michael Canavan in the pub early, for the cure like!!! It was all downhill after
that let me tell you!!!
On the Sunday of that week John and Paul headed to New Zealand and I waited
around to do a couple days work for the company back home. The gig was to meet
up with some customers for two days. The guys I was meeting up with suggested
I stay in a place called Manly in North Sydney as it would be handy for work.
What a place! A trip to Sydney is not complete without visiting it!!! It's a
real affluent area, but with reason... The town is on a peninsula and the main
shopping street runs the 500 meters or so along the narrowest point. At one
end is a sea beach looking out onto the Pacific and on the other is a tranquil
beach inside Sydney harbour looking over at the city. Amazing. The real treat
though was to continue up to the top of the peninsula (North Head) to the Halifax
Track and wonder at a view looking down the length of the "finest natural
harbour in the world". It is just breathtaking and easily kicks ass of
any of the lookouts I've seen before or since. With the city snuggled in at
the end of the harbour you just can't help but be amazed at the massive cliffs,
and tranquil sandy coves and beaches that lie between. It has to be seen to
be believed, and for once in my life I'm sad not to have had a camera with me...
Being bereft of the car and in an area of amazing beauty I decided sweated off
the beer toxins of the previous week by walking about 17KM over hilly ground,
and loved every second of it, in it's breathtaking beauty...
The work effort went well and I left Sydney on Paddys day and arrived in Christchurch
all ready for the impending party thanks to Quantas in-flight service! Still,
I hadn't expected the whole city centre to be clad in green. I later learned
how to distinguish between folk. All the Kiwis wore green, most of the English
the same, and the Paddies wore GAA shirts or just normal clothes... Fair enough!
It was great to see though - the Kiwis seem to be truly amazed and delighted
everytime they meet an Irish person - you'd reckon they'd be used to it by now!
Still, it doesn't half make you proud. The night was spent drunkenly with Paul
and John and a few hundred others in a marquee behind an Irish bar with all
the tunes ringing out.... Late in the night Andrew (Gallagher) arrived in from
the Airport and I somehow managed to get him and his rucksack into the pub despite
the big queue of folk being refused entry cos the place was too full... I told
them that we were with the band!!!! God we're resourceful when we're drink,
are we not?
Next day, Paul and John headed off to Queenstown (Queenie) to seek their fortunes
and Andrew and I set about buying a car. We got an 89 Honda Concerto, which
is a Jap import identical to an Accord five door hatchback. All electrics, and
in good nick, we were well impressed. We got it for NZ$1050 knowing that there
was a bit of work to be done on it... Well happy with the deal and it's being
going well for me so far.
Andrew had just over two weeks holidays so we reckoned that we'd attempt to
cover the Southern 2/3s of the South Island in that time and see if we had anytime
left over to go North of Christchurch after. So we hit the high road and headed
West of Christchurch directly for the West coast via Arthur's Pass. We stopped
off at Cave Stream which does exactly what it says on the tin - it's a cave
with a stream running through it. Well we donned the swim gear and in our madness
decided to walk the length of the cave despite being told that it was too deep
by people that had just decided against trying it. Anyway, after plenty deliberation
we braved the ice cold, chest deep water and headed into the deep dark cave....
Now it's times like this you can't over-emphasis the importance of being prepared,
and I was happy to have brought spare batteries for my torch when the ones in
it began to wane soon after we entered the cave. So we changed the batteries
in the pitch black... Why? I hear you ask, and in fairness it's an obvious question
seeing that there was two of us in the cave, and we should have had two torches....
Well, as it happens, instead of a torch, guess what Andrew brought into this
underground, pitch black, cavernous freshwater river? A bottle of water, a mobile
phone that didn't have coverage outside the bl00dy cave and best of all, a pair
of prescription bl00dy sunglasses!!!!!
Still, despite only the one torch we made it though the cave and out the other
side (the bottle of water lost along the way!) and we were well proud that night
when we were informed that we had cheated death and that a poor girl had been
killed in the same cave only a week ago... Not to make light of a serious situation,
but I just hope that it wasn't because she'd forgotten her sunglasses!!! OK,
I take it back, that's not funny, she actually drowned because of a freak rainstorm
that increased the water level and currents in the cave - it already being a
well strong current in places, especially when navigating some of the underground
waterfalls....
After we trekked to the Devil's Punchbowl, a magnificent waterfall in Arthur's
Pass (see photos). It was possible to get right up to it, which was really cool,
but Christ did we get wet from the spray!
