Feb 20: Wild Wild West
Gidday Folks,
We've now mad it as far as Queenstown, heading now for Milford Sound. Deirdre's driving, & I'm typing this with one hand (the other is permanently fixed to the hand grips, crash helmet on!). Abel Tasman National Park was the next destination after leaving Nelson, via a quick tour of the Mac's Brewery. I appointed myself as a quality control officer of the day, & can confirm that all varieties of Mac's beer & cider are still top quality (from what I can remember!). A night spent at Old MacDonald's Farm in Marahau set us up well for a half day walk into the park for a swim. Refreshed, we set off for Howards hole (it's a real place), before driving through the Buller Gorge down to Westport. We're so glad we made the effort to get to Westport that night (10pm), because it meant that we could run in the annual Buller George Marathon the next morning. Up at the crack of dawn, off to catch the bus out to the starting line in the gorge (dropping Deirdre & some others at the half way point) we then started the 26 mile run, stagger & crawl back to Westport. |
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  Then
I woke up. If I'd woken up in time I would have done it. Anyway, Deirdre
found that there weren't enough pubs in New Zealand's version of Westport,
so we headed south to the pancake rocks (named due to the number of possums
that get killed on the roads there each year), then off to Greymouth for
the night, and said good bye to the sun for a few days. Caught no fish
from the river. We headed south to the Franz Joseph & Fox Glaciers
for a couple of nights. Deirdre did a half day walk on the glacier whilst
I went Ice Climbing for the day. Damn, that was good, only fell off once,
which would have been fine if I wasn't heavier than Muzza the guide holding
the safety rope! |
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Still in one
piece, we headed for Wanaka where we saw the sun again. Armed with some
new flys & spinners, I then eagerly cast my rod into Lake Wanaka
& the Clutha River for a few hours.
Still, the exercise was good. Wanaka is amazingly beautiful, & the only way to really experience it was to go horse riding for the afternoon. |
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Queenstown, the adventure capital of the southern hemisphere, three days of great sunshine, loads of Speights & a credit card were all we needed for three days of fantastic fun. Starting with the Shotover Jet, a night on the town, we then jumped off a 102m high bridge in Skippers Canyon (the 4 wheel drive up there was bad enough).
It's ok, we had a bunjy strapped to our ankles. Awesome. Next up the Gondola for some photos & a burn on the luge, & some more beer. |
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Yesterday
was a perfect day. A sleep in, late breakfast, hot with no clouds, we
got picked up & taken to a small Cheers |
Firstly,
for all those that enquired about the blisters & eyes, Deirdre is
now fixed up fine. The blisters are gone, the eyes are better, although
she's still blind as a bat without her contacts on. Deirdre's now nursing
her wounds after taking an ass kicking in Air Hockey, courtesy of yours
truly.
airfield. I left Deirdre with the
camera whilst I hoped into a tiny plane which took us to 9000
feet, then jumped out strapped to a Jump Master, who luckily had a parachute.
30 se
conds of free-fall followed by a spin round when the chute opened,
then a gentle drift down to ground. Awesome, totally awesome. Half
a kilo of Rib Eye steak, barbecued to perfection, salad & a bottle
of Cloudy Bay Chardonnay topped it all off rather well.