Road Trip Through New Zealand: Nelson to Havelock to Blenheim

     We explored Nelson by taking a walk: the Centre of New Zealand walk to be precise. We got lost and veered way off track, so the 1 hour (return) walk turned into a whole afternoon, but we felt pretty good having done that kind of exercise. We did not do much in Nelson to be honest.

Walking around in Nelson

View of Nelson from the top of the Centre of New Zealand hill

Centre of New Zealand

     From Nelson we drove out to the sticks to look for Butcher's Flat, which is a Department of Conservation (D.O.C.) camp. Unfortunately, we never found it. It felt like we had been driving forever looking for it but after the other night's getting stuck in a ditch (which also took place in the boonies and in the dark), we decided to turn back. We were actually getting rather scared because the road became really narrow with gravel and it was the sort of scene from a movie where a crazy person would jump out of the bush and murder us with an axe; perhaps my imagination is too vivid for a normal human being. Needing to turning the car around was making Amanda panic. Since the night we got stuck in that silly ditch any kind of "technical" driving maneuvers were done by myself. Maybe I'm a mean person but I always thought it was hilarious when she panicked over the simplest of things.
     After turning around it didn't take too long to find a camp area but the one we stayed at charged dumb amounts of money and the owner was a grumpy mid-life crisis kind of lady. I realize that Amanda I look younger then we are, but she was a nut job to put it nicely. We went out and bought a few supplies, like a portable gas cooker stove top and some canned foods; this obviously made our trip feel more like a camping experience but also helped to save money. Keep in mind that we obviously were not eating great meals despite the fact that Amanda is a chef.
     The next morning we left Havelock and headed to Blenheim. When we got to Blenheim, it was still relatively early so we found the Information Centre and booked an all-day wine tour (10a-5pm) and organized a camp ground for the next night (we figured we would be super drunk that neither of us could do any kind of driving. But for the rest of that day we hadn't made any set plans so  we went to a café and walked around town to kill some time. We ended up eating a good dinner that night at an Indian/Malaysian restaurant and then we saw A Million Ways to Die in the West at the cinema. Finally, we ended our night in our car but we both had a difficult time sleeping in this parking lot because there were lights all over the place! At least there was a public bathroom in the parking lot but I have never seen such a high tech one in my life. It was very bizarre. You had to push a button and the door would open, then it would close and lock itself and automatically gave you a set amount of time. A voice would come on and narrate everything, like "door open/close", "door locked", "toilet flushing". The first time I heard the voice was when it was flushing and it seriously scared me; I don't like having a voice in my bathroom while I'm doing my business. If you finished before the allotted time then you could push a button and the door opened, if not, then once the time ran out the door automatically opened, not too good if you're one of those people who fall asleep on the can.
     We did the All-Day Highlight Wine Tours of Blenheim - Marlborough, where we visited about 10 vineyards. Amanda and I were the only two who were doing the all-day tour so the first half of the day was basically a private tour. We visited numerous vineyards and at each we sampled 5-6 glasses of wine. We ate lunch at one, where we were able to sample our wines while washing down our delicious foods. After lunch when our guide came back, she had with her two people who were joining for the afternoon part of the tour; they were honeymooners. Amanda and I definitely felt like alcoholics because by 2pm we were both feeling the wines and could not form any new memories. Thank goodness for my habit of writing things down at the end of each day before going to sleep, and for keeping pamphlets otherwise I would have no idea where we went or what we tasted. By the end of our day tour, we had visited: Lawson's Dry Hills, Wither Hills, Villa Maria, Seresin Estate, Framingham, Wairau River, Giesen, and Saint Clair.

Wither Hills

Wither Hills

     









     Oddly enough our tour ended at a chocolate factory and then our guide was nice enough to recommend a restaurant not too far from our car so we ate there. Most of this day is a blur and we were so drunk by dinner that I didn't even remember ordering my food but someone the waitress miraculously knew exactly what I wanted and brought it out to me. We someone managed to walk back to our car but I have no idea how as I am certain we were both struggling to stand up. You may be thinking that we had a late night but that was not the case at all; we went to bed at 6:30pm. At 9pm I woke up feeling like crap, pacing around outside trying to get as much fresh oxygen into my system as possible and eventually went to bed desperately trying to ignore the terrible drunken state I was in.

