Queenstown to Dunedin (18 Jun 09)

It's the start of my 4 days bottom bus trip trip with Kiwi Experience and our driver is “Skip” (I hoped I got his name correct). I find that most Kiwi Experience drivers have a funny sense of humor, including Skip. When we got to Cronwell for breakfast where there is gigantic sculptures of fruits, he mentioned that the peach resemble the ass. Hmmm, what do you all think?


Next we head to Clyde dam along the east coast and when we arrived at Dunedin, the first stop is the world's steepest street that is in the Guinness Book of World Records – Baldwin Street. Well, I were a bit lazy at that time and did not make it to the very top.


Dunedin is a university town with the first university founded here. The name in Gaelic means Edinburgh and is being recongnised as the most Scottish city. The activities that you can do here is a visit to the Speight's Brewery or Cadbury World. Or else is to the Larnach's Castle, which we did not have time for.


Not really a beer lover, so visiting the Cadbury World that cost NZ18 make more sense. We got to go through a educating chocolate themed displays to learned about the history of Cadbury and chocolates. Next we had a guided tour around the factory, sample some Cadbury products, view chocolates being poured down 5 storeys in the silo and at the end of the tour, we got to take pictures with the cars and visit the store to buy some really cheap chocolates.



After the town, you can get some night view of Dunedin. It has some really nice buildings and the railway station is one of the highly photographed artehitect.

Queenstown Second Free day

This day was adventure filled with me doing the a heli-rafting combo (costing me NZD249) which is a combination of helicopter ride and White Water Rafting. Initially I was in a dilemma of should I do it as it was freaking cold in the winter season and even in the day, the temperature was a single digit. Today was a relatively warm day, sunny with no rain and the temperature being 6 Deg. C. So you can imagine if it wasn't a warm day, the temperature could be say 2 Deg. C. Chilling...

During the winter period, the Shotover River, which is more challenging having difficulty of Grade 3-5, is only accessible by helicopter, hence more pricey. First, the rafters were all gathered at the Information Centre in town before we were drove up to the rafting base. At the base, all the rafters were geared up with wetsuits and safety gears. On the helicopter, you to view the Wakatipu Basin, historic Skippers road and Coronet Peak Ski Area before stopping at the Shotover River. Extensive briefing was given and it was important to listen to the commands of the river guide.

My river guide was Chief and straight away he guessed I was from Singapore. Chief, kind of looked after me during the whole rafting trip as I was rafting just beside him. Or rather he could see that I was alone and small sized, more easily lost if I fell over the raft, so need to recuse me fast. Hahaha... There will be time for scenery viewing of the Skippers Canyon, where it was being mined for gold in the early days and also time for some actions in the river. Anyway, at first we rafted through peacefully before heading to more adrenalin pumping areas as we rafted through the lower canyon, with Grade 4-5 at the “Mother In Law”. To complete the experience, we got to raft through a 170 m Oxenbridge Tunnel before shooting through the Cascade.

After the rafting, there are the hot shower, sauna and of course some snack to enjoy before being drove back to downtown.

I felt that this rafting is not as intense as I thought, as there was no overturn of the raft which I could understand as it was winter. Then there is only one or two Grade 4-5 area. Later on, I learned that the rafting will depend a lot on the river guide and the rafters you are with. Maybe there are more gals in the group, hence we were doing a milder one. I sure will love to do it again with a more intense experience if possible.

Queenstown First free day

Today I woke up to be greeted by the snow. Oh yes, I finally seen snow, not those kind where the road was all covered up and you need to do some shoveling, it was more like those ice kachang flakes. Or I should say it was like drizzling if you compared it with raining. So it was very minuet kind.

This day was supposed to be the last time I am getting to see Bonnie as they would be going to Milford Sound while I got one more free day before the Bottom Bus trip. I went to YHA Lakefront to look for Bonnie and we went to Lake Wakatipu to float our camera with more photos. And all the things we could find along the way became our props for photo-taking, e.g. tyre swing.

