The Whale Way Station

Today we headed North from Christchurch up to a small coastal town called Kaikoura. After much umming and arrhing we had decided to visit the town in order to do the infamous whale watching tour from the Town’s South Bay. It was fairly pricey, but as it is not something we have had to opportunity to do before, and are unlikely to again for some time, we decided to take the plunge and dip our hands into our increasingly deep pockets.

People come from all over to do the tours - which are available by boat, plane and helicopter. We chose the cheapest boat option which unlike the other two was advertised as being over 2.5 hours long, rather than 20-30 minutes. We hoped that it would be a good boat ride even if no whales were seen. Due to the popularity of the tours, we had to wait to the last tour of the day, at 3:30pm, before we headed down to the ‘Whale Way Station’ (no joke) to catch the bus for the short journey to the docks.

The boat was pretty fast and I had to really concentrate in the first few minutes to stop myself feeling both scared and queasy (what is it about me being scared recently?). However, soon I got used to the sideways motion of the boat and the up-and-down motion as we hit the waves, and I could peel my eyes ready for possible sightings. The boat people already had a pretty good idea where there was a resident sperm whale - as all the whale tours seem to work together so the plane and helicopter help guide the boat to the right place and vice versa. They use environmentally friendly methods of tracking the whales - eyes and a long tube thing which you dip in the water to hear the whale noises. Therefore no sonar and the like which is good. The boat’s skipper spied the whale first and it was quite amusing as we ‘chased’ the whale until we got close, but whilst obviously maintaining a safe distance. There were a few elbows flying when we got the go ahead to leave our seats and go out onto deck, but our cunning plan to sit near the door proved a winner.

This whale was called Manu and he returns to the waters around Kaikoura every year. Manu means bird and apparently his tail is the shape of a bird - hmmm. Chris managed to a few good snaps, although the best is possibly this one, just as Manu was diving down for another 45min meal. Everyone on the boat was mesmerised.



As Manu was unlikely to surface for some time, we then headed off in search of other creatures. It wasn’t so long before I heard one of the staff muttering something about ‘it being under the boat’. My first reaction was to be scared (surprise surprise) and I had visions from ‘jaws’ but instead my horror turned into amazement as it turned out to be a right good group of dusky dolphins! They were swimming alongside the boat, popping in and out of the water and then they started to play with the boat - going underneath it, popping out and then back again - even too quick for super-snapper Chris. Dolphins are my new favourite animal!


Dusky Dolphin

It wasn’t too long before we then sped off again for another sighting of Manu - who had run out of oxygen after only about 40mins (no stamina!). He was just chilling out on the surface blowing a bit of air and water and hitting unsuspecting seagulls. Whilst we were there an albatross flew over and we didn’t know which way to look! They are pretty big - I wouldn’t get into an argument with them over my fish and chips if I ever met one!

Finally just as we were heading into shore, we stopped off at Barney’s rock and looked at some big fat seals lolling about, sunbathing. They were pretty smelly but also quite funny with some of the lazy positions they get themselves into.

Big Fat Seals

All in the space of just under 3 hours! I think we both liked the dolphins the most as we saw most of them. Manu was great but we were just able to get so much closer to the dolphins. Definitely worth the money we spent - unforgettable!

Moviestars

We all stayed in the YHA Hostel in Arthurs Pass after our epic trek up ‘Avalanche Peak’. Today we would do the drive back to Christchurch via Sheffield and Castle Hill, one of the sites used for filming scenes in ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. Finally our chance to be famous!!

Castle Hill is a sacred Maori site, half-way between Christchurch and Arthur’s Pass - which fascinated the ancient people of the lands because of the huge limestone outcrops protruding the skyline. It is now a site frequented by tourists, locals and boulderers alike (climbers without ropes). We were able to get some cool photos, probably not doing the site any sort of justice, which are below.


Happy faces at the castle rock




My version of bouldering


Andrea queen of Castle Rocks


Cheeky Kea outside the hostel in Arthur's Pass

On our way back we stopped for some ‘award-winning’ pies in Sheffield (not Yorkshire - obviously). They didn’t disappoint. Back in Christchurch we did some clothes shopping and bought some food supplies for our overnight trip tomorrow up the coast to KaiKoura. All will become clear in tomorrows blog!

Chris the burglar!

