New Zealand

Rightso - what can I say about Barrytown.....

Well the reason we stopped off to stay here is because the bus drivers need a rest and so did the rest of us - the timetable means that we spent 2 nights here so effectively the opportunity to have a lie in rather than getting up at 6.30am...and here was me thinking that kind of thing would have stopped when I quit work! With this particular company the general pattern of events dictated that Barrytown equals PARTY town - hence the Baz Vegas label and I have to say it didn't disappoint.....for the next 48 hrs. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves here and there were a few funny sights to be seen - one particularly memorable one was a young Danish man taking the dressing up challenge (designing an outfit purely from plastic bags) very seriously and appeared a couple of hours later as Bananaman!

So apart from the new self-imposed rule of what happens in Barrytown stays in Barrytown I will tell you about my knife-making experience.
Turned out that apart from the usual 15 or so that normally sign up for this there were only 3 of us, me, Donovan (Belfast boy) and Leo (English boy) - which was good for us but no so good for Steve (the owner of the outfit) who was expecting rather more ($$$$ of course) - which may have explained the bad mood for most of the morning which eventually lifted after some serious leg pulling from yours truly along the lines of you grumpy old git!

You may be wondering how the hell do you go about making a knife, well let me tell you.....you get to forge your own blade from red hot steel, and complete your knife with native timber handle, brass bolsters and pins. This means lots of hammering to begin with to shape your knife then lots and lots of grinding (with a machine - not what you may be thinking!) before attaching the handle, affixing it with pins and then sanding the lot down so in the end it looks bloody fantastic - my mother can provide testament to that as mine is now safely back home in Aghadowey! Took all day so don't go thinking it was a short process, it wasn't. So knife made - cue the celebrations! Let me just warn you all that moonshine is highly illegal and highly potent - in the spirit of my earlier 'what happens in Baz Vegas stays there' thats all I'm saying. All I will say is that there was lots of pulling knives out in the pub and uttering that classic line from that classic film 'Crocodile Dundee' ........'That's not a knife - this is a knife!' Very amusing evening had by all. So that was Barrytown - time to move on yet again.

OK - so we'd done the sailing and hiking/trekking yadda, yadda, yadda and it was time to move on down the West Coast where we would end up in Barrytown - although the town bit is slightly misleading....consisted of a pub (where we were staying) and...well that was it really.

Right then - the journey there took us through the Buller Gorge...the most spectacular part of NZ in my humble opinion (West Coast) - wild seas, towering cliffs, snowcapped mountains in the distance - the absolute works, beautiful views whichever way you looked. Although unfortunately through no fault of my own I didn't have my camera for this stretch - I won't name any names...you know who you are - but never fear I got it back the next day. Again somewhere I'll be going back to before I have to leave. Can't really describe it any more than that other than to say Awesome and mean that in the dictionary definition way rather than...Yeah man - Awwwwesome!

Our last stop off before we reached Baz Vegas was the Pancake rocks - one of the most touted things in the guidebooks. Basically the Pancake Rocks are several formations of rocks whereby they are layered on top of each other so it looks like they're towers of pancakes sitting on top of each other. I have shamelessly plagerised the following from another website but we've moved on to the science bit - its educational and god knows most of you need a bit of education!

These limestone rocks began forming 30 million years ago as tiny fragments of dead marine creatures such as bivalve shellfish and other molluscs, creating an even layer of sediment on the seabed. Earthquake action lifted the layers to the surface. The sea, wind and rain have since sculpted the unusual rock formations. As heavy swells thunder into caverns beneath the rocks, huge water spouts blast skywards through the blowholes. When high tides coincide with strong westerly winds, 15 metre foaming geysers can be seen.

And yes there were strong winds and yes I did see the geyser effect - blowholes to the rest of us and yes it was bloody good! I'd recommend this stretch of NZ to absolutely everyone.

OK - so on we go.....I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats salivating at the thought of reading some more my my personal insights to NZ!

Right now that I've got that out of the way let me begin - well as you'll have read in my last entry we had reached the capital city Wellington and after a few beers and less than a few hours sleep it was time to jump on the ferry and head over to the South Island. Its a 3 hour journey and has pretty good views both leaving the North Island and more so entering the South Island through the Marlborough Sounds going into Picton - the topmost town in the south. Basically mountains with lots of natural trees and fauna and various different cliffs and lots of little beaches spotted around - I'm told that occassionally you will spot whales and dolphins.....we didn't! There was of course the occasional sea gull but have to say that was about it - mind you I was napping most of the way so maybe I could have missed something a bit more significant...anyway I digress - we arrived in Picton and picked up a new coach before heading on our way west to the Abel Tasman via a very picturesque drive through the Marlborough vineyards and of course the obligatory stop off for a little wine tasting! Very good it was too and if I recall correctly a blistering hot day so of course I spent the day in the shade for fear of turning that bright tomato red that is so favoured by the Irish worldwide (by now though of course I had developed a tan - I even kept my watch on all the time so I could see for myself how 'brown' (or for the rest off you - off white) I was getting.

Now we'd had breakfast we went on to Nelson which is one of the larger towns - by that I mean it had a population of over 200, and stopped for lunch which of course was a pie! Its something the kiwis share with their cousins over the water in OZ - absolutely obsessed by pies but have to say they are damn fine. Half an hour later we were on our way again in an attempt to make the Abel Tasman before dark via a short stop off to pick up some grub for the evening meal - a few of us clubbed together and went for the barbie option and very nice it was too - mostly cooked by moi of course....known by now by my rightful title of Culinary Kerry!

