Caboose

From Kaikoura the bus took us to Picton, where the Inter-Islander ferry leaves for Wellington. As we got on I could see that the Kaitaki had once been the Pride of Cherbourg, I’m pretty sure I’ve travelled either on that ship or one just like it before. The journey wasn’t very exciting and after about three hours we arrived in Wellington and took the free shuttle bus to the railway station.

I checked into Nomads Capital backpackers, which claims to be a “flashpacker”, i.e. a bit more upmarket. They squeeze four pairs of bunk beds into a fairly small room and the top bunks are ridiculously high and wobbly. I had to wedge my duvet down the side of the bed so it didn’t bang off the wall every time I moved.

On my first evening I took the Wellington cable car up to the Botanic Gardens. It’s quite a nice view from up there, although it was a bit windy. I went up again the next day to visit the cable car museum, while I was there it started raining heavily, spoiling my plan of walking down into town.

Instead I passed a couple of hours visiting New Zealand’s parliament. There was an interesting tour of the Executive Wing (better known as the beehive), the parliament building and the library. Afterwards I went into the public gallery to see the end of question time and the start of the third reading of the controversial Electoral Finance bill. It was surprisingly exciting watching as speeches were made, opposition MPs booed and jeered and a couple were asked to leave by the speaker.

Woke up feeling a bit grotty due to the previous nights beers, had breakfast and got on the bus. Today we were going back to Christchurch, some people were finishing their trip here (just doing the South Island loop). I’d already done enough sightseeing in Christchurch so I spent the afternoon doing my laundry, reading and watching films.

The next day the bus up a load of new people and myself and we set off for Kaikoura, known for its whale-watching activities. After weeks of sticking closely to my very tight budget I decided to treat myself to a whale-watching trip. Whale Watch Kaikoura, a company owned by the indigenous Kati Kuri people of Kaikoura, runs the trips out of the former railway station. After boarding the shiny new catamaran we sped out to sea for a bit, then spent a while stopped with the captain listening for whales using a hydrophone.

This was repeated a few times before one of the local whales finally surfaced and spent a while resting on the surface before his next dive. Most people rushed up onto the top deck to take pictures, even more so when he decided to dive again. After this we started trying to find another whale and had an exciting high-speed trip bouncing across the waves when the captain got a tip-off over the radio. Again, we were all out on deck snapping away.

We left Dunedin on a cold and miserable day, with our first stop being the Moeraki boulders. They’re big round boulders that have dropped out of a soft cliff onto the beach. They’re really not worth getting out of the bus for on a cold, rainy and windy day.

After passing lots of hydro-electric dams and various canals bringing water to the dams we eventually reached Lake Tekapo. It features exciting attractions such as a monument to sheepdogs, the church of the Good Shepherd and an observatory (not much use given all the clouds). Our driver organised a barbecue — so we sat outside, ate and had a few beers.

The trip from Queenstown to Dunedin on Wednesday wasn’t too interesting, we had a stop for breakfast but not much interesting scenery and less interesting driver too.

I’ve wandered around town a bit, visited the Otago Settlers Museum and been on a walking tour of the city. It does remind me a bit of Edinburgh, partly because of the street names but also all the grand buildings, including the totally over-the-top station.

More troubles with hostel roommates: this time two girls having a loudly-whispered argument in the middle of the night, squeaky bunks and somebody’s iPod dropping on my head early in the morning.

We had quite a few stops for photo opportunities on the way from Franz Josef to Queenstown, although Lake Matheson (famous for reflecting the mountains) wasn’t cooperating — a slight breeze was ruffling the water.

One of the stops was the Kawarau bridge, famous as the location of the first commercial bungy jumping operation. We got shown a video about the history of bungy, although it seemed to be more about what an amazing man A.J. Hacket is. After that most of us went out to the viewing platform while two people from the bus did their jumps.

Not long after that, we arrived in Queenstown and I was dropped off at my hostel, the slightly grotty Pinewood Lodge. The unit I was in was a mess, obviously some untidy occupants hadn’t done any tidying up for a while and neither had the staff. As it turned out I was sharing a room with the untidy ones, two young Swedes. In the evening a bunch of us met up for an evening on 2-for-1 beer at a local bar…

The next day I got up pretty late, but even after a slow breakfast and some laundry my Swedish roommates were still not up. They had managed to pile up some more dishes in the sink though. My main activity of the day was picking up a leaflet from the DOC about walks in the Queenstown area.

On Tuesday I got up early, planning to go walking although the weather wasn’t looking great. The Swedes had gone, leaving piles of rubbish in the room and lots of dishes in the sink.

My original plan had been to follow the One Mile Creek track up from Queenstown and then the Fernhill loop back down, although that makes for a fairly short walk. Once the rain slackened a bit I started out, leaving the decision on my destination to later. The track follows an old water pipeline that used to connect Queenstown’s first power station from a dam up above. Bits of the pipeline are still present although it hasn’t been used for years. Occasionally I could see Queenstown through the trees and cloud as I approached the top station of the gondola.

The rain got worse again, so I sheltered in the top station then decided to head up the Ben Lomond track until I got fed up. The DOC leaflet warned that it takes 6-8 hours and requires a “high level of fitness”. Despite that I managed to get all the way to the summit in less than six hours. I met a crowd of young Americans who’d been studying in Australia and were taking a holiday on their way home. We enjoyed the fine views at the summit together before I scuttled back down in the lashing rain.

I spent the rest of the day reading, relaxing and washing my wet and dirty clothes.

