05/12– 6 nights in Sydney

Having reached the furthest point of our travels in New Zealand, we are now slowly working our way back to our inevitable reunion with the UK and life back in the real world. We stopped over in Sydney for 6 nights and will then move on to Melbourne and Singapore before checking in with my family in Kuala Lumpur and our flight back to Blighty. This series of big cities signals our winding down, with nowt else to do but plenty of eating, shopping and the occasional bit of leisurely site seeing.

Sydney is famed for being one of the great world cities (whatever that’s supposed to mean) and I hoped it would do much to dispel the less than fond memories of my last visit to Australia. Thirteen years old at the time, I went on a road trip with my parents from Darwin down to Ayers Rock. Anyone familiar the northern territory will know that this was never a great idea, and all that I remember of this are endless miles of red dust, flies, blistering heat and even more blistering rows as we argued over directions (this was the pre tom-tom era) from the confines of our rented Ford Taurus.  In the end, we never made it to Ayers rock, aborting the road trip due to crack in the windscreen…though I think the cracks in everyone’s patience played just a big a part in the decision.

I had a pretty clear idea of what to expect from Sydney; a sunshine harbour city that is cosmopolitan yet sporty. I imagined it to be a place inhabited by the beautiful people, strapping surf dudes and leggy blondes. I obviously didn’t get the memo that Sydney had been annexed by China. Such is the proliferation of Chinese and Asians that there were times in downtown Sydney that it felt like we were back in Hong Kong again! This was no bad thing, however, as we were missing Asia and this halfway house offered more opportunities for some top notch Vietnamese and Chinese food.

Unfortunately, there’s not much else of interest to show or say about our stay in Sydney as it was all very pleasant but also terribly generic. We visited the Sydney Opera house, and caught a riveting performance by the Chinese Folk Orchestra, wet our feet on Manly beach, visited various museums, galleries and markets and ate some fantastic Vietnamese and Chinese food thanks to Leanne, Si Phong’s friend and our gracious local guide. It probably speaks volumes about what we’ve been getting out of our final fortnight that the highlight of our time in Sydney was the lobster noodles that we had on the last night…which easily knocked Bayswater’s Mandarin Kitchen in to a cocked hat.

We did manage a day trip to the Blue Mountains, another UNESCO World Heritage site. As you can see from the photographs, we didn’t get to see a heck of a lot on account of the heavy fog.

30/11–Leaving New Zealand

We’re back in Christchurch, having completed our loop of the Southern Isle. Given all that we’ve seen and done over the past three weeks, it was rather a strange feeling ending up right back where we’d started for our flight out to Sydney. But on the upside, after three weeks of eating in hostels and burger bars, it gave us the opportunity to unleash our pent up food cravings, embarking on a 24 hour orgy of asian food that will leave local restaurants depleted of sashimi and bibimbap for many months to come.

Being “the country after China”, New Zealand always had a very tough act to follow. Initially, it felt like something of a come down, coming from the crazy, epic and chaotic rush of China to the tranquil lushness of New Zealand’s south island, which at times felt eerily like the United Kingdom. However, to bang on too much about this would be to do New Zealand a massive disservice. Once we got in to our groove here, we found New Zealand’s south island to be a beautiful place that’s filled with friendly people and many unforgettable experiences.

Don’t even think about trying to do New Zealand in a fortnight, unless you’re prepared to make some big compromises. There’s no point having all of this stunning scenery if its just whizzing past you from a coach window. Best to take at least a month out so that you can spend some quality time in the nice spots, of which there are many.

There are some countries where one visit is enough, but the not so with New Zealand. There are so many things that we didn’t get to fully explore, such as the many 4-5 day walks and Fjiordland. It’d also be a fantastic place for a cycle tour and we met a Canadian guy in Tekapo who was doing just that. We’ll be back one day, I’m sure.

