So Long Summit

Two months in NZ...must be Queenstown

Queenstown is the adventure capital of NZ - if you raise your eyes to roof level or up to the skyline you can usually see a  kiwi at altitude - often secured to a bungy chord, parachute or sometimes with no attachment whatsoever. Mostly they are preparing to chuck themselves off, but sometimes they just seem to like the height!

We liked Queenstown a lot, despite its trendiness - the setting is stunning; its a combination of Keswick and Fort William with a bit of South Kensington stirred in. We say its definitely one of the places we would head back to if we return to NZ at any point (along with Kerikeri, Devonport, Coromandel, Wellington coast line, Kaikoura and Akoroa) and wished we had had more than 4 nights there. We were able to find a really fine noodle bar and a first rate chippy (ah the simple pleasures).

Our plan was to finish our stay in the very South of New Zealand with at least one really big climb on the bike. We had our eye on two possible climbs ie into Milford Sound and/or over Crown Range. As we only had 3 full days in Queenstown we chose the biggest climb over the highest sealed road in NZ - Crown Range. We climbed to over 1000 metres it was a long hot day in the saddle but we managed it after a few stops for oxygen and CPR. There are of course much bigger climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees (not to mention the Andes, Rockies and Himalaya's) but we could not have gone higher in NZ on a sealed road. We were well chuffed. We were the only cyclists on the moutain that day. On our out and back ride stopped briefly at a little place called Arrowtown (in gold rush country). This is a really charming little place and again we said we would have liked to spend more time there.

While in Queenstown we stayed at another Top Ten site; on our second day there we spotted the German couple that we had met on a hill top in Wanganui. They looked terrifically fit. Apart from Mark calling out
"4-1, Geof Hurst and long live sterling" from behind bushes, we avoided any contact with them. Seriously if they had cycled the length of the South Island they had done really, really well - very impressive.

We used our last full day in Queenstown to go and have a look at Milford Sound, a fabled vista and area in Fjiordland on the South West Corner of NZ. We think the area was heavily featured in Lord of the Rings movies. We decided to fly their and take a day cruise as to drive would have been over 10 hours in the car. We booked a place on a small charter plane, only to be advised later on in the day that because of weather coming in we would not have time to do the cruise. This put most other people off and the we were the only two people who turned up. Hank the boss man paired us up with Rupert the pilot - who looked about 16 - and we strapped ourselves in to a well worn Cesna prop plane.Rupert was great. Everything was going well until after about 20 minutes into the flight the horizon darkened notably and turbulence hit us big time and Hank came on the radio saying that we had to come back . The weather had deteriortated markedly and it was impossible to proceed. Sad. Still we got a full refund which was great and we got to fly over the Queenstown area and had a good luck for orks and hobbits.

From Queenstown we drove the long west coast route back to Blenhiem; it was a massive drive in terrible weather. We took that route because we wanted to see the glaciers on the West coast. We stopped briefly at Fox's glacier. We had a quick lick to see if it was minty and scouted for urbane Polar Bears but it was too cold and wet to stay long - it was an impressive apocalyptic site; very, very cold in surrounds of relentless mist and grey and white slabs of ice and rock.

We stayed in Blenheim and apart from one incident of spectacularly ugly bit of manouvering by a fellow driver off the ferry we had an uneventful crossing to Wellington the next day. We headed for New Plymouth to look at Mt Taranaki and possibly ride a route around it. The moutain is impressive, similar in profile to Mt Fuji or Kilimanjaro but not as high. The wind during our stay there was ferocious and at the visitor centre there were warnings for hurricane like blasts toward the summit. We mooched up to the viewing platform on foot but that was as far as we could go.

The site where we stayed was choc full of people with push bikes and we found out from our neighbour that the ride we had planned to do was the basis for a very big and organised public cycling event. We were tempted to enter but the roads were not closed to traffic and the wind was horrendous. We opted not to join in - our neighbour thought we made a good choice as he said that the riders - even the pro;s - said they had never cycled in anything like it.

We drove from New Plymouth to Devonport. On the way we took a detour to Raglan, the Newquay of NZ. We only stayed briefly as it was heaving but it seemed like a pretty chilled place.

We stayed a couple of nights with Gwenda and Pete at Ducks Crossing Cottage and met a range of fellow travellers - really good people. We took the bikes to bits (needed some help from the local bike shop to loosen the pedals) and packed them up. We dropped all our stuff off at the airport, took the hire car back (no damage or probs - hurrah!). Air New Zealand people were A1 giving us advice on how to adjust our packing and luggage to avoid extra costs. Whilst waiting to board the flight to LA we were addressed by a very excited hispanic NZ oppo who reminded us on several occassions that we were about to board a new 777 and how fab this was; on one occassion he invited us to "sniff" the plane !

Goodbye and thankyou NZ - you were good to us and your people were friendly and kind. Your country is beautiful and your weather was fab.(although we reckon that the UK can still give NZ a run for its money!). You health service was fab too. However we will not miss all your adverts on TV - Dick Smith, Noel Leeming,  and co.  - and your sandflies, and the price of your wine. Meer quibbles.