27/12/09 - Uuuurgh...

Went to the chocolate factory today. Doubt my stomach is going to forgive me any time soon.

I knew things were going to go badly when the first thing they did was hand us a bag of five chocolate bars. Shots of Pebbles (essentially Smarties, but keep that on the dl) and cups of liquid Dairy Milk didn't help.

Yes, to answer your question, that does consist entirely of snack size Crunchies.

Unfortunately they don't allow cameras in the factory, but trust me, there was a lot of chocolate.

Before we left Dunedin we visited and climbed the worlds steepest street. The photo here doesn't show how big it is but does reveal the steepness quite well.

Afterward we headed off to Queenstown again.

I've added the next photo in just because of how surprised Ed managed to look.

26/12/09 - Dunedin

We headed to Dunedin today via a beach that is meant to have lots seals on it. We saw one.

There was also another waterfall. This one must be round about waterfall 1014

Dunedin itself is modeled after Edinburgh. It does a good job too, especially with the weather being overcast and raining. It is built on a hill, is difficult to drive buses around and has appropriate looking buildings and street names.

It also has the Cadburys factory for New Zealand. Definitely visiting that tomorrow...

25/12/09 - Merry Christmas

A small group of us spent Christmas day on Stewart Island. This place really is stuck in the past. It took me ages to find decent internet access and it was being charged by the MB. Beautiful island though.

From wandering around for a day I've found that if you are coming to Stewart Island it should be for at least a week so that you can do the week long trek. It is one of the best walks in New Zealand. A day only allowed us to explore a single peninsula.

I haven't played Chess in about eight years but found the giant chess set near the beach in town a good reason to play again. Philip plays considerably more than I do and, although it was close, he won.

I introduced him to Go afterward.

Christmas dinner here is actually Christmas lunch. Seeing as none of us were hungry at that time we went to the shop that was open and bought our own stuff and had dinner in the hostel. Not the usual Christmas fare but it was good none the less.

24/12/09 - Hat

We were originally meant to say at Gunn's Camp today, but after Seagull found out that to catch the only ferry to Stewart Island on Christmas day would require us to leave at 4am we decided to make today's journey a long one and stay at Invercargill instead.

Below you can see that Seagull was clearly getting caught up in the spirit of the season.

There were several nice stops along the way. One of them was the Mirror Lake. Unfortunately it was slightly windy which prevented us seeing the lake in all its glory. It was still a pleasant place.

Next up was passing through a mountain range that shot up nearly vertically on both sides of us. The picture below is us at the narrow tunnel that goes through the mountain. The traffic lights change every 15 minutes because of the length of the tunnel and the fact that it is only wide enough for one bus at a time.

When we arrived at Milford Sound (which is actually a fjord for those who care) we took a cruise. It was diminished somewhat by the misty weather. The photo below doesn't quite indicate just how high the cliffs go. The waterfalls here are incredibly high.

Invercargill looks like it is stuck in the past. All the buildings are old, including our hostel. It was comfortable enough.

Note: La Toscana in Teanau was an excellent Italian restaurant. In case you're ever there.

23/12/09 - Fun Times

At some points in life you find yourself wondering, "How on Earth did I get myself in this position?" Standing at the edge of a 134m drop was one such point. Of course, for me this thought is usually followed by, "Meh, what the hell" and then doing something many people would consider inadvisable.

I decided a swan dive would be the most suitable jumping style of my first ever bungee and off of New Zealand's highest available.

Only looking from the side can you appreciate how absurdly high this was...

After doing the bungee jump I clearly had to give the canyon swing a go. This is advertised as the worlds highest swing.

The guy doing the dropping clearly has too much fun. I was in mid sentence talking to Beau when he released me. The video is hilarious. I discovered just how ingrained the f word is in my psyche here as that is all I got out before plummeting 124m.

As I said in the title: fun times.