Next stop was a town called Greymouth, the biggest on the West coast. Here Andrew
tried to dry out his soaked-through boots by a technique developed by his cousin
John John - except without John's culinary skills, he didn't think of baking
the books at a LOW temperature. So after placing the boots carefully in the
oven, and setting the oven at max temp, he was shocked to find them half melted
when he came to check them 15 minutes later!!!! Still, we managed to rescue
them, but all I say is that if you ever visit the Y.H.A. in Greymouth, don't
bake a cake there (or use the oven at all). Trust me, it's for the best!!!!
Next we headed a little North along the West coast and visited the Pancake rocks
at Punakaiki. This limestone headland is famous for the way that the rocks have
eroded in pancake-like layers... Featuring a huge blowhole, the whole headland
is amazing to see, but unfortunately we weren't there at high tide to see the
best effects of the blowhole... No smart comments please, you know it doesn't
become you.... I swear "blowhole" is a totally innocent term here
- they even print it on the maps!!!!! You big kid.....
Back South again and onto Hokitika and a visit to the massive Dorothy falls.
I decided to go a bit crazy at this one and actually got out the swim shorts
and walked into the water and up as near as I could manage to the falls. By
hell was it COLD!!! My feet (despite being in trainers) were blue after!!! Still,
it was mad trying to challenge the mighty force of the waterfall (it won after
a submission in the first round, but I was still proud of challenging!!!)...
We also spent an extra day in Hoki replacing the top tank in the radiator of
the car (one of the necessary repairs that helped us get such a good price for
it). The guys in the garage were busy, so we had to take the rad out ourselves
and then replace it ourselves. That was fun let me tell you - and those of you
that know Andrew would have really appreciated his skills as a mechanic!!!!
Back on the road and continuing South, next up was the Glaciers. We decided
to bypass the more famous Franz Joseph in favour of the Fox Glacier on local
advice. It was cool - the delay with the car meant that we arrived on the first
day they were actually doing hikes to the Glacier for the previous two weeks.
Magically, the incessant rain had disappeared and was replaced with a gorgeous
sunny day. Andrew kept calling such occurrences as "lucky", but I
had to keep reminding him that it was just our "Supreme Knowledge and Understanding
of the Prevailing Weather Conditions" and nothing else!
First up was a visit to the Mirror Lake (Lake Matheson), which reflects Mt.
Cook, Mt. Tasman and the Fox Glacier in it's waters... and then onto Gillespie's
beach named after the Gillespie's that found gold there.... And I always wonders
where Brian and Mike got all their millions from!!!!
So, we hops in a helicopter to get a lift to the upper part of the glacier (the
foot treks only go to the lower parts). The flight was class with the pilot
turning the craft almost on it's side just to freak any poor sod that might
be afraid of heights (didn't work) and even flew over the Victoria falls which
falls into the Glacier and disappears underneath. We then trekked across the
glacier for two hours exploring ice caves and other formations. The walk was
cool, but I'd as soon have been let off from the guides and the group to walk
the thing on my own. But I suppose this way, I didn't die by falling into a
massive chasm of freezing water or something like that... You can only cheat
death so many times!!!!
So we headed even further South next to Fiordland, stopping in on Paul in Queenie
on the way to see how work was going. Satisfied that he was breaking his back
enough, lifting furniture as it happens, and that John was busy playing with
a kango hammer, we headed on, as Andrew wanted to see as much of the island
as possible rather than spend lots of time in Queenie which is famous for it's
adventure sports. So on we went, picking up a few hitch hikers along the way
as you do... We ended up staying in Te Anau and the last of our hitchhikers,
Claus from Denmark headed out with us to stay there too.
From Te Anau, we booked a trip to Doubtful Sound, so named because Captain Cook
was "doubtful" if he could get his ship in and out again. Access is
only by boat across a lake, followed by a bus trip over a gravel road on a mountain
pass, and then a cruise along the fiord itself (technically it's a fiord, and
not a sound, but we'll save the geography lessons for another time!). The trip
was even more expensive than the helicopter to the glacier, but before I left
home, I had promised myself this was a trip I'd definitely do regardless of
the price... The day started out wet and dirty and as Andy and I stood above
deck in the rain we marveled at.... the clouds that hid everything from view!!!
