The NZ Good Food Guide

Here it is - I've been promising this for a while but since I got back to Australia I've been really lazy so it's taken me a while. But it's now done, my guide to all the best places to eat I found in NZ. Since I was working while I was away I had a more generous budget than the average backpacker so I managed to eat very well indeed and this list has been researched with the same commitment and attention to detail as any Lonely Planet guide. Enjoy!

Best deal: Queenstown. No question here, the $10 breakfast from Coco cafe on Shotover Street. Pancakes with berries, maple syrup and a coffee - you can't go wrong with a meal like that, whether you have it for breakfast, brunch or lunch, and believe me, some days I thought about having it for all 3 of those.

Best breakfast: Queenstown. The Coco $10 breakfast again (see above), and also the French Toast (with bacon and maple syrup) from the Lakeside Cafe, also Queenstown.

Best Dinner/Tea/Evening Meal (whatever you like to call it): Speight's Ale Houses, Wanaka, Queenstown and Wellington I found you just couldn't go wrong with these. Speights is on of the major brands of NZ beer - it was my favourite beer (and I'm not much of a beer drinker so that's saying a lot) and pretty much wherever you went if there was a Speight's Ale House you could be guaranteed some good solid pub food at fairly decent prices, although Wanaka, Queenstown and Wellington were my favourites. My favourites were any kind of lamb dish and the drunken steak.

Best Meat Pies: Probably the Arrowtown Bakery, although I have to say that meat pies are of a generally very high standard throughout New Zealand, even, dare I say it, higher then the typical Aussie pie. Controversial I know but I'll stand by that claim.

Best Burgers: Nearly forgot this one, undoubtedly Ferg Burgers, a Queenstown institition. My personal favourite is the Cockadoodle Oink, even if you feel a bit stupid asking for one. Velvet Burger in Dunedin isn't as well known but they're almost as good if you ask me.

Best Pizza: Frank's Pizza, Paihia (North Island). The Old Mountaineer's Cafe, Mt Cook also does good pizza and has an unbeatable view as well. Was also pleased to see that there are still many Pizza Hut restaurants in NZ, as I still have a soft spot for them from when I was young. Best of these was in Taupo, although the Queenstown one's also okay if you go around lunchtime. They don't have any topping for the ice cream though, what's with that?

Best Fish and Chips: Several contenders here, and I can't remember any of their names. But there's one on the main street in Devonport, Auckland which is really good, one just as nice in Paihia, it's the next street over from the main street, near the water taxi offices. It gets bonus points because of the setting where I ate, the courtyard of the Villa Backpackers, while the sun was setting and a constant rain of pink blossoms falling off the trees very nice. Oh and the Loaded Hog, Christchurch and Old Mountaineer's Cafe, Mt Cook are worth a mention too.

Best other seafood: The Reef, Wanaka for their calamari, and Aromas, Kaikoura for their Moroccan spiced fish with potatos and the best pita bread I've ever tasted.

Best dessert/pudding: Enjoyed researching this one, although I had a bad habit of filling up on too much dinner and not saving enough room for dessert. Foolish, I know. In Queenstown, Brazz does a mean chocolate mudcake, and the Skycity Casino, a great chocolate brownie while the Patagonia Chocolate shop has a whole heap of good stuff. But hey, it's dessert, it's all good really.

Best ice-cream: New Zealand Natural, Christchurch (specifically the hokey pokey or chocolate ecstasy). The Rush Munro ice cream shop in Paihia is also excellent.

Best home-cooked meal: A few particularly memorable ones here, first the roast chicken dinner we had in Kaikoura, even though we were a bit worried about poisoning from melted plastic we all survived and it turned out to be a great meal. Also in Kaikoura, the next night we had a surprise meal of french toast and shepherd's pie prepared for us by one of our room-mates while the rest of us were watching a video, so that was great. Another standout was pasta night in Taupo, even though I contributed little except the choice of ice cream for dessert (it was damn good ice cream though).

Best cookies: I invented this category just to mention the ones in the Wanaka cinema. Go, see a movie, any movie, and at half time get yourself a cookie. Do it. Now.

Once more, with feeling

Well this is it, my last blog entry written in New Zealand, although it’s not quite the last you’ll be hearing from me just yet. There’s still the NZ food guide I’ve promised to put together and I’m sure I’ll have something to say about being back home, complaints about how hot it is probably. And it’s going to be quite a shock, as despite the fact it’s on the brink of summer we’ve actually had snow down to 500m here in Queenstown, so it’s looking and feeling just like winter again. A lot of people are quite surprised by such unseasonal weather but I’m pretty much used to this sort of thing by now. I’ve joked on several occasions about my good fortune with the weather but it’s getting to the point where, frankly, I’m a little bit in awe of myself.

No, really, I’d wondered if even my influence could work on the legendary Fiordland weather, where it rains just about every other day, but although we had a slight drizzle on the first day after that it was 4 days of almost perfect weather. So I had a great time on the track, although it seems a lot better in hindsight than it sometimes did at the time. I ended up going on a guided trip as by the time I looked into it the track was booked out for independent hikers for the whole season. A terrible hardship I know, to not have to carry any food or a sleeping bag, but I did feel a bit lazy so took a second pair of boots with me as a penance (they’re really not very heavy though so it was only a small penance).

It takes most of the first day just getting to the track as you have to travel by boat to the head of Lake Te Anau, so I was getting pretty antsy by the second day to actually do some walking. It’s a pretty relaxed day, you spend it all in the Clinton valley following the Clinton river, which is extraordinarily pretty, and at this stage you’re still impressed every time you see a waterfall flowing down the steep valley walls (by the end of the fourth day you’re kind of used to it). I spent the day strolling along with Marc, another guided walker who also felt slightly uncomfortable with how easy we had it, and Laura, who was doing things the hard way (you should have seen the hunk of salami she had to carry around, if we had been snowed in on the track somewhere she could have saved us all from starving with that thing). We spent a lot of time joking about how different the experience was for each of us, her with her salami and us with our nightly showers and nametags to let the sandflies know we weren’t to be bitten (although longjohns and long sleeves help with that too).



