Milford Sound - the postcard pictures are real!

Wow, wooooooooow, wooowowowowowowowowowowow!

OK, deep breath, let's start again.

Got on the bus early (after not sleeping much...), fell asleep, stopped in TeAnau for a sandwich, got back on the bus, went back to sleep, stopped in the Fiordland National Park... and then we were told the road was closed due to freak heavy snowfall that night (20cm in one night, in essentially their late summer/early autumn). So we waited for 2 hours to see if the road could be cleared. Other buses were turning back, but we stuck it out! And hey presto, patience paid off!

The road into Milford sound is awesome, 56km of road that is on 24hr avalanche and rockfall watch, apparently the most dangerous stretch of road in New Zealand! The road goes straight through the middle of sheer cliff faces, not so comforting when you know these mountains are right on a fault line where two tectonic plates meet each other and they regularly have earthquakes... It was still snowing, foggy and dreary as we neared the Homer Tunnel (a one-way tunnel under the mountains), but when we came out on the other side, the sun was coming out!

I went on a 2-hour cruise on the sound, it was spectacular, just as they show it on the postcards. Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking!

A new low-point... but oooohhhhh so HIGH for one particular girl

To the tune of a famous Beatles song....

What would you do
if I had sex in the bunk next to you
would you roll-over and go to sleep?

Lend me your ear
and I'll play sucky face all night long
and I'll try just to think about ME

Oooh-ooooh
I had sex in an 8 bunk dorm

oooh-ooooh
I had sex in an 8 bunk dorm


OK, quite CLEARLY to all those that may be confused in any way by the intro, this was NOT ME. But instead, the 30-year-old-English-girl-from-a-group-of-3-that-came-in-telling-us-they-wouldn't-go-out-too-late-and-hoped-they-wouldn't-wake-anyone-when-they-got-back... well girls, ya failed your mission ever so slightly!

I had to get up at 05:30 to catch a bus to Milford Sound, so it could've been better timing... but when its dark and you can't really see who's coming into the room, but the SOUNDS are unmistakable after a while... what do you do??? What would YOU say???

Entries on a postcard to:
Ms. X-Without-Self-Respect
formerly in room 112
Discovery Lodge
Queenstown

I got out my iPod and tried to drown it out. Also had time to compose alternative lyrics to a number of songs! Luckily, I had a lot of practice with that at my old place in Northampton... it just didn't seem the right moment to hand them a witty note asking them to please SHUT THE HELL UP I'M TRYING TO SLEEP, thank you... :)

Hey, Roger: does this mean I can cross the "have a threesome" off my 101 thing to do... list? Technically, I was close enough for it to count?! :P

Nothing's better than Seg's!

Borrowed the title from the slogan used by Segway on Queenstown!

Got up early today (8:30am) to go out on the town on another Segway tour. Figured this would either reconfirm my love of the two-wheeled mode of transport, or be really boring! Loved, loved, and ADORED it. They're wonderful... especially if you have your own private tour! Just me and the guide, wheeling around Queenstown and the lake - getting gawked at. :) Bit cold and drizzly, but definitely still fun!

Queenstown is really small, lots of "action" shops where you can book a tour to fling yourself off of anything, ride anything, fly in anything... given the weather, I've booked a Red Bull Action Flight for when I come back from my little side trip to Milform and Doubtful sounds further south. They basically put you in a little stuntplane with a stuntpilot and proceed to loop-de-loop you around until you can take not more! Sounds purrrfect :P

And, just for those stuck behind PCs and in grey, dreary, cold cities, here are some of the prettier photos of Queenstown that I've taken so far!

Queenstown!!!

I have arrived in Queenstown. The hub of all things expensive, the action capital of New Zealand.

Driving from Wanaka to Queenstown, we stopped at the Kawarau River Bungy Center - the first official bungy jumping center. The jump was "only" 43m high, over the Shotover river. Didn't look that high, then again - I wasn't jumping! Still debating this, its on the 101 thing to do list... but I'm just not that into flinging myself off a ledge at the price of 70 quid/minute. And its not even as if you actually FLY... :)

Anyway, watched a couple of people fling themselves off (obviously not horizontally as shown, stupid PC won't let me rotate...) before we continued onto Queenstown proper.