Once we got to the bus though, the storm started to move off and by evening
it was a beautiful evening. The upside of the bad morning was that once the
cloud rolled back we were treated with views of hundreds of waterfalls as the
rainwater from the morning fell in torrents off the granite mountains all around
us. It would be beyond me to adequately describe the impressiveness of the seemingly
infinite tree covered mountains towering around us and exploding with waterfalls,
but let's just say that it was kinda cool. It was like having a freezing cold
bottle of Bulmers over ice after you've walked six miles on the hottest day
of the year.... That cool.... The trip also included a tour of an underground
hydro electric station, but to be honest that was pretty boring in comparison....
The next day we went to Milford Sound, the most popular of the fiords with tourists
because of it's accessibility. We gave a couple of German girls we'd met in
Te Anau a lift up there and they went out on a cruise, but seeing as Milford
is three times smaller than Doubtful and our Supreme Knowledge and Understanding
of the Prevailing Weather Conditions told us that the rain wouldn't clear this
time, we decided against... The drive to Milford is fantastic it has to be said,
Decky has some good photos on his website if you're interested... You'll find
them at either http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/deckybrady or
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/bradydeclan.
On South to Invercargill and there we again met up with Claus and a Finnish
girl, Darru, that was going traveling out to Steward Island with him. We had
beers with them in what is probably the furthest Irish pub from Ireland and
what was a decent pub too, and with bulmers on draught, and a picture of Matt
Molloys pub on the wall, sure wasn't I right at home (although a pint of plain
in O'Connells would have be appreciated more!!!!).
The next day we traveled along the South coast of NZ, starting with Bluff, the
most southerly town, where we learned that we were only 20,000KM away from home...
We drove on East along the Coast through the Catlins and met some beautiful
coastline, whose rugged beauty could only remind me of Achill Island on a windswept
day. Beautiful! The similarities with the Irish landscape keep happening over
here - from lush green fields to windswept barren coasts, it's all here... We
visited the most southerly point of the island (Slope Point). Then a Fossil
Forest at Curio Bay. This was very interesting as the cliffs actually have fossilised
trees embedded in them. The tree trunks were "petrified" meaning that
they were literally turned to stone, maintaining their original shape... Mad
stuff... Plus the area was covered in waterfalls, the most impressive being
the Mc Lean falls which we walked right up to, even if it did take some rather
dangerous climbing on very slippery rocks... Always with the death cheating!!!
I also found the Niagara Falls of New Zealand quite humorous. We had spent five
minutes looking for them when we realised that they were where the water dropped
about an inch after flowing over some stones. Very funny you Kiwis - ya, the
joke is on us!!!!! And finally for the day was Jacks Blowhole, a huge swallow
hole 200 meters inland on a headland. Over a hundred meters long, about 50 wide
and about 70 deep, and with the sea flowing right into it, it was fairly impressive....
After the Catlins, we hit Dunedin, a lovely Scottish influenced city on the
East coast. We had a quick look around the old buildings in town and the impressive
train station and did a trip on the Taieri Gorge Scenic Railway, which afforded
some amazing scenery, but was a tad boring. Lucky that I had the foresight to
fill Emile (remember our loyal and trusted traveling companion Mr. (H)Esky?)
with beer and bring him along with us...
From Dunedin, we headed out to Otago Peninsula and visited Larnach Castle, the
only castle in NZ, built by a rich geezer by the same name who wanted a home
reminding him of those back in the UK. I have to say it's a fairly cool pad
he put together, but as we all know, with all that money you can never be happy
and after a few family tragedies, and some family in-fighting, the geezer eventually
shot himself in the house of Parliament where he served as an MP. The peninsula
offered some lovely scenery out over the Pacific including the dubiously named
"Lovers Leap" (see photo), and "The Chasm" which was, you
guessed it - a huge chasm!!! Always with the obvious! We also visited Penguin
Beach which was pretty cool. We got a tour in this mad little six wheel drive
buggy that drove like a tank, but just bolted it up and down hills and over
dirt tracks. They brought us to the top of a hill which overlooked the whole
peninsula and back into Dunedin. Then they brought us to a seal colony where
the well-informed guide educated us about seal life. Finally they brought us
to see endangered yellow eyed penguins (also living in the wild) and the more
common blue penguins which we viewed from concealed observation decks so as
to not disturb the creatures. All this finished, it was back to the buggy for
the joyride back to base. Highly enjoyable stuff...
Realising that Andrew only had a few days left, we decided to head into Central
Otago next and just explore some of the centre of the island before heading
back to Christchurch. We decided to use the little town of Omarama as a base
and stayed in a class spot called Buscot Station. This first backpackers facility
I had seen with China delph! Fancy or what??