This morning the four of us made the 3 hour journey up to a small village called Arthur’s Pass. This village is tiny with maybe only 100 residents, and there is not much more than a handful of similar sized villages on the road from Christchurch. What makes this village so special is the mountains which surround it.

As you drive on the road from Christchurch you can see the mountains looming ahead. They look totally different from anything we saw in Australia and despite the fine weather, you can just make out the snow tops through the clouds and mist. They are really spectacular.

Emily and Paul had planned for us to ascend one of the mountains - ‘Avalanche Peak’ which is one of the first mountains they had climbed when they arrived in New Zealand nearly two years ago. We were really looking forward to a good walk, especially seeing as how we thought we had become seasoned walkers after some of our exploits in Australia over the last month. The climb started almost immediately after leaving the visitor centre and before too long we were scrambling up rocks - often (certainly in my case anyway) on all fours. However it was great fun and we moved up above the ‘bush line’ really quickly.

It was when we got above the bush line that we (Chris and I) realised we were perhaps not the great hikers we thought we were as first Chris and then me became really scared on the narrow paths. Without meaning to scare any parents amongst the readers, at times we were less than a metre at times away from the edge of the path, at both sides, with a sheer cliff face the only destination at either side. Emily and Paul who are experienced hikers (and much braver than us!) may well have been taking a leisurely stroll in a park, but myself and Chris were scared out of our wits. Chris couldn’t even take any photo’s!

To make matters worse, as we neared the top, it became apparent that we were going to have to scale a short ‘snow’ section. Equipped only with my trainers I felt nervous to say the least and re-tracing my steps, all the way back down was looking increasingly appealing. Needless to say, I took the plunge and after a bit of swearing and hanging on for dear life with both hands, I managed to scale what felt like a cliff face covered in snow. In reality, it was probably not much more than a slope covered in snow, but I couldn’t look anywhere other than at my hands whilst we were climbing. The one time, I did dare to look back I could just see myself slipping down the slope to my death.


On the snow climb


Just ascended the snow

After the snow section, there was only a another few metres to climb, but this was where the narrowest and scariest drops so far were. After overcoming the snow I was ok, but Chris really struggled. Infact he had to crawl along the ridge behind Emily and myself, almost like some sort of pantomine burglar! We did finally reach the top, and the views were incredible. We were still a little too nervous to fully appreciate the views, but Emily got some great photos for us.


Nearly there


The final walk to the top


The "Avalanche Peak" summit!!


The view


Me overlooking edge on the way down from the summit

We also saw some Kea’s on the summit which are mountain parrot’s and actually quite pretty - they are green all over but then when they fly you can see that they are bright orange under their wings. They are also very tame and cheeky and come up really close - especially when there is a chance of a bit of banana!


Cheeky Kea


Kea straining for some banana peal

We then had to descend the mountain, going an alternative and slightly easier route. After a bit of descending our fear began to diminish as the path became wider. The only problems we encountered on the way down were some very sore quads. It was quite an experience, and whilst it was not until a few glasses of wine in the evening that we began to get over our ordeal we are now feeling quite proud of what we did. We will never be mountain explorers, but it was incredible and is an experience we are unlikely to forget.

Christchurch and fruity loops

Andrea had two sessions to do today, which meant we were slightly limited as to what we could do. Obviously we didn’t want to do too much walking around as that in itself is already pretty tiring. Despite that we decided to take a leisurely stroll into Christchurch city centre.

The lonely planet describes Christchurch (I feel like I’m at home every time I type that) as the most English of cities - perhaps because of the ridiculous number of traffic lights?? The Anglican style cathedral and the trams rattling around are probably the reason why that description fits so well. We meandered towards the city centre - Cathedral square - managing to home in on a running store (spot the geeks) along the way. The square was busy, with a live band playing and a market attracting a lot of tourists and workers on their lunch breaks. Unfortunately we forgot the camera so were unable to get any photos - we seem to leave something important every time we step out of Emily and Pauls house at the moment!! It just means that we’ll have to make another trip in, when A is less tired, and complete the walking tour as well rather than just wandering aimlessly.

All through our trip around Australia, whenever we went to the supermarket we saw this breakfast cereal, fruity hoops, which are brightly coloured hoops (they look a bit like sweets, probably why we were attracted to them) in the mould of cheerio’s. Well yesterday we bought some and today we got to try them. Well, what can I say. They were disgusting. A massive let down. We have definitely learnt our lesson. Colourful isn’t necessarily best!!


