Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: Majestic, Magnificent, Magical

Millions more words beginning with M could be used to describe this amazing country. We have been zig-zagging across and upanddown and there’s a ‘wow’ around every corner.

Mornings have largely been beautiful (except for a couple of notables…) and Tuesday 3^rd saw us set off along the Alpine Road to whale watch in Kaikoura – where we were lucky enough to see Sperm Whale, Dusky and Hector’s (very rare, apparently – especially with young) Dolphins, blue sharks and a small pod of three Orcas – Killer Whales, which are actually dolphins - quite stunning.

Many mornings I’ve woken up on this trip and had to switch on the internal GPS to locate myself, so waking up on the Pacific coast next morning, literally three to four metres away from a seal colony was quite magical. They were close enough to touch, but we believe they have quite a bite!

Motorways and main roads generally are far better maintained in New Zealand than even the most important highways in Australia, so our next drive, although very winding and hilly, was a joy. Proper driving in awesome landscapes brought us to Nelson that evening after driving across Queen Charlotte’s Drive. Still the weather was lovely.

More sunshine greeted us the following morning as we drove up to Farewell Spit. It was literally like being in Barbados as we sat out for lunch by a beautiful lake after iced drinks in a lovely little café overlooking the spit.

My, oh my, didn’t it rain that night. We were woken at about 3 am thinking someone had turned on a giant hose and aimed it directly at us, with about five people trying their best to overturn Mog. They didn’t succeed, but the rain continued for a few more hours, before the sun came out again as we approached Westport – a forgettable little town, but reached via the beautiful Buller Gorge, which would be even more stunning if there weren’t so many fuckin’ sandflies!!!

Mighty winds and rain greeted us the next morning where we were camped by the furious and raging Pacific. I really feared for the camper (and its inhabitants) during this meteorological onslaught. But, once again, it cleared quite early and enabled us to take one of the 10 most beautiful coastal drives in the world – the relatively short Great Coast Road from Greymouth (as its name suggests) to Franz Josef and his Glacier, via Punakaiki, or Pancake Rocks – fascinating limestone, well, rocks, where I discovered that my trusty waterproof was no longer so trusty. Or waterproof.

Mog had a long drive that day, so we rewarded ourselves with dinner and drinks at the campsite restaurant – fish n chips, bangers n mash, beer and wine for $33. Can’t be bad. We really felt like backpackers. But. We were the oldest there by at least 30 years!

Marching up to the glacier the next day in glorious sunshine was quite wonderful, seeing lots of lovely waterfalls and geology on the way. Then we headed off for a DOC (dept. of conservation) campsite south of Haast. Stopped at some magical waterfalls on the way, made even lovelier due to the recent deluges. Every camping spot and places we’ve stopped for breakfast or lunch has been mind-blowing in their beauty (not sure about grammar in that last sentence).

Moving on, we went a short distance, but a long drive over the Crown Ridge (magnificent – the highest sealed road in New Zealand) and stopped for a couple of hours in glorious (again) sunshine by the side of Lake Wanaka (no, not a misprint) for a rest as we had been doing a lot of kms. We camped that night by the side of the road (again) south of Queenstown, where we treated ourselves to a new variation on the camp-cooking menu – bangers and beans. A satisfying night…

Milford Sound is one of the must-see places in New Zealand and to that end we drove a long way, stopping to marvel at the Blue Pools and camping that night in a tiny DOC campground at Lake Gunn. Assailed again by sandflies.

Milford Sound is one of the must-see places in New Zealand. Sorry, couldn’t think of how to start this paragraph. Beer needs drinking. We drove last Wednesday to catch the early boat and watched the sun coming over the mountains as we cruised along the Sound.

Mean, moody and magnificent.

Milford Road is quite splendid in its 120 km length from Te Anau to Milford Sound and offers stupendous sights both ways – each direction giving a different perspective (obviously!). On the way back, my brother had warned me to look out for Mordor and we duly found the view across to the mountains of the same name. Very exciting.

More glorious sunshine greeted us as we drove into Te Anau where we stopped for the night and soaked up more rays. Yesterday we drove into the

Metropolis that is Queenstown (see that?!), where we walked along the lakefront and are planning this evening (Friday) to sample the delights of the FergBurger – apparently a legend in these parts.

More from Gillie anon. enough to say, we haven’t reached Dunedin yet, so you are spared my observations on New Zealand’s fringe theatre and arts scene for the moment.

Milford Sound is one of the must-see places in New Zealand – oh no, I’ve done that bit. Lots of love – please send any news. Pissed off about England rugby, but no idea about cricket; last match we knew about was the Black Caps’ narrow thrashing of the Aussies – is it over yet?

PS. Andy has just put ‘Massive Attack’ on the ipod, it’s Friday evening and I’ve got a very cold glass of New Zealand wine within reach, so all’s well with the world!! We are celebrating two weeks of fabulousness in this amazing South Island, it really does not disappoint and we do feel as if we’re on holiday even though we are lucky enough to call this our ‘life.’

Queenstown is lovely, a hip and trendy place amongst all this wild and wilderness, certainly a land of contrasts. A very dear friend of mine has asked whether we are missing anything after nearly six months on the road. Andy and I had a good think last night (and we really did have to think!) We came up with 1. Our own bed..(we’ve lost count of how many different beds we’ve slept in…Together, I may add!) 2. Meeting up with our family and friends for a good old chinwag. (It was sooooo lovely to meet up with Joan and Alex in Christchurch for a 6 hour lunch!)

So there you are, you’re ALL missed!! We’ll raise a glass to you all in downtown Queenstown tonight before we hit the road again tomorrow, back into the ‘bush’.

Take care all love and kisses Gillie xx

PPS had a bit of a sesh last night, thanks to Holly and Emily's friends Claire and Chris at BarUp and Barmuda respectively!! It was great to see them both.

PPPS For LOTR/Hobbit fans, it looks like a location shot at every turn!!