The Two Tragedies

Below was my original opening to this blog but since recent events I have decided to add some words for the people who tragically died in Fox on the skydive, they were brave enough to put their name down for the skydive and it ultimately ended their lives………my heart goes out to them and their families. The plane that crashed upon takeoff was the same plane I boarded but a week earlier with the same instructors who also lost their lives. On the same day the biggest Earthquake that NZ has seen ripped through Christchurch decimating the CBD leaving the town without electricity, water and sewage facilities, again heart goes out to all the people affected by this, I am currently on the bus heading to Christchurch but will go all the way through to Kaikorra again due to their being no where to stay.



So reading my blog and seeing my pictures you probably think that travelling the world is all fun, sun, women and sangria…….well it is but there is a flip side to having the time of you life, it can be painful when you meet people who you really adore then they have to move on knowing that it is all likely that you will never see that person again. With the splitting of The Fellowship of the Kiwi bus it has given me the hardest goodbye so far, and when I say hard I mean I would of done anything in my power to keep this person with me but unfortunately she like me has a plan and has to stick to it, but this is one where I will go out of my way to see this person and it could be worse but Liverpool is not too far. So the last few days of being in Queenstown were quite sad and gloomy and not in the mood for anything but that is the story of meeting girls when you are travelling its not like meeting people in the real world its completely different and until now I have been very good at keeping feelings at bay but there is that time you meet someone who makes a huge impression on you and this is how you feel, it is gut wrenching and heartbreaking, it is so hard when they leave and that morning was the worst so far, it was a bit rushed as the night before was heavy and the morning was hurried it seemed like it went so quick it was over in a flash. Being the gentleman that I am I helped her take her 50+ kilos of clothes from Nomads to Base (5 min walk) then saw her off as the bus drove off, there was another guy like me Pearson who also had to see someone off but he took it a bit too seriously and started laying by the front wheels of the coach so she could not leave, that was a joke but I’m not far from the truth on that one. So this is how I am feeling now at the time of writting….and that is enough of that.






So got that off my chest now down to the who, what, why and when. Queenstown is a ski resort and winter time is big business here, people walk the streets all in their snow boarding gear carrying around their ski’s or snowboard a which makes a change from Australia where everybody walks around with a surf board. I almost want to gear up like in Dumb And Dumber and cruise the town looking like I can ski. Drinking and nightlife comes hand in hand with a ski resort and Queenstown at night is a hive of activity with pub crawls to Jaeger trains being organised by all he bars and hostels, it’s a hard place to leave as people get sucked into the whole nightlife vibe going on here, every night is like a Saturday night back home, even Mondays are potent. Ferg Burger (Or Fergern Bergern as Jen called it) is a famous burger house in the middle of Queenstown where everybody flocks to pre and post drunk and being open till 0400 helps the masses get sustenance after a night out. So far I have resisted the urge to Ferg up despite the cries from the rest of the people claiming it is the best burger they have ever tasted.

Queenstown is the birthplace of the bungee jump and on the bus we had a lady who works for AJ Hackett (Inventor and owner of Bungee jumping) and she organised a jump for Kris who was so petrified that at the weigh in he was dry retching and even after completing the tandem jump with Kate he walked towards us like an extra from Shawn Of The Dead who couldn’t talk for an hour after that, even looking at his pictures and film we had a suspicion that he passed out when he got on the boat, I never have seen anyone so terrified in my whole life, it was like that scene in The Blair Witch Project…….I just hope he has a great dry cleaner. I have decided against doing any bungee jumps but if I was going to do one I would do the Nevis, 134 meters high and 8.5 seconds of freefall but at $250 I am going to give it a miss.

To break up the constant drinking that was occurring in Queenstown and detoxify our livers we decided to rent a car and head around the bottom of New Zealand, the car was a Nissan Sunny that was about as potent as a Eunuch especially when compared to the 4.0 litre beast (Lemiwinks) that I roamed around Australia in, downgrading a car is like getting a demotion at work I was back at the bottom of the food group with old ladies overtaking me as the car could barley hit 60mph and when you could get it faster i.e. downhill with a head wind I thought the wheels were about to fall off.

The scenery as we left QT was truly spectacular and is everything you could imagine, it is just like watching Lord Of The Rings (filmed in NZ) with everything having a backdrop of snow covered mountains with the rolling green hills looking like the Teletubbies native land but on steroids as everything in NZ is big……..even the bumble bees. Like the weather the scenery can change dramatically with all 4 seasons being seen on one day the scenery can change from snow topped mountains to grassland to lakes that reflect the landscape like a mirror.

On a funny note one of the people travelling with us on the road trip I can not for the life remember her name and every time I want to speak have to hope to gain eye contact from the driver seat, as a rule if it has passed 2 days after knowing someone it is the height of rudeness to ask their name, im hoping that one of the others will tell me……………..alas they have, Elener……..I probably will forget this in a few hours, I did.

The first stop was Dunedin which was a pretty town that reminded me a lot of Adelaide as the place was full of churches, after walking around town we headed back and in the morning we visited the worlds most steepest road that at its steepest point goes 1 in 2.86 and let me tell you it is steep, cars that attempted it left a stench of burning clutch plate and ground brakes, we were told by some locals how juveniles will always launch tires, wheelie bins and anything that will slide down the hill to the annoyance of the residents. After walking up and down we drove to the peninsula and took the high road (Which we were warned it was dangerous) but really it was just a really bendy road that had a few hundred foot drop but it was nothing compared to how Joe local made it out to be. The way back we took the low road which was just as windy but less the 200 foot drop.

The weather around the bottom end was completely different to Queenstown, the wind coming from the Artic could cut through an unlimited amount of layers and this is what we found in Invercargile.

Our next stop was for the Caitlins for walks but the weather was not with us so we drove and drove until someone made a descion and we stopped off in a town and a lady at the local store told us how she owns her own backpackers…….cue jokes about being murdered, raped and tortured, these jokes got less and less funny as we headed further and further into the wilderness through the bush over unsealed roads (cue rally style slide), finely we arrived there and the place looked like I should be writing a book there, go insane, take a shower, rub the lotion into its skin and hangout with Scatman Crothers in the hedge maze after having dinner with Norman Bates mother in the attic…………..hold on who is that standing outside my door, oh it’s the manage…..ljdifjsnllssfsghsfsldlsl