28/11–Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park

At over 3500 meters high, Mount Cook is New Zealand’s highest peak. It was used by the celebrated Kiwi, Sir Edmund Hillary, as a base for training while he prepared to become the first man to climb Everest. It is not a mountain to be trifled with and the remembrance books at the visitor centre document the many lives that the mountain claims each year.

As we had a couple of nights in nearby Lake Tekapo, we were able to take a day trip to the Mt Cook national park. Of course, we neither had the skills, the equipment or the bottle to get up the mountain itself, but there were plenty of walking trails at the base, where under Mt Cook’s baleful stare one could soak up the views without risking life and limb.

Having navigated around lakes Tekapo and Pukake, the remaining drive to Mt Cook is along a flat valley bordered by mountains. In previous weeks, we’d had glimpses of Mt Cook from the west coast on the Magic Bus, but it had always been from some distance away and partially obscured by the clouds and other closer peaks. Approaching the national park, Mt Cook was finally revealed to us in all of its glory, standing head and shoulders above its neighbours under a clear blue sky.

Despite my weasel words of assurance, Si Phong was quite rightly still not at ease with being out the wilds with me as her guide after the experience at Abel Tasman. We therefore opted for a nice, safe, four hour walk from the visitor centre over to the terminal end of the Hooker Glacier, at the foot of the mountain. Ever conscious of our 4pm pick up, any dallying or stopping for photographs was met with a deathly stare from my beloved, and a scathing reminder of the already costly compensation package that was owed to her upon our return to England.

So briskly we tramped along the valley floor, with nary a spare moment to take in the stunning views or rock, stream, flora and blue sky. When we reached our destination at the terminal end of the glacier, it was a quick 10 minutes to gulp down some sandwiches while small icebergs cracked and bobbed in the glacial lake in front of us, before a quick about turn and march back to the visitor centre.

I felt like a small dog on a leash, being dragged along by its impatient owner, when all I wanted to do was stop and have a good sniff around. But we got back with plenty of time to spare so it looks like it was a good call from the missus.

27/11–Dunedin and Lake Tekapo

We’d had a good long stay at Queenstown, but it was time to start working our way back to Christchurch for our flight to Sydney.

So back on the Magic Bus we got. Prior to Queenstown there’d been a fair few familiar faces each morning on the same itinerary, but our long stay in Queenstown meant that most people had already moved on and it was a fresh cast of characters on the bus.

Our next stop was Dunedin, a decent sized city (well, by South Island Standards) with a large student population. In fact, 40 odd years ago, Dunedin’s Otago University posed a dire threat to mine and my sister’s future existence…my Dad was due to move there from Malaysia to study his accountancy degree, but at the last minute changed his mind and went to England, where he met my mother. Out there somewhere, in a parallel universe, is a Chinese New Zealander, probably called Shane, who’s father is Sin Fook Chew and who has just gone travelling in the UK and blogged about how different life could have been if his father had studied in England!!!

Dunedin’s situated next to the Otago peninsular, a strip of land that juts out 30 kilometres in to the pacific ocean. The peninsular boasts a wealth of wildlife, including Albatross, Yellow Beaked Penguins, Fur Seals and Sea Lions, which we all got to see first hand on an evening wildlife tour. Unfortunately, I have no decent pictures to show as the little buggers were either too fast or too far away for my humble camera to deal with.

Moving on from the Dunedin, we spent our last two nights in New Zealand at Lake Tekapo. Just like Yangshuo in China, it was a perfect way to finish off our time in New Zealand.

There’s not of a heck of a lot to do in Tekapo, the town itself is tiny. In fact, it doesn’t even have a cashpoint, which necessitated some creative flexing of the credit cards in order to preserve enough cash in the wallet to pay for all the small stuff. However, that’s all good, as just walking the shores of the lake, smelling the pine cones and watching the Lupin and tall grass swaying in the breeze was pure food for the soul.

Lake Tekapo is a glacial fed lake and small particles of glacial silt suspended in the water lend it an icy light blue colour, quite spectacular when viewed against a backdrop of lush green hills and the purple and lilac Lupin flowers.

