Only four days left...
Trip Start
Apr 29, 2010
1
16
18
Trip End
Aug 01, 2010
Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
Thursday, July 29, 2010
We're back in Wellington now after saying bye to Becky and Dunedin on monday. Sad times saying goodbye, but what an awesome time we had! Last week we chilled out as planned, both having come down with some sort of sickness.
Sunday and monday we watched 'heaps' of films and barely left the house. We did leave the house to do the flat shop for the week though, each of us had to cook a meal one of the nights that week. Nick (Becky's 'work hard, play hard' law flat-mate) cooked up a mean macaroni cheese.
Anyways, after beginning to get a bit of cabin fever I borrowed Angus's car (Becky's ever so generous house mate!) and drove out to Port Chalmers again to Long Beach by myself. I got to check out some cool caves and 'crags', then headed out to the Peninsula - New Zealand's sort of land's end, and also one of the only places on earth you can see albatross (something I've wanted to see since I watched the Rescuers Down Under many years ago). The drive was sweet, especially as the weather was really good and I drove back as the sun was setting over to England. That night (tuesday) was my turn for cooking and I attempted a stew consisting of pumpkin, kumara, potato etc. However, I managed to burn it so it had a mild plasticky taste to it... not what I had in mind.
Wednesday, Becky had no university so the three of us plus Roza headed back out to the peninsula and checked out the aquarium which had a touch pool with crabs in it. Then we drove over to the world's steepest street to attempt the climb in Angus's car! It was quite a mean drive up having to crawl up in first, but pretty satisfying once we reached the top, the only bad thing was trying to get down again. It was pretty hard to see over the end of the bonnet and the car's weight really started to pull us quickly down to the bottom, but we did it - we drove up and down the world's steepest street! Becky made an awesome curry that night which we pretty impressed by then me and her headed out to the uni bar to watch some locals bands for the night.
The next day we just chilled out before heading out for our 'last night' in Dunedin after an incredible Moroccan dish cooked up by Gus. We had a pretty funny night, sticking together throughout a load of different clubs, including a salsa club where Becky became temporarily hysterical before getting back into the party mood. We ended up however in a club in the main area of town where a fight broke out between us and, no word of a lie, 50 chinese men. Somehow, whilst I had been to the toilet, Angus kindly through some dispersive dance moves on the floor to make a bit of room for the rest of the guys to boogie. However a couple of the guys already dancing took offence to his, perhaps, controversial moves, and on my return I was punched to the floor as I stood between the two groups asking what was going on. Next thing I know we are all outside, me and Angus are up against a wall (after insulting one of the guy's dads who they were partying with) and are being kicked and punched by what went from 5 to 50 chinese dudes! Nevertheless, it was extremely funny and we couldn't stop laughing, which probably encouraged their actions until the bouncers recommended we left.
Next stop Queenstown! We left becky for a quiet weekend while me and toby took a coach over to QT. We didn't realise it was a ski resort so were pretty overwhelmed by a) the temperature and b) the masses of snowboarders and ski-ers. We had the phattest burger I've ever had and chips that night - I actually couldn't finish my meal - that never happens! We got an early night for the early morning we had ahead of us.
Saturday morning we got up and caught a bus over to Lake Wanaka, where I prepared for my Sky Dive! After watching a couple of people 'fall' from the sky before my flight I became oddly relaxed (having not been able to sleep the night before). From then on I was absolutely stoked for the dive and jumped in the plane with Ollie my polish instructor, after a brief interview for the DVD I had filmed. We reached 12,000ft over the vast snow capped ranges of the Southern Alps and Lake Wanaka - possibly the most amazing view I've ever seen! Slowly the rest of the 'passengers' began to take the plunge until it was my turn. Head back, feet tucked under the plane, Ollie asked me if I was ready... He couldn't hear my answer, just my scream as we descended at 125 mph (around 60 metres per second) for 45 seconds. It was exhilarating to say the least, but I welcomed the feeling of the parachute when it was deployed. When I landed I was a shaking mess from the adrenaline and could hardly remember was had just happened. The DVD shows my face warp by the gforces and a giant goofy grin spread from ear to ear. I would definitely do it again! We grabbed a beer in town after the jump to calm my nerves then wondered around Wanaka before our coach back.
We got back to Dunedin on sunday and I had a quick skate down at the park before Kate cooked us up a mighty roast for our last supper in dunedin. Monday morning was sad times saying bye to Becky and Anna, odd saying bye but not to NZ as a whole. We got a 6 hour coach up to Christchurch where we stayed with Mani. She cooked us up a really good vegan meal and we chilled with her friend Leigh for the night watching some TV. Both us were feeling pretty Ill again which kinda sucked.
Our flight to Wellington took about 20 minutes which was a pretty strange experience. We missed Ashley, Becky A and Colin's surprise pick up from the airport and met them back at Stoke street, the only address we knew! After a healthy meal served up by Nick's parents we watched Toy Story 3D which was exactly how I thought it was going to be - INCREDIBLE!
Last night we partied at Stoke Street again and then went out in wellington again, it wasn't the same without Becky and the rest of the gang who have gone off to Uni but was still a pretty funny night. We went to a bar called mighty mighty which was a sort of 70's school disco hall theme, it was a pretty weird place to end the night.
Annnnddddd today, well we woke up at stoke and went into town with Izzy. We got six films which we are currently in the process of pacing our way through and made a giant cookie. Oh and I cut my hair... Pretty chilled day, tomorrow hopefully we are going to say hi to Becky's step mum and Anna's rents before our last night in Wellington, saturday we're heading up to Auckland (12 hour bus) before our 36 hour journey home on sunday :(
Some photos!
Comments
Amazing & truely brill photos. And what an incredible histoire. Can't wait to see you. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx