View from Homer Tunnel

Travel Post

2004 – New Zealand Trip

Writing about my first overseas trip in 2004, all those years ago and not having a diary, any emails and before Facebook was around has been a little difficult and may be a little vague on content at times but it’s what I can remember.

My love affair of travelling overseas all started on a hung over morning on 1 Jan 2004 where a mate (that I had known since high school and who had been overseas before) and I flew from Sydney, Australia to Christchurch, New Zealand.

Looking out of the window of the plane coming into Christchurch, I was stunned by the sheer size of the surrounding mountains. That was an extremely memorable sight. As soon as we arrived at the airport, we picked up the hire car and went straight to our accommodation (we stayed in motels the whole time in New Zealand), got ourselves settled then went on a self-guided tour of the city of Christchurch. I definitely remember visiting the Cathedral Square and the Canterbury Museum and looking around the city centre for the afternoon and thinking it’s not a big city compared to Canberra, Australia and was pretty much the same size, still was pretty interesting as it was all new to me. The next day, we were up early to go on a full day category five white water rafting just outside of Christchurch. That was a fast passed thrill seeking full-on day of adrenaline where I went through high highs to then being scared witless and getting a nice water jacket sunburn but wouldn’t have changed that for anything.

The next day, we drove to Queenstown stopping off at Lakes Tekupo and Pukaki along the way with impressive views of Mt Cook and looking at how amazingly green the glacial water was. Queenstown has everything for the adventure thrill seeker as it is the adventure capital of New Zealand. The locals say it is the adventure capital of the world. After locating our accommodation we were pretty tired so just spent the rest of the day looking around the town, going up the gondola to the top of Mt Wakatipu with stunning views of the town, surrounding area and Lake Wakatipu and also confirming the bookings for our adventure activities over the next couple of days. We made the most of our next two days in Queenstown by doing a bungy jump off the Kawarau Bridge into the river 43 metres below, a canyon swing over the Shotover River, a jet boat ride that went 360 degrees and very close to the sides multiple times, a bit of canyoning and a Lord of the Rings set tour including a drive up into the Remarkables mountainside. Such an amazing place and I definitely recommend going to Queenstown not only for the adventure activities, which there are an abundance to do, but for the beautiful town, surrounds and friendly people.

 

After a fun-filled few days we drove to Milford Sound via the Homer Tunnel and Te Anau. There is only one way into Milford Sound via road and it has glorious views. The tunnel is 1.2 kms long and a marvel in itself. We had booked ourselves on an overnight cruise that took us from Milford Sound to the mouth of the Tasman Sea and return.

To say that the views from the boat were breathtaking would be an understatement. The sheer volume of water falls and elevations of the mountains here will put any mountainous view in the world to shame. Milford Sound is the only place in the world where the water run-off from the mountains do not mix with the sea water until 10-15 m below the waterline so you have both fresh and sea water life living in the same lake together. The cruise had all meals provided with the finest of New Zealand on every plate and was the best way to see Milford Sound in all its glory.

After that we drove back through Queenstown on to Haast via Lakes Wanaka and Aweia and the town of Wanaka itself where we stopped off at Wanaka’s Wonderful World of Weirdness, 3D super maze and illusion rooms for lunch and a look around. There are lot of amusing things at this place to keep you occupied and having some fun for a couple of hours or more. We ended up sleeping in the car at Fox Glacier as we didn’t have any accommodation booked due to every place being booked out. Had one of us sleeping in the front passengers seat with the seat folded as far back as we could in the Toyota Corolla hire car and the other on the back bench seat. We swapped over halfway during the night as we both weren’t that comfortable. We didn’t exactly know where we parked for the night as it was dark but it was in a car park off the main road and near a cafe and when the sun came up in the morning we woke to a medium-sized lake within a 200 m walk from the car which was a nice view to wake up to.

That next morning we did a glacier hike up as far as we could with the tour company we were with due to all the safety concerns. Walking on the perma-ice and viewing the amazing scenery of not just the green coloured ice with large crevasses but the mountainside it was on that split Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier was truly memorable to say the least. You can take a helicopter flight up the top of the glacier and I regret not doing that as it would be well worth it.

