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New Zealand Tour, July 2002
Arrived around 2.30pm on July 22 after a good flight on a 737 with very friendly NZ staff, especially Alicia and Kelly who was doing her last trip before starting work as a nurse on a NZ hospital series like E.R. The hire car agent was at the airport to pick up other people so we got into town and straight to the hire car for free. Saved us $15. The 283km drive to Queenstown in our 1991 Corolla was quicker than expected at only 3hrs including a few 5 minute stops. It didn’t take too long into our drive before we started to get confirmation that we were in NZ. Sheep farms everywhere, but it was the first of many one lane bridges that made it feel like NZ for me. Checked into Sherwood Manor around 7.15pm settled in and went out to look around and have dinner. The view from our room towards The Remarkables was quite nice to see each morning.
Skied Coronet Peak on Tuesday 10.30 – 5pm, our first full day in Queenstown. It’s a very short 25 minute drive from the Hotel. Went into town that night for a nice cosy Italian restaurant, Spaghetti Cabonara, lasagne and a drink for $37, and a stroll around the shops. Skied again on Wednesday 9.30 – 4.30pm before returning to the Hotel before going out to fill up the car for the first time at $1.06.9 cents per litre, send off our first e-mails and look for a BBH Hostel to get our discount card/phone card.
Thursday, July 25, we went to Glenorchy to do the Dart River Jet boat safari.
This meant an early start leaving Queenstown at 7.45am. A 350 V8 Chevy engine drives the boat pushing 60 gallons of water per second. The safari started with a coach ride to ‘Paradise’ sight seeing commentary on the way, including a 2500 acre farm with an 11 bedroom farm house including indoor heated swimming pool. It must be tough to be a farmer in NZ! We then had a 20 min walk through a beechwood forest to board the jet boat. From our pick up point we travelled further north, upstream to points of interest including scenes from “The Lord of the rings” movie. Then we returned downstream travelling at full speed including full 360 degree turns. After we returned to Queenstown, about a 45 min trip, we then drove up to the Remarkables snow field to look around.
While up on the mountain we saw very light snow flakes, the start of that nights 1cm snow fall. The drive back down the mountain gave us a very nice shot of Queenstown.
We finished off the day with a 6 course buffet at the Skyline Gondola restaurant. Well it was supposed to be a 6 course dinner but the desert bar looked soo good I had 5 deserts, so I guess I had a 10 course dinner.
The venison and button mushroom in gooseberry glaze was very nice (even though I pushed aside the mushrooms) and it just melted in your mouth. Apart from the nice atmosphere and live singer while dinning patrons also had a marvellous view of Queenstown and the Skyline Bungee jumpers just below our window. I hope they were bungee jumping before dinner, not after! That will probably be the best value priced meal we will have in NZ at $52 including the Gondola return ride. Food seems a bit more expensive here, around 10-15% higher than Australia. Some examples of what we have paid: $8.50 for a small size Kebab, the same for 3lt of Orange juice and $6 for a box of cereal, that seemed very steep, I will have to check but I am sure my cereal at home costs about $4.
Friday saw us back on Coronet Peak for our 3rd day skiing, but not until after lunch, so we could ski into the night until 10pm.
Our normal 1 day lift ticket got us all the skiing we could handle from about 1pm including a dinner at 7pm and more skiing until we were exhausted around 9pm. The night skiing was quite a unique experience, skiing down the sloops as we lost the light of the day, creating shadows and what looked like black spots throughout the runs.
The spot lights were staggered in such a way that you had these dimly lite spaces between each spot light creating an eerie effect. By day 3 of our skiing most of my technic (and confidence) had come back so I spent more time on the blue runs. The M1 from the top of the mountain is long winding and steep in parts. I did it twice in a row at one point and was completely buggered.
