Category: Caroline

Today we arrived in a wee town called Hamner Springs. It’s known for its natural springs which had me thinking of hot pools, relaxing and chilling out. I was a bit perturbed by the sight of ‘Thrillseekers Canyon’ and a bungy rope on the way into town. I did think this might be one place where you could avoid all possibility of scary experiences but no turns out you can bungy, go rafting, quad biking, jet boating etc etc. A bit of a mini Queenstown in fact.
Luckily it was ok. We had all made our joint pact to retire (er, I haven’t! – Si) from those sort of adrenalin pumping activities and to hang up our harnesses! I was safe for another day. That left only one activity with which to occupy our time and I’m talking about my kind of activity. Turns out that relaxing in the glorious heat of a 40 degree pool is just how I like to spend my time . Even the stinking sulphury one was quite nice if you could just ignore the smell and I’m sure it has done wonders for our tired old bones!

The luxuries of a powered site last night meant that we could leave the fan heater on all night, something we have been dreaming of for the last three nights. Yes we have lasted three consecutive nights camping in DoC sites. Which means that the other thing we have been dreaming about is having a decent, much needed shower!
The showers at this campsite were not the stuff of dreams but at least we were clean again and able to hit the road without the clothes pegs on our noses! We had planned another scenic drive for ourselves today, this time crossing the country east to west on the Arthur’s Pass. The drive promised to be a belter from the off with views of snow-topped craggy mountains calling us from a distance, we just had to dodge the two escapee sheep causing havoc on the road first.
By now we have grown used to the expectation of encountering something unusual and unexpected around the corner and today was no different. Today’s round the corner surprise was a plethora of stone monoliths randomly sitting on the hillside. Think Stone Henge x10. The guidebook didn’t really explain how they had got there so that just made them all the more mysterious. The drive up to the village of Arthur’s Pass was pretty spectacular but a quick visit to the DoC centre proved quite alarming as it turned out that we were in an area surrounded by at least twenty fault lines and which had experienced several serious earthquakes in the not so distant past. Probably better to not hang around too long then. A quick hike up to the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls and we were off. Just a little further along the road and we saw some of the effects of those earthquakes. Up on the hill was the remainder of a road that had been rebuilt several times before they gave up and built a very impressive viaduct complete with rock slide deflectors!
Our daily search for a campsite was a bit more interesting and time consuming than normal. We contemplated staying round the back of an old abandoned community centre in the very strange town of Blackball. Apart from the dodgy looking yocals/rednecks who looked like they might shoot us in the middle of the night, the newspaper article declaring this building as the most haunted building in the South Island definitely sent us packing.

The Catlins Coast is a scenic drive from one Scottish influenced city, Invercargill close to another, Dunedin. Before long we were off-roading on dodgy gravel roads reminiscent of our Australian driving days. The first stop was Waipapa Point, but just before we got there we noticed a huge sea lion sleeping in the grass at the side of the road. The guidebook informed us that it was a Hooker’s sea lion and that they can get quite aggressive, although it felt pretty safe photographing him from the safety of our car. It was a bit too cold at Waipapa Point to venture too far but we did come across another sea lion that raised his head and check us out in a way which told us not to mess!
The next stop was Slope Point, the most southerly point on the south island, so of course a flag photo was required. It was pretty cold and blustery on the cliff, but then it would be when the next point of land is the Antarctic! It’s not often you can say that!
Lunch at Porpoise bay introduced us to the smallest and rarest species of dolphin; the Hector’s dolphin. Aparently this is the only place in the world where dolphins live permenantly so close the shore. There is not much of them to see from a distance as their dorsal fins are small and only occasionally pop out of the water, but they were spotted doing their dolphin thing, swimming around the bay and doing wee acrobatic jumps every now and then.
Our next stop involved a pleasant walk through a very moss covered forest to get to McLean falls, followed by a much needed (it was cold and overcast!) cafe stop for coffee and scones. By now time was getting on and we would have to pass all the other waterfall stops and hightail it to Nugget Point so that we might be able to see another rare species.
Darkness, or greyness at least was beginning to set in on the long and rough gravel road to Nugget Point. But it was worth the effort and enduring Si’s strategy for coping with all the bumps in the road – just drive faster! As soon as we got to the beach we walked down to a hide and were just in time to see several Yellow-Eyed penguins come ashore for the evening. Considered the most ancient of all living penguins these guys are endangered and the rarest of penguins. They are bigger than the Little Blue penguins and much much shyer and more wary. They took a very long time to make their way to their nests with several changes of mind and direction along the way. They also entertained us with a tummy slapping greeting, which thanks to the photographic skills of Si have been caught on video. The return drive on the gravel road in the dark was pretty hairy but we made it to a campsite in one peice where we could enjoy the luxury of having a powered site by keeping the fan heater on all night.