We joined an 3.5 hours TSS Earnslaw Cruise that cost around NZD 65, where we board a small boat to cruise around Lake Wakatipu and stopped over at Walter Peak High Country Farm. We were supposed to be on board the vintage twin screw steamer ship, Earnslaw, but luck was not on our side as it undergoes an annual survey (in our term - under maintenance) usually in late May and early June. Hence we missed out the chance to explore the ship or view then engine room etc. Moreover, we missed the chance to be on the deck and took photos as the small boat we took got windows and cannot open one.

When we reached the Walter Peak High Country Farm, we had a walking tour of the farmyard. First stop was the holding pen, where we were abled to fed the sheep, deers and the cattle. I even got to catch the little lambs and sure they can run real fast... After catching the lambs, when I tried feeding the deer, they won't take food from my hands. I think it's because of the lamb smell on my hands, tried and tested and confirmed!

We got to watch farm dogs rounding up the sheep from the hills, farmer shearing the sheep, fed the ducks and enjoy afternoon tea with scones and pikelets. Oh, I really liked the pikelets and I even bought a packet home. They had a beautiful garden and the homestead is very nicely decorated and cosy - make us feel like “Gui fu”. The pikelets to me is similar to the food that Doraemon likes to eat – tong luo shao. And I prefered this farm tour to the one at Agrodome, Rotorua as I found it more interactive with the farm animals and the host Lindsay sure got a wicked sense of humor. By the way, the things such as gloves sold in the store are also relatively cheap.

Oh, at night the temperature in Queenstown can drop to a single digit.

Wanaka to Queenstown

The first stop of the day was to Puzzling World. I had been expecting to visit this place since I read that this place was going to be fun and had quite a few interesting things to do. Upon arrival, I found that I had, sort of, been “conned” by the beautiful description. There are only 2 section or rather 3 areas – the illusion room, the big 3D maze and the cafe. At the illusion room, you can find some interesting 3D , some brain teaser and special effect section. Some of the stuffs are already being widely circulated on the Internet. The 3D maze was quite alright, I think I saw something similar to it on Survivor before, hence it was nothing new. However, I found that the Roman style toilet was rather entertaining and I think our Singapore Science Centre is more bigger and more educating lo... Hmmm, just my thoughts...

Next stop was to the Kawarau Gorge. We were being introduced to the famous Bungy jumping by the AJ Heckett. The video showed us the history, how bungy jump came about and the safety involved. We also got to watch some live action of people actually jumping over the bridge of the Kawarau River. Well, bungy jumping is not my cup of tea, hence it was given a miss...

Before I got separated from the people at the Kiwi Experience bus, we got a group photo at Lake Wakatipu. Queenstown being the adventure capital where you can do a lot of activities like skiing, bungy jumping, canyoning, jetboating, tandem paragliding, river boarding, etc. You may want to spend more time there. I always thought that Queenstown is just a city, not much scenery, but I was actually wrong. At the Lake Wakatipu, you are able to see the snow capped mountains like Coronet, Remarkables and there are forests around. Very pretty...

Then there are two YHA hostel here. YHA central which is just opposite base and the location is very central. The other one is YHA lakefront, the is just in front of the Lake Wakatipu but is almost at one end of Queenstown. Facilities wise, YHA Lakefront is bigger but the toilet at YHA Central is en suite but no hair dryer. YHA central had a television in the room and a makeup table or at leas the room I am staying got all these facilities. The two hostel are just 15 mins away from each other, so depending on what you like, there are lots of choices to choose from.

Franz Josef to Wanaka

It was another early morning departure. This day I would be traveling to Wanaka, en route we went to Lake Matterson, which is famous for its 'View of the view”, the mirror reflection of the lake on the still water. We had about one hour here including breakfast time, we did not manage to go to the very end as our legs were a bit stiff from the full day hike and we were enjoying the beautiful scenery hence walking too slow. Every photos taken seems postcard like and the view was absolutely magnificent.

The weather was gloomy, so we did not manage to stop at Haast River for a pinic lunch. Upon reaching Wanaka, we got changed and went to the lake - Lake Wanaka. This is New Zealand's fifth largest lake. We did not choose to do any activities and it was a free and easy day. Bonnie and me had a good time absorbing in the views and taking tons of photos. The scenery was really stunning, with red or orange leaves, nice lake, very peaceful and autumn like. Jas, if you were here, you would have loved it.

