Yay! I survived the perilous paths of my dad the ex-taxi-driver driving across NZ. We started in Auckland and made our way down to Te Anau, finishing off in Queenstown where we got to go sking!! Woohoo!
Only for a day though. We'd hired the stuff for 2 days but when we got to the peaks on the first day it was massively windy and only one lift was open. And that lift lead to very windy peaks with only intermediate and expert paths, and my mum doesn't do them. Ben couldn't have done them either as he hasn't skied for5 years (he's been boarding instead).
Hey hey. We oughta go sking as a group sometime! That would be funky and would allow Trees and other non-snowed on people to see snow. Only, who's up for driving? I'd like to go to NZ again, as well, just to go extreme sporting... mmm... extreme sports... And of course our driving around Australia trip should be on the books somewhere... hurry up and get your licenses people!
MMM!! Travel!! YAY!
YAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaYYYYYYYYYY!
TRAaaaveeelllLLL!!!
(just had to let it out!)
I reckon we should plan for a BIG holiday again. Bigger than Terrigal. Bigger than Forster. Bigger than my attendance with most of you guys for one day in HK. Perhaps not bigger than the UK trip, but you know, something BIG.
Who's in? Who would like to be in? Shall we set a time, like say... end of 2007? (then's best for me) Where should we go? What should we do? How should we go? Ideas dudettes!
Edit:
Heh, went to look at my post and realised that I didn't have much about my trip... Oops, got a little distracted by the idea of travelling. Anyway, here's a quick run through of our trip...
Hmm. Ok, so when have I ever been brief anyway?
Days 1-5 (2nd-6th July)
The view from the plane was of immensely sheer cliffs. No beaches! Just cliffs. The plane followed an inlet to a bay, things started looking familar to the views of take off: a city on the water, although no highrises, or at least very few.
Now over land my brother and I strained to see sheep dotting the pastures. Too high. Lower...
___Lower....
Nearing the airport there was no civilisation, well, no civilians living unless you count the cows and horses. Great idea for town planning - avoids the hassles of typical airport noise problems.
The city itself gave me the impression akin to that of Brisbane - the exception being it's not based amongst water, just on it. Broad quiet streets. Low level sprawling houses. Driving around the city and across their harbour bridge (a take off, I tell you! - I have pics of this gross imitation for the keen) and east along the coastline was plenty interesting. Somehow, in the mess, we managed to find a Malay resturant (mmm YUM!). "fish and chips" (say it kiwi style!) was also on the menu of our stay.
What? I'm recounting a sightseeing holiday and I talk about the food we ate? I mean, com'n guys you can hardly expect me to NOT be focused on food eh?
After visiting the family of my dad's cousin in Hamilton we headed across to Rotorua. One word. "eeeeeeewwwwwww". I said that so many times in Rotorua. The stench of sulphur. Steam coming up from random puddles in the park. Bubbling mud pits (which were pretty cool actually...). Boy, i'm glad we didn't spend the night there... More mud pits. More geysers. Volcanic activity is pretty funky i've decided...
South. Past Taupo, Whakapapa (the "WHA" is pronounced "far-"). A detour to the Mt Ruapehu skifields saw us freezing, and looking at a field with not much snow and mostly advanced level runs. Taihape. Palmerston North. Levin. Wellington...
This part of the trip held many Mauri (say it like "moldy" and you're almost there) focused museums, lakes and funky volcanic activity!
Day 6 (7th July)
From north island to south island we headed. A northwest direction from Wellington to Picton! Absolute POSTCARD day. Clear blue skies. Calm calm sea (not a white cap in sight). Apparently this ferry crossing can be one of the roughest in the world. Not for us. Not for us. Plenty of amazingly attractive sights to see. Plenty of attractives seeing the amazing sights.
Days 7-12 (8th-14th July)
Driving along the coast, not a wave to be seen on the ocean. What's with this country? Can't they even have a decent surf?! Grey pebble beaches too. (Not rainbow grey. Just plain grey. ;)) Kaikoura had not ideal conditions for a beachlover, but certainly a million dollar view, or a few million dollars worth of it. The road wound along the coast, which sported rocky crags (rocky crags sounds much better than craggy rocks... or even just 'rocks poking out of the water' :D) hosting colonies of seals. Surrounded by mountainous peaks (again, mountainous peaks, or the peaks of mountains?). Crayfish. mmm... (of course! To top off the perfect spot you need some good food! :P)
Waiau (Why are you here?) a detour, sent us through a series of vineyards before reaching Christchurch. Via Geraldine, the lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki and Mt Cook we reached Omarama. At Mt Cook (the highest of the peaks of the southern alps) we saw glaciers. Blue ice on a distant ridge.
