Goodbye New Zealand, Hello Emirates

Sadly my time in New Zealand had come to an end. The six weeks had flown by and the beauty of the country had surpassed all my expectations. The Magic Bus proved to have been a great choice for my adventure and a childhood dream has now been realised. With the adventure over all that was left was the long journey home.

Emirates Flight EK 419 waiting at the gate of Christchurch Airport

I am probably one of the few people who chooses flights based on what aircraft are flying rather than price or time. I just love flying. I could have flown cheaper, I could have flown faster but I chose Emirates and my route via Sydney and Dubai because I would get to fly on the Airbus A380. Not only fly on it but be on it for 16 hours from Sydney to Dubai. After the short 3 hour flight from Christchurch to Sydney landing at sunset over the harbour bridge it was a 3 hour wait before I boarded the next leg to Dubai. I waited for the boarding queue to die down before making my way to check-in. They scanned my ticket and warning beep sounded while a red light flashed. There was a problem, my heart sank. I had pre-booked my seat, at the bulkhead and started thinking that a family with a small child had checked in now I was going to be reassigned a seat further down the plane. I was told to stand aside while they flipped through a stack of tickets. They quickly found it and said, “You’ve

The Versatile Blogger Award

I must thank Pommi for the award! It was very unexpected, and nice bit of inspiration to share more.

In the past I have received a similar, but different, award for my China blog and I think it’s a great way to share the blogs we both write and read with fellow bloggers who may not have stumbled across them yet.

Here are the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award:                                                                           

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers
2. Inform the bloggers of their nomination
3. Share 7 random things about yourself
4. Thank the blogger who nominated you
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award Pic on your blog post.

Here goes,my fifteen nominations, in the order that they were drawn out of a hat:

Day 36 – Lake Tekapo to Christchurch, my last day on the Magic Bus

We had an early start on the Magic Bus because of the earthquake damage in Christchurch they now don’t overnight there and instead have to get all the way up to Kaikoura. I however would be getting off in Christchurch as my 5 week adventure had come to an end. Knowing this I got up early for one last chance to take some photos of the awe-inspiring Lake Tekapo at sunrise and it didn’t disappoint.

dawn over a still Lake Tekapo

Walking down to the edge of the lake I was spellbound as the

Day 35 – climbing out of Dunedin to the breathtaking Lake Tekapo

On our way out of Dunedin on the Magic Bus we stopped at Baldwin Street, the Steepest Street in the World as verified by the Guinness Book of Records. I was a bit of a sceptic as we have some very steep streets back home in Cape Town but after walking up to the top I had to concede it is very steep, at its steepest it has a gradient of 1 in 2.86 or 19°.

Baldwin Street - The Steepest Street in the World

Our next stop was Koekohe Beach where you find these unusually large and spherical boulders lying on the beach. Known as the Moeraki Boulders they are quite incredible to see with the larger ones up to two metres in diameter.

the unusual, spherically shaped, Moeraki Boulders

After picking up some provisions in the historic wool town of Oamaru we headed inland up towards the mountains and the beautifully blue coloured glacial lakes in the Mackenzie Country. The surreal blue hue of the lakes is the result of

Day 34 – Queenstown to Dunedin and the most photographed building in NZ

We had been trying to figure out who our next Magic Bus driver would be and to our pleasant surprise it was Gregg who had taken us from Picton-Nelson. Taking the back road out of Queenstown we drove through the small and quaint Arrowtown, one of the original gold mining towns of the area. Then it was back onto the highway through Cromwell, past the Clyde Dam and to Alexandra where we stopped for morning tea at the excellent Sidewalk Cafe famous for its coffee, scones and banana pancakes. Next stop was Milton where I said goodbye to Karin who was going to work at a B&B there for a few days and then just 30 minutes down the road we arrived in Dunedin. As we drove in it reminded me a bit of Durban with highways through undulating terrain and the coast in the distance.

