Hi all,
Well I am actually back in Brisbane, Its so lovely to feel the warmth of
the sun! I will try and punch out the rest of my trip in a couple of more
emails, but hope to see everyone soon, catch up on what you have been doing
and relate just a few (promise) of my special NZ experiences in person.
Cheers
John
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Wanaka
"Go to Wanaka", "You'll love Wanaka". That's what everyone says, but try
and get them to articulate what it is about Wanaka and they can't!! You
have to go there and find out for yourself. This pretty, little town is
just the right size, has a cute centre on the edge of Lake Wanaka, bordered
by Mount Roy, and in the distance the snow capped range including Mount
Aspiring. Kick back at the cosy hostel with the fire place, no tellie and
views over the lake Mount Roy. That's when you start to get it. The vista
brings is good for your soul viewed through the huge hostel windows, with
the only alarm being the realisation that the cloud on Mount Roy is lightly
dusting it with snow.
Before you know it, you are caught up in the plan to stay for the Wanaka
Air Show - the second one that has crossed your path, but to kill a few
days head for party town - Queenstown with a young english lad who's lofty
heights match his desire for lofty heights - he's got a number of tramps
that he wants to do including the killer "Cascade Saddle"
Queenstown.
Once the burning smells associated with excessive breaking of an overloaded
car (you've got 4 on board and packs cause you have collected a travelling
kiwi couple who rolled their car a couple of weeks back - without a
scratch) have settled, you are back out of the mountains and on the main
road into Queenstown.
Queenstown is the cash grab capital of NZ. Whatever extreme experience you
want, you can get it in Queenstown. Bungy, sky dive, hang gliding,
paraglide, jet boat, para sail, lake tours, 4wd tours, etc, etc, etc. With
Easter in a couple of days, every traveller is booked to be there and the
true Alchemistic travellers (those without reservations) are struggling to
find a bed. Be sure to keep your head down so the cash gremlins don't get
you and instead take advantage of the FREE pool and FREE videos at the
hostel of choice - becoming an overnight pool champion having played for 5
hours straight with the only interruption being the trip to the shop for
more beer.
After two days of watching the paragliding, and your lofty English mate
having done the biggest bungy, you convince yourself that paragliding is as
close to sailing in the air as you can get ... and no one has fallen to
their death in the time that you have been watching (but there's a story
there too) . So before you know it, you are $180 poorer, strapped to some
bloke you only just met and airborne over Lake Wakatipu. Be sure to insist
on a long flight and your pilot(?) will look for the thermal on the other
side of the ridge, fringing trees to get on board a 2000 foot climb in
tight circles inside the thermal. All too soon, its over, even though you
got a long trip...
Complete the Queenstown experience with a boozey night at some of the
backpacker packed bars in town and call it quits after confusing a couple
of Germans for daughters spawned from the ABBA couples. They were even
wearing their mothers clothes!! :-)
Can't get enough of Wanaka.
Back to Wanaka just in time and the place is buzzing literally as all
manner of aircraft fill the sky. The quite little place you were staying is
now full to overflowing and friendships spring up with a couple british
lads, a couple of dangerous Kiwi chicks and a couple of gnarly :-) old
tramping guys that are still pissed after their 10 days dry in the wrong
part of Stewart Island.
The air show is bigger than Taupo, and features your boyhood, "Ba Ba
Blacksheep" favourite the Corsair, which opens the show by doing a loop the
loop that comes out to low - only to have him disappear into the gully
behind the airfield. For the instant that you think that the guy is about
to die, your heart races. The rest is by the by since you saw it a couple
of weeks ago, so slide under the front of a camper bus (there are thousands
there) for a bit of a nap, before finding the beer tent and a ride back to
town.
Next stop Te Anau, The sounds, mountain tops, stewart island, sea lions -
but I need coffee - more soon.
Cheers
John
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John
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