New Zealand Part 1 (Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Mt Cook and Twizel)

Its a little cold here in Franz Josef as I decided to finally start writing the blog for New Zealand.  Nice place so far.  Everyone had told us that Christchurch was a shithole, but I dont agree.  When we finally completed the seemingly endless flight over from Sydney we touched down at 12.40am.  Wondeful.  Just the 4km walk to the campsite, but first we had to go through quarantine.  We had a tent and hiking boots.  Seriously dangerous equipment so naturally we had to wait ages for the immigration officials to check them.  Wish I'd washed the tent now.  There was a girl complaining that she had to go all the way to the bottom of the bag to get out the tent and was it really necessary.  Given that we had been waiting for 1 hour watching everyone else do this process, it seemed like a rather stupid and redundant question.  After having our tent inspected we passed the screening and were off for a nice night time stroll to the campsite.  On the road we saw a giant dead mammal. Looked beautiful apart from the dead part.  What was it?  I thought Kiwiland didn't have any mammals.  Weird.  We would later discover that this was a Possum and they were apparently a plague in New Zealand with an estimated 80 million.  That seems somewhat of an exaggerated estimate to me.  We made it to the campsite, found our key pinned to the board and settled in.

In the morning we set off for Christchurch proper.  It only took a good 5km walk and then a bus into the centre, but we got some great sushi in a local mall.  Looks very suburban here.  We got to the centre and took a walk around.  It seemed quite cute to me.  The earthquake damage was not too noticeable though large sections of the centre were still cordoned off.  The collapsed cathedral is interesting to see and they are putting up some nice displays around the city.  It feels like wandering around a very English city.  The punting on the tiny river in town looks like a complete waste of time though.  The museum and the surrounding area probably have the most impressive architecture given its made from this black and white stone.  Probably the coolest thing though, is the shopping arcade made out of shipping containers.  Cool, colourful and funky.  If this is how they plan to rejuvenate the city then it bodes well for the future.  We had some great Greek food and ice cream down there and wandered round to the park.  There is a cute cafe there and we came across a free music festival.  Nice to see some life in the city.  It was already better than the festivals we had seen in Sydney.  Always disappointing.  We stayed there for a while and then headed back to the campsite.  Its not an amazing city but its worth a day or so if you have the time.  We decided against going to the Akaroa Peninsula as we have decided that on this holiday we were only going to do things if we really wanted to and not head to so many 50:50s as they are almost always crappy.  Lucky decision for us as Christchurch and Akaroa got mullered by a heavy storm just after we left and there was serious flooding and loss of power.

The next day we got a free ride back to the airport to pick up our bus to Lake Tekapo.  We were off and running.  The scenery is pretty dull around New Zealand if you aren't in the best places.  That's probably because it looks just like England.  Lots of green farmland.  Nothing new there.  We slept a bit and rocked up to Lake Tekapo in the middle of a cold snap.  We were unaware of that as we were forced to camp for 2 nights.  The tent paid for itself with one night of camping.  Saves you money here, but as it was so cold we figured that it was best to stay in dorms and save on food and also that it wasn't worth going to Stewart Island (maybe we should have as we were unaware that this was just a cold snap.  Worst nights to camp).  There is not a lot to do here but the lake is beautiful and we wanted some days to chill out.  We took the time here to sort out the Great Walks we would do in the South.  Milford was fully booked, but we could get a hut on the Kepler as we decided to just do the interesting part of it and on the Routeburn we could only get a campsite for one night.  Better than nothing.  They have an observatory here but we figured it was too expensive and just saw the night sky for free.  Beautiful stars.

The next day we sorted out transport to Mt Cook and climbed up Mt John to the observatory.  Its an easy walk and the views are really nice.  They also do a mean cheese toastie.  We chilled out around the lake and decided to book our whole route around the south of the island as we now knew we had to be in certain towns on certain days for the walks.  I don't enjoy travelling that way, but it was necessary here and with one bus a day on the South Island they tend to fill up fast (we had the unlimited nakedbus pass for just $480 and it has got us everywhere we want to go except Mt Cook and Rob Roy Glacier).  We also needed the time to relax after working in Oz.  Can't complain too much though when you work just 7 months in 3 years.

We got the Cook Connection bus to Mt Cook.  The driver is really cool (he even climbed Mt Cook) and gave some nice commentary on the way.  The weather was shitty and most people had come for the day with one girl even coming just for the bus ride.  Mental.  You really have to stay in places in New Zealand as you can never guarantee the weather.  If its a good day you really need to take advantage of it.  Though we have had limited rain with March/April seeing just rain every 3 days normally, while January/February has rain every 2 days.  We couldn't see much and decided against doing anything the first day there so just chilled in the hostel.  Luckily the cold snap was coming to an end.  You don't seem to get free wi-fi anywhere in New Zealand with the damn YHA charging you $7.50 a day.  This is where I started to think that this country operates with a lot of stealth fucking you in the arse.  Always charges, always extras for everything.  I always thought wi-fi and breakfast were almost minimum standards for hostels.  We did the Kea Point walk and got chatting with a German soldier who had been hiking for 3 months around New Zealand.  He told us Nelson Lakes and the Cascade Saddle were the best walks he had done.  He didn't like treks with lots of people on them though.  Having said that the Cascade Saddle looks really nice and I would love to have hiked it if we had had the time.  This walk is very easy and takes you to overlook a glacial lake which has a weird grey colour to it.  We didn't see any keas though on the way back we found about 10 of them in the car park of the hotel.  It seems like car parks are the best places to see keas, because all 4 times we have seen them have been in car parks or at huts on trails.  They were busy fighting and breaking buses with their beaks.