Things were slightly less luxurious that night however as instead of being tucked up in my warm bed I spent most of it huddled on the toilet floor being really, really sick. Not sure what it was from but it wasn’t fun and left me really quite doubtful about doing a full days walking the next day, the third day being the toughest day of the walk with virtually all the climbing and descending. It was great weather though and once I got moving I thought I could manage it, if not be entirely enthusiastic about it. We’d just been discussing other people’s hikes the previous night where they’d had to deal with altitude sickness and food poisoning so I figured it would be good practice for that as I’m sure I’ll face the same thing eventually. So I made it, but I was completely exhausted by the end of the day, which is a shame because it’s the most spectacular day of the hike and even thought it’s the toughest I wouldn’t have had any trouble at all under normal circumstances. I was just too tired to do the side trip to Sutherland Falls (the world’s fifth highest waterfall) at the end of the day as well, so will have to go back and do it again someday.



The fourth day, after getting some actual sleep, I was pretty much back to normal again (although it was another few days before I could look forward to eating again) which was just as well as it was another beautiful day. This time we were following the Arthur River and there were more waterfalls, our lunch stop by the Giant’s Gate falls in particular was an amazing spot, and could have been almost tropical apart from the temperature of the water. Once the track was done we caught the boat across to Milford for a celebration there that night (and some of the worst pool I’ve played in my life). The next morning I got to watch the sun rise over Mitre Peak from a real hotel room for a change and went for a quick wander by the foreshore before our cruise on Milford Sound which although a bit shorter than I expected, manages to live up to the hype.



It was back to Te Anau after that and then on to Doubtful Sound for an overnight cruise. We got rain both days we were there, and no, my luck hadn’t deserted me, I actually wanted rain to check out the famous waterfalls it causes. And yes, there were lots of them and they were very nice, especially since I’ll be heading back to drought-stricken Australia and it could be some time before I see rain again. Back in Te Anau again I did a day’s walking on the Kepler track, just on the nice flat foresty bits, but it looks like a really nice track so will have to come back for that one for sure. Then it was back here to Queenstown to catch up with Katrin, Emily and Mayu who I’ve met here, as well as Lyn and Cec who I know from work back home. I’ve been doing a final round of all my favourite places to eat with everyone, and am due to catch up with the girls for dessert and hot chocolate one last time tonight before catching the bus back to Christchurch tomorrow. And then it’s on a plane Saturday and back home. It will be nice to have a break from travelling for a while, but I’ll miss the place terribly and as keen as I am to see new places I hope it won’t be too long before I get to come back.

A tale of two Roys

Well The Lambing has finished (I don't know exactly what that involves but it sounds kind of ominous and I'm sure Stephen King could spin a story around it). I also managed to get 2 days of decent weather before I left Wanaka so I got to revisit Roy's Peak and head out to Rob Roy glacier (Roy seems to be a popular guy around these parts). Roy's Peak was a whole different experience without snow, didn't seem quite as high although it was still hard work getting up there. There were a lot more people up there too, it being the first day the track had opened after The Lambing. The view was still magnificent though, although I think the altitude might have been a bit much for some people - I took a picture of a group of Japanese people for them and then asked them to take one of me. When they did one of the girls asked if she could have her photo taken with me because she thought I was cool (no, really). I agreed because it would be rude to laugh in her face but I was bit worried that the effort of the climb might have been a bit much and sent her mad, the poor dear. Anyway, they were pretty cool as once I got back down and was walking back to town they passed me in their car and gave me a lift back, sparing my sore feet a little bit of extra effort, and I had a drink with them afterwards and bought them some Big 'Uns (they're chips).



Speaking of food, I'm back in Queenstown again now and have been eating far too well as there's just too many good places to eat over here. I"ve promised to put a proper list together at some stage of all the places I've discovered over here and the first place which is going on there is probably the pancake breakfast you get from the Coco cafe (pancakes with berries, maple syrup and coffee for $10 - they are so good). Should be able to walk it off though as tomorrow I'm hitting the Milford Track, which is a 4 day trip but only 3 days of serious walking, after which I'll finally make it to Milford Sound. Then it'll be back to Te Anau and down to Doubtful Sound trip before coming back to Queenstown for my last few days here in NZ before I head home, so it's not long to go now.

Wanaka Once More

It’s been good coming back to Wanaka, one of my favourite places here in NZ. Things have changed quite a bit in a short time, with spring the countryside’s much greener and there’s suddenly wildflowers everywhere, which is keeping me amused taking lots of photos of lupins. The town itself is much quieter now that the ski season’s finished too which was a bit strange at first. The last few days have felt just like winter again though with some very unseasonal snowfalls, yesterday making it just down to the level of town briefly. I was just remarking the other day that I miss the snow on the mountains around here so I’m thinking once I get back to Australia I’ll have to start dropping hints about rain and see if I can get this drought business sorted out. Probably easier than my previous iceberg plan too.



Haven’t done all that much here, mainly been spending time checking out all the familiar sights and walking tracks around town, revisiting Mt Iron, the Outlet and Millennium Tracks and also venturing out to Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain again. Went on a daytrip down to Glenorchy and Queenstown with some German girls from the hostel the other day, we went up to Deer Park Heights where they keep deer (obviously) and all sorts of other hoofed ungulates and where they filmed lots of Lord of the Rings scenes because of the great view of the Remarkables you get there. Had some pretty ordinary weather lately so I’ve rented a whole heap of DVD’s, as it sometimes seems like the only movies people ever watch in hostels are The Fellowship of the Ring and The Shawshank Redemption and I was desperate to see something new. Just waiting for the lambing season to finish and the track to re-open so I can venture up to Roy’s Peak before I go and then it’s back down to Queenstown again for another week before I hit the Milford Track.

Goodbye my headphones

The last few weeks have been pretty varied, I’ve gone from the golden beaches of Abel Tasman to the very heart of the Southern Alps. There have been moments of sublime beauty as well as terrible loss. I started off in Nelson (home of the CENTRE OF NEW ZEALAND. I like to write it in capitals to make it sound more exciting), where in a shocking incident of crime I had my headphones ripped out of my iPod by some jerks driving around the corner in their car. All because I wouldn’t give them 50c to buy an ice cream at McDonld’s. Jerks. I’ve since found replacements (they don’t sound as good though) but my iPod has become my closest travelling companion so it was most upsetting to see him emasculated in this way. In a similar incident I was wandering around town later with my American and Canadian room-mates and a girl asked us for a cigarette, however when we revealed that none of us smoked she just slapped the Canadian guy. Shocking. So after all this I swear the next time someone asked me for something I would have punched them in the face and run away screaming, I don’t care if they were just asking for the time or for help crossing the road. Jerks.

So that was Nelson. Thankfully Abel Tasman National Park was much nicer. Did some good day walks there, getting dropped off each morning by water taxi, and covering around half the 50km Coastal Track. It basically meanders along what is some of the nicest coastline in New Zealand, travelling through the beech and fern forest from one secluded bay to the next. It’s all very nice, the best spot I found was this nice little stream which feeds into the Torrent Bay estuary with water this beautiful shade of green, surrounded on all sides by ferns and plants which were also green and giving the general effect of being really green. And nice. Lots of people miss it too as they usually take the shortcut across the estuary so it was good to have it pretty much to myself.



Afterwards I took the train from Picton back down to Christchurch. It was really great to stop by Kaikoura again as I have very fond memories of there. After resting up briefly in Christchurch it was on to Tekapo once more. It was such a nice day when I arrived I decided to take a flightseeing trip around the Alps, crossing over to the West Coast and the glaciers there, circling around Aoraki and back. It was a brilliant trip, was really good to get right up close to the mountains and see them from a totally new perspective.



Aoraki especially is an impressive sight, and I’ve built up quite a collection of photos of him from various angles, both on the flight and then on the ground when I went and stayed in Mt Cook village for almost a week. Aoraki (meaning Cloud-Piercer) is the Maori name for Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand at around 3700m. I love that name, and I like how the Maori regard all the major mountains as having distinct personalities so I don’t usually call him Mt Cook (I mean come on, that sounds so wussy compared to ‘Cloud-Piercer’) and tend to refer to the mountain as ‘him’. This has confused a couple of people though who wonder who this guy is I keep talking about that I went to see. Check it out though, it even looks like he’s got a giant face, it’s the coolest thing. On my last day there I was the first one out to the Hooker Lake at the base of the mountain, where I got to sit around for a while and watch him do his cloud-piercing thing, slowly revealing himself over the course of about an hour, it was great.



The Mt Cook village is set in a beautiful mountain valley, and you can see ol’ Aorkai sticking up around the corner from the far end of the village. You go there to either walk or climb (I stuck with walking for now), but I also went on one of the boat trips onto the Tasman Glacier Lake where you cruise amongst the icebergs, eating and landing on ice which was laid down as snow about 500 years ago. Well, you get to break off a little piece of ice to suck on, confirming that water tasted pretty much the same about 500 years ago. Would have brought some ice home to help with the whole drought thing but hey, it’s a national park, you’re not allowed to take anything with you. Sorry.



Back in Wanaka now to revisit all my favourite spots and see how they’ve changed in the spring, everything being all green now and lots of wildflowers all over the place. Will be heading up to Mt Aspiring National Park at some stage to check out some of the walks there and get amongst the mountains and glaciers again. Beaches are all very nice for a while, but here, this is my kind of country.

Return to Te Wahipounamu

Yep, I’ve come back to the south island, the place of greenstone, and it’s good to be back. I had a really good trip down the north island, I enjoyed it much more than the trip up even though I mainly visited places I’d already been. First stop was Waitomo, which exists pretty much to let people visit some of the hundreds of caves in the area. It’s set amongst some typical north island countryside, lots of green hills and sheep but gets really interesting underground. I only had the chance to visit one cave, Ruakuri; it’s only been outfitted for tours recently so it’s got all modern walkways and is entered via a huge shaft that’s got this cool spiral ramp leading down to some airlocks – if I ever get an underground fortress built it will be something like that.



Revisited Rotorua briefly, basically just to do one of the Maori cultural shows with the hangi (which had been recommended to me mainly on the basis that they served good lamb. It wasn’t half bad either, amazing what you can cook in a hole in the ground really). It was set out at this forest village and had a pretty good atmosphere, although it did have a bit of a Survivor feel to it and was a little bit rushed to fit everything in. Everyone had a fun night though, and a lot of us travelled on to Taupo together so it was one of those great times which only happen occasionally when you’re travelling, where you fall in with a great group of people for a little while before you all head your separate ways again.

After spending a few days waiting around in Taupo, the weather finally cleared and a few of us got to do the Tongariro Crossing, a one day walk which crosses the saddle between Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, two of the three volcanoes in the centre of NZ’s north island. It was an awesome day, there was still heaps of snow up on the mountains and while there were some serious looking clouds following us all day they didn’t catch up until we’d finished the hardest sections, but it did mean we had to keep moving pretty much constantly. At times we were walking across flat expanses of snow, with mountains rearing up on either side, no view of the world below and the only sound the thundering of avalanches on the slopes above, it might as well have been in Antarctica. It felt like it too when the wind was howling across the very top ridges, it was really, really cold (it would be hard to say exactly how cold, but taking into account the windchill factor if I had to guess, I would say bloody) and it was strong enough to make sure you kept well back from the crater rims.



Red Crater in particular was amazing, a gaping hole in the side of the mountain filled with steam and that familiar sulphur smell which will always remind me of Rotorua). The soil on the rim of this crater was warm enough to keep the snow off and the descent was so much fun (particularly after the attractively named Devil’s Staircase) and left me feeling so full of energy I wanted to sprint across the next flat stretch. That feeling disappeared pretty much completely the moment when we had to start the next uphill stretch, stepping literally in everyone else’s footprints as they were the only places on the icy snow you could actually get a foothold. The descent was quite long and a little bit on the ordinary side after everything we’d already seen, with stretches of tussock grassland and rainforest that seemed to go on forever. Once we got back to town and looked back across the lake at the mountains I was struck by a new sense of scale (they’re like, really, really big) and felt that usual sense of unreality you get coming back to civilization after that kind of experience, where you can hardly believe you’d ever been up there. Then I had pizza, which is easy to believe in.