Saturday was an early start, waking around 6am to leave Queenstown by 7.30 for our 612km round trip to Milford Sound. The drive out and back again was quite exhausting, with farming land, forests and Mountains along the road broken up by only 2 towns of any decent size with another 3 or so 1 horse towns. The last 100kms or so after Te Arnu had large, constant patches of fog which was thicker on the return trip but not as constant. We stopped at a place called Mirror lakes, but it was more like a group of ponds, where we were able to see a pretty clear reflection of the mountains in the water.
Hommer tunnel through the mountain nearest Milford was quite spectacular, lasting a little over a kilometre and driving deep into the mountain.
Milford is practically just the tourist stop, with a light plane airstrip for those that pay the $300 or so to fly in and out of Queenstown, a small hotel for over night guests, coffee shop, and the tourist desk by the wharf. The sound, well fiord technically as we were reminded about 3 times is very deep and a clear green/blue colour. It is a sea water fiord covered with about a 5 metre layer of fresh water from the surrounding snow drifts and waterfalls. This makes for some unique viewing from the underwater observatory which is about 10 meters deep and displays coral and other sea life that is usually found up to 30 meters deep in the open ocean.
The fiord is very well protected from the open ocean by the shallow passage and kink in the beginning at the entrance.
We arrived back in Queenstown at 7.30pm hungry and tired, so it was off to dinner at the hotel, then straight to bed by 8.30pm.
Sunday, our final full day in Queenstown, we changed location to the Remarkables to ski. Tracy liked it much better than Coronet Peak, I just found it different. A nice change of scenery. The slopes where a little longer for green runs while shorter and more diverse for blue runs. They had one blue run from the top of the far right slop that was almost too difficult for me to handle. During the day I found a group of hard core skiers and boards practicing their tricks.
Monday morning began our first day of travelling. Driving 404kms to Frans Josef, our longest single day leg, I estimated about 8 hrs driving and we managed it with all stops for lunch, photos etc in just over 8hrs. We had to change hostels at the last moment as the glow worm cottages where full. I choose Chateau Frans as my very first hostel to stay in. It was nice and very friendly with large common areas with a big screen television, pool table, 2 kitchens and a warm outdoor spa. The pot belly stove on the lower ground floor kept the four level place nice and warm. There where two other buildings with 2 permanent caravans as overflow lodgings and we where in the second ‘ski lodge’ unit block. It was a nice cosy and surprising warm setup. Entry was through the shared dinning/kitchen area which had the 4 bedrooms and bathroom off that. We got room 4, a single bunk room, with not much room for anything else.
Tuesday morning we did our half day walk up Frans Josef Glacier. It was an amazing sight, but your still just walking on a large block of ice, be it 60 year old ice.
From the time the snow falls on the top of the glacier, it compacts down to ice in about 5 years then begins it journey down the slope taking 60-80 years to reach the bottom or ‘terminal face’
We walk probably about a fifth or quarter of the way up. The afternoon, after a nice lunch and some souvenir shopping, begin our next 277km leg to Westport. As we passed through Greymouth I noticed what would be a very popular Hotel.
We stopped at Pancake rocks and the blowholes just on sunset, but with heavy cloud cover and the tide going out we didn’t see too much, but the roar of the water and the mist through the blowholes gave us the idea of what it must be like during a higher tide. There was a group of rocks that you could make out the shapes as depicted in the poster.
Robyn’s Nest in Westport was a very nice and very warm Victorian style 2 level house with a single kitchen, television room and gas heaters around the walls. We had a nice twin room at the back of the 2nd level with a view north into town.
