Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: Curiouser and Curiouser…

We are currently seven hours into our 12-hour coach journey from Wellington to Auckland. The coach has broken down once – about 45 minutes into the journey and we waited one and a half hours for a replacement, which has put everyone else off schedule apart from those (like us) who are going all the way. Oh well…

Our last post saw us anticipating the delights of the oversized burger that is the Ferg Burger, plus copious amounts of alcohol in downtown Queensland on a Friday night. Neither disappointed. The burger, while huge, was extremely tasty and well worth the wait and, at $12 (£6) each, value for money in the extreme.

Having stuffed ourselves, we went hunting for bars run by friends of Holly and Emily – not one, but two – and they were right next door to each other. As much as we tried, they would not take the proffered payments and we did consume, well, quite a lot. Thanks Claire and Chris for your hospitality and generosity and a big ‘shout out’ (how hip am I?) to BarUp and Barmuda. If you’re ever in Queenstown, look them up.

Feeling slightly muggy, we set off next day for The Catlins National Forest. It was a beautiful, if slightly hairy, drive through the primeval forest, up and down some very bendy and steep unsealed roads, but Mog was equal to the task, even if Gillie had a few buttock-clenching moments. We wanted to see the rare Yellow-eyed Penguin at Curio Bay and we did, but it was a bit chilly so we left them to it and parked by the side of the road for the night.

Have to mention the wealth of orchard-stalls by the side of the road during this day’s drive. We stopped and filled up with all sorts of healthy fruit and one nice gentleman, with more tattoos than teeth, gave us a $6 box of Greengages (which neither of us had sampled before) for free! How good is that!?

The next day was a delight. A waterfall crawl as well as a couple of unexpected delights. Not only was the weather perfect, but we took our time and meandered through the Catlins. First up was Niagara Falls (I kid you not) – NZ’s (possibly the world’s) Smallest Waterfall. A short walk followed this to McLean’s Falls – the tallest in The Catlins. After that we found the treasure that is The Lost Gypsy – a ramshackle gallery of hand-made automata and weirdness all made by Blair, a wanderer and free spirit who made everything from junk and found stuff and it’s great!

Another beautiful lunch spot then on to Matai Falls – again very picturesque - before finding the wedding-cake falls known as Purakaunui, apparently the most photographed in New Zealand and no wonder.

On our way out of Owaka, we came across Teapotland. I kid you not. A front garden filled with over 1200 different teapots and 57? Fairies. This was too good to miss, so several photos later we went on, camping again by the side of the road in Kaka Point.

Amid growing excitement, we made our way next day to Dunedin and a much-anticipated injection of culture. The wind had changed to a southerly, so it was freezing, but we arrived at our campsite and caught the bus into town. This was the middle of the Dunedin Fringe Festival. There was one show on Monday night and one more show on Tuesday. So we bought tickets for both. The first was a two-handed dance piece which was suitably entertaining, but with a very annoying soundtrack – ‘Take My Breath Away’ kept coming back like indigestion.

Not to worry. We had a treat lined up next morning – Andy’s birthday – a trip to Cadbury World in the centre of Dunedin. Yum yum. Then Guinness and lunch in The Craic (Irish pub, in case you didn’t realise) followed by the cinema – Second Most Exotic Marigold Hotel, which was charming, then a one-woman show about her granddad’s memories of WW1…then dinner with live music and more ale. A pretty special birthday in all. Many thanks for all the lovely messages from friends and family.

Bit later than usual getting up next morning!, but then off to Twizel (pronounce it how you like). On the way we stopped at Shag Point, because we could. The weather had become lovely again and we made good time, finding ourselves with time to kick back by Lake Wardell free campground.

One of many of the true highlights of the South Island is Mt Cook/Aoraki, New Zealand’s tallest mountain. We hoped for good weather and we got it in spades. A short drive took us to the car park next morning and a four-hour round walk in glorious sunshine followed. The clarity of the air round there makes everything look like it is computer-generated heightened 3D – absolutely mesmerizing. After all that wonderfulness, it was back to the same free camp for pie and beans and even more beauty – the night sky around Mt Cook Aoraki is the least polluted in the world according to the people who know and we were lost in wonderment trying to count the galaxies, milky ways, constellations and stars that night in a cloudless sky. We made it to 13,247,986,256 before it became too cold and we went to bed.

We got lost next day trying to find an interesting route to Aoraki. But they say the best way to see a country is to get lost in it. I don’t agree, but we found another beautiful lunch spot, before finally chancing on the right road and a stunning drive over the mountains to the lovely Aoraki, which apparently tries to make the most of its links with the French (a French ship was the first to land there, but then JC (James Cook) turned up and fucked ‘em over. Heigh ho.

The weather once again had us sitting and lounging in shorts and t-shirts all afternoon, before a stroll down (and a lung-busting climb up) to the village for Happy Hour (or three).

Back to Christchurch, Airbnb Sunday night and then the bus to Picton for the ferry Monday, where we were met by Steve, middle bro, for a couple of days’ R&R at their home. Once again many, many thanks for your kindness and generosity Steve and Kathy and we’ll all try to make it to Cropredy for August 2017, where we’ll Meet on the Ledge.

The South Island of New Zealand is a place of stunning contrasts and outstanding beauty. We were lucky enough to get brilliant weather and have taken over 600 (unedited) photos so far, to go with the 1200+ edited photos from Australia. We drove 4067 km, stayed in 17 campsites over 21 nights and paid for seven (plus two DOC – state-run camping areas – v cheap). We saw some amazing things and look forward to continuing the excitement in the North Island, as well as watching New Zealand beat whoever (hopefully Australia) in the Cricket world cup on Sunday. Bye for now…

PS About the Cricket World Cup!!!! I bet you’ve all forgotten about it now that England have disgraced themselves again. Well if you missed the game between NZ and South Africa on Tuesday, you missed a treat! Kathy and I were on the edge of our seats, Andy and Steve were quite interested as well… Fab game, NZ won by the way as you may have gathered from the above. I can’t believe I’ve just spent 5 minutes of my life thinking about cricket!!

Obviously Andy and I have been joined at the hip for tooooo long (actually it was six months last Saturday since we left the UK)…Wow! We’re really looking forward to exploring the north end of the North Island, only three hours to go now on this marathon journey. (We’ve just been through Cambridge after bypassing Plymouth and Hastings!) The landscape here is so different to the South Island, let’s see in three weeks how they compare. We can’t believe it’s Easter next weekend, as the leaves start to turn here and there’s an autumnal nip in the air. Isn’t life topsy turvy?? Bye for now. Love Gillie xxxx