Headed down to Wellington again after that, took tings pretty easy there (saw Little Miss Sunshine at the movies – it’s quite a good film) and caught the ferry back across to Picton. Did a day-walk on the Queen Charlotte Track, which was quite pleasant although I think as pleasant as the Marlborough Sounds are, it would all start to look the same after a few days so one’s probably enough for me. Heading across to Nelson next and up to Abel Tasman National Park from there, and that will be it for all these beaches and I can get back to my mountains again.

Hmmmm, can you smell something?

Been a bit of a break since my last blog, and I’ve covered a fair bit of ground since then. Since leaving Wellington I’ve passed through Napier, Taupo, Rotorua, Mt Maunganui on my way to Auckland. I didn’t stay anywhere for too long but I’ll be passing through a few on the way back south so can see anything I missed then. Not much was happening in Napier (it was Sunday and nearly everything was closed). I didn’t find the Art Deco buildings there to be particularly exciting really, because there’s barely any nice modern buildings and some really dubious colour schemes it feels a lot older than is.

Taupo was okay, there I visited Huka Falls and the Craters of the Moon, a geothermal spot here with lots of craters (obviously) and fumaroles all venting steam and gas. It makes for quite a surreal landscape, even more so because it’s such an isolated pocket amongst normal forest. They have nice forests up here by the way, and lots of native birds. My favourite’s the Tui because it sounds like R2-D2. The lake, as people regularly point out, is big enough to contain Singapore, but it’s just a whole bunch of water really so it’s all flat and didn’t get me all that excited. Mind you the lake itself is also one massive volcanic crater so any excitement it might cause would probably be of the hot, explosive kind so perhaps it’s for the best.

There were more geothermal shenanigans in Rotorua, where you don’t have to go too far to find something interesting with gas of some kind. And of course there’s the smell, which I didn’t find all that bad although I don’t think I would ever eat eggs again if I had to live there. Visited the museum there too which is in a fantastic old Tudor-style building which used to be a bath house back in the day.



Mt Maunganui was really nice, and felt exactly like the beaches at Caloundra or Coolangatta back home. But with sheep. Yep they’re even at the beach over here, but I suppose they need a holiday too.



Anyway, I had to make it up to Auckland a bit ahead of schedule to meet my sister Karen, who decided to pop over for a surprise visit. Auckland’s a much nicer town when you’re visiting it on purpose by the way – I didn’t have fond memories of it at all but that’s because last time I was stuck here when I should have been in Vancouver. While Karen was here we went to the Coromandel Pensinsula, where we visited Cathedral Cove (my favourite place on the north island so far) and did some bone carving, and also headed up to the Bay of Islands, which is a really nice spot. We did the Hole in the Rock cruise (didn’t get to go through though, bummer) and visited Urupukapuka Island, which I try and mention whenever I can just cause it’s fun to say. It’s pronounced Uru-puka-puka, where the u is as in ‘put’. Try it, you’ll enjoy yourself. Karen also went dolphin watching while I visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and Hururu Falls, and we also did a day trip to Russell and went to a Maori cutural performance one night on the history of the area. Oh and we visited the Auckalnd Zoo as well, in case you were wondering what all the exotic animals on my Flickr site were all about.

Here's Karen in action.



So it was a nice change to have a travelling companion for a while, although I did have to make a few adjustments. I was at a bit of a loss at what to say at first, without the usual routine of finding out where people are from, where they’ve been and where they’re heading (and eventually their name, if it looks like they’ll be around long enough that you might need to use it. I also had to drop my usual walking pace a little bit (and then quite a lot) so Karen could keep up, or at least, not collapse. So she flew back home this morning to get some rest before going back to work, and I’m starting back down south again tomorrow to Waitomo and the caves there.

Call me Ishmael

The past week’s had a bit of a maritime theme. After leaving Christchurch I headed up to Kaikoura, a nice little seaside town which is New Zealand’s whale watching capital. And watch I have, from the shore, by boat and by plane, and it’s been fantastic. I’ve always believed Giant Things are Cool, so have always liked whales and was glad to finally see some in person. The minute the bus arrived in town we got to see our first two, a Southern Right Whale mother and calf were hanging around just off the shore near town until the baby’s old enough to head out into the open ocean. So pretty much every day you could see them swimming, spouting, feeding or breaching.



Headed out that same afternoon on the boat trip which was really good. I was glad to discover I’m not prone to seasickness, which I’ve never put to the test before, although the woman beside me wasn’t so lucky and I don’t think she quite got her money’s worth on that trip. I did though, we got to see about 10 Giant Sperm Whales, 4 quite close up, a few seals, a few albatross flying (it’s cool watching them run across the water to take off – I thought they made that up in The Rescuers movie) and on the way back passed through a pod of about 300 Dusky Dolphins, so they were completely surrounding the boat, swimming underneath, jumping out beside it and even somersaulting.

The next day I went for a walk around the peninsula, where there’s a seal colony, so got to see lots of sleepy fur seals onshore for a bit of a rest. And was subjected to much shrieking and a few fly-bys from 100s of angry seagulls, who also had a breeding colony out there and were nesting at the time, and that didn’t really add to my already low opinion of them.



Also went up on a flightseeing trip to spot some whales from the air, because you are pretty much limited to seeing just their back and tail from the boat, so that was really good to get a full view of them and see them in perspective against some of the whale-watching boats. We see another 10 whales or so, a few of them swimming together in formation, but the view of the coast alone would have been worth the cost, it’s a really spectacular place with snow-capped mountains running almost to the sea.



There was a really great bunch of people at the hostel too, it was a small little house (with a fantastic view) and because there weren’t many of us there and we all got on so well it seemed like we‘d known each other for ages. We had a great roast dinner one night, which never seemed to go completely to plan but was the most fun I’ve had in ages. There was plenty of wine, 2 courses of roast chicken (with just a hint of melted plastic but we’re sure we got rid of most of it), plenty of dessert, good music, probably some pretty terrible singing and what I thought was at least reasonable table drumming to accompany PC’s (my French room-mate) guitar playing. The next day we were all a bit subdued, and while Amy and Yannik had to leave us to head to Fiji, the lucky buggers, we managed to entertain ourselves with vacuuming (which is apparently just about the most fun you can have, or so Gemma told us anyway and she seemed to be enjoying herself, bless her), we watched a few videos, and then found PC had cooked us all dinner so we had another great night. In all I was only there for a few days but felt so at home was just as sad to leave there as I was Wanaka, where I’d been for weeks. But we’ll all be catching up again at Gemma’s wedding, which we’ve been invited to or will quite probably come to us if we can’t make it to Scotland, which is very convenient.