From here we had to pour warm water over our car each morning to clear the ice. More lakes, more motels. Arrowtown (LOTR filming!), Te Anau, a 1.2km rock tunnel under a mountain. A cruise on Milford Sound - a glacier carved fiord - out to the Tasman sea. Queenstown. "Deer Park Heights" - more LOTR filming - fed the animals. For footage of me feeding pigs, ponies, deer, goats, running away from goats, getting mauled by goats see me. Or my 21st birthday if you can wait that long :D.
Too windy for sking so we reached Glenorchy, another small town, another beautiful lake surrounded by snow covered peaks. More possum fur accessories.
Just as an aside, possums were introduced to NZ and are the biggest pest there. Tonnes on the roads. Like cane toads on the Gold Coast perhaps (though I haven't been driven there, so I wouldn't know). Possum fur addition makes usual wool warmer whilst being light and soft. I got possum fur gloves! (Don't stone me!)
Day 13 (15th July)
Estimated time of arrival 5:30 p.m.
Been up before the sun and now I'm tired before I even begin.
(Now you're flying) I got so much work in front of me,
(Really flying) it stretches out far as the eye can see.
I can see.
Spend half my life in airports doing crosswords and attempting to sleep,
And when the bar is open then you'll often find me warming a seat.
(Now you're flying) I never find a place where I can stay
(Really flying) I'd rather be a thousand miles away.
Thousand miles away.
Working for yourself sometimes ain't all that it's cracked up to be.
It can be as lonely at the top as at the bottom of that corporate tree
(Now you're flying) I'm told I'm going places - who can say?
(Really flying) I might arrive but I'll be gone the very next day.
I must be on my way.
A thousand miles away.
Promised to myself someday I'd take the time and try to make sense.
Out of all those opportunities I've lost from trying to sit on the fence
(Now you're flying) But right now I've got no time for yesterday
(Really flying) Yesterday's a thousand miles away.
A thousand miles away.
What was that that you were trying to say?
I guess I was a thousand miles away.
Only for a day though. We'd hired the stuff for 2 days but when we got to the peaks on the first day it was massively windy and only one lift was open. And that lift lead to very windy peaks with only intermediate and expert paths, and my mum doesn't do them. Ben couldn't have done them either as he hasn't skied for5 years (he's been boarding instead).
Hey hey. We oughta go sking as a group sometime! That would be funky and would allow Trees and other non-snowed on people to see snow. Only, who's up for driving? I'd like to go to NZ again, as well, just to go extreme sporting... mmm... extreme sports... And of course our driving around Australia trip should be on the books somewhere... hurry up and get your licenses people!
MMM!! Travel!! YAY!
YAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaYYYYYYYYYY!
TRAaaaveeelllLLL!!!
(just had to let it out!)
I reckon we should plan for a BIG holiday again. Bigger than Terrigal. Bigger than Forster. Bigger than my attendance with most of you guys for one day in HK. Perhaps not bigger than the UK trip, but you know, something BIG.
Who's in? Who would like to be in? Shall we set a time, like say... end of 2007? (then's best for me) Where should we go? What should we do? How should we go? Ideas dudettes!
Edit:
Heh, went to look at my post and realised that I didn't have much about my trip... Oops, got a little distracted by the idea of travelling. Anyway, here's a quick run through of our trip...
Hmm. Ok, so when have I ever been brief anyway?
Days 1-5 (2nd-6th July)
The view from the plane was of immensely sheer cliffs. No beaches! Just cliffs. The plane followed an inlet to a bay, things started looking familar to the views of take off: a city on the water, although no highrises, or at least very few.
Now over land my brother and I strained to see sheep dotting the pastures. Too high. Lower...
___Lower....
Nearing the airport there was no civilisation, well, no civilians living unless you count the cows and horses. Great idea for town planning - avoids the hassles of typical airport noise problems.
The city itself gave me the impression akin to that of Brisbane - the exception being it's not based amongst water, just on it. Broad quiet streets. Low level sprawling houses. Driving around the city and across their harbour bridge (a take off, I tell you! - I have pics of this gross imitation for the keen) and east along the coastline was plenty interesting. Somehow, in the mess, we managed to find a Malay resturant (mmm YUM!). "fish and chips" (say it kiwi style!) was also on the menu of our stay.
What? I'm recounting a sightseeing holiday and I talk about the food we ate? I mean, com'n guys you can hardly expect me to NOT be focused on food eh?
After visiting the family of my dad's cousin in Hamilton we headed across to Rotorua. One word. "eeeeeeewwwwwww". I said that so many times in Rotorua. The stench of sulphur. Steam coming up from random puddles in the park. Bubbling mud pits (which were pretty cool actually...). Boy, i'm glad we didn't spend the night there... More mud pits. More geysers. Volcanic activity is pretty funky i've decided...
South. Past Taupo, Whakapapa (the "WHA" is pronounced "far-"). A detour to the Mt Ruapehu skifields saw us freezing, and looking at a field with not much snow and mostly advanced level runs. Taihape. Palmerston North. Levin. Wellington...
This part of the trip held many Mauri (say it like "moldy" and you're almost there) focused museums, lakes and funky volcanic activity!
Day 6 (7th July)
From north island to south island we headed. A northwest direction from Wellington to Picton! Absolute POSTCARD day. Clear blue skies. Calm calm sea (not a white cap in sight). Apparently this ferry crossing can be one of the roughest in the world. Not for us. Not for us. Plenty of amazingly attractive sights to see. Plenty of attractives seeing the amazing sights.
Days 7-12 (8th-14th July)
Driving along the coast, not a wave to be seen on the ocean. What's with this country? Can't they even have a decent surf?! Grey pebble beaches too. (Not rainbow grey. Just plain grey. ;)) Kaikoura had not ideal conditions for a beachlover, but certainly a million dollar view, or a few million dollars worth of it. The road wound along the coast, which sported rocky crags (rocky crags sounds much better than craggy rocks... or even just 'rocks poking out of the water' :D) hosting colonies of seals. Surrounded by mountainous peaks (again, mountainous peaks, or the peaks of mountains?). Crayfish. mmm... (of course! To top off the perfect spot you need some good food! :P)
Waiau (Why are you here?) a detour, sent us through a series of vineyards before reaching Christchurch. Via Geraldine, the lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki and Mt Cook we reached Omarama. At Mt Cook (the highest of the peaks of the southern alps) we saw glaciers. Blue ice on a distant ridge.
From here we had to pour warm water over our car each morning to clear the ice. More lakes, more motels. Arrowtown (LOTR filming!), Te Anau, a 1.2km rock tunnel under a mountain. A cruise on Milford Sound - a glacier carved fiord - out to the Tasman sea. Queenstown. "Deer Park Heights" - more LOTR filming - fed the animals. For footage of me feeding pigs, ponies, deer, goats, running away from goats, getting mauled by goats see me. Or my 21st birthday if you can wait that long :D.
Too windy for sking so we reached Glenorchy, another small town, another beautiful lake surrounded by snow covered peaks. More possum fur accessories.
Just as an aside, possums were introduced to NZ and are the biggest pest there. Tonnes on the roads. Like cane toads on the Gold Coast perhaps (though I haven't been driven there, so I wouldn't know). Possum fur addition makes usual wool warmer whilst being light and soft. I got possum fur gloves! (Don't stone me!)
Day 13 (15th July)
Estimated time of arrival 5:30 p.m.
Been up before the sun and now I'm tired before I even begin.
(Now you're flying) I got so much work in front of me,
(Really flying) it stretches out far as the eye can see.
I can see.
Spend half my life in airports doing crosswords and attempting to sleep,
And when the bar is open then you'll often find me warming a seat.
(Now you're flying) I never find a place where I can stay
(Really flying) I'd rather be a thousand miles away.
Thousand miles away.
Working for yourself sometimes ain't all that it's cracked up to be.
It can be as lonely at the top as at the bottom of that corporate tree
(Now you're flying) I'm told I'm going places - who can say?
(Really flying) I might arrive but I'll be gone the very next day.
I must be on my way.
A thousand miles away.
Promised to myself someday I'd take the time and try to make sense.
Out of all those opportunities I've lost from trying to sit on the fence
(Now you're flying) But right now I've got no time for yesterday
(Really flying) Yesterday's a thousand miles away.
A thousand miles away.
What was that that you were trying to say?
I guess I was a thousand miles away.
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