The subsequent day we were off to Nelson via the longer way around going through Perpendicular Point so we could continue driving by the Tasman Sea and to keep on aiming for the possums with our hire car (we were told when we picked up the car that we could do this) where they are a menace here but make the best linings for socks and jackets etc. We went quad biking in Nelson, which was a lot of fun with nice views of the surrounding valleys and bay.

The following day we drove a short way to Picton to where the ferry is that goes from the south island to the north island and represented the just slightly over half way point of this trip. Here we dropped off the hire car and (no damage was done to the car, the possums, well let’s just say that we won’t talk about them anymore) and boarded the short sail over to the capital of New Zealand, Wellington, where we picked up our other hire car (a Holden Astra) for the remainder of this two week trip.

Wellington is the second largest city in New Zealand and it situated by Wellington Harbour and surrounded by Mt Victoria and is very hilly, everywhere but despite this, it is extremely photogenic. I do remember going to the Mt Victoria lookout, the waterfront and also looking around the town centre but we had a big day and just kept it low-key. There are a lot of attractions here such as the historic cable car and we ended up staying for two days. The one attraction of most note here would be touring the WETA studios, the studio that bought you such films as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. We didn’t plan on staying here long and would have liked to go on this tour as well as have a look around the farm that has the set of Hobbitton still erected, maybe next time. The end of the second day here we drove to Palmerston North for our accommodation. Again, I don’t think we did much here except eat a giant pizza at a takeaway shop and sleep.

The penultimate stop in this trip was Rotorua, which we drove to from Palmerston North. We arrived early to go zorbing, karting/4×4 driving/archery. With zorbing, I opted for the version that you get strapped down inside and you go around and around down the hill in the allocated route. My mate opted for the version where you attempt to run inside with water and if you make it down the hill still upright you get a free t-shirt. The operator said that he hadn’t had to part with a free t-shirt yet. The karting/4×4 driving/archery place was a heap of fun where we got to go karting head to head on an outdoor track, drive an obstacle course specifically to test your 4×4 skills and archery to test your accuracy and steadiness. We finished off this adventure activity day at a spa pool. There are a plethora of spa and wellness spas here and I can’t remember which one I went to here but click here for a list of all them and you can work out which one best suits your requirements. This is a must do and you will feel revitalised afterwards, just try to block out the sulphur smell, it is everywhere unfortunately but despite this Rotorua is a great destination. Lake Rotorua is picturesque and you should hop on a cruise. This short cruise is relaxing and all-inclusive and definitely recommended after a full day of travelling, adventure activities or just a starting point to begin relaxing.

Our last stop in New Zealand was Auckland and we spent a couple of days here as it is New Zealand’s largest city with 1/4 of the country’s population living here. The places that I visited was the Sky Tower which is a great way to get your bearing of the city. Being New Zealand, they had a bungy off pretty much off the top of the tower but even after all the adventure thrill seeking we had done over the past two weeks, both of us decided it was too daunting to attempt. Queen Street and Aotea Square, which is the heart of the city centre has some good malls, bars, restaurants and markets and St Patrick’s Cathedral is charming. Being the largest city in New Zealand there is so much to do and see here like the botanic gardens, aquarium, zoo, war memorial museum which will definitely keep you entertained for quite a number of days if you like. The last night I was in Auckland, I met up with a friend’s brother and his mates took me to a few nightclubs and bars and appreciated having someone show me around who knew the city.

I flew back to Canberra from Auckland via Brisbane as I met up with my mate’s family for one of his extended family member’s birthday party. It’s funny the things you remember on trips so long ago, like all of the above and also like that the water from the tap in New Zealand tastes amazing and I ended up pretty much just drinking that or the local brewed beers like DB or Tui beer along with L&P soft drink. To this day, I still seek out L&P as well as Pinky chocolate bars and hokey pokey ice cream. I also remember that New Zealand had large discount supermarkets that now Australia has too similar to Costco without the annual membership fee, which wasn’t around in Australia in 2004, so New Zealand was a head of the times.

I wanted to see if I could travel overseas so I started with New Zealand as it is similar to Australia, close and we share a common forged from the Anzac spirit and fun larrikin attitude we share. The great experience that I encountered travelling in New Zealand affirmed that I could definitely travel overseas and survive, so I started to save up my money, start dreaming of what my next trip would be and eventually, 9 months later I quit my job and started my next amazing adventure.