Sine then I’ve caught the ferry across from the South Island to Wellington, which is quite a nice city really, but is far too windy, and I can’t say I’m crazy about the earthquakes either, even though there’s only been one so far I could even feel (it was barely anything, just like being near a big truck driving or train driving past, but still pretty freaky). Heading up to Napier tomorrow, which ironically is most famous for being devastated by an earthquake years ago and got a bunch of nice new buildings because of it. It should be nice just as long as they’ve got all that out of their system now and don’t feel the need for any more urban renewal while I’m there.

I'm beck. Beck in Christchurch

Yep, finished my loop of the central south island and back in Christchurch now. You can really tell it's spring here, all the trees and flowers are starting to bloom, and Christchurch is really the kind of city which is best viewed in the springtime so I'll be glad to get back here again later when it's in full swing.

Left Dunedin on Wednesday and to be honest was pretty glad to get out of there. I quite liked it the first time I visited but this time around it just seemed grey and dreary and I couldn't wait to get back out into the countryside. And I've seen some of New Zealand's best since then - we drove up the coast (stopping by the Moeraki Boulders which are pretty cool, if you like round rocks. And I do), then turned inland through the Otago countryisde, which I love, and finally back to the Southern Alps, which I'd missed terribly in the few days I'd been away from them. Got my first look at Aoraki (also known as Mt Cook but i refuse to use such a dull name when I can refer to him as the Cloud-Piercer. that rocks) across Lake Pukaki, which along with Lake Tekapo are incredibly beautiful lakes, managing to combine mirror-like reflections with incredibly blue water.



Really enjoyed my stay in Lake Tekapo too, it was just one day but seemed much longer I enjoyed it that much. I've actually visited everywhere I've been on this trip at least once before, but only briefly, so it's been really interesting how my impressions of these places have changed after spending some time there. I only stopped at Tekapo for lunch on a bus trip before and thought it was kind of pretty but not really impressed, but after getting to explore the countryside around it I really enjoyed it. I've got a better appreciation for the landscape too - Mt John, which I'd barely even registered as a hill beside the lake, seemed much taller and impressive this time (Probably because this time I knew I was going to walk to the top, and have a better idea of the effort that involves. Which wasn't that bad at all actually, luckily Tekapo is already at 700m so it doesn't take long to get to the 1000m summit. Bargain ). The view from up there was fantastic, spent ages just sitting around on the summit enjoying the view, and then went back up again that night for the stargazing tours at the observatory there. It wasa full moon, which was a bit of a mixed blessing because the 360 degree view of the surrounding plains, lake and mountains was just unreal bathed in the moonlight. I could have stayed up there all night, but thought I should go down to recover some feeling in my hands and feet becuase it was cold up there and i'd lost my gloves. But unfortunately the moon did blocked out a lot of the stars, as they're supposed to be amazing on a clear night, so I'll have to consult the almanac to plan another visit when it's a new moon.



So that brings me back to Christchurch, after another great drive through the farmland of the Mackenzie Country, where I was almost reduced to tears of culinary joy on discovering first a carvery where I could get a roast pork sandwich for lunch (they're surprisingly hard to find over here, and we'd been passing sheep and cows all day and I was hungry. Notice I chose pork though - I'm not a complete monster. We didn't see any pigs at all.) and then, finally, donuts. Hot donuts. Which are virtually non-existent over here and which is why Mario and I plan to open a donut franchise over here. It's just the perfect climate for hot donuts, and yet they're nowhere to be found. i can't understand it. But anyway, it leaves a definite market opening for us, and don't worry Mario, they were only mini-donuts so if we move fast we can get set up before they discover the technology to make full-sized ones. So I took my donuts and went and sat in the gardens where all the daffodils are in bloom, and all was well with the world.



Man, that's a long post. I"m still on a bit of a sugar-high from the donuts I think. Anyway, here until Sunday, and then to Kaikoura to go whale watching. Hurrah.

Down to Dunedin

Spring has arrived and it’s time for me to get moving again. I’ve left Queenstown behind after 3 weeks and will be on the go a bit more now for the next month or two. I used to really love Queenstown but I have mixed feelings about it now. In some ways I prefer Wanaka because it’s quieter and it’s much easier to get right out of town, and I met a lot of really cool people there. Queenstown on the other hand is a lot busier but that does mean there’s more to do, and it’s set right amongst the hills so it’s nice to be able to get up amongst the mountains really quickly. There’s a lot of development going on though and while I can’t really begrudge people wanting to live in a place like that I do think it’s definitely eating away at the charm of the place.

I didn’t do quite as much as I had intended but I still had a good time in my last week there. I finally made it up Queenstown Hill, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages, and spent a really good day out at Arrowtown, a nice little former gold-mining town. Checked out a few of the walking tracks out there, a lot of them take all day though so will have to spend a few days there sometime to explore more thoroughly.



Arriving in Dunedin was a bit strange. To start with I was pretty tired, Queenstown being the party town that it is I of course had about 4 hours sleep before the bus trip down here, having been up until about 2:30 the night before. Playing Monopoly. Because that’s the kind of wild and crazy guy that I am. It was good fun though, I was playing with 2 Germans and an Israeli guy and we were all heading our separate ways so kept deciding to have just one more game. I’ve never been particularly good at Monopoly, mainly because rather than using any kind of sensible strategy I tend buy places whose names I like and refuse to buy railroads or utilities because they don’t have a colour. I usually end up wandering the board paying other people rent, either by choice or just bad luck. I did finally get to own some hotels once though. See - I even have proof.



Okay so they’re on the cheap streets (or Slumville as we called it) but I did get some on the yellows later on.

