And here we were, self-proclaimed adrenaline capital of the
world - Queenstown. Bungee fanatics, paragliding gurus and jet boat aficionados
have been expected (testosterone levels in the air were reaching self-igniting
limits for sure), but what we didn’t expect was a cute little town. Yes, it is
touristic and dolled up, but after definite lack of any nice human settlement
in New Zealand this was a gift from heavens. For the record, we have stopped
comparing down under towns to romantic old (that actually means more than
couple a hundred years) places in Europe. Set in beautiful location surrounded
by crystal clear lakes and rivers, deep gorges, mountains and vineyards. Even
Nives had to agree that this is a nice place (some Pinot Noir arm twisting was
involved). But the biggest surprise was once we actually checked into a motel
and walked down to town centre. Bars, pubs, restaurants on every corner. In
unison we agreed to push out a ferry date to north island for a couple of days
and extend our stay here.
We also discovered that New Zealanders are world experts in
selling (we are sure big US corporations are having team building and learning
selling seminars here). Everything you see is best and greatest in the world.
And when we say anything we mean it – these guys are on the next level. Every
view is scenic, every place a national park and every activity severely
overpriced for any rational being. Anything and everything is around
120-150NZD, which we felt was about 100% more than it should have been. But
hordes of Asian tourists are coming and are willing to paying for it. So, in
the end, fair play to the Kiwis. Milk it if you can. So, we didn’t do most of
hundreds of things on offer (and it was beyond us what was on the offer and
what people were paying for!) with the exception of jet boating. We skipped the
best known company, which is offering a ride for about 80EUR for 15 minutes
(and we thought Oz was bad!) and went for the other guys on the block. Same
dosh, but lasts an hour. Good decision it was too – the boat ride was fantastic
at 85km/h speeds at times over 10cm deep water.
Some of the NZ best red wines (please, bear in mind we are
thinking locally now and are not comparing to our favourite French wines here!)
are just a 30min drive away and yes, you have guessed correct, we made a day
out of it. Just around the corner of Queenstown is central Otago, which is
technically a desert. And it would still be, if not for the first class
irrigation system. Even vineyards are watered – a big no-no in traditional
European vineyards (can already hear some French farmer crying out in despair).
We visited the southernmost vineyards in the world (Blackridge) and also the
maker of the winner of “best wine of NZ” award (bannock brac).
Not to spoil the sunny weather (reported as one of the
biggest droughts in history of NZ) we headed out to one of the tourist
heavyweights of NZ (and the world, surely partly due to unbelievable and
efficient NZ tourist marketing tactics) – Milford sound. It is actually a fiord
not a sound, on the west coast and accessible by one way road the is a highlight
in itself. Do we need to say it is sold as the best experience in life, most
beautiful fiord in the world with the most breath-taking road to it? Well, it
was really beautiful for sure, but we would possibly restrain from any ‘best in
the world’ remarks. Road to it was highly enjoyable and absolutely worth the
trouble. In our opinion, definitely one of the most spectacular in New Zealand.
Sound itself is home to some of the highest sea cliffs in the world (Mitre peak
at 1692m is one of them – left peak on the above picture) and some spectacular
scenery. It is surrounded by high cliffs from both sides with narrow entrance –
which made Capitan Cook miss it completely on his survey of NZ. Can’t miss it
these days with hordes of tourists neatly packed on number of pleasure boats
that go out in a row and all stop at the same stops and enjoy the same views.
That are breath-taking for sure. Couple of hours on the boat passed way too
fast and it was time to drive the scenic route back inland again. Now last but
DEFINITELY not least – whole experience was severely diminished by your best
buddies in Milford – sand flies. This is definitely a world capital (haven’t
seen that advertised thou) of those little annoying blood-suckers. We were
ecstatic we decided not to spend a night here!
We ploughed on further down
south towards the most southern point of our journey – Bluff. It is a town on
south of NZ, which is the furthermost point away from home (its 18000km to
London from here). Bluff is definitely not a place to write home about – one of
the ugliest harbours we ever saw. It’s all north from here thou, back into the
warmer climate and boy are we looking forward to it. Its bloody freezing down
here! Probably not in terms of winter in Europe this year, but for the record
we are a wee bit spoiled at the moment. On the way here we discovered that
Bluff is also a home to world famous (can it be any other way in New Zealand?)
Bluff oysters. We have not heard of them before, but were definitely willing to
try. And so we did. They were excellent – delicious with the taste of the sea.
We were definitely ready for our seconds and thirds, until we were told they
are wild oysters. This definitely spoiled the experience, but the final blow
was a discovery of how they are harvested – by dragging the nets on the bottom
of the sea. Absolutely horrified that something like this can be happening in
civilized world (hey, we are avoiding Chinese restaurants for shark fin soup!) we
cancelled our order and left Bluff with bad taste in our mouths.
Driving thru the Catlins
costal road and past Dunedin and Omaru on south east coast, we came across a
lot of scenery we are used from Ireland, but definitely not as nearly as
beautiful or spectacular. Plenty of wild life thou with seals and penguins
galore. If anything, wild life is
something to be enjoyed here. With no pretty towns around (Dunedin was a huge
disappointment, especially for Nives) we headed back towards west coast and the
glaciers.
By this stage, we were ready for remoteness and wilderness.
Or so we thought. This place was something else. Kilometre after kilometre of
nothing really. And that includes mobile signal! Just for the record, we are
not talking 3G here, but your regular 2G one. Absolutely bewildered that this
actually can be happening in first world country we arrived to Fox Glacier
township. This is also concept that was probably invented here. Means few
houses, hotel and general store most of the time, and tourist traps galore. Mobile
signal included. But hey, we are at one of the lowest glaciers in the world
here! So, we did a fill tourist shebang – walked to both Fox and Franz Joseph
and topped it all with a helicopter ride. And that was amazing! Views of
glacier blue ice, crevasses and ravines was just amazing. Theory of relativity
was definitely proven during the 20min flight – felt like 60 seconds! We opted
to miss out on ‘exhilarating experience’ (as sold by tourist operators) of
helicopter landing on a mountain (not a glacier!) and standing in a real snow
for extra 100 NZD (you would be amazed how many people are actually going for
this!). Considering we come from ski resort that hosts World Ski Cup race and
host of the Winter Olympic Games and have moved to Ireland to avoid snow in the
winter was probably a reasonable choice. All in all, glaciers were spectacular
– silent (when they are not breaking off J)
reminder of ancient times. Definitely something that should not be missed here.
Some more pictures here.
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