Down South on the South Island
I spent another day relaxing (lay-in, respond to emails, go for a walk, watch Boston Public, listen to some Jack Johnson, read Time magazine) in Te Anau. Next day we went to Invercargill, the southern most City in the World. Next stop, the Antarctic. And it feels like it. The city's over all impression is one of desolation rather than isolation. Even the museum, and its art exhibition was dull. The day was saved only by Tua Tapere, the 'Sausage Capital' of New Zealand, a town we went through earlier which had its sausages from it's single butchers, named best in NZ. The local council picked up on this and decided it could bring in the tourists in by the bucket loads by having this as its USP. Well it suckered us in. It was Bangers and Mash with Gravy for tea.
There was a local school in the hostel we were staying at. We were about to put on The Lord of The Rings (so we could sit there going "I've been past that!!") when a pyjama'd gang of 7-11 year olds plus teachers stormed the video room and asked if we'd mind if they watched Lady and the Tramp II. We didn't get up in time and got sucked into the slapstick utopian world of the Disney cartoon. An hour and a half or so of morality via the medium of talking dogs later, we all decided it'd been far too long since we'd phoned home and said how much we'd missed everyone.
I'm about half way into my ten and a half month trip now, which is probably a good time to reflect on my travelling. I do get a bit homesick sometimes, I do miss my mum and dad and the rest of my family. Apparently, all my best mates, who've been going out less and less with each other (even when I was at home) have stopped going out altogether. They all have different friends and different lives which takes them all in different directions. I miss talking to all of them together.
In the last few weeks, I've had a twinge every now and then that I think is homesickness. Then I think about what I'd actually be doing if I was at home (Wake up. Work. Pub. Sleep) and I realise I really am far better off doing this. The feeling is there though. I suppose I'll just have to soldier on and get over it...
The reason we go to Invercargill is so we can spend a day going through the Catlins wilderness. An area in South-Eastern NZ with bugger all there but trees, mountains, beaches and animals. We saw a petrified forest at one beach (trees which have turned to rock through millions of years of geological compression.) Then went to the Surat Bay seal colony, usually theres loads of seals, but there was only 2 today. I'm looking a bit sheepish in this one as I got too close and it roared and ran at me. (We were supposed to stay at least 5 meters away.)
We wandered further up the beach and couldn't find anymore seals, so I went for another photo with the one that roared at me. I got Julie, a French-Canadian, to take the picture from the other side. I got about 2m from it, and it sat and glared at me. I looked away, and looked back as I crouched there (hey if David Attenborough can do it...) letting it know I wasn't there to be any trouble. It scratched its head with a flipper and threw a glance at Julie who stepped another couple of meters back.
I inched forward at that point. It looked back at me and lethargically puffed its chest out. A movement I knew meant it was posturing to show who's beach it was. I thought it'd make a good photo if I puffed out my chest in the same way. "RAAAARGGGHH" The sound was more like a long viscous burp than a roar, but accompanied by its sudden burst of movement (they're pretty agile over short distances!) as it launched itself across the sand at me, with its long yellow teeth dripping with saliva, caused me to 'scream like a girl' (according to one bloke) as I did one of those comedy runs where all the parts of your body try to move at once.
I glanced behind and saw it'd given up the chase and I walked a very long way around it to get back to Julie (you're not supposed to go between it and the sea either). Buzzing from the adrenalin and knowing how funny they were going to turn out, I excitedly said "Didyougetthepicture? Howmanydidyoutake? DidyougetitwherehewentraaandIwentarrgh!??!" "Non, no. I was to scared" she said.
Bugger
Here's me kneeling far away from it, with Julie even further (I've cropped the pic) for the second attempt....
Later we did a walk out to a lighthouse and 'the pinnacles seal colony' Aparently you can sometimes see seals, whales, porpoises, sea-lions and even sharks. We saw 1 seal and the lighthouse.
We spent the night at Dunedin. A university city designed in Edinborough years ago, Dunedin actually means something like 'Edinborough on the hill'. It was weird being back in a city again. Especially one that felt so much like home.
We carried on heading North from Dunedin, which is built along from the Otago Peninsular (below).
We were set for a long days drive across the Canterbury Plains to Christchurch. Its not a bad ride with the pacific one side, miles of green fields and farmland either side and the snow-capped southern alps towering in the distance. Before we crossed them though, we went to the Moeraki boulders. Some spherical rocks created by years of erosion blah blah(usual Geology story.)
Here's me recreating the classic 'Crane' pose from Karate Kid.
Just before we got to Christchurch we stopped at the Cookie Time factory. I can't remember if I've seen Cookie Time cookies in the UK, so if you haven't had one, they're really nice, huge single cookies (coming in all different chocolate chip variations.) It was a Saturday, so the factory was closed, but luckily the shop was open. I managed to get a Kilo of cookies (broken) for $6 (about 2 quid:)
In Christchurch we arranged our own transport to a little town called Methven, about an hour back into the Canterbury Plains. It's an apres-ski town that supports Mount Hutt. It seemed pretty mad arranging a Snowboarding trip the night before we were supposed to do it! The great thing about traveling, is you realise anything's possible if you have the will! (and the money)
Walking around Christchurch as the sun was going down (looking for Darren from Oz who I didn't find because he moved on without telling me - the bastard) I saw a seven or eight storey white office building that looked just like one in Romford. As Christchurch was designed in London, it has an English feel and it made me feel strange, almost like I was back home again. Then I realised I was still on the other side of the world and I felt better.
Later that night in the bar (after we'd seen England destroy the Aussies at Rugby) I was chatting to bloke from the Stray bus called Nick. We did the usual introductory questions and it turns out not only is he a born and bred Romford boy, but he actually lives next door to my Nan in Lake Rise! "Yeah, we used to always ask her for our ball back! And we could always hear when there were big Kingsnorth gatherings going on..."
Today was also the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year. Or for most of you it would've been the longest day of the year... Weird.