22/12/09 - The 45th Parallel

I thought I'd start with an example of what I see outside the bus every day since I arrived in New Zealand.

There really isn't much I can say here.

I hope you enjoy the pictures I keep putting up...

A giant hand. This thing came screaming out of nowhere. I couldn't avoid it.

Me at the 45th parallel. After this, as Seagull eagerly pointed out, we were closer to the south pole than the equator. Wooo.

21/12/09 - Waterfall (of Illusions)

I'm sure you're getting bored of photos of glorious vistas but I'm afraid there isn't much else to take pictures of around here.

It can be difficult to decide what to take pictures of sometimes, what with everything being an excellent photo opportunity. I get around this problem by just shooting everything (digital cameras are great).

Above is a picture of Mount Tasman. This is the second highest mountain in New Zealand. Mount Cook (the highest) is next to it but obscured by cloud here. Apparently if you can climb Mount Cook the next step up is Everest.

Every so often while driving to our next stop there are marked walkways for you do explore. They all lead to really cool views but I've come to the conclusion that they could pick completely random locations, make a path there and it would work out to be a really nice place.

We stopped at a beach that is known for collecting greenstone (one type of which is jade) from nearby rivers. The conditions weren't perfect for finding any but the group still managed to gather a few small pieces.

Our last stop before the hostel was to Seagull's favourite waterfall in the world (think Jeremy Clarkson when he says this). It has gained this highest of honours by virtue of being able to mess with your head. Stare at it for a minute or so and then look at anything else and weird things start to happen. I'm sure this optical illusion isn't limited to this particular waterfall but it was cool to watch my hand get distorted.

20/12/09 - Glacier

Today we climbed a glacier and I discovered that with crampons on my boots I feel like I could stand on vertical walls.

Below is a picture of me looking cool (ouch) with an ice pick.
I think the next picture gives a good idea of the scale of the glacier. This was one big-ass block of ice.

While going through a crevice, noticing that I was about to take a photo Beau decided to be funny. This almost ended badly as his tongue nearly got stuck. I would have been amused if I didn't need to get past him.

We were able to look very adventurous with all the rope climbs and descents.

This is the view from close to the edge of the glacier. We went a lot higher than this but I liked how this photograph came out.

This was a very good day, and another where I took more photos than I know what to do with. I can now add glacier to the list of awesome environments I've visited.

19/12/09 - The Internet

Or rather the lack of it in New Zealand. After South America's free wireless everywhere I had assumed New Zealand would be the same. I was wrong. Instead it is rare to find wireless and it costs loads. I apologise for the lateness of all these posts, but it just hasn't been possible until today.

Anyway, today was a bus ride through the rain.

We stopped here...

...and saw this.

That's about it.

Oh, had fajitas for dinner. They were good.

18/12/09 - You've Seen It...

... you can't unsee it...

More on this later.

On the drive today Seagull told us that we were now entering the scenic part of New Zealand. Huh.

The payoff for this of course is that the weather is now overcast and raining occasionally. I'm personally not bothered.

We visited Pancake Rocks which naturally started a conversation about pancakes which has led to a craving that we'll have to satisfy the next time we get to a supermarket.

The town we are staying in is tiny with essentially nothing to do. This results in the kind of image up top (which believe me is timid compared to some of the photos on the wall). In an atempt to remain employable (Facebook exists) I didn't get dressed up in drag. Nor was I naked at any point. I'll be happy to move on in the morning...

17/12/09 - New Zealand

Today we spit up to do various optional excursions. I was one of those who went for a three hour sail along the coast followed by walking back to the village along a trail.

The boat journey was ok (a little boring) but we did see some fairly epic house locations along the way.

We also saw split apple rock which once again shows the incredible imagination people can bring to naming things.

The walk was by far the beter half of the day. Things here are starting to get silly and "New Zealand" has become and adjective to describe beauty to me and another Scottish(!) person on the tour.

Almost as good as the walk was dinner in the evening. We made massive burgers.