When we arrived we were told the next few days were going to be continuous rain, so I headed up the gondola pretty quickly to go do the luge. Its basically "rodeln" - taking a little three wheeled cart and using gravity to race down tracks on the mountain. I went round a bend a little too fast at one point and ended up getting "air" and balancing precariously on 2 wheels, great fun - especially if you don't brake!

My luck has turned! and so did my kayak...

Today was an action-packed day, full of adventure and fun.

I set a fast pace early on in the day as I got kicked out of the "hotel/hostel" at 9am. I wandered (actively) down to the lake, took some pictures (action again... will I never quit?!) and then bought a sandwich for brunch around 11am. Sat down with the ducks, little birds and seagulls and proceded to feed said brunchtime sandwich selectively to the birlife gathered around me. It is no mean feat feeding little bird and ducks while the gulls hover. I find the best way is to "fake" a throw of a lump of bread, making the seagulls charge after air, and then sneakily aim the bread directly at the beak of the duck or little bird. Of course, success of this tactic is also heavily dependent on the dexterity of the real targets. The ducks were a little slow, but they soon caught on. I prefer the little birds though, they don't mistake toes for bread... and important distinction.

Anyway, action continued as I dragged my suitcase to the kayak shop for storage while I went on my kayakking-down-18km-Clutha-River-Grade-2-rapids adventure. Don't let the pictures fool you - the waves were humongous and I was in fear of my life the entire way... that is until I wiped out at the first bend and realised the water was clear and tasted better than the Rangitaki (sledging river). To start off with, we were "launched" off the side of the bank, that was possibly the scariest part in hindsight! (hint: I'm the one with the yellow helmet)

The river was full of clumps of dydimo -- a weird algae that looks like blond rasta hair... apparently its edible... I asked the guide if it was disgusting and what to do if I inhaled some while I wiped out in the river... he fished a particularly stringy bit out of the river and sucked it up just like that. I swear I nearly threw up then and there. Much hilarity ensued as we threw clumps of the stuff at each other - apparently I sported a large mess of it on my back for a good part of the day, until I washed it off by overturning my kayak. Picture is of our guide wearing a particularly fetching wig of Dydimo!

I wiped out about 5 times in the space of 2 hours, not nearly as much as some of the others, but enough to hydrate me nonetheless. I kept waiting for the "really huge death-defying rapids" to show up, but they never came. So I guess it was less scary than I expected because I kayak-ed/swam/floated through all of the rapids waiting for something worse that never came! I definitely recommend trying smaller rapids first, no way would I want to try this in a grade 5! (why then did I swim in it with a boogie-board? good question :P)

So, after a hard day wearing yet another uncomfortable wetsuit and getting up close and personal with the river, its rocks and dydimo... they dropped me off at my hotel for the next 2 nights around 7pm. I guess the Gods-of-the-River were smiling upon me as I was told at check-in that I had been UPGRADED TO A SUITE! Wehey!!!! Now we're talking!

I had my own (clean) bathroom with washing machine, double bedroom, livingroom with 2 sofas and dining area, kitchenette and a patio that opened up onto grassy lawns and lake views... I could've stayed there forever! See, after all that hard work, being in a bus, staying in hostels, inhaling rivers and getting bitten by all manner of insects, not to mention pissed on by (a) human(s), I DESERVED the upgrade. I NEEDED the upgrade to prove all was well with the world and my Karma was back in sync. I think all my bad luck has just been evened out and I need to build up another quota for the next stroke of luck, but it's all good... I HAD ROOMSERVICE! heheheheh Eat that PinkelBoy!

The Lost Art of Relaxation, by Marisa Peek

Ahhhhhhhhhh, doing nothing is an artform and I believe I am getting the hang of it!

I'm in Wanaka (on the edge of Lake Wanaka) in the south island at the moment. The rooms are nice, I got a TOP bunk (important given recent history), the sun is shining and the colours are awesome! No, haven't smoked anything mushroomy or otherwise - seems reading a crappy novel on the edge of a lake and feeding your sandwich to a group of famished ducks works wonders for the soul.