So our lodgings for the night? Well it was a delightful place called Old MacDonalds Farm - lots of ducks and geese running around, the odd peacock showing off his feathers, sheep, cows, llamas, etc - totally unexpected but pretty cool! This was another place where we had our own huts to be shared by 2 or 3, rather than the usual 8 beds which made a nice change - the only challenging aspect was making your way to and from the bathrooms/showers in the pitch black!

Well as the sun rose the next morning a day of sailing was on the agenda followed by a hike through the Abel Tasman national park (covers loads of ground and is one of the most popular in NZ - you can take anything from a few hours to nearly a week to get through it). All was well until we got on the boat and then the heavens opened and didn't stop for the rest of the day - which made sitting on the boat for 4 hours and then hiking through the forest all good craic........still its not that far away and I hope to go back again before I leave NZ, hopefully I'll get some sunshine the next time around! More on the rest of this day on the next entry!

Right then - so Whakapapa to Wellington......

Well not so interesting unfortunately as mostly it was a day spent on the bus as most people want to get to Wellington and get on with sightseeing and all that jazz.

To break the journey slightly we did stop off in a couple of small towns, mainly Taihape and Bulls. Bulls is really quite hilarious - all the businesses have names which plays on the Bulls theme - so you'll get estate agents with - No Bull here, etc, etc. A good bit of light relief after being stuck on the bus for hours.

But then on to Wellington - Wellington is the capital of NZ just in case you though it might have been Auckland and so houses parliment, the national museum Te Papa and all that important stuff. Its also incredibly windy - Windy Wellington as its known as over here and has pretty steep streets that all lead down into the harbour. It also comes across as arty and is a bit more edgy than Auckland with a more vibrant music and pub/cafe culture. Might actually move there sometime soon!

Not much else to report other than its where we got the ferry the next day to move over to the South Island.

More soon
x

Firstly - I have to apologise for taking so long to getting around to updating you all on what went on with the rest of the trip but bugger it I'm doing it now am't I?!?

So on we moved from Rotorua to Taupo - quick journey across as there were lots of things to be getting on with! We got to Taupo which is where you can do the cheapest skydive in New Zealand - only $150 to fling yourself out of a plane at 12,000ft! I actually declined as I have already has the pleasure of jumping out of a plane and it was at 15,000ft so I had nothing to prove. But about 10 people did and my lord were they buzzing when they got back in one piece and with no injuries a couple of hours later.

The rest of us were taken to a nearby thermal reserve and nearer again to a waterfall/gorge where I got to see possibly the biggest rapids I have seen in my young life - the water was going downstream at a speed you wouldn't believe, pure white water and pure madness if anyone ever decides to try and get through it - apparently someone did try once but came to a rather sticky end - sticky in that his head brushed of a few rocks on the way through.... No-one else has been brave enough or should that be foolish enough to try ever since - and believe me for New Zealand, the land of the adrenalin junkie that's saying something!

The rest of the afternoon was spent taking it easy down by the Lake and then haring back to the hostel when one of New Zealands frequent rain fronts moved in at a speed that would make a Formula 1 driver jealous! So what to do when rain grounded us in the hostel......well what else - a pool competition of course. I am sorry to report that I was knocked out in the semi finals and the gold went to Germany - ah well there's always a next time.

On to the educational stuff - well not really as its a bit Hollywood! Set right behind the Lake are the mountains that you can see in all 3 of the Lord of the Rings films, Mount Doom, etc. Looked absolutely spectacular when we arrived - bright blue sky, huge snow capped mountains - literally like a scene out of a movie and would you believe it....it was!

So on the next morning to Whakapapa (for information purposes - the Wh at the start of a name is pronounced F so figure out the incestual name above!) where we went straight to the top of Mount Ruapehu but yet again the rain god decide to piss on our parade and sent us scurrying back to the bus - and this was proper rain, didn't let up all day or night so we were yet again confined to barracks. The place where we staying was right in the national park and is the starting point for the best 1 day walk in the world - the Tongarrio Crossing. The walk takes about 6 hours and crosses the National Park’s scenically amazing volcanic plateau (complete with steaming craters). Even if the weather had been suitable I don't think my old women's knees would have made but I'll never know, maybe I would have been tempted (or at least I can tell myself that now that it was no longer an option!). But again if you ever end up in the Land of the Long White Cloud it is something that is highly recommended and consistantly comes top as the 'favourite thing I did while I was in NZ'.

But anyway as we were confined to barracks - if we couldn't do the walk we could at least take in the scenery eh? How did we do that you may ask yourself? Well obviously we watched the Lord of the Rings - all 3 of them! So 10 hours later.....I have to say though that was probably the first TV I had actually watched since I had arrived so I didn't feel too bad. And then to soothe the bum sores from sitting on my ass all day went of to have my own private soak in a spa for 30 mins, all free of charge - what a great hostel/hotel! Oh and we had our own chalet too which was great - the Skotel, just in case you end up being over here.

So it got to 8am the next morning and we had another go at going to the top of Mount Ruapehu and yippee the rain eased up, the clouds cleared and it was spectacular views all the way around. A nice way to send us on our journey again.