They say that with age comes experience and self knowledge. Well it may have taken me awhile but I have finally learned something about myself. Over the years and in the last few weeks particularly I have found myself in various adrenalin fueled situations that involve some crazy act of leaping / jumping / being pushed from some great height. I keep signing myself up for them and then struggling with the actual leaping / jumping thing. Turns out that at that crucial last second some subconscious part of my brain kicks in and says ‘Are you crazy, you can’t jump off of this perfectly good / safe bridge, platform etc!’. This has been the case with the bungy jump (I was only 17!), the Supaman comet line and just jumping from a rock into a rubber ring in the water.
So it was with this newfound (at long last) self knowledge that I chose my method of swing for the Shotover Canyon Swing (think bungy but without the pinging up bit!). There were ten styles to chose from but the ‘Cutaway’ was only one pant on the pant scale of scariness and best of all it didn’t involve me having to propell myself off the ledge. I would be placed in a harness and sit in a swing like position and someone would then push the button that would make me go. Too easy!? How wrong can you be. It may only be a one panter but it was an adventure too far for me. Of course the crazy Kiwis running the show were a bunch of jokers and seemed to take far too much pleasure in scaring me even more than I already was. They pushed me off the ledge, left me dangling there for a while and then dropped me unexpectedly mid-sentence. It was 109m high with 60m of freefall which trust me is a long time when you are plummeting towards the rocks at the bottom of the canyon. There was a brief moment at the bottom when I braved an eye opening to experience the fun of swinging at the bottom (why we chose this and not one of the five available bungies) and then I was hoisted up and the whole thing was thankfully over. Or so I thought.
I actually found it more traumatic watching Si and Cat do their jumps than I did doing it myself, especially since both of them did it Pin Drop style (a whopping 5 pants on the pantometer!) which involved them stepping of the ledge of their own free will. Crazy dudes. Si (a.k.a Slyman) then continued to age me even further by doing a second jump, this time in ‘the chair’ (a mere three panter!). For this he was tied to a garden chair which he then swung backwards of the ledge to back flip his way to the bottom.
Several hours later the whole ordeal was over and could be forgotten about. Oh, if only it were that easy. The constant reliving it will give me nightmares for days and as for the dvds… (You can check them out for yourselves on the links to the right, look out for Si’s legs in the Pin Drop and the expression on his face as his chair leans back that final time, which is also on the blog photo) I have to point out that in Cat’s dvd that is my scream that can be heard, she was as cool as a cucumber!

