Napier

Art Deco. Too be honest I don't really know what its all about, but Nay is a closet fan and so a walking tour of the Art Deco capital of the world was not to be sniffed at. Napier was demolished by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake back in 1931. At the time the townsfolk wanted to rebuild with a statement, and this was to be in the form of Art Deco architecture.

Below is a picture of the Port of Napier from Bluff Hill lookout. The next day a Princess Cruise ship pulled in and flooded the town with American and Australian tourists. It was weird watching the town

You say tomato and I say Te Mata

Checked in to Hastings for the night to climb the Te Mata peak before heading into Napier. Its only a baby by recent standards at just over 400meters but with some pretty impressive views over the Hawks Bay region from the top. 

On the way down caught a glimpse of what looked like the worlds steepest and most hair raising mountain bike track. We happen to know a keen

New Address

Just a quick one to let everyone know that we have set up a new postal address whilst we are out here in New Zealand. You can see it in the picture below...

It just happens to be the longest place name in the world and means "The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees

Firestarter - a twisted firestarter!

Selected hardcore camping mode last night and headed to the base of mount Holdsworth 20k's from anywhere. A department of conservation campsite is out there and despite the rain we managed to start and epic campfire thanks to many left over maps and accommodation

Windy Welly

A one hour drive from nelson followed by a 3 hour ferry ride between the north and south island via the cook straight, landed us in Wellington. 

The capital city of New Zealand well known for its culture, affectionately referred to as Wellywood (homage to peter jackson) and also

The lost flip flop

Taking it easy has been the agenda for the last week. We've sketched out a north island route which will take us up the east side of the north, through Auckland and back down the west side in time for the world premier of the Hobbit in Wellington on the 28th of November. For the week around the premier the city will be renamed as

So...What did we learn?!

I think it is safe to say we learnt a few valuable lessons whilst touring the beautiful yet seasonal South Island. So here are a few facts, figures, learnings and sayings!! (Some more poetic than others)

To eat crayfish...

120 k's from Hanmer further up the east coast lands us in Kaikoura - known to locals as "a little slice of paradise". Before leaving Hanmer we took on one final activity, a 3 hour return bush walk to Dog Stream Waterfall. True to form it hammered down for the entire walk but the 45 meter free flowing waterfall at the end was well worth it.

Kaikoura was the name given to the area by the Maori, and means "to eat" (kai) "crayfish" (koura). Something we have always done when passing through here is go out and catch some, this time would be no different. We hooked up with a fishing charter run by Gerry and captained by our very own pirate Nick. He wasn't a real pirate, but he did genuinely have a wooden leg and no fingers....presumably lost in a fishing accident but out of common decency know one asked him how it happened, we just stared at it all the time...as you do...

The main catch was the bright orange sea perch, as is common in these waters. The oceanogrophy is unique in Kairoura and is one of only 3 places in the world that sits on an underwater continental shelf. This means the depth is approximately 200 meters just off the shore and then plummets straight down to over 1600 meters deep. This allows whale colonies to feed in the canyon and an abundance of marine life to thrive here. Naomi caught her first ever fish! In fact she went on to catch 3 FISH!

You get to keep what you catch on the charters and we were lucky enough to also pull up 5 crayfish which we drown in fresh water and froze to take home - DELICIOUS!!!

All around the area Seals are playing along the coastline. There is one special spot where they clamber over rocks up a stream and bathe in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. In the afternoon when we took a walk up there we were lucky enough to find 6 of them playing in the water. When we turned to leave there was a seal right behind us blocking our path...it seems that the lazy ones don't climb the river but prefer to take the easy route and walk along the tourist pathway! Its surprising how comfortable they are around people, although they will you give a nasty bite if you get too close.