Anyway, so I was tired when I got to Dunedin and it was really strange being back in the city after the last few months in small mountain towns. I felt like a bit of a hobo actually in my still-muddy boots and outdoorsy clothes, and while I’m a bit more used to it now I’m still glad I’m only here for a short while. Worst of all there’s no mountains anywhere (lots of hills but they don’t count) and the more time I spend around them the more I’ve realised how much at home I feel there. But I’ll be back to them soon enough – heading up to Lake Tekapo for 2 nights soon and then on to Christchurch and Kaikoura to watch me some whales. Here's a picture form the train trip I did from Dunedin through the Taieri Gorge to leave you with.

Funyakking

Got 2 weeks to cover this time, between recovering from my cold and some fairly ordinary weather haven't been out and about quite as much while I'm in Queenstown so didn't have much to say last week. I've had a fairly quiet time here compared to what most people usually get up to here, I've been exploring some of the trails, wandering along the lakeshore and up to the gondola. There's been a few real stand-out moments, firstly we got a snowfall down in town the other day, probably the last one we can expect for the season so I was glad to see that. I did get caught a bit off-guard by it though, was up in town at the time and didn't have my longjohns or any proper waterproof clothes on. Seeing as it started with a little bit of hail and it's a fair walk back to my hostel I had to wait in town for it to finish, although I spent it in Starbucks with a hot chocolate, reading a book so I somehow managed to endure that. As soon it was over though it was back to the hostel for my longjohns and then back out to enjoy the snow.



The next day was a weird one, pretty much the whole day there were occasional snowfalls, but never enough to stay around for long, and also something which may have been hail but which I thought of more as granular rain as it wasn't big enough to hurt (although it did sting if the wind got behind it). It might have been sleet, I've never been exactly sure what that involves. Apparently this was only about the second snowfall in town in months so I was pretty lucky to catch it.

My luck with the weather got even better after that, as the next day I went on a trip around the lake to the Dart River. It was an incredible day, perfect weather, lots of snow on the mountains - we went on a one hour jetboat trip up the river from Glenorchy, then they dropped us off and we travelled back in these inflatable canoes they call Funyaks (I'm guessing because they're more fun than regular canoes). Being on my own I got to go with one of the guides, which made my day really easy as he could steer with just the current most of the time and I hardly ever had to paddle. So being essentially ballast, I could just sit there and take in the view, taking the occasional picture, and watch everyone else spin and narrowly avoid rocks and so on. On the down side, I didn't actually learn much about how to steer a canoe myself which is a shame as I'd love to do it again sometime. In fact looking at the pictures that night I was ready to go back out there again the next day.



Mind you I did get to man one on my own when I gave one of the guides a hand at lunch to move some of them downstream, but because I hadn't had a chance to actually try it beforehand it wasn't exactly a stunning display on my part. Nothing disastrous, I just ran aground once (well, only slightly, it was really shallow and I could push off again) and didn't go very straight exactly but I laneded it safely in the end. And by landed I mean, got the canoe close enough to the guide for him to grab it and drag it ashore (look, there were more rocks and they spun the canoe just as I was coming in, he was just saving me an extra walk to the lunch spot, I'm perfectly confident I would have landed at some point before I reached the actual ocean).



So there you go, no nudity this time, about the best I can do is a picture of me in my wetsuit, which didn't fit well enough to be even slightly revealing but it will have to do.

Moving Right Along

Time to get moving again after 3 weeks in Wanaka. It was an interesting week, with some really great moments, like our little expedition to Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain, a visit to the neat little cinema there (you get to sit on proper couches and at intermission they serve these fantastic fresh cookies which everyone races to get. Go for the double chocolate. You will not regret it), as well as a few of the usual walks and some really good dinners with the friends I’ve made here.

However this week has also seen me pick up my second dose of one of the various bugs floating around town, and then have a massive allergic reaction to the free backpackers’ dinner I went to at the local church, which proves there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or dinner for that matter. It made my last night here a bit of a mixed occasion – on the one hand I did get to enjoy one last drink with my fellow travellers, toasting among other things unexpected cows and decapitated sheep (don’t worry, it was a wood sheep, just in case you were wondering exactly what kind of church it was we went to) and all had a good laugh at a strange man with very misguided enthusiasm for dancing and also showing a sizeable amount of underpant. But I later broke out in hives over pretty much my entire body and spent a the rest of the night feeling itchy, nauseous and wondering if I was having some kind of plague visited on me because I didn’t take the free bible earlier that night. If a whole bunch of frogs and locusts start turning up, I’ll know something’s definitely up.

Anyway, thought I should share that unpleasantness with you just to point out this travelling business isn’t all snowflakes and sunsets. Although there is a fair bit of that too. Like this one.



And this one.



And very occasionally, even some full-frontal nudity.



So as you might have guessed from the bungie jumping (that was a guy off the Magic Bus who got it free for going naked. And I know it wasn’t really full frontal, I’m trying to maintain a PG rating here) I’m now actually in Queenstown. Had meant to post this in Wanaka but couldn’t, so seeing as I’ve had to change everything I’d written to the past tense I might as well bring things completely up to date. It was quite surprising how quickly Wanaka had come to feel like home, and I’d met a lot of really cool people from all over the world, so it was a bit sad to be leaving it behind. But it was good to be seeing new sights as well once I hit the road again, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with nearly all of the people I’ve met somewhere in my future travels. Queenstown never fails to catch me by surprise each time I come back here, my memories never really do it justice. Sure, it’s busier than Wanaka but it’s the traffic more than the people which is annoying, and it’s always balanced out by the incredible setting, so I’m definitely looking forward to my next few weeks here.

Another Week in Wanaka

Things have been a bit quieter here this week – no mountain climbing stories of high adventure to report this time but it’s still been great. I’ve got a pretty good routine here, sleep in a bit after all the skiers and snowboarders clomp out in the mornings, have most of the days to myself so I do a bit of work in the mornings, then go for an afternoon walk around the lake or up Mt Iron, before heading back to the hostel to catch up with everyone once they return from the slopes. Yesterday we had absolutely perfect weather again so as I headed down to the Millennium Track, one of my favourite spots, I kept grinning to myself just thinking how lucky I was to be in a place like this. Mind you, I've caught myself doing some other pretty strange things too so it could be that too much time in my own company isn’t entirely healthy.