Seresin Estate

Road Trip through New Zealand: Franz Josef to Nelson to Abel Tasman

            Once we got to Nelson we thought we would head into Abel Tasman National Park to find a nice and cheap campground. It was late but neither Amanda or I were tired but we probably should have stopped as it’s much more difficult to find your way around a place you are unfamiliar with in the dark. We ended up taking a wrong turn and were looking for a good place to pull over for the night. Amanda decided to drive up a gravel hill (even though I thought it was a bad idea), and at the top of the hill she starts to panic because she can’t see a safe/comfortable exit, so she starts reversing (not her forte). All of a sudden we end up stuck in a ditch on a 45° angle. She makes some silly requests, “can you get us out?” and “can’t we just pick the car up and move it?” I’m not friends with a dumb person, she just isn’t very competent when it comes to anything about cars, like engines, driving skill, navigation, or the weight of a car apparently. All this happens at around 11p.m.

            Amanda, being the unprepared/unorganized person she is, has no AA or any roadside assistance of any kind and she also can’t seem to find her phone. Luckily, I expected something like this to happen eventually and had two fully charged batteries for my phone. However, we were stuck in the middle of a national park in a location without any cell reception. She took my phone and walked around to find reception and called every phone number she could think of to get someone to help us find a towing company. The only person who would help was AA, but we would be charged quite a bit because she wasn’t a member, it was a holiday long-weekend (we were unaware of this at the time) and it was now after 2:30a.m.

            After a lot of negotiation back and forth, and after being stuck in the cold for over three hours, a man finally came and towed us out, and I was the one to drive for the rest of that night (with an expired license I might add). Once I got us into the next town, I parked the car in a parking lot of a public park and we slept there.

            We woke up much later than usual the next morning and headed back into Abel Tasman National Park. We got all the way into the park and after parking the car, Amanda notices that she forgot her purse, so back into town it was. We checked every stop we had made, a restroom, the gas station, etc – nada. It was then time to file a police report and hope that the person to find it would be decent. Thankfully, I had taken her passport from her at the beginning of the trip for safekeeping so at least she didn’t lose that (she had lost it in Ireland one week before her departure – she missed that flight and it was a hassle).

            We headed back into the park to kill time and enjoy the sunshine. We spent most of the afternoon at a yatch club, admiring the pretty boats and the water. We finally decided to leave and after having just passing through town the police call us, someone has found her purse and left it at a bakery near the park we were at. We turned around and picked it up – nothing was missing. We headed into Nelson and stayed at a nice hotel with a jet-bathtub and all the fancy fixings. After the kind of night and day we had, we needed some spoiling. We slept in a fabulous bed and felt very well rested and relaxed the next day – perfect for yet another day on the road.

View from Hawke's Lookout

Road Trip through New Zealnd: Christchurch to Greymouth to Franz Josef

     We woke up feeling exhausted and left Christchurch around 10a.m., we couldn’t wait to get out of there. We chose to drive to Greymouth via Arthur’s Pass and onward to Franz Josef, totaling 407km. It was a beautiful sunny day, which was perfect for driving and pictures. 

This is the car that took us from Bluff to Cape Reinga

     We got into Greymouth much earlier than we had expected so we hit up a library for some free Wi-Fi (I have a very old smartphone that makes online bookings almost impossible). Once we had arranged and booked our hostel stay and skydiving adventure for the next day, we were back on the road. Originally we were planning on taking a bus to Franz Josef since it was off our path and we already had 4 unused buss tickets, but the buses were fully booked and we did not want to postpone our skydive (bookme.com has great deals but they’re only good for certain dates – we couldn’t match our cheaper skydive dates with the bus dates).

            On our drive through Arthur’s Pass I saw a Kiwi bird and was so sad that I missed an opportunity to snap a picture of it. Amanda doesn’t think I saw one but I know of no other animals that look like it, so I’m going with that was what I saw. Once we got into Franz Josef, we checked into our hostel, had a good dinner and went to bed early for a good night’s sleep – you will want to have had a good rest before jumping out of a plane after all.