After settling into the hostel I went for a walk down to the Dunedin Train Station which is apparently the most photographed building in New Zealand and well I just had to go and get a photo for myself.

the most photographed building in New Zealand - Dunedin Train Station

I guess it is quite impressive, but even more so from the other side with some

Day 33 – Queenstown and the exhilarating Kawaru Jet Boat

It dawned another cold but sunny day so first up it was off to the supermarket to pick up some food before heading back into town to buy a few more souvenirs and then back to the hostel to make wraps for lunch.

the view from the pier in Queenstown

After lunch we walked down to the pier where we were meeting up with Elise, a fellow Magic Bus traveler, for our jet boat ride, something that I associate with New Zealand and was one of my must do activities. There are three different jet boat companies in Queenstown and they are all similarly priced but we chose the K Jet because

Day 32 – Queenstown, in and around

After an exciting few days it was time for another lazy day. Slept in, checked email and watched some TV. Then headed into town do some souvenir shopping for the family. Then booked a jet boat ride for the next day.

looking down the main street in Queenstown

Although it was sunny it was still

Day 31 – Queenstown and the view from above

After the big night out I woke up quite late and spent the rest of the morning catching up on my journal in the sunny TV lounge of the Southern Laughter Hostel. Having waited for the day to warm up, which it had only slightly, I then took a walk into town to book my next Magic Bus seat for the Saturday coming, got some lunch and replaced the battery in my watch.

In the afternoon, feeling like I hadn’t done much yet, I went for a hike up to the Skyline Gondola. Partly because I was saving money but it was also a beautiful afternoon I chose not to take the cable car up and rather hike through the dense Beech forest.

Looking through the forest over Lake Wakatipu

Although it was steep, it was a nice path up with great

Day 30 – Queenstown to a dramatic Milford Sound & back for a Big Night Out

Kevin was our driver for the day and after telling us all about the glacial lakes, how the Remarkables range came to formed and the earthquake that changed the course of the Kawaru River he let those who were tired catch up on some sleep as the first part of the drive through Garston to Te Anau, the halfway point. It was raining when we arrived but by the time we left the sun had come out and things were looking up for our cruise but first we had to get to the other side of the Southern Alps. It was on into the Hollyford Valley and we stopped in the Upper Hollyford to take some photos where we, aside from the many other tour buses, we had some surprise guests who were very bold and curious.

A Kea, the world's only alpine parrot, on top of our bus

From here we made our way up to the Homer Tunnel which is in the middle of an avalanche zone and stopping is actually prohibited. We could see evidence of fairly recent avalanches on the sides of the roads but luckily the road was open for us.

approaching the Homer Tunnel in the Southern Alps

On the other side of the tunnel the sky was

Day 29 – Wanaka to Queenstown

Today was a lazy day, the Magic Bus was only collecting us at 14:30pm so after checking out we just relaxed on the couches in the lounge of the Purple Cow with great views over Lake Wanaka reading books and writing journals. Then the bus arrived with our new driver Cam (Cameron) who was cool and knew his stuff. It wasn’t far to Queenstown but along the way we stopped in Kawaru Gorge which is home to the world’s first commercial bungy jump site. While I was still not convinced about bungy jumping and the cost for 5 seconds of adrenalin one girl from the bus did do it and we all cheered on from the viewing platform.

Just around the corner we pulled into Queenstown a beautiful ski village set on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. It has grown massively in size over the past decade but the town centre is still convenient small. The Magic Bus dropped us all of at our respective hostels. Ours was the Southern Laughter which was great with this view from the balcony.

view of The Remarkables mountain range from the Southern Laughter hostel

A big factor in choosing Southern Laughter was the free soup in the evenings and after that we headed down to meet up with Cam and the rest of the Magic Bus travellers for some pizza and a few drinks at the World Bar. Known as the party town, quite a few people were keen to go out bar hopping but some of us had booked the Milford Sound day trip the next morning with a 7:00am start so sense prevailed and we headed back to our hostels. Besides we were going to be there for four more nights so we would have another chance to go out.

