STRAY Tour
Day 7
Caught the ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. Yes New Zealand is actually 2 Islands not just one off the coast of Australia. The ferry ride between the two of them takes about 3 hours.
Once we got to the other side, chops went to get the new bus for us. When I say 'new' bus I mean new in that we had a separate bus for each Island. The bus itself was about 20 years old and all the writing on it (including the emergency signs, heaters and dashboard) was all in Chinese. When chops finally got the heater working (he'd never driven this bus before) it seemed to have 2 settings. 'Hot day in Hell' and 'Off.'
Luckily though, our first stop on the South Island was a winery. Soon enough we didn't care what temperature it was. Half the bus was even singing along to Chops' morning music. (for those who've never been on a bus tour, quite often, drivers like to have some 'morning music' which is generally a song they like and everyone else hates, until they've been on the bus a while. At which point, it becomes synonymous with the trip, and though it may still be hated, it must be heard as a a little bit of routine in constantly changing places. Chops favoured David Allen Coe's 'If that ain't country I'll kiss your ass" and "You don't have to call me darlin', (slut, bitch, whore) darling." Chops is called Chops by the way because he's a helicopter pilot when hes not driving for Stray, but there was already a 'Chopper' on the road.)
We went to the 'Hunter' Vineyards. Apparently they sell through Sainsburys. If memory serves, I can recommend the Chardonnay, the Cabernet Sauvignon (easy to drink) and the Merlot (would be great with Steak.) There was also another white that tasted just like Turkish Delight which was nice, but I don't remember the name of it.
We spent that night in a lodge at Abel Tasman national park, thankfully, after about a week, the rain had stopped. We got the barrel fire going outside to cook some garlic bread on (there was no oven.) I realised I've never had to chop fire wood before. I really enjoyed it. It's just something you don't do at home.
Oh and we burnt the Garlic bread. It was edible, but we managed to check the coolest one first, so when that looked about done, the other three were just starting to resemble charcoal. Tasty 'garlic' charcoal though (well we couldn't not eat it could we?)
Day 8
We were up early to go for a hike and sea kayak. We were spit in to two groups, we hiked to a certain point on the coast and the rest kayaked there, with a view to swapping over on the return. The hike was pretty average, and didn't really have a 'wow' factor as we spent most of the time in dense foliage rather than looking out at the coast line.
The fun part came when we swapped over at lunch time, and dressed into our sexy underclothes.
Today's stupid clothes were inspired by DC Comics' 'The Green Goblin'
We were told the person who sat at the back of the kayak had the added responsibility of steering too, using foot pedals to control a small rudder. I was sharing a kayak with Sinead and we worked out as diplomatically as we could who would sit where.
Sinead: "Where do y..."
Me: "Sit in the Front."
Sinead: "But wh..."
Me: "I'm Driving. Sit in the Front."
She wasn't too happy when I kept taking us in through shallow rocks and little inlets where we had to paddle hard against breaking waves to get out. She kept spouting some crap about not being able to swim or something. I just told her to keep paddling or we'd never get out of it.
Sinead: "We're not gonna make it through there!"
Me: "Yes we will. Don't worry I'm in control."
Sinead: "We're too close"
Me: "Don't Worry Woman. Just keep...." (crunching grinding plastic on rocks sound. Flecks of yellow on the rock and in the sea, and Go Faster grooves added to the side of the kayak...
Me: "See! No Worries!!"
We ended up paddling North away from camp because the wind picked up. The guide told us we'd traversed "Madman's Mile" at one point. (obviously they didn't tell us the name of it 'till afterwards)
It's apparently got really unpredictable currents and waves and things. I think we did it on a quiet day. We ended up catching a jetboat back to the camp which was pretty cool.
We went back and had some mussel patties from the on-site burger van (pretty fancy eh?). I chopped some firewood, then we all toasted marshmellows on the open fire.