Sydney

Day 44

We woke to a gorgeous morning, perfect for exploring Sydney,  After wandering over to the other side of Darling Harbour we bought a Captain Cook Hop on Hop Off Tour.  Before jumping on the boat we walked to Madame Tussauds, where Claire found her favourite star.

We were soon off on our way, jetting down the Harbour on the fast boat.

Taking in some of the major tourist attractions

Sydney Bridge

Opera House

The City

Shark Island

Watson's Bay

 Eventually we jumped off at Watson's Bay,  This was a beautiful marina with a gorgeous beach. We headed up to The Gap. This is where the Cliffs of Sydney bay meet the pacific ocean.

After some lunch we headed back to Sydney Harbour to catch the boat to Manly. However we did get a chance do a couple of jump shots outside the Opera House.  We arrived in Manly and we were quite disappointed.  It was really crowded and the beach was not as nice as the one we had seen earlier in the day.

Manly Beach

Sydney

Day 44

Before flying out to Australia we headed into Christchurch for one last look.  We went to the regeneration street, which is made up of shipping containers.  We had a quick coffee, and sent some postcards.  I am not sure if any of the previous ones sent have made it home yet.

After a 3 hour flight then catching various modes of transport we arrived at our AirBnB accommodation.  I very nice flat overlooking darling harbour.  Our hosts are a very nice Belgium Couple who are very helpful.

                                   

We had a quick look round the harbour and then straight to bed, shattered.

Floating Santa's on Daring Harbouor

Christchurch

Day 43

After chilling out in the morning we headed to the Canterbury Museum, a free place to visit. It was quite good actually.  The museum had exhibits from the Hallet Antarctic expeditions:

A biodiversity section which included a sample sink hole you could crawl through!


There was an example of an old christchurch street - including old penny farthing and horse which you could try - with parental guidance!!

Joined The NYPD Mounted Division!

And chinese and egyptian artefacts alongside information about geology and earthquakes and the problems of modern day life - including energy and waste.  Even better they had free wifi in 3 sections of the museum!

Ivan Maugers Speedway Bike

Somehow we also found ourselves in Paua house, and watching some rubbish film about 2 crazy people from New Zealand that decorated their whole house in paua shells.  We could not get out of there quick enough.

After the museum we had a very brief look around the botanical gardens. It was raining really heavily.

In the evening we went out for a curry.  I think 43 days is the longest I have gone without a curry since I was 18.  Although this place did not have chicken pakoras, which is a crime as far as I am concerned.

Christchurch

Day 42

It was a super early start 0600!  we were off wale watching and we were hoping luck would be on our side.  After a quick safety briefing we were on our way.

After about 20 min we were on route to spotting our first wale.  It was a sperm wale.  Apparently these things will eat anything, including sharks!

The iconic tale shot!

After about 10 minutes he disappeared down into the sea.  However our luck was in again as another wale was spotted about about a mile away.  This time it was a Hump Back Wale, it was jumping up and down in the water.  Unfortunately I missed the best shot, I was not quite on the right side of the boat.



Other sea life was spotted as well.

Sea lion

Dusky Dolphins.  They were right up by the side of the boat, just were I was stood.  The highlight of the day in my opinion.


Next was a 2 hour drive up to Christchurch, where we came within 5k of running out of fuel.  After a quick unpacking we headed off downtown, well what is left of it.  I fully appreciate the city was hit by 3 huge earthquakes 4 years ago.  However I had assumed most of it had been rebuilt, I was wrong. There is so much construction work going on, they are essentially rebuilding the city centre from scratch.

One of the many churches still under construction

In the huge earthquake 183 people lost their lives in the CCTV building.  Each one of these chairs represents someone that died.  They come in all shapes and sizes, just like the people that were lost.  There is also a sign that says this display  is temporary, as is  life.  

Regenerated part of the city, kind of reminded me of San Francisco

This is church made out of re-enforced cardboard, It was pretty impressive.

Kiakuru

Day 42

Kiakuru

After saying our goodbye to Duncan and Danielle, who we will catch up with in the UK. There was a 5 hour drive up to Kiakuru, where we hope to go whale, dolphin and orca spotting tomorrow   There was a interesting bit of the Journey, lets just say I will never look the same way at a Mcdonalds drinks carton again.

In the afternoon we had a very brief swim in sea, it was freezing.  However it was pretty hot on the beach, shorts and T-Shirt weather.  A sign of things to come, when we leave New Zealand it will be hot all the way home, hopefully!!

Lake Tekapo

Day 41

A pic from their website, 

First up was a ride on a jet boat!  This was essentially a flat bottom speed boat that went very close to rocks bridges  basically anything that stuck out of the water or its edge.  It was a pretty good ride, although not as scary as I though it would be.

Jedi Claire in her waterproofs, before boarding the speed boat.

After a couple of hours drive we arrived at Lake Tekapo.  The main reason to visit this area is because it is the largest dark night sky reserve in the world.  This means the views of the stars are amazing.  We had planned a trip up to the  Mount John Observatory n the evening where you would get some of the best view.

Lake Tekapo

Before our trip up we booked into our own private 6 bed chalet.  We had arrange to meet Duncan and Danielle here, who we met in puzzle world.  First on the agenda was to stock up on beer,  myself and Duncan bought 2 crates.  The girls had said one would be enough, however they were proved wrong.

The weather on the hand was not looking good, very windy, cloudy and a bit of rain.  Either way we were picked up at 22:45 and headed up to the observatory.  We were on our second crate of beer by now.  Anyway there was too much cloud and it was very windy so there was very little to see. 

Moa

 After a brief look round the MOA telescope the trip had to be abandoned as it was too windy.  We did however get a full refund.  We also had a great laugh with Duncan and Danielle, so it was a good day all round.

It  was also really cold!  I personally wore two hoodies, two jackets and a beenie!

Queenstown

Day 40

This morning we headed out to undertake white water rafting on the Shotover River.  The river was a grade 5, which is is the highest grade you can commercially raft at. This means it was going to be rough and tough.  One of the worrying aspects was that our insurance only covered us to grade 2 river, so any injuries would not be covered.

Before we got there we got driven down skippers canyon which is a pretty frightening  drive in its self.

Before we hit the water there was a safety brief, were Claire decided it was not for her.  Which was fair enough as it was a very tough.  The river had various rapids known as Ow Shit, Mother in Law, Cascade, The Rock Garden, Aftershock, Pinball, Jaws, Jaws the sequel and many more.

There were 7 boats in total and it was not long before people were being ejected from the boat.  At the first rapid, the rock garden a girl in the boat got shot out of the boat as they hit a huge dip in the rapid.  I nearly flipped out there myself as I had not properly hooked my feet in well enough.

Then just round the next bend the boat in front got stuck near a huge rock and the sheer power of the water flipped it.  This is the worse case scenario, the people in the boat pooped up right in front of us.  The look on one of the girls faces was of sheer shock and fright.

The last rapid was a full on grade 5, called the cascade.  This involved going through a pitch black tunnel and within 5 seconds of leaving it you were onto the huge rapid.  We were briefed before hand that we all had to get into the centre of boat, get into the brace position, cover your head and hang on. - no padding required.  All I can say is that it was like being thrown backwards and forwards and lots of sudden jolts (worse than being in a car with a learner driver!).  To be honest I was expecting the raft to flip at any moment. My aeroplane brace position was obviously not good enough as my face slammed into the back of the guy in front. It bloody hurt, very fortunately I was okay ( would have been a expensive hospital bill).  The same boat that flipped earlier suffered the same fate on this rapid it was a bad day at the office for those guys.