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The highs and lows

March 1, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

…. as written from just South of Winnipeg at 12,000 metres, it’s time for a recap of the last nine weeks.

  Best   Worst
Airline Air New Zealand from Auckland to Sydney. Upgraded, big seats, big screens and lots of free stuff.   United from San Francisco to London. Dominatrix pensioners, screaming babies and loud men. Thai Airways out of London was a close second.
Airline lounge Air New Zealand in Auckland. Gave us beans and toast for breakfast.   US Airlines in Phoenix. No food and drinks are charged. On the plus side, the barman did sing us a song.
Surprise How big America is. And some of them even know where the UK is. And Lone Pine was pretty cool.   Having the wallet stolen on New Year’s Eve.
Drinks Happy hour martini’s at “the bitter end” in San Diego. Bad hangover.   Happy hour martini’s at “the bitter end” in San Diego. Wine in Marlborough, New Zealand is a close second.
Accommodation Green house on the hill for ambience. The second hotel in Melbourne for facilities.   Melbourne guest house. No en suite toilet or aircon. It’s high 30’s outside.
View Yosemite (Franz Josef Glacier a close second)   The rain from the motel in Kaikoura while doing nothing.
Place Yosemite. Or snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.   Las Vegas. Bored after three hours and we have three days there.
Food Malaysian/Chinese food on Cuba Street, Wellington.   Most of America. We OD on salt and retain too much water.
Baggage check Flagstaff. About an hour on both our bags. Seriously bored staff.   New Zealand. Opened the bags but didn’t look inside because it was so tidy.
Weather Sydney, Australia and Bay of Islands, New Zealand   San Francisco – it rained except for the first day.
Stephen’s cutting comments) N/A   “it’s ok I can read signs” to the guide at the Hoover dam asking if we needed directions.
In flight movie Burn after reading   Sisterhood of the travelling pants 2. (This is without watching it too!)
Unfriendly receptionist Wanaka. She wouldn’t stop talking to us.   Alice Springs so called “Resort”
Most surreal moment Critic-ing “Adrenalin Rush Hour” for the discovery channel in Vegas.   Vegas timeshare saleswoman thinking the UK was on the European continent …. somewhere.

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Wanaka/Queenstown/Auckland/Sydney

February 11, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

After an early night in Wanaka, it’s an hour drive to Queenstown airport. Car returned, we wait a couple of hours for the Qantas flight.4087 leaving queenstown

Except for the initial fantastic views over the Southern Alps, it’s an uneventful flight.  As we come in to land it’s 25 degrees but with a humidity of 100%

With the city centre 29km away and an early start the next day, we stay in an Airport Hotel in Auckland. The Kiwi International Hotel sounds luxurious but is in fact a distinctly 2 star affair. With no air-con, the humidity is oppressive.

We’re peckish and go on the hunt for food. There’s a supermarket nearby but with only a kettle and some cutlery, it’s slim pickings.

4088 lunch at kiwi international

I’m considering a new career in modern art. Therese has a cup a soup.

Bad food, bad TV and a couple of hours later, we have something a little more substantial from a nearby Greek themed place, followed by a couple of glasses of wine in the hotel. The heat drops … but only a little. We manage an hour or so of sleep before the 0345 start the next day.

The shuttle bus drops us at the Airport and it’s a quick check in and through to the lounge. We demolish some beans on toast while waiting for the next flight, to Sydney.

We get another upgrade on Air New Zealand and get through the new Coen Brothers film (good). In Sydney for 0830 local time, we’ve already been up nearly 7 hours.  The next flight isn’t until mid-afternoon and the baggage couldn’t be routed, so we have to clear customs and enter Australia again, only to check in later. A last minute electronic visa application and we’re sitting back in the lounge by 1 o’clock waiting for our flight out …

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Arrowtown

February 10, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

It’s a wet morning. We chill out watching trashy TV, reading books and catching up on blog entries. With more than half a tank of fuel left – and paid for, we make for the hills. Well, over the hills on State Highway 26 to Arrowtown.

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It’s a quaint, one street place, living entirely on the tourist trade. We help them by stopping for lunch, after which I spot the vehicle of my arch enemy.

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Tyres slashed, we walk onto the Arrowtown notice board is packed with adverts for babysitters, rooms wanted and the a selection of more obscure beliefs …

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Nice $40 tax dodge in the small print.

