Rogerson's on the Road

So this installment will finish our trip in New Zealand, and what an adenture it as been.

From Queenstown we made the 6 hour drive to drive to Dunedin. Dundedin is the Edinburgh of New Zealand and all the street names are exactly the same as in Edinburgh, you have Princes Street, Rose Street, Queens Street, Bath Street...the list goes on. Dundedin is the home to the steepest street in New Zealand and has the highest incidents of shopping trolley/student accidents in the world. We stayed at a hostel at the top of one of these absurdly steep hills called Hogwartz, a bit different to the one that Harry Potter stayed in, but an old preists house with a fastastically big room with a great view of the Cathedral and the town.

Dunedin is a University town, full of tartan shops and home of Speights Brewery - Prided of the South. Neil and I, of course, embarked on the highly educational and informative Speights Brewery tour. The tour which delved into the finer points of beer making, for instance the difference between Pilsner and normal larger and the differences in the barley used. The tour was concluded with the highly mature self serve beer tasting. We, in true travller style, recouped our tour fee at the self serve beer pumps. Beers which included a Cadbury's Chocolate beer, which I quite liked but Neil found insulting!

The Otago Peninsula around Dunedin's harbour area is stunning. The hills give the most spectacular views of the region and a trip to Lanark Castle (see the Scotish thing is huge here) perched on top of a hill in the peninsula really is stunning. We don't see ourselves as castle people but the weather, sunshine and views made this a lovely place.

After three nights in Dunedin we moved up the east coast to Christchurch, out last port of call for New Zealand and departure point. So after exactly 5000 Km total driving in New Zealand we hand back the white 15 year old Toyota Corolla (Brian) that has served us so well. We check into The Old Country House Lodge on the outskirts of Christchurch. It is again a great lodge. Purpose built by a couple that met 10 years ago while travelling and know exactly what travellers need on the road. This lodge is like home, beautiful gardens, comforatble TV free lounge with comfortable sofas and massive bedooms (with a reading light, you would be suprised how little thing like this, that you take for granted at home really count!)

We met up with one of the Inverness girls that we had spent 3 weeks in Fiji with. Gemma had returned to NZ to meet up with her sister and to avoid going home to start work! Great to catch up with her.

Christchurch is, yes once again, a beautiful city!! It had a feel of Oxford a river running through the middle of it and lovely old buildings. The river runs through the massive Botanical gardens and past teh Arts Centre District, which is full of coffee shops, little market stalls and food stalls from Pancakes to Thai.....yummy.

We were in Christchurch for Bonfire Night and thought the fireworks display off the pier at New Brighton sounded like a nice thing to do in the evening........oh my, New Brighton was the biggest Council Estate, scary, intimidating, adults letting fireworks off and aiming at passers by......we were scared!!! I think our trip to New Brighton lasted exactly 25 minutes, then we retreated to the safety of the hostel! Even in the most beautiful places you can find a bad area.

We left Christchurch after 5 days of administrative duties that included rerouting our flights out of Bali and writing Christmas cards, a very odd thing to do when the sun is shining and the temp is 29 degrees! So a 3.20am start for our next leg of the trip into Australia......

As they say - all the best laid plans. I promised that I would update the website regularly and not get into the trap of having to update masses of it retrospectively - but here I am trying to rack my brains and think of all the adventures we have had in the past few weeks.

From Franz Joseph we had another amazingly spectacular drive to a small ski resort called Wanaka. The town had a very wealthy, apres ski kind of feel to it. Wanaka is on a lake and surrounded by mountains. We arrived in the afternoon, the skys were blue the air was still and the mountain and lakes stunning. Neil thinks that they view could well have ruined the Lake District for him forever. We stayed in a backpackers called The Purple Cow - by far the best view so far. As I mentioned before, Wanaka is a ski resort and as we arrived in summer and neither of us ski anyway, there was plenty of time for admiring the views. a few days rest is definately what we needed after the grueling time we had on the Franz Joseph. It took Neil a full 3 days to feel as if his legs were his again. I however, went out for a run the day after.....

From Wanaka we travelled on the Scenic Highway to Queenstown - party central of the South Island. The home of AJ Hackett of Bungy Jump fame. Nothing too extreme for us. No bunjyeeeeee, no paragliding, no sky diving, just the 780 metre climb up Queenstown Hill along the Ben Lomond Track to the adventure park at the top of the hill. There is a cable car that will take you to the top for the grand price of $25 each (round 10 pounds) but Neil and I had made a pact that if you could climb to a view point then we would do. So off we went, the climb was pretty difficult with no flat areas to catch your breathe! But 45 minutes later and twenty pounds richer we were rewarded with the most spectacular views of Queenstown and the Remarkables mountain range. Due to our triftiness we were able to do the luge ride!! The evening entertainment for the Rogersons is a very mature game of Scabble....yes I can hear you all laughing. Alison, who's spelling is so poor she did not want to change her name after she got married because Rogerson has quite a lot of letters in it and is quite hard to spell. And Neil, who's vocabulary and spelling is quite good but maturaty level is quite low went faced with letters he can made a rude word from, even if other letters are available. However, it has been entertaining - probably more for the other people in the hostels that have witnessed our games.

Onward from Queenstown we drove down to Te Anau, yes you have guessed it another beautiful small town on a lake! Te Anau is the gateway for the Kepler Track one of the Great Walks in New Zealand. The Keplaer track is a four day walk and as we have discussed aready we are not 4 day walk kind of people. We did do a full day on the track and walked a grand total of 26Km - I can hear the gasps from here!! Neil and I are turning into superhumans! We would be fit and slim by now if it wasn't for New Zealand dairy! The ice creams here are, quire frankly rude! For around $1 you can choose from about 30 different flavours, the kiwis have no idea of portion control and loads up those cones......delicious but deadly for the waistline.

I am going to try to up load some photos now - so until next time....

So we all know that Alison is into the more out there activities - we all remember the free fall sky drive, the white water rafting and of course the squad biking Hen Doo. But as a married women and a "been there, done that kind" of person, Neil thought that he was safe in the knowledge that his new wife had done all the crazy sports that can put you in mortal danger and that they would be safe going to NZ, the adventure sports capital of the world. There would be no zorbing, no bungee jumping, no paragliding, free falling, canyoning, caving or any other crazy "sports". Oh how wrong one man can be.

Heading down the west coast of the South Island and driving into glacier country. The first township is Franz Joseph, settled due to the Franz Joseph glacier, one of many on the NZ Alps, but the most famous due to it proximity to town. Franz Joseph is a very small township that consists of two streets each about 300 metres long. One street is purely accomodation and the other full of tour operators selling trips up onto the glacier via a number of different modes of transport. The first thing that strikes you about Franz Joseph is of course the beauty of the township in the middle of a vast range of mountains but also how noisy the place is. Helicopters take off every few minutes taking the rich, non backpacker types for the 25 minute flight over the Franz Joseph glacier and onward to Mount Cook. A very quick way of spending 200 pounds.

The Rogerson's (well Alison mainly) chose to do a full days guided glacier walk in a small group of 10. So on another stunningly beautiful day, blue skies and not a breath of wind at 8am we started our day out on the glacier. We were kitted out with all the equipment, boots, crampons, goretex jackets, hats, gloves, sunscreen and best off all ice axes.

It takes about 45 mins to walk up to the front of the glacier where you are met with a vertical wall of ice that you have to climb in order to get onto the glacier itself. This seems like a daunting task but it is made so much easier by the fact that the guides are out at sunrise cutting ice steps into the shear face for you to climb up. Whatever those guides get paid, it is not enough, they work so hard and seem to have a real passion for what they are doing. The guides fill you with confidence that you will be able to climb the glacier and make you feel like Scott of the Antartic.