On Friday a couple of us were picked up from the hostel in Christchurch and taken to the station to catch the TranzAlpine train across the Alps to Greymouth.

Once I’d checked in and dropped my bags off at the luggage van I took a few pictures of the train and found my seat. The carriages are fairly comfortable, with nice big windows. During the journey the train manager gave a commentary pointing out various scenic or interesting things. In the middle of the train is an open observation car, this was crowded with the “my DSLR is bigger than yours” crowd determined to photograph everything — none of them with the manners to let other people take a turn. We were allowed to get off and stretch our legs at a couple of stations, including Arthurs Pass (below).

Once we arrived in Greymouth I put on my rucksack and trudged along to the Neptune’s International Backpackers. It’s a old hotel restored as a hostel, quite comfortable and with really good hot showers.

In the evening I joined a tour of the Monteiths brewery, along with lots of other people from the Magic bus and the Australians I’d met on the train (Cal, Claire and Simone). The brewery tour was good, with a tasting afterwards and the opportunity to pour our own beers while we waited for the minibus to take us for the included barbecue at a nearby pub.

The next morning I got up early to beat the rush for the shower, only to find that there wasn’t a rush. Eventually the others got up and the bus appeared outside to collect us. Driver Scotty provided music and occasional commentary as he drove us down to Franz Josef, with occasional stops along the way. My favourite was the Bushmans Center in Pukekura, with Bushman Pete explaining about his former work in capturing deer by leaping on them from helicopters and doing everything he could to upset vegetarians. I was feeling hungry so bought one of his (very tasty) possum pies.

Once we reached Franz Josef the bus dropped us at our hostels and people headed off for various activities — mostly glacier hikes. My budget doesn’t really allow for many organised activities and I’ve spent plenty of time wandering about on ice anyway. Instead I booked all the remaining accommodation for my time in New Zealand and then went for a walk around the foot of the glacier.

By the way, there are more pictures than I’ve included here. You can browse through the rest here.

I’m now in Queenstown and am having a day of doing laundry, trying not to spend money and taking advantage of cheap internet access.

While I was in Auckland I spent a while trying to work out what to do in New Zealand. I thought about hiring a car but for one person it’s just too expensive. Instead I booked myself onto the Magic bus, one of several hop-on-hop-off bus operators. As I was keen to take the TranzAlpine train I chose a route starting in Christchurch. A quick look on the internet revealed that the cheapest way to get there was to fly, I got a ticket with Qantas for NZD 79.

So on Tuesday evening I took the bus out to Auckland airport and flew to Christchurch. I’d booked ahead at Dorset House backpackers, which is probably the nicest hostel I’ve stayed in. It has a well-equipped kitchen, nice rooms, no bunk beds and just gives the impression that the owners care about the place.

Christchurch is a pleasant city, far fewer tall buildings than Auckland and I preferred the atmosphere. There’s even a free shuttle bus around the centre. I couldn’t resist going out to the International Antarctic Centre, which was (perhaps predictably) a disappointment. It really only contains two things, a cold room (-5°C) where they occasionally turn on some fans to simulate an antarctic storm and some penguins. The storm is nothing like the real thing, no reduction in visibility and not enough wind. The whole centre is also very biased towards New Zealand and American antarctic activities, in fact many of the maps show only the Ross Sea side of the continent. I can think of a lot of better ways to spend NZD 30.

On Thursday I went for a walk in the Port Hills to the south of Christchurch, walking up from the end of the bus line to the Sign of the Kiwi resthouse — where I stopped for coffee and scones — then along the hills past the top station of the gondola and down into Lyttelton. The wind up on the hills was fierce, on occasions knocking me sideways. Lyttelton has a small museum with a fairly random selection of exhibits and the town’s history as the departure point for many of the antarctic expeditions of the heroic age is represented by a separate section. In the evening I joined Bao and Toivo (not sure if I spelled that right) from the hostel for beer and pizza in a huge (and empty) sports bar called the Holy Grail.

I’m in Greymouth just now, catching up on website updates. Most of the internet places I’ve found recently have been both very expensive and very limited in terms of what you can do (so I can’t sort out pictures before uploading them).

Anyway, I spent a couple of nights in Auckland. Went to the Maritime Museum and the War Memorial Museum but didn’t really warm to the city. It seems like they’re so busy trying to be a modern city that they’ve demolished most things that would give it any kind of character. But I was recovering from a long and horrible flight, so maybe I was just in the wrong mood.

(The thin lines you can just see coming down from the Sky Tower is part of an “adventure” activity where you can jump off the tower and drop to the ground attached to a wire.)

The flight from Canada was extra horrible because I went out for dinner with Adrian and Amy on Friday night, then for a few beers. By the time we got back to the house and I got to bed it was about 2:30am, I had to get up around 4:30am for a taxi to the airport! I was so hungover on the Vancouver-LAX leg that I was seriously considering using the sick bag.

LAX has to be a top contender in the world’s dullest airports, the Tom Bradley International Terminal has only several copies of the same three (dull) shops, a few food outlets and a general feeling of shabbyness. After far too many hours there I boarded the Qantas flight to Auckland, over 12 hours of being squashed into a full 747.

This is costing me a fortune, so I’ll finish for now and try to catch up later when I can find cheaper internet access somewhere else.

I’m at Auckland airport, waiting for my flight to Christchurch. Haven’t had a chance to put anything up here the past couple of days.

More to follow, including my only photo from Auckland and a rant about the desolate and dull LAX.

It’s my last night in Vancouver. I’m having trouble typing, since last post I’ve been sailing (although no wind) and snowboarding (but falling over a lot). Here are some pictures: