Christchurch - Moana
Leaving Christchurch we drove straight towards the large Alpine mountain range that runs pretty much the whole length of the South Island. Moana is a small farming village on the West coast, close to Greymouth, where Ruth and her family used to own a farm, but recently sold. I was going to help her load some stuff into her car, as she had been kind enough to give me a ride all the way to the West coast. Moana itself was tiny, but driving out to the farm was prett cool. I also learned alot about dairy farming, sometimes a little more information than necessary, but interesting nonetheless... I stayed in Moana for a night, at a little pub-hotel on the lake. The pictures below are just a few I snapped on the journey through Arthur's Pass, on the way to Moana. As you can see it was a pretty epic drive, through some beautiful mountainous scenery, and intricate passes.
This is where the weather started to change, as we climbed in altitude.
This is the toughest section of Arthur's pass, where thick fog is funnelled between the steep walls of the mountains. The road winds down and gets steeper and steeper until the car is forced to go really fast so it doesn't slip on the frosty tarmac.
After Moana, I spent a day and a night in Greymouth, a slightly larger coastal town which is where I could get the bus to Queenstown. This is where the river Grey meets the South Pacific, and because of recent torrential rainfall in the mountains, the river was really high, almost overflowing, which aroused the topic of conversation with most of the locals, "welcome to Greymouth, watch out for the river" haha... Backpacking it in a hostel was fun, I met some cool people, like Peter the German dude who could 'almost' play guitar, but drank beer at an expert level... but mostly I enjoyed being by myself for a bit. I've started to read a little more on this trip, and am really enjoying it, a habit I intend to keep. I also went for a walk around Monteith's Brewery, which was kind of fun, although I later realised I should have paid the $15 for the tour, as you can taste (drink) as much as you want at the end...! Lesson learnt.
This is a funny poster they had inside the front door.Greymouth - Queenstown
The following morning, at the butt crack of dawn, I boarded my small shuttle to Queenstown. It was a 10-hour drive, so I was excited to be the only one on the bus for the first hour or so. Thinking I'd be as lucky as on my other bus rides, and claim a whole row to myself, I happily snapped away not so worried about getting to sleep eventually. Well... you can probably imagine where this is going. After stopping at Franz Joseph Glacier, the tiny little shuttle was completely packed out. suddenly I felt like I was flying Easyjet again, but without the slightly frumpy air-stewardesses... I sat next to a Brazilian girl who in turn was sitting next to a French girl, who both chatted complete nonsense, and chuckled and coaxed each other about their previous night's escapades, for the entire drive!
This picture was taken while I was still alone on the bus. Notice the smile.
This was the first time I saw a snow-capped mountain. Again, before anyone else boarded the bus, and it was pretty touching. The landscape here is epic all-round, and the mountains seem to shoot straight up from relatively flat prairies and fields, which adds to the effect. I had M83's "We Own the Sky" playing when I saw this mountain, for those of you who can appreciate the weighting of that combination... Just Epic.
This is a three-part picture. The first point to note is the sign in the window, "Greymouth to Queenstown". The second, is the ridiculously narrow bridge we're crossing. These bridges are the norm here, and are pretty functional, but sometimes cause traffic build-ups when one side has to wait for the other to cross. The third thing to note is the driver's eyes staring straight at my camera. This driver was a Dick! He wasn't happy about picking me up so early, as I probably made him go out of his way. He answered all of about two questions, with a yes or a no, and made me finish my coffee really fast at a rest-stop we stopped at, even though he drank his slowly, in silence.
This was a beach where we stopped to look at these cool rock "collections". Unfortunately no one knew why they were there, but there were hundreds of them, and the scene was pretty cool!
Another coastal stop to check out the sights. The small black dots on the beach headland are seals. I also decided on this journey I would take more pictures of myself, just so none of you forgot what I look like... and to give this boring country a little excitement!
This is after I had to listen to the two girls chatter away for a couple hours. Note, no smile. Only rage.
I hadn't had a shower for a few days and was feeling pretty manky at this point, so I decided to jump into this natural spring-water to rinse off... Again notice, no smile.
Rural New Zealand is actually a pretty rough place... The owner of this motel only parked his truck there yesterday... at least they didn't take the sign!
This is lake Wanaka, and at this point we are entering the last couple hours of the trip.
I have finally made peace with my fellow bus-riders... they have talked themselves to sleep! Rejoice...
As we drove into Wanaka, the weather didn't let up, and the cloud cover mad eit difficult to get a good glimpse at the surrounding mountains. I arrived in Queenstown at about 6:00pm. I'll be staying with a member of the New Zealand national hockey team, Brett Spiers, who I met down in Dunedin, for a few days, until I can find a place for myself and Mike. After picking me up from the station, Brett drove me back to his, to drop my stuff off, just in time to regroup, and drive back into town, to go to hockey training! After an exhausting day of travelling, I had pretty mixed feelings about going to training, but was really excited to get to the rink, and meet what I hope will be my new team for the season. Practice went alright, although I fell behind in the final two suicide skating drills, as my legs were pretty much telling me to go f#%k myself... Which was kind of funny, when I found out later that we had training again, at 5:30 in the morning, the following day! After my second training, having not even been in QT for 24 hours, I went for a little stroll around town, to check it out.
This Lake Wakatipu. Apparently there's alot of watersport here in the summer, but at the moment the water approaches freezing every night.
Not quite sure who this guy is, But I like his dog...
These little vans are all over the place in NZ, and apparently Australia too. You can rent them pretty cheap, with beds in the back, a little stove, etc etc, and drive them from one place to another, without having to necessarily return them where you got them. They've all got pretty cool graphics on the side, all different! So it likes a cool option for travelling in Australia perhaps. Or maybe even back up to Auckland when we leave.
Finally, this is the view from Brett's house. Last night I went for a little walk, and was amazed to actually be able to see so many stars! Last time I saw so many was last summer with Christ and Christ. The mountain on the left, and at the back, is Coronet Peak, one of the many ski fields a short distance from Queenstown. Already there is some snow on some of the runs, and apparently they have great snow-makers, so hopefully lifts will open in early June!So that's it for the travelling part so far. Next update promises to have lots of juicy info on the town, hockey, Mike, an apartment and a job hopefully!
xx Cles