You can't come to Kaikoura and not go out on a whale watching trip. Leaving from south bay the boat races out to where the shelf drops away and joins another spotting boat which was tracking a passing sperm whale. They dive for around 40 minutes, so the dive time and location is recorded and the boats return when the 40 minutes is up. There are a resident population of sperm whales but we were lucky enough to catch a sighting of 2 whales who were transiting through the waters. Sperm whales are the largest toothed predator on the planet, weighing up to and over 60 tonnes. Hugely majestic and awe inspiring when the blow hole spouts off in the distance and the boat pulls alongside to say hello. After about 5 minutes of re-oxyginisation the head drops, the back bends up and that awesome tail flies up into the air. Incredible. The tail of a sperm whale is referred to as "the hand of god", not because of any association with Maradona, but because if you were under it when it smashed down on you like a fist the next person you're likely to meet is the so called creator.

What an awesome place. I'll drop in some more pictures from Kaioura now to finish off this post:

4 Seasons In A Day

We headed up to Franz  Joseph with the determination to conquer an epic Glacier but unfortunately the weather had other ideas! Horizontal rain is an understatement we must have missed the announcement  for a monsoon!! 

So we stopped for a coffee (of course) and made the decision to head on up to Greymouth to avoid anymore bad weather. We spent one night at Greymouth as the hurricane winds set in we retreated to our cabin for cover.

As morning arrived we concluded there was only one place to visit in a hurricane complimented by torrential rain...Greymouth Pier of course!! Lets just say we got another free shower...

Feeling fresh we set off over the notorious Lewis Pass the rain started to ease only to turn into a snow blizzard! Out came all the snow plough's to clear the cliff hanging roads as Nay drove us safely to Hanmer Springs where the natural hot pools awaited! On arriving in Hanmer the weather flipped again to blazing sunshine! Couldn't believe how unpredictable it was over a distance of just 300km's!

(First pictures in the rain taken at about 9am, Lewis Pass snow pictures 

above taken at about 12:30pm and the one below at about 3pm!!)

Today was a chance to chill out after smashing more than 2800km's in the van to date. We basked all day in the natural hot pools at Hanmer. 

The afternoon provided a chance for me and dad to get a quick 18 holes of pitch and putt. Approaching the tee for the 13th hole mum noticed a "strange" cloud over the mountain. The sky was totally vacant and blue with the exception of this rapidly expanding column of white cloud. We weren't sure at all weather there were any volcanoes over the mountain, but it looked exactly how you would imagine an eruption cloud to look. 

Once we finished our round the bloke told us it was smoke from a controlled forest fire, which they have during this season to remove areas of woodland that are particularly vulnerable to bushfires. 

NZ is extreme in many ways - and the weather makes no exception!

One Crazy House

After a mental few days in Queenstown, which along with the skydive and jetboat included a gondola ride, downhill luge race, steamboat sailing, extreme-hardcore-hurricane-mini golf and a massive burger, we moved up to Wanaka to camp by the lake for the night. 

(Queenstown Luge Race....I win...Just)

(from the top of the Queenstown Gondola)

(Fergburger)

Wanaka is a popular winter town for skiers and is home to the toy and transport museum, a cinema where you sit in Morris Miners and also a place called Puzzling World. It is very puzzling indeed. Full of weird optical illusions that make for some interesting photos ops.

We’ve now booked flights for Canada. We’ll fly into Vancouver from Melbourne in early March. We’re keen to explore British Colombia, check out the ski town of whistler, take a look round the remnants from the winter Olympic as well as discovering Vancouver.

Walking on Sunshine

“There is no such thing as try. There is only Do and Do not Do”. Awesome marketing. How can you read that and not think that you are now committed to jumping out of a tiny plane?

Nay and I have always talked about doing it and once we hit Queenstown we knew that it was on. What we didn’t know, was that it wasn’t going to just be the two of us….