Tomorrow I am moving to a the nicest resort this place has to offer for 2 nights. Simply because Kiwi screwed up again and didn't book my place at the hostel as they were supposed to. So now, everything - hostels, motels, hotels, B&B's - was booked out because its NZ's second biggest agricultural show this weekend and every one and their pet cow will be here! Moooooo... So you see, I am NOT giving up on the backpacker lifestyle, fate has conspired against me and I really have NO CHOICE :) har har har


So, not a lot to report except relaxation by the lake for a few days. Forgot what it was like to do absolutely nada, zip zilch, niente, nichts, niets, nothing! *evil grin at all those workaholics out there*

Christened by PinkelBoy...

I debated whether to tell this tale or not. But I think it definitely qualifies as a FIRST time experience, and maybe it can serve as a warning to bottom-bunkers everywhere.



Photo to follow of Pinkelboy...



Meet Rupert, 19, from Bishops-Stortford in the UK. Hobbies include travelling, breaking into hotelrooms, evading burly security guards, sleeping in other people's beds, and drinking himself into oblivion. Unfortunately, one of his defining characteristics is a lack of bladder control... He is thus dubbed "Pinkel Boy", from the German "Pinkeln" (to wee).



Last night was VERY eventful. After the heli flight over Franz Joseph glacier, a highlight, I decided to have a quiet dinner with my Swiss roomie and went to bed relatively early. Enter the english adolescents with too much alcohol in their systems approx 01:30am. Wrestling match commences, the 2 boys try to scoot under my bottom bunk and Mother Marisa has to gently inform them to act their age, shut up, and let the rest sleep. Adolescent Nr1 asks if I will wake him in the morning so he doesn't miss his hike. I tell him: "I'll do you a deal. I'll wake you if you shut up now." Problem one solved.



PinkelBoy exits room to go further antagonise the security guard. I go for a toilet break and am met by said security guard asking if there have been problems. I gamely play along and state all is well and now quiet, no further problems or action required on his part.



And so to bed again.



Enter Pinkelboy around 2:40am, fleeing from the security guard who is about to evict him if he can catch him. Pinkelboy is not supposed to be in the room, he is a guest in the room accross the hall. But he begs to stay in the (as yet empty) top bunk above mine. He swears that Adolescent nr2 (who should be in the top bunk) "got lucky and won't be back". I acquiesce and tell him he can stay if he shuts up. (Hey, worked before, why deviate from a successful strategy). I'm told I'm "a good sport" and PinkelBoy goes to bed to commence snoring loudly.



Just goes to show, no good deed goes unpunished! Unfortunately, the snoring was the least of my worries.



Picture this: You're asleep. Happily dreaming, suddenly the dream turns to rain, when you awake and think "why is my arm wet, why is the bed raining, I'm sure I'm awake." Put 2 and 2 together to get = PinkelBoy has wet his bed to such an extent that the mattress is soaked and is now dripping onto you. Words cannot describe.... I got up, shouted for him to get up, and launched into a suppressed tirade (ever conscious of other guests next door - should have smacked him silly). Then went to shower and spent the rest of the night reading in the kitchen as security was nowhere to be found and I didn't much care for the bed I had been in.



To cap it all off, when the bus left at 07:30am in the morning, we hadn't gone 20 minutes before it broke down. This is a different bus from the one that broke down before. Starting to wonder if its me... Anyway, waited in the bus on the side of the road for 3 hours before the driver finally admits he cannot fix it himself and calls a mechanic. Won't bore anyone with the details, but suffice it to say: missed Lake Matheson (bought a postcard), rained all day, uncomfortable sleep on the bus, and was not best amused.



But hey, bad days happen so you can truly appreciate the excellent ones. Positive attitude reigns and things can only get better!!!

Glacier Country - here I come!

Ahhhh, can't wait! Many great reasons I'm happy to be on the road again, but shortlist is definitely:

- cockroaches in the shower, flies in the kitchen, mosquitoes in the dorm

- bus seat is a heck of a lot more comfortable than the hammock at the poo pub

- the only PC at the Poo Pub just ate $7 of my change as it kept crashing... all I wanted was to send one itty bitty little e-mail to Vanessa for her birthday!

- the place is called "the Poo Pub", come on... I don't need any other reasons!

