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Hello all.
I believe that it is a month to the day that I sent out the last email letting
you know what I was up to. I did mean to write it sooner but I’ve
been a very busy boy. I write this to you now in the home of my friend
Lorelli who lives in the very pleasant suburbs of Calgary. I’ll tell you
one thing right away, its cold here. If you think your smattering of snow
and a few chilly days was bad - you should try this! The thing is its
expected here (and the reason I came), so I do feel sorry for you lot.
So what have I been up to since arriving in Calgary? Since the last email
I spent another 20 days in New Zealand. After a little bit more
sightseeing towards the north of the North Island e.g., Cathedral Cove, Sting
Ray Bay, we made our way back down south. We had a few days to get down to
Waikanae for Cam and Ange’s wedding. The plan had been to spend all the
time in the Coromandel area but the weather was really bad. The hurricane
(Zoe I think) that had battered Fiji also managed to have an effect on NZ.
So where we were there was high wind, heavy rain and poor visibility - not ideal
conditions for long bush walks and sightseeing. So we decided to head down
to Hamilton and check out the city, which we would have bypassed otherwise.
Despite the tag of City, Hamilton isn’t much more than a large town. Its
quite nice though and you don’t have to go far before you reach the lovely
Hamilton Gardens. Its all very picturesque and we got there via a nice
walk down the River something or other (I forgot to write down its name).
It was all very relaxing and a beautiful day to go with it. Before leaving
Hamilton the next morning, we even decided to go to the zoo! How touristy
is that? It was good fun though although the difference between the
Gibbons and Mike was quite hard to distinguish. This was the 9th of Jan
and we were due in Waikanae the next day. We jumped in the car and zoomed
off (as fast as our trusty Honda would take us) to Wellington via the Waitomo
Glow Worm caves. For a price you can be taken on a tour of these awesome
caves which ends with a boat ride through a really dark section only lit by
thousands of glow worms. Its actually a lot more interesting than I’ve
probably made it sound. The weather was still awful so it was straight on
to Wellington. Now this is nice city. I’ve got a lot of time form
this place. I’m not sure what it was but the place just has a nice
atmosphere to it. We parked the car and checked into another cheapo hostel
(again about 6 quid a night) and went out for a meal. After a huge feed it
was back to the hostel for drinks and pool. I must point out here that I
played two of the best games of my life - I just couldn’t miss. I think
its important that you know this. The day was glorious and was mostly
spent mooching around checking out the city and laughing at people having to
hurry to work :)
Later that afternoon it was time to head to Waikanae (about an hour north of Wellington) to prepare for the wedding. We had a great evening. The accommodation got for us all (about 10 of us) was fantastic. Up in the hills overlooking the town. All nice and posh. A lovely upgrade from the hostels we were getting used to. We sat around eating pizza and drinking beer and playing Vortex (and Vortex Nights! - email me separately for a description of what that entails). The next was all about one thing...the Wedding. Its was a lovely service and a lot of fun. For those who know Cam I will be getting some piccies back soon of the day. The reception afterwards was in a lovely country garden style place. I can’t supply all that many details from this point on because I got absolutely blitzed. I do remember though a beautiful rendition, during the best mans speech, of “You are so beautiful to me” sung by myself, the 3 other English boys and one kiwi. Its the first, and I am convinced the last as well, time I’ve been applauded for my singing and choreographed boy band style moves. I think I’ll leave the wedding day description there, its for the best.
The next ten days were spent on the South Island. With the exception of
the day after the wedding (rough ferry crossing + bad hangover = a very unwell
Rob) the South Island was beautiful. If I described everything in detail I
would wear my fingers out, and no doubt bore you all to tears. So I’ll try
to summerise places and events. Neslon - Two nights. Went for a bush walk
in the Abel Tasman national park. We managed to find a beautiful beach (Whitiwhanga
beach - remember that in Maori Wh is pronounced as an F) with only 2 other
people on it We spent this time with Graydon and Clem (thankfully English)
and also met up with again in Queenstown and Christchurch.
Fox - One Night. This here is glacier country. The first one we
looked at was the Franz Joseph glacier. It was pretty good really.
