New Zealand (South Is) - Kaikoura to Queenstown

Our next stop was Blenheim and we had chosen to go here for the wine tasting! We went to four different vineyards in total; Gielsen, Villa Maria, Cloudy Bay and Brancott. This particular region of New Zealand is famous for Sauvignon Blanc and after trying lots of different wines we certainly started to refine our palates...at least we all like to
think we did.

Once we had had our fill of vineyards we moved further south to Kaikoura. The evening that we arrived was insanely windy and after having a little look around the town we went to a 'highly recommended’ little local fish and chip shop. Not recognising any of the fish on the menu we all went for something new...hoping that what we later found out was shark on the menu would have been sustainably caught!! We decided to freedom camp that evening and found a little spot out of town on the coast.

Katy, ready for action!

We were hit by what we found out to be later a ‘southerly’ wind. The night although mostly uneventful was so windy, we were buffeted around in our little van like you wouldn't believe. I think we all had a slightly restless sleep as a result of fearing for our lives in the storm and so were subsequently pretty exhausted when we were awoken by the alarm at 4.30am. We had booked on to the 5.30 am dolphin swimming trip and after a very bleary eyed breakfast we set off on the road listening to a very aptly timed 'Wake up' by Amy Winehouse...a tune that soon became one of our favourites. We had chosen the 5.30 trip because apparently the sea is calmer and the dolphins more inquisitive. We joined the rest of the group and got fully kitted out with 5mm wetsuits, jackets, hoods and fins. After listening to a 'safety video' we all trouped out to the bus and then later onto the boat. We travelled for about an hour before the crew spotted the first pod of dolphins. We all hurried to get ready to get into the water. Pushing our way to the front Mike, Hersh and I were of course the first three to slide in...and my goodness it was freezing! I couldn't breathe normally, let alone through the snorkel and it took me at least 10 minutes before I could actually enjoy the experience. When I adjusted to the temperature of the water however it was unbelievably amazing!!There were about 12 dolphins weaving their way around the swimmers.

We had been told that you have to keep the dolphins entertained if you want them to stick around and there are two main ways of doing this; singing through your snorkel and swimming in circles when they come close to you. To start with I felt like a bit of an idiot making ridiculous sounds through my snorkel but I soon forgot my embarrassment, particularly after hearing Hersha whooping like a puppy through hers! :) The dolphins were completely wild but were obviously used to seeing humans, they whizzed around us playing and when you spun around they chased you round in a circle. Mike kept diving down and the dolphins loved it! They would swim after him, circling around him. We stayed in the water for a whole hour before we realised we were the only 3 of about 30 still in the water...and they were whistling for us to get out. The only down side of spinning round and round with the dolphins was that as soon as we got back onto the boat we all felt incredibly sick. There were about 5 people on the boat already wrapped in blankets and vomiting into the buckets provided. Mike was sick before he even got out of the water and I spent the whole trip back clutching a bucket...it was worth it though the dolphins were incredible!!

When we got back to the camper all completely exhausted, Hersha and I went back to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep and Mike went off to do his second tour...albatross watching! Which was closely followed by his third tour...seal swimming! I'll hand over to him for his thoughts on his numerous tours :)

“Slightly exhausted I decided to take my 2nd out of 3 wildlife watching trips for the day and took a boat albatross watching. For those who may have only heard of the albatross scoring 3 under par in golf (!) it is actually a huge bird with a 3 metre wingspan making it the largest in the world. Out at sea our guide threw a small cage of fish livers off the back of the boat to attract the birds. Obviously used to being fed, within minutes albatrosses were swooping in from all directions. Because they were so large they were unable to land gracefully but instead came skidding in across the water ready to squabble for the tasty fish liver!”

Going for the bait

 “After the albatross watching it was then onto my final animal encounter; swimming with the New Zealand fur seals. By this points I was thoroughly exhausted and not over enthusiastic about diving back into the 14 degree water. As my third boat trip of the day I was also feeling slightly nauseous and my sea legs had been tested to the limit. Donning my snorkel and wetsuit once again we headed out on another tiny dingy looking for seals. The thing about seal swimming is that they are easy to see out of the water as they spend hours sunbathing on the rocks, but not so easy to always spot in the water. The boats stopped near a group of sunbathing seals and then we waited… Luckily after about 15 minutes a few seals decided they were hot enough to hop into the water to cool off. We silently followed and carefully swam close to the seals who seemed to enjoy rolling about in the water cooling off gently.”
“Over the course of traveling I have swam with many different animals and fish but out of all of them the seals made me most nervous! I heard they were not supposed to be aggressive, however when on your own you're not sure how close you should get. With razor sharp teeth you could easily loose a couple of fingers so I was definitely
cautious. They also had a habit of suddenly swimming right up to you at top speed to take a closer look then shooting off again, which was also intimidating! Overall it was really fun, but I was glad when it was over as I was now completely exhausted.”