Today’s adventure managed to squeeze in a little bit of everything. Our Underworld Rafting trip began with a short bus ride from Charleston to a steam train which took us through the bush alongside the Nile river. We were dropped off at the changing room (a bench in the middle of the forest!!) where we struggled into our wetsuits and a whole other host of paraphanalia required for our impending adventure. We were then presented with an inner tube (think big rubber ring) which we carried across the river, through some more forest and then up into the cave. Inside, the cave we lugged our inner tubes past impressive stalagtites, stalagmites, columns, shawls etc. They were all pretty similar to the steliothems (!!) we saw in Oz except that those formations were almost 10 times as old as today’s offerings, simply because New Zealand is so much younger geographically than Oz.
After we had been carrying our inner tubes for what seemed like an age we were finally allowed to get in them. We all linked ourselves together in a long chain in preparation to paddle down the tunnel of love. We had all turned our head torches off by this point so it was pitch black inside the cave but then as we turned a corner and looked up we were treated to the most impressive array of glowworms twinkling away like stars in the night sky. Pretty cool.
We drifted past two awesome cave entrances where it was quite beautiful to see daylight after so long underground. Next came the fun part. The reason for carrying those inner tubes all morning. We got to ride the rapids of the river back to our changing room and the train. With bums lifted to avoid a river smacking, we all made it safely back to dry land with only one capsizer amongst us (done in style Cat 🙂 It was all quite an adventure and very good value for money, we were even provided with photos without paying the fortune usually required on these kind of trips. Fantastic! (You can actually check these out on the website if you wish; www.caverafting.com Just follow the links to the pics for Underworld Rafting, morning of the 6th of April.)
After a slap up lunch to refuel we were on the road again. Next stop pancake rocks. An impressive rock formation set amongst a coastline not too dissimilar to the Great Ocean Road. The rocks themselves are made up of layer upon layer of thin rock which looks like lots of stacks of pancakes. Hence the name. Some more spectacular winding road later (including two very narrow one lane bridges also used by trains) we pulled up the van in our campsite for the night. What with all our adventures and the clocks having gone back an hour we are suddenly in need of a kip! Good night.

Today we made our way to Picton in preparation for waving off Si’s mum and Ian to the North Island. As we drove towards the water side we were blown away by the beautiful view of the Queen Charlotte Sound. We had booked a Dolphin Explorer boat trip for later and we couldn’t wait to get out on the water. We passed our time with a wander around the shops and a quick swizz at the ninth oldest boat, The Edwin Fox, which carried convicts to Australia and immigrants to New Zealand back in the day. Helen and Ian took to the skies in a seaplane to see the Sound in style and came back so enthused about its beauty that we were even more excited about our boat trip. And it didn’t disappoint. The views of the hills and mountains surrounding the Sound were breath-takingly beautiful and even though I haven’t seen the films I know they are reminiscent of much of the back drop of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, especially when the mist discends. We were not long out on the water before we were joined by a massive pod of bottlenose dolphins. Despite being almost twice their size these guys were not going to be out done by their acrobatic cousins, the dusky dolphins. They announced their appending arrival with spectacular dives and flips and then continued to entertain us and test our photographic skills by taking it in turns to surf alongside our boat. The rest of our boat trip, although pleasant enough, was quite tame in comparison. We disembarked briefly on Motuara Island to see some birds, including some Little Blue Penguins and then again at Ship Cove, a favourite bay of Captain Cook who spent considerable time here during his three trips to New Zealand.
Back on dry land we treated ourselves to a last supper at The Flying Haggis, a Scottish pub that served surprisingly good Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, as well as a tasty Irn Bru (at one stage it looked as though we might not be able to drag Cat away!)
After all that excitement we were expecting to just settle down for the night at a campsite. But Smith’s farm was no ordinary, run of the mill campsite! We were greeted with warm, freshly baked muffins for a start! And then despite it being almost bedtime, Chris the owner took us out on a guided walk up into the hills, past sheep and some shy calves, across streams to see glowworms. Not a bad start to the week.

It has been a while since we have experienced a winter but it looks as though our time has come and we can no longer out run the cold. It is hard to say just how cold it is going to get here but it was clear we were not prepared. So it was with this in mind that we hit the shops today and I’m pleased to say it was a successful mission. Thermal T-shirts were bought (hopefully Si won’t actually need three but it was too good an offer to pass up!) as well as warm snuggly jumpers. We are now ready, bring on the snow!
I also got another very exciting purchase: a new camera! Yep, we wore another one out with all our holiday snapping. I hope you are all prepared for the number of photos you will be subjected to on our return 🙂 Now with my new jazzy camera I can do all sorts of fun and cool things. It has settings for every conceivable photo opportunity from landscapes, portraits, a portrait against a landscape, pets, children and so on. It is great fun to play with and I now almost rival Si in the number of photos taken each day. But the best bit about it is that it is PINK! Which is great just cos it’s cool but also because Si is less inclined to nick it!
After our very successful shopping trip we went off in search of something to take photos of. South of Christchurch are the Port hills where we hopped on a gondola (cable car) up to the top. We were warned about the lack of visibility at the top and it was no lie. The clouds had the hill covered and the wind literally took your breath away so the only other hardy soul, apart from ourselves, braving the elements was a hedgehog. True to form New Zealand wildlife is not as scary as the Aussie variety.

