We are back again - finally!

Greetings from an unusually sunny New Zealand!
Firstly I must apologise for my shocking lack of effort in terms of weblog entries over the last couple of weeks. There really isn’t much of an excuse but for the fact that we were doing other more important and/or exciting things most of the time! So this is likely to be a bit of a mammoth while I update y’all on the thrills and spills of life in and out of the Horny Ox. Go and put the kettle on and settle in for a long read!
So the last time I wrote was a couple of weeks before leaving Furneaux. We did manage to do our walk the day after I wrote, and successfully completed the “five-hour” walk to Ship’s Cove (where Captain Cook first landed in the South Island and claimed British sovereignty over the territory) in 3 hours. Very beautiful views but not surprisingly, much the same all the way when you are walking along the side of a mountain with the sea on one side! We also enjoyed along the way the practically world-famous muffins at the resort one along from Furneaux, baked in a wood-burning oven as they have no power, accompanied by a wonderful home-made lemonade and a quick lie-down in a hammock.
So at least we felt that we had ‘done’ the Queen Charlotte Track after that cracking effort at a day’s tramping - overtaking seasoned walkers with their walking poles and gaiters (still unclear as to why anyone might need those). And the mystery of why walkers stretch their shoulders prior to departing from Furneaux for their second day’s walk remains unsolved, as we did not find any areas where it appeared compulsory to walk on one’s hands.
The remaining time at Furneaux after that was pretty uneventful. We clocked up a bit of overtime (we love housekeeping that much) so didn’t do much with our days off. Obviously there was great sadness on our last day cleaning loos, but we overcame this by having a few drinks on our last night - and going to bed at 4.30. Hmm.
After leaving Furneaux, we spent a couple of days doing very dull but important things like organising the campervan and starting the process of job applications for Nick. Some disappointing news was received that my physio application has been further delayed, but we are just not talking about that at the moment. Very much on the plus side was the fact that we have managed to secure tickets for the Rolling Stones’ concert in Auckland in mid-April, so we are extremely excited about that!
Two days after leaving the hotel, our Aussie friends Beth and Mat arrived for a visit. After a good ol’ natter the night they got in, we set off for Blenheim on the Thursday (starting as we meant to go on prior to departure from Picton, with morning coffee and cake) to go on a wine tour. We were taken by coach (driven by a very loud-voiced woman with a screechy microphone) to four Marlborough vineyards, including the rather prestigious Cloudy Bay, and tasted copious amounts of very good wine at each one. After all of those we were quite ready for a nap back at the campsite. Beth and I then proceeded to go for ‘a little walk’ and got totally lost around Blenheim, causing great concern to Nick and Mat, but fortunately we re-appeared at the van (1¾ hours after leaving) clutching a Chinese takeaway and all was forgiven!
The next day we set off to re-tour the vineyards, this time to purchase a few of our favourite bottles from the tasting. After that we drove down an excessively windy river plain, to Murchison, where it was raining so we had coffee and cake, and then went for a walk, where we were followed for some time by a herd of cows and then met a very friendly deer that seemed to want to have a full-on snog with any/all of us. Saturday we had a bit of a busy day: we drove to Cape Foulwind (which did indeed smell rather unpleasant), saw the view and got attacked by wekas (we thought we had left them behind at Furneaux as they are supposedly very rare across the rest of the country - apart from Cape Foulwind, apparently), then a little further to a seal colony. Amazing - we saw probably 60-70 seals, complete with young playing in the water and big daddy seals lazing on the rocks. After many a blurry photo of furry brown things sitting on rough brown rocks, we moved on to Punakaiki via the spectacular coastal road, to see the Pancake Rocks. These are big columns of rock which have formed in a sort of layering process, and so look (quite vaguely, it would have to be said) like stacks of pancakes. They also have a spectacular surge pool and some great blowholes, so we took many a photo. We also sat on the beach for some time awaiting the potential appearance of a group of Fairy penguins (having been told by the lady in the gift shop that it was a good time to see them), only to finally check the information board and find that they are only at Punakaiki from November to February. Heigh ho. We stayed the night in the Pancake Rocks car park (to be joined also by a very nice English lady and her daughter), and made a late-night trip back down to the rocks to see them at high tide. Pretty amazing, even with just a small Maglite to illuminate proceedings.