Wednesday morning I went underworld rafting (or black water rafting as your in the dark) through glow worm caves, while Tracy looked around town, the seal colony and museum. After being fitted out with a full body 3 piece wet suit at base camp we then drove 10minutes into the bush before beginning our 20 minute walk through wetland rainforest, over a swing bridge to the entrance of the caves. On first entering the cave you feel a mix of excitement and trepidation as the miners helmet starts to light up what’s before you. As we descended deeper into the cave the rock formations and ceiling became more interesting. There are 3 main levels in the cave from 3 major flood periods in world history. The first layer from the entrance is the oldest being around 2500 years old, with the final layer at the bottom of the cave being the newest as it is at current sea level. The glow worms live at the bottom of the cave to feed on the insects that fly in and inhabit the lower level. At a number to points along the way we turned off our lights first to experience the darkness then to search for glow worms. They are almost unnoticeable in the light apart from a faint silver dew drop type simmer. When we first turned off our lights to help our eyes adjust to the low level of light we were told to put our hand out in front of our face and bring it towards us until we could see it, we ended up hitting ourselves in the face. It is pitch black, no light what so ever. It was a spooky feeling, especially with me making “boo” and ghost sounds. Of a short moment when all your other senses begin to heighten from the lack of light you begin hearing things, noises that sound like a party or groups of conversations off in the distance. We experienced this again when we got into our tubes and started floating out of the cave in the darkness to just look up and watch the ‘glow worm city’ float by above us. The freezing winter water was quickly and easily forgotten about as we were amazed by the glow of groupings of glow worms. Then as we floated out of the cave into the light of day we rafted down stream about a 1km and back to our warm gear, because with nothing but canyons and shore side scenery to distract us we had begun to freeze our extremities that had been exposed to the water. We had started to get feeling back into our fingers by the time we dried off and changed, but the walk back to the van warmed us up nicely, the free hot chocolate back at the base camp helped even more. This will be hard to top for the best part of my trip, it compares to the awe-inspiring sensations of whale watching or swimming with dolphins. For the afternoon we drove 226kms to Nelson. A quite, but largest town so far, which acts as the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park. That is about all Nelson offers for tourists, most other activities apart from walking and hiking are outside of Nelson as well. Paradiso backpackers is very nice with a spa, sauna and pool offering a free breakfast of toast and cereal.
Thursday we were supposed to drive to Blenhiem and spend the day visiting some of the 50 or more Marlborough region wineries, but I forgot the plan and we drove 110kms straight into Picton, the Gateway to the South Island, where the ferries from Wellington come in.
Bayview backpackers just 4 kms from the city centre is the nicest place we have stayed in so far. A 2 storey modern house, purposely rebuilt, with bay windows all round (even in the loos) kitchen on each level, free use of bikes and kayaks. Our twin ensuite room was actually for up to five people consisting of 3 single beds (2 pushed together to make a double) and a bunk bed. I took to the bed by the bay window and during the day, along with the glass ceiling kitchen upstairs is nicely warmed naturally during the day. We both went kayaking around the local bay of Queen Charlotte Sound, the northern entrance to the south Island, in the warmth of the afternoon sun on a perfect day that would make you think it was spring not winter. I meet to beautiful Irish lassies, twin sisters Breather and Martina, who during the evening found out that another couple staying here was from the same town back home and new a lot of the same people.
As usual everyone was still fast asleep when I woke on Friday morning, especially seeing it was 5.30am. Maybe I just woke with the anticipation of what was my main reason for extending my original 8 day ski trip. We departed Picton around 9.30am to drive to the first of a list of wineries I had worked out the evening before. Cellier Le Brun was our first stop including a ‘vinters’ breakfast. We had an option of a winery tour here, but we moved on without thinking of it.
Next on our list was Te Whare Ra, a small boutique vineyard with some speciality blends sold only to the locals. A bottle of 2002 Duke of Marlborough Gewurztraminer will be quite nice is a few years. At Forrest Estate I sampled and purchased some 2001 Marlborough Indian Summer desert wine. We stopped in at Wairau River Winery next, as the area is in the Wairau Valley, but it wasn’t anything special. Domaine Georges Michel was next and it looked fairly impressive as it has a larger sister winery in France. Allan Scott Winery was next on our list with a possible lunch spot, but the menu was to our liking.
The next stop was what I had been waiting for, Drylands Estate, home of Selaks Marlborough Ice Wine.
I drink this back home by the cartoon at around $20 a bottle. I picked quite a few at $13NZ, which was even better at $11.80 Australian. Drylands is owned by Noblio. I also picked up a bottle of 2000 Marlborough Noble Riesling which was quite nice.