As we flew over New Zealand towards Christchurch airport we were treated to some spectacular views to whet our appetite for things to come. There were rolling green hills, snow capped mountains and even a glacier (surely the best way to see it is from the air!). As soon as we touched ground we raced off in excitement to pick up our new van. Our Jucy Chaser is awesome, quite palatial in relation to what we are used to. It has a permanently high roof so no hunchback poses for us, it has a toilet and shower (check us!) but the best bit is it has a living room feel to it by day with two long seats and a table and then come nighttime it converts into the hugest bed! Yep I think this van rocks! (I’m ignoring the fact that I was quite excited about the last van in the early days, this one, I’m sure will have staying power!) The only slight fly in the ointment is that it is a diesel and an automatic (It has been a while since I have driven a deisel and I have NEVER driven an automatic!) that coupled with the fact that less than 20% of Kiwis have insurance and seem to be quite crazy drivers – it just might take me a while to work up to driving this fab van.
(It also has a confusing rear tent attachment that will keep me guessing for ages, as you can see! – Si)

So we arrived in Melbourne this morning and only had a few hours of van time left. There seemed only one thing to do… visit Ramsay Street. It was not at all what I expected and quite surreal actually. For a start it’s not called Ramsay Street in real life (quite obvious I suppose!) but also it is tiny – a mere court with about six houses, only one of which I could say with any conviction that I recognised. There was also a security guard keeping an eye on preceedings!?
Our wee trip down memory lane only took about five minutes so we headed to St Kilda, site of our hotel and began the long process of clearing out the van ready for our parting of the ways.
We delivered the van back to Dirk at the airport and managed to keep our tears in check. Just. Our wee van had served us well, clocking up 12000km and has been our home for the last three months (longer than the time we lived in our flat in Sydney!)
The rest of our day involved a wander around Melbourne soaking up the atmosphere. After dinner we stumbled across a comedy festival. One of the comedians managed to persuade us to come to his show because it had Scottish connections and he promised to talk about something I didn’t really understand (I thought he was talking about a person called Kay Lee) but he seemed so pleased with himself that I didn’t want to disappoint him by admitting I’d never heard of her! Anyway it turned out to be the perfect show for us, all about movie trailers and a grandfather who was born in Ireland and moved to Glasgow. The comedian had a bit of a dodgy Irish and Scottish accent (turned out he was talking about ceilidhs!) but he was very funny and like I said the show could have been tailor made for us! Melbourne rocks so far!

Yesterday afternoon involved a lot of driving in the rain but it was all worthwhile today because we got to spend all day walking in the glorious sunshine. We woke up to discover three very large and impressive peaks looming over us (they had previously been obscured by dark clouds) so we set off towards Freycinet National Park to explore. The first leg of our walk had us climbing up a steep hill to Wineglass Bay lookout. It is probably one of the most photographed beaches in Tasmania but you can see why. We then walked down to the beach itself to marvel at the amazingly clear turquoise water which I’m ashamed to say was too cold to tempt us to dip our toes in today. Our walk continued on to Hazards beach for a spot of lunch before a two hour coastal walk back to our van. After such a long and exhilarating walk we felt it only right to treat ourselves to coffee and cake before we hit the road again.
Next stop: Campbell Town. Really only because it’s a namesake to the real one that is home, but we were pleasantly surprised to find quite a lot to this wee town. It was of course settled by Scots many years ago and for a wee town has a lot to boast about; the first telephone call in the Southern hemisphere, several bushrangers (bad people, so we won’t go into too much detail about them!), a local who flew around the world in a biplane, a bridge built by convict labour in 1838 which despite an annual load of about 1,200,000 vehicles has never needed any repairs! There is more but I’ve been told to stop there!
It’s also the last night sleeping in the van and then we have four whole nights of sleeping in a real bed to look forward to, what bliss!