This one you can walk right up the ‘terminal’ of and climb up on to. Its
even possible to make an absolute fool of yourself and almost fall off the
glacier comically - isn’t that right Mike? The other main tourist glacier
is the Fox Glacier. Its not quite so impressive and you can only really do
guided walks to see it properly.
Wanaka - One night. If you remember (or even bothered reading) what I said
about Taupo in the first mail, Wanaka is best described as a mini Taupo. A
lovely clear (but cold) lake, surrounded by snow capped mountains. Every
type of lakeside amusement is there for you. It was a lovely town.
This was also the place where we toured Milford Sound from. We bought
seats a on small 6 seat Cessna which took off from Wanaka airport, flew over the
Southern Alps and took us to Milford. The views from the plane can best be
described as stunning. I’m hoping some of my photos will have come out
okay. As part of the price paid we also got a boat cruise down the sound
up to the sea. Again ‘stunning’ is the best description.
Queenstown - Three nights. What a town this is. Its said that
whatever your sporting interest is, it can be done here. Rather bizarrely
I bumped into my friend Noonie from London on the first afternoon there.
We proceeded to get drunk. A tip from an idiot - never swim in lake that
is fed mainly from snowmelt at 2am - its very cold indeed. We then met up
with Graydon and Clem again and proceeded to do all the tourist things.
Jetboating up the Shotover river in 4 inches of water. With water rafting
was also great fun. The drive to the river for the rafting was almost an
extreme sport in itself. In a knackered old green bus we picked our way
along a mountain road with warning signs saying only suitable for 4x4’s.
We were in a bus! The other main thing we did in Queenstown was luging.
If you’ve seen the winter Olympics where psychos sit on baking tray and whizz
down a ice course at breakneck speed, you sort of know what this was like.
The luges here were thin bits of plastic with 3 rickety wheels and the handle
bars were connected to a brake system that barely worked. Great fun it was
hacking down a course ramming Mike and Graydon off the course. I’ll
hopefully have a photo of that to show what I mean.
Christchurch - One night. Another really nice city (big town?). The
four of us just chilled out and took it easy. We kayaked up the River Avon
for a hour which was nice and looked around the botanical gardens. Split
up with Graydon and Clem and went our separate ways.
Kaikoura - Two nights. One of the main things I wanted to do in NZ was go
swimming with Dolphins. Usually though there is a waiting list a month
long for this. I pushed my luck and called them the day before and got on
Dolphin Encounters waiting list. I turned up the next day - and got on.
Result. Its hard to describe what the experience of swimming and
interacting with wild Dusky Dolphins is like. Its on a par with skydiving
but for different reasons. I really don’t know how to describe it.
Just do it yourselves and you’ll know what I mean.The next couple of days were
mainly spent bombing up north back up to Auckland and it was a shame to leave
the south island behind. (If any of you ever go to NZ, I would recommend
you hire a car and take your time driving down State Highway 6 on the west
coast. The scenery is stunning for hundreds of kms's.) On the way we
spent a night at the new Mr and Mrs Millar’s holiday place. It was nice to
see them again and was especially nice to be a nice bed again.
Auckland - Four nights. We were kindly offered a place to stay at our
friend Fraser’s place in Auckland. On the first full day Fray took us up
to Goat Island, about 80km north of Auckland, to go snorkeling. What great
fun it was, all these bizarre and colourful fish swimming around within grabbing
distance (if they weren’t so damn fast). I even saw a Ray of some
description which was really cool. We also visited the Auckland museum and
went to the Auckland Sky tower. There is a company that offers to take you
40m above the main observation deck of the Sky Tower. The trouble is you
have to climb it yourself. The ladder inside the tower is vertical with
the space gradually decreasing the higher you get. Of course we did and
got a cracking view of the City from the top. And with wind speeds of
about 70kph it was swaying quite a bit at times. Great fun. We went
out to a few restaurants for meals and really enjoyed our time there - Fray was
the perfect host.Thats pretty much it for NZ. If it sounds like I had too
good a time I’ll tell you I lost my sunglasses and my credit card there.
Its not all perfect.
I’m really bored with typing now (as are you ,no doubt, of reading) so I’ll sign
off now and finish this off tomorrow. You are up to about a week ago now.
I hope everyone is well and happy...and employed (except you Dad - god forbid!),
and enjoying life. Take care all,
Love,
Rob.
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