Oh, one very embarrassing thing was that Bonnie and I got lost after going to the supermarket. The street lamps were not as abundant like Singapore and every streets looks the same. We went to this house and knocked on the door to ask for direction. Initially, this guy gave us a very straight face like he was thinking “what the hell are these gals knocking on my door” kind of look. After knowing we were lost, he couldn't help but sneaked a smile, like “these bimbo”. But he was still very helpful and directed us to our hostel. Well luckily, I still know how to read the map, really must thanks the people that forced me to read maps, really helpful in situation like these. However, I am still poor in recognizing the road.

Wanaka is one of the few places that I think staying at Base hostel was better. Location wise it was very centralized and the supermarket was just next door. The hostel seems very new too. But if you were afraid of too much party people there, then staying at BBH Purple Cow was a good choice. It was just beside Base, outlook seems nice and the review for it was quite good too. YHA was too far from town (maybe because of this I got lost - just need to blame on somthing) and I think the place was there for quite long and hence a bit rundown. One thing I like about YHA is that there are hair dryers attached to the toilets which is very convenient for late showers when washing the hair. At least we did not need to wait for the hair to dry.

Lake Mahinapua to Franz Josef

It was still raining on the day we departed Lake Mahinapua. We only stopped over at Pukekura at the Bushman Centre for breakfast or a visit to the museum before heading straight to Franz Josef.

In the museum, we watched a short film educating us on the advancement of deer farming. From introducing the deer to New Zealand, killing them for their meat (vension) and farming them, you got to see people jumping out of the helicopter onto the galloping deer on top of high mountains and later on using 'spray net' instead. You also got to see live possums too.

The owner of the Bushman Centre have a funny sense of homour. There are lots of comics, posters, notes,etc pasted all over the store. For example, “Today special is yesterday leftover”. And they do sell possum pie, I did not try it and I wonder how they tasted... Hmmm, a bit like the chinese eating those ye wei (野味).

It was midday when we arrived at Franz Josef. First stop was at the Franz Josef Glacial Guide's Office to confirm the activities. I was supposed to do the heli-hike in the afternoon, however it was canceled due to bad weather conditions. Now I got to make a choice to do the heli-hike the next day or a full day hike. The cons of choosing the heli-hike and getting it cancel is that it leave me with the option of the half day hike. Then not wanting to miss the crevasses or ice caves and with the unpredictable weather conditions, I decided to go for the full day hike. Save so money too...

We had fantastic weather for the full day hike and that's goes not being on the helicopter. Well, I am not really a risk taker... First we got geared up at the office and you don't really have to bring anything except food and water, 2-3 layers of tops preferably something made of fleece and shorts or loose trousers. You will be issued with a card on what to bring and the card is also the prove of payment made . Frankly speaking you don't have to wear too much, as the jacket you are given is those plastic non breathable kind, hence you may end up taking away some of your clothes. Then we took the bus and were driven up to the National Park. You got to hike through a forest and some rocks before reaching the bottom of the glacier.

Though the full day hike indicate to be 8 hours, the actual climbing took around 5 hours with time taken away for gearing up, collection and return of equipments, walking through the forest and lunch. Glacier hiking can be a bit dangerous if you were to slip and fall and using your butt to move around is out of the question as there are no spikes there. Hence you really got to trust the spikes on your shoes and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the hike. Sometimes, I think the glacier looks a bit unreal like those styrofoam man made ice, but they are really solid ice. Why do I sound a bit 'Bim'???

Oh, I also became a member of YHA which stands for Youth Hostel Association at a cost of NZD40. However, they were having a promotion of getting a free night if you became a member. Then since Bonnie were already a member, she got a NZD10 off voucher which she gave it me. Hence, doing the maths, the YHA membership is practically free of charge. And if you buy their vouchers in bulk, they had 5 nights at NZD25 a piece or 10 nights at NZD24 a piece, it is more value for money. Because at Queenstown during the peak season it cos NZD31 and the best bunk you are offered is a 4 bed bunk.