As you’ll have seen from the pictures there is a more distinguished gentlemen with a tache in a third photo. We knew something was up when the lady said that the total came to $900 bucks…I’m no Pythagoras but even I know that at $300 a dive, $900 doesn’t quite match for two of us. I turn round confused and was confronted by a dad with a huge grin! THE OLD MAN’S GAME AND THE GAME IS ON!

A line I remembered from the disclaimer – “despite best efforts there is a possibility that you may be injured or killed as a result of this activity. Accidents can and do happen”……Reassuring?

(signing disclaimers...)

The firm who threw us out where absolutely awesome. My master jumper was Scott, who had been jumping in Queenstown for over 10 years. Naomi was paired with Wesley, also a Kiwi. Dad was hooked up with a massive German who probably having heard that there were three Brit’s up next fancied a bit of payback for old times sake. We each had our own cameraman who would jump with us as there was no way in hell we were not going to have the whole ordeal recorded so that we can show future generations when they try to make out that Grannie and Granddad aren’t cool. Suited and booted we climbed into a 10 seater plane…with no seats. Just a spongy floor to kneel on. We sat in between the legs of our jump masters in that weird conga formation that you’ll have seen at weddings on the floor.

Too be honest I was more apprehensive of the little plane than jumping out, as I get a little jumpy flying. The view was immense. We were climbing in a snowcapped mountain basin just outside Queenstown. You could see for miles. The sun was blasting down and there was the odd fluffy cloud in the sky, which I couldn’t wait to swallow. We’d opted to jump from 12,000 feet and embrace a freefall of 45 seconds at 200kmph, otherwise known as TERMINAL VELOCITY.

Soon we were at altitude and the sliding door at the back of the plane was opened. The first two blokes were Chinese and you could see the whites of their eyes as they grimaced whilst being virtually thrown out by their masters. Suddenly I felt Scott begin to push me forward, and as I started to go with him I just caught a glimpse of Dad disappearing out the plane!! I remember looking round to Nay and shouting “MY DAD JUST JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE!”. I didn’t know weather I was scared about that or just excited to get out there with him. Almost instantly my legs were then hanging off the edge. I remember thinking – “Look at the cameraman, look at the cameraman. If you don’t you’re going to be

pissed off paying all that money for photos is the top of your head”. We rocked back and forward once, twice and then on the third time OUT!

I can’t describe the next 45 seconds. I don’t suppose you can to anyone who hasn’t done it. It is truly unreal, and to my massive surprise not at all frightening – just bliss. Pure happiness like I cannot explain.

All I remember was staring at my cameraman. He was dancing in the air and pulling out all sorts of moves for me to copy. My video is more like an audition for Strictly Come Dancing than a skydive but I guess it made for good photos. After what seemed like a very short time falling my cameraman waved goodbye and fell away as Scott opened our parachute. Fortunately, they worked for all of us. We glided down to the landing zone for about 6 minutes with an incredible view but very dry mouths. It literally felt as if I had been eating sand all the way down. The glide must have been a little rocky because both Nay’s and my master said they were struggling to get us down because it was quite windy. Ours was the last jump of the day due to the wind swell.

Even now 2 days later I still can’t really process it. I still feel like I’m walking on the clouds. So massively proud of Nay, Dad and myself for not trying – but DOING!

From Air to Water

Our adrenaline day was not just taken up with a skydive, Oh no. We also felt it appropriate to blitz around on 100kmph jetboat up the shotover river throwing in 360 spins as we went. Got this done in the morning as a little warm up to get the blood pumping before the dive. The boats can run in just 10cm’s of water and have a solid 7mm aluminum plate on the bottom to skim over the water as it is powered by two v8 jet engines. The driver was nothing short of a nutcase. Getting as close as possible to anything that would wipe the boat out without actually hitting it.

Sat behind the driver to get a view of what he sees, probably just as well because when we got off Nay and Jess told me the guy had been steering the boat with his knees and texting at the same time!!! Nothing quite like living on the bloody edge!

Freefall...!

There is no such thing as try only do or do not do.