44.7000° S, 169.1500° E - Skydive, Wanaka

A skydive has always been on the bucket list for me. However as it came closer and closer to the actual possibility of me jumping out of a plane it didn't seem so appealing! After a brief price enquiry the lady told me there was a spot to jump at 11am that day. It was 10.20 am, so I did it, and it was the best thing ever! I jumped 15,000 ft and in 60 seconds of free fall fell 3600m, falling 60m a second.My nerves were calmed as my tandem jumper was called Kim, I called him Kim Kardashian. He first jumped at the age of nine and was the youngest skydiver in Europe (or so he said), but he had already jumped seven times that day, so I figured he was in a good state of mind. I got the whole shabang package due to fear and just paid whatever so it was booked. But my skydive video is far too embarrassing and ugly to ever have featured on KUWT, none of the K's, Bruce, Scott or the kiddies would have ever had the hamster cheeks that donned my face. 

42.6000° S, 171.4000° E - West Coast Camping

Lake Hokitika

                           

Franz Joseph Glacier

Lake Paringa

    

The Haast Pass

We picked up our campervan in Christchurch and headed off to the west coast. Within less than an hour we had hit rural NZ and once again practically deserted towns. We passed through Arthur's Pass whilst managing to dodge the Kea's (intelligent birds, parrot like, that can rip the seels from car windows etc). Theses 'passes' are essentially the main roads between the east and west of the South Island. Arthur's Pass takes you through the Southern Alps and it is named after explorer  Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson who found the pass after a a Maori Chief told him of a pass that Maori hunters used. At the end of the scenic mountain drive you get to the rugged West Coast. 

We stayed in Hokitika which is about 60km from Greymouth, by a beautiful DOC (Departnent of Conservation Campsite). The west coast has the most amazing scenery we have seen. Imagine dense  forest with ferns and palm trees which look straight out of the scenery of Jurassic Park, just sat beside icy blue lakes in which the water has trickled from the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. 

The Franz Josef  is a 12 km long glacier and just 12 miles further south is Fox Glacier. The Māori name for Franz Josef glacier is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere ('The tears of Hinehukatere'), arising from a local legend: Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hinehukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier. We saw the Franz Josef glacier. However from afar as our pockets didn't quite stretch to a guided walk on the ice. Fifty years ago the glacier would have been where this picture was taken from. And the piles of rocks are from the constant changes that cause the rock forms and due to the Alpine fault line that runs underneath the glaciers. 

About 70km south you enter the Haast Pass, another pass at the bottom of the Southern Alps. This drive was No.1 on our three week tour, passing lakes and icy blue water, we even spotted a pod of dolphins on the shore line. The West Coast was certainly full of lots and after a few mornings of washing in the lakes we headed onto the bright lights on Wanaka. 

12 Reasons to travel New Zealand in a Campervan

1. Tea Breaks

No no you don't have to be confined to the little roadside cafes. Pull up where you like, by a lake, the sea, next to a mountain and enjoy that cuppa.

2. Scenery

So pretty. 

3. DOC Campsites

Conservation campsites that only cost about 7 Dollars per person a night, that are located in the most beautiful spots. 

4. Raglan Beach

Black Volcanic Sand on this surf beach on North Island.

5. Lakes

I've never seen so many lakes, Paringa, Wanaka, Tekapo, Taupo.

6. Glaciers

Theres not too many places where you can see TWO glaciers on route from a sky dive in Abel Tasman to a Bungy jump in Queenstown. 

7. The Catlins

Beaches and tranquility at the Southern most point of South Island - next stop Antartica. 

8. Jurassic Park

On the West Coast and the Hasst Pass you wouldn't be surprised to see a T-Rex strolling through the glacial rivers and a teradactal flying overhead. 

9. Food

Fried Bananas for brekky, fried egg sarnie for lunch and a Kiwi pie for a road trip snack (even from McDonalds). 

10. Road Trip Music

Blur, Arcade Fire, Bombay Bicycle Club, Mystery Jets, Stevie Wonder, REM.

11. Juicy Game

A Kiwi take on the British Classic - Punch if you see an Eddie Stobart Lorry. See one of these jazzy vans and first one to punch the other in the arm is the winner. There's lots of them - arms get bruised.  

12. The Kiwi Experience

Just because you aren't one of them.

43.5300° S, 172.6203° E - Christchurch

Marlborough Sound

        

      

Beer Festival in CHCH

The Container Mall

Christchurch Cathedral Post Earthquake

The Cardboard Cathedral

The Memorial for the 2011 Earthquake 

CTV Site 

We headed off to Christchurch early doors and got the ferry over to Picton, passing through the Marlborough sound. We stayed with the eldest of the Charlick's, Sam, who kindly took us to a beer festival in central Christchurch on the saturday. On the sunday we went for a mooch in the city centre. 

In 2011 185 people died after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the city. Today the centre of Christchurch is all slighty bizarre which is to be expected after the earthquake, there are shops still standing which look still in tact but have been abandoned since the day of the earthquake due to structural damage. We passed a theatre which looked as though it had been cut in half, such as you see with a model building you can see straight to the back of the theatre where the rows of seats are still intact. The stage has fallen away, so that now the play that is unfolding is the rebuilding of the city. 

Despite this tragedy the atmosphere in the city is warm and welcoming. The damage has been created into makeshift venues, such as The Pallet Pavillion and The Smash Bar. In the February 2011 earthquake the cathedral was famously destroyed as shown in the pictures above. So they built a temporary new cathedral that was opened August 2013. It is predominantly made of massive cardboard tubes. It's really cool and hopefully will always stay there, the people who used to volunteer in the old cathedral now come here. 

Across the road from the Cardboard Cathedral is the memorial to the 185 people that died in the 2011 earthquake. Each empty chair represents each person that is now absent since the disaster. Just over the road from the memorial is the CTV site. This marks the spot where the CTV building used to stand and in this one building 115 people died when it collapsed. Oh and we also saw two wizards having a nice coffee and a catch up....sometimes potions just don't cut it like coffee ey!