For instance, I’ve occasionally started singing aloud to my iPod when I’m walking alone, although I’ve justified this as legitimate practice for Canada next year when I’ll have to make sure I announce my presence to any bears in the vicinity. I got a bit of other practice yesterday when I came across some cows on the track unexpectedly, and cows are startling enough when you aren’t expecting them so I imagine bears are even more so. Of course you don’t really expect cows to be particularly savage, but they did significantly outnumber me, it was getting quite late, I don’t know much about cows’ nocturnal behaviour and while I know all about what to do in a bear attack I’ve never really studied up on what to in case of cows so wasn’t sure if I should play dead or not (which again could have been good practice), but decided in the end to just walk past, although we were both watching each other pretty intently as we passed by. On top of this I was already feeling a bit self-conscious around animals as there had been some rabbits (can’t remember the proper collective noun, a herd) watching me try to take pictures of myself with my own camera.

Anyway, this hardly painting a very impressive picture of me – the mountain climbing story was much better – so I think I’ll change the subject with some more pretty scenery.



And here's some of the people I've been staying with.

A Week in Wanaka

Loving it here in Wanaka at the moment. It’s been really good staying put in the one spot for a bit you get a chance to get to know people a bit better, and I’ve been able to find some walking partners which makes a nice change. Been exploring the tracks around the lakes pretty thoroughly, wandering up and down both shores, along the lake Outlet Track by the Clutha River (a really pretty walk, the water was an amazing shade of clear green and there was a tiny bit of mist and frost around), I've been up Mt Iron a few times (which now seems more like a slight hill than a real mountain) and I try and make it down to the lake every afternoon for sunset because it almost never disappoints.



The highlight of the week, and definitely for the trip so far, was yesterday when I tackled the track to Roy’s Peak with Ian, another Aussie and some German guy we met along the way who's name I never thought to ask. It was one of the most exhausting but exhilarating things I’ve ever done – the top’s about 1550m high, and once you get to the top you can be sligging throgh knee-deep snow so it was a hell of a challenge. I did actually stop just short of the peak because after 3 hours walking without lunch I just couldn’t tackle the last few metres of really icy snow along the final ridge without some food, and by the time I'd eaten we had to start back down. I figured it was better than the alternatives, ie walking until I threw up, and t’s not like it was an actual mountain summit anyway, it just happened to be one of several high points along the ridge with some kind of marker on it to make it official, and I've always thought that's a little bit arbitrary. So I decided to declare the spot where I sat to have lunch Wayne’s Peak, and it was pretty special to have this spot all to myself to sit up there in complete silence, looking down on the other peaks below and know you’d made it there totally on your own steam. I know it’s the kind of view all the people at the ski fields get every day, but it’s not really much of an accomplishment if you drive and then take a lift up there. I mean, anybody can fall down a mountain, it’s getting up there that takes all the effort. Getting back down ain’t no picnic either come to think of it, although the snow does help as you can just point your leg in a general downwards direction and wait until you stop sinking.



It really was fantastic, although it's not something I'll make a habit of as there aren't too many places where it's safe to be tramping above the snowline like that, we're just lucky a fair bit of snow had melted in the last week and there was a pretty well-worn path to the top so we know we're not the only ones stupid enough to attempt it.

I was so excited I had really wanted to hop straight on the net when we got back and send some pics through, but the internet café I usually go to is up two flights of stairs and there was a good chance I would have collapsed, weeping, about halfway up if I attempted any stairs last night. It took us about 8 hours all up as the mountain itself is a 6km walk from town, and just about every part of me was sore by the time we got back. Even my mouth was aching when I was chewing my dinner last night, and I really can’t figure that one out. Even though I wasn’t sure if I’d ever walk anywhere ever again I’ve bounced back quite well today, although I’m still a bit creaky and it could be some time before I can face the prospect of cleaning my boots cause they are not pretty right now.



I’ll be staying here for at least another week though so I’m sure by then I’ll be able to move under my own power again.

From West Coast to Wanaka

As the title suggests I’ve made it to Wanaka, where I’ll be based for the next week or two. It’s a nice place, not as flashy or busy as Queenstown. The lake is really pretty and is always changing with the weather and the light. Haast was a bit of a washout, the weather was pretty rainy and gloomy most of the time I was there. Still went on a jet boat trip up the river one relatively clear afternoon which was good – got to take things in a bit better than you can from the road and jet boats are always fun. Battled my way up the road through some insane winds on the morning I left to visit the information centre, just so I could say I went somewhere. Turns out I was lucky to have stopped there though as the bad weather was due to fresh snowfalls in the mountains, which cleared in time for a spectacular trip across the Haast Pass, which has got to be one of the best drives in NZ if you have the weather for it.



Will be doing lots of the walks around the area while I’m here, maybe head out to an island on the lake one day and might head out to some of the surrounding valleys for some serious tramping if the weather holds up. We had a really light snowfall down in town here this morning, which is awfully considerate given as I was just saying last night that I’d really like it to snow down here while I’m staying. So today I’m just casually dropping hints about how it would be lovely to have some showers of money tomorrow. That’d be nice. Yep. Showers of money. Any denomination, I’m not fussy. Or failing that, a bit more snow would also be good.

It’s cold here – I think it’s somehow involved with the snow – and I’ve been making a few discoveries about travelling in winter which I’m sure will serve me well in my future travels. For instance, you can’t operate an iPod scrollwheel with gloves on. Not enough friction. So if it’s too loud, deal with it or turn it off. I still keep trying though in the vain hope I'll discover some trick to it. also, if you’re outside and you want to clear dust off your glasses, do NOT blow on them, as you will have to wait several minutes or, in extreme cases, until spring, before the resulting fog evaporates.

I'll be sure to share any further pearls of wisdom with you as I discover them.

Okay so he's really not that bad

Yep, I've had a bit of a change of heart after spending a few days in the company of Franz Josef, and I think we've reached an understanding. As long as we both stay on the aprropriate side of the safety ropes then neither of us will get hurt. I know I said some harsh things, but look at him, how can you stay mad at a terminal face like that?



