Ginger DJ Rob

Our holiday was nearly over and we weren’t looking forward to the end. James and Emma were ready for us at check out and the weather was behaving itself for once. The only thing left to do in Queenstown was the Sky Gondola and Luge. Kerry did well to control her fear of heights whilst me and James giggled like kids on the luge (a go-kart/toboggan type thing). Our last meal in New Zealand was going to be a good one so we went for the fatboy option of Fergburger , a Queenstown legend in a bap. It was just as good as the Wanaka burger and the Tropical Swine still lingers on the taste buds. There was no option to extend our stay as we had the last flight from Queenstown at 3:15pm. James and Emma dropped us off for a tearful goodbye. The internal flight to Auckland was a chance to review what we’d covered in 2 weeks crossing both islands. Within an hour the heart strings were tugging us to stay. Kerry spoiled us to premium economy tickets for the return journey. Other activities during our...

What should have been a day of extreme highs turned out (for me) a bit of a downer. We had to be picked up for the skydive at 8:30am. Kerry had been building up her nerves all week whereas I was eager to do it. Arriving at the private airfield both me and Kerry would be the second group to go. We both met our tandem divers. Kerry got a friendly, caring ladies man who looked after her, consoling her all the way. I got Chris, a California guy who’s breath stunk of booze and not too chatty or bothered. After the first group had come down ok we packed ourselves in the cramped plane and flew up to a planned 15,000 feet. We were warned we would need oxygen past 11,000 ft. The 2 seconds of actually jumping out of the plane was ok for me but the rest of it I’d rather forget. Either I didn’t have enough oxygen or Chris didn’t warn me properly, I panicked and couldn’t breath gasping for air. Then the pain in my ears built up as the air pressure took its toll. The freefall and picturesque descent...

Mixing the beers and cocktails is not good for me. With my sleep account seriously overdrawn, I needed an easy day. Rain also woke me up and at breakfast a permanent stream was running down the hotel road. Sky dive had been cancelled again until 2:30pm though looking very doubtful. Shopping and complimentary hotel coffees only delayed the expected cancellation; the sky dive was off again. Our back up plan was to book the Canyon Swing at 4:30pm and find something else to do in between. James played taxi driver and drove us to Arrowtown. I’d read in guides the small mining town had some decent clothes shops and quirky stores but had the feeling it was going to be a crappy retail outlet. I was right as it was both crap and a retail outlet dressed up as cowboy town. Even the café for lunch was rubbish with most of the afternoon waiting for the service and food. Back in Queenstown for our Canyon Swing and the preparation involved a weigh in and the reception staff member insisting on drawin...

Yesterday’s snow on the high ground was still evident as we drove back to Queenstown. Loads of drivers including us were stopping to take photos of the white fields. Around halfway back we spotted a beautiful lakeside, snowy mountain view too perfect to pass up. As we set up the camera for a cheesy group shot along rolls up a Welsh version of Phoenix Nights’ Brian Potter with mobility scooter trying to sell us his marmalade and jams. It was almost scenic photo taxation. We checked into our super luxury hotel, the Dairy for the holiday remainder which meant dropping off our mobile home for the last few weeks. We had mixed feelings of seeing it go but looked forward to not having to prepare our bed for 30 minutes and not having to suffer drafty cold showers. As we drove back from the airport we spotted a couple of metal statues for mailboxes. We’d obviously stumbled across the local nutjob artist who’d welded a boozed up tin-man as a mailbox and tin-woman with kitchen sink. As I snapped...

We woke up loads of times to the sound of pelting rain throughout the night. Poor Emma and James were in their tent so were paranoid they would be flooded out. The full day cruise to Doubtful Sound started early so another working day alarm. Real Journeys was the tour operator which consisted of a lake ferry, a coach ride and the main cruise through Doubtful Sound. The first lake we’d seen the day before and apparently was named incorrectly due to a map-maker’s mistake. It was also named after an old Maori name meaning ‘rainy lake’. Bit of an understatement really as not surprising that 2 out of 3 days it rains here. The coach journey on the country’s most expensive road revealed high altitude moss covered trees but the mists had covered the supposedly excellent views of waterfalls etc. The cold rain didn’t let up for the actual cruise which put off the wildlife to exhibit themselves. Only saw the one seal in the distance and no penguins on Penguin Island. The landscape was beautiful ...

Another early rise for the Shotover Jetboat experience. Apparently, Saturday night’s rain cancelled the boats due to too much water and we were warned that it could be a bumpy ride. The weather hadn’t improved with drizzle and cold winds so balaclavas would have been the best idea in an open boat. The jetboat ride itself was crazy, bumpy and friggin’ freezing with cold wetness pelting the face. Luckily it only last around 15 minutes with multiple 360 degree spins and fast turns close to the rocks – basically rally driving on the water. The rain properly came down again as we met up with James and Emma for our road trip to Doubtful Sound, New Zealand’s own fiordland. The journey took around 2 hours playing spot the dead sheep and singing to Rapture songs. We arrived in Manapouri, the starting point of the tomorrow’s tour around mid-afternoon and dismissed the idea of driving up to Milford Sound (another 2.5 hours). Instead we walked along the lake side spotting dead birds and eels (mus...

Woke up with the plan to leave the campsite for a less crowded one but our drinking excess and the Summer daylight savings cocked this up. The 10am checkout had passed so resorted to finding a better spot to park. Skydiving and the Shotover Jetboating were both cancelled because of the weather though with the hangover I was feeling it wouldn’t have been a good idea. We met up with James and Emma in town later for a chocolate based lunch. The guilt of the extra calories and the thought of not wanting to waste a day we hired some mountain bikes and explored the lakeside park. The evening was kept short for the first Shotover slot the next morning so opted for the best takeaway pizza courtesy of Hell Pizza . We loved the creative touch that the box would convert into a cardboard coffin (as modeled by Kerry and a camp James). Sounds like they’ve upset a few Kiwis with their other creative touches as per this Family First website . As this is a short entry here's a summary of what we li...

Our solicitor rang us last night at midnight to confirm the completion of our house which was welcome news. We’re now the proud owners of an empty house on the other side of the world. Wanaka is a poor man’s Queenstown but has its own quirky attractions. One of them I wished we had time for was the local cinema having settees and a car inside. The first we visited was Puzzling World which was a bit rubbish but was cheap to get in. The optical illusions were fun but very busy with kids hogging the activities. The sky dive was still canceled and we realised we bought mutton sausage rolls instead – where’s the pork, dudes?! So bought possibly the best burgers ever from Red Star and had the best picnic view of the lake in the campervan. James and Emma, our other reason in NZ were around the corner in Queenstown and drove over to see us. We headed out of town to try the clay pigeon shooting at Have a Shot which was a good laugh. I couldn’t quite get the hang of the .22 calibre rifles so ...

Our heli-hike wasn’t scheduled until midday so treated ourselves to the biggest, greediest breakfast ever. Whilst scoffing through French toast and yoghurt topped granola I read the local paper, the Greymouth Star . There was one story that really defined the NZ experience for us:- “Farmer finds Ford Cortina Mk3 wrapped round a tree with a skeleton laid out in dying pose trying to escape out of the car window. Police believe it’s in connection of missing man from 1985.” However, I found the real story here so I apologise for the slight exaggeration. The rest of the breakfast was realising how much of a hicktown Fox was with mothers breastfeeding toddlers (too old for that sort of thing) and barking dogs on Utes. The weather was looking very dodgy with clouds near the mountains which could have meant the helicopter tour was off. At the tour desk we felt luck was on our side but it felt every minute one of our party delayed us the tour would be off. The helicopter ride only took 10 mi...

As soon as we got back to Methven we started our long, long journey to Fox Glacier , the other side of the mountain range and opposite coast. We were expecting a 5 and a half hour drive! This was possibly the most breathtaking but demanding journey I’ve ever taken. We really should have driven during the day to fully appreciate the scenery and we couldn’t help stop every half an hour to take photos. Highlights were: A jaw dropping gorge in Canterbury Plains ; A shortcut away from the main highway (from Lake Coleridge to Lake Lyndon) which turned out to be a 24 km dust/grit track through the driest part of NZ vibrating the campervan and us to bits – slightly worrying; Arthur’s Pass was slap in the middle of the highest mountains I’ve ever seen with roads reaching extreme heights; The sunset shadows and last rays of the sun over the peaks; A mad descent reveals a rock shelter like tunnel and a massive industrial size drain pipe to protect the road but trying to avoid sight of the sheer...

We woke up to the most clear blue skies we’ve seen this holiday which was perfect for our Edoras tour . I didn’t really know what to expect on the tour guessing some LOTR stuff would dominate the day. Our Kiwi guide, who bizarrely lived in Lewes last year, turned up in a 6-wheeled off-roader with full-on radio mast at the front and a party of 15 people. After a coffee break we stopped off for a number of photo opps at Lake Camp and Lake Clearwater. There’s a mini-town just for holiday houses/sheds by the lake where no-one is allowed to build or live permanently. The views are perfect today with distant snowy mountains surrounded by light blue sky. The off-roader really came useful as we approached the site where Rohan scenes were filmed driving through rivers and over rough rocky roads. Our final parking place meant a 5 minute hike up the hill to where the Golden Hall was built (in Two Towers). You didn’t have to like LOTR to enjoy this as the scenery made you feel glad to be alive. M...

Another stupid early alarm call for 6:30am (call this a holiday?!) for the whale watching and rang the tour operator to see if it was still on. It was canceled as the seas were too choppy. Obviously whales are bit fussy when it comes to showing off. So we went back to a warm bed for another 90 minutes of snoozing. The weather was beginning to be a major factor affecting our holiday and retrospectively should have stuck to the original plan doing the skydive over Marlborough Sounds or even over Lake Taupo. After a few phonecalls we’re now doing the Edoras tour on Thursday and the Heli-hike on Friday. Thank god for 0800 freefone numbers. We packed in a second breakfast (my favourite, French Toast) in Kaikoura and set off to Hanmer Springs so I could do a bungy jump at the same place as Kerry 12 years ago. Thrill Seekers Canyon had jet-boating, river-rafting, quad-biking but I was here for the leap off the road bridge. I was pretty much pre-occupied by the cold weather than the normal n...

We left the Richmond campsite and went back to Nelson to try and meet Kerry’s old friend, Christine. We’d been told that she started work at midday so tried looking for a laundrette. I wasn’t able to get my undies washed but we were lucky with the old friend reunion. Both ladies were chuffed to see each other again and will hopefully keep in contact. We’ve been putting off the sky dive for awhile now but today we wanted to get down to Kaikoura, home of the whales as soon as possible which was on the other side of the South Island. We drove on the same twisty roads to Picton through the vineyards and through Blenheim. With the Marlborough Sounds behind us the roads got more remote, twisty and very windy. The coastal road was beautiful to see and saw a sign warning us of seals. Normally we’d dismiss this as the rare encounter but there they were sunbathing on the rocks next to the highway. The views just got grander as to the west of Kaikoura huge mountains showed off their snow topped c...

Headache had gone but a 6am alarm wasn’t very enjoyable in preparation for our ferry across to Picton on the South Island. The weather wasn’t all that appealing either rain hadn’t let up all night for our 3 hour crossing. As soon as we boarded, we took some motion sickness pills and booked some cinema tickets for Transformers which turned out to be quite good. Both of us felt ropey a third way through and I had to seek fresh air before returning to the movie. As soon as we docked we headed for Nelson, Kerry’s home some 12 years ago in a convoy of campervans. It was field after field of vineyards of Marlborough country. We stopped in Havelock for lunch, world capital for green shell mussels. All the shops had comedy mussels doing the activity the shop represented. Landscape changed to Twin Peaks like country with hardly any cars around. As we approached Nelson, Kerry’s memory started to activate. Personally, I was surprised how built up the place was from her description and headed out...

Our first task to find a campervan site near to Wellington ready for the next day ferry which turned out to be a motel with a powered carpark. After that we caught a bus into town for shopping then the main reason for choosing this time to visit NZ, the Wearable Arts Show. Wellington had a better vibe than Auckland even though it was raining. A lot of cool shops around the Cuba Street area again set amongst the tattoo parlours and sex shops. With a recommendation from some shop assistants we checked out Fidels for lunch for the best milkshakes. Décor was styled on the bearded dictator’s country. Next we explored the arty dock area where the national museum, Te Papa was situated. It was free entry luckily as only the Maori art and earthquake simulator was worth the visit. On to the main event, the World of Wearable Art (WOW) show was just the other side of the dockside. Wellington is a compact city and easy to get around by foot. The events place was buzzing with entertainers like ju...

We drove all the way down to Wellington via a place called Tai Hapi, the gumboot throwing capital of NZ under the advice of the Brass owner. Before reaching this place, we'd read about a giant carrot statue in a place called Ohakune in the Lonely Planet as pictured. The carrot has something to do with this festival . Tai Hapi turned out to be slightly disappointing and like a lot of small towns, its identity statue made from corrugated metal – a giant gumboot. More amazing scenery along the way with multiple cows and sheep filling the fields. Stopped at Mangaweka which had a café in an old Dakota plane and stocked up on the lovely NZ chocolate and coffee. Another stop at a place called Bulls which it seemed every business used the town name as cheesily as possible e.g. the medical centre is Cure-a-bull. We approached Wellington, the country’s capital without a real idea of where to stay and it turned out to be quite stressful finding somewhere which allowed campervans, close enou...

Couldn’t deal with the coldness of the van so delayed getting up this morning. First on the hot thermal roadshow was Te Puia , a Maori and geyser theme park. Entry was quite steep at $50 but it was the cultural part that was worth it. More smelliness and walking around but didn’t quite compare to the extremeness on White Island. The main geyser was quite interesting but took awhile to really kick off.  The Maori midday ceremony was very special for me the guide asked for someone to act as visiting chief which I volunteered for. There’ll be a couple of YouTube videos of this coming soon but in essence I had to accept a peace offering and rub a few noses on stage. From my ‘throne’ (ok maybe not throne but best seat in the house) we watched the song and dance show which included Poi, the catching sticks game and a few warrior moves. The second smelly place was Wait-o-tapu or Geyserland which had loads of multi-coloured pools with some creative names like Champagne Pool, Artist P...

We’d booked our boat trip to the volcanic island off Whakantane (pronounced Thakatanae) weeks ago but according to the captain, gale forces were on they way. Strange really as it was a beautiful, still day so totally gutted we’d wasted our time. We then looked into an alternative to getting there calling the Vulcan Helicopter tours instead. It was quite expensive at $400 each plus another $400 to pay for the extra empty seat unless another party came forward. We took the chance and were treated to another exclusive trip and have the island to ourselves. It was a short drive outside the town to a toy-town airport and Mark, our pilot dismissed the weather forecast. It was a wasp-like chopper (similar to Magnum PI) taking 20 minutes passing Whale Island. It was certainly windy but the pilot did well to land it on the crater like island. We were given a safety helmet and gas mask in case the volcanic activity misbehaved. The landscape was incredible and felt like walking on the Moon or...