            The next morning we both felt like killing time until 2:30p.m. would be impossible, we were both too excited to sit still. By 2:00p.m. we checked into the skydive office to get weighed and sign all the necessary paperwork; you know, that “no liability” stuff in case you die kind of paperwork. Unfortunately, clouds had started to come in over the glacier so the jump was postponed by half an hour. Thankfully it did not have to be postponed any further and we were brought to the jump site for briefing and gearing up. There was only Amanda, me, and two other guys who were jumping that afternoon. Only one of the guys had ever jumped before, we were all going to jump at 15,000 feet. 

             Once all your gear is on, each jumper goes through a briefing of what to do when the jump takes place with each of our instructors. Then they do a short film interview before we board the plane. The airplane is quite small, there was only enough space for Amanda, her instructor, me, my instructor, and one instructor with an in-training instructor (the two guys had to wait until we got back before they would go up). The two other instructors jumped first and they just disappeared; they fell so fast I couldn’t believe it. Then, it was my turn. The most nerve-racking part was propping yourself onto the edge of the plane with your legs hanging over. Then, you rock back and forth and prop your head back against your instructor and bend your legs back, so your in the shape of a banana. Then you fall. Nothing seems real until you no longer feel the bottom of the plane under your butt, and you realize that it is too late – there’s no turning back and you are seriously falling in the sky. We started to fall backward and all I could see was the sky and sun; I kept thinking,  "this doesn't seem right". Then we did an awesome backflip and we started to fall face forward. It doesn’t feel like you’re falling as fast as you really are (when you watch someone else fall it looks like it won’t take long before they smash into the ground). We were in free-fall for a total of 65 seconds, but it felt longer. Then the parachute opens and all of a sudden you think that it didn’t feel as long as you had just thought a moment ago. 

             Once the parachute opened it was time for some crazy 360° spins. My instructor let me hold onto the straps and put us into spins, but I’ll admit that my arm strength is pathetic so I needed his help to spin us really fast; it was good fun. The views from that height are breathtaking! I recommend spending the extra money for photos because there is no other way to get those shots. The whole experience made me think that being a bird would be the best choice in case of reincarnation into animals, just saying. Although our landing was not as elegant as that of a bird. Upon landing, we skidded on our butts. If you have not gone skydiving at least once in your life, it is something I highly recommend as I have never experience that many different emotions at once; plus, the views and wind/sun on your face is well worth it. Keep in mind, the wind here was super cold because it was winter when we did our jump and we chose to do it at Franz Josef Glacier. I don't know why we decided this, I personally hate winter and can't handle too cold and/or snow. Yes, I know, I'm a pathetic Canadian.

     

     Anyhow, afterwards Amanda and I were discussing what our next adrenaline adventure should be but we were having difficulties coming up with ideas. The only more extreme thing I could come up with was going to the moon, but if you can think of anything else (hopefully not as expensive as the moon) let me know!

     We went back into town and had some dinner as a Chinese/Thai/Indian restaurant and stayed in our car at another campground. The next morning we did the Franz Josef Glacier Valley hike: a 1.5 hour (return) walk to see the glacier. You can hike the actual glacier as well but it’s quite expensive; you need to take a helicopter that drops you off on the glacier – they’re organized group hikes. Since the skydiving adventure took a big bite out of our budget we did not do the helicopter/glacier hike. The hike we did gets you to about 500 meters away from the glacier, but you do get a good view of it. The glacier has been receding quite a bit as where we were standing was where it used to be only back in 2008.

     After the hike we drove up the west coast on our way to Nelson.

Road Trip through New Zealand: Christchurch

     We were now in Christchurch, so we walked around the city hoping to find something to do, however, there wasn’t much. The city has been hit by two major earthquakes, one in 2010 and then another in 2011; almost completely destroying the city. A number of people died and the city needs a lot of reconstruction still. Driving in Christchurch is really annoying, mostly because a lot of the streets are under-construction or are simply closed. Many buildings sit empty and parts of the city look like a ghost town; businesses that have fled but never emptied out their stores. We passed a Starbucks that hasn’t been opened since the earthquake but their furniture is still inside. We also saw some retail stores like Just Jeans, whose products are all over the place inside. A lot of the buildings will have to be demolished and built from the ground up, but I’m not sure where the population is to bother with reconstruction. 

We found a cute part of the city where businesses have been set up using temporary shipping containers – I love containers – and it’s very welcoming. We ate lunch there and went for another walk to buy books. Why did we feel the need to buy books? Because we had nothing to do, so we bought books and sat and read them.