From Omarama we made a drive back South West to Wanaka and visited Puzzling
World which was kind of interesting if not that challenging. The place basically
had lots of illusions, holograms and the likes and a giant maze for you to get
lost in. The town itself was beautiful and relaxed and sitting looking out over
Lake Wanaka you can see why so many people prefer it to the more commercial
Queenstown just down the road.
Before leaving Omarama, we visited the Clay Cliffs, which is an amazing collection
of hard clay pinnacles and caves created where rainwater had washed away looser
clay. Intrigued by it all, we did a little bit of climbing among the pinnacles
and in hindsight were probably lucky not to break a leg or something as the
ground was pretty unstable in places and one slide could be disastrous! That
death geezer must be getting pretty peeved with us always escaping his clutches
at this stage!!!
Finally, it's time to head back to Christchurch and so we head North stopping
briefly at Twizel where the Pelenor Fields were filmed in the Lord of the Rings
(LOTR to the buffs). Then onto Mt. Cook which was amazing with all the glaciers
on it's side, but it's summit was unfortunately shrouded in cloud. The journey
East from there took us around Lake Punakaki with it's amazingly eerie cyan
blue-white waters and we stopped in Lake Takapo with it's turquoise coloured
blue-green waters. Seemingly the colorations come from what is known as "Rock
Flour", tiny particles deposited in the water by the melting glaciers.
The particles float in the water rather than sink, giving the beautiful colourations.
All was going well on the return journey and we were nearly in Christchurch
when Andrew exclaimed that the car had a leak. Wondering what he was talking
about, he started explaining that there was lots of water under his feet, but
then decided that it was an oil leak and told me to pull in the car. So I looked
for a safe spot to park on the No. 1 state highway, wondering how one can have
an oil leak in the footwell of the passengers seat.... I don't claim to know
a lot about cars, but surely the oil is in the engine thing and that's all the
way up there under the bonnet thing??? Anyway, I had just pulled in when our
resident mechanic's investigations lead him to another discovery - and a big
red face... This was as he realised that the "oil leak" was in fact
from the bottle of cough mixture that he had earlier put into the glove box
after not closing it properly... The bloody thing had leaked out of the glove
box onto his shoes where he quickly identified it as oil!!!! A quick clip across
the lug was administered to the miscreant before we hit the road again!!!!
So Andrew, headed the next morning and I decided to wait a few days in Christchurch
to recover from the killer hangover I had and to sort out a few bits and pieces
I needed to get done with the car, etc. Deciding to taste a bit of local culture
I went to see a play in the Arts Centre. The play was based in America and was
called "Three Nights of Rain". It was very good and the theater was
really small and class - it reminded me of the Peacock for any of you that have
been to the Abbey's little sister theater.
Next night I hooked up with some Kiwis and headed to see the Super 12 Rugby
Union game in Jade Stadium. The league leaders, The Brumbies, from ACT in Australia
were visiting and playing the home team the Canterbury Crusaders, who were trying
to recover from a disappointing start to the season. And the news that ex All
Black Andrew Merthens was out with a stomach bug didn't help either. The game
was great to see though. There must have been about 20 All Blacks and Wallabies
out there including All Blacks like Daniel Carter, Justin Marshall, Richard
McCaw and Ruben Thorne. And as for the Wallabies, I'm sure we all remember names
like Stirling Mortlock, Stephen Larkham, George Gregan and George Smith who
were all in the team that beat Ireland by a point in the last world cup. The
game was a thriller with 9 tries and The Crusaders came out the deserved winners
47-28 in the end.... Nice one - stick it to the Aussies!!!!
Since all that, I've been taking things at a slightly easier pace. I next headed
East of Christchurch to a little town called Akaroa on Banks Peninsula. This
was a lovely tranquil little French town nestled in a beautiful bay. I spent
a day driving around the unsealed roads that criss-cross the hills on the peninsula
giving amazing views of the tens of inlets and bays all around. Most beautiful.
Next up was Methven, a small town South West of Christchurch and this was to
be my base for a three day hike on Mount Somers. However, the snow fell and
while I could have still done the walk, the idea of tramping in the snow for
three days while sleeping in cold huts with no hot water started to seems less
fun. And so, plans were rapidly amended and I just did a short walk along a
river gorge, Rakaia Gorge. Followed by a drive to Mt. Sunday, the little hill
where the LOTR crew filmed Edoras, the city that housed Meduseld or the Golden
Hall of Rohan, home of King Theodan.
