Back up the East Coast....
Time to say goodbye to queenstown...
its been an amazing season living at Deco's...."the best backpackers in Queenstown"....and it is sad to say goodbye...we had a good crew of long-termers that have been slowly trickling away over the past month or so...
mini deco was formed when a bunch of us that were left migrated down the hill to the loft apartments...meaning everyone just piled in there rather than the hostel common areas...Dinner club had by this time evolved into a sunday night dinner tradition with east (the japanese crew) and west (the brits) taking it in turns to cook for everyone...
typically we got an absolute dumping for the whole last week the ski fields were open...meaning of course that for the most part they werent open...i even took a day off to try and catch a break in the weather which unsurprisingly was a day later than i needed...however i managed to get a fantastic last day in on the final sunday up at the remarks...the snow was a little slow and the grooming was less than ideal (ie not at all) so after a run and a hike i decided to switch to skis for the day...turns out i am a better skiier than i thought and my first run of the day (my second of the season and probably my 8th ever on skiis)i was coerced to take on a drop off a wind lip...which i stomped and then superman-ed shortly afterwards...also managed to get a rather surprisingly noticable goggle tan going for only one day....
Monday morning i packed up the car and took off...heading first down to invercargill (is that it!?) and then Bluff...after asking the locals having lunch outside the suminovich works where to go....i tucked into the recommended Blue Cod dinner...
From here i headed round the coast via a bit of a gravel road detour...to dunedin...
Tuesday was a trip straight up the coast to chch...stopping off of course to see the Moeraki boulders....a few attempts at getting the self-timer timing right resulted in this rather nice piccy, don't you think?
I detoured past Methven in the hopes of staying the night and catching a days skiing at Mt Hutt...however on reviewing the forecast and spending a quarter hour agonising over what to do.... i eventually thought better of punishing myself another day in crap weather at a resort i was unfamiliar with and just kept driving...
I felt truly provincial rolling into Christchurch (after stopping at the cookietime factory of course..mmmmmMMM)i can definitively say that my arse was handed to me by the one way system...which wasnt helped at all by the rush hour traffic!...finding a hostel was interesting to say the least, given that i was totally lost, having issues working out the one way thing and the first two hostels i tried were 1) full and then 2) a crack house trying to make you pay for a room!....so when i finally came across Chester street i was soo very happy...
wandering the streets of the inner city in search of food actually proved almost as hard as driving...but i wandered into the most popular looking place and just went from there...
Wednesday dawned the crap day that was promised so after a wander around a very unexciting drizzly Christchurch i took a drive out to Lyttleton...
On the way back, when i stopped in at the Christchurch gondola (what a let down that is) as an after thought, i was sucked into the unsignposted nightmare that is Heathcote... unable for the life of me to find the way out!...after driving round in circles for a while and getting more confused... i executed an illegal right-hand turn and was on my way...im still perplexed as to how the hell i was supposed to figure out where to go....
After battling a now slightly more familiar inner city i found my way out the other side for a rather uneventful drive through to Hanmer Springs...long straight, boring, inviting-you-to-speed-on roads...however i was looking forward to soaking in the springs too much to let this bother me...and thats exactly what i did: drove into town, checked into hostel and headed straight for the springs for 5 hours of uninterrupted soaking....bliss!
I woke up Thursday morning strangely energised and after a leisurely breakfast headed further north...
the intention was to try and pay far too much money in the attempt to catch a glimpse of some whales, but again crap weather meant none of the tours were running...and given there is little else to do in Kaikoura, i didnt hang around....a stop off instead at the seal colony and a quick wander up to see a waterfall were my only attractions for the day...
as i pulled into an equally unexciting Blenheim at a mere 3pm i decided to just go ahead and book onto the 6 o'clock ferry crossing....after wasting a few hours in Picton and a pretty calm ferry crossing i pulled into wellington harbour a few days earlier than planned but happy to be "home" none the less...
its been an amazing season living at Deco's...."the best backpackers in Queenstown"....and it is sad to say goodbye...we had a good crew of long-termers that have been slowly trickling away over the past month or so...
mini deco was formed when a bunch of us that were left migrated down the hill to the loft apartments...meaning everyone just piled in there rather than the hostel common areas...Dinner club had by this time evolved into a sunday night dinner tradition with east (the japanese crew) and west (the brits) taking it in turns to cook for everyone...
typically we got an absolute dumping for the whole last week the ski fields were open...meaning of course that for the most part they werent open...i even took a day off to try and catch a break in the weather which unsurprisingly was a day later than i needed...however i managed to get a fantastic last day in on the final sunday up at the remarks...the snow was a little slow and the grooming was less than ideal (ie not at all) so after a run and a hike i decided to switch to skis for the day...turns out i am a better skiier than i thought and my first run of the day (my second of the season and probably my 8th ever on skiis)i was coerced to take on a drop off a wind lip...which i stomped and then superman-ed shortly afterwards...also managed to get a rather surprisingly noticable goggle tan going for only one day....
Monday morning i packed up the car and took off...heading first down to invercargill (is that it!?) and then Bluff...after asking the locals having lunch outside the suminovich works where to go....i tucked into the recommended Blue Cod dinner...
From here i headed round the coast via a bit of a gravel road detour...to dunedin...
Tuesday was a trip straight up the coast to chch...stopping off of course to see the Moeraki boulders....a few attempts at getting the self-timer timing right resulted in this rather nice piccy, don't you think?
I detoured past Methven in the hopes of staying the night and catching a days skiing at Mt Hutt...however on reviewing the forecast and spending a quarter hour agonising over what to do.... i eventually thought better of punishing myself another day in crap weather at a resort i was unfamiliar with and just kept driving...
I felt truly provincial rolling into Christchurch (after stopping at the cookietime factory of course..mmmmmMMM)i can definitively say that my arse was handed to me by the one way system...which wasnt helped at all by the rush hour traffic!...finding a hostel was interesting to say the least, given that i was totally lost, having issues working out the one way thing and the first two hostels i tried were 1) full and then 2) a crack house trying to make you pay for a room!....so when i finally came across Chester street i was soo very happy...
wandering the streets of the inner city in search of food actually proved almost as hard as driving...but i wandered into the most popular looking place and just went from there...
Wednesday dawned the crap day that was promised so after a wander around a very unexciting drizzly Christchurch i took a drive out to Lyttleton...
On the way back, when i stopped in at the Christchurch gondola (what a let down that is) as an after thought, i was sucked into the unsignposted nightmare that is Heathcote... unable for the life of me to find the way out!...after driving round in circles for a while and getting more confused... i executed an illegal right-hand turn and was on my way...im still perplexed as to how the hell i was supposed to figure out where to go....
After battling a now slightly more familiar inner city i found my way out the other side for a rather uneventful drive through to Hanmer Springs...long straight, boring, inviting-you-to-speed-on roads...however i was looking forward to soaking in the springs too much to let this bother me...and thats exactly what i did: drove into town, checked into hostel and headed straight for the springs for 5 hours of uninterrupted soaking....bliss!
I woke up Thursday morning strangely energised and after a leisurely breakfast headed further north...
the intention was to try and pay far too much money in the attempt to catch a glimpse of some whales, but again crap weather meant none of the tours were running...and given there is little else to do in Kaikoura, i didnt hang around....a stop off instead at the seal colony and a quick wander up to see a waterfall were my only attractions for the day...
as i pulled into an equally unexciting Blenheim at a mere 3pm i decided to just go ahead and book onto the 6 o'clock ferry crossing....after wasting a few hours in Picton and a pretty calm ferry crossing i pulled into wellington harbour a few days earlier than planned but happy to be "home" none the less...
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