We stopped at the Bushman's Center in the early morning for some education on how early settlers made a living. Along with the many jobs of killing, skinning, trapping etc of animals of all kinds (see cute picture of possums - claws and teeth not so cute, but they have a surprisingly hearty appetite for sugary, crunchy cereals... and Tuku the Pig / Boar / Breadmonster), apparently one of the main jobs was catching deer to populate deer farms. They would get in a heli, fly low over the deer as it tried to run away accross the mountains and then the "hunter" would launch himself out of the low-flying heli to jump on the back of the deer and tackle it. Interesting. Wonder if they offer internships... Just kidding mum. :)

Then onto FranzJoseph Glacier via more spectacular scenic roads... I'll spare you more pictures of scenery... No I won't! Hahahahahah. See it and weep!

Franz Joseph Glacier is truly impressive, especially since seeing An Inconvenient Truth. I wanted to do a heli-hike, but bad weather was closing in so I opted to jump on a short flight over the glacier while I had the opportunity. All the guides and information sites told me everything was grounded, but I didn't give up! I went scouring all of Franz Joseph (the one street with about 10 tourist shops) and finally found a company that was doing one last flight before the fog closed in completely. To give you an idea - the picture with me posing, squinting against the sun, was taken around 1pm... the picture I took from the helicopter with fog literally covering the glacier and rain starting to pour down, was taken at 4:15pm. It changed that fast!

I loved the helicopter ride - I love flying full stop! I need to learn to fly! Forget motorized vehicles on the road, rafting/sledging/kayaking on rapids, I was clearly born to fly! This must be why I'm always taking pictures of clouds and can't stay in any one place too long. Clearly, I have missed my vocation. Donations for this worthy cause are welcome and can be sent to the attention of my brother in London, c/o the Marisa-Must-Fly appeal.

Pop goes the bus & 101 ways to get creative wearing a trash bag....

Right, yesterday went from Nelson - paradise for kayaking - to some forgettable place called Westport. Nothing remarkable other than a jetboat ride on the Buller river - amazing things, they can move through 10cm deep water and do 360 degree turns at breakneck speeds (I think this may actually be the activity that inspired the phrase "breakneck"). Half of the "fun" was climbing down the side of the banks in flipflops to try to get onto the boat, and being driven back in the boat attached to a tractor at the end of the ride! I went to the local pub for dinner and ate a bonafide Italian Pizza at the bar made by an Australian in New Zealand!

Next morning we headed onto Cape Foulwind - which has a BE-OOH-TEA-FOOL walk along the sea-cliffs to a seal colony and a wonderful open beach. Nothing foul about it, just wonderful scenery and lots of sun! And a little reminder that I am far from home!

Next stop was at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks... rocks that seem like they're made of stacks of... pancakes. Duh. Saw dolphins frolicking in the water and sun was shining brightly. Funny how all the weird and wonderful names are starting to sound normal and familiar to me?! Now I'm spewing them like a pro! Then we hit Greymouth...

Nothing to do with Greymouth, but about 30 seconds after we jumped in the bus, a weird burning smell started to make itself known. The driver said: "guys, do you smell something funny?". He stopped, told us to stay on the bus, had a look and told us to "better get off the bus". Minor stampede ensued. Transmission was blown - apparently it had been in the garage for over a year awaiting a new transmission, was fixed, and had only been back in service for 2 months. Warranty anyone? Didn't help us at the time though, we just had to sit and wait for 3 hours for alternative transport as the bus got towed.

To top it off, our stop tonight was in Lake Mahinapua... affectionately known as the "poo pub". Its owned by an 81 year old guy called Les. The dorms are little more than portacabins with metal bunks... I call them bunks, but they really only deserve the rank of "hammock" on the international bedding scale. Luckily we had no aircon and plenty of sandflies, so the hammock really wasn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

Since I'm trying this new thing where I'm super positive about everything, I see it as an adventure. The beach was just a 10 minute walk accross open fields and massive. I almost wished I could have stayed longer just for that view. The evening concluded with a mass group barbeque and... the piece de resistance, my favourite thing so far... DRESS UP NIGHT! Yeah! (still trying the positive thing, is it working?)

The boys had to dress up as girls (not a lot of hesitation or grumbling on that one funnily enough... honestly, inside every man there's a slutty teenage girly waiting to get out!). And the girls? Well, we got a roll of black binbags and some tape. Since I'm more of a thinker than a doer (har har har) I decided to play seamstress to the two Danish girls in my dorm. I made them zig-zaggy armbands, tie-up laces, a whip, a mask etc etc. I got super creative and they were fine with almost anything I dreamed up. I had an AMAZING picture of them in their outfits, but the PC in Queenstown just ate it somehow... of all the images to corrupt! Darn.