After missing it 3 times we finally found Prenzel Distillery, New Zealand’s first fruit distillery. I could have broke the bank here, there was so much to sample and choose from. I settled for a few bottles of Snapps including Orange Tango, Blizzard ‘Peppermint’, Apple, Citron Ice ‘Lemon’, Chocomullu, and Honey Buzz. With a page of recipes and mixing ideas I will be Snapping it up for a while. I also couldn’t go past the Sambuca Ice Cream topping. I stopped there just short of taking some of there other products like Liqueurs, Infused Oil, Fruit Brandies and other culinary products.
After our last winery stop at Montana, the regions largest by far, being 4000 acres of the 7000 that makes up the region. It was here we did our winery tour which for a $7.50 fee, which was never mentioned in any previous information, lasted about an hour.
We got a good overview of what is produced by the winery, how and when it is harvested and the processes it goes through with fermentation and bottling.
After that at around 4.30pm we headed for our nights stop at Hamner Springs 292kms away. It was a long mountainous climb most of the way, if I hadn’t spent the day drinking I might have noticed the slightly longer by open freeway route which might have been quicker. Had we still been on schedule as I was hoping to have spent Friday Afternoon and then again in the evening in the Hot geothermal pools of Hamner. We arrived around 7.15pm, checked in and I went straight to the pools and left Tracy to the settling in. She returned at 9pm to pick me up and then I settled in for the evening. Met Steph, a German lass, who was over here studying for a semester before returning home to Germany to finish her degree in the next 12 months, while I was having some cereal for dinner. Saturday morning we checked out and both went to the pools again for 2 hours. I was planning on having a seaweed body wrap, but the only free 2 hr space was at 1.30pm, so I opted for a 30 minute massage, with 2 half hour sessions in the pools. The sulphur pools smelt really bad like sewage, but heated to around 46 degrees and with spectacular views it was very relaxing.
Other pools and spa’s ranged from a 28 degree lap pool, 3 pools heated to 36-38 degrees and 3 lagoons heated to 40-42 degrees.
After lunch we left for the 135km trip to Christchurch. All the rumours and my suspicions of the South Islands largest town were confirmed. Christchurch is a boring town not offering much for the size it is. It also depends, as locals and tourists that have stayed around for more than a week will defend it. We went to the International Antarctic centre for the afternoon and it was quite informative with interesting exhibits and topics.
Including the kind of 20 day ration boxes they get dropped and all the thermal gear that keeps them warm, although I didn’t think that the tent on display would offer much warm if camped out over night.
Sunday morning I woke Tracy first thing to depart to Mt Hutt, 93kms, for our last chance to ski the slopes on New Zealand.
What a disappointment, we did not hear any ski reports that morning, had we known we would have stayed in Christchurch to try and find something that made it worthwhile. The Mt Hutt ski area was closed as near blizzard conditions had hit the mountain that morning. The last report was 65cm of snow, 2 degrees, BUT with 35 knot winds. You couldn’t ask for better ski conditions apart from the wind. So with little choice we used our last ski vouchers for 2 hours horse riding around the Methven countryside, we got a good view of Mt Hutt, until it was completely covered by cloud, and trekked along a 10ft deep man made canal, used for trout fishing and flood control. After confirming that we could cancel our night in Methven we drove 325kms to Dundedin for an extra night. Just outside of Dunedin at Oamaru we stopped off to see the Yellow Eyed Penguins returning from there day in the ocean. There weren’t too many of them, but they are quite funny as they come out of the water, get their bearings and run up the beach.
We got into Dunedin around 6pm, stopped for some groceries, checked in, made dinner and settled in for the night to plan our last day and a half. Monday morning was a bit of a late start, but after some discussion we decided to drive out to the peninsula to Larnach Castle, the only Castle in New Zealand.
Built over five years from 1871 for the first of three wives on 35 acres of beautifully scenic grounds 20 minutes outside of Dunedin.