     We met up with Robert again and visited him at his hostel. We managed to cook dinner there and snuck in a shower, then we slept in our car which was parked right out front on the street. Unfortunately street lights can be very annoying and make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep.

Road Trip through New Zealand: Otago Peninsula, Dunedin & Moeraki Boulders to Christchurch

     The nice couple who had kindly offered us their home, had mentioned that we check out Dunedin and especially the Otago Peninsula nearby. We thought we would be able to fully explore the city and the peninsula in one day, but we were wrong. We started out with the peninsula and we drove in on Highcliff Road until the end/tip of the peninsula where we did a quick outdoor tour of the Royal Albatross Centre (there is an entrance fee).

The views everywhere in NZ are breathtaking.

     From there we backtracked and drove along Harrington Point Road/Portobello Road until a turnoff for Larnach Castle. There are separate fees to enter the castle so we did a tour of the castle grounds only for $12.50 (Amanda has no interest in castles/architecture). The grounds were very pretty, even in the dead of winter with snow, but I am sure the gardens are much more lively in spring or summer. Also, Larnach Castle is the only castle in all of New Zealand, so if you’re in the area you may want to check it out.

Lanarch Castle

         





           After the castle we headed into town wanting to explore the city of Dunedin, unfortunately the brightness of day wasn’t on our side and the lack of sunlight made it hard to take pictures. So, we bought a bottle of wine and headed back to Stephanie and Neil’s (the lovely couple whom invited us to stay with them) place for the evening. 

     The next morning we left to truly explore the city; we did a little walking tour starting from the Dunedin Railway Station; it was built in 1904 and is the city’s most photographed building.

Dunedin Railway Station

Next was the Law Courts (1899), then up to the Octagon. From the center of the Octagon you can see a statue of Robert Burns, the Municipal Chambers (1880), and St Paul’s Cathedral (1919). From there we passed the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and decided to check it out (after all, it’s free!) – there was a Lego exhibition and who doesn’t like legos? After that we continued our walking tour to First Church (1873), which was built by the first settlers from the Free Church of Scotland.  

First Church

Not far from the church is the Commerce Building, Imperial Building (1906), Garrison Hall (1877), and Milford House (1883) which was once the New Zealand Clothing Factory. About a block away, you can find the National Bank of New Zealand (rebuilt in 1912), the old headquarters of the Bank of New Zealand (1883), the Cargill Monument (1863) which is dedicated to Dunedin’s founder, Captain William Cargill, and across the street from there, the Grand Hotel (1883).

Cargill Monument and the Bank of New Zealand

Grand Hotel

     Walking back towards our car, we passed Consultancy House (1908), the old Police Station (1896) and finally His Majesty’s Prison (1896) before crossing the street to our parked car where we went searching for Baldwin Street. Baldwin Street is the steepest street in the world as according to the Guinness Book of Records; we of course, had to walk to the top of the street – it didn’t take as long as you would think. Baldwin Street has a gradient of 1 in 2.86 feet (or 19 degrees), or that for every 2.86 feet traveled horizontally, it goes up 1 foot. Just look at the angle of these houses and driveways. Would you like to live on this street? I kept picturing cars rolling backwards down the street in winter.

Looking from bottom to top.

Looking at the bottom from the very top.

Angle of this house on the lower part of Baldwin Street

             

     We left Dunedin for Christchurch (338km) and on our route we stopped at Oamaru to see the Moeraki Boulders. They are rather strange but interesting geological occurrences. The boulders are rock formations that are in the shape of spheres up to 10ft (3m) across. They are all along the beach, some partly buried in the sand and others that look like they are coming out of the face of the nearby cliff.

       According to Maori tradition, the boulders are food baskets that were washed ashore from the ancestral canoe. Geologically, they are the product of the crystallizing process of mud-stone; forming before the sedimentary rock which makes them harder and less subject to wear. 

Me next to a Moeraki Boulder. I'm 5'4" (163cm) tall.

     We arrived in Christchurch after nightfall and the city was dead. It was still very early so we went to catch a movie with a friend of Amanda’s, Robert, he had just moved to Christchurch. After the movie we dropped him off at his hostel and headed to a campground where we spent the night in our car.