Saturday morning - we took the bus into town, then caught the shuttle out to the early morning Interislander ferry over to the South Island. The ferry is huge, can accomodate over 1500 people and has about six decks, several restaurants, a movie theatre, viewing decks and vast garages.
Initially, the slight side-to-side motion of the boat surprised us, but we soon got used to that. Livi, being a teenager with a healthy appetite, soon wanted breakfast but unfortunately, half way into the meal the ferry reached an area known as the Karori Rip, leading into the Cook Straits - where two currents meet, greet and clash! Wild heaving followed, both on the part of the boat and many people around us .. including my darling daughter. Poor things ... but once we were over the Strait and heading down Tory Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound, things improved. We saw salmon farms, dolphins frolicking, and awesomely beautiful scenery! At the end of the three-hour trip, we landed at Picton.
Picton is a wee one-horse town describing itself as the GateWay To The South Island. We had an hour and a half wait there for the train, so we went walkabout, which took all of about twenty minutes! The most interesting thing was the Souvenier Shop / Cinema / Aquarium / Dairy - an all-in-one establishment on the tiny waterfront. Neither of us had ever heard of any of the movies currently playing!
From Picton, we took the TranzCoastal train down to Christchurch. It was a fairly comfortable five hour trip - there was a young Chilean student opposite us, spending a year in New Zealand and attending school in some little rural town in the middle of North Island. A lot of the scenery reminded us of various South African locations .. like Paarl and Stellenbosch mainly. The most dramatic scenery was at Kaikoura, normally famed for whale-watching, where most unusually, snow-capped mountains, palm trees and white beaches nestled close together.
One cool thing we found on this trip are the Shuttles - the NZ version of the SA minibus taxi! Usually seating up to a dozen passengers, they are always waiting outside train stations and airports and you can catch a ride anywhere. $5.00 from the station to the backpackers - via several other drop-off points and a detour to find an ATM so I could have cash to pay the $5.00. Very silent, but very helpful driver!!We spent a night at Dorset House Backpackers in ChCh, then left very early the next morning for Queenstown - the Adventure Capital of New Zealand! The flight was smooth and quick, and awesome! We crossed the Southern Alps then flew down Lake Wakatipu and into Queenstown.
Ah, Queenstown!! I fell in love with the place almost instantaneously! There is just something about this creative, vibey little town, nestled amidst a ring of snow-capped mountains and around a deep blue lake ... we caught a shuttle into town, and dropped our stuff at the backpackers lodge, a nice-enough place with a great view of the lake (actually, there is almost nowhere that doesn't have a lake and mountain view!).
From there, we walked into town, then found our way up to the Skyline Gondola and Luge. Apart from the ski-fields and the Shotover Jet, this has to be one of the top (ha ha!) attractions.
Walking into Queenstown from Bumbles Backpackers
Then we rode The Luge! Up-up-up on the chairlift and down again at top speed!
(I have now tried to load a stunning picture of QT from the top of the mountain three times, with no success, so am giving up!! Follow the earlier link to QT itself and you'll see some beautiful pictures of the town and surrounding areas!)
The next morning, we caught a bus (NakedBus dot Com) back to ChCh. Nine hours on the road in rather dismal and gloomy weather. It's a no-frills bus which stops at tiny little towns deep in the southern countryside for tea and toilet breaks .. like this delightful place - Merino Country Cafe!
Riding through the mountains was a lot like the mountainous area outside Worcester in the Cape. Later, though, the landscape flattened out and became almost arid ... then we hit the lake region (apparently most of those huge lakes are man-made to supply water to the farms). We reached ChCh at dusk and in the rain! Didn't have a clue where the backpackers was, but happily there was in i-Site not far off who directed us. Being the tough Welly girls we now are, we hoofed it thru wind and rain for twenty minutes and found it quite easily - ChCh is a very English kind of town, neatly laid out and very flat. Hot showers and supper were very welcome!
The next day we had the morning in ChCh and we did a mini tourist trail thru the central area, looking at the famous Cathedral, gardens and lots of shops!! Then it was off to the airport and an early afternoon flight back to Welly.
Well, blogger is being a pain and refusing to co-operate, so I'm going to stop there for now. I'll refer you to my Flickr photostream where I posted about forty other pics from the trip, so for more, go here: :-)) The trip was too short by far, but one thing I know already is that I would love, love, LOVE to settle in QT one day. :-))) It is so my kind of town!!