We take the longer, flatter Highway 6 back to Wanaka and pass through (a (collective noun of) wineries. A bunch, I suggest. They look quite dramatic below the mountains.

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Halfway back we spot a Kawarau Bridge Bungy. We just watch. Sorry folks.

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Towards Wanaka, I pass sign upon sign with no second “A” removed… until the city limits … woohoo

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Puerile behaviour is alive and well in New Zealand.

In the hotel, there’s doom on the news as the reports on Victoria in flames continue. Things there look grim and don’t show any sign of improving. There’s just not enough rain. Things can be bad here too – but not to the same degree.

Tomorrow we commence two days of travel and three flights. We’re having a quiet night in anticipation of the long days ahead.

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Fly attack on the road to Wanaka

February 9, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

On state highway 6, it’s a little under 300km to Wanaka. A cold front is moving North from the tip of the South Island, giving us rain shortly after departing from Franz Josef.

The drive is made easier, as we follow the Prescotts. There are a couple of  classic E-type Jags ahead, spot on the 100kph speed limit. They take the guesswork out of the bridges.

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Sadly, we don’t have a photograph of the first two bridges south of Greymouth, which as well as accommodating one way traffic, also act as the rail bridge.

We pause around halfway through the journey to take some photographs.

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The sharp-sighted will have spotted we parked near a river (left) and Therese is swatting something (right). We’ve left the doors open and once back in the car, it’s time for fly attack! No kidding, in the couple of minutes we stopped, there’s over 100 biting midges in the car. We’ve never seen anything like it (in a car).

The rest of the journey passes quickly. Therese focuses on killing the flies, I try and keep on the road while the little bastards keep biting. I only nearly swerve off twice, as the urge to destroy the micro-nemesis’ overcomes my need to keep  hands on the wheel.

The approach to Wanaka is fabulous. We are now in Lord of the Rings country.

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We’re staying at the Mount Aspiring Hotel, just out of town. Hotel, Motel and Lodge have all become interchangeable. We laugh in the face of “resort” after that joke in Alice Springs. This place actually turns out to be a proper hotel and resort. Restaurant, bar, hot pool, steam room and good rooms. It’s a nice place to start wrapping up our New Zealand leg.

We walk around town, have a juice. In 2000, the town commissioned a themed walkway showing the history of the world. It made for good reading.

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Back at the hotel, we chill in the pool and have dinner at the Restaurant in the Hotel (Rafters), which is fantastic. We praise the cook for actually being able to do vegetables properly … and it turns out his partner is vegetarian.

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Franz Josef Glacier

February 8, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

And so to the Glacier. We’re on the 9.15 departure and after kitting up (crampons and boots), we’re on the valley floor around 9.45.

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From here it only looks around 10 minutes away. It’s an hour. The valley walls on either side of the Glacier are a kilometre apart.

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It’s very difficult to get across the scale of what we were on.  If it were solid rock, it may have taken 4 hours straight walking to achieve the summit. Given the amount of crevasses we navigated, we climbed to 850 metres in around 5 hours …. around 1/3 of the way. People take a helicopter to go further.

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This is our high point.

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Back at 6.30,we’re knackered. There’s only one think for it. Wine and curry. The Priya Indian (branches in Franz Josef, Greymouth an Hokitika) comes up trumps.  The South Island Pinot Noir is a rough disappointment.  We’re fairly up on our NZ wines. This was, with hindsight, a poor choice.

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Franz Josef

February 7, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

3988 franz josefIt’s only 130km South to the township of Franz Josef (population, 10).

This new car hire remains a lot more fun to drive than the last. It has cool features like acceleration and the ability to tune above 90.0FM … though there’s few stations to pick up once out of a town.

We’re arrive a little after lunchtime. The terrace motel we’re staying in has no-one at reception since they’re busy servicing the rooms, so we make for a local eatery.

The local Speight’s outlet has a vegetarian pizza … which we can’t even hope to finish due to the ridiculous volume of topping.

Mid-afternoon, we’re checked in and drive down to Lake Matheson for “unparalleled views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman”

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That’s them between the two hills in the foreground. The peaks at 3,700 metres are shrouded in cloud … for around 3000 metres.

The fox glacier is nearby, so we go for a peek, then head back to Franz Josef and look at the glacier there. It’s the fox on the left. I think.

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It’s another quiet night. We chat to neighbours, eat sandwiches and drink tea.

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