After his first wife’s death from illness, he married her sister, transferring all property to her to save himself from possible business bankruptcy. His children protested fearing the lose of the inheritance and did not accept their aunt as their new guardian. On her death William feared that he had no control over his personal fortune as it had all been left by will to the children. He had those of legal consent sign unknown documents that transferred it back to him. On the marriage to his 3rd wife most of the children were studying back home in England. After his suicide the castle and grounds were left to ruin until being purchased and restored over the last 35 years by the Barker family.
So much for the children’s desire for their inheritance. We returned to Dunedin’s awesome railway station to travel along the Taieri Gorge Railway in restored carriages to Pukerangi.
It was quite a nice 4 hour return trip with canyons, the river constantly by our side, tunnels, bridges and forestry. During the summer months when 2 trips a day are run it continues on to Middlemarch. But at either destination all year round coach transfers are available to Queenstown. Had I known this before our departure from Australia, this might have been a nice relaxing way to start our trip.
That night we went for a walking tour of the “Octagon”, Dunedin’s central district.
It gets its name from its shape with shops and buildings around its edge and parkland in the centre divided by a road through the middle. There were a number of older buildings in this area, one of which was an old church, lit up perfectly at night.
After a sight like this we went back to the Railway station to see what it looked like.
On Tuesday, our last day in NZ, we did a tour of the Cadbury Factory first. During the tour each time we stopped to hear about that part of the factory we were given free samples to stuff in our pockets (or our mouths). By the end of the hour and a half tour I had managed to fill all 4 pockets with a variety of Cadbury samples. I then went wild in the gift shop spending about $70 on souvenirs.
After the Cadbury factory we went across town to tour the Speight’s Beer factory. There nothing like free beer after a belly full of free chocolate. Speight’s is New Zealand’s second largest selling brand after Red Lion, which is made by the same owners, but from their factory in the North Island. The beer is still prepared in the traditional copper vats rather than the modern stainless steels vats used today.
During the proabition days the most of the brewery’s in New Zealand joined together to form “NZ Brewery’s”, but the name Speight’s was kept in the form of NZ Brewery’s (Speight’s Branch). The group tried to introduce a united brand ‘Luckys’ but after 3 months of public outcry the brand Speight’s was brought back. With a belly full of beer, we had lunch next door at their café and went to the airport for our 3.55pm flight home. All up with the travelling and local trips we covered 3500kms in 15 days.
2001 Christmas Party
Firstly and most importantly a HUGE “Congratulations” must
go to Marie and the YP team for what must go down as one of the best YP Christmas
functions ever.
By the official start time of 7.30 nearly half of the
rumoured 80 plus people were at the Paddo and ready to party. Within half an hour I had been introduced to
four people for whom the Christmas Party was only their second YP
function. Another person I met was
attending a YP function for the very first time - what a way to start your fun
with YP but to attend the biggest function of the year (especially with all
in such great spirits . . . like vodka cruisers, lemon stollies, Champagne
cocktails and of course many cartons of beer ;-)
As we stood around and mingled from group to group we all
knew when the selection of appetisers was being brought around, all we had to
do was keep any eye out for when one group suddenly tripled in size.
By around 10.00 p.m. talk had started to centre around
"why isn't anyone dancing?" Well as we all know we’re not going to
get up until someone else does, so good on those who got up first and made a
dance floor in a dark and dingy corner of the room. Come to think of it, it was
a typical spot to turn into a dance floor, all that was missing was the smoke
machine and mirror ball.
Eventually we all moved out to the front bar and joined
everyone else on the dance floor. From
then there was no stopping us, we danced and drank the night away until the
last of us left around 2.30 a.m., including the earlier mentioned first timer
- way to throw a party YP!
Go Karting
A great time was had by all those that made the trek to the
North Coast Sunday morning, 2 December to try go-karting. From 10.00 a.m. as the first of us started
to arrive the adrenaline was building as we watched other early birds race lap
after lap. By 10.30 the excitement was just too great we could wait no longer,
so we all donned our very sleek & stylish (NOT!) crash helmets, which one
of us that will remain nameless needed on more than one occasion.