We managed our third viewing of the Rocks the next morning at high tide again, and then finally decided (when all camera memory cards were full) that we really should move on. Onward further south along the still beautiful coast road, to Greymouth, which we found has really nothing at all to offer on a Sunday. However, we were not there for the sights, we were there to go Cave Tubing! We were kitted up with wellies, wetsuits, thermal socks and helmets with head torches, packed into a big truck, and driven to the middle of nowhere by an Aussie called Mitch. We then walked half an hour through the forest, having various inane photos taken along the way, and then clambered down into a big hole in the ground. We spent a total of 2½½ hours underground, wading and swimming through cold water, climbing through very small holes, clambering along narrow ledges, and floating along in tractor inner tubes. All in all very very good fun, although Beth and I were unimpressed that we both ended up freezing cold for some time despite their “you will not be cold” guarantee, and the mid-way warm-up snack of hot chocolate and a Mars bar. Also at the end was a big waterslide (natural, just a not-very-steep rock face with a stream running down it) that you could slide down on a rubber mat. I was the only one of the four of us to have a go at this (admittedly there was a disclaimer stating more than once and in capital letters that you could get killed doing this), and evidently I survived, and indeed enjoyed, it. To reward us for all our efforts in the caving field, we were also given a complimentary hot Jacuzzi plus glass of wine and hot muffin afterwards.
When we had recovered from the exhaustion that was our caving expedition (i.e. the next day), we trekked off to try and make our own knife with the Barrytown knife man, about which we were all very excited, only to find that he is closed on a Monday - dammit! So instead we went to the Blackball Salami shop and bought some great sausages for supper, then went to try and make our fortune panning for gold. Unfortunately the man at the local store (for local people - it was a bit like that) did not want us discovering the secrets of Blackball’s riches and sent us to a very dodgy spot. It was hard enough to get down to the riverbank in the first place (maybe he was trying to kill us off - it certainly was a very remote spot with a smashed-up car in the car park), and then we only managed to find one very small bit of anything that looked like gold - Beth has retained the small nugget but is not holding out hope that it will pay off their mortgage. After that disappointment, we drove down to Hokitika and went to Jacquie Grant’s Eco-World, to see some Kiwis. And Kiwis we did indeed see, so that was a plus in the day. We also rescued a seahorse that had managed to get itself sucked into the filter system - perhaps a Finding Nemo-style escape effort but as he had stopped moving we thought he would appreciate a bit of help. To make up for the gold failure, we tried to find some jade on the beach, and despite picking up a lot of stones, we found out the next day that they were all quartz.
Tuesday we journeyed over Arthur’s Pass, at the top of the Southern Alps, and there was much rejoicing that the van had managed the steep hills without needing to enter first gear! After lunch, we went for a lovely walk up to a waterfall (got very wet walking right beside it while the wind was blowing), enjoyed the fact that we were in New Zealand’s highest town, and then continued on to Christchurch (Arthur’s Pass was far too windy for our liking).
The next day we wandered around Christchurch and also visited the Antarctic (Centre), where we had a ride on a very cool Hagglund - US$500,000-worth of all-terrain and amphibious Antarctic vehicle that can climb crazily steep slopes and cross crevasses and all sorts of great stuff. (The ride took us through water, up/down slopes, over crevasses etc, it wasn’t just on the road.) They also had a simulated Antarctic storm with a -18C windchill - Beth and I cold again - and fantastic little ice slide (evidently geared for five-year-olds but had me giggling for quite some time). There was also a lot of informative stuff but obviously we were more bothered about the rides and big furry stuffed penguins!
After a fantastic meal at a jazz café that evening in Christchurch, we stayed at a friend of a friend of Beth’s house, which meant a proper bed for a night - hooray! (Although it did turn out to be the world’s softest bed and thus I felt like I was mountaineering every time I tried to turn over…) Then the next day, after a bit more coffee and cake, it was time to say goodbye to Beth and Mat, thinking for the second time in four months during a farewell to them that we didn’t know how long it would be until we saw them again. On the plus side, because of all the things we didn’t get to do this time (seeing real penguins, making a knife etc.), they are very keen to come back again soon, so we are looking forward to another little adventure next year maybe!
And since then we have just been pottering around Christchurch, sending off e-mails to all the people who e-mailed us while we were busy with B+M (thanks everyone), and Nick sending off his portfolio to a load of companies. We are currently in Peel Forest in a lovely little campsite, where the birds are singing and we can hear the river nearby. So that’s us all up to date finally! Hope you enjoyed it and you can now be pleased that you can get up, have a walk around, and get the feeling back into your bum!
So cheerio for now everyone, lots of love, Vic and Nick.