And right now, I'm in kicking back in Timaru, a wee little city on the East
coast between Christchurch and Dunedin. It's a nice town, but with not a lot
happening, although it does have a nice art gallery and the hostel is as good
as I've been in...
Tomorrow I head back to Queenie for Paul's birthday celebrations and while there
we hope to catch the "Race for the Sky", a mad rally up a mountain
that sounds awesome! And we also hope to catch "Warbirds over Wanaka"
which is a huge International airshow where they re-enact WWII aerial battles
complete with simulated explosions. I'm really looking forward to it all...
Anyway folks, have a great Easter and congrats if you managed to actually read
this far... Take care and talk soon.... And send me on all the news from home...
There must be plenty with the new smoking ban, champions league sagas, etc.
Keith.
Well there,
I'm not sure if everybody on this list will want to be bored by the details below, but I know that all of you are clever enough to find the delete button if not... If you want to be taken off the list, then just let me know, and there'll be no worries. I totally realise that lots of you think that you've got important busy lives and couldn't be bothered reading shite. If you're in that group then don't be offended because the mail isn't really aimed at you anyhow, but rather at the rest of the poor feckless folk that have nothing better to do than to read crap mails anyway!!!
Well, I'd just like to start like saying that everything that the Aussie's have it sussed. TOO EASY is the order of the day here!!! In fact, at this stage, we're going to make an easometer to indicate how easy each day actually is...
Anyroad, we started off the trip with an extended stay in Cairns as we sorted out a car (an '89 Toyota Camry Sedan 1.9 EFI - a nice wagon indeed, even if it is an automatic) and lots of other bits and pieces. Cairns was OK, but a but touristy and the nightlife had a bit too much of a "Tenerife" thing going for it with silly party games and Karaoke sh1t going on in all the major pubs, and the rest of the pubs being fairly dead. Still there was always beer to be drank and we had lots of fun there so don't mistake the critisim as complaints!!!
To try to summarise on what we've seen so far, I suppoose I'll start with the diving on the Great Barrier Reef. This turned out to be a bit of a washout (pun intended) for most of us. Baz cleverly opted out, and I wasn't let dive becuase my swimming wansn't good enough despite being assured that being a non-swimmer wouldn't be an issue before we headed out. Decky and Paul had to cancel at the last minute so didn't get out at all. John did get diving and got his expert Padi diving cert, but he hurt his ears on the last day and has been in bits since... On the easometer, diving has to rate somewhere between tedious and difficult. But fortunately it's the only thing to ring bad on the easometer!!!!!
Onland, we've visited of places - the car makes it all so easy, and really gives us a chance to get off the beaten path. I'd be here for weeks if I listed every creek, mountain, swimming hole, rainforest, lake or waterfall we've been to so I'll just say that they were all class and if somebody is actully coming down here, ask me and I''ll list out the must see places.
I'll just run through the main spots that we got to...
From Cairns, Kuranda is an old hippy village in the mountains. We travelled up on an old historic train on a breathtaking journey through the mountains (it was built through valleys, gorges and all sorts of mad places like that and has over 15 tunnels! An amazing feat of engineering. In the village we visited "bird world" which obviously disappointed when we realised that they all had feathers! It was small but very cool with over 500 species flying around freely. The parrots loved the attention and just loved posing for pictures on peoples shoulders and all that kind of mallarkey. From there we visisted a place called rainforestation which first brought us on a little guided tour of a zoo of native Aussie animals including dingos (which aren't really native), kangaroos, wallabies, crocs, wombats, koalas, and various lizards and snakes. Then it was onto a WWII amphibious vehicle (the same as the guys use for the Viking Splash tour in Dublin), and they just gave info on the rainforest as we drove through it. Then it was onto watch some Aboroginie dancing followed by them exhibiting their amazing spear throwing abilities, digeredo playing and finally showing us how to throw boomarangs. The return to Cairns was via cable car over the massive Barron River and up over the rainforest across a few mountain peaks. Pretty cool stuff...
The next major spot we hit was Cape Tribulation - this was pretty cool, with fantastic beaches. It being low season the place was pretty quiet, and it was mad to see the most fantastic beaches I had seen to date being completely deserted. Mad. While up there was also visitied a rainforest where they had constructed walkways to allow you examine life at each level of the forest (from the floor right up to the canopy), and they also had a tower that brought you right up over the canopy top. Pretty interesting stuff...