By the end of the day's activities we had all made a great
start on our summer tans, especially when we put our bums on the seats of the
go karts - instant tan right there from the built up heat on the black plastic
seats. Lap after lap we zoomed, zagged,
dodged, weaved, and need I mention it again, crashed our way around the track
(when will that boy learn?)
The only thing that could have made our karting any better
was more YP members.
Lunch was served at the Ettamogah Pub and was surprisingly
better than I was expecting from an under-rated tourist stop. The coastal breeze on the upper deck, a few
coldies and some great seafood, beef and kangaroo went down a treat.
Then it was off to the coast for some more sun &
fun. We ended the day around 5.00 p.m.
with a walk from Kings Beach into Caloundra for an Ice Cream feast then over to
Bulcock Beach and back around the rocks to Kings Beach.
The day was enjoyed so much that we plan to do it again near
the end of summer (to get that final tan) so keep an eye out on future events
and remember to book in early.
Theatre
A group of YP braved the storms on 16 November to see a
play at the Centenary Theatre, Chelmer, called “My Friend, Miss Flint” by
Donald Churchill and Peter Yeldham - a well-know UK playwright. The play packed a lot of laughs and ended
with some unexpected twists and turns and all of the YP enjoyed the evening’s
entertainment.
Snow Skiing
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow was the catch cry as
the YP adventurers tore down the ski slopes at Falls Creek Victoria July 2001.
Blue skies and warm weather greeted the Queenslanders down
south. Our views of the snow capped
peaks of the Victorian Alps, from our accommodation were breathtaking. At times the cool breeze blew forcing us to
retreat into the warm confines of the Silver Ski Lodge.
The spa, sauna and log fire was very welcome after a hard
day on the slopes. Excellent food
greeted us for breakfast and the scrumptious three-course dinners at night. We met lots of different people, varying in
age of between 20 and 60 - surprisingly lots from Brisbane and Perth - ensuring
interesting conversations. Tales about
the days skiing, the near misses, the spectacular falls and about the sexy ski
instructors.
Decked out in our ski attire, the beginners amongst us
tackled the slopes with great enthusiasm, however by the end of our first day
our egos were a little damaged due to the unceremonious falls. Lessons are recommended as they teach you to
fall properly. They introduce you to
the techniques of ‘Snow Ploughing’, ‘Parallel Turning’ and ‘Mougling’ and teach
you to ride the ‘Pomas’ and ‘Quads’.
By the end of the week, some of us were being challenged by
the “Blue” runs at ‘Towers’ and ‘Scots Chair’.
The more experienced/adventurous (fool hardy) amongst us tackled the
‘SnowBoards’.
Night time entertainment included a comedy show at ‘The Man’
across the road, numerous games of pool downstairs near the fire. Some even ventured to the ‘Frying Pan Inn’
and I won’t mention the ‘Harvey Wallbangers’ or the other concoctions that were
consumed in copious amounts.
Lots of other stories can be told but I guess you had to be
there. It was an experience to
experience and I can’t wait to do it again.
Maybe New Zealand next year!!!
Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow . . .
Target Shooting
On Sunday afternoon August 19, fourteen of us made the trek
to the Belmont Rifle Range. Some were
eager to make a start, and others were a little bit unsure as we were given our
own box of ammunition. We began
hesitantly with the bench rest rifle but became more and more confident with
each and every shot.
Confidence however, quickly turned to trepidation as we were
instructed to move onto the range to retrieve our targets! Next we tried our hand at the rimfire pistol
before taking aim Dirty Harry-style with the powerful magnum pistol. Everyone enjoyed the finale - 6 rounds of
shotgun - taking aim at super-fast flying orange clay targets.
We finished off the day with a few drinks and a bite to eat
at Finn MacCools Irish Bar at Carindale, hoping that our shoulders wouldn’t be
too sore the next day! We are already
looking forward to another target shooting day which is being planned in the
near future.
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