Since the group consisted of a lot of English and Irish, late teen to early 20's, mostly sloshed beyond control - my whip and bondage mask were a winner and the Danish girl won the contest. Wehey! A good time was had by all - especially the seamstress who didn't have to get wrapped in black plastic and sweat through the evening! Oh.... POO. :)

Where oh where did my poor arms go???

Yesterday I took the ferry early in the morning from Wellington to Picton (South Island). I wish I could say the journey was beautiful, but it was cold, rainy and I decided to see a movie in the cinnema on board instead of holding out for a possible dolphin sighting. Wise choice as it turns out. Saw Blood Diamond - excellent movie. I actually hate Leo a little less now!

I emerged from the darkness to a beautiful sky, sunshine coming through the rain and views of New Zealand as I'd imagined them! Coming into the Marlborough sounds was amazing. Moutains and hills soaring out of clear blue water, with puffs of clouds overhead. Positively poetic! Did the obligatory "picture of me posing by the railing with really very little interesting in the background". I'll spare the general public the result!

We drove on via Pelorus Bridge scenic reserve (a bridge over a stream, with rocks) and arrived at Nelson in the afternoon. My cough is out of control, so I spent a good few hours at a drugstore trying to select vast quantities of cough drops and other medicines in preparation of my full day of kayaking today!

Today I went into the Abel Tasman national park for a full day of sea kayaking along the shores. It was brilliant! Blue water, sun shining, little island with seals, made the guide show me an "eskimo roll" in the kayak! (not with me in it!) After 7 hours of paddling, I thought my arms were going to drop off!

Below are seals, split apple rock, and the guide who did the eskimo roll - pity I can't add the little film of it!

I want one! Segways RULE!

OK, I have to calm down. It's not as if the world has changed, sun and moon have switched, world peace has arrived or famines have been conquered... but-oh-my-god-what-an-awesome-amazing-cool-wicked-totally-FANTASTIC-... THING... is a Segway?!

Right, from the beginning. So I decided I'd better do something cultural yesterday...see a bit of Wellington etc etc. Walked about the center a bit, had a bagel, talked to mum for half an hour while I was trying to eat the bagel, walked around some more. They have a tram that goes up the hill, a sightseeing bus (buts it isn't running at the moment), museums, and a harbour and hills and ferries and old buildings and new buildings... ok, now I'm really stretching. Wellington isn't that big.

Saw a movie - An Inconvenient Truth - yes, rest of the world had seen it AGES ago, but I never did. Very impressive, worrisome, especially since I'm here, seeing the glaciers that are melting.

Then I wandered to the information center and found a little leaflet advertising Segway tours (www.bodyelectric.co.nz). Waited in line for 20 minutes to talk to someone, gave up. Went to an internet cafe and booked online. Problem. Since travelling, all sense of time, day of the week and plain old calendar dates just seemed to fade... I have no idea what day of the week it is, what date (my normal watch at home tells me these things). So I just booked the "next available tour" according to the website. Therefore, at 8pm I booked the tour that had gone at 10am that morning. Great system. I realised just as I was falling asleep last night....

This morning I called the information center and they told me to hold. Apparently I was the third person that morning that had called with this kind of problem! Yippeee, there are more blondes in Wellington! :P They couldn't get through so they said they'd call me back. Seeing as it was really early (9am) I thought I'd go back to bed and await the call for the tour at 1:30pm. At 09:50am he call me and says: can you get here for 10am? Its the last tour of the season, despite what the website said, and there's a spot left for you. Sure, can I be somewhere in ten minutes that takes 15 to walk, in my pajamas? Threw on some clothes (so excuse pics), ran downstairs, got in a cab and made it there for 10:06am!

Segways absolutely RULE. Its the best thing since sliced bread. I nearly managed to crash it (hey, had to try or my name isn't Marisa!), but they're so easy to use! By the end of the 2 hours I was doing loops around obstacles backwards and I think I may have invented a new Olympic sport: Segway Ballet, or Synchronised Segway :P

And yes, I did go to the TePapa museum, the most famous museum in all of NZ. I spent a whole 2 hours there, before heading to the museum shop and then a sushi restaurant! :)