The following morning we had our first purely blue sky clear day.  Awesome.  We set off on the Hooker Valley track and its a beautiful walk.  One of our favourites so far and the first truly beautiful thing we saw in New Zealand.  You walk over swing bridges and through the valley until you round the corner and walk towards the glacial lake with Mt Cook and friends towering above you in the valley.  Its a really beautiful place and the Hooker Valley glacial lake was full of icebergs which was the first time I had seen this.  Its a must do if you have the time and the weather here.  Very satisfied we got even luckier when we leaving as we caught a perfect mirror reflection of Mt Cook in Lake Pukaki.  Stunning.  The lake itself is also very beautiful.  Probably even more so than Lake Tekapo, but both of them have an amazing turquoise colour from the rocks that were ground down from the glaciers.  We got dropped off in Twizel.  There is nothing to do here so we just chilled out in the cute hotel and chatte with an English guy (Steve) who had been travelling for a while.  He went off hitchhiking to see Lake Pukaki and then we just chatted in the evening until th next day.  That day we would take a bus back to Christchurch, where the flooding had apparently stopped.

Top 10 Eastern Europe

1. Plitvice:  A truly world class national park and the only one I have seen in Europe

2. Budapest:  A world class city with the most beautiful building in Europe

3. Kiev:  Another top class city that was amazing to visit

4. Lake Bled:  Beautiful place and a nice place to relax

5. Slovensky Raj:  Wonderful outdoor national park

6. Mostar:  Beautiful bridge and a wonderful place

7. Zagreb:  Cute little city with stunning women

8. Bovec:  Stunning mountain scenery

9. Kamyanets Podilsky:  Great place to spend some time

10. Sighisoara:  Beautiful little Transylvanian town

Romania

Last part of the quick reviews:

Monasteries in the North West:  The wooden monasteries have some beautiful blue painted monasteries and if you are up this way its worth visiting

Bucharest:  A city full of energy with very good looking women.  Worth spending a couple of days here to party and enjoy the sights.

Brasov:  Nice touristy town despite the horrible hollywood sign.

Sighisoara:  The final stop of our trip and a beautifully cute small town to end on.

Ukraine and Moldova

Lviv:  Really beautiful little town in western Ukraine with a student vibe and nice architecture.

Kamyanets Podilsky:  You really have to come here if you go to the Ukraine.  What a beautiful little town.  In a horseshoe surrounded by a deep valley river, it really is a magical setting.  You can spend the whole day wandering around here and taking in the sights.

Kiev:  One of the best places we visited on our entire trip.  Amazing city.  An absolute must see if you are over this way.

Crimea:  Mostly overrated with Yalta ans Sebastapol being just glorified beach resorts without any good beaches.  The exception to this was Bachisaray, the Tatar capital, which is an amazingly cute little town.  You sit on raised areas to eat like the Mongols, visit the old Khan palace and the cave city.  Well worth the trip.

Odessa:  The steps were super underwhelming and I didn't particularly warm to Odessa as a place to visit.

Chisinau:  Nothing much to see here, though we stopped off on the way through to Romania

Poland

Wroclaw:  Very cute little city that is worth spending a day in as you cross the country.

Warsaw:  We really liked Warsaw.  Very big city with a lot going on and a big of hustle for Eastern Europe.  Some people find it ugly, but I think it has character.

Bialowieza National Park:  Bit of a waste of time coming here unless you are prepared to pay the money for the tour to see the bison.  We weren't and so we were here pointlessly for a few days.

Krakow:  Beautiful city and well worth the praise.  The salt cathedral tour was really good and the guide even said if you throw a coin in the well you would get married in one year.  I informed them that we were indeed getting married one year later on that date.  Amusing coincidence.  We also went to tour Auschwitz which is a harrowing and educational experience.

Zakopane: Nice mountain town on the border of Slovakia.

Czech Republic

Prague:  While Prague is an undeniably beautiful city and very cute, it is also rammed full of tourists and super over crowded.  I personally prefer Budapest, but it is definitely a city that needs to be visited.  From the castle area and around it down to the main square.

Bohemian Switzerland National Park:  Really beautiful national park and not very visited.  It has some great hiking and almost appears ghostly through the canyons as you can take short boat rides around.  Its like death coming down the Styx when the boatman arrives through the mist.  Well worth the trip.

Kutna Hora:  Another great little town.  The bone church is underwhelming given the hype, but is still a great place to visit.  The short tour down the silver mine is also recommended and the monastery here is very beautiful.  A nice day trip out of Prague. 

Slovakia

Just a summary of a few countries.

Bratislava:  Its an ok capital city but lacks some of the grandeur of the other Eastern European capital cities.  Has some cool sculpures all over the town which are fun to try and find and apparently it has a pretty decent nightlife.

High Tatras:  We stayed in a hostel called Funky Monkey.  Awesome place and one of the best hostels we have stayed in.  Very social, they have all the maps for walks and lots of communal activities.  They even have an ongoing pizza eating competition.  The hike over the saddle of the Tatras is a nice walk, but we had super shitty weather and could not see anything.

Slovensky Raj:  Wonderful national park and would be a great place to take kids.  Lots of metal walkways and ropes to climb across and through the gorges.  Much better than we had expected and a genuine highlight of the trip.  You have to go there if you end up in Slovakia.

Kosice:  Average town in the East of Slovakia, but perfectly functional.