My apologies for that shocking geography pun but I thought of it ages ago and couldn't resist. The weather since Friday has been absolutely perfect - so I've sent most of my days wander around glacier valleys and lakes, it's just been brilliant. I mean, everything up till then was nice, but dys like these are the reason I came here.

I've already moved on to Fox glacier, which is just as nice, and the valley's even more dramatic than Franz Josef. Also been for a wander out to Lake Matheson this morning, which is an incredibly pretty place. Probably due to my new understanding with Franz Josef my knee's now fine again, which is just as well because I've been covering around 10-15km each day lately. Although I was foolish enough to only wear my light boots out to Fox glacier and I'm still paying for that one. Never, ever again.

Moving down the coast again to Haast, which is pretty much smack bang in the middle of nowhere. There for two days (going on a jetboat trip up the river hopefully, then on to Wanaka for a while.

So, we meet again old foe

That's right, I've returned to Franz Josef, home of my arch-enemy, the glacier. But first, better bring you up to speed with how I got here - caught the Tranzalpine across from Christchurch last Monday. It was a great trip - my experience was probably a bit different to most people as I spent the majority of the trip in the open-air observation car. So while everyone else enjoyed a sedate, leisurely trip, mine was a noisy, windy, cold, smoky test of endurance. Luckily after a while you become sufficiently numb that the cold doesn't bother you too much anymore, so you just grimly hang on and watch the scenery rush by. It's all very nice inside but the windows are too shiny to take decent photos (mind you they don't turn out too great if your hands are shaking every time you take them out of your pockets), and you kind of miss out on a lot of the atmosphere (which is probably the point. Because IT'S COLD). I did venture back inside for a bit (well, they make you while they go through the longest tunnel anyway) and I was at least sensible enough to wait until my circulation had resumed before going back outside (you can tell because your head stops tingling).

Anyway, spent the next few days in Greymouth, which was basically cold and wet. Fortunately, it doesn't so much rain there as constantly drip, so as long as you're all Gore-Tex'd up, you usually donÕt even notice it. Was enough to deter me from much sightseeing though so apart from a bit of aimless wandering I hung around the hostel and caught up on some work.

Started on the Magic bus tour Thursday, travelling down the west coast through Hokitika where I had a quick wander down to the beach. I love the beaches here on the west coast. I just think it's great that you can walk along these wild, driftwood-strewn stretches of sand with the surf pounding on one side, while on your other side you have the snow-capped Alps. I tell that to just about everyone I meet but I still love it.



Afterwards we continued on down to Franz Josef, who, as I mentioned, I have some unpleasant history with. It's ironic but as soon as I arrived on the west coast my knee (the one which I hit on the glacier last time I was here, and which had hardly bothered me in a year) started aching again. I think it knew it was drawing near to the site of it's maiming. I'm not doing another glacier walk this time (oh no, not falling into that trap again) but I'll probably wander some of the trails around here, walk down the valley to the terminal face and throw rocks at it or something. As long as it doesn't look like it's advancing too quickly that is.

Another glacier's next on the list (still got one good knee left after all), so it'll be down to Fox on Sunday, then on to Haast. Must go now, it's snowing in the hills above the village so it's a wee bit chilly - been sitting still too long and can't feel my hands again.

Here in NZ

Yep, I’m finally underway, here in Christchurch at the moment. Beautiful weather so far, it’s colder than Brisbane (usually around 10 degrees, but it’s quite pleasant really. I tend to overdress actually and keep shedding layers. Haven’t been up to much yet – got in about 2 yesterday afternoon, by the time I got to the city and checked in it was almost dark here so I had a combined lunch/dinner (which would be what – linner? Dinch? Or I suppose here it would be lunner or dunch). Was pretty exhausted after lots of late nights so ended up crashing pretty early. Saw the art gallery and wandered in circles looking for some of the last minute things I didn’t remember or think to buy before I left.

Had a fantastic view of the mountains on the flight over so really looking forward to the train trip across the Alps on Monday.



Hostel’s in a good spot – my room directly overlooks the cathedral. Bit noisy outside tonight – the rugby’s on and apparently Kiwis are pretty keen on rugby, although you’d never guess. I’m making sure I wear my black jacket when I go out so they’ll think I’m on their side - there’s plenty of Aussies around in the Wallabies colours but they seem to move in packs for protection.

That's all the news for now, will write again once I get to Greymouth.

The Plan

It's decided - I'm finally heading off for a serious look at the world.

It all begins the sometime around the end of June (no set dates yet), when I'm off to New Zealand for about 5 months. I"m planning on spending winter in the mountains around Queenstown or Wanaka, tour upwards to the north island in September (earlier if I need to escape the cold) and loop back down south by October/November to do some hiking in the spring and back to Aus by early December.

Next year I'm wanting to head off to Canada on a working visa, living and working in the Rockies for a year. After my visa's up I can stay on as a tourist for a bit so will probably be away for at least one and a half to two years. While I'm there I'll most likely head up to the Yukon and even Nunavut, over to Alaska, and at some stage would like to check out more of the US like Yosemite and some of the southwest desert parks.

Not sure when I'll leave for Canada yet - want to get over there for the northern hemisphere spring so I get two summers rather than two winters. I'm also considering stopping over in South America on the way for a few months - head down south to Patagonia (maybe do a cruise to Antarctica while I'm there), see all the major sights like Iguazu Falls, Lake Titicaca, the Amazon rainforest and walk the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

So that just leaves Asia and Africa as the only continents unaccounted for. Africa I'm saving up for last so I can do it justice, and I'll need to be in pretty good shape if I'm ever going to try and tackle Kilimanjaro. Asia I'll get to one day - got to get to the Himalayas at some stage, and India seems pretty interesting too.

So it looks like I'll be on the road pretty much as long as I can afford to be for the next few years. Will be getting a laptop so I can keep working from NZ, and to store the thousands of photos I'm likely to generate, so keep an eye out here and at my flickr site for the stories of my travels once I get going, and let me know if you're ever due to be passing through my part of the world, wherever that is at the time.