Andrea enjoying her yummy fruity loops. Mmmmmmmmm.

Tomorrow we’re heading due west to Arthur’s pass for an overnight trip. A trip up avalanche peak and a look around Craigieburn await us….

Chilly New Zealand

Today we are cheating a little - and going for two days worth of blogs in one. Partly because we have fallen behind with our blogging (shame on us) and partly because we have had a couple of quiet days in New Zealand since we have arrived, and as Chris so delicately puts it - we don’t want to lose any readers with two boring blogs in two days!

We arrived in New Zealand on Wednesday afternoon and were greeted with…yep rain…and cold. I almost thought we had just got back into the UK. We’ve had a bit of drive around and my initial impressions of New Zealand is that it is very green, very scenic and I already want to stay for longer! There seems like loads to do and to see, and I can understand why so many people are drawn here to live, work or just holiday. The city of Christchurch is the biggest on the South Island and sits on the east coast of the Island. In terms of population, it’s not that big, but it is very spread out and whilst it is very flat, you can see the mountains which surround the city almost every way you look. It’s pretty nice to just be able to look up and see them and we are excited about exploring them over the next two weeks with our fabulous hosts Emily and Paul.

The weather has been a bit chilly (to say the least) and the hats, gloves and long sleeved tops have been out in force over the last day or two although it is expected to warm up a little by the end of the weekend. So far we haven’t seen a great deal of New Zealand as we have been taking the opportunity to plan a bit of our US trip and catch up on some admin-ny type jobs (I told you we didn’t have lots of exciting news!) however this weekend we are going away for the weekend to Arthur’s Pass which is up in the Mountains which we are both looking forward to.

It has been really good to pick the brains of Emily and Paul and we are also planning a few day trips next week to a few different places….potentially a bit of whale watching or swimming with dolphins maybe!!!


Me, Emily and Paul up the mountains on our first day

The Story so far

(Sorry the blog is a little late, the others are coming tomorrow)

30 days and nearly 4000 kilometres later we have arrived back in Sydney at the end of the first stage of our trip. It has been non-stop, not staying in any one place for more than 2-3 nights (apart from the week in Melbourne).

Looking round new places every few days has been tiring, but entirely worth it. Seeing and experiencing many new things is what we had hoped for. We were thinking that if we had been flying back home instead of to New Zealand it would have been a great holiday, but fortunately we have another 5 months! I don’t think the next few will be quite as hectic as this one, but I’m sure we’ll still be very busy.

Our flights tomorrow morning are at 8:50am, meaning a 4:30am start - we always like to give ourselves enough time! Next time you hear from us will be from New Zealand. Blog to you soon…


Our trusty ride


Our trusty ride from behind!!



View Australia Roadtrip part 1 in a larger map
A map of our roadtrip - approximately 2500miles.

A day in the houses of parliament

Today we returned to Parliament House in central Canberra where both the House of Representatives and Senate were meeting to discuss the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

We arrived a little late, after a long story involving a number of buses into Canberra, but we will still allowed to go in and headed straight into the House of Representatives, the chamber in which Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd sits.

In this room, everything was green, even the jackets of the workers who attended the ministers bringing them water and papers throughout the session. However, what surprised us, or certainly me anyway, was how empty the chamber was. There was obviously the speaker (replaced half way through with his deputy) and then a few government officials documenting procedures, but other than that there was no more than 2-3 ministers in the room at any one time. Ministers arrived, said their piece, and then left. Of the ministers that did stay longer, they did not really appear to be listening and seemed to be having private conversations amongst themselves, at one point a couple of ministers having their own conversation started laughing out loud. It was really quite bizarre.

The House of representatives had already passed the ETS and were actually discussing an amendment to a law outlining the shortage of Australian doctors and resultant employing of overseas doctors. It was quite interesting at first, but I found it a little repetitive after a bit. Many ministers were simply saying the same things, pointing out the same points. I suppose that comes with not listening to each other!!

After a bit, we moved across to the Senate chamber, (a red room) who were actually discussing ETS. This had slightly more ministers in attendance but not many, and there were ministers walking in and out as they felt like. One thing which tickled me was when a minister stood up to speak, standing with his foot perched on the bench. It was like nothing I’ve seen on the tv!

All in all it was pretty interesting although we couldn’t hack it until the end of the session. Tomorrow we will be Sydney bound as it is our last day in Australia before we fly out to Christchurch on Wednesday.