The McKenzie district, which Tekapo lies within, is named after an irrepressible Scot, who became infamous for rustling sheep from his neighbours and busting out of jail on numerous occasions. We heard numerous, slightly differing, stories of his various transgressions so he must have been quite the character.

This part of New Zealand has some of the clearest skies in the southern hemisphere and an observatory is situated at the top of Mount John, on the banks of Lake Tekapo. We’d already gotten wind from our fellow backpackers that an evening of star gazing on Mount John was not to be missed and duly signed up for an evening tour of the observatory.

Once again, we were very lucky with the weather, as we got up there on the first clear night in several days. It was a pure geek-out as the resident astronomers enthusiastically talked us through the night sky. Up there in the rarefied air, the night sky was revealed to us in all of its glory. We could see with the naked eye the international space station moving across the horizon, Jupiter, and also the stars of the milky way in such a proliferation that we thought they were clouds.

The astronomers told us of how the light from the stars were thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years old, owing to the vast distances being travelled, and that we were effectively looking back in time at the starlight. I felt once again, like a child, lost and wondering at the vastness of the universe, bittersweet in the knowledge that our own lives will be here and then gone in a blink of the eye and that of what little time we have, most of it will be spent twiddling with spreadsheets and writing yet more weekly frickin’ management reports.

25/11–Tramping up Ben Lomond

Here’s a few pictures from the hike (Kiwi’s call it Tramping) up Ben Lomond. The walk starts from Queenstown, so its a popular one for people staying in the area. Its not a long walk, maybe about 14kms to get up and back down, but there’s a fair bit of up hill to get to the 1700 metre summit.

This was another early morning raid, while Si Phong had lie in, so other than an other German walker, I pretty much had the place to myself again. The first third of the walk started in woodland, ascending up to the Skyline Gondola. This area is shared with Quad Bikers and MTB’s and I could see some fantastic looking trails running off the main access path.

Things opened up a bit once I got to the Gondola level, which is about 700m up. I now got on to the Ben Lomond track proper, which consists of two sections…a reasonably gentle climb on exposed grassland called the Ben Lomond saddle, followed by the steeper rockier ascent up to the peak.

Once I got past the saddle and on to the ascent, there were some great views of the Remarkables mountain ranges on the other side. Walking conditions were very good, but I couldn’t help feeling a little tightening of the chest, maybe because the climb felt surprisingly isolated considering that I could not have been more than 6kms from the town centre.

Being the highest peak near to Queenstown, the summit gave a 360 panorama of the whole area. Really, who needs to blow several hundred on a helicopter flight when you can be right up and in it with a good walk?

I got back down the mountain in double quick time. On the way down, I encountered many walkers heading up, in direct contrast to my solitary ascent. The walk took less than four hours as opposed to the 6-8 hours suggested in the visitor info, so I was able to meet Si Phong for lunch and a well earned reward of Queenstown’s famous Fergburger. A great walk with a nice, tasty end.

22/11– Moonlight track

Our six days in Queenstown gave Si Phong the chance for a bit of a lie in. Which of course gave me the option to get up at the crack of dawn to get stuck in to some quality bike time…oh yes!!!

Having chatted to the local bike shop, I decided on a 25 mile off road loop around Queenstown. This route took the road westwards out to the 7 mile bike park area, then headed north over a valley path along Lake Dispute and Moke Lake. The second half was along Moonlight track, which follows high along a steep gorge to Arthur’s point, from which a short road section takes you back to Queenstown.

Suffice to say that it was a great ride. The road section had some great views of Lake Wakatipu, I then jumped off on to some sweet singletrack at 7 Mile, though the big ride ahead meant I had to drag myself away after a bit of playtime to keep the miles ticking.

Below are Lake Dispute and Moke Lake. This was one of the best bits of the ride, with some good climbing and not another person in sight. Having been backpacking for the past 3 months, my bike fitness was a shadow of my Lands End 2 John’O Groats form, so I took things easy and even walked some of the steeper sections.