Day 28 – Wanaka and a full day of skiing at Treble Cone

I didn’t sleep all that well, maybe it was the nerves, the excitement or the five other guys in the dorm room at the YHA Purple Cow. After trying to put on all my ski gear as quietly as possible I stepped outside to be greeted by this stunning sunrise, it looked like I couldn’t have asked for better weather to go skiing.

beautiful colours on the clouds at sunrise

I had some tea and a muesli bar for breakfast before making my way out to the pavement to wait for The Flying Bus, my choice of transport to the Treble Cone skifield because it was the cheapest plus I was told the other buses would take 40-45 minutes while The Flying Bus, as the name suggests, would only take

Day 27 – Fox Glacier to Wanaka, arguably the most beautiful resort town in NZ

We were collected by the Magic Bus a little before 9:00am and taken down to Lake Matheson which was on my list of must see places in New Zealand. It is also known as Mirror Lake because of the reflections of Mount Cook on its surface when the conditions are still. Sadly the clouds didn’t cooperate but I did manage to get this awesome panorama so all was not lost.

panorama of Lake Matheson (aka Mirror Lake)

Next we continued South along the coast, stopping at Ship Creek, where the sun came out before heading inland towards the

Day 26 – Fox Glacier like you’ve never seen it before!

With nothing planned today it was an opportunity to sleep in but I got up at 8:00am for free oats porridge. It had rained most of the night and was still raining outside which is not unusual here as they measure rainfall in metres (not inches) and receive, on average, 17 metres of precipitation a year. Karin and I went for a walk around the town which didn’t take long with a population of around 250 people. Then we got some fish & chips for lunch (yes Roan, more fish and chips) before heading back to the hostel to relax for the rest of the day. You might think it’s a waste to just sit around watching DVDs but it does get quite tiring travelling on buses every other day and living out of a backpack. So a rest day every now and again isn’t a bad thing but as promised here are a few more images from my incredible heli hike on the Fox Glacier.

sitting in the front on the helipad ready for takeoff

first glimpse of the Fox Glacier as we fly up the valley

These are all HDR (High Dynamic Range) images which are created by

Day 25 – Frans Josef to Fox Glacier

I anxiously pulled aside the curtain to check the weather and was pleasantly surprised that the rain had stopped, in fact it looked as though it was clearing. I was eager to get on the Magic Bus and move on to Fox Glacier, just a 30 minute drive away, in time to catch the morning heli-hike if it was on. We went straight to the booking office, left our bags behind the counter and paid for the glacier activities only to be told that the heli-hike was still weather dependent and they were waiting for a call from the pilot. Then just after 9:00 am they called us through and we took a bus down to the helipad – the weather looked good to me.

looking up the valley to Mt Tasman and Mt Cook

After being kitted out with boots, and a quick safety briefing it was out to the helipad. The first group lifted off and disappeared up the valley. The guide then asked who wanted to sit in the front and everyone sort of looked around at each other, hesitantly so I just put my hand up and said “I would.” With that sorted, my excitement started to reach fever pitch as the helicopter returned to collect us in the second group.

at the airfield getting excited for the helicopter ride to our glacier hike

I just love flying and while the flight up was only about 10 minutes, I enjoyed every moment taking as many pictures as I could.

routing over the river sitting in the front seat next to the pilot

After crossing the river we turned left and caught our first sight of the Fox Glacier

Day 24 – Greymouth to Frans Josef

Waking up in Greymouth it was clear we had left the sunshine behind and sheltering from the rain we waited in front of Neptune’s Backpackers for the Magic Bus. We made a quick stop in Hokitika, famous for Pounamu or greenstone (a.k.a Jade) which the Maori regard as a treasure. We stopped at a greenstone factory where you could see them carving jewelery and pendants from the greenstone which was interesting but it is quite expensive.

Next we stopped in Ross, a gold mining village with a little museum and this replica of the largest gold nugget found in New Zealand.

a replica of the largest gold nugget found in Ross, New Zealand

Then we drove through Hercules, so called because it was said to be a Herculean task to build a road through the mountains before arriving in Frans Josef just before twelve in time to do some activities that afternoon. We went straight to the tours office and I signed up for the one activity I had been saving up for, a glacier heli-hike. If you’re wondering what that is, basically you take a helicopter ride and land half way up the glacier, hike around for a couple of hours seeing ice-caves and compression arches and then the helicopter comes and collects you again. Sounds awesome doesn’t it?