Kaikoura is famous for it's Crayfish and whitebait and as ever not wanting to miss out we decided to seek out the 'Seafood BBQ' shack that we had been told was the best (cheapest) place in town. To be honest although it was nice it was a little underwhelming so we made another stop off at 'Coopers catch' where we ordered more fish (battered groper), before heading out of town.

Crayfish and rice

We were making our way back over to the west coast and had a day to get there before the next set of scheduled activities began. We drove though the mountains and I have to say the scenery on this particular drive really was spectacular, there were all different colours of heather covering the landscape, only receding to give way to huge beautiful mountain lakes. Slowly the fog started to set in and then just as we arrived at a free DOC campsite it started to pour with rain!

With everyone pretty exhausted from the early start, long drive and the massive overdose of fish and chips we went to bed early with the intention of making an early start. One thing that became more and more apparent throughout the trip was that I am definitely a morning person and Hersha and Mike are definitely not! Hersh in particular struggles with early starts and very little conversation can be had before she's had her morning coffee:) I on the other hand am annoyingly spritely first thing but do start to shut down after about 8 o'clock in the evening. This did in some ways work to our advantage though and the next morning I got up and started driving whilst Mike and Hersha carried on sleeping in the back! We arrived at the Franz Josef Glacier in the early afternoon and did a short walk up to the glacier and back before heading on to the Fox Glacier half an hour down the road. We found a nice caravan park in the very small town and after a quick walk around Lake Matherson settled down for an evening of jacket potatoes and cards. The following day Mike and Hersha left early for a day of ice climbing whilst I stayed in and had an amazing day to my self, cleaning the van, doing all the laundry and chatting on skype! By all accounts they had a brilliant day on the glacier despite returning at 6pm like a couple of drowned rats shivering in the cold. It had rained all day and their clothes were soaked through! Mike had also managed to chip his front tooth with his ice axe earning him the affectionate nickname of 'chippy' for the next few weeks. Mike will tell you about their adventures.

“The original plan was just to hike the glacier, but Hersha had done some ice climbing before in the famous ice wall in Covent Garden and convinced me it was worth the extra money. The problem is that there was a high chance of rain and therefore our trip could be cancelled. The Fox glacier region sees an incredible average rainfall of 11 metres per year so we were not keen on our chances. We set out optimistically to the glacier with cloudy skies but by the time we arrived at the foot of the glacier it had started raining. Luckily although the rain was heavy it wasn't heavy enough to cancel the trip, unluckily though it was forecast for the entire day. The company we went with were great, and we had the full waterproof kit so we weren't too worried. Donning our crampons we set out across the glacier. Soon we stopped at a small wall only 2 metres tall to learn the technique. Different from normal climbing you have to kick the spikes of your crampon into the ice to support your weight. It felt slightly unnatural but not too difficult so before long we were ready to tackle a proper wall. The amazing thing about the glacier is that it moves up to 5 metres a day so the whole landscape continually changes. Our instructor found us a wall which he had never seen before. We roped in and practised having a go at scaling it. I was first up and although it was tough to combine swinging the ice axe and kicking in the crampons, I soon got the hang of it.

Later on in the day we found a hole or ‘moulin’ to climb down into. You squeeze yourself down a tiny hole into the glacier only a metre across and and maybe 10 metres deep. With a torrent of water streaming down your face it was claustrophobic but exhilarating. Once down at the bottom you had to climb your way out making sure you didn't accidentally pierce your ice axe through your own rope.

Another problem later on was that I got my ice axe stuck in the wall, which was a pretty common problem. I gave it a heavy pull and all of a sudden it popped out of the wall and hit me in the mouth. My tooth was a bit sore and I then realised I had chipped it. Luckily it was only superficial and it was nothing a trip to the dentist another day couldn’t fix! In summary overall with the relentless rain and cold plus the physical toughness of it, it was definitely a challenging day!” 

We stayed a second night in that caravan park to allow Mike and Hersh to fully recover and then the next day set off for Queenstown.