Things took a bit of a turn after the lakes, hitting a big flat plain where horses grazed among lemon (?) trees. The path that I was following slowly gained in height, while the plain narrowed in to a gully. It was not long before I was high up and looking down on to a steep river gorge…signalling the start of Moonlight track.

The guy from the bike shop had promised some tasty singletrack around here. However, you’d have to the bike skills and fitness of an XC world champ to be able to ride this section. The first third of Moonlight was a straightforward 4x4 track but it then narrowed in to very steep and rocky sheeptrack which was virtually unrideable.

I took the coward’s path. Crawling on all fours, pushing the bike along with my tongue, I began to realise why it was called the moonlight track. Because with a steep 100m drop on one side and more gnarl than you could shake a stick at, they’d probably still be looking for your dead body under the moonlight if you tried to cycle it.

The next six miles took about as long as the rest of the ride put together, as I pushed and carried the bike pretty much the whole way. At least I was not alone now as a number of walkers now joined the moonlight track from the Ben Lomond track.

After I reached Arthur’s point, I blasted the remainder of the loop back to Queenstown on tarmac. Great ride, despite the hike-a-bike antics of the last third.

The Top Animal Moments

We encountered many wild and interesting animals on our travels, and not all of them were in the youth hostels. Here are some of our top animal moments:

1) Watching a Panda piss like a horse in Chengdu. Its 7am and the forest is swathed in mist. Quietly, delicately, we approach the form of a sleeping animal. Its our first encounter with a giant panda. We watch in stunned silence for some time, then suddenly, it stirs! Yawning and stretching, it gets to its feet and ambles towards the assembled group. The whirring and clicking of cameras reaches a frenzy. What will it do next? The panda turns its back and squats down right in front of us. We gasp with delight. Oh but wait! What is it doing? Oh my god! We hear the sound of gushing water, steam rises from the grass, mingling with morning mist. The panda is having a piss. And not just a little tinkle, its a frickin’ fire hose! He’s putting on a real show now, but I know that this kind of flow is unsustainable. It won’t be long before panda boy has run out of juice and must bring his water show to an early end. Except that he doesn’t. He just keeps going and going….and going. The crowd don’t quite know how to react, At first there is an awkward silence, then nervous laughter…but by the time it is finished, we were all doing the crossword or phoning friends and family to pass the time. So, you may have achieved much with your life, and seen many things…but if you think you’re all that, then let me ask you this: Have you ever seen a Giant Panda piss like a horse? Pissing like a horse on a pile of its own fresh poo? Well, have you?

No. Didn’t think so.

2) The Wiggedy Worm. I made first contact with this crazy little critter at a toilet in Long Sheng rice terraces. This video footage is both rare and hard earned,  because lets be real, video cameras in public urinals are always going to get the other patron’s heckles up. It may be some undiscovered species, or possibly an alien from outer space. All I know is that its the Wiggedy Worm and its the craziest little thing that I’ve ever seen.

I played this video over and over many times during our trip. I began realise how the Wiggedy Worm’s travels parallels our own confused, post-modern existence. We too are just trying to feel our way through life, not knowing where we are coming or going. And just like the Wiggedy Worm, despite all of our hardships and the twists and turns, we often end up right back where we started.

3) Bug Bowling in Xian. This one may not please the tree huggers, but it sure as hell put a big smile on Si Phong’s face. We found a large beetle basking in the sun in Xian.  Just as I was getting in close to line up a macro shot, a small berry flew across and flipped it on its back. I only needed to hear the laughter to know who where the berry came from. It was a shot in a million, and thus bug bowling was born.

4) Seal and Penguin watching in the Otago Peninsula. We spent an unforgettable evening watching fur seals and yellow penguins at the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand. It was birthing time for the seals, so we were lucky enough to see the new born pups with their placentas still attached. We also caught a young sea lion….who’s face was so ugly that it took me a while to distinguish which end was its head and which was its arsehole.

More top animal moments to follow…