Dec and baz left us then to head onto New Zealand and we moved onto Atherton, a small non-tourist village west of Cairns. The surrounding area consisted of a most beautiful tableland (plateau) on the top of the mountains dotted with amazing waterfalls, wildlife and volcanic formations of all sorts. The coolest was Milla Milla waterfall, which at about 20m is one of the tallest single fall falls in Oz. We even saw some mad Kiwis jump from the top. Mad b*stards!!!! Also well cool was a place known simply as "The Crater", where you stood at the top of a volcanic crater looking down 75 metres into a little lake at the bottom. Situated in a rainforest, the sides of the crater were lined with trees and vegetation, despite it being an almost sheer drop. Well cool stuff!!!
We also ventured into the outback out there and got to see massive termite mounds (between a metre and two high!!) dotted every few metres for miles. I just want to know what they all eat, given so many of them in one area!!!! Walshe??? We also got to see the worlds largest lava tubes, which are caves formed by flowing lava when the cooler lava at the surface solidifies...
I also managed to pick up a $250 fine for overuse of a Queensland road out there. The B*st*rds clocked me at 129KMPH in a 100 zone... I woulnd't mind but it was the middle of nowhere, about 70 KM from the nearest excuse for an outpost (with 5 houses in it)!!!
From there, we started travelling South and stayed in Mission Beach for a night but left again the next morning because it was DEAD. Got caught in a huge storm the next morning and the car broke down on the main highway in a flood of knee deep water. Pushed her into the side of the road and a truck mechanic appeared from nowhere, and fixed us up in a jiffy. On the easometer that scored a TOO! We hit a mad little place called Paronela Park after. Full of mad walkways through ferns, tunnels, Kaura trees, bamboo forests, etc. Cool enough stuff.
We then hit Maggie island and spent a couple of days chilling there. Did a 9K walking trek in mad heat with only a 1/4 bottle of water between the three of us though!!! That was fun!!! I think our travelling companion "Emile" (the nickname Decky put on our Esky) had a good laugh at us for leaving him bhind on that one!!! Paul and I would have KILLED for a Bulmers on ice after it!!!!
Onto Airlie Beach and went sailing around the Whitsunday Islands on a Katamaran for two nights and three days. I actully slept up top the first night, despite a full night of torrential rain - it was fun to do if not a bit mad - I even woke up with a dead fish lying beside me, so at least I can claim to have slept with the fishes!!! I got major sunburned the next day though, so had to opt out of the ringos on the last day, but that's OK as I did them before...
After Airlie, we spent a couple of nights in Rockhampton which was cool enough. Not a touristy spot, but we met loads of locals and had fun with them. We also visited the Capricorn Caves nearby and they were just class... They used to be a coral reef, but now are caves in a mountain - I couldn't do them justice if I tried, so I won't try!!
Then we spent two nights on a Cattle Station in the outback. We did a horseback cattle muster as soon as we arrived, and then just chilled out that evening. The next day, it started with milking the cow, (boring for those of us that have done it before) and then we started in a tour of the property (it's 30 km square so we didn't see half of it!!!). They let me drive most of the way in a '79 4x4 Land Cruiser all over dirt tracks. Bl**dy great fun, over the roughest terrain I could imagine!!!
After the drive, we went for a swim in a creek (again I was let drive - this time in a class new Land Cruiser, much nicer, but not quite as much fun!!!!). Actually, in the end I think I got to drive every vehicle they had - CLASS!!! After that we went for a campout with involved a clay pigeon shooting, rifle shooting, whip cracking, and lasooing before settling down to a barbie, beer and Aussie stories before sleeping out under the stars. Cool, but the ants were b*st*rds!!!!
After that we hit Rainbow Beach and from there hired a 4x4 and went to Fraizer Island. It's the largest sand island in the world, and is full of the purest, cleanest lakes you could imagine, not to mention amazing sand formations, rock pools, cliff lookouts, etc. The 4x4 was great craic around all the sand tracks and over the beach and this time we all got to drive so that was cool all around. Another TOO on the easometer...
Right now we're back in Rainbow Beach chilling out for a night before heading south to meet a cousin of mine from back home (Declan Keane) before heading onto Brisbane...
Anyway, fair play if you haven't fallen asleep by now. Sorry for the huge mail, but decent Internet access is hard to find here so it's practically imposible to send more regular updates...
Send me on all the craic at home, and cheers to all of you that already do... Right now, it's just hit beer o'glock again, so it's time to reset the easometer back to TOO and chill out for the evening!!!!
Take care,
K.
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