You spend the first half of the day climbing up onto the glacier and then stop for lunch, wave good bye to all the folks that are on the half day walk and then proceed up into the blue ice walls of the glacier. What an unforgetable experience that was. Vertical shear walls of blue, blue ice 30 - 40 metres high on both sides. You squeeze through gaps in the ice walls not much wider than the key board you are looking at! Amazing...... At times you are up to your waist in ice cold water, in an ice cave so narrow that you are unable to out one foot in front of the other and have to this kind of Franz Joseph shuffle. The whole day was an experience that I will never forget and one that I am so glad that we did. More emotionally challenging then I ever though a day walk could be, neither of us thought it as physically challenging, mostly due to the fact you were trying to keep safe and out of danger (a pretty hard thing to do up there when you can hear the ice groaning). At times more touching the cloth than touching the void! We were close to the oldest people on the trip and I have no doubt in my mind that it was a now or never trip.

After nine hours on the ice, numerous cuts and grazes, exhausted and aching we are returned to the township for a well deserved pub of something very cold.

On the road again and steaming down the east coast of the South Island, you really do start to get the feeling you are in a place with a much smaller population. All of a sudden there are warning that you should fill up your petrol tank as there is no petrol station for the next 200km's. The towns are far more spread and the frequency of populated areas is less. You are in the wilderness for long periods of time!

We did the 4 hour drive from Nelson to a place called Punakiki (Poon-a-ki-kee). It is famed for the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. Very dramatic when you visit at high tide. The rocks are all layered and really do look like stacks of pancakes. The sea has weathered away some of the rock and it has left huge holes in the formations, the waves come in and shoot up the holes in the rocks, thus blow holes. Hard to imagine but check out the pictures....

Apart form the Pancake Rocks there really is nothing else to see or do in Punakiki unless you are into bush walking (which we have discovered, we are not. Nice paths and beautiful views for us only and if you could put a cafe at the end of the walk with toilet facilities that would be great!)

So from Punakiki we head in the pouring rain down the coast to Hokitiki (Hock-e-te-ke), you've guessed, another very small town. The weather is amazing in New Zealand - not only are they pretty hopeless at forecasting but you can leave one town in the worst rain with the thickest, blackest cloud that you think will never clear, and drive just 1 hour down the coast and be in a town with brilliant blue skies with not a breath of wind or a wisp of cloud in the sky. And that is what we did. Hokitiki is only a couple of hours from Punakiki but the weather was lovely.

The town is very small with 1 row of shops and a supermarket but the longest beach. Hokitiki is famed for the Jade stones in the area and you are able to carve your own jewellery, this is not an activity that appealed to me at all - jewellery, in my opinion should be bought for you!

The lodge we stayed in was owned by a British couple and had the most stunning sea view. So after a fantastic sun set and a good nights sleep we hit the road again for Franz Joseph and glacier country!

From Kiakoura we drove back towards Blenhiem and Picton and up over the Queen Charlotte Driveway, which give the most stunning views of the Malborough Sounds to Nelson. One of the largest towns on the South Island Nelson was beautiful.

We stayed at a hostel called Abode of the Budda. A beautiful period property on the outskits of town and possibly the most peaceful lodge we have stayed in to date. Run by a lovely lady called Cynitha who is a Buddist and has a love of Tibet and Tibetian art. The house had a calm air about it and we felt so at home. So much so Neil adopted Cynithia's dog. A 2 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier (the softest dog you will ever meet) called Sophie. On the first night, after dinner, I asked Neil whether he would like to go for a walk, that word alone sent Sophie into a doggy fit!!! I have never seen anything like it in all my life, the dog got so excited, ran around in circles chasing her tail, jumping up on her back legs with her ears flapping! Very funny. So that was that for the next three days in Nelson we took the dog almost everywhere with us. I am a little concerned that Ollie will loose his place in the family and be replaced by a dog!

Nelson is a lovely town and a place that seems to inspire artists, as such it has a very arty feel, loads of small galleries and potteries to look at. It is also home to the geographical centre of NZ which is at the top of a steep hill with great view across the area. Sophie loved her walk uo there!

The highlight for us was the Nelson Market which gave us a great opportunity to stock up on some locally grown produce before hitting the road again.

We had a great time in Nelson, beautiful weather and a place we were able to sit and formulate our plans for the rest of the South Island. So until next time....