Thursday, 8 August 2013
Our Last Few Days
We don't have long
now.......the countdown has begun. We have arrived in Christchurch
and are in the process of trying to sell our van. Fingers crossed we
can shift it before we fly out on Sunday. Christchurch is still a
wrecked city, so not much to do unless you are in the building trade.
We plan to just chill out on the camp site, maybe go to the cinema
one day, out for a meal on Saturday?? Just filling in time really,
and savouring all nights in the van, because soon it will be our last
:-(
Police Stop!!
The police stopped us today in an undercover car, and asked for
Stuart's details. When he came back to the van after the check he
took the keys from the ignition and said Stuart was a disqualified
driver for drink driving!! What the hell!!! Total panic set in!!! I
think he realised the shock on our faces, and our desperate plea that
he had the wrong guy, and went back to his car for more checks.
Panicking I tried to think of all paperwork I had and proof I could
use to show that it wasn't Stuart. We are flying back in a few days,
and it might complicate matters if Stuart was in jail! Luckily the
policeman came back after a long heart racing 5 minutes, and
apologised for the confusion. Apparently there is another Stuart John
Banks with the exact same birth date who is disqualified (what are the chances eh?!) Only by
checking up with immigration did he clear up that he had the wrong
Stuart. Luckily for us, this other guy was charged before we entered
the country. OMG! Might take a while for my heart to slow back down!
He said we will more than likely be getting stopped again, as it
flags up on the system if you run our vans plates. At least next time
we will be expecting it, and we might not suffer from heart attacks.
Oh God!!
Moeraki Boulders
Out at Moeraki there are some bizarre boulders that you can reach at
low tide. There are both Maori mystical explanations and scientific
ones to describe why they are there and their origin. But when you
see them you just think.....how weird!
Typical Stuart..........
After indulging ourselves, we went out to see more penguins, this
time it was yellow eyed, and viewed from a DOC hide giving us shelter
from the rain.
A couple of hours before dark, the penguins start to come ashore to
their nests in the bay.
There are so many of them dotted along the shoreline, and even more
in pieces, showing you the heart of them.
A bit bizarre, but beautiful at that early time in the morning.
We had been told about a 'world famous' restaurant out here called
Fleurs Place, so thought why not give it a shot for lunch. When we
turned up we drove right past it at first. It looks like an old boat
shed, not what we were expecting.
But once inside, the food was beautiful. I had scallops in mushroom,
bacon and cream sauce with bread, mmmmmmmmmm. Stuart had blue cod
wings with plum sauce, something I have never seen before, but is
such a smart idea.
A bit of penguin overload the past few days, but you know how much I
love penguins (especially the penguin parade at Edinburgh Zoo!), so
I'm happy.
Oamuru Penguins
Somewhere we went last year, but I had forgot to write about it on my
blog, is Oamuru, and we thought we would go back. They have a
Victorian precinct with old world markets, and is the headquarters of
'Steam Punk' in New Zealand. But what we went for are the little blue
penguins. They have nesting boxes there, and at night the penguins
return from their day of fishing out a sea in small groups. You can
view them coming ashore and making their way up the rocks to the
nesting boxes. They are so so small. You could fit them in your
hands. We weren't allowed to take photos, so I've sourced some from
the internet to give you an idea.
It was pretty dark and cold watching them, but they are just so cute,
we had to see them again.
Queenstown
Back in Queenstown. We loved it first time round, and same the
second. We took a trip up on the Gondola again to see the views, and
we were so lucky with the weather, we could see for miles.
And a Queenstown must is the Fergburger. What a great little place,
the burgers are just as tasty as I remember from the last time round.
Skippers Canyon
One thing that you consistently see as you travel New Zealand, is
adverts for Jet Boating. Since we are on the final leg of the trip,
we thought we would give in, and finally book up for one. We chose to
go out to the Skippers Canyon, a famous Gold Mining site with a nice
narrow, steep gorge. They picked us up in a 4 wheel drive mini-bus,
and to get into the gorge, we went down an old horse track road, hand
built by the gold miners over a hundred years ago......and never been
updated since! It was so narrow, and pretty scary, Stuart told me to
take my seatbelt off so we could jump if necessary! He has a good way
with making you feel calm lol The road is one of only two in New
Zealand that are off-limits to hire vehicles, and not covered by
insurance, but the views were great.
We also came across some newly weds having their wedding photos
taken. She must have been freezing.
When filming Lord of the Rings, they used the Skippers Canyon for the
gates of Mordor (and a few other scenes that he told me about but I
can't remember). They used Queenstown residents as extras in the
movie, our guide had been dressed as an Orc a few times, and some
other crazy characters, which sounded cool.
On arrival in the canyon we finally got in the jet boat. When you see
the depth of the shallow water you think, no way, we can't be going
up in that, but we did. It was so much fun. It's like being in a
roller coaster mixed with a log flume. The driver gets so close to
the sides of the canyon, squeezing through the tiniest spaces,
weaving in and out of rocks, and we even did some 360o spins. Didn't
think it was possible in such a tight space....but it is, accompanied
by some screams!!
I'm glad we finally went jet boating, it is a really good laugh